To Come Through

By: Lesera128

Rated: M

Disclaimer: ::stares:: ::blinks:: ::stares again:: Yeah. I still don't own anything…but, you knew that from the stares, right?

Summary: Everyone has a breaking point. After Pelant's latest threats against the team, Booth reaches his and does something that pushes his partnership with Brennan past the point of no return. Set post-7x13.

Logistical Notes on the Story: Set at the end of season 7. Beware of such spoilers. Enter at your own risk.


Chapter 28 – Glib Taunts


His heart had started to tighten in his chest as soon as he bounded out of the Hoover Building, brushing past Sweets and ignoring the psychologist's attempts to speak with him in the stairwell when the elevator was taking too long, and as he stumbled into his car. He hastily juggled his keys and his cell phone as he tried to ring Brennan and found that of the eight times he rang her phone, eight times it went directly to voicemail. As he revved the Sequoia's engine, flipped on his lights and sirens—ignoring the fact that he was neither acting in the stead of the FBI or on an official call—and peeled out of the parking garage, Booth sent three more texts to Brennan and then called Max when he failed to get a response. Fortunately, for Booth's sanity, Max did pick up his phone. Once he'd managed to calm down enough to ask the question as to where Brennan actually was, he stayed on the line with Max only long enough to find out that Brennan ran back to the house to get the blanket, but should've been back by now. The knot in Booth's stomach tightened as he told Max he'd call him back once he was certain the kids were safe with Brennan's father.

As soon as he arrived at their house, Booth didn't feel any better when he saw Brennan's Prius parked in the driveway just like he'd seen it there a thousand times or more since they'd moved in a few weeks before Christine's birth.

Nothing's wrong, Booth told himself as he slammed on his breaks, yanked up the Sequoia's parking break, and grabbed for his keys from where they sat in the ignition. She just…maybe she just had an accident in the house…she turned the wrong way and fell or something. It's not a big deal. Whatever it is…it's not a big deal and has nothing to do with Pelant.

Still, Booth took the precaution of unlocking Brennan's car and retrieving her .38 from the glove compartment. Checking to make certain the gun was loaded, he sighed when he nodded to himself and jangled his keys as he hurried towards the front door. Even as Booth took his keys and unlocked the front door, he quickly shifted so that he was a the ready, gun aimed high.

"Bones?" he called out, as he pointed the gun and began a systematic sweep of the downstairs. "Hey, Bones!" he tried again, attempting to keep his calm as he clear the first level of the house. "I'm here. You find the blanket yet?" he called out, hoping his voice sounded as casual as he'd tried to make it seem.

He hurriedly began to check each room in the house, starting with Parker's room and then the nursery. As he approached the far end of the hallway, he knew that there was only one room left where she could be if she was in the house.

"Bones?" he called softly, as he pushed open the half-closed door to their bedroom.

As soon as he entered the room, he tightened his grip on the gun and leveled his aim as he took in the sight that greeted his eyes.

Brennan was standing on a chair, hands and feet bound with duct tape. Her mouth was also covered with the tape. All of those images would enough to have made Booth very scared and very angry—if he already hadn't felt both. But, what truly made him nauseous was the noose he saw that Pelant had tied around her neck using fiber optic cable that he'd obviously yanked from the wall. He'd rigged the cable around their ceiling fan, which was now in the off position.

For his part, Pelant stood on the far side of the room watching with careful interest as he saved Booth's response to his handiwork.

"Ahhh, Agent Booth," Pelant said. "Right on time."

"Let her go," Booth grunted as he aimed the .38 directly at Pelant's chest. "Let her go—now."

Shaking his head, Pelant said, "I'm afraid I can't do that just yet, Agent Booth. Not when you and I have so much to talk about." He stopped and then gestured at Booth's direction as he said, "You can keep the gun if it'd make you feel better, but just so you know, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try to shoot me right now."

"Why?" Booth grunted.

