A/N: A little heads up: updating twice in one day does not bump you to the top of the list. In case you were wondering. But today's a new day, and hopefully some of you are new readers who found my story today!
Enjoy!
Redux
Chapter 3 – What's Right
When Bones received a reply from Booth the next day, while she was working at her computer over breakfast, it simply contained a phone number. Did he want her to call this number? Did she even have access to a phone?
But then, an email from Cam marked 'URGENT' caught her attention. Brennan opened the message and grew more and more concerned the more she read. They just couldn't leave her alone, could they? And Zack of all people? He should have known how important this trip was to her. He should have appreciated the implications of her research here on the Maluku Islands. She didn't care if a serial killer was on the loose.
She didn't!
Grumbling into her slap-dash coffee, Bones made her way to Daisy's half-a-cabin. "Hey!" she cried, trying to knock on the canvas wall and failing. "Hey, Dr. Sweets! I'd like to talk to you, please!"
"Dr. Brennan?" Sweets' voice wafted from the cabin, confused and disoriented. "Hang on a minute."
The sounds of two bodies shuffling around, getting dressed, escaped through the canvas next, punctuated by whispers and murmurs. Finally, Sweets stuck his head out, "Yes, Dr. Brennan?"
"I received an email from Dr. Saroyan this morning. She and Hodgins have been trying to contact you."
"Oh, man!" Sweets cried, shaking himself free of the damp canvas as he stepped out onto the ground. "They have? I didn't even check for messages when I got here."
"I believe," Bones pointed out, sipping her coffee again, "that you and Ms. Wick were too busy engaging in noisy intercourse to bother with work."
"You…?" Sweets frowned. "You heard that?"
"Booth would …" Bones started wondering if she would be showing too much of her inner conflict to Sweets if she continued. But, upon the severely curious look Sweets gave her, Bones decided not continuing would be worse. "Booth would say something about people in Antarctica, or a similarly remote climate, being able to hear you. But I suppose the Maluku Islands are remote. So maybe that hyperbole wouldn't be appropriate here."
"Uh-huh," Sweets grunted with a nod. "Say, do you know why the Jeffersonian people were trying to reach me? And I thought Hodgins and Angela would be in Paris by now."
"Apparently," Bones shrugged, replaying the email in her head, "Zack escaped. To Paris. Because none of us told him we were leaving the country. Is it standard protocol to tell ones previous employees that one is going away for extended amounts of time? Because I didn't think that it was…"
"Oh, God," Sweets muttered, a hand flying to fist in his hair, a gesture of distress Brennan guessed. "Zack is our friend, Dr. Brennan. It's usually good form to tell your friends about life-changing events such as leaving the country."
"But, Lance," Daisy broke in, stepping down from her cabin, "you didn't tell anyone you were coming here."
"I don't …" Dr. Sweets sighed, and Bones wondered why he looked so sad. "All the friends I remembered having were either out of the country, or notified by the FBI that I was coming here, Daisy. There's no one else. No family to inform."
"Oh, my poor Lancelot!" Daisy cried with a pout, hugging Sweets' side quickly. "I didn't mean to be so insensitive. I'm sorry."
"That's okay, Daisy," Sweets smiled. "All I need is here, with you."
Suddenly, Bones felt like she shouldn't be watching this conversation any more, as Sweets and Ms. Wick had taken over with their talk about feelings and friends. Bones hated these conversations. Half the time, without Booth there to translate, she couldn't really get a grasp of what was going on. No matter how hard she tried to learn from Booth, nothing was as good as having him there, always next to her.
Nothing.
Clearing her throat, Bones added, "Cam wants you to talk to the hospital. To let them know Zack is coming back peacefully."
"Yeah," Sweets nodded. "Of course! Is there a phone? Should I try video-conferencing with Cam? What?"
"It's yesterday afternoon there," Bones pointed out, doing the calculation in her head. "She should still be in the lab and be able to receive video."
"Right!" he nodded, leaping back into the cabin and grabbing his silver briefcase. "Now all I need is an outlet."
Sighing, Bones offered, "You can use my office, Dr. Sweets. I'll show you the set up."
"Thanks, Dr. Brennan," Sweets replied, kissing Daisy on the cheek as he passed her.
How could people get to be like Daisy and Sweets? They'd only known each other two years, and already Sweets was willing to travel across the country for her. Bones then realized that she had never known any man for that long, save her family and her coworkers. And Booth.
