This one is a little short for me but I hope you like it. Please aim any sharp objects at Musie. I have no idea why she is so angsty lately but reviews might help. Hint, hint;) Thanks, T.

Disclaimer: Not mine and likely glad of it in this chapter.

Brennan and Alex had gone over the plan but that hadn't taken long as the plan consisted of looking like a broken bird that was about to fall out of the sky and leading Perez around by the nose long enough for their forces to get to the appointed coordinates, hide and set up an ambush. They would then have no choice but to let Perez get dangerously close to draw him into the "circle" of their hidden troops to get ambushed. They would then fly behind friendly lines and land. Piece of cake. If their troops got there in time. If Perez didn't blow them out of the sky the second he got close enough. But they were set in their course of action now. Their troops would be on the move by now and they couldn't let them down.

Alex glanced at Brennan as she slipped something out of her pocket, held it to her side, studied it thoughtfully then slipped it back in her pocket. "What have you got there, Red?" he asked, making her jump. Looking at him with wide eyes, she finally sighed and pulled the item out of her pocket so he could get a good look at it. Alex looked at it and began to snicker which caused her to narrow her eyes at him which only made him laugh harder. Soon, he was laughing so hard he was crying.

"It's not that funny, Alex," she snapped, "you know how he gets when I take his things without asking. He's worse than Grant. At least Grant won't be following you around constantly giving you looks to let you know how disappointed he is in your behavior." Despite the bite in her voice, Alex could tell this really bothered her. Hell, it was the only reason Gavin did it. Gavin had learned early on that it made Brennan feel terrible to think any of her boys were disappointed with her and he only used it in dire circumstances but Alex had a feeling Gavin would consider Brennan lifting his latest very high dollar techno toy deserving of punishment.

"You want me to take the blame?" Alex offered and Brennan snorted.

"Like he would believe you could lift it without him knowing," Alex took no offense, he couldn't pick a pocket worth a damn and they all knew it.

"I could tell him he dropped it, I picked it up and forgot to give it back to him." Brennan's eyes brightened as she considered it, then shook her head. Not that she didn't think Alex could pull it off, she had complete confidence in his ability to lie convincingly about anything to anyone but she had been trying to hide it from him so he wouldn't have to lie. She wouldn't be responsible for her team lying to each other she decided as her shoulders slumped in defeat as she wondered how long Gavin would punish her this time. The last time had been a miserable 4 days in Peru and she had a feeling this gadget was going to get her a whole lot more time than that.

"Come on, Red. I'm pretty sure he'll let this one go without punishment," Alex offered. Brennan doubted it but she nodded, studying her new toy more closely now that she didn't have to hide it from Alex. Good thing for them, Perez was proving very predictable, basically following their chopper in circles. Camp two had reached the coordinates Alex had left. Camp one was partially in place and camp three (Booth) was moving to intercept the choppers that were heading back out. Brennan relayed all this to Alex who nodded in satisfaction. Not that Brennan would ever say so but it was kind of boring just riding around up here for the last hour and a half. Idly running her eyes across the instrument panel, she suddenly stiffened wanting to smack herself for the thinking things were boring. According to Nathaniel, it was just asking for bad luck.

"Alex, did you fill up with fuel before we took off?" she asked in a very controlled voice.

"Of course I did, Red. Why?" he looked at her in concern.

"Then why do we have enough fuel for approximately 20 more minutes flight time?" she queried.

"What?" Alex demanded, checking the gauge himself. Sure enough, she was right. Silently cursing, Alex went over the most likely reasons for them to have lost almost a full tank of fuel in his head and the scenario that emerged wasn't promising.

"The gauge isn't wrong is it, Alex?" she asked, a quiver in her voice.

"Not likely," he answered, his jaw clenched tightly at his own stupidity. Yeah, he'd had two of the guys go over the bird and refuel it but he should have done it himself. He would be willing to bet that a fuel line had gotten clipped during the shoot out with Rodrigo and that was almost impossible to find unless the bird was in operation like it had been today. So, it really wasn't the men's fault they hadn't found it. He should have been watching the gauges more closely and never let it get to this point. Son of a bitch, his carelessness was most likely going to wind up getting him and the woman he loved like a sister killed. Suddenly a small hand reached over and took the one fisted on his thigh.

"It's all right, Alex," she assured him, "we'll just have a longer walk than we expected." Yeah, like at least 80 miles longer with the jungle growing less and less dense, making it very unlikely that Perez wouldn't catch up with them.

Booth jumped out of the hummer as soon as it came to a stop, more relieved than words could express to be out of confinement with his traveling companions. Damn, he couldn't believe someone else hadn't already shot the bickering pair and if he'd had a sidearm he might have rectified that little mistake but, sadly, he didn't. The first 15 minutes hadn't been so bad as they had all gone over the plan Nathaniel had outlined to everyone before they left camp, making sure they were all on the same page. He had actually been impressed at their knowledge of battle tactics and suggestions they jotted down for Nathaniel. He had only been able to give them a small portion of his attention because, try as he might, the majority of it was centered on his wife and how much danger she was in.

