Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed last chapter :) School sucks! That's all I'm gonna say :L.
Don't own Bones - Never have and probably never will :(
***Chapter Twenty-One***
Two days had passed since the shooting at the warehouse and Brennan had still not awoke, Booth still sat by her beside just like he had been for 48 hours, only leaving once when Cam and Angela had forced him to go home and get a shower literally pushing him out of the door. Angela had stayed to keep an eye on Brennan while he was gone, promising to call him if anything changed. By the time he came back, just 20 minutes later, Brennan was still the same; still laid in the hospital bed in a light blue hospital gown with tubes surrounding where she slept, at least there were less of them now.
Angela left the room as he entered, quietly mentioning that she was going back to the Jeffersonian to see if they had anything new, promising to call him if they had. Booth sat down in the chair she had previously occupied, immediately taking Brennan's hand in his – where it belonged – sighing as he kissed the top, as if silently letting her know he was back. Doctors constantly told him that she would wake up when she was ready, that as long as she was sleeping she was alive, she was healing. But as much as Booth wanted her to heal, he wanted her to open her eyes even more. To look up at him with those blue eyes of hers and tell him everything would be all right.
He gazed out of the hospital window looking down at the city surrounding them, the sun was about to set lighting the dark room with a reddish glow. Cars and people rushed around on the streets below as he sat, all of them carrying on with their own lives, not bothering to think about anyone else they were walking along the streets with – right now they were probably more concerned about getting home to their families or their pets or maybe even an empty apartment.
He watched as the sky went black and street lamps turned on, as people started to turn off the office lights ready to go home after a long day's work. Before all of this had started, back when everything was 'normal', he would've been heading to the Founding Fathers with his favourite anthropologist or off to the diner for a late tea or even heading to Wong Fu's to pick up a takeaway to eat at one of their apartments with a movie. But back then he hadn't fully realised that he loved her that he wanted to spend forever with her. Now he had.
Once again he had fallen asleep in the chair with his head on the edge of the hospital bed, waking up to the painful stabbing in his back. Throughout the day the pain had lessened, pushed to the back of his mind as he focussed on what was happening with the woman in front of him.
Dr. Riley, the doctor who had performed the surgery, had been in earlier in the afternoon to check up on Brennan, checking the nurses' chart while making a few observations of his own. He had removed the tube down her throat which had been helping her breath once he had determined that she was breathing on her own. Afterwards, he had smiled reassuringly at Booth and then left. Several nurses had also been in and out of the room, checking her vitals and making sure she was properly medicated – Booth noted that no two nurses had been the same, each time there had been a different nurse.
The clock to his left read 8.02pm, to his right lay the leftovers from the food that Angela had brought up an hour or two ago. Booth sighed as he looked at Brennan, still in her peaceful sleep, unaware of the world around her. Or maybe she was aware; maybe she could hear everything going on around, hear the words that were being said to her.
He thought he had imaged it when he felt the slight twitch of her finger in his hand, but the flutter of her eyes made him realise the reality in front of him. After three agonisingly slow days, Dr. Temperance Brennan was finally waking up. His Bones was waking up.
"Hey sleepy head, welcome back," he whispered as she took in her new surroundings. The initial worry of where she was when she first woke up disappeared as she heard his voice.
"I'm sorry... Booth," she choked her voice still raspy. Booth helped her take a sip of water, bringing the yellow straw to her mouth. "I'm sorry… for everything, Booth," she repeated, her voice a little stronger.
"You have nothing to be sorry for Bones, you hear me? Nothing," he assured, only to fall on deaf ears.
"I'm sorry, Booth, I'm sorry," she murmured over and over again, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Hey, hey, shh, it's okay Bones, everything's okay," he reassured, kissing her on the forehead lightly. The wires and the tubes still attached to his body prevented him from hugging her properly but he tried his best in the situation, trying to calm her down slightly. "I'm just gonna nip out and let the doctor know okay? I'll be right back," he promised, once her tears subsidised slightly.
He had left the room no more than five minutes, returning back with the doctor, but by the time he had Brennan had changed. The only trace of tears was her slightly red eyes; she was now laid on the bed letting the doctor check her over while she stared ahead at the wall in front of her. He stayed silent, waiting quietly for the doctor to leave at the other side of the room.
