And we come to the end. Thank you guys again for the overwhelmingly supportive reviews! I hope you like the ending, thanks so much for reading!

Less than an hour left

"Over here!"

Angela's head shot up from where she was in time to see people from all directions running toward a rescue worker about one hundred yards to her right. Roughly thirty people were scattered in biohazard suits, including the squints, across the landfill, using charged electroscopes to find the minimally reactive aluminum vault that they knew held Booth and Brennan.

She watched as a few tense minutes went by while the ground team dug by hand. They wanted to be sure that they had actually found the vault before they called the mini digger into action. Hodgins took her hand and they waited in silence, hearts pounding, until they saw it.

The team all held up their right hands in unison. They had hit the vault.

The mini digger sprang into action, making its way over and clearing the debris from in front of the vault. The group started quickly in the direction of the activity, their movements hindered by their own biohazard suits. Angela's heart was in her throat as she thought about how close they had cut things.

Please let them be alive. Please God…

The mini digger made quick work of the debris and detritus that covered the entrance, even though every moment that past felt like hours. Suddenly the door was clear and the team was cutting through to get to them.

They peeled the heavy door open and Angela watched as the first of the search and rescue members went in, her heart plummeting as she heard one of them call for help from within the vault.

"We need medic here now!"

She broke into a run, leaving the rest of the group behind as tears came to her eyes, making the ground in front of her swim and blur.

Ignoring the protests of the FBI team at the entrance, she burst into the vault, the sight that met her breaking her heart. Booth and Brennan lay in each other's arms in the center of the room while the first member of the rescue team knelt with his fingers to Brennan's throat.

They looked peaceful, like they'd lain down to take a nap. Only, their color was off and she could see no signs of life through her tears.

Her eyes flew to the man who was taking her pulse and he nodded his head while he switched his hand over to check Booth. "They're alive. Pulse is barely there, but its there."

Angela jumped aside as the medical team burst in and got to work, putting oxygen masks on the unconscious partners as they prepared to get them out and to a hospital.

Angela's knees gave way and she sank to a seat in the corner of the vault, her sobs going unnoticed even by her as activity buzzed around inside the tiny space.

They were alive.

Safe

Brennan opened her eyes and was surprised for a moment not to see the dim, metal walls of the gun vault looming over her. She had no idea where she was and, as she thought about it, no idea why she was alive. Maybe she wasn't, she thought as she stared at the white ceiling over her head. Maybe there really was an afterlife, and this was it. Booth would be so happy to gloat that he'd been right about the existence of heaven.

Booth.

Where was he? She tried to turn her head, tried to move her arms, but they felt like they were encased in cement and she couldn't seem to muster anything more than a useless grunt.

"Sweetie? You awake?"

Brennan turned her eyes in the direction of the voice and felt tears of relief come to them as she saw her best friend stand up from a chair beside her.

"Ange..." Her voice hurt and the sound of it was raw and raspy in the room, as if she hadn't spoken in months. Knowledge that an oxygen mask sat over her face came to her mind. The constant air that pumped through it was cool and clean and felt amazing as it filled her aching lungs.

"Shh, sweetie, don't try to talk. You're being treated for hypoxia and hypercapnia, at least that's what the doctor said." She smiled down at Brennan, her own eyes filling with tears despite her pleased smile. "He said you're going to be fine, you just need lots of oxygen."

Brennan nodded faintly, happy to feel that her muscles actually worked despite their exhaustion. The build up of carbon dioxide in the blood and the deficiency of oxygen in the tissue could be fatal. They must have been found just as they'd lost consciousness.

Brennan's eyes flew to Angela's as her tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. "Booth? Where's Booth?"

Angela's smile grew wider. "He's here, he's a few rooms down. He's fine Bren."

Brennan opened her hand weakly and Angela took it in hers, squeezing it as she let her tears fall. "You have got to stop getting into these situations Brennan, are you trying to kill me?"

Brennan chuckled, the action making her chest burn. She was alive and so was Booth. They had made it.

Angela sat back down in the chair beside her friend's bed, never letting go of her hand. "When we found you, you were in Booth's arms. I take it you used your time wisely to work out your differences?"

She'd said it in a mildly saucy way to lighten the mood, but the look that came into Brennan's eyes was so intense that Angela suddenly got a small taste of the magnitude of what must have happened in that vault.

"I love him Angela." Her already weakened voice shook as she said the words out loud, but she wouldn't hide her feelings anymore. "I love him."

Angela grinned, the expression in her watery eyes one that Brennan often saw her give people who were two steps behind. "Tell me something that I didn't know."

