Hey everyone!!!
I have to say that I've simply LOVED the past two eps (meaning Mayhem and Girl). What did you think about Girl, especially? I thought a serious dose of angst and more respect was long overdue, and this satisfied my cravings with added character development, cute moments and a BRILLIANT Booth I wish we had all the time.
;)
Sorry, now without further ado, chapter 33 (I can't believe I'm already on 33. WOW)!
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CHAPTER 33
And saw the man with the gun pointed to Booth's back, and ran…
No, flew to him.
The guard pulled the trigger at the same time that I screamed "Booth!" so that shot and name became one.
His perfect instincts told him to kick the legs out from underneath Cam without even turning around to see what the danger was, because she was standing too close to him. At risk, and he didn't even try to save himself, his first thought was for someone else. She crashed to the floor in slow motion as I kept running, because he still stood upright and there was blood.
The perpetual saviour, he'd chosen to help others before himself. I slammed an examination table away and sent it crashing to the side of the platform, and reached him just as he swayed. He looked very pale, and I let him collapse onto of me while twisting around as quickly as I could, to shield his body with mine.
But no more shots came. There were screams, yells, and the thump of two bodies colliding. I turned for the briefest of moments to check and assess the threat, but there was none: the other guards were cuffing him.
Suddenly Cam was by my side, a bruise already forming on her cheek.
"Brennan, you should let go of him." She said, snapping me out of my slow motion reverie, brought on by stress and panic, no doubt. I realised I'd been clutching Booth too tightly, and quickly let go. The blood came from his arm, a graze on the inner triceps. It wouldn't cause permanent damage, and Booth would be fine. A terrible choking weight lifted slightly, and I could hear my own heartbeat again.
"Bones… you okay?" he croaked, squinting up at me. I could imagine the picture he'd be seeing: of me looking down at him once more, the fluorescent lights shining around my head, illuminating the familiar worried expression.
"Me?" I said, noting the tense vocal chords which resulted in a high, strained (there's really no other word for it) squeak. "You must be in terrible pain, Booth. Don't talk, save your strength, relax…"
Oh, but this scene was too similar, too close to my nightmares.
"Bones, I'm fine." He looked up at me and even tried to sit up. "I've had worse, okay? Don't look like that."
I took a deep breath, allowing oxygen to quicken my nerve synapses and metaphorically clear my thoughts.
Cam had left, I hadn't noticed, and now she was back with a white sterile compress. I applied the pressure to stench the blood flow. The bullet had only grazed him, I told myself again. He'd be fine. My chest really hurt though.
Our faces were very close. I could see that he wasn't really scared, not like… when he was injured before.
Think about Booth. Why was the Jeffersonian spinning? I took a deep breath again, but now a sharp, incredibly painful stab made gasp.
"Bones?"
My vision blackened. I fought to keep my hand steady against his wound, but all strength seemed to leave my body.
"Bones!" Booth said, his eyes wide with horror. He pointed to my chest and I looked down. There was blood. A lot of blood.
He yanked at my shirt until it ripped open and we both looked at my chest.
"Shit." He panted, sitting up so that our faces were on the same level. "You almost killed me."
"Don't joke about that." I snapped.
There was no wound. All the blood was Booth's. I took another deep breath, and let myself collapse next to him, suddenly exhausted. The past days were taking their toll on me.
"Breathe, Bones." He stroked my cheek with his good arm, and I took another deep breath. Sudden shock can affect the human body if the adrenalin rush is very quick, so that our system has no time to adjust. That is undoubtedly what happened to me, and was also the cause of the pain in my chest.
"I'm fine." He said again. "Just breathe."
Well, how perfectly ridiculous that the injured partner should help the perfectly healthy one. I took a few more deep breaths and avoided eye-contact with the twenty or so people surrounding us. Once I felt better, I stood up.
"Um… Dr B?" Hodgins said, obviously avoiding looking at my chest. I couldn't help but feel rather amused, amidst my embarrassment, as my friend squirmed and Booth shot murderous glances his way.
One of the female interns who tended to act very nervous around Booth summoned the courage to ask.
"Will Agent Booth be all right?"
There really was quite a lot of blood. I pushed back my worries and complicated feelings about the situation, and took control. Turning away from my partner, I addressed the crowd gathered all around and below us.
"Please return to your tasks, I feel confident…" but scared, and helpless, and angry, and very, very desperate to hold him again "…that Agent Booth will recover successfully. However, for that to happen we must get you to the hospital." I instructed, turning to deliver the last sentence straight to him. "Has someone called 911?"
"I did." One of my shyest interns said.
I was surprised. He'd seemed so quiet in lectures, never asking questions, and he'd been the first to react before the crisis. Making a mental note of this I took off my lab coat, shed the remains of my torn shirt, and then donned the coat again to cover my breasts.
This gesture received quite a lot of attention, and I could almost swear I heard a collective (but very, very quiet so as to be out of earshot from Booth) groan at the end.
"Booth, can you stand?"
