Forever Means Always -- Rated T

Posted 13/11/2007 09:33:42 (13/11/2007 00:33:42 AM) DBAngelfan

more more...yeah he should just tell her already.

Chapter Six: Emily Andrews

Booth tried not to think about the past couple of days as he walked into the Jeffersonian institute the next day. It was just after 8 and he wasn’t at all surprised to see Bones already working on the main platform. Swiping his pass card he took the stairs two at a time and strode over to the examination table where she was working.

“So Bones, what’ve we got?” He asked in a falsely cheery voice. Brennan looked up from where she was examining the victim’s skull.

“Well, as I said yesterday I am pretty sure that the victim is female. I am just finishing my examination here and then I have to get these tissue markers done for Ange so she can try to get an I.D. When she gets here…” She added the last part in a barely audible whisper. Booth grinned.

“Come on Bones, not everyone gets here at 6 o’clock in the morning. Just because Angela displays moderately human tendencies…” He gave her that lopsided grin and she rolled her eyes at him, a smiled spreading across her own face. It wasn’t quite the reaction that Booth was expecting. That was until he heard someone talk behind him, making him jump about a foot in the air.

“Only moderately human ‘ay Booth..?” Angela’s voice floated across the raised forensics platform. The bubbly artist grinned as a slight flush spread up Booth’s neck and across his cheeks. Angela raised her eyebrows at Brennan who smiled.

“I’ll have the skull for you in a couple of hours Ange; I have to show Booth what I found.”

“Sure thing sweetie. I’ll be in my office when you need me.” She turned to Booth, walking backwards towards her office.

“Oh and Booth, for future reference, find out why I’m late before your refer to me as even remotely human.” She raised her eyebrows at him. He nodded at her, easily following her innuendo. He glanced up at Bones and chuckled when he saw that she had already gone back to her work and missed the whole exchange.

“Anything else you have discovered in your early morning examination Bones?”

“Yes, along with the breaks to the Ulna, radii, clavicles, scapula and ribs I also found a number of fractures along the victims toes.”

Booth looked up at this. “Caused by what?” He asked curiously. Booth wondered if it was torture and decided to voice his thoughts. “Torture..?” He hoped to God that it wasn’t.

“I don’t think so. From the path of the fractures it appears as though they were caused by pressure to the top of the foot, a weight, as if she dropped something on them, not from beating as such. But of the 4 that I saw they are mostly healed however it appears that they were caused at different times.” Booth let out his breath as she finished talking, at least she hadn’t be tortured but if all her broken bones were anything to go by she had been beaten badly, and regularly. Booth shuddered, how could anyone do that to a little girl? He knew what he would do if anyone so much as even thought about touching Elizabeth, they would be dead. This train of thought caused him to stiffen and his anger levels to rise.

“What on earth happened to this girl?” Booth whispered under his breath, more to himself than Brennan. She seemed to hear him nevertheless and answered.

“Well, I confirmed that the blow to the occipital was the cause of death.” Booth watched as Bones moved and picked up the skull turning it over and pointing at the deep cracks along the back of the pale coloured bone.

“But because of the position of the crack on the cranium and the dispersion pattern of the fractures she must have been hit in a very awkward position.” She was stopped by Zach returning to the platform, he whispered something to Brennan who nodded; he then moved to stand a few paces behind the anthropologist.

“But there is more…” Brennan dropped off and Booth looked up hoping to gauge what kind of ‘more’ it was but her eyes were devoid of emotion.

“What..?” He asked apprehensively he didn’t like the sound of Brennan’s voice. Did he really want to know what this girl had been through?

“I also found more fractures on her cranium, along her Nasal bones and across her left Zygomatic bone.”

“And her what bone?” Booth gulped, she had fractures on her head, how had this kid been beaten? What kind of psycho beat a kid like that?

“Her left cheek bone” Brennan showed him on the girls skull, tracing her finger down around the outside of her eye socket and stopping just under where he nose would have ended. Booth saw the feint line of a crack diagonally across the bones, starting at the base of her nose and running up past her eye socket.

“What could that have been caused by?” Booth bristled.

“I don’t know Booth, maybe because she was struck, or because she fell. Whatever it was it had healed completely before her death.” Booth thought he caught almost a slight hint of resignation in her voice.

Brennan set the skull onto the examination table and looked over to Booth.

“What are you saying Bones? How was this little girl murdered?”

“Well, as I said, from the position of the blow, she would have had to have been hit from below.”

“What..?” Booth asked confused “Hit from below?”

“Well, the blow came up from the ground, not down onto her from above.” Brennan tried to summarise but she was cut off by Booth.

“But how would that have worked? You mean her killer was shorter than her?” It was Zach’s turn to step in and he answered Booth’s question.

“No, not smaller than her, the murderer would have had to have been considerably bigger and stronger to cause that sort of damage to her cranium.”

“What are you getting at Zach?” Booth spat tersely at him, the kid really got on his nerves. Bones frowned at him.

“Well…” He swung his arms as if he was playing golf however Booth had a sneaking suspicion that Zach hadn’t realised it himself. “It could have been like this…” And he swung at nothing. Booth nodded. Someone could definitely get enough power swinging like that to kill a small child.

“So like a golf swing?” He voiced Zach’s movement.

“Yes, exactly like that although I can’t confirm what she was hit with yet, but a golf club is a very likely possibility. A smaller club though.” Brennan nodded enthusiastically.

“However we would have to find one that matched the shape of the depression in the bone…” Booth nodded he knew this.

“Do we have any idea about who this little girl is yet?” He wanted to get the case moving, this was all taking far too long in his opinion. He needed to get the sick-o who did this behind bars.

“Not yet, I still have to put tissue markers on the skull and give it to Ange to put through the Angelator and see if we can get a hit on missing persons.”

“Well can we hurry up? I want to get this cause moving. Has Hodgins got anything yet?” Booth’s agitation was showing in his voice now and his temper was rising, he knew that he needed to stop making the case personal and that if he didn’t his temper was just going to get worse. He couldn’t afford any more accidents like the other day. But as he looked over at Brennan he knew that he had overstepped the line with his last words. There was a shadow of hurt playing in the depth of her blue eyes as she looked at him.

“Not much” The entomologist answered “Only that the body was not moved once she had been buried, however I don’t think that the body was killed in that ravine, there were trace elements of Methylbenzene, she was moved to the ravine and her body dumped there.”

“So she wasn’t moved after that initial dumping?” Booth clarified.

“No, I don’t believe so; however Methylbenzene, also known as Toluene is used in almost everything, from Auto paints to garden fertilizers and household cleaners it will be practically impossible to determine the exact sight of her murder.”

“Damn!” Booth yelled stamping his foot like an angry three year old. All three scientists looked shocked. Booth looked up at Temperance who spoke.

“Booth, I think that you should go and take a break, write up a report. I’ll get to work on the tissue markers for Angela and Hodgins can work on that chemical breakdown and I’ll call you after lunch.” The equanimity in her tone surprised him.

Booth knew that she was trying to get rid of him because of his out bursts and he wondered id she was worried that he would yell at her like he did the other night in the car park in front of her squints. He didn’t want to leave though. He wanted to be here the minuet anything came up.

“Don’t worry Bones, I don’t mind waiting. How about I hang out in your office?” He said making a conscious effort to soften his tone of voice. She looked apprehensive although she didn’t refuse him.

“Okay Booth, if you are sure, just as long as you don’t get in our way while we are working.” Booth smiled, relived that she didn’t kick him out.

“Cross my heart Bones” Brennan looked up at him.

“How would you cross you heart Booth? That is physically possible.”

Booth laughed at that despite his current mood. At least she was back to her old self.

“It is an expression Bones, it is just a way of saying ‘I promise’” He explained to her, the way he would explain something to Parker. She frowned, crinkling up her brow and scrunching her nose.

“Then why didn’t you just say ‘I promise’ Booth?” She asked quizzically

“Just because Bones…” He sighed and moved to her open office door. Sometimes her lack of knowledge of pop culture and colloquial language still surprised him. Brennan shook her head and turned back to the remains. She didn’t understand why people didn’t just say what they meant.

Booth settled himself onto Bones’ couch and lent back, pressing into the soft plush of the cushions. He knew that he was letting this case get to him. The process wasn’t taking any longer than usual so he knew that he had no right to jump the squints for information he knew that they would not normally have at this stage in the investigation. Sighing he let his thoughts drift yet again.

He thought about his son. Parker had always wanted a brother or sister and now he had one. Booth wondered if he should tell Rebecca and Parker about Elizabeth or if he should keep it from them, at least for now, like he was doing with everyone else. He knew that if he told either one or both of them that he would run the risk of the squints finding out from them and not from him.

