Chapter Five
Déjà vu
Thanks to TV Angel 711, bb-4ever, KristieM, Grace, Jordan, Erin, Aria-wolfstar, Splendid31, jerseybones, riviera41797, boneswhisper, rae, xX Melissa Xx, and inconsume for their reviews.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to Bones. All rights belong to Hart Hanson, Kathy Reichs, FOX, and their respective owners, none of which include me. No profit made. Make that no money made at all.
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Brennan held her breath as she heard Mark's car pull into the driveway with a jerk. She had driven Kyra off to bed and told her to stay there. She now sat alone in the master bedroom, gripping the covers tightly after locking herself in, as if she had never left the room.
A door slammed. She took a ragged breath. A shuffle of steps, more cabinets and doors slamming. A roar of anger.
Mark threw the door open with an expression filled with dark rage that flushed his face and contorted his handsome features into something almost demonic. She felt a chill of fear race down her spine despite her self assigned goal to hold her ground. As if her body responded without her mind, her chin lifted and met him square in the eyes.
"You got rid of the pills!" Mark yelled at her, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her hard.
She wrenched herself away and kicked him in the stomach. "Who are you really? Don't lie to me! Tell me who I am!"
Mark recovered too quickly for her tastes, far faster than her expectations. He grabbed her by the hair and threw her onto the ground, standing over her.
"You wanna know who you are?" He hissed at her. He knelt down and pulled her head off the ground by her hair and put his face close to hers. "You're a loser who has no one but me. I took you in. I gave you affection and the love that you don't deserve. You deserve to be buried next to the body's you work with."
His eye caught on the half closed drawer by her bed. It was only slightly open but he could tell that it had.
"What's this?" he grinned, his smile making Brennnan's stomach twist itself into complicated knots.
He pulled out the half empty pill bottle and shook it in front of her face. She lurched herself to her feet and threw a sidekick at his shoulder, knocking him backward. She started toward the door and then thought Kyra. The thought cut through her survival instincts and she froze, feral instincts and natural reactions forgotten.
Mark took his chance. He covered her mouth from behind and pulled her to him. She struggled against him, trying to break free from his iron hold. He was however, much taller and had had time to learn her tricks and now use them against her. He lowered his arm until it tightened around her neck.
She slammed her mouth shut as she struggled, but then felt his hand cover her nose. Her lungs screamed for the air that was denied to her. Her fighting became almost desperate but the need for air made her weak. She kept her mouth clamped shut but began to feel darkness start to cling to the edges of her vision.
Finally she gasped for breath. Mark shoved a few pills down her throat. She coughed and gagged and then slumped against him. Satisified, he lifted her in his arms and laid her onto the bed. He stroked her cheek and kissed her forehead, as he pulled the covers up over her.
"I'm sorry." He murmured.
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The body found in the abandoned house had been airlifted back to the Jeffersonian and was now surrounded by squints in every direction. It wasn't going anywhere.
Booth hung around behind them, unsure of how he fit into the picture. With Bones, his place was right by her side. Picking things up if she dropped them, trying to keep up with her scientific lingo, that he was only starting to get a hang of, much to Bones amusement.
His heart twisted at the thought. The body could be Bones. The body could be all that's left of the woman who had done and changed so much for so many people.
"It's a man." Zach concluded.
Booth blinked. "What?"
"This skeleton belongs to a man. You know the opposite of a female." Zach started.
"I know what a man is." Booth cut him off. "It was just a reaction."
"Oh."
Booth breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that Bones could still be alive. Could still be waiting for him. It almost made him want to punch the air with some happiness.
"This guy probably died from an overdose." Cam stated, pointing to a bandanna tied around his arm. "Probably injection."
"I'll scan the skull and see if I get a face." Angela offered, earning a nod from Cam.
Booth held up a hand. "What about Bones? I mean this guy's case can wait. He's dead. Bones could still be alive and we'll be wasting time."
Cam shook her head. "Booth, you need to focus. We can't throw away every case for Dr. Brennan. We have our duties and responsibilities."
Booth opened his mouth to argue. Surprisingly enough, Angela cut him off instead of Cam.
"I don't necessarily agree with Cam. I mean it's good to stay objective, but we're human and it's Tempe we're talking about. " She said. "But what if this guy's connected? I mean he's may be the guy you two were chasing the night she was taken. Maybe he stashed her somewhere and samples from his body could lead us to her."
"I bet I could pull something from the samples collected from his house." Hodgins stated.
Cam motioned for them to get started. Zach was peering at the body though a magnifying lens that made his eye appear huge.
"He died about three weeks ago." Zach mentioned.
"Finish analysis." Cam ordered.
Zach nodded.
Booth shifted his weight, his jaw clenching with frustration. The squints could do so much to help, they could almost solve the case without him and it drove Booth crazy that he couldn't help. When Bones was there, he knew his job was to take care of her; make the arrest, close the case, keep Bones safe. It was that simple. She needed him at the end of cases for questioning and arrests, while she handed him everything he needed to lead him to the bad guy. That was their system. That was their method. Now that her half was gone, he was caught off balance, off center, and longing for that harmony he used to have.
Cam was looking at him with uncertainty. She loved Booth; she thought he was the sweetest guy she had ever met, caring, loyal, honest. She, also however, knew that the woman he wanted was her rival and sometime friend. Temperance Brennan. The woman that Cam had once thought looked too good to only bestow her face on people who could no longer see, but had changed her opinion quickly into respect.
A small part of her wanted Brennan not to return, not necessarily dead, but just away from Booth. Another, bigger, part of her told her that without her, however, Booth would fall apart and Cam wasn't strong enough, or the person to pick up the pieces. She looked at him again.
"I'm going to go back to the scene where she was taken. Maybe something will turn up."
"Yeah." Cam replied.
They looked at each other for a split second before both spun on their heels in opposite directions. The unspoken thought between them was a depressing one. One the night that Brennan had disappeared, they had torn apart the warehouse looking for any clues, any sign that would lead them to her. They had practically stripped the building of everything, only to find nothing.
They both knew that another visit wouldn't change anything yet neither was brave enough to admit it or speak it out of their most secret thoughts.
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Brennan jerked awake to a clear and sunny day filled with the chatter of a birds and the busy buzzing of insects darting from one blossom to another in hopes of finding a sweet reward within the rays of magnificent colors.
The sunlight danced across her face, falling in a cascade over her brown hair. She sat up on the bed and looked around her.
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