Chapter 7

The sound was gone. Whoever had been walking close to her was no longer around. She heard nothing. She wasn't sure what she was more terrified of; that someone was near her or that no one was near her. Knowing that she was alone once again, she began to really assess her injuries. Without being able to see it was difficult, but she knew from the pounding in her head that she had some type of head injury. She could feel pain low in her chest and knew she had at least several broken ribs. Not to mention the injuries her wrists had sustained being immobile and tied above her head as they were. She couldn't help but wonder if there was anything more serious that she wasn't able to tell. She wondered how close she was to death.

*****

Wednesday

11:52 AM

Booth sipped his coffee as he watched Brennan swipe yet another fry off his plate. He never understood why she insisted on ordering a salad every time from the diner when she always ended up eating more than half of his fries off his plate. Most of the time, Booth didn't even want fries. He just ordered them for her. Booth smiled as Brennan dipped the fry she stole into some ketchup. Brennan eating his fries was just one of their unspoken things from a long list of many. He secretly loved it when she did it even though he would never admit it out loud to her.

"It's been over two hours," Brennan stated, popping the fry into her mouth.

"Caroline will call," Booth assured her.

"Yes, but what if she calls us and says she couldn't get a judge to agree to the exhumation. What are we going to do then?"

"We'll figure something out."

"Booth, we're out of evidence. We've tried everything…"

"Is that defeat I hear in your voice because I've never seen you give up on evidence like this before."

"I'm not giving up. The evidence we have from the original crimes has been compromised, which gives us very little to work with. I'm not giving up, I'm just saying that considering your people messed up…"

"Would you stop calling them my people? I'm not in charge of everyone in the FBI."

"So…what are we going to do if we can't find any more evidence?"

"Well, if the evidence doesn't work for us, then I'll start watching Creepy."

"Booth, you can't honestly think that you can keep an eye on one man singlehandedly."

"It won't be singlehandedly. I have you."

"I am not sitting in car with you for hours watching a man in the event that he might murder someone."

"Why not?"

"Because stakeouts with you are…" She didn't finish.

"Are what?" He leaned in over the table, closer to her.

"Unbearable," she answered. She reached for another fry, but he slapped her hand away. "Hey!"

"No more fries for you," he said, leaning back in his chair.

"Why not? You're obviously through with them."

"Because you stealing my fries is unbearable."

"That doesn't make any sense." She reached her hand across the table again for his plate, but he pushed it away. "Now you're just being difficult."

Booth crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm being difficult? How can you say that stakeouts with me are unbearable?"

"Because Booth you're…you're like a child. You can't just sit quietly. You have to talk or play with that stupid squishy ball you always bring along or…"

"What's wrong with talking? And it's not a squishy ball. It's a stress reliever."

"It's a mechanism for you to keep yourself busy. If you didn't have that, you'd be tapping your foot or bouncing your leg or doing something equally as repetitive."

"What's so wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with sitting quietly?"

"It's…boring."

"It's not boring. It's practical. You can get much more accomplished when you are sitting quietly without distraction. You would know that if you were actually capable of sitting quietly."

"What's the fun in that?"

"It's a stakeout, Booth. It's not supposed to be fun."

"Apparently not when you're around."

"Are you saying I'm not fun?"

"Pretty much, Bones, yeah."

"Well, don't expect me to help you stalk Creepy."

"I wouldn't be stalking him."

"Uh-huh."

Brennan quickly grabbed a fry off his plate and chomped it in half, defiantly.

"You're infuriating," Booth said. "I don't know why…"

Booth was cut off when his cell phone began to ring. Booth pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it.

"Is it Caroline?" Brennan asked.

Booth nodded. He opened the phone and pressed the speaker phone button.

"Tell me you have good news, Caroline," Booth said.

"Good news for you maybe. Not so good news for me," she replied.

"What do you mean?" Brennan asked.

"Dr. Brennan? How did I know you'd be there? You're probably both sitting around at that diner you all love so much picking off each other's plates. Am I right?"

"Actually, Bones picks off my plate," Booth answered. "I never…"

"Were you able to get a judge to sign the exhumation?" Brennan interjected.

"You're lucky I like you, Cherie," Carole said.

"Why are we lucky?" Brennan questioned, obviously confused.

"Because I was able to sweet talk a judge into granting your exhumation, but…"

"But what?" Booth asked.

"If this dead body doesn't give you the evidence we need, all of our asses are on the line and you can consider our relationship severed. No more favors, Booth. You hear me?"

"Yeah, I hear you," Booth answered.

"Now you go do your squinty thing and put this guy away for good or you'll both be paying," Caroline said.

"More steamboats?" Brennan asked.

"Steamboats won't even begin to cut it," Caroline answered before hanging up.

"Looks like we got ourselves a body to exhume," Booth said.

"I want to be there," Brennan stated.

"Where?"

"At the exhumation."

"Why?"

"Because I want to make sure it's done right. What we need is evidence, Booth, and the only possible way we can get it is from that body. I'm not letting anyone compromise that body. I'm not letting that body out of my sight until it's safely at the Jeffersonian."

Brennan stood up and Booth just looked up at her, not moving.

"What?" Brennan asked.

"Nothing. Just…thanks," Booth said.

"For what?"

"For helping me. For working this case with me."

"We're partners, Booth. That's what we do." Brennan smiled. "Come on."

