Between Sleep and Awake (Rated M, mystery, angst, fluff, insanity)

Wow! Thank you!

i was positively delighted to come home and find a new posting to the story....and oh, my...it did not disappoint....so good i can't even pick a favorite image....so i'll just say this....

write on, mama! write on....

For whom do you wish to save you when your savior is hospitalized? Can you survive when you seemingly have no hope of salvation?

Thanks for the replies, ladies!!! I have some awesome thoughts and images for the "saving" chapter in store...

Mama,

Holy sasafrass!! That was AMAZING! So heartwrenching, so disturbingly perfect, so.......WOW! No words. I loved it, it was so intriguing and tense and suspensful. You rock, and this was an amazing ride, and I for one, and I know I'm not alone want MORE!!

TERRIFICALLY FANTASTIC!!

Bella

Thank you lol! I will have a new chapter up ASAP. I was hoping for tomorrow, but my hubby threw off my mojo when he stole the laptop from me (MID-SENTENCE!!!!!!!!) So now I have to wait for my "muse" to return.

There will be a new chapter... later today (Just noticed the clock it's after 1!!!)

Great chapter! Oh, and I LOVE your new avatar!

(I literally cheered when she shoved him off his stool. XDD)

I yelled, too! I was like, "Yeah! Brennan!!!!!!!! Go, girl!!!!"

Part VII: Exhale

The placid water rippled as my breath escaped. I watched as the silver waves stirred from my exhalation, accumulated against the blue basin, then faded into the background.

For several seconds not a thought in my mind was kindled. I took in the sensations, assuring myself that this was reality once again. My left eye adjusted to the darkness of the room. The gray chair, chipped and stained, that I had been sitting in was against the wall near the door. I was laying in a plastic tub, broad and low with brightly colored fish painted in the bottom.

My right arm was warm, but the rest of my body was chilled.

The stages. Had I been raped?

I slowly raised myself onto one elbow. That small amount of exertion left me gasping for air. Oxygen wheezed through my throat, my breasts rose and fell with a hurried cadence. The movement tipped the ground at a sharp angle and back again. The pulsation in my face began once again. THUD-THUD-THUD. It was a rhythm that was a terse reminder that my life had not yet ended. I was there. In a small room. Laying in a child's wading pool. Naked. Naked emotionally, naked physically, naked in my mental discernment.

The water undulated beneath me, cresting against the sides of the pool. Was that a robicund undertone I noticed in the tiny waves? I focused once again, then my eyes were drawn to my thighs. Pale white with scarlet streaks of blood that stretched from crotch to knees.

My hands shook and the elbow that had kept me propped began to yield to the weight it held. I resigned to the water once again.

Truth began to fall like stones from heaven. The third stage was not too far off now. And it did not matter whether or not I remembered the second or the first.

Where was Booth?

I closed my eyes.

The door opened and the familiar black-slacked, striped-socked man walked in and knelt down beside the pool of water.

"Bones."

I looked up. "Oh, G-d."

"Not happy to see me?"

"I am," I said, not afraid to betray the weariness in my voice. "I just-- I know you're not really here."

"Sit up, Bones."

I lifted onto the elbow and sat in the pool, pulling knees to chest.

He took off his jacket and wrapped it around my bare shoulders.

"What happened?"

"Stage Two. I think I was unconscious the entire time." I wiped away moist hair that clung to my cheeks, my finger slid across the open laceration on my cheek. By then it was swollen to the point that my eye was completely closed. "I've been running a fever. It's uncertain when, but I surmise that I will probably go into septic shock somewhere within the next day."

Booth pulled me close into a warm embrace.

I wanted so badly to go back to a better place. If the last moments were here in his arms, I'd be truly glad.

I closed my eyes and remembered how he felt, how he smelled. Every nuance.

To be back in that apartment.

He reached up and smoothed a curl behind my ear. "This isn't just sex with me, Bones."

