This story came as a challenge at the BoneYard by Brainysmrf (If I'm not mistaken) and it consisted in writing a story about the origins of one of Bones' characters. It had to have 3 chapters:
1st chapter - From birth to 12 years old.
2 nd chapter - 12 to 18 years old.
3 rd chapter - 18 to 25 years old.
It had to be a story with their life previous to the series, about their family, costumes, friends, hobbies, etc.
To say that I failed this challenge is an understatement, by the third chapter my muse ran away leaving me with an unfinished story, and yet one that made me really proud.
So, I chose Brennan's character, it's the easiest one to write, for me.
I hope you enjoy, since this one is the last story I have writen so far, now I'm caught up in something more academic than writing fanfic. And also, leave reviews, they are always an inspiration to me.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Situations and places that have not been shown in the Tv show might be similar with my own childhood, a writer has to be inspired by something she know's right?
Joy.
It was what the mother felt looking down at her daughter, still flushed pink like a newborn.
"Blue eyes." She had said with a tear stained face "My baby has blue eyes."
The woman cradled the little girl closer to her chest, her hand reached out to smooth the only curl of silky auburn hair. The eyes of her mother swam with tears and pride.
"My girl, my Joy." A lovely whisper in the babies' small ear.
She smiled down at the baby who yawned and stretched her small fingers before falling again into a peaceful slumber.
Her small eyelids opened slowly, the crystal rays in her blue eyes sparkled in million colors with the morning's moisture and the first waves of a new day that erupted from the small window near the white wood crib.
There was a slow movement above that caught her eye. In a slow dance, so full of bright colors and spring wind, there were small dolphins of all the colors of the rainbow, hanging from strings and a mobile, just above her vision.
Her eyes danced around in the flow of movement, perplexed by the simply beauty she didn't understand but made her lips curl into a bright smile and her hands stretched to touch those magnificent creatures swimming in the air.
"Good morning, my princess." A warm voice spoke, far from her vision.
Blue eyes searched all around the soft pink walls adorned with butterflies and daisies for the comforting voice she knew well, until they fell on another pair of eyes, the same color of hers, smiling down at her.
The man stood above the crib and stretched his large hands to his daughter and lifted her carefully from the soft covers and finally enveloped her small body in his strong arms.
She felt secure, a warm sense of protection and love warming her beating heart.
Her small hand clasped its tiny fingers around one of her father's with the force of an unspoken plea.
'Never leave me.'
By the afternoon summer heat, there was laughter, hurried running after a bouncing ball and the firm voice of her father and her brother's screams of excitement. Inside, the silence reigned in the walls of a small living room. Her world swing back and forth, back and forth in the arms of her mother.
Rays of sun cascaded in her face and her barely open eyes.
Back and forth, in the rocking chair by the window, her mother smiled, brightly, to the outside and returned her eyes to the sighing baby in her arms. There was a soft song in the air and a warm echo in her mother's chest, so close to her ear, where she lay curled to the warmth of her protector.
Her mother's voice floated in the room, melodic words enveloped her mind and formed dreams of peace behind her small blue eyes slowly closing into sleep.
Only back and forth remained in her senses and the strong feeling of safety.
There were always embraces, warm arms that stretched towards her, that showed her the world outside the safe sanctuary of her room.
Her innocent mind recognized all of them like her family, in the back of her mind the instincts of survival made her clung to that small nucleus, trusting with all her heart the hands that held hers and urged her first steps. Steps that were tentative, with small trembling legs, but nonetheless she felt her father's hands urging her forward as the smiles and cheers of her mother and brother got brighter and louder.
She tried her hardest, moving her legs forward as fast as she could and then she fell to her hands, but that didn't matter, because they were all staring at her with pride in her eyes and that made her smile with unknown victory.
"That's my girl!" Her father said with tears in his clear blue eyes.
At night, her parents always came to place soft kisses in her cheeks, said their goodbyes and turned the lights off, leaving the room to the silence and darkness of the night. It was not after a while that she would see the door open again, and by instinct, she would hug her favorite doll closer to her heart, that beat with fear, her eyes open wide.
