Title: The Center will Hold
Spoilers: Up to early Season 3
Disclaimer: Not mine. If they were, there would be a shirtless David Boreanaz in every ep. Seriously. Every one.
A/N: For those of you asking for fluff to ensue after the vomit – really gross guys by the way – sorry to disappoint. Well, disappoint on the fluff anyway, but hopefully not with story. I promise I'm a romantic at heart so that should be comforting. This is the last chapter before the conclusion, and as I've said before, thanks so much for the reviews.
"Hey… pretty big shock for you wasn't it?"
Brennan was walking back around the ambulance when she was startled by Sam's voice. For a second she was frozen by the irrational thought that the agent knew the realization she had just come to, prior to her gastronomic eruption.
"Dr. Brennan?"
Temperance shook her head to clear it when the agent repeated her name. It was almost a surprise to realize the question was in reference to the explosion, not the 'I love Seeley Booth' sign she just knew was flashing over her head.
"I'm, um, fine, just fine. All of the adrenaline from the body's fight or flight response rushes the blood and neurotransmitters to the central nervous system and musculature. Once the immediate danger passes, the redistribution of the neurotransmitters such as dopamine, epinephrine, etc. often triggers an emetic response."
Sam just slowly nodded her head as the words rushed out of Brennan. Obviously the woman was shaken – who wouldn't be? And she wasn't the first victim of something like this that threw up. But to hear her clinical description of the event furthered her belief that this woman was…well… odd.
"Yes, I see." Choosing to continue her questioning, she said, "I've already gotten a detailed description of what happened from Agent Booth. But I need to get your statement as well, and then you can get out of here. I'm sure you could use a hot shower and a good night's rest. Let's start with this morning when you parked up here – did you notice anything unusual?"
"Oh God, Bren, are you okay?"
Agent Fletcher had just flipped her notebook closed when Angela arrived, nearly out of breath.
"They wouldn't let me up here until just now, the whole block is closed. I was on my way home from Roanoke at that art festival when Jack called. I've been on the first level for about thirty minutes threatening to call everyone from George Bush to Steven Spielberg."
"Steven Spielberg?" Sam cocked her head to the side. The forensic artist was just a teensy bit unusual, exactly what she expected from any member of Brennan's team.
"Long story. But instead of calling Steven, I finally got through to Booth and they let me come up. Back to my original question, what the hell happened?"
"Your original question was 'are you okay'", Brennan pointed out.
Angela just half-laughed, half-sobbed and yanked her friend into a crushing hug.
"I'll be in touch as soon as I hear anything, Dr. Brennan. Booth is going to arrange for your personal safety until we find out what happened. Don't leave until he has everything taken care of."
Brennan nodded mutely from over Angela's shoulder as Sam took her leave.
Angela pulled back to arms length and looked Brennan over critically. With every second of her perusal, Brennan's fear of Angela reading her recent thoughts about Booth grew. If there was ever a time to be afraid of Angela it was now.
After a moment, Angela simply asked, "Are you sure you're okay Bren?"
Letting out the breath she had been holding, Brennan answered truthfully, "I've been better. But I'm not hurt and neither is Booth. I'm mad that someone blew up my car and I hope they catch the bastard that did it. My ears are ringing and I have a slight headache, that's all."
Angela just laughed at her honesty. Trust her best friend to nearly get blown up and merely be pissed that she no longer has her car.
"Hey Angela, sorry they held you up downstairs. I think you scared those guys pretty bad." Booth jogged over to them and slung an arm around Angela for a quick one-armed hug.
"I think you scared them pretty bad yourself when you got on the line. The one guy turned white as a sheet," she laughed, squeezing him back.
"Well, you know. Big, bad, special agent like me …"
Brennan realized for the first time how envious she was of Angela's carefree way with men, Booth especially. They had such an easy friendship, the casual banter and flirting that she knew she could never be comfortable with. Angela loved to tease Booth, and he responded in kind, almost as though she was the cute little sister of a close friend. Brennan and Booth had always flirted, but it was never quite as casual nor as comfortable. You don't have to be Dr. Sweets to understand the psychology there, Brennan, she told herself.
"Bones, is that okay with you?"
"What?" She had no idea what Booth had just said.
"I said, we're going to sweep your house and the lab just to be safe. Is it okay with you if you go stay the night with Angela, at Jack's?"
"No it's not okay. I want to go to my own place, Booth. Surely no one could have gotten in there; it's a very secure building."
"Look Bones, asking if it was okay was basically rhetorical. You're not staying at your house or going to the lab until I get a team in there, and at this rate it would be several hours before I could let you go home."
"You are not keeping me from my apartment Booth. If you're going there to check it out first, fine, but I'm going with you."
"Not an option, Bones. You're going with Angela to Jack's. He and Zack are going back to the lab, and I'm taking you both to Jack's place myself. End of discussion."
"You can't make me go to Jack's, Booth. I'm going home. Go do your sweep or whatever, and then I'm going home to my own bed."
Angela had been watching the two of them go back and forth and was beginning to feel like a spectator at a tennis match. Normally, she thought their bickering was cute, but not this time. There was an air of desperation in Booth's voice as he argued with Bren, and she could see her friend was getting angry as well. She could tell Brennan was trying to keep the tears at bay, and if she couldn't, her anger at their appearance would be directed squarely at Booth. Bren hated to cry, especially in front of people.
