Chapter 13

Brennan looked over at Booth and could tell he was having another rough day. Since they had both decided to try and pretend they were okay while they were working as hard as they could to find their daughter, they had done everything they could to be as normal as possible without looking like they didn't miss their little girl at all. No way would they let anyone think that they didn't miss or want Alana home safe and sound. However, it was wearing on their nerves to keep up the fake smiles and the fake laughs as they pretended to enjoy hanging out with people.

Brennan watch as Booth walked off to go to his own office and she turned to enter the building where her office was stationed. Before she could fully enter the building her phone rang. Sighing she looked down at the caller ID and didn't recognize it, and with her daughter missing she had been getting some crazy unidentified calls on her phone, but she would take every single one until the day Alana was home, and then she would change her phone number so the freaks could stop calling her.

"Dr. Brennan." She answered the phone simply, she could feel her heart racing in her chest as she felt hope. This was all new to her. Her logically brain was screaming at her that she knew her daughter wasn't coming home, because that was what most of the statistics said, but it was the mother in her, the woman that Booth had managed to bring out, the woman that was struggling to override the logical brain, that was keeping the feeling of hope alive. Brennan didn't really feel things, she didn't like emotion, she often ignored her own feelings because of that, but in this situation she had to feel hope or else she knew she would collapse and a huge chunk of her would die off as she gave up on her daughter, and she never wanted to give up on her daughter.

"It's good to hear your voice again, doc." The male voice said before giving off a slightly hysterical laugh.

Brennan knew that voice, it was one of the men that she had found out was near her daughter, one of the men who liked to hurt little girls. She held her breath, unsure what she should say or if she should say anything at all. It was times like this that she hated talking to much and only being able to talk about logic and facts, she often confused and even frightened and angered people because she didn't know how to talk like Booth did.

"What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" The man said and then started laughing hysterically again.

"No, what do you want? Is my little girl alive?" Brennan asked, remembering what Booth had stated she should always ask whenever Gravedigger or any of her new accomplices call her.

"Of course she is, my friends and I aren't into dead little girls." He snickered.

"Don't you dare put your dirty hands on her." Brennan snapped out of anger and then winced, knowing she may have just blown this call.

"My my, the good doctor now has feelings." The man seemed to enjoy that. "I am thinking it might be time to reunite mother and daughter, but only mother and daughter, and gravedigger agrees. So here's the deal, you leave your car keys at the front desk for Booth and then you turn and start walking towards the bus station. Do you have bus money?" The man asked suddenly.

"Yes, I carry enough cash to take the bus, plus I have a bus pass, something that was given to all of us and we use it to spare the air on lots of occasions. Of course, my vehicle is a special car, it always spares the air, it's one of the best models out there and the most expensive…" Brennan went off on her normal irrelevant tandants that usually annoyed or bothered people who didn't understand why she had to turn to facts constantly.

"Shut up!" The man yelled into the phone suddenly and Brennan was quiet. "You'll take the first bus that comes, no matter which direction they are going, you will ride it for fifteen minutes. Then you will get off that bus and you will walk to the phone booth there. I will text you a phone number, you will call it. I will give you more instructions. You will then take the battery out of your phone and throw it away, both the battery and the phone. I don't need anyone tracking you."

"What if I just threw away the GPS?" Brennan asked. She didn't keep anything valuable in the phone but she wanted a phone on her just in case.

"If you want to see your daughter anytime soon, you will do what you're told and dump the whole phone in the trash like you're told. Remember, leave keys at front desk, ride next bus that comes along for fifteen minutes. Receive a text from me and call number at a payphone. Get instructions and then follow them, before following them take battery out of cell and throw away both battery and phone, got it?" The man asked her.

"Yes of course." Brennan said, knowing this could be a trap but she had to take that risk, she had to know for sure.

"Remember, if you screw this up or if you alert anyone or if you have anyone come with you, then that's it, it's over." The man snapped and then he hung up.

Brennan quickly hurried inside and asked for an envelope. She quickly sealed her keys inside and put Booth's name on the outside and handed it back to the guard sitting there, who was looking at her like she was crazy. "Can you make sure my husband, FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth gets these keys?" She asked him as fast as she could talk.

"Yes, of course Dr. Brennan. Ma'am, do you need some help with something? Are you in trouble?" The guard asked her softly, looking around.

"No, nothing is wrong." Brennan shook her head quickly and then she hurried back out the door and to the bus stop. She sat there for five minutes before the bus arrived. She put money in, since she had a feeling she wasn't supposed to use her pass and she quickly set the timer on her watch, so that if she lost track of time her watch would let her know when it was time and she got ready for whatever games she was about to be forced to play.

Gravedigger smiled with glee as she watched the bus camera feed. The men she was with were so smart they were able to hack into lots of different camera's and now she could see Dr. Brennan alone on the bus as she headed to the stop she was forced to go to. She knew that it was only smart on her part to make sure her cell phone was dumped, because Dr. Brennan was about to be sent to a few different places where eventually things would start going her way. A quick glance by all three people in the room towards the padlocked closet where the little girl was fast asleep again, showed the reason for this little special trip. Something had changed and Gravedigger was actually considering killing the little brat, but the guys, who had served time for doing what she wanted to do at that moment, convinced her it would be funnier to do things a special way.

"Let the new games begin." Gravedigger grinned and felt excitement burn through her veins.

Booth was tired as he started going through most of his papers. Booth had a lot of things going on in his new home, things he had to work on with the house itself, and then things he had to work on with Bones. Booth knew that she was struggling to figure out where she stood with everything that was going on. Jared was currently staying with them at the house, and he was glad to have his younger brother around, especially since Jared was using all his contacts to help track down Alana. Jared made it clear that if need be he would move to D.C. so that he could live there and help, no matter how long it takes, track down his niece. Jared didn't care if it took years, that was what it meant to be a Booth. The Booth brothers knew to stick together, and Alana was a Booth, she was Seeley's daughter and it was killing him inside every day that he didn't know what was happening to her. It was killing him every day he didn't know what the Gravedigger's plans were for his precious daughter that he hadn't even had the honor of meeting yet.

Something told Booth that things were about to get really complicated, really fast.