"Cherry?"

*Trigger warning*
After everything they had been through had brought to this moment. Every case they had worked on and every bad guy they had brought down. It all leads to somewhere far away, in a land where the bad guys capture the good guys and fuck with their heads. Chelsea's brain was throbbing against her skull. She couldnt see much, it was dark and the radio was blaring in the car. She felt the pain throbbing down to her neck and she just sucks a breath.

"Oh, God. What - What happened? Where am I?" she turns the keys in the ignition She frantically feels around to figure out where she is. The radio is on. She reaches behind her neck and feels something. "Ugh. Oh god." She reaches up and turns on the inside light and exhales. She sees her phone, smashed and lying on the passenger seat. She then tries to open the car door. "Oh, Come on!" She tries to open the door, to no avail. She tries to roll down the window, only to have dirt/rocks fall in the car on her. She quickly rolls up the window. Then turns off the radio. She stops to collect herself and hears a moaning noise coming from the back seat. She's not alone. She turns around and sees Jack Hodgins, and he appears to be in worse shape than her. "Hodgins." She climbs in the back seat. "Hodgins. Are you all right? Can you talk?" She puts her hand on his leg...only to find blood and gashes on them. " Your legs. What happened to your legs?"

"Where are we?"

"We're buried alive. He must have got us." Chelsea explains out of breath.

"Who?"

"The Grave Digger." She looks around the car and sees the dirt covering all the windows.

48 Hours Earlier....

There was a small group of onlookers as a sheriff walks up to Booth and Chelsea.

"My superior says to let you look at the...flying saucer."

Chelsea shakes her head. "It's not a flying saucer."

"It sure looks like one. Local kids dirt biking. Something shiny poking through the dirt. They dig it out, look in the window and see aliens."

Chelsea walks down the hill. " Did you look?"

"Yes, ma'am. Then called for backup."

"Why?"Booth asks.

"On account of..well, they are aliens."

Booth looks at Chelsea, then she heads over to the "spaceship "All right."She clears the dirt off the window and looks in. " You wanna take a look?"

Booth moves behind her and peers over her shoulder into the window. " Oh. Are those what I think they are?"

"Yes. As long as you think they're two adolescent human males."

Booth steps a bit closer to Chelsea. "Hmm...How long?"

"The amount of dehydrated tissue suggests the tank is sealed and intact. Years."

"Two kids, huh? I liked it better when they were aliens."

Back at the lab Chelsea had changed and arrived on the platform

"The one set of remains shows trauma to the legs, compound fractures, and his pelvis is broken in three places. The other is virtually untouched." He explains Chelsea nods.

"Cause of death?"

"The amount of blood suggests that at least one of them bled out. Probably the one with the injuries. I've also noted a constellation of identical non-metric variants -extra foramina"

Booth approaches platform. " Does that mean they were twins?"

"How did you know?"

Booth Holds up a picture of two young boys. " Matthew and Ryan Kent. Kidnapped. October 31, 2001, and no one has seen 'em since."

Booth and Chelsea are having a meeting in the FBI conference room.

"The remains in the beer vat have been positively identified as Matthew and Ryan Kent." She slides a photo across the table.

"Oh god."

Kim sighs. "Come on, Peter. It's better than never knowing."

"Agent Sanders? You were assigned to the Kent kidnapping?"

"Uh, Mr. Sanders. I, uh, retired from the FBI to pursue a career in general contracting - uh, when I'm sober - uh...Kim here was the Assistant United States Attorney attached to the case."

Kim nods. "Still attached. The file's still open. The boys were snatched after a drinking party."

"Was the ransom paid?"

"As the dually sworn representative of the FBI, I advised Mr. Kent, not to pay the ransom. Unfortunately, the Kent's listened to me and not the K&R guy...and uh, now their sons are dead."

Chelsea furrows her brows. "K&R?"

" It's the Kidnap and Ransom experts."

Kim nods, "The Kent boys were The Grave Diggers' third victims."

"Third of the six we know of. Uh, all together, four paid the ransom and lived."

".and the other one that didn't?" Chelsea asks.

"Never found him."

Sanders nods. "That's why they call him The Grave Digger. Uh, he takes people and he buries them. You pay the ransom and he tells them how to dig them up. You don't -- and uh -- you never see them again. You won't catch him."

"All due respect, uh -- Agent Sanders - uh, we have the beer vat and the human remains."

Kim looks irritated, "What are two dead bodies gonna tell you that four live victims couldn't?"

"Dr. Swan, She's pretty good at uh, making dead people tell her things."

"Look, my advice. Talk to the K&R guy." Sanders shakes his head.

