I cannot believe I am 3 reviews away from the big 1000. It's… mind-scrambling. I can't believe I'm so close to finishing this, either.
It's been amazing, and despite my extreme nag-nag-nag-iness, you've all been so supportive and wonderful, telling me what you liked and didn't like, what you wanted more or less of. And 40 chapters is… quite a lot! At least for me :)
I write my stories for myself, it's true, and I love writing. But I post them here for all of you, and I know you appreciate the work I put into them.
So THANK YOU!
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CHAPTER 40
"This place will blow up on it's own."
Booth's eyes didn't flicker to my face again. Bram had a few shots left, and the risk was too much. Still a small, childish part of me wished for some comfort amidst the raging tempest. The rest of me knew better, knew it was my responsibility and Booth's to come out alive.
Anne was almost by my side. The sharp lights threw shadows over her gaunt face and I swore to myself I would protect her from any harm.
"Frank." I said softly. He was looking at me with wide eyes, just me, not Anne, as though she didn't exist now that her mother was gone.
"Please let Anne go. Look at her."
He did, for a moment, but he didn't see.
"I can't." He said dumbly. His arm with the gun pointing to Angela's heart slackened. I should just shoot him, just get this over with. "I can't let Anne go, poor Margaret would miss-"
"She's dead!" Anne screamed. "Dead! D-E-A-"
"Anne be quiet!" Booth snapped. She looked feverish, but didn't say anything else. But now the gun was once again aimed true, even though his arm did shake a little.
"Frank, Angela hasn't done anything wrong. Neither has Anne, or Booth."
Booth's eyes snapped on mine, screaming a warning not to do this. But I knew it was the right thing to do. Three lives outweigh the one, that is scientifically accepted.
Especially if the one is… mine.
And I love them.
"Frank, if you let them go, I'll stay and help you look for Margaret." I said quietly.
"No-!" Booth whispered, eyes burning. "No, Temperance-"
"Shut up!" Bram took another shot at him and missed, but it was close.
"Yeah Booth, shut up." I said, my voice sounding strange even to my own ears.
"Will you really?" Bram asked.
"Yes."
"You know what? I believe you." He took one step toward me, a small one, clearly unconsciously. Angela was perfectly still, her every breath making the barrel of the gun dig painfully into her chest. Anne was still too, but her eyes seemed to finally spark to life a little: she was staring at me in horror, mouth open in a delicate 'o'.
"I'm glad you do, Frank."
"I believe that you'd stay with me because you love him so much."
"It's true." I whispered, and I was looking at Booth as I said it.
"But I don't know where she is. I… I loved her, Temperance."
I'd never been good at lying, never. But I was lying for my life, lying with everything that I had, masking and burying everything I felt, smothering the urge to cry or scream.
"It's okay, we'll find her again. Together we'll find her. I miss her too."
"Do you? She was so beautiful, wasn't she? They all were."
"Yes." I think I wasn't shaking. I stood tall and straight and kept him talking. SWAT would be here soon, but if they didn't get here in time, at least Booth, Angela and Anne could be outside before me… before this all went up in flames…
"Lily was so fragile. I never meant… she just… she loved him! I never… wanted to hurt her."
Yes you did. Multiple stab wounds to the chest and ribs mean you did, you evil, you crazy madman…!
But I just nodded. "Of course."
"And Helen… pretty, pretty Helen."
"I know."
"Sandra… she was bad. I had to do it."
"Yes."
"But Jeanie… oh, she was the worst."
"I believe you." I steeled myself by looking at Booth once more. "But Anne hasn't done anything wrong. Look at her beautiful face, at her wonderful, blue blue eyes. She hasn't done anything wrong, Frank. She's Margaret's daughter. Look at her beautiful blue eyes."
And finally, he did. In his own eyes the madness had grown from a glint to a glaze, and I was very afraid for Angela, with every pounding beat of my heart I was afraid for my friend.
"No…" Anne breathed, coming alive again as she stared at her mother's killer. "I…"
"Go." Frank said flatly.
"But… Tempe…" my heart clenched that she had room to think of me. But she must go.
"Goodbye, Anne." I said firmly. Booth was signalling for her to walk to him. But Anne just kept looking at me, breathing heavily. She was paralysed, her thoughts clearly conflicted.
Frank pointed his other arm to the pipe above his head.
"Go, Anne!" He shouted.
She began to run, but when she reached Booth's side she stopped. It was such a risk, what I knew she was about to do, but even at this moment the girl was much smarter than I'd given her credit for. She threw her arms around my partner and grasped him with all her strength, but she did it so her body stood between his and Bram, so Bram couldn't shoot without hitting her.
