Authors Note:

I'm baaaaaack!
I am so sorry I haven't updated in so long. Uni has been crazy and I've been  lacking on the side of inspiration to write.
Until I decided to force myself to write this and ohmygosh I'm so proud of me for finishing. And starting.
So I figured I had to make this a nice long one to make up for my absence.

Thank you all for sticking by, reading and voting and waiting for this chapter. It's finally here and I can't wait to hear what you think of it.

Much love

》Bree《

Chapter Sixteen: Danger Zoooooone

"No, Han..." Booth groaned as Hannah reached for his phone which sat buzzing incessantly and immediately threw it across the room, returning to curling up in a ball against Booths chest. She felt him chuckle as she closed her eyes again, savoring the warmth. "They'll just ring your phone,  you know that."
"Well they can try but my phone is turned off and is buried deep inside my hand bag. The dead person can stay dead a little while longer so that I can be comfortable." Booth ran a hand through her shortened hair, resting his chin on her head. This, he thought, was perfect.

Hannah shifted slightly, utilising the warmth that radiated off of Booth. Winter was settling in and, she being more used to warmer weather, was rather happy with the way things currently were. She was happy. She had Booth. She had a job she loved. Yes, one of her friends was crazy and now in jail, but she had all she needed in that room, on the bed, right at that moment.

"So what's the plan for today?" Hannah asked, her voice muffled against Booths shirt. He sighed.

"Any plans really start with you letting me get up and seeing what the phone wants." Hannah looked up at and pouted.

"But you're warm."
"And your hands are freezing." Booth reached over to pull her one hand off of his back (she had snuck it under his shirt, knowing he wouldn't notice until it was noticeable) and gently tucked her hand between the two of them, gently kissing her hand as she sighed.

"I don't really want to go to work."
"I know, Han. But come on. Who doesn't love solving murders?"
"I can say that exact same sentence but instead of solving murders, who doesn't love filling in paper work!" Booth scowled, making Hannah giggle as he pulled her closer into him.

"Tone down the sarcasm, Captain Obvious." Hannah adjusted her face so that she could look up at the ceiling and smiled.

"No can do. This is my natural state. I froze like this. This is how it ends. I'm done for. We're doomed!" Hannah dramatically pushed herself away from Booth and rolled to the otherside of her bed, where she squinted as the early morning sun rays slipped through her curtains. "Also, you're morning breath is gross."
"Oh really? I wasn't the one who insisted on having garlic bread with dinner. Your breath is just as bad." Booth sat up and rubbed his eyes. Hannah followed suit and shivered, pulling the duvet up and around her ears as she sat there. Booth leaned over and pressed a kiss to her lips before diving for his phone, which had kept buzzing throughout their exchange.  Booth sighed.

"Bones has a body at the lab. They need us there for identification." Hannah groaned and flopped back.

"No. I don't wanna. Tell them I'm sick. I'm sneezing out my ears or something." Booth rolled his eyes.

"I can tell you now,  that if you were sneezing out your ears, Cam would insist on you coming in because you would be some kind of medical marvel." He leaned back and pulled Hannah, inch by inch, towards the end of the bed. Holding fast to the duvet, Hannah sat up in order to prevent any more movement and leaned heavily against Booth, the sudden weight pushing him off the bed.

"Ha."
"Evil."
"You love me."
"I love tacos. Tacos don't push me off the bed." Hannah laughed as she stood up.

"Fair point."

                 ******************

"Please stop humming 'Oh Where is My Hairbrush?' You found it in MY glove box. How the hell did it end up in there?" Hannah and Booth were walking into the Jeffersonian, both of them bundled up in their warmest gear that they could find. Since they had started officially dating (which was still technically a secret), both had left a good share of clothing in each other's apartment in well hidden spots, mainly to stop Sweets from seeing anything when he came over.

"I can't stop humming it. It's in my head. It's the Hairbrush song, Booth. One does not simply just 'stop' singing the hair brush song." Hannah rubber her nose, attempting to get some feelings back into it. Booth lolled his head.

"You'll be the death of me."
"Not if I get frostbite first. I could really do with some of Casey's Twisted Coffee..."

Booth stopped at the main doors to look at Hannah with an eyebrow raised. She shrugged.

"What? I've decided it was bloody good. Lots of caffeine."
"You're a caffeine addict." She nodded.