"Kidnap and ransom expert, Thomas Vega. Former FBI. He literally wrote the book on The Grave Digger." she takes the book out of her bag and puts it on the table.

Booth and Chelsea were sitting with Thomas Vega & Janine O' Connell, in Chelsea's office.

"I became a Kidnap and Ransom specialist after I realized that the bureau's policy on non-payment to kidnappers is antiquated and dangerous," Thomas explains.

"You've dealt with The Grave Digger how many times?"

"In total? Five." Janine answers for him.

"Janine is a journalist. She helped me write the book The Grave Digger. Next to me, she's the ranking expert on that son of a bitch."

Booth makes a face while nodding. "Journalist, huh?"

"Aw, don't be like that, Agent Booth. The Grave Digger is totally consistent. No one ever sees the victim taken. The ransom demand is made using a digitally altered voice. A time limit is given. There's never a second call. As soon as the ransom is paid to a numbered, untraceable account in Bahrain, the Caribbean, etc. The GPS coordinates are provided, leading to the victim,"

" None of the surviving victims remembers anything before being taken?" Chelsea says.

"Nothing. Burn marks on the back of the neck suggest the use of a stun gun or cattle prod."

"And that'll scramble your brains pretty good. Also, when you try to trace whatever container the boys were found in, you'll, well, you'll reach a dead end. He gets everything from landfills or cash auctions." Vega explains.

"No last chance to pay up?"

Vega nods. "Never."

"You know. Most kidnappers are caught because they start negotiating the ransom. The Grave Digger, simply won't play."

Booth holds up the book. "Really not looking to help you write another book, ya know. Capturing The Grave Digger."

"Agent Booth. I have seen what this guy does to families. Upclose. You know what, dislike me as much as you want but I'm still gonna help ya because... I want this bastard caught." Vega & Janine leave the room.

Chelsea turns to Booth. "You were kinda mean to them."

"Yeah. Thanks."

At this point time was bleeding into each other., Chelsea was back on the platform with Zack.

"Zack? Did you catalog this anomaly between C1 and C2 on Matthew?"She was looking through a microscope.

"Yes. If you increase magnification on the atlanto-axail joint, you'll see calcining on the articular process."

Chelsea walks over to a computer. "Bone burn."

"Yes. Over 300 degrees."

Chelsea looks at Zack thinking. "Stun gun. Does the same mark appear on Ryan?"

"No."

Chelsea looks back at the screen. "Okay. Get the FBI to send you photos and medical exam results of The Grave Diggers victims. See if he uses the same stun gun every time."

Zack exits. Hodgins enters

"Aluminum."

Chelsea furrows her brows. " Aluminum?"

"The Brits say "Al -yu - mini - um" but it sounds, well, British. Manganese alloy. Strained-hardened and stabilized.Traces on both sets of clothing."

"From the vat?" Chelsea asks.

" No. The inside of the vat is pure copper. Both boys' clothing was stained with a sooty residue made up of lead and carbon, benzene, and aldehydes."

Chelsea thinks for a moment. "Engine exhaust."

"Yeah. Particulates from lots of engines. Both gasoline and diesel."

"Parking lot?" She asks

"Underground. Probably. That's where the Digger grabs his victims?"

"Compare your findings with the results found on the clothing of the surviving victims. See if they share anything in common. And measure oxygen volume in the vat. Find out how long the twins survived." Chelsea nods.

"I'll get right on it."

Chelsea felt lightheaded with the amount of back and forth she was doing in the same places. Yet again she finds herself in the FBI conference room, her, Booth, James Kent, Thomas Vega & Kim Kurland.

"Mr. Kent, I'd like to start by expressing the Justice Department's sincere condolences for the death of your sons, Matthew and Ryan," Kim explains folding her arms over her chest.

"If I'd ignored the Justice Department and listened to Mr. Vega, here and paid the 2 million my boys would still be alive today."

"Sir, I understand your feelings towards the FBI..." Booth starts off.

"I doubt that."

"Jim, Agent Booth here is investigating your sons' murder. You know my problem with the FBI's approach to kidnapping, but when it comes to finding a killer you want these people on your side." Vega explains.

"Ryan and Mattie were spoiled. I know. They uh, partied, they chased girls they um" hey got expelled from school but they weren't bad kids. God, there's no way that they deserved suffocation. Is it painful?" Mr. Kent asks.

a chime sounds There is a text message on Chelsea's cell phone from Hodgins "Victims did not have 24 hours of air. 12 hours max. Hodgins." Chelsea shows the message to Booth.

"Like falling asleep. Mr. Kent, The Grave Digger lied to you and the FBI."

