A/N: This is the revised and slightly longer version of the original "One In A Million". Nothing to the story has been changed other than some things are explaineda bit better.
WARNING: Character death.
Someone had once told her that it was impossible to change the past. Today, Temperance wished that that person had been wrong. If only she would have known what she knew today, they wouldn't have been this mess. There had just beensomething to this woman that had made Brennan suspect that not everything was not quite right with her. Call it maternal instinct or whatever else you wanted, but Temperance had known. It had been her logical side that had pushed that feeling aside because the couple had desperately needed help so they had hired her: Monica Roberts.
Jamie had been three years old when Monica had come to work for them. At first, things had seemed perfectly normal and Temperance's initial suspicions had slowly faded away until they had been completely gone. After all, Monica was great with Jamie and treated the child just like it was her own. Jamie simply loved her which made Temperance a bit jealous at times, especially when her daughter preferred being tucked in by Monica instead of her.
The months passed and everything was still okay. Temperance had learned to accept Monica's presence in their family and she had gone on living her life normally, going to work every morning and coming back to her daughter every night. She began less and less jealous of Monica until her jealousy disappeared just like her suspicions had as well.
Looking back today, Temperance decided that things had only started to go wrong when Jamie had turned five. Weird bruises had suddenly started to appear on her body, especially on the upper part. When questionned about them, Jamie would only reply that she had fallen somehow. Temperance told Booth about it but he had simply told her not to worry about it.
"She's a child, Bones. Of course she's going to hurt herself." He had simply told her.
And Jamie was such a tomboy that Temperance had no choice but to believe her boyfriend. Though she stopped worrying day and night about it, her suspicions never completely faded away after that.
A year passed by and when Jamie turned six, Temperance and Booth gave their first born a lovely little brother named Jeremy. Jamie simply fell in love with her baby brother and often wanted to help out. Temperance, with Monica's help, taught her the art of changing diapers and of feeding the infant when neither of them could it themselves.
Out of instinct, Temperance secretely kept an eye out for suspicious bruising on her infant's body but after a few months she had found none. Once again, she had just stopped worrying and gone on living her life normally.
Months have a way of passing that you rarely ever notice how quickly the time has gone by. Several months passed and the bruises on Jamie healed. Temperance's suspicions once again faded before disappearing altogether. Maybe Jamie had in fact injured herself by falling.
It was a few months ago that her suspicions rose up once again. One night, as she was heading for the bathroom, she had found Jamie looking through the medicine cabinet for some bandages. When Temperance confronted her about it, Jamie simply replied that she had gone to the park with her best friend, Corey, and that she had cut herself with some branches.
Lifting the sleeve of her daughter's shirt, Temperance had seen marks that could have indeed be made by a branch. Giving her daughter the benefit of the doubt, she didn't ask any more questions and cleaned off the injuries before wrapping the arm in a bandage. Temperance stayed on the lookout for new bruises but weeks passed by and the bruises and cuts faded, just like her suspicions.
After nine years of dating, Temperance had finally agreed to marry her boyfriend. She had figured that if they had been able to last this long, then maybe a marriage wouldn't change much. She was a bit reluctant to leave for Barbados for her honeymoon. Images of cuts and bruises filled her mind and twice she asked her newly husband to put off their honeymoon for a while.
"We'll wait until my brother comes back from his trip. We'll send the kids there." She pleaded.
"Don't worry about it, Tempe. Monica's great with our kids. They'll be fine."
As the plane climbed in altitude, Temperance tried to calm herself. Her kids were staying with Monica, the woman that had been part of their family for six years. They would be in good hands. What bad thing could happen to them?
If only she had known, she told herself today.
They came back two weeks later as everything had been planned. Temperance opened the door to find their house the exact same way they had left it. The irrational fears that had plagued her the whole trip back, slowly faded away. She felt her husband squeeze her shoulder in reassurance. She smiled.
She stepped inside and expected to have two brown heads charging at her from any place in the house. Instead, she found silence. She frowned, her fears rushing back to her at the speed of light.
"Monica?" she called out.
