a/n...again...sorry for the delay. Another muse has been conceived so... yeah. Please enjoy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**

**

Brennan walked towards Agent Donovan's SUV, after walking through the door that led to the underground parking lot, without thinking too much about it. Her mind was on other things. Like her partner and where he could possibly be, and what had happened to Rebecca. There was still no word from Parker's mother.

As she reached into the backseat for Parker's backpack, she heard the footsteps approaching her from behind, and without even pausing to consider her reaction, she turned and struck out. In the time it took to blink she felt the connection of her fisted hand to solid human muscle. The surprised grunt reached her ears only a fraction of a second later.

Her attacker reached out to grab her, but managed only to grab the blazer she wore. She spun out of it, and while doing so, her cell phone flung out of the pocket and she looked quickly in the direction of the smashing electronic as it hit the concrete ground. The diversion gave her attacker enough time to regain his composure and he connected hard to her face. It stunned her only briefly, adrenaline and years of martial arts training flooded her reaction time and she managed to reach out and block the second shot that was coming at her.

She then landed a solid connection of the butt of her hand to the man's jaw. His momentum of coming towards her was used against him and the shot had connected perfectly to the cluster of nerves behind his jaw that causes instant unconsciousness. He slumped to the ground, leaving his would-be victim panting with the exertion.

Temperance looked to the man, she didn't recognize him, but she analyzed quickly the bone structure of his face and knew that he was of eastern European descent. It was the structure of his zygomatic bone and Zygomatic process. She had seen similar bone structure when working on identifying remains from a mass grave in Bosnia. This man was from that area, she was almost sure. Conjecture, not speculation.

She brought her fingers to her mouth when she tasted the metallic bitterness of the blood. Her lip was swelling. The man had not moved from where she had knocked him down and she wondered briefly what to do. She couldn't call for help; her phone lay in pieces not far from where she stood.

Her quick, rational mind made the decision to run for help. Her feet turned towards the door before she had made the final decision in her mind, and she ran as fast as she could back into the Jeffersonian. One of the security guards stopped her at the entrance to the Lab, but she brushed him off and kept going. He followed her, knowing that something was wrong.

Brennan paused at the door to Hodgins' room trying to get the attention of one of her co-workers, without distracting Parker from the bugs.

Angela finally caught her waving gesture, and her jaw dropped when she saw the face of her friend. It was swollen and there was blood running down her chin. The artist laid her hand gently on Hodgins' arm and when he looked up from the bugs, he followed Angela's line of site and his jaw dropped too.

Doctor Brennan made the gesture of putting her finger to her swelling lips, and then pointed at Parker. Both of the other adults in the room caught the meaning to her non-verbal communication, and they looked back at each other. Angela nodded to the man, in unspoken knowing, and made her way towards the door.

Angela pulled her friend down the hall a bit before she demanded to know what the hell had happened.

"Someone tried to attack me, but I knocked him out, Ange, he's still down there... this has to be related to Booth...and possibly even Rebecca..." Brennan tried to pull her friend with her back towards the parking lot, but the artist held her place.

"Sweetie! Are you okay? Seriously, just take a minute and tell me what happened. Tell us what happened." Angela amended her statement at the end when she saw the anxious looking security guard approaching, obviously concerned by what was happening.

Doctor Brennan explained what had happened in the parking lot and the security guard immediately flicked on his radio and let the warning be heard by anyone else who was within earshot of the receiving end of the communicating device.

'Doctor Brennan had been attacked in the parking lot and the perpetrator was still there.'

The guard rushed off towards the parking structure after making sure once more that the good Doctor was alright. She assured him that she was fine, but Angela was not so sure.

"Are you sure you are okay?" Angela held on to her friend's arm and made her look at her. She saw the tears form in Brennan's eyes.

"I don't know Angela, something bad is happening here, but I don't know what, first Booth, then Rebecca, now, someone tried to attack me. This is not good Ange..." Brennan had started walking back towards the outer doors of the lab and Angela followed.

"No hon, this is not good."

The two said nothing more as they made their way back down to the parking lot. As they entered the scene of the incident, a few police cars had started to show up as well as all the security personnel who were rushing around trying to determine what had happened. The two women went towards Agent Donovan's SUV, wondering what was happening with the man that Brennan had subdued.

The security guard who had listened to Brennan tell her story in the lab, saw them and came rushing over.

"Ladies, you can't be here...this is officially a crime scene, I'm sorry, but we'll need you to stay back here okay?"

"All I did was knock him out, how does that constitute a crime scene?" Doctor Brennan asked the man, even though her eyes were focused on a police vehicle entering the lot.

It was then that she noticed the barrier to the entrance of the lot had been smashed, and there were police officers gathering around the booth with a blue sheet.

"I'm afraid the man you subdued was not here when back-up arrived, and Gus has been shot to death."

"Wait, who's Gus?" Brennan's attention went back to the man speaking. Angela answered.

"Gus was the man who operated the entrance to the parking lot for the last ten years. You never knew his name? This is so terrible. He was a great man. He had like three grandkids; he always told me all about them. This is so sad..." Angela had tears forming in her eyes as she watched Brennan's reaction.

"I never learned his name... in all this time..." Temperance put her hand on her friend's back. She was bothered by the fact that not long ago, she had seen the man very much alive at his post.

