The Matter to the Bones
Hi Everyone! I apologise for my long absence - I had a massive story to write for English = no time for Bones :(
But I'm back now! Thank you for sticking with me! xxx
(I'm so sorry it's so short guys, but's all I've had the time for at the moment!) :/
33. Perseverance
Brennan roused the following morning to the scent of strong coffee, and eggs and bacon. Strangely - though she hadn't eaten meat in years due to her dietary choice to be a vegetarian - her stomach gnawed hungrily as the flavours entered her nostrils upon inhale.
Propping herself up on her elbows, she was stunned by what she opened her eyes to.
Her father set out breakfast - for Booth - on a tray, and the two men conversed lowly. When they noticed that she was awake, both smiled - almost as if the events of the past day had long since occurred, and were out of sight, out of mind.
"Hey sweet-heart." Max set down the paper bag he held, and moved around the bed so he could lean down to kiss her on the cheek.
"Dad - what are you doing here?"
"Can't I be here because I'm worried about you?" He asked innocently.
Brennan sighed. "Of course you can. I just…didn't know you were coming."
Max shrugged. "Well, I wasn't going to come 'til later, but Booth wanted breakfast…"
"And?" Brennan piped.
Max exchanged a glance with Booth, and then exited.
Frowning, she directed her stare at her partner. "What's going on?"
Booth stared at his hands, and exhaled heavily - wincing, as it discomforted his lungs. "Max is taking you home to his place," he eventually revealed, eyes meeting Brennan's.
"It's okay," she replied slowly. "I thought just as much anyway-"
"No, Bren. For longer than just a day or two."
Brennan's eyes tightened as she her mind worked to comprehend. "How long?" She finally managed.
"Until Broadsky is caught."
"No." She shook her head. "No."
"Bones, please, listen to me-"
"Have you forgotten what just happened to you?" She threw back the covers and stood by his side. "To us? I should have been with you, Booth. I'm your partner, and you took the bullet - metaphorically. If I leave you alone though? It won't be metaphorical, Booth. It will actually happen."
"And if you stay close to me for any longer it could happen to you!" He yelled. Taking a necessary breath, he stared directly into her eyes - boring down to her core. "You're not just thinking about yourself anymore," he reminded her seriously. "Do you remember, that time, when we had to take care of that baby, Andy?"
She nodded.
He continued. "Do you remember when we went to the trailer, and we found the drunk father?"
Another nod.
Booth placed a hand on her belly. "Before we knew who was in there, I told you that if anything happened, you were to drive away. Because it was about the baby. Making sure that the baby was safe. And you agreed with me."
Brennan cast her eyes down.
"Hey," he pressed.
She looked at him again.
"You've changed so much since then," he said gently. "Grown. And, if you were prepared leave me there, and drive away for the sake of that baby-"
"Because you told me to," she interrupted.
Booth gave her a reproachful look, and continued as if he hadn't spoken. "Then it's not much to ask that you would do the same for our child." He stroked the palm of her hand tenderly, eyes locking with hers with an unshakeable solemnness.
Brennan retracted. "So what are you asking me to do?"
"I shouldn't have to ask you to take care of our ch-"
"No. What are you asking that I do?"
"I want you to stay off the case," he pleaded adamantly. "I need you to be as safe as possible, because I can't protect you." He clicked his good fingers. "That's how quickly it takes for Broadsky to murder you. And he will do it in cold blood."
Brennan's eyebrows furrowed with worry. "Booth…I'm afraid…"
"I know, but it's going to be o-"he began to assure her, but fell short when she began to shake her head.
"No. I'm not so much worried about that…but, I believe that…in all of this, you've misjudged Broadsky's character," she revealed.
Booth frowned. "What on earth do you mean-"
"In all of this, we just 'assumed' that everything was Broadsky. But…I don't think…I don't think that he'd play games. Psycologically, it isn't correct. It doesn't make sense. He's a hunter, but only of a military-honour-do-what-you-think-is-right morality-"
"Bones."
"Yeah?"
"It's him. All him. Now, I don't want you worrying about it all. Go with your father. Get some rest. I'll see you soon."
Brennan's jaw visibly tightened, and Booth knew that it was because she was holding back a response. Instead, she bent her head towards his and rested her lips on his forehead.
"I'll come and see you tomorrow-" she began, but cut off when she felt him shake his head beneath her. "So I'm not even allowed to make sure you're okay?" She registered.
"I don't want to put you in any danger, when I can't protect you," he answered simply.
She stepped back. "Did you ever study Macbeth?"
Booth furrowed a brow. "In the eleventh grade…but how is that even relevant?"
"Well, you know how the witches tempted him, and, though they couldn't make his demise happen, they could still have a hand in provoking him onto his own road of self-destruction."
"Your point being?"
"Broadsky is the witches; he can tempt us - and, actually kill us, in this instance - but when Macbeth heard from them that he was going to be murdered by a man not of natural birth, Macbeth thought that by demolishing every person whom was a threat to him, it would make him safe and he would cheat death. Little did he know, that by doing so he only pitted more people against him," Brennan finished.