"Everything's looking fine Dr. Brennan; the incision is healing nicely, your results came back earlier and they're looking perfectly good too. In a little while I'll get one of the nurses to move you from ICU," he assured as he put away her chart at the foot of the bed. Brennan nodded, moving her gaze from the wall to where her hands fiddled with the hem of the bed sheets.
"When will I be able to go home?" she enquired just before the doctor was about to leave, surprising them both by actually talking.
"Depending on how you're feeling, you should be able to go home in the next few days as long as you promise to get lots of rest and come in for regular check-ups for the first few weeks. You won't be stuck in here long," he promised. She nodded once again, realising this was the only response he would get, the doctor left through the door leaving the two of them alone once again.
"See you won't have to stay here with the crappy hospital food for long," Booth began as he made his way back to her bed. She stayed silent her eyes refusing to meet his. Booth sat down back in the chair he had occupied for the past few days grabbing the file that Cam had left for him when she had visited the previous night which held all the information the Squints had discovered up to now. "Agent Foster has spoken to the man that was captured at the warehouse – Freddie handcuffed him I think – he says that Andy and the three kids were being moved to a new place. Says he doesn't know the location but I'm sure he'll confess soon," he explained, hoping that telling her what they knew would get her to talk again. The warehouse was full of particulates for Hodgins, he's looking through about five boxes..."
"Booth, please," Brennan murmured cutting him off from what he was saying. "I'm sorry, I just... I just want to be alone for a while. I'm sorry," she whispered, finally looking at him in the eye if it was only for a brief moment.
"Bones, I'm not just gonna leave you here on you own. You've just woken up after being comatose for three days – I'm not leaving you," he argued, his heart breaking as he saw the look on her face – pleading with him to let her be on her own, to let her think about what was happening now. Her plan had changed and right now she didn't know what do or where to start. She was scared, even with Booth sitting right beside her. "Okay, fine but not for long. I'll go down to the cafeteria for a bit and ring Angela to tell them that you're awake. Call me if you need anything, okay?" he asked.
She nodded her head and watched as he unwillingly got up from his chair, placing the file on the cabinet beside her bed and made his way to the door. He looked over his shoulder to see her staring out of the window with glassy eyes. She heard the door click softly as he shut it behind him; now she was completely alone in the room, unsure of what to do next.
She needed to make sure if everybody had left the warehouse safely, she had heard the car drive away but anything could've happened after that. She worried over the possibilities of what might have happened, guilt rose inside of her as she remembered that it was her who had pulled her into all of this. She had brought them into something that wasn't their fight to win, but they still helped her anyway. However, she mostly felt guilty for her son; she had promised him that she would be back soon. That was three days ago. She had left him again.
Beside her laid a phone that Booth had left behind, her phone, where he had got it from she didn't know but right in that moment it didn't matter – she had a plan. Would it work? She didn't know, but it was worth a shot. She reached for the phone and dialled the familiar number she'd memorised only a few days ago.
"Temperance? Tempe, is that you? How are you?" the voice she could recognise anywhere asked from the other end of the line, worry thick in his voice.
"It's me and I'm fine dad, I just..."
"Don't give me that Temperance, you got shot! What's wrong? What happened?"
"I don't know, I just... I just want to get out. Can you pick me up? Booth's not here, neither are the FBI, you won't get caught I promise. I just want to get home and see my son," she admitted.
"Where are you?" he asked, after a few seconds. Brennan had heard him turn the phone on speaker so that the others could hear her.
"I.C.U, it's on the third floor."
"Max, we could do this; we pick Tempe up, grab some supplies for both her and Fred and then we get out. No one will know we were there," she heard Tommy suggest.
"And we'll make sure she gets lots of rest, I doubt we'll be leaving here any time soon," added Charlie.
"We'll be there in twenty minutes," Max sighed, knowing he wouldn't win the argument, no matter how much he wanted to stay in the hospital and get better first.
"Thank you," she whispered as the simultaneously hung up the phone.
Just as he promised, twenty minutes later Max calmly strolled into her hospital room as though there were nobody out looking for them. Of course, on the inside they were both constantly looking in every direction to make sure nobody had seen them; their calm exterior was so that nobody would notice them – so that they could blend in with the crowd. Charlie followed closely behind him, shutting the door as soon as they entered.
