OOM: Meeting With Booth

[argyle_princess]

Hannah has three missed calls, and a voice mail message, all from Agent Booth, when she turns her phone back on after class. The message is a little ominious in its brevity -- Hey, kiddo, call me when you get this, okay? Whenever that is. Or maybe it's ominious in that for all he's clearly trying to sound light and neutral, Hannah can hear in Agent Booth's voice that whatever he wants her to call him about is going to fall into the category of Not Good.

She doesn't even bother going back to her room to drop her things, just calls him on her way to the Metro station. She's not surprised when he asks her to meet him, as soon as possible, though she is surprised when he asks her to come to his office. And while it's clear he doesn't want to talk about Whatever This Is over the phone, Hannah's starting to genuinely and truly worry.

The last time someone had news they didn't want to give her over the phone, it was that Agent Booth was dead.

It takes an eternity to get to the Hoover Building, and another eternity to get through security even though they've been told to expect her and had she realized where she was coming she SO would have gone back to the dorm to dump her stupid bag.

Eventually someone shows up to escort her up to Agent Booth's office, and she doesn't know if he's an agent or what, because aside from confirming her identity and asking her to come with him, he doesn't say a damn word. Hannah doesn't know if that means he knows what she's there to talk about and it's so bad that he doesn't know what to say, or if he's assuming that she's some sort of suspect or something and therefore not worth talking to, or if he just has the social skills of a cactus.

"Your visitor's here, Booth," the man says, and leaves Hannah standing in the door to Agent Booth's office.

Comments

[paladinsuitsyou]

"I hate that guy," Booth mutters in a harrassed tone, but the words themselves are said so casually it's clear he doesn't really meet it. It's also clear that he's just looking for some place to start talking, because this conversation is not going to be easy. "Sorry he was such a jerk."

Papers are strewn across Booth's desk, and it's clear he's very, very busy and extremely stressed out.

[argyle_princess]

"Well, he certainly won't be Mr. FBI Congeneality 2009," Hannah says, and it falls about as flat as Nebraska.

She can't quite make herself actually step into his office.

Nothing to do but start with the most viable candidate for Worst Cast Scenario.

"Is Brennan . . .?"

[paladinsuitsyou]

Booth looks up, realizing how this all must look. "Oh, God, Hannah, no. Brennan's fine."

That's not exactly true - none of them are fine - but she's alive. "She's uh, busy, or she'd be telling you this herself. Um. Which is. You remember the Gormogon case? The one we've been working on for what seems like forever now?"

[argyle_princess]

"The cannibal serial killer with the tooth bomb? Yeah, for some reason, that made an impression."

Can't imagine why.

"What about him?"

[paladinsuitsyou]

"Right, of course it did," Booth says. Why wouldn't it? It's gross and creepy and...hell.

"He's dead. The case is closed. But we arrested his assistant."

Significant pause. "It's Zach, Hannah." There's really no good way to say that, is there?

[argyle_princess]

"Zach who?" Hannah asks, not really processing this.

Because he can't mean . . . there's just no . . . well, it's not . . .

Is it?

[paladinsuitsyou]

"Zach Addy," Booth says, his voice grim. "He was working with the killer the whole time. The guy played some sort of twisted logic game with him, and he..."

Booth trails off, unable to say anything else about why Zach would ever, ever work with Gormogon.

[argyle_princess]

. . . this sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen on this side of the country.

"Are you . . . are you sure?" she asks, and then shakes her head.

He wouldn't say it if he wasn't, she knows that.

"Sorry."

[paladinsuitsyou]

"Yeah. Brennan figured it out. He made Gormogon's dentures, lied about some really basic forensic stuff, and set the explosion in the lab."

He sighs heavily. "I know this is a shock. It hasn't sunk in for any of us, I don't think."

[argyle_princess]

"Understatement," Hannah says.

"Can I . . . ?" she gestures vaguely to one of the chairs in front of Agent Booth's desk.

[paladinsuitsyou]

"Oh, yeah, I'm sorry." He smiles weakly. "I should have made sure you were sitting down first."

The phone rings. "I'm sorry, I have to take this. It's my boss."

