A/N: Trigger warning! If you don't want to read details of being buried alive, skip this chapter.
Fighting the urge to cry or scream or hit something, I take a few breaths to clear my mind. Booth needs me and he needs me to be thinking clearly so I can get us out of this situation. It is down to me; the message was very clear; it is me she wants. She knew that if she got one of us, she would get the other. I must do whatever it takes to save Booth, that is my sole focus now.
Everyone else in the room is still in shock and nobody is speaking. I look at Angela to find her watching me with tears in her eyes. Irrationally, I know that she knows what I am going to do and what the consequences of that might be.
"Angela can you provide me with a map of the location for the GPS coordinates. I need to know where I'm going." My voice is cold and clinical. I cannot allow my emotions to adjust my focus.
Sweets' head snaps up when I ask Angela for the map. "Dr Brennan, you can't seriously be thinking about going! There's got to be another way. We need to involve the FBI; he is one of their agents after all." His voice has raised an octave and his tone is pleading.
"No, Sweets! You heard her message, if she finds out, she'll kill him!" How he can even consider involving The FBI knowing what he knows about the Gravedigger after Booth was kidnapped the last time is beyond me.
Cam steps closer to me and says, "He's right, Dr Brennan. We need to think about this. I can't just allow you to go there by yourself without considering all the possibilities and you know that Booth certainly wouldn't approve of you going alone."
Some of the emotion I am trying to supress breaks through as I raise my voice to Cam. "Booth is buried alive Cam. She doesn't want money or evidence, the only thing she wants is me! The only way to save him is to give her what she wants."
Angela's next softly spoken words are in stark contrast to mine "Yeah but Brennan, what about you? We don't want anything to happen to you. We all love Booth, he's family. But I don't think the Gravedigger's partner wants you so she can have coffee and a catch up."
"So, what are you saying Angela? That I should sacrifice Booth's life to save my own? That I shouldn't even try?"
"No Sweetie, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that I agree with Cam and Sweets. We need to think about this. There has to be another way."
"I haven't got time for this!" I shout and abruptly shove my way past everyone and run to my office. I strip off my lab coat and grab my purse and jacket. My mind is buzzing with thoughts of what I'm about to do. There is one thing that I think I will definitely need and I'm not sure where to locate it. I look up as Angela approaches my desk. I turn to leave but she grabs my arm.
"I know I'm not going to be able to get you to see sense, so please, at least take this with you."
She pushes a tiny cell phone into my hand. The phone is only 2 inches long and about an inch wide. it fits perfectly into the palm of my hand.
"It's a burner and it doesn't do anything apart from making or receiving calls but it has a GPS chip and it's so small you can hide it on you somewhere. Before you get to where you're going, I want you to switch it on and call me. We will be able to hear what's happening and if your location changes, I will be able to track you."
I am about to object, worried about the consequences if the Gravedigger's partner should find it but Angela cuts me off.
"This is non-negotiable Brennan. If you are insisting on chasing after a psycho killer alone, I am going to insist you take at least some precautions to protect yourself."
A wave of affection washes through me. "Thank you, Angela."
"Just don't do anything stupid. It's not just you to think about now." She says as she looks at my stomach.
I bite my lip as tears prick the back of my eyes. I must not cry now. I swallow quickly and force it back.
"I've sent the map of the location where the GPS coordinates take you to your phone. It looks like the middle of nowhere but it's correct." She steps closer to me and takes my hands "Is there anything else you need?" She asks with tears in her eyes.
I grab her in a fierce hug, trying to be mindful of her pregnant stomach and ask her if she has the item I require. She looks at me questioningly but nods and says "Sure, I think I have one in my desk drawer." I follow her to her office. I am thankful that everyone that had gathered in there has now gone. She hands me what I asked for and without saying anything else, I run out of her office and out of the lab. It is time.
0-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-0
I am on my way to my rendezvous with the Gravedigger's partner. I am painfully aware of the time counting down on the clock on the dash. I have had an hour and forty-five minutes of the two hours she had allotted me to get to the location provided. According to my GPS I still have ten more minutes of driving before arriving there. I realise as I get closer to my destination that Angela was correct, this is the middle of nowhere. I pull over to the side of the road and dial her number on the tiny phone. She answers on the first ring.
"Brennan?" She says breathlessly.
