BONES: Next Generation

Chapter Ten

Booth's patience was wearing thin. His hands had been balled into tight fists for the past several minutes, and he felt that it soon wouldn't be enough to hold him back from Rodney. The man wasn't saying anything, and nothing Sweets or he said could change that.

After several more moments of silence, the kidnapper spoke up, "Are we going to sit here all day, Agent Booth? Or can I go now?"

"Not until you tell us who your accomplice is." Booth nearly growled.

It had been a long day, and Booth was running on empty. All the pent up energy he had when Christine and Michael were missing had drained, and it was showing. Rodney had obviously noticed, and had been grinning madly almost the entire time they were in the interrogation room. Sweets had also noticed, and sat quietly, observing everything that had been said in the past half hour.

"Excuse us for a moment," Sweets said, breaking the new bubble of silence in the room.

With a firm grip on Booth's arm, he pulled him out of the room and to the side of the hallway. Booth stared incredulously at Sweets as if he were about to smack him. Sweets glanced back at the door before speaking quietly, as if he feared Rodney would overhear them.

"He's confident-"

Booth snickered sarcastically, "You think?"

"But that only gets someone so far," Sweets continued, ignoring the fact he had been cut off, "Whoever was with him must be intelligent. He's sure that we'll never find the second person. But somethings off... as if he's... admiring the other man."

"What do you mean?"

"Because Rodney is the leaderly type, it's strange that he would show so much emotion for another person. It's very protective. Now most of the time, people will throw each other under the bus in hopes they can walk away from their crimes unscathed. But Rodney is giving us no indication of who he was working with." Sweets explained, his gaze flickering between Booth and the door, "But why would he do that?"

Booth considered this for a moment, "A friend?"

Sweets pursed his lips with a shake of his head, "Too formal. We need someone who he would die for."

"The kids said it was another man..." Booth stopped short when his phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and answered, "Booth-"

Sweets watched with interest as Booth's mouth seemed to open, his eyes widening only slightly at the information being given. It only took a few seconds before Booth hung up the phone and waltzed back into the room with Sweets still wondering what had been said.

--

"Take me to the Hoover," Christine demanded for a third time, her jaw jutting in defiance.

Brennan barely looked up from her desk files as she answered, "No, Christine. And that's final."

"I want to see dad," She argued, dropping onto the couch with a groan.

"You'll see him once we catch the second kidnapper." Brennan answered nonchalantly.

Christine rolled her eyes, "You guys don't even know who the second guy is! That could take hours."

"We do know who he is."

---

Booth slung himself down into the chair, a new confidence about him. Rodney cocked his head to the side at this, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion; wondering what had happened in the hallway. Sweets continued to stare confusedly at Booth, his eyebrows raised, hands shoved deeply into his pockets. Booth ignored him for the most part and watched Rodney carefully.