Brennan fumbles in the dark for her cell, the shrill ringing breaking what was only moments ago a peaceful, dreamless sleep. Finding the offending phone she holds it to her ear as she rests on her free arm.

"Hello?"

The alarm clock indicates that it's a little after 5am and she groans inwardly.

"Hello?"

"Dr Brennan, I have something that you want...Something that is so very very special to that FBI partner of yours..."

Brennan sits up on the bed and swings her leg over the side of the bed "Who is this?"

"Ah Dr Brennan, where would be the sport in that...letting you in on the game at such an early stage...Go to your front door, I've left a package there for you..."

Brennan gets up and leaving the bedroom makes her way to the front door, in the moonlight from the window she can see a manilla envelope that has been slid through the door gap. She bends down and scoops it up.

"What is this?"

The man sighs and remains silent. Brennan wedges the cell between her neck and ear.

"Can I at least open it?"

"Go ahead Dr, and then we can begin to discuss the rules of our little game..."

As he speaks Brennan opens the envelope, she reaches in and pulls out a pile of A4 sized photographs.

"Put on the light Dr, have a good look."

She flicks on the lamp and studies the pictures in her hands, a short gasp and the caller knows that he has hit his mark.

"So you see Dr Brennan, it's time to talk over the rules...You have something that I want, and I have something that you want. Maybe you should take a seat now."

Brennan still studying the photos in front of her walks over to the sofa. She sits down as she flicks through the pictures.

"Who is this? What have you done to him?"

"The boy is fine Dr Brennan, or can I call you Temperance? Either way it doesn't matter..."

Brennan drops the photos onto the sofa and rubs her temple gently "At least let me speak to him. Put him on."

The man chuckles "You know I can't do that."

"Then I won't play along with whatever sick game you have for me. Not unless I know he is ok."

"You will play along Dr, because if you don't, I can assure you that your partner's son will never see his hero father again! I will kill him Dr, you can be assured that I have no reservations with pulling the trigger right now."

Brennan throws her head back angrily "Then what's stopping you?"

"You are, or at least you are going to try to. If you don't cooperate Temperance then you can explain to Agent Booth just how you let his son rot."

Brennan gets to her feet and paces the floor.

"Ok, you've got my attention. What do you want me to do...?"

The man chuckles "That's my girl, but let's start with what I DONT want you to do first."

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2 hours later

Booth stands in front of the bathroom mirror brushing his teeth, he frowns as the phone in the front room rings and spits out the paste in his mouth. Grabbing a towel and wiping his face he jogs into the living room and grabs the phone.

"Booth"

"Seeley?...Oh God Seeley."

"Karen? Is that you? What's wrong?..."

The shaky voice on the other end of the phone lets out an anguished cry "It's parker, he's gone."

Booth's head starts to spin as the blood starts to drain from his head, he steadies himself on the sofa "what do you mean gone, Karen slow down...gone where?"

"I went to get him out of bed Seeley, he wasn't there. He's missing."

"I'm on my way."

Booth hangs up the phone and dips his head quickly to take a deep breath, he closes his eyes briefly and then runs through to the bedroom to fetch his shirt.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Brennan pulls her car out of the parking lot, she adjusts the rear view mirror and a black SUV comes into focus behind her. She pulls up alongside the curb and the black car behind parks behind her. Its windows are tinted making the driver's face invisible to her.

Her cell starts to ring and she puts it to her ear.

"Look inside the glove compartment Temperance, I've left something there for you."

She frowns and leaning across to the passenger side follows his instructions. She finds a Bluetooth headset and car charger for her phone inside.

"Use the headset, the last thing we want is to attract any police attention with you illegally using your cell phone, driving and chatting is a dangerous thing..and we wouldn't want our only method of communication running out of battery..."

She hooks the technology up and closes te glove compartment mentally noting to herself that she needs to have it dusted for prints if he slips up and she gets away.

"Now Temperance, I want you to drive to FBI headquarters."

"What for?"

"I'll ask the questions Dr...you just follow the instructions if you wanna see little Parker here alive and safe with Daddy."

"Alright, just don't hurt him." She starts the engine and pulls out from the curb heading towards FBI headquarters.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Booth stands staring at the boy's empty bed, his sheets pulled back haphazardly. Karen stands behind him crying quietly. A police officer appears outside of Parker's bedroom window with a dust kit trying to get prints from the glass and frame.

Booth turns to Karen.

"How long until Rebecca gets back?"

Karen looks at her watch quickly, her eyes are puffy and she looks as though she has aged 10 years in the past few hours of Parker's absence.

"Her flight should be coming in in the next half hour, she's getting back as quickly as she can...I'm so sorry Seeley...I swear, I never heard a thing...She's going to blame me for this...I've lost her little boy."

Booth puts a hand on her arm gently.

"She's your sister Karen, she can't hate you...I'm gonna find him, no matter what it takes."

She places a hand on his arm and smiles gratefully up at him through a film of tears. Just then an officer walks into the room.

"Sir?"

Booth nods and squeezes Karen's arm gently before walking out of the room to speak with the officer. Booth turns his full attention to the man in front of him.

"What have you got? Anything?"

The officer nods and looks at his note pad.

"We found evidence of tampering with the window from the outside, by the colouration of the exposed wood, it looks as though someone has recently used some sort of lever to jam the window open. We've managed to lift prints and we are sending those to be analysed, see if we can pull any matches."

"Thanks you."

The police officer nods and waves the remaining officers out of the house. Booth looks into Parker's room and sees an exhausted Karen lying on Parker's bed, eyes closed. He pulls the door closed quietly and pulls his cell form his pocket. Pushing in buttons he holds it to his ear.

"Zach? Where's Bones?...What do you mean she's not in?...Alright, never mind, you are going to have to do for right now...I need a favour."

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Alright, what are you guys thinking? Let me know.