A noise came from the kicthen that vaguely ressembled dishes colliding with the floor and, seconds later, Monica appeared at the other end of the hallway. As she made her way to the newlywed couple, Temperance noticed that her nanny looked rather tired. Booth seemed to have noticed too.
"How long have we been gone?" he whispered in her ears.
She knew he had meant it as a joke but she didn't laugh. Monica looked like she had aged ten years over the last two weeks and Temperance decided that maybe it was time for the woman to have a small vacation. She knew how much of a handful her kids could be sometimes and to take care of the two of them for two weeks seemed to have taken a lot of energy out of her. Temperance felt a twinge of sympathy, something she had never felt towards the woman.
"Where are the kids?" she asked, gently.
At that particular second, Temperance thought she saw something flashing inside the nanny's eyes but it had disappeared so quickly that Temperance wasn't able to distinguish what it had been.
"Jamie is sleeping in her room."
Even her voice sounded weird. Temperance shivered in spite of herself.
"Jeremy is playing in his."
A warning alert echoed in her mind. It wasn't typical of Jamie to be sleeping in the middle of the afternoon.
"I'll go see them." Temperance replied before dashing for the stairs.
She heard footsteps behind her and knew that Booth and Monica were following closely behind her. At the top of the stairs, she ran down the hallway to her daughter's room. The door had been left slightly opened. She immediately pushed the door and felt Booth collide with her back as horror struck her eyes. Unable to look away, she felt her knees give out on her. A pair of arms caught her before she fell.
Jamie was laying on her back, rigid. Her hair had been badly chopped off, horrible cuts and bruises covered her legs and arms and her face had turned grayish. Temperance, who's knees had regained their composure, took a few tentative steps towards the bed. She noticed the dirtiness of her daughter's face and could easily see the traces million of tears had left while trailing down her face.
She heard a sound behind her. She turned around to see a little Jeremy peeking nervously out his bedroom door, tears in his eyes. His mother's blue eyes fell on the nanny standing in front of his door and he squeaked before closing the door. Temperance barely had time to register to terror in her son's eyes before he disappeared into his room. Her eyes went to Monica who looked at her, apologically.
"It's not my fault your daughter was being such a brat." She simply said.
In a second, Booth swung around and grabbed the nanny by the collar. He shoved her against the wall.
"You did this to her?" he asked, his face twisted in a mix of anger and pain. "You sick b..."
"Booth!" Temperance cut in.
She pointed towards the closed door and Booth slowly released the woman.
"Jamie Booth was a sweet little girl whom everyone loved dearly." The priest went on.
Temperance looked around her. On her far left, Booth's family stood, huddled together in unspoken support. Her mother-in-law was bawling her eyes out, her whole body shaking in sobs, and Booth's father and brother were desperately fighting their tears, their jaw clenched tightly.
Beside them stood a very teary and emotional Zach Addy and a serious despite the circumstances Daniel Goodman. It felt weird to see them both here, dressed in black, listening intently to the priest's speech. Temperance couldn't help but feel happy that they were here. She tore her eyes from the men and looked on her right.
Booth was standing beside her, weeping uncontrollably. She had never seen him like this. In fact, she had always seen Booth as the pillar of strength and courage in their couple and here he was, crying just like a baby when she herself hadn't shed a tear since the whole ceremony had begun. In front of him, Jeremy stood tall and proud, his father's hands resting on his shoulders, trying to be make a man of himself but failing miserably. Temperance knew that he would miss his sister and would always blame himself for her death. Even though Jeremy was still quite young, he was just like his father; he felt the need to protect the women he cared about the most. His sister had been one of them.
Beside them stood Angela, her face contorted as she fought more tears from falling, her eyes bloodshots from all the crying. Her hand clutched at the tissue in her palm. Her boyfriend's arm was around her waist. Temperance had always known that there had been something more than friendship between Angela and Jack but she had never thought that once they would actually start dating that they would last that long. She had always seen Angela as a woman who didn't want to get involved, who loved her indepedence and freedom and who would never be able to sacrifice them to be with a man. Yet, she had proved her wrong with Hodgins. They had been together long than Booth and her had. If she wasn't mistaken, it had been a bit more than ten years since their first date.