"I know," I replied heavily.

"I want to make love to you." What was it about his voice that was so assuring? That made me feel like what he said about being one with someone could truly be? "Oh, hey, Bones. I didn't mean to make you cry."

I smiled, "I wasn't going to cry, Booth."

"Admit it."

"I..." I let my eyes wander around his apartment, then they were drawn once again to his eyes. "Nobody has ever said that to me."

His other hand touched my face, both holding my face tenderly. "Has anybody told you that you are amazing? Intelligent, beautiful, everything I could ask for in a friend and partner."

I tilted my chin and pressed in gently. He caught my lips once again. Softly, he drew me closer. After years of wanting him to pull me close, he finally was. I may have let some of his sexual signals fly under my radar in the past, but there was no mistaking the signals he sent my way as his hands slipped beneath my blouse and his fingers stroked my nipples.

He kissed my neck, nibbling at the supple skin at my clavicle. Every subdued and erotic touch sped up the passion of the moment. I tore at his shirt. White plastic buttons fell to the ground, creating a soft percussion of silent taps on the floorboards.

Satin and lace dropped alongside the buttons and slacks.

"Let's just... right here..." I begged breathlessly.

With that, his heated speed came to a halt.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Not here, Bones." His cheeks were flushed. He reached for my hand and he walked me slowly to his bedroom.

His lips met my forehead, then my lips, neck, ear, breast. I fell into the sheets and he onto me.

"Cullen's gonna be pissed," he whispered, a hint of a facetiousness on his tongue.

"Screw Cullen," I whispered back. "We can keep it professional."

"Not tonight." His aroused penis divided my thighs.

"Stage two," he returned.

My left eye open. Pain stung my right. I could hear the voices of two men. They spoke in a fractured English/French fusion.

"Good. I just need to go back to the office for a minute. I should be back in a few hours."

"Don't want to let the cat outta the bag, eh?"

"Bingo."

Those voices. One belonged to the man with the yellow teeth. Who was the other man?

I scrutinized my memories.

Two voices.

"Bingo."

"I should be back in a few hours."

"Stage two."

"Bingo."

Thoughts and memories oozed together. Colors and a sound track of a man whose face I could not recall convulsed and rolled into a grotesque hallucination.

I unzipped the body bag. Two sky-blue eyes clouded in a white sheath stared back inertly.

I jumped back, tipping over a tray of instruments. Metal and platform met with cacophonous clatter.

I slid a cotton mask courtesy of the airlines over my eyes, drowning my vision in blackness. Music buzzed in my ear, lulling me to a dreamless rest.

A cart jingled past me as a stewardess pushed a cart through the middle aisle. She passed me, noticing my relaxed posture and assumed state of slumber.

"Sir, would you like something to drink?"

"Uh... Got any bourbon?"

Clinking commenced and before long, the woman announced her victory with an, "Ah-Ha!"

"Bingo," the man said.

I inhaled sharply, an action that brought me back to the little room in the cellar. "He was there."

And I knew. I couldn't wait for fate to take hold of me. I was the master of my fate.

Oh, god. I am so loving this story. I don't wanna pressure you, but you must update soon

Oh Oh Mama such a good story!!!

Thanks ladies!!! Tomorrow is my dd's birthday, so I'll update Thursday or Friday (I hope).

mama, mama,mama.....hat's off to you for another brilliant chapter....i'm just torn to pieces....first because of what she is going through....you've made it so visceral without being graphic in the least.....and second because i want chapter after chapter after chapter....but all of those chapters means being closer to the end....and the end mean no more amazing new chapters.....a conundrum....but a lovely one to have......

AnabelleG wrote:mama, mama,mama.....hat's off to you for another brilliant chapter....i'm just torn to pieces....first because of what she is going through....you've made it so visceral without being graphic in the least.....and second because i want chapter after chapter after chapter....but all of those chapters means being closer to the end....and the end mean no more amazing new chapters.....a conundrum....but a lovely one to have......

