Chapter 6: Cornered
Trigger warning: Canon-typical graphic depictions of violence
Jeffersonian Institute Medico-legal Lab, Washington, DC: 3:36pm EDT
"Camp Bondsteel?" Angela read, her voice rising at the end to form a question.
"It's in Kosovo," Booth said.
"In the Balkans," Maura whispered as realization hit her hard. "Jane?"
Jane turned to look at Maura. She felt like she might throw up, pass out, cry, or all three at the same time. She didn't exactly like Casey, but she never thought he would do something like this. She never thought he would hurt his own kids. She thought he loved them even if he was a mostly absent dad.
Without taking her eyes off of Maura, she said, "Their father…Casey…Colonel Charles Jones was stationed there for the past four years."
"Would he really be stupid enough to work with someone who could be so easily connected back to him?" Angela asked, her face a mask of contempt.
Jane sighed and finally looked away from Maura to face Angela. "I don't know, but he hates Maura enough to bring her into this. Sorry," Jane said quickly to Maura.
Before Maura could stop herself, she admitted, "It's mutual," and despite the fact that this was completely the wrong time for her to say that, Maura noticed the small smile that flitted across Jane's face before the pain took back over.
"But what about the kids? Why would he do this to them?" Aubrey asked.
"I-I don't know," Jane said weakly. "I never would have thought he was capable of hurting them like this, but…I don't know…"
"He wants them," Maura said suddenly.
"What?" Aubrey and Booth both asked, turning to look at her.
"I-I overheard him this morning," Maura said, throwing an apologetic glance at Jane. "He threatened to sue Jane for custody under the guise that she couldn't keep them safe."
"Find him!" Booth said, looking at Angela. "Find both Jones and Samuels."
"That's why he also made sure there was more than enough space in the container," Dr. Hodgins said as Angela conducted her search. "He planned to either get the ransom money and then sue for custody or if the ransom wasn't paid, he was going to go back for them. My guess is he immediately would have left the country with them."
"Probably too a nonextradition country," Aubrey scoffed.
"He was stationed in Afghanistan for years before his promotion to colonel," Jane said. "I'm sure he still has connections there."
"Especially if he's involved in the trafficking of heroin," Hodgins added. "The strain I found primarily originates from Afghanistan."
"I need to go," Jane said frustratedly. "I can't just stand here and do nothing."
"We need a location before we can do anything," Booth said firmly to Jane. "There's no use leaving now. We could end up going in the complete wrong direction."
"I have three possible locations," Angela cut in. "An apartment rented by Samuels' sister-in-law's sister, a hotel where Casey booked a room, the apartment of a man dishonorably discharged from the army who has strong ties with both Casey and Samuels."
"Aubrey and I will take the hotel," Jane said quickly. "As long as he doesn't know we're on to him, that's the most likely place he'll be since I told him I'd call him this afternoon."
"Bone and I will go to the sister-in-law's sister," Booth said. "And we'll send a team to the third location."
"I already sent the addresses to your phones," Angela said.
"I gotta go tell Isla and Theo I'm leaving," Jane said, and Maura followed her out of the office. She stood outside Dr. Brennan's office, wanting to give Jane privacy as she talked to the kids.
Jane walked out of the office and stopped in front of Maura.
"I'm coming with you," Maura said quickly and firmly. She intended to win the inevitable argument with Jane. She intended to do everything short of using force to make Jane let her come with her. She intended to hold her ground…until she saw the look on Jane's face and heard her next words.
"No, please, Maura," Jane pleaded with a level of desperation in her voice that neither of them had heard before. "Please stay with Isla and Theo. If…if…" Jane started, but she couldn't say it. "Isla and Theo need you. I need you to stay with them. Please, Maura."
Jane looked deeply into Maura's eyes and tried to convey the words she could not say out loud, hoping Maura would understand, hoping Maura would know what Jane was really asking of her. Because she wasn't asking her to physically protect them. She knew Maura would…with her life…but Michelle was better equipped for that. No, Jane was asking Maura to stay alive, to stay safe, so that she could be there for Isla and Theo if Jane didn't come back from this, so that she could raise them if Jane didn't come home. Isla and Theo needed her. Jane needed her.
