Rated: T
Pairings: Booth/Cam (although I hate to do it) Brennan/other Angela/Hodgins
Dr. Sayoran forces Brennan to make a decision that has repercussions for everyone. Now, Booth has a choice to make. Will he be too late?
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Brennan closed her eyes and breathed out with a tiny smile. She should have known Angela would be on her doorstep before long. She turned the knob just as her friend's semi polite knocks were suddenly accompanied by Angela's calling of her name.
"Whew! I thought you might have left already. I'm glad I didn't miss you." She hugged Brennan quickly.
"What are you doing here, Ang? Shouldn't you still be at the lab?"
"Nope. The Jeffersonian no longer employs me. Or Jack, or Zack, even."
At Brennan's concerned look she continued. "We all resigned."
"No, Ang! You shouldn't have done that."
"Why not? The only reason I was staying there was because of you. If you're not there I don't want to be." She gave a realistic shiver. "Especially with that woman. She can't get away with treating people the way she has. So, now she has no people to boss around."
"I just don't want all of you to mess up your careers because of me. Especially not Zack. He's just starting out, this could look really bad on his record."
"I don't see how. He wasn't fired, he resigned. Besides, he's going to return to school to finish his doctorates. He'll find an even better job after that." She smiled at Brennan.
"Are you sure I can't talk you out of this?"
"Quitting or going on assignment?"
"Taking Kenton with you! Bren, I know you said you understand what he did and why but the man tried to kill you. How can you trust him to go off with you alone?"
"It'll be okay, Ang. Really." Brennan finished her sentence by walking over to her ringing phone.
Looking at the caller i.d, she closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. The house phone stopped ringing and her cell phone trilled. She turned it off.
Angela's phone picked up the ring. "Booth."
"Yeah. I can't, I don't have time to talk to him. We're leaving at 2 a.m."
Angela thought about it for a second. "Angela Montenegro. Yes, I know it's you. No, I will not put Brennan on the phone she's getting ready to leave. I don't know where she's going. Okay, I do but I'm NOT telling you." Angela was getting pissed. "Look, Agent Booth, why don't you go protect your girlfriend from somebody. No, I won't ever forgive you for that. Neither will Brennan, goodbye."
"I need to call Cullen and tell him not to worry about my request." Angela's face questioned her.
"I asked him to find another agent to liason with the Jeffersonian. Now it doesn't matter."
Both women jerked when the door was nearly busted in by a loud banging. "Bones! Bones, I'm not leaving until I talk to you."
Angela screamed when the door flew open under a well placed kick. Brennan slowly shook her head then turned to go to her bedroom. He grabbed her arm. He shouldn't have.
"Have Dr. Sayoran come to my office." Dr. Goodman instructed his secretary. He paused at the look she gave him. "What?"
She held out the resignation letters of the other three lab members. When Dr. Sayoran had stomped off instead of talking to Agent Booth she had left him holding the papers. He gave them to the secretary before he took off. He looked like his pants were on fire when he tore out of the parking lot.
"Get that woman and send her to my office. NOW!"
She climbed up to the pathologist's lab and informed her that the director wanted to see her. She hid her smirk as she followed the doctor back to the office.
Cam entered Dr. Goodman's office to find him holding his head in his hands. When he looked up at her she wished she had kept Booth around to shield her from the anger in the man's eyes. Wait, she didn't need a man to shield her from anything! She could deal with this. She lifted her chin as she settled in the chair across from her supervisor.
"At nine a.m. there will be a specially convened meeting of the Board of Directors. You will be here to meet with them and explain your actions. They want a rational explanation of how you ran off the highest qualified Forensic Anthropologist in America."
"Oh, please! There are many others who could do her job better and more efficiently."
"Nine a.m. Dr. Sayoran. Your fate will be decided at that time."
She left his office in a temper. It grew worse as she repeatedly called Booth's cell without answer. 'Where the hell is he?' But, she had a feeling she knew.
Booth was holding his midsection where Bones had elbowed him. She didn't even look back. She just continued on to her room. He limped in behind her.
