So here we are; the last official chapter before the epilogue :O I really hope that you enjoy it, and cyber-hugs go out for you, my readers, I adore you all so much and I'm so grateful to have you. Please R&R, lovelies!

39. Hands and Eyes

"Parker and his mother are safe," Clint announced loudly, amidst the shouts of Booth.

The FBI agent stopped in his tracks. "Safe?"

"They've been taken to the CIA's home base," he explained calmly.

"I was in charge of the whole exchange," Sophia supported. "They're safe, Booth. It was Clint that I was on the phone to, when we were running. I was letting him know that I'd had word from the Agency."

Booth allowed the new information to sink in. "He's safe?"

"Yes."

"A sniper can't get to them?"

"They're underground. They're going to be alright."

Suddenly Broadsky spoke up, his voice bitterly smug. "What makes you think that I have a sniper on them?"

Booth's eyes swept to Brennan's in panic, and then back to Jacob's in a harsh glare. "Don't bluff. You're just making it worse for yourself."

Broadsky laughed. "How can you be so sure? I turned the Deputy Director of the FBI, and had him cleaning my slate for months. You ass-clowns can believe what you like, but my guys have their orders."

Booth raised his rifle on Jacob, resting the weapon on his sore wrist, holding the trigger with his good hand.

"Booth!" Brennan warned, in a yell.

"Not now, Bones!"

"Booth, stop it!" She persisted, voice sharp, and urgent. "If you kill him, you'll never know who's after Parker. You can't get anything out of a corpse."

For a moment, it seemed as though he was going to pull the trigger, but then he relaxed his aim. "Get me to your headquarters, now!"

.

- ~ B&B ~ -

.

Brennan felt Booth's tension vibrating through his body to hers. Every so often, he would squeeze her fingers - whether it was to assure her of his presence, out of nerves, or whether it had just become routine after every five minute interval, she had become numb to the action after the gesture became consistent.

On several occasions, during the helicopter flight, she had thought to say something - and had hoped that he would speak to her, enquire after her - but his face was a pale mask of distress, and she could feel the cool fever burning through his skin, as his weak body fought to keep his system running. Conversation of any sort wasn't going to be possible, until Parker was in his father's arms.

"Five minutes out," one of the pilots informed, and his words sounded universally through the headphones they all wore.

Brennan caressed the saddle of his hand with her thumb. To her surprise, his head leant towards hers, and he pressed his lips against her cheek, while the other agents in the helicopter pretended not to notice.

The remaining five minutes of the flight were some of the longest Brennan had lived through in her life - it felt as though they were all instruments in a ticking time bomb. The whole atmosphere of the aircraft generated an unsettled, thick feeling.

And then they touched down.

"You stay behind me, and between the SWAT agents at all times," Clint ordered. "Is that clear?"

Booth barely nodded.

Moving through security in no time, they were then guided to a lift, which took them down a few floors. When the doors opened at the bottom, Clint's words went unheeded, when Booth heard his son.

"Dad!" Parker yelled, loping towards his father. "Daddy!"

Booth broke free from the barricade of agents, and ran, sweeping his son up in his arms. "I'm here. It's okay. We're okay."

"Mom said you were in hospital, Dad. She told me about your accident," Parker pulled back from his father's embrace, so that he could meet his gaze.

It was at that moment, that Booth was struck by the maturity of the ten year-old boy before him. There was something…older, about him - the way he held his chin, the directness of his stare. With a sickening ache, Booth realised that his little boy had grown in leaps and bounds, when he hadn't been looking.

"Dad?" Parker pressed, shaking his father from his train of thought.

Bending to his height, Booth placed his good hand on the boy's shoulder. "When'd you get so big, huh?" He tousled Parker's caramel hair.

"I can see that you're hurt Dad," Parker halted him indignantly, taking the injured hand in his own, which was a bit more half the size. "I'm not little anymore. You can't just distract me. Tell me what's going on!"

Submitting, Booth sighed and nodded once. "Okay." His eyes lifted from his son's for a moment, and sought out Brennan's.

She smiled softly in support.

Booth guided Parker away a few steps, to some seating against the wall.

When he began to explain an edited summary of the past couple of weeks, Brennan turned away, and much to her own surprise, almost toppled over Rebecca.

"I'm sorry," the blonde apologised, when she realised how startled she had made Brennan.

"It's fine," she answered, taking a wary step back.

"You look like you've been through hell," Rebecca commented, unintentionally insensitive.

Brennan's eyebrows jutted skywards. "Well, captivity can do that to you." She looked over her shoulder to Booth, but when she went to converse with Rebecca again, a sharp pain targeted her abdomen.

"Temperance?" Rebecca grabbed her arm, steadying her.

Booth's head shot up, and he was at her side in an instant, Parker at his heels.

"Bones?" His frantic voice forced her to open her eyes.

Face pale with agony, she reached for his hand. "Can you get me out of here?" She coughed lowly, her facing pinching as another contraction ruptured through her body.

"We can't leave," Rebecca panicked, looking to the agents. "You told us so-"

"If you're all in the same place, we can keep you protected," Sophia reasoned, approaching the group, and halting beside Clint.

Clint agreed with her. "And," he added, "our servers are hacking into Andrew Hacker's computers, phone records and any other necessary files to find out who Broadsky has on his side. Jacob spilled, and he told us that answer lies with Hacker."

"Then why aren't you moving?" Booth snarled, his arm around Brennan's waist.

- B&B -

Brennan had been in the hospital room with a doctor for nearly an hour, when Booth was approached in the hallway - though to his dismay, not by a professional who could tell him anything. He'd been allowed with her when they'd first entered the hospital - when they'd informed them that it was not real contractions, but in fact ones that were 'testing' Brennan's body - that was how Booth understood it, anyway. He drained his paper cup of coffee, and tossed it in the nearest bin.

