Hey everyone!!! This took a bit longer, but I've been in Prague for the past two weeks! It's beautiful and amazing! Unfortunately, it's also far, far away from my computer which I wasn't allowed to take! : ( So, no writing for me. Or you. Heh, sorry!
Here it is. I'm not posting an author's note at the end (even though I do in every single story/chap) asking to review, or just distracting. I'll try and post the next ASAP, because they are kind of a Part One – Part Two deal.
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CHAPTER 37
"Booth." I said, my voice shaking. "We're two blocks away. Let's go."
And suddenly the jumble of words coming through the speaker on my phone were loud and overlapped, but quite clear.
Hodgins was telling us the best route to get there. "Just drive straight for a minute and turn left, the area looks deserted but look hard and you should find the place…"
Cam was trying to shout over him, offering advice. "After you've called SWAT, remember to give Brennan a gun and enter as cautiously as possible, leave the car a distance behind so he won't hear you coming, use the cover of darkness as effectively as you can…"
And finally, Sweets was frantically attempting to smother the other two, urging us not to go in alone and wait for the FBI. "No! No! Dr Brennan think rationally here! The best course of action for the least damaging outcome! It's perfectly all right for you to wait for trained professionals who will do the job better…!"
Booth and I just looked at each other, knowing we weren't going to wait. "Cam." Booth snapped, stopping everyone mid-sentence. "Call Agent Keller and inform him of the location, get the team there ASAP. Tell them… Special Agent Booth plus civilian Dr Brennan are engaging first, possible contact."
And before anyone could start shouting again, he switched off my phone.
"Possible?" I asked as we both moved at the same time. He got inside his SUV and I snapped my computer shut. "You made it sound like we're only going there first to assess the situation and then waiting for SWAT. We're not going to do that."
I threw my expensive, valuable equipment into the back seat.
"We'll try and do that as long as no one is in any pain." Booth was gripping the wheel like he could snap it.
"Any physical pain, you mean."
He started the car and we sped away, leaving my car in the mall parking lot. "Bones, when we get there I'm going to analyse the situation and decide what our best course of action is. I'd like to try following protocol and doing things right. Just this once, please, let me…"
"Doing things right is wrong! In this instance, protocol dictates we stand back and do nothing! I'm not going to wait for ten minutes watching Angela tied to a… watching her be in danger…!"
"Bones. Ten minutes could mean we get everybody out safe. There's no reason to believe Bram is unarmed. It's very, very likely that he has guns by now, to subdue his three kidnap victims. Angela might not be in immediate danger…"
I couldn't stand it. I remembered the phone call I'd received today with crystal clarity and felt myself explode.
"He called me!"
Booth whipped his head around in shock. The car swerved and he went back to the road, but I knew I'd finally gotten through to him.
"He said he'd kill her! He was just preparing himself because she scares him, but he'll do it, Booth! It's our only chance, we have to go in immediately!"
As I spoke, we passed buildings in a flash, leaving the city in favour of the darker outskirts. In seconds we should be able to see Green Life greenhouse.
"Okay. Okay, then take the gun on my hip."
He didn't look at me as he said it, but I knew he was just trying to concentrate on the road.
"Okay."
I slowly reached out and put my hand around the cold, metal instrument. It was nestled over Booth's thigh. I took it out of it's sheath and felt the weight of death as I let it settle in my hands. If I had to, I knew I could use it. I'd done it before. I could kill Frank Bram, if I had to. To save Angela. Margaret. Anne.
To save them. I'd shot two people before, to save Booth, so if I had to…
"We're almost here."
Booth stopped the car immediately and swiftly got out. I followed him, gun at the ready. I couldn't see a thing because he'd turned off the headlights, to make out arrival completely inconspicuous. We weren't that close, maybe a minute away, so that the sound of our car would be masked as well. So we'd have to walk a little. I calculated all this, taking in Booth's precautions and trusting him in this situation completely.
Darkness made Booth become nothing more than a comforting shadow. Comforting because I knew he was there.
"Bones…" he whispered, walking to me, also holding his gun. "I know there's no point in asking you to stay. There's also no time for big speeches or goodbyes, there's just no time. My son… I hate that I may not have been able to say goodbye to my son."
Suddenly I felt him move, quickly shortening the distance between us in two strides. He didn't make a sound, like an agile panther, but I felt him breathing, felt his body against mine. A shard of pain that this could end, that he was going to be in danger, irrationally shook me to the core. He'd confessed to feeling the same way about me, to wanting to protect me, and I'd always snorted and belittled his concerns, trivial in the face of larger danger, inconsequential compared to other people we might be helping.
