Chapter Eighteen:

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"Hold on Bones!! Help is on the way." He held her up into a bit more of a sitting position, and she groaned when he did it.

She was still alert, but her eyes were reflecting the pain that he knew she must feel. He knew firsthand the pain she was feeling. The hot steel of the bullet piercing warm human flesh was not a pleasant experience. Perotta had grabbed something from the freezer by the door and brought it back to where the partners were. Booth looked at her questioningly when she handed him the bag of frozen vegetables.

"What the hell is this for?" He didn't take the pro-offered item from the blonde Agent's hand.

"It will help slow the bleeding if you apply it to the wound..." She made the motion to apply the frozen item to the shoulder of Doctor Brennan. The injured woman looked from one Agent to the other.

"It's true Booth. The same technique saved your life when you had the bleed in your brain."

He was just a little surprised that she was so coherent. She was losing a lot of blood. His hands were already stained with her life fluid.

He held her closely and pressed the bag against the wound on the front of her shoulder. He looked back up at the blonde woman hovering over them.

"Can you see a wound in the back?" He held Bones just a little bit closer to his chest to expose her back to Perotta. The Agent knelt down to look closer.

"It looks like the bullet went in the back, and out the front. Through and through."

Booth was quietly relieved. If the bullet went in the back and out the front that meant it was not his shot that had hit her. The angles were wrong. He would have hit her in the front. It didn't lessen his worry about her condition, she was still bleeding profusely. And if she went into shock, the baby could be at risk too...if it wasn't already. He looked down into her eyes again and tried to smile.

"Everything is going to be just fine. The ambulance will be here any minute now." He hoped his words were more reassuring than he felt they were. He noticed how pale she was becoming, and her eyes closed more than once. Every time they did, he gave her a little shake to keep her conscious.

It wasn't long before the lights and the sirens both reached his senses at the same time. The ambulance crew entered the scene, wary. They had only been informed that shots were fired and someone was down. The first paramedic approached the two on the floor, but eyed the fallen man behind them. A group of police officers and what looked like a few FBI Agents were right there too. Booth watched the scene and grew impatient quickly with their hesitation.

"Don't worry about that guy... she's hit in the shoulder. We need you here!" Booth flashed his badge at the crew, who were now approaching them a little quicker. His hand went immediately back to applying pressure through the frozen bag. The first medic waved for the others to follow him in the door with a stretcher.

They tended her quickly, while Booth and Perotta filled them in on what had happened. One of the three medics did a quick check on the two other fallen men in the store. He called out from behind them,

"This one's still got a pulse!"

One of the other paramedics made a move to help the other man, but Booth grabbed him by the arm before he had fully stood and glared at him fiercely.

"No! You help her, and then you help him. He shot her... She deserves treatment first. She's my partner, and she's pregnant...I want her looked after with every ounce of your ability..." The medic definitely noticed the serious tone of the man's voice, and wondered to himself if there was more than just a partnership going on there. He seemed very protective of her.

He kept his thoughts to himself, and helped shift Brennan so that they could lift her onto the stretcher. They had her secured in moments and Booth followed along beside his partner as she was being wheeled towards the vehicle outside. Her eyes were now closed, and he wasn't sure if she was resting, or unconscious. He grabbed her hand.

"Bones, stay with me there okay..." her eyelids flickered open and she looked at him and tried to smile.

"I'm here Booth." Her voice sounded weaker.

Without hesitation, he climbed in the back of the ambulance beside her and gave the medics a look that said 'I dare you to stop me'. They did not.

One of the medics continued to attend to her while one of the others went around to the front and got in the driver's seat. Booth only assumed the other one was still attending the fallen man in the store. He didn't really care what happened to that guy. It was only her he was concerned about. He watched while the man in the back with them prepared a syringe and made a move to inject it directly into the intravenous already in her arm. He got the word 'Whoa' out before Brennan, who had been watching everything that was happening, tried to sit up while grabbing the man's arm.

"What is that?" Her voice suddenly seemed stronger but her eyes showed the pain she felt by her actions.

The medic looked at them both.

"It's only morphine. It'll cut the pain almost instantly."

"No! No morphine. It's not good for the baby." She lay back down; the exertion was harder than she thought.

"Are you sure? That's gotta hurt like crazy!" He gestured towards her now loosely bandaged shoulder with the syringe in his hand. He looked to Booth to help him out with the argument, but the FBI Agent just shrugged his shoulders.

"I've discovered that it's easier to just do what she says. She doesn't change her mind very easily..." Booth took hold of her hand again and the ambulance turned on its sirens as it turned onto a major street.

The man driving asked for a status update, and the medic beside Booth gave him her stats. Her vitals were fluctuating, and Booth felt the vehicle accelerate just a little bit.

