Seeley Booth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
paladinsuitsyou) wrote2007-03-18 10:02 pm
paladinsuitsyou) wrote2007-03-18 10:02 pm
OOM: In the hospital
Everything he says is a clue, Booth remembers saying, when they were still puzzling over Caroline Epps's severed head. Just after they'd found it in the apartment, the one over the curry shop, the one where Epps had so kindly left just his ex-wife's head in the refrigerator.
Booth buries his head in his hands. What he had forgotten was that, with Epps, everything he says is also a threat.Why don't we just cut open the damn head and see what's inside? Oh, yeah, great idea, Booth. Way to land your girlfriend in the hospital.
He groans and shifts backward in the hard plastic waiting room chair. He'd told Brennan it wasn't her fault, and he firmly believed that. He just wasn't sure that it wasn't his own fault, that he as to blame.
After all, if he'd ignored Amy Morton, left this case cold and let Howard Epps die when he should have, none of this would have happened. Donald Kent and Caroline Epps would be alive and Cam...
Cam woudln't be lying in the hospital room with her lungs full of some powder from Caroline Epps's skull.
And he wouldn't have scared his son half to death after finding a token from the merry-go-round at the park where Parker plays every day, wouldn't have had to worry that something could happen to his little boy. Wouldn't have had to interrogate his son to find out what Epps had said to the boy, wouldn't have had to try to find the clues in the words of his frightened son.
Booth can still hear Parker's voice, plaintive and scared before it dissolved into tears. I didn't do anything wrong.
If he hadn't pushed Cam to break protocol, she wouldn't be here now.
He wouldn't have had to listen to the doctor tell him about the kidney damage, or say, "But what worries us most is the lung damage. The toxin has caused edema."
He wouldn't have had to borrow Brennan's well-worn line, not even noticing as he did so. "What does that mean? I don't know what that means."
"Fluid buildup," Brennan told him. "Essentially, she's drowning."
Booth takes a deep breath after the doctor leaves, and calls Cam's father. He had met him once, when they had dated the first time, and he remembered Booth well enough to be afraid when he heard Booth's voice on the other end of the line.
The conversation is short, to the point. He will come immediately.
Booth hangs up the phone, rubs his forehead as he stares at the green and blue tile floor.
Booth buries his head in his hands. What he had forgotten was that, with Epps, everything he says is also a threat.Why don't we just cut open the damn head and see what's inside? Oh, yeah, great idea, Booth. Way to land your girlfriend in the hospital.
He groans and shifts backward in the hard plastic waiting room chair. He'd told Brennan it wasn't her fault, and he firmly believed that. He just wasn't sure that it wasn't his own fault, that he as to blame.
After all, if he'd ignored Amy Morton, left this case cold and let Howard Epps die when he should have, none of this would have happened. Donald Kent and Caroline Epps would be alive and Cam...
Cam woudln't be lying in the hospital room with her lungs full of some powder from Caroline Epps's skull.
And he wouldn't have scared his son half to death after finding a token from the merry-go-round at the park where Parker plays every day, wouldn't have had to worry that something could happen to his little boy. Wouldn't have had to interrogate his son to find out what Epps had said to the boy, wouldn't have had to try to find the clues in the words of his frightened son.
Booth can still hear Parker's voice, plaintive and scared before it dissolved into tears. I didn't do anything wrong.
If he hadn't pushed Cam to break protocol, she wouldn't be here now.
He wouldn't have had to listen to the doctor tell him about the kidney damage, or say, "But what worries us most is the lung damage. The toxin has caused edema."
He wouldn't have had to borrow Brennan's well-worn line, not even noticing as he did so. "What does that mean? I don't know what that means."
"Fluid buildup," Brennan told him. "Essentially, she's drowning."
Booth takes a deep breath after the doctor leaves, and calls Cam's father. He had met him once, when they had dated the first time, and he remembered Booth well enough to be afraid when he heard Booth's voice on the other end of the line.
The conversation is short, to the point. He will come immediately.
Booth hangs up the phone, rubs his forehead as he stares at the green and blue tile floor.
no subject
The capsule hadn't been filled with a gas. If it had been, Zach would have been affected as well. They were looking for a toxic power. Hodgins had Cam's clothes in a bio-hazard bag to take back to the Jeffersonian. Hopefully, they could pull a sample.
Just work fast, okay Hodgins? Just work fast.
Brennan rejoins Booth at the observation window.
"Considering the relationship between you and Cam," she says after a moment, "I’d—I’d like to say the right thing, Booth."
She hesitates, trying hard to keep her voice level. She almost succeeds. "I don’t know what it is. Usually I’d—I’d ask you or Angela."
no subject
That time is not now. He knows that wasn't easy for her to say, knows it isn't easy for her not to know what to do or say.
"You just said it." He sets his mouth in a thin line. "Thanks."
He looks back at Cam. She looks so small in that bed, with all those wires. So fragile.
no subject
She's glad Booth understands what she's incapable of forming into words.
And she's going to do everything she can to make sure that she doesn't have to say it again before this game is done.