But that was my life. When I was in danger. I chose this moment, this frantic, silent moment in the dark to realise he was in danger too, he wasn't invincible, he wasn't indestructible, and his life was consequential, it was important, it was precious…
We'd never had much time to consider the dangers before barging into a dangerous situation, knowing loved ones were in danger, knowing we were unprotected: no bullet-proof vests, two guns without recharge, in the killer's environment… I knew he didn't have any bullet-proof vests today because he'd been in hospital, and then at the Jeffersonian, and had no time to stop at the FBI. He'd come to check on me before he did anything else, and now we were stranded here until help came along without safety, without certainty or even light…
His face was touching mine, in the darkness he was the only real thing in my world. His skin was soft and rough, his cheek brushed my temple and I didn't know which direction we had to walk toward, I didn't even know which way was up or down, or how we would make it anywhere.
"There is no time for me to say what I should say. I guess I always thought it was so damn obvious that it hardly even needed to be said. I didn't understand your reactions, the way you acted like you did, because I thought you already knew."
Suddenly he pulled away. Five seconds was all the time he was willing to spend telling me things, waiting for SWAT. He took my hand and pulled me forward, in the direction of a faint light. We were practically running, holding hands and easily keeping a steady pace.
As we got closer I did see some light, shining on a few trees around an impossibly large translucid structure, shaped like half a cylinder. We'd come to the right place. I knew this.
"I thought you already knew and didn't feel the same way, which was why you never…" I almost stumbled, but regained my footing and didn't falter. He began speaking abruptly, in short sentences, strained, but I knew it wasn't from lack of oxygen, it was just difficult for him to say. "I told you things. Hinted at things. But you never reacted, never… so I stopped telling you things. Asking for things. Admitting more things. I tried to stop. I kind of succeeded."
We slowed to walking because now we were closer, and I couldn't speak, but I didn't need to. He held my hand firmly. I wasn't trembling, not outwardly.
"I became a horrible, mean, sexist jerk as an after effect of it, especially to you, but I stopped hinting at anything. I kept it all inside and turned a feeling into anger. Until that day when I couldn't take it anymore. You have no idea… how… incredibly exhausting it is. How draining, staying angry at you. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done."
He was telling me all this because he thought we might die. And he didn't look at me and I didn't look at him. We were both looking ahead, trying to see shapes inside the structure, trying to walk faster without being obvious.
"And I'll never be able to say I'm sorry enough. Not enough, because repetition renders those words useless, nor with enough strength, because no matter how deeply sorry I am, it doesn't change my attitude toward you, it doesn't change what I did. I hope that you've forgiven me, I think you have. But I won't deserve that forgiveness for a while."
Of course I'd forgiven him. As he was doing it I was forgiving him.
"And then, once I knew… once we'd… since the car, I knew you liked being with me too, even if it wasn't the same way. I knew how you felt and you tasted, adding that to how incredible you were… it was so much harder. I couldn't be angry anymore, so I was selfish. I taunted and got you to kiss me again. I let you take the burden of stopping before it went too far because I thought you didn't feel the same way, and so it was easier for you."
I love you. I love you, Booth. I thought the words but still my voice wouldn't come. I love you.
I knew this. I'd known this for a very long time.
I wanted to whisper it to him before we went inside, but our pace was fast and I didn't matter, I'd never matter, not until the case was over. Only they mattered, and it wasn't over yet.
I could see Booth's face clearly now in the light, but still I didn't look. I kept my eyes straight ahead and kept trying to discern shadows in the white glow of the greenhouse. A dirty sign cheerfully proclaimed it to be Green Life Greenhouse.
"For all of it I should say I'm sorry. But we have no time."
We couldn't stop. I couldn't speak. We couldn't afford the time it would take to say important things.
"Temperance, all I can-"
A gunshot.
A scream.
He wrenched his hand from mine and sprinted away, flat out, without waiting for me or looking back. My reflexes weren't as quick or well-practiced as his, so I didn't react with the same burst of speed. But I was just as fast as Booth, so I quickened my pace until my legs screamed in pain and I caught up to him.
I remembered what he'd said to me that day, such a long time ago: "Invisible. Like you're not there, get it? I… I'm not going to look at you, okay? But remember: I won't forget you're there. I'd never forget, but for her, for Mrs Stoker I need to be focused, okay? I can't be looking at you. I'm sorry." Now was different, he was running to get there first, to save them before it was too late, and I had momentarily slowed him down. I felt my heart figuratively expand with pride (emotions cannot directly change body tissue so quickly without changes in one's metabolism).
There were no more sounds, no more gunshots or screams (oh God had it been Angela?), no sound even from Booth who ran next to me with the night as though he was a ghostly apparition. One with the shadows.