A short conversation takes place, mostly consisting of Booth saying, 'yes sir,' a number of times.

Clearly, there is hell to pay on this case. The deputy director is not pleased that the crack scientists were working with a murderer.

[argyle_princess]

Hannah looks around, and tries to find something to focus on, while Agent Booth is talking.

Which would be easier if she could focus on anything at all.

Well, anything aside from Dr. Addy is a murderer.

[paladinsuitsyou]

"He's trying to figure out how the hell we all missed this," he says, hanging up the phone. "Which is pretty much where I am, too. Except I'm mostly even further back with 'Zach? A murderer?'"

[argyle_princess]

Hannah nods, and starts to say something, and then pretty obviously thinks of something else to say instead.

"Oh my God, how's Dr. Hodgins? And Angela and . . . ?"

[paladinsuitsyou]

"Shaken up," he says. Understatement. "Freaked out, maybe that's a better term. We're all still in shock."

He sighs. "Hodgins was the reason Zach confessed. Zach rigged an explosion to distract us while Gormogon stole the skeleton we had in the vault. Hodgins, though, delayed Zach, the explosion was bigger than expected, and Zach deviated from the plan to keep Hodgins safe."

He frowsn. "I think 'wracked with guilt' pretty much describes Hodgins' situation at the moment."

[argyle_princess]

Hannah . . . kind of didn't follow that at all.

The end is the only part that really matters, anyway.

"Oh, God."

Her eyes widen.

"Are you okay?"

She knows, even as she asks, that she hasn't phrased that right.

[paladinsuitsyou]

"I'm coping," he says, and it comes out shorter than he'd intended it to.

Booth sighs (he seems to be doing that a lot in this conversation). "Sorry. I'm tense, getting chewed out by my boss, and completely shocked. I'm sure I'll be upset and sad and all of that, but right now I just don't have time to deal with it."

Giving her a sad little smile, he adds, "Brennan's not the only one who's able to compartmentalize."

[argyle_princess]

"Your boss sounds like a jerk," says Hannah.

There are things you don't do to someone who's just found out that a colleague is a murderer. Like, say, chew him out.

"Do you need for me to go?"

Because, you know, he sounds kind of busy.

[paladinsuitsyou]

"He's got cause," Booth points out. "One of his star witnesses for the prosecution just confessed to murder. This could put a lot of cases in jeopardy, if he's not careful."

Still, the chewing out is not exactly helpful, and it's hardly Booth's fault Zach decided to start murdering (but not eating) people.

He waves off her question. "No, you're fine. Um. Anything else you need to know? Brennan figured the whole thing out, talked Zach into telling us what was going on and where to find Gormogon. It was some crazy logic thing, didn't make much sense to me, but it had to do with Zach putting Hodgins before the good of mankind."

Booth shakes his head, then walks around the desk to close the door. Time to get his head away from the case and into the room. "Do you have any questions? Is there anything I can do to help? I'm not explaining this very well, I know. I don't know that I really understand it all that well myself."

[argyle_princess]

"He's a bully," Hannah mutters. She did almost thirteen years in Neptune public schools; she knows a bully when she sees -- or hears about -- one. She doesn't care if he is some kind of FBI hotshot.

Still, that's not helpful.

"I don't know that it's understandable," Hannah says, after a second.

"What's going to happen to Dr. Addy?"

God, should she even still call him that? It's not like you get your docotrate revoked for murdering people, but . . . oh, God.

[paladinsuitsyou]

"He's going to be charged with murder and probably enter a plea-bargain with Caroline where he cops to the charge and gets to go to a mental institution because he helped us get Gormogon."

Booth looks very grave, but for the first time all his attention is on Hannah, not on the papers or the phone or what's going on outside the office. "He'll probably never leave."

[argyle_princess]

"Good," says Hannah.

"I mean, well, you can't have him out if he . . . since he did what he did.

"But it's probably easier for everyone else if he's not in prison."

For Brennan. For Dr. Hodgins.

Certainly for Dr. Addy.

"Why . . . why did he do it?"

(She knows it's not fair to ask Agent Booth, but it's maybe a little less not fair to ask him than to ask the other people she could ask, and she has to ask someone.)