Tossing a small black piece of plastic that he held in his hand up in the air, Pelant smiled in a particularly smarmy way as he said, "You see this thing here, Agent Booth? This is a control keyed to my thumbprint only. It's the release on a small explosive that I may've accidentally wired under the chair there that's supporting the good doctor's weight. If she moves from that chair without my release of button number one to disarm the bomb, we all go boom." He stopped and then gave Booth a genial smile and said, "Of course, if you do as I ask and are calm and civilized, there's a greater chance that I'll press button number one rather than button number two here which will also disarm the bomb, but has the unfortunate side effect of starting the highspeed and supercharged motor that I've installed on your ceiling fan there. Again, I press that, and while you and I might still get out of this with our ability to drone on and on in are irksome voices intact, it's going to be very unlikely that Dr. Brennan's ability to lecture will ever quite be the same…assuming her neck doesn't snap in the process." He stopped and gave Booth a small self-depreciating shrug of his shoulders as he said, "I think I reinforced the beams in your attic that last time I was here with enough counterbalance so that the fan should be able to strangle her properly without breaking her neck, but I'm not too certain on that part since I was always more of a software kinda guy than one who did as well with hardware. I mean, I did try, but—"

"What do you want?" Booth grunted at Pelant.

Again, he chuckled as he said, "Oh, I should think that obvious, Agent Booth. I want the world to know the truth about you and Dr. Brennan here…what you did…and why you got away with it."

"If that's all you wanted, then why change MOs like you have since you killed Inger Johansson and Ezra Krane and God knows how many other people?" Booth asked.

Pelant considered his question for a minute and then said, "Not that I'm saying I had anything to do with any of those murders—or any murders, now that you mention it—but, if I did…purely from a hypothetical standpoint, why would what I'm doing now be a change in my MO?"

Rolling his eyes, Booth took on a snarky tone as he said, "Come on here, Chrissy…let's be honest. You've always wanted to wreck murder and mayhem in the grand scheme of telling the truth. But, in the last few months, you've gotta admit that you've changed up your game a bit. I mean, the biblical stuff? I mean, okay—I expect that from wackos in their remote trailer parks in the wilds of Colorado or Texas, or hell, even someplace like Florida. But, here? In D.C.? Come on…and then, what's with you obsessing over Bones and I? I mean, I know you think we're a cute couple and all, but I thought you liked making your point clear and concise and then moving on to the next great truth you want to reveal." He stopped and then narrowed his eyes in a condescending way as he said, "Or, did you just find out that you're a little too obsessed with Bones and I that you're focus has been distracted, huh?"

Pelant considered Booth's words for a minute and then smiled congenially. "I'd be lying if I didn't admit it when you're right, you are right, Agent Booth. I do find you and Dr. Brennan here fascinating…and I have spent a great deal of time studying you and lining up the perfect plot to reveal your truths. It's really been some of my better work…it's just sad that you had to go and mess up my time table with that little stunt you pulled. I mean, do you know how much effort I put into setting up the pieces that were going to make it look like Dr. Brennan here was guilty of murdering one of her friends?" Pelant pursed his lips for a minute and then said, "I mean, I did have some fun when I gutted Dr. Ethan Sawyer and left him to be a tasty appetizer for the wolves and such that frequent the park where I dumped his bones—but, even still. You should've seen the surveillance tape I put together…and all the other evidence that would've sent the beautiful and intelligent Dr. Brennan straight to the gas chamber. It really would've been a work of art." He stopped and then glared at Booth as he said with another scowl, "Of course, all that's useless now, isn't it, Agent Booth…and it's all your fault. So, after you and I've had our little chat, I'm going to make you pay for what you did and then reveal the truth of it for all the world to see. Now, what do you have to say about that?"


-TBC-


Author's Note: For those who are wondering, there's only one chapter and the epilogue left in this bad boy. The plan is for me to post chapter 29 later tonight and the epilogue in the morning so that the story will be in the can before the season 7 finale air's tomorrow night. That's also the reason why the quick updates have been coming over the last few days. I've done things that way I can say that the story was done before the show that inspired this fic originally actually aired. So, we're down the home stretch. Bear with me until we get to the finish line. It's in sight…promise!