"Cars outside the entrance, we've not got long; five minutes max," Charlie said as he neared the bed behind Max.
"You sure you're well enough to leave?" he asked again, hesitant to give her the bag. "We can leave right now like nothing ever happened if you've changed your mind."
"No, I'm sure. I want to get out," she assured as she began to get out of the bed. Max nodded and dropped the bag on the bed.
"There's a few of your clothes in there, I just grabbed whatever I could find, I'll look less suspicious this way," he said. "However, we're still gonna have to take that IV out of your arm. Charlie's gonna do it okay?" She nodded her head, holding out her arm for Charlie and bracing herself for the slight pain. She winced and grabbed Max's arm as it was pulled from her arm, Charlie immediately stopped any bleeding with a plaster he'd pulled from him back pocket. Obviously they'd come prepared.
As soon as it was done Charlie turned around to face the wall, Max soon copied him – not before smiling reassuringly at his daughter – to give her some privacy while she changed.
Brennan smiled at the two older men as she fumbled with the clothes, it took her longer than normal to get changed but she was done in under two minutes.
"Done," she announced. The two men turned around and moved so that they were at either side of her – just in case she needed any support while they walked out through the hospital.
"Off we go then, hopefully Tommy will be back at the car by the time we get there."
"Tommy's here?" she asked, surprised that all three of them were in the open.
"Well we needed some things to help us look after our two patients," joked Charlie as they left the room.
Thankfully, getting back to the pub had been a piece of cake. They had left the hospital with no one noticing them, Tommy meeting them back at the car just like they had planned. Nobody had stopped them or even looked at them as they walked past and they had heard no alarm for a missing patient. On the car ride home Brennan hadn't stopped yawning but she refused to sleep, wanting to see her son before she did anything else.
They walked slowly down the steps towards the basement, it was just past 11pm and the bar was full of customers all too drunk to even notice them. Tommy and Charlie entered the room first, letting them know that they were back and that Brennan was with them but still not well. Max stayed behind to help his daughter down the stairs.
Zach was waiting patiently at the door for his mum, watching carefully as she took one step at a time.
"I missed you mummy," he admitted as she reached the bottom, a big smile spread across his face. "I drew you lots of drawings to make you feel better."
"Thank you," she whispered, uncomfortably bending down to hug her son in the doorway. She stood up again and walked further into the room so that they could safely shut the door.
"You gonna get some rest now?" Max suggested after locking the door.
"I want to quickly look through the file I brought, it's got everything they found at the lab. Booth left it me earlier and I managed to slip it in the bag before we left," she explained.
"Tempe, that can wait. You need to rest for a bit, it's been a hectic hour for you," Charlie admitted.
"I'll only look for a little while, I then I'll sleep, I promise. If I look at it now, I'll be able to sleep better and for longer later," she reasoned. "Please."
"You've got half an hour," Max agreed, passing her the bag that held the file. She took it off him and walked over to the sofa's, allowing Zach to come with her – not wanting it any other way.
She settled down at the end of the sofa, her legs perched on the coffee table in the middle and Zach curled up at her side as she opened the file. She set off working through the results, a pen and a pad of paper beside her so that she could translate it all so that the others would be able to understand it later.
The body that had been found in the room covered in blood had been identified; Cam had matched his DNA to a Steve Rosher – a unfamiliar name to Brennan. She had also confirmed that Georgia's and Andy's blood had been found among the splatters of Rachel's and the other three children's' blood. It had been the murderer's 'torture room', a thought that had chilled Brennan to the bone, anger rising in her chest trying to break through her calm exterior. Hodgins had confirmed there belief's that they were all kept there, something they already knew but now they could prove it as well in court. His report said that he was still looking through the particulates, several times saying that there were lots of them. It took her several minutes to get comfortable but as soon as she did, she was fast asleep murmuring a quiet 'good night' to her.
"Night mummy, I love you," Zach whispered back, moving so that he could kiss her forehead just like she did to him before snuggling into her side and falling into a deep sleep himself.
Thanks for reading :). Let me know what you think; good and bad :).
~LittleMiss :P