She opened her eyes as the car swerved again.
"Fuck!" Booth swore.
"Booth!" she said, slowly lifting her head.
"Keep your head down." He growled.
She gripped her knees with her hands and pressed her head into her lap. In any other circumstance, she would have challenged him, but the fear in his voice scared her to her core. The shooting had stopped, she knew that much for sure, so she was fairly certain that the car wasn't beside them anymore. Now it seemed all they had to do was outrun them.
She heard police sirens in the distance and knew they were in trouble. The car swerved to the right suddenly and she let out a yelp of surprise. They bumped along a gravel road and her stomach lurched precariously.
Finally after what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a few short minutes, they came to a stop. Before she could lift her head up she found her seatbelt unbuckled and Booth's arms around her, pulling her into his lap.
Lifting her head, she looked around briefly and noticed they were in a grassy clearing. There was no sign of the other car. She turned to him and they stared at each other, both of their eyes filled with unshed tears.
And then his lips were on hers, first soft and gentle but then it quickly turned hard and passionate. She kissed him back fervently, their salty tears wetting both their faces. She wanted to kiss him forever, crawl inside of him and stay there in his embrace forever.
Panting they pulled apart, their foreheads resting against each others. Each unable to stop their deep breathing nor the tears that were still rolling down their faces. They were both trembling furiously.
"I thought…I was scared." Booth admitted, pulling her to him until her head was nestled in the crook of his neck. He wrapped his arms around her and breathed in her scent, knowing with every fibre of his being that he was never going to let her go, as long as he lived.
"Me too." She replied, her words muffled by his chest.
"Temperance, I love you." He said.
She sat up and looked at him surprised.
"You…you do?" she asked. "Even after everything I did?"
He nodded and tried not to wince. The adrenaline rush he had been on was waning down and he was left with a painful throbbing in his arm.
"I love you too." She replied, the tears beginning again as she kissed him on the lips once more. She shifted her position and accidentally bumped his arm, causing him to cry out.
"Oh god, your arm." She said, quickly moving off his lap and back onto her seat. "Let me see."
As he leaned forward to show her, he began to feel dizzy and rapidly blinked his eyes, trying to focus.
She pulled off his suit jacket and saw the blood staining his white dress shirt. Her breath hitched as she realized how much blood there was. Ripping off his shirt, she examined the wound.
He had been shot in the arm, the bullet still embedded there. A quick assessment of the situation made her realize that they needed to get to a hospital right away.
"Booth!" she said, looking up and realizing that he was slipping in and out of consciousness. "Where is the car? What happened? Why aren't they following us?"
"Lost 'em." He said softly. "I think the cops got them."
"Okay, well then I need you to move over to my seat so I can drive the car okay? We need to get you to a hospital."
He nodded and shifted his way over to her seat as she got out of the vehicle and made her way around to the drivers side.
As they sped along the highway, Brennan was focused on two things. Making sure her partner got to the hospital on time and making sure that no one was chasing them. This caused her to constantly turn her head from Booth to the rear view mirror, to the front of the road and back to Booth again. They entered Washington and she manoeuvred past all of the traffic towards Washington General.
Five minutes later they were there, and just in time. Booth had passed out minutes before and despite her shouting at him, she couldn't wake him. She pulled up in front of the emergency doors, leapt out of the car and ran inside.
"I need your help." She shouted. "My partner's been shot. He's in the car."
A doctor ran towards her and they made their way outside to the car.
"How long has he been unconscious?" he asked.
"Five to eight minutes." She replied.
"Can I get a gurney?" the doctor shouted, checking over Booth's vitals. "It looks like he has lost a lot of blood but if we remove the bullet from the shoulder he should be okay."
She nodded and watched as they put Booth on the gurney and rushed him inside. She opened the driver's side door but couldn't get in the car. There was his blood everywhere, on his seat, her seat, some dotting the cup holder in between.
"Ma'am? Ma'am, I need you to move your vehicle."
She shook her head. "Sorry what?" she asked, realizing that there was a paramedic standing next to her.
"I need you to move your vehicle." He repeated. "We have ambulances coming in."
"Okay." She said, sliding into the driver's seat, trying to ignore the blood that was seeping through her pants. She pulled around and parked and then shakily pulled out her phone and dialled a number.
"Bren, what's up?" Angela answered cheerily.
"I'm at the hospital with Booth." She replied.
"Oh my god, what happened?" Angela said loudly.
"We were shot at, it's a long story. I need you do to me a favour?" she said, ignoring Angela's gasps.
"Bren, are you okay?" Angela said concernedly.
"I'm fine, but there isn't time for this right now. I need Hodgins to drive to Booth's apartment and get Russ. I can't explain right now but he could be in danger. Get Hodgins to tell Russ to bring everything he brought to Washington with him. Then I want him to take Russ back to the lab and stay there with you."
"Stay here?" Angela asked.
"Yes, I need the whole team to stay there, please."
"Brennan, tell me what is going on right now." Angela said.
"I can't talk over the phone." She replied. "Once they get the bullet out of Booth's shoulder we will be there. Just don't leave okay?"
