Disclaimer: Bones and its affiliated characters do not belong to me. I mean no copyright infringement.
Rating: T
He Called Me Baby
Chapter 28: It was Me
(Published July 28, 2010)
Booth's POV
"Booooooth! Please answer me."
"Bones, I'm here. Don't hang up. I'm not going all the way in, so you're not losing me. I'm hoping to get an answer from Jim who is walking this way. Hold on."
"What was that?" asked Booth.
"A hot head local authority. He shot his gun into the air all three times. No injuries. There didn't seem to be a reason. I don't like it."
"What are you thinking?"
"I can't help but wonder if it was some sort if signal," answered Janson. "There's been economic growth, especially with the tourism industry, but the ethnic groups here amongst the islands aren't stable. I just don't know what we are dealing with. And every hour that goes by has me more concerned for Daisy."
Michael approached the two men and turned his attention to Booth. "Michael, can we work together on this?"
"I'm not an idiot. Have the two of you come up with a plan?"
"Not yet. We have determined that we don't even know who the enemy is at this point. Booth, you're the expert on crime. Lead the way." Janson was not going to let Michael control this situation.
Booth had his phone pointed toward the group. "Bones, can you hear all of this?"
"I think I am, at least most of it. But go on, you can fill in the missing pieces later."
"Sounds good." He stepped in with the beginning of his plan. "First, we need to get our people out of there and have a way to account for everyone's whereabouts. Michael, I want you to go back to the lab and make a roster of who can be accounted for there. Send each and every intern to their rooms. Send directors, group leaders, board members, and anyone in charge of a group or committee to the hotel conference room. If someone in the project doesn't fit nicely into one of those titles, send them to the conference room." He turned to Jim. "Jim, I would like for you to clear the sites. Get every person associated with the dig, interns on up, to go directly to the lab." Booth noticed Michael hadn't moved. "What are you still doing here?" Michael glared at Booth and left for the lab. Turning back to Jim, "I think it's important to separate the people who were here today from the remaining people involved with the dig."
"Why's that? What are you thinking?"
"I don't know yet. It's just a gut feeling." Janson gave him an incredulous look. "I forgot I was talking to a squint. As I say to Bones, just go with it. We can change things later if needed."
"Where will you be?"
"I have to get Bones to the health clinic. I'll keep my phone on. I want you to call me once you have everyone out of there." Booth and Jim exchanged numbers to program into their phones. "I'll get Michael's number on my way out and send it to you."
"Thanks for helping. Tell Tempe that I wish her well."
"Did you hear that, Bones?" She had. "I'm on my way back. I think I should call Sweets before someone else gets to him. (pause) I am perfectly fine. (pause) Love you, too. Bye, Babe."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Michael's POV
He's just so full of himself. He deserves to fall flat on his face. The whole lot of them will be sorry that they pushed me off to the side.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Sweets growled at the alarm clock. He smacked the clock twice, but the irritating noise wouldn't stop. When he opened his eyes, he realized it was about one in the morning and it was his phone that disturbed his sleep. This better be good. He grumbled into the phone, "Dr. Sweets speaking."
"Sweets, sorry for waking you."
"Agent Booth?"
"Even half asleep you recognized it was me. Did you miss us?"
"Agent Booth, why are you calling me from the Middle East and who is 'us'?"
"Everything between you and me… is it still confidential?"
"It's late. There is a reason you called. How can I help you?"
"Did Cullen or Hacker call you this evening?"
"No. Why would they?"
"Did anyone from the FBI contact you?"
"You would tell me if you've been hallucinating again, right? This is too serious to ignore."
Booth raked his hands through his hair. Of all times for Sweets to be sticking his nose in my life, he had to now. "I am not hallucinating. I'm in the Maluku Islands with Bones." (silence) "Sweets? Are you there?"
"Um, yah. I'm here. Did you say you were with Dr. Brennan?"
"Yes. It's a long story. Bo…"
"Did you go AWOL?"
"What? No! Bones had…. Sweets, I'll call you back in about thirty minutes using Bones' phone. I have to keep my phone free." He hung up without Sweets giving him time to respond.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Booth walked in the door while talking on the phone. "Thank you, Michael. We're going to need someone to be the liaison with the authorities, who ever that may be. I can't do it because I'm taking Dr. Brennan to see a doctor at the clinic. Since you're in the lab, would you do that for us?"
He wants Michael that involved. What is he thinking?
"OK. Great. I'll get that programmed and send it to Janson."
"Are you OK?" Brennan was concerned by the stress he was showing.
"I'm just stressed by the lack of police protection and clearly no investigative means to turn to. It's another reason to be thankful for being an American."
Brennan responded softly, "Booth, I hope you're not feeling helpless. I know it's different here, you're not familiar with the culture or the geography, and on top of that you are worrying about me and returning to Afghanistan. I understand that you need to help find Daisy, but I'm concerned that you're going to leave with your alpha-male traits leading the way. You can't take responsibility for everything and have that effect you while you are in a war zone. I am so sorry. I'm the reason that you found yourself in the middle of this. I will never forgive myself if something happens to you."
It didn't take long for Booth to gather Brennan in an embrace. "Bones, please don't do this to yourself. I'm going to be fine. Remember that I'm a sniper. I can concentrate when I'm on duty. I have absolutely no regrets in coming. Do you think I would have been better off worrying about your health when I'm in a war zone?"
"I know it's not logical."