Maura nodded as she held Jane's gaze. "I'll stay," she said quietly. Then, she added, "Always. I'll always be there for them, for you." She hoped that Jane understood. She hoped that Jane heard what she was really saying. She hoped that Jane knew she would always be there for Isla and Theo, no matter what happened today or any day in the future.
"Thank you," Jane whispered. She paused for a moment before stepping towards Maura and leaving a soft kiss on her cheek. Jane turned back towards the door quickly. She couldn't look back at Maura. She couldn't look back to where she left Isla and Theo. She couldn't look back.
An empty apartment, Washington, DC: 4:13pm EDT
"Oh," Dr. Brennan said under her breath as they entered the apartment and saw all the blood. There was a six-foot folding table set up against the far wall. On the table was a computer with multiple monitors, each one with a bullet hole in the middle. A body was slumped over the table, the head and hands blown off by gunshot wounds. Blood covered the wall, table, and nearly everything else on that side of the room.
"Male," Brennan said as she examined the body.
"Ya think, Bones," Booth said sarcastically, earning himself a glare from his wife. "Is it Casey Jones or Samuels?"
"I can't be certain," Brennan said.
"Fine," Booth huffed. "Is it possible that this body could belong to either Casey Jones or Jason Samuels?"
"It's possible," Brennan answered as she continued her examination. "Given the build, it's more likely to be Samuels than Jones."
"I'm calling Rizzoli," Booth said as he pulled out his phone.
"Do you have him?" Jane answered the phone, skipping the usual greetings all together. They were still in the car since the hotel was actually in Virginia.
"We have one body," Booth said. "Male. We can't identify him at the scene. It's possible that it could be either Jones or Samuels, but Bones says between the two, it's more likely that it's Samuels. I'll send you some pictures."
Booth used his phone to take pictures without hanging up the phone and sent them to Jane's phone.
"What's with his hands?" Jane asked.
"Looks like they've both been shot," Dr. Brennan answered. "It's possible the killer was trying to destroy his hands to eliminate the possibility of identification using fingerprints. However, if that was the goal, it wasn't very effective. Only a few fingers are actually destroyed."
"No, it was a message for me," Jane said quietly. "Casey killed him. It's Samuels."
"We cannot make that conclusion yet based on the evidence," Brennan said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"I shot Hoyt through both hands," Jane added, choosing to ignore Dr. Brennan's statement. "Casey knows my history with Hoyt. He knows he's been caught. He's trying to mess with my head."
"That's an awful lot of supposition," Brennan said.
"Shit! He knows the kids are at the lab today," Jane said before she hung up.
Jeffersonian Institute Medico-legal Lab, Washington, DC: 4:24pm EDT
Maura was sitting on the couch in Dr. Brennan's office with Isla in her lap and Theo leaning against her while they watched some kids show on the tablet in front of them. Maura was lost in thought. She was worried about Jane. She needed Jane to come home; she needed Jane to be okay. But she knew that the two people in her arms needed Jane to come back to them a million times more than Maura did.
"Aunt Maura, I have to go to the bat'room," Isla said, looking up at her.
"I can take you to the bathroom," Michelle said. "We can all go."
"No, I wanna stay here wit' Aunt Mow-wa!" Theo said firmly.
"I don't mind waiting here with him while you take Isla," Maura suggested.
"Okay, we'll be quick," Michelle said. She didn't love the idea of splitting up the kids, but she figured with the lab security and the fact that they were staying in Dr. Brennan's office they would be fine. She took Isla's hand and led the little girl towards the bathroom.
"Aunt Mow-wa, wanna see what I can do?" Theo said excitedly as he jumped up from the couch.
Maura chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Sure!" she replied with a smile.
Theo moved into the center of the room and did three somersaults in a row. On the last one, his foot hit the desk, and he cried out, "Oww!" He immediately started crying.
