Title: Feedback
Author: Catty-the-spy
Pairing: gen, mentions of past Bones/Jocelyn
Rating: PG
Warnings: minor character death, implied future character death, kidnapping
Notes: For the h/c bingo prompt "making deals with demons". A prequel to Soundwaves.
Summary: Isolated incidents can come back to haunt you. Jocelyn learns that the hard way.
One day, not long after the divorce, Joanna started a ruckus at school. Not simple misbehavior, but a full on meltdown that had the school nurse and the guidance councilor and everyone and their uncle involved.
One day, after her k-3 class had taken their naps, Joanna started screaming "Noah Kgerin is gonna die! Noah Kgerin is gonna die." Screaming it as loud as she could, "Noah Kgerin is gonna die! Noah Kgerin is gonna die!"
She screamed and cried until she wore herself out. Nothing calmed her. At her wit's end, Jocelyn called Leonard, because for all he was uncommunicative he knew their daughter well. They shared a genetic condition, the same one that made Joanna hard of hearing, and he took her oddities in stride.
"Take her home," Leonard said, and Jocelyn could barely hear him over the combination of Joanna and the nurse and a gaggle of school officials. "She should calm down some; I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Don't speed," Jocelyn said, because she knew him – he'd break the laws of time and space if it would help Joanna.
True to his word, Joanna's screams died down once they got a good distance away from the school. Instead she just sobbed, her face getting a blotchy red, and Jocelyn could barely concentrate on the road. She tried singing, she tried saying "It's gonna be okay". She couldn't stand to see her baby hurting like this.
Little children had this way of crying like they're falling apart; it made Jocelyn feel like crying herself.
Leonard beat them home – sped, the bastard, but she couldn't been too angry. He took Joanna out of the booster seat and curled her against his chest. It was a familiar pose. Leonard had this habit of holding Joanna close to his heart; maybe he thought Jocelyn didn't notice, but she wasn't blind. He had odd ways, and Joanna was just the same.
Leonard didn't try to shush her, just let her cry, while Jocelyn parked the hovercar in the garage and made her way inside.
When the crying stayed outdoors instead of following her into the house, Jocelyn looked out the window.
Leonard was heading toward the porch, toward the porch swing he'd insisted on. He said his mother had had one. He talked about his mother a lot – Mama McCoy was one of the few things he was open about. Jocelyn used to tease him about it – ugh, such a mama's boy – but when she saw how it affected his relationship with Joanna, it just made her wistful.
Whatever the problems in their marriage, caring about Joanna wasn't one of them.
Jocelyn opened the front door so they could come in when they were ready, then she leaned her head against the door frame.
"-heard it," Joanna was in the process of saying, still choked up. "Erry time I saw him I did. And it was so loud."
"Must've been scary," Leonard said.
Joanna must've nodded. Jocelyn went deeper into the house to find something to do.
It burned, that Leonard could calm Joanna so easily when Jocelyn could not. She hadn't wanted to have to call him. It felt wrong to need him in any way after the divorce. When she was feeling bitter and spiteful, she likened it to calling up the devil, but really it just bit her sense of pride.
She felt glad that she didn't have to take care of Joanna alone, but angry that she needed help in the first place. She took it out on the dishes.
After about an hour, she drifted towards the front door again, peeking out.
Joanna was still curled up tight against her daddy's chest. He was rubbing her forehead; the crying must've given her a headache.
"What do you hear when you listen to my heartbeat?" Leonard sounded like a man sharing some important secret. It was amazing how he could be so abrasive to everyone, yet so gentle with his little girl.
Joanna's face scrunched up in concentration. Finally she brightened. "You love me!"
"You bet. I love you tomorrow, just like I love you today and the day before. And I bet, if you listen to my heart again tomorrow, I'll still be loving you."
"You'll never stop? Not ever?"
"Not ever."
Joanna didn't talk about Noah Kgerin again. When the boy died in an unfortunate vehicular accident a short while later, Jocelyn chocked it up to coincidence. In fact, Jocelyn didn't think about the incident again until she was sitting in Joanna's empty room, praying the police would find her baby soon.
When you call on the devil, he always takes his due.