Middle of April, mountains of Northern Iraq

"Seel? What are we even doing here anymore? We haven't made contact with base camp in days. We're running out of supplies. We need go to back," Hatting said.

"No, we're getting close. I know we're getting close. Right now, we're about…" Booth said, looking around, "four hundred yards from where we split up. Teddy went northwest while I went northeast. We should go the same way as Teddy. I had told him to meet me on the other side of the mountain."

Radford looked at Booth like he was insane. "You did what? Why the hell would you split up? That was damn stupid of you two. When the CO splits us up into pairs, you stay in the pairs. That's obvious, Seel."

"I know that now, dumbass. But this is the smallest mountain in the range. Insurgents must've picked him up. If we had been together, they would've gotten both of us. Would you guys still be looking if I hadn't made it back to start a whole new mission? Probably not. So now, let's forget about what Park and I did wrong and let's just find him, okay?"

Radford and Hatting nodded. The three men hiked through the fertile lands, trees scattered about. A few hours into their hike of following where Teddy could've gone, Radford pointed something out in the distance.

"Is that his pack?"

Booth nodded. When the trio reached Teddy's pack, the first thing that they saw was the blood.

"That's a lot of blood," Hatting said.

"Well his body isn't here so he's still alive…right?" Radford said.

"It's possible," Booth muttered. "I just don't know where to go from here."

The silence of the mountains was shattered when the sound of enemy weapons pierced the air. The three men dropped to the ground, attempting to make themselves unseen.

"Booth, you alright?" Radford asked.

"Yeah, Hatting? You good?"

The other soldier didn't answer. He was lying on the ground beside them, blood seeping from a wound in his neck. He was dead, and Booth knew they were in trouble.


"Bren? You okay? You've been zoning out all day. What's up?"

"Sorry, Ange, this dig research Dr. Kent brought back for me is really confusing. I don't know if this dissertation is going to be done on time."

Angela sighed and tapped her foot. She was standing in the doorway to her friend's office, watching Bren work.

"Sweetie, you shouldn't be working so hard. You need to take a chill pill. You're stressing out about everything, not just about Booth, and it's not healthy!"

"I need to work, Angela. I need to do something besides sitting by the mail box waiting for Frank to show up with a letter from Booth."

Angela nodded, understanding her reasoning. "Fine, but take a break."

"What do you suggest I do? Working seems like the most obvious distraction from thinking of Booth in danger."

Angela rolled her eyes. "Well, you need a distraction from your distraction. Let's go do something. It's finally nice out! We could go for a walk or go check out some parks that we can take the baby to when he or she is big enough. You just need to get out. You've been holed up in this office for hours, days even. And when you're not in here, you're in your office on campus. It's not healthy, Bren. You need exercise! You need fresh air!"

"Angela, I get plenty of fresh air and exercise when I walk to and from my office on campus. I'm fine. Please let me get back to work."

She shook her head. "Nuh-uh. Nope. Not happening. We are getting you out of here. Jack and I are kidnapping you today. We are going to take you shopping for the baby or…just something fun! We can go see a movie!"

"Jack complains that I talk too much during movies."

"That's because you do, sweetie. When you point out all illogical or unscientific parts of movies, you kinda ruin them. But I know what you're doing. You're trying to talk me out of making you have some fun. It's not going to happen, Bren. I will get you out of this office today if it's the last thing I do!"

Brennan heaved a sigh. She knew there was no way Angela was going to give up. "Okay, let's…go for a walk. Or, I guess I should say, you walk, I'll waddle."

"Cute, Bren. But you don't waddle. I don't know why you think you're so giant. You look gorgeous. Booth would agree with me, you know."


"Shit. What do we do, Booth?" Radford mumbled, attempting to keep quiet.

"Grab his tag. We can't take him with right now, wherever we're going."

Radford reached under the shirt of his dead friend and yanked one of the two ID tags from his neck. "I hate this. I swear this better be the last time I have to take a tag," Redford muttered. "But, seriously, Booth, where the hell are going? We can't lie here all day. They'll find us. And if we do say here 'til dark, we're gonna get lost."

"I know, I know. Just shut up a minute and let me think!" Booth racked his brain for some sort of plan. He knew Radford was right.