Vega chuckles. "That's unlikely. He doesn't play games."

"Mr. Kent, is there any way you could have put together the ransom in 12 hours?"

Kent shakes his head. "No way in the world."

"Which is exactly why The Grave Digger provided Mr. Kent with 24 hours."

Booth turns to Mr. Kent. " His sons only had enough air for 12 hours."

"Oh, my god..."

Booth sighs. " Even if you had ignored the FBI and listened to Mr. Vega, you still wouldn't have been able to save your sons."

"You're backstopping for the bureau.."

Chelsea shakes his head. " There were two of them in that vat. They used up their oxygen twice as fast. The Grave Digger miscalculated."

"No, he doesn't do that."

Chelsea shrugs. "Then it was never his intention that these boys survive."

" He just didn't care, Mr. Kent."

"So my decision to listen to the FBI to not pay the ransom..." He starts off.

"If you'd paid the ransom, your sons would still have been dead by the time you got to them."

"There is nothing you could have done, Mr. Kent. You are in no way responsible for the death of your sons." Booth explains as the man sighs in relief.

Booth and Chelsea are in Booth's Car.

"Had it occurred to you that God, is a lot like The Grave Digger?" She starts off.

"Wha...What?"

"He lays down the rules. No way to question him or negotiate. Then it's almost as though he doesn't care how it works out. Either you do as he says - make some sacrifices and they're delivered or you don't and you end up in hell." She explains.

"You know what? I'd appreciate it if you didn't say things like that because I really don't want to get struck by lightning."

Chelsea stares at Booth. " Do you go to church every Sunday?"

"Yes, I do."

Chelsea shrugs, "Can I come with you?"

"No. You can't."

She furrows her brows, "Why? I thought we were friends."

"I am not going to help you disrespect God in His own house. Okay, if you want to do some kind of, ya know, anthropological study turn on the religious channel."

Chelsea scoffs. "Booth I am catholic, it doesn't get any more Religious than that."

Back at the lab Hodgins, Booth, and Chelsea are standing inftont of the containers used to hold the previous victims of The Grave Digger are lined up side by side

"Each of these contained one of The Grave Diggers' victims," Kim explains.

" Cozy."

"We also provided your people with the clothes each victim was wearing." Kim nods to the bag in Hodgin's hand.

"Regarding the clothing, every one of them shows traces of aluminum and sooty residue."

Chelsea sticks her hands in her pockets. 'We know each victim was taken from an underground garage, beyond the reach of security cameras."

"The typical kidnap for ransom profile was middle-aged, in a job that's beneath him...."

Booth taps his pen against his notepad. " Smart guy who's an underachiever and someone who enjoys control over somebody else's life. There's just one problem..."

"What's that?"

Booth sighs. " See, there's nothing typical about this guy. Don't expect him to fit the profile."

The group was now standing in front of the Angelaator.

"Okay. The dimensions of the vat - six feet wide by eight feet tall - make it impossible for Matthew Kent to have fractured his brother's pelvis," she explains.

"Even if Matthew knocked Ryan down and you know stomped on him?"

Chelsea nods. "Cam and I agree. The fracture was a result of one, hard blow." They recreate the scenario thru the Angelator. " A break like that would require a lot more force than Matthew could have generated."

"Alright, so you're saying Ryan was injured before he went into that vat..."

"Yes. But the amount of blood on the floor, can't be explained by his injuries alone. " Chelsea can see that Booth has an idea. " What?"

"It was a mistake."

Angela furrows her brows. "What was?"

"Look. He intended to take one boy but he ended up with two."

Chelsea nods. " Ah. That's why they died 12 hours ahead of schedule "

"If he intended to take two boys, he would have put them in a container twice as big. Alright, The Grave Digger, he messed up. He snuck up on Matthew - knocked him unconscious, whatever, and uh, Ryan was there he shows up and he fought the guy."

Chelsea shakes her head. " No, Booth. Not fight."

"The leg damage. The fractured pelvis.."

Chelsea sighs. " These injuries are classic human vs. car."

"Ryan interrupts the kidnapping of his brother..."

Chelsea continues. "..and The Grave Digger runs him down."

"It was a mistake. The Grave Digger is not God, Bones, because God does not make mistakes."

"Hmm. I don't know. Putting testicles on the outside didn't seem like such a good idea." Angela mutters.

🦋

Chelsea is walking to her car, she approaches the window when she hears the sound of rapid footprints behind her, then a sharp stick to her neck. Chelsea is on the ground unconscious when Hodgins is running up he tries to get to her as a car pulls up blinding him.

Cam and Booth are eating at the Royal Diner.

