"A buckle greenstick fracture to the distal radius. Still fresh. I'd say it occurred very close to the time of death. I can also see multiple contusions on the surface of the left ulna, Mr. Bray, make note of those," Dr. Temperance Brennan noted as she tried—and failed—to lean over her protruding stomach to study the mangled skeleton of a three- to four-year-old female.
"So, the victim put up a fight before she died? Or…" He trailed of, seeing the look on Dr. Brennan's face, which was somewhere between disbelief and disdain. "She was beaten before death. Right," the intern confirmed, embarrassed. Angela shot him a look of pity from across the platform.
Wendell, using his better judgment, decided not to be angry that Dr. Brennan had called him out on such a minor mistake. She was just grumpy, and of course, she had every right to be, considering she was eight months pregnant, her due date less than a week away, and was suffering every conceivable symptom of pregnancy at that stage.
"So this guy beat up and killed a little toddler? That's sick," Angela commented in disgust.
"I agree," Dr. Brennan stated, her eyes uncharacteristically filled with emotion.
"Oh, uh, not just beaten," Dr. Saroyan announced from the other side of the table. "Her hymen's broken, which seems sort of unusual for a three-year-old. I'm also seeing signs of bruising and tearing on the vaginal wall. Meaning, she was raped."
The mood around the platform immediately went from sad to just plain grim. "There is still enough flesh to confirm that, Dr. Saroyan?"
"If you ask me, too much. I'm gonna take a swab, see if I can't find any trace amounts of semen and get the killer's DNA."
Dr. Brennan nodded, and Agent Booth chose that moment to announce his presence on the forensics platform by waltzing on up and forgetting to swipe his card. The alarms blared, and four pairs of eyes went to the FBI agent.
"What?" he asked. "Oh. Right. Oops." He backed up, quickly swiped his card, and then made his way back to them. "So, what do we got?" Agent Booth asked.
"Three- to five-year-old female. She was beaten and raped—"
"Repeatedly," Cam broke in from where she was still bent over the remains, gesturing towards the lower half.
"—before her death," Dr. Brennan finished.
"So we're looking for a pedophile?" Agent Booth asked, looking disgusted.
Dr. Brennan nodded. Wendell, personally, couldn't help but think of his two-year-old niece, Adrianna, who was his older sister Karen's daughter. He was positive both Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan were thinking of their unborn child.
"Hey, so particulates I lifted from the victim's clothing confirmed she was somewhere with a concrete floor and walls, as well as insulation, for an extended period of time. And by insulation I mean that pink, fluffy stuff that comes out of the walls and makes you itchy if you touch it," Dr. Hodgins told the team, joining them on the platform.
"So, like an unfinished basement? Right, thanks, guys, this is really good work." Agent Booth smiled that smile that was clearly directed at Dr. Brennan. She smiled back, and then directed her attention at Wendell. Agent Booth left the platform.
"Mr. Bray, if you could clean the bones so that Angela can begin her facial reconstruction, and we may note any other injuries—" She cut herself off, her hands flying to her stomach. "Oh!"
Wendell furrowed his brow. "Dr. Brennan, are you alright?"
"Yes, I…" she trailed off, taking a deep breath. "I believe my water just broke. Oh. Oh!" She winced in pain.
"Sweetie, do you think it's time?" Angela asked, concerned.
"Yes…yes, it's time." She took several deep breaths.
Dr. Saroyan took it upon herself to cup her hands around her mouth and shout loudly, "Booth! Get your ass back here!" Agent Booth, who had neared the entrance to the Jeffersonian, looked up immediately. At his questioning look, she made a gesture to come back and pointed at Dr. Brennan, who was now doubled over in pain, was being eased into a chair by Angela.
Booth sprinted back to the platform, again forgetting to swipe his card. Hodgins did it for him.
"Bones…" he trailed off when he saw her. "It's time."
Dr. Brennan looked up at him. "Yes, it's time."
"Oh, okay, uh, what do I do? What do you want me to do?" He was at her side now, his eyes filled with concern.
"Booth, you took the classes too, you know what to do!" Dr. Brennan snapped.
"Uh, right, get the car…the car…uh, where did I park? Shit, I don't remember where I parked!"
