So this is a one-shot gift to 'DorothyOz' who was my 150th review for 'History is Doomed to Repeat Itself'. I told her to give me a prompt… well she gave me three and told me to choose… They consisted of 1. Her wanting to know something about Booth's mom, 2. A Cam and Booth friendship type conversation, or 3. A Hodgins and Booth friendship type conversation. Well after a lot of thinking (and me being me, never being able to decide which I would rather do…) I came up with an idea that sort of combines the three…
Hope you like… Let me know what you think…
Title: An Unexpected Visitor
Summary: She comes back after all this time thinking she can help, but can she and does he even want her to try? Is he even willing to see her? This takes place between Season 7 and 8…
Disclaimer: I've written a number of Bones stories on here… I'm still writing them on here… I'm guessing that means that nothing's changed and I still don't own Bones…
Hodgins walked into Cam's office with evidence for another case that they were working on. They were currently at a standstill with the Pelant and Brennan case and while they just wanted to continue to work on that, they had no choice but to be working other cases too.
He saw that she was not alone, however, so he stayed quiet. She was talking to an older woman. Hodgins wasn't sure but it really looked like she'd rather be talking to anyone else.
"…Look I'm telling you, now probably really isn't the best time for this."
"But I'm his mother," the older woman said to Cam.
"And it's been how long since you've really spoken to him? He's got enough to deal with currently that it probably isn't a good idea to throw this at him, too."
"But, I might be able to help him now when I couldn't before," the woman told her. Cam attempted to speak, but Booth's mother continued speaking before she could say anything. "Look, I get I should have continued to try to find a way to take the boys with me, but I couldn't. I tried to find a way to and couldn't. It was always me he was mad at and Seeley always took the fall for it. I thought the least I could do was leave and hope he lost his anger when I wasn't there to anger him anymore." Cam sighed before speaking again.
"Look, I've known him for many years now and you appearing now can either hurt more or help and I just don't want to see him hurt more. Tell you what though, leave me your number and if I find the chance to talk to him about you coming around now and wanting to see him I will tell him and let him make the choice if he wants the number from me and if I don't find an opportunity I will call you when this mess that we're all stuck in is cleaned up and then you can decide whether or not to still contact him. If you still decide to and want to tell him that you came earlier but that you were stopped by me, go ahead and if he wants to be mad at me for a while for that fine because in that case I would deserve it if he would have wanted you around now, but I really don't want to take the risk of stressing him out more by sending you to him now." Cam passed her a notepad and pen to get her phone number and information. The woman took the pad from her and started writing down her information, realizing that the woman was not going to budge.
"Ok, but you'll talk to him about it?" she asked, handing the pad back to Cam.
"If the opportunity presents itself, I will."
"Then, I hope it does, good or bad, whatever he decides…" the woman had said. She had then left Cam's office to leave the lab.
"So… um… that's?" Hodgins asked, not really sure what he was trying to find out from her.
"Booth's mother," Cam said, filling him in.
"Wow, um… that was…"
"Unexpected?"
"That's a good word for it."
"I don't think I've ever heard Booth talk about her before."
"That's because he doesn't. I never expected her to actually show up here after all this time."
"What was she doing here anyway?"
"Looking for him."
"You make it sound like she's been out of the picture for a while, why now?"
"She thinks she can help Booth right now," Cam told him, sounding fairly sarcastic. Hodgins just raised his eyebrows.
"You're kidding right?"
"No. I just don't understand how she can just walk back into his life at a time like this. I just don't understand it at all. Granted I don't know why she left in the first place, but I do know what happened after she did and know that it must have completely changed Booth." Just then Cam's phone started to ring. She looked at the caller ID. "Speak of the devil," she mumbled.
"Huh?"
"It's Booth. You answer," she told him.
"It's your office."
"And I'm your boss. He'll be able to tell with me that something's up and I'm not telling him over the phone. Now answer," she said picking up the phone and holding it to his ear.