Bones was still with them. Conscious, but not saying anything. Booth muttered words of encouragement and comfort. Her silence was killing him. She squeezed his hand.

The medic pulled out his stethoscope and held it to her abdomen. He moved around the headpiece a few times and Booth, who was so good at reading people, noticed the worried look on the man's face.

"What?" He asked. "Is something wrong?"

The paramedic looked closer at Booth and made up his mind that these two were definitely more than just partners. He suspected the worried man had something to do with the baby as well, judging by the look on his face. He didn't know how to say it, but he knew, as his training had taught him, that honesty was best.

"I don't know if it's anything...but I'm not getting a heartbeat from the baby. How far along are you?" He asked them both. Booth responded.

"About thirteen weeks, give or take a day or two..."

"Well, it could be that the heartbeat is still too weak to hear."

"I had an ultrasound yesterday... the technician said the heartbeat was really strong. I heard it clearly." Her weak voice joined the concerned conversation. She looked to Booth, and their eyes locked in panic.

The look was not lost on the medic, whose heart went out to them just a little bit. He tried to make them feel better by explaining that they would find out more when they got to the hospital. The equipment was limited in the back of the ambulance. He watched their knuckles turn white as they held each other's hand even tighter. Her eyes closed again and didn't open until they reached the emergency department of the hospital.

The attending Doctors, who had been waiting for them, had to pry the hands apart of the partners to examine her more closely. As soon as Booth lost the connection with his partner, things spiralled quickly away from him. The Doctors only took a minute to decide what to do. They were sending her immediately to X-ray to see if there were any bullet fragments left in her, and to see the extent of the damage. They thought that the bullet had gone right through, but they needed to be sure there was nothing more serious.

The medical team quickly explained the situation to Booth, and before he could say or do anything, she was gone down the hall. He wandered back to the admitting area, the shock of the morning's events started to catch up with him. He looked down and saw that he was still covered in her blood. He went into the public washroom and tried his best to remove what stains he could. He went back to the common waiting room, unsure of what he should do, and sat down among a row of sick and injured people. They all stared at the blood on his clothes, but he ignored them. He sat with his head in his hands.

Across from him sat a new mother with her very young baby. The baby's cries brought his focus back to his situation. He closed his eyes and said a quick, though silent prayer, that Bones and their baby would be okay. If anything happened to either of them, he would go back to that store and kill both of those men again.

He got up, no longer able to distract himself from his worry. He had to find out something. Somehow. He pestered the nurse at the station for awhile, and eventually they agreed to let him go to the X-ray area to wait for her. They didn't think it would be a long wait. The nurses knew nothing more than that.

He paced outside the room where she was being X-rayed and really didn't wait all that long before the Doctor came out, and the nurses followed pushing her on a hospital gurney. The Doctor stopped briefly to let him know he was going to go get the prints from her scans and he would be back in just a few minutes. Booth thanked him, and looked down at his partner. She smiled at him, and closed her eyes. He could still see the pain in them.

"How are you doing?" He asked when while they went down the hallway, into a private room.

"I have to be honest. This hurts more than I expected it would." She tried to smile again, but it came out as more of a grimace.

"You're going to be just fine Bones. Don't even worry about it."

"Who's worried?" She closed her eyes again. "Promise me something Booth."

"Anything!"

"No morphine okay. Even if I'm unconscious..."

He promised.

Even through the pain, and the blood loss, she believed the baby was just fine. He certainly hoped so. A Doctor walked through the door just as her IV was hung from a post behind the bed and the nurses went to remove the temporary dressing that was on her shoulder.

The wound was still bloody, but most of the major bleeding had seemed to stop. It still didn't look good. He became a little nauseous looking at it.

The Doctor lit up a screen on one of the walls and stuck a couple of X-rays up on it. He stared at them for a while, and then went back to the patient. He pulled back her hospital gown a little bit, to expose more of her arm.

Booth had to look away. He never thought he had a weak stomach, but he had never seen someone he cared about so much with such an ugly wound. He watched as the Doctor tried to lift her arm and she cried out. His stomach dropped. The Doctor said out loud,

"There it went." He noticed Booth watching carefully and motioned him over to the bed, and showed him another small wound just at the bottom of her ribs. "Do you see that?" He waited until Booth nodded, and then continued,

"That's the path of a bullet fragment. The bullet ricocheted off the clavicle, shattering it, and a piece of it diverted through the soft tissue, and exited there. That fragment missed her heart by about an inch. If it had pierced the heart, she would have bled out in minutes, but it went right out. That one was close..."

Booth closed his eyes in relief for just a second.

"Does that mean everything is going to be okay? I mean, all the bullet came out right?"

