Not sure if this chap counts as angst...so I guess we'll say we're at the station and the train just pulled up. Thankfully, we're on the car where all the Foster Father beat up scenes take place. lol.

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I hope Seeley won't be mad that I invited Tommy over, 'cause he and Parker are so cute together! They're playing Pirates, Tommy is tickling Parker who is giggling like there's no tomorrow. The picture I'm drawing of them now…I don't think I'll ever be able to part with it, I have to remember this moment forever.

This is what I've always wanted.

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Booth and Brennan got out of the SUV and hurried toward the Hoover building. Reaching the doors just before Booth, Brennan ran inside and slammed directly into a young man with a skinny face and ripped jeans.

Brennan hissed as the cigarette the boy had been lighting up as he came through the doors fell from his mouth and landed briefly on her hand.

"Ouch! As if smoking wasn't dangerous enough as it is!" Brennan clutched her injured hand to her chest and glared at the boy.

"Sorry. Didn't see you." He mumbled, "And they're only Lites anyway."

Brennan rolled her eyes while Booth took her hand, silently assessing the damage.

"Tobacco is tobacco. You're essentially committing slow suicide." She snapped.

Booth looked at her but she ignored him, continuing quickly into the building and irritated at the distraction the collision had caused.

"Look, just pay more attention all right Mister…?" Booth pointed to the boy who took a long drag on his Lite cig.

"Pike. Chris Pike." He mumbled, leaning up against the wall and closing his eyes.

"Okay Chris, just watch where you're going alright? I'd hate to see what would have happened to you had Bones not been in such a hurry since you're not supposed to smoke inside anyway."

Chris shrugged and Booth gave him one last appraising look, trying to place the feeling his gut was giving him about this kid. Nothing cleared in his mind so he turned to run after Brennan.

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"Hey! Hey Bones." Booth caught Brennan's elbow and stopped her purposeful gait down the hallway, "Maybe I should fly solo for the first couple of minutes." He said quietly.

Brennan's jaw dropped and she put her hands on her hips.

"Why!?"

Booth winced. "Well Bones, you're agitated."

"So are you."

"Yes, but you're dangerous when you're agitated." He said as gently as possible.

"What are you talking about Booth?" She rolled her eyes and turned to continue on her way to the interrogation room, her fists unconsciously clenching at her sides.

"Whoa, look Bones," Booth stepped in front of her and grasped her upper arms firmly, "Just…you're a danger to the suspect right now and we don't want any room for the DA to place doubt on Rodger's confession, and breaking all 206 bones in his body, while appropriate and ultimately satisfying, will definitely place doubt."

Brennan's frown deepened and she pulled away. "I can control myself Booth."

"Right Bones, you can control yourself." Booth chuckled lightly. "You don't happen to remember the first time you met Howard Epps do you and the way you broke his wrist? How about that gang leader, Roberto Ortez, whom you laid flat outside that very elevator?" He pointed down the hall. "And lets not forget that poor bounty hunter whose nose you broke."

Brennan almost smiled, her shoulders relaxing ever so slightly.

"Maybe you're right." She conceded. Glancing around the hallway she found they were alone, so she leaned forward, placing a hand on his chest and kissing him softly.

"Make him pay." She whispered before turning to go in the viewing room a few doors down.

Booth stood still with his hand on the doorknob. As soon as she disappeared his forced smile fell off his face and his lips grew into a grim line.

Believe me. I will.

----------

Brennan watched Rodger straighten when the doorknob turned and swung open. Booth walked stiffly through, the look on his face chilled the entire room and she shivered.

Clenching and unclenching his jaw, Booth sat down and stared through Rodger, attempting to get control of his temper before opening his mouth.

It would be so easy. Two seconds with my hands in just the right spots and he'd never be able to hurt anyone again. I'm sure April would sleep a lot better at night… His expression didn't change as he fought back this idea. No. You told Bones you could control yourself, so do it.

Brennan waited, Booth had been sitting in the interrogation room for at least two minutes in complete silence doing nothing but watch Rodger shift in his chair. His face and ears were flushed red and she knew enough about body language from that book she read to see that he was extremely tense. She wondered briefly if Rodger might want to request a bodyguard instead of a lawyer.

Finally Booth spoke.

"You must feel like a big man Rodge." Booth's tone was dangerously low and laced with black rage just barely kept in check.

Rodger shifted again. "What?"

Booth tilted his head and put the file on the table in front of him, never breaking eye contact.

"Did she say anything?"

"Who?"

"Before you killed her, did she say anything to you or did you bash her head in before she had the chance?"