"What do you say we go to New York for the weekend?" she smirks flirtatiously.

"Yeah, I don't know.."

Cam smirks more. "Come on! We're two adults with no obligations." Booth's phone rings. " Let it go to voice mail. We're not cheating. We're not hurting anybody, Seeley."

"Then why are we keeping our relationship such a secret, Camille?"

Cam still smirking. "Because we work together and we're professionals and it's nobody's business. That's all. So come to New York. We'll go to a musical"

Booth laughs. " Talking and singing and talking and dancing and more singing" he pulls out his phone to check his voicemail. " Ya know if you want to stop what we're doing just say so."

"You can fantasize about pulling out your gun and shooting everyone on stage. You know you like that."Booth puts his phone to his ear to check his message As Cam continues to talk you can tell something's wrong. " Seriously, we'll do something you like. Like, Climbing the outside of the Empire State building or swimming the East River...or.".she sees the panic in Booth's eyes. " What? What happened?"

Booth puts turns the speaker phone on and plays back the voicemail. It's from The Grave Digger

"Chelsea Swan and Jack Hodgins have been buried alive. Wire transfer $8 million to the following Grand Cayman account or they will suffocate to death."

Booth was in the FBI conference room playing the message back for Thomas Vega, Janine O' Connell & Kim Kurland

"Upon receipt of the wire transfer, I will provide you Chelsea and Hodgin's GPS Coordinates. This will be my last communication."

"It will be his last communication too. He's never varied." Vega says.

"He learned from the Kent boys. He's got two of them, he cut the deadline in half."

"Why is The Grave Digger demanding so much money? It doesn't make any sense." Vega continues.

"Well, he's always been reasonable at knowing how much people can raise within the time limit."

"Has uh Dr. Swan made that much money from her books?"

Booth refrains from punching him. " It's Hodgins. He's the soul heir to this thing called The Cantilever Group "

"What's that?"

"Just the third largest privately owned corporation in the country..." Janine explains.

"Make sense now, Tom?"

Present...

Chelsea was sitting in the backseat using Tape on Hodgin's legs, she had ripped half her shirt with her army knife, to wrap around each of them and stop the bleeding. " I was on my way to karate class, so we have lots of bottled water."

"What happened? Where are we?"

Chelsea pulls the tape from the roll. " Last thing I remember is being at the lab."

"I'm really confused, what happened to my legs?" he looks at Chelsea. " Where are we?"

Chelsea looks at him worried. ' Underground. Buried. I have a burn " she pulls her hair back revealing two red marks from what appears to be a stun gun.

"Zack was trying to figure out what kind of stun gun..."

Chelsea sighs. " It has to be "The Grave Digger". I think he ran you down with his car, and then pumped you full of drugs to ruin your short-term memory same as Ryan Kent."

Hodgins obviously getting more worried. "How long have we been down here?"

"Um." she looks at her watch. " It would be 2 hours I think?"

"Okay, So this vehicle is 6...60 - 60 cubic feet of air, uh, it's just 20 percent oxygen two people my brain is not working.

Chelsea looks at him worried. " The Grave Digger is very consistent. If we started with 12 hours of air, we'll be unconscious in 10. After that, if no one pays the ransom..."

" We're dead." Chelsea nods.

Back at the Lab, the groups were in a huddle.

"How are we gonna get our hands on $8 Million?" Cam asks.

"Hodgins is rich."

Cam makes a face. "He is?"

"Rich squared to the power of ten times four" is how he describes it."

Angela looks at Booth. "You're gonna pay the ransom, right?"

"Yes. FBI standard ops, won't work. Grave Digger operates outside statistics."

Cam looks concerned. "They'll fire you."

"Ah, that's cool. One less reason to wear a suit."

"How did The Grave Digger catch Chelsea and Hodgins together?" Cam asks.

"Cherry was on her way to Karate."

Angela nods. " And Hodgins said he found something huge.."

"..and he tried to catch Dr. Swan."

The squints, Cam & Booth go to investigate the garage and find a blood stain.

"Here!" Cam points to the blood.

"Oh, my god. Oooh, that's blood, isn't it?"

Booth sighs. " It'll turn out to be Hodgins."

"Dr. Swan doesn't like it when we jump to conclusions."

Cam looks sympathetic. "I'm sure she'll appreciate we're on a deadline."

"Look. Hodgins interrupted the kidnapping, just like Ryan and Matthew The Grave Digger must have run him over.

Angela grimaces. "God, what are we gonna do?"

"We'll, it's a crime scene, alright. They'll look for tire tracks. They'll check the security cameras." Booth points to Zack. "I need you to be Dr. Swan."