"Yes, Angela it's me. My GPS estimates I am approximately five minutes away from my destination, so I am calling you as requested."
She sighs in what sounds like relief and says, "Ok Sweetie, Hide the phone, we'll be listening."
While I was driving, I had been considering the best location to hide the phone. I decided that in my bra was probably the easiest place to conceal it while still allowing the microphone to pick up any sound. I make sure I lock the keypad on the phone before opening two buttons on my blouse and carefully sliding the phone into the left cup of my bra. I carefully position it at the side of my breast so it cannot immediately be seen. I feel over the top of my bra to make sure the phone is in place and thanks to the slight padding of this particular bra, it is well hidden. I rebutton my blouse, shift the car into drive and pull back onto the road.
Almost exactly 5 minutes later my GPS announces I have arrived at my destination. I pull over onto the dirt shoulder and double check the coordinates the Gravedigger's partner had provided with what my GPS was telling me. The coordinates match so I must be in the right place. The right side of the road is miles of empty agricultural land but just up ahead on the left of the road is an old crumbling barn. It is set back about 50 yards from the road and I can see remains of other buildings next to it. This can't be where she has Booth, it is too open and within easy sight of the road. It is the only building anywhere near here though so logically, it must be the intended location. Before I exit my car, I quietly describe what I can see for the benefit of whoever is listening on the phone.
I slip my cell phone into my pants pocket but decide to leave my purse in the car. I pat my jacket pocket to double check that the small 9mm pistol I managed to procure on my way here is still within easy reach. As I walk towards the barn, my heart is pounding so loudly in my ears it is almost deafening. It is raining and the dirt beneath my feet is turning into thick mud slowing my steps. I approach the barn slowly, all my senses alert for anything out of place. Instead of heading straight for the door, I walk all the way around the outside but see nothing out of the ordinary. I round the last corner at the front of the structure and think I see faint tyre tracks in the dirt but because of the rain, I can't be sure. I creep up to the small door that is inset in the larger doors and carefully push it open. I pull the pistol from my pocket and tentatively shuffle through the door. It is dark inside with only a small amount of light filtering through a tiny, filthy window on one side. In the gloom I can just make out a vehicle on the far side of the barn. It looks like an SUV or pick-up of some kind, but it is too dark to be certain. Keeping my back to the door I creep to my left, aiming to put my back to the wall. I have moved maybe two metres along the wall when I hear a faint crunching sound like a boot on gravel. I peer into the darkness but don't see anything. Just as I am pulling my phone from my pocket to use as a flashlight, I hear movement coming from my left. I spin and point the gun towards the sound but as I do, an arm wraps around my head holding me tightly. The last thing I am aware of is the pinch of a needle being jammed into my neck then darkness.
0-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-0
Water is being splashed in my face and I can hear an unfamiliar voice. I am cold and struggling to open my eyes. I blink a few times, but my vision is still impeded. The voice though becomes clearer. It is unfamiliar yet vaguely familiar at the same time. My head is foggy, and I am reminded of when I had awoken in the hospital after my car accident, Booth had been there to help me. Booth! My mind begins to clear as I remember why I am here. Where is he? I still can't see properly.
"Wakey, wakey! Rise and shine Doctor Brennan!" The voice says, sneering when it speaks my name.
More water is thrown on my face and I gasp in shock. It is icy cold. I blink again to clear the water from my eyes and my vision begins to return. As I look around the déjà vu hits me like a wrecking ball. Exactly as in in the dream, I am in a basement, slumped on the floor. My arms are behind my back with my wrists and ankles bound in handcuffs. The room is dimly lit, and the dirt floor is damp.
A figure appears in my peripheral vision to my right and moves to stand right in front of me. She is wearing dark clothing in contrast to her light blonde hair which stands out in the dim light. As I expected, she is tall and very muscular for a female, but unexpectedly, as she crouches in front of me, I recognise her.
"You!" I say in surprise. My mind flashes back to the previous week when Booth was in hospital after being blown up by Jacob Broadsky. The nurse who greeted me in the ER is now right in front of me.
"You remember me! I couldn't believe my luck when you both ended up in my ER. Sneaky of you to tell me you were his wife so I would let you through to see him" She says the words with a pleasant smile, but she sounds affronted. "Nice pistol, by the way." She says as she waves my newly acquired weapon in my face then slips it into her pocket, essentially demonstrating my current state of impotence.