We reached the side of the structure quickly. There was no way of looking in because a thin but opaque white sheet covered the entire greenhouse; hence the muted light. Probably put there after it was closed down, but no padlock of fences to guard the place. Careless… and really, what could you take from a place filled with dead plants? Except they weren't dead anymore, Hodgins had discovered that.
How would we sneak inside without making our presence known? Cam helped up to here, and it seemed like out presence hadn't been noted. I had the most irrational thought: the loud sound of my heartbeat would give us away. My pulse, thundering through my body in a frenzy of adrenalin and fear, terror… but Sweets would say that was impossible, remind of the ration woman that I was and attempt to calm me down. I followed his imagined advice and took a deep, if rather shaky, breath.
Angela would smile and be proud that I managed all of this letting my friends help me.
"Booth…" I whispered, trying to just mouth the words as quietly as possible. "How do we get in?"
"Follow me."
He took off to the left, following the outline and crouching low. "At least we know this: Bram has just confirmed he has guns." He said to me behind his back.
I nodded, I'd thought of that too.
He kept running, and I faithfully tried to copy his every step, and not make a noise. To be objective, it was an impressive first attempt and I was generally very good with physical skills, but Booth was my clear superior in this area. Not that I would ever admit that to him.
"Here." He mouthed, pointing to a vertical slit in the material that started at two metres high and came down all the way to the ground.
I stepped and leaned as close as I dared, to try and see something. Behind the opaque white sheet I saw the hard transparent plastic that made up the actual structure, shot through with metal beams curving as it reached higher, to keep it solid. My breath was heavy and my heart rate abnormally high as I realised all that stood between me and Frank Bram was cheap, see-through plastic.
It was a very thin slit, and I could barely discern anything inside the actual building. All I saw were green plants, with small green leaves and blue flecks of colour in clusters. A closer examination showed those flecks to be blue flowers, tiny little petals open to a non-existent sun. The blue made bile rise in my throat. It was disgusting, he was sick, sick and insane, and he should be dead for doing those things to innocent women…
A hand on my shoulder steadied me. Booth knew what I was thinking. I took a deep breath and looked again, but the green life completely obscured any vision. We couldn't see further than a foot inside.
Booth gently tugged me away and tried to look, also without touching the white sheet.
The night was eerily quiet. Shouldn't we be hearing police cars by now? Cam would have called the FBI moments after we hung up, and it had taken us two, maybe three minutes to get here by car, plus another minute to walk, all in all about five minutes to be on the safe side… but it really was quiet.
The silence was beginning to make me nervous. Just one scream and then sudden silence?
"This is the door. Behind this rip. He probably made it himself, to get in and out." Booth whispered. I'd suspected as much, and nodded.
"What now?"
He carefully pulled the white sheet back, revealing more green, more flashes of innocent blue… in other words, more nothing… and then I saw the metal frame around a plain, transparent rectangle with a small handle. Clearly the door to our green hell.
"He put this plant in front of the door so he'd hear if someone tried to get in. Open the door, crash goes the shrub."
"It's not a shrub. Maybe there's another entrance."
"Doubt that."
"Then what?"
Booth put his hand on the handle and tugged. The door was locked, to top it all off.
I wanted to cry.
"Wait…" Booth studied the door frame for a moment and snorted. "The door swings out, like safety regulations demand of most public buildings."
"So the plant in front of it would probably not alert him of our entering. No 'crash goes the shrub'?" I mused.
"It's just to block the view. We've still got a chance to get in if we can walk around the plant."
"It's locked. He'll hear us if we try and open it."
"I'll pick the lock." He got down on his knees and examined it for a second.
"I thought any lock worth picking was worth hitting…?" I began.
"Worth kicking, Bones… And you know he'd hear…"
"How will we walk around the plant? It still has to be moved so we can enter…"
"We'll think of that once the door is open."
I bit back the million questions and flaws in this… 'plan', and took a step to the right, giving Booth clear view and more light of the lock.
"I'll hold this for you so you can work better." I said, taking the curtain of white sheet and pulling higher. Booth took out a thin, sharp, nameless instrument and began working the lock.
As I waiting, I tried to catch a glimpse of an image through the foliage. The little blue flowers were everywhere, unfortunately, and hardly let any light through.
And then, quite suddenly, I could have sworn I saw a flash of colour.
"Bones, please keep a hold on this." Booth complained quietly.
The material had slipped from my hand.
"Sorry…" I said, absent-mindedly grabbing it again, still squinting ahead. My voice was surprisingly calm, but inside something broke, something insubstantial but important. "I think… I think I saw Angela, Booth."