Hey guys, hopefully this will be a little longer than I have been posting (the chapters seemed really short to me) but just to warn you, I am running low on chapters. Sorry for the cliffie - I kind of forgot I did that. I don't think I meant to, but once I realized I had I couldn't help letting all of you squirm a little. But here is the next update - hope you like!

BTW, in case you didn't notice, this is Pre-Cam (I think - unless there is a part I edited her into) If you like her, okay. I warmed up to her once she and Booth broke up, but she is still my least-favorite character. Sorry if you're pro-Cam & I offend, but I'm a BB girl all the way (unless David Boreanaz is looking for a younger woman (me) who is madly in love with him...) Wowever, it will be Hodgela (sortof, if I can touch it up enough) because what good Bones romance doesn't include Ang being in love?

THANK YOU'S!!!

jadedjaniejones, I am sorry about my typos and that Booth was OOC, but he kind of gets worse as it goes on. It's just the way I ended up writing him - if you don't like it, sorry. I personally could picture him going off on Cullen. I mean, the man shot a clown. Need I elaborate?

But when I write more (the stuff I've posted so far and the next 3-ish chappies have been pre-written months ago) I will think of your comments and will try to bring sexy(Booth)back. Thanks for your comments (And don't worry - he and Cullen will have their battle very soon...)!

KristieM - hey, you totally rock! Thanks for the support!

xXxdallyxXX - Hope you like this chapter- thanks for reviewing!

Boness 57 - Sorry I was mean. I didn't mean to be. But this chappie should make up for it, right : )

Becca Hilpz - Again, I'm sorry about the cliffie! But thanks for the comment about the POV's. Means a lot to me! Your first review for this story was one of the first ones I had ever recieved and I can't even tell you how happy it made me! You totally rock!!!

Elvawen - Just wait; there's more adorable to come!

emmastar - I enjoyed writing that part. It was one of my better moments in this story. Glad you liked it!

shadyrenee - Hopefully I'll keep your attention & my story will be good (keep your fingers crossed that I'll be able to finish it someday! My muses are vacationing on this story right now)

pagan-seijou - Thanks for the comments!

jemb - Your review was really helpful - I changed the summary and it looks like more people have checked my story out! Thanks for the tip and the nice comments

fortune kookie 91- I'll update soon (I promise) and hopefully Tempe will stay in character throughout. Booth, admitably, is kinda OOC (which I already said would get worse before it gets better - but he will get better). Hope you like it and keep R&Ring!

ALL OF YOU, PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING!!!

BOOTH POV

As soon as I arrive at the hospital I flash my badge at the receptionist and run up the stairs to the floor Bones is being kept on, pulling my gun and motioning for the two agents I managed to convince to come with me to do the same. Sam Ford and Matt Valencia both give me a nod with their guns already out. We rush out of the stairwell and I kick open Bones' door. The first thing I see is a scarlet stain covering the linoleum, touching the hem of the green curtain pulled around Bones' bed. I glance around and see Hodgins slumped over in a chair, two empty cups and a puddle of coffee on the floor, mingling with the thick red pool. There is blood on his shirt and splattered on the light yellow walls of Tempe's room. With another nod to Sam and Valencia, I pull away the curtain, gun drawn. The bed is empty of everything but Angela's cell phone. The shiny surface and the crisp white sheets around it are smeared with blood.

"Booth, what the hell went on here?" Sam asks behind me, returning her gun to her holster after she scopes out the room and checks Hodgins for a pulse. Valencia slips out to go find a doctor as I dial Cullen.

"Cullen, its Booth. You have a very big problem. My partner, Dr. Brennan, is missing from her hospital room. The last time I heard from her squint protectors, someone was giving them trouble. Now one of the squints is missing and the other is sitting on the other side of the room as me, looking to be unconscious and covered in blood. Now are you going to sit there and tell me you understand I feel overprotective of her but that she's not in any danger?!" I don't even hear his response, interrupting to tell him where I am and that I have two agents with me. He mentions something about calling Dr. Goodman and having him send down some squints to squint. I hang up in the middle of some speech about how we'll get this sick pervert.

Sam meets my eyes and I can see the pity in them.

"Booth…" she starts but trails off.

"If you're going to say I need to put my feelings in a little box and concentrate on getting the job done…"

"Not what I had planned, but if that works for you… I was gonna say that you really like this girl, don't you?"