"I don't know what that means."

"It means, keep working the case," Cam says simply. Zack leaves.

"Alright, I need to know why Hodgins was chasing after Cherry."

Cam folds her arm over his chest. "I'll look at his notes."

" Well, what about me?"

"Cherry's sister, Melanie, and tell her what's going on. I'm gonna go talk to the chairman of The Cantilever Group." Booth turns to leave the garage and Cam picks up her phone and dials.

🦋

In Chelsea's car, she was doing an inventory of everything she and Hodgins had in their bags. "We have water, towels, my mini kit, ibuprofen, two cell phones with no batteries, a digital camera with a backup battery, and uh, a handful of pens."

"That one's a laser pointer..."

"And uh, a copy of mine and Bre Bre's novel." she holds up the book

"Hey. We can read it to each other if we get bored."

Chelsea pulls perfume out of a pouch. " Deep Rhapsody?"

"Careful. That's Three grand a quarter ounce." Hodgins makes a face of pain.

"Yeah. I'd make that face too if I spent $3,000 on perfume."

"Oh, man. Something my leg."

Chelsea opens up the ibuprofen her hands shaking. " Here. Here." she then opens up a bottle of water "I'm worried you have compartment syndrome" She hands Hodgins the water bottle and the pills.

"Is that terminal? I mean within the next few hours?"

Chelsea sighs. "No."

"But..."

She nods. " It's gonna get painful."

"More painful than now?"

Chelsea shakes her head, "Yeah. "Slip into shock and die" painful."

" Well, there's nothing we can do about that."

Chelsea looks at him with a serious face. "Actually, there is."

"Oh, I'm not gonna like this, am I."

The time remaining on the clock in each room was 8:24:50 Cam was watching Zack work.

"What are you doing?"

"The Grave Digger modified a commercial stun gun to knock out his victims. I've figured out the voltage and amperage, but not how he modified it to boost the current" he zaps a piece of meat with a stun gun. "Which will not help us find Dr. Swan and Hodgins. I did figure out how Ryan Kent died."

"Let's hear it."

Zack nods. "He killed himself. He punctured his own carotid artery, which explains the amount of blood we found in the vat. He used a pen. There's a nick on the inferior angle of the mandible. I don't know why he did it, I don't really do "Why", I just do "How".

"He did it to give his brother more air so his twin would survive. That's why we found them holding each other."

Zack makes a face. " How does that help?"

" When we tell Mr. Kent that one of his sons gave his own life in an effort to save his brother, it'll mean something, Zack. Just keep searching, Okay."

Hodgins tears a page out of Brennan and Chelsea's Book "Bred in the Bone" he writes something, folds it up, and sticks it in his jacket pocket. "Okay. I'm ready."

"Was that a note to Angela?"

Hodgins nods. " Yes. Just in case whatever you're gonna do to me sends me into shock I might die. Upside? Me not breathing, doubles your survival time."

"I'm not interested in surviving that way." She touches his leg. " What I'm going to do is make a long incision in the fascia to release the pressure inside."

Hodgins makes a face. "And..how long is a long incision? Wait, ya know what? Don't tell me."

"It's best if I do it very fast and without empathy."She hands him a gag for his mouth her black belt. "Here. Hang on to something and don't fight passing out" she holds the knife next to his leg, ready to make the incision Hodgins places the gag in his mouth and holds on to the emergency handles in the back of the car. "You ready?" He nods and she prepares to cut but finds a piece of something stuck in his leg. " Wait..."

"What is that?"

Chelsea sniffles. " Evidence of what happened to you. Let's worry about it later."

"Here just" he hands her her book. "Put it in the pages of your book. I'll take a look at it later." he puts the gag back in his mouth and then mumbles something.

"I am so sorry, Hodgins, I am so so sorry."

He nods and he spits the gag out. "It's okay. I'm nuts about Angela. Over the moon. Stupid in love with her. That's why I bought her that crazy, expensive perfume. Man gives you a bottle of perfume like that, it says it says "I Love You". There. I said it out loud." he puts the gag back in his mouth and gets back into position. He's ready. as Chelsea makes the incision, he screams as Chelsea has tears in her eyes.

Time remaining on the clock: 05:09:34 Angela walks up to Cam.

"Did you find Melanie?"

"She's on a fishing trip with friends in the White Mountains. No phone, no cell service. You?" She asks

"Hodgins seems to write everything in some kind of code. I'm gonna have to get Zack over here to break it."

Angela takes the book from Cam. " It says that the traces of aluminum found on the clothing were almost certainly from the kidnapper's vehicle. Like a box in the back of a trunk or a van."

"You can read that?"

