Booth left Christine with Max and jumped into his SUV. With the siren blaring, he weaved through the DC traffic as if the roads were empty. More than one driver was left cursing in his wake. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and he found himself having to reach up and wipe the sweat off of his forehead as his anxiety began to get the better of him. Dodging traffic and lying on his horn in an attempt to move timid drivers out of his way, he managed the twenty mile drive to the airport in less than half an hour.

He pulled up to the valet parking service at the airport and didn't wait for his ticket as he ran through the front doors. Flashing his badge, he raced to the front of the security line and was ushered through into the terminal area. Booth knew exactly where terminal 34A was. It was the terminal that they had flown into on Monday morning.

He sped past passengers, nearly being stopped by a throng of travelers coming out of terminal 28. As he raced toward the restroom where he had last seen his wife, he looked at the faces in the crowd. Booth knew that someone had to have brought her here. He would find them.

As he got closer to the terminal he spotted her. Relief poured through him as he saw that she was still alive. As much as he had tried to ignore that little voice in his head, a part of him had known that there was a real risk that she might not be returned to him.

"Bones!"

Brennan's eyes locked with Booth's as she heard him call her name. She didn't move from where she stood, her back against the wall, as if it was the only thing holding her up. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused and, as Booth pulled her into his arms, she collapsed against him.

"Booth?" she asked her voice uncertain and shaky.

"Yeah, baby it's me, I'm right here. Are you okay?"

She pulled back to look at him, but didn't answer his question. He felt her forehead; her skin was cool and clammy. "What did they do to you?"

"Who?"

Booth closed his eyes. Damn it, George had promised that they wouldn't hurt her. He remembered what his mother said about being drugged. "We have to get you to the hospital, Bones."

She struggled against him as he tried to pull her away from the wall, realization dawning on her face. "No, I… I want to see Christine. Where is she?"

"She's with your dad. I'll call him and have him meet us but we have to get you checked out."

Brennan nodded and leaned against Booth as he led her out of the airport. Booth realized that he was supporting more of her weight than she was and it scared the hell out of him.

"They want her back."

"What?"

"They want her back."

"What are you talking about Bones?" Booth walked slowly trying not to rush her and resisting the urge to throw her over his shoulder and carry her out of the building.

"I, I don't know. I don't know what I'm talking about. My mind appears to be," she stopped, searching for a word to use, "fluffy. Where's Christine? I want to see her Booth."

Booth pulled her even closer to him and kissed her on the side of the head. "I'm taking you to her now. Okay? Everything is going to be okay now, Bones. I promise."

And this time it was a promise that Booth intended to keep.

They had only been driving for a few minutes when Booth realized that she was no longer responding to his questions.

"Bones!" He yelled at her in concern, hoping that she'd simply fallen asleep.

She groaned at him in response, her head rolling to the side and resting against the car window.

"Bones, come on, stay awake, we're almost there." He reached out and shook her shoulders, continuing to call her name and beg her to stay with him. Aside from an occasional moan she wasn't able to respond to him.

And by the time he stopped the car at the hospital, Brennan was unconscious. Booth scooped her up in his arms and made a mad dash toward the door. A security guard was watching and called inside for a gurney. The staff seemed to appear out of thin air; quickly whisking Brennan into the trauma bay and directing Booth to a registration area to fill out paperwork.

Max, with the baby in tow, joined Booth in the waiting room about an hour later, and that's where Cam found them when she came rushing in shortly afterward to check on Brennan. The worried looks on their faces made her heart leap into her throat. "Is she okay?"

"They're running some tests. She didn't look very good Cam."

Cam sat down beside of him and squeezed his knee, unable to find words to comfort him. She knew that nothing would make him feel better until he knew that Brennan was going to be okay.

"What about your mom?"

"I don't know. I guess that she went back to The Facility. George told her it was her choice but he was going back."

"I'm sorry Seeley."

"I'm not convinced she went back of her own will. He still could have forced her."

"Whatever choice your mom made Booth, she did it because she loves you. Take it from someone who knows." Max gave Booth a sympathetic look.

"Do you want me to take the baby?" Cam asked.

"Not until Bones gets to see her first. You can take her after that. I plan on spending the night here."

Cam nodded her understanding and took a seat beside Max.

"Temperance Brennan?" A doctor dressed in white scrubs walked into the waiting room.

"Yeah, that's us. I'm her husband." Booth stood so quickly that he knocked over a stack of brochures that had been sitting on the table next to him.

"Your wife is going to be fine, but she's still disoriented. Looks like someone gave her an extremely high dose of hallucinogenics and opiates. Not a very good combination. She's hypotensive and bradycardiac but she's more stable now than when you first arrived."

"How low was her pressure when they first got here?" Cam asked.

"Low," the doctor made eye contact with Cam to emphasize his point. "If she had gotten here much later I'm afraid that we'd be in a very different situation now. We're running fluids to clean the drugs out of her system but it'll take a while. Our main concern now is her kidney function, her creatinine and BUN levels are way too high."

"What does that mean?" Booth needed to know.

"It means her kidneys are failing," Cam answered.

"Yes, but in cases like these the damage is usually short term and reversible. We'll keep her on fluids and medications and recheck the levels in the morning. I fully expect that they will be back within normal limits."

"Usually? What if they don't go back?" Booth knew the doctor was trying to be reassuring but it wasn't making him feel any better to hear the details.

"Then we're looking at dialysis. In some cases one treatment is enough to rid the body of the toxins that have built up but in some cases there may have been permanent damage caused. I don't think we need to worry about that now. She needs to rest. Try to keep a positive attitude for now until we know differently. She'll probably sleep for most of today and tonight."

"Can I take our daughter in to see her?"

"Of course. She keeps saying something about wanting someone back; do you know what that means?"

"Yeah, I think I do."

"She's in Trauma 5 and we'll be moving her upstairs shortly. The nurses will let you know the room. If you need anything at all just let us know."

The doctor turned to leave and Booth took Christine from Max. "Bones kept saying that at the airport and on the way here. 'They want her back.' She has to be talking about Mom. They must have told her that at The Facility."

"I wonder if Tempe will remember anything that happened."

"The way she was acting earlier, Max, I doubt it."

"That might not be a bad thing, for her sake," Cam said.

Booth agreed. He wanted to know where his mother was but not at the expense of Brennan reliving whatever nightmare she had just been through. If she was able to give them any information it would be in her own time and without pressure from anyone, especially not from him.

"I'm going to take Christine and go on back to see her. You guys give us about half an hour, okay? I don't want to overwhelm her right now." It'd been about two hours since the emergency department staff had separated them and he was anxious to see her again.

Max nodded and Cam added that she'd go call the others and let them know what was going on.

Booth jiggled the baby on his hip, "Come on little one, let's go see your mommy."

Christine responded by slapping him in the face with her stuffed toy and Booth smiled at her. "Yes, Monkey can come too," he told her, glad that she was too small to understand just how close they had come to losing her mother.

With any luck Christine would never know how close they'd come to losing the woman they both loved more than anything.