Booth sat with Grace as she calmed down, his hand firmly planted in hers as he made sure that she was alright. He watched as she grimaced, clearly in pain from all of the movement from the altercation with Shane, and crying. "I'm sorry, kiddo. I should go and let you rest."
"I don't want to be alone anymore, daddy." She whispered. "I don't want to be here anymore." She said softly.
"You're killing me, baby." He said softly. "I don't want you here anymore either."
"Then help me escape?" She asked, lifting her eyebrows, she watched her father give her a grimace of his own.
"You're in pain, we don't even know where you are going stay at this point. Between your foot and your arm, you're not going to be mobile for a while, so we need someone with you." Booth said softly, he gripped her hand tightly. "I just want to pick you up and bring you home with me." He said softly, watching her smile. "Are you in pain right now?"
"I'm fine." She whispered, giving her father a grumpy face.
"I'm going to call the nurse, and get you some medicine." He said, standing up, she gripped his arm tightly.
"No, daddy." She whined. "Please, no pain medicine."
"You are worse than your mother." He said, peeling her fingers from his hand. "And that's really saying something." He watched her eyes narrow, and she took on the exact expression that he'd expect Bones to give him for saying that. "Just Tylenol then, okay? Something that won't knock you out, but will help with the pain." He reached forward and pushed the nurse call button. "Angela is going to be here in about an hour, and I'm having your mom bring some things to keep you occupied, as well as getting the hospital to release your belongings to your mother, so you can get your cell phone back."
The nurse walked in, and smiled at the now peaceful scene of father and daughter, and Booth requested Tylenol for Grace. She nodded and went to fill the request. He turned back to her and watched as she pouted at him. "You are here to rest and recuperate, and if you don't do it now, then they're going to keep you here longer."
"Am I going to stay with you and mom? What about my apartment?" she asked, her brow furrowed. "Shane has a key to my apartment."
"I'll send someone over there to have the super change the locks, okay?" He watched her nod. "But you're going to be off that foot for a while, and you can't use crutches with your arm. Your mom and I have to figure out exactly how we're going to be able to balance work and making sure that you have what you need." He watched as her eyes filled with tears. "Gracie girl…"
"I'm a burden." She whispered.
"Yep, you are… and that's the price I paid when we decided to keep you around when you were born." Booth teased, watching as Grace's eyes widened.
"Daddy!"
"What, you can say ridiculously untrue things, but I can't?" He rolled his eyes. "Stop being so dramatic. It's a setback, you'll bounce back and be all the better for it." He said, watching her swipe at her tears. "And with you in the hospital, I can focus more on making sure that your sister doesn't get killed at crime scenes." Booth said jokingly.
The nurse walked into the room with the Tylenol and a cup of water, standing beside the bed as Grace took them and looked up gratefully, and handed the cup back. "Thank you." She said softly. The nurse smiled and then left the room again.
"See that, you get everything you want brought to you." Booth said, and watched his daughter glower. "Yeah, I know. I hate hospitals too. The amount of times we've spent here though, we should have an entire wing of the hospital named after us." He joked, smiling as Grace giggled. "I should get back to work, your Uncle Jared is in town, so…"
"So maybe it's better if I stay here." She said, tipping her head with a humored smile.
"Exactly." He said, widening his eyes. "He's at our house, sleeping off his latest bender." Booth rolled his eyes.
"Thank you for coming to see me, Daddy. Thank you for everything."
"It's no problem." He said, giving her a serious look. "Anything, any hour of the day or night, call me. You got that?"
"I do." She nodded.
"You are going to be alright." He said, watching her eyes as they started to shift away from him, they darted back. "Do I need to put an armed guard outside of your door?"
"No." she giggled. "I know you would."
"In a heartbeat, kiddo." He leaned up and kissed her cheek. "I'll see you soon. Get some rest. I'm proud of you."
"Thank you, Daddy." She whispered, feeling exhaustion start to take over, she closed her eyes. "Sweet dreams and jelly beans." She whispered.
"One for you, and two for me." He said, kissing her forehead again, he left the room as she drifted to sleep, a happy smile on her lips.
The rest of the day had worn on fairly slowly in the lab, with the body prepared, the bones sit on the platform with multiple interns looking at them and working with Temperance on analysis. Harding and Aiden had no luck with the family of their victim determining who the other men in the car could be, but they continued working on interviews and focusing on the evidence they did have. Booth joined them later in the day, and eventually headed home to check on Jared. Temperance had left with Angela to go to the hospital to see Grace, and none of them were expected to return until tomorrow. As the day turned into evening, and evening stretched into night, the lab became almost silent but for the clicking of Antonia's shoes on the floor, and her frustrated sighs.
Antonia looked at the clock on her phone, noting that it was nearly one in the morning as she stared into the comparison microscope one more time. Her eyes were a bit blurry, and no amount of focusing of the scope was helping. She pulled another bullet from their control group and placed it under, and again tried to compare it to the bullet they had pulled from the body of their victim. She growled under her breath as she slammed her hand down, angry that the lands and grooves on the bullet from the gun they had found didn't match the one that had been put through their victim's head. She cursed and slammed the heel of her hand into the table and growled angrily, letting her head rest in her hands for a moment, she then cursed herself for letting her emotions get the best of her. After another moment or two, she heard her stomach growling its anger back at her. She tried to remember when the last meal she ate, and sighed.