"Hodgins," he spoke, trying to sound normal. He listened to Booth speak. "No. She had to go take care of something in the main part of the lab when the phone started ringing. Sounded like someone was wanting to kill Daisy for her chatter and Cam doesn't want another homicide on our hands. She asked me to answer and take a message for her." He listened to Booth speak again. "No, sorry man, we're still trying," he told Booth. Then he thought of an idea. "Hey, why don't I take you out for drinks tonight? My treat. Get you out of that house for a while. You could stay in our guest room too if I get you too drunk to get home." He listened to Booth speak again. "Come on, man. You deserve a night to just lose it and vent and not have to deal with going home alone." He was nervous as he listened to Booth again. "Great!" he said when Booth finished speaking, surprised that he actually got Booth to agree. "I'll meet you tonight at the bar around seven." Booth didn't bother with saying good-bye and Hodgins heard the dial tone so he hung up.
Hodgins saw Cam looking at him, clearly wondering about the whole bar bit. "What was that about, with the bar?"
"I figured I could get him roaring drunk, then could tell him about his mother showing up and you can hope that he doesn't remember in the morning. Plus I figure then you would owe me, especially if he wants to shoot the messenger, and the next time I do something stupid and blow up something you can't get too angry."
"Except that you just volunteered to do it. I didn't ask."
Hodgins just shrugged. "Guess I'll still just be nice and take him out for some drinks then to get him out of the house for a while. Good luck telling him later." He turned to leave.
"Wait." He turned back around, knowing what was coming next. He was barely able to hide a smile as he looked back to her. "I'll save the lecture, but the damages will still come out of your paycheck and you only get one freebie so use it wisely."
"One if he doesn't shoot the messenger, two if he does," he negotiated.
"Fine." Hodgins turned around again and left with a huge grin on his face. He couldn't wipe it off his face as he continued to walk back to his work station. He ran into his wife, however, on his way back.
"What's with the cat that ate the canary grin?" Angela asked him, amused at the wide grin on his face and curious as to what put it there.
"I basically just got permission to blow up the lab with an experiment of my choosing! Maybe even twice!"
"Is Cam high or something?" Angela asked, clearly not believing what she heard.
"Nope!" Then he realized he probably should have made sure with her that she'd be ok on her own with Michael tonight. "You ok with me going out tonight and leaving you with Michael duty?"
"Yeah. Where are you going?" she asked, curious as to what just came up because they normally knew everything of what they were doing at least days before.
"My bargain with Cam. She just had a surprise visitor in her office that wants to see Booth, so I'm going get him roaring drunk to tell him and pray that he doesn't remember the conversation when he sobers up and if he does that he doesn't shoot the messenger. But if he does I do get to blow up the lab a second time!" he added, smiling with the last part.
"Try to confiscate his gun before he shoots you. I'd prefer it if you came home in one piece. I'll also set up the guest room so that we don't have to worry about him getting home safely either. Who was looking for him anyway?"
"His mother." Angela looked at him, surprised.
"Booth has a mother?"
"That was basically my reaction too."
"He's never mentioned anything before."
"That's why Cam really didn't want to tell him now. She has no idea how he's going to react. So I'll be getting him drunk so that hopefully he doesn't remember the conversation in the morning."
"Have fun. I'll wait up for you to see how it went."
"Great. Thanks, Angie," he told her, kissing her on the cheek. "You're the best," he told her as he continued on his way to his work station.
"And don't you forget it, Bucko!" she called after him, chuckling slightly. She then walked off, continuing to go do what she was going to do before she ran into her husband.
Hodgins came stumbling in the door very late that night with Booth leaning heavily on him. Angela was sitting on the couch with Michael, who was being a little fussy. She raised her eyebrow as she watched them come through the door.
"Hey, Angela," Booth said with a drunken smile on his face as they came through the door. "Did you know Bug Man here is like filthy rich… We had a couple bottles of the good stuff… Man that stuff is great… Have you ever had the good stuff… it's really good…" Angela just raised her eyebrow further, looking at her husband.
