"The Object of My Affection" - Chapter 28
Title: Object of my Affection
Author: Shannon - shannyfish
Disclaimer: I do not own “Bones” or its characters, Fox does. This is merely for entertainment purposes only.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Booth and Brennan must struggle with not only the Grad Students trying to take Zack’s old position, but also help get through a tragic end.
Warning: Post Season Three - “Pain in the Heart”. Would take place during Season Four, probably mid to late. Warning! Do not start reading this unless you plan on reading all…like…one hundred chapters (it might be that many…might not…). This will be an epic/saga-type fic and shall include all kinds of fun plot twists. The rating of this story will most likely fluctuate, FYI.
Chapter 28 - “Dangerous Times”
Author’s Note: Almost time for nanowrimo…
*~*~*
Jeffersonian
“Isabel!” both Alejandro and Hart shouted in excitement to see their friend, but Kensington Hart was the first one to embrace their friend.
Booth nodded a silent thank you to the F.B.I. agents who had escorted the squint to the lab. She looked like she’d been slightly injured. He knew that if she’d been seriously injured that the hospital would have kept her. But since they’d released her reasonably quickly, he assumed she was fine.
“Do you want anything? You should probably sit down,” Hart fussed over her friend with worry.
“I’m okay, Kensington,” Isabel said gently and quietly putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Really.”
“I need to know what you remember,” Booth asked. Brennan was in her office and he decided that without her present that she would most likely feel the least amount of guilt. “I know it’s hard, but we need as much information you can give us in order to find Cedric.”
“Let her sit down,” Cam said. “Use the common area up above,” she said motioning to where they would sometimes eat and hang out. “And she probably doesn’t need an audience.”
“She’s right,” Angela said and took Hodgins with her.
“Come on, you two,” Cam said to Hart and Gonzalez. She motioned for them to follow her; she’d distract them until they could be once again reunited with their classmate.
Booth led Isabel up to the area that Cam had suggested. It was a good idea; it kept them out of Brennan’s view. He waited until Isabel sat down on the couch before sitting down next to her facing her. “I know this is difficult-”
Tears silently ran down her face, “I know we shouldn’t be dating…but Cedric convinced me that there wouldn’t be anything wrong with it,” she told Booth.
“There’s nothing wrong with the two of you dating,” Booth told her gently. “It’s probably good for you.”
“We were at the carnival…I had told Cedric that I hadn’t celebrated Halloween in any form, not even indulging in Halloween candy in years…so he felt like it was his duty to rectify it. So, he took me…and we had fun…”
“Was there anyone suspicious that you noticed? Maybe you didn’t think of it at the time,” Booth tried to prompt.
Isabel shook her head, “No…no one stood out as creepy or anything. We were going to our cars,” she explained. “We were having so much fun we didn’t want to separate.”
“You took separate cars?”
“Yeah…my idea.” Isabel shrugged feeling stupid, “I didn’t want him to know where I lived…you know, didn’t want him stalking me if things didn’t work out.”
“You were trying to be safe…”
“We finally were separating…there was a dark truck parked next to me and I didn’t even realize anyone was in it or that it was on,” Isabel explained. They backed out and almost hit me, I let out a scream and Cedric stopped going to his car. The truck went the other way…and once Cedric saw that the lights in my car were on, he went back to walking to his car. He was parked in the next row over…”
“He felt you were okay,” Booth said.
Isabel nodded, “But he wasn’t…” Tears started to flow down her checks in earnest again. She sniffled and wiped them away. “The truck came back…it was a really quiet truck… It hit Cedric and I went to try to check on him…to try to help him. When I got to him, he was still conscious, but not moving.”
“Did you see the driver?”
“No,” she whispered. She looked directly at Booth, “He was bleeding…and then something hit my head. The hospital says I have a mild concussion. I passed out.”
Booth nodded, “I need to ask you another question. I need you to think hard… What do you remember about the truck? You said it was dark. Do you know what color? Black? Charcoal grey? Blue? Green? A license plate number? Any of them? A specialized anything?”
“There was something shiny,” she remembered and sniffled a lot for a moment. “Like a box… It said something…like a name, but I don’t remember…”
“That’s good,” Booth coached. It was something that they already suspected, but he wasn’t going to shot down something that she felt constructive about. “The color?” he tried.
She shook her head, “I think it was either black or navy blue…” she told him. Isabel stopped as she remembered something else, “It was a Chevy…or a Ford…I think a Ford…”
“That’s very helpful.”
“I didn’t see the license plate…I don’t even know if there was one on the vehicle,” Isabel said wishing that she could give him that detail. She knew that even if she could give them a state to go off of it would be helpful.
