Disclaimer: I own nothing…
Summary: When their daughter is taken from them, Temperance shuts down and Seeley walks away… Only to discover that it may have been the biggest mistake of his life… (AU, Futurefic)
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: Well, here's the next chapter. The italicized section is a flashback scene, which is probably something you'll be seeing throughout the story, because I think they're going to be end up being very important as the story evolves… Also, the lyrics in this one are from Brett Dennen's "Ain't No Reason".
I especially want to thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter, because as I said before, this story has become very important to me very quickly. I really appreciate your feedback, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.
Ain't No Reason:
There ain't no reason things are this way
It's how they always been and they intend to stay
I can't explain why we live this way
We do it every day
What felt like only moments after they had walked through the door, she had managed to change and gather her things, obviously ready to walk out the door once again. He was confused, clearly not quite comprehending her intentions.
"Tempe, where are you going?"
"Work." She answered simply, lifting her jacket off the back of the couch before turning away from him and moving toward the door.
He caught her arm then, turning her to face him, and the annoyed sigh that escaped her had his brow creasing in confusion. "Temperance, we just buried our daughter." He shook his head slowly then, tears building behind his eyes and pain breaking his voice. "I want you here with me. I want to hold you, and comfort you, and… I just want you with me. Tempe, I need you right now…"
She shook her head and let out a bitter laugh as she turned from him again, moving towards the door, quicker this time, so desperate to get away.
"Tempe, please."
For a moment, she hesitated, the desperation in his voice almost too much for her to bear.
But somehow it didn't quite stop her from walking out the door.
I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same
A window and a pigeon with a broken wing
You can spend your whole life workin' for something
Just to have it taken away
The first thing she saw when she walked into her office was the photograph that sat on her desk, her own smiling face shining back at her, eyes full of love as she held the tiny baby who rested in her arms, Seeley pressing a kiss to the child's head as he gently stroked the tiny bit of hair that adorned her little head. It had been the day they had brought her home from the hospital, a day she remembered so vividly it seemed like only yesterday…
Seeley had been so happy, and so had she. After years without a family, she had finally felt complete… She'd had Seeley and they had Parker, and now Hanna, and she had felt as though nothing in the world could ever bring her down from that high…
But that had been a long time ago… Before the cancer and the pain and the failed treatments…
Before her entire world had been taken from her…
It only took her a moment to lay the frame flat on the desk. She couldn't bear to go back to that place… Not anymore. Not with her daughter gone.
Prison walls still standin' tall
Some things never change at all
Like a lung that's filled with coal
Suffocatin' slow
"Dr. Brennan… What are you doing here."
She was almost surprised at the intrusion from the doorway… Almost.
With a sigh, her eyes swept up to meet with Cam's. "My job, Dr. Saroyan."
"Brennan, you need to go home." The other woman's voice was gentle as she shook her head slowly, her eyes full of sympathy; something Brennan had never wanted from anyone, least of all Camille Saroyan. "Go home and be with Seeley… Where you belong. He needs you right now; I know he must, and you need him… So go home."
"I have work to do." Brennan told her, her voice cold as she stood to gather the papers from her desk, ignoring her boss's advice and turning away from the other woman as she busied herself at her desk, hoping that Cam would take the hint and leave her to work in peace. When she didn't, however, Brennan sighed in exasperation. "Dr. Saroyan, Hanna is dead. It's a simple fact. There's no sense dwelling on it… Now please, I would appreciate it if you would leave… I have work to do."
And so, with concerned eyes, Cam turned away, pulling the door shut behind her as Temperance finally sat herself down at her desk once more, her eyes catching another photograph, this one of the four of them at Disneyworld, barely more than a year earlier…
Talkin' 'bout nothin', not thinkin' 'bout death
Every little heartbeat, every little breath
"Hanna, honey, what on earth are you doing?" Tempe questioned from the doorway as she crossed her arms over her chest, trying her best to keep the laughter building inside her from bubbling out.
"Getting ready for Disneyworld." She said it as though it should have been the most obvious thing in the world, as she placed a pair of Minnie Mouse ears firmly on her head, her little body covered in nothing more than shorts and a tank top.
"Hanna Elizabeth…" Tempe's voice was full of amusement as she shook her head slowly, letting a little laugh escape her as she moved to her daughter's side, making herself comfortable in what she believed must have been the tiniest functional chair in the world, and pulling the little girl into her lap. "It's the middle of December and we don't leave for Disneyworld for another three whole weeks."
Hanna fixed her mother with a stare that was all innocence, her big brown eyes wide and full of question as she shrugged her shoulders, throwing her little arms up in question. "But then how come I'm all packed?"
"That's what I was asking you!" Tempe insisted, her voice playful as she attacked the little girl with tickling fingers, giggles erupting immediately from the child in her lap as she fell against her mother and laughed her little heart out, until Tempe stopped her tickling and Hanna was content to just rest against her, a happy smile painting her face and a few little giggles still escaping her.
After a moment, she reached her little arms up and wrapped them around her mother's neck. "I love you, Mommy." She murmured happily as Tempe wrapped her up in her arms for a moment, until Hanna loosened her hold and Tempe placed her back on the floor beside her.
"I love you, too, baby girl." She told her with a smile, before fixing her with a half-serious stare. "But I suggest you go put on some real clothes. We're going to pick up your brother in a few minutes, and you are not walking out of this house like that in this weather."
With a sigh and an eye roll, she planted her little hands on her hips and agreed, exasperation painting her tone, "Okay, Mommy… But I think we should leave Parker home when we go to Disneyworld, so I don't have to do all the stupid boy stuff he likes."
Tempe couldn't help but laugh and shake her head at the stubborn insistence in her daughter's tone, and so with amusement in her voice, and a smile on her face, she pointed a thumb over her shoulder and raised her eyebrows in expectation. "Dressed, please." She insisted, and as Hanna complied, Tempe noticed her husband for the first time, leaning against the doorframe, a smirk playing on his face that told her everything she needed to know…
'Just like you…'
People walk a tightrope on a razor's edge
Carryin' their hurt and hatred and weapons
It could be a bomb or a bullet or a pen
Or a thought or a word or a sentence
And again, it only took moments before the picture was face down on her desk, because she didn't want to remember… She didn't want to hurt, or cry, or grieve…
She wanted her life back, and so she did the only thing she could think to do…
She went back to work.
The air on my skin and world under my toes
Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes
Chaos and commotion wherever I go
Love I try to follow
He awoke the next morning, cold and alone… When he had reached for her, searching for the warmth of her body, he had found nothing but the empty sheets. And the saddest part of it all was that he had expected it… He had known the moment she had walked out the door that she would not be coming home that night…
And it hurt more than anything that now, in these moments when he needed her the most, she was not there to offer or accept comfort…
His beautiful wife, the woman he loved more than anything, the woman whom he had managed to pull out of that shell in the first place, was retreating back inside of herself. Leaving everyone and everything that she had ever loved behind…
And he was almost certain that there had never been, and never would be, anything that had ever before hurt him so badly…
There ain't no reason things are this way
It's how they always been and they intend to stay
I don't know why I say the things I say
But I say them anyway