HOSTAGE

Booth leaves Brennan to protect her, but his enemy manages to get to her anyway. Can Booth get there in time to save her, and will he have to make a choice so hard it will break him?

Disclaimer: I do not own Bones! Wow I bet you're all falling off your chairs in shock!

Bad Dreams

She opened her eyes, and it took her a while to adjust to the darkness. Something was wrong, she knew that. But she couldn't work out what. Looking around, everything seemed to be in place. Her window was closed, her door pushed right to, her curtains drawn three quarters, but a beam of moonlight shining on her face. Everything was how she wanted it to be, how she needed it to be. Her bedcovers were still tucked around her, and the tall glass of water stood exactly on the bedside table. Her electric alarm clock read 2:30. She squeezed her eyes shut again, telling herself she was being stupid. She was ashamed. She hadn't done this for a long time. Woken up and shivered with fear at thoughts, childish thoughts, of abduction, murder and loss.

Ever since she was fifteen years old, Dr Temperance Brennan had woken up like this, terrified and unable to get back to sleep. Fear of being alone. Ever since her parents went missing. So she squeezed her eyes shut even further and concentrated on breathing slowly, falling into the rhythm of sleep.

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Special Agent Seeley Booth tossed and turned, trying as hard as he could to sleep soundly. He was a grown man; he shouldn't have nightmares that kept him awake at some unearthly hour of the morning. But there was always the one dream. It had started after a case he had worked on, in his first year with the FBI, where a man had been forced to commit gruesome political murders by a terrorist group who had hold of his wife and two kids. The man had killed 34 people before Booth caught him, and then he had been with the agents, leading them the terrorist den, and when Booth and the other FBI agents had sprung the joint, the man had got a glimpse of his wife and sons. They were strung up by their necks, and anthropology later discovered that they had been that way for three months. Everything the man had done had been for nothing, because his family were dead anyway. He went mad and killed himself in prison.

But since the day he had seen those bodies strung up, he had never stopped seeing them. Except in his mind they had the faces of his parents, his friends, his cousins. Then the corpse of the little boy had the face of his son. Then, after the incident with the bomb in Bones' refrigerator and the aftermath of that incident, the woman's body always had the striking face of Temperance Brennan. He shut his eyes. There was nothing he could do after these dreams but lay there and wait for the terror to pass.

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Booth walked into the Jeffersonian that morning looking a little the worse for wear and with huge bags under his eyes. He walked through into the area where Bones and the team worked, only to be greeted by a grim faced Hodgson comforting a sobbing Angela, and a very pale Zack.

"What is it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes in a furious attempt to remain awake. "Where's Bones?"

"I dunno." Zack said, and swallowed. All of them turned to Booth and looked at him as if he was some sort of ghost.

"Guys, I did not just come back from the dead or something. What the hell is going on?"

"We got a phone call about half an hour ago. I took it. It was a guy, asking for Dr Brennan or you. I said neither of you were in at the moment, so he told... he told me to 'listen up and listen carefully'. He said that you, Agent Booth, have something he wants, and you know what it is. He said that he would hurt everyone you care about until you give it to him, and he knows... he knows where you are and he is following you." Angela finished, sobbing harder. Hodgson wrapped his arms around her.

Booth's heart felt like it was falling from the top of the Empire State Building. "I know the guy. He's been after some FBI intelligence that I have. And some files I am in possession of that condemn his terrorist organisation. He's ruthless, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants." he sunk into Brennan's chair at her desk, "I don't have any evidence to convict him, so nothing can be done about that. All I have is about his organisation, and what I know about some of the other people from it that we've put in jail over the years. But he's the most evil person I've ever met. I'll have to go into hiding, I'll have to... Oh God, what if he knows about Parker?"

Angela dried her eyes and put a hand on Booth's arm. There was such a look of blank horror on her face that Booth felt his heart skip a beat. "He said, 'Temperance Brennan had better watch her back.'"

Booth sat up. It wasn't like Bones to be late for work. "Where the hell is she?"

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Brennan woke up late. It was gone half seven. Sighing, she showered and dressed as quickly as possible and was driving to the Jeffersonian as fast as she could. She hated being late for work. She noticed Booth's car in the car park and smiled. She would never admit it to herself, but days with Booth were substantially better than days without. She zapped the lock of her car and walked into the building. Immediately Angela jumped on her and hugged her. Brennan stood there, passive, bewildered, and then held Angela out at arms length.

"What the…?" she began.

"I thought you were abducted, sweetie. We're all going mad here. Especially Booth!"

Brennan's short temper that morning had already been worn thin. "What the hell are you talking about, Ange?"

And Angela just took her by the arm and manoeuvred her into her office, where Booth was sat in her chair behind her desk.

"What the hell are you doing?" she screeched at him. She hated people sitting at her desk. Booth looked up and a wide but troubled smile spread over his face, and he leapt out of her chair like it was burning him. Angela backed out.