Then she was gone, running out the greenhouse door at a sprint and not stopping.
When she was out of sight a small, lone tear freed itself from my lashes and rolled down my cheek. Then it was gone too.
"Thank you." I said.
Booth hadn't spoken, hadn't moved since Anne had clung to him like the frightened little child that she was. I had to save Angela next.
"Frank, why don't you let Angela go? She can help Anne, she's strong enough for that."
"No. Angela stays."
And I realised his fury at my friend was far from appeased. That he still hated her for having dark irises, for being strong, for finding me, for finding him. I took an unconscious step forward, feeling the sting of the bullet that had grazed my arm before. My sleeve was completely bloody now, and I saw Booth wasn't much better off. His face was pale and strained.
"But look at her."
Angela wasn't crying anymore, or choking on her own blood. She was just still, silent, collected, trying to appear invisible. Shoulders hunched, head down.
He looked at her too.
And putting his gun to her forehead, he ripped off the tape on her mouth. She cried out in pain and I saw the blood from a split lip. She spat more blood on the floor, and took a deep, shuddering breath.
"Brennan…" She said, her voice high and rough. "I love you, sweetie. I love you."
"Me too, Ange."
I turned to Bram, who was looking at Angela's blood-red lips, gun digging into her forehead. His face was a mask of conflict. "Come on, Frank. She's so innocent. You said I was a mistake… what if Angela is too? What if Angela is the good in my bad?"
Booth was looking at me with intensity, condensed feelings into one expression. His love, admiration, strength, courage, they all shone on me… and he knew he couldn't speak because I was saving them, one by one, and he was an expert on hostage negotiation and he understood what I was doing, and why he couldn't intervene right now. I was alone for a few more sentences.
"But… what if you're wrong?"
"I'm never wrong." I said firmly. Bram smiled, and I felt a violent shudder rack my body, because it was disgusting.
"Okay. Okay then…"
He turned to me, arms still in an L figure: one pointed at Angela's head, one at the pipe. "Leave your gun on the floor and kick it away from you. Now. Agent Booth, you too. I can squeeze this trigger easily before you shoot me. I've got nothing to lose and all that shit… right? Do it."
I exchanged a glance with Booth and we did as Bram asked.
"Good. Now Agent Booth will step back ten paces." Booth was shaking his head, eyes wide.
"Frank, Angela…" he began, but Bram interrupted.
"Shut up! No talking from you, anymore."
He had no choice. Booth began walking backwards, never turning. His arm looked bad and his steps were slow but firm.
"Okay, then…" and Bram undid the blindfold. Angela's eyes were closed, and she didn't open them. I secretly thanked her that even at this moment she remained smart. She knew better than to show him her dark eyes now.
"Angela, can you undo your legs now?" He asked her, and in his voice a strange tenderness dripped like a venomous poison.
"Yes." She said quietly. She didn't try to tell me anything again, didn't even try to look at me. She just bent down and fumbled for a minute with the rope tying her legs to the left side of the chair. Then she was free.
"Stand up and walk away."
It took two attempts for Angela to stand, because her legs were too weak to support her weight. All the while Bram kept his gun on her head.
And finally she was upright. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen. She looked at me and mouthed 'I love you' again. Then she turned and walked past Booth to the door.
She, like Anne, also stopped when she reached him and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.
"You can do this." She whispered.
And then she was gone.
The relief was painful, and threatened to melt my tense muscles. Angela would live. The reason we came here tonight, she would live, she would be fine.
But it was also horribly short-lived relief. Bram hated Booth, and now Booth didn't have a gun. And Bram's was pointed at him.
"Frank…" I began.
"No. Not him."
I clenched my teeth. "Frank he's done nothing-"
"Don't say that. Don't lie to me, Temperance. Of course he's done horrible things. Of course he has."
"To you. Nothing to you. He's a good man, let him-"
"I know that you love him. But your love won't save him now."
Booth was looking at me. "Temperance, I love you too."
"I know." I breathed. "I know Booth, and I love you, I love you but now…"
"Stop it!" Bram said suddenly. "What about the woman I loved? What about Margaret! We have to find her, I don't know where she is!"
"I'll help you." I said desperately. "I'll help you, Frank, I told you I would, just let Booth go-"
"No!"
"Let him go, he's innocent!"
"No, Tempe!"
"Then kill me, but save her."
I was in shock. I couldn't speak because something seemed to lodge in my larynx and I was asphyxiating. Booth couldn't die, he just couldn't. Never.
"Kill you?" Bram said, and his voice considered the possibility. It brought me back.
"Booth, shut up." I said savagely.
"No. Kill me, but let Temperance walk away."
"Stop it!" I cried.