"Indeed I am. Don't tell Sweets. He'll find some way to link it to my past and then try to send me to rehab of some sort." Booth wrapped an arm around her shoulders and went to kiss her cheek. Hannah turned her head at the last moment and his lips met hers, sending get a spark of warmth through her face. She leaned I to the kiss, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"We need to go in before Sweets turns up."
"I don't wanna.." Booth pulled away, smile widening as he took in Hannah's pink face.

"I'll buy you cheesy fries..."
"Ohhh cheesy fries." Booth tugged her inside and dropped his arm as they turned the corner into the main lab area, their friends gathered neatly on the podium in the centre. Daisy was there, bright and happy looking which made Hannah want to gag. She was glad, at least, that she didn't look so lovesick when Booth wasn't there. Turning her attention to Brennan, who was for some reason, looking a little flustered, Hannah looked down at the body and grimaced.

"That is fifty shades of disgusting. Right there."
"We took a sample of the vomit but Doctor Hodgins was able to determine that the vomit belonged to the guy who found it."
"No kidding." Booth too, was grimacing at both the stench and the sight of a half rotted body covered in fresh vomit.

"I don't think I want those cheesy fries anymore." Hannah muttered to Booth who suppressed a gag at the mention of food. Dead bodies were one thing,  but a vomit covered one was another.

"Angela is currently working in identifying the body but we thought you guys might be able to do it faster. We found this on the body." Cam handed Booth a wallet that was equally as disgusting as its possible owner.

"Oh yeah, bags not taking that to evidence." Hannah took three steps to the left, moving away from Booth as the bag was passed to him. Grimacing, Booth folded it up and moved towards Hannah, reached into the pocket of her coat and grabbed one of the evidence bags that she always carried.

"Double bagging it doesn't make it any more grosser."
"I know but it'll put my mind more at ease. Do we have a cause of death?"
"Not yet. There's no wound evidence on the body. Cam and Hodgins are going to look at his stomach and.. all his other fleshy stuff while Daisy strips the bones of flesh." Daisy bounced at her name.

"I'm on it, Doctor Brennan!"
"How do you have so much energy?" Daisy grinned at Hannah.

"Early morning run." Hannah's eyes widened and she  shuddered and Booth snorted.

"Thats a great idea, Hannah. Go for an run."
"To the coffee shop. That sounds like a great idea. I'm gonna go see if Angie has anything for us." Booth rolled his eyes but followed suit, tucking the double bagged evidence into his pocket and caught Hannah's hand mid swing, wrapping it in his larger one. Brennan, who had caught that last bit, smiled. Daisy looked at what her boss was looking at and her eyes widened.

"They're dating?! I always thought it would be you and Agent Booth!" She exclaimed. Brennan shook her head, snapping new gloves on to her hands as she did so. "And isn't it against the FBI'S rules?"
"And you aren't going to say anything, Miss Wick." Brennan put simply, feeling more fed up than she had when Daisy had walked in that morning, announcing how excited she was to be there. "Please assist Dr Hodgins." Turning her attention to the body, Brennan proceeded to ignore the world, inspecting the skull more closely while Daisy sat chewing on  her lip.

                    ***************
Booths phone rang at about lunchtime. Brennan, who was sat across from him, looked down at his phone and raised an eyebrow.

"Why don't you answer it?"
"Because it's not important,  Bones. I don't need to answer every call that comes in." Brennan picked up her fork and ate a some of her fries before frowning more at the phone as it continued to ring.

"Booth..."
"No. Whoever it is can go to voice-mail.  We, are having lunch."
"Thats never stopped you in the past."
"Well it does now." Booth raised an eyebrow.

There was a brief pause as the two sat and ate, Booth chewing thoughtfully as Brennan stared at him, stewing on a thought that she had wanted to tell him of but hadn't yet. Mainly because she didn't know how he was going to react.

Putting all inhibitions behind her, Brennan finally said,

"I'm seeing Gus Price." Booth paused mid-chew and looked at Brennan, eyes darting as of to determine whether this were as true fact or not. Judging by her unwavering gaze, it was true.

"For how long?"
"The last month or so."
"And why?" Brennan frowned.

"I don't see why the why is relevant,  Booth. I generally date people if I so  choose because I like them. He is both intellectual and has pleasing facial and body structure. He can also be quite amusing at times." Booth took another bite of his burger and chewed, clearly thinking before speaking.

"But how?"
"Seriously Booth? You are indeed involved with Hannah and should be well aware of how dating works." Booth put down his burger and shook his head, not even trying to hide the smile that was spreading across his face.

