Wooo! Finally back! It's been awhile I know. Things have been crazy for me lately. Between prom last saturday and a huge paper due in my psychology class, I've been absolutely swamped. But the good news is, I am on spring break now! :) So I hope to get another chapter up by the end of this week to make up for my lack of updates. Just so you guys know I worked on this chapter ALL day today. I have no idea why it was so difficult for me to write, but I kept having to stop and come back to it. Anyways, I hope you like it. We're getting closer and closer to the end of this fanfic :O
Hodgins awoke with a start to the sound of the house phone blaring in his ear. He groaned and turned towards his wife, intending to let the answering machine in the living room pick it up. He closed his eyes, starting to drift back to sleep. No sooner than five minutes after the ringing had stopped, it started back up again.
Angela finally stirred a bit and kicked in the direction of her husband, making contact with one of his knees.
"Oww!" he yelped, surprised by the force of it.
"Jack, phone," she said simply, not even bothering to apologize.
He snickered as he watched her turn away from him, somehow heaving her growing belly along with her, before he finally reached for the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hodgins, its Booth."
"Aww, what the hell Booth? It's like two o'clock in the morning!" Hodgins complained, falling back against the pillows.
"We've got a case."
"And it couldn't wait until the morning? You're the one who always says the body's still gonna be dead."
Booth was silent for a minute as if he was struggling to decide whether or not he should reveal some information to Hodgins. "It's the Gravedigger Hodgins. And you're not going to like who this next victim is."
"Who?"
"It's Roxie, Angela's ex-girlfriend."
"Oh my god!" Hodgins just about yelled, jumping out of bed and going into the hallway, not even noticing that his wife was now wide awake as well.
Angela propped herself up against the pillows as well as she could, listening worriedly as her husband continuously raised his voice to whoever he was on the phone with. She heard him say goodbye to the other person, but he didn't come back to bed so she got up with a sigh, grabbing what used to be an oversized t-shirt and pulling it over her head. She poked her head out of their bedroom into the hallway and immediately found him sitting on the floor, leaned up against the wall, his knees pulled up to his chest, and his eyes closed.
"Jack…" she whispered, going over to him.
He looked up at the sound of her voice and hurriedly got to his feet. "Ange! Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."
She gave him a slight smile. "It's okay babe. Who was on the phone?"
"Booth. We have a case," he replied, refusing to meet her eyes.
"Okay? So why are you acting like you just found out your favorite dog died?"
He sighed, "You know I love you right Angela?"
She was confused now and the fear was growing in the pit of her stomach, "Yes… Just spit it out Jack."
He took her hand, leading her back into their bedroom, "You may want to sit down for this Angie," he said, gesturing towards the bed.
She complied, the worry now written all over her face.
"The copycat Gravedigger is back. His latest victim…" he took a deep breath, "Well it was Roxie. I'm so sorry Angie." He sank down on the bed next to her, pulling her into his arms.
She let him rock her back and forth, not quite sure of what she should be feeling right then and there. Roxie hadn't been a part of her life for more than 6 years. The first contact she'd had with her since their breakup had been last month when she'd s topped by randomly. But it wasn't as if their breakup had been bad; it had pretty much been mutual and Angela hadn't faulted Roxie for it. In fact, it was because of Roxie that Angela had gone on her celibacy run and ultimately gotten back together with Hodgins for good.
She was crying now, and not just tearing up, full out pregnant woman bawling her eyes out.
Hodgins had no idea what to say to make her feel better, so he just ran his hands up and down her back and kissed the tears off her cheeks.
"She didn't deserve this Jack," she sniffled, finally getting a hold on herself.
"I know Angie, I know."
She wriggled out of his arms, climbing to her feet. "I'll call Marci."
"Huh?" he wondered aloud before realizing what she meant, "No Ange, Booth only needs me in right now. You can go back to sleep."
"There's no way I can just go back to sleep Jack."
"Can you at least try Angie?" he whined, his eyes pleading with her, "You need rest."
"So do you!" she countered.
He sighed, "Angie, can you stop fighting me please? Go back to sleep, I'll see you in the lab in a little while okay?"
