As Booth called for a crime scene examination team to get down there, Brennan stumbled out of the room. She was afraid. There was a person taking pictures of her and her friends, and threatening to do something to them one by one. But what did this person mean "Just like them?". Was it some sort of code? She thought of any cases she had worked on lately, trying to tie in a pattern, but nothing came up. She collapsed on to her couch, which looked as though it had been slashed by a knife. Then the tears came.
Booth heard the sobbing from the bedroom. He went straight to the living room, and saw Brennan hunched over on the couch, sobbing with her hands over her face. He hobbled over to her, and sat down next to her, pulling her into his chest. She put her arms around his torso and sobbed harder. "It's ok Bones, we're gonna find the sick bastard who did this and lock him up. Don't worry, I've got you. No one's going to hurt you." He rested his chin in the top of her head.
"I'm scared Booth." She said, her words muffled into his chest. "What if he goes after Angela and Hodgins and Zack and…" She subsided into a fresh wave of tears. Booth was so angry that some psycho could make her feel like this. He stroked her hair soothingly, and whispered softly into her ear.
"We won't let anything happen to them either. Look I'll call them and see if they're ok." Booth pulled out his phone and called Cam, as she was the first picture in the line. It rang eight times, then went to voice mail. Booth furrowed his brow – Cam always answered her phone if it was him calling. He tried again, with the same result. He called the crime scene guys again and asked, with a tone of urgency, "Hey, I need a check on Camille Saroyan, just check the Jeffersonian and her house."
Brennan was pulling herself together at this point. "Is Cam missing?" She said, sniffing.
"She's not answering her cell, which is a little out of character for her, but she could be in the shower or at the office." Booth tried reassuring her, but he had a sinking feeling that she wouldn't be in either of the places he had instructed the crime squad to look.
"I'll call the others." He said, and dialled Sweets' number. After several rings he prayed that the psychiatrist had not fallen victim to the same fate Cam had.
"Sweets." He answered on the fourth ring. Booth breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Sweets, its Booth, where are you?"
"I'm driving home, why is something the matter?"
"Yeah, I want you to turn around and go back to the Jeffersonian; we will meet you there in about a half hour, and don't speak to anyone on the way there."
"Agent Booth what-"Sweets began, but Booth had already hung up his cell, and had begun dialling Hodgins' number. It rang twice before he answered.
"Hodgins." He said, and Booth got that same elated feeling. He repeated the same instructions to Hodgins, and everyone in succession of how their portraits were placed on the wall, until everyone except Cam was accounted for. Brennan had been dealing with the crime scene guys while this was going on, and walked over to Booth.
"Are we meeting them at the Jeffersonian?" She asked. Booth nodded, and his phone rang.
"Booth." He answered. It was the crime tech guys assigned to finding Cam.
"Sorry Agent Booth, we have found no trace of Doctor Saroyan at her house or office, and her phone and wallet are both still at her house. There are some signs of a struggle. Again, I'm very sorry."
Booth hung up, and took Brennan by the hand. "Come on Bones, we need to talk to the Squints. Maybe they have seen something strange."
"No leads on Cam yet?" She asked, taking on her level head once more.
"They went to her place, and her office, her stuff's still lying around, and there are signs of a struggle. The Crime tech guys have assumed it as a kidnapping."
Brennan nodded. "We should make sure that the others are safe until we find Cam." He said goodbye to the crime tech guys, and Brennan mumbled some instructions to them. He led her out of the building to her car.
"Are you alright?" He asked after a few moments of driving.
"What do you mean Booth?" Brennan asked, taking her eyes off the road for a moment to survey him. He shrugged.
"Well, a psychopath has broken into your house, broken everything you own, and left a threatening message on your wall, and one of your friends is missing, presumably kidnapped, with your other friends facing the same thing."
Brennan eyeballed him. "I know Booth, but in situations like this, I think it would be best if I wasn't reminded of the situation." Booth winced, realising how thoughtless he had been.
"Yeah, I guess I just made things worse." Brennan's eyes widened.
"Oh no Booth, you had no effect, things are still at the same level of horrible nightmarish circumstance they were in. But I'm guessing you were trying to make me feel better by making me talk about my reactions to a traumatic event."
"Oh god you're making me sound like Sweets here. Look, I just want to make sure that you're not gonna have a psychotic break here."
"Booth, I won't lie, I am a little shaken at the prospect of a crazy person stealing my friends, but I can deal with it. Perhaps we will know more once we meet the others at the Jeffersonian."
"OK Bones, so long as you're doing alright." He put a hand on her shoulder, and she smiled at him. They spent the rest of their journey in a comfortable silence.
When they arrived at the Jeffersonian, everyone (excluding Cam) were waiting in the lab. Booth swore he heard Angela speculate to the others "I'll bet she's pregnant!" When they stepped into the lab. Booth cleared his throat to capture their attention.
