Disclaimer: They're not mine. As I said. Multiple times.
Hello everybody and welcome back. As promised, this update comes way quicker than the last one. Thanks for all your reviews, I was very happy that there are still some readers left.
Let's have Chapter 11! Oh, by the way – I used two Spanish sentences in here. As I don't speak ANY Spanish at all, please correct me if I (or this strange translating program I used) messed up. Thanks!
Brennan and Angela arrived at the FBI headquarters after a fast and very silent car ride. While Angela had tried to keep up a conversation, she soon noticed that Brennan was so totally lost in her thoughts that there was no use to it.
They entered the building and quickly made their way to the fourth floor, where they met Cullen. He seemed surprised.
"Dr. Brennan. Miss Montenegro. I didn't expect to see the both of you here so soon."
Brennan looked right past him, trying to catch a glimpse of the interrogation room.
"Is he in there?" she asked, even forgetting to greet Cullen properly.
Angela smiled apologetically.
"Hi, Deputy Director. I'm sorry, but when we heard that a suspect was caught, we couldn't wait to come here. I hope you don't mind. "
Cullen seemed a little bit confused, and was pretty much taken by surprise. Brennan took advantage of the situation and didn't hesitate to walk past him, up to the interrogation room.
Cullen sped after her, but didn't attempt to stop her, just accompanied her inside. He probably knew he couldn't stop her anyway.
Angela chuckled. Brennan's determination was sensational and admirable. She decided not to disturb and took a seat outside the room, clutching a manila folder containing a copy of her drawing from the victim.
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Inside the interrogation room, Brennan and Cullen were standing in front of the large two-way mirror that separated them from the suspect. Julio was calmly sitting on the wooden table, staring into the air. His eyes showed no expression whatsoever.
Brennan couldn't take her eyes off the man.
So that was him. They guy that almost killed Booth. She drew a hearable breath.
Cullen finally spoke, while they both kept staring at Julio.
"Dr. Brennan, I'm not quite sure why you want to go in there with him. He won't make a statement. But when we found him, he was carrying a gun which I am pretty sure was the one he used to attack Booth and kill Jose. And there were blood stains on his shirt. We are currently matching the bullets, and trying to find out if it's Jose's blood. If it is, he's done with."
He paused for a second, as if not being sure if he should continue. "He wasn't afraid to use the weapon. He actually tried to shoot Agent Sullivan."
Brennan looked at him in shock. "Sully..." she mumbled. "God, is he alright?"
Cullen nodded. "Oh, yes. The bullet only grazed him very slightly. Nothing major. Don't worry. So, you really want to talk to that bastard?"
Brennan swallowed hard.. "Yes. I need to talk to him. I need closure."
They both entered the the second part of the room. Brennan sat down on the table, facing Julio, while Cullen stood closely behind her.
Brennan looked right into Julio's face. He seemed totally uninterested.
"Julio Dias." she said, trying to look him straight in the eyes. No response.
She continued. "You know why I'm here, don't you?" Still nothing.
Brennan kept talking. "I was there. I watched you shoot my ... partner. I don't know why you did it, but that doesn't matter anyway, does it? He almost died because of you, and I'm only here to tell you one thing." She paused, waiting for a reaction, but Julio kept staring in another direction.
Brennan frowned. Her voice was trembling for a second, but she regained control, and her words sounded determined. "You lost. It's over. You're gonna pay for this, and no one is going to care about you and what happens to you. I won't waste another word on you, Julio. You wanted to break us – but you didn't. The only one who will be broken very soon is you."
With this words, she stood up and turned around to leave. Cullen followed her. Before the door shut behind them, they heard Julio finally speak one sentence:
"Próxima vez que nos encontramos, te mataré y él." – "Next time we meet, I'll kill you and him."
Brennan answered without turning around.
"Esto nunca pasará, you scum." – "That will never happen."
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Meanwhile, Angela sat outside the door, waiting. She nervously tapped her fingers on the folder in her hands, thinking about was happening inside. She knew Brennan as a very rational, calm person, but right now it was probably for the best that Booth had always denied her to have a gun.
Suddenly, a door on the other side of the corridor opened and she saw Sully walking in her direction. He had taken off his shirt and was only wearing a white T-shirt which spotted blood stains all over. He was clutching his arm, on which he had a blood-stained makeshift-bandage. Angela let out a small scream of horror.
"Sully! What the hell happened to you!"
Sully smiled and tried to wave it off. "Don't worry, it's only a scratch. The bullet only grazed me. Looks way worse than it actually is."
He still winced at Angela moved closer and carefully examined the wound.
"My god, Sully. You should be at the hospital." She shook her head in disbelief.
"Believe me, I'm OK. I wanted to accompany Julio, and also the woman that was with him. She is pretty stressed out, poor thing. He must have been very cruel to her. I guess she's the young lady from your photograph."
Angela got excited. "She is? Can I see her? Sully, please, can I talk to her? Maybe she has the answer that we've been looking for. It's been on my mind all the time. I need to see her."
Sully couldn't resist her begging. "Maybe I can arrange it that you talk to her after we..."
They were interrupted when the door behind them opened and Cullen and Brennan suddenly entered the corridor. Sully stopped in the middle of his sentence when he saw his ex-girlfriend. Brennan also seemed taken aback by seeing him. They stood right in front of each other, none of them saying a word.
Angela stepped aside, scratching her head. "Whoops."
