CHAPTER 20
Booth woke, groggy and disoriented, his head muzzy as though filled with cotton. Sitting up slowly, he looked around Brennan's living room, searching his memory for some hint of what had happened. He remembered that they had come to her place after spending a fruitless handful of hours at the Jeffersonian. He saw the pizza that had been delivered on the coffee table. His plate lay on the floor, his slice of pizza half eaten. Brennan's was on the end table. Liking his dry lips, he tasted something odd. A drug? He wasn't sure.
Clearing his throat, he tried to speak her name, but it only came out as a croak. He tried again. "Temperance?" Better, but still not loud enough. Pushing to his feet, he shouted, "Bones?" His voice echoed through the apartment and came back to him unanswered. He stumbled to the kitchen and poured a glass of water, gulping it down. Feeling a little steadier, he went down the hall to her bedroom. The room was deeply shadowed, but he could see by the light from the hall that the bed was empty. So was the bathroom. Panic rose inside him, suffocating in its intensity.
An idea was trying to push its way through the fog in his brain and he stood still, breathing deeply, willing it to clarity. Cell phone, call her cell phone, it urged. He walked carefully, hand trailing the wall against the dizziness that was threatening to overcome him. He found his cell phone on the coffee table and snatched it up, hitting the number one in the speed dial for her number. A random thought—of course her number would be number one on his phone, a symbol of her importance in his life.
A faint ringing registered in his brain, and he looked toward it, at the purse that lay on the kitchen counter. Her purse was ringing. Then he realized the significance of the presence of the purse, here, on the counter and the ringing. She'd never leave without her purse. So where was she?
"Temperance?" he called out again, and again there was no answer. He hit 'end' on his phone, then dialed Angela.
"Hi Booth," Angela said.
"Have you seen Brennan? Has she called you?" he asked without preamble, praying silently.
"I thought she was with you," Angela answered, confused.
Booth's eyes closed, his heart stopped and he sank to the couch. "She's gone, Angela. I think someone drugged us and took her." Angela gasped and Booth forced himself to continue. "Can you call a forensics team to Brennan's? I need them to process the scene, see if there might be some clue where she was taken." He didn't recognize his own voice, it was toneless and dead.
"Oh, my God, oh no, oh…" Angela put her hand over her mouth and sank to a chair, tears falling quietly, and Hodgins looked up from the magazine he was reading on the couch. Seeing the tears, he got up quickly and came to her, taking her outstretched hand. "It's Brennan, Booth thinks she's been kidnapped."
Hodgins' eyes widened and his mouth fell open. The world tilted and he dropped to the chair next to her. He listened as Angela hung up with Booth and called a forensics team to Brennan's. Then she was on her feet, gathering her purse and coat.
"We have to go, Booth's alone at Bren's. He needs us, whether he'll admit it or not."
Hodgins agreed, grabbing his coat and following her out.