"Yes, I remember you." I say. "Your name is Lucy, or should I say Lucille? As in Lucille Burton?"
The smile drops from her face and is replaced by a grimace. "You found out who I am. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I knew it wouldn't take you long to figure it out once I saw that you'd found Bill's body. Did you find out via some illegal, underhand method like last time, huh?"
She saw that we'd found his body? She's been watching us?
My mind is still fuzzy from the drug she injected into me and my thoughts are disorganised. "You gave me Propofol?" Is the question that tumbles from my mouth, but it wasn't what I had intended to say.
A look of annoyance and surprise flashes in her eyes at my question. "How could you possibly know that?" She asks, but her tone infers the question is intended as rhetorical. "Heather always used to warn me not to underestimate you." She shakes her head ruefully then says, "Yes I gave you Propofol. The Feebs took all our equipment, and a modified stun gun like the one we used to have is not an easy thing to acquire when you're living under an assumed name and you need to keep your nose clean. So, I had to resort to a different method. I only gave you a small dose though. I wanted you awake for what I have planned. Your partner over there though, He's had a much larger dose. I didn't want him waking up to soon. He's a big guy, isn't he? Much heavier than I remembered from last time. Although it probably doesn't help that this time, I was alone."
She gestures with her head to my left when she mentions my partner. I turn my head to see two holes in the ground. My body involuntarily convulses when I realise they are graves and one of them is already occupied. The graves are shallow, no more than 2 feet deep and I can just see Booth laid prone within the one furthest left. The light is too dim to make out if he is even still alive. The realisation then dawns on me that she has injected him with anaesthetic. Panic grips me when I recall the reaction he had to anaesthesia when he had his brain tumour removed. I can only hope she hasn't given him enough to trigger the same reaction.
The Gravedigger's partner stands up to her full height and looks down at me. "I know I told you in the message that he was buried alive. I was going to do it that way, because after all, it worked pretty well for Heather and me over the years." Her tone is pleasant as if she is making small talk with a stranger. She begins to pace in front of me and says, "I was there you know, in that crowd when she was killed. Do you have any idea what it's like to watch a loved one's head get blown off? Not only that, but to see that and then have to act like everything is still normal? Like your whole world hasn't just ended because no one can know who you really are?" She stops pacing and shakes her head. "No, of course you don't. You have no idea. But don't worry, I'm about to rectify that." She says ominously with a chilling smile. Her face then contorts into an evil sneer as she says, "You see, this time, I couldn't resist the temptation to use a different method to get what I want. This time, you are going to watch. I'm going to make you watch your partner die. Just like I had to watch my partner, the woman I loved, die. I want to make sure you know he suffered. Just like my partner suffered rotting in prison then being murdered."
My breathing speeds up and my heart breaks into a sprint. She's going to make me sit here and watch while she kills him? How? Realisation dawns on me when she walks over to the wall and picks up a shovel she has propped there. She walks back over to where Booth is laid in the grave and starts to shovel the dirt and drop it onto him. Oh my god! She's going to bury him in the dirt while he's still alive. Once she covers his face, he will aspirate the dirt and he will suffocate! The adrenaline is sharpening my thoughts and I know what I have to do. I glance up at her to make sure she isn't looking at me then work Angela's handcuff key I had concealed in my mouth out of my cheek with my tongue. I drop it out of my mouth to the floor by my side and twist so I can grab it with my fingers. Buy some time! Keep her talking! I think.
"Why are you doing this to us?" I ask her. As the question leaves my mouth the déjà vu hits again. I cannot allow this to turn out the same way as my dream.
She stops shovelling and turns to me with hate filled eyes. "I would have thought that was obvious." She says disdainfully. "You and him have been a thorn in our side for too long." She says as she jerks her chin in Booth's direction. "You know," She continues "she would have gotten away with it if you'd just left it alone."
Her statement confuses me "How do you mean?"
"How do you mean?" She repeats my words back to me and speaks to me as if I am an imbecile. "I don't think you're as smart as Heather thought you were! I mean, if you hadn't dropped your case against her, the trial would have gone ahead with the weak, tenuous evidence you and your little band of lab rats had collaborated and she would have gone free."
