Vigilante Justice

From Chapter Two:

"It's going to be okay," he whispered in her ear, a hand around the back of her neck.

Chapter 3: On the Road to Deep Creek Lake

It was getting late and Booth was feeling the strain of the events of the long day. Having told them to head for Deep Creek Lake in the mountains of western Maryland, Caroline called back with more information she'd managed to dig up on Andrew Carson after Booth and Bones were already on the road. Booth answered the phone while he drove. After listening for several minutes, Booth smiled at Bones.

"Thanks for checking out Carson for me, Caroline. I owe you," Booth said into his cell. He had Caroline on speaker.

"Yes, you do," Caroline replied with enthusiasm. "Don't worry; I'll think of something, you can be sure."

"Oh, I'm sure," Booth said dryly. "I haven't forgotten the price of a trailer for Bones' Dad last Christmas." Brennan glanced sharply at him and then tried to hide a sheepish grin.

"Tell me you minded," Caroline teased him, chuckling with delight.

"Okay, I admit it: I didn't mind. Not even a little bit. Thanks, Caroline." He was smiling broadly.

"My pleasure—now do me a favor and don't get shot or anything."

Booth hung up. Brennan was still watching him. Her features were alight with gratitude. Booth and she were driving down a country road in the middle of the night headed for Carson's summer house in Deep Creek Lake, and it dawned on her that he was doing it for her. It was about a four hour drive from the District. After Caroline had quizzed Carson's wife over the phone and then had somehow managed to look into his personnel file at the FBI—Caroline Julian had an astounding number of connections—she'd decided that his weekend chateau in Deep Creek was the best place to start looking for Andrew Carson—and consequently, Max and Russ.

"You didn't?"

"I didn't what?" Booth asked distractedly, navigating a sharp turn in the road that was continuing to take them deeper into the Appalachian Mountains.

"You didn't mind? When I made you kiss me?"

Surprised at the rare personal question Booth chanced a quick glance in her direction. She was picking lint from her jacket and frowning. It suddenly hit him that maybe she felt guilty for manipulating him into kissing her so she could get a favor from Caroline Julian.

"Are you kidding?" He replied with a laugh. "Of course I didn't mind. It was the best present I got last Christmas."

He winked in her direction and she relaxed. He thought back to the unexpected pleasure of the moment when she'd stepped up and planted one on him under the mistletoe in her office to please a capricious request from Caroline. It hadn't been just a quick peck on the lips, either. Once he'd realized she intended to prolong it, he'd kissed back with enthusiasm, fully aware that another chance like that might not come along for a while.

"Really?" She sounded as if she was not totally convinced.

He smiled. "Yeah, really." She turned her face away, but not before he saw her grin widely.

"What else did Caroline tell you about Carson?" She asked, neatly changing the subject.

"She said he worked for a private security company before he was hired by Kirby. He's a crack shot, a member of the Virginia Gun Collectors' Society, and a hunting enthusiast who spends a lot of time with his buddies in the Deep Creek Hunting Club. She thinks he sounds dangerous, but says his record is spotless. She wonders if he did the same thing as your father—came up with a new identity."

"What makes her think that?"

"She says there's very little information in his personnel file and she thinks that's weird. It's like it was scrubbed clean. And then there's the obvious: your Dad recognized him. Bones, try your Dad's cell again, and Russ."

"The last time I tried, both phones went straight to voice mail, but I'll try again." Booth patiently navigated the dark country road while he waited for her to get through to one of them. When she closed the phone and blew out a frustrated breath, his heart ached for her. As the miles had rolled past, he had watched her features grow more and more troubled as her genius mind probed all possible outcomes. She was torturing herself and it hurt to see it.

"Nothing. Their phones are turned off or out of cell range. Oh, Booth; I'm so angry with them. Dad should have called the police." She was so tense she couldn't sit still.

"They tried that, remember? I can't believe I'm going to say this, Bones, but this time I would have probably done the exact same thing as Max and Russ. Here's this guy, who he recognizes from his former criminal career, who has directly threatened to kill him and his children so Max won't blow his cover, but the police don't have anything substantive on him so they don't retain him. He was released within an hour of his arrest! And Caroline said his record is squeaky clean."

"But it's dangerous, not to mention illegal and wrong, for Russ and Dad to take this matter into their own hands. It's vigilante justice. They—we—shouldn't be doing this. On the other hand, I have to begrudgingly agree. If the police can't do anything to stop Carson, I don't see an alternative. This man won't be arrested until he actually commits a crime—potentially killing one of us. And even then, what if he manages to do it and he gets away with it? We have to stop him. But how? The only way I can see to stop him is to figure out how to get him put in jail for good, or kill him. And we can't kill him."

"We'll find your Dad and your brother, Bones. They're okay, do you hear me? They're okay. And then we'll find this guy and get to the bottom of his vendetta against the Brennan family, somehow. We'll come to an understanding with him; it's not out of the question. We have to, right? The alternative is not acceptable. There's got to be a way to handle this without killing someone."

A particularly sharp hairpin turn made him reach out an arm in front of Bones to brace her. When the car straightened out again, he tenderly brushed his hand across her leg. She stiffened.