He knew that Parker was fond of them, especially Hodgins and his bugs. He also knew for a fact that Rebecca and Bones had talked in the past. He wanted his son to know about his sister, he knew that he was going to tell Elizabeth about Parker. But he didn’t want anyone else to find out about her. However he also knew that it was unfair of him to keep this from Parker

This adamant feeling made him wonder why. Why didn’t he want Bones’ and the other Squints to know about Elizabeth? Was he worried about what they would say? What they would think of him because he had another child out of wedlock and her mother was afraid to tell him? Why would Bones’ care, she didn’t hold Parker against him so why should she care about Elizabeth. This made Booth worry, was it him who was ashamed of her? Was he the one who was ashamed of his daughter? The very thought made him feel sick and he felt the anger that had been bubbling just under the surface all day begin to rise and rear its ugly head once again.

“Booth” Bones voice cut through his thoughts and brought him back to the here and now.

“Yes?” He asked; possibly a little too harshly.

“I have finished the tissue markers and Angela is about to input the information into the Angelator if you would like to come.”

“Right, great, I’m coming Bones” Booth tried to lighten his tone but from the look on Brennan’s face he didn’t have much success. As he followed her out of her office and through the lab to Angela’s office Booth thought that this thinking, getting completely lost in his thoughts for hours at a time was becoming an increasing very bad habit. And he knew that sometime soon it was going to get him into a lot of trouble.

Angela looked up as they strode into her office.

“I have inputted the tissue depths that Brennan gave me into the programme and…” Angela drifted off as she plugged some information onto her hand held remote, she looked up when a holographic image came floating into view. “This is what we have got.” She finished.

A small skull floated momentarily in the now silent office before it was covered in flesh. The face of the small girl turned slowly in front of the three colleagues. The image made Booth feel slightly sick, the girl was pretty, her eyes closed he watched as her face rotate in the air before him. Brennan was the first one to speak.

“Ange, the testes on her hair follicles showed that she had brown hair, can you add that in for us?”

Silently Angela fiddled with her remote and brown wavy hair appeared on the image. They all stood there in silence for a few more moments. Booth studied the face, he was sure that he had seen this little girl somewhere before. He couldn’t shake the feeling of déja vu that was slowly settling over him the longer he studied the image of the girl.

“Okay, do we want to run the image through the missing person’s database and see if we get a hit? We might finally be able to put a name to this little girls face.” The sound of Bones’ soft voice startled him. Booth wondered why he was suddenly so jumpy.

Without a word he moved across to Angela’s computer and settled himself to her right, peering over her shoulder as she brought up there picture of the girl in the ravine and began to run it against the missing kids within their age range. Booth prayed that they would get a hit so that they could name this girl and get into contact with her parents and relatives. He didn’t want to think about how much agony they must be in with their daughter missing.

“I have one…” Angela said softly, pausing as she read the information that the file gave them in her head. Booth looked at the photo of the young girl; she had light brown wavy hair and bright blue eyes. She was smiling up at the camera with a carefree grin on her face, she shouldn’t be dead.

“Emily Andrews, 12 year’s old born in Virginia, disappeared 1 month ago while she was competing in a horse show…” Angela began to read aloud.

“Of course!” Brennan exclaimed as this last bit of information was read.

Booth frowned.

“What?” He questioned her.

“Horse riding, it would explain how she obtained the ware to her ankles and knees.” It was Angela’s turn to frown this time.

“But she was only 12, how much riding would she have had to do to get that much ware?”

“A lot” Brennan admitted nodding, “But it is fitting with the damage.”

“You got an address on that Angela?” Booth asked. He wanted to find her parents and give them the news about their daughter. He also wanted to see who had been bashing her around when she was alive, it was quite possible that they were the one who was murdered her and dumped her body so heartlessly in a ravine.

“Sure do, her home address is… 2005-2009 Sleepy Hollow Road, Lake Barcroft, Virginia” Booth looked up at her.

“She lived across 3 blocks? Are you sure?”

“All I can go on Booth is what is in the missing persons report; hang on while I bring up the case file.”

Booth glanced at Brennan who looked solemn while Angela pulled Emily’s case file onto her computer screen.

“Here we go…” Angela muttered as the case file filled her screen. She began to read the report aloud to the others.

“Emily Andrews disappeared a month ago while she was competing at the Emerson Three Day Event; initial suspect was her Uncle, Robert Andrews who had been arguing with her parents over her competing. He denied all the allegations and was later released when there was not enough evidence to hold him. Her parent’s never received a demand for ransom.”

“It looks like she just disappeared…” Brennan muttered.

“Until now…” Booth said icily “Bones, grab your coat. We are going to pay Emily’s parents a visit.” He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at the open door and then proceeded to drag her from the room despite her vehement protests that she was more use at the lab and that she had work to do.

“Why do I always feel like you are kidnapping me Booth?” Temperance asked him in a somewhat mordant tone.

“Come on Bones, I need you to help me explain to these people what happened to their daughter and catch them if they lie about how she sustained all those injuries when I question them.”

“Fine” She grumbled “but I’m driving!”

“Not a chance. Let’s go” He said firmly, placing his hand in the small of her back, leading her assertively towards the doors of the Jeffersonian Medico-legal lab and out into the car-park towards his waiting SUV. He didn’t push it by trying to open the door for her.

Posted 16/11/2007 11:17:13 (16/11/2007 02:17:13 AM) DBAngelfan

nice siggy

more more...Tell her already!

Thanks Anglefan. I like my siggie too

Chapter Seven: Still Smoking


It was another one of their new silent car trips up to Virginia. Booth stared at the road as they drove, occasionally glancing across to look at his partner. Bones was sitting there poring over Emily’s missing person’s case file.

He was frustrated at himself that he had let things come to this. He hated this sudden lack of…them. In a split second he had changed their entire dynamic. And he was kicking himself for it. Repeatedly.

It seemed the more he went on the further she pushed him away; detached herself from their friendship. They were going backwards and he hated it; hated himself for it ever coming to this. He could feel the void forming and he just hoped that he could fix it before it swallowed them and everything they had into its deep dark depths. He knew what he had to do; he just needed to find the right time he told himself, just needed to find the right way.

As Booth turned onto Sleepy Hollow road they began to fly past big old farmhouses set back from the road. Long winding drives and big tall fur trees. Booth began to slow the car down as he thought they were reaching the property.

When the car began to slow Bones looked up and began to take in her surroundings.

“Are we nearly there?” She questioned. Booth nodded.

“I think so; we should be coming up on it…” He trailed off as they came into view of the property. Bones looked at him as his voice dropped away.

“I guess we are here.” She said craning her head for a better look over the land.

“Thankyou for stating the obvious Bones” Booth started in a dry tone

“No need to get defensive Booth. I know that you have problems dealing with people who are socially and financially better off than you, but that is no need to get narky.”

“I’m not getting ‘narky’ Bones and I am not jealous” Booth said through gritted teeth.

“I never said you were I was just stating that…” But Booth cut her off before she had a chance to finish her sentence. He really didn’t need to be psycho analysed by Bones at the moment.

“Let’s just get this over with Bones” Booth finally managed as they turned through the massive metal gates. Booth saw a sign as they entered. Blackwood Park Performance horse Stud. He slowed down up the dive, there were other drives branching out off it and Booth had no idea how to reach the house. He looked over at Brennan when he felt her tap his arm softly.

“What?” He asked slightly agitated. Her eyes flickered for a moment before she pointed to a sign beside the drive telling them that the office was straight ahead.

“You think we should try the office?” He asked. Brennan looked around and Booth thought he saw her roll her eyes.

“I think that it is probably out best bet, I doubt that they would be home, this place looks pretty busy.”

Booth nodded and continued up the drive. A small house soon came into view. There was a sign next to the steps that led to the veranda. Office it read. Booth let out a low whistle and Brennan frowned at him quizzically.

“Nice office” He stressed.

“Come on Booth” Brennan laughed. “Let’s get this over with” And she began to move towards the office door. Booth followed coming up beside her and slipping his hand into the small of her back as they reached the steps and smiling slightly when she didn’t pull away from his touch.

“May I help you?”

Booth looked up at the woman who had spoken. She was a bit shorter than Brennan with soft blond hair and brilliant green eyes. Booth held out his hand to shake hers before he realised that it was sitting in a sling, comfortably tucked up onto the woman’s chest by a tight white cloth. He dropped his hand back to his side and shifted slightly uncomfortably.

