A/N: Again thank you to those who take the time to review. It does really give me motivation to keep going if I know you're enjoying the story. I hope you like this long chapter. I will need to stop updating quickly for a while so I can write more new chapters. I've almost caught up to the last chapters written and I don't want to publish anything more until I have more chapters written for this story. But don't worry, I'm not giving up.

His heart hammered inside his chest as Booth slowly took in the content of the document. Minutes ticked by in silence; somewhere in the lab, he could hear the hubbub of people talking. His throat felt dry. Several times, he had felt his heart catch in his throat. The document left nothing to the imagination. He didn't need anyone to tell him that this wasn't good; in fact, it was pretty bad.

The sound of a throat being cleared startled him. His head shot in the direction of the door where Hodgins stood in the doorway, eyebrows frowned in confusion.

"I'm sorry," Hodgins said, uncomfortable. "I saw the door was open, I just had to…"

"It's okay, Hodgins," Booth cut him off, not wanting to listen to his colleague's words.

His voice sounded off in his ears. The entire situation had left him feeling bizarre, like his world had shifted once more. As much as he wanted to protect his girlfriend, he knew the deep trouble he could be into for not sharing this new information.

"Do you…"

Booth cleared his throat.

"Do you know where Cam is?"

"I think she's doing an autopsy. Why? Did you find something?"

Booth sighed, irritated.

"Could you get her, please? There's something here she'll want to see."

Hodgins's face lit up.

"So you did find something!" the entomologist said, excited. "What did you find? Something that will incriminate Pelant?"

"Could you just tell her to come here? And you, go back to work! I'm sure there are bugs somewhere just waiting for you to unleash the secrets they are guarding within!"

Hodgins' eyebrows shot upward.

"That was some serious poetry, Dude! Though I don't really care for the sarcastic tone you used."

Booth rolled his eyes.

"Just tell Cam to come here."

As Hodgins disappeared, Booth leaned back and rubbed his face. He definitely hadn't expected to find the document when he had turned on his girlfriend's computer. He wondered where the file came from. After all, her computer had probably been searched during the investigation. If it had, it meant that the file had been created sometime within the five past weeks.

He turned his gaze back to the screen. Several words seemed to pop out at him and he tried to ignore him. If this document turned out to be legitimate… He didn't want to think about it.

He hadn't heard her come in.

"You've just had me pulled from an autopsy, Seeley. This better be important."

"Take a look," Booth replied, gesturing towards the computer screen. "I think you'll find it worth the trip."

Cam's eyes widened as they took in the words displayed across the screen.

"What is going on?" Wendell asked as he joined the remaining of his colleagues on the overhead platform. "Why did Cam ask us to meet her here?"

Everyone shrugged.

"Maybe it has something to do with Dr. Brennan," Finn offered.

"I think Booth found something," Hodgins replied.

The team fell silent. No one wanted link Booth's possible discovery to their missing anthropologist. They were all lost in their thoughts when Booth and Cam eventually made their way to the group. All eyes were on Cam as she took a seat across from them, rested a document on her lap, and rubbed her face with both hands.

"I don't know where to start," she said, avoiding eye contact. "Let's just say we've got a very big problem."

The team exchanged worried looks.

"What is it?" Angela asked, voicing the team's worry. "Has something happened to Brennan?"

Her gaze turned to Booth who simply looked away.

"Booth has found something interesting on Dr. Brennan's computer. There was a document. It's a story."

"A story?" Wendell asked, perplexed. "What kind of story?"

His eyes fell to the document on his boss's lap.

"It describes in very vivid images how Dr. Brennan murdered Helena Moscovitch."

Silence fell above the room. Cam lowered her gaze to the document, desperately clinging to the hope that this was a mistake. Yet the document still lay on her lap, words shooting back at her the reality of the situation. As no one said a word, Cam took it as her cue. She slowly began reading the five-page document. When she finished, all eyes were glaring at her.

