A/N: Sorry for the delay once again, I have been fighting to save my job and then sick for a bit. I hope the contents of this very long tender, fluffy hurt/comfort chapter will more than make up for it!! Enjoy!

Last Time On Mistaken Identity:

He also felt worse physically as he had pushed himself beyond what his highest level of tolerance would allow for- he felt unsteady and dizzy again as excruciating pain took on a whole new meaning. Before he had even begun to recover and start moving to free his other cuffed hand and tied ankle – the door to his cell was suddenly thrust wide open, slamming loudly against the wall behind it!

Booth was still on top of Lexi, her shirt wide open revealing her bare chest, completely unconscious and unaware of what was going on.

The last thing Booth saw before being knocked out with another solid hit to the back of his head with the butt of a pistol – was the saddened face, the shocked look and beautiful blue of his partner's eyes.

Mistaken Identity

Chapter 27

Warehouse – In Booth's Holding Cell (so to speak) . . .

"What the hell?!!" shouted Sam as he whipped out a huge hunting knife and used it to cut through the thick rope that held Booth's good leg to the bed frame. The unconscious Booth had ended up laying halfway on top of Lexi after falling forward upon being knocked out.

Once freeing the buff agent, Sam snarled as he kicked Booth the rest of the way off of the bed, and off of Lexi, "Nikolai – secure our new guest to another pipe or the bed or something and help me get Lexi out of here!"

Nik quickly did as he was told , but sympathetically only cuffed one of her wrists, leaving the other one free to tend to her partner. By the time he came over the assist Sam - the more evil of the two men – Nik noticed saw that Sam had already respectfully pulled Lexi's shirt back together, securing it with just two of the small buttons for now, the two men picked up her still unconscious body and started to carry her from the room. Sam jerked to a stop as he couldn't resist releasing his anger further by getting in one more harsh kick directly into Booth's side before exiting the room and pulling the door shut using the same foot that had just savagely bruised the annoying Agent.

Brennan could barely register the sound of the door being locked from the other side, locking her in with the man who appeared to have just been 'getting it on' with another woman. The shock and nausea she was now feeling had caught her by surprise since she had never thought herself to be a jealous woman.

But she had no other logical reason for the feelings that were running through her mind and body right now. Feelings that she hadn't ever felt before in all of her life thus far, but she made up her mind not to broach the subject when Booth came back around. She knew him well enough to know that he was loyal to her and would never jeopardize what they had with each other, unless he had some kind of escape plan that he thought could be attributed through winning over the only female in the group of captors.

Her eyes scanned the small room, flashing from one thing to another, alternating from staring wide eyed at the 'Cocky' belt buckle that now lay halfway under the foot of the bed, to then starting at Booth's belt that was laying just a few inches away. From staring at the blood, Booth's blood, that was seemingly everywhere on the dingy sheets that covered the thin mattress, some dried, some fresh, to staring at his bleeding leg.

It took the loud groan of pain from where Booth was laying to shake her from her own thoughts. Suddenly she all but forgot about what they had walked in on, all that mattered now was Booth! She had finally found him, albeit not in the way she had imagined finding him, expecting to be carrying a gun and backed up by half of the FBI – not expecting to also be a hostage also in need of rescue and certainly not expecting to find him with a half naked female!

"Booth!" she half yelled, half whispered – not wanting to alert anyone that he was coming to. Nikolai had re-cuffed her to the bed frame at the foot of the bed, but lucky for her, he had left her hands in front of her and had only cuffed on of her wrists to the bed – probably knowing she would want to help her partner, or perhaps knowing that cuffing one hand left her just as secure as did cuffing both of them. Brennan quickly slid off the cot and onto the floor, now kneeling on the floor on the same side of the bed that Booth had been thrown. The first thing she noticed was his leg, it looked disgusting!

That was one thing about Brennan, she could always handle bones without the slightest of problems, but give her a bone or a body that still held soft tissues and muscle and she was as queasy as anyone. She breathed through her nose trying to just calm her senses down, she had to pull it together, she had to help him and she had to help him now!

