After a hurricane, there is no rainbow.
N/A: Sorry for taking so long to update. Some angst coming along, peeps. I hope you like it!
Waking up to him and to their daughter was the best feeling she has ever felt. In her conception of life, waking up to someone wasn't something unusual. But waking up to someone she was committed to, was something unimaginable. She said to herself, plenty of times, that she wouldn't commit, that she liked to be on her own, to have her own space, her own time. But those are the kind of things you say without even passing through the real experience.
Booth once told her to never say never. He taught her that she should face all her fears, because – as in all assays – you can find a false positive and, unless you retake the test and pass through that experience again, you can deal with a false outcome for the rest of your life and maybe lose perfect moments, because you were too afraid to deal with reality.
Since the day Booth got back from the hospital, the first thing that Brennan was used to do when she woke up was to open her eyes and stare at the person she would spend the rest of her life with.
As much as he tried to wake up before her, she always managed to do that first. He hated when people stared at him in his sleep, but – somehow – with Brennan this was different. He loved to wake up to her blue eyes. He loved to wake up to her, to kiss her, to be the first person to tell her something in the morning and to be the first person to whom she would speak to. He loved to be the person to whom she would say the last words before going to bed and he prayed to God for this never to change.
"Hey." – he said with his morning huskiness.
"Good morning." – she said, placing her right hand on his cheek.
"Whoa! What was that for?"
"I love you, Booth. I love us. I love our daughter. You know that, right? I'm not a cold fish…"
"What?"- he sat, staring at her. – "Of course you're not a cold fish, Bones. I love you, too. You know that. I love our daughter too… I love us. Bones, I always will."
"I just felt I should say that. Since the day we went to the hospital, I felt I should say that… I don't want our lives to change. I want it to stay like it is. For the first time in my whole life I'm feeling safe, happy, loved, complete."
"Why are you saying that, Bones? Nothing is gonna change between us."
"I don't know why I'm saying this, Booth. It's not rational, but… But it's what I think."
Booth framed her face with his hands, making her stare at his dark eyes. He didn't know what was happening. He didn't know what was behind all of this, but something was affecting her, something was threatening her and she wasn't sharing it with him.
"Bones, you know you can tell me everything, right?"
"I know, Booth."
"So, I know you're hiding something from me. I just do, Bones. I know you as the palm of my hand… I know when something is bothering you. What is it, Bones? You can tell me. Whatever it is, we'll figure it out."
"I'm not hiding anything from you, Booth."- Despite the fact that she knew she was hiding something from him, she didn't seem to feel like sharing it. Brennan hated to frighten Booth with minor problems, so she'd rather hide them from him.
A few weeks ago, when Booth was still in the hospital and Brennan was at home, alone with Sarah, she received a phone call from some strange number. For a moment, she thought that it could be a nurse calling her to say she could visit Booth that she was allowed to drive him home. However, instead, it was someone whose voice she wasn't familiar with.
"You better be ready for a thunderstorm, Temperance. People say that after a hurricane, comes a rainbow, but they are as wrong about it as they are wrong about every single stupid assumption they make. I don't wanna hurt your daughter, so you better do everything I say to you. And it's all gonna start when your beloved partner comes back home. I'm watching you girls."
She didn't even have the chance to say anything. She stayed there, in front of the telephone, holding Sarah in her arms, frozen. She didn't want to run a background check in anyone, because she knew that if she did that, she would have to get all people from the FBI involved and they would end up warning Booth about her condition. That's why she hid it from him. She couldn't bear the thought of lying to her partner, but it was the only way out she saw to do not disturb Booth while he was in the hospital.
But, now, he was back. He was there with her. And the hurricane was supposed to come to scare them. She didn't want to lose anything she had. She didn't want her family to change, she didn't want to lose Booth, but she also didn't know what to do. She knew she couldn't keep it for herself, because suddenly everything could change, and it did.
"Bones? They mail guy is here with a package for you."- Booth yelled from the door.
"I can't take it now, Booth. Can you sign for me? I'm changing Sarah's diaper."