"Yeah, she has… Come on, Booth, before you say something that will embarrass one or both of us. I'll show you the guest room and grab the Advil and leave it on the nightstand for you for the killer hangover you'll definitely going to have tomorrow. Just remember when you want to kill me for it that you promised that you wouldn't." He helped Booth stumble his way to the guest bedroom. After he got Booth to the room he retrieved the Advil and a glass of water and brought them to the room. When he came back, he saw that Booth was already lying down on the bed with his arm over his eyes. He put the items on the nightstand. "If you need anything you know basically where everything is cause it still has pretty much the same layout it did with the case, just go searching and if you can't find whatever you're looking for just ask me or Angie."
"Thanks, Hodgins."
"No problem." He left the room shutting the door. He joined Angela back at the couch and plopped down on the couch next to her. She handed him Michael, who started to squirm less when he was placed in his daddy's arms.
"Hey, kiddo," Hodgins told the little boy softly, making him smile.
"He was looking for you tonight and didn't want to settle down," she told him as Michael curled into his father more, shutting his eyes. "So, Booth's only a little drunk," she told Hodgins sarcastically. He had the grace to look a little embarrassed and gave her a slight smile, hoping that if he was in trouble that the smile would get him out of it.
"I did say I was going to get him roaring drunk. As Booth said, I was even buying the good stuff. Who knew he could hold his liquor so well. I thought I was gonna end up going broke for a while there and well you know that wouldn't be easy."
"Were you at least able to tell him about his mom?" she asked as she saw Michael fall asleep on his daddy with his thumb in his mouth. She gently reached over and removed it as Hodgins answered.
"Yeah," he told her.
"I see it went better than you thought it would since you're sitting here and not at the hospital with a bullet in you."
"I don't know… I'm kind of disappointed that I don't get to blow up the lab twice now… a small flesh wound would have been well worth it…" he said with a dreamy look on his face.
"I would definitely smack you right now if you weren't holding our sleeping son," she told him smiling.
"I still wouldn't say though it went better than I was hoping…" Hodgins told her, sobering. "He kind of shut down but didn't, you know… It was weird…" He then explained to her what he meant.
They had already gone through three bottles, well mostly Booth. Hodgins was making it look like he was drinking more than he actually was. He had actually only really had less than half a glass. They were just talking about random topics because Hodgins could tell that there was no way that Booth was drunk enough to tell him about his mother.
After another bottle, Hodgins finally decided that he might have been drunk enough, but did not broach the topic directly and was hoping that his idea on how to start it would be a good one.
"You know, my mom used to do this with her friends every once in a while. So did my dad," Hodgins lied. He knew they were rarely home, but they were probably doing business stuff whenever they were out. "Maybe we should do this every so often and have Dr. B and Ange do the same every once in a while if they want to when she gets home."
"Yeah, that sounds good. This stuff is good," Booth told him. Hodgins wanted to wince with how expensive a bottle is, but he figured future times they could go to cheaper stuff and Booth wouldn't be getting nearly as drunk anyway. He also knew that Booth was definitely drunk enough to bring up his mother because if he wasn't completely drunk he wouldn't have agreed to going home to Brennan completely drunk. That just wasn't who he is.
"So, what about your parents? They ever do that with their friends?" He winced at the bitter laugh that came from Booth.
"My dad was always drunk anyway. Didn't matter if his friends were drinking too or not." Booth fell silent after that statement.
"And your mom?" Hodgins prompted when he didn't continue. He saw both deflate slightly after she was brought up and was beginning to regret mentioning it at all.
"No idea. She's been out of the picture a long time. I went to bed with her there one day, got up the following and she was gone," he said deflating more. Hodgins saw that the bottle was almost empty and motioned for the bartender to bring another. The bartender gave him a skeptical look, but Hodgins just gave him a look back that told him not to argue.
"You miss her?" Booth stayed silent for a while as Hodgins refilled his glass and made it look like he was adding more to his as well. Booth took a long drink from his glass and Hodgins thought that the message was that Booth wasn't going to say anything. He was surprised when he did answer.
"I don't know. Part of me does, but then the other part of me is like she left us, you know…" Booth trailed off.
"I have an idea. My parents were never really home, so it could feel like at times that they just didn't care about me. I'm guessing that's what it feels like to you, that she didn't care so you can't decide if you do miss her or not."
