A/N: This is my first Bones fic, and though I wish I did, I don't own Bones. Please read and review, and enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Booth, your decreased blinking rate and increased rate of yawning suggest that you failed to achieve REM sleep last night."

Temperance Brennan glanced sideways at her partner Seeley Booth, concerned, considering that he looked like he was about to keel over and he was the one driving the car. "Huh, what?" Booth said, blinking his eyes rapidly and glancing quickly at Bones. "Sorry, Bones, it's just that my kid sister flew in last night."

"Oh, right," Bones said, realization flashing across her face. "Because your mom is going to Europe for the summer and they didn't want to take her along. She can't be that bad, Booth, you would've mentioned it."

"She's not," he replied, keeping his eyes trained on the road. "But I didn't bank on her two best friends coming with her. She says Mom said she told me, but she most certainly did not. And Emma's not one for lying." He finally pulled into a parking space at the Royal Diner, and Bones opened the door and stepped out of the car.

"Do you think your mom purposefully kept the information from you, or do you think it slipped her mind?" she asked.

"I think she kept it from me on purpose," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "When I called them about it last night, my mom insisted that she told me, but she's a shitty liar. She also claimed that Emma insisted on bringing her friends with her."

"I would really like to meet your sister," Brennan said. "She sounds like a fascinating adolescent."

"She's a person, not a corpse, Bones," Booth told her, holding the door open for her.

"I didn't mean it like that," she sniped. "You said she's interested in forensic anthropology?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "Ever since I told her about you, she's been fascinated by your work. She reads all your books like most teenage girls read Cosmo." Glancing at her, he asked, "Do you really want to meet her, Bones?"

"Yes, of course I do," she replied.

"I can call her right now and see if she and her friends want to come here and meet us for lunch," he suggested, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

"Sure," Brennan chirped.

TSITLTSITLTSITL

Fifteen minutes later, a taxi dropped off three teenagers at the Royal Diner. Brennan, who had been looking out the window, asked, "Is that your sister, Booth?"

He followed her gaze out the window and a smile spread over his face. "Yeah, that is." He waved through the glass, and the girl outside smiled back broadly and waved.

The three teenagers came in through the door, one girl and two boys. "Hey, Seeley," the girl said, wrapping her arms around Booth's shoulders from behind him. She had long brown hair and the same chocolate brown eyes that Booth had. She was short and slim, but Brennan noticed that her muscles were subtly well-formed.

"Emma, this is Dr. Temperance Brennan, my partner," Booth said, grinning in Bones' direction. "Bones, this is my sister, Emma."

"Hi, Dr. Brennan," Emma beamed, extending her hand, which Bones shook. "It's nice to meet you. Seeley's told me so much about you."

"Same here, on both counts," Bones replied. "He tells me that you're very interested in forensic anthropology."

"That I am, but I'm afraid that will have to wait for later," she said. "Let me introduce you to my two best friends. Dr. Brennan, this is Kegan Cromwell and Drew Smith."

"Pleased to meet you, Dr. Brennan," Kegan said. Kegan had shaggy honey brown hair and hazel eyes. He was of average height and scrawny, but Bones noticed that his muscles had nearly the same definition of those of Emma.

"Same here," Drew said. Drew had long dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. He was about the same height as Kegan, but he was more muscular.

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you," Bones smiled. Emma took a seat next to her brother, and Kegan and Drew sat across from her next to Bones. "How was your flight in?"

"It was okay," Emma shrugged, keeping her eyes trained on her menu.

"Don't lie, Emma," Kegan reprimanded her. "It was better than okay. We were in first class and they played Iron Man on the way over. It was pretty freaking awesome."

"Whatever," she replied, rolling her eyes. "You know the only reason my mom booked us in first class was to make up for not taking me to Europe with her."

"And her shitty parenting," Drew muttered, catching the attention of Booth.

"Shitty parenting?" he echoed. Turning on his sister, he asked, "What shitty parenting? I don't remember any shitty parenting."

"New phrase, Seeley," Emma said coolly. "And Mom was probably loads better at raising you. See, you weren't a mistake."

"You're not a mistake, Em," he murmured softly.

"To them, I am," she replied. "You have noticed the large age gap between us, right? That's because they never planned to have me. Mom should be retired right now, not working so she can keep sending me to private school. And she knows that. And she acts like it."

Bones kept silent, but she was wondering whether or not Sweets would be interested in talking to Emma. "Hey," she said brightly. "How about the three of you come to the lab with us?"

"Bones," Booth said, his eyes growing wide, "you don't have to do that. Besides, I'm sure the Squint Squad won't appreciate it-"

"They won't mind, Booth," she interrupted. "Besides, they're family."

"Thanks, Dr. Brennan," Emma said, beaming widely. "That'd be awesome."

"Well, well, well, what have we here?"

Sweets was the first person who caught sight of Emma, Kegan, and Drew and approached them. "I'm Emma Booth," Emma said, shaking his extended hand. "Nice to meet you."

"And I'm Kegan Cromwell, her best friend," Kegan said, flashing a smug glance in Drew's direction.

"I'm Drew Smith, her real best friend," Drew countered, glaring back at Kegan.

"I see," Sweets said, looking thoughtful.

"Uh-oh, I know that face, Sweets," Booth said, rolling his eyes. "That's the face you always make before psychoanalyzing someone. Don't even think about psychoanalyzing my sister."