"That's impossible!" Angela replied, outraged. "Helena has been dead for more than two months. Brennan can't have killed her; she didn't even know her."

Cam shifted uncomfortably in her chair. The document had explained the motive of the murder. Whoever had written it, they had covered every inch.

"Please don't overreact, Angela," Cam replied, looking over at Booth for support.

"How can I not overreact?"

Hodgins lay a hand on top of his wife's but she aggressively pulled it away.

"Why would Brennan kill Helena Moscovitch? Did she threaten to kill Christine too? Because it seems to be a running theme lately. Who put it there?"

Cam frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, who put the file in Brennan's computer?" Angela repeated, slowly. "It can't have been her. She's gone and we don't know where she is."

Cam took a deep breath. She needed to choose her words carefully.

"That's what we need to find out," she replied, avoiding Angela's gaze and focusing on the rest of her team. "We need to know if the file was place on Brennan's desktop or if it was created on her computer."

"So you think someone walked into the lab undetected and described in details the murder of Helena Moscovitch?" Wendell asked. "And let's say for a minute that it was Dr. Brennan. You really think she could have walk in here without getting recognized?"

"I don't know what happened, Mr. Bray, but we have to examine every possibility. Can anyone really prove that Dr. Brennan hasn't come back in the middle of the night to write that chapter herself?"

Somewhere below, the sliding doors swished opened.

"Angela, I want you to look at the file and try to figure out where it came from. Mr. Bray, I want you to go down to the Civil War exhibit and find the sword described in the document. We need to verify if Helena Moscovitch was really stabbed and slashed to death with that particular sword. I will talk to the museum director to get his approval for testing. Until then, I want no liquid or any kind of substance poured onto it. Do I make myself clear?"

Silence fell once again. Angela shot to her feet and stomped away from the group. Hodgins immediately followed her. Finn and Wendell stayed seated, but anger radiated from them. Cam averted their eyes and turned to her former boyfriend. His eyes bore into hers with cold anger.

"You really think Bones is a murderer?"

Every inch of her body yelled at her that it couldn't be true. But she worked for the Medico-Legal Lab. She had to be logical and rational.

"We need to look at the facts, Seeley."

She watched him shoot to his feet.

"I don't care what the facts say. Bones is not a murderer!"

The FBI agent followed in Angela's footsteps, Wendell and Finn on his heels. Left alone, Cam buried her face in her hands. It felt like a nightmare, one she knew she couldn't simply wake up from. The facts were there, she couldn't erase them to fit her desire. Quickly, tears of discouragement fell from her eyes.

As she climbed what felt like the tenth flight of stairs, Bones cursed her father for having chosen an apartment on the last floor of a building with no elevators. The bags clutched in her hands felt heavy. Silence surrounded her, only broken by the sound of her footsteps on the metallic stairs as it bounced off the walls to disappear above her head. She forced herself not to look up, avoiding being discouraged by the two remaining flights of stairs. Her muscles were aching and her wig was slightly lopsided. She would have to fix it when she would reach the last landing.

She was surprised her father's plan had worked out so perfectly. No one in this small South Carolina town questioned her identity. To them and the tenants of the building, she was just Mary Curtis who rented an apartment to raise her daughter Colleen, with the help of her uncle Robert. Neighbors left them alone; in their eyes, Mary was lucky to have such a caring uncle.

Several seconds later, she made it to the top floor. Dropping her plastic bags on the cold tile, she adjusted her wig and her glasses. Catching her reflection in a window, she examined herself. With the make-up, the wig, the glasses, and her brown contact lenses, she almost didn't look like herself. Her behavior had also needed adjustment. Mary Curtis didn't have an elaborate vocabulary; she didn't work as a forensic anthropologist and had never owned a big house in Washington, DC. She was simply a single parent who had lost her husband in the war in Iraq and wished for a quiet life for her daughter.