She didn't say a word, instead turning her back on him, her arms crossed across her chest in obvious protest.
He rolled his eyes and crept up behind her, sweeping her off her feet into his arms with somewhat ease.
"Hodgins! Hey! Put me down!"
"No can do babe," he said, grinning at the look of terror on her face and trying his best to ignore the pain in his neck where her fingernails were digging in to hold on for dear life.
"Jack, I'm too heavy for this! You're going to hurt yourself or me!" she squealed.
"Relax Ange, I've got you." He pretended to almost drop her, smirking slightly as she smacked his chest. He moved around the bed and set her down gently, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"I hate you, I hope you know that."
He chuckled, leaning in to kiss her lips, not at all surprised as she kissed him back. "Love you!" he called back, grabbing his jacket off the dresser.
"Yeah yeah, just go Jack."
He stopped in mid-jog, coming back towards her.
"What now?"
"I forget to say goodbye to my little man," he laughed as Angela rolled her eyes and cut her off before she could speak, "Yeah I know Ange, it could be a girl." He sat down on the bed beside her and rolled the tight top up off of her belly.
"Why does my shirt always have to come off?" she asked, amused.
"It blocks our connection of course," he replied before putting his hands on the sides of her baby bump and kissing her bare skin. "I love you," he whispered, his lips still on her stomach.
"Woooo, ahhh," Angela sat up quickly and set her hand over his. "Did you feel that Jack?"
He chuckled, "Yeah, I guess he's stretching or something. You okay Angie?" he asked, noting the look of discomfort on her face.
"Mhmm," she nodded, "He just needs to finish stretching and I'll be good."
"Hey little guy," Jack said, addressing Angela's belly again, "How about you let your Momma get some rest now? You wore her out yesterday with all the kicking, she needs some sleep."
"Jack, honey you better get going. Booth's waiting."
"I know. Alright take it easy Angie, I'll see you in a little bit," he kissed her again.
As he left the room, the smile also left her face, the reason he was going to work at this time of night finally being remembered. She shook her head. It was amazing how easily Jack had been able to distract her from Roxie's murder, even if it had only lasted for a little bit. She sighed, turning onto her side, deciding to give sleep a try. She touched her belly as if to reassure her unborn child that everything would be okay.
At the lab
"Hodgins! Finally! Where's Angela?" Booth was on Hodgins as soon as he arrived at the lab, his hair a curly mess, sweatpants instead of his usual jeans clinging to his legs.
"Booth she's seven months pregnant, you can't expect me to drag her to work at two o'clock in the morning. The baby was kicking up a storm yesterday, she needs rest."
"Yeah but-" he started, but Brennan cut him off with a touch to the shoulder. "We've already got an id Booth; we don't really need her right now."
"She'll be in after she takes Michael to school in the morning," Hodgins stated. "So how was she discovered?" he asked, gesturing towards the body.
"A voicemail was left on my cell phone alerting me to the park where we found the body," Brennan said, careful not to mention Roxie's name so as to keep emotions out of it.
"This bastard doesn't care about ransoms. Once he has a victim they're going to die and then he'll stage their body somewhere. It's sick."
Hodgins shot Booth a sympathetic look, showing the agent that he completely understood his frustration. "Dr. B do you mind if I steal Booth away for a minute?"
She shrugged, "I don't see why not. I need to finish my examination anyways."
Booth followed Hodgins off the platform, "What's up Hodgins?"
"Roxie came over last month to visit. She hadn't been in the area since she and Angela broke up, but had come back for an art show."
"What does this have to do with her murder?"
"I was getting there, jeez no one every let's me finish-"
"Hodgins!" Booth yelled, getting frustrated, "Get to the point!"
"Right. Well she mentioned something about a girlfriend coming back with her. It could be possible that the girlfriend maybe had something to do with her murder."
"Sweets did say that it was likely that the copycat Gravedigger was also a woman. Did she mention a name at all?"
Hodgins shook his head, "No, sorry man. But, Roxie must have discovered something and that's why she was killed. If we can figure out what, maybe we can finally catch this son of a bitch and sleep easily."
