Chapter 21
... girls talk ...

Brennan shivered. It was cold in the cellar and the blanket did not warm her enough. Her cloak was gone. She had fallen asleep, but it had been a restless sleep full of awful dreams, leaving her breathless and wide-awake.

None of the two men had shown up again in the past few hours, a fact that made her both grateful, because she did not really enjoy the company but at the other hand also worrying. What if they got caught and nobody knew where she was?

'Booth is going to find me... he found me the last time,... he is going to get me out of here.' She repeated the thoughts over and over, like a mantra. The sound of footsteps and a muffled cry from the other side of the door interrupted her thoughts.

Hodgins held Angela in a tight embrace. "Angela, what is it?"

He had been watching Angela talking at the phone from the other side of the lab and as soon as he had seen her face he had ran over to her. She had dropped the cell phone and her eyes had been filled with tears. But still she said nothing.

"Angela... what happened?" Jack asked again.

"Booth" she whispered.

"Is ... what ... Dr. Brennan?" he avoided to ask if they had found a body. He could not force himself to say it out aloud. Saying things aloud made them ... more real.

He felt Angela stiffen in his arms. "It's okay, Jack... thank you... could you tell the others to meet me here? I'd like to fill them in." He looked at her... somehow she managed to hide that she had just been crying. Hodgins touched her cheek, but then nodded and left, searching for Zach and Cam.

Five minutes later she explained, what had happened at Spencer's house.

"You mean... you mean that bastards kidnapped that poor woman only to 'deliver the message'?" Hodgins asked. She nodded. "They call it a game... and they told Booth his part in it is over... that Bren is going to die soon..." Angela said, trying to stay calm.

She felt fear nag at her, but she did not want to let the feelings out again. She was sure she would not be able to steady herself again, so she just tried to bury her fear deep down in herself. Booth's voice was still in her ears... the sound of it had caused her chest to tighten... it had been full of fear and thick with emotion. 'He thought he had found her... but these filthy bastards only used her coat to make him feel even more miserable after finding out it wasn't her... ' her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone.

Hodgins spotted it, still lying on the floor where she had dropped it, picked it up and handed it over to her.

A look at the display told her it was Booth again. "Yes, Booth?"

"Angela! I just found something out... there have been two attacks on young girls the last few days... very, very similar to those that had occurred when Bones was 11 years old... I remembered I heard something about it on the radio... I am going to send you the files and everything... with Marks and Spencer we do have two suspects... maybe the girls can report anything helpful... or Hodgins can do his analysing-thing with what the cops have found at the scenes..."

He told her what he knew about the two girls, Sarah Nobbs and Lindsay Gruger.

"Okay, folks" Angela said to the squints after hanging up "there's work to do".

She explained the latest information and thought 'No way these two assholes are going to get out of that!'

Booth looked at the phone. Angela had hung up while he still had been talking. Obviously she was eager to start working on the girls' cases.

'Okay let the squints do whatever they do... I am going to do my work too' he thought and left the office to talk to Agent O'Brian.

Brennan's eyes were fixed on the door. Spencer opened the door and she saw he was dragging a blindfolded girl with him. He pushed the child in the room, then threw in two bottles of water. He lustily glanced at the girl and the sight of this made Brennan furious.

She grabbed the girls hand and pulled her close to comfort her. "It's alright" she murmured over and over and removed the blindfold, ignoring Spencer, who still stood in the doorframe, watching them.

"Don't promise that nobody will harm her, Dr. Brennan... you won't be able keep the promise." Laughing nastily he left the room.

Brennan looked at the girl and forced herself to put an encouraging smile on her face. "Hey,... my name is Temperance Brennan... and what's your name?"

The girl sobbed. "Tammy... Tamara Greene... what happened...where are we?" she asked, her eyes brimming with tears.

"I do not know, Tammy... I am sorry... Tammy... did ... did they ... I mean, are you hurt?"
She was relieved to see the girl shaking her head. She looked fragile and scared, her big brown eyes wide open, but she was whole and not hurt. 'Not yet' Brennan thought and a sick feeling rose again in her.

"Tammy... what do you think... since we can not really do much in here, we could try to get to know each other better?" 'Keep her talking... that helps to fight the fear' Brennan thought to herself.

Tammy nodded. "Okay, then... I'll ask you a question... and then you ask me one, does that sound fair?" Again the girl remained silent, showing her agreement by nodding.

"Okay,... so Tammy how old are you?" Brennan asked in a soft voice.

The girl murmured "10... but next week's my 11th birthday!"

"Okay, Tammy... now it's your turn... you can ask me something!" Brennan encouraged the girl.

The girl looked at her curiously, then said. "The man... he called you Dr. Brennan... what kind of doctor are you?"

"Oh..." Brennan nearly started to recite the descrïption of anthropology, but then realised a 10-year-old girl would be bored by that. "Well... I am a scientist... I examine old skeletons to tell when the people lived and what caused their death."

"Ew... that's weird... but kind of cool." Tammy almost smiled.

Brennan tried to banish the thoughts of Spencer or Marks touching that sweet girl and asked the next question. "So... you told me you'll be 11 soon... do you already know what presents you are going to get?"

Tammy's eyes suddenly shone brightly and she started to list many things Brennan vaguely identified as computer games and DVDs.

The kept on talking... Brennan tried to keep the girl busy by letting her tell stories about herself and her little brother.

'I hope they find us before these two sick bastards are coming back' Brennan thought. And although she had never believed in a god, she prayed for his help to safe the girl and herself.