Gavin and Garrett had just been able to draw him into a detailed discussion of troop placement when they heard Alex broadcast a mayday and Booth's heart almost stopped. He didn't even realize that a roar of denial and fury escaped him. At that instant, all rational thought was pushed out by the need to get to his wife. It had taken four men to keep him inside the vehicle and some time for Gavin's voice to get through to him assuring Booth that if Alex and Brennan were really going down, Alex would have broadcast a codeword but he hadn't. Alex and Brennan were fine as long as they maintained their distance from Perez and stayed in the air and they had enough fuel to do that far longer than they would need to. Booth clung to those reassurances with both hands. They were the only things keeping him sane at the moment.

The twins had told him that Alex would never go into something like this without a plan. He had fired back that he wouldn't have thought Alex would do something like this at all and that had shut them up. For about three minutes. Then they had turned, before his disbelieving eyes, from well trained Special Forces grown up soldiers into a pair of three year olds, snapping, bickering and whining until he had wished for a sidearm. After twenty minutes, he had finally just yelled at them to shut up. Like real three year olds, they were startled by the loud noise, gave him reproachful looks and were immediately, once again, off and running. It was enough to make you reconsider having children. Well, more than one anyway. He had finally decided that he had no choice but to just knock their heads together but, lucky for them, they had pulled in just as he found the urge to do so becoming uncontrollable.

Shuddering, Booth told himself capture and torture was preferable to having to be confined with those two ever again. Turning, he watched as they tumbled out of the vehicle like a pair of playful puppies, not really sure what he expected from them now. It sure as hell wasn't he got. The instant their feet hit the ground they turned back into adults, Gavin immediately heading toward the communications station that had been set up and taking over. Garrett threw Booth a grin and strode off to help where he could. What the hell? Booth hated to do it, but he was going to have to recommend to Brennan that two of her boys get checked out by a good psychiatrist. He wasn't sure what the problem was but, damn, they needed help.

Breathing deeply, Booth walked further into the clearing and looked around at the activity. Choppers were landing, being refueled, filled with men and equipment and taking off again with amazing regularity. Four choppers set to the side being outfitted with tripods to mount the high caliber assault weapons that would be fired out of both of the open doors simultaneously. The people getting all of this done were moving like well oiled machines. Damn, someone ran a tight ship. Booth had to laugh when he saw Joe step out from behind one of the choppers and yell out some orders. He should have known. Catching Booth's eye, Joe hurried over.

"How's Patty?" Booth asked, surprised that was the first thing to come out of his mouth. Joe shrugged, a soldier down to the bone and, unfortunately, death was a regular part of that life.

"She was alive when we got her to the hospital, but we did a dump and run and hightailed it back here. Didn't want to miss the fight," Joe slapped Booth on the back with a grin butBooth knew the man well and could see he was tensing up knowing they were going into battle and the likelihood of them all coming back was slim. They were all getting a little tense. Hell, you'd have to be a robot not to and the release of adrenalin kept you on your toes, hopefully making sure you were one of the ones coming back.

Brennan and Alex looked at each other. They had a very big decision to make and they both knew it. A decision that would most likely mean the difference between them living and dying. They had two options. They could send out another mayday with the code word telling their team that they really were going down but they were so short of fuel by now that there was no chance of the team being able to get evac to them before Perez caught up to them. And if the team tried to get to them which Brennan and Alex both knew they would, Perez would pick them up on radar and know they had troops in the area. It would put every single person they had sent to the predetermined coordinates in danger.

The second option also messed things up a little with the plan. They went down without another mayday and tried to lead Perez and his troops 80 miles on foot to the ambush while evading capture. Yeah, they both knew that wouldn't happen, but Gavin would be keeping a close eye on their position and would know soon after they went down. Nathaniel would be able to adjust a battle plan quickly enough to move out their troops and confront Perez before he could retreat. It would be messier for sure but still almost assured them victory. The big thing about them going down silent was they were telling the team not to risk revealing their presence by sending anyone in after them. They were telling them to let them find their own way out or they wouldn't be coming out.

Squeezing the small hand gripping his tightly, Alex asked, "Do you need to think about it?" He had never known you could be as proud of someone as he was of her when she never wavered, simply shook her head firmly. Damn, that kind of courage from someone who had never signed up for fights like this was humbling.

"Do you need to think about it?" she returned the courtesy of the question but never doubted his answer.

"We go down silent?" Alex held her eyes and they never flickered or wavered as she nodded her agreement.