Maura jumped up from the couch and ran over to him. She squatted in front of him. "What part of you hit the desk?" she asked kindly.
"My foot," Theo whined, moving so that he could show Maura which foot. Maura reached down, intending to take his shoe off and check his foot, but before she could do so, Theo jumped to his feet. "Daddy!" Theo squealed excitedly, and before Maura could react, he ran out of the office.
Maura felt her heart jump into her throat. She was sure she had never moved faster than she did in that moment as she too jumped to her feet. "No! Theo, wait!" she yelled after him. She ran out of the office after him.
When Theo was halfway between the office and Casey, alarms started going off all throughout the lab and red flashing lights started blinking everywhere. It was enough to make Theo stop in his tracks, but Maura didn't slow down for even a millisecond until she reached Theo and picked him up. She held him tight to her body and pushed his face against her shoulder. She could feel him shaking, but she knew that he was afraid for an entirely different reason than she was.
Maura quickly glanced around for help or an escape route, and it wasn't until that moment that she realized that all of the doors in the lab had closed and locked automatically when the alarms sounded.
"Give me my kid!" Casey said angrily, pointing the gun right at both of them.
Maura felt Theo try to lift his head to look at his father when he heard his voice, but Maura held his head firmly in place against her chest. She did not want him to see his father pointing a gun at him. She shook her head vehemently, her fear making it impossible to speak.
Casey took a few steps towards them, and Maura walked backwards a couple of steps. She knew she had no way out, though, and that if they kept backing up, she would soon be trapped against the wall.
"Put Theo down and walk away, and I'll let you live," Casey yelled over the sound of the alarms.
"No!" Maura yelled back, and she was glad that her voice sounded stronger than she felt. "You'll have to kill me to get to either of them," Maura hissed.
Casey lifted his gun and made a show of releasing the safety. Maura realized that Casey might just be crazy and angry enough to shoot her while Theo was still in her arms. She frantically tried to figure out what to do. Part of her wanted to put Theo down and tell him to run, but she was afraid that Theo would head towards his father instead of away. Given the look on Casey's face, Maura wasn't as convinced as she had been a few minutes ago that he wouldn't shoot his own kid. She hoped that maybe he loved his kids enough not to shoot them outright, but he wouldn't be the first parent to fall into the 'if I can't have them, no one can" mindset.
Maura decided that he was most likely to shoot her, regardless of whether or not she was holding Theo. Casey was too deep into this to get away with it, so he wasn't going to walk away.
"I'll give you one more chance to give me my son!" Casey shouted.
At this point, Theo was holding onto Maura tightly, no longer trying to look at his father. Maura whispered so that only he could hear, "I'm going to put you down. Keep your eyes closed and stay right next to me, no matter what!" She hoped that she had put enough force behind her words that he listened to her. She didn't wait for his response before pulling Theo away from her body and making a show of setting him down. As she straightened up, her hand found the top of Theo's head, and she threaded her fingers into his hair, holding tight.
"Theo, come with me," Casey said firmly. Theo didn't respond at all as he held onto Maura's leg, his face pressed tightly against her thigh. There was no way Maura was going to let Theo go to Casey, but she hoped this would distract him long enough for someone to come help them.
"Theo!" Casey called again, the anger in his voice becoming nearly uncontrollable.
Just as Casey went to take a step towards them, they heard a loud noise come from the other side of the lab. It sounded like something large had fallen.
It was enough.
Casey turned his head in the direction of the noise, and without hesitation Maura grabbed Theo and turned with the intention of diving behind the nearest stone pillar. But before she could take more than a step, she heard the BANG of the first gunshot.
A/N: Welp, a lot of you guessed who was behind this early on. I realized that I'm not sure to what degree the author should want people to figure it out. If no one figures it out, chances are, it's too out of the blue, and the author didn't do a good job of setting up the story. But obviously, if everyone can figure it out from the beginning, that takes away from a lot of the fun of reading.
Also, the three regions the suspects were clustered around were supposed to be Afghanistan, Russia, and the Balkan peninsula, but I never worked that into the story.