Booth was walking across the base in Afghanistan, on his way to meeting his first group of students, when his satellite phone rang. He still couldn't believe he'd wrangled the privilege during his brief stay in Kuwait. They must really need him for this mission, if his commanders were letting him get away with keeping a phone on him at all times.
"You go on ahead," he told the corporal leading him. "I have to take this. FBI, stuff, you know."
The corporal shook his head, "Orders are to escort you door to door, Sergeant Booth. You haven't yet been briefed on all the safety procedures."
Frowning, Booth muttered, "Fine," and answered. "Booth."
"Hello, Booth," a woman's garbled voice came over the line and Booth couldn't believe that she'd broken down and called him so quickly. Could she really miss him even half as much as he missed her? Her email seemed to suggest that she did. And now the phone call…
Eyeing the corporal listening to him, Booth steeled his resolve and replied carefully, "What can I do for you?"
"It's me," she replied, the connection clearing up, "Bones."
"I am aware," Booth said, wishing the soldier beside him would just leave him alone for two minutes. He would never find out what Bones had meant by her letter at this rate. "Thank you for returning my call. What's the situation there?"
"I told you, Booth. Sweets came to Indonesia!" she cried, getting frustrated. "And you didn't call me, you left a very cryptic email and now Zack is in Paris!"
"He's what?" Booth exclaimed, not caring that he had an audience. "When? Why?"
"I don't know," Bones replied, her voice wavering in that way that said she was very upset and was trying to hide it. God, he wanted to do anything in his power to make that tone in her voice evaporate. "Sweets is talking to Cam about it now. It has something to do with everyone leaving the country without telling him. And a serial killer in Toronto."
"That's outside my jurisdiction," Booth replied, wondering if he could still say that. Sure, his position at the FBI was waiting for him when he got back, but technically, Booth didn't work for them anymore.
Bones sighed loud enough that he could hear her over the static and said, "I know Toronto is in Canada, Booth. I wasn't born last year."
Involuntarily chuckling at her, Booth corrected, "Yesterday. It goes 'I wasn't born yesterday'."
Then, instead of sighing past the static, Bones sobbed loud enough that Booth could hear her over the shaky connection.
Brow furrowing in concern, Booth turned his back on the corporal next to him, really wishing he could speak freely, and said, "What's the problem? How can I fix it?"
"This," Bones sounded like she was forcing out the words past her tears, "opportunity was supposed to be about science, Booth. It wasn't supposed to be about interpersonal relationships! But I can't escape them, they followed me here, and now Sweets and Daisy are back together and I'm worried about Zack and I don't want to talk to Cam about it. And you're not here to tell me what to do! What should I do, Booth?"
"First thing," he choked out, trying not to be affected by his partner's outpouring of emotion. No way he could show up to the first day of class with tear-reddened eyes and hope to be taken seriously by any of the soldiers he was supposed to teac. "…is calm down. Everything's going to work out. I have to be somewhere right now, but I'll look into the situation later, alright?"
"But," Bones said, sighing like she did when she was trying to pull herself together, "what should I do next, Booth?"
"Try to find out more about Dr. Addy's Toronto theory. When I get a minute, I'll try to arrange another agent to work with Cam and Zack."
"No," Bones insisted. "We're your people, Booth. I very much doubt that Zack will be willing to work with anyone else."
Booth huffed in annoyance. "I don't know what you think I can do about that now."
Sadly, she asked him, "I'm asking too much of you, aren't I?"
"Yes," he replied, wishing it weren't the truth, wishing that if he did something brave, like Sweets had, he could be sure she wouldn't reject him again. It was too much to ask him to be there for her half-way, just as a partner and a friend. Then again, he had dealt with that for longer than he cared to admit. "I'll see what I can do."
"When can I speak to you next, Booth?"
"When I know something," he replied, "I will call you. Is that acceptable?"
"Booth," Bones asked in her curious voice, "why aren't you speaking like yourself? You sound almost like me… You aren't alone are you?"
"Affirmative," he sighed, wishing he was alone, that he could coax her into saying everything that was on her mind. Wishing he could coax her into loving him.
"Oh," she sighed. "Thank you for taking my call, Booth. I shall continue my work here and wait for you to 'know something'."
"You're welcome," Booth replied, knowing that even if she had called in the middle of class, he would have taken her call. "Until then?"
"Until then," Bones agreed, hanging up and leaving just static on the line.
"No," Zack said unequivocally, watching both Sweets' and Dr. Saroyan's faces on the computer screen. "I will not consent to going back while this killer is loose. My knowledge of pattern recognition, applied engineering, and forensic anthropology makes me uniquely qualified to solve this case."
