CHAPTER THREE
"Bones! Are you okay? What happened? Bones! Bones, answer me! BONES!" When he didn't get an answer, Booth stomped on the gas pedal, his heart trying to force its way up his throat. Tempe hadn't spoken a word every since she had screamed, followed by the sound of glass shattering and Booth was terrified. Tempe wasn't someone who got scared easily. That woman had nerves of steel. But she had seen something that had badly frightened her, and now her silence had Booth so scared he was shaking. He had to get to her. He was about fifteen minutes away from Tempe's apartment. He made it there in five minutes.
Booth burst out of his car, barely remembering to grab his keys and shut the car door before bolting to Tempe's door.
"Bones!" He yelled, bursting into the apartment, having opened the door with the spare key Tempe had shown him. "Bones! Where are you? Bones!" A frantic meowing drew him to the living room, where a horrifying sight was waiting for him. Tempe was laying on the floor, motionless, in front of a smashed window, covered in glass and blood. Suddenly, Booth was almost knocked off his feet by Tempe's frantic cat. The twenty three pound gray tom cat kept plunging forward, attempting to get to Tempe, only to be driven back by the sharp glass shards, yowling in pain and desperation. The cat's paws were dripping blood, there was blood on the floor, and there was blood all over the cat's fur.
Booth snatched the cat up and wrapped his coat around the desperate feline. Seeming to sense that Booth was there to help Tempe, the cat stopped struggling and lay limply in the coat, letting out a meow every now and then. Moving carefully, Booth made his way to Tempe's side. She was cut all over, with bits of glass sticking out of her skin. There were several cuts on her face, which were bleeding freely, especially the ones on her forehead and hairline. He was pretty sure that there were pieces of glass embedded in those wounds, but the blood made it hard to tell.
"Bones?" He whispered, kneeling next to her. Despite the blood, none of the wounds looked serious. Booth gently began to brush the glass off of her body, gently freeing the ones that had pierced her skin. He slid his hand behind her head and felt the huge bump, but thankfully, there was no blood.
"Come on Bones, wake up. Come on babe, come on, come on back Bones."
"Hmm . . ." Tempe moaned, moving her head. Using the shelve of his dress shirt, Booth wiped some of the blood off her face. Right now, he could care less about his shirt.
"That's if babe, come on."
"Booth . . ." Tempe whispered, her eyes fluttering open. She couldn't help but smile when she saw him leaning over her. "Hey stranger."
"Hey yourself." He cupped her cheek and rubbed his thumb across her lips gently, smiling when she sucked her breath in. "God, Bones, you scared me half to death, you know that?"
"Sorry." Tempe tried to sit up, but ended up falling against Booth's chest when her world spun and tilted crazily. "Uhh."
"Easy babe." Booth said soothingly, rubbing her arms.
"What happened?" Temped asked. She started to feel nauseous, so she closed her eyes and turned her face into Booth's chest, gripping his shirt tightly when the slight movement made her head throb. He wrapped his arms around her securely.
"What do you remember?" He whispered.
"The window shattering." She said, swallowing a whimper at the pain in her head. And the cuts on her forehead were bleeding again, the blood soaking into Booth's shirt.
For the first time, Booth noticed the brick lying nearby, with a piece of paper tied around it.
"Hey Bones, look."
"What is it?" Tempe asked, not opening her eyes, or removing her face from his chest.
"It's a brick, that must be what broke the window . . . Bones? What's wrong? Are you okay Bones?"
"No." Tempe whimpered, her grip tightening on his shirt. "My head hurts, and I think . . ." She swallowed hard. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"It's okay babe. I got you." Booth, knowing that Tempe probably couldn't walk, scooped her up into his arms and made his way toward her bathroom. He made it just in time. Tempe leaned over the toilet, and Booth rubbed her back as she emptied her stomach. When she was done, she closed her eyes and leaned back against Booth's chest. He held her close.
"You okay?" He whispered into her hair.
"I'm better." She admitted, her eyes still closed.
"Want me to take you back to the living room?"
"Yeah." Unwilling to open her eyes, Tempe hid her face in Booth's neck when he stood up with her in his arms. When he set her down on her coach, he saw that the blood was still leaking from her forehead, and he frowned. But before he could say anything, Bones the cat interrupted him. Wiggling out of Booth's coat and meowing insistently, the huge cat limped and stumbled into Tempe's lap, his paws still bleeding freely. Tempe's eyes opened when she felt the cat practically fall into her lap and gasped.
"Bones!" She scooped him up and held him close. "Oh baby, you're hurt!"