"Bones. Come on I need to talk to you. Please?" He ignored the cell phone that was constantly chirping on his belt.
"Seems to me you need to answer your phone." She squinted at him. She recognized the special ringtone. "Cam isn't going to be happy with you for ignoring her."
"I'm not worried about Cam at the moment."
"Huh."
He moved closer to her reaching out and stopping just short when she clenched her jaw. "We need to talk. Why did you leave your job? No one will tell me anything."
She just looked at him. Deciding that her packing was more important than dealing with the infuriating man in front of her she opened her closet to remove her travel bags. She then began to gather what she needed.
Booth's mouth fell open. "What the hell are you doing? Where are you going?"
She didn't know how long she'd be gone so she decided to pack both a light jacket and a heavier coat. She knew that every season in The Hague tended to be rainy season so she didn't want to be caught without necessities to battle the weather.
She exited the closet to find her former partner unpacking her partially filled garment bag.
"Booth! What do you think you're doing?" She dropped the hangers in her hand to snatch the blouses he was hauling back to the closet. "I have to leave soon and I would like to be packed by then."
He dared to get close to her. "You are not going any where, Temperance, until you tell me what is going on!"
"Go. To. Hell."
Booth's phone rang. Not Cam this time, it wasn't her special ringtone. Booth looked at her. "I have a special ring for you, too. I always have."
She shrugged. "You better answer. I think it's Cullen."
He looked down to see she was right. Damn! "Booth."
"Agent Booth where are you?"
"I'm speaking with Dr. Brennan at this time, sir."
"Not at the Jeffersonian, obviously. I've been apprised of the situation there. May I speak to the good doctor for a moment?"
Booth held the phone out. "He'd like to speak to you."
She took the phone and walked away turning her back on the FBI agent.
"Yes, sir?"
"I was concerned about you. Are you doing okay?"
Brennan was surprised. Cullen had warmed up to her since she had helped on his daughter's medical case but she didn't expect him to be so solicitous of her. "I'm fine. I have a new assignment I'm trying to get ready for."
"Is it dangerous?"
"No. It's about some ancient bones found in Europe. No where near a war zone. It's probably the safest place I've ever been." She laughed.
"So, I won't hear of any accidents or attempts on your life, this time? I won't have Booth chomping at the bit to run off and save you?"
"I can guarantee that no one is going to come after me. In fact, I have already got a body guard of sorts on this trip."
That made Booth's interest peak. It also brought a flush of anger to his face. "If it's not a dangerous assignment why do you need a bodyguard?" He was liking this less and less and he still didn't have the whole story. Hell, he wouldn't have any of the story if he weren't shamelessly listening to his partner talk so openly to his boss.
"I'm well aware of your bodyguard situation, Temperance. It was why I was asking about the danger.
Are you sure you're going to be comfortable dealing with Kenton?"
Brennan was confused. "You were informed? I thought it was..."
"It was necessary so that certain events could 'occur'. It's going to be released that Kenton was assasinated in jail and my area of expertise in selling this story is going to start with my telling Booth that particular tale."
Brennan couldn't help herself. She turned to face Booth, her eyes wide in astonishment.
"What? What's wrong?"
She turned her attention back to the phone as she realized Cullen was still speaking.
"Good luck, Dr. Brennan. And, if you need anything at all contact me. Now, put that idiot Agent of mine on the phone please."
"Yes, sir. Thank you."
She handed the phone to Booth and walked out to join Angela in the living room.
"Sir, do you know what is going on with Dr. Brennan? Are you familiar with this assignment?"
"No, Booth, I have no idea what her assignment is. It obviously does not concern the FBI." He huffed a breath. "I got a call a short time ago from the warden of Petersburg Correctional Facility. Jamie Kenton was murdered this morning." Booth turned to look at the two women in the other room.
"I'll have to tell Bones."
"I already informed her. She doesn't seem in the mood to hear anything from you. Return to the office Booth. We need to talk about your actions during the Halston case. I want a written account of everything that happened. And, you had better have a good explanation of why you failed to cover an unarmed civilian. Your unarmed partner."
