IMPORTANT: This is my first ever Bones fic, and even though I've read almost all of the BoothxBones ones here, I have still only seen the show twice! So, if there are mistakes, tell me so I know what not to do later. Much thanks!
Disclaimer: I own nothing, only the scotch tape holding posters to my wall.
Spoilers: None (I've only seen two episodes anyways…)
Pairing: Booth x Brennan
Chapters: Was going to be two, but can't really do that now, can I? You'll see what I mean at the end of this chapter…
Last Words: Again, I have only seen two episodes and I am mostly going off of what I have read on people's stories. Don't hurt me! –hides in corner-
Chapter 2: Journey Through the River Sea
Nothing in his training could have prepared Special Agent Seeley Booth for this. He ran along the river, trying to keep up with Brennan as she tumbled down the rushing waters. Every time her head dipped back below the rough surface, it was another notch in his heart, another painful hole.
"Stay with me, Tempe!" Booth called frantically, using precious air to call to her. He slid into a tree, but the pain on his head was nothing compared to what was running through his heart. He pushed his burning muscles forward, ignoring the ache in his lungs and head.
"Booth!" Brennan choked out water and tried to gulp down air. Another mouthful of water made its way down her burning throat and into her burning lungs as she once again slid beneath the murky water. Booth cried out her name again and again as he sprinted alongside the water.
"Temperance! Tempe!" He shouted, slipping and sliding his way along the bank. "Bones!" He caught a glimpse of her amid the debris from the rain. Trees, branches, leaves, mud, it was all there. He saw her come up again, gasping for breath as she thrashed about, trying to keep her head up. They locked eyes as Booth continued to throw himself along with her, and there was a new fire in her eyes. A fire that scared him. Not because of the intensity, though that could be scary, but for what the determination meant, and what failing would do to him. It was a determination to stay alive, to survive.
Brennan continued to fight the cold and pain. Her knee hurt terribly from a collision with a rock and her palms were scrapped, an attempt to hold onto a rock in the river that didn't turn out so well. She expected Booth to be chasing her in his black SUV and keep his suit clean along with the rest of the people from the site, expected them to follow the river and pick her up at the end of it. This river ended in a large pool; after all, it was only active in the rainy season and didn't really lead anywhere. But as she surfaced, there was Booth, calling her name and running after her. She could see multiple scratches on him and his suit was torn and muddy, not to mention a small trickle of blood that the rain hadn't yet washed away on the side of his face. There was intensity to his deep brown eyes as he chased her. A passion unfamiliar to Brennan. A sharp pain seared through her head, interrupting her thoughts, and she sank back into blackness as the water rushed over her head.
Booth watched in horror as Tempe's head cracked against a boulder, and her eyes closed as she once more sank beneath the cruel water's surface. Booth wiped rain from his face as a new energy of desperation flooded his veins. She would travel faster now, in the swift undercurrents of the unpredictable river. After what seemed like minutes, though it was really only seconds, Brennan surfaced again. The cold seemed to be keeping her from a complete blackout, but she was fading in and out of consciousness and Booth was determined not to lose her again.
"Don't give up, Tempe!" He yelled over the thunder. The rain made it harder and harder to see as it continued to fall in torrents. Booth could barely make out a black mass a hundred or so yards downstream. It was a tangle of low hanging branches. Perfect.
"Grab the branches!" He called to her, hoping she could hear. Tempe showed no sign that she had indeed heard him over the skies and current, but she didn't really need to. Brennan crashed right into the mesh of branches and held on tight. Booth slid to a stop across from her and watched Brennan hang on for dear life, water pummeling her as it crashed around her. Booth kept his eyes on her as he rested his hands on his knees, bending over slightly and gasping for breath after his sprint down the river. He heard sirens behind him and a rescue crew made its way to where Booth stood.
"Where is she?" A middle-aged man holding a rope bag and a bullhorn tapped Booth on the shoulder. Booth straightened up and looked at the man. His ensemble screamed rescue team and his name tag read "Joe Arcult".