Rebecca stopped in front of him. "How is she?"

Booth shook his head. "She's still in with the specialist. They thought it best that I gave them space - I mean, I told them that I didn't want to leave..."

"But it's their way, or the highway, right?"

"Yeah."

She pulled him aside, tossing a cup of her own in the bin also. "I need to talk to you. And I know that this isn't the best time, but you need to know."

"Bec, I need to be waiting for-"

"Temperance is being consulted by a doctor," she reasoned. "And you really need to hear what I have to say."

Booth bit his lip, the frustration evident on his face.

Rebecca sighed. "We're moving to London, Seeley."

Booth's face paled, and his bottom lip dropped an inch. "No you're not...what? No, I don't want you to do that-"

She put a hand on his arm. "I'm not asking," she revealed gently. "I'm telling you; this is what's going to happen, and I think that it's for the best."

Booth shook it off. "How is it for the best? You're taking my son away from me; he's the primary reason I came back from Afghanistan, Rebecca. You can't take him away-"

"I'm not taking him away from you. We're just moving - I got offered a really, really good job for the next annum. Parker will go to a private school," she elaborated, wringing her hands. "This will be good for us. And I want to go, Seeley. So does Parker."

"Have you even asked him?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"He wants to go too, only, he didn't say anything to you because he was afraid of how you would react," Rebecca explained quietly. "And the move wouldn't happen for three months, and we might even be back in a couple of years, if we want to."

Booth pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because I've put it off for far too long, and it wasn't as if I was going to jump it on you the day we were leaving."

"Don't be dramatic, I know you wouldn't have done that; I mean, why now? In the hospital, after everything?"

Rebecca placed a hand on his arm. "You're a resilient person, Seeley. You do well with taking a big hit all at once, because you bounce back. Broadsky in jail…his people getting caught as we speak, and your pregnant partner rejuvenating in a bed down the hall - you're dealing with it all right now. At least by telling you this now...you can process it along with everything else that's happening. Am I making sense?"

Submitting, Booth nodded silently - although her speech hadn't really made much sense at all - and began walking towards Brennan's room again.

"Dad?" Parker's tentative voice called from behind. "Do you hate me?"

Booth turned, and smiled sadly, gently. "No."

"But you just fought with mom," Parker pointed out.

"I don't want you to go away, Parks," his father explained. "And I'm going to miss you like crazy…because, really, I only just got you back, in a sense. But I can't be selfish with you." He moved towards him, and embraced him tightly. "You deserve to experience every opportunity you want to have, Parks."

It was Parker who pulled back. "Dad, why's Bones so sick?"

From the corner of his eye, Booth spied a flash of green.

Scrubs.

And the man that wore them, cleared his throat. "Dr Brennan is ready for you, Agent Booth," he informed. "The ultrasound machine has been set up."

Booth thanked the man, and turned back to his son. "Why don't you come an ask her yourself?"

Eagerly, Parker followed his father into the room, where Brennan smiled up at them from her place in the bed. Booth leant forward and kissed her lightly on the lips, then stepping back so the nurse could apply the gel to Brennan's womb.

Parker comprehended.

"You're having a baby?" He gasped, his delayed reaction making his surprise and glee all the more magnified.

Brennan smiled. "Yes."

Parker watched as the woman pressed a piece of equipment to her belly, and then the green-blue screen of the television began to display a picture.

"You're going to be a big brother," Booth confirmed, reaching for Brennan's hand, and closing his fingers around it.

"How many weeks?" Brennan asked, as Parker excitedly threw questions of his own at Booth.

The nurse studied the screen. "I'd say you're about eight to ten weeks."

Brennan exhaled slowly. "How did I miss that?"

"You have been under a lot of stress lately, yes?" The nurse assumed.

Brennan confirmed her obvious suspicion, by nodding.

"Your body can easily play tricks on you," she answered. "And it could have been easy to miss, given that the doctor informs me that this is your first pregnancy."

At that moment, Parker stepped forward and planted a swift peck on Brennan's cheek. "I'm really happy for you and my Dad, Bones."

She rubbed his arm. "Thank you, darling."

"Mom's taking me home now, but I'll be at Dad's this weekend - will you be there?"

For a split second, Brennan looked to Booth in panic.

"The CIA and FBI caught the man that Hacker had employed," Rebecca answered from the door.

"There was only one man?" Booth wondered. "But Jacob said 'men' - plural."

"There was only one," Rebecca confirmed. "He was bluffing you guys." She turned a hard eye on Booth. "You should know that," she teased, eyes softening. "The profound gambler."

The nurse rose an eyebrow.

"Not anymore," he defended, shaking his head at her.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "I'll take your word for it." She extended her hand. "Come on champ, you have that writing project due tomorrow, and you haven't even started."

"I know what I'm going to write it on," he twittered excitedly, but halted before the door, suddenly remembering something that he needed to do. Running back, Parker wrapped his arms around his father. "I love you Dad."

Booth closed his eyes, savouring the moment. "I know you do. I love you, Parker."

With that , he was gone.

Brennan's nurse cleared her throat. "Would you like me to print some photographs, or would you prefer a tape?"

Brennan gazed up at Booth, as he took his place by her side. "Are we allowed both?"

The woman smiled kindly. "You can have whatever you want."

Booth slipped fingers through Brennan's, and they shared a smile.

"Both, please," he reaffirmed.

So much fluffiness :P What do think? Yes, this is the last 'official' chapter, but there will be an epilogue :) Please don't hesitate to suggests prompts for what that final chapter should include - I would be thrilled to hear what you, the readers, would like to hear best! Lots of love xx