JULY BOOTHEXPRESS CHALLENGE
"Stop where you are before I shoot you where you stand."
Max Keenan did as he was told and slowly raised his hands above his head to show that he wasn't carrying any weapons. "Well, now, Lynnette, I never pegged you as the violent type."
"Max?"
He turned around coming face-to-face with Ruth's sister. She was the middle child, Lynnette was, but from what Max had been able to find out, she had the most biological children out of the three Malone sisters. "You still look good, Lynnette." It happened so fast that Max hadn't actually been sure what had happened until his brain registered the sting of a slap across his face. The house was dark and Lynnette, it would seem, was pissed. "Maybe you are violent," he grumbled under his breath as he rubbed the pain away.
"Where's Ruth?" Lynnette's voice was shrill and shaking, as if she had to ask but didn't really want to know.
"She passed a while back," Max said, calmly. "She wanted to get in touch . . . it just wasn't a good idea."
"Because you didn't want her to have her family," Lynnette accused.
"Because it wasn't safe, for anyone."
Ruth's sister eyed his suspiciously. The voice hadn't changed but the face certainly had. Even in the dim light of her open living room, she could tell that. He seemed tired, worn and exhausted. Taking pity on her brother-in-law, she offered him to make a pot of coffee and he nodded in agreement.
"I'm not here about me," Max said after the coffee had been made. "Tempe and Russ . . . "
"Who," Lynnette questioned, curious.
"Er, uh, Joy and Kyle," he explained, "they go by Temperance and Russ. They should know family and I'm go to start directly Tempe your way – well, you and Jocelyn. You two, and your families, are all they have besides me and the makeshift families they've created on their own. Russ might not need the two of you as much but Tempe does, even if she'll never admit it."
Lynnette sighed. "Why are they going by different names?" It had been nearly three decades since she had seen her oldest sister children, let alone her oldest sister and her brother-in-law. So Max talked and Lynnette listened. She occasionally interrupted long enough to ask a clarifying question before she lapsed back into silence and let him rattle off the details . . . the reasons her sister was no longer physically with them and why her niece and nephew knew no real family. "She was in foster care," Lynnette asked, outrage. "Max Keenan, I cannot believe that you . . . that she . . . there was no way to tell us, to let us help," she asked, defeated. She looked into her brother-in-law's sad eyes as he shook his head 'no' as if it physically pained him to do so.
"It's made her stronger," he said. "She's such an unbelievably strong, independent woman, much like you and Ruth. But she's build up these walls and she hardly lets anyone it." He told her as much as he knew, about Tempe, her friend Angela, the others at the lab, and – Booth.
"This Booth fellow," Lynnette asked, "he's good for her?"
He nodded. "If she'd just open her eyes a little bit more. Seeley Booth is good man."
"Seeley? Seeley Booth?"
"Yes. Lynnette, what . . ."
"My youngest, Emma, was married to an FBI agent before he passed away. Her late husband's partner was Seeley Booth. I can't tell you how many picnics and celebrations he's been to. I don't remember the exact details but there's a problem with his parents."
"Well, it's a small world. You'll be seeing the both of them soon. I'll give Tempe and Booth a few clues and they'll find you, I'm sure. Tempe has your mother's ring." Max stood up to leave.
"Max," Lynnette said, covering his hand with her own, "I'm sorry we had to lose touch, even if it was for our safety, but tell me . . . was Ruth happy?"
"She believed she was protecting her children," Max said. "She was happy, even if she didn't realize we were doing more harm than good. I should go. Maybe I'll visit another time. I'm a free man now." He smiled at her.
Lynnette shook her head. "Some things never change, Max Keenan."
"Indeed they don't, Lynnette Shepherd."