I'm sending out huge thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys are totally awesome and all of your promptings for more are greatly appreciated. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: They are not my toys, I just borrowed them for a little while and I promise to send them back none-the-worse for wear once Season 2 starts. Until then, I'm just going to play.
Ch. 10 – Gadgets
Booth resisted the urge to smack Clark over the head with the heavy-looking West African statuette that Brennan had set on top of one of her bookcases. They were seated in Brennan's apartment, waiting for her and Angela to return from their shopping marathon. Brennan had called fifteen minutes before to tell them that they were on their way back. Booth was counting every second until the two women were set to return and using all of his power to ignore Clark who was snooping through Brennan's CD collection. The other agent's murmurings were beginning to rub Booth's nerves raw, so he began to throw the key to Brennan's apartment up in the air and catch it.
The key had ended up in his possession by accident. After her refrigerator had exploded, Brennan had given the FBI agents assigned to the case her spare key after she had left the scene. The team had returned the key to Booth once the investigation had been closed and he'd continually forgotten to return it for a couple months until Brennan had just told him to keep it. She'd said it never hurt to have an FBI agent with a key to your apartment nearby in case of anything.
The sound of the key turning in the lock caused Clark to scurry over and join Booth at Brennan's kitchen table. They both turned expectant faces to the doorway and watched as twenty shopping bags and two women struggled into the apartment. Angela was laughing and Brennan was shooting her a quizzical glance.
"I don't see what's so funny," she said.
"It was just, that man had an obvious foot fetish and then when he realized who you were…" Angela burst into giggles.
"Who had a foot fetish?" Booth asked, standing up and taking a few bags from Brennan's hand. She smiled in thanks and slipped her sandals off her feet before going into the kitchen and pulling a bottle of water out of her fridge and taking a long drink.
"The man at the shoe store had a foot fetish," Angela answered, as she also pulled off her shoes, "and he fell in love with Bren's feet. And also the footwear we chose for those 'amazingly shaped' feet of hers. Then after she pulled out her credit card to pay, it turns out he's a fan and that's when he really started falling all over her. Did he actually give you his number, sweetie?" Angela asked, setting her bags down on the couch and joining Brennan in the kitchen.
"I think he put it on the back of the receipt," Brennan answered dryly, and quirked an eyebrow at Booth as if to ask, "What are you going to do?"
Booth smiled and then surveyed the bags strewn across Brennan's couch. They varied in size and color and he found himself curious as to what they contained.
"I thought you guys were just going to get clothes for tonight," he said, with a pointed look at Angela.
"I thought so too," Brennan said, "but Angela insisted that since we were shopping anyway we might as well get some other stuff."
"In other words, Angela was forcing you to get more clothes."
"Kind of. She seems to think I need some outfits for court. And for when I start doing press for my next book. Plus, some date outfits. She definitely put a ding in my wallet."
"It's a dent in your wallet," Clark said, rolling his eyes, "and as fascinating as your new wardrobe is, Dr. Brennan, we do have other things to do tonight."
The other three people in the apartment turned to the sour-faced agent and exchanged glances but said nothing. Although, they hated to admit it, the agent was correct.
"Now," Clark said as he lifted two small, black cases off the floor, laid them out on the table, and opened them, "the tech department handed over some gadgets to me this afternoon which are going to be very important for tonight."
Clark reached into the foam-lined cases and pulled out two small, flesh-colored devices, one from each case, which he handed to Brennan and Booth.
"These are your earpieces. They allow you to hear each other, Angela, and myself. Once you put them in, they're practically invisible."
Again, he reached into the cases and pulled out two tiny, black pieces of what looked like plastic.
"These are your mics. They're highly sensitive and besides picking up your own voice, no matter how quietly you're speaking, it will pick up the voices of others around you within two feet. After you've attached it to your clothes, it's going to take a gale force wind to remove it."
Brennan glanced at the two devices Clark had placed in her palm and began to realize just how real everything was about to become. After two, intense days of planning, everything was going to happen tonight.
"Finally, Dr. Brennan, this is for you," Clark said, holding out a shiny, metal circle that looked like a watch battery.
"What is it?" Brennan asked.
"A tracking device. Just in case. It will send a GPS signal to the computer in the support van and will help us locate you if you and Booth are separated or if anything else happens."
Brennan nodded, and stared at all of the small pieces of technology resting in her hand. These were her only outside forms of defense against anything that might happen that night. The rest was up to her. And Booth. If he caught up to her in time. Shaking away the morbid thoughts that had suddenly flooded her mind, she turned to Angela who was wearing a peculiar grin.
"This is totally like something out of Alias," she said.