"Are you trying to get us to call the Paris police?" Hodgins asked, sitting beside him. "We can make you go back."
"You can try," Zack shrugged, looking at his friend without meeting Hodgins' eyes. "But, I am deceptively strong. And highly intelligent. I have only been captured when I consented to being captured."
"Zack," Dr. Saroyan said, blinking a few times, "you can be a very creepy guy."
"Yes. I have been told this about myself several times. Mostly by Agent Booth."
Dr. Saroyan hid a laugh behind her hand, while Dr. Sweets made a frustrated noise and asked, "What am I going to tell the hospital, Zack? That you're taking a leave of absence from custody?"
"I'm not sure that's a real thing," he pointed out, looking up when Angela clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"It's not," the woman explained. "Sweets is just being sarcastic, Zack."
"Zack!" Dr. Brennan cried, taking the left-hand video panel over from Dr. Sweets. "I greatly admire your resolve. You should be allowed to work this case, since you are the one who brought it to our attention. I talked to Booth, and he was difficult to understand–"
"Sweetie?" Angela broke in. "Have you been crying?"
"What? No," Brennan insisted, but now that Angela pointed it out, Zack noticed that his former mentor's eyes were reddened and swollen, both classical indications of emotional lacrimation. "I was trying to say that Booth said he would look into it. He wants to find us another FBI agent to work with."
Another agent? Zack didn't like that idea at all. "I can't trust anyone else," he insisted. "If Agent Booth isn't available, this case will have to wait until he is."
"Zack," Cam started softly. "Booth is in Afghanistan. It's going to be a long time before they let him leave."
"And if you're right about this killer," Sweets pointed out, taking the camera back from Brennan, "he's accelerating. He won't stop killing until someone catches him. Now, he might grow so unstable that the Canadian authorities will catch on, but if this pattern is as subtle as you claim, Zack…" the psychologist sighed. "I doubt anyone would notice. Please, let us work with someone else. Agent Perotta knows us, and she could help."
"Agent…" Zack asked, looking up at Angela. He wondered why he'd never noticed what a calming presence she had. Maybe his time in the hospital had made him more open to admitting that people had presences and not just subconscious social effects on other people.
"Payton Perotta," Angela filled in. "She's good, Zack."
"She doesn't understand people like us, Zack," Brennan butted in. "Not like Booth does."
Off to his side, Angela shook her head and muttered, too quietly for the microphone to pick up, "Doesn't miss him, my ass."
Ignoring that cryptic comment, Zack told Cam, "If you can get Agent Booth on this case, I'll return to the hospital and work from there. Otherwise, you'll never see me again."
"Seriously, dude?" Hodgins asked, surprised. "Getting Booth back out before his term is up would be like performing a small miracle."
"I was sent home from Iraq before my term was completed," Zack pointed out, not understanding the problem.
"Zack," Cam said, that look on her face similar to the times she had delivered him bad news, "you were a consultant. Booth is a soldier."
"He's a teacher," Zack insisted. "That's what Hodgins told me."
"We're not getting anywhere with this," Sweets muttered. "If we can get Booth to tell you himself he's unable to leave his post, will you consider working with another agent?"
Zack thought over this possibility. The rational thing to do was to give in and work with another FBI agent. But other FBI agents were very strict about the rules, and Zack was breaking the rules by being absent from the hospital. Other FBI agents wouldn't give him the time he needed to solve this case before putting him back. And, Zack had been working on not being rational all the time. He'd been working on seeing the difference between right and wrong, no matter what logic said. And it was right to catch this serial killer. It was right to pursue this line of investigation to the full extent of his ability. And it was right to insist on the best FBI agent to help him. Because those victims did not deserve to die, and they deserved justice. That's what Brennan had taught him, despite her recent departure from the Medico-legal Lab.
"No," he said simply, closing the laptop and cutting off his colleagues' attempts at changing his mind. Now, he just had Hodgins and Angela to deal with.
"Zack!" Hodgins cried, following him into the kitchen. Zack was very thirsty. He wasn't used to speaking so much in such a short period of time anymore. "What are you doing?"
"Yeah, sweetie," Angela sighed. "Don't you think you're being a little unreasonable?"
"I think I'm doing what's right," he said softly, hating having to find the words to explain himself. "It may not be reasonable or logical, but it's right."
For a moment, Angela and Hodgins' expressions denoted complete surprise, and Zack was thankful for the silence.
A/N: I'm trying to keep everyone in character. What do you think so far? Reviews are highly welcomed!