"Was that a joke?"
"I was just answering your question." Brennan tilted her head in confusion.

"No... I meant... Actually never mind. Does Hannah know?"
"No. And we're not telling her. Gus has requested that we don't say anything."
"What?" The smile disappeared off his face. "How can you tell me that? She's my girlfriend, Bones. You need to tell her so that I don't get put in the dog house for knowing and not telling her!" Brennan picked up her coffee and sipped at it.

"For one thing, Gus wants to tell her but he doesn't want to tell her too soon because they've JUST started reconnecting. Booth, this was his decision. I want to tell her but he clearly wants the time to be right." Brennan's phone began to ring now and she sighed, flipping it open and pressing it to her ear.

"Brennan?"
"Hey, Doctor Brennan. Is Booth there?" Sweets voice came from the other end of the phone. "He's not answering his phone and this is important."
"Here he is." Brennan handed the phone over to Booth and watched as he took it and spoke to Sweets.

"What is it?" He paused. "What? How... I'll be in now." He snapped the phone shut and handed it back, his face losing some of its colour as he pulled some notes out of his pocket and dumped it on the table.

"Everything okay?"
"Not really. We aren't finished with this conversation." He pulled on his jacket and rushed out to his car. Brennan sighed.

"Guess I need to call Angela for a lift." She muttered, Booth having been her lift to lunch.

A couple of blocks away, sitting in the Mailbox, Hannah and Gus sat in a similar position to Booth and Brennan, only Hannah's phone hadn't buzzed once.

Casey was serving them their food and she raised an eyebrow at Gus, noting the uncomfortable air between them. Hannah had ordered before Gus had arrived and now the siblings were sat there, uncomfortable. Shaking her head discreetl, Casey turned on her heel and walked back to the coffee machine. Hannah noted her friend had positioned herself so that she could still see the two of them, for which she was grateful. It would stop her from smacking Gus over the head.

"So what did you want to talk about?"
"Dad, actually." Hannah sighed and grabbed her knife and fork, unsheathing it from its napkin holders. She began to cut into her food.

"What about him?"
"He wants to see us." Hannah cleared her throat as she almost choked on her steak.

"He wants to do what now?"
"The prison contacted me two days ago. They said that he's been requesting to see us. He's been reading about your success in the FBI alongside Booth and Brennan in that last case you did. He wants to see you mainly."
"Well, I don't want to see him." Gus took a sip of his milkshake and groaned at her response.

"I'll be there with you."
"Like that makes it any better?"
"Hannah..."
"No. You've neglected your brotherly duties the last wee while. I'm allowed to be like this." At the counter, Casey had moved more towards the walkway, ready to intervene if it came down to it.

"Hannah, I'm sorry, okay? It's not ALL my fault either. You're either at work, with the Jeffersonian crew or with Booth. You aren't the easy to get in contact with."
"Don't put this on me, Augustus."
"I'm not. I'm putting half of it on you because we're SIBLINGS. We're all that we have left."
"Not true. I have my grandparents." Gus winced at the emphasis she put on the word 'my' when referencing their grandparents.

"Hannah..."
"You go see dad. You go tell him whatever you want to say. I'm going to go back to work." Casey grabbed her plate and left the table, motioning with her plate to be doggy bagged. Still sitting at the table, Gus put his head in his hands and sighed, shaking his head.

Hannah paid for her meal and left, legging it to her apartment so that she could store her food and get back to work. She needed to blow off steam. She needed to talk to Booth. Heck, maybe she needed to talk to Sweets. Pulling her phone out of her blazer pocket, she dialed Sweets number and waited for him to pick up.

When he didn't,  she cursed him and redialed, determined to keep ringing him until he picked up.

By the time she had gotten home, put her stuff in the fridge and gotten into the car, she had called at least ten times to Booth avail. Dropping her phone onto the seat beside her, she reversed and began the commute to work, silently seething.

She had cooled off a little by the time she had arrived at the FBI, enough that she didn't barge through people and into Sweets office. Which was, to her dismay, empty. Moving on to Booths office, hoping he was there, Hannah shook her head at the also empty office. Running her hands through her hair, Hannah turned around and took a seat at her actual desk and began the process of unlocking her computer and began clicking through her emails and filling in paper work that had been back logging for the last few weeks. It kept her mind busy but she couldn't help but look up every so often and feel the thrum of disappointment in her chest when she didn't see Booth heading to his office. Shaking her head slightly, Hannah buried herself in her work, distracting herself from the world of people and siblings.