Then she would see the brown familiar eyes, belonging to someone who slowly sneaked into her bedroom to come sit by her bed with a warm smile.
"Kyle!" She squealed happily, now relieved to know that the stranger that entered in her room was in fact her older brother. Her senses calmed down and it was now safe to come out of the pile of covers around her head.
"Shhh…" He hushed his three year old sister with a small finger in her lips and she nodded in understanding.
"Tell me a story." She pleaded in a whisper, eyes bright with excitement, expecting another one of the fantastic tales of far away adventures that the boy knew so well and loved to tell his little sister.
Every night they repeated the ritual, after everyone was already asleep and the moon was already high in the sky, he would tell a story and she would hear attentively, every word that came from his lips vibrated with terrible monsters and damsels in the highest towers of a castle, until her eyelids close and her brother tighten the covers around her and whispered a soft goodnight in her ear.
There were nights when the monsters of her brother's stories would become real, in her head, in her nightmares. Scared, with tears in the corners of her eyes and her doll under one arm, she would slip from the security of the covers in the darkness and silence of her room, with bare feet she would cross the cold wood tiles, walking to her parent's room in search of warm comfort.
"Mommy, Daddy?" She would whisper to the darkness.
More times than often, she would open the door to a vast emptiness, no signal of her parents. With resignation and a small hand to clean the flow of tears in her blue orbs she would walk all the way back and knock on the door of her brother's room, for she was sure that there she would find a warm bed and company to chase away the monsters until the sunrise.
The safe peace that she felt was being slowly washed away by the hushed conversations of her parents that she could hear from the spot on the living room floor where she played with a small jigsaw.
And then, she was no longer her mother's joy, and she could hear her father's strong voice yelling at her brother for no apparent reason. He had his hands in the boy's shoulders and both kept yelling a name, 'Russ'.
Her eyes started to tear at the loud sounds and ached for her brother's torment, and immediately her mother held her tight and soothed her worries into whimpers.
"It's alright Temperance. Everything is going to be fine."
What had happened she didn't understand, in her child mind the new name didn't mean anything, and it took a while to answerer to it, until she couldn't remember any longer who she was before.
Everything changed abruptly. Her parents tossed a few bags in the trunk of the car and her brother held her hand, as they left the house in hurried steps. From the car's window she looked back, waving an innocent goodbye to the home she loved so much.
The new town was crowded, there were shops and many people coming and going in the streets. In the new house she had a big room all painted with soft colors and a bed filled with stuffed animals and pillows by the window. A study table and bookcases with books of all shapes and forms. She would love it there, she was sure of it.
From her window she could see a green backyard with a swing and multicolored flowers all around. The children's laughter that played outside in the street by the warm sun of a spring afternoon filled the air with a new sense of peace in her life.
Spring days always held the promise of a warm summer, and whenever the weather allowed, she and her mother would sit in the back steps of their modest house in Chicago. From there both could see the men of the family tossing a ball around in the backward.
With her twelve years old she was already fixed in the small letters of a complex book in her hands, her eyes danced around the lines of words and her mind assimilated everything, thirsting for knowledge.
"Marco!" Her brother shouted from the distance.
She only smiled and did her best to ignore the interruption, she pushed the book up in her hands and blocked the vision to the green expanse ahead.
"Marco." She heard the name again without answering.
By this time both their parents looked at them with amusement in their eyes.
"Marco!" Another shout.
And then she tossed the book aside, ran along the grass with a smile in her lips, stole the ball from her brother's feet and kicked it into the improved goal.
"Polo!" She shouted and turned around as bright as she ever looked, with her curls to the soft wind.
Her brother laughed, picked her up and spun her around, affectionately.
She saw, from the distance, both their parents sat nearby and watched them with smiles and love in their eyes, as the last rays of spring settled behind the houses, illuminating the smiling faces of the small family.
The next chapter will come soon. I'm hoping for your reviews!