Chapter Five: The body under the table

Tempe and Booth were seated at a table at one of Brennan's favourite Italian restaurants and were sipping their beers and talking when Tempe got a phone call. She hated receiving calls when she was off duty, she just wanted to be left alone, some people have a nerve, she thought to herself, don't they have a life too. She apologised to Booth and took the call. Booth was tossing the salad around his plate with his fork, trying not to listen to Tempe's conversation, but he couldn't help himself, he tuned in.

He thought she always sounded so professional on the phone; he liked professional women, why was it that he was always attracted to professional women, I don't know, he said to himself. Then his interest piked, there was something in Brennan's voice that sounded shocked. She hung up and turned her attention to Booth with a scared and wide- eyed look on her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked her. Something didn't seem right.

"There's a—" she paused, her voice shaken with fear. She tried to speak again "Booth, there's a bag underneath this table with a corpse inside"

Something about what she just said didn't seem right.

"A body? Well why don't you take a look?" suggested Booth. But something about what Brennan said still seemed unusual to him.

Then Brennan told him the rest of the message. When Booth heard this, his jaw literally dropped to the table.

Brennan told him that under the table where they were seated there was a gym bag with a corpse inside. And strapped to the corpse, was a bomb, with a timer that had ten minutes left on the clock and was slowly ticking down second by second. Both Brennan and Booth couldn't get up from the table otherwise the bomb will explode, and they couldn't ring for help, otherwise the bomb will go off also. They were stuck, helpless. But Tempe had a plan.

Meanwhile, at Jack Hodgins' apartment, he and Angela were reclining on the couch talking about the things they had in common, work was one of those. Angela told him she admired his interest in bugs and fungi and weird stuff like that. Jack told Angela he loved her sketches and thought she was the best, most talented artist he's ever seen. Angela was flattered by his compliments and thanked him with a kiss.

Back at Antonio's, the Italian pizza and pasta restaurant where Booth and Brennan we're being held hostage by a corpse with a bomb strapped to it, Tempe was figuring out a plan. Even though she or Booth couldn't ring for backup, they could talk and tell the restaurant staff what was going on.

"We have to get them out of here Booth" Tempe told him

"Well I don't wanna cause panic, which would just make the situation worse" Booth stated.

"But we've got no other choice Booth!"

"Ok" he said at last. He gathered up his strength and spoke, he was equally as scared as Tempe was, but he had to be brave if he was going to get him and Brennan out of this alive.

"Excuse me everyone, can I have your attention please" he tried to carry his voice out over the noise of their fellow restaurant diners, but it was no use, no one even looked up. He tried again, this time doing what he loved to do to get someone's attention.

"Hopefully this'll work" He said to Brennan. He pulled out his gun from his ankle holster and shot it up in the air at the ceiling.

Brennan was shocked. She hated when he did that. That was such a Booth thing to do, she thought.

"Booth!" she gave him a 'you idiot' glare

"what? Maximum impact" he told her.

That was just like Booth, Tempe thought to herself.

He spoke.

"excuse me, FBI" he shouted

People looked up when they heard the gun shot followed by someone shouting FBI.

"I knew that would get their attention" he said to Brennan.

"Smooth" she replied.

"Listen, I'm sorry for interrupting your dinner, but I want you all to listen very carefully and don't panic ok, there is a bag with a bomb in it, underneath our table. We can't get up and we can't call for help. If we do that, it explodes and we all die. So that's where you come in" he told them.

There was silence in the restaurant, followed by whispers among people, and the odd "oh my God" or "God help us". Booth even saw people praying. Then he got questions fired at him as quickly as his gun went off.

"So what do you want us to do?" asked a man in his sixties.

"Well at the moment, my partner and I are just waiting for further instructions. We'll let you know ok" Booth told them.

Just as Booth finished his sentence, Tempe's cell phone rang. It was the same person who told them the news of the corpse with the bomb. She listened intently. She didn't say anything back to the person on the other end, she just listened. Booth was growing anxious, he wanted to talk to the bastard who had put himself and the woman he loved in harm's way, but Brennan hung up.

"Well?" he asked, his patience was growing thin, when he found the son of a bitch who had done this, he was gonna send him to hell, he thought to himself. Brennan spoke. What she told him made all the hairs on his body stand up on end and a shiver run up and down his spine.

"No one can leave this restaurant; otherwise the bomb will go off" she told him.

"so you're saying that if people start walking out that door, we all die?"

"Yep" she replied

"Then how would the bomb maker know if and when people leave the restaurant?" Booth asked. This situation seemed weird. But Booth was determined to get to the top of this. Then Brennan told him something that made him even more agitated.

"He's in this restaurant"

Meanwhile back at Jack's, him and Angela were settling down on the couch to watch a horror film, one of Jack's favourites, House of Wax, the original version. Jack hated the re-make. Angela hated horror films all together, she wanted to watch a romance film like The Notebook, one of her favourites, but Jack had talked her into watching a horror film. One of the reasons Angela agreed to it was because she wanted to see if Hodgins was gentleman enough to cuddle her when she got scared. She wondered what Tempe and Booth were up to on their date, knowing Booth, she thought, they were probably at a sleazy motel in bed already, she smiled to herself. But Jack saw her smile.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked her, looking back from putting the DVD in the player.

"oh I was just thinking about Tempe and Booth on their date" she told him, looking back at him from the couch.

"Booth's probably touched second maybe even third base already"

"Nah, not with Tempe he won't, she knows how to control him. They're probably still at the restaurant" Angela said.

She was right, Brennan and Booth were indeed still at Antonio's, and Booth was still super frustrated. They hadn't even ordered their meals yet, which was a good thing, thought Tempe.

"I'm so sorry about this, tonight was meant to be perfect, and look at it now" Booth said. Tempe could tell he was annoyed, not just annoyed, very annoyed.

"Hey, we didn't know this was gonna happen, so you can't blame yourself" Tempe told him.

"I know, but…" Booth was so frustrated he couldn't finish his sentence, but Tempe knew what he was going to say.

"It's ok. As long as we get thought this in one piece, it'll be ok" she told him, trying to reassure him, but it didn't work.

"In one piece", the phrase kept circling round his head. He began having visions of being blown up and not being able to see or kiss or hold Tempe ever again, or his son, Parker, the thought haunted his mind. He shook it off, and then gazed at Tempe. She was frantically looking around the restaurant, trying to find the bomber, the mastermind behind the crazy situation they were in right then. Booth knew it could be anyone, of any race and colour, but bomb makers were usually intelligent.

Some of their fellow diners and now fellow hostages were growing as much impatient as Booth was.

"What do we do sir?" asked a young woman, this question was just one of many.

"Just sit tight and be calm" he told them, but he was just as scared as they were.

Booth drew his attention back to Tempe, she was staring towards the back of restaurant, he followed her gaze, to a man in an expensive looking suit, quite young, he looked of European decent and he was staring right back at Brennan. At that moment, Booth knew they had found their bomb mastermind.