Chapter 18: Truth and Lies
It took Booth a long moment to realize that Hannah's rant, though perhaps based in truth - which made it all that much more believable - was designed to throw Scott off his stride. While she screamed, she tilted her head towards Booth and shot her eyes back and forth in the man's direction, clearly indicating that Booth should take the opportunity, before Scott recovered from his surprise, and jump him. Booth stood up but still hesitated. The gun remained more or less pointed at Hannah's heart. Could he take the chance?
Suddenly, the door burst open. Bones stood in the doorway looking like some sort of avenging angel. Booth's heart sank in his chest, maybe Scott would get to serve that entrée after all.
Storming towards Hannah, Bones began to scream. "That's right, you bitch. You certainly gave it your best shot, trying to steal what's mine. But it didn't work out for you did it?" She shifted her weight from foot to foot like a prize fighter, held her arms in front of her and flapped the fingers of her cupped hands back and forth in a "come and get it" gesture. The cast gleamed white in the dim light.
What the hell was going on?
Before Scott or Booth could react, Hannah exploded and lunged at Bones, knocking her to the ground. Booth heard a pained grunt and winced at the thought of Hannah landing on Bones' broken ribs. The two rolled around, pulling each other's hair, yelling epithets, while Scott screeched in frustration and did his best to keep the gun trained on a moving target.
Then, white smoke began to pour in from the heating vent just above the base board. This was it, the chance he'd been waiting for! Booth lunged at Scott, knocking the man to the floor. Scott retained his hold on the gun and tried to maneuver it so that it would point at Booth. The man was stronger than he looked. Booth had a hold on his wrist but still Scott's finger moved towards the trigger. The two struggled as the white smoke grew ever thicker.
A shot rang out.
Then another.
After that, the room went completely silent.
Hannah and Bones immediately stopped their struggles. Hannah sprang to her feet and reached down to help Brennan rise. Brennan grunted a bit as she struggled into a standing position, her good arm wrapped around her ribcage.
The smoke made visibility difficult so neither woman could see who, if anyone, had been shot. Or, who had done the shooting.
"Booth?" Bones called out, her voice tinged with worry and pain.
There was no movement from the other side of the room until, like a monster rising from the depth of the sea, a shadow disengaged itself from the mist.
"Thanks, Russ. You'd better give me the gun before anyone comes. I can say that I took it off Scott." Booth tapped the body on the floor with his shoe. "Wouldn't be surprised if this guy had a number of weapons on him."
Another shadow just inside the doorway moved.
Russ crossed the room and passed the gun to Booth just as what seemed like an army stormed into the room.
AN: Hoped you liked the action scene! I know a lot of you were concerned, but everyone lived through it, even Hannah.