Second update in a day? Holy smokes!
When Brennan awoke, it was under the lips of her husband.
A strong smell of antiseptic and the humid almost bitter smell of pure oxygen filled her olfactory senses.
A sense of déjà vu plagued her, but somehow she felt much calmer this time. She sensed that it had something to do with her husband staring right back at her.
She had a cannula in her nose administering oxygen, and she reached up to pull it off. As she did so, she felt a tug on top of her left hand where an intravenous drip was firmly taped to the outside of her skin. She reached for that too, but ultimately decided that if she was in the hospital that there was likely a good reason.
She looked around with several questions on her mind.
She hated waking up in strange places with spatial disorientation.
She stared up with flashing eyes to her Booth, "What happened? Why am I in the hospital?"
"If I tell you, you have you remain very calm. Do you understand? This is very serious."
"Well, don't you think that if you don't tell me that I would stress over not knowing?"
"Good point." Booth looked down. He needed to tell her the whole truth; he knew she would eventually ask how she got there in the first place, so that's where he started rather than with the why. "Cam sedated you, and we brought you to the hospital."
"That's extremely underhanded, why on earth would you drug me?"
"Stay calm, and you should use the term sedate, it sounds much nicer." He shrugged, "That's what Camille told me, and I agree it does sound much—" One look at her fiery face and he knew he should just start explaining, "Do you remember the headache you had?"
"Yes, it's gone now. Did you bring me here for just a headache? That is a poor use of hospital resources and a waste of these doctors' and nurses' time."
"No, Bones, this was a very serious issue. Cam took your blood pressure; do you remember that?"
"Vaguely, and then she gave me some Pamprin because of the caffeine and… that's when she did it, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"Were you in on that? Did you give her permission?"
"Bones your blood pressure was sky high."
"What was it?"
"165/102; Cam said something about that being considered uh… stage two hypertension."
"Damn it. What did they give me?" She sat up and tried to look up at the IV bags that were hanging on her cart.
"Hide-ur-limousine?"
"Hydralazine."
"Yeah, that."
She looked at her monitor showing her vitals, and then she looked over to the machine connected to the cuff on her upper arm after it started pumping air into in to take her blood pressure. She hadn't even realized that she had a cuff on her arm until the moment it started airing up.
"When this is done, it will print something," She indicated to the trail of receipt paper flowing out of the side of the machine, "I want you to grab it and give it to me."
It finished taking her blood pressure and, as she said, printed some information on the paper. Booth tore it off and looked at it; it looked like just a bunch of numbers to him. He handed it to her.
"It's still a little high. It's higher than it was half an hour ago," she said, looking at previous printouts. "It's probably because I'm awake now. What time is it?"
Booth looked nervous.
Just tell her. It will be less stressful on her if she just knows.
"It's just after noon," he said looking at his watch.
Why does he still look nervous?
"Bones, it's Monday. We brought you here on Saturday."
Her brow burrowed and she took a deep breath. "Why was I out for so long?"
"At first, they just gave you the Hydralazine and they were going to let the sedative that Cam gave you wear off and it would be fine, but when you woke up they couldn't keep you calm. I wasn't here when you woke up that time, and you thought that something had happened to me. I left here briefly to escort everyone from the Jeffersonian to Hodgins' place. And you happened to wake up while I was gone, and when they couldn't calm you down they thought it would be good to keep you sedated for a little bit and let you sleep while the medicine did more work to keep your blood pressure in a good target range. They weaned you from the drip of Vistaril about half an hour ago to allow you to wake up."
"You left me here, alone?"
"No, baby. Cam was here, along with Gomez. You were safe, but you just didn't want Cam; you wanted me."
She was trying to process the information that she had just been given. It was hard to think still. Her mind was foggy from the sedatives. She hated this feeling.
Brennan didn't fault Booth for agreeing to let Cam sedate her. He'd made the right decision based on what he told her Cam said her blood pressure was. She also knew that it was likely that she would insist on staying at the Jeffersonian. However, if someone had simply just told her what her blood pressure was running she would have willingly went to the hospital.
What's done is done, and that cannot be changed. There were other things to worry about.
And from Booth's appearance, she could tell that he was running on empty.
One look into her questioning eyes and he blurted the first thing that came to mind, "They all know about the twins," and then he kept rambling, "Well, I assume they know by now. Cam can be a lot like Angela when she wants to be. I had to tell Cam before she sedated you. I didn't want there to be any complications. I didn't know if there would be any effects or if it would be harmful."
"I understand telling Cam, but I don't understand, why would she tell anyone else? It isn't her news to share."
"Like I said, she can be a lot like Angela. Give her something juicy and she'll run wild with it, especially if she has a vested interest in it."