Slowly, and as quietly as possible, Booth pulled out his map of the area.

"Okay, we're…here," Booth whispered, pointing to a spot on the map, "and we need to follow this path to get to here, where Park and I we're supposed to meet up. Somewhere between here and there, he was taken. Or got lost."

"If he got lost, he'd still have his pack. I know you don't want to think this, but maybe these guys who are shooting at us are the same guys who took Teddy. They killed Hatting. We have to do something about this. We can't just turn around and run away!" Radford shouted.

"Keep your voice down! I know that. I didn't have any plan to run away. But we have to get out of here alive. I don't know about you, Radford, but I have a wife and kid to get home to so I'm not planning on dying. We need to think of a plan though if we're both going to get out of here with our lives and dignity intact."

Radford nodded. "Well, what are we going to do?"

"Okay, since, obviously, splitting up was a bad idea the last time I did that, we need to move. They know where we are. We can move up along that ridge and if we can get up in the trees, that might be better."

"We can't get up in the trees with our packs. They're too big."

"Alright, well…we'll just have to keep moving then. As long as we're up on the ridge and they're down here, we'll be fine."

"So then we follow them? See if they take us to Teddy?"

Booth nodded. "We need to stay far enough back so they don't know we're there."

"Okay, let's move then. We're wasting time."

They stood, but stayed low, and jogged over to where the trees began to thicken. They walked, slowly and quietly for a time, while using the map to navigate through the trees.

"Booth, get down!"

Radford dropped and hid behind a tree. Booth followed suit and looked to Radford for answers. The minute they stopped moving and actually listened to their environment, Booth could tell why Radford had stopped. He heard someone talking, not that he actually understood it. It was a local language, something he assumed Bren would at least have some idea about. They were moving closer and he could feel his heart drop. There was no way out of it. Radford and Booth were trapped. They could run, but more than likely, they'd get separated, something that was out of the question.

They stayed still, sending each other nervous glances from behind their own trees. Their company moved closer, still speaking in a language that puzzled Booth to no end. Radford looked at him for answer but Booth shot him a panicked look to shut up and shook his head. He had no idea what to do. It was the first time this had happened to him. He just froze up. Booth ran over everything he had learned in training through his head but nothing made sense at this point. And, not that he'd admit it, he was scared.

The men who killed Hatting were approaching, less than fifty feet away. Then the noise stopped. It was silent now and Booth could see the fear spread across Radford's face. The ambush happened quick. The assailants moved in on Radford first. They were outnumbered, five to two, but it didn't matter to Booth. He wasn't going to let the enemy take a third guy from his unit. He pulled one guy off of Radford and wrestled him to the ground. He heard shots fired. And then nothing.


"Ow. Ow!"

"Sweetie, are you okay?"

"No, what the hell!"

They had been home from their walk for some time. Sitting in the kitchen and eating a snack, Angela noticed Brennan was in a much better mood than she had been for the last few months and Angela was thankful that she was relaxing just a little bit. She hated seeing her friend so stressed.

"What's going on?" Jack said, walking into the room.

"I'm not sure. Bren, are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"I…I don't know. It feels like contractions. I don't know what's going on. It's too early."

Angela noticed the look of panic on her friend's face. "Are you sure they're contractions? I mean, how do you know what they feel like?"

"Well, it's what all the pregnancy books say. Shit! Damn, that hurts!" Brennan was doubled over in pain. Angela looked to Jack and saw that he was just as freaked out as Bren was.

"We should take her to the hospital," Hodgins whispered.

"Go get in the car. I'll get her bag."

"Bag?" Hodgins asked, confused.

"All those books she's been reading are making her worry about every little thing. She's been ready to go to the hospital for about two weeks now."

"I'll grab the keys. Something's not right, Ange. I'm worried."

Angela nodded and glanced over to Bren, who was grimacing though the pain.

"Sweetie, hospital. Now. No arguing. We're going."

Brennan sighed and nodded. "This is not going to turn out good, is it?"


A/N: This chapter was so hard to write. But I didn't want the story to get dull. I hope it's okay. Please, if you have a sec, drop me a line and let me know what you think.