Author's Note: This story is the ninth in a series. They are best enjoyed when read in order:

The Memory in the Amnesia

Booths R Us

The Death in the Vow

Birthday Suits in a Suite

Athena and Tarzan (Part one of two)

Sweets Please Help (Part two of two)

The Civil in the War (Part one of two)

Blood on a Parasol (Part two of two)

And Now:

The Interrupted Family

Chapter One

Susan H.

Sally pulled her dress over her knees and twisted chunks of the yellow yarn on her doll's head.

"Hold still Dolly, I will try not to pull your hair. I'm braiding it like mine. Don't you want to look like your mommy?"

Mommy had braided Sally's hair that morning and fastened it with pink bows. She helped Sally practice braiding on Dolly's head. Mommy and Sally hummed Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star while they worked

Now her mommy was screaming, and Daddy was yelling. Sally closed her bedroom door and muffled the voices. She pulled the doll to her chest and rocked her.

"It's okay Dolly. Sometimes grown-ups yell. Here, don't cry. I will sing you a song. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How I Wonder What You Are, Up Above The World So High, Like a Diamond In The Sky," BANG!

***

"Look Bones, a shooting star. Make a wish."

"That's a meteoroid burning up in our atmosphere."

"I'm sorry Bones, I didn't catch that. Did you say something about burning hemorrhoids?"

"You're not funny."

"I thought it was witty."

"If that were truly a shooting star, no amount of wishing would save us."

"No Bones, I believe that it's the falling stars that pose a threat."

"But if you catch it, you can put it in your pocket," Cam interjected.

"Never let it fade away," Booth smiled at her.

"Is there a corpse Booth, or would the two of you like to continue your counterfactual intercourse?"

"Aw Bones, you know I wouldn't drag you out into a moonlit night unless it involved the macabre. Crews knocked down an old house, and when they dug up the concrete driveway, they found a human skeleton. You can see it there, glowing in the starlight."

"I find your flippant attitude distasteful at an open gravesite Booth," Brennan said as she knelt next to the bones and ran a flashlight beam over them.

"Sorry Bones."

"Female, 25 to 35 years old. She's given birth." Brennan brushed dirt from the skull.

"This looks like a bullet hole," she flashed her light around, "but the bullet is not immediately evident. She must have been wrapped in something otherwise she would have been imbedded in the concrete. Remember Concrete Head?"

"Um, Bones, we agreed that Cement Head had a better ring to it."

"I never agreed. It was inaccurate."

Booth and Cam backed away from the scene.

"She seems a bit cranky tonight Booth."

"Yeah, well at least you get to go home."

"What do you mean? You can go home."

"Oh yeah, of course. I just mean, you know Bones. She'll want me to stay all night at the lab working on the case."

"She prefers to work alone in the lab, Seeley."

"You know Camille, you're right. I can go home too."

Booth turned quickly and joined Bones.