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Chapter 13

"I've got a name!" Booth announced from the door to her office.

"Beatrice Felder?" Brennan watched as Booth's excited face turned into defeat.

He walked over to her desk and dropped the papers unceremoniously on it. "Okay, it took the FBI an unimaginable amount of manpower to find a single florist with access to all the victims – how the hell did you find her?

Brennan, still sitting at her chair, pointed at her computer screen. "Our suspect had to have ties to that beach," she began to explain, feeling the temperature rise several degrees as Booth placed one hand on the back of her chair and one hand on her desk to read the screen. "I—uh, know someone at a library in Elizabeth City, and I had her pull up newspapers from '60 until '81. She found t--that."

Booth was apparently oblivious to the fact that his proximity was causing her distress, because he began to read the article out loud, "Henry Felder's ashes were spread today over the rising tide, twenty miles north of Manteo. He leaves behind his wife of fifteen years, Beatrice, and his seven-year-old son, Matthew. 'I know he is in a better place,' said his wife in tears. Mr. Felder had rapidly-progressing multiple sclerosis, and his vibrant flower shop on Fifteenth Street will be missed by many in our community."

Brennan nodded, still slightly flushed. Did he always stand this close? Was he being unprofessional? Was she being unprofessional? For the first time in a long time, Dr. Temperance Brennan had no answers. "What do we do now?" she hadn't meant for it to sound like a proposition; hopefully Booth had a better grip on his hormones than she currently had on hers.

The shrilling of his cell-phone caused both of them to jump apart, and she focused on her computer screen to get her breathing back under control. She watched, from the corner of her eye, as Booth wrote down some information that the called was giving him and hung up. "Where's Hannah?" He asked, looking around her office.

"Angela has her, she said something about a test drive," Brennan explained.

"Good, let's make sure she'll be okay watching Hannah for a few hours."

"Hours?" Brennan asked with a frown.

Booth nodded. "An eight-month-old boy with AIDS named Jason Orzog was abducted from a Georgia hospital two days ago; hospital logs show Felder delivered flowers to that hospital the day he went missing."

††††

Booth was maintaining an eye on the seemingly deserted flower shop in Mateo, North Carolina, while they waited for back-up. They had parked the SUV on a nearby corner, trying to appear inconspicuous.

"Booth," Bones stage-whispered next to him. "We haven't picked out Hannah's guardian, Booth."

"Do you really want to talk about this now?" He asked in disbelief.

Bones nodded. "Well, yeah, what if we get shot by Felder?"

"We won't get shot, okay?" Booth explained, trying to maintain his patience.

"You can't know that for sure," Bones argued.

Booth took a deep breath. "Bones, I'll tell you what – we'll have this discussion after we finish this case, ok?"

She was quiet for a few seconds, before changing the subject. "Do you think Felder is in there?" she asked, pointing at the building. "The place looks like it's been closed down for years."

Booth shrugged, "I don't know, I've seen people holed up in worse places."

"She lost everything, Booth."

He glanced over at his partner, who was looking more emotional than she usually did.

"She had a husband and a son, and she lost them both."

"It doesn't change the fact that she's kidnapped eleven—twelve children now," Booth pointed out. Then he seemed to realize what the issue was. "Do you think that's what you and I did with Hannah? Kidnapped her?"

"Isn't it?" a single tear ran down her face and he wiped it with his hand, before holding her chin so he could look into her eyes.

"We saved Hannah, Bones. She had no family left, and her life was in danger. We broke the rules, but only because there was no other way. Beatrice Felder took away these parents' chance to say goodbye – that's unforgivable."

Bones closed her eyes and nodded, even though he knew her enough to know there was still a small war waging inside her beautiful mind. He wanted to pull her closer, to comfort her, but he forced himself to pull his hand back as he saw FBI and sheriff vehicles approaching.

It was time.