Booth stood up. As he went to put his cell phone back in his pocket, he glanced at it briefly.

"Bones?"

"Yeah?"

"Look."

He showed her his phone

"What am I looking at?" She asked.

"The time."

"It's 12:01. So what?"

"So Collin Brown is officially a free man," Booth stated.

Brennan reached over the table and put her hand on Booth's.

"We'll get him, Booth. One way or another, we'll get him."

He nodded and followed her out of the diner.

*****

2:30 PM

"What is taking so long?" Brennan asked as she and Booth stood several yards away from the truck that was digging into the ground to get to the victim's coffin.

"This isn't like ordering a pizza, Bones. You don't just call up, order what you want and then expect it delivered within half an hour. It takes time to exhume a body."

"It's taking too much time," Bones said, having to nearly shout over the sound of the truck. A dozen or so others stood nearby. The director of the cemetery, two gravediggers who would help with the exhumation, several other FBI agents, the coroners, and the parents of the victim were among them.

"Just be patient, Bones."

"Usually I'm the one telling you that."

"Well, there's a first time for everything."

The truck stopped and the grave diggers took over by removing the last inches of dirt from the coffin. Booth glanced over as the victim's parents approached them. He hated this part. He knew exhuming the body was the only chance they had at ever putting Collin Brown back behind bars, but he still hated seeing the look on parents' faces when their child was being dug up.

"Agent Booth," the father said, his eyes red with tears. The mother clung to her husband, burying her head in his shoulder.

"Mr. Cooke. I'm…very sorry. I know this isn't easy."

"I…" Mr. Cooke faltered, having to wipe away a tear. "The agent who told us our baby girl was being…being…"

"Exhumed," Brennan interjected when she realized that Mr. Cooke was having difficulty coming up with the right terminology. Booth gave her a stern look, telling her that this was one of those moments where she shouldn't talk.

"He told us the man who killed her was being released from prison for lack of evidence. Is that true?"

"Yes, sir," Booth answered solemnly.

"Then you do what you have to do to put that bastard back in jail," Mr. Cooke said.

"We will, sir. You have my word."

Booth shook his hand before Mr. Cooke led his sobbing wife away.

"You can't promise him that," Brennan said.

"Sometimes, Bones, you have to tell people what they need to hear."

"Wouldn't that be lying?"

"It's different, Bones."

"You know what's strange?" Brennan questioned. Booth looked at her with an amused expression on her face. She didn't seem to pick up on it. "Mr. Cooke wasn't angry that we were exhuming his daughter. Anthropologically, burial is an important ritual in every society. When people disrupt that ritual, it makes the society very upset. But he wasn't upset."

"Because he wants justice, Bones. It's as simple as that."

She nodded. "Justice is also an important part of societies. Whether it be…"

"They're bringing the coffin up," Booth interrupted.

They both watched as the same truck that had earlier been digging the hole started to back up slowly. Straps had been securely wrapped around the coffin and the straps were connected to the truck. As the truck backed up, it raised up the coffin. In less than a minute, the coffin was airborne, lingering just a few feet above the ground. The truck slowly swung it around so it was hanging above what looked like a large gurney. The grave diggers shouted out directions as the truck lowered the coffin onto the gurney. As soon as it was securely resting on the gurney, Brennan was next to it.

"Nobody touches this coffin until it is securely at the Jeffersonian," she stated.

The two coroners, both male, nodded at her as they began to wheel the gurney over the rough terrain of the cemetery and towards their van. Brennan walked alongside it, doing as she had promised. She was not going to leave the coffin unattended.

She stood by as the coroners loaded the coffin into their car. One was about the shut the back door, when Brennan stopped them.

"I'm going to ride with the coffin," she said.

"I don't think that's necessary, Bones," Booth replied. "We can follow the van to the Jeffersonian."

"I'd like to keep an eye on the remains."

"They're not going to get up and walk away, Bones."

Booth's cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocket and put it to his ear.

"Booth," he said. There was a long pause. "Yes, of course. I'll be right there." He hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket.

"Who was that?" Brennan asked.

"Hey, Dr. Brennan, are you coming or not because we've got to get this delivered?" The coroner asked.

"Just a minute," Brennan replied.

"That was Parker's school," Booth explained.

"Is he ok?" Brennan questioned, instantly worried.

"He's fine. Rebecca can't pick him up so they need someone to get him."

"Dr. Brennan?" The coroner called from the other side of the van.

"I'll be right there!" Brennan yelled back. "He's incredibly impatient."

"Just like you were several minutes ago," Booth said. "Anyway, I've got to go get Parker."

"Of course. I'll ride with the coroner and meet you back at the Jeffersonian later."

Booth nodded. "Just be careful, Bones."

"Be careful? I'm accompanying a body to the Jeffersonian. What is there to be careful of?"

"Just be careful…my girl." He smirked as Brennan shook her head.

"Don't call me that," she said as she walked to the back of the van. Using Booth's hand to push off of, she climbed into the back of the van. Booth slammed the door shut when she was safely inside. He waved to her as the van pulled away, unable to keep the uneasy feeling from creeping into his gut.

Author's Note: Well, I hope you liked it. And I just want to say thank you to not only all of my reviewers, but specifically those who commented that they liked the little paragraphs before the start of each chapter. I went back and forth on whether or not I was going to keep those in and I'm glad I did because they seem to be creating suspense. Thank you for reading!