"Okay sweetie." Angela said softly.
"Thanks Ange." She replied. "I have to go, I will be there as soon as I can."
She hung up the phone and immediately dialled another number.
"Cullen, this is Dr. Brennan." She said, once he had picked up. "I'm at the hospital with Booth, we were chased and he was shot. He's going to be okay, they are going to remove the bullet from his shoulder."
"Did you find answers?" Cullen asked.
"Yes we did, but I can't discuss it right now." She replied. "We should be at the lab within the next couple of hours."
She said her goodbyes and headed into the hospital.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was almost three hours by the time they left the hospital, under great protest by the doctors and nurses. Both Brennan and Booth ignored them though and soon they were speeding along in the car, headed towards the Jeffersonian.
"Everyone's there." She said, looking over at Booth. "Are you sure you're okay?"
He nodded. "I won't lie, it hurts like hell. But I will be fine."
"Okay." She said softly, pulling into the Jeffersonian parking lot. She parked the car but neither of them moved.
"What if he doesn't have it?" she asked.
"The tape?" he said. "He's got it. Your dad would make sure of that."
"I miss him." She said quietly.
He reached across with his good arm and stroked her cheek.
"I know you do. Now let's go get the evidence to solve his murder okay?"
She chuckled. "Okay."
They headed inside the Jeffersonian only to find it practically empty.
"They must be in Angela's office." She said, as they moved towards it. Hearing voices within, she knew she was right.
She opened the door and there was instant confusion. Angela immediately rushed over and hugged her and tried to hug Booth as well. Hodgins and Cullen both started talking at once and Cam finally had to whistle to get their attention.
"So?" Cullen asked, once everyone had settled down.
"Louis Pickard." Booth said simply.
"The Director?" Cullen said incredulously. "And you have proof for this how?"
"Marshall said that Pete told him that he was working with an FBI agent named Lou. Marshall came to believe that it was Louis Pickard, apparently because of some mannerisms that Pete described. He said there was a tape."
"So where's the tape?" Cullen asked. "Because we cannot accuse the Director of the FBI without a tape."
"Russ has got it." Booth replied.
"No I don't." Russ said.
"We think Dad gave it to you." Brennan said. "Hid it somewhere in your things. That why I said you should bring them."
"That's why Dad told me to come to Washington." Russ replied.
"Yeah. Max knew we would figure it out eventually, that's why he just didn't give you the tape. He was trying to protect you." Booth said.
"Let's get started then." Cam said.
Russ put his suitcase on the table, along with his small duffel bag and everyone started to look through his things. Everyone except Hodgins, who stood still in his position.
"Hodgins? Jack?" Angela said, waving her hand over his face. "You okay?"
"Sorry I am just trying to process the fact that we are uncovering what is the biggest U.S. government conspiracy ever. I mean Watergate's got nothing on this. Please, please tell me I can leak this story to my internet friends." Hodgins said animatedly.
"Absolutely not." Booth replied, rifling through Russ's suitcase.
After a few minutes, nobody found anything.
"Well there goes that plan." Booth said.
Brennan slumped her shoulders in disappointment. She was sure the tape would have been here. Where else would have Dad put it, if not with Russ?" Suddenly she realized where it was.
"Mom!" she shouted. Everyone looked at her strangely.
"Tempe, what?" Russ asked.
"The tape's with Mom."
"How can the tape be with Mom?" Russ asked. "She's…"
"The cemetery." Booth interrupted. "He left it at the cemetery."
"You said he would go to any lengths to protect us." Brennan said. "If that is true then its highly unlikely that he would have left the tape with Russ."
"But we exhumed her, remember?" Cam noted. "The tape could be anywhere."
"Zach, you check the body, I will go to the cemetery to see if I can find anything." Brennan said.
"Okay let's go." Booth said.
"You can't. Booth, your arm." She protested.
"If you think after what happened today that I am letting you out of my sight, then you are wrong." He said firmly.
She sighed. "We will be back."
The others nodded and Booth and Brennan made their way out to the car again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
She had reached her mother's headstone and after snapping on a pair of latex gloves, she searched around for the tape in vain.
"It's not here." She said, frustrated.
"Yes it is." Booth replied, leaning down next to her. "We just have to dig a little deeper."
"Booth, it's a gigantic hole. How can we dig deeper?"
"It's just a meta…nevermind." Booth replied. "Let's just focus on the area around the headstone itself." He shone his flashlight across the front of the headstone and then around to the back. He was about to move on when he saw it.
At the back of the headstone, on the far right corner was a piece that was different from the rest. It looked as if it had been puttied on and painted to match the colour of the stone.
"Found something." He said, getting Brennan's attention. "See here. Which part is different from the rest?"
She reached down and touched the puttied area. Reaching into her pocket and pulling out a swiss army knife, she hacked away at the stone until a tiny piece of plastic appeared. She continued scraping away at it until finally she was able to wiggle the piece of plastic out.
Holding it up to the light, she looked at Booth and smiled.
It was the tape.
A/N: How's that for a make up kiss? Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. I am sad that this will be soon coming to an end, but I hope you have enjoyed!