"Yeah…" Booth said hesitantly. They both fell silent for a few minutes, Booth still busy drinking and Hodgins pretending to drink. Finally, Hodgins decided to bring up the reason that he had the idea to take Booth out, but still decided not to say it directly.
"So… if she showed up again would you want to see her?" he asked. Booth just snorted.
"She hasn't tried to make contact with me in how many years?" he asked rhetorically. "I really doubt she'll show up ever."
"Just say that she did. Would you want to see her again?" Booth, even though completely drunk, was getting suspicious.
"What's with the 20 questions, Hodgins?" Booth asked turning to look at him. Hodgins gulped slightly, realizing that Booth wasn't as drunk as he thought or that Booth was just better at still functioning normally than most people when completely drunk. He was guessing it was more of the second one because there was no way that he couldn't be completely drunk after four bottles.
"Um… well…" he stammered, having been caught off guard at being caught.
"Spit it out, Hodgins! What are you hiding?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not hiding anything."
"Cut the crap. I may be drunk, but I deal with geniuses all the time, especially Bones, and let me tell you, you people are lousy liars. It may be taking me more brain power than normal to see that you're not saying something, but I can still see it."
"Alright…" Hodgins said, sighing. "I was walking to Cam's office to bring her evidence for another case and I saw her talking to someone. It was your mom. Based upon what I heard of the conversation, I figured out that somehow she found out about the situation you're in now. She thought that she could help you now. Cam told her that it could really go either way with everything happening right now and to give her a phone number that she could be reached at and that she would talk to you first if the opportunity presented itself or after Brennan came home. Then you called and I got the idea to tell you over drinks, hoping you wouldn't shoot the messenger if you were that drunk. She's in D.C. looking for you if you want though. Just ask Cam for the number." Booth stayed silent, continuing to drink from his glass. Hodgins eventually broke the silence. "So… um… are you going to get the number from Cam and call her?"
"Did you watch the baseball game last night?" Booth asked instead of answering the question.
"I got the message," Hodgins told him, realizing that Booth was putting an end to that conversation. He couldn't stop himself from saying one more thing on the topic, however. "You know, if a friend of mine was visited by my mother looking for me and got her number, I'd at least want to get the number from them even if I didn't want to use it now, in case I decide I want it later." He then brought the conversation back to the baseball game. "Yeah… it was a close game…"
They talked about a few different games for a while, drinking a little more, before they called it a night and headed back to Hodgins' place.
When Hodgins finished speaking, Angela saw a contemplative look on his face.
"What?" she asked him.
"Is it bad that I'm kind of disappointed that he didn't shoot the messenger?… I'm not saying a major thing… just a minor graze maybe…" Angela smacked him upside his head as he trailed off and also stood up, taking a sleeping Michael from him gently.
"And then I'd have to kill you myself," she told him as she started to bring Michael to his room. He got up and followed.
"You wouldn't really, would you?" She stayed silent as she laid Michael in his crib and kissed his forehead lightly. He didn't even stir as she also covered him with a blanket. She didn't even address Hodgins' question as she left the room to go to their bedroom. "Angie?" he questioned. He then looked to his son when she still didn't answer him. "Take my advice, kiddo," he whispered to the sleeping baby. "Don't do anything to piss your mommy off ever. She can be one scary woman when she wants to be." He kissed his son on the forehead and left the room, shutting the door slightly behind him. He started walking down to their bedroom. "Ok… Ok… I'm happy he didn't shoot the messenger even though I lost out on a second experiment," he said as he was walking to the bedroom. "Happy now?" he asked as he walked into the room. She didn't respond, however, because she was already asleep. "Figures." He quickly got ready for bed and soon joined her falling asleep quickly.
Booth woke up the following morning and his head was killing him. At first, he couldn't think of the reason behind it, but he quickly remembered Hodgins getting him completely drunk. He opened his eyes and quickly squeezed them shut again from the brightness of the sun. He also flung one arm over them to block the light even more.
He quickly realized that he did need to get up however and carefully opened his eyes again and slowly lowering his arm. He groaned as he got up and the room spun. He saw the Advil and water on the nightstand and quickly grabbed them and took some Advil.