Booth heard the phone disconnect. He couldn't tell Cullen why he hadn't protected Bones better during that particular firefight. His mind went back to that moment in time. The moment when he lost his partner's trust.
They had been at Jordan Halston's house. The smell of decomposing bodies had outgrown the basement and his neighbors had called in complaints. The officer investigating recognized the smell and his commanding officer contacted the FBI after the search warrant revealed a mass grave of corpses in differing stages of decomposing. Both Bones and Cam had been required at the scene. Halston had not been at home through out the investigation and no one could explain how he suddenly appeared in the basement doorway with the semi automatic trained on the three people there.
Booth and Dr. Sayoran both drew their side arms. He didn't miss Bones' outraged look that the other woman was allowed to carry a gun and she was not. Halston yelled threats and Booth tried to talk him down. Bones even tried in her oh so factual manner that usually worked to get the man to surrender. It didn't work but he decided he liked her.
"I tell you what, Agent Booth. I'll only kill one of these lovely ladies. Would you like to choose which one"
"You're not going to get the chance to shoot either of them." He hoped he was being truthful in his assesment of the man.
Halston smiled and pointed the gun first at Cam then to Bones. Booth was torn. If this man started shooting what was he supposed to do? Before, it would have been an easy thing. Before Cam told him that she might be carrying his child. Now, he had to decide,
did he cover the woman carrying his child or the woman he loved.
Halston turned the gun back on Bones and pulled the trigger. Booth instinctively pushed Cam to the ground as he shot Halston through the throat.
As he moved to kick the gun away from Halston's hand and check the man's pulse he called out to his partner. "Bones, are you okay"
He watched as she walked around him and the body to slowly climb the stairs. She was holding her left shoulder. Blood was dripping down staining her white shirt. "Bones"
She kept walking. Cam now stood beside him bitching about his actions. She couldn't believe he threw her to the ground to save her. She could take care of herself, dammit!
By the time they reached the outside First Responders were treating Bones and an ambulance was pulling in. She was loaded and the vehicle pulled away before he could reach her.
She was in hospital three days. She had banned him from her room. Even if he could've gotten passed the nurses he would have had to fight Angela to see her. She hadn't spoken to him since.
Cam told him later that day that she had known she wasn't pregnant just a few hours after telling him she could be. She just hadn't bother to inform him. He actually went home and cried. Not for the baby that might have been but for the mess he had made of his life by getting involved with her again. If he had ever had a chance with Bones he had blown it well and for sure.
He entered the living room. "Cullen told you about Kenton?"
She nodded. Angela did as well. "Good riddance to bad rubbish. Any one who would try to kill Bren deserves to be dead. Of course, some people who decide she's not worth saving could join him and it wouldn't cause a ripple in the real world."
He swallowed heavily and closed his eyes. "I am so sorry about that. Please."
"Yeah, what ever. Come on Bren. I'll help you finish packing. You can show yourself out"
She threw the last over her shoulder as she and Brennan went back to packing.
After the door closed Angela approached her friend. "Kenton's death was faked, right?"
"Yeah. They can remove him in a body bag so that no one will know he's still alive. He's going to be taken some where and disguised so that he won't be recognized before we leave."
"I assume leaving at such an unGodly hour is also for protection." She sighed. "You are going to stay in touch, right?"
"Actually, I was going to see you before I go anyway. Parker, the agent handling all of this,
suggested that I leave my cell here in case it's being tracked in any way. I have a new phone so I want you to keep mine. I can call you on it. That way anyone who's tapped in will find the signals still coming from here." She put the phone in her friend's hand. "But, if you feel like you're in any kind of danger toss it. Or, leave it here in the apartment. I don't want you to have any problem because of me."
Angela nodded. "Okay. As long as you're going to be in touch. Who knows if I miss you too much I may take a vacation. That would really screw up any tracking."
Brennan laughed. "Yeah. It really would."
"Do you think Booth will try to track you through it?"
"I don't think Booth will even bother."
Angela didn't agree with her. She was still totally pissed at Booth but she still believed that despite his relationship with Sayoran and his recent actions he was in love with Brennan. If they could ever get passed this they might find their way back to each other.
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