"For once listen to me, Bones, and let me save your life!"
"I'll never let you die for me, Booth, I won't…"
Bram fired two shots into the air, which deliberately missed the pipe by inches. He was a good shot.
"Enough!"
"Booth, go away! Frank, let Booth leave and I'll stay with you forever, I promise…"
"Frank she doesn't know what she's saying, I'm right here, you coward, shoot me if that means she can live…!"
"Booth shut the hell up!"
"Both of you stop it!"
"Temperance, I'm warning…"
"Booth…"
"ENOUGH!" Bram screamed.
We were silent, but I kept murdering Booth with my gaze, to get him to understand. He just returned my look with equal force, pupils dilated and breathing heavily from the wound in his arm.
"I'll kill both of you if you don't shut up."
"I'm sorry." I said quietly, to appease him. Because he had to listen to me. He had to do as I said, to keep me in Booth's place.
But something terrible was happening to Frank Bram right before our eyes. He took deep breaths, deep, steadying breaths and Booth looked afraid, for the first time since we'd entered this place he looked scared so I was too…
Something was horribly wrong.
"I never meant to… become a murderer." Bram said suddenly. "I never wanted to kill any of them. Not even Margaret. I never meant for it to happen."
I froze.
"It was unintended, I swear."
And he took careful aim and fired his gun into the central line.
Instinct took over as I heard the terrible high pitched sound of gas escaping the perforated tubes. The bullet itself, miraculously, hadn't lit it yet. But it wouldn't take long for the gas…
Booth and I locked eyes for less than a second, then turned and ran in opposite directions. He was closest to the door, and I felt faint with relief that Bram had made him walk backward, away from the pipe, to safety. He would make it, Booth would be fine…
I ran with all the power my legs had left. I was a bit farther from the hole I'd made in the wall, but maybe if I was fast enough…
And then I heard it. Above the shrill leaking and the creak as pipes began to fall from the ceiling, the sound of more bullets.
I skidded to a stop and spun around, and Bram was shooting at Booth.
I stopped running and changed direction. It didn't matter that I might die, it didn't matter that I saw a spark out of the corner of my eye… I didn't matter. Only he mattered, only Booth.
"Seeley!"
The cry was ripped out of me violently, and I couldn't see properly, but it looked like Booth was on the floor and now Bram was advancing on him, no, please no…!
And that was when all hell broke loose.
A first shockwave sent me flying back at least twenty feet, scorching my clothes and hair with heated air. They were only first degree burns, however, and I didn't matter…
"Booth!"
I scrambled to get back up but now most of the place was on fire and I couldn't walk, I was choking and crying because of the smoke, and fire meant more explosions were coming, oh Booth live, please live.
A second heat wave, this one carrying burning debris like flaming bullets, threw me against the wall of the greenhouse and I heard a loud crack as the glass behind me absorbed my impact.
I fell to the floor in a bundle, a vulnerable heap. Would I die? Was this the way I died? Would they find me? Would they know it had been me, after the fire had taken my flesh and all that was left was bone… would they know who I was?
I stood up, trembling, feeling blind because all I saw was red and white flame, and the smoke that blurred everything. The crackling flames were loud and all I could think was…
Booth.
There was a battle going on inside me. Rational versus sentimental. It was fought furiously in two seconds, but they were valuable seconds I wasted thinking when I should have been acting. More heat waves were coming and these would bring more than debris, these would be pure flame, not just hot air.
I knew it was irrational to run toward Booth. Not just irrational, it was impossible. I wouldn't make it past two steps because the third heat wave would kill me. And yet my sentimental part wanted, desperately, to try, to try and see if he was alive, to save him, to go to Booth…
I would die. I couldn't run to Booth, I couldn't even see, how would I find him?
And then my rational side won, because I knew what I had to do. A part of me would die because of this choice, a part I brutally shoved aside because I had to do it, objectively speaking it was our best chance, mine and Booth's.
I ran away from the blazing inferno, blindly searching for the hole in the glass, to feel the jagged edges I'd shot to come inside. It wasn't long before I felt the stinging pain of fingers cutting on sharp material. A roaring sound behind me announced the final, brutal wave of fire.
I scrambled through and felt the cold night air like a breath of life, but I didn't have time to do more than gasp and cough, because with a deafening blast the world behind me exploded.
I was thrown forty, maybe fifty feet forward and I landed on wet grass. My back felt sore and burning, and I immediately rolled on the floor to smother any flames. I couldn't hear anything, my ears must be blocked, but that wasn't important. I clung to the thought of Booth like a sailor clings to a lifeboat. I stood as quickly as I could, fell down because my balance was totally off, then stood again. I heaved dry coughs and gasps, eyes stinging and watery, trying to get the shock out of my system as fast as possible.