Angela nods. "Yeah, Hodgins sends me a lot of notes. Why bother? With all of this? We don't need evidence, we need millions of dollars." Angela turns and walks away from Cam.

"I can't get the ransom together -- not in the time. All right, The Cantilever Group has got this policy - no proof of life from the kidnapper, no ransom." Booth explains.

"Not ever for the boss?"

"It's his rule. It's no exceptions. I'd say we need more time, but The Grave Digger doesn't give us that or proof of life." Booth was pacing.

"Booth, I don't think it's a coincidence that he took Chelsea when he did."

Booth sighs. " Yeah, I was kinda thinking the same thing."

The horn to the car honks, and Chelsea appears to be hotwiring something. Her hands were usually steady but they were jittery, she was most likely gonna die soon, as her glucose was so low.

Hodgins wakes up, startled. "Thank god I didn't kill you." Chelsea sighs, her eyes were glassy, her skin was getting paler by the second and now Hodgins was worried about her. This wasnt the first time. One time she fainted having been so focused on their work that she hadn't left the lab in a week. Hodgins had to force her to drink a soda while holding her head up, he never wanted to experience that again in his life.

" How long was I unconscious?"

Chelsea's head was bobbing around she just closes her eyes steadying it before opening them again. " For a while. How's your leg?"

"Better. Lots better. What are you doing?"

Chelsea sighs. " Hotwiring the phone to the horn so we can send a message."

"From underground?"

Chelsea smirks. " We get radio reception."

"Direct current of 12 volts will burn out the circuits in a 4.2-volt cell phone in a microsecond. Better jury-rig a resistor."

Chelsea smirks again. " Smart."

"Might work long enough to send a single burst transmission."

Chelsea nods. " Very short text message. Booth can trace it to a cell phone relay tower."

"What message should we send? Goodbye? Nice to know ya?"

Chelsea makes a face at Hodgins. " What are we surrounded by?"

"Pain. Despair - and a subsoil accumulation of agglutinate aridosols."

"Dirt," she replies.

"I don't like the term "dirt".

"Alright." she picks up a handful of dirt from inside the car. "Tell me something I don't know." she puts it in his hand.

Hodgins examines the dirt. "Ash. Hints of nitrogen and sulfur." he spits on it.

"So where are we?"

"We're in Bituminous Coal country. Basically, Virginia." He explains.

"We need more than that."

Hodgins gulps thickly. " The laser and we need Benzophenone."

"Benzophenone. Some soaps and plastic packaging, sunscreen we don't have any sunscreen. Angela's perfume."

Hodgins sighs. "Three. Grand. that cost."

"Hodgins, I will split the cost when we get out of here."

He makes a face. "There's something you don't know about me. I'm rich."

"Me too."

Hodgins shakes his head. " No. No. You're - well off. My family owns The Cantilever Group and there are not many of us left alive. One to be exact. Me."

"Okay. I won't split it with you." she dumps the perfume into the dirt -Hodgins mixes it around with his finger. " It smells nice." he smiles at her.

"I need the camera."She picks up the camera and hands it to him. He then uses it to examine the dirt more closely. " I know where we are."

Booth was in his office at the FBI headquarters. His job was to protect her that was his job and so far he was failing at his job and he hated it. Booth was pacing back in forth he rubs his hands over his face as Vega enters his office.

"There's no negotiating with The Grave Digger," Vega says.

"You've been through this what ah five times with this guy.."

Vega has a smirk. "Exactly. So I know him, and he does not negotiate."

"Oh, what? What - no - chat room action with him?"

"Are you nuts? I hate the son of a bitch." Vega shrugs.

"Why? He's made you rich."

Vega steps close to Booth. "You know what? You just need to deal with the facts. That if you can't put the ransom together in the time he gave you, your partner is dead."

Booth grabs Vega by his throat and throws him down on the table. "Here's the deal, all right. You have a relationship with this guy, what they call symbiotic - you benefit from each other hmm. So know this. That deadline comes around, and my partner is still underground I will end you. You understand? Yeah?" he picks him off the table. " Three hours to live." He throws Vega out of his office. "Better hurry."

🦋

Hodgins is examining the thing Chelsea found in his leg. "This thing you found in my leg is anodized plastic film and coated metallic tape with dried-out adhesive. I think it's a bumper sticker."

"You mean like "If you can read this, you're too close."?

He chuckles. "No. Like a prepaid toll road pass." he pauses. " Someone ran me down with a car."

"We knew that already."

"Yeah, but now we've proved it, and I find that I'm really annoyed." He snarks out as Chelsea can feel herself hurl due to the fact that the room hadn't stopped spinning.