"Mmnn-aauuuggh" Booth muttered as he struggled to find his way back through the darkened clouds of his mind, suddenly recollecting the shocking site of his breathtaking partner and the horribly compromising position he had been in when he saw her. Instantly he forgot about his injuries and bolted half way up in his failed attempt to rise, "BONES!" he yelled out weakly.

"Booth! Booth oh my gosh! Don't! Don't attempt to get up, please! You need to lay back, I'm coming, I just have . . . to . . ." she was moving between words as she tried to manipulate the position of her cuffed hands to the bed so she could slide further over and get closer to her partner. ". . . get closer . . . to help you." she was overwhelmed with various feelings – she felt excited, relieved, horrified and worried all at the same time!

Booth had no choice but to obey her request and lay back down on the floor, now his body was registering the newly flared up pain. Pain in his leg, pain in his ribs, chest and head. His head had taken just about as much abuse as it was going to take Booth if he had anything to say about it. He knew he would be in trouble if he received even one more blow to his head determined to

As Brennan finally maneuvered herself so that she was as close to him as she could get, she took her one free hand and gently laid it on the one part of his handsome face that wasn't marred by bruising. Her hand jerked immediately off of it's short term post once she felt how hot his skin had become to the touch. He was burning up with fever which clearly signaled a massive infection somewhere inside his body. She so badly wanted to hug him, to throw both of her arms around him in a tight embrace and never let him go! Not knowing how to begin to help him, she just stared at his mangled body from head to toe, taking in the bandages that had been haphazardly placed over still bleeding cuts on his chest, and the concave and bruised portion of his ribcage that showed clear definition where his ribs had suffered some damage. She had already noticed his head, face and leg.

Still unsure of where to begin, she finally decided to take a short break while she figured it out, she then curled up right beside him, laying her head just below his collarbone, but no where near the bleeding cuts. Booth unconsciously lowered his jaw so that it came to rest on the top of Brennan's head. He had already fallen back into semi-consciousness and Brennan quickly followed suit by falling into an almost immediate, exhausted slumber, her delicate petite fingers had found one of his large and strong hands and together their fingers fell into place with each other one by one as they automatically molded together like pieces of a perfectly engineered puzzle.

District of Columbia's High Security State Penitentiary . . .

Sweets was anxious as hell in the few long minutes he had been waiting while Ms Taffet continued to stall. She had stopped him from leaving by insinuating that she had more to say. Sweets had been overly excited about this interview with a killer – mainly because it made him feel like for once, HE was the secret agent, HE was the one being relied upon to uncover the ominous and elusive facts – and HE would be the one to find a break in the case and come to his friends' rescue, just in the nick of time like his secret hero Booth always did.

But realistically, he knew that this entire situation was almost over his head. He didn't have the training and the years of this type of experience that Booth had, although he had learned a lot in the time he had worked with the top Agent – he still was no where near as good as Booth was at not only reading the body language of the criminals, but also in detecting the lies.

"Okay – just sit . . . back . . .down for a second! You are making me nervous by hovering over me like a damn gargoyle!!" Heather demanded, having pondered the immature Doctor's warning about her being just as guilty by association, if she did nothing to help the FBI capture the rest of the alleged Gravedigger 'gang'.

Sweets ignored her and just rested his hands on the top of the chair he had previously been sitting in, he glared at her from across the table, trying to look more intimidating than his baby face allowed. "No Ms. Taffet – I am afraid our time is up here and you have worn my patience thin so either say what you have to say or, I'm outta here." he mentally cringed at his juvenile use of the term 'outta here' – Booth would never say that in a million years!