Thank you so much!!! It means so much to me that you and the other ladies on this forum write such wonderful compliments! Thank you! Thank you, thank you, than you!!!

MAMA!!

I am literally on the edge of my couch!! Is she being rescued? Has she been raped? Is Booth alive? Who belong to the voices? Oh so many questions that you must answer and very quickly!! It was absolutely amazing. Your descriptions are brilliant and so concise, and seriously, I need a thesaurus because apparently I run out of words when trying to review your chapters! Great job, and I cannot wait for more!!

Bella

Wow!!! Thank you so much, Bella!!! *squee*

this story is crazy. but soooooo good. hope you get to post soon!

Thank you Lena!

Part VIII: Alibi

The sound of bare hands and knees patting against cold concrete was the first thing to hit my senses. It is indescribable how each bodily movement took a hundred percent of my exertion and concentration. Each muscle fiber had to be prompted to contract, release, tense, and relax again.

Two feet from the blue pool, my body crumpled into a trembling ball. Misfiring synapses left my head feeling heavy and weightless, my eyesight dipping in and out of blackness, my tendons and sinews crying out for rest.

My forehead laid against the ground, sharp pits and protuberances digging into my flesh.

I swallowed what felt like sand passing through swollen glands.

My chest heaved with every breath as my vision once again began to immerse into a fuzzy, murky world of fantastic colors and nightmarish memories.

"Stay conscious, Brennan."

Despite my protestations, the indentations of the ground under my head smoothed and glimmered. The walls grew transparent. The air thinned.

A short man in his late forties flashed an exhausted smile my way. Weary passengers passed me by. Conversations murmured a soft hum as my feet made their way to the exit. My memories were somehow no longer as clear, as touchable and realistic as before. I found myself in a state of two minds as I relived those memories. One half existed only in the imaginary, the other was begging myself to wake up and fight.

A man in a tan jacket walked past, his shoulder bumping into mine and jostled my bag to the ground.

"Sorry, madame," he muttered. He snatched it up in a quick movement and handed it to me before walking past. I followed the transition to where Booth's face appeared through the crowd.

Rewind.

"Sorry, madame."

Pause.

He held the bag out to me, frozen in time. Eyes the shade of scorched pea soup. Dirty blond hair. Hooked nose.

Not the man in the mask, but distinct facial features similar to the man with yellow teeth.

"Sorry, madame."

That voice. So distinct.

I stopped in the middle of the terminal. The faces who passed me up became unclear. Some stood still.

Booth's face remained the same. Excitement etching every angle, eyes searching the crowd.

"What did he say to me?" I asked myself. Simultaneously, I heard the words ricochet off from concrete walls and back into my ears.

Bright terminal lights. "Sorry, madame."

Calm office low-lights. "Your partner is lovely."

Panic among falling leaves. Hands soaked in blood. "He'll die here, Brennan!"

A world submerged in darkness. "Bingo."

A lightning quick chill extracted me from the plane to the frigid basement floor.

For once, my gut had told me something true. Perhaps it was the fever that was replaying my thoughts inaccurately. People existed in my dreams but not in real life. People existed in my fevered recollections that were perhaps merged with the real people... People who...

I squeezed my eyes shut. The right burned its objections to my parietal lobe.

Things were becoming less and less clear. And despite the pain of my eye, it was significantly less than just an hour before. My body had ceased to shiver, but an icy hand to my forehead revealed two reasons why,aside from physical exertion, I ought to be trembling.

Why was I crawling toward the chair again?

I continued crawling at a sluggish pace.

The door swung back. The man with the yellow teeth immediately dug his toe into my bruised ribs, making me tumble back. I curled into the fetal position, my hands protecting the back of my neck as he continued kicking my unprotected body.