"Ange," Booth said, "that's the CIA. We're the FBI. There is a difference."
"I know that. Besides, Bren could totally kick Sydney's ass."
"Yeah, I think so too," Booth said, shooting a grin in Brennan's direction.
"I don't know what that means," Brennan said.
They're conversation was suddenly interrupted by the ringing of the telephone, which Brennan scooped up and after a brief conversation, hung up and returned back to the others.
"What was that?" Booth asked.
"Hodgins. He was just calling to inform me that his friend, the botanist, thinks she's getting close to figuring out the origin of the organic matter we found in the muscle biopsies from Carrie Matthews. She expects to have an answer for us in the next few hours. I told Hodgins to call Angela on her cell if he finds out anything else."
Angela nodded, "So what now? Marshall, I mean, Clark has handed out the gadgets. What do we do now?"
Booth smirked at the comparison of Clark to the geeky character from Alias and swallowed a laugh when the agent made a face at being compared to Marshall. He turned his attention back to his partner when she began to speak.
"Get ready to leave," Brennan said. "Booth has to be at the Delta Phi Epsilon house in forty-five minutes, which means that we should leave in about fifteen or twenty minutes."
Booth glanced at his watch and realized in surprise that Brennan was right.
"I need to go change," Brennan said, grabbing as many bags in both her hands as she could hold and headed into her bedroom. Angela followed her example stating, "She probably needs help."
Booth stuck his earpiece into his ear and attached the small microphone to his black t-shirt, near the collar.
"Hey Bones," he called out.
The bedroom door opened slightly and Brennan poked her head out.
"What?"
"I should probably leave now, but you want to test these things before I do?"
"Sure," Brennan said, closing the door again.
A minute later, her voice clearly resounded in Booth's right ear, "Can you hear me?"
"Definitely. You can hear me?"
"Loud and clear."
"Good. I'm off then," he said. He walked out of Brennan's apartment, down the hall and was waiting for the elevator when he again heard Brennan's voice in his ear.
"Booth?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad you're going to be there."
"I am too."
"Hey, about your plan…"
"Yeah, I know it might be awkward but it's the best way to…"
"I know that. I was just going to say that when I wink, that's when you should break the rule."
"Got it."
"Ok. I'll see you in a couple hours."
"Wouldn't miss it."
Booth was seated on a couch in the basement of the Delta Phi Epsilon fraternity house, nursing a soda in a beer bottle. Mark Dalton came over and sat beside him and began some good-natured ribbing that suited a younger brother who's oldest sibling was getting married. In fact, Booth had to give points to all the young men in the fraternity who were all in on what the FBI had planned. What appeared to beer that many of the men were drinking had been replaced two nights ago with soda.
As he kept up his end of the conversation with Mark he attempted to ignore Angela and Clark's verbal sparring in his ear. After getting into the support van, the two had discovered a great dislike for each other and had spent the past two hours bickering. And thanks to his amazing earpiece he'd heard every word. Although he'd avoided a headache thus far he knew that one was imminent if something didn't happen in the near future to distract him.
Hearing new feet descend the stairs behind him, Booth twisted around to see another fraternity member. His name was Alex, he thought, or maybe Andrew. At any rate he was wearing a wide grin as he bounded down the last few steps into the room.
"Gentlemen," he called loudly, silencing most of the conversation in the crowded room. "I am pleased to announce that this evening's entertainment has just arrived."
A rowdy cheer went up from the collected group of college boys. Alex/Andrew returned to the base of the stairs and called up, "Chastity, we're waiting."
Booth, along with all the other men in the room, craned their necks to watch the stairs. As feet and then legs appeared as Brennan walked down the stairs slowly another cheer went through the small crowd. As Booth watched Brennan descend into the room he felt his stomach flip-flop although all he'd seen thus far was her feet and calves and then the top of her head. He'd definitely found that something to distract himself from his formerly imminent headache.
As Brennan walked towards one end of the room, the men in front of her parted like the Red Sea. Booth couldn't see her in the crowd and it wasn't until she turned to face his seat on the couch and the frat boys surrounding him moved out of her way that he got a clear view. Seeing his entire partner, from head to foot, for the first time since he'd left her apartment earlier that evening, he swallowed. This undercover thing was going to be a lot harder than he'd originally thought. Because right now he wanted to chase every other man out of the room.
That's right, I am just cruel enough to leave it hanging right there. I apologize for how short this chapter is but I needed to get some of this out of the way before we can get to the fantastically good stuff that is coming up in the next few chapters. I promise that there will be some stripping in the next chapter. Want to make sure you get that chapter ASAP? Hit that tiny button. It makes my muse and I ever so happy.