"4 to 6 seconds to enter a message and hit speed dial."

"I've figured out a text message using 8 key strikes," Hodgins explains.

"How's your text messaging?"

He wiggles his thumbs. "Thumbs like lightning. I can do it."

"Okay." she gulps she hands him the phone. "You ready?"

"Yeah." she presses on the horn and Hodgins enters the message, then the phone short circuits."Oh!"

"Oh! Did it go?"

Hodgins nods. "I think it went..."

"Me too."

Booth sighs, placing taking a seat on the edge of the drawers behind his chair. He places both elbows on the chair folding his fingers together and thinking when he receives a message on his phone. He runs to the Jeffersonian and Pulls the text up on a computer screen, there are the numbers 6 7 16 M1.4 displayed.

"Does it mean anything to anybody?" He asks.

"They're getting low on oxygen."

Zack shakes his head. "Hypoxia leads to mental confusion."

"It's Cherry. It means something."

"Did you try just dialing the number?" Angela ask.

" I tried all the dumb guy, normal stuff. Okay, that's why I'm here talking to the Brain Trust. All right. Think! Eggheads. Work it!"

"Booth. They're not cops!"

Booth sighs pacing. " We're running out of time."

"Minor correction. Dr. Swan and Hodgins run out of air in....4 seconds" The clock counts down to 0. "We are out of time.

Chelsea has cut through the back seat into the trunk and punctured a tire to get more air for them. They lean up against the seat and breathe in

"How much extra time?" Hodgins asks.

"A little. There are 4 extra tires, but we can't get to them. Is there anything else?"

"If the ransom was paid, we'd be out by now. Why prolong the inevitable?" Hodgins asks.

"Booth will find us."

Hodgins stares at her intently. "You have a lot of Faith in Booth." He smirks as Chelsea feels her eyes getting heavy.

"No. Faith is an irrational belief in something that is logically impossible. Over time, I've seen what Booth can do. It's not Faith."

" No offense - and I'm not just saying this because you filleted me with a knife We are out of air. We don't know if our message got out, much less if anyone understood it and we are buried underground. Your skin is paler than mine. What you have is Faith, baby. Sorry. The baby thing is a reflex."

She puts fingers on Hodgin's lips. "We shouldn't talk right now to conserve air."

"I need the camera batteries and the preservative powder from your kit."

"Soda ash and lithium? You're going to make a carbon dioxide scrubber?" Chelsea says.

"If you can perform surgery out of thin air, then I can pull a little thin air out of thin air." they laugh knowing that at least they'll be able to extend their time by a bit more.

Cam was rambling more than Zack. "Okay. Zack figured out what stun gun The Grave Digger uses and how it's modified. Thanks to Angela, we know that The Grave Digger has a customized aluminum casing in the back of his vehicle..."

Booth shakes his head. "I got about a hundred agents working that angle. What does this mean, right here" he taps on the computer monitor forcefully. " What does that mean?"

"You're forgetting something. Chelsea and Hodgins are out of air."

"Great. You wanna give up, huh? This is Cherry we're talking about and Hodgins. You really think they didn't find a way to extend their air supply! Hell, found a way to send us a message to ask us for help "he hits the monitor again. " and you want to give up because of math."

Hodgins is scraping out the lithium from inside the battery into an ashtray "Soda ash. Lithium reacts with high concentrations of carbon dioxide." He pours water in. " Produces oxygen." they see it start to foam and laugh out of relief.

Chelsea moves to the front seat. " That gives us just long enough."

"Long enough for what?"

Chelsea places both hands on the stirring wheel. " My next idea, which will kill us. Airbags."

"They aren't actually bags of air.."

Chelsea rolls her eyes. "I'm not looking to extend our survival underground. I'm looking to blow our way out of here."

"Using the explosives from the airbags?" she looks back and nods. "That could definitely kill us."

"So will doing nothing." she goes to work on the airbags

Hodgins hands her a page from her book. " Anyone you wanna say goodbye to?" Chelsea takes it and begins to write.

"It's not a numerical alphabetical code or an equation," Zack explains.

"It's not GPS coordinates or indications of topography."

Booth makes a face. "Great. Then what is it?"

"Can I make a suggestion? See, this is exactly why I was sent here. You guys are brilliant, but you won't make intuitive leaps."

"You mean 'jump to conclusions"

Can nods. "That's exactly what I mean. This is a message from one of them to one of us. Specific. Focused. Who was it meant to get to?"

"Easy. Chelsea's cell to mine, right? The message was for me. We have an understanding, we work together."