"Angela? Yeah. She helps on cases and she's only part squint." I respond, knowing who she's asking about but playing dumb. There are too many thoughts in my head to talk about Bones right now.

"Seeley." She gives me one of those looks only women can give that make men feel about 2 inches tall.

"I-can we focus on the case?" I say, trying to get her to drop it, seeing as Valencia has reentered the room with a doctor in tow. She holds her hands up in the "okay, I'm backing off" gesture but her face says we'll end up talking about it later. The doc checks Hodgins out and brings in a wheelchair to transport him while disturbing the crime scene as little as possible. Sam leaves with Hodgins to see if she can get a statement from him after they remove the bullet. I glance at Valencia. "Did you talk to any docs on this floor?"

"Yeah. There were two nurses on duty. Nobody heard a thing. Apparently Nurse Number 1 has a boyfriend on the ground floor and was visiting him for a lesson in safe sex and Nurse Number 2 was at the nurses station around the corner and is a little on the deaf side so Granny just thought your girlfriend had her TV on too loud." Ignoring the girlfriend comment, we both glance at the TV set in Tempe's room. There's a bloody fingerprint on the off/on button and a red smiley face drawn on the screen. I can feel rage building up in me.

"Goddamn him!" I smash a fist into the wall just as Zach Addy, squint-in-training walks in followed by Dr. Goodman. I think I scare Squint Jr. since he jumps about a foot in the air and ends up slipping in the blood on the floor and falling into Dr. Goodman who catches him without missing a beat. The kid stands up with a grossed-out-but-trying-to-look-professional expression on his face as he glances down and sees what he slipped in. He turns a whole shade paler than his usual squinty-self but he sets his jaw and kneels next to the blood, snaps on a pair of latex gloves, and begins to take samples, not glancing at me but offering a muttered hello. I ignore him but nod at Bones' boss, not even registering how unusual it is to see Dr. Daniel Goodman, head of the Jeffersonian Medico-Legal lab, outside his office and in a recovery jacket opposed to his usual suit and tie.

"Agent Booth, what do we know?" He asks as he returns the nod and gloves up. His jaw muscles flexing are the only sign of his emotional state. I clench my stinging fist and concentrate on breathing, giving Goodman and Zach what I know and a theory or two. As I do Valencia paces in the hallway on his cell phone, having left the moment the squints arrived. Matt's a friend from Quantico but doesn't handle squints well. Something about how even when they're crouched down looking at some bone or bug or something they can still manage to look down their nose at you. Valencia's not the sharpest crayon in the box but is a good agent and loves his work...which brings me back to Bones. Bones, who works every weekend and stays at the lab more than at her apartment. Bones, who won't eat for days she gets so focused on a case. Bones in her lab coat. Bones, at her mother's grave. Bones, crouched over her computer, writing another chapter about me for her next book. Her next book she may not survive to see published.

I get a weird tightness in my chest when I think about her, about whoever took her and what he did to those girls…what he could even now be doing to Angela…to Bones… My blood begins to boil again and I stalk out of the room to pace the hallway with Valencia and think without Zach cowering from me and sympathy and worry oozing from Dr. Goodman. On what seems like my 100th pass I turn and bump into Sam. She smiles a little and the chest pain is back. She looks like Bones when she's working when she smiles like that. I try to smile in return but the grimace that's been on my face the last few weeks we've been looking for this guy refuses to retreat. She touches my arm lightly, lending her support, as she leads me to a couch outside Bones' room. She sits. I stand.

"Dr. Hodgins is a little strange. He started spouting off conspiracy theories about how there must have been tons of them out for revenge over a case they worked, or out to get him or scare him through her or something. I don't know who he was talking about. I'm assuming he meant the Doctor or Montenegro. All I got before the pain meds kicked in was that he heard a male voice as he came into the room from a coffee run. He saw a blonde guy in a lab coat and Angels looking scared so he threw the coffee at the guy right as he turned around. He didn't get a good look at the face, but he thinks he got the guy's hand with the coffee. But from there things got kinda hazy 'cause, well, he got shot. But Booth, he also said…" I stop pacing in front of her as she pauses. "He said Dr. Brennan was calling your name." My chest hurts. More than is should. I think the lights are going out because the hospital's getting dimmer and dimmer and for a second I think I can see Bones. I suck in a deep breath and drop on to the couch, cradling my head in my hands as Sam rubs my arm as I blink back tears.

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