"Booth?" she asked, seeing the sadness that had appeared on his face. And he told her what he had told the others, and then that the man he was chasing, Giorgio Stephanski, had threatened all the people Booth cared about. She just absorbed the information and then walked round and sunk into her chair, looking distastefully at him.

"Did no one think to ring me?" she asked, with a hint of boredom in her voice. Booth nodded. "I was just calling you when you came through the door. Can I sit down, Bones? I need to talk to you."

She looked at him strangely. "Sure."

He seated himself on the couch and leant forward onto his knees. "Stephanski will stop at nothing to get to me, and to get those records off me, Bones. He said himself that he's going to go for people close to me. And he mentioned you in the phone call."

"But..." she blushed a little, remembering what he had said: Everyone Booth cared about. "I'm just your colleague."

Did she dream his bittersweet smile? Did she imagine the sad way he looked down at his hands? He looked at her. "Well, it doesn't matter what you class yourself as. He's still after you. I have to get out of this state for a while. That way Stephanski and his henchmen will follow me to wherever I go, and they'll be off of yours and Parker's backs."

She was stunned. Booth was one of those people you just always expected to keep turning up like a bad egg. You never expected them to leave. Booth, Angela and the other squints, as she had come to think of them as, were pretty much the only human constants in her life. She turned away so he couldn't see the sigh. Then she looked back at him, and he noticed for the first time anger in her eyes.

"So you're just going to run away then? Why can't you just do your FBI thing, or whatever?"

His heart sunk, and he looked at her. "This isn't about me, Brennan. This is about my son, and about you…"

"It's nothing to do with me!" she shouted, "I'm not asking you to go anywhere!"

"He threatened you!" Booth shot back, trying to ignore the fact that his eyes were stinging. "I can't let anything happen to anyone because of me. That's why I'm leaving."

"But… can't you just pull him up on threatening charges?" Brennan's voice has lowered and she looked pale.

"If I do, he'll get bail. And he'll send one of his men to kill me, or… someone I care about. Someone, anyone, connected to me." He sighed and leant on her desk. "If something happened to you or Parker, I would go mad."

She blushed and looked down at her lap. For a moment awkward silence reigned. Then Booth reached across and took one of her hands.

"I'll be on my guard and I'll wait. And when he makes a move I'll get him down for terrorism and murder and all the crimes he's already committed, via the federal government."

"But what if he tries to kill you?"

"Bones, he will try to kill me. Without a shadow of a doubt. But I'll be on my guard."

"You can't be on your guard all the time, Booth. What about when you're sleeping?"

He smiled an invisible half smile. Was that concern in her expression?

"Bones, I'll be fine. I can look after myself. I'm a big boy now."

"Sure." she laughed uneasily, still gripping his hand as if trying to suffocate it. "OK."

"I won't get myself killed, Bones."

She smiled and looked down at her hand in his. "Promise?" she whispered.

He hooked a hand under her chin and lifted it up. "Promise." He said. She smiled and then blinked furiously.

Then she shook herself. This wasn't like her at all. He was just a colleague, just a friend. Just Booth. The trouble was she didn't know what 'just Booth' meant anymore. She slid her hand out of his and smiled falsely.

"See you, then." She muttered, and her voice was dry and croaky.

"Bye, Tempe." He whispered, and stood up. He walked towards the door and had almost escaped unscathed when she called his name.

"Booth." He spun round and looked at her, and for both their sakes he said nothing about her red eyes.

"Yes?"

"What if he never makes a move? How long will you stay away?"

"He will. And I have to stay until he does."

"But that could take years."

He nodded, wishing she hadn't brought this up. It would be easier just to disappear.

"Look… Bones… if nothing has happened in a year, I'll call you."

Her eyes popped at the words 'a year'. "No. Sooner." She said stubbornly.

"Six months, then." He said, "That's my final offer. He could track my phones."

She looked like she was about to argue, but then she stopped herself. "OK. Can I have the number of the place you're going to, so I can call you if I have a problem?"

He shook his head. "I'll be travelling. If you have a problem, call the number I've had up to now. My replacement in this states feds will help you. He's a good guy. Warren Baker."

She nodded, and Booth took a step back. "Right then." He said, "Bye."

"I don't want you to go." She whispered, so low he could hardly hear. He couldn't even be sure that that was what she said.

"Dammit, Tempe." He said, and rushed over to her desk, taking her face in his hands and pulling it to his so their lips brushed. "Goodbye." He said, and walked out without another word.

Dr Temperance Brennan was left, sat at her desk, alone in her office, one hand on her lips, trying to gauge whether what had just happened was a dream.

This is my first Bones fanfic, so tell me what you think. It may be shockingly bad, in which case I will not continue it. If you like it, I will.

xgreyslostwhox