He thought back to their conversation.
"I don't like this any more than you do, but you know that with everything going on around here, she will not willingly go on her own. It's the only way to get her to calm down."
"By drugging her?" He threw his hands up in the air and cursed.
"Essentially, yes. But sedating is a much nicer term for it; don't you think? It's the only way we are going to get her to the hospital and you know it. Seeley, she is on the verge of stroke and going into labor. At just twenty-three weeks, there isn't even a fifty percent chance of survival. The lungs…"
"…are just now starting to form air sac thingies. I know. Bones told me this morning." He looked at her for a few long seconds searching for any other way.
He finally nodded. "Alright. Let's do this. She's going to kick my ass for this. You know that, right?"
"Not my wife, not my ass, not my problem. You know this is the only way."
"She's pregnant with twins. Does that change anything? Is it safe?"
"It's safe," Cam assured after getting a self-satisfied smile on her face.
"What is that look for, Camille?"
"I knew it! I just did. I knew there was no way she was as big as she is and only carrying one child. There's this pool…"
"Oh, good grief! More betting pools! You people are worse gamblers than I ever was!"
"Vested interest?" Brennan asked.
"Don't worry about that right now. Don't worry about anything. We've got things under control. You know, even Cullen and his wife are staying at Hodgins' place? I think Cullen has almost pummeled the Bug-man a few times for some of the crazy conspiracy theory shit he spews."
"So when you said you escorted everyone to Hodgins' place?"
"I meant everyone. Everyone involved in the investigation. Of course, I'm not allowed near any part of this case because Caroline and Cullen won't let me. They are actually reluctant to have our team on the case, but we know that we can trust them, and that's good enough for Cullen. He's pissed that he doesn't know who among his men are moles and have loyalties elsewhere. The FBI is facing huge scrutiny once this is all said and done. It'll be a miracle if the media doesn't take this and run with it, twisting and skewing facts as they go."
"Has anything been figured out yet?"
"This morning, we found out that the request for me to work the dangerous undercover case came from some guy in the LA office, a Justin Miller."
Brennan brought her hand up to her hair and nervously ran her fingertips through her hair.
"Justin Miller?" She squeaked.
"Yeah. Bones, do you know him?" Booth narrowed his eyes.
"Not personally, no, but I've heard of him. From Andrew," she whispered.
"What?" Booth still didn't follow.
"It's Hacker!" She said more forcefully.
"What? There's something I'm missing here; care to fill me in!"
"When we had that dinner date, you know, when I shared too much about your mom's meatloaf?" Booth nodded and gulped. "Well, before that and before I got called away from the date, he told me about being proud of his half brother, Justin Miller, for getting a promotion in the LA office to Special Agent in Charge in the Major Crimes division."
She was speaking really fast and hoped that Booth caught everything she had said. This could be their big break in the case. The thing that finally links the request from LA to the DC incidents.
"The request came from Hacker's half brother? Okay, that's not a coincidence! I—I've got to go call Cullen. We need to get someone here who can take an official statement from you about this. Unfortunately, it can't be me."
B&B
Cullen came to the hospital, personally, to do the honors. He didn't need this information getting in the wrong hands. He brought Caroline with him and she sat in the room while Brennan recounted how she knew the connection.
Pieces of the puzzle were slowly coming together.
And the man had one of the oldest motives in the world.
Jealousy.
He'd been taken on a nice date, which was cut short by the man that was now her husband.
He'd been planning to take Brennan to the Anuk Exhibit at the museum, a date that she had canceled and he later found out that it was because she went with her now husband.
She'd declined his many invitations for coffee and concerts, probably because of Booth.
She'd returned his mix tape, once again, probably because Booth gave her something better.
He was not invited to the wedding. That just really pissed him off. He thought that Booth was at least his friend.
He was turned away from the wedding reception. That stung, especially coupled with the sneer that he received from Cullen as the door shut in his face.
She'd single-handedly manhandled him after he'd went up and touched her stomach. That, that was embarrassing, more than anything.
Oh, yeah. He had the motive.
And he had the means to do it. He didn't get where he was in life by earning it through actual skill. He got there by schmoozing his way to the top. He was well liked, and he was likely to have loyalties among those directly underneath him.
He had a brother in a decent position in the LA FBI headquarters.
His family was wealthy, not overly so, but enough that they were able to all have certain hobbies. His father was a gun enthusiast. It wasn't far-fetched to think that the fully automatic Glocks came from him. It wasn't far-fetched to think that Hacker and his brother had somehow struck some sort of deal with the Pirelli Family and their DC associates to help get rid of Booth. The classy rare guns would even throw off suspicion from the normal MO of the Pirelli Family.