“Yes you may. I am Special Agent Seeley Booth; FBI. And this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan of the Jeffersonian Institute. We are looking for Mr. and Mrs Andrews. It is in regards to their daughter, Emily Andrews and her missing person’s case.”

Booth watched as the woman before him sat down and looked up at him, tears glistening in her eyes.

“You found her?” The hope in the woman’s voice made Booth’s heart shatter.

“You’re Mrs. Andrews?” He asked.

“Yes, I am Emily’s mother. Did you find her?” She questioned again the hope evident on her voice.

“Yes we did” Booth stated gravely. Mrs. Andrews did not seem to have picked up on what his sever tone alluded to.

“Where? Is she alright? When can I see her?” The poor woman gushed craning her head to the side trying to see if they had brought her with them. Booth placed a hand on her good arm softly, looking into her eyes.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Andrews, but we found Emily’s body a few days ago, I am so sorry, but Emily is dead.”

Mrs. Andrews broke down completely at the news. Booth could only look on helplessly as this mother came to the realisation that her daughter was dead.

“No. No. NO!” She wailed. Booth moved to comfort her but she shrugged him of, composing herself slightly.

“Mrs. Andrews. I know this is hard but Dr. Brennan and I need to speak to you and your husband for a moment. Do you know where he is?”

“Yes, he’s out in the yards with the yearlings. I’ll take you out there now.” She muffled into her hands. Standing up she gestured for him and Bones to follow her out the back of the office and down another set of stairs, silent tears still slipping down her face. As they moved across an immaculately kept lawn Booth began to hear men’s shouts.

“Keep him calm Jeffery…”

“Hold still there!”

“Move you fools!” Came the last shout before the indisputable sound of a gunshot rung out across the lawn. He felt Bones jump slightly beside him and he placed his hand on her back again.

“Howard!” Mrs. Andrews yelled hurriedly wiping the tears from her face and eyes.

“What is it Honey?” The sound of the voice they had heard only moments before came floating towards them.

“We have some visitors.” She yelled as a tall dark haired man came running up to them holding a 22. Shotgun in his hand; it was still smoking slightly and Booth caught the unmistakable whiff of gunpowder on the air. “They are here about Emily” She added more softly as he stopped by her side.

“Howard. This is Special Agent Seeley Booth and his partner Dr. Temperance Brennan.” She motioned to each of them as she spoke their names. “This is my Husband Howard. Oh and I am Olivia.”

“Nice to meet you Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan.” Howard said shortly as he shook both their hands in a brief and curt handshake. He looked at his wife and saw at once the sadness in her eyes and her tearstained face.

“Let’s take this inside shall we.” Howard motioned to the office standing behind them. Brennan noted his rather resigned tone of voice. She was sure that he knew exactly what was coming and she wondered briefly if Booth had picked up on the vibe that was emanating from the man too.

“I think we better.” Booth said solemnly. Brennan noted how devoid of emotion his tone was and took it as a sign that he had registered the vibe from Howard and was going to question him about it later. It Brennan a moment to realise that the rest of the party had moved off in the direction of the office.

“Bones” Booth called over his shoulder, gesturing to Brennan who was still standing motionless in the middle of the immaculate lawn that led towards the barns. She jolted and then smiled at him. The smiled did not reach her eyes. She then quickly jogged to catch up to him, slipping easily into step beside him as they ascended the stairs back into the large office building.

Once inside Howard led them down a corridor and into a private room. He gestured to a small red lounge up against a wall.

“Please sit down.” As asked in a hard tone. Both Brennan and Booth complied with his request. Booth sank into the soft seat but resisted the urge to lean backwards into the back of the couch and instead sat upright, facing Olivia and Howard; both of who had placed themselves in seats opposite the couch.

Booth looked around the room, it was full of photos that hung on the walls and were placed on the desk and bookshelves. They were all, Booth noted, of a small brown haired girl riding different horses. Some of her jumping huge jumps, bareback on the farm or covered in ribbons and trophies. He knew at once that they were all of Emily.

“So” Howard was the first to break the silence that had descended over the room like a blanket. “You are here about Emily?” He ended rather lamely Brennan thought.

“Yes, we are Mr Andrews.”

“And..?” He pushed impatiently effectively cutting Booth off; Brennan thought that the man was insufferable and rude. Booth however was not pashed by Howard’s rudeness and he continued calmly as if he hadn’t been interrupted moments before.

“As I told your wife; we found Emily’s body two days ago.” His voice was full of sadness and Brennan turned to him. Booth never let his personal feelings show during an interrogation. She frowned as he continued in a very un-Booth-like way.

“At the bottom of a Ravine in Hemlock Overlook Regional Park, Clifton”

“Can we see her? Her body I mean. I just have to see her; I have to see for myself that it was Emily that you found. What if you are wrong?” Olivia spoke in a quiet tone full of emotion.

“Olivia, Dr. Brennan if a forensic anthropologist, she is called into cases when the victim’s body is too…too decomposed for a human identification.” He said before Brennan could open her mouth “I am so sorry.” He added softly.

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked, needing clarification. Brennan was beginning to get irritable, how thick was this woman? ‘Too decomposed’ sort of conveyed the information Booth was trying to get across to the woman. She opened her mouth to talk but she was yet again cut off by Booth answering before her.

“I mean, Mrs Andrews, that there is nothing recognisable about Emily’s remains, she is only a skeleton.” At these words Olivia broke down into tears. Howard put his arm around her and turned to Booth.

“How do you know it is her then?” He stated brusquely.

“Because Mr. Andrews we have the best forensics tea around. Dr. Brennan here puts tissue markers on your daughters skull and our Artist in residence Miss Angela Montenegro ran your daughters reconstruction though the database for missing and exploited youths.”

“Do you have any idea about what the hell happened to my daughter?” He asked gruffly, his voice thick with an emotion that Brennan couldn’t read. She wondered if Booth could.

“From Dr. Brennan’s examinations so far we believe that her death was caused by blunt force trauma to the head, caused by a single blow.”

“Oh” Mrs. Andrews gasped as the words left Booth mouth. Brennan turned to Booth a frown evident on her face.

“Was she killed where you found her Agent Booth?” Howard asked flatly. His arm tightening around his wife’s shoulders and his piercing gaze directed straight at Booth.

“No, once of our scientists Dr. Jack Hodgins, found a chemical in the wound. We believe that she was murdered somewhere else and then dumped in the ravine to try and make it seem as though she fell from the path.”

Brennan was confused now. Why on earth was he sharing so much evidence, confidential evidence might she add with one of their main suspects? Where was the Booth that she knew?

“We just have a few questions for you both while we are here though. I know this is a hard time but they will help speed our investigation into your daughter’s death.”

“Of course Agent Booth. Anything to help with the investigation.” Howard said in his gruff voice.

“Dr Brennan found a lot of breaks to Emily’s bones. She had multiple fractures along her arms as well as her toes and ribs. She also had breaks along her collarbone, shoulder blade and her cheek and eye socket. Do you know anything about how all these injuries were sustained?” Booth asked, his voice full of concern and curiosity, not the tone he normally used when questioning suspects.

Howard looked at Olivia and then at Booth, but it surprised both of them when Olivia was the one to talk.

“Agent Booth” She said in a calm voice “I know how you think those injuries were sustained. However you are wrong, Emily was not abused by either, me, my husband or anyone else who lives on this property. Emily was an Eventer. She has been riding horses since before she could walk and competing since she was 5. She was an incredible rider for her age and was competing against girls almost 7 years older than herself. She was incredibly mature but being a young child she had no fear. I’m not sure if either of you are sure about what Eventing is, but one component of it involves galloping around a course full of solid jumps. As well as Showjumps. Emily has fallen more times than anyone can count and that is how she broke her bones, not from physical abuse. From her incredible confidence in herself. If you had seen her ‘play’ you would have been horrified Agent Booth.”

“So she sustained all her broken bones via falls from horses?” Brennan finally spoke up in a harsh and blunt tone. It was obvious that she did not believe their story.

“That is what my wife just said Dr. Brennan” Howard said vehemently. Brennan turned a cool stare on the man.

“Mr Andrews, are you aware that all firearms that you posses must be registered with the National Firearms Association of America.” She raised her eyebrows.

“Yes Dr. Brennan I am. The firearm you saw me holding before is registered, along with my other guns and all the guns on this property. ” He replied just as coolly. Both Booth and Olivia watched this exchange unfold before them. Booth opened his mouth as he could see the look on Bones’ face but this time it was her turn to but him off before he could get any words out of his mouth.

“What were you doing with the gun before we interrupted then Mr. Andrews?” She stared him down, her icy blue gaze not wavering.

“I was shooting one of the yearlings” He grinned as a look of shock passed over her face.