After a few furious kicks, he bent down and rolled me onto my back. He lowered his face and body, the scent of chewing tobacco rolling from his tongue. Black flecks clung to his incisors. His fingers latched onto my neck, strangling any air from entering my lungs. I clawed at his arms feebly.

"So I was thinking," he breathed. The odor from his breath was a mixture of tobacco and tooth decay. "Now that the little brother's out to play, I thought we could have a little alone time. You know, outside of the business side of our relationship."

His hand released. My lungs sucked in the air, blood once again filled my lips, cheeks, and nose and tingled as the oxygen reached the tissues. His hand ran down my arm, then back up my side toward my breast.

Take action! Now!

And my body listened to the command, drawing my knee to my chest and straight into the man's testicles.

He fell onto his back and scrambled backward grasping at his groin. Apparently he didn't think I had it in me. So that was the way it was. He waited until the women didn't have a breath to call their own, then he pounced on them, victimized them, took their dignity away before murdering them and leaving them to die. I wasn't about to be one of those women.

He was quick to seize my throat one more time, lifting my body easily and slamming my head against the cellar wall.

"Now this is personal." His fingers released and I fell to the ground, once again gulping in the musty air.

He made it to the door before I was able to press out a question, "And... it wasn't... before?" I lifted my eyes to the man in the doorway wearing camouflaged military style pants and a flannel shirt.

He walked up and squatted beside me. "It's always been about the killing." His voice was terrifyingly calm and controlled. As if every word were pregnant with a deeper, more horrible truth.

He reached down and began to tuck a stringy lock behind my ear. I quickly snapped his hand away. "What about the stages? I thought... this was some sort of righteous redemption of the damned."

"Then I guess it's a good thing we chose you, then. Right, Miss Atheist?"

I allowed my eyes to look up at the man. "I don't understand. Is this about your god or murder?"

"Both," he shrugged. "Makes for a great alibi, right?"

"I don't know what you mean." I sucked in the air, letting my spinning head restabilize.

"When G-d tells someone that it's OK to kill, it makes for a great alibi. I'm not crazy, Dr. Brennan. I know that there are cops out there... After people like me... And sometimes they succeed...They catch us... And when I tell the jury that the Big Guy upstairs talks to me and tells me to kill people, I'll plead insanity... And... I'll be playing chess for the rest of my life... Reading Shakespeare and eating bonbons... Until then... I'm going to wrap a red ribbon around your pretty little head, drag you out into the woods and put a bullet in your head. How's that for a Saturday evening?"

"I'd agree that you were insane, Mr. Prideaux, but... I'm afraid that if I were to agree that they wouldn't put a needle in your arm." I stared coldly at him.

The look he gave me grew increasingly stony until he stood abruptly and disappeared from the room. He returned with a white robe, stained with dirt and blood from its previous users and threw it on me. "Put that on. Stage three has just arrived." He turned and slammed the door behind him.

Indeed, if the third stage was upon me, I wasn't about to take it sitting down, figuratively speaking.

Oh. How nice is to find another chapter. Better than ever. I ... I am still loving it ....
This time - some action, not so much dreams.
Cool. I like it!

MAMA!!

GAK, you're freakin' me out. She KNOWS who it is....she is one brilliant heroine isn't she? I also love how she still has some fight in her....she'll get away, she has to! Brilliant chapter, I was SO excited to see the update up this quickly. Please post again as soon as possible, I am literally craving more! You rock!

Bella

omg this story is so edgy and full of suspense

I'm glad she's fighting instead of just being in the moment. I can't wait to see how this plays out. I kinda of wish she'd save herself.

Oh trust me that this story has a fantastic scene in the next chapter. It isn't written yet... but you will all be surprised and very very pleased!!!

Edit: It might be in two chapters from now, or in the next, but oh it's going to be so good!

OMG OMG I can't wait! I'm gonna sit right here by my computer until you update. All night. All day. As long as it takes, you brilliant, brilliant writer. xD