A/N: Almost to the end folks. For those who didn't know, a friend of mine died almost two weeks ago, hence the delays in updates. I've been processing but I am finding that writing does help make me feel better. I also believe in doing right by my fans and hope I did in this penultimate chapter. Let me know what you think with those awesome reviews and while I sometimes get delayed in responding, I will get back to you as soon as I can and if I forget...so sorry.

I do have at least two sequels in the works in the near future, so hopefully I got this first story right...LOL.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones but would appreciate being the middle of a DB and TJT sandwich because it is so damn cold outside!

"Sorry about the leg, Agent Booth. You arrived a little ahead of schedule"

Booth grabbed one of Christine's blankets on the floor nearby and held it to his leg. "Pelant! What the hell was that explosion?"

Pelant smiled as he switched hands between the bloody scalpel and the remote he held. "Oh, outside? That was my car. It had a device attached to the driver's side door"

Booth's face fell. 'Oh God, Sweets…I'm so sorry. God please make him safe. He's here because of me'

"I have a feeling that Dr. Lance Sweets accompanied you. He's probably dead right now from the blast. Too bad….he wrote some really interesting reading material about you and Dr. Brennan"

"Don't talk about my wife, Pelant! You are a sick bastard!" He saw that Brennan's robe was opened. "You son of a bitch! You were going to rape her, weren't you?"

Pelant's look became annoyed. "No you pathetic asshole! I was going to take a few minutes and appreciate Dr. Temperance Brennan for the beautiful woman she is" His mouth curved into a demented smile. "By the way, Dr. Brennan looks a bit round in the abdominal area. Is there good news I should hear about?"

Booth saw Charlie unconscious near Brennan. "What the hell did you give them?"

"Just a little sodium thiopental. By the looks of things, it's good I chose that from my stash since it seems Temperance is preggers"

Booth quickly tied a tourniquet on his thigh with the bloodied blanket. Remembering that Pelant's weakness was his ego, he decided to use it to his advantage. "So I met your dad today. A major douche, especially to one of my agents. Nice that while some things change, some things always stay the same"

"My father is not a douche! He's an important person in our country's military!"

"Yeah, but he doesn't think much of his computer dork son, does he?"

"Shut up, Booth! You shut up!"

"Tell me, what's it like to be born because your mother had to drug a man to get laid?"

"My mother didn't do anything! They were in love!"

Booth laughed loudly. "Who told you that, your mom? That's not what the colonel told me"

"He lied! He was protecting her."

"Wow, so he lied about your mother being a ball breaker? He also then lied about the fact that your mother doped his drink, probably with ketamine or some shit like that, and then fucked him when he was unconscious just so she could create you?"

Pelant moved closer with the remote. "Shut up Booth or I'm blowing us all up, bun in the oven and all!"

Booth moved to a new tactic. "Fine, what's your problem with me then? I haven't done shit to you. I didn't even know you until the first time I questioned you but you sure know me. Tell me….what's your damn problem? Why have you gone after not just me, but my family and friends?"

"Because! After my mom told me about my real father, I tracked him down. I was so excited…..I mean he's a colonel in the military. It wasn't easy but I finally got to meet him. That meeting after about five minutes, he told me how I needed to be better….that I needed to be a real man. Every time after that, he told me about this POW soldier he met during Desert Storm, tortured for four days by the Republican Guard and messed up his feet pretty bad. Later on, this guy did other fascinating stuff. He was a sniper in Bosnia…..an Army Ranger…..later an FBI agent. His name was Master Sergeant Seeley Joseph Booth"

When he finished speaking, Pelant stomped onto Booth's foot, sending searing pain up Booth's injured leg.

"AAAAAHHHHH! SON OF A BITCH!"

"Wow, so you're a whiny bitch, too? That's what my dad told me I was. He said I needed to be a patriot. To him, computers were a waste and nothing I did was worth his time and needed to be more like Master Sergeant Booth"

Pelant laughed. "I knew that I could beat you…..I could beat anyone. I tried to get your attention when I took down the DOD website and the Senate website, but then I read about your partnership with Temperance and your success rate. What was it again?"

"It IS ninety-seven percent you pissant"

"Yeah, you and the lab at the Jeffersonian were looked at like Messiahs. I knew then how to get your attention. First I made that puzzle of the spine at the Abraham Lincoln statue. Pretty clever location, wasn't it, Agent Booth? Oh I forgot, his assassination is a sore spot with you, isn't it? My bad"

After getting no response from Booth, Pelant continued his soliloquy. "Then you all were making things too difficult for me and I couldn't have that. I was a patriot! I had to show you all what I could do"

Pelant started laughing. "First Angela Montenegro and her money bags husband Jack Hodgins. Frying out her equipment with that malware was the shit! No one thinks to check the bones for computer viruses!

He began to gesture. "Also took all their money and put that body in their house. It's cool what a little ether can do"

Pelant took a step closer. "I'm the patriot who loves his country, not you! I'm the one who tried to get rid of the chink and her family with botulism poisoning, but guess who stopped me….you!"

