AN: so, this is my first story, it took me quite a long time to get everything right. Thanks to OtterPotter for all your help.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Bones.
This had been a particularly hard case for her. As hard as she tried, she knew she wasn't doing a very good job at emotional detachment. She wasn't capable of maintaining the withdrawn façade she usually used when it came to being around other people. She knew everyone else at the lab could see how badly it was affecting her, and much to her relief, offered a blind eye to her vulnerability. They pretended for her sake that they did not notice her wincing at the painful memories the victim's story brought back up while studying the young girl's remains. All the grad students and lab techs acted as though nothing happened. But Booth, Angela, Cam, Hodgins and Sweets were a different story.
She decided to work late, once again as she had for the past week. Brennan had refused to leave the girl's remains unsupervised or unaccompanied, although she had often chastised herself at the lack of logic in sitting next to a dead person's bones night after night. She had been able to discover cause of death on the second day. On the third day Booth had zeroed in on their major suspects- the foster father and one of the girl's class mates- and had gotten a very disturbing statement from the foster father. By the fifth day the squints had racked up enough evidence to dismiss one of their suspects and get a warrant for the other one. After Booth had finished questioning the girl's foster father, Brennan had given the man a piece of her mind. That is when everyone saw how much it really had affected her.
"It is people like you that are destroying our society!" she yelled at John Claudel, her face merely inches from his. The rage burning in her light blue eyes was enough to make Booth be thankful her fury was directed to the man he had just finished questioning. "People that indulge in making others fear them, people who think nothing on the less fortunate. What did Emma ever do to deserve the beating? What did she do to deserve the abuse she got from you? The only thing she did to get that was not dying in the car crash that killed the rest of her family! You knew she did not like driving at night, yet you took her after your wife had gone to sleep! You knew she did not like being with your friends, yet you took her to see them, when you knew all of you were going to get drunk, and do drugs. Emma was a smart young woman, she was shy, she was scared, and vulnerable. You took advantage of that. While your wife really cared for the poor child, you only cared of taking advantage of her. You made her feel comfortable, like she could trust you. Then you beat her. She didn't say anything for fear you might beat her worse, and for fear of being taken away from your wife, someone who really cared for her, who loved her and understood her in a way no one else could after the death of her parents." She turned to Booth. "She withdrew herself, Booth. She surrounded herself with animals, and books and knowledge. Pretty much like I did following my parent's disappearance. I remember myself asking, after Russ left me, if he had done so, because I had sort of abandoned him. I had isolated myself. I read all the time. I rejected everyone. The few friends I had Left me. I became interested in death, and my only friend was the janitor, all throughout high school. I was made fun of, people also made fun of Emma Marie." She finished, her voice cracking, and tears streaking her pain filled face.
"Come on, Bones," he said standing up, and supporting a shaken-up Dr. Brennan and leading her out of the interrogation room. "Let's get some coffee, and maybe we can talk…" he finished uncertainly, his eyes searching her face. He led her towards his office with one hand protectively around her tensed shoulders.
RR Please!