"Alright fine, listen I am not at all saying that I had anything to do with what happened to that cocky, arrogant Agent Booth – or anyone else for that matter! But, all I WILL say is that if you were to look closer at say . . . one of my ex-husbands . . that you would not be wasting your time." and then she grew silent while Sweets continued to observe her just in case she had anything more to add. In doing so he caught a glimpse of an emotion as it briefly fluttered across her facial features and then just as quickly – disappeared. If he had to describe the look that he had just been privy to, he could do so with only one word – regret.

Back Inside The Warehouse . . .

Sam and Nik had carried Lexi over to a nearby bench and placed her gently down just as she was starting to slowly come back around. As soon as she saw their faces looking down at her, she bolted upright into a seated position, fueled by pure adrenaline. But before she could speak, Sam had a few choice words of his own to offer.

"Well well well, if it ain't sleeping beauty whom we found trying to rape our prisoner. What gives Lexi, isn't Bill satisfying you enough in the ole' bedroom? You found you just couldn't stop yourself?! Dammit Lexi, you jeopardized our entire operation – just what were you thinking?!"

"I . . . I – I don't know Sam – alright?!! I don't know. He pissed me off and said things – he had it coming!" she covered, lying flat out just to save face. Purposely making it seem as though she were going to rape the injured captive. "Don't tell William please! I am fine now, really."

"Yeah, well the only reason we ain't sayin' a thing to him, is because he will be angry at ALL of us! He will tell Nikki and I that we should have kept better tabs on the prisoner and checked on him more often. You are not the only one he takes his anger out Miss Lexi – the only difference is that he uses his fists on us, rather than his Pe-" His last word cut off by a stinging slap across the face coming from Lexi's direction. She knew what he was going to say and she didn't like being laughed at, or being looked at as though she were some kind of whore.

Inside Their Prisoner's Cell . . .

Brennan was immediately wakened when Booth's body suddenly flinched so drastically, that she felt his torso physically lift up from the floor a few inches, almost causing her head to slide off of his magnificent chest. "Booth!" Shhhh, it's okay. I'm here Booth, look at me. She said trying to calm him down. His eyes were wide with shock and uncertainty and darting frantically from left to right, struggling to wrap his groggy mind around where he was and what was going on.

Her heart broke seeing him like this. She cautiously reached her hand up to touch the opposite side of his face, tugging slowly until he was forced to turn towards her and found himself finally able to focus his eyes on one thing, her own baby blues.

"B-bones?" he said, his voice still slightly wavering and weak. "'S-zat you, really you? I'm hallucinating aren't I? Yeah, that has to be it." he concluded, his injured head and shock causing his mind to play tricks on him, or so he thought.

"Yes Booth, it's really me, and no – you are not hallucinating, well at least not about my being here." she spoke in such a calming manner that he had no choice but to believe her.

"But why-how??"

"Shhh, don't talk Booth you need to reserve your strength if we are gonna get out of here. They captured me, I heard then say something about your not being able to carry out their plan, due to your injuries. I . . . I was so worried about you Booth . . . I -" Booth reached one shaky finger to her lips, "Now it's my turn to get you to stop. I'm fine Bones, just fine. I've been through much worse than this as you know." he soothed her, even though the pain he was feeling right now, actually rivaled any of the past tortures he had endured. But he didn't see the harm in a little white lie if it would ease her mind.

"Okay, but I need to check you out Booth and you have no say in the matter so don't even try to convince me otherwise." she ordered him while sitting up and turning towards him, taking him in from head to toe, cringing and fighting back bile when she got to his broken leg. The busted end of the bone had clearly broken the skin and it was even more obvious that his leg had been crudely set back in place. She had to force her eyes away from the gory sight, she would deal with that later.

"Booth – what exactly did they do to you?!" she asked while hey eyes now seemed to be stuck focusing on the bloody gauze on his chest, scared to remove it and see what other damage their savage kidnapper had inflicted.

"Bones are you okay? I mean, they weren't exactly gentle when they nabbed me, so I assume they used the same . . . aggression when they took you."