"Somewhere in the middle of those branches." Booth pointed to the amalgamation of leaves and wood where he hoped Temperance was still holding on. A large, burly man whose name patch read "Randy Medder" came rushing towards them, a large portable spotlight held between him and another man of equal size. They set the light down on the ground behind Arcult and Booth. Medder quickly set up the light and shined it out where Booth had pointed. Sure enough, Brennan was clinging to the low branches, visibly shivering even from this distance as water cascaded down her face and through her hair. Blood was continuously being washed from her face by the rain from a small scrape above her left eyebrow, and Booth was sure that if he was with her right now, he would be able to hear her soft whimpers against the forces of nature that were torturing her so.
"Oh, Bones…" Booth murmured under his breath. Brennan's eyes were closed as she pressed herself up against the web, desperately looking for safety, comfort, and warmth from the roaring waters. An occasional wave would wash over her, leaving the helpless beauty sputtering once more for precious air. "Hold on, Tempe. Just hold on…" Booth found himself whispering to her through the rain.
"Hold on ma'm." The middle-aged man called through his megaphone, repeating Booth's whispering. "We're throwing a rope out. I need you to grab the rope, not the bag. Grab the rope." It looked like Brennan nodded, but that might have just been her constant shivering under the coat of icy water she had been wearing for too long. "Golly, the river has never been this bad." Arcult mused, watching the tumbling waters roll down the bed. "Rains must've really been something awful this season." The man called Randy Medder stepped up beside Arcult and took the rope bag from him. Medder expertly tied the exposed end of it to a nearby tree in a quick-release knot before carefully aiming and hurling the bag through the wind and rain.
The bag landed with a 'plop' a little upstream from Brennan and the river carried it straight at her. Temperance shakily caught the bag and looped it around her thin waist so that it was easier to hold on to. She kept her right hand in its position around a branch and held the rope with her left, waiting for the signal to let go.
"When I say go, let go of the trees." Joe Arcult directed through his megaphone. Another shiver/nod from Brennan. Booth stood there, fighting the urge to chew his fingernails all the way to the quick. He could only wait, and hope. Hope that Temperance would return to him alive, hope that the greedy waters would give her up. It was always hard to watch someone else rescue a loved one… Booth froze as his thoughts trailed through his brain. Well, that was unexpected…
"Go!" Arcult commanded in his soft Southern accent. The command broke Booth from his thoughts and he watched the rescue begin to unfold. It had gone wrong from the very beginning.
Brennan let her cold hand drop from the tree as she grabbed the rope with both of her hands. The force of the river surprised her and the crew on the bank. She was immediately pulled from the grasp of the tree, leaving bits of shirt, coat, and denim behind on the touch branches. The river swept her small frame along and the rope went taught, jerking Brennan's grasp from the rope to the bag in an attempt to hold on. Simultaneously, the quick-release knot decided to live up to its name. It had been pulled so hard by the river current that it let go. Medder grabbed the rope just before it snaked its way around and off the tree. He pulled it back, trying to get Brennan back from where the river stubbornly kept her.
Rope tumbled out of the bag and Temperance was pulled further downstream. She finally managed to grab the rope again. The hemp line slid through her hands before she came to a holding knot where her rope-burned hands finally stopped. Brennan felt herself being pulled back up the river against the swift current. Booth stood, waiting, his hands itching to pull Temperance close and never let her go again. But, just as everything was working out, the dead betrayed Brennan.
A giant, dead tree with branches sticking out of it every which way came hurtling down the river, probably the victim of a mudslide further upstream. Brennan watched the dead wood drive straight towards her and her eyes grew wide. A branch snagged on the rescue tope and the tree swung around, the roots barely missing Temperance's face. The muscle man holding the rope grunted against the sudden pressure the tree had put on the rope and him. But, the tree was dead, not living with springy green limbs, but dead with brittle grey ones. The branch cracked and slammed into Brennan. It had only been a glancing blow, but combined with the rest of the elements, it was enough. She held on for a moment longer, and Booth watched her with a hopeful and longing face. But, the cold finally took its toll along with the brunt of the imposing tree. Brennan's frozen hands slide from the rope, and she was once more lost to the mighty force that was the river.
Umm, sorry for yet another cliffy? Well, don't kill me just yet; I have the outline for chapter three made already. I had kind of planned for this to end earlier and with a different plot, but a request from Ataea got me to thinking, so I changed the plot around a little. Stay tuned for the next chapter, and the reason this is up today is because I got some wonderful reviews! So, review and chapters come faster. But I do have a paper to write for school tomorrow, so we'll see when the next chapter will come. ) toodles! -Ash