"Takes a real man Pelant to take out a three year old kid" Booth looked him in the eye. "So why Arastoo? Because he's Iranian?"

"He's a damn Muslim, Agent Booth. You saved him! I was trying to get rid of the mongrel. It was his kind that hurt us on 9/11"

Booth's irritation with Pelant's ignorance exploded. "People who turned his peaceful religion into murder did 9/11, not Arastoo. He actually served the U.S Army as a translator during the War in Iraq and in Afghanistan for a time, you idiot. He helped us! He hasn't been home since 1997 because he went against his own bass ackwards government except for a temporary internship in Baghdad and that was only because he couldn't go home to his family and risk their lives. He's more of a patriot to the US than most Americans I know. You almost got him killed, you ignorant racist!"

"No, I was doing my duty as an American citizen defending the United States. You're the one who kept me from doing that….again!"

Booth could feel the blood loss as he got a little lightheaded. He thought he was imaging things when he saw his wife stir behind Pelant. He saw his wife's eyes open before she shielded her eyes. Realizing it was from his Cocky belt buckle he slightly moved to get the glare out of her way. He felt sadness as she saw pain in his wife's eyes when she saw her open robe before holding it closed.

When he saw his wife getting up he knew she was going to try for the gun safe hidden downstairs. Determined to keep Pelant's attention away from her, he moved to get his full attention on him. One misstep and Pelant will hear and possibly kill her and their unborn child. 'Keep him talking'

Booth knew what to do. He needed to know. He had to. "Why Rebecca? What the hell did she ever do to you?"

Brennan could hear voices as she started to awaken. When she first opened her eyes, she was blinded by a flash of light. As she attempted to open her eyes again, she saw Booth move fractionally and the glare blinding her went away. When her eyes opened, she felt compelled to look down and felt sick when she saw her robe opened. After she quickly closed it, she took in what going on.

She saw Charlie lying ahead of her on the floor. Nearby, Pelant standing in front of her husband holding what looked like a remote with an antenna in front of him. She noted Booth had one of Christine's blankets tied to his thigh that was blood soaked and he had a glassy look in his eyes that told her he was fighting to stay focused and conscious.

'Oh my God, he may have nicked his femoral artery. Have to help him now before he bleeds to death'

Years of partnership told her the next move. While Booth kept him talking, she slowly got up. Moving achingly slow to avoid any noise, she tiptoed to out of the room making sure she didn't make noise with her limping, grateful she didn't have her ankle wrapped.

"Why did I kill Rebecca? She was your brat's mother. Parker was supposed to be dead with her, but you pulled a last minute stunt out of your butt and got him an earlier flight. Have to give you that one. Didn't think you had that much clout to put him on a military flight"

"Bones. Why did you hurt my partner? Why did you try to keep us from getting married? I thought it was to break up the team, but Sweets thinks you may have the hots for her and that you may have a little fantasy of you two living happily ever after"

Suddenly Pelant's face became sad. "Temperance. I didn't want to set her up for murder. You know that, right? She was a means to an end, but then….I got to know her. She was so smart! Plus, she's so beautiful. Man, once she lost all the weight she gained for your rugrat…hot! Especially those knockers!"

Booth moved to jump Pelant but the pain in his leg seared. His nausea and lightheadedness was stabilized from the tourniquet but knew he wouldn't be able to sustain the blood loss for much longer.

"What's the matter, Agent Booth? Little lightheaded? Leg hurt a bit? Oh well, where was I? Oh yes, Temperance"

Pelant's mouth turned into a grin that made Booth want to retch.

When Brennan got into Booth's man cave, she was grateful the door was open as she knew it squeaked. She got to the couch and threw off one of the cushions. Stealthily, she lowered herself down to the lock and turned the combination. When she opened it, she ignored the rifles and other guns until she saw the pistol she needed.

Years earlier, Booth took it from her when they were trapped underground chasing a suspect during Halloween. He was a paramedic who used his position to murder young women. The gun was too big for her and she accidentally shot Booth. Her husband swore he would never let her shoot it again. She remembered what he said after they left the Jeffersonian Halloween party.

"You're never seeing that gun again. I don't need you shooting your damn feet off, or mine, Bones!"

She awkwardly loaded the gun with the ammo since her left arm was still splinted. Slowly, she got up and limped out of the man cave down the hall.

As she got closer to the living room, all the events of the last couple of years precipitated by Pelant rushed through her head. Each consecutive event made her anger intensify. When she saw him open his hoodie and heard his plans for the children and Max, her anger threatened to vomit out of her as she fought to control her fury.

She wanted to be rational but emotionally she wanted him to suffer. When the source of her misery was in her sight, she tuned everything else out as she aimed her weapon.

Her husband needed her. His cosmic balance sheet didn't need a new person on it.