"He cut his paws when he was trying to reach you." Booth told her.
Tempe looked up at Booth, tears in her eyes. "Booth, we have to do something for him, please!"
"Calm down babe. I have a friend from the service who's a medic. When he was in the same unit as me, he would look after all the base pets as well. I'll call him and he can look at those cuts on your forehead too."
"Okay." She agreed, burying her face in Bones' fur, ignoring the blood. Booth wanted to gather her up in his arms, but he turned away and pulled out his phone instead.
BONESBONESBONESBONESBONESBONESBONESBONESBONESBONESBONES
"Thanks for coming Robbie." Booth said twenty minutes later when he opened the door for Robbie Johnson.
"I owe you Seeley." Robbie responded, clapping Booth on the shoulder. Robbie was a leanly muscular black man, the same age and height as Booth. They had met and become friends in the service, when Booth had been the unit's sniper and Robbie had been the unit's medic. Unlike Booth, Robbie had stayed in the service and was stationed at a nearby base. When Booth had called, Robbie had come as fast as he could, breaking a few traffic laws in the process.
"Right through here." Booth said, leading Robbie into the living room where Tempe sat on the couch, Bones curled up in her lap. "Robbie, this is Temperance Brennan and Bones."
"Hey." Robbie said, giving Tempe a friendly smile before taking her face in his hands and tilting her head back to examine her wounds. "Well, it looks like you might have some pieces of glass in here, but they don't look to deep. I don't think you'll need stitches, just some butterfly bandages." He pulled some tweezers and some alcohol pads out of his bag.
"You might want to hold on to something, because this is going to sting." He told her with an apologetic smile. Tempe's huge eyes, the color of a stormy ocean, rose to meet Booth's and she reached out a hand to Booth in a silent plea. Moving swiftly, Booth sat next to her and took her hand in his.
"Your okay." He whispered. "I'm here, your okay." Tempe flashed him a grateful smile, then let Robbie start cleaning the blood off her face and neck. Even though the alcohol pads stung, Tempe didn't make a sound. She just gritted her teeth and squeezed Booth's hand. She did whimper a few times when Robbie removed the glass, and breathed a sigh of relief when he put the last bandage on. Then he checked the lump on her back of her head and preformed a few quick tests before smiling at her.
"You're lucky. You don't have a concussion, but you will have a nasty headache for a few days. Now, let's take a look at this bug guy." Robbie lifted Bones off of Tempe's lap and moved into the kitchen so he could use the counter. Booth knew that Tempe would want to be with her pet, so he scooped her up for the third time that night and carried her into the kitchen, where he set her in a chair where she could watch. Bones was groggy from blood loss, so Robbie worked fast, washing the paws, removing the glass and cleaning the wounds. Last of all, he cleaned Bones' fur with a damp cloth and wrapped the cat's paws.
"He'll be unhappy with the bandages, but you need to change them every day for about two weeks." Robbie told Tempe as he deposited the sleepy cat in her arms. "Keep his paws as clean and dry as possible."
"Thank you." Tempe told Robbie, cuddling Bones like a teddy bear when he succumbed to the inevitable and fell asleep.
"No problem." He gave her a supply of bandages, then let Booth show him out. When Booth returned, Temp was still cuddling her cat, burying her nose in his fur and kissing his ears.
"Can you stand?" Booth asked her. She nodded, yet still accepted his help when he slipped an arm around her waist and let her lean heavily on him. Booth led her back to the couch.
"Have a seat." He urged. "Robbie said to make sure that you rest."
"All right." Tempe curled up on the couch, still clutching Bones to her chest. "What about the brick?"
"I'm looking at it right now." Booth assured her. Making sure he didn't touch the brick with his bare hands, Booth untied the note from the brick, then read it out loud, his blood running cold.
"'You're on the phone too much. Stop it. Remember, you're mine and I am always watching.'" Booth raised his eyes to look at Tempe, and her face was white. This time, he acted on the urge to comfort her. He sat next to her and wrapped her arms around her, pulling her close and letting her rest against his chest.
"That's it." He whispered. "You can't stay here, that wacko's already caused damage. You and the cat are coming to stay with me."
"Booth . . ." Tempe tried to protest, but Booth cupped her chin and tilted her head back so he could kiss her. For a few breathless moments, their lips and tongues battled each other, then Booth pulled back, just far enough to talk.
"Please Bones." He murmured, his lips brushing against hers. "For once in your life, please don't argue. Please, don't fight me on this." And, for once, Tempe didn't argue with Booth. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down for another kiss.