JUNE 25 - 4:00 AM
The man stood outside the entrance he was directed at. His partner knew that every morning at this time, a local diner down the street delivered an order for coffee and donuts. When he saw his target, he walked up to the man. "The coffee and donuts, right?"
"Yep. Where's Gloria today?"
"Left early. They sent me down to get it."
"Cool." The delivery guy said before giving the large box to the other person.
The man set the box down, walked up behind the delivery guy who was at his van, and quietly slit his throat. Quickly, he dragged him into the blind corner as directed and left him. Hurrying back, he placed eye drops in a particular coffee before taking the order back inside and to the charge nurse on the floor.
Running back down, he put the dead man into the van and moved the vehicle to the main parking lot before rushing back. Using the ID card his partner gave him, he took the earmarked set of stairs up through the hospital. When he found the correct floor, he opened the door and found the room he was directed to find. Using the ID card again, he gained entry into the small supply room.
Five minutes later, he opened the door slightly. When he saw no one, he came out wearing a set of scrubs and put the ID badge on that he used to open the door. Walking around the corner, he observed the agent guarding the door drink the coffee that he gave the charge nurse earlier, right on schedule.
It wasn't long before he saw the FBI agent double over with stomach cramps and run down the hall to the restroom. He saw the nurse he was flirting with snicker before looking back at her IPhone as the other was napping. Quietly, he walked over and entered the room.
There she was…Temperance Brennan. The bitch helping the monsters who killed his family. His partner promised he could have fun with her before he did what he needed to do.
Moving quickly, he added all the monitors to the object his partner said to do and placed it on the floor. When satisfied, he injected her where he was told to do it in her arm. When done, he unlocked the brakes and moved the bed. When he saw the coast was clear, he moved the bed to the elevator past the nurses' station, where the nurse continued to play with her iPhone as the other one was now gone.
As the elevator door closed, the agent got out of the bathroom and returned to his post.
4:45 AM
Genny laid in her hospital bed wide awake in thought as she fought to control her fury.
'Why did Perotta get to live while Olivia died? How fair was it that an agent who always thought the best of others and was on the fast track to success gets killed while an agent who in the last couple of years managed to alienate everyone with her brown nosing and nastiness survives?'
Unable to relax, she sat up and felt a wave of dizziness. When it passed, she got off the bed, moving gingerly as she was still in pain. Then she headed to confront the person she blamed for her misery.
Booth was in the small hospital bed with Bones spooning her. He tried to sleep in the cot they gave him, but both were unable to sleep without the other. He put his left hand on her hand as both were on her abdomen. He woke for a moment as he thought about his latest plan to get Pelant. It had to work. No way could he resist this trap.
It took her about ten minutes to get to the room down the hall from her. She saw Agent Ted Thompson outside the door. Knowing what a prick he was, she eyed him before going on in, but he stopped her.
"No one goes in, Shaw."
"Get out of my way, Thompson."
He eyed the female agent with disdain. He was one of the few female agents he was unable to get into bed, so he treated her like the piece of trash he considered her. "I said no one goes in." he said with a smirk.
"Get out of my way Thompson, or I will tell Agent Booth about how the rumors about Doctor Brennan was, what was it, 'an easy fuck' got around the bullpen last month."
Knowing she had the asshole over a barrel, she pushed the taller man out of her way. Fighting nausea from the motion, she opened the door and saw a void where the bed was supposed to be.
Seeing the object on the floor hooked up to the monitors, she left the room and hurried as much as possible to the nurses' station and called Doctor Brennan's room. "Agent Booth…..it's Shaw….Perotta's gone.
A white van arrived at a gate closing off a driveway. The driver hurriedly got out and opened the gate to his property as he meant to be back a while earlier. When he got to the house, he opened the back door and smiled at the crumbled form lying there. He saw ripped and shifted bandages that covered up the back of her right leg. He also dried blood and bruising on her inner thighs from their 'pit stop'.
He pulled her unconscious form out of the van and took her inside through the outside basement doors. He dumped her on the ground, turned around and was greeted with his partner.
"Did you get Doctor Brennan?" Christopher Pelant asked.
"Yes, sir, she's right here." He said. "She's right here."
Pelant looked but suddenly looked furious as he looked at the form on the ground. He pulled a long metal rod out from behind him in his right hand before walking towards him. "Mr. Reynolds?"
"Yes, Christopher?" Zane Reynolds said with a smile.
His excitement changed to shock when he saw Pelant's proximity and the item in his hand. He only had time to grab the other man's t-shirt sleeve before the bang stick hit his stomach. He fell to the ground like a lump of wet laundry, his hand clinging to a piece of a ripped shirt.
Pelant wiped the tissue and blood from his face, not noticing the rip in his clothing. He saw who was on the floor and was not happy. He was a man also under a strict timeline, which Reynolds changed with his late arrival, giving him little time to dispose of the young man or the agent.
"I guess I will have to move some things to my….'headquarters.'" He said with a laugh. "Better get things together now and take care of the disposal."
When the door was shut, Agent Peyton Perotta slowly opened her eyes. In a fog, she observed where she was and the amount of danger she was probably in. Unfortunately the searing pain in her leg from the burns, along with the pain in her thighs and abdominal area was stronger as it overtook her before she fell unconscious again.
