A/N - Thanks for all the reviews and I hope that you continue to enjoy the sory. I aplogise for any mistakes found in this next chapter, i wanted to get it up before I went to bed so I am a little sleepy right now. Just thought I would give you all a little fore warning...

Chapter Two – Linger

Temperance was by no means ill experienced when it came to murder and the results of it. But walking into a crime scene that she knew Booth was tied into was something else entirely. The room seemed to have a weird hum of electricity and she could almost see Booth moving in the apartment. Her eyes travelled to a large circle of blood on the floor and then to the splatter on the walls, grey matter and bone still clinging to the bad wallpaper.

"The clean up crew will be here in about two hours so you had better get what you need and then we have to high tail it ok?"

Both women nodded, each moving to separate areas of the house. Temperance remained in the living room, her eyes drawn to the pictures on the walls of young men, arms around each other, guns slung over their shoulders. She picked out Booth immediately, his smile wide and disarming. He still smiled that way only there seemed to be less pride and happiness behind it.

"What do we know about Terry's life Jerry?"

Jerry leaned in the doorway, file open in his hand.

"He didn't have a girlfriend and was not married. He worked at a construction site but he had just gotten laid off when he was killed."

Temperance opened the fridge in the small kitchen, the smell of something rotting making her close it quickly. She moved onto the cupboards and finding nothing, began to rifle through his mail.

"And when exactly was he killed?"

Jerry turned a few pages before finding the one he desired.

"He died at approximately 10:45pm."

Temperance felt the relief sag through every part of her body, a smile stretching across her face.

"Jerry, I need you to take me to the FBI HQ."

Temperance looked at the man in front of her, refusing to believe what she had just heard.

"You honestly think that I would make this up to protect Booth? I'm not. It's the truth. He was with me at 10:45pm. He popped in for a quick visit and then he left again. If that man was killed at 10:45, how the hell did Booth do it?"

The Agent said nothing, just stood and left the small dark room. Temperance knew that if one more person asked her if she and Booth were having an intimate relationship, she was going to break every single bone in that person's body. She hated how people always thought they were having sex. At the moment, that was the last thing on her mind. She was startled when the door was yanked open and Booth pushed through it, his hair mussed and his eyes black and blue.

"Booth, what did they do to you?"

Booth waved away Temperance's concern, pulling her into a genuine hug this time. He was so glad that he had become friends with her and was happy that he had someone who would never let him down or doubt that he was truthful.

"Thanks Bones. You bought me some time."

Temperance felt the relief through his entire body; he was a little more relaxed then he was last time. Booth broke the hug and grabbed her elbow.

"We have to go."

Temperance led Booth out of the building and into the waiting truck, Angela and Jerry greeting him with smiles. Booth ignored them and quickly put his seatbelt on.

"Drive Jerry. We need to get away from here."

Jerry nodded and started the engine, pulling into the bustling mid-day traffic. Temperance was dying to say something but could see the hard set of Booth's jaw meant that she couldn't. She would have to wait till he was ready to talk. They drove in silence for a good twenty minutes, Booth glancing behind them every few minutes, his shoulders slowly starting to loose their stiffness.

"Ok Jerry, you know where to go from here right?"

Jerry nodded again, turning to the left suddenly, throwing Temperance into Booth, her hand landing on his leg to gain her balance. Booth winced slightly and Temperance withdrew her hand.

"What did they do to you Booth?"

Booth shook his head and maintained his silence. Jerry drove them to a run down building, driving the car deep into the belly before cutting off then engine. Booth struggled to get out of the car, almost falling to the ground, Jerry catching him before it happened.

"Temperance, get the first aid kit from the boot."

Angela was at Booth's side and helped Jerry guide him to a table, the metal surface crusted with blood. Temperance found the first aid kit and handed it over to Jerry, watching as the coroner cut off Booth's shirt. He was bruised everywhere, and just by looking at him she knew that he had at least two broken ribs and internal bruising.