The sound of her computer ringing a few hours later was enough to confuse her. When she looked up and saw the familiar 'incoming call' with the Jeffersonian logo next to it, she answered it.

"What's up?"
"A lot. Where are you and where's Booth?"  Cam stared back at Hannah through the camera. Hannah shrugged and rolled her eyes.

"I'm at my desk in the middle of FBI Crazy Town. As for where Booth is, I have no idea."
"Damn.. Oh well. We've had a hit on the dead guy. On both who he is and how he died." Hannah raised her eyebrows, impressed.

"That was quick. Hit me." She grabbed a blank piece of paper and a fresh pen, clicked the nib out and prepared to write down relevant information to hand over to Booth. Angela appeared beside Cam, as did Brennan who was looking unusually grim. Hannah was about to ask her 'why the long face,' but Daisy's voice,  shrill and excitable, bled through the monitor, causing Hannah to wince.

"His name was Doogie Mackey, aka Mutt Face." Angela started, Cam moving aside so that she could click on the keyboard, bringing up an additional screen that both them and Hannah could see.

"What kind of name is Mutt Face?"
"It's his circus name.  They dubbed him that for how is facial structure made him look a little mutt like." The facial reconstruction Angela had done was brought up alongside the picture of Mackey. Hannah made an odd noise.

"Oh yah. I can see how they got Mutt Face from that. What was his circus act?"
"Fire breathing. Eating. Swallowing. Fire stuff really." Angela brought up a video of Mackey doing his act and she grimaced.

"That must've made for some hell of a way to get rid of indigestion."
"You joke." Cams face took up the screen. "His toxicology came back clean EXCEPT for the fact that there was an increased level of both hydrochloric acid and petroleum in his stomach."
"Cause of death is most possibly, maybe  when he ingested fire and set fire to his stomach. Because when I looked at his stomach, boy did it look like a train wreck."  Brennan leaned towards the camera.

"Also, the bones of the rub cage appeared to be blackened, even charred as though severely burned. Hodgins is running tests now to determine how the fire was contained to the inside of the victims body without damaging the outside. He was clearly dumped after death and left to be eaten off of by wild animals."
"What a fun way to go." Hannah muttered under her breath as she scribbled down a few notes and then said,
"Do we have an address for the location of the circus?" Angela nodded and read it aloud to her.

"Thanks. I'll go check it out, see if I can get a feel for the place. Please tell Booth where I am if he calls you guys asking." Cam nodded and ended the call. Hannah sat staring at her page of notes and sighed.

"What a day."

***************

What a day didn't even begin to describe how Booths day had turned. He was sitting now, several hours later, in his car outside Hannah's apartment and felt like absolute rubbish.

Booth leaned forward to rest his head on his steering wheel, knuckles turning bone white as he clutched the steering wheel. All at the same time, he wanted to curse, cry, yell and punch something really hard. The perfect little world that had been built up around him had crashed and burned, all within a single day.

He remembered how distressed Sweets had been on the other end of the phone. When he had arrived at the FBI, Booth swore he had never seen the man so stressed. Sweets had been pacing back and forth, rubbing his hand together, pale and even a little bit sick looking.

"How did this happen? Who talked?"
"Daisy did. She didn't know we were keeping it on the down low and she thought she was doing the right thing."
"So she went straight to my boss? How the hell did she even get Hackers number?!"  Sweets raised his hands and shrugged.

"I'm so sorry, Booth. I have no idea."
"How much trouble are we in?" Sweets bit his lip. "That much?"
"They'll give you an ultimatum. What it'll be, I don't know." Booth growled and put his hands on his hips and shook his head.

"We did so well for so long..."
"We'll fix this. I'll advocate, if you'll let me?" He posed it as a question, not forcing himself into a delicate situation. Booth nodded, suddenly more grateful for his friend than he had ever been. Sweets may be young but he was smart, clever. He would know the right things to say.

Except, nothing worked. Hacker had been immovable on the subject. He was the iceberg and Booth was the Titanic, slowly sinking into the icy waves of realisation.

And now here he was, in his car, left with the only solution Hacker had left him. His suitcase was packed for the trip he and Brennan were going on, his passport was on the passenger seat and his heart was breaking.