With her mind reeling, she got up and walked quickly toward the equipment room. She pulled out a field bag and filled it with items she'd need to begin her search. She included latex gloves, evidence bags. She pulled a shovel down from one of the racks, and a flashlight with several sets of batteries, shoving them into the bag, she walked over to the work station, grabbed her phone and shoved it into her pocket before grabbing her coat off the back of the chair. She whipped her coat over her shoulders and headed out of the lab to her car, and as she drove out of the parking garage, her stomach growled louder. She looked to her watch and sighed, noting that she had quite a while until sunrise, so it wouldn't hurt to get something to eat and some coffee.
She entered the diner with her head down, her eyes were showing her exhaustion, but it wasn't the first time she had stumbled into the diner at this hour after being at the lab all night. She sat down at the counter and looked up at the waitress, who smiled. "Hey kiddo, working late again?"
"Yep." Antonia sighed.
"Your dad is gonna get all hot under the collar if you keep working so hard." She said shaking her head.
"Dad is always hot under the collar." She smirked. "I'll just have some toast and coffee."
"Eggs, toast, and bacon with a coffee coming up." She said, giving Antonia a pointed look as she nodded her head and went back into the kitchen for a second, quickly returning to put a cup of coffee in front of her. As she waited for her meal, she heard the bell on the door, and felt a sharp push of winter air come in behind her. She curled her hands around her cup of coffee and stared at the dark liquid. The person sat next to her, and for a moment Antonia wanted to just ask them to give her space. Then she recognized the cologne. She looked up into a set of green eyes that she was not expecting to see. "Are you following me?" She asked, watching as he gave her an amused smile.
"Nope." He shook his head. "Just a coincidence."
"So you were just walking around my neighborhood at one o'clock in the morning on the eve of what might be the biggest snowstorm of the year?"
"No." he shook his head. "I was driving home from the office, and saw your car. So I thought I'd stop and say hello, and maybe get a cup of coffee." He could sense a level of tension in her that seemed to amp up at his presence, and it made him feel slightly uncomfortable. He looked up at the waitress, who smiled and grabbed a cup to pour him a cup of coffee. "Are you just getting out of the lab?"
"Yes." She said, offering no more information, she sighed and stared into her cup. The waitress brought Antonia's food, and Aiden's coffee, and walked away.
"So you're heading home?"
She looked up at him and watched his eyes, wondering for a moment if he was sent by her father to check on her. "Yeah."
"Are you alright?" He asked, brow furrowing as he watched her with concern in his eyes, though she may have mistaken it for something else, pity maybe.
"I'm fine." She said, picking at her eggs, she took a small bite and sighed as her stomach seemed to calm at the contact of food.
"Is that all you've had to eat today?" he asked, just making conversation.
"What are you, my father? I'm just trying to have something to eat before I go home, okay? Why all of the questions? What is your problem?" She asked, shoving another forkful into her mouth, she glared at him, and she watched as he backed off a bit, nodding his head, he put some cream in his coffee and looked down into his cup. Antonia sighed. "I'm sorry." She said, staring into her own cup. "I'm having a very bad evening. The gun isn't right, ballistics doesn't match up, so we don't have a murder weapon. I was sure it was the right one." She said angrily as nibbled at her toast, and stared at her plate. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine." He said softly, sipping from his coffee, he stared straight ahead.
Antonia pulled out her wallet and dropped money on the counter, she looked at the waitress and waved. "I'm going to get going." She said, sipping a little more of her coffee as she stood up. She zipped her coat up and pulled her gloves out of her pocket as she pulled them on as well. As she turned to say goodbye to Aiden, she noticed that he too had put money on the counter and stood up, looking to be getting ready to leave. "Where are you going?"
"Home, I guess." He shrugged. "I'll walk you to your car."
She gave him an exhausted look and sighed. "You don't have to walk me to my car, it's literally right there." She said, pointing to the SUV sitting outside the diner.
"Well, I'll walk you to the curb then." He said politely.
She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Whatever." She reached for the handle, and he politely pulled it for her, and smiled at her glare as she walked to her car. He was walking with her around the car, and was going to tease her about opening her car door for her when he noticed the bag on her front car seat, and the shovel.
"Burying bodies?" He asked, giving her a bit of a suspicious look, though his eyes were humored at first, he quickly put the pieces together.
"It's none of your business. I have to go." She said, reaching for the handle, he reached for it first.
"You're not going to the crime scene, are you?"
"No." She replied, pushing at his hand. "Let me go, it's cold out!" She said, swatting at his hand.
"Antonia, you better not be going to the crime scene. This snowstorm is supposed to hit DC directly tomorrow morning, and they say it might hit earlier."
"Mind your own business, Agent Fitzgerald." She said, pulling at the door she nearly hit him with it. "Have a good night." She said, climbing into the car, he held it open and looked in at her equipment bag.
"Please don't go out there."
"Please let go of my door." She growled trying to close the door with his arm in it, she managed to wrangle it away from him, and close the door, locking it as soon as it was closed.
"Come on, Antonia!" he shouted from outside the car. But his shouts fell on deaf ears as she started the car, and tried to pull away. He banged on the window of her car, and she just pulled away from the curb, glancing back once to make sure she didn't hit him as she drove away from the diner.