All that was left was finding the hard evidence such as the guns, car, and link them all to the people who were suspected to be involved. That started with bringing in Hacker for questioning by Cullen, Caroline, and even the big cheese himself, Robert Mueller.
The intimidation brought on by this pack of interrogatory wolves caused Hacker to cave instantly and spill every bit of it. Everyone who was involved, the weapons, the car, the specific people in that had helped him, how he'd actually blackmailed his hardworking straight-laced brother into helping him. Everything. He knew that there was no use in hiding it. The people on Booth and Brennan's team were good and it was only a matter of time before they found the hard evidence they needed.
Upon bringing the news to Brennan that Hacker had confessed and that they were now relatively safe. She'd been so elated that she could finally relax and not have this feeling of dread and fear hanging over her constantly. Now she could focus solely on staying calm for the babies.
While Booth had been out, getting dinner for himself, the doctor came in and examined her. He told her that all looked to be fine now and that she really should stay in bed for a few days. He told her he would like to keep her for observation for a few more days, and she actually accepted that.
She knew how serious her condition was, and she knew that if she let herself go back to her life at home now, that it was likely to only worsen rather than get better. Bed rest for a few days sounded really good to her. She wasn't looking forward to the boredom, but she found that she was rather anxious to keep the peace and quiet that she had been experiencing in the hospital. It was some of the best deep rest she'd had in a long time.
The doctor had also said that while she wasn't on strict bed rest, it looked as though she could easily head down that road if she didn't take leave and relax in a completely stress free environment.
B&B
In the days following the close of the case, things slowly returned to normal. Those who had been thrown under the bus by Hacker, including his brother, a few lackeys beneath him, and a handful of thugs from the Pirelli Family and their associates were locked up awaiting their arraignments.
The team slowly vacated the Hodgins' estate and returned to their homes. Rebecca continued to stay at Booth and Brennan's apartment with Parker.
Brennan informed Cam of taking her maternity leave, effective immediately. Cam had already suspected as much and made arrangements for all of the interns to be on board daily to make up for the slack. Brennan really did single-handedly cut through an astounding number of cold case identifications from deep bone storage daily. She knew she would need all hands on deck to make up for her absence.
Booth had been given a few more days off in order to get things settled with his wife being on bed rest for a few days. Cullen had also seen the lack of rest affect the agent greatly. He also saw the weight of guilt the man carried, knowing that he was the target that brought all of this onto the people who was close to him, and he saw that it ate him alive, just how close of a call it had been in front of that house.
He'd seen many agents quit over less.
He knew that Booth's intense sense of pride, duty, and service to his country wouldn't ever just let him quit, but Cullen knew that he deserved a break from that for a few more days. He needed to make sure that that sense of honor that Booth felt never wavered. If that ever happened he knew he would lose a fantastic agent, and very likely the aid that came in the form of the forensic anthropologist that came attached to his hip.
Through the course of the rest of the week, Brennan was showered with well wishes and visits from her friends and team.
Her father had also come to see her. Apparently, he had been instrumental in maintaining security at Hodgins' estate while everyone was there at night for safety.
Press had gotten word of her hospitalization. The case had been kept hush-hush, but she was still a very public figure who was hospitalized. She released only a statement that she and the twins we doing fine to her publicist. The news of the twins spread like wildfire.
On Thursday of that week, she received a call of well wishes from their realtor who had been with them at the time of the shooting. She was doing much better, and she called to offer to schedule more appointments with the couple if they were still interested in buying a house at this time.
She talked it over with Booth, and decided that they would still like to continue with the search. She called the woman back and set up a time for Booth to go look at the houses.
Brennan was still in the hospital, but honestly she realized that all she needed was a home that would accommodate her family, and it really didn't matter to her. Booth insisted that she be involved, so while he was touring each house he had her on video call and showed her the houses by taking a video walk-through and explaining different features and amenities over the phone.
They ultimately decided on a beautiful one-story, five bedroom, three bath, red-brick home with a spacey four car garage and a swimming pool on a fenced lot, which just happened to be very near Hodgins' estate. They had agreed that the neighborhood would provide top notch security for the family as well as the wrought iron fence that surrounded the property.
Booth knew that they would have to dig into Bones' stash of money outside of their equally joint account for a down payment, but he was so overjoyed about buying a house to live in with Brennan and his family that he really didn't give a rat's ass if she paid for the whole thing or if her father had robbed a bank and paid for it himself. He really truly didn't care. The important thing was that they had all made it through the week with everyone alive and intact.
So what do we think about the resolution of that one?
Hopefully, everyone's relieved that I didn't do anything to harm the babies or anyone else on the team.
So, there's another product of my hatred for that boob, Andrew Hacker.
XOXO,
CrayonClown
