Chapter 4

This was the third day Booth was sent out to talk to people leaving Brennan in the lab while he went with Agent Perotta to family houses to speak with them about the twins who had been found a week ago. Booth was driving back to a hotel he and Perotta were staying at. They had spent the last two nights there and they were going to spend another two when he got a phone call.

"Booth… I'm a few hours away and I'm not coming home for another two days…... let me call Bones." He waited to seconds before he hung up.

"Trouble at home?"

"More like my son's mother needs to go out of two for a few days and she needs someone to watch him." He said as he pushed speed dial. "Hey, Bones. I need to be out here for another couple days and Rebecca called. Her mom is sick and she needs to leave for a few days. Can you and Jared watch Parker till I get back? Rebecca can drop him off at the lab... thanks, Bones." He smiled as he hung up before calling Rebecca.

"Now to call the ex…. You make too many calls." She said with a small smile as Booth looked at her for a minute.

"I called Bones; she's at the lab with Jared waiting." He said before waiting and hanging up. "Let's hope Jared can be the adult." He sighed with a small chuckle.

_ (Second to last night at hotel)

The lights in the lab were dimed as Brennan walked from her office where she tucked Parker in on the couch to the platform to see if she missed something to help. She sighed as she bent slightly to examine the remains. She started making small notes and going through the x-rays and the lists of trace evidence when she heard someone clear their throat behind her making her turn to look over her shoulder, startled to see a tall man with a muscular build.

"Can I help you?" She asked looking at the man

"Yes. Do you know a Seeley Booth?" Brennan looked at the man for a minute.

"Yes, he's my partner. Why?"

"Then you would know where I can find him?"

"I can pass a long a message." The man stood staring at her making her uneasy.

"Are you married?" She furrowed her eyebrows as she shook her head. "You're boyfriend know that you're working like this? I mean it's three in the morning and you're pregnant."

"I always work strange ours and so does he…." She trailed off. "Who did you say you were?" Before he could answer, they heard a whimper making Brennan leave the platform and run to her office where Parker sat straight up breathing heavy.

"Shh. It's alright." Brenna whispered as she held Parker in his arms as he breathed heavily from a bad dream.

"Another one? This one…."

"This facility is closed for the night. You have no right being in here and if you don't leave I will call security. You have no business finding anything out about my boyfriend, the children, or me. If you have a message for Special Agent Seeley Booth, I suggest you talk to the FBI and leave one there. Because-" She stopped grabbing her belly and groaning in pain.

"Bones!" Parker called making the man look confused. She bent and knelt on the floor as she felt the pain push through her body. "Bones, you okay?" She took a deep breath and tried to speak.

"Call your….. Father." He nodded before he ran over to her desk grabbing her cell phone and hitting the speed dial he knew she had set for his father. He ran back over and grabbed her hand as she tried to breath and the phone continued to ring.

"Booth." He heard his father say sleepily.

"Dad?" Parker responded scared making Booth wake up quickly.

"Parker, it's three in the morning. If you had a bad dream, see if Bones or Uncle Jared will let you sleep with them." He said before he heard a small cry of pain. "Parker?" He asked slightly more worried.

"Dad, you have to come back. Bones sent Uncle Jared home to sleep while she worked a little and then some guy is here-"

"Booth…. His facial markers..." Booth heard Brennan say before he heard his son again.

"Don't take another step." He commanded. "This guy is here and Bones is really hurting and no one is here and…" He started to tear up.

"Alright, buddy. I need you to stay as calm as possible okay? Cause if you get scared then Bones will be scared, and we don't want that right?"

"No."

"Alright, just make sure you stay with her and stay calm. Is that guys still there?"

"Yeah." Parker looked up at the man before tried to move closer to Brennan again as she tried to catch her breath. "Hey! I told you to stay there!" He yelled at the man.

"Parker, I want you to stay on the phone with me okay?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'm going to call someone just stay on the phone and with Bones." He paused before Parker heard his voice again. "Max." He said. "Max, it's Booth… yes I know what time it is. I wouldn't be calling if it wasn't important… just listen. Bones is at the lab doing late night work. Jared went home to sleep and Parker is with her. He said a guy is there and Parker just called me. I think she might be in labor…" He paused. "Parker?"

"Yeah dad?"

"Where is Bones exactly?"

"She's in her office, in front of the couch on the floor. Dad, she's in a lot of pain." He said as his voice shook.

"I know buddy, just hang in there. Is that guy there?"

