Booth and Brennan huddled over the summons, sitting around a table in a conference room at the Jeffersonian. Caroline Julian had met up with Kelly to discuss the most practical course of action. The two lawyers had been locked in Kelly's office directly across from the conference room and Brennan had been watching them talk about the case. Caroline had started the impromptu meeting sitting across from Kelly's desk, but had eventually started pacing and rolling her eyes emphatically. Kelly's hand had moved rapidly, obviously explaining in detail what had been happening for the past few months.
After a few minutes of discussion, the two women came into the conference room and Kelly sat herself directly across from Booth and Brennan while Caroline hovered behind Kelly. Booth was amused by the picture they were painting, Kelly sitting there defiantly while Caroline seemed to float behind her; a guardian angel.
"Why exactly is this woman suing me?" Brennan looked up at Kelly and decided that someone needed to get the conversation started
"This is frivolous litigation." Kelly sighed. "They have no chance in winning."
"What is the lawsuit, Kelly?" Booth demanded as he slammed his hand on the table, no longer amused. He was upset that Kelly hadn't bothered to tell Brennan in the first place and he was even more upset that she still wouldn't tell them exactly what was going on.
"It was never supposed to go this far. We're trying to get the judge to hold the other lawyer in contempt." Kelly continued to skirt around the subject. "It's a waste of tax payer's money if this goes to court. I've been working with them for weeks and they've threatened action, but I never thought they'd take it."
"What are they suing her for?" Booth repeated slowly.
"Agent Booth, don't worry your pretty little head about this." Caroline put her hand between the siblings. "If Ms. Booth here says there is no need to worry, there is no need to worry, right Ms. Booth?"
"They're saying you misidentified remains, Temperance." Kelly looked directly at Brennan.
"That's impossible." Brennan looked genuinely shocked at the claim.
"It was a body of a burn victim. The bones were shattered into thousands of pieces." She explained cautiously, knowing Brennan's accuracy was spot-on and not willing to hurt her pride. "They are saying you couldn't have possibly have enough evidence to claim their daughter is dead and they're suing for two million dollars in damages."
"That's ludicrous!" Brennan sat back in shock.
"Which is why I hadn't told you about it." Kelly sighed and looked pleadingly at Booth, knowing he would be, and should be, livid. "We were in talks to get them to drop the accusations. But they are insistent, they know Temperance has a lot of money from her book deals and they aren't going to let this drop."
"Have they found their real daughter?" Booth spat out sarcastically
"No." Kelly shook her head. "They have no real evidence to the contrary, but they say the emotional strain on the family has cost them millions in therapy and trying to search for their real daughter…" She pushed another report closer to them. "It's all in here."
"My findings will hold up in a court of law." Brennan said calmly. "I remember the case. I identified the victim as a 17 to 19 year old female because there is a bone in the ankle that fuses together after that age and her bone was not fused. I passed that information on to the FBI and they were the ones who identified the girl."
"But they're suing you." Kelly reminded softly. "Because you're Dr. Temperance Brennan. A civil suit like this is more likely to settle out of court and I thought they'd stop once they realized they would be taking on the entire government in a ridiculous law suit…"
"So I'm being sued because I am who I am." Brennan looked at Kelly incredulously.
"In a nutshell." Kelly shrugged and cast a quick glance at her brother who was reading the case. "Seeley? You don't have anything to say now?"
"You're going to fight this?" He looked up at Kelly and tried to read her cool, calm exterior.
"There is already a motion in to the judge to dismiss it based on the fact there is no legal merit." Caroline spoke up from behind Kelly. "Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan, if I were you, I'd want this young lawyer on your side. She's got her act together and she's been doing more behind closed doors than any other pencil pusher I've ever seen. She is the front line of defense for protecting you and your precious scientists. If she told you about half the things that come across her desk, those heads of yours would spin right off your little necks."
"I've lined up Dr. Clark Edison to go meet with the judge tomorrow to give his interpretation of the facts." Kelly smiled thanks at Caroline and looked back at Brennan. "It's Judge Early and I've dealt with him before. I'm fairly certain he's going to think the plaintiffs are out of their minds."
"Judge Early doesn't have much patience for idiots, that's for sure." Caroline laughed from behind her.
"This wasn't supposed to get this far." Kelly leaned in and pleaded with Brennan. "I'm really sorry. You were never supposed to know about this."
"No," Brennan shook her head and tried to smile at Kelly. "You did everything you could and I appreciate that. There is no reason to be sorry."
"Can't you file a countersuit? Defamation of character? Bones is never wrong!" Booth continued to defend his partner.
"A countersuit would only make this worse, Seeley!" Kelly tried to reason, "This hasn't gotten out to the press yet, but you can be sure that a countersuit would definitely be stumbled upon and paint Temperance as the evil big-shot writer who is attacking a poor family with a missing daughter!"
"I like her, Booth." Caroline smiled as she sat down next to Kelly. "She's right, too. We make this quietly go away and then you and Dr. Brennan here go back to catching the bad guys."
"Just let me," Kelly paused and looked at her brother. "Let me deal with this. I'll make it better, I promise. This is what I'm good at."
"I trust you, Kelly." Brennan said softly from beside Booth and Kelly's eyes darted towards her.
"As much as you can trust a lawyer." Booth said snidely and from beside her, Kelly felt Caroline sit up.
"Booth," She boomed. "I will not take offense to that and neither will Ms. Booth here."
Caroline gave Booth a look that made him sink into his chair. Kelly almost burst out laughing, remembering a time when a nun had scolded the Booth siblings for talking in church and the look on his face was identical to the one in her memory.
"Look," He said after a moment and choked out the words, "I'm sorry. It's just I wish you had told us about this in the first place."
"It was supposed to go away." Kelly said honestly. "It wasn't supposed to blow up and you can be damned sure I'm doing everything I can."
"I trust you, Kelly." Brennan repeated like a broken record.
"Thank you." Kelly looked directly into Brennan's eyes and thought she saw something there. If Kelly didn't know her better, it would be fear. For a second, she wondered if it really was. Still slightly aggravated, Booth pushed back from the table and stormed out of the room. Kelly jumped a little at his sudden movement, but she looked back at Brennan with all the sincerity she could muster and promised, "I'm going to fix this."