“Why did you shoot it?” She asked in shock

“Because it broke its leg...” Howard replied indifferently. Olivia decided to butt in here and stop Howard and Brennan from leaping on each other. Booth was getting angry with Brennan, how could she be so insensitive to these people. They had just lost their daughter for god sakes.

“Dr. Brennan, you obviously haven’t spent much time around horses, they are very different from humans and even other animals, once a horse has broken it’s leg, especially a performance horse there is very little you can do and they will most probably always be in pain. Once a horse breaks its leg it is put down. We shoot our horses because it is more humane that way. It is never pleasant but it has to be done.” She tired to reason with the stubborn scientist but Booth could see that Brennan wasn’t convinced at all. But as she opened her mouth Booth cut her off.

“Thankyou so much for your time Mr and Mrs Andrews, here is my card...” He pulled his business card from the inside pocket of his jacket and handed it across to Olivia who took it and looked down at what was written on the small rectangle of card. She looked back up as Booth continued to speak, thumbing the edges of the card nervously.

“We should be going, but we will be in touch and if either of you have any questions about the case; feel free to give me a call or we can either set up a meeting or chat over the phone. We will need to have access to Emily’s room and any electronic devise that she owned or used such as a mobile phone or a computer. But I’ll call about all that tomorrow.”

“But Booth…” Temperance cut in, her tone a mixture of incredulity, confusion and anger. Why was he stopping now? Why were they giving the Andrews time to hide evidence? Why was he telling them where they were going to look for evidence? Why had he shared so much about the case with them? Why hadn’t they taken Mr. Andrews in for questioning? Why had he not asked his wife about her broken arm?

This was not how Booth usually handled cases. He never left gaps and gave suspects a chance to cover their tracks. He never told victims families about the intermit details of the case and body. She didn’t even think that he was aloud to share those things with the families, or anyone for that matter, off of record.

Whatever was going on with Booth was interfering with his work. She saw it now, it just wasn’t their partnership that was suffering because of his sudden change of mood and attitude, it was interfering with other aspects of his work and he couldn’t even see it. He was letting his personal feelings cloud his judgment. She was not going to let this one go, not this time. She needed to know what was going on.

“No, we are leaving” He growled quietly in her direction “Now” Brennan saw the fury smouldering behind his eyes and it only fuelled her growing irritation and antipathy towards Booth and his secret.

Both Booth and Brennan stood up as he finished both of them in somewhat irate moods. Olivia and Howard followed suit and they again made there way down the hall of the office and out into the fresh air. They all stopped on the veranda. Booth let out a long slow breath and turned once again to Emily’s grieving parents.

“Again, thank you so much for your time and we will be in touch with you both very soon. I am so very sorry for your loss and I…” he caught himself, but not before Brennan picked up on his slip. “We will do anything and everything we can to catch the person responsible for your little girls death.”

“Thank you very much Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan. It is a relief to finally know where our daughter is. Now all we need is to know what happened to her.” Howard spoke to Booth in the softest tone Brennan had heard out of his mouth all afternoon.

“I will find out, I promise you that. I need…want to find this perp as much as you do Mr and Mrs Andrews, mark my words on that.”

This time Howard only nodded. Brennan rolled her eyes and moved off towards the car without saying goodbye. She had only been allowed about two words the whole interrogation anyway, and they hadn’t gotten much. Why should she say goodbye? Booth could do it for her. She yanked open the passenger side door of the big black SUV and pulled herself in, slamming the door behind her, hoping to give Booth the hint that she wanted to get moving. She wanted to get home before midnight.

Booth looked over at the car when he heard the door slam. Agh, how could she be so rude and inconsiderate? Booth thought to himself viciously. He turned back to the Andrews.

“Excuse me” He said and then turned around making his way over to the car. He could feel his blood beginning to boil. How could she make him so mad?

Booth yanked the door open and climbed into the driver’s seat, pulling the door closed behind him he turned on Bones.

“What the hell was that about?” He whispered fiercely to her.

“What the hell was what about Booth?” She spat back at him, how on earth could he turn this against her?

“How could you have been so rude to these people, they jut lost their daughter for fucks sake!” the volume of his voice had risen a little and he was almost shouting at her.

“How could I be so what? I was not rude Booth!”

“Yes you were! You practically accused that man of murdering his child! Tell me how that is not rude?”

“Look Booth! I was just asking the questions that you were obviously not going too. I don’t know what has gotten into you Booth but you really need to get a grip because it is affecting your work.”

“How is it affecting my work?” He asked her. This had nothing to do with Elizabeth; it wasn’t affecting him that much. Was it?

“Booth, how could you not see it? You just told those people nearly everything we know about the case, you know that is not on! You also just gave them time to hide evidence, why aren’t we looking through her room today? Why are we just letting them cover things up Booth? Tell me that?” What happened next Brennan was not expecting, rather than realise what he had done he began to yell at her.

“Look Bones would you just get of my back?” He screamed at her “You don’t know what it is like to have a child! You don’t know what it is like to not know, to be just hanging there without any information. You couldn’t possibly have any idea why they needed to know all that information about there daughter, needed to know what had happened to their little girl.”

As he continued Brennan sank further into her seat but still listened to what he was yelling at her, she needed to know what he was thinking; what was going on in his mind that was stopping him from functioning like normal.

“You don’t know what it is like to not know every little detail that is happing in your child’s life, not to be able to make decisions regarding them and not be able to see them, talk to them, and touch them. To have a complete lack of control over your child, something that you love so much and just want to protect, to not have any knowledge of your child and what has happened, is happening to them is just something I could not bare. Something I can’t bare.” His voice was steadily loosing conviction and strength during the last part of his tirade. “They just needed to know…” He whispered.

Brennan sat there, glued to her seat as Booth started the car and pulled out of the long drive. She went over and over the words that Booth had just yelled at her, trying to filter through and pull up it’s true meaning.

She wasn’t convinced that by the end of that Booth was talking about Emily or even Parker for that matter. She went through the speech one more time and she found the sentence she was looking for, the one she thought she had heard. “To not have any knowledge of your child and what has happened, is happening to them is just something I could not bare.”

Brennan realised that what had happened back there, with Emily’s parents was not only about Booth’s personal feelings but also to some extent his wants. His want for that if it was him in this situation he would want to be told everything that had happened to his child, that he would want to be given time to process the loss of his child and time to recover.

But why had this suddenly changed? It had never been and issue before with Parker. Not even when they had a case that related to a little boy and this case did not relate to him in any specific way. So why now? Why this case? What had changed to make Booth forget all his professionalism, and how to deal with cases.

Why had he suddenly found the personal need to solve his case? He had said ‘I’ not ‘we’. I will do anything I can to find this guy. Brennan needed to call Angela and ask what to do. Should she go through with her threat and sop working with him?

Booth was fuming. How could she just go and accuse him like that? He had only told those people what they wanted to know. They had just lost their daughter, they needed time to recover. Booth glanced over at Bones and saw her leaning her head against the cool glass window, staring out at the fields passing by. She was obviously thinking about something and Booth wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that he had just blown up at her again when he had promised not to.

Why on earth was this affecting him so much? If he couldn’t shut it out he knew that he was going to lose his partner. And he wasn’t sure that he could handle that at the moment, on top of everything else that had happened in the past couple of days.

Chapter Eight: Letter Bomb

After dropping Bones back at the Jeffersonian following yet another silent car trip. Booth headed straight for home. It was well past six and he just wasn’t in the mood to sit around in his office pretending to do paperwork. No, he would rather be at home wallowing in his own self pity, drowning his sorrows over a couple of beers.

Locking his SUV Booth plodded through the car park and made his way slowly up the stairs and into the large airy foyer of his apartment building. He nodded to the doorman and headed over to his mailbox. Pulling out his keys he rifled through them until he found the small silver key that unlocked the box and slid it into the small keyhole.

Booth didn’t know why but he suddenly felt as though he had butterflies in his stomach. Why was her nervous about opening his letterbox? It’s not like he was expecting a letter bomb. It depends what you define as a letter bomb his small voice had returned.

He twisted the key until he heard a soft click as the lock opened. Pulling down the lid he held his breath. What the hell was wrong with him? Get a grip he scolded himself it’s just the mail for gods’ sake. But he really knew why he was so nervous, Elizabeth. He wanted a letter from her.

The breath he was holding slipped from him as he picked up the few letters that he had. He flipped them one over the other as he inspected where the letters had originated; 2 bills and a postcard from his parents who were on holiday in the Bahamas and…a letter addressed from Australia.

