Author's Note: Okay, so I'm a horrible updater. Alright? Happy now? Just kidding. Seriously though, I'm sorry its taken me so long to post this chapter. Life is crazy right now, but I'll try to do better (you can roll your eyes here). Thanks for all the reviews to the last chapter, as always you guys are great and I appreciate it when you take the time to let me know what you're thinking. Okay, I don't think there's anything special I have to tell you about this chapter, hopefully you haven't forgotten what's happened so far...oh, and as a side note, I am going to try to move the case along. I got caught up in what were supposed to be my subplots and now I'm realizing that we're in chapter thirteen with a ways to go...sorry about that. :-) Leave me some hate mail if makes you feel better. :-) Okay, read now.

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Temperance was frozen in place, staring at her best friend. "When you say 'pregnant'…"

"I mean 'pregnant'. Lamaze class. Decorating in blue and pink. Stretch marks. No dates for eighteen years. Pregnant." Angela rubbed her hands over her face.

Temperance nodded mutely to Angela's words, her brain reeling from the news. "Oh."

Angela exhaled a heavy sigh. "Yeah."

"Who…?"

"Does it matter?"

"I'm sure it will to him."

Angela sighed again.

"So I guess that means that he doesn't know yet?"

"No."

"When are you planning on telling him?"

Angela shrugged, her eyes fixed on the floor. "I don't know," she mumbled.

Temperance shook her head. "This isn't something that's just going to go away, Ange. Whoever he is, you need to tell him."

"I know." Her voice was soft.

There was a beat of silence before Temperance spoke again. "How long have you known?"

Angela shrugged. "Technically only since this afternoon. I've suspected it for a while, but I only took the test today."

"So, when you kept saying that you weren't sick…"

"Yeah."

"Ah."

The gravity of the situation settled over them like a heavy summer storm cloud. "What am I going to do, Tempe?" Angela's voice was weak, almost pleading. It was a tone Temperance wasn't used to.

"It's going to be okay, Ange. It's a baby, not a disease."

Angela pushed herself off the couch, nervously pacing around the room. "Exactly! A disease I could deal with. You get medicine, you stay in bed, and it eventually goes away, but this…this is a person! I have a whole other person in me! A person who is completely helpless and who is going to expect me to take care of them! I don't know how to take care of a baby! I mean, how am I going to handle this financially? I have to work, but if I have a kid how am I going to raise it and have a job too? What about relationships? I can't just date anymore, oh no, because now I have someone else's feelings to be sensitive to! Not to mention the fact that most guys are going to run screaming for the hills when they hear that I have a kid! What do I do when it starts crying? How am I going to know what it needs? What about when it starts school? How am I going to pay for it to go to college? How am I going to…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down!" Temperance said, raising her hands in the air. "College? I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself here. As far as the financial question goes, a lot of children are raised in single parent homes. It can be done. Not to mention the fact that you have friends who are going to help you. Also, you're going to be an amazing mother! Sure, right now it's scary, but when the baby is here you'll figure out how to take care of it." Temperance rested her hands on Angela's upper arms, forcing her to stand still. "You don't have to do this alone, Ange. We're going to be here for you."

Angela's eyes became glassy with tears. She inhaled a shaky breath and then whispered, "I'm scared."

"It's okay to be scared."

Angela gave an almost imperceptible nod in response.

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Angela ended up spending the night at Temperance's that night, and the two stayed up late talking. Although the topic at the forefront of their minds was Angela's pregnancy, they talked about anything and everything else. At about 3:30am, both women finally fell asleep.

Temperance was jogging through the Jeffersonian. Although she recognized the hallways and corridors, they all seemed impossibly long, as if they had been stretched. Although Temperance could feel her feet striking the floor, it seemed as though she was making no progress.

Eventually, she managed to get to her office. When she came to the door, she realized that she didn't remember why she had been running to get here. She was short of breath as she pushed open the door.

When she looked into her office, she froze. Slumped in her desk chair was Zach, his eyes wide open but lifeless, seeing nothing. Upon seeing his dead body, Temperance began to shriek, recoiling from the room. She slammed the door and began to run again, this time running towards the examination rooms. The Jeffersonian was dark and for a moment she felt afraid that she would lose her way.

She managed to arrive at the examination rooms and entered to find the tables already lit with bodies laid out on top of them. She approached with caution, the image of Zach now just a distant thought in her mind. When she reached the first table, she froze again. Laid out before her was Hodgins, his body lifeless, a rope tightly wound around his throat.

She looked at the next table, which seemed wider than usual, and on this she saw Angela, her arms and legs splayed at unnatural angles, blood seeping from some unseen wound. Beside her lay the miniature form of a baby, also lifeless and unmoving.

Temperance wanted to scream, but she found that she had no voice. She wanted to run, but felt as though she didn't have the energy. Instead she began slowly stepping back, willing her eyes to stop staring at the corpses.

"It's a shame, isn't it?"

Temperance turned her head sharply to find Booth walking toward her.

She nodded. "What happened?"

Booth cocked his head, looking at her. "What had to happen. What you had to do."

Temperance just stared at him.

"Hatred." He spoke the word as if it explained something. He reached out then and stroked her hair. When his hand trailed over her cheek, she felt it, cold and dead. His eyes remained focused on hers, not blinking. Without a word, he pulled out a gun and handed it to her. She felt its weight in her hand, and she stared at him questioningly.