He then got up fully and went to the bathroom to wash up quickly.
Booth came out of the bathroom to the sound of giggling from Michael. He followed the sound to the kitchen and found Angela at the table with him, trying to feed him breakfast. Michael let out a squeal when he saw Booth enter the room, making Booth wince slightly as his head pounded.
"Morning, Booth," Angela told him, still attempting to get Michael to eat.
"Morning," he groaned, sitting down at the table, putting his arms folded on the table and his head on his arms. Angela laughed, making him groan again as the sound went right through him.
"Little hung-over?" she asked him. He just groaned in response. Michael laughed and reached down from his highchair and started tapping Booth on the head with his hand, making him giggle even more as Booth groaned again.
"Michael, be nice…" Angela scolded. Booth lifted his head from his arms to look at her.
"You know the scolding might be more believable if you weren't chuckling through it," he said dryly and then turned his attention to Michael. "Isn't that right, buddy?" he asked him, somehow mustering up the energy to speak in a silly voice even though it increased the pounding in his head. Michael giggled as Angela just shrugged.
"You hungry?" she asked Booth instead of responding. "Help yourself to whatever's in the cabinets and fridge. Jack also made coffee and there's some still in the pot if you want."
"Yeah, thanks," Booth said getting up from the table to get himself some coffee. He then noticed that Hodgins wasn't there. "Where is Bug Man anyway?"
"He left for the lab already; said there was something he needed to take care of," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Translation, he was afraid I would try to shoot him," Booth said smiling and coming back to the table with his coffee.
"Yeah, well… he decided he didn't want to take the risk. Though go ahead if you want to. He keeps going on and on about how he wouldn't mind a graze 'cause then he could blow up the lab twice," Angela said rolling her eyes, clearly not pleased with Hodgins' statements. Booth smiled.
"Then Cam would kill me. I think I'll pass… You could always tell him if you want to scare him that I'd be more likely to get him in the lab when his son isn't around so that I don't scare Michael."
"Oh… that's good…" she said smiling. "I can make him terrified to go to the lab or blow it up." They fell into silence as Booth drank the coffee and Angela tried to get Michael to eat. Booth could see Angela glance to him every once in a while.
"What?" he asked her when he finished his coffee. He also stated rubbing his temples, willing away the pounding that was still going through his skull. He could still see that she was hesitant to say whatever it was that she wanted to say. "Just say it," he told her.
"Do you remember last night?" she finally asked.
"You mean Hodgins telling me about how my mother showed up at the lab," he said, not beating around the bush. Angela was fairly surprised that he was addressing it straight, but was able to hide her shock.
"Yeah… What are you going to do?" she asked out of curiosity. Booth sighed.
"I have no idea," he told her, looking into the coffee cup. "I should probably head out though so I can track down my SUV and get to the lab and work."
"Oh, Jack actually had one of the staff members at the mansion go pick it up for you. It's outside. The keys are by the door."
"Thanks. I'm going to head out to get ready for the day. Thanks for putting up with my drunkenness last night," he told her, standing up and moving to the sink to wash the mug from his coffee.
"Don't worry about the mug. I can get that when I wash the bowl from Michael's breakfast." Booth ignored her and washed it anyway as she continued. "I'd say anytime, but hopefully we'll get them home soon and you'll be home with them."
"Yeah," he sighed. "I hope your right. I'll see you at the lab later maybe," he told her heading to the door.
"Booth?" she called after him. He turned back to look at her. "What are you going to do about your mom?"
"I have no idea yet." He turned around again as Angela told him that she'd see him at the lab later. He then left the house. Now he just had to decide where he was going to go after he went home and changed: the lab or the office.
After Booth's hot shower he felt more human again. He was still a long way away from feeling human but it was a little better.
He climbed into his SUV, with a pair of sunglasses on his face to combat the violent sun from wreaking havoc on him and his hangover, and decided to just let him and his mind go on autopilot and see if he landed at the lab or the office. He still watched the road, but he let something other than his mind take over where he was going.