"What did they do to you Booth?"

"They don't like killers Bones. Especially when it's one of their own. OW! Jeez Jerry!"

Jerry said nothing as he continued to tightly bound Booth's ribs, aided by Angela who turned out to be a lot stronger then she looked. When that task was done, he glanced at Booth's pants.

"Those need to come off."

Booth opened his mouth to protest but Jerry cut him off with a glare and Booth dropped his pants quickly, exposing the cuts and scrapings that had been inflicted on him. Jerry's voice was low as he spoke but Temperance heard him clearly and had to agree with the man that she was starting to develop a great respect for.

"Sick bastards. Hurting an innocent man has nothing to do with solving a case."

Booth winced at Jerry applied anti septic, pausing at a particularly nasty wound, the skin split open like an overripe tomato, revealing muscle and raw flesh.

"That is going to need stitches my friend."

"Do we need to take him to a hospital?"

Jerry shook his head at Angela.

"We can't. The FBI believe he is guilty and there is still someone out there who is after him. It's not safe. Nope, we need to do this the old fashion way."

Jerry extracted a large, thick needle from the first aid kit and a lighter from his pocket, pausing for a moment to look at the two women.

"I'm all up for girl-power but this is not going to be pretty. I will understand if you want to go and get some fresh air."

Temperance glanced at Angela, who shook her head. Neither of them wanted to leave Booth.

"We're fine Jerry."

Jerry shrugged as he began to sterilise the needle with the flame from the lighter. When that was done, he carefully thread some sterilised stitching through the needle.

"Your choice. Booth, you ready?"

Booth nodded slightly and felt Angela take his hand. He was grateful for the support. She didn't have to be here but she wanted to be. Jerry thrust out quickly, taking them all by surprise, the needle digging deep into the wounded skin. Booth let out a yell and tightened his grip on Angela. Jerry worked quickly, the stiches neat and precise despite Booth's jerks of movement. By the time he was done, a small circle of blood had slid down Booth's leg, circling near his feet. Booth felt dizzy with pain and was happy to see Jerry take another needle from the first aid kit, this one attached to a tube of clear fluid.

"It's morphine Booth. It's not enough to do anything except make you sleepy and numb the pain ok?"

"Why the hell didn't you give it to me before you started to stab me in the leg?"

"Because if I did, you would have still had pain by the time it faded out of your system. This way the pain will be minimal. Understand?"

Booth nodded, hissing through his teeth as Jerry plunged the needle into his thigh. He felt the numbing begin almost immediately, his overly tense body beginning to relax. Booth felt Angela lower him onto the table till he was lying down, something soft was under his head and he felt a rough army blanket being pulled up to his chin. He didn't want to sleep, he had too much to do but his body was betraying him and soon the insistent call for sleep became too much and he allowed himself to be carried off.

Temperance had left as soon as she could, the sight of Booth's pain and blood pushing her over the edge. She felt suffocated and made it outside as soon as he had fallen asleep.

"He'll be ok Temperance. He's just a big baby when it comes to pain."

Jerry had arrived at her side, his hands still stained with Booth's blood. He went over to a tap on the side of the building and began to wash his hands, washing way Booth's life force.

"How long have you known Booth, Jerry?"

Jerry shrugged as he shook off his hands, drying them on his pants.

"About ten years. He was a rookie with the FBI when we met. I recognised him immediately as another ex-service man and we've been friends ever since. What about you?"

Temperance shrugged as she kicked at a stone lying innocently in some loose dirt.

"About a year. We were kind of thrown together. He's a good guy though."

"That he is. He still beats himself up over what happened with the war. Did he ever tell you about that?"

"Just little bits and pieces. I don't want to push him to much."

Jerry gave her a gentle smile as he sat on the ground inviting her to sit beside him.