Doctor Brennan started to walk towards the SUV that she had borrowed from Agent Donovan, but she felt someone grab her arm. She turned around slightly to see Angela looking at her with a strange expression.

"What are you doing?

"I need to get Parker's backpack out of the backseat. He's going to need it to take the notes from Hodgins..."

The security guard stopped her from going any farther, with the assurance that he would get the bag for her.

He came back only a minute later, empty handed.

"I'm sorry Doctor Brennan, but there was no bag in the backseat of the car. Whoever attacked you might have taken it."

"Shit." Brennan cursed and turned back to Angela.

"Sweetie, I don't think I've heard you swear before." Angela waited for her friend to elaborate, or respond or anything, but the Doctor just watched the scene unfolding.

She didn't see Sweets and Agent Donovan approaching her from behind, and she seemed startled when Agent Donovan cleared his throat.

"Doctor Brennan, are you okay? Doctor Hodgins said something happened, but he wasn't sure what. He's up in the lab with Agent Booth's son for some reason? Please, Doctor Brennan, I really need for you to tell me everything that has been happening here... I need you to trust me... We all want to find Booth. We have to work together. We found something at his apartment..."

That caught her attention.

"What did you find?" She looked sharply to Agent Donovan.

"There was some blood on the door frame, and also there were some fingerprints on a few random items in the apartment... Now, tell me what happened here. Are you okay?"

"It's not me that seems to be in trouble here..." Doctor Brennan tried to look composed, but she was starting to have doubts that she was okay. She shivered again for some reason, and then told everyone in her company about the phone call from Rebecca and the incident involving the unknown man who attacked her.

Sweets reached his hand out to pat her shoulder, she didn't shrug it off.

Agent Donovan informed everyone that the evidence from Booth's apartment had arrived and analysis could begin on what they had found. Everyone started to make their way back up to the lab with a subdued hush over them. Brennan grabbed Donovan's arm before they went through the door and asked him to send someone over to Rebecca's house to check on the situation there. Something was not right that they hadn't heard from her yet. Agent Donovan agreed...

***

Booth was coming back into the realm of awareness when he heard the rusty faucet squeak. He braced himself for the cold blast that was about to hit him. It didn't happen right away even though he heard the water gushing out of the hose. He was just starting to relax when suddenly the cold water struck him. He wasn't quite braced for it and he found himself crying out just a little. It was the first sound he had uttered in hours. He didn't have any idea how long he had been unconscious and the hours and days and all time in general had gotten away from him. Being in the dark and being soaking wet was starting to have an effect on his psyche. It was a very strange form of sensory deprivation.

He had experienced many types of physical torture before, and he was easily able to find that spot in his mind where he couldn't be affected by the physical pain, but this torture was starting to get to him. He remembered suddenly his last thoughts before he went unconscious. He wondered who was in the room with him other than his captor.

The water stopped as it always did, and he spit out the mouthful that had blasted him in the face.

"Who the hell are you? What do you want?" His voice sounded strange to him.

As before, the person holding him against his will had nothing to say. The footsteps made their way to the door and then left as they always had before. The door shut and the lock clicked and Booth sighed.

"Who's here?" He waited for a response, but there wasn't one.

He could hear the breathing of the person in the dark, and the breathing sounded familiar, though he wasn't sure how. He wasn't sure of anything anymore. His mind was foggy and his thoughts were fuddled.

A few minutes later he heard the footsteps coming back towards the room he was in. This was different. A change in routine. The door opened and closed and the footsteps stopped very close to his head. Booth waited for something to happen. He was surprised by what did happen.

He felt hands fumbling with the blindfold over his eyes. It was removed, but the Special Agent still couldn't see anything in the darkness that filled the room. He wondered what was happening.

The footsteps moved away slightly and paused.

Without warning the room was flooded with light and Booth cried out as the light penetrated his dilated pupils and sent a pain through to his brain that he had never felt before. He heard a rough chuckle as his ears were unaffected by the light. In time he became more adapted to the light and he slowly opened his eyes and stared at the man in the room. The man had something in his hand, but Booth didn't focus on that, he focused on the man's face. There was something sort of familiar about him, almost like a déjà vu experience.

"Well, Agent Booth, look what I have here. It seems that I have all the chips, as they say. Your final days will be spent in anguish as your son watches you die. And then you will join your Doctor Brennan in hell."

That startled Booth.

"What are you talking about? What happened to Bones? Where is my son...?" Booth stared at the man, and the man stared back. Eventually an evil smile took over the man's face.

"We had to, uh, what is the word; eliminate Doctor Brennan, in order to obtain your son. He is in the other room. He says hello." The man tossed something in Booth's direction.

It was Parker's backpack.

Booth cried out again. He wasn't sure what to believe. There was no way Bones was dead. Was there?

His captor left the light on and departed the room with a laugh.

The soaking wet man shivered uncontrollably and coughed a little of the water out of his lungs. When he opened his eyes again and tucked himself into a fetal position to conserve body heat, he looked across the room and saw the very still form of the mother of his son.

"Rebecca!" He called out, but the woman didn't stir. She looked so pale, and she was also soaking wet. If they had drugged her, then they had given her enough so that she was not disturbed by the cold liquid.

With nothing left to occupy his mind, Booth closed his eyes tightly, and prayed. He prayed for the light to go out. He wanted to be in the dark if the information he had just been told was true. He would rather be in the dark if that's how it would end.

**

**

To be continued... and that right soon...