"Right," she whispered and turned to look out into the night, where the dark ominous world was rushing dizzily past at sixty miles an hour. All the facets of her carefully regulated life had been in their assigned place and in order just twenty-four hours ago. Now it was all unraveling. She couldn't stop agonizing over what the next twenty-four hours might bring. The uncertainty was tearing her apart.

She was losing control.

Just when she felt like she was giving in to the darkness, she felt Booth's hand steal over hers and carefully grasp her fingers. The warmth and gentleness of his gesture undid her and the tears she'd been holding back all day began to fall.

"Aw, Bones; don't cry."

What was it about those two little words that made Brennan fall apart? She gulped desperately, breathed in harshly with noisy gasps, wrenched her hand from Booth's, turned away and struggled to rein in the tears, but nothing worked.

It slowly registered on her that the car had come to a stop. Booth surrounded her now, his arms and hands holding and soothing her in an effort to give what comfort he could.

"I shouldn't have said anything…" he began.

"It's not you," she cried. "It's just… you know I just found them again. All these years I thought I had no family, and then this unbelievable miracle happened to me. Russ and Dad came back into my life. And now I love them so much it hurts. I'll die if anything happens to them. But I'm so terrified that I'm going to lose them again. I guess it was too good to be true. Every morning since they have come back, I wake up and wonder if it was all a dream. I can't… I won't let this happen. But it is happening, no matter what I do. Why are they doing this? I don't know what to do." She dissolved into sobs.

Booth was too stunned to reply. Not sure he should even touch her, he sat back and watched helplessly. Her emotions, so rarely allowed any appearance, were exploding out of her like a dam bursting: despair, anger, terror. He was pretty sure she was even more frightened by her breakdown than he was. Her movements were like those of a drowning person flailing for a way to the surface. And as shaken as he felt seeing his strong, bold partner falling apart like this, he knew he had to put his shock aside and be there for her. More than ever before, she needed him, now when all her defenses lay in ruins.

"I'm right here," he assured her several times, cautiously moving in to hold her again, not sure what to expect. He was relieved when she didn't resist him.

"I-I c-can't do this," she said. She sounded angry and broken at the same time.

"Yes, you can. Come on, Bones, it's going to be okay. Don't pull away. Hold on to me. This is good for you to get it all out. Just cry. I've got you."

"But y-you said don't cry," she managed to point out, ever the literal scientist even in the throes of an emotional collapse.

"I was wrong, Bones. Sometimes you just need to let it out. And then you'll feel better and you'll be able to think clearly again."

"I'm a Doctor. I have a PhD for crying out loud." She was trembling so hard she could barely speak.

"Oh, so are PhDs too smart to cry?" Booth wiped the tears off her cheek, and then made a quick swipe at his own, only now aware that he had tears running down his face too.

"That does s-sound ridiculous," she had to concede. "Let me go. I need to get a tissue out of my purse."

She squirmed in his grasp and retrieved the tissue. Still in his embrace, she turned just far enough away so she could blow her nose, which she did thoroughly and unselfconsciously. The sight brought a tiny smile to Booth's lips.

"Feel better?"

"I'm fine."

She wasn't fine, but she was a lot better than a few moments ago. Recovering enough to sit up straight and breathe normally, she was beginning to show embarrassment over her outburst. Booth saw color bloom on her cheeks and knew instantly what was going on. The best thing for Bones, he knew from years of experience, was to not dwell, to move on to the next thing, and give her the time she needed to process what had just happened. He took a deep breath and put the car into drive.

"We have an hour or two left to go. I'm curious," he added as he stepped on the accelerator and pulled back out onto the highway. "When was the last time you slept, Bones?"

"Not since Russ woke me up when he called last night."

"I thought so. You're exhausted. Lay your head on my shoulder and try to sleep. We may not have many chances to rest in the next day or so."

"What about you?" she yawned, pillowing her cheek against the broad plane of his muscled shoulder. It was surprisingly comfortable. He smelled good too, an aromatic mixture of soap and leather.

"I'll manage. Just close your eyes, Bones. We have a couple hours of driving left and I want you to use every minute of that to sleep." His hand was back on her leg anchoring her firmly in place beside him as he navigated the winding road with the other.

"Okay,"she agreed.

She closed her eyes and within minutes was breathing at the deep steady rate of the unconscious. It wasn't long before they crossed the state line and entered Maryland. Only then did Booth dare to worry about what lay ahead in Deep Creek. There was a good chance that this situation might turn into a much worse nightmare than any of them could foresee. He desperately hoped everything would work out for the best, but he was afraid that Bones might be in for a lot more heartache.

After what he'd witnessed tonight, he realized that she wasn't nearly as strong as the confident, arrogant genius she projected to the world. He concentrated on driving and on keeping his shoulder steady for the woman sleeping against it. Booth had seen glimpses before, but her meltdown brought it home to him. Bones was acutely vulnerable when it came to her family. The trauma of her teenage years had left a wound that was still not healed, one that she protected fiercely and few of her companions ever saw. And tonight she'd opened that up to him, and he was honored by her trust. No matter what it took he intended to protect her. She meant way more to him than he cared to admit.

To be continued…

This story is already planned out and mostly written, but I'm noticing that it is not attracting many readers. Do you want me to keep posting? There are 5, maybe 6 more posts to go. Of course I'll probably keep posting if even one reader is interested- I'm easy!