Hodgins raised his eyebrows, chuckling. "Good luck!" he called to Booth, who was now walking quickly out of the Jeffersonian, ranting about his parking space in a similar fashion too Hodgins himself when Angela was in labor.
Booth turned around for just a moment when he reached the doors. "Hey, screw you, Hodgins!"
Hodgins only laughed out loud.
Dr. Brennan let out an audible moan when the first contraction hit. "Oh, god," she groaned. "That's what a contraction feels like?"
"Unfortunately, yes, Sweetie," Angela told her.
Dr. Brennan sighed. "You're going to be there, right, Ange? When the baby is born? I want you there."
Angela nodded. "Yes, yes, of course, right Cam?" She looked at Dr. Saroyan, giving her a pleading look.
"Um, yes, right, absolutely. Angela is going to be there," the pathologist confirmed.
"Well, we should probably go get in the car. You don't have your stuff for the hospital with you, do you, Sweetie?"
"Uh, no. Oh, god, Ange, do we…do we need it?"
"No, no, not right away. I'll have Hodgins bring it to us," Angela confirmed as she led Dr. Brennan off the forensics platform.
With Angela, Dr. Brennan, and Agent Booth all having left in one fail swoop, the platform became relatively quiet.
"Well, now that that's over and done with…Mr. Bray, how about you get at defleshing those bones and finding cause of death? Hodgins, you do your thing with your bugs and slime, and I'll do my thing with flesh and organs, and we'll try to solve his murder as best as we can with half of our team missing, shall we?" She smiled and sauntered off the platform to Autopsy, Hodgins went to his station, and Wendell was left to stand, gaping like an idiot, still in slight shock about what had just happened.
Booth ignored the sharp pain in his hand from having it be squeezed so hard in favor of encouraging Brennan. It was nearing time to push and the contractions were incredibly close together now.
At the moment, Brennan was in between contractions, Angela was blotting Brennan's forehead with a damp clothe from her right side, and Booth was pressing a kiss to her temple and whispering words of encouragement with his hand clutched in hers from her left.
"Booth…" came Brennan's weak, strained voice. "Booth, it's almost time…to push. I don't know…if I can do it." She looked up at him with fear and pain shining in her eyes.
"No, no, no, don't say that, Temperance. You can do this. You have this. And don't you doubt that for a second. You are going to be an amazing mother, alright?"
Brennan nodded slightly. Tears began to edge at her eyes. "Booth…I love you. So much."
"I love you too, Bones, more than you'll ever know. Are you ready?" he asked gently.
She nodded again. "I'm ready," she said, taking a deep breath. Her eyes rolled back and her head fell onto the pillow as she began to push. She let out a cry of agony, and her vice grip on Booth's hand didn't let up anytime soon. Angela, Booth, and Dr. Banno continued with their words of encouragement and Brennan continued to push.
"There's the head," Dr. Banno commented calmly over the din of Brennan's cries and Booth and Angela's shouting.
"You're almost there, Bones! Almost there! C'mon, you can do it!" Booth told her.
Brennan didn't respond. Her muscles were tense, her face was flushed, her hair was mess, and her skin was coated in a glistening sheen of sweat. Booth had never seen anyone so beautiful in his life.
The next few moments went in slow motion for Booth. Brennan threw her head back and let out an earsplitting howl as she pushed for the last time. Tears streamed down her face and she continued to scream.
And soon enough her wails became part of a harmony between her and that of her child's.
The world was suddenly a blur as tears blurred Booth's vision. He was not the type to cry in front of other people. Only twice in his life had he done this: When Brennan had rejected him all that long time ago, and when his mother had died when he was in his twenties.
"Would you like to cut the cord, Agent Booth?" Dr. Banno asked him gently. He only nodded, as he seemed to be at loss for words. He shuffled to where Dr. Banno held the baby—his baby, his and Brennan's baby—and a nurse handed him scissors that seemed akin to gardening shears. Or at least, they were to him.
Dr. Banno smiled, seeming to notice his nervousness. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt the baby. She won't feel a thing."
"She?" Booth childishly asked. He felt his knees go weak. "It's a girl?"
