(The Pathos in the Pathogen)

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"We couldn't make an antiserum, but we were able to cultivate the virus from the needle you stuck in Mia Garret's arm." As Brennan plunged the needle in Dr. Leonard Thorne's neck, Booth didn't flinch. He witnessed his partner calmly tell the doctor what she had done. "I just want him to understand what's happening."

The researcher was terrified. "What have you done?" His face was pale and beads of sweat had popped out on his forehead. Booth recognized abject terror when he saw it.

Determined to get what she wanted Brennan leaned closer to Thorne's ear before she spoke. "I think it's pretty clear what I've done. Perhaps now you'll tell us where the antiserum is."

Horrified, Thorne told Booth where the antidote for the modified CHIKV virus was. He had killed to keep his secret and now he had to tell his secret to keep from dying. Maybe he could have assault charges filed against Brennan, but he knew that no prosecutor would prosecute the case, not after they found out what he had planned to do with the pathogen. His plot to make himself a hero and to reap great rewards were now dust in the wind.

With the antiserum in their hands, Cam administered it to Arastoo who was suffering from the modified virus. Miraculously, the intern had started to recover fairly quickly. Though he was very sick, he would not die and that had been what Brennan had wanted.

"You know that wasn't the real virus, so I couldn't have killed him." Brennan wanted Booth to understand that she had bluffed Thorne into turning the virus over to them.

When Booth had seen the needle plunged into the doctor's neck, he hadn't been sure if there was a real virus in the needle or not, but he had assumed that the needle didn't hold the virus. Logic said that Brennan and Cam would not have had a needle of the virus just lying around for anyone to prick themselves with. It would have been safely put away, but he hadn't been completely sure. "Yeah, I figured."

Just to make sure Booth understood how far she had been willing to go to get the antiserum, Brennan continued to explain. 'I would have used the real one if I'd had it."

Amused, Booth smiled while he placed his around her shoulder. "Oh, I know." If he knew anything about his partner it was the fact that she was a warrior when she needed to be. He had witnessed her kill a man to protect him. She had fought Agent James Kenton years ago when he had tried to kill her to protect his identity as a killer for the Mob. She had fought him with her hands restrained behind her back and she had almost won. Her battle with the agent had delayed Kenton long enough to allow Booth to stop the agent from killing Brennan. Booth knew that Brennan could protect herself and she was capable of going to great lengths to protect others. He loved her for that fierceness, the need to protect her friends and family.

The thought of Arastoo dying and leaving Cam behind made her sad. "Because I would have missed Arastoo and Cam would have been so sad."

Her words made Booth glad to know someone like Brennan, to be lucky enough to be her partner and her lover. She was everything to him and more. "We should celebrate."

"We should." The last few days had been frantic and Brennan was glad it was over. Potentially, Thorne could have used his modified virus to contaminate thousands if not millions of people and he would have had the only cure available. His antiserum would have been worth millions of dollars and the people who would have been exposed would have paid anything to keep from dying. Thorne was a cold hearted bastard and Brennan hoped he got the death penalty or at the very least, life in prison. He was a dangerous man with no value to society at all.

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Their evening had been spent alone at home. Max was babysitting Christine at his apartment and he planned to take her to Day Care the next day. Booth and Brennan had talked, made love and held each other knowing that the life they had was the life they wanted to live.

"You know, I was afraid that you working with that body, that contaminated body was going to put you in danger." He lay next to Brennan, his arm around her while she leaned against his body and moved her hand slowly up and down his chest. "I can protect you from someone with a gun or a knife, but not viruses and diseases. I can't protect you from science." Booth had always distrusted science. He knew that science created good things, like antibiotics and cures for diseases but science also created horrifying things like nuclear bombs and chemicals that could destroy a body in minutes. Science had to be controlled, but he wasn't an expert and he didn't know if the bad things science could do was being controlled by the right people. Probably not at least not when it came to people like Leonard Thorne and sometimes he had to deal with that.

Brennan knew that Booth was a man of action. He could fight with sophisticated weapons, with his hands and feet or with whatever he could get his hands on, but science was an enigma to her mate and he didn't like the fact that sometimes he had to rely upon someone else to fight his battle for him. "What Dr. Thorne did was heinous, Booth. He is clearly a sociopath who doesn't value life. He wanted to release a deadly virus on the world and profit by selling the only cure. He doesn't represent most scientists. He only represents the people in this world who only want to enrich themselves by any means possible. Science isn't your enemy. Science can accomplish great things in the right hands."

He knew that Brennan was science all the way and that continuing to be negative would just be insulting to something she loves. "Yeah . . . you and Cam did great. And Hodgins too. You guys figured out how to keep Arastoo alive while I tracked down who had killed Mia Garret and started this whole mess. You kept working on trying to figure out why Mia had been infected and in the end, Arastoo's life was saved and probably the lives of thousands of other people . . . So yeah, science can be good . . . I know you're good."

Flattered, Brennan leaned up and kissed Booth. "Why thank you. Cam was really worried about Arastoo and Hodgins and I knew it was imperative to help Arastoo fight the virus until the person who had created it was found. Cam was counting on us. Arastoo was counting on us . . . We did what we had to do."

"Well, if Arastoo had to get sick from some deadly virus, he was in the right place at the right time." Tired, Booth closed his eyes. "I know if I got sick like that, I would trust you to save me."

"I would try, Booth. I would try with whatever tool I could use at my disposal." The last two days had been hectic and she knew that her body needed rest. "Rest Booth. Arastoo is going to be alright. Cam will not lose him this time."

"Yeah . . . thanks to you and Hodgins."

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