Letters in hand Booth flipped the lid of the mailbox closed and locked it hurriedly before putting his keys back into his jacket pocket and running across to the elevators, jabbing the up button hastily. Stepping back he shifted from one foot to the other, fidgeting with the letters in his hand while he peered up at the dial that told him that the elevator was on level 2 and slowly, very slowly in his opinion making its way down towards the ground floor.

The doors dinged open and Booth rushed inside simultaneously pressing the close door button and the button for level 9. He settled back against the wall of the lift and closed his eyes, concentrating on his breathing. He wondered about the letter. Was it a letter from Lizzie, answering the questions he had asked in his last letter or was it a letter from Anna telling him not to write to his daughter anymore. His stomach tightened painfully at the thought. The doors slid open and Booth pushed himself off the wall and out into his hallway.

At his door he again pulled his keys out this time searching for the house-key, finding it he fumbled with it as he tried to shove it unceremoniously into the lock. He grumbled in frustration when he couldn’t get the key into the lock. Taking a deep breath he paused for a moment before calming himself and trying again. The key slid easily into the lock.

Pushing the door open Booth dumped the letters onto the coffee table and shed his jacket, draping it carelessly over the back of the couch he headed for the kitchen to grab himself a beer. He threw his keys on the counter and yanked open the door of the fridge, reaching down to pull a bottle of cold beer out of the door. Straightening up he unscrewed the cap and flung it in the direction of the bin before making his way back into the lounge room.

Settling himself on the couch Booth took a swig of his beer before setting it down on the coffee table and picking up the letters flipped through them until he found the one postmarked Australia. He felt his breathing hitch and he thumbed the edges of the paper before turning it over and sliding his thumb under the seal. Pulling it across he ripped the envelope open and pulled out the thin lined paper that her letter was written on from within.

He unfolded the pages, held his breath and began to read.

Dear Dad,

You know you can call me Lizzie. Elizabeth is just so long, mum is the only one who calls me that. When she is mad she adds in my second name too, whenever I hear ‘Elizabeth Isabelle…’ I can just tell what is going to come next. What a double name to have huh? Elizabeth Isabelle. Sometimes I wish you were here to talk her out of it. I have no idea what possessed her to give me a name like that! But I guess you already know that mum can be pretty persistent and dreadfully persuasive. She always says that I got that from her.

I don’t know how much mum told you in her letter, her brilliance and intellect aside she doesn’t have a propensity to be particularly articulate on paper. I wanted you to know about me as much for me as for you. I hate not having a dad. Mum works a lot so I have a nanny, I often get jealous of the girls at school who are always doing things with their dad when mine didn’t even know that I existed. So I guess I wanted you to know, so that I could have you too, as well as you having me.

You work with an anthropologist? That is so cool. I always found that kind of thing so interesting. I tried to teach myself all the bones in the human body, but I think I need a little more practice, I can never remember all the bones in the wrist. Some lunchtime’s I sit in the Science building at eat with the display skeleton they have there. I practice on him. Wait till I tell the kids at school that my dad works for the FBI.

Mum may have told you that I am a little advanced for my age? Well that is just what happens when you have a genius for a mother, kind of makes it easy to be smart. I am by far the youngest in my year; did you know that I will be graduating high school in next year? I’ll only be 13! Everyone else will be 18. I hate that sometimes I am younger than some of the girls in year 7 when I am in year 11. It can be really hard, everyone treats me like a freak. I can’t wait to finish but I have no idea what I want to do when I leave school, maybe I will travel. I could come and stay with you? I have dreamt of meeting you my whole life.

I did a short course last summer in forensic anthropology at Melbourne Uni, mum drove me all the way down into the city for it. I had such a blast and I even made friends with this really nice girl from Sydney. She found out about it from one of her clients who’s son was at Uni there and she knew that I might like to go, I am always watching crime shows, I like Cold Case the most, or Law and Order. But I don’t really watch them much, mum isn’t a big fan of TV she says that it will rot my brain so I only get to watch them when I am sick or she is out and I have a baby sitter. But that is happening more and more nowadays.

Mum is working on some massively big case with some high profile clients so that keeps her out of the house a lot. She won’t even tell me what it is about. But I know that it involves some big drug ring that was supposedly busted, she thinks I can’t hear her when she is on the phone at night. I think she is really worried about the case though, see seems all jumpy and distracted. I mean more than usual. And all these weird guys keep showing up at the house, which has never happened before, mum usually never lets clients come to the house. She says that it is too dangerous for them to know where we live. I think I agree too because these guys look like they could be in the mafia.

And as for my interests, they are pretty broad. I love sports and play, Field Hockey, Football, but I guess you call that soccer, lacrosse and Aussie Rules. I also love science and things like that. My favourite is Chemistry, because of all the experiments but I also love physics and biology, genetics is the best. That is what we are doing in Biology at the moment and this holiday’s mum is letting me go around with the local vet and I’ll get to sit in on all the surgeries. I think it will be so much fun.

Grandpa got me this really nice chemistry kit for my birthday last year and I think mum is worried that I am going to blow the house up so she made me move it to the shed. That is sort of my hideout now. I also love reading. I think that I have nearly read the whole library, I love antique books and my grandma left me her whole collection when she died, she was the best and I really miss her, but at least I have all her books, heaps of them even have all these annotations in them. I do that now, annotate books when I read, it makes me think about them and the different messages that the author was trying to portray through the story. Okay so now it is me who is rambling.

Say hi to all the ‘family’ at the lab dad, can you tell me more about them, such as to why you call them ‘Squints’? It seems a rather humorous name for a group of scientists to me. I know that you live in DC, so where does she work? Your anthropologist friend I mean, there are some pretty prestigious institutes around there. Oh and you never told me her name. I think that must be where I get my forgetfulness from dad, you. I am so forgetful I have to write everything down it gets very annoying after a while, especially when I can’t remember where I put my list.

Anyway, I better end this here because I could go on forever and then I would never make it to Hockey or football practice. Write to me soon dad. I want to know all about you too. Are you married? Do I have any brothers or sisters? I always wanted a brother or sister but I don’t think that mum will ever have anymore kids, she says I am way too much of a handful for her to even consider having another child even remotely like me. But she is also a bit wild and I don’t think she has even really dated since college, but she is happy enough. I think. I just wish that there were more of us, you know? I hate being lonely. She is always so wrapt up in her work, some weeks I don’t see her once, she leaves the house before I get up and gets back after I have gone to bed, she may as well not even exist.

Sometimes I wish that she had told you and you had done the manly thing and followed her out here, or she had stayed with you in America. I hate having a broken family. But I know she loves me. I just don’t see it much, she doesn’t understand me. I wish she did, I just want someone to talk to really. I just want her to listen and try to understand. She doesn’t even do that anymore. We used to have so much fun together, before she got this case. Now everything is work, work, and work. There is no time for fun anymore.

Yours forever,

Lizzie

Posted 22/11/2007 16:21:38 (22/11/2007 07:21:38 AM)
CheeseBK

I read this over at ff.net already and I really like it...

Chapter Nine: Close to Home

Booth sat back and stared silently at the paper in front of him. Yours forever. He smiled, she was his, all his and there was nothing anyone could do about it. She had called him Dad, and told him to call her Lizzie. He liked that name. Lizzie, he thought it suited her.

He skimmed the letter again, picking up on some of the finer points she had written, she was smart, he gave her that much. There were words there that he was sure were well above the normal vocabulary standards of a 12 year old. Propensity? She sounded just like Bones, but then he thought about the environment in which she would have been brought up in and was not surprised, Anna was smart, it was more than obvious that Lizzie was smart and so it was only fitting that she would have been exposed to more vocabulary than your normal child.

Reading the letter further he found a small feeling of worry begin to nestle in and settle itself way down in the pit of his stomach. Booth was glad that he was finally, after almost 12 years finding out all these things about his daughter, like the fact that she was smart and loved sports made him want to know more about her childhood. Like when did she start speaking and what was her first word? When were her first steps? He got a slight ache in the pit of his stomach at this. These were things that every father should know about their children. Yet he didn’t and it made him feel hopelessly inadequate.

As he continued to read between the lines he got the feeling that she was a bit of an outsider and didn’t have that many friends. From what she had said about school it seemed that she felt out of place being so young and she didn’t really fit in. She seemed so exited about telling her peers that he was with the FBI. He chuckled softly as he thought how that might gain her some credit with the people at school. He felt cheated that he couldn’t be there himself to show them.

The more he thought about the letter though, the more that feeling of worry seemed to fill his insides and the light feeling that had filled him to the brink when he had first skimmed it over began to disappear, sucked out of his insides like the heavy steam in a hot bathroom once the exhaust fan is turned on. Booth felt his stomach do a flip.