Slowly, he got out of the car and took a breath, savoring the wintery air. For the first time since he had been with Hannah, he didn't want to go up. He wanted to go back. He wanted to forget this. But it was impossible. He didn't want to lose her or their jobs.

Grabbing the key she had given him a few months back, Booth swiped himself into the apartment block and entered, the warmth of the lobby barely making a difference to how he was feeling. Approaching the steps, he took them slowly, one at a time. The dread seemed to spread to his stomach and it felt much like butterflies operating go karts, crashing into his stomach and each other.

He tried to make it go by slowly but he arrived at her apartment door within no time. He stared at the peeling grey paint around the number 12 and took a breath. He was a solider. He could do this. It was this or have nothing. Either of them.

He inserted the key into the key hole and opened the door. The thick smell of Chinese food and coffee filled his nose. The sound from the TV was that of Star Wars, he didn't know which one.

"Hey you. Where have you been all day?" Hannah piqued up when she saw him fully enter the room. He closed the door behind him and set the key down on the table by the front door. He shoved his hands into his pockets and smiled slightly at the sight of her.  Hannah was in her favourite pajamas, the ones with cats in party hats (her reasoning for the party hats is that every day is a party if you wear the right hat) and her hair was tied into a small pony tail and she was wearing wide rimmed glasses (how long had she had those?) that framed her face perfectly. She grinned at him and patted the couch.

"Uhmmm,  I actually got called into a meeting after lunch with Brennan. A very long meeting." Hannah snorted.

"Long doesn't begin to explain it. We got a lead on that case but it turned out to be a dead end because the guy turned out to have left the circus three years ago. So now we have to do this whole thing again to find out where Mackey was working, what he was doing, why did he decide to take a swing of petrol-"
"We need to talk, Han."

H

annah stopped, mouth open as she froze midsentence, looking a bit like a guppy. On the floor, Aslan brushed past Booth, rapping his tail around his leg and leaving ginger fur around the leg of his pants.

"O- Okay. What's up?" Booth had debated how it was that he was going to say it. He hadn't quite figured it out until right then. He decided to go with being blunt.

"I can't do us anymore." Hannah frowned at his words, her eyes scanning his face, which was unreadable and stony.

"What? Why?"
"I just... Can't. We aren't right for each other." He felt like a robot.. or a puppet. It wasn't him saying the words, it was the will of his boss and the threat of both of them losing their jobs that they both loved.

"When did this happen?" Hannah demanded. "You sure seemed quite content and happy this morning." Booth looked down.

"I know. But it didn't feel right. Like something was off. Being with you felt more forced than natural." Hannah pulled her hand away from  where it had been on his knee. The warmth immediately faded from that one spot and Booth felt the pang of loss throb throughout his body. Right now,  he was using the words that Hacker had told him to use. He hated lying to Hannah.

"Is this because I won't have sex with you? Jeepers, Booth.  We had this conversation and you were fine to wait. You knew that I was staying a virgin until I was married." Booth scoffed.

"And I have needs, Hannah. Needs that aren't quite being fulfilled in this relationship."
"So what, you would rather have sex than be in a  relationship that actually means something?" Hannah was turning pink now.  "You'd rather that than be loved not just superficially?" No.

"Yes." Hannah pushed herself away from Booth, her eyes taking on that angry glare that she had often directed at him when he was getting on her nerves. It had never happened too often but he recognised it.

"You need to go." Booth nodded and stood, shoving his hands in his pockets so that she couldn't see them shaking. He felt numb. "Don't expect me in tomorrow."
"You need to go. Bones and I are going on a trip and will be gone for two weeks." There was a pause and Booth didn't dare turn around.

"Good." She was still composed, somehow. Booth walked towards the front door and stepped out, closed it behind him and pulled his hands out of his pockets to see them shaking with a fierce intensity like he had never felt, even when he had been a sniper. Somehow, this just felt that little bit worse. Like he was losing a bit of himself. He key out a shaky breath and made for the stairs, quickly, knowing that it was too late to take back his words.

In the apartment, Hannah sat on the corner of the couch, shock filling every part of her body like cold sludge. She didn't know whether to cry or not. The movie was still playing on the TV but she felt she couldn't watch it anymore. But she couldn't move either. Her arms and legs were stuck, arms wrapped around her legs.

A meow forced her to look. Aslan jumped onto the couch and pushed his face up against her legs, asking for attention. Somehow, her brain in its sludgie state, registered Aslan and forced her hand to move and pat him in a rhythmic manner.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Hannah began to cry.