She turned around to look at the crowd standing behind them. They were all there and they were all crying: Jamie's kindergarten teacher, Mrs Blythe, her first grade teacher, Mr. Stevens, her second grade teacher, Mrs Lewis, and her third grade teacher, Ms. Powell. She saw Jamie's soccer coach at the back of the crowd, Jamie's best friend's family, their neighbors, some of her daughter's friends and families. All of them had gathered tiday to honor the precious life of her daughter. These were the same people who, Temperance thought, had known about her daughter's situation but had simply chosen to look the other way, rationalizing that it wasn't their business and thus putting their conscience at ease until they saw the new bruises on Jamie. It was a neverending cycle who's paradox laid in the fact that the cycle ended when the victim's life did as well. She felt angry at them but it was too late to blame them now.
She turned her attention back to the priest who was almost done with the ceremony. The coffin was put into the grave and the family was asked to throw the first patch of dirt on it. Temperance stepped up, numbly, and without even realizing it, threw the dirt in the hole. She took a few steps back and watched as the others did the same. The priest then concluded the ceremony. The crowd started to walk away.
"Are you coming?" Booth asked, softly.
She looked up at her husband and tried to put up a brave smile on her face. She failed.
"In a minute." She told him.
Nodding understandingly, he leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the forehead. Temperance closed her eyes at the touch of his lips on her and only opened them when she felt the cold that told her Booth had pulled away.
She watched his back as he left with the rest of the crowd. There was still the small get-together they had to attend but before she could face those people again, there was one last thing she needed to do. She waited for the men to be done burying the coffin. She smiled politely at them as they offered their condolances and waited for them to leave before kneeling down in front of her daughter's tombstone. She read it.
In loving memory of Jamie Christine Booth.
(2009 – 2017)
Loving daughter of Temperance Brennan-Booth and Seeley Booth
On top of the tombstone stood an angel, its arms reaching out to the sky, hair flowing in the wind. Temperance smiled as she examined the angel carefully. That's what Jamie had been: an angel. It would be how her mother would always remember her as. Nobody, not even Monica, no matter how much she pleaded that her daughter was a brat, would be able to change that.
At the bottom of the stone, Temperance had ordered one more thing to be engraved. She had heard this song on the radio while she had been on vacation with Booth and she had simply fallen in love with it. Today, there seemed to be no better song to describe what she was feeling.
She ran her fingers over the inscription:
You're in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here
Choking back some tears, Temperance stopped her fingers on comfort. The word echoed in her head. Comfort. Jamie had lacked that for the two weeks she had been gone. She had probably felt alone, probably felt as though her parents had abandonned her.
At that thought, she felt all her barriers collapse and she fell once again to her knees. For the first time since she had found her daughter the previous week, she aloud herself to cry. The tears fell freely down her face and down her neck before dying on her blouse.
"We didn't abandon you, baby." She whispered to the angel.
She aloud herself to cry a bit longer before standing up once again and wiping her tears violently away. She had to be strong. If not for herself, then for the others. The others who were still suffering. For those others who felt invisible, ignored by the people who cared about them. She thought back to the crowd who had stood behind her at the funeral. She knew that for the others, there were these same people who looked the other way because it was easier than acting. She wasn't going to let herself become one of them.
She turned around and, without a second glance at her daughter's tombstone, she walked away. Each step brought her back to her real life. She still had a lot of work to do. There were still these thousands of children out there who, just like Jamie, were the victims of human madness. Her job didn't offer her the possibility to help these victims before it was too late but if she could at least help put behind bars those who brought an end to these innocent lives, then at least she could make the world a more better place.
If you have reached the end of the story, I personally thank you very much.
This story is dedicated to Aurore Gagnon who, in 1920, died of the injuries inflicted to by her stepmother, at the age of 11. This is a well-known story in the province where I live in Canada (Quebec) which has inspired books and two movies. This is a story I think the world needs to know because, unfortunately, the story repeats itself thousands of times every year.