She had more than once mentioned Anna’s decreasing time at home and the strain of her current case. But it was the mention of the people turning up at her house, people who obviously looked threatening to Lizzie or she wouldn’t have mentioned it too him, she was worried. The fact that she had mentioned that they looked like they could be members of the mafia, which had that worry make its presence really well known to him. He felt his anxiety level rise; he’d had fist hand experience with angry gang members. He remembered all too well when Ortez had put a hit out on his Bones, what if the same thing happened to his daughter?

Booth stood. He had half a mind to just get in his car, drive to Dulles and board the next flight to Melbourne, Australia. However after a second his logic returned to him, he just couldn’t run away to Australia like that, as much as he wanted too. He needed more information first, he of all people knew how eccentric the mind of a child could be, and his own son was a testament to that. Boot sunk back down into the couch and dropped his head to his hands. How could things have gotten so incredibly messed up in just 3 short days?

He sat there, mulling things over in his mind. He didn’t know if Lizzie was in any immediate danger, she had mentioned that her mother wouldn’t tell her anything about the case and that she seemed worried and stressed. Booth collected his thoughts and decided on a course of action. He resolved to call Anna, talk to her in person and find out about this case, what was happening with Lizzie and maybe even ask if she could come and stay with him. He began to feel slight butterflies in his stomach at the thought of speaking to both Anna and his daughter after all these years.

---------------

Brennan sat in her office still fuming about what Booth had said in the car. Only know as she began to calm down slightly did she go over it in her mind. The more she thought about it the more she realised that there was something very big going on with Booth that he was hiding from her, hiding from them all. She thought for a brief second if she should, or even could, call Rebecca and ask her if she knew what was so obviously messing Booth up inside. But she knew that she couldn’t do that. Instead she picked up her phone and dialed the one person who she thought might at least have some answers for her.

As she listen to the dull ringing tones that floated into her ear something Booth said in his last tirade stood out to her. Something I can’t bare. He had said it himself when referring to the little girl Emily. Not knowing was something he couldn’t bare. He had told them because it was what he would want to be told if it was his daughter. But Booth didn’t have a daughter, only Parker. Even so Temperance was pretty sure that Parker wasn’t the one to whom he was referring when he had been yelling at her inside the car. A sound, a voice on the other end of the phone line brought her back to where she was, seated in her office and her phone at her ear.

“Hello? Hello?” Angela’s voice came thorough the handset, echoing in her ears as Brennan’s thoughts came beak to what she had been intending to tell the person on the other end of the line.

“Angela. It’s me” She said rather bluntly, as if it were plainly obvious as to whom Angela was talking. There was a pause.

“Hello me, and how are we today?” Came her sarcastic reply.

“Sorry Ange, its Temperance.”

“I had deduced as much sweetie; you just can’t seem to remember that when you are talking on the phone, and you call me, I can’t actually tell who you are unless you say something.”

Brennan nodded.

“I can’t see you when you nod either.” Angela’s voice came floating down the line once again when Tempe gave no immediate reply.

“Oh sorry Ange, yes I know.” Tempe blushed on the other end of the line.

“So. Why the call Bren?” Ange questioned her best friend.

“It’s Booth, Ange” There was another slight pause and when Angela realised that Brennan was not going to elaborate she prompted the scientist once again.

“What about Booth sweetie?” Angela heard a sigh on the other end of the line that was closely followed by her friend’s voice.

“He yelled at me again.”

“When?” Angela demanded.

“Just now, in the car”

“Why?” Yet another demand came.

“Ange just let me finish! Stop cutting me off!” Temperance nearly yelled down the line. There was a slight pause and then Angela’s apology.

“Sorry Bren, go on.” Temperance nodded and continued on with her story.

“Well, we had just finished interviewing the Andrews’ and I asked him why he had told them so much about the case and he just blew up at me.”

“Bren, rewind a bit. What happened during the interview?”

“Well, he got all…I don’t even know exactly how to explain in Ange, he was just telling them everything, all my findings and where everything had been found. I’m sure if we’d had any suspects he would have added that to his list of things to tell them. But it’s just so not Booth, Angela. He never gives out anything more than the bare minimum, why should this case be any different. I mean at the moment they are both our prime suspects! Why would he be telling them all this? And then you know what he did?”

Angela finally managed to get a look in, even if it was only a word. She said what Brennan wanted to hear. “What?”

“He just got up and left! Left them to stash the evidence and come up with a story! It is unbelievable Ange. I mean, I have absolutely no idea what has gotten into him over the past few days. Something has drastically changed and I just wonder why he hasn’t told me. I mean we’re partners for crying out loud!”

“Calm down Bren. I know you are partners but he isn’t obliged to tell you everything you know. You have to expect him to have some things he wants to keep to himself.”

“Yes, but what about when it is affecting his work like this?”

“What did he actually say to you sweetie?”

“I think his exact word were…‘You don’t know what it is like to not know every little detail that is happing in your child’s life, not to be able to make decisions regarding them and not be able to see them, talk to them, and touch them. To have a complete lack of control over your child, something that you love so much and just want to protect, to not have any knowledge of your child and what has happened, is happening to them is just something I could not bare. Something I can’t bare.’ What kind of an excuse is that Ange?”

There was nothing but silence on the other end of the line for quite a long while.

“Ange?” Brennan finally asked tentatively, as if worried about what her friend’s answer would be.

“Bren, don’t you see? This case has hit close to home.”

“What? I don’t know what you mean? How has it hit close to home? She lives over 2 hours out of DC.”

“That is not what I meant Sweetie; I mean that he has related it to him personally. He has transferred the situation across into his own life.”

“But, Booth doesn’t have a daughter?”

---------------

Still sitting there Booth decided to write another quick letter to Lizzie. He like writing to her, it calmed him somewhat; to be able to write his emotions down.


Dear Lizzie,

How are you sweetheart? Are you alright?

I’m glad to know that you like sports, I love Soccer too and Hockey. I have so much that I want to say but I will keep this brief, I’ll talk to you properly later on, after I have discussed some things with your mother.

Agh, another Squint. You’ll love Bones, and Zach. They both work at the lab. My Anthropologist friend is Dr. Temperance Brennan or Bones and she works at the Jeffersonian Institute. Have you ever heard of that? When you come over I will have to take you to the museum, it is amazing. Parker loves it there.

Anyway, keep safe baby and call me if anything happens at all. Alright?

All the love in the world,

Dad

Booth groaned as he thought about keeping her safe. Now he didn’t only have one rather wild, untamed, incurably brilliant and somewhat blunt woman to look after, he had two. He knew that this was only just the beginning or his troubles where these to women were concerned.

Posted 24/11/2007 10:31:12 (24/11/2007 01:31:12 AM) DBAngelfan

I want him to just talk to Brennan already!

Posted 24/11/2007 17:46:00 (24/11/2007 08:46:00 AM) ToZiKa

Me too...me too...he just has to talk to her.
I really can't understand why he didn't told her immediately about his daughter. He needs someone to talk to and Bones would just be the perfect person.

Chapter Ten: I Must Speak

Lizzie looked up briefly when she heard a crash downstairs. Brushing her golden-brown curls out of her face she bent back over her French workbook and continued to monotonously copy down simple verb conjugations. Muttering with her pen as it moved repeatedly across her page.

Je parle

“I speak”

Tu parles

“You speak”

Il parle

“He speaks”

Nous parlons

“We speak”

Vous parlez

“You speak”

Ils parlent

“They speak”

Je dois parler

“I must speak”

The small girl winced at the sound of shouting that was floating up the stairs. At the sound of the door slamming she heard the soft sound of her mother crying. Pushing her chair back from the desk she dropped her pen and stood, pushing the chair back in under the desk and turning to face the door. Moving slightly to the left she stood in front of the chair as her bedroom door opened.

“Come on Elizabeth, you need to get ready for bed. Come with me for your bath.” Alexandra, her nurse gestured to the scared girl to come to her side but Lizzie didn’t move.

“What happened?” Lizzie looked imploringly at her nurse as if willing her to answer her question this time. However, she received the answer she always did.

“Nothing Elizabeth, nothing happened, you’re letting your imagination run away with you again.” Alexandra looked at the small girl with eyes full of sympathy. She felt sorry for the small thing. Her mother was always busy with this new case and she barely saw Lizzie at all anymore. She knew the girl missed the attentions of her mother. The house had changed over the past year. Anna had gotten much stricter with Elizabeth and the rules had changed.

