OOM: Mid-Killer in the Concrete

[dr_temperance]

When her father had offered to help her find Booth, Brennan had had a pretty good idea that his methods would involve less reason and diplomacy and more intimidation and blunt force. Max Keenan does have distinct sociopathic tendancies, no matter what Booth said about the man's sense of honor.

But Brennan was scared enough for Booth that she was actually okay with that.

Ironically, Brennan was the one who had gotten truly violent, and her father had had to hold her back.

Finding the tooth was what had done it. Brennan knows in her gut that it is Booth's (not that she'd ever admit such a thing aloud). The same infected anterior molar she had harassed him into letting her examine. But they need evidence, not gut feeling. Which requires tests at the lab. Which takes time.

Waiting is maddening, but it does give her time to update a certain honorary member of the squint-squad.

Comments

[argyle_princess]

Hannah is sitting, in silence, in a chair in Dr. Markby's office. Her father is still insisting that she needs to "see someone." Hannah is still refusing to talk to the psychiatrist. Dr. Markby is still trying.

And that's when her cell phone rings.

"Hannah, I'm going to have to ask you to turn off your phone while we're meeting."

But Hannah has already pulled her phone out of her bag and seen who's calling.

"Sorry, Sigmund, I have to take this call," she says.

And she walks out his office, leaving him wondering if perhaps he's missed his calling (which is, apparently, anything other than teen psychiatry).

"This is Hannah."

[dr_temperance]

"Hannah, it's Brennan."

Brennan is pacing as she talks, keeping one eye on the glass doors of her office so that she'll see the moment someone approaches with what look like lab results.

Rationally she knows that that won't be for a little while, but she's watching anyway.

"I have possible news about Booth. Are you in a place where you can talk?"

[argyle_princess]

Hannah ducks into Dr. Markby's carefully (and soothingly) decorated ladies' restroom, and locks the door behind her. She sits down on top of a credenza that's in the bathroom for no apparent reason.

"I am now. Go ahead."

[dr_temperance]

"I took your advice and did something proactive," Brennan says.

Okay--so it hadn't been 'advice' precisely. But it had been a good nudge in what Brennan considers the right direction.

"We haven't located Booth yet, but I think we do have a lead."

[argyle_princess]

"Proactive is good," Hannah says.

"What kind of a lead? What do you know?"

[dr_temperance]

"A tooth," Brennan replies.

"I'm pretty sure it's Booth's, but we're waiting for test results to be sure."

[argyle_princess]

"You found Booth's tooth?" says Hannah.

"Brennan, I think I need you to backup. Where did you find it? How did you find it? What makes you think it's Booth's tooth?"

[dr_temperance]

"Booth has had a toothache. I made him let me look at it since he won't go to the dentist."

Brennan rubs the back of her neck. Emotional turmoil can make it annoyingly difficult to present facts in an orderly fashion. Still, this is Brennan--she manages to rise to the occasion.

"The last time we heard from Booth he was looking for a suspect--a man named Hugh Kennedy--at a park in Baltimore. Kennedy flies model airplanes. We went there to do some poking around of our own until we found someone who knew where Kennedy was staying."

On any other case, 'we' would mean Brennan and Booth.

[argyle_princess]

"Okay," says Hannah, slowly. "So you tracked Mr. Kennedy to an airplane place, and you found a tooth?"

She's trying to work this out, really she is.

[dr_temperance]

"This is where things get convoluted." Brennan feels that it's only fair to warn her.

"As far as anyone knows officially, Hugh Kennedy is dead. Several years ago he jumped bail and was supposedly killed in a car accident. The bounty hunter who was chasing him at the time testified to that fact, and one of his legs was recovered at the scene."

"We have evidence now that Kennedy staged his death, and the bounty hunter may have been party to it. When we went to the hotel where Kennedy was staying we found the bounty hunter and Booth's anterior molar. Kennedy and Booth were both gone."

[argyle_princess]

"Gets convoluted?" Hannah mutters, but she listens without interrupting.

"Wait a minute," says Hannah. "Who's we?"

She somehow can't see Brennan taking, say, Dr. Addy out into the field to look for a criminal who likes airplanes and staged his own death.

[dr_temperance]

"I...have someone helping me."

Brennan casts a somewhat furtive glance at her office doors. Just in case Angela or someone might walk by and intuitively read the mild 'my-felon-father-is-working-with-me' guilt in her face and body language.

[argyle_princess]

". . . that much I figured out, with the plural pronoun and all. Who?"

[dr_temperance]

"I can't tell you," Brennan says. Rather regretfully.

When this is over--when there's no danger of the authorities swooping down on her father before they can find Booth--Brennan might be in a better position to tell her. But right now she can't risk losing the advantage of having his help, and it's an unfair situation to put Hannah in.

"Suffice to say that it's someone who knows how these people work and who can handle himself if we go up against Kennedy."

"And he's someone that I trust," she adds after a moment.

She's putting Booth's life in his hands. It doesn't get much more trusting than that.

[argyle_princess]

"Okay," says Hannah. She'll accept that answer.

This time.

"So you and your trusty sidekick found a bounty hunter who helped this Kennedy person fake his own death, and Agent Booth's tooth. But not Kennedy, and not Agent Booth?

"Is the bounty hunter, you know, alive?"

[dr_temperance]

"Yes."

Brennan winces slightly. She had left Ms. Miller with her father back in Baltimore. Max had the task of getting what relevant information that he could from the bounty hunter. Given what she had seen of her father's methods of persuasion in the last few hours, she didn't envy the woman.

But with Booth at risk she's willing to table some of her social mores for the time being.

"My...trusty sidekick is attempting to ascertain whether or not the bounty hunter is working with Kennedy now, and if she knows where Booth is."

[argyle_princess]

"And you and the squints are testing the tooth."

There's a knocking on the bathroom door which Hannah ignores.

"That's good, Brennan."

[dr_temperance]

Brennan leans back against her desk.

"It's something to go on. And something to work with."

Something to do except wait for the FBI to call.

Brennan's mind automatically calculates the hours that Booth has been officially missing. She reminds herself that it's not rational to dread something that may not have even happened yet.

[bringonthewonder]

There's a knock on the glass beside Brennan's open door.

"Sweetie? Cam sent me to get you. Results are back."

[dr_temperance]

"Hold on," Brennan says to Hannah.

She tucks the mouthpiece under her chin.

"Is it Booth's?"

[bringonthewonder]

"I don't know. We haven't . . . we're waiting for you, Bren."

It seemed to be the right thing to do.

"You need a minute?"

[dr_temperance]

"No, I'm coming."

Brennan turns back to the phone. It's not like Angela won't understand why she's talking to Hannah.

"Hannah, the results are back. I have to go. I'll call you when I know anything else."

[argyle_princess]

"Okay."

There's a slight hestiation.

"Good luck. And, you know, be careful."

[dr_temperance]

"I will. And thank you."

Even if she doesn't strictly believe in luck, Brennan will take whatever she can get right now.

"Bye Hannah."

[argyle_princess]

"Bye."

It's only after she's hung up that Hannah realizes she should probably have told Brennan about the new information on Henry.

Except Brennan has a lot already to deal with and it's not like the new information on Henry is especially urgent.

Agent Booth is potentially life-in-the-balance stuff.

She can tell Brennan later.

In the hallway, someone is still knocking on the door, more insistantly now.

Hannah looks down at her watch. Nine minutes till this week's appointment is over.

Hannah settles more comfortably onto the credenza and takes a magazine out of her bag.

Let 'em knock for nine minutes.