"I cannot believe you actually think you can avoid my question and just turn the conversation around to focus on me! I am a genius Booth, I can see right through that little ploy a mile away." she said with a grin. He was always the one cheering her up and worrying about her! But not this time, no way! She thought. Booth's pain seemed to vanish just by the sheer sight of her smile, as he laid back down the rest of the way, letting his head touch the floor, silently giving her his approval to check him out – he knew it was more for her own piece of mind than it was for his health.

Brennan gently peeled back the gauze covering the worst of the knife wounds, she had to wriggle the sticky pad back and forth cautiously since it had become somewhat adhered to the slowly scabbing cuts. She tried hard to keep her facial muscles from cringing, but once she realized that the cuts spelled out the number 13 – all control over her expression was lost completely. Her jaw dropped and her eyes grew wide.

"Booth, have you seen this? Do you know what that bastard did to you?"

"Bones, it's okay. I know. It's the number 13, he said that is how many victims have died because of his group and he wanted me to know that I hadn't been able to save a damn one of them!" His blood pressure began to rise just thinking about it, Brennan did not miss his increased heart rate and breathing, realizing her error in bringing up the number in the first place. "No, Booth don't. Don't let that son of a bitch make you feel guilty, you cannot save every one Booth and if I had time, I could probably name at least 500 victims you HAVE saved in your lifetime. So please, just stop thinking about it. I am sure you will find some cool tattoo later that you can cover this with." she smiled again, having noticed how he had calmed down so quickly following her earlier grin.

She covered it up again and moved on. She started roaming her fingers across his head starting at the scalp line, feeling for any divots in his skull, or worse, any movement of the skull bone indicating a fractured skull. Just as she thought she wouldn't find anything too bad, she touched on the spot at the very base of his skull just above his neckline. Booth nearly shot through the roof from the pain of her light touch, then groaning in agony at the pain brought on in his ribcage and leg from his jarring movement.

"OUUCH! Jeez Bones! Please keep in mind that my head is NOT attached to one of your skinless corpses that you dissect at the lab! I am still alive last I checked and THAT hurt! He started breathing deeply using his long practiced techniques of dealing with one's pain through controlled breathing. In just under 2 minutes he had it back under control.

"Booth, your skull is slightly fractured – I'm sorry I hurt you more, but it's not the worst fracture I have seen, I don't think it is anything we have to worry too much about right now. It's your leg that worries me more." With that, she started moving closer to his leg and instantly noticed the tensing of Booth's hand as it laid on her leg. He was afraid she was going to hurt him again so he was preparing himself. "Don't worry Booth, I promise, I will warn you first if I so much as plan to touch it, okay?" Booth closed his eyes and then nodded in agreement.

"Okay, I am just going to see if I can peek under the dressing, the blood is still fresh enough that is should not have adhered to the wound like your chest injury." He was amazed this time as he hardly felt a thing. Then again, he knew that wasn't good either, as it could mean that he had lost all feeling in the lower limb, a sign of circulation problems such as a possible clot.

"Booth, this is infected already." she stated as she again had to work hard to control her gag reflex. "But it does look like they at least did a better job at re-setting the bone than I first thought. There is really nothing I can do at this point, we have to get you to a hospital though, you need proper medical treatment Booth."

He chose not to tell her about the numbness, especially after opening his eyes again and seeing the intense frowns of worry on her face. He had to find a way to get them out of there, and fast! But the groggy feeling that kept pulling him back under, was now threatening to take over again and pull him into the land of the unconscious. Brennan noted his heavy eyelids and she too felt like all of the energy and adrenaline had drained right out of her, leaving her sleepy from their absences but also from the after affects of her previous drugging. She gave Booth permission to sleep, telling him she would be right here with him when he woke up and then they could find a way to escape. His eyes were closed and his breathing evened out before she had even finished her statement.

She then laid her head back down onto his chest/shoulder just like before and within seconds she too had succumbed to healing slumber.

To Be Continued . . .

I hope you enjoyed this, please keep up with the awesome reviews, I love hearing your feedback! Sorry for any missed errors, I will fix them all I promise.