Dr. Banno nodded, gesturing for him to cut the cord. He did, and the baby's continued wails didn't seem to waver. She was cleaned and wrapped in a pink blanket. "Dr. Brennan, would you like to hold your daughter?"
Brennan could only nod, and Booth could see she was on the edge of bursting into tears. The baby was passed to her.
Booth could immediately see the change in her entire demeanor. Her face broke into a huge grin, and she got that look in her eyes—the look only mothers had for their children. The tears flowed freely from her eyes now, and she didn't seem to mind them. The child's crying had ceased a few moments prior, but in the few minutes since her birth she seemed most at ease now. "Hi," Brennan whispered, her voice hoarse but filled with love.
Booth's heart swelled. The sight he looked upon was the most beautiful he'd seen in a long time. And he was positive the two females he stared at—one whom he'd loved since he first set eyes on her, and another whom he had only just set eyes on, but he loved nonetheless, and both whom he knew he'd love forever—were and always would be the most important ones in his life, period.
"Oh, sweetie, she's beautiful!" Angela cried from her seat beside Brennan. Booth had since returned to her side as well.
"Isn't she?" Brennan marveled as the child opened her eyes. Brennan gasped. "Her eyes…"
"They look just like yours," Booth told her. It was true: the infant's icy blue eyes mimicked those of her mother almost perfectly. "She has beautiful eyes."
Brennan smiled. "Of course, her eyes could change color as they gain more melanin as she ages—"
"Hey, let's just…enjoy what we have, in this moment, alright?" Booth said, locking eyes with Brennan.
Brennan sighed, chuckling lightly. "Right." She grinned, shaking her head. "I can't believe this is happening. This is…unreal."
"What do you mean?" Booth asked her, confused.
"It's just…I never thought we would get this far. I thought I would always be stuck in that place where I was too afraid to admit how I felt, and I would never find this happiness." She took a breath, and began again. "I once told my mother, when I was maybe 12, that I didn't want any children. She just looked at me and said, 'Tempe, holding a baby in your arms, one that you worked so hard to create, and watching her grow up big and strong and watching her go on to graduate high school and college and start a family and have kids of her own is the most fulfilling feeling in the world. Don't make such a rash decision now, when you never know what you'll feel in ten or twenty years.' And I now know exactly what she means." She grinned. "I've never been this happy in my life. And it's…unbelievable, for me."
"Well, you better believe it, Bones," Booth said, shooting her his classic Booth-charm grin. "It's your life now."
The pair simply watched each other for a number of moments before Angela broke the silence. "Oh, my god!" she cried. "You guys are so cute, it's…it's intoxicating!"
Brennan glanced at Booth then looked back to Angela. "Um…"
"Oh, you know what; I'm beginning to feel like a fourth wheel to the happy family here. I'm gonna go bring some news to the rest of the team. They're all in the waiting room now." She smiled at the couple and stood, aiming to leave the room. She stopped before she could reach the door, though, and turned around to face them again. "Um, I kinda need a name to tell them once I get out there."
Booth and Brennan exchanged a glance. Both were well aware that they had yet to come up with a name. Then Booth said, "Bones, I think I know the perfect name."
Ten minutes later, Angela and Booth entered the waiting room, Booth carrying a small bundle of pick blankets and both carrying wide smiles.
Upon seeing their friends and the baby, those gathered in the waiting room—Cam, Sweets, Hodgins, Wendell, Max, Jared and Padme, Daisy, whom Sweets had decided to bring along for some reason, and even Caroline—rose to their feet.
"Everyone," Booth announced with a grin as wide as the day is long, "I'd like you to meet my daughter, Christine Angela Booth."
Author's Note: Yeah, I realize how strongly this mirrors the birth of Michael, but I couldn't help myself. Forgive my copyright-ignoring tendencies. It's just, I was listening to "Make You Feel My Love" by Adele, and I went on autopilot. It suddenly became "write Booth-Brennan baby birth or DIEEEEEEE". Not even kidding. Okay, maybe a little bit, but who cares? Leave a review if you love me, or if you love the fic, or if you're just feeling puckish.
LAWL INSIDE JOKE. Well, I should probably log off now, considering it's past midnight and I have to get up at 6 AM tomorrow…nighty night (Why does this always end up happening to me?).