"We go down silent." she agreed. They had both known it could come to this when they took off and put their plan into motion. But their plan had been at least partially successful and there were a lot of men alive right now that would be dead if they hadn't done it, so she was ok with that. If her life was the price she had to pay to keep the man who was her everything and the other people she cared about safe, then she would give it willingly. But she and Alex weren't dead yet and she was working on a plan that just might show that sick, psychotic son of a bitch Perez that he had picked the wrong people to mess with.

Booth was helping to lock the last 50 caliber gun in place when the people around the communications station raised all kinds of hell then just as suddenly went silent. Glancing up, Booth saw several of the men look in his direction then drop their heads, not a one of them meeting his eyes. Leaving his position without a backward glance, he strode over to find out what the hell was going on. He knew it had to be about Brennan and Alex and his gut said it couldn't be good, not with the way the crowd parted before him, no one meeting his eyes. Stalking through the thinning crowd, Booth saw the twins standing side by side in front of the impressive array of equipment.

"What?" demanded Booth but neither Gavin nor Garrett turned at his question. Rounding the table, he saw why. They were both pale, their faces masks of pain and loss. His gut clenched and his stomach recoiled but whatever the twins thought they knew, he knew his Bones wasn't dead. He was as certain of that as he had ever been of anything in his life. Looking around, he saw that Nathaniel had stalked off about twenty feet and stood staring sightlessly at the jungle. Somebody needed to talk to him and tell him what they thought they knew because Booth had seen other soldiers behave like this enough to know they thought he was going to be getting devastating news but they were wrong. Starting for Nathaniel, Booth came up short as Grant stepped in front of him.

"Do you know what nobody else apparently has the balls to tell me, Grant?" Booth demanded. He knew his voice was loud and quarrelsome but didn't really give a shit right now.

"Booth, the chopper went down about five minutes ago," Grant at least had the balls to give it to him straight and Booth was horrified at his first thought but he didn't believe it for a second. No freaking way had they been shot down. He would know if something bad had happened to Brennan and he knew she was ok at the moment.

"Where are they?" barked Booth, striding back to the twins and pinning Gavin with a gaze that said he wanted answers now.

"Booth, they went down silent," Grant tried to explain. Booth knew exactly what it meant but he didn't give a damn. All that mattered to him was his wife was now on foot with someone who wanted her dead in the worst way closing in quickly. He didn't have time for this shit.

"You know, Grant, the last time I checked my wife wasn't in any branch of the military. That makes her a civilian, a civilian we were all sent here to protect, I might add. Either way, I don't really give a damn about your freaking protocol. I'm going to get my wife and if I don't shoot Alex on sight, I may just drag his ass out of the fire. But I am going in there, Grant. Now you boys can either help me or get the hell out of my way," Booth's voice was implacable. He would not be turned from his course.

"Gavin, I need those coordinates." Booth turned back to find Garrett and Gavin standing right behind him with their packs slung across their shoulders.

"What are you going to do, Sarge?" asked Joe quietly from the sidelines.

"I'm going to get my wife, Joe."

"I'm going with you," Joe offered.

"I'm sorry, Joe, I need you here," Nathaniel broke in and Booth turned a stunned face toward him. Out of all of the others, Booth would have laid odds on Nathaniel doing whatever it took to keep Brennan safe. Steadily meeting Booth's eyes, Nathaniel continued, "It seems the party location has been moved and we don't have time to move the fuel trucks. I already have the ground forces moving in from their current positions but we need to hold this position as a refueling station and I need you here to make sure everything runs smoothly, Joe." Booth could see Joe's disappointment but gave the other man's shoulder a squeeze that let him know he appreciated his support and that they needed him doing this. Holding this point as a refueling station could mean the difference between them winning and losing and Joe was just the man to get the job done. "All right men," Nathaniel yelled, "maybe you didn't hear Booth but we have two soldiers on the ground in enemy territory so move your asses, get these choppers in the air and let's go get our men."

One chopper had already been filled with men ready to follow Booth regardless of Nathaniel's ruling but two others were quickly filled with men and weapons. They were going in hot and heavy, hitting hard with the first wave and hoping like hell the second wave was there before Perez had a chance to regroup. Booth looked out the door as the rotors started spinning and saw Grant running toward them with two packs.

"I thought he wanted to just leave Bones and Alex out there," Booth gritted out between clenched teeth as he drew Garrett's attention to Grant. His voice left no doubt what the thought of that.

"Grant would never hang Red or Alex out to dry. He just had to say goodbye to his explosives. You know, just in case it was their bedtime before he got back." Garrett returned, not a hint of humor in his voice. Then Gavin snickered at his brother's words and Booth who thought nothing could make him laugh right now found out he was wrong. The picture of Grant reading bedtime stories to crates of C4 did the trick. By the time Grant boarded the chopper, demanding to know what was so funny, everyone was laughing too hard to tell him.