[paladinsuitsyou]

It's a perfectly fair question, and of all the people she could ask, right now Booth is the best person. He's present, for one, but also the least deeply impacted by Zach's betrayal.

"He met Gormogon at a conference, and they became friendly. Gormogon used logic to entice Zach - said secret societies are evil, that they should end them for the greater good. I don't know that it really makes sense to anyone but Brennan, but Hodgins is blaming himself for that part, too. Since he kept talking about conspiracies and secret societies and...you know. Things like that."

[argyle_princess]

"Yeah, but nobody took Dr. Hodgins seriously, did they?"

Also, there has to be a more logical, more rational way to work against secret societies than eating the members.

"I just don't understand."

[paladinsuitsyou]

"Me either, kiddo," Booth admits. "I wish I had a better explanation, but that's all I've got. Sweets says he isn't crazy in the technical sense, but I'd have to disagree. There's something seriously wrong in that man's head to believe that pile of horseshit."

[argyle_princess]

"Yeah, well, nothing I have ever heard about Sweets has led me to the conclusion that he isn't an idiot."

Hannah thinks.

"There really won't be a trial, will there? If Gormorgon is dead, and Dr. Addy is crazy and plea-bargaining?"

[paladinsuitsyou]

Booth grins, and he's actually amused for a moment. "Ditto."

"No trial," Booth says, the grin fading quickly. "Thank God for that. I'm pretty sure nobody could handle that, especially after how rough Max's trial was. And the whole shock of all of this, you know?"

And Booth's fake death. Really, it's just been a whole ball of awfulness hitting at once.

[argyle_princess]

"See, this is the part where ordinarily I'd shrug and say, 'It's Neptune' . . . but it's not."

[paladinsuitsyou]

"Maybe Neptune's spreading, like a disease. And now we've caught it in D.C." He's only half-joking. "We've just had a run of bad luck. Things'll be better soon."

They had better be. He's so over all this senseless drama.

[argyle_princess]

"Maybe it's me," says Hannah. "You know, you can take the girl out of Neptune, but . . ."

She shrugs.

"I'm really glad you're not dead right now."

[paladinsuitsyou]

"Thanks," he says. "I'm pretty happy about that myself."

Being dead was deeply boring, anyway.

"I'm - I'm still sorry about how that went down, Hannah."

[argyle_princess]

"Well, thank you, but don't worry about that, okay? Because right now, it seems like water over the dam or under the bridge or wherever the hell it is water goes when you stop thinking about it.

"Since, you know, we're kind of in the middle of some kind of flood that seems like could pretty easily wipe out the brigde and the dam, you know?"

She pauses.

"Yeah, I took that metaphor too far.

"It would just be a lot worse if you weren't here."

She knows, because she has seen what it looks like, what Brennan looks like, when Agent Booth isn't there.

[paladinsuitsyou]

Booth is a little surprised by the sudden flow of words, and it shows, but he listens patiently as Hannah winds down.

"Thanks," he says sincerely. "I'm trying to keep everything together, keep everyone together, as best I can, and making sure those who can't manage it are able to fall apart."

Brennan's handling things. Cam is handling things. Angela's handling Hodgins, who has fallen into tiny pieces.

[argyle_princess]

"If you need me to do anything . . ." she says.

She has no idea what it might be.

But, still, if there is anything.

[paladinsuitsyou]

Booth treats her well-meant offer with the gravity it deserves. "I will absolutely let you know," he says firmly.

He has no idea what it might be either, but the offer is worth a great deal.

Then the phone rings, and the real world comes rushing back.

"You mind if I get back to work?" Booth asks, jerking his head toward the phone. "You're welcome to stay, if you're not ready to leave, but I really should finish some of this stuff up."

[argyle_princess]

"You should get that, yeah," Hannah says. "And I should get back to GW."

Because well, she should. He has enough to worry about in this office right now, without adding her in.

That much, anyway, she can do.

"Thanks. For making sure I knew."

[paladinsuitsyou]

Booth's already picking up the phone, but before he says anything to the person on the other line, he smiles at her. "You're welcome. I'm glad I could."

It's a small thing to be glad about, in this situation, but it's about the only one there is.