A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews! I have a few chapters finished but I'm actually waiting for every 5 reviews to post them so no one falls behind :)

To answer some of the poised questions without spoiling this fic for anyone.. YES, Zack will be in the story again in a few chapters and he will actually be in a few chapters after that (in a row). So, no worries, you Zackinites will have him in no time.

23CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Jack Hodgins stood in his lab, the grey box that Vince had eventually brought him on the table. His gloved hands carefully moved each metal piece that had been deconstructed earlier by the missing data analyst in front of him as he squinted his eyes from behind plastic goggles. She had taken it apart the night she had went missing but then left it behind, but something about the box had caused her to run off but what? Utterly focused on the task at hand he leaned forward using his hands to pry a piece of the box away to get a better look.

Jack hated to admit personal emotions, what Sweets would call 'feelings', but he was actually worried about the poor kid. She was young after all, and though she was just a kid Jack actually well, liked her. Innocently enough of course, to suggest anything else would be absurd as he was still completely hung up on Angela: the love of his life. But Krys Robin was sarcastic, snappy, intelligent, she was different. It was like ordering a dish of chocolate ice cream after eating several dishes of spicy curry. She was a 'break' and in a way her and Vincent provided outlets for his little snips and quips much like Zack had before he... Well... Jack didn't want to think about that. Not ever again and caught up in the worry that he felt for thinking on it he actually bumped an empty glass vial with his left hand and it fell to the ground shattering into quite a few various shaped pieces.

"Shit." Jack cursed out of frustration with himself and removed his gloves in a messy, hasty fashion before slamming them onto the table. Going down into a squat he began to pick up the pieces with so much angry force that it was shocking that he didn't actually cut his palm right open. Reaching out for another piece he was a bit surprised when he didn't feel the texture of glass but a smooth, green, pointy toed boot. He knew those boots. Swallowing he dared to lift his head and stunned eyes.

"Need some help?" Angela phrased with a weak little smile trying very hard to be helpful while not stepping on his toes (or fingers in this case).

"Uh... I can.. I'm fine." Jack managed to get out, fumbling over his own words as he shook his head in polite decline before returning to pick up the pieces.

Angela knew that he would say no, she knew him well enough to know that much (after all, she had nearly married the guy) but if this was the case, then he had to know that she wasn't going to take no for an answer. What she should have said was 'I'm going to help' but it got lost in the 'what not do or say after breaking up with someone' behavior. And so, with this in mind she too moved into a squatting position luckily today had been the day that she wore blue bedazzled jeans and a red frilly top instead of a skirt or a dress so what little modesty she could hang onto around someone she had already slept with was still in tact.

"Any luck with that box thing?" Angela attempted to start a conversation in hopes that things wouldn't be so... Awkward. But who was she kidding? They were awkward all because of her. Her free spirit and her inability to make up her mind.

"Not yet." Now on the familiar territory of work Jack was able to speak freely as he picked up the remaining pieces of broken glass. "Right now it's about putting it all back together. I had Mister Nigel-Murray in here earlier we got most of it together for the most part." Standing up he tossed the glass pieces into the trash. Rubbing his hands together to free of the extra glass the bag rustling with each piece going through it's confines. "Took us a bit even with two pairs of hands." Turning around to face Angela he shook his head, chuckling quietly at the thought. "Krys pulled it apart pretty bad."

Hodgins' chuckle was soon layered over with a soft laugh from Angela which caused him to stop, blinking, he looked up curiously. "What?"

"It's just..." Smiling Angela's eyes caught Jack's and faded slightly, though it still remained on her lips. "You call Cam: Doctor Saroyan, Lance: Sweets, Vincent: Mister Murray, you call Seeley: Booth, Temperance: Doctor Brennan even though you've known everyone for years. The only people you have ever called by their first names are me and..." Her voice trailed off, finishing in a very quiet tone. "Zack."

In hearing his best friend's name Jack felt a solemn expression fall over his face and pressing down on his lower lip. He wanted so badly to look at the floor but couldn't make himself do it. Instead he found himself looking right at his ex, his lips parted in a blank sort of expression that rarely ever graced his scruffy features. "Yeah?"

"You like her." Angela concluded simply. Hodgins seemed surprised and opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off with a little laugh. "No, not like that.. You just... Like her. That's all." Now Angela moved toward the trash can where Hodgins stood, dumping the pieces of glass that she held into the trash.

Jack turned his head to watch Angela as she threw pieces of glass away. He admired her dark hair, her fair features, her beautiful lips. She was perfect. So perfect. "I always tend to gravitate toward the odd sorts."

"Right." Angela found herself laughing softly again as she turned on her high heeled boots to face her coworker. The suddenness of the two of them forcing one of another caused each of them to lose their respective smiles, gazing into each other's eyes. "We're going to find them Jack." There was his first name, it felt so right on her tongue even after not uttering it for so long. Since their breakup it had always been 'Hodgins' or 'Doctor Hodgins', never 'Jack'.

Hodgins swallowed, giving a nod of his head as he struggled to find his voice which ended up coming out hoarsely anyways. "I know." He nodded again, looking down at the floor out of fear that Angela's eyes were burning a hole right through him. But still the thoughts consumed him.