He quickly found himself at the destination that he ended up driving to.
It ended up being the lab.
He turned off the SUV and sat there for a few minutes, trying to figure out exactly why his subconscious brought him there. He still hadn't decided what to do about his mother and there was really no other reason for him to be there. The squints would tell him if they found anything new with Brennan's case without him making an appearance there.
He got out of the SUV anyway and went inside. He still left his sunglasses on to block the glare of the lights.
After he entered he saw Hodgins on the platform hunched over a microscope. He decided he was just hung-over enough to want to mess with him a little. He silently made his way onto the platform and crept up behind Hodgins.
"Hey, buddy!" Booth said, slapping Hodgins on the back, causing him to jump slightly. "How's it going?" Booth couldn't help but to grin at Hodgins' slight yelp.
"Oh… um… Booth," Hodgins stumbled. He clearly had no idea what to say which completely amused Booth. "Um… you do remember promising last night not to kill me, right?" Booth pretended to think for a few minutes. "You did promise even if you don't remember!" Hodgins gulped, getting a little worried. "It still applies!" Booth couldn't hold back his laughter anymore and chuckled at his panic.
"Relax, I remember, and I'm not mad. I get why you wanted to get me that drunk to tell me." Booth saw Hodgins relax slightly. "I'll talk to you later," Booth told him as he started to walk off the platform. "Oh!" he added, turning around and catching Hodgins attention again. "You're right we have to do that again sometime, but if you ever get me that drunk again there will be no promises," he warned.
"Duly noted," Hodgins said as Booth turned around again and this time left the platform. He saw Angela come into the lab with Michael on her hip and waved to her as he made his way to Cam's office.
Angela was happy that Booth seemed to be going to talk to Cam because then she had enough time to sneak onto the platform with Michael so that he could see his father briefly before bringing him to daycare.
She came up onto the platform, and laid her hand gently on Hodgins' back. He jumped an yelped.
"You promised you wouldn't kill me!" he exclaimed before he realized it was his wife and relaxed.
"Should I be concerned that you think my touch is similar to Booth's?" Angela asked dryly. "Just what exactly did you two get up to last night?" she asked, suppressing her grin and amusement. Hodgins knew how her mind worked and instantly knew where it took her. He paled instantly.
"No!... God! No!… Eww!..." he stammered. He then saw her grin. "Angie…" he whined at her teasing.
"Uh huh… sure," she told him, pretending that she still didn't believe him. He knew that she was just teasing him, but that she would never get off the topic unless he changed it.
"So, what's up? Did you need something?" he asked her.
"Kiss your son before I have to take him to daycare. He missed his daddy this morning because his daddy was too afraid to stay in his own house." He didn't even dignify that with a response as he saw his son in her arms reaching down to him.
"Hey, kiddo," Hodgins told the little boy, extracting him from his mother's arm. He kissed Michael on the forehead as he placed him on his lap. "Sorry, Daddy didn't play with you this morning, but Daddy had a lot of work to do today and wanted to come in sooner so we can play later. Daddy promises we'll play lots later," he told the little boy, who giggled at his daddy and started smacking his cheek. "Yeah, we'll play later," Hodgins laughed as Angela took Michael back to bring him to day care, causing Michael to whine slightly.
"Don't worry, you can go back to smacking Daddy as much as you want later, but for now you get to go have a good day in daycare," she told him as she started walking off of the platform, taking Michael's arm and having him wave goodbye. Hodgins couldn't help but to think, as he watched them walk away, that he was going to be sleeping on the couch tonight as payback for his being shot comments. He just hoped it would be worth it to Booth.
Booth walked into Cam's office after waving to Angela.
"Hey, Cam," he said coming into her office. She looked up from the report that she was going over.
"Hey…" she trailed off. "You look like crap," she told him bluntly.
"Yeah, thanks for that," he told her sarcastically, coming further into the room.
"Did you need something?" she cut to the chase, knowing that he probably wasn't in the mood to beat around the bush.
"You had Hodgins get me drunk last night to tell me that my mother came to see you," he told her bluntly. She winced at how bad it sounded when phrased like that.
