End of May

"I don't get it."

"Get what?"

"How can they come in here, kick my ass…and yours…and then come back twenty minutes later to give us food like nothing happened?"

"Seel, honestly, I wouldn't complain."

"Seriously, Park? You 'wouldn't complain'?"

Teddy flinched and then said to explain himself, "I just mean that we're still alive, right? They would've killed us by now if they didn't need us for something. We have a chance here, Seel."

"A chance for what? They re-break my feet every damn day and they've started smashing your hand again. I can't get these chains off. I haven't talked to my wife in at least a month. I've lost track."

"You've been here about a month and a half, give or take a few days."

"You've been counting, Park?" Booth asked, mockingly.

"Yes. I have. You told me your kid was due about the second week of July. You have about a month and a week before he shows up by my guess and I know you know your wife is worried about you. But you're starting to sound like you've given up."

"I haven't!" Booth roared. "But what else are we supposed to do? Damn it, Ted, I doubt I could walk if we got out of these chains. We're stuck here. Until someone finds us, we're stuck here. I wanna get home and see Bren and see my baby but I can't. We can't. They haven't found us. And they won't."

"You're being awfully negative," Teddy taunted, attempting to lighten up the mood.

"Teddy, I'm not in the mood to mess around."

"Neither am I. We need a fool proof plan to get out of here."

"Okay, genius, since I've had so many fool proof ideas, why don't you think of something?"

"I did," he said, holding up two free hands as the chains dropped from his wrist.


"Sweetie, you can't keep doing this, you know. Do you have any idea how many stamps we've gone through? They're starting to know Jack and I by name down at the Post Office."

"Please, Ange. I need you to do this for me. It may seem unnecessary or excessive, but when he does find his way back to his base camp, he'll have all sorts of mail."

"It's not hate mail, is it?"

Brennan smiled. "No. I was never hateful toward him. Upset…even, furious, yes, but I have come to the conclusion that I am very worried about him and it is normal to mask one feeling with another."

"Bren! What has gotten into you?" Angela laughed. "You're talking psychology now, you know that, right?"

"I have come to terms with psychology in that it is a science in its own way, a science that I do not necessarily agree with."

"Okay, Bren, if you say so," Angela told her, the grin on her face growing wider.

"Plus, it keeps me from getting bored. And he seems to like it when I mention his father," Brennan said, tapping on her baby bump. She could feel him kicking and shifting around inside. Brennan flinched as the baby settled in some uncomfortable position for her. Angela watched as Brennan massaged her side, whispering softly for him to move. He kicked, and Angela's eyes widened as she saw the little outline of his foot on Brennan's stomach. Brennan relaxed a bit and settled back down after cajoling her son to move again.

"What was that?" Angela cried.

"I was talking to him. Some of the pregnancy books said that if you talk to the fetus, they will move in response to your voice."

"Okay, but did you see that? I mean, you saw that, right? You saw what I saw?"

"His foot?"

Angela nodded.

"He does that a lot. He likes to kick hard. He's quite strong and, at times, it can hurt."

"Wow. That was…wow."

Brennan smiled. "It is a rather enjoyable experience. I wish Booth could see it."

Angela perked up. "Will he do it again if we talk to him?"

She nodded. "Most likely. He really does it when I give him a little nudge. If I just rub my side a little bit like this…" Brennan showed her again and the baby kicked, his little foot yet once again, appearing beneath Brennan's skin. "He does it every time," Bren said, grinning at Angela.

"Let me get my camera! You're right, Booth will want to see it!"


"How did you do that?" Booth asked, his voice dropping to a whisper.

He held up a fork with bent prongs. "I picked the lock. They're getting lazy. They've been starting to leave stuff in here with us. They left the fork in here a few days ago when they gave us some food."

Teddy stood up and walked the short distance to Booth. He picked the lock on his chains and held out a hand to Booth.

"Okay, first things first: let's see if you can stand."

