Lies
A teenage Seeley Booth sighed as he exited his math class. Thank God that class was over. No one could have ever created a class that was even more boring than math was.
Suddenly, he was on the floor, staring into a pair of disturbed, pained, beautiful, brown eyes. He could just see the disappearing bruise on her cheek, fading into yellow and brown.
"I'm sorry. It was my fault. I should have been looking where I was going," she said, scrambling to pick her books off of the floor.
"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't have been thinking about how boring math was during the break," Booth replied, helping her with her books. "My name's Seeley Booth. And you are…"
"Temperance Brennan, but call me Tempe," she answered.
"Yeah, Russ' baby sister," Booth nodded. "Let me walk you to your next class. I've got nothing better to do."
"Okay," Brennan agreed.
Things moved on fast. They ate lunch together and became close friends. People gave the side long glances, but they ignored them. Booth tried to get her to open up about herself, but Brennan easily avoided the questions. Instead they spoke about what the future could bring them.
"I'm hoping to become a forensic anthropologist. I really want to help people identify their dead loved ones so they don't suffer without knowing the truth," Brennan confessed as they walked one night.
"I'm kind of into that stuff, too. Bringing justice to killers," Booth said. "Maybe, if we are lucky, we could be partners."
"I'd like that," Brennan replied.
The next day, Booth waited for Brennan outside of the schools' main doors, but when she didn't show up, he walked inside, alone. He was going to go see her when school let out.
He arrived at her place precisely fifteen minutes after school had finished. He knocked on the door, and when it opened, Booth wasn't prepared for what he saw. "Tempe?" he gasped.
Brennan looked at Booth. Where her skin wasn't covered by her clothing, there were bruises, most of them looking as if they came from a fist. One of her eyes was swollen shut.
"Go away and pretend that you never saw this," she whispered hoarsely. "I don't want him to hurt you, too."
"No, I can't. Tempe, please, throw on some clothes that will hide this. I'm bringing you to my place. We need to go to the police and tell them. Please, Tempe. For me?" Booth pleaded.
Brennan nodded silently, and threw a hooded sweater on as she followed Booth to his place.
"Seeley, you're late. You were supposed to watch your little brother… Who's this?" Mary Booth said when she heard the front door open, appearing from a door at the end of the hall.
"Mom, this is Temperance Brennan. She's a friend of mine from school. I was worried when she didn't show up today. I went to her place and she answered the door in this state," Booth answered, cradling Brennan's limp form. She had collapsed as soon as she had entered the house.
"I'll call your father," Mary said. When she hung up, she looked worriedly down at Brennan. "He's coming home right now."
They covered Brennan's still form with blankets, but Booth couldn't help but notice the bluish tinge that was slowly seeping its way onto her skin. Shaking fingers searched for a pulse, but found none.
"Mom! She doesn't have a pulse!" he exclaimed, starting CPR while Mary phoned for an ambulance. A few minutes later, longer than he would have liked without the results he wanted, Booth stopped, letting the tears roll down his face. "It's too late. She's gone." He didn't hear his mother relay the message over the phone or the front door open again. He was lost in shock as he hugged her still-warm corpse to his body, a hand tangled in her hair. "She's gone. She's gone. I love you, Tempe. I love you. I promise on your grave that he'll go to jail."
Jonathan Booth paused in the doorway. His son was sobbing as her held a girl close. Judging from his son's low words, she was dead. He was hustled aside as the ambulance crew walked in. They were in no hurry; they knew that she was dead.
The next day, Booth walked into the principal's office and knocked on the open door. "Mr. McNeill?"
"Come in," Ed McNeill said, watching as Booth walked in. He noticed the sad look right away. "Is there something wrong?"
"Yes sir. It's about Temperance Brennan. As I know you are aware, she wasn't at school yesterday. I went over to her place and found out that her father abused her. I brought her to my place, but she…" Booth bit back a sob. "She died in my arms. The police arrested her foster father this morning."
"I see. Feel free to wander around. I'll inform the school," McNeill told him.
Booth sat with his back against the cafeteria wall when he heard the principal's announcement.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but some important news just acme to my attention. Yesterday afternoon, Temperance Brennan died. She had been abused by her foster father and died as a consequence of his actions. If you know or suspect that any one is in such a predicament, contact the proper authorities and inform them," were the words that were spoken.
During lunch, three people approached him. Booth knew who they were, but ignored them.
"Seeley, isn't it?" Angela Montenegro asked.
"Yeah," Booth answered in a monotone voice.
"Mind if we join you?" Zach Addy asked.
Booth shrugged, implying that it didn't bother him.
"Is everything all right?" Jack Hodgins asked, setting his lunch down on the table.
"What do you think?" Booth snarled.
"Calm down. We'd like to be your friends. We all knew Tempe, but we couldn't get close to her. You were the only one who was able to do that," Angela said, in a gentle, no non-sense voice. "It wasn't hard to tell that you had feelings for each other, but I doubt that she would want you to stay like this for the rest of your life."
She had a point; Booth thought as he gave them a small smile and allowed them into his heart.
Twenty-five years later, Seeley Booth, now an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, knocked on Russ Brennan's door.
"Yeah?" Russ answered.
"Russ Brennan?" Booth asked.
"Yeah, that's me," Russ said.
"It's concerning your sister, Temperance. May I come in?" Booth asked.
Russ moved aside and let him in, listening to what Booth had to say. In the end, all he had to say was this: "Thank you for trying to support Tempe when I couldn't be there for her."
"No problem," Booth said and left.