"You're a smart woman. He still gets a lot of slack from people when they find out what he used to do because people don't understand what it's like out there in the heat of the battle. I was in Vietnam for two years until I got wounded and sent home. When you join something like that you are filled with this foolish pride and determination that you are going to change the world, save your country. But they don't tell you that you'll have to kill someone to do it. They make it sound glamorous when it's not. It's horrible, bloody and it rips your life away from you even when you leave such a place. Booth had it worse though, he was a sniper."

Temperance could only imagine how hard it was for Booth, didn't need to look to far into his eyes to see how much it still ate at him. It took a strong person to have to kill another, to believe that it was the right thing to do. She felt the sun hot on her back as a smooth silence settled between them as they soaked up the sun, enjoying a little moment of peace amongst this morning's chaos.

"So why is it not safe for him? If he's innocent, then surely the FBI would be more then willing to prove it."

Jerry shook his head slightly.

"That's not the point. If they believe he killed Terry, which they do, then they will attack him however they can. By now they would have cancelled his credit cards and maybe even marked him as a wanted criminal. The FBI is not a force of good. Sure there is the odd one there that would prove me wrong, but aside from Booth I have yet to meet a good FBI agent. They hold a lot of power in this city and in many others. We have to be very careful where we tread."

"If they are so dangerous, why are you helping us? Don't you have a family to protect?"

Jerry ran a hand through his hair, digging his shoe in the dirt.

"Booth's a good friend and I would do anything to help a friend. Speaking of which, we had better go inside and make sure the man of the hour is doing ok."

He offered her a hand and pulled her up out of the loose dirt and she followed him back into the dark building, the heat gone as she moved into the black shadows. Booth was still sleeping and Angela was sitting in the truck reading a road code that she had found in the glove compartment. She raised her head when she saw them, a small frown on her face.

"I hate to ask this but where to from here?"

Jerry glanced at Booth before looking at the two expectant women.

"I guess we keep going with our investigation. We need to find out who in the world would want to do this to Booth."

"That's a bit impossible. He's an FBI agent; there would be hundreds if not thousands of people after him. Surely there is something that can help us narrow down the suspects. What kind of gun was he killed with?"

Jerry scowled.

"A standard issue FBI weapon. Next question."

"Was there anything on his persons that could help?"

Jerry thought for a moment, a hand on his chin.

"Now that you mention it, there was something that struck me as unusual. When he came in, they found a small fragment of a coloured picture in his hand. I didn't think anything of it and just jotted a little note in my report."

Temperance nodded and felt a small plan forming.

"Ok, so we need to get that piece of evidence and then revisit the crime scene. Angela can you stay here, make sure Booth stays put?"

Angela nodded and moved wordlessly out of the truck, settling herself to stand beside Booth as she watched them leave.

Jerry carefully laid the bag in Temperance's hands and they drove silently to Terry's old apartment and were relieved to see they had missed the clean up crew that had obviously been there. The blood was gone, as was the bone and grey matter. It looked like a normal apartment again. Temperance headed to the wall of pictures, looking at them carefully, taking each one off the wall and examining them with critical precision. When she saw nothing unusual she started to remove the pictures from the frames, touching them with respect and curiosity. If Terry had hated Booth so much, why in the world would he keep pictures of them together on his walls? Was he just trying to keep the dream alive or the passion for revenge? Her hands found the tear before her eyes did and she was about to tell Jerry when a faint rustling in the hall caught her attention. She turned and finding Jerry absent, began to move towards the noise. She found Jerry elbow deep in a box that sit beside a large double bed.

"What do you have here Jerry?"

He began to pull out the things he had found and painted a picture for Temperance. It was all war memorabilia. Bloodied bullets, a couple of old knifes, stones, a hat and a faded piece of paper. She removed it from the floor and began to read allowed.

Terry,

I know you hate me for what I did but you need to understand why I did it. I didn't want to see you get yourself killed. You were heading that way with your careless actions. You were hurting innocent people and I could not allow that either. We may be brothers in war but I also would like to think of us as brothers in life. And I don't want my brother getting hurt or doing stupid things.