"There appears to be no trace of any metal fragments anywhere in her chest. The worst of it seems to be the shattered clavicle, but we can put a few screws, and as long as she stays immobile for awhile, it should heal up in time. It appears that no major vessels or arteries were hit, but we'll take a look around when we go in. I am very confident that she'll be just fine, with time and rest. I'm just going to go confer with the other attending Doctors and we'll be back in a little while to fix her right up."

That was good news. Booth wondered about the other situation.

"What about the baby? The paramedic couldn't get a heartbeat in the ambulance." The Doctor saw the distress on the man's face.

At that moment, a couple of nurses entered the room pushing some sort of monitor on a cart. They pushed it to the side of the bed and started to hook up wires to Brennan.

"We're going to find out about that right now." The Doctor made a quiet departure while the technician attached the fetal monitor to the patient.

Booth moved to her side and held her hand. She had not said anything in awhile, but he knew she had been following the conversation. The blankets and her hospital gown were rearranged so that only her abdomen was showing. The changes had been so subtle that Booth had not really noticed before, but there was definitely a rounded little bump where her stomach was usually so flat.

They both watched as a blue gel was squirted on her and the tech started to move a wand around on her exposed skin. They held their breath while this continued for a few minutes, until finally the faint, speedy heartbeat of their baby was heard through the speakers. The tech smiled as they both exhaled slowly. She waited until she had the attention of both of them and then she pointed to a blurry spot on the screen.

"That's your baby. Everything seems just fine."

Booth felt tears come to his eyes. The baby was fine. So far. He heard her quiet little voice say his name.

"Booth?"

He wiped his eyes before he looked at her.

"Yeah?"

"Are you crying?"

He wiped his eyes again and thought about denying it, but decided to be honest. Alpha-male tendencies be damned.

"Yeah."

She gave him a look that affirmed to him that his heart belonged to her. It was very mutual.

The Doctor came in after the Tech made a phone call to let him know that all was well with her pregnancy. They could go ahead with the repair of the gunshot wound. The two were left alone only briefly, while the final preparations were made.

They spoke quietly and she admitted to him that she was tired. He promised her that the worst would be over soon, and he would be right there for her when she woke up. He was allowed to wait in the room while she was wheeled away. He kissed her on the forehead before she left, and they whispered I love you to each other.

He sat down in the chair in the room to wait.

He must have drifted off to sleep because before he knew it, she was wheeled back in, asleep still from the general anaesthetic and he wondered how she had waited for weeks for him to wake up, because he grew impatient after only an hour.

She eventually stirred and the nurses were there almost instantly to check on her. The Doctor came in and explained the procedure to Booth. Everything had gone according to plan. It was all up to her now. Booth thought in his mind that it was up to them now. He wasn't leaving her side.

He waited with her all night. She woke up a few times, and he was right there for her every time. She still refused pain medication, and tried to remain upbeat, but he could tell that she hurt. He hurt because she did.

The morning came and he only knew because he watched the clock on the wall when he could no longer sleep. But she still could, and he was happy to let her. He wondered how much more the two of them would have to go through before they could live normal lives. The two of them and the family they were creating.

She awoke early in the morning and he noticed immediately that it was the most alert she had been yet. They stared into each other's eyes in the dim light, and it was she who spoke first.

"Booth...?"

"Yeah."

"How much more of this can we take?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm so tired of this." She gestured to the hospital room or the universe in general. He wasn't sure.

"Yeah. A lot has happened lately hey? We've just had a string of bad luck... We're all fighters though." She smiled when he laid his hand gently on her abdomen. "We'll get through this."

"I know. I'm just so tired."

He told her to sleep, and leaned over her to kiss her cheek and brush her hair behind her ear. She slept. He waited.

The morning passed, and he turned off his cell phone after the first few calls started coming in from both Squints and FBI who had heard what happened, and wanted an update. The nurses came in a few times to let him know that people were looking for him. He stalled in going out to the waiting room. He didn't want to leave her side. She woke up on and off through the morning and she was asleep again when his attention was brought to the door of the room by a familiar face. He got up gently from her side to go out into the hallway. This was not a man he would ignore.

He brushed quickly at his rumpled, bloody clothes, trying to fix his appearance before he presented himself to Deputy Director Cullen. He closed the door to her room quietly and squinted at the bright lights in the hallway. His Boss reached out to shake his hand.

Booth wondered what was up. An appearance from this man in person could never mean a good thing.

"Good day Agent Booth. How is Doctor Brennan?"

"It looks like she's going to be just fine. It'll take a little time, but she'll be okay." Booth really wondered what was up. Cullen was being very nice so far. That meant he wasn't in trouble, if whatever else. He doubted that the esteemed man would travel all the way down to the hospital just to enquire about the well being of Doctor Brennan.