Sweets woke up to his head pounding and his left arm in pain. He slowly turned his head and looked and it. Seeing it was in an unnatural angle, he knew enough it was broken. In the distance he heard what he thought was a siren. Realizing he was in Booth's yard, he tried to get up, but his head began spinning and everything went black.

"When I read through all of Dr. Sweets' files that Temperance eventually changes her mind about people she encounters, that's how I knew I had a chance. I-I just don't get why she would settle for a broken dumb ass jock. I mean…..your intelligence doesn't nearly match hers. She's stunning. She could have any man she wants"

"Like you, Pelant? You really think she would settle for a squirmy little worm like yourself? You're pathetic. The closest you get to women are probably the pictures of my wife you jerk off to, am I correct?"

Booth saw the anger in Pelant's eyes and knew he was getting to him. When the younger man wiped his face and then hair in frustration, Booth saw that what must have been makeup wiped off and that there was scarring on the right side of his face. Also, his brown right eye became blue when Pelant tried to fix a shifting contact lens. After a moment, he gave up and tossed it on the floor.

'I'll be. I blinded that son of a bitch when I shot him!' Booth thought. 'He won't see Bones coming. Just keep him talking'

"So what's your great plan, Pelant? Huh? Kill me for your daddy's love? Kill me so you can get the opportunity to fuck my wife? She wouldn't give you the time of day. She eats guys like you for breakfast"

"Oh, I'm going to be with her. I'm going to touch her and taste her…..taste her breasts…her lips….her cunt…..all of her. But, then I have to kill her and I'm going to keep you alive long enough to see it. I wanted to get the brats also before you went to that hockey game in the sky but it seems they are not here. I just might have to kill you before I get them. Max….he'll be a bonus. He was a thorn at my side for ruining my initial plans for Temperance."

Pelant smiled again. "You…..you're going to bleed to death while I make love to Temperance right here. Her, I'll be kind and give her an overdose of sodium thiopental, just like I'll give another dose to this lump next to her. Later on is when the fun begins"

Pelant opened his hoodie to reveal a bomb. "See this. This is how I'm going to get the kids and Max. I had all of this planned tomorrow to celebrate my country's birthday, but your actions made me move up my time table. I did have time to set off bombs at the power plant I was using. Isn't it wild that I was maybe twenty miles away from you all this time?"

Pelant laughed. "You all will be dead. Max will bring the kids in, then I will give them a fireworks display they'll never forget…the neighborhood, too since your house will be destroyed. Then after we all meet our destiny, I will have another surprise for the FBI. Don't worry, you won't be around to see it, which is too bad, but, oh well."

Pelant got a bit closer. "Well, it's time for me to be with Temperance. Enjoy the show"

Booth's smile went unnoticed as he turned around and his own smile turned to astonishment as she was nowhere to be seen on the floor. "Temperance? Temperance where the hell are you, damn it? You can't escape me! None of you can!"

"We can and we will, Mr. Pelant"

Pelant turned to the voice he heard and only saw the barrel of a gun before he was shot in the left eye. His body flew across the room and when it landed slid into the wall, taking down a bookshelf holding several artifacts.

Brennan couldn't hold the pistol anymore and dropped it, causing a bullet to shoot out and barely miss Booth.

"Bones! I told you never to shoot that gun again!"

"It's heavy, Booth. I'm sorry" Brennan crawled down on the floor next to her husband as Charlie began to come to. At that moment, their front door burst open as an FBI tactical team burst into their house.

"Agent Booth! Dr. Brennan!"

Booth heard the unmistakable sound of Agent Thompson. "Over here, Thompson"

The agent ran over as other agents ran over to Charlie and Pelant's corpse. "Are you all right, sir?"

"We're fine" Booth said. "We need to get my wife to the hospital. She's pregnant and needs to be checked out" Booth got up and began to feel woozy.

"Booth!"

"I'm fine, Bones. Come on" Booth said as he turned and saw Agent Thompson staring at Brennan. "Thompson! Get your eyes off my wife's legs and help us up!"

Booth and Brennan were almost to the door when he remembered Sweets. "Sweets! There was a bomb outside. Is he all right?"

Agent Brooks and another agent took the couple when handed off at the door before walking the couple towards an ambulance in their driveway. "Yes, sir, they're putting him on a stretcher now. Got a little flight into your yard when the bomb blew from that car across the street"

When Booth and Brennan got outside, they saw Sweets being loaded into an ambulance. Booth turned to his wife. "Come on, Bones, time for another class reunion with the staff at St. George's"

"I wouldn't call it a class reunion, Booth. That connotates we were all together for matriculation, which is incorrect. The only times we go there is when we—" She realized her error before she laughed. "You meant because when one of us gets hurt we always go there"

Booth laughed, grateful that his wife was around to not understand another joke before he got hit with a dizzy spell and more nausea as the EMTs loaded the couple onto stretchers for the ambulance. "Don't feel so good. Man I think I'm going to puke"