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Previously on Mistaken Identity . . .

The sounds of a fancy musical doorbell broke through the somber atmosphere stopping them in their tracks and causing them both to jump slightly at the intrusion, then hoping it was the doctor. But as Cam looked at the elegant clock on the wall it had only been an hour since she talked to her friend, he wasn't to be here for another hour or two yet.

They looked at each other - suddenly afraid to see who else it could be.

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Mistaken Identity

Chapter 36

Jeffersonian Institute ~ Brennan's Office . . .

Brennan had gone back to her office per Cam's over dramatic warning to go rest. She had known her friend was simply using the threat to distract whoever was watching them and attempting to act like business as usual. Brennan tried lying on the couch to see if she could rest because truth be told, she was exhausted. But in less than ten minutes she was feeling even more anxious and nervous than before because she had nothing to distract her from her overwhelming worry about Booth.

The harder she tried to close her eyes and try to have even a brief moment of zen, the more her mind raced showing her mental image after mental image of her partner's injured body.

From his bleeding chest wound to his face shining due to feverish sweat – from his multicolored ribcage to the grotesque compound fracture of the bone in his leg. It became too much for her to bear until she finally decided to abort her attempt to sleep altogether. Rising up from the couch feeling no more rested but happy with herself for trying - she slowly sauntered back over to her desk feeling guilty that she wasn't doing more to help bring her partner back home.

Brennan had never felt so useless and trapped before in her entire life. Not being able to run to Booth's aid, not able to talk to anyone and squelch her aching desire to tell them everything no matter what the risk - just so she could be free to go save her partner and knowing they were planning to bring her back there to face her own convenient demise.

Adding to her anxious mind and shattered nerves was the fact that she was being monitored by not only Lexi and Sam who listened to her every word, but also by the Jeffersonian security guard whom she had already figured out was working for the Gravedigger as well simply from the way he kept hovering around her office and the lab like he never had before and seemed to jump at every noise. Knowing all of these people were constantly watching and taking away any sense of freedom she had left her feeling trapped and claustrophobic.

The Security Guard had obviously been tasked with keeping tabs on her physically to ensure that she made no attempts to escape or even write any notes alerting her teammates to her situation to enlist their help in getting them all out of this mess, thankfully he hadn't detected a single thing when she finally started to secretly clue at least Cam in.

Thinking of Cam she realized that by now Hodgins would have most assuredly had more than enough time to determine a few of the possible locations where Booth might be held, he was that good! But then on the other hand she just wasn't sure what he and Cam would do with the information since contacting the police was obviously out of the question. The afterthought of Cam and Hodgins doing anything to rescue Booth on their own, only managed to cause her to worry even more.

Brennan knew that Cam, having been a police officer prior to becoming a coroner - she would be perfectly capable of determining a safe way to go check the locations out, as well as coming up with a plan of action if they actually found where Booth was being held. What really worried her was the fact that Cam was used to having either the FBI or the police department to rely on for back up but that wasn't the case now.

She and Hodgins would be on their own and this wasn't just a simple low life criminal they were dealing with – it was a criminal mastermind with an entire team of hardened killers working for him and helping execute his latest dire plan to bring down the biggest threats to their empire – their two biggest witnesses and worst victims; Booth and Brennan.

Thankfully right before she had completely worked herself up into a frantic mess she heard the sound of a familiar voice in the background.

Angela came prancing through the office door making a beeline for Brennan's desk. She had been in her own office when Hodgins and Cam had initially snuck out to try and find Booth, when she did go back into the main lab she was surprised to find them nowhere around. Something was up, she could feel it in her every being since she had always been very intuitive since ever since her childhood but she also possesses her own natural instincts – instincts that rivaled Booth's.

"Hey Bren, there you are! I turned around an-. . . "

"Wait, what's wrong?" she interrupted her own sentence when she spotted the dire look on her best friend's face. "You don't look so good sweetie. Uh, I mean you are still gorgeous but . . . you just look so uh . . . you look kind of devastated."

Temperance looked up from the spot her eyes had been drilling into her computer screen even though she hadn't actually been reading anything. She was exhausted to say the least, worried and sore from all she had been through so far and mentally spent, fearing the worst for Booth.

"Sorry – " Angela spoke up again before her friend could answer. "Look sweetie you don't have to tell me what's got you looking so sad right now, I know, you probably just needed some alone time – I get it. But I am always here if you do want to talk, you know that right?"

"Yes sorry Ang, really." Brennan finally responded, slowly raising her head to look at Angela. "I was just think– . . . you're right, I just have a lot on my mind right now and needed some peace and quiet for a few minutes." she covered. "It's been a long day."

"Well you really should get some rest honey. You need it!" Angela walked around to Brennan's chair, pulling her friend up gently. "C'mon, you need to just rest if even for just a few minutes. It won't kill you and I'll even go get you some hot tea. I think the lab can get by without you for fifteen minutes." she said while guiding Brennan back over to her couch and pushing her down until she was sitting on it – again.

"No Ang I can't I - - I." she started to explain and then stopped herself, afraid of saying too much. Then reeling her thoughts back in she continued, "Look I already tried to sleep but I guess, I'm just a little wound up. I'll just try again later but it would be great if you could still bring me that tea, it sounds good right about now."