It took a few attempts, but finally I could stand without swaying (much). Sounds began filtering in again, slowly and muted, but that meant there was no permanent auditory damage.
I pushed through the pain and the dizziness, running in a wide circle around the gigantic burning structure, occasionally tripping and landing on the grass. The air was hot and impossible to breathe, my hair smelled like it had been singed, but I didn't care anymore. If I'd been wrong, if I had no time…
"Booth!" I tried to shout, but all that came out was a wheezing, choking sound.
I saw lights a distance away, maybe not just white and orange lights but blue and red, like maybe, finally SWAT was here…
"Booth!" this time, I could say his name. "Booth!"
I had got to the other side, but I couldn't see anything and if I got closer the flames would reach me. "Booth!" I stopped running and looked at the crackling, flaming monster that filled my vision.
The enormous… size of the smouldering greenhouse hit me like a drop kick to the stomach. From the outside I felt small, miniscule before the power of the burning hell that outshone the night sky. Only the skeleton of the structure remained, the rest had been burned away, but it was still so… titanic.
And where, how would I find Booth around there? Every flame threw uneven shadows on the grass and the smoke really did make edges blur and twist so I wasn't sure of what was real and what wasn't… I felt frantic, blinking furiously to try and clear my eyesight, where are you Booth?
"No…! Booth! Come on! Where are you?"
He wasn't there. There were no bodies on the grass, only-
And then I saw. What had once been a man and was now just… human remains, lying very close to what had once been the door to a greenhouse. A voice inside me was saying 'Male, approximately six feet one, not much flesh left by the blast…'
"No… NO!"
I started running, suddenly the flames didn't matter, I was nothing, he was everything, Booth was always everything… I'd always loved him, always…
And I felt strong arms grasp me from behind, stopping me from killing myself.
"Let me go!" I screamed, kicking, fighting with the last remnants of strength I had. "Booth! NO! Booth!"
"Temperance."
I stopped flailing and turned around.
He was there. He was holding me and he was there and I threw my arms around him and held him so close we weren't holding each other anymore, we belonged to the same being, we were one person and he was my life, my life…
"Temperance, I love you! I love you, my God, Bones, I love you so much I can't believe it… oh my God… I'm so glad you're okay, you're alive, I thought…" he was doing that thing where he hurt me with his massive strength, but didn't really hurt me, and I was laughing and crying and holding on to his body for dear life.
"I love you too, Booth, always, I love you, I… always…" My throat felt constricted as I clutched him, feeling faint with happiness that his heart, that I could hear his heart and feel it beat steadily in his chest. My best friend, his heart.
We sank to the floor because neither of us had any strength in our legs left to stand, and we just sat there, holding each other. Together.
And that's how they found us, a little too close to the fire, and they lifted us up and took us to the safety distance required. There were a lot of cars, two fire-fighter trucks were on their way, and Agents swarmed the place. We were asked if Bram was dead, how many people had been inside, how we'd escaped.
Then Angela was there, surrounded by medics, but she broke away and she screamed. "Temperance! You're alive! You're okay, Booth! Oh God, oh my God I'm so glad you're… Oh honey, I'm so sorry…" and she burst into tears.
"What?"
"I'm sorry you had to… I'm sorry I let him get me…"
"No!" I said firmly, still clutching Booth, but with my free (if recently gunshot) arm I brought her close to me and hugged her. She sobbed into my shoulder and Booth put his arm around her too.
"Angela I'm so happy you're okay, we'll be fine, we'll all be fine…"
"Tempe?"
It was Anne, sitting on the hood of one of the black SUV's, already patched up. She slid onto the floor and tentatively came toward us.
"Is he dead?"
"Yes, Anne." Booth said gently.
"Good."
I took a deep breath and no one knew how much it cost me to break away from him, no one knew…
"You're safe now. We'll find your mother."
I walked to her, feeling cold air sting my raw skin, feeling that every step away from him hurt, and I opened my arms and she ran forward into my embrace. I held her as she shook silently, and didn't cry.
"The team are coming." Angela croaked. "Cam and Sweets… and Hodgins… they'll be here soon."
I nodded, and we both leaned against each other, exhausted.
More medics were surrounding us, demanding attention to Booth's and my wounds. I extended a hand toward him and he took it immediately, his fingers callused and rough, and comforting. As people asked me where I hurt, and I held the young girl shaking in my arms and I felt my friend's weight next to mine, I looked at the man I loved and read his mind without needing to speak.
And he kissed my lips and stood beside me, and I drew strength from his eyes…
And smiled.