I briefly recall Taffet's trial and how she asked me in the courtroom why I couldn't find the number. It led to us searching for any number associated with Heather Taffet. Booth and I eventually discovered it was the phone number she called after her initial arrest. The number was for a pizza parlour in Salt Lake City, but it was also GPS coordinates for what we discovered was her first victim - Terence Gilroy. We dropped our kidnap cases against her so we could stand as expert witnesses so she could be tried for the murder of the Gilroy boy.
Her words make pure anger run through my body, replacing the fear. They are killers and she is blaming us for Taffet being convicted. I feel my limbs begin to shake as the anger triggers another release of adrenaline. My fingers are now feverishly working the key in the handcuffs behind my back. I manage to locate the key in the lock and turn it. I need to keep talking so she doesn't hear the click as the cuffs open. I don't even attempt to conceal the rage in my voice as I say, "How can you blame us? She gave me the clue in the courtroom! She asked me why I couldn't find something as simple as the number. She clearly underestimated me just like she warned you not to!"
She looks furious and I can see pure hatred in her eyes. I half anticipate her trying to hurt me but instead she simply turns her back and resumes shovelling the dirt into the grave but at a faster pace. At this rate, Booth doesn't have much time, I must take my chance. I quickly unlock the cuffs around my ankles while her back is turned and put my arms back behind my back just as she turns back to look at me.
"You know what?" She says "Fuck this. This is taking too long." She raises the shovel up high in the air above Booth's chest clearly intending to penetrate his chest to stop his heart and kill him right then. "Watch your partner take his last breath."
With all the strength I can summon, I charge at her and knock her over. She is halfway through her downward stroke when I smash into her causing her to be off balance and she goes down easily. We land in the patch of dirt between the two graves with me on top of her. She rolls quickly so she is now on top of me and I am hanging over the edge of the second grave. She has her hands round my neck and she is squeezing so hard my vision is fading. I bend my knee and dig my heel into the dirt to give me some leverage and with all the strength I have left roll us again so we both land in the empty grave. I now have the advantage as I am on top and she has nowhere to roll to. I raise my bent elbow and smash it into her nose which momentarily stuns her. I leap up and scrabble out of the hole and grab the shovel. She is just pushing to her feet when I take a vicious swing and hit her with the shovel. She takes the full force of the blow in her face and she collapses instantly.
I drop the shovel and fall to my knees next to Booth. He is buried up to his waist, but his top half is still uncovered. I reach down to brush some stray dirt off his face and my fingers search his neck for a pulse. I find it immediately. It is weak and slow, but it is there. Next, I climb down next to him and place my ear next to his nose and mouth. I sigh in relief when I feel his faint breath on my face.
"Booth! Wake up, Booth. It's me. I'm here, Booth. Please wake up." I plead with him, but he remains unconscious. I begin to sob "Come on Booth. Please." I say again through my tears. I feel my pockets for my phone but realise Burton must have taken that too when she took my gun. I remember the tiny phone in my bra and push my hand into my shirt to grab it.
"Angela," I say into the phone
"I'm here, Brennan. What's happening?" I sigh in relief when I hear her familiar voice. Somehow this phone miraculously still has cell reception despite being underground in this basement.
"Ange, I need an ambulance."
"Are you hurt?" she asks urgently.
"No," I sob. "but Booth won't wake up. Please Ange, tell them to hurry."
"Is he injured?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Ok Sweetie don't hang up. Help is coming."
I put the phone on the ground and I shakily get to my feet and up out of the hole. I pick up the shovel and start to remove the dirt off Booth's legs. I shovel it off him as carefully as I would as if I were digging out remains. When I can see the fabric of his pants, I discard the shovel and use my hands. When I have removed as much dirt from his body as I can, I squat down and insert my hands under his underarms and pull him backwards out of the grave. He is heavy and it takes a few attempts, but I don't care, I can't bear to see him in that hole a moment longer. I lay him so his head is in my lap and gently probe his body with my fingers, looking for anything that might indicate an injury. He is only in his shirt and suit pants and his skin is icy cold. I shrug out of my jacket and place it over him. I can't see anything to indicate she did anything to hurt him besides drug him and attempting to bury him alive. A wave of fury rolls through me when I think about how close I was to losing him. I turn my head to look at Lucille Burton. She is still in the second grave and she doesn't look like she is breathing. I know I should feel regret for taking a life, but I am not sorry. Taking her life to save Booth's is a price I am more than willing to pay. I stroke his face and whisper to him softly hoping help arrives soon before it is too late.