"How the fuck does an agent disappear with you as a guard outside her door, Thompson?!" Booth yelled at the agent outside Perotta's room. "You were put there to protect her while we were disguising her as Doctor Brennan to smoke out Pelant."
"I got sick, sir and had to shit—take care of things."
"When did this happen?"
"Around four a.m. I'm sorry, sir but I can't help it if I had to get sick. I sure as hell can't do it out here."
"I don't give a damn why you left your post. You will be facing the disciplinary committee. Get the fuck out of my sight!"
Thompson's eyes spewed anger, but he was silent as he slunk away. Booth turned to Agent Shaw, who was sitting in a nearby wheelchair. "Shaw, why aren't you in your room? Why did you come here?"
"I wanted to speak to Agent Perotta."
"Why, Shaw?"
"I just had to." Genny said vaguely.
Booth sighed. "Agent Shaw, I know you need someone to blame, but Perotta is not the one to blame."
"Yes she is. That bitch should have died, not Olivia."
Booth knew she was grieving, but enough was enough. He got down until he was eye level with her and spoke with deadly calm, startling Shaw.
"Agent Genevieve Shaw, I won't hear you say that again. No agent should have died yesterday. No agent should EVER die. I know you and Perotta are not fond of each other, but she is still a fellow agent. Agent Perotta showed compassion for a colleague last night. One that she plainly stated to me was not her favorite, but she knew her priorities and was honest. I know bullshit when I smell it."
Booth knew he had to get the woman in front of him past her anger if she was going to be of any use to him. "Agent Shaw, an FBI agent has been kidnapped by Pelant or someone he influenced because she was a decoy for Bones. The only agents I want assisting me right now are ones who are not self-destructive and can be a team player. At this moment, you're not it."
He looked to the agent standing by the nurses' station. "Agent Harris, please take Agent Shaw back to her room."
"But sir—"
"Shaw, I don't have time for your pity party. I have to find Agent Perotta before it's too late." Booth said before turning to another agent. "That van they found in the parking lot with the body? Did the nurse ID the vic?"
"Yes, sir. He's their usual delivery man."
"Interview these nurses and get whatever info they can give you, including a sketch of the guy delivering the donuts and coffee this time. I'm going to my wife's room to view the security footage with Ms. Montenegro from the Jeffersonian."
Booth was watching Angela's laptop with her and a now awake Brennan. When they got to the footage from 4:00, three pairs of eyes were on alert. Brennan noticed it first.
"Booth! There, coming from the stairwell"
They observed a young man messing with a lock and going into what was determined to be a storage room.
"There's Agent Thompson with the runs." Angela pointed out at 4:08 with a smile.
They observed the figure enter the room before the artist made a few clicks and made the hidden camera in Perotta's room full size.
"Angela, can you get it closer to his face?" Booth asked.
"Sure" Angela clicked her mouse.
When the final picture was enhanced, the agent's blood drained from his face. "Oh shit!"
Brennan saw her husband. "Booth...who is it?"
"It's Zane Reynolds."
Angela spoke next. "Wasn't that the kid from Crystal Creek who we thought killed the FBI agents several weeks back?"
"Yeah, it is. Angela, can you pull up his address? I want to make sure it's the same one."
"Sure." Angela started to type with both hands, but had to stop as her right could not keep up with her left fingers. Momentarily frustrated, she pushed it down as she typed with one finger and her left hand. "Here it is, Booth."
Booth grabbed the phone. "This is Agent Booth. I need a tac team on standby at the Hoover to go to Virginia."
Angela and Brennan waited as he gave the address and final instructions. He hung up the phone and turned to the women. "Bones, you need to be careful."
"Booth I'm fine."
"Bones, Perotta was a decoy to see if Pelant would come after you. The plan was to catch him since I had an agent at the door. None of us anticipated he would use another surrogate to take Perotta or for her to leave the hospital." He inhaled. "Bones, he was coming for you. I won't let Pelant get you like he got her. Be careful, okay? I need to concentrate on getting this kid. Worrying about you and the baby is not something I can afford to do at this time."
Angela's eyes widened like saucers. "Baby? Bren, you're pregnant?"
'Shit! Booth thought to himself before kissing his wife good bye. "I'll be back as soon as I can, Honey."
When Booth left the room, Angela turned to her friend. "Sweetie…you're having a baby?"
Brennan got tears floating in her eyes. "Yes, Angela I am. About six weeks. We weren't going to tell anybody yet."
'The night you were in the hospital in the SUV.' she thought to herself.
"Oh Honey, I am so happy for you." Angela took her in a one arm hug and then slowly brought her right arm around.
Brennan felt the hug and got overjoyed as well. "Angela, you're hugging me with both arms!"
"Yeah, it's not much, but I'm getting there Sweetie. I'll show you." Angela held her arm out as she lifted to just below her breasts. "I can wiggle my fingers a little also."
"Oh Angela."
"Hey, enough about me. I'm going to be an Auntie again!" She said before pulling her best friend into another hug and both cried tears of happiness for the other.