"Thanks Hodgins. I'm going to go pull anything and everything on Roxie Lyons."
"Dr. Hodgins! You're needed up here!" Cam yelled, trying to get his attention.
He smirked, "Guess that's my cue. Call us if you find anything."
"Of course," Booth said, "Listen, I'm sorry I was so hard on you when you got here. Angela did look pretty worn out yesterday."
"Don't worry about it man. And a word of advice, don't ever let her hear you say that. She's liable to go a bit crazy on you." He chuckled, slapping the older man on the back before heading back up onto the platform.
5 Hours Later
Angela came up onto the platform, finally joining the other members of her "family." Booth, who was standing next to Brennan as she attempted to explain something to him, was the first to spot her and immediately went over to her. As hard as he tried, he couldn't help but notice just how exhausted she looked.
"Ange. Wow you really do look-" he suddenly remembered his earlier conversation and quickly worked to fix his mistake, "You're absolutely glowing Ange. Pregnancy really does suit you."
She just pursed her lips, "Mhmm yeah save it Booth. I look like crap since someone left me all alone in bed last night." She turned her glare on her husband, whose eyes went wide.
"Duty called Ange," he protested.
"Yeah but I could've come with you."
"And wake Marci up in the middle of the night on a school night?"
"She agreed to do emergencies when we hired her remember?"
"But it wasn't an emergency babe! And you needed to get some sleep."
"How did you expect me to sleep in a bed that was missing you?"
"Alright, enough! Either shut up or take this to your office. We need to get back to work." There was only so much Cam could tolerate, when it came to both the ups and the downs of a relationship. And with an extremely important case, her fuse was very short. It didn't help that she had been awakened in the middle of the night either.
Both Angela and Hodgins shut up, but continued to give each other looks, as if they were continuing their argument without words.
Cam rolled her eyes. "Angela, Booth here pulled Ro-" she stopped and quickly corrected herself, "The victim's phone records. Do you think you could go through them and find out who she was seeing?"
"Yeah, I'll get right on that. Do you mind if I take Hodgins with me?"
"Actually yes, I do. Sorry Angela. I need him to identify particulates for me."
Angela sighed, "Fine, whatever. I'll let you know when I get something." She headed towards her office, clearly not in the best of moods.
"Phew! Thanks for saving me Cam! She needs time to cool down before I talk to her," Hodgins said.
Cam laughed, "Oh I wasn't kidding Dr. Hodgins. All this-" she gestured to different jars of substances and particulates, "Need to be identified. We need to figure out where she killed because it definitely wasn't in the swamp where she was found."
Hodgins saluted his boss, "Yes ma'am, right away," before grabbing the tray and heading towards his own office.
"Aren't you going to give me a task?" Brennan asked, now standing alone as Booth had quietly stalked away during Angela and Hodgins' argument.
Cam just looked at her, "Since when do you want me to tell you what to do?" she asked, bewildered.
"You're right Cam. I will update you on my findings. By the way, where are Dr. Bray and Dr. Sweets? I require their assistance."
And the Dr. Brennan they all knew and loved was back. "They should be here shortly. I saw no point in waking them when you would probably want to do your own examination first."
Brennan looked at her, amazed at how well her boss had come to know her over the years. "Thank you Cam."
"Of course."
Hodgins took a deep breath and walked into his wife's office, prepared as well as he could be to face her wrath. He had finished identifying the particulates and had determined that Roxie had been killed in the very art gallery where her work hung. He now had no excuse to not come and find her.
He looked around the big office, not seeing Angela at her desk or working with the Angelatron. Instead, she was conked out on her couch; her feet slung over one armrest, her head against the other. Hodgins smiled. It was good to see her finally getting some sleep after a rough last couple of days. He took off his jacket and draped it over her arms and kissed her cheek, intending to leave her be, at least for a little bit. But, Angela being Angela woke up as soon as his lips touched her.
"Hmmm?" she mumbled, struggling to open her eyes. "Oh hey babe," she murmured seeing Jack and quickly kissed him, forgetting that she was mad at him.
"Hey sleepyhead. How are you feeling?"
"Sleepy," she slurred, obviously still pretty groggy.