"That's good. I'm glad to hear that." The man seemed to be stalling. The older man looked Booth in the eye with a very serious stare. "Look, Agent Booth, there was an incident late last night at the Women's Federal Prison."

Cullen watched the man's expression change from one of worry to one of question.

"With all due respect Sir, I'm not sure what that has to do with me."

"Well, we're not sure exactly how yet... but a group of prisoners stormed a guard post, and managed to escape to a waiting van or bus or something. Anyway, there were a number of prison officials killed and the whole plan was apparently quite elaborate. We still have investigators on the scene, but one of the prisoners who escaped was Heather Taffet..." Cullen waited while realization dawned on the younger man's face.

"The Gravedigger? She escaped?" Booth shut his eyes and put his hand over them. This was too much.

"That's not all, I'm afraid. When our investigators got to her cell, they discovered a number of journals and diaries, and they all describe, sometimes very graphically, the demise of both you and Doctor Brennan." He paused, waiting for some sort of reaction from Booth. So far there was none.

Cullen continued, while Booth kept his hand on his eyes.

"About an hour ago, a call was received from the FBI main switchboard making a definite threat against the lives of both you and your partner. We're presently tracing the call, but whoever left it, has talent. They have us on quite a chase for sure. We no longer believe that Heather Taffet worked alone, and now we fear she had teamed up again with whoever was responsible for the original kidnappings."

"What do we do?" Booth finally lowered his hand. Cullen noticed that his hand trembled just a little bit, but his voice remained steady.

"The FBI is putting you under the highest level of security protection, and one of our Top Agents, who has recently returned from Sabbatical, has a plan that might intrigue you. The entire FBI is going to make sure that you and Doctor Brennan are safe. You have our word."

Booth thought fast.

"What about my son and his mother. They'll need protection too."

"We already have Agents on the way to pick them both up. The threat made against you was very, very serious. We're covering all the bases."

Cullen took Booth by the shoulder and guided him around the corner from her room where another man was waiting, leaning up against the wall.

Booth recognized him immediately, even though it had been a few years since he had seen the man.

"Sully! What are you doing back in this neck of the world?"

The two men shook hands. They were both glad to see each other, even though the jealous feelings once felt by one, were now felt by the other.

"Agent Booth. Good to see you man. I've been back for weeks, but I haven't seen you around the office much lately." Sully smiled. He knew why.

"Yeah. Brain thing. Believe it or not, this was my first day back. Nice huh?"

Sully looked at him seriously.

"How is she?"

"She'll be okay. She just needs time to heal." Booth suddenly wondered if she had woken up again and he wasn't there. Sully sensed the change in mood and decided to get to the point.

"Deputy Director Cullen and I have a proposition for you...You and Temperance leave right now, we have a Medivac waiting upstairs. They'll fly you to where my boat is docked. On the boat are two Navy Seals who will pose as your crew to help you out and you guys sail into the middle of the ocean until we find these sons of bitches that are out to get you. I will personally take over all of your cases while you are gone..."

Both men watched Booth make his decision.

"I'll ask Bones. I think she'll go for it. What about her care? She's only hours out of surgery."

Cullen answered.

"There's a Doctor on stand-by, in the Medivac, who is willing to accompany you on the boat until she recovers. We've covered everything. We can leave in fifteen minutes. We'll take care of you Agent Booth. And your whole family."

Booth nodded and said thanks. He turned and went back into her room, where he found her awake. He thought it would take long to convince her, but she surprised him with her answer.

"Let's go."

Twenty minutes later the helicopter took off from the roof of the hospital with the two passengers on their way to a secret location. Only Cullen and Sully knew where they had gone. The fewer people who knew, the safer they would be.

Cullen waited a few more minutes before going back through the waiting room where he knew a number of people had gathered, waiting to see Booth or Brennan.

He recognized a few from the Jeffersonian, and Caroline Julian. He wondered what she was doing there. She was the one who approached him first.

"Deputy Director. I am just wondering about my star witness in my rapidly approaching trial against Booth's Father. Is she going to be ready? Is she okay?"

Cullen shook his head.

"She's gone."

Everyone in the room expelled their breath in shock.

"She died?" Caroline looked ready to explode. Tears formed quickly in more than a few eyes.

Cullen shook his head again. He hadn't meant to mislead them.

"No, that's not what I meant... With the threat from the Gravedigger, they've gone into hiding for their own protection. They've gone somewhere safe until we can recapture Heather Taffet and whoever aided in her escape."

The mood shift was audible in the room. Caroline again spoke up.

"How the hell am I supposed to win that trial now?" She turned and left the room quickly.

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To be continued.....

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