Rodger's eyes widened. "Courtney? I didn't kill her, I swear!" The man was almost frantic, glancing toward the glass and back to Booth, "I swear!"

Brennan gave him a scrutinizing look, though he of course could not see it. Interesting.

"Didn't kill her huh?" Booth's voice suddenly started to rise and he leaned forward, "Just like you didn't beat her and April and Jessica? You're wife Rodger? Just like you didn't beat her?!"

Booth whipped open the file, slamming down picture after bloodied picture in front of Rodger's face. Jessica's broken arm, Courtney's corpse, Layla's black eye, April's bruises and scars. Pictures old and new from hospitals and blown up family portraits.

Rodger stared down at the photos, his eyes tracing over each one slowly.

"I didn't kill Courtney." He said quietly, touching the picture of the girl's body, blue and stiff on a metal coroner's table.

Booth leaned back in his chair, Brennan was perplexed by how relaxed he suddenly seemed.

"You don't get it Rodge." Booth waited until the man looked up at him, "I've got everything I need. I've got witnesses who can attest to your temper, I've got motive and opportunity. Confess now and I can still make it home for the tale end of the Steelers game." He said smoothly.

Rodger dropped his eyes back down to the pictures. "I never meant to hurt them. I didn't kill Courtney but…I didn't mean to hurt them." His voice quivered.

Booth watched as he raised one hand and gingerly touched the photo of April's back with the football-sized bruise just below her left shoulder blade. His stomach turned but he ignored it.

"You get off on it Rodger? Hurting little girls. People who are helpless? Does it make you feel like a man?" Booth leaned forward again, speaking in a deathly whisper.

Rodger hesitated and slowly looked up, all traces of fear and remorse gone from his eyes and replaced with a sickly leer.

"You've never heard her scream have you?" He hissed, a smile tickling his lips.

Booth's eyes darted to the picture and back to Rodger and something broke.

Brennan blinked and missed it. One second Booth and Rodger were having a stare down, Rodger whispering something she couldn't quite hear. The next Booth had pulled the man out of his chair and had him sprawled out on the table, on the pictures, held down by his neck.

"You sick sonufabitch, you ever come near any of these women again and I'll personally make sure you never move another muscle for as long as you live. And if you ever come near April again…" He leaned down to whisper in his ear, "…I'll kill you."

Agents burst into the room and grabbed for Booth's arms, pulling him back.

"Booth let him go!" "Agent Booth he's not worth it, stop!"

Booth wrenched himself from the younger agents' grip and was satisfied to see Rodge's hands fly to his throat, gasping for air. He did an aboutface and went out to the deserted hallway, running a hand through his hair.

He was wired now, going to lose it if he didn't find a way to calm down.

1…2… He punched the wall. 1…1….2 Again, his fist made impact with the wall, this time leaving behind a rust colored smear. 1….DAMMIT!!

He wasn't sure if he was angry because he'd lost it in front of the other agents and Bones, or because they'd pulled him off Rodger before he finished what he started. He was short of breath as he paced restlessly in a futile attempt to calm down.

Suddenly a gentle hand wrapped around his arm and pulled him into a nearby storage closet.

Brennan pushed Booth inside the dark room and shut the door behind them. She waited.

Booth didn't look at her. The room smelled of dust and cleaning products and her perfume. His heart pounded against his ribs, rattling his whole body with every beat. He paced a whole on the dirty concrete floor waiting for the adrenaline, that was blocking his common sense, to subside.

Finally the clouds in his mind dissipated and he stopped moving.

Brennan watched him stand still, his back to her. She saw his shoulders rise and fall a few times as he took deep calming breaths. Slowly he turned around and she inhaled sharply. In the dim light provided by a small window over the door, she could see tears standing in his eyes.

He expected to see judgment or anger. Perhaps even disappointment. Instead he only saw his pain reflected in the blue depths of her eyes and a love he was sure she didn't know she was betraying.

"It could have been April." Was all he could manage to choke out. Brennan stepped toward him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"But it wasn't." She mumbled to his chest. Booth's wrapped a tight grip around him and he nodded into her hair.

But it wasn't.

She waited until she could feel the pounding of his heart return to normal and then pulled back.

"Okay?" She questioned. She was rewarded with a small smile as Booth stood back. He nodded, then reached out and ran his thumb across her cheek tenderly.

"Thanks Bones."

Brennan nodded, leaning into his hand when her phone began to vibrate in her pocket.

"It's a text from Angela." She answered his unvoiced question when she pulled out her phone. She flipped it open for them both to see.

URGENT!

Get to the lab ASAP!

Hmmmm...the suspence is killing me...