"It's easier to love a memory. The dead don't surprise you." He smiled then, a strange, wicked smile that did not look like Booth at all. She saw then the white pallor of his skin, the loss of color in his usually vibrant eyes. "But now that you've killed us all, who will love you back?" He turned his back to walk away from her, and she saw the gunshot wound in his back. And in that second, it flooded back to her. She had killed them all. She had murdered them one by one.

"Booth!" she yelled. When he turned back to look at her, she leveled the gun at his face. "Save me." And with that she pulled the trigger and watched as the metal bullet rocketed toward him…

"NOOO!" Temperance screamed, sitting bolt upright in bed. She was breathing heavily and bathed in a cold sweat.

"What, what?" Angela exclaimed, roused suddenly from her slumber. Confused and frightened by Temperance's outburst, she struggled to wake up in the early dawn light. "What happened? What's going on? What's wrong?"

Temperance's breath was ragged as she looked at Angela, her brain frantically unscrambling her dream from reality. Angela was here. She was fine. She wasn't at the Jeffersonian. A dream. Just a dream.

Angela gazed into Temperance's frozen expression. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

Temperance sucked in a deep breath of air. "Nothing," she answered, willing her heart to slow. "Just…just a dream."

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Angela left around 10:30 the next morning and Temperance spent some time straightening up her house and paying a few stray bills. She tried to ignore the nagging realization in her mind that the case seemed to be getting to her. The case couldn't be getting to her. She had a job to do. Shaking her head to dispel the graphic images, she continued on with her day, desperately trying to forget the pictures her mind had generated.

At about 2:00 that afternoon, there was a knock on Temperance's door. She put down the book that she had been reading and crossed over to answer it. When she pulled it open, she was greeted by the sight of Booth and Parker, dressed in blue jeans, tee shirts, and baseball caps.

"HI!" Parker exclaimed loudly.

Mildly surprised by their presence, Temperance glanced down and addressed the young boy. "Hello, Parker, how are you?"

"I'm thirsty. Can I have a drink?"

"Parker…" Booth's voice warned.

"Can I please have a drink thank you?"

Booth sighed, and Temperance had to smile. "Of course you can. Come in and I'll get you something."

She stepped aside so the two men could enter the apartment, Parker bursting through the doorway with unbridled energy and Booth stepping in at a more normal pace, his eyes fixed on his son.

"Parker, calm down," he said to the young boy who was happily pulling on his leg.

"C'mon, I'm thirsty!" the boy insisted.

Booth gave Temperance a lazy grin. "Sorry. Do you mind if I grab him some water?"

Temperance laughed slightly. "Sure, help yourself."

The three made their way to the kitchen where Temperance grabbed a glass and a bottle of water for Parker. Satisfied with the drink, he settled into a seat at the table.

"Sorry," Booth said again, keeping one eye on the boy.

"No problem," Temperance answered. "How goes the male bonding?"

"I fed a duck!" Parker announced.

Booth smiled. "Catch didn't seem to hold his interest as long as I thought it would."

"So now he's decided to be a veterinarian?"

"There was an old lady in the park. She smelled bad."

"Or maybe he could get a job in public relations," Booth quipped.

"So what brings you guys up here?" Temperance asked, looking at Booth.

"Oh, you know, just thought we'd come by to say hi…"

"Daddy wanted to check on you."

Temperance looked at Booth in surprise. "What?"

"Well, not really to check on you, but just to see how you were doing…"

"Daddy said he wanted to know if you slept. He said sometimes you don't sleep. Sometimes Daddy doesn't sleep but he says it's 'cause he's working. Do you work when your 'sposed to be sleeping?"

"Parker, please drink your water and sit quietly!" Booth said.

Temperance gave him a quizzical glance. "You came to see if I slept well?"

"No, no, I just want to see if you…um, you know…slept well."

"Oh, okay, I see the distinction there." Temperance gave Booth a mildly amused look.

Booth gave her a lopsided smile. "Any new ideas on the case?"

"A few. Not much I can do until I get to the lab tomorrow, though."

He nodded. "I'm going to call Ophelia tomorrow and set up a formal interview. You should probably come with me."

Temperance nodded. "Sure. Just let me know when."

The chatted some more while Parker finished his drink, and when he was done, Booth took the glass and placed it in the sink. He glanced at the container of soda on the counter as he walked past. "Geez, caffeine free and diet? What's the point?"

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The rest of the evening passed without much excitement after Booth left. Despite her nightmares from the previous two nights, Temperance was tired enough that she fell asleep quickly and rested dreamlessly. In the morning, she showered, ate a quick breakfast, and headed back to work.

The Jeffersonian was its usual buzz of Monday morning activity. People darted in all directions, looking for this person or that person, investigating this or that. Temperance pulled on her lab coat first thing and began re-examining the bones from her case.

She examined the markings on her first set of remains and noted that the grooves and ridges could have definitely been caused by repeated blows with an icicle. It seemed that Ophelia's books were fairly accurate in connection with these crimes.

Temperance worked for most of the morning, and when she arrived back at her office she found that she had two messages from Booth. The first told her that he had arranged a meeting with her for later in that afternoon and that, since he had her car, he would pick her up. The second told her that he had been looking into what she may have possibly been doing during her long absence in writing and so far he had found that the records were protected. It seemed that Ms. Stone had spent some time in a mental care facility. Temperance checked her watch. Booth would be arriving for her soon, so she quickly stuck her head in Angela's office to check on her. Booth arrived right on time a few minutes later, and the two sped off for another meeting with the great Ophelia Stone.

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