"Can I sign it for her? She is changing our daughter's diaper, unless you wanna wait for a while…"
The mail guy nodded and handed Booth a box. It was addressed to Brennan, but it had no remitter.
"What is it, Booth? I can't remember ordering anything and putting your address as a reference."
"I don't know, there is no remitter. Do you want me to open it for you?"
She froze again. No remitter reminded her from the phone call she received a few weeks ago. What could be inside that box? Could it kill the person who would open? Could it be the same thing Epps put inside his ex-wife head, the same thing that almost killed Cam? Could it be a dioxin? A virus? She wouldn't allow herself to take that risk.
"Bones?"- Booth was holding his car's keys, almost ready to open the box when Brennan came running to stop him.
"No! Don't open it!"- She was pale, Sarah was screaming in her arms, due to the fact that she simply ran away from their bedroom with the baby, half dressed, in her arms.
Booth placed the keys on the counter, made Brennan sit on a stool, while he was holding Sarah, trying to make her stop crying.
"Would you like to tell me what's bothering you now, Bones? I knew you were hiding something."
She took a deep breath. Tears are starting to pour down her tear ducts. She wanted it to stop, she wanted it to be just as it was meant to be. She didn't want any freak guy running around her family, destroying all the good times she was having, all the good memories they were building up together. But, now, it was inevitable. She would have to tell Booth what was happening, even though she didn't know exactly why it was happening.
"When you were at the hospital…"- she stopped. She thought she couldn't go on.
Booth placed one of his hands on her knee, encouraging her to carry on.
"When you were at the hospital, I got a phone call from a strange number. I only picked it up, because I thought it could be a nurse calling me to tell me I could go pick you up and bring you home. Turns out it wasn't a nurse, Booth. It was a guy, I've never heard his voice before, but here is what he said to me: "You better be ready for a thunderstorm, Temperance. People say that after a hurricane, comes a rainbow, but they are as wrong about it as they are wrong about every single stupid assumption they make. I don't wanna hurt your daughter, so you better do everything I say to you. And it's all gonna start when your beloved partner comes back home. I'm watching you girls.""
She watched Booth turning pale. He sat on the stool in front of her, with Sarah still in his arms. He held their daughter even tighter, trying to protect her from anything that could put her in danger.
"I don't know why someone would like to this to us. We haven't had a case that could put us in danger. Broadsky is in jail, Epps and the gravedigger are dead. I can't picture who could be doing this to us."
"Why didn't you tell me this, Bones? You should have called me when I was in the hospital. I'd have come home. I'd have the FBI investigating this right away. We have a family now, Bones. You can't hide these things from me anymore! We have a daughter to think about."
"I didn't call you because you were recovering from a major surgery. I needed you to be alive, not disturbed. Besides, he said it would all start when you were back home, so there was no reason for me to worry while you weren't around."
"Bones, we are not gonna touch this box. I'm taking it to the Jeffersonian while you stay here with Sarah. I don't want you girls walking around the city."
"I believe it's not a good idea, Booth. He is after you, you shouldn't be driving alone."
"What do you want me to do?"
"We could call Hodgins to come pick the box and ask him to find out what's inside. Or…"
"Or?"
"Or we could all go to the Jeffersonian. It's safer than letting you go all by yourself."
They didn't seem to have a better option. They wanted to know what was inside that box, they wanted to know who was after them and what this person wanted from them, but they were clueless. For the first time in her entire life, Brennan had no idea of who could be chasing Booth. For the first time, she was completely afraid of the outcome that they could get, because now her life was way to perfect to get destroyed.
As the three of them walked through the Jeffersonian, people started to approach. Everybody was staring at Sarah for the first time, but they didn't know Brennan wasn't there to show her daughter, they couldn't even imagine she was there to ask them a favor.
"What are you two doing here?" – Angela asked, surprised.
"Angie, we need Hodgins to find out what is inside this box without opening it."- Brennan handed the box to Angela.
"What's going on here, guys?" – The artist started to get pale as the time passed by. She knew Brennan well enough to tell when something was completely wrong.
"Someone is after us."
"After me." – Booth interrupted.