What had transpired with him when the Gravedigger had him and Doctor Brennan in that car under feet under feet of dirt. How worried he had been, how much he had been hurting, how he didn't know if he was going to die or when it would come. Were Krys and Parker feeling the same way? Furthermore, why did he even care? He never cared. He never became personally invested. He wasn't sure if he was actually getting sick or was just so darn disgusted with himself.

"Angela..." Clearing his throat he looked back up. "A man.. A crazy man has them. Probably trapped just like..." He felt his voice give out and crack and he felt an unfamiliar wetness sting in his eyes.

Angela, in seeing this frowned in relation and moved forward to hug him close. "But we found you Jack. And we'll find them." She tried to reassure him, though really her words were for the both of them. These were words everyone so desperately wanted to believe whenever a case involved one of their own (or in this case two of their own). Pulling apart, though her hands still rested on his back, their lips mere inches apart she felt her breath become stuck in her throat. Neither one spoke until Angela caught a red light blinking on the table.

"Hodgins." She said quietly, Jack looked up as if expecting her to say something else entirely. "The box over there. It's blinking." She nodded with her head and Jack would follow her gaze before becoming consuming with the need to solve a puzzle and raced toward the slab leaving Angela alone to look on.

Meanwhile a few offices over during this late hour where everyone was working overtime this included Doctor Temperance Brennan who was currently seated at her computer scrolling her mouse across the screen. A mug of coffee that was being constantly sipped and refilled sat toward the left desk corner. She was supposed to get some rest, as was the rest of the Jeffersonian group but they all were too wrapped up in this case, and rightly so. This was Parker. There were no breaks.

Consumed by the quiet other than the soft clicking of her ceiling fan Temperance used her slender left hand fingers to massage her temples. From staring at the screen for so long she was beginning to get blurry eyed, though it could have also been a result from the lack of sleep. So when the noise of her door being slid open happened she noticed it right away, and who it was in the dim light.

"Booth." She exclaimed softly in surprise when she saw the man in jeans, a dark rocker t-shirt, and black coat that was unbuttoned, looking quite exhausted and yet stunned. Temperance rose up onto her feet from behind her desk, attempting to lecture and be a good partner. "You're supposed to be home resting. Cam's orders."

"I know." Agent Booth sighed, glad she had skipped the greetings or a very long lecture instead doing what she did best and cutting right to the chase. "I realize Cam is just trying to be helpful but who is she kidding?" Seeley looked up at the ceiling becoming more and more overwhelmed despite how tired he was, he ran a hand through his brown hair. "I did go home. I really did but I just can't sleep. I can't knowing that Parker is out there with that son of a..." Booth shook his head keeping himself from getting to vulgar in front of his partner, even in his exhausted state. Now allowing himself to step into her office he rubbed the back of his neck. "And Krys. Oh god, Krys... She's out there and it's all my fault."

"That's not true Booth." Temperance immediately cut him off with a worried look, daring to step around her desk with a frown but the man continued pacing.

"I brought her here. I recommended her and talked this place up.. Talked you up.." He quickly pointed at his partner before shaking his finger and continuing his pacing, a result of lack of sleep. "Told her it was the best of the best."

"It is." Temperance stated simply, though her tone was noticably softer, not wishing to set him off.

"I brought her here and then I didn't pick up my phone." Spinning around in his shoes he looked to his partner with a weak sort of look, a hurt expression in his eyes. "Why didn't I pick up my phone Bones?"

A quiet fell between the two of them as they stood mere feet apart, Temperance looking right into her partner's eyes as she found herself actually swallowing down the scientific answer that she wanted to spew. "I don't know." Now those were a few words that had never left her lips before. She wasn't sure she liked the feel of them in her mouth or in the air. She was just left staring at her friend in a position she had never seen him in. Helpless, exhausted, about ready to crash and the anthropologist found herself overwhelmed with feelings she'd rather ignore instead of obey. But obey she did, at least halfway.

"You need to rest Booth." She told him quietly as she stepped toward him reaching out and grasping him by the wrist as she carefully guided him over to the couch. Pulling at him gently he plopped right down rather heavily, his back sinking into the soft cushion before he leaned forward and massaged his temples in a grumble.

"I need to find them is what I need to do." He said lowly as he buried his eyes in his hands.

Temperance meanwhile pulled a blanket off from the couch back before guiding her partner into a laying down position on his side, guiding his head to a pillow. "Your mind ceases to work effectively when one doesn't get enough sleep. You begin to hallucinate and lose inhibitions. You won't be of any use to anyone, let alone Parker."

Booth yawned, curling up a bit which actually humored Temperance with such a big man curling up like a pet. "Just an hour, then right back to work." Temperance nodded but that obviously wasn't enough for Seeley whose large hand lifted and caught her by the arm. "One hour. Set your watch." He told her and wasn't going to give up until she did so.

Temperance sighed and straightened. Giving in she lifted her wrist and pressed a few buttons before concluding: "There."

Seeley, finally satisfied nodded his head and then closed his eyes. "Thank you Temperance." He sighed before falling quiet as he drifted off to sleep.

"You're welcome." Doctor Brennan gave a nod in acknowledgment before returning to her work behind the computer.