"No we took off running when he heard you on the phone." The line went silent before Booth could hear Brennan cry out again as another contraction hit. "Dad…" He said

"It's alright buddy." He paused for a second. "Parker said the guy took off….I'm going to try to get a hold of anyone else I can and I'm on my way home… thanks Max."

"Booth." He heard on the phone.

"Hey bones… Just hang in there, you're dads on his way and I'm going to make a few calls on my way there."

"Booth hurry."

"I'm coming." He said softly with a twinge of worry in his voice knowing that the twins were not dew for another six weeks. "It's okay. Put me on speaker and talk to me and Parker." He said before he heard her lay the phone down and grown in pain again. "Okay, I'm going to go get Perotta and we're going to heard right home." He said as they heard banging on the door. "Bones, Parker, hang on a minute." He said before everything went silent.

"It's going to be okay, Bones. Dad will come and he'll make you feel all better." Parker said with a small smile as he held her hand trying to comfort her.

"I know he will. He would never let me or you get hurt." She smiled at him. "You're just like him." She said before she groaned again.

"Parker? Bones?" They heard desperate on the phone again.

"We're here dad."

"Dr. Brennan, how far apart are the contractions?" She heard.

"I can't tell." She said as she tried to catch her breath again.

"Hey Parker, do you see a clock in the office?" He heard Booth say with his voice wavering, full of emotions.

"Yeah."

"Okay I want you to watch the clock. When Bones hurts again start counting until the next time she hurts and tells me how many seconds."

"I'll try." Parker said as Brennan let out another groan and booth heard Parker starting to count before they heard Brennan again. "It's sixty five, dad."

"Okay, bud; I want you to keep doing that okay?"

"Okay."

"Bones…. Just hang in there."

"Please Booth, just hurry up."

"I am Brennan. I'm going as fast as I can. You're dad's on his way and we're all going to be okay."

"They're not due for another six weeks." She said as emotion flooded to her voice.

"It's okay, everything will be okay. You think you can get yourself onto the couch to lie down?" He heard her breathing for a moment and nothing else.

"I…. I think so…." Booth waited as he heard scuffling before he heard Parker talking low and trying to get her comfortable making Booth smile.

"He sounds just like you." Perotta

"He is just like his father." They heard Brennan laugh softly. They talked softly trying to all stay calm before Booth heard another voice.

"Tempe!"

"Max?" Booth asked worried.

"I'm here, Booth." He said as he smiled at Parker who was still sitting on the floor holding Brennan's hand.

"Max, you have to get her to the hospital. They're not due for another six weeks." He told Brennan's father.

"So they're six weeks early, they have all the means to live outside of the womb." Perotta said.

"Booth." He heard Brennan call.

"I'm here, Bones, I'm not hanging up till I get there." He said before he addressed the other agent. "They were diagnosed with a heart defect, one has been able to mature out of it for the most part but we can't tell on the other twin. They need all the time to mature as possible before they are forced to work on their own." Booth said as more emotion and worry seeped into his voice than he wanted to.

"Is that what you two have been hiding?" Max asked and saw Brennan nod. "Then we definitely need to get you moving."

"Parker, I want you to stay on the phone with me okay? Go help Max take Bones to the hospital and I'll talk to you the entire way, until I get there."

"Okay." The little boy said as he started to worry. He watched as Max helped Brennan stand up and they started walking out to the car. "Max is helping Bones to the car."

"Good, good. Open the door for him and help when he needs it."

"Okay." Booth talked to Parker as Max took care of Brennan the entire way to the hospital where they pulled to the entrance and wheeled her in. Max went to park the car while Parker with Brennan. "Okay dad, you're on speaker again."

"Bones, you holding up okay?"

"No, Booth, I…. " She was cut off in pain. "How much longer?"

"I'm about an hour out now." He paused. "Parker, you stay right by her as long as you can. Max?"

"Yeah, I just caught back up with them."

"Could you make some calls while I'm on my way? All you have to do is call Angela and she'll do the rest." He chuckled. After a half hour he could hear the others all showing up. "Ange?"

"I came as soon as I got the call Booth. How far away are you?"

"About forty five minutes, we hit some traffic coming into the city." He said, she could obviously tell her was getting upset with not being able to get to them faster.

"Booth, don't go getting into any accidents or anything. I don't care if you're dying or not I'll wheel you right in here." She smiled when she heard him laugh.

"I know Ange I know." He could hear everyone talking low in the room when he heard a hard cry of pain.

"Seeley, get home." She said making the others look around worried. They knew she never called him by his first name unless something was wrong.

"I'm almost there, Temperance. Just hang on." He said with a voice tinted with worry.