"I can't just X-ray a box, Angie. What if the X-rays ignite the thing that is inside this box?" – Hodgins sighed when he tried to explain to Angela for the 10th time why he couldn't just do what she wanted him to do.
"Babe, there is gotta be something you can do to find out what is inside this freaking box."
"Angie, I know Brennan is your friend, she is my friend too and so is Booth, but you can't rush me. I'll find out a way. Maybe it's nothing dangerous. Maybe it's just a piece of paper, but I can't take this risk, Angela. You know how the most inoffensive thing that comes to the Jeffersonian always turns out to be the most dangerous one."
Angela gave Hodgins a approving look. She knew he would eventually find out what was inside that box. He was her king of the lab, she trusted him with her heart and she knew that there was no one who would do a better job than him.
"Bones, are you sure you've never heard that voice?"
"I am, Booth. Maybe he got his voice changed by a device, but I've never heard that voice before. It sounded like a man, but it could also be a woman…" – She stared at Sarah, who was sleeping profoundly in her arms.
"I can't imagine who would be chasing me. I have no enemies who are out these streets. I don't know who could be doing this, Bones."
Booth sat by Brennan's side on her office's couch. He touched his forehead on her and they both kept staring Sarah while she was asleep.
During all those years of partnership, Booth knew exactly when Brennan was frightened. He knew the right moment to approach her and offer her a "guy hug", he knew exactly what to say to make her feel better. He was her guy, and he knew it right from the beginning.
Brennan, excluding the fact that she thought that she couldn't read through people, knew exactly what to do when Booth seemed to be worried. She knew she had to stay by his side, quite, because her presence was one of the only things that made him feel better. She knew that "being there for him" was the most meaningful thing she has ever done to him and that he would always be thankful for that.
But, right now, all they could do was to think about whom the hell could be chasing them. They were clueless. They had no evidence, no finger print, no hair, no tissue… Nothing that could lead them to someone. Hodgins was still trying to figure out a way to get into that box without actually getting into that box. Angela was talking to Brennan about breastfeeding, to see if she was able to drive Brennan's attention away from that moment. Booth was on the platform, staring at nowhere, frightened. He was blaming himself for not being there when Brennan got the phone call. Blaming himself for being the responsible for all this stupid mail box. But, especially, blaming himself for being unable to figure out who could be chasing him.
"Booth?" – Hodgins approached. – "I guess you'd like to see this."
"I know I shouldn't have done this, but this box seemed way too inoffensive. I couldn't find a better way than just opening it up and taking a look inside. Nothing I would do was less dangerous than just opening it, so I decided I would do this."
"What did you find, Hodgins?"
"This." – He handed to Booth a golden ring. – "Do you know what this means? It has your name in the inside, but I wasn't able to read what was coming after the "&"".
Booth froze. He knew exactly what it was. He knew exactly when he had bought it and he knew exactly whose name was written after the "&".
"It's the engagement ring I bought to Hannah when I proposed. I threw It away when she said she wasn't the marrying kind."
"Does that mean Hannah is the one doing this to you?"
"I don't know what this means, Hodgins. You can't just jump to conclusions. But Hannah was the only person that knew exactly where I had thrown it away. So, most likely, she is the one doing this to me."
"Why would she do this to you?"
"Maybe she is jealous. Maybe she just wants to mess around. If Hannah is behind all of this, I don't think it's gonna take as so long to figure out. She is a journalist, not a serial killer. She doesn't seem to be a very good candidate for this job, Hodgins."
Jealousy is one of the most pitiful feelings. It can ruin a marriage, a friendship, a strong relationship. It can take lives away, but it's also a mechanism of self defense. It's also a way of protecting what is yours, and yours only.
Brennan had to confess that she was jealous when Booth was with Hannah, but she also could say that she would never threaten anyone to death because of jealousy.
Booth approached and found Brennan sleeping on the couch. Sarah was on her stroller, also sleep. He wanted to tell his partner what was going on, but he didn't know how he would tell her that Hannah was probably behind this all.
Perhaps he should wait until she was awake. Perhaps he should wait a little bit longer. He was afraid to say it out loud, because he knew that Hannah had made a lot of damage.
So he waited, patiently, until the day came up.