Her eyes felt heavy and she let them flutter closed for a moment before she forced them back open to look at Angela again. "You'll be here? When I wake up?"

Angela nodded, the lump in her throat making it impossible to speak. She watched as Brennan let her eyes close again, her chest rising and falling evenly as sleep took her almost instantly. Angela let go of her friend's hand, calm washing over her as she slumped back in her chair to watch her sleep. It had been a nerve wracking twenty-four hours that hadn't let up until the moment that she heard Brennan's voice. Now she could get down to the business of believing that she was going to be alright.

"Sir, you need to get back into bed. Sir!"

Angela turned her head just in time to see Hodgins pushing a wheelchair bound Booth and his oxygen tank through the door to Brennan's room.

Angela looked horrified. "Jack, put him back in bed right now."

Hodgins' eyebrows shot up, his expression one of pure innocence. "He threatened to shoot me Angela, what choice did I have?"

He wheeled the FBI agent over to Brennan's bedside as the nurse following them stood angrily in the doorway. "That patient has no business wandering the halls."

"I'm fine." Booth bit out gruffly from behind his mask, his eyes turning from the nurse to Brennan's sleeping face.

"Sir, while you are admitted as a patient in this hospital you are my responsibility."

Booth never took his eyes from Brennan's face, speaking softly. "Yeah? Well she's mine." The expression that came into his eyes as he looked down at her, lifting his hand to brush the hair out of her face, was so tender that Angela suddenly felt like she was watching a moment too intimate, too private for her eyes.

Slowly getting up, she made her way over to Hodgins and addressed the nurse. "They've just been through hell, can we give him a couple minutes? We'll put him back in just a sec, I promise."

The nurse regarded her for a moment, her annoyance evident. "He has two minutes, then his butt better be back in his bed."

Angela leveled her eyes on Hodgins as the nurse left the room in a huff. "He doesn't even have his gun on him Jack, you should have made him stay put."

Hodgins looked up at his fiancé, his eyes soft. "I've been where they were Angela. I know how it feels to think you'll never see the woman you love again."

Angela looked down at her feet at his words, feeling guilty for not realizing how personally this would most surely have affected him. He took her hand in his and she looked back up. "If it had been us, no one could have kept me in my bed when you were in the next room. I just made sure he got in here in one piece instead of collapsing into a pile on the floor like he was trying to do."

She placed a soft kiss to his lips, the image of him being pulled out of the dirt a year ago still etched into her memory. They looked into each other's eyes a moment, grateful that things had turned out like they had, grateful that they had each other, then looked over at Booth and Brennan.

Booth was clearly exhausted, the effects of the ordeal clearly taking the same toll on his body as it had Brennan's, but he forced himself to keep touching her.

His voice drifted quietly up to them in the stillness of the room. "We made it Temperance. We made it love."

Silently, Angela and Hodgins left the room to stand just outside, giving Booth some much deserved privacy. Hodgins gathered Angela into his arms and they stood holding each other in the hall, reveling in the feeling of calm that only having everyone safe could bring.

Sweets turned the corner and approached, glancing into the room at the scene unfolding, then directed his attention back to Angela and Hodgins. "They're really okay."

Angela nodded, not bothering to break her embrace with Hodgins. "They get Sanders?"

Sweets shook his head. "I'm sure I tipped him off that the ransom wouldn't be forthcoming when I involved him for my criminal profile of The Gravedigger. Either that or he has contacts still within the bureau that kept him informed of our progress. His home was empty and his car was found at the airport. The trail ends there."

The looks of anger and frustration that came to the squint's faces mirrored Sweets own feelings, but he kept himself in check. "We'll find him. In years, no one has been able to identify this guy and that's something. It's just a matter of time before he's in custody." He directed his eyes to Hodgins. "He won't be able to do this to anyone ever again."

Hodgins nodded his head, having to content himself with the triumphs they'd made today and hope that the doctor was right.

Sweets turned his attention back to the tender scene in the hospital room, a small smile coming to his face as he directed his words to the couple beside him. "I suppose an 'I-told-you-so' would be immature at this moment, right?"

Angela smiled. "Only if followed by a 'nah-nah-na-nah-nah'."

Sweets chuckled at her response and turned to leave.

Back inside the room, Brennan felt the soft brush of fingers on her forehead invade her consciousness and she opened her eyes, turning her heavy head to see Booth by her bedside. She smiled tiredly up at him, meeting the smile he was already directing down at her.

They said nothing as they looked at each other, sharing silent communion in the dim light of her hospital room. Nothing was ever going to be the same for them again, and in Booth's mind, that was just fine.