He laughed. "Go back to sleep Angie, you deserve it." After all she had successfully discovered the identity of Roxie's girlfriend, a Claire Burk, who was in the process of being brought in for questioning by Booth and Brennan.
"Join me?" she asked, attempting to scoot over to make room for him. Not that it made much of a difference with her stomach taking up most of the space on the already small couch.
He sat down, settling her head in his lap, stroking her hair gently. Pretty soon, the couple was totally passed out and Hodgins' soft snores filled the silence in the room.
An hour later, Cam poked her head into the office, finally noticing the absence of her entomologist and artist. She was relieved to see that they weren't full-on making out or fighting, two of the things she did not deal well with. She hated to have to wake them, but Booth had found something and so they were having a sort of "team meeting."
"Hodgins," she whispered, gently shaking his shoulder.
"Huh? What is it Angie?" he asked, thinking it was Angela waking him up.
"It's Cam. We're having a team meeting."
His eyes opened slowly and he yawned, stretching yet still careful not to wake his wife. "Okay. Do you need Angela too?"
Cam sighed. As much as she would like to let her pregnant friend sleep some more, Booth had been insistent on having every member of the team present. "Yeah, sorry."
"No it's okay. Alright, we'll be there in a second."
Cam nodded and left the office.
Hodgins leaned down and kissed Angela's lips, figuring this was probably going to be the easiest way to wake her up.
She sighed into his mouth and he knew she was awake. "Hi."
"Hi. Sorry babe. Team meeting."
"Okay," she said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "What time is it?"
"Half past four. Don't worry about Michael. Marci picked him up and took him home. She's going to stay with him until we get back."
She smiled. Of course he had known that would be her next question. "Guess we should go see what's going on then huh?"
"Yeah, here let me help you."
She glared at him, but accepted the hand he offered and put the other on her back as she stood up.
"You good?" he asked.
"Yup. Let's go."
They joined Cam, Wendell, Daisy, Sweets, Brennan, and Booth on the platform with a quick apology.
"Alright people, here's what we do know. Our number one suspect is the girlfriend of Ms. Lyons. Now everything checked out about her, but she doesn't have an alibi and my gut is telling me something's not quite right with her. Now if she's the copycat Gravedigger or not, I don't know, but it would certainly make sense." He looked over at Sweets, who stepped forward and began talking.
"Booth's right. I reviewed the interrogation footage and this woman is extremely smart, almost cocky, like she thinks there's no way she would get caught. This is going to sound really bad, but the only thing we can do is wait until she slips up and makes a mistake. I think she's on the threshold and now that she knows that we're on to her, she may be more susceptible."
"I'm sorry I don't have better news guys, but thank you for your efforts. We will catch this psycho, one way or another, I swear." Booth assured them all.
Cam stepped in, "Everyone has been given tomorrow off as a mandated sick day. Go home, get some sleep and when we come back on Friday, we'll continue with our efforts. Don't even try to come in tomorrow, the security guards have all your pictures and will notify me immediately if you show up on the premises." She shot a pointed look at both Brennan and Hodgins who immediately dropped their gazes.
One by one the makeshift family collected their belongings and headed home for the night, some with their respective spouses, others by themselves, determined to drown out the loneliness with alcohol. But they were a family, always there for one another in time of need, something that would be tested…
Hmmmm kind of left you hanging there didn't I? This is not the end of the drama I promise. Well, any thoughts on this chapter? Was it totally horrible? Let me know, please do review! Thank you to those of you who pretty much review every chapter, it means a lot to me :)
Wldwmn: Thanks! I thought about making Roxie jealous, but it just didn't seem like her, you know?
09Echo: Haha right you were, although I'll admit that was my original plan. She was just going to spice things but then I thought what the heck, might as well make use of her :p
LibbyKate: Awww you're too sweet. Thank you sooo much! :)
Ciza: Wow you and 09Echo really caught on. I'm not that predictable am I? Lol but thanks! :)
HPNCISVictorious14: Oh not a problem at all. Glad you like it! :)
Can we make it to 55 reviews? That'd be absolutely lovely! Thanks again to all of my readers :)
-Willie