Grabbing her bags, she slowly made her way down the hallway. The dark red carpet stank and gave off a vague smell of smoke. It didn't matter; they wouldn't live here for too long. She trusted her team. They would catch Pelant.

Setting one set of bags on the smelly carpet, Bones reached for her keys and unlocked the door. As she pushed it open, she was greeted by the sound of shooting guns. Her father was watching yet another action movie.

"Hey Robert, I'm home!" she said as she dragged the bags inside the apartment and closed the door behind her.

"Hey Honey," Max replied, his eyes never leaving the TV. "Christine is sound asleep in her crib. Want to watch this movie with me? It's really good."

"No thank you, Dad. I've got some groceries to put away then I think I will take a shower and go to bed."

"The life of a fugitive is making you tired?" Max asked, chuckling.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Oh, I almost forgot. Hannah called."

Bones, who had been putting food in the refrigerator, slammed the door shut. Objects on the wall and in the cupboards rattled. Max turned his attention to his daughter who was staring back at him.

"What did she say?"

"She just said to call her back as soon as you got home."

Making sure nothing else needed to be stored in the fridge, Bones left the remaining of the groceries on the floor and headed for her bedroom. She paused at the door, not wanting to wake her daughter. Slowly, she turned the knob and opened the door. Her new cellphone lay on the dresser where she had left it. Flipping it open, she punched in a few numbers, securing the line, before dialing Hannah's number.

The journalist answered after the fourth ring.

"Hey Hannah, it's Mary. What's going on?"

Her heart raced inside her chest. Hannah had agreed to be her liaison to her former life in Washington, but they had agreed she would only contact her if any development had occurred.

"They found something."

From her tone, Bones immediately knew this wouldn't be good news. Hannah had obviously chosen her words carefully. Behind her, Christine stirred in her sleep.

"They found a file on Dr. Brennan's computer."

"What kind of file?"

Hannah explained what Booth had told her. Bones could feel her heart racing insider her chest. This definitely wasn't good. She knew she had nothing to do with the document on her computer, but she also knew the FBI wouldn't agree with her. After all, it was plausible for her to have returned to Washington, slipped inside the lab, and to have written that story herself.

"Angela is trying to figure out where the document came from."

"You said Agent Booth knew the victim?"

"Apparently, they went to high school together. That could simply be a coincidence. Nothing has been found on her body or the crime scene that would suggest Pelant has anything to do with it."

"Thanks, Hannah, for the information."

Then, taking a deep breath, she added:

"How is Agent Booth?"

She thought she sensed Hannah hesitating on her side of the line. Seconds passed by in silence.

"It's hard to say, really. I think he's hurt by what Temperance has done, but he hasn't given up on proving she's innocent. I think he just wants his family back. Is there anything I should be telling him?"

Bones looked over at the family picture standing on her nightstand. Booth had pressured her into taking a professional family picture during Parker's last visit. The family of four looked back at her, smiling happily for the photographer. Their happiness had been genuine. A fresh batch of tears formed at the back of her eyes. Did he only understand why she had done what she had done?

"Actually, do you think you could drive down here? There's something I would like to give you."

The shooting rang was empty which suited him just fine. Anger still raged inside of him and clouded his judgment. He had been reckless on the road to the range and had even turned on his sirens to avoid any traffic jams.

His hands shook in repressed anger. The first two shots missed their target, angering him even more. He cursed under his breath, but kept shooting. With each shot, different images of his girlfriend flooded through his mind.

Bones in a red dress, giving a lecture. The first time he had met her.

The look in her eyes when she stared into his, lovingly.

Her smile which illuminated her features each time.

Bones rejecting him after he'd opened his heart to her.

Bones telling him she was pregnant with his child.

Bones in labor… Him reaching for his daughter as she was born.

Bones taking off in her father's car, Christine's in the backseat, without a word.

As his gun emptied, Booth let the emotion wash over him. For the first time since they had embarked on the wonderful journey of parenthood, he regretted ever starting a family with her.