With that Angela took off towards the break room determined to help her friend take that distraught look off her face if even temporarily. "What aren't you telling us my friend?' she thought to herself along the way. 'And where are you Booth? Brennan could sure use you right now!'

Back At Hodgins' House . . .

Cam hurried towards the door in hopes that her doctor friend had somehow managed to get there sooner. When she opened the door her eyes definitely spotted a doctor – just not the one she was expecting.

"Sweets?! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Ouch Dr. Saroyan - way to make a guy feel welcome." He teased. "But then again I suppose I was going to ask you the same question. All I can tell you is that I received a text message from Angela asking me to go check on Hodgins. She seemed worried."

"Oh and you could tell all of that in a brief text message Sweets?" Cam asked sarcastically.

"Uh well, yes but uh – only because she actually used the words 'I'm worried'." he admitted, his cheeks blushing to a darker shade of red than his normal ruddy complexion.

"Yeah well never mind that – just get in here – quickly!" Cam ordered as she grabbed his arm and pulled him inside, shutting the door behind him. "We could use your help anyway so I'm glad you're here. Come with me." she dragged him along behind her to the bedroom where Hodgins and Booth were. His eyes grew wide as ever when he spotted an obviously unwell Booth fitfully dosing on the elaborate king size bed.

"Oh my God! What – how? He looks pretty bad – is he okay?"

Hodgins who was initially just as shocked as Cam to see the adolescent looking Psychologist in front of him answered as sarcastically as Cam had earlier. "Oh yeah Sweets! He's fantastic! Hell no he's not okay! What the hell are you doing here anyway?"

"I – uh . . . well Angela -"

"Hodgins it doesn't matter – there will be plenty of time for that later. Right now we need to focus on getting and keeping Booth's fever down." Cam interrupted, "I need to check his temperature again and we should probably remove the ice packs now – it's not a good idea to leave them on too long. But if the ice didn't bring his temperature down enough I might need you boys to help get him into a tub cool water to keep his fever from getting any higher. We'll just keep his leg propped up on the side of the tub and strip him down to just his underwear."

Neither Sweets nor Hodgins made any cracks about how awkward that situation would be, when someone they cared about was in jeopardy they were all business.

Thankfully for both of them, after they helped Cam remove the ice packs and she read the numbers on the digital thermometer she had placed on his forehead, she announced it had gone down enough to where she didn't feel the ice tub would be necessary just yet. "We still have to watch him closely and probably will need to put the ice packs on again once or twice later on." she explained.

"Now can someone tell me what's going on? What happened? How did he get so beat up and injured? Why are you doing with him here when he clearly needs a hospital?" he probably would have added a few more questions had Hodgins not interrupted him.

"Sweets … dude - enough of the questions already geez!"

Then he and Cam brought Sweets up to speed on all that he had missed since the last time he had seen them - beginning with Booth's initial kidnapping from the Jeffersonian garage. They filled him in on everything he hadn't been privy to and he handled the information much better than either of them expected leaving them to wonder why they had kept him out of it for as long as they did. But now with things becoming much more serious than before, they needed all the extra help they could get outside of going to the police or FBI.

"Okay well now that I know what's going on – what do you need me to help with and you still haven't told me how Booth got injured so badly."

"We didn't tell you because we don't know ourselves Dr. Sweets." Cam explained, "We just found him this way so it had to be the kidnappers doing. Not unlike the time we had to track down Booth when he was kidnapped by Gallagher. They had done just as bad a number on him that time too."

"Gallagher? Oh, I remember seeing something about that case in Booth's file when I started working with he and Dr. Brennan. That was a little before my time working with them. Well what are his injuries exactly?"

"Well, he definitely has a moderate concussion along with a laceration on the backside of his head. He's got a few broken ribs, deep lacerations on his chest and arms, badly broken bone in his lower leg and obvious bruising to his chest, face and ribs. He's developed the fever from the infection that has set in – both in his leg and the worst of the cuts on his chest."

"Oh. That's all?" Sweets joked as his face became paler by the minute until Hodgins finally had to grab a hold of the young man and help him over to a chair before he fell down, clearly shaken by what his friend had been put through. He couldn't believe how much had happened since he had last spoken with Brennan and Booth.

"I have a physician friend of mine coming over any time now. He's going to bring some antibiotics and whatever else he can bring to treat Booth's injuries and fever. I gave him a rundown of the injuries."

The three of them started mulling over ideas as to how they could get Brennan away from the Jeffersonian safely with all of the eyes that seemed to be watching her including some employees they probably weren't even aware were on the Gravedigger's payroll.

Cam and Hodgins had informed Sweets of what Brennan had done to help them find Booth and that she was supposedly taken back to the Jeffersonian just to gather all evidence and would then be taken back to where Booth had been held. They assumed by now that the Gravedigger team had realized Booth had escaped and that all hell would most assuredly break loose very soon and they had to get everyone to safety and out of harm's way - especially Brennan – so now one would be caught in the crossfire so to speak.

Meanwhile Back In The Old Warehouse District . . .

William Burton was literally spitting as he yelled at one of the additional men he had hired for extra security – hand-picked by Bill himself from the numerous hard as nails ex-cons that he had worked with in the long and shady past.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN - HE'S GONE?"

To Be Continued . . .