Young Hearts Carousel
Invicta AU: Kelly gets a new job and a new boyfriend, leaving Booth to adjust to his new life. Has he really gotten over the past? Has he come to terms with his own life? The torch has been passed to Brennan to try to help them out.
A/N: I don't really recall at any point in the series Booth talking about his mother. So for the purpose of my AU, she's alive and well, living alone in the house that Booth grew up in.
Invicta AU includes (in chronological order, I suppose): Building Booths, Jumping the Gun, Invicta and White Elephant. Check them out if you haven't already, Kelly's my own little creation. The rest belong to a higher power.
This story was inspired one night while walking my dog and I saw my neighbor (who looks strangely like a young David Boreanaz circa season 1 of Buffy) kick his car tire. So I got the idea from him, but the story didn't click until I was listening to one of my favorite songs, Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts. Then I thought to myself: isn't life just one long carousel? Around and around we go… where we stop, nobody knows…
Really… that's all it took for this monster to take off. And trust me, it is a monster.
Lilac eyes release me from the sting of the queen bee
Help me to forget about the lions chasing me
If a man among us has the notion that he's free
I entreat you to the challenge, stand on up and let's seeYou get old
I never wanna get old
Smiling and sun baked, I get jealous of myself
Like Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts carousel
Hardest part has always been to resurrect my soul
Lightning in my youth and the newest way just got old
It got old
I never wanna get old
And you try, and you try
And you try and you try
And you try and you try again
But you can't try enough
But you keep fighting
You keep on fighting me
You keep on fighting
Don't you know you already won?
Somewhere in the city we were hanging on the lawn
Talking all the time about where the time had gone
It's not the way I thought it'd be
It's not what I was told
I got a young heart and I don't want to get old
I never wanna get old
And you try, and you try
And you try and you try
And you try and you try again
But you can't try enough
~Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers
*
Spring
*
Kelly Booth walked into Founding Fathers and saw her brother, Special Agent Seeley Booth, sitting at the bar with his co-workers. She walked up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned around, she held out her arms and spun around. He smiled. She was looking very professional in a three piece dark gray pin stripe pant suit with a fuchsia button up shirt.
"Don't I look like a lawyer?" She asked with a sly smile.
"Did you get the job?" Booth looked at her face, desperately trying to read the smile
"Yup!" She jumped up and down in excitement. "You should see the law office! It's in Old Town Alexandria and it's this colonial townhouse that they've converted. Martin's office is the front room with this huge bay window that overlooks Duke Street…" She marveled "And I'm going to be working there!"
"I think it was the suit that got you the job." Angela winked from beside Booth.
"Yes, I agree." Kelly laughed "I had this amazing personal shopper help me out…"
"You've got to give me her number!" Angela laughed at their inside joke. In truth, it had been Angela who had taken Kelly shopping last week for power suits as Kelly went in to the interviewing process after graduating law school.
"I hardly think the suit had anything to do with it." Brennan piped up from the other side of Booth. "You are a very bright young woman."
"Well thank you, Dr. Brennan." Kelly beamed.
"So he's a defense attorney?" Booth asked nervously as Kelly slung her suit jacket over the back of the bar stool and climbed up next to Brennan.
"Oh yeah," Kelly said as she looked down the row at Brennan, Booth, Angela and Hodgins. "He's defending this boy in middle school who got kicked out for some ludicrous reason, but the boy was actually diagnosed with ADHD, so we're trying to get him back into the school system because he was unlawfully kicked out and his parents don't have enough money for private school as well as therapy."
"And a high-powered attorney." Hodgins scoffed and Angela jabbed her elbow into his ribs.
"So he does civil rights cases?" Booth asked hopefully.
"Not exclusively. He's got this one guy on death row…" Everyone at the bar looked at Booth, but Kelly continued. "He totally didn't do it. He was set up. It's this whole huge debacle. Yeah, he's a drug dealer, but since when do we murder drug dealers?" Kelly shrugged. "He was being followed by a guy who owed him money, a bad drug deal went down and the other guy was the one who actually shot the victim. They had a confession from the other guy, but he took it back, saying he was forced into it, so there's two guys in jail for the murder right now and our guy is scheduled to die next month." She shook her head. "The governor won't absolve our guy, which is ridiculous because there's so much he said/he said."
"It sounds like you have your work cut out for you." Brennan said as an awkward silence settled over the bar.