Finally, Brennan pulled herself together. "Sully. You... I... you're hurt." She pointed at his blood-stained sleeve.
He nodded. "Yeah. I know. It's nothing, don't worry."
She stared at him. He stared at her.
Cullen made an attempt to end the awkward situation. "Agent Sullivan, your injury needs to be taken care of. I told you to go the emergency room, why are you still here?"
Sully sighed. "I wanted to talk to the woman. She is pretty shaken, I didn't want to leaver her alone."
"She won't be alone, Agent Sullivan. Now go and let yourself get patched up. I'll talk to her."
"I could... I mean, I'm going back to the hospital to see Booth..." Brennan chipped in. "You could come along. Cullen is right." She hesitated, wondering if it was the right thing to suggest.
But Sully gave in. "OK, maybe I should do that. Thanks for offering."
Angela rolled her eyes. All these weeks she had desperately arranged all kinds of things so Sully and Brennan wouldn't be confronted with each other – only to see them end up in one car together. Jack would have a good laugh at her when she would tell him about this.
Sully quickly persuaded Cullen to take Angela along with him when he spoke to Isabel, before he followed Brennan to her car in silence.
Cullen shook his head while walking down the corridor with Angela. He longed for a glass of whisky, his couch and his TV. This whole relationship-disarrangement caused him a headache, and Angela's happily chirping voice was not helping either.
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Temperance Brennan was lost in her thoughts. She was sitting at Booth's bedside yet again, but her mind wandered back an hour ago, when she gave Sully a ride to the hospital. The drive had ended up being a good chance to talk to each other.
Sully had asked her about Booth, and she had told him what had happened in the last two weeks. He had tried to explain why he hadn't come to visit, but she told him not to worry. She understood. And she was thankful he had been so considerate. When she dropped him off at the ER, they both had the feeling that their relationship ended, but there there was no grudge left between them.
Booth watched Bones from the side. He wondered what was going on in her mind. She had not said much since coming back, except telling him briefly about Julio and her encounter with Sully.
Now she had put her head on his shoulder, looking for comfort. He assumed it had all been a little too much for her, and he understood that.
He gently ran his fingers through her thick, auburn hair. "Bones?"
She looked up. "Yes?"
He tenderly ran his index finger down her face, tracing her cheek bones. It made her giggle. He smiled. This woman was incredible. Looking at her made him feel all warm inside.
"Bones, remember how you said you wanted to take some time off? Go on vacation?"
She nodded. "Yes. Well, I think I will have to delay that. I really need to get back to the lab."
Booth smiled. Same old Bones. He pointed at her laptop, which was sitting on the table.
"You've been working from here all the time. And as we both had a pretty hard time in the last two weeks, I say we both need a vacation more than ever."
Bones looked puzzled. "You mean, now?"
He chuckled. "Well, not right now. We have to wait until I'm finally out of here. But I won't be working for a while anyway, we should really spent some quality time at a nice place."
Brennan thought about it. She hadn't been on vacation for such a long time. The days she spent at the hospital with Booth had been the longest time she had been absent from the lab, ever.
Booth continued. "Come on, Bones. What if I say the doctor prescribed it, and I need you as my travel-along-nurse?"
She took his hand and gently kissed him on the cheek. "Then I'd say, whatever the patient needs will be done. It's a great idea, Booth. Let's do it."
Suddenly, there was a soft knock on the door.
Booth looked over. "Come in!"
The door opened slowly and a hesitant Sully came in. The injury on his arm was now professionally bandaged.
He smiled shyly. "Hi. I thought, while I'm here, I might as well finally drop by..."
Booth was happily surprised. "Sully! Man, it's good to see you. How's the arm? Bones told me you got shot."
Sully walked over to the bed. "Only a grazing shot. They said there's no need to amputate."
He grinned. "Looks like you weren't quite as lucky. How are you doing, Booth?"
Booth shrugged. "Well, I'm getting there. Much better all ready."
Bones was happy to see the two of them together. They had been so close friends before, and she had always felt like she had taken that away from them. Maybe everything could be as before?
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Back at the FBI headquarters, Angela was not thinking about the Sully-Bones-dilemma anymore. She was busy. Busy holding a young woman called Isabel, who was crying in her arms. Isabel was shaking all over, sobbing, and the tears were running down her cheek and left wet marks on Angela's shirt.
Cullen felt uncomfortable. He stood in the background of the room, trying not to disturb, as this young Hispanic woman was pouring her heart out to Angela, who was gently patting her back and softly whispering to her, trying to calm her down.
At first, Isabel was very shy and reluctant. But when Angela pulled out her drawing, she broke down in tears. She understood immediately what this meant. Juan wasn't coming to rescue her. He was not coming back ever.
Her voice was trembling as she talked about leaving El Salvador. About what her hopes had been for a better future in the United States. She told them about Jose, who had always been kind to her, but didn't know how cruel his brother Julio would treat the young woman he had agreed to marry to keep her in the country.
And she talked about Juan. The love of her life. The man who she had to leave behind when she left South America, but who had promised to find her, so they could finally have a life together. The life they had both always dreamed of.
She still wept in Angela's arms. Her fingers gently traced the contours of Juan's face on the paper. It was all she had left from him.
Actually, this could be the end, couldn't it? But as I adore my lovely readers, I will give you another chapter with a little epilogue. We need some more love in this cruel world, don't we? ;o)