"Whoever this woman is, I can't find any trace of her," Angela has tried any and all even potential face matches and nothing is coming up.
Cam nods figuring as much after three days of looking. "Maybe Hodgins will have more luck?"
Angela's shoulders drop, "Hopefully."
Hodgins comes in suddenly, "Big news," he smirks, "Pull up a map Angie?"
He shows them a small vial of bugs, telling them their name, "These beauties have a very specific range of habitat, about a few hundred miles between Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland, all around these three rivers." he taps the three on the map, "They also
Angela highlights them, "Well these two are too far south, they went through the toll booths further north."
"Do we have anything to narrow it down further? That's still a huge area to cover."
"Dr. Brennan's clothes had sap from Norway Maple, it's invasive so they just sprayed a patch right here," he motions and circles an area, "About 15 square miles."
"That is something we can work with."
"I think I can do better then that even," Angela zooms in on the map, "That area is pretty uninhabited," the angelatron beeps, "50 structures," the spots are red dots in the area, "Think the FBI can cover that?"
Cam is already making the call.
0-0-0-0-0
Electricity corses through Brennan's body. She does her best not to move, they had put pen knives through the palm of both her hands, if she moves it'll probably create more damage. She's not sure it matters anymore, it had been 24 days by her count, her few lucid moments were enough to tell her some of her injuries are infected, anyone on the case would be looking for a body now. She's certain the visions of Booth and the others are certainly right, she deserves this, she'll die alone.
The bigger kidnapper seems to smirk under the mask, he takes the revolver out of his back pocket, he spins it and puts it to her head before it clicks once, then again, then a third time. He laughs as Brennan doesn't flinch this time.
He leaves the room, leaving the door open, she could run, maybe, but she knows she won't be able to fight even just the two off with how injured she is. As quick as he leaves they both return. The shorter on pulls the knives out and injects her again. She feels herself lifted up more than actually experiences it. "It's gonna snow," the smaller one says.
"Let's dump her then. We can't be tracked by that."
She tries to keep her eyes open, closing her eyes only to force them open again. She's put in a car. She tries to follow the turns they take, left then a right, another right, her eyes fall shut again.
She wakes to the cold, it's loud. A road. She can't muster the strength to even grunt when she lands on the road, it's cold. The car speeds away. It's snowing. She's in a ditch on the side of the road. She can see cars speeding by. Despite her acceptance of death, she's never been able to stop fighting. She does her best to claw her way to the road. When she finally pulls herself to the road's edge she drops face down, any fight finally left, she's done.
Tires squealing are the last thing she hears before she passes out.
0-0-0-0-0
Being part of the science side of the crime solving equation everyone in the lab is used to waiting for the call confirming they got the right information to arrest the suspect. After two days of legal finagling Laurie got the go ahead to send five teams to ten of the locations each to see if the owners would allow them to search for the missing anthropologist.
Sweets was the first to stop by as they had all been too distracted to continue working on the case. If they can't identify the woman and already know she was killed by a bullet to the heart they're at a stand still. So the psychologist showing up with several large bags of food was enough to have them all give in and wait for the call in the lounge. He's promised to call Daisy as soon as he knows anything and the other squinters all know to look for a call from Daisy when she knows.
They talk a bit though the silences are extensive as they all are caught up in their own thoughts.
"Do Russ and Max know we think we found her?" Sweets asks the silence gets tense as they're no longer able to even pretend to ignore the elephant in the room.
"Neither have answered their phones… Booth is worried Max will go rogue if he knows too much." Cam's tone implies she wouldn't think he'd be wrong to.
Angela's phone rings, frowning at the unknown number but answers "Hello?"
"Hello, can I talk to Angela?"
"This is her."
"Hello Angela, this is Doctor Skare from Howard University Hospital, we have a Jane Doe in our ER that gave us your name and number, we've been unable to get her name we need you to come see if you can identify her for us?"
"Um… yeah, sure, I'll be there as soon as I can." she frowns hanging up her phone, the call was slightly off putting to be sure, but she can't tamper down the hope cause she can think of very few people who would give her number, and her gut says it's Brennan.
0-0-0-0-0
Angela and Sweets get to the hospital a bit under an hour, Cam and Hodgins remaining to hold down the fort and help agents narrow down where to look if needed.
After what feels like forever, Angela is lead to a room in the ICU, Sweets is told to stay in the waiting room. The room is warmer than the rest of the hospital, "She's sedated so won't be awake any time soon," the nurse explains
Angela looks at the figure in the bed, the figure's hair is chopped haphazardly, her face is a messy mix of black purple and green, bandages cover her hands from the wrist up, her leg is bent as if in a cast, several IVs are in her elbow and forearm and her body looks noticeably malnourished. Yet she is certain her gut feeling was right, "Oh Sweetie," she turns to the nurse, "This is Dr. Temperance Brennan," she feels her entire body shaking as she moves to leave the room, "I need to make a few calls."
0-0-0-0-0
Investigating the worst crime society has to offer steels you to awful acts sometimes, many would also say it steals your humanity away when you can look at victims and be able to just see evidence. Looking over Brennan's medical chart Cam can't seem to make herself do that, she's silently hoping the others don't ask her to translate as it doesn't paint a pretty picture of the last three and a half weeks for the anthropologist. Each additional note in the chart makes her feel nauseous to know about her friend.
Her guilt is mirrored back to her in the others eyes, all seeming to look anywhere but the hospital bed and yet being unable to look away too long. The steady beep of the machines is soothing, proof of life.
Sweets can't sit still, he keeps tapping his fingers on his knee, looking at the doctor's figure once in a while eyes big like a kicked puppy. He keeps tapping to release the energy of uselessness.
Hodgins is angry, the others can almost feel it radiat off him as he paces. His eyes soften slightly when he looks at his boss in the bed, only to get mad again as he's reminded of her condition. He knows she would've done better, been quicker, if it were one of them.
Angela can't look at Brennan. She knows that's fucked up that she can't look at her best friend but she can't see her like this. She's terrified she's not strong enough to help her friend after this.
Brennan remains unconscious, her breathing even. She's been in and out of complete unconsciousness and being just awake enough to make it clear how much pain she's in. The doctors have cleaned and closed what wounds they could, repaired the tendons in her hands and the minor internal bleeding with surgery. Now all that's left is for her to wake up and heal.
Booth has been absent since the FBI called back the teams from looking at the buildings, the blizzard making it too difficult to get through that road til it stops. He knows where they are. His absence is loud even in the silent room.