"Yeah. I think the bullet grazed my triceps, don't think it hit a ligament, the pain is too localised to muscle mass…"
I was very surprised. I'd always known Booth was intelligent but I never expected him to actually demonstrate this fact before everybody else. People tended to underestimate my partner. "I mean" he added quickly "it hurts like hell but I'll probably be able to shoot people again."
"Let's go, Booth-"
"People like you." He snapped at a tech I didn't know, but who had admittedly been looking at me in a specific manner. I winced at the strain in his voice; he must be in great pain, no matter how tough Booth was.
However, now that is was clear that he wasn't in imminent danger, people began moving away, and we all turned to look down at the floor level to see what had happened. A frightening, violent surge of hate left me breathless as I saw the familiar face staring at me and my partner. A man I'd seen so often and never feared. Instinctively, I took a step to my left to protect Booth from any harm, even though the guard had been restrained by his former companions, and was being held down on the floor.
"I want to be in the interrogation room when he is questioned." I stated loudly, knowing that in the silence of the lab, he'd hear. Everyone was looking at me now, but all I felt was the wet warmth of Booth's blood prickling my skin.
"You're not coming with me to the hospital?"
And there it was again: the rush, the pounding heart, the butterflies, the fizzing blood… his tone had been so special.
"Booth." I walked back to him and stood as close to him as I dared. If I'd had any inclination to look around us, I would have seen that the people who'd been walking away turned again, to watch. "If I can help get this man to tell me why he tried to murder you, I'll sleep tonight. I want to get Bram, I want to rescue Anne and Margaret so that this can be over. No matter how much I want to be with you, we need to end this."
"Okay, Bones. Thanks."
For a moment we just faced each other, standing very, very close. Was he going to kiss me right in front of everybody else?
He stroked my cheek with his good arm and kissed my forehead.
"Booth, come on, the ambulance is here." Cam said softly. Hodgins went down to help the medics carry a stretcher toward us and I slowly lead Booth down the steps of the platform.
A flurry of movement suggested people suddenly remembering a bunch of very important tasks to be performed while looking resolutely away from us.
"Bones…" he whispered in my ear, just as I was laying him down. His face looked very pale, and he'd lost quite a lot of blood. Please be all right, Booth. Keep your promise.
"Rest, Booth."
"No, wait…" he was struggling to speak now. The effort of walking had really spent him. The medics were looking at me reproachfully, I could see they wanted to take Booth to the emergency unit as quickly as possible.
"Booth, we'll talk later."
"But I just realised I haven't told you yet…"
"Later."
And like that they took him away from me. I took a deep breath and resisted the urge to run behind him. Using the anger to fuel my resolve, I turned to the security guard. His name was Phillip Black, I remembered.
He was going to pay for what he'd done.
I strode toward him and the other guard, who was still pinning him face-down into the ground.
"Dr Brennan I'd advise you step away…" the guard began, but I leant down next to him and looked Booth's attacker in the eye. With as much cruelty as I could muster, I said:
"I'm going to make sure you spend your life in prison, Mr Black. I'm going to bury you so deep you'll suffocate to death. I hope, I really hope you die inside that hole."
He didn't answer, just avoided my eyes.
"Haul him up." I ordered the other guard. He didn't even question me; the local PD were on their way anyway.
The moment he was standing, I drew back my fist and punched Black as hard as I could. His head snapped to the side and he shouted in pain.
"Are you crazy, bitch?"
"If you every try and hurt my partner again, I'll punch your neck the way I should have! I'll make your throat close up because the trachea will obstruct and fail to provide air to your lungs, meaning your heartbeat will increase rapidly and then stop until you die, you fucking loser!"
"Dr Brennan, step back."
I did, breathing heavily and feeling marginally better.
"Come on, you can use the decontamination shower." Cam said, taking my arm and ushering me away from Phillip Black. I saw that the ends of my hair were glued together with blood, and my neck was slick with it.
"Okay." I let her walk me there, followed by Hodgins, who looked anxious.
"Doctor Hodgins? What is it?"
"Where's Angela, Dr B?"
"I told you, she's… on her way."
He voiced my thoughts with another nervous look. "You said that half an hour ago."
I nodded. "Yes. Call her, please."
Cam shot a stern look at Hodgins. "Go, then. She's probably caught in traffic, no need to worry Dr Brennan any more than she already is. No need to add more problems, okay?"
Hodgins left, ignoring Cam's last comment.
I kept walking with Cam by my side. "Booth will be fine." She said reassuringly.
"He's lost a lot of blood."
"He's had worse."
"I know that. That doesn't mean anything."
"Relax, Brennan."
"I can't." I stopped at the door to the decontamination room. "I can't relax without him."
Cam nodded. "I know. But he's still here, okay?"
Even though he obviously wasn't, I understood her metaphorical reassurance. Thank you, Camille. You knew what it was like to love Booth too.
She patted my arm and left me to cleanse away my doubts.
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I'm sorry this took a bit longer! But kick-ass Brennan is cool. Hopefully I made up for it?
Thanks, guys! As always: you are MADE OF AWESOME!!!