Booth stared at her with frustrated cluelessness.
Brennan rolled her eyes. "The moral of this little story is that, Broadsky wants you to overreact about this. You're only making it easier for him to get under your skin every time you react. By going to any means necessary to protect me, you could just be putting us all in more danger."
Footsteps at the doorway. "Dr Brennan is actually quite right, Agent Booth."
"Sweets." Brennan smiled. With hastened steps, she greeted him with a warm embrace. "How were The Hamptons?"
"Agent Fuller will be very happy there, I believe," said Sweets, nodding he's head as he spoke - as if he were agreeing with himself. "Early retirement was the right call."
"Speaking of making right calls," Brennan interjected, as Booth began to cuss, "Booth wants me to go home with my father. Away."
Sweets folded his arms. "Then I think he's made the right call."
Brennan glared at him. "He wants me to stay away until Broadsky's caught."
The psychologist's stare became dubious, and looked to Booth. "You don't know how long that's going to be…"
"She has to," Booth answered sharply, and when both friends went to interrupt him, he quickly finished with, "she's pregnant."
Sweets' jaw dropped.
Brennan rolled her eyes. "Pregnant or not, I'm not staying away from you indefinitely - now that's irrational. Sweets" - she hit his arm - "you've done a character profile of Broadsky, and you know that by moving me away, because Booth thinks that he will hurt me, will only make him try to hurt me even more."
Booth's head snapped backwards and hit the headboard of the bed. "Just let it go Bones. Trust that I'm doing the right thing."
"I won't leave you Booth!" Brennan yelled, all reason having dissipated. "Now, I'm happy to stay with Dad for a couple of days, but as soon as you are discharged, I'm coming to get you. Is that understood?"
Booth's eyes closed, and he wouldn't open. "Go home, Bones," he whispered.
Watching the two men for a prolonged moment, and receiving no further support, Brennan stormed out of the room.
"You're pregnant, honey?" Max asked from behind her.
She halted. "You heard."
Max shrugged. "Kinda hard not to, Tempe. You guys weren't exactly sticking to hospital guidelines so far as volume levels go."
Brennan sighed, and stared at her feet. "I don't know how many weeks yet, but they confirmed it last night when Angie and Hodgins brought me in here."
Max nodded in understanding. "Do you wanna get checked out know - while you're here?"
Brennan hesitated. "I wish…I wanted…"
"To do it with Booth," her father finished.
Brennan looked back towards his room. "Yeah."
"There'll be plenty of time for that," he promised.
She met his gaze. "I'm just not so sure anymore."
"Don't doubt, honey. Just take every day as it comes."
"Is that how you did it with Mom?"
He put an arm around her shoulders. "It's how I do everything."
- ~ B&B ~ -
Crash!
Brennan sprung from a deep, exhausted sleep the following morning with a start. Fearing the worst, her eyes darted to the door. Lifting her head painfully from its crooked position on the couch, she spied her father's golf club bag by the coat stand. At first, she thought the sound of something gushing to be an air conditioner left on, but soon learned that it was water that pelted against the windows of the small living room. In front of her, a black and white film flickered on a modest screen a few feet away. Reaching the doorway, she pressed her ear to the panel of wood.
Nothing.
She peered through the glass hole. No person stood in the doorway.
But a bouquet of flowers lay in their place. Pulling aside the slide bolt and unlocking the the heaving latch with care, Brennan only allowed a small crevice, so she could reach out and draw it in.
It was an assortment of white hydrangeas.
Perseverance, Brennan thought sadly, taking up the beautifully wrapped bundle to her chest and closing the door behind her. As she went to reach for the gift tag to read it's message, however, the bunch vibrated. Throwing the flowers halfway across the room, she noticed a small mobile phone spiral through the air and fall below the coffee table. She checked her wristwatch.
It wasn't yet six in the morning.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and hit the third number on speed dial. "Jack? It's Brennan. I'm sorry, I know it's early, but I really need you-"
She didn't need explain any further.
"I'll be there," he answered promptly on the other end of the line.
Hodgins arrived at her father's apartment twenty minutes after the phone call.
"Is the baby okay?"
She nodded. "Fine, Hodgins. But it's…that" - she pointed to the bunch of flowers - "I don't know what to make of it. I haven't touched anything other than the wrapping."
Her friend knelt down beside it. "Hey - is this yours?" He pointed to a cell phone lying nearby.
Brennan stepped forward. She shook her head. "And it doesn't belong to my father either; he has a Blackberry."
At that moment, it began to ring.
"What do we do?" Brennan moved carefully around the phone as if it were a poisonous snake.
"I'll answer it," Hodgins offered. There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, and then his eyes flickered to hers in silent panic. He ended the call.
"What is it? What did they say?" Brennan's chest was so tight, her words came out in nothing more than a whisper.
After a painfully long moment, the words he said next made her chill to the bone.
"You're next."
You know where that box is, kids. Go and have a play in it for me and leave a party favour ;)
xx