"Technically, he came up with the idea on his own. He suggested it to you before I could say anything. If I knew he was going to use the idea as blackmail to blow up the lab I would have never let him suggest it," she said with a grin. "Thank you for not shooting him so he can only do damage to my lab once."
"Were you ever going to tell me if he didn't last night?"
"Yes," she answered without hesitating. "I wasn't exactly sure how or when, but I would have definitely at some point. Honestly, I didn't want to stress you out anymore right now, but if a time presented itself while we are still searching for evidence…" she trailed off, knowing that she didn't need to finish that thought. She then continued, "I would have told you. Otherwise I would have told you when we got them home."
"Did she say why she came?"
"She said she thought she could help you right now." She didn't want to say what she was about to say next, but she knew that it would be better coming from her then his mother. "I may have had some words for her regarding that idea of hers. Sorry."
"What did you say to her?" Booth sighed, knowing he should have expected it from Cam. She could be fiercely loyal to a friendship if she believed someone or something was going to hurt the other person.
"Just something along the lines of not helping you before and why she thought she could now. Don't worry, I did phrase it a little more nicely to her." Booth just sighed. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be angry with her or not. He thought he should be because it was his mother that she said it too, but he also had the same question. Where was she when his dad was beating on him?
"What did she say?" Booth asked her.
"That's probably something you should discuss with her if you decide to talk to her. It's not my place to say. Her leaving is between you, your brother, your father, and her; not me."
"Hodgins said you have her number."
"Yes," she said, opening one of the draws of her desk and pulling out the slip of paper that she had written her information on. "She wrote down the information for where she can be reached in D.C. while she is here and how long she'll be here for along with her normal information. Do you want it?"
"Yes." She handed him the paper and he took it, putting it in his pocket.
"Are you going to use it?" she asked, curiosity and concern getting the better of her.
"I don't know," he told her honestly.
"If you decide you want to meet with her and we haven't gotten them home yet, if you want someone with you give me a call and I'll clear my schedule."
"Thanks, Cam," he told her gratefully.
"No problem, Seeley. Now you better get to your office. You're already late, and the bosses probably aren't happy about that." He just rolled his eyes.
"I really don't care, Camille," he said with a slight smile because of the attempt at some normalcy. "And don't call me Seeley."
"Don't call me Camille," she smiled back as he turned around to leave. He turned back around just before he left, remembering something.
"Oh, and if you ever let Hodgins get me that drunk again, I'll make sure he blows up the lab on you multiple times."
"You wouldn't," she told him, not taking him seriously at all.
"Try me," he told her with a mischievous smile. That smile worried her a little, but they both still knew that he wouldn't.
"Ok," she told him simply as he finally did leave.
After getting harassed by Finn and his bosses about where he's been that morning, Booth finally made it to his desk.
He took out the piece of paper and looked at it.
Did he want to call her or not?
She left all those years ago and never looked back, so why was she looking back now?
Could he dredge up all of those old memories now? Did he want to?
Does he call her now? Later? Never, and see if she shows up again to him at some point?
He stared at that paper for a few minutes.
It would be so easy to dial those seven numbers, but it would also be so hard to do. Did he want to do it?
He convinced Brennan to let her dad back in. Ok, right now he was regretting that decision, but was it fair of him to not take the same advice he gave to her all those years ago.
But their situations were also different. Her dad didn't want to leave and was forced to in order to protect her. His mother left him with his abusive father. She didn't leave to save him. At least he didn't think so, but is that what she thought?
Did he want to see her without Brennan and his daughter there to meet her and support him?
All of this thinking was making his headache even worse. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and put the paper inside, shutting the door.
He decided that he couldn't do it now. Maybe he would call before he got his family home. Maybe he would call after they got home. Maybe he wouldn't call at all still. He wasn't sure of anything right now.
He only knew one thing right now and that was that this was a problem for another day. Preferably one in which he was not so hung-over.
So, not sure that was exactly what you were looking for… I'm not even sure that was what I had meant to write from the start, but that's what it became… Hope you still enjoyed!
Let me know what you thought! Reviews are greatly appreciated!