She had detached herself from Lizzie and while giving her almost any toy or book she wanted had changed the rules. The girl was no longer aloud to watch any television and she was to study 3 hours a day after school, she had to feed the girl by six and she was not allowed downstairs after that time. She had been pulled out of all her sports teams and music groups and an instructor now came to the house to teach her music instead of her staying after school to learn. Alex had to call her Elizabeth and not Lizzie or Liz as she had used to. All in all she felt like she was living in the Edwardian era.

Lizzie didn’t push Alex’s reply as she knew that she would get nothing out of her. Instead she walked forwards and let Alex lead her along the hallway to the bathroom.

An hour later when she was laying in bed she again began to think about what was going on around her. She knew that her mum was involved in a very high profile case. She was defending the leader of a drug mob and members had been showing up on days after court. She had been spending most of her time upstairs but she still heard parts of their conversations, before Alex came and hushed her away to her room.

She thought about the letter she had got that day from her father. He had told her to call. He was worried about her and for a second she thought she had told him too much. But the more Lizzie thought about it the more glad she was that her father was worried about her. She wanted him to love her, worry about her, put her first. Even though she had never met him Lizzie loved her dad so much. Her mother had told her a lot of stories about him and she had a few old photos from when they were both in Collage. But it made her worry that if it was that obvious to him that there was something wrong at home then she began to wonder how much trouble they were actually in.

Lizzie wasn’t stupid, she knew that things were going on with this case that were causing dangerous situation. She knew that her mother kept her upstairs so that she wouldn’t be there when they turned up. She was pretty sure that they didn’t even know she existed. Lizzie was glad for that. Sometimes she felt so suffocated at home. Alex was always with her and she knew that it was for her own safety but sometimes she just needed time alone. Just her and her mind. Alone to think about anything and everything.

On the weekends she was aloud to wander around all the properties and go anywhere she wanted, they knew all of their neighbours and no-one came down there road, it didn’t go anywhere. She would walk up to Rocky Ned’s and just sit on the rocks looking out across the valley. The view was amazing you could see forever. It was one of Ned Kelly’s lookouts; he would go up there to look out for the police in the valley below. Lizzie loved it so much up there, some days she would spend the whole day up there, take up a book and just read. Especially in summer when it was so hot. The walk up there was so nice too; they had spent her last birthday up there, just her, Alex and mum. But that was before the case, before her mother had started to ignore her, back when they were best friends and did everything together. Lizzie closed her eyes as she felt the hot tears begin to slip down her cheeks. She wanted her mum back. She wanted her dad. She hated her mum for leaving America without telling her father about her and she hated her dad for not following mum. She knew she couldn’t really blame her or him, but she just needed a vent for her frustration.

She wondered what her dad was doing right now. She knew that it would probably be day time over in America. Most probably morning. Getting up to go to work with Dr. Brennan at the Jeffersonian Institute. Lizzie wondered what she would be doing if she were over there with him now. Would she be going into work with him or getting ready for school? Lizzie was broken out of her réveille but a shout from downstairs. Sitting blot upright in bed she strained her ears to hear what was going on downstairs. Through all the shouting she was sure she could make out the phrase; “He warned you what the cost of losing the case would be for you Miss, so I would try harder.” Lizzie shrank back under the covers as she heard someone running up the stairs. She peeked her eyes out form over the top of the doona as her door creaked open. She breathed a sigh of relief as Alex walked in. The nurse moved across the dark room to where Lizzie was lying in bed and lay next to her. She pulled the small girl to her chest and wrapt her arms around her.

“It’s okay Lizzie, just try and sleep Sweetie.” Alex whispered to her while she wiped the tears from her face.

“What about mum?” Lizzie tired to be strong but she heard her voice crack.

“Your mum will be fine. Just try and sleep.” She hushed in her ear stroking her hair. As Lizzie’s breathing slowed out she shifted her weight and felt a crackle under her. She lifted her hip and reached under; pulling out the tearstained letter that Booth had sent Lizzie. She read it over quickly and closed her eyes. What would her father do if he knew the way his daughter was living? Alex decided, as she felt sleep begin to claim her, that she would call him, tell him what danger Lizzie and Anna were in. As her eyes closed she whispered to the sleeping Lizzie.

“Don’t worry Liz, your dad will protect you...”

Posted 25/11/2007 21:11:23 (25/11/2007 12:11:23 AM) ToZiKa

Wow it doesn't look like Lizzie is happy with her life anymore.
And her mum put her in too much danger just because of a case.
Maybe Liz can come to the USA and live with Booth for a while?

PPS

Chapter Eleven: What is ‘it’?

Booth strode into the Jeffersonian the next day with his mind a million miles away. As he headed towards Brennan’s office, a file of suspects tucked up under his arms he was thinking about his daughter, or more specifically, his daughter’s mother. He had loved Anna, but he hadn’t seen her or talked to her in over 12 years. He had decided last night that he had to call. He needed to speak to Anna, talk about how Lizzie was and what was going on at home, something Booth wasn’t very sure about. As it was coming up on the end of autumn he knew that it would be nearing the start of summer over in Australia and he desperately wanted to ask Anna if he could have Lizzie come and stay with him over her summer break. He just needed to get up the courage to talk to her now.

“Booth!” The sound of one very pissed off Angela broke though his thoughts.

“Huh?” Was his incoherent response as his mind slowly filtered back to the here-and-now.

“Huh? Huh?” was Angela’s reply as she took hold of his lower arm and pulled him roughly into her office, slamming the door behind them, she rounded on him.

“Huh? Is that all you really can say!? I can’t believe you Booth that night of the benefit was bad enough, but you apologized, she was hurt and vulnerable and then you go and be a complete arse and yell at her again!” Booth flinched as she raised her hand above her head, but she didn’t hi him, only gestured, waving her arms around her sides showing just how mad she was.

“She trusts you Booth, you are one of her best friends and now you are treating her like dirt. She thinks that you don’t trust her and it hurts her. She will detach Booth; she’ll become the old Bones you knew. The one who was all evidence and facts, she won’t trust you with anything.” Angela ran her hands though her hair and spun around 360 degrees. She looked back up at Booth and spoke again. “God, I can’t believe how much of an arse you are being.” Her voice was full of frustration and repressed anger.

“You need to detach Booth because at the rate you are going you are not going to have Brennan on this case anymore or any of the cases after this one.” Her tone softened slightly as she shifted gears.

“Look Booth, I don’t know what is going on and neither does Brennan but you need to detach from this case before you screw it and your partnership with Brennan up royally. Whatever if going on in that over-puffed head of yours. Deal with it. Or at least put it away while you are working. Brennan doesn’t need this from you, not now and not ever.” And with that Angela was gone. Booth blinked a few times and tried to digest what had just been said. He made his way from her office and continued onto Brennan’s the file of suspects still under his arm.

Temperance looked up when she heard a soft knock on the door. Booth was standing there. She was surprised to see that he was frowning slightly, as if thinking very hard about something, his cocky grin missing.

“What do you want?” She sighed. Booth flinched. Angela had been right; as always.

Booth held up the folder and waved it around slightly. “I have a list of suspects.” Neither of them smiled. Booth watched helplessly as she turned away slightly. The silence filling the room was deafening. Booth took a chance and entered the office shutting the door softly behind him. Brennan’s head jerked up when she heard the lock click into place. Booth moved to the couch and sunk down into the soft cushions. He sighed and looked up at Bones. He eyes were glassy and Booth wanted to get up and hold her, but he knew that he would most probably end up flat on his back if he even made to touch her. So instead he took a deep breath and began to try and haul himself out of the massive hole he had dug himself into.

“Look Bones…” She didn’t look up from her work. He tried a different tactic.

“Temperance” Her head shot up and her brilliant blue eyes glued onto his. This was his chance. He broke eye contact and look at his hands that were wringing in his lap.

“Look Temperance, I owe you another apology. You were right, yesterday in the car. I shouldn’t have told them so much about the case and I should have asked to look in Emily’s room, I let my own personal feeling cloud my judgment and that should never happen.” Booth took in a deep breath and glanced back up at her desk. She was still looking at him intently.

“Then I yelled at you, and that was inexcusable. You didn’t deserve that and I can’t believe that I did it again. Especially after I promised you that I wouldn’t let it interfere with my work.” It was then that Temperance spoke.

“What is ‘it’ Booth?” He voice was small and unnaturally calm. She stared at him her eyes blazing and Booth knew that she deserved the truth. What was it that he was afraid of anyway? That she would judge him like she did when they found out about Parker. Why would she care though? Why was he s afraid that she would judge him? Why did he care so much about her opinion? The questions raced around inside his head making him feel slightly dizzy, he didn’t however have time to analyse them now. He had to tell her, he couldn’t lose her too.