“That’s okay. You’ve given us a lot to go off of,” Booth told her. “Why don’t you go join Hart and Alex and just rest for now? If you remember something, tell Cam and she’ll let me know, okay?”
“Okay,” she responded quietly. “Agent Booth?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you going to find him?”
“We’ll find him.”
“Alive?”
“We’re going to try as hard as possible.”
It was honest and all that she could ask of them. She nodded firmly and pulled in a deep breath before getting up. “Thank you.”
“For what?
“Not sugar coating it.”
*~*~*
Brennan’s Office
Angela had Parker, so she knew that Booth would say whatever needed to be said. She’d come right before Booth had appeared and had decided that she and Parker needed to do some coloring in her office. Brennan had a feeling that Booth had planned it, but didn’t complain. “Is she okay?”
“She’s pretty freaked out and has a mild concussion, but she’s going to be okay,” Booth told his partner.
“He went after them because of me,” Brennan told him. “It’s revenge.”
“Why? Because you and Hodgins got away?”
“Why else?”
“Random?”
“Booth-”
“Coincidence?”
“Booth-”
“What?”
“The Gravedigger can’t get to me or Hodgins because we’re both safe…inside of the Jeffersonian,” Brennan explained. “So, how else is he going to go after me?”
“We don’t know that’s what he’s doing…”
“Oh my God…Russ…”
Booth pulled out his phone and had it to his ear before Brennan could say anything else. “I need Russ Brennan’s residence in North Carolina guarded by agents immediately. I will be there as soon as I can to escort the family there back to the Jeffersonian here in D.C.,” Booth said.
“What about my dad?” she added. They were all the biological family she had in the world that was close to her.
Booth finished his call and then pocketed his phone.
“What about my dad?”
“Your dad can take care of himself. He’ll come in on his own, if we have agents looking for him; it’ll most likely result in someone getting hurt. And let me tell you, it wouldn’t be your dad.”
“Are you really going to go get Russ and his family and bring them here?” Brennan asked.
“If I can get him to agree.”
“Let me go.”
“Whoa. I don’t think so.”
“Why not? He’s my brother.”
“I don’t want you to leave the lab. It’s safer for you if you stay here.”
“Booth, Russ won’t come unless I go with you.”
“I can be persuasive.”
“Booth-”
He frowned, “Look…I just…I don’t want you to become a target…”
“I know you’ll take care of me,” Brennan told him. “Plus, you’ll have a full battalion of F.B.I. agents following.”
“A battalion is like military…” Booth tried to correct and then stopped. “Look, I need you to stay here with Parker. He’ll be scared when I leave, but if you’re with him…”
“Booth, he’ll be fine with Angela and Hodgins. He doesn’t need me to stay here with him,” Brennan argued.
“But I would feel better,” Booth tried to convince her.
“Are you that afraid that the Gravedigger will do something when you go to get Russ?” Brennan asked seriously and stared at Booth. He was terrified; she could see it in his eyes. “I’m going,” she told him.”
“No.”
“I am.”
“You’re staying here.”
“No.”
“I’ll tie you to your chair if I have to,” Booth told her getting upset. He couldn’t deal with her going. If the Gravedigger took him, then he needed Brennan to take care of Parker for him. He knew that she’d care for him. That he’d be safe with her. If they were both taken, then he wasn’t sure what would happen. Would Angela and Hodgins try to get custody of him? Promise to care for him as if Parker was their own? Could they handle Parker? Were they ready to take on such a huge responsibility?
Brennan stared at Booth seriously, “You wouldn’t really tie me to my chair, would you?” she asked quietly. She asked mainly out of curiosity more than anything.
“In a heartbeat,” he promised.
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
Brennan knew what he was saying was true. He was truly worried about her safety. He’d do anything to protect her, even if that meant that he’d have to do something a bit rash. “I could say something about that…but I’m not going to.”
“Good,” Booth said and then instantly got a mental picture that was both pleasurable, but something that scared him. He didn’t want anyone else tying Brennan up. He just wanted to do it to keep her at the Jeffersonian where it was safe.
*~*~*
Medico-Legal Lab Platform - Jeffersonian
“We’ve got to start looking at this again,” Booth said. “We need to pull all the files and try to generate new ideas. I’ve sent all the information that MacGowan gave me to the F.B.I., so they’ll get back to us if they find anything.”
“Hart, Gonzalez, and MacGowan should be involved,” Brennan spoke up and noticed that they all looked surprised. “They might have a different perspective or see something that we missed. Their help could help us break the case.”
“Let’s get going,” Booth prompted. “There could be more people in danger the longer we spend looking for clues to locate who the Gravedigger really is and where he might have buried Cedric.”
*~*~*
TBC…