CHAPTER 3
"Oh my God," Booth said aloud as he lowered his gun and darted forward towards where Brennan was shining the light. She followed.
In the corner of the room were a cot and a radiator. Handcuffed to the radiator was a young girl. Brennan imagined she was in her early 20s. She was dressed only in a long white shirt. Brennan watched as Booth leaned down and brushed the auburn hair out of her face. Brennan then called up the stairs, "We need a paramedic. And the boxcutters."
Booth shook the girl gently and she stirred. "Hey, hey, wake up. I'm the FBI, you're going to be alright now, okay?"
The girl moved her head and tried to open her eyes. The light from the flashlight was unbearable and she squinted as she raised her hand in front of her eyes. Brennan saw the lacerations on her hand and forearm. They were deep and in need of immediate medical attention. Brennan saw the girl wince at the light and she immediately turned off the flashlight.
Another agent brought down the boxcutters and Booth cut the handcuffs in half. He picked the girl up in his arms and headed toward the steps.
"Be careful, Booth, we don't know what kind of injuries she has sustained," Brennan told him gently as he made his way up the stairs. He nodded. Brennan watched the girl, looking over her injuries. She could see more lacerations on her other arm and her legs. By the look of it, her left wrist was broken, Brennan concluded. Her neck was black and blue. Brennan's heart sank and she suddenly felt like throwing up, but kept from doing so.
The paramedics got there just as Booth came up the stairs with the girl. They placed her on a stretcher and wheeled her out.
"Set up downstairs, it's a crime scene now, too," Booth instructed the agents. He turned back to Brennan. "We'll need to question her when she's up to it."
"I wonder how long she's been down there. She had multiple lacerations on her arms and legs. She had hematomas all down her neck," Brennan said, a look of disgust and pure sympathy on her face.
Booth could tell Bones was especially shaken up by the sight of the young girl. She was usually able to handle things pretty well, but she seemed genuinely concerned. "Hey, we'll figure everything out. You know that, right?" He said to her calmly.
"Yes, it's just…" she paused as she thought of what the girl could have possibly gone through, "…terrible. How can a person do things like that to another human being?" Temperance was mortified. She had seen so much in her career as an anthropologist. She had identified the remains of thousands of people killed in horrible, horrendous ways. But it was not that often that she saw the actual suffering of those people. She saw the terror in the girl's eyes; she saw her injuries; she knew that she had suffered and was still suffering…and she was flesh and blood, still breathing…not some pile of bones. That was what caused Brennan to react the way she did. She was not used to seeing living, breathing humans suffer like that. She was only used to seeing the end result.
"Come on, Bones, Hodgins can start on the, well, what he does. Zack can start on the causes of death and Angela can start the IDs. Let's you and I go take a breather, okay?" Booth said, putting his arm on her shoulder and squeezing it gently.
Brennan looked over at him, teary-eyed and said, "Yeah, okay."
&&&&&&&&&&
"Hi, Mike. It's Temperance. I'm so sorry, but I am going to have to cancel our date for tonight," Brennan spoke into her cell phone as she and Booth pulled up to the Royal Diner. "Something has come up at work and I just…" she trailed off, and closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of the young girl, "I will give you a call," she finally managed to say. "Alright, bye." She pressed the end button and glanced over at the clock. 4:56.
On a normal day, Booth would have teased her about the date and how she had to cancel because of work. Angela would have told her she was crazy for choosing work over a guy. But today was very different. Dr. Temperance Brennan was in some sort of state of shock.
"Hey, you okay?" Booth asked her gently.
Brennan sighed and looked over at him. "I don't know what it is. That girl was hurt…badly. And I guess I'm just…I don't know. I deal with bones, even if the person suffered a horrible death, I deal with their bones. I'm not used to seeing those types of injuries on a living, breathing, human being," Brennan replied, tears welling in her eyes. "I wasn't expecting that."
Booth watched his partner as she spoke. There was a quiver in her voice that he had only heard a few times. And one time was when she had thought Russ had bled to death in her apartment. It seemed to Booth that Brennan felt some sort of connection to this girl, although she would never admit to that because there was no such thing as a spiritual connection as Brennan saw it.
Brennan looked down at the evidence bag on her lap. The necklace had miraculously survived the fire. She held it up and looked at it through the bag.
"What about that necklace? Why didn't you answer me when I asked you about it?" Booth inquired.
Brennan sighed as she set it back in her lap. She made the decision to tell Booth. "It jolted me because my father gave me an identical necklace when I was 14. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and I just, well, froze," she explained.
He reached his hand over as he did occasionally and squeezed her shoulder again. "We are going to figure this all out. We'll find out about the necklace and how that girl got there and things will be okay again, alright?" Booth wanted so badly to cheer her up. She seemed so shaken.
Brennan paused for a moment and wiped her eyes. "Yeah, I know. Let's go eat. We're having a breather, right?"
"Taking a breather, Bones, taking a breather, not having," Booth replied as he laughed and smiled at this partner.
"Right, that's what I meant," Brennan replied as she hopped out of the SUV.