"Who else is on your case load?" Booth asked cautiously and Kelly looked at him.
"I don't think I should be talking about it…" She noticed the disapproving look on his face and she quickly continued. "There may or may not be a 9/11 terrorist, but the evidence against the guy is pretty weak. A handful of drug dealers, a pain doctor…" Booth cringed. "But Seeley," She said forcefully. "This is what I want to be doing."
"You want to be representing a terrorist?" He said through clenched teeth. As much as he tried, he couldn't accept Kelly's need to be a defense attorney.
"He's not a proven terrorist." She reminded. "And he's an American citizen! He has every right to a fair trial in front of a jury of his peers. What kind of standard would that set if we denied him his rights?"
Seeing that this was a flailing conversation, Angela decided to speak up.
"Well, I for one, am proud of you, Kelly." She smiled "Not many people have the courage to follow their dreams. I say we go out tonight and celebrate."
"I'd like that." Kelly nodded, casting a glance at Booth as he took a sip of his beer.
"We should make it a girls night!" Angela continued, hoping that would give Booth enough time to calm down before he and Kelly started up again. "Would you be up for one?" She asked Brennan.
"Yes, I think that would be fun." Brennan smiled at Kelly.
"Girls nights are always trouble." Hodgins groaned from beside Angela. "I don't know how girls do it…"
"Well when you get three temptresses like us out on the dance floor…" Angela teased. "Oh, we should invite Cam along."
"This is turning into a bad idea." Booth shook his head. "Don't corrupt my little sister." He pointed his finger at Angela.
"Corrupt? Whatever are you talking about?" She batted her eyelashes playfully.
"I admire your gallantry, big brother." Kelly reached across Brennan and patted his arm. "But I was gone a long, long time ago."
"Okay, just stop." Booth threw up his hands. "Have fun. Don't tell me about it in the morning."
The girls laughed as Angela pulled Brennan and Kelly off their bar stools.
"It's never too early to celebrate!" She sang as she led them out of the bar.
"Have fun." Booth whispered to Brennan as she turned around to leave.
"I'm certain it's a guarantee." She smiled as she followed Angela and Kelly out of the door, leaving Hodgins and Booth together at the bar.
*
Booth hesitated before he knocked on Brennan's door the next morning, wondering exactly how much fun the girls had last night. Brennan opened the door, still wearing her bathrobe, but she had clearly been up for a bit, freshly showered with a cup of coffee in her hand.
"What's wrong?" She asked concerned.
"Get dressed, we're headed to western Virginia." He smiled as he handed over the file that had been faxed to the FBI. "Two bodies found in a ravine early this morning by two kids on ATVs."
"Come in." Brennan stepped aside and added quickly. "Kelly's sleeping on the couch, so don't wake her."
"Why is she on your couch?" He eyed her suspiciously.
"It was late by the time we got back and I decided it would be better for her to just stay here than go to Rebecca's and wake the whole household." She shrugged. Since Kelly's shooting months ago, Booth's ex and mother of his child had taken it upon herself to become an almost foster mother to Kelly. She had offered up the basement of her house as a home. Booth had reluctantly agreed, feeling safer to have Kelly with Rebecca and Parker than living on her own in an apartment in a questionable part of town.
"How magnanimous of you." Booth smiled
"We were all a little bit drunk." She shrugged. "It felt like a better decision. I'll go get dressed then we'll head out."
She disappeared into the back of her apartment and Booth stood across the living room, looking at his sleeping sister. She was still dressed in her button up shirt and slacks, half covered by a blanket and she had a peaceful look on her face, half of her mouth curled up in a smile. Booth laughed to himself. Aside from the slightly smeared make-up, she looked exactly like she had when she was little.
"Do you want to write a note for her?" Brennan peaked her head out of her bedroom. Booth caught his breath as her hair dangled teasingly on her bare shoulder. He simply nodded. "There's paper there on the counter. Tell her where the spare key is so she can lock up before she leaves."
She disappeared again, leaving Booth standing there, surprised by the intimacy of the moment. They had been partners for years, but that one moment was like a breath of fresh air for his burning lungs.
Brennan emerged from her room just as Booth was finishing the note.
"Are you ready?" She asked, throwing a light jacket over her shoulders.
"Yeah, just," He looked at the note and signed his name. "Ready to catch the bad guys?" He softly and enthusiastically clapped his hands together. Brennan laughed as she followed him out the door.