Chapter 4
Brennan looked up as she saw everyone still glaring at her. She knew that they were hurt and angry, and that was something she was going to have to live with, but she needed them to put their feelings aside for right now and help her find Alana. Right now the only person that mattered was the little girl that was in danger and was scared out of her mind. Brennan leaned back in her office chair and waited to see who would go ahead and start yelling at her first, but then Booth walked in and everyone seemed to realize it wasn't the time for that.
"Did you find anything?" Brennan asked, hope filling her chest. But she knew immediately by the look on his face that there was nothing there, and that there was no evidence to tell them where Alana was or where Taffet had taken her.
"Jared is coming up here to give us a hand, it's his niece after all. Rebecca wanted to know if we needed anything, I told her that I just needed to be able to hear Parker's voice every once in a while, to help me focus." Booth said softly. Everyone could see the guilt and pain on his face, as if he figured this was somehow his fault since he was a Federal Agent and he couldn't even keep his young daughter safe.
"Booth, stop feeling guilty for something you had no control over." Brennan said as she got up and walked over to her new husband and the father of her daughter. "This is not your fault, it's most likely mine more than yours." Brennan said as she figured logic would win over here. "I mean you didn't even know she had been born or conceived. I was the one raising her and taking care of her, which meant it was my job to keep her safe and I am the one who failed at that. This was why I had always said I didn't want children or marriage, you get close to people and then something happens and you lose the ones you love." Brennan said as tears filled her eyes.
"Bones…" Booth started but then stopped. He knew she had been feeling a lot of losses lately, her mothers death, her father going to prison for a while and then coming back fully into her life, her brother and then Zack. Booth knew that the thought of their daughter being in the hands of a kidnapper who had tried to kill Brennan and Hodgins a few years ago was killing her inside. She loved their daughter, Booth had always known she would be a great mother, if she ever put her mind and heart into it. He could tell that she was an amazing mother and now she was trying so hard not to feel the pain of the loss of their daughter.
"Booth, don't try and tell me that there was nothing I could do, because we all know that isn't true. Everyone in this room knows this is probably my fault, I should have told you when I found out I was pregnant and I should have made sure everyone knew about her, and then maybe we could have found a way to protect her more, but that wasn't what I did and now our daughter is the one suffering because of my screw up!" Brennan said before pushing past Booth and leaving everyone in her office as tried to get away from them all, before they saw the tears falling. She knew those were tears of guilt, and they were tears because of the pain she was feeling deep inside of her.
Alana was really scared as she sat in the closet. The mean lady had said someone was coming to see her and she didn't want her in the way, so she stuffed her on the closet with some water and some crackers and then locked her in. Alana was afraid of the dark, her mommy had always told her there was nothing to be afraid of but she had bought her some princess night lights and everything. Alana missed her bedroom and her mommy. She knew that her mommy would be sad without her there, she had to get home so her mommy wouldn't be sad anymore. She started to cry as she got even more scared, she knew that there was no such things as monsters, her mommy told her so, but still, she really thought that monsters lived in closets and now she was stuck in a very small, very dark closet all by herself. She wondered if mommy would let her sleep in her room for a while when she got home, because she didn't like being alone anymore, not after this closet.
"I want mommy." Alana whispered as tears started falling from her eyes. She didn't know why the mean lady had taken her or why she was so angry at her mommy but Alana knew that her mommy would find her, she was really smart. "I miss you mommy, I love you." Alana whispered into the darkened closet and then she pulled her knees to her chest and started to rock back and forth, hoping the mean lady would unlock the door and let her out of there soon.
Booth leaned against the wall as he studied Brennan. She was going over every piece of evidence they had been able to find about Heather Taffet AKA The Gravedigger. Booth knew that she was desperate for something to lead them to their missing daughter, and he couldn't blame her one bit. He was desperate as well, he had only seen pictures or heard Bones tell him stories of his daughter, and he was anxious to meet her and tell her that her daddy loved her and would protect her always. He knew that Brennan was waiting for him to yell at her or tell her that he hated her or that this was all her fault but as a Federal Agent, he knew that kids got kidnapped a lot and the parents always beat themselves up thinking there was something they could have done differently to save them, and as an agent with the FBI he knew that wasn't true. He also knew that a mother will always blame herself in this type of situation and so he had to find a way to use logic to show his new wife that she couldn't have saved their daughter from Taffet, if he only knew how to do that.
"Bones." Booth said softly as he walked over to her.
"What?" Brennan asked as she met his eyes, and he could see the fear and the guilt shining in them.
"This isn't your fault and no one blames you. We have to work together and we need to keep ourselves from falling apart, for Alana." Booth said, hoping this would help her focus on the task at hand.
"I know. I really am sorry you know." Brennan said as she leaned against the table.
"I know you are Bones." Booth said giving her a gentle smile. "Now, wife, how about we try and find our missing princess?" He said as he widened his smile and was glad to see her crack a small smile. It was a start, now they really had to get down to it and he prayed that there was something in this mess of things that would lead them to the evil crazy woman who now held something so very precious to him. He prayed that there was an answer and that they got Alana back alive and unharmed, because as an agent he knew the statistics and that was what frightened him the most.