"Agent Booth, I see you have been released from hospital, how are you feeling?" Asked Sweets.
"I'm fine, Sweets, but we've got a situation. When Bones and I went back to her apartment, we found it had been trashed, everything ripped to pieces. Then we found in her bedroom…" He thought for the words to best describe the scene to them.
Brennan, blunt as ever, explained it for him. "There were pictures of all of you, portrait sized, with the words under them written in blood 'one by one, just like them'. Around it was a border of significantly smaller pictures of myself, taken from a distance. I speculate that we are dealing with a stalker." She finished. Everyone had shocked expressions by this point.
"All of your photographs were arranged in a specific order, beginning with Cam. You will notice that she is not present, that is because we believe she has already been taken." Angela interrupted.
"Who is next in the line?" She said this in trepidation, fearing who would be the next target.
"Sweets." Booth said simply, adopting Brennan's blunt tone. Everyone turned to Sweets as this was said, and he became visibly pale at the prospect of being the next possible victim. Angela acknowledged this.
"Don't worry Sweets, we're gonna find this psycho before he can get to any one of us." She gently touched his arm, but he seemed not to register the feeling, his eyes were glazed over, as though he were staring into deep space.
Zach looked to Angela's attempt to comfort Sweets. He had been watching her methods of social interaction, and though he knew that it was blatantly illogical to assume the stalker would be caught before another victim, he decided to join in with the comforting.
"Doctor Sweets, there is nothing to suggest that you will be the next target simply because of an ordinance of photographs, Doctor Saroyan disappearing first may have been mere coincidence. It is assumption that the kidnapper has a particular pattern. Although it is more logical to assume you will be next, if we are thinking without assumption, you have little to worry about. Technically, it is a one in five chance you will be the net to be apprehended."
"I s-still don't like those odds…" Sweets stuttered – the first thing he had said since discovering he was possibly the next victim. Hodgins clapped him on the back.
"Come on dude, the security's so tight here nothing could touch you."
"Well yeah Hodgins, but we can't deny that when Sweets leaves, he's gonna be in danger. I mean, this guy got Cam, and she is more than capable of taking care of herself. Maybe we should get him a bodyguard." Booth suggested.
"You know what, Hodgins has a pretty good point about the security here. Maybe we should just stay here until we at least have some leads." Angela said.
"Well, we stayed here at Christmas and it wasn't so bad…" Hodgins said, looking around the place. "Why don't we go get some supplies and meet back here in an hour or so?"
Sweets still looked petrified. Again, it was Angela that noticed his heightened discomfort. "I don't know guys, what of the kidnapper gets him on the way home?"
"Well Booth, your car is more than big enough to transport all of us, and a large amount of additional luggage, we could all go as one unit so there is almost no chance of anything happening." Brennan suggested. "It's still in the parking lot, you never got to come take it back after the explosion." Everyone liked this idea, particularly Sweets, and they all went down to the parking lot and piled into Booths car.
Brennan was correct about the large amount of space in Booth's car. Booth and Brennan sat in the front, Angela Sweets and Hodgins sat from left to right in the back, and a seat was folded down for Zack in the boot, leaving plenty of Space for luggage.
They went to Hodgins' place first. Angela went with Hodgins to get his things, Sweets went with Zack after Zack convinced him that should they be attacked, Zack was deceptively strong, and Booth and Brennan remained with the car. Zack and Sweets returned first, with Zack having little to bring besides a few spare clothes and some comic books, with Hodgins and Angela taking a little more time.
"I wonder what's taking Angela and Hodgins so long…" Pondered Zack after about five minutes.
"I've got a theory." Said Sweets, and he raised his eyebrows suggestively. Booth understood the meaning of the signal and laughed, but Zack and Brennan were confused. After a moment, Brennan chimed in. "Oh, you were implying they were engaging in sexual intercourse." Booth sighed.
They arrived a moment later, and Booth asked, "What took you two so long?"
"I thought we came to the conclusion that they were engaging in coitus." Said Zack, a little confused.
Sweets and Booth glared at Zack for a moment, and then smiled sheepishly at Angela and Hodgins. "Well, we were not doing anything of the sort. She wanted to go through my wardrobe, and scrutinize all the clothes I own." Hodgins explained, shooting a sideways glance at Angela.
"What? I wanted to know. And hey for a guy so rich, your taste in fashion is like… homeless person terrible. The hobo that lives in the dumpster at the end of my street dresses better than you."
They heard a sound coming from the back that sounded like a dolphin. They looked around, and saw that it was Zack giggling. "That was funny, comparing Hodgins to a homeless person." Then he made the dolphin noise again. Angela reached back and patted him on the shoulder.
"Sweetie, that was the cutest thing I have ever heard." Then they all burst into gales of laughter.