I'm so sorry for what I had to do. Forgive me please.

Booth.

Temperance swallowed heavily as she gave the letter back to Jerry, her heart hammering in her chest. Booth had felt so guilty over what he had done, had wanted nothing more then to be there for Terry. It was so tragic that it had to end this way.

"Kind of tragic huh? This man seemed to live his life in the past. Did you find anything?"

Temperance handed him the picture with the torn corner and he carefully matched it to the fragment in the evidence bag.

"I guess the question is how did it get from Terry's hand back to the wall?"

Temperance said nothing as she headed back out into the main living area, her eyes falling back on the frame that the picture in question had been in. It was not damaged in anyway and aside from a slight bending of a metal slip in the back; there was nothing to indicate any force was used. Aside from the fact that Terry was dead, there was nothing malice to indicate a crime was committed. You usually found some sort of mess, something to show a struggle. She was in no way a betting sort of woman, but Temperance had a feeling that Terry knew the person who did this. Or at least trusted them enough to turn his back.

Booth felt like shit. His mouth was dry and itchy from the morphine and despite what Jerry said, his leg throbbed painfully. Angela had given him something to drink and was chatting mindlessly about whatever popped into her head and he found it oddly comforting, despite the fact he understood few of the things she said. He was glad to see the truck pull up and Temperance and Jerry pour out of the vehicle, a small bags in their hands.

"Hey Booth, how are you feeling?"

Temperance kept her voice low, her hand falling lightly on his. He liked the little zip of electricity that happened each time they made contact.

"Like someone stabbed me with a needle repeatedly. What's in the bag?"

Temperance held it out and he took it gently, carefully undoing the zip lock seal. He thumbed through the pictures and a swell of memories came over him. He never kept pictures from that time in his life; he didn't want to be reminded of what was and of what could have been. He was young, stupid and proud. He could hardly believe that a mere matter of years had turned him into a killer. His voice caught in his throat as he spoke.

"Where did you get these?"

Temperance frowned.

"They were on Terry's wall. Didn't you see them?"

Booth shook his head slightly as he gazed at the picture of himself and the rest of the young men in his platoon.

"I never thought I would see these guys again."

Angela sidled up to him, looking over his shoulder.

"Who are they?"

"Me, Terry, Colin, Mark, Joseph and James. Terry and I were the only ones to get out alive. If you can call what we were alive. I was there the day he died."

Booth's finger shook slightly as he pointed out the tall and gangly Colin.

"We were side by side and the next thing I knew his blood was all over me and he was gone, blown to shreds. I wrote a letter to his mother to explain just how quickly he went, how he didn't suffer. It didn't work though because his mother killed herself regardless."

Temperance could see Angela's eyes well up with tears, felt her own burn with the familiar sting.

"They all died trying to save something that could not be saved. It was all for nothing."

Booth swallowed heavily before placing the pictures back in the bag, face down.

"Find anything else?"

Jerry showed him the torn piece of picture.

"I found this in Terry's hand but the picture was back in it's frame and on the wall. So unless someone has changed the rules about dead people being able to move by themselves, we have a massive conspiracy going on here boys and girls."

"Who would want to do this to you Booth?"

Booth gave Temperance a slight smile.

"Do you have all day?"

"Ok what about any resent threats to your life?"

Booth frowned as he tried to jog his memory.

"There was this one guy I arrested the other week who said he would get me when he got out. He's out on bail now but he's would be too stupid to do something like this. He doesn't have to brain cells to rub together."

Temperance sighed slightly as she felt the mild frustration slowly turn into desperation. She wanted nothing more then to go home and have a long hot bath and read. But no, some jerk with a really sick sense of humour decided it would be fum to reek havoc on Booth's life, catching her up in the cross fire. Yes, it was great fun indeed to be an FBI agent's partner.

"Well he's all we have. What's his name?"

"Gavin Potts."

Temperance nodded and turned back to the truck, Jerry following closely behind.