"We all work together. She's my best friend. And Hodgins, Hodgins -" Angela is stuck on his name,

"She's right. We should assume the message is from Hodgins not from Chelsea."

Booth sighs. "Why?"

"Because they're buried alive..."

Angela nods. "And Hodgins is all about dirt."

"Okay. Great. The message is about dirt, but who's it to?"

Zack sighs. "Angela. Hodgins is all about dirt and Angela."

"But it's numbers, Zack. It's for you. Hodgins would have written me a line of poetry or something."

Vega & Janine O'Connell arrive outside the platform. "Agent Booth. Janine used all her contacts to get me on all the local news shows. Now, I explained that we needed more time. I asked him to call. I'm sorry, but he's completely consistent."

"6, 7, 16. Carbon, Nitrogen, and Sulfur are on the periodic table of elements. They are buried in coal-rich soil." Zack pulls up a map.

"Ya gotta narrow it down, Zack."

"Keep going, Zack."

Zack starts rambling. "Uh - mineral components of coal are all the same. It's the organic components that provide a unique fingerprint." he starts to zone in on Chelsea & Hodgins's location. " They are called, macerals. They fluoresce at different levels. A reflectance of 1.4 is quite rare - suggesting a high concentration of inertinite."

"Zack, tell me what that means."

Angela smiles. " It means he knows where they are."

"Zack..."

Zack pinpoints a spot on the map. " I know where they are."

Chelse has jumper cables set up across the dashboard of the car.

"Can this possibly work?" Hodgins asks.

Chelsea was panting out of breath. " I'm not really an expl*sives expert...but the dash might shape the charge enough to blow out the windshield. If we're less than 4 feet beneath the surface, this charge could blow us to freedom."

"And if we're buried more than 4 feet deep?"

Chelsea sighs. "Then the concussion will turn our brains into jelly."

"Well, then we can run for Congress, so it's a win-win."

Chelsea laughs. " We should get as far away from the explosion as possible."

"I already am." he extends his hand. " Care to join me."

The group arrives at what appears to be a quarry with extra help from the FBI and stands on the edge of a hill, looking over the area below in hopes that they'll see something that will lead them to Chelsea and Hodgins.

"Come on, people. They gotta be here. Just look for anything tire tracks, recent digging, mounds, depressions, anything."

Chelsea is huddled up next to Hodgins. "Ready?"

"Yeah. Dr.Swan. It's been a privilege. He extends his hand to her, but instead, she hugs him and holds him tightly. Tears formed in her eyes. You can see the fear in both of them.

Booth looking out over the quarry. Hodgins prepares to connect the two wires that will cause the airbags to explode..he slowly put them together...Booth is looking out over the quarry. He spots a puff of dust shooting through the ground; the explosion from the airbags. He bolts over and starts digging. He digs through the dirt and finds a hand. Chelsea's hand. He pulls her out and she lays there in the dirt, passing out as he helps everyone else arrives to help dig out Hodgins.

Hodgins coughs then reach up and touches Zack's head. Angela wipes the dirt off Hodgins's face, then leans down and kisses him. Everyone is alive and well. Angela, Zack, and Hodgins are together.

"Cherry? Hey?" Booth was cupping her face.

"She needs sugar. Her glucose."

Booth picks her up and carries her back to the ambulance, where they give her fluid and some sugar. She wakes up confused and disoriented panic in her eyes.

"Hey, Cherry, it's me your safe I am here, it's okay baby I am here." she just hugs him slamming her body into his body the two hugging each other for what felt like years.

It's a new day. Booth and Chelsea are sitting in the first pew Booth is praying. He finishes his prayer and sits back.

"What did you ask for?"

"That's between me and a certain Saint. Although, I did ask for a little help finding The Grave Digger."

Chelsea nods. " Good move." she sniffs the air. " What's that smell?"

"The candles. And I said Thanks. You should try it sometime."

"Oh please if I wanted to pray I would've before we set off the explosion."

"And you didn't?"

Chelsea "I stopped believing in god when my parents left me."

"Shhhh. Do you see where we are?"

" And if I were someone who believed he had a plan..." Chelsea continues.

"which I do..."

She sighs. "Then I'd be tempted to think He wanted me to go through something like I went through because it might make me more open to the whole....concept."

"Mhmm. It obviously hasn't."

"I'm okay with you thanking God for saving me and Hodgins." Chelsea was smiling at Booth.

"That's not what I thanked Him for. I thanked Him for saving...all of us. It was all of us. Every. Single. One. You take one of us away, and you and Hodgins are in that hole forever. And I'm thankful for that."

Chelsea's voice broke a bit. " I knew you wouldn't give up."

"I knew you wouldn't give up."

Word count: 7020