"Just out of curiosity, why is your sister staying with you?" Sweets asked.

"Our parents are going to Europe for the summer, and they decided not to take Emma with them," Booth replied, eyeing him warily.

"Really?" Sweets asked. "Hmmm. And Kegan and Drew are staying with you as well?" Booth nodded, as Bones, Emma, Kegan, and Drew watched this exchanged with interest. "And you're okay with your sister staying at home alone with two teenage boys while you're at work?"

Booth's jaw tightened and he muttered, "No, not really. But I don't have much of a choice."

"Hold up," Kegan said, holding his hands up defensively. "Drew and I have been best friends with Emma since the seventh grade, and we're going to be juniors in high school in the fall. Seeley should know that we wouldn't dare try anything." Drew bit his lip, but nodded in agreement.

"I do trust you," Booth said. "But that doesn't mean that I like the idea of my baby sis staying at home alone with two hormonal teenage boys."

"I'm not a baby, Seeley," Emma said, rolling her eyes at her older brother.

"Huh," Sweets said. "I find it fascinating that Emma is one of the few that regularly call you by your given name, despite the large age gap between the two of you. Obviously, either of the two of you are very close, or she has no respect for you."

"It better be the former," Booth murmured, his eyes flashing at his sister.

"It is," she confirmed. "Seeley's the father figure in my life, seeing as my father didn't do shit for me."

Sweets' eyes widened and he opened his mouth, probably to make some psychoanalytic comment.

Sensing Booth's alarm, Bones quickly said, "Booth, perhaps your sister and her friends would like to meet the rest of the team and take a deeper look into my job here at the Jeffersonian?"

"Yeah, sounds great," Drew said quickly, before either of the Booth siblings could reply. He seized Emma by the wrist and followed Bones. Frantically, Emma reached back and grabbed Kegan's wrist, and Booth followed reluctantly, looking relieved and frustrated at the same time. Brennan used her key card to get them into a part of the lab that was not currently host to any human remains.

"Aw, no fun human remains?" Emma said, sounding disappointed.

"No, I'm sorry," Bones said apologetically. "I don't think Cam would like it very much if I let the three of you into the same room as a corpse without her explicit permission."

"Damn," Emma muttered, shaking her head.

Kegan playfully slapped her on the back of the head. "Watch your mouth, young lady," he advised teasingly. "It's 'Hoover Dam' to you."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Bones said, looking at the teenage boy curiously. "Why would she use Hoover Dam as an expletive?"

The three teenagers stared blankly back at her. "So," Drew said, "this is what you have to deal with, Seeley."

"Now you feel my pain," Booth moaned. "She takes everything literally."

Suddenly, someone's phone chimed, announcing the arrival of a text message. After Booth, Bones, Drew, Kegan, and Emma all checked their phones, it was determined that it was Emma's phone that had chimed. "Ah, shit," she muttered, scowling and closing her phone before placing it in her pocket again.

"Who is it, Em?" Booth asked, looking worriedly at his younger sister.

Wrinkling her nose, she replied, "Jarhead."

"Jared?" Bones asked, grimacing.

"Unfortunately," Emma muttered.

"That useless hunk of shit," Kegan muttered murderously, and Drew nodded vehemently and agreement.

"Hey," Booth said, alarmed. "I know Jared's not perfect, but that's no reason to slander him."

"Emma," Drew said sternly, turning toward the girl. "You said you were going to tell him."

"You didn't, did you?" Kegan questioned, folding his arms tight across his chest and glaring at her.

"No, I haven't," she said meekly, shaking her head. Booth noted worriedly that she was shaking slightly and her eyes were shining. "Last time Jared visited Mom and me, he met some old friends at a bar. He came back drunk. Not just tipsy, but falling-over, shit-for-brains drunk. I yelled at him, for driving home under that condition and for getting caught up in the same thing as Dad, and he… he…"

"He what, Emma?" Booth asked gently.

"He…" she said, her voice thick with emotion.

"He hit her," Kegan finally finished for her, placing a friendly hand on Emma's shoulder. "She had a shiner for a week."

Booth's following eruption resulting in a blue streak long enough to be made into a novel.

"I cannot believe him."

Booth was still muttering under his breath about Jared when he drove Bones back to the Jeffersonian from lunch the next day. "Booth, given your brother's history of drinking-" Bones started, but he cut her off.

"Don't take that literally, Bones," he advised her. "That's not what I meant. I can believe that he would be drunk enough to hit someone. But Emma? Our baby sister? The little girl we both protected from bullies? It's not right."

"No, it isn't, I agree," Bones nodded.

"He's turning into our father," Booth muttered, shaking his head, his knuckles turning white from his tight grip on the steering wheel. "And then for him to act like nothing had happened? He saw her black eye. He knew what he had done. And he didn't even apologize. Not that it would have made a difference."

"Kegan and Drew are very protective of Emma," Bones mused aloud. "Almost as protective as you."

He shrugged. "They've been her best friends for years. The three of them are all very close. Of course they're protective of her."

"Kind of like you with me?" she asked curiously.

"Kind of like that," he said, biting his tongue to keep from saying anything else. There was no denying it. Seeley Booth was in love with Temperance Brennan. It was only a matter of time before he snapped.