"No, it's not." He kissed her forehead before looking into her eyes. "Bones, do you realize what you just said? What you are feeling right now?"
She tilted her head to the side, "What do you think I just did? Because I feel foolish right now."
He pressed his lips against hers for a soft chaste kiss. His voice was almost a whisper. "Bones, you are thinking with your heart." She gave him a disapproving look. "You're just going to have to accept it. Think of it. You can become even more famous!"
"What are you talking about, Booth?"
"You can be the world's first scientist to compartmentalize the brain to include feelings from the heart in just the right situations."
Brennan shook her head and laughed. "Booth, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard."
Sporting his lovable lop-sided smile he answered, "Not to me." She happily accepted being pulled into him for a heart-stopping kiss.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Janson's POV
After clearing out sites 1 & 2, he was feeling even edgier. I could have prevented this. I should never have allowed the interns to come here without me. Damn it! Where was I? At a damn meeting talking about making things more secure and I left Daisy vulnerable. I'll never forgive myself if she is hurt… or worse.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Once they were on their way to the clinic, they were able to continue the conversation monopolizing their thoughts and allowing them to avoid what they hadn't been able to discuss, yet… the ectopic pregnancy and how it could affect their future.
"Why are you counting on Michael for so much responsibility?"
"I want him on our side and he's a U.S. citizen. Besides, he probably can handle it until someone above him chooses to take over. I still think he's a creep."
"What about Sweets?"
"Oh crap! I forgot about Sweets!" How did life get more complicated than it already had been the past couple of months? "He's being Sweets. I wasn't able to tell him about Daisy. He's more interested in what I'm doing here and I finally cut him off so my phone would be available. I'm going to need your phone."
"Certainly. How much do you want to tell him?"
"I don't know. He thinks I've gone AWOL." Brennan rolled her eyes. "What are you comfortable with?"
"If he's not smart enough to know you wouldn't go AWOL, then I think it would be better to answer his questions. You don't need him causing problems for you. Besides, he has been convinced for years that there was something more between us and our success rate never wavered. There's no reason for him to consider splitting us up when we get back."
Booth smiled. She's talking like she's already decided that things will continue as they are when we get back home. Booth took one of her hands into his and massaged her palm with his thumb. "I'm fine with it. Do you want to talk to him or would you like me to?"
"I'd prefer not to deal with his psycho-babble right now. But if your phone rings, I'll talk to Sweets so you can keep helping."
Booth took the phone but stopped short when Brennan leaned over to place a kiss on his cheek.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Sweets answered on the first ring. "Booth?"
"I talked with Bones. If I tell you why I'm here, will you promise to let it be and allow me to tell you why I called? It's important.
"Consider it the truth zone." (Silence.)
"And?" Booth wasn't satisfied with his answer.
"OK. I promise. Go ahead."
"Thanks Sweets. I was able to get a short leave so I could be with Bones after a small surgery she needed to have."
"Whoa! Wait a minute? Dr. Brennan had surgery? Why?"
"It was just a small thing. I need to talk to you about something else."
"If it was a small thing, then how were you able to get a leave?"
Sweets could hear him release a big sigh.
"Sweets, just listen. No more interruptions. Can you handle that?"
"Go ahead."
"OK. Well, you see, there is a tube somewhere that ruptured. It was fixed." Brennan smirked at him as she listened to his explanation of the surgery. Typical Booth. "But she wasn't pregnant anymore."
"Bones was pregnant?" shouted Sweets. He couldn't believe it. He sounded all business. Why doesn't he sound hurt? It had to be Hacker's, didn't it?
"Watch it, Sweets! I'm the only one who calls her, 'Bones'."
"Of course. Sorry. How are you dealing with it?"
So much for no more interruptions. "I'm not going to talk to you about it. That's not why I called."
"Okay. Well, if you don't want to talk about it now, then we will when you get back to the states. This may be the thing that really makes your partnership suffer."
"Sweets, we're fine."
"Just listen, Booth. You have been so patient with Dr. Brennan. But this is a whole new set of potential problems. Was it… was it Hacker's?"
"No. Now can we move on to why I called?"
"Booth," Sweets said hesitantly in a hushed quiet voice. "Who was the father?"
"Will you let me talk if I tell you?" By this time, Booth was blushing.
"Yes. Go ahead."
"It was me."
Author's Notes: As always, I love reading your reviews. They inspire me to continue writing. This update took a little bit longer. I spent a lot of time rewriting this one.
Author's Notes in response to reviews: I want to give my answers here because I'm sure there are others who have been thinking the same things but don't usually leave reviews.It is true that I have taken some liberties with this story. Since I find it highly unlikely that the reason for the dig would even happen, I felt that it would be alright to alter "real life". In this story, the lab & dig sites are in driving distance from the hotel because I can't imagine that Brennan wouldn't be in a lab for something this big. And if I am wrong and this kind of dig were to occur, I would think the remains would be sent to real labs instead of make-shift ones… and one of those labs would probably include the Jeffersonian. Then there would be the question of why she had to leave in the first place. And if something this big did miraculously happen, there would definitely be news coverage or in the very least, a web site. Schools would be clamoring to change their curriculums like they did when it was announced that Pluto wasn't a planet. As far as the tsunami is concerned, I thought it made the story interesting. And finally, I should have used the word 'clinic' rather than 'hospital' and I will go back and see what needs to be edited. I'm sure I've made inaccurate statements elsewhere. Please forgive me. ;)