"Dammit Bones! Could you trust me just this once? I can't find whoever did this if I'm camped out at your house watching over you!" He ran his hand through his hair to keep from slamming his fist onto the car beside him. Angela could feel the tension rolling off of him in waves.
"Nobody said anything about you watching over me at my house, Booth! I can protect myself, I'm a big girl." She wanted to get away from everything, to spend the night in her bed, and forget about everything that had happened. There was the barest hint of a catch in her voice, which Angela recognized immediately.
Angela knew she needed to intervene, and so she stepped between them.
"Okay, enough, both of you. Bren, I love you, but this time I have to side with Booth. Whatever sicko blew up your darling little car, wanted to blow you up with it. That scares the bejesus out of me. Jack's place is practically a fortress, and you'll be safe there. Not to mention the sleep I know I won't get if you're not there with me. Let Booth drive us there, and check things out, then we'll have a slumber party for just us girls, okay?"
"Angela…" Brennan did not want to spend the night with Angela watching her like a hawk. She needed time to process everything that had happened, and time to tamp down whatever it was she felt for Booth. The trauma of the explosion must be making her emotionally weak.
"Well …if not a slumber party, then what about a hot bath in the gigantic guest bathroom? It's as big as your apartment, I swear. I'll make you one of my special recipe hot toddies…" Angela used her best puppy dog eyes.
"Angela… Okay, I guess I can do that. But just tonight though." She swiveled her head to glare at Booth. "Tomorrow night I'm going back to my place."
He held his hands up in surrender. "I'll take that." Whether or not she went back to her own house would be an issue they dealt with the next day.
"Fine, then. Let me speak to Hodgins and Zack first, and then I'll be ready." She knew she'd been "handled" by Angela, but she still stalked off as though she'd had a choice in the matter.
Booth was rubbing the back of his neck as he watched her walk away. The tension he felt there was going to give him a migraine.
Angela watched him for a moment, then went with her first impulse and stepped into him for a tight hug, stepping back before he could bring his arms up to squeeze back.
"What was that for?" He looked at her with a suspicious half-smile.
"Because you needed it. Because I needed it. She could have died Booth, and you and I both know it. She just doesn't understand, Booth, you have to remember that."
"She doesn't understand what, Angela?" he asked wearily.
"What it's like to have people in your life you can't live without. That already happened to her once, and she doesn't fear it like we do. Death doesn't scare her, Booth, because it's what she understands better than anything else in the world. Of all the things in this world that Bren doesn't quite get – death and dying is certainly not one of them. Just remember one thing, okay sweetie?"
"What's that, Angela?"
"Loving and being loved terrifies her."
Three days later, Brennan was in her office when Hodgins and Zack burst through her door.
"Dr. Brennan!" The shout was simultaneous as they jockeyed for position coming through her door. Hodgins managed to squeeze past Zack with a triumphant, "Hah!"
"Dr. Brennan, I've found it!" He held aloft an evidence bag filled with some sort of twisted metal and particulate matter.
"I identified what the original use was, Dr. Brennan." Zack shot Hodgins a dirty look as he shouldered next to him in front of her desk.
"What is it?" She put down the file she was reading and gestured for them to continue.
"It was the satellite radio…"
"The chemical reaction that caused the explosion …"
They both spoke at once and then stopped to glare at one another.
"One at a time, please, I can't understand what you're saying." She tried to be patient; it was a learning institution, after all. "Okay, Hodgins, you first."
Zack bit his lip and glared, but held silent.
Hodgins paused to smirk at Zack, and said, "It was a mixture of C-4 and chemical solvents, a really unique combination, that we found at the scene. Once the timing device was tripped, it set off the explosion in approximately sixty seconds. The C-4 would have powered the blast, but the chemicals would have triggered enough of a secondary explosion to burn the evidence."
"Zack?"
"The keyless entry remote that you used to unlock your car triggered the satellite radio receiver, which had been rigged as the timing device for the bomb. If you hadn't gone back across the parking lot towards Agent Booth …" at Hodgins elbow, Zack stopped.
"Very good work - both of you. I will apprise Agent Fletcher of your discoveries; she will most likely come straight over and you will need to turn over your notes to her, and brief her and her team. Make sure you have everything she needs," she waved them towards her door.
As she was picking up her phone to call Sam Fletcher, Hodgins turned back around and said, "Oh yeah, Dr. Brennan, I found this at the scene. I believe it belongs to Agent Booth." In his open palm he held a silver Mont Blanc, with the initials SB monogrammed on it. She dropped the receiver as she stared at it.
"Booth's pen – I thought it was lost. I'll make sure he gets it back."
She palmed the cool metal cylinder, gripping it tightly as she relived the moments before and right after the blast. Every night since the explosion she dreamt of those few moments when she felt herself flying through the air. The nightmares often morphed until she was the one watching the car explode as Booth went flying through the air. She'd awoken just this morning to a tangle of sheets and a pounding heart.
She hastily wiped her eyes when she heard voices, then realized it was Hodgins proclaiming to Zack, as they made their way across the lab, "No way man. I am the king of the lab."
A/N: Sorry this was short folks, but I wanted the last chapter to stand alone, so I shortened this one a good bit. I know everyone wanted some B&B alone time, but I didn't want to fall back on the 'Booth stays at Bones' house to protect her' storyline. Not that there aren't some really great fics with that as the premise, but this one isn't going there. Sorry :)