"Where the hell is a doctor when you need one?" Angela started getting very upset with her best friend being in pain. "They need to do something."

"I'm in the parking lot." They heard.

"I'll go meet him." He heard recognizing the voice as his brother's. "Seeley, I'll meet you at the ER entrance."

"Alright, I'll be there in a couple minutes, Bones." He said before he hung up and Jared started on his way to the ER.

"Let's clear out." Max said and watched everyone start to pile out into the waiting room. "I'll be right outside, sweet heart." He said before kissing her forehead. She was left with Parker and Angela who both stood holding her hands. Max smiled as he placed Parker on the side of the bed and left.

"Bones!" They heard as the door opened quickly and he went to her side as fast as he could. He smiled and wrapped an arm around Parker as he flung his arms around his neck. "You did really good buddy, you did really good." He smiled as he pulled back to look at him before glancing at Angela. "I need you to go with Angela and go out to the others." The boy nodded before turning in his place on the bed and hugging Brennan making her smile as she kissed his head. Booth put him on his feet and he walked out with Angela leaving Booth and Brennan alone.

"I'm so glad you made it." She said softly as her head lay back against the pillow.

"I wouldn't miss this for anything. I'm going to stay right beside you." He smiled as she cried out again in pain. "Shh… everything's okay." He said as he wrapped his arms around her. After a few moments, the door opened and a man walked in.

"I'm Dr. Hather and I'm going to be your doctor today." He said walking over. "It seems your doctor is out terribly sick, so I will be standing in." He looked at the file and started reading. "You are the father, correct?"

"Yeah, the twins, they're early, and their hearts-"

"From the file it seems they are thirty four weeks. Plenty old enough to be born."

"Does it also say about the heart conditions?" Booth asked getting more and more worried.

"It says that one has definitely matured while the other has been unknown. We will monitor her progress as the labor goes on and we will keep an eye on the babies hearts, just relax and this will be over before you know it." He walked out leaving the two alone again.

"Booth….." she said, "I found the cause of death to the boys."

"Bones, don't worry about that now." She shook her head.

"They should have been alive….." She said as tears started to run down her cheek.

"Alright, what did you find? I'll tell the others and we'll look into it." He said watching as she breathed quickly.

"Something was inserted into the external acoustic meatus. It was push in on an angle ripping apart the brain and-" She was cut off by another pain making her squeeze his hand. "They were tortured and showed signs of malnutrition. What was done to them was more of a personal thing; I don't think a kidnapper would steal them, torture them and then kill them the way they died." He nodded as he smoothed her hair back.

"Alright, I'll go tell them. You call when you need me." He said and saw her nod before he walked out of the door to see everyone crowded around. "She thinks she found out what happened to the victims."

"What? At a time like this?" Angela asked.

"Like I'm going to tell her no." He said with a smirk. "She said the check the eternal aqueduct something or other."

"External acoustic Meatus?" Wendell asked.

"Yeah that's the one. She said something about being stabbed there."

"Leave it to Brennan to try to solve a case while in labor." Angela rolled her eyes. As Park went to Booth and was talking to him softly. "What did the doctor say?"

"He said they're going to let the labor progress." Booth said not looking happy.

"Hey, Parker, why don't we go get some breakfast?" Asked Padame who had come with Jared.

"Dad, are you hungry too?" He asked looking at Booth.

"No, buddy. You go eat." He said with a smile before Padame led.

"I'll go interrogate and see if I can narrow this down." Perotta told Booth. "If they can find the murder weapon I can narrow down even farther. You have any ideas?"

"Try looking at the family. At sixteen, having twins could be too much, the mother could have snapped. See if you can get anything that's off. Bones said that the bones were weak and malnourished try to get them to admit something to that." Booth said trying to run down everything in his mind.

"I'll lend a hand." Sweets said as he walked over to Perotta. "I might be able to get something."

"Thanks Sweets." Booth said.

"Seeley!" they heard making them look at the closed doors.

"You better get back in there." Angela smiled. "Everything will work out." she smiled as Booth nodded and walked back into the room. "Okay people, Brennan's not going to relax until we solve this so let's get to work and have it done by the time we have two more in the group." Wendell nodded as he turned to leave.

"Hang on Wendell, I'll go with you. There might be something I missed my first time through." Hodgins said. "Call us if anything happens."

"I will." Angela smiled as he kissed her cheek and the two left.

"We'll start working on the suspects." Perotta said as she and Sweets left. Now there only sat Max, Jared, Angela, and Cam in the waiting room, waiting to hear any word from their team or Brennan and Booth.