Booth nodded and took a deep breath. He could feel the pain throbbing in his feet as he placed them flat on the ground.

"How's it feel? Are you okay?" Teddy asked him.

"My right hurts worse than my left. If we get out of here, you might have to help me walk. But I think I'm okay."

"Okay here's the plan," Teddy whispered so he could listen for anyone approaching.


"Ange! I'm bored! I need to do something!"

"Okay, I'll find you something to do, but seriously, Brennan, you have to stay off your feet. I am not kidding. If you don't, I will kidnap you and you can finish out your bed rest sentence in the hospital."

"Okay, okay!"

"I have an idea. You might want to come into the kitchen for this. It might get messy."

Brennan gave Angela a weary look before she disappeared to find something for Brennan to do. She returned just seconds later as Bren took a seat at the kitchen table. Angela set a large bucket full of different colored paints down in front of her.

"Angela, you want me to paint a picture?" She nodded. "You are the artist, not me. And I need paper if I'm going to paint."

"No, no paper. You are going to paint him," Angela said, the grin on her face becoming larger and larger. She was pointing to Brennan's bulging stomach.

"I don't know, Angela…"

"Look, Bren, I checked it out. It's non toxic paint. It's actually face paint. You want something fun, right? Well here you go! Go on, paint away!"

Angela ran off, leaving Brennan staring at the paints. Slowly, she took the purple paint out of the bucket and fished out a paint brush to go with it. She twisted the cap off of the paint and lifted her shirt to expose her stomach. She dipped the paint brush into the paint.

Brennan cringed at the first cold feeling of the paint. Starting at her navel, she painted a spiral around. She then heard the ever familiar, ever present sound of Angela's camera.

"Really, Ange?"

"Duh, sweetie! Are you going to let me paint something?"

Brennan smiled at her friend. "Okay, but don't get too carried away."

Some time later, the pair was laughing harder than they ever had. Brennan had little designs and even small pictures drawn by the more artistic of the two painted all over her bump.

"I really should go shower. Otherwise, I'm going to have stained skin for a while."

Angela nodded. "But only if you promise we can do this again! That was fun. And a lot of pictures for Booth to see when he comes home." The moment Angela mentioned his named, she knew it was a mistake.

"If. If he comes home," Brennan muttered.

"No. Don't you dare start talking like that."

"I haven't heard from him in almost two months. And I haven't heard from anyone from the Army since they told me he went missing. I have to start being realistic. I can't go on pretending that he's going to be okay. And I've come to the conclusion that, if necessary, I can raise a baby on my own. I have a good job, there are good schools in the area and-ˮ

"Brennan, I swear on my life, you have to stop thinking like that. Why can't you be optimistic and think he'll come home?"

"Because the last time I thought that, I ended up in foster care."


"Can you walk on your own?"

Booth tried. He hobbled around a bit but as soon as Teddy gave him some support, he was almost walking like normal despite the help.

"How's that hand of yours?"

"I'm used to the pain. I can still hold that pipe. I can grip it. If worse comes to worse, you're up against a wall fighting them while I try to pull them off of you. And this is assuming there's only five here. We can take three at a time if we ambush them as they walk in. Then, if we have to fight two others, we'll be evenly matched. And once we get out, we have to find our way back to camp."

"So potentially, we could be back at camp with decent food in…what? Three days?"

Teddy nodded but looked skeptical.

"Okay, I hear them coming. You ready, Seel?"

Booth nodded once and they shuffled to hid behind the door. As their captors walked in, Teddy took out the first man with one hard knock to the head with the same pipe that had broken Booth's feet. The other two scuffled in and Booth and Teddy jumped on them wrestling their guns away from them. The three men were dead quickly and, after slinging the guns over their shoulders, Booth and Teddy darted out the door.


A/N: Okay, so there's some progress with Booth! And I'm surprised I got this up. But, unfortunately, I don't expect to have anything up until at the earliest Sunday night. But I'd like to thank everyone who has left a review in the past and I would love to know what you guys think!