Temperance watched Booth stare across the room. She could tell that he wasn’t looking at anything in particular and was sure that he was thinking about what to tell her and she hoped that it wasn’t another lie. She didn’t think that she could take much more of Booth’s secrecy. He wasn’t a practically good liar and the fact that something of great importance was bothering him and he didn’t feel like he could share it with her, didn’t trust her enough to tell her what was on his mind hurt her more that she cared to let on. As Booth looked up at her, her stomach did a flip.

“I have had some stuff going on at home at the moment.” And he was silent again. Brennan knew better than to push, he would tell her in his own time what was going on.

“It was the night of the Benefit that I found out, that is why I forgot. It was just sinking in. All I wanted to do all night was go home so I could think about it that is why everyone was getting at me. All my anger just spilled over when you followed me to the car.”

Brennan was pretty sure that Booth wasn’t aware that he hadn’t actually told her what it was he had found out about.

“Then I was worried that if I told you, you would judge me. I know it was stupid but I was so worried about you opinion that I just couldn’t tell you. I know it was stupid of me and that you wouldn’t’ judge me like that but I couldn’t help but worry that you would.”

Booth looked up at Temperance as he finished and was worried when he saw a slightly blank look on her face. Oh god. He thought. She is judging me.

“Booth you didn’t…” But she was cut off by the sound of Booths mobile ringing. Booth reached into his jacket pocket and flipped the phone open.

“Booth” He barked, hoping that it wasn’t Cullen on the other end of the line.

“Dad?” The soft sound of a child’s voice floated though the line. Booth felt his heart stop beating. His chest constricted and the air around him went cold.

“Lizzie?”

Chapter Twelve: People Always Leave

“Yes.” Came the soft whisper of her reply across the line. “Daddy..?” The soft voice broke and Booth felt his heart tear. He sat there in a trance, not aware of Temperance only 7 feet from him looking at him strangely.

“Yes baby, what is it? Are you okay? What’s happened?” He gushed all at once. He hoped to god that nothing had happened to her. He listened for a minuet and heard a soft sobbing coming down the line.

“Oh Sweetie, are you crying?” He only heard a squeak in reply. “Gorgeous, you have to talk to me. Tell me what’s the matter baby.”

Brennan looked on as this exchange took place. She felt her heart sink as she realised that he must be talking to his girlfriend. He hadn’t told her that he had a new one, but he was a very good looking man she admitted to herself and it was foolish to think that he would stay single for long after he broke things off with Cam. Still, she would have thought he would have told her about her at least.

“Daddy” Another hiccupped reply came floating across the line before she broke out in sobs again.

“Yes, come on Honey, tell me what is wrong.”

“Daddy, its mum…” Lizzie trailed off. Booth’s heart began to beat incredibly fast in his chest.

“What about her?” He hushed.

As the words left Booth’s mouth Brennan thought she had heard enough. He was obviously on a call that was of great importance and his voice suggested that he was not receiving good news whatever it was. She decided that she had to just get up and leave, as much for her as for him. She knew that he wouldn’t want her listening in to his private conversations and she knew that her heart couldn’t take much more of hearing the pet names he had given to his new girlfriend.

Temperance didn’t know when, or how, with the way he had been behaving towards her lately. But something inside other had just clicked and a sudden surge of emotion towards Booth had seeped though the cracks in her solid walls. She had allowed herself to care, to need and to want. Possibly even love and it had all been thrown back in her face. She thought that she could trust him, that he would tell her anything, and that he trusted her. But now…she just couldn’t take the devastation. People always leave…she thought to herself. People always leave.

---------------

“She…She’s…” Booth willed her to keep talking. Something major was up and he had to know so that he could help her. If she was in any sort of danger at all he would be on the first fight to Melbourne he could get. He didn’t care how damn far away it was.

“Come on baby. What is it? You can tell me.” Booth pleaded with her.

“She’s dead…”

Lizzie whispered it so quietly Booth almost didn’t hear it. But he did, and it suddenly felt like he had ice running though his veins.

“Lizzie, what happened? Are you alright?” The hurt he had been feeling was replaced by a new emotion; complete and utter fear for his daughter’s safety. He could feel the bile rise in his throat but he swallowed it back down and listened as Lizzie began to speak.

“They came to the house and I heard yelling…” The sobs were louder now and Booth could hear her struggling to draw breath as she cried to him, trying to tell him what had happened to her mother. “…and when I came down…she…she…was…just…just…she was just…ly…ly…lying there” The gasps of her trying to draw breath punctuated the sentence as she built herself into hysterics. “…and then they saw me and now Alex thinks…Alex thinks that they are going to come and take me too.” She wailed. “Daddy, what am I going to do!? I’m so scared, I just want mummy back” Emotion surged though his at her words.

“Calm down baby and breath. Shhhh; hey-hey. Everything will be alright. Come on baby, calm down for me sweetheart. Just take some nice deep breaths. I want to hear them. Okay?” He could hear a slight rustling which he assumed was Lizzie nodding her head.

Booth had felt like his daughter was a grown up from her letters, but listening to her on the phone telling him that her mother had been murdered she was that 12 year old girl. And he was not prepared for the surge of fully fledged rage that coursed through him as he heard his daughter cry to him that her mother had been murdered and she was afraid. He urge to protect her was so great. He needed to protect her. Save her from her mother’s problems, the problems that had killed her mother and that were a threat to her own life. He thought for a second.

“Okay baby, shhh, everything will be okay. Who is Alex? Can you get him for me? I need to speak to him about what we are going to do. You can’t stay there anymore.”

Lizzie nodded on the other end of the line and after a second she realised that he couldn’t see her nodding gave a small grunted, airy “yes” in agreement to his statement. She couldn’t stay here. Not after what they had done to her mum. Not after what she thought they could do to her. For the first time in her life she was afraid of her mother’s job. And it was only now, that she was dead and not there to protect her. And as she sat there and listened to her father comfort her she realised how much she needed to be with him; how much her heart ached for him. He was her dad and she needed him more than ever now.

Lizzie took the phone from her head and covered the mouthpiece.

“Alex…” She yelled. “Alex, daddy wants to speak to you!”

Booth smiled as he head the muffled yelling coming through the line. Then there was nothing. Silence for the slightest second before;

“Hello? Mr. Booth?” Alex asked tentatively. She had no idea how Lizzie could be at such ease with him even though they had never met.

Booth heard the woman’s voice and blushed slightly. He had just made a fool of himself in front of his daughter. It amused him though that she hadn’t bothered to correct him. She had waited for him to figure it out on his own. She was exactly like Parker.

“Yes. Alex, Is that you?”

---------------

Bones rushed though the Jeffersonian. How could this be happening to her now! Why did it have to be happening to her at all? She didn’t need this. Not now, and not on top of everything that had happened to her.

Booth; her best friend Booth, had gone and got himself a girlfriend. Had gone and gotten himself someone else to care about just when she needed him more than ever. Just when she realised what he meant to her. How could she have been so blind? Angela had been telling her since they had started this partnership that Booth had had more than platonic feelings for her. And now it was too late. Just when she had stopped being so blind sighted, he had gone and moved on. But then, she couldn’t expect him to hang around forever, especially when he was waiting for someone as broken as she was. He must have finally realised that she was - would never be- enough for him.

--------------

“Yes Mr. Booth.”

“Please, call me Seeley.”

“Okay.”

“Alex, what is going on over there?” Booth asked.

“Not much at the moment. Anna’s friends and relatives came over to the house today, Lizzie was pretty distraught, and you are the only person she has spoken to all day; apart from me. Most of them are staying and I just don’t know how she is going to cope, she has been avoiding them all; even her grandpa. Her funeral is tomorrow and the reading of the will is the day after and that is what we are really waiting on.” There was a pause “What they are all waiting on.”

Booth could tell that Alex was detaching herself, trying not to show emotion. He knew how hard it could be taking care of children.

“Alex, do you want me to fly out? Because I can be on a plane tonight if you would like.”

There was a long moment of silence.

“I don’t know Mr. Booth, I’m not worried about anything except the custody really. Lizzie is just taking it all so hard.”

“What do you mean?” Booth was confused.

“Well, Lizzie’s grandparents are expecting to gain full custody of her.”

“Why is that going to be a problem?” Booth asked her. “From what I have heard from Lizzie she quite likes them.”

“Yes-yes exactly, that is what everyone thinks. And I know that she does love them, god knows they spoil her enough, they payed for her education so that Anna could set up a trust fund for Lizzie. They were there for her from the moment she told them that she was pregnant. That is why I’m not sure how they are going to react when they read Anna’s Will, and find out that she gave Lizzie to you.”