Hello readers, I would like to say thank you to everyone who have alerted, favourite, reviewed and are currently are reading my story. It truly means a lot, so thank you!

So new chapter, and with a new chap comes a new drama… and a bit of Vincent and Wendell love 3

Enjoy and remember I do not own bones.

Mixed messages.

Booth had been gone well over an hour, and Vincent was becoming agitated, "Why hasn't he called?" The young man had spent the last twenty minutes staring at the same cell phone placed on the table in front of him, repeatedly checking his bars for signal and putting the same question to the group. Each time a new member would offer a positive explanation in an attempt to calm his nerves, this time Wendell spoke up, "Hey man, how about we get some air?" Reluctantly Vincent agreed, and the two interns headed outside. "I should really get back in there, what if Booth calls?" "Vince, sit down and breath." Wendell and Vincent had become very good friend during their internship at the Jeffersonian, and Wendell hated seeing his friend in such distress. "She'll be fine." "You don't know that, and if I'm perfectly honest you don't even know her, how many times have you met her? Once, twice? No one in there knows her like I do…" Vincent sighed, finally giving in and joining Wendell on the bench, thrusting his hands through his hair, he looked at his friend and gave him a half-hearted smile as he apologised. "No you're right, tell me." "Tell you what?" "For a genius you can be quite stupid, tell me about Grace." Wendell jokingly punched Vincent's arm as he laughed. At first Vincent didn't know where to begin, he knew so much about her, but once he started he couldn't stop; he talked about the things he liked about her, all her little quirks, the stuff they had done together, like the time they watched all the Star Wars films; he saw it as education she on the other hand saw it as a punishment. But then Vincent thought about how she would be feeling at that exact moment, the exact moment he had been laughing with his friend whilst she was in trouble. "She acts like she's really strong and that she can handle everything by herself, and that's why she pushes people away, but I know right now she's scared, and there's nothing I can do to help her…" "Do you love her?"

Back inside the Jeffersonian Sweets was making coffee for everyone when the phone rang, at first they all stared at the phone buzzing, no one wanted to answer it in case it was bad news. Eventually Cam picked up the phone, holding it in her hand she slowly answered the call coming through from Booth's phone. "Booth?" The room was silent as they all watched Cam; Sweets was attempting to read into her facial expressions and body language to find out whether it was good or bad news but as Cam nodded and repeatedly answered "yeah" he couldn't determine anything. "Ok, I'll let everyone know, thank you for calling Agent Jones."
"If that wasn't Booth, where is he and Grace?" Hodgins was directing the question to the whole room, but the silence continued. Finally to be broken by Cam "Jack, go and get Vincent."

"Love her?" Vincent had considered this many times, he was definitely falling for the girl but was it too soon to say love? "I-I err…well were just friends, b-but..." But that wasn't true, Vincent remembered what Grace had said the first day Henry had caused trouble for them, 'well we've been hanging out for a while now, and I know I've been pushing you away, but..' it was the 'but' that had caught Vincent's attention, she had started with a negative, therefore her 'but' must have been leading onto a positive.
"But what, do you or don't you? Vince from the way you talk about her, I think it's pretty clear how you feel."
"But what about her feelings?" Vincent sat twiddling his thumbs feeling stupid at considering the possibility that someone like Grace could feel the same for him.
"She's been hurt in the past, she needs to feel as if she can trust men again and I think you my friend have helped her regain that trust. You know what my dad said to me about applying for this internship? He told me 'nothing ventured, nothing gained', I think we can apply that to your situation." Wendell put his arm around his friend, as Vincent eased into the awkward hug between the two young men, feeling happier and more confident about the next time he would see Grace. "Guys, you need to come inside now."

Booth groaned as the nurse tightened the bandage around his arm, it wasn't the first time he had been shot at but that didn't make the pain any less bearable. "Ok you are all patched up, and free to go when you are ready." The nurse smiled at Booth, as she left him putting his shirt back on, he was half way through buttoning the shirt up when he saw Brennan running towards his room. Flinging her arms around her partner, she squeezed him tightly, too tightly causing a yelp from Booth. "Jeez Bones, anyone would think the bullet actually hit me." In fact Booth had suffered a wound from a grazing bullet, a bullet which had come from Henry's gun.
"You had us all worried. What happened in there?" His mind wandered back to the motel room, the word 'three' echoing in his mind.
"You never have to worry about me Bones, I'm a good shot, and thankfully he wasn't." Both Henry and Booth had been composed and ready to shoot, thankfully Booth was quick and skilled, whereas Henry was just an angry kid who didn't really know what he was doing. Henry had bled out before the paramedics had arrived; Booth would tell the story that he didn't want to kill the guy, but he knew that day his aim was fuelled by emotion rather than procedure. "How is she?"

Grace lay in the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling, not entirely sure how she should feel. Physically she was a mess, her tired body was covered in bruises and cuts, thankfully there was no life threatening injuries and she would be able to leave following a couple of day's bed rest whilst they kept an eye on her. In time the bruises and cuts would fade, cease to exist, but emotionally the scars may never fade. She couldn't believe someone could be so full of hate and anger, to the degree that he would want to end a life. She knew that man, she loved that man, she trusted that man. All these things she had with Henry, she now had with Vincent. Before Henry had shown up she was prepared to tell Vincent just how much he meant to her but now, now she was starting to doubt her own mind. Curling up into a ball, she closed her eyes and begged for the voices telling her she'd never be worthy of someone like Vincent to stop.

"Grace? Are you awake?" She kept her eyes tightly closed, as Vincent walked into her room, opting to ignore the conversation and pretend to be asleep. Unknown to her, Vincent knew her rather well, well enough to know she was faking. He had seen her sleeping many times; she always looked so relaxed, at peace. But now her face was tight, she was straining to keep her eyes shut and movement to a minimum as she carried on "sleeping".

"Grace I know you're awake and if you don't want to talk to me, then that's fine, well it's not fine because I want to tell you something, something really important. But I will understand if you don't want to talk now, so I need you to just listen." Vincent sighed, licking his lips as he stared at the unresponsive girl, taking a seat on the end of the bed; he carried on with what he needed to say. "I know that what Henry put you through was tough, and I'm well aware that you're finding it hard to trust but-but I'm not Henry and I never will be. What he did to you makes me sick, I just want to make you see that not everyone you trust will hurt you. When you ran, ran away from me, from us, I felt so helpless, I was so scared, so scared I would never see you again. I don't want to live in a world where I can't see you." Grace continued to keep her eyes tight, hoping the young man wouldn't notice the tears which were trickling down her face. "What I'm trying to say is, that, I-I love you. And I know that you love me too, so I'm not leaving this room until you can look me in my eyes and tell me you don't love me. Because only then will I give up. So tell me, do you love me?" Vincent had wanted his last words to come out with confidence, instead he felt like he was begging. Technically he was, he was begging, pleading for her to love him.

Grace slowly opened her eyes, and looked up at the young man, who was staring at her with his big brown puppy dog eyes, his eyes pleading for her to admit how she felt, chewing her lip she finally spoke, "I don't…"

DUM DUM DUMMMMMM, I shall be back soon guys. Quite a long chap for me... Reviews, comments, suggestions are as always welcomed. Love xx