Author's Notes: Have any of you read the Bones books? I'm reading one at the moment – Cross Bones (im on about chapter 3) and Mom's bought another three of them that I'm gonna read when I finished this one (and after she's read them.) You should read them if you haven't, they are very different from the show but very, very good! Kathy Reichs is a superb writer! XD
Chapter 4: One Stop Elevator
Temperance groaned and shifted slightly, her eyes snapped open when she felt a weight against her chest and she looked down.
"Parker?" she said to herself, what was-oh yeah.
She contemplated on how best to wake him up but was interrupted by her cell phone ringing, its seemingly harsh tunes breaking through the morning silence.
"Hello," she answered trying not to sound as groggy as she felt "Brennan,"
"Tempe! Thank God! You okay?" Angela's concerned voice came through, panicky and breathless.
"I'm fine Ange, what's wrong?" Temperance unsuccessfully tried to sit herself more comfortably against the headboard, absently stroking the curls atop Parker's head as he slumbered soundly against her body.
"I called you three times already!"
Temperance frowned, she had? "You did?"
"Yeah I did, how's Parker? Is he okay? Nothing's happened right?"
"Ange relax, we're fine,"
"Then why didn't you answer? Where are you?"
What was she panicking for? It was only–three hours since she was supposed to be at work!
"I must have slept through my alarm,"
"Why? You never do,"
"Well last night was a bit hectic for all of us' she said shortly, not really wanting to discuss her and Parker's little… in the bathroom earlier that morning, she'd much prefer to keep it to herself. It was private and unimportant, bound to happen eventually she just wished it had been… under more controlled circumstances, although, she mused, it was better it had been like it was rather than worse…
"So you coming in? We'd all understand,"
"Ange, he's your friend too. If you can go in then I can too,"
"Yeah but he's your," she paused for a effect "special friend,"
"No he's not," she replied indignantly "he's a colleague, someone I work with nothing more," she swallowed… Rebecca, blood, gun, bullet, Booth. The images came before he eyes like flashcards. Life support, coma, kiss. "We'll be there soon," she ended the call and replaced her cell on the bedside table.
It was easier just to pretend, just to not remember what she felt, how it burned worse than fire, froze more than ice, made her want to scream and cry, rant and rage, do everything and nothing, break and fix.
"Mommy?" Parker shifted wearily, rubbing his eyes he sat up and blinked at her "Bones?" he frowned a moment in confusion then it slid from his face in remembrance "Bones," he repeated.
She smiled at him, a smile that did not quite reach her eyes but enough to fool the boy "I've got to go to work," she said.
"You work with daddy. Is daddy gonna be there?"
The smile faltered "he's still asleep,"
"How'd you know?" he cocked his head to one side, a childlike display of complete confusion. Daddy was asleep yesterday; he went to sleep even earlier than he did! The thought made him swell with pride momentarily–he'd stayed up later than daddy had!
"Angela just called me," she said, "she told me,"
"I want him to wake up," he stated softly, "want to play games with him and watch TV and all the fun stuff he usually does,"
"I know you do Parker," she pushed him off and slipped out of bed and went over to her closet where she pulled out an outfit "so do I," she pushed the tears that threatened back, what was the matter with her? She hadn't cried this much in years, or felt so emotionally wounded that she felt she wanted to scream with the injustice of the agony of it all.
"Everything's gonna be fine," she wasn't sure whether she said that for her comfort or his but either way she went into the bathroom, closed her eyes against the rush of memories hit her once more and set about getting ready for work.
How can everything be fine? Parker thought. Mommy's gone to heaven and daddy's fast asleep, he wanted to cry but he remembered when he had before that Bones hadn't liked it much, she hugged him yeah, like mommy and daddy did but she seemed all weird about it, but he liked hugs from her. Would she hug him if he asked her too? Should he cry so that she would or should he just hug her himself? That's it, she'd hug back then, when he hugged mommy she always hugged him back. Well that was before she went on vacation.
He crawled off the bed and over to the backpack half full of things that Bones had gotten from daddy's house last night. He was going to help!
Temperance ran the brush through her hair one last time, surveyed herself in the mirror, sighing defeatedly to the fact that she did indeed look exhausted and there was nothing she could do about it. She picked up her pyjamas and went back to the bedroom and couldn't help but grin back at the boy who was standing there. His T-shirt inside out and tucked into his jeans which he seemed to have gotten right and his sneakers on the wrong feet.
She put her pyjamas on the bed and went and crouched in front of Parker.
"Helped Bones," he said "breakfast now?"
Temperance chuckled slightly "come on, I think you got a bit muddled," she smiled at him in an encouraging way after all she wasn't sure how he reacted to being told he'd done something he'd obviously tried to do by himself wrong.
"Feet hurt a bit," he agreed as she pulled the shirt over his head again and tucked it in for him "always get 'fused with shoes,"
"Sit down," she said, raising an eyebrow when he simply sat down right there on the floor rather than going to a seat or the bed. "Look," she took the footwear off and holding them up to him," you see it goes in a bit in the middle here' she pointed to the inside of the sole. "Well that bit goes here, see?" she ran a finger down the side of his foot, showing him that the shoe was supposed to be the same shape as his feet.
He giggled at her touch and it took her a moment to realise it was because she'd touched his feet, experimentally she did it again and once more he laughed in response.
"Ticklish?" she teased.
He nodded, too young and feeling to safe with the woman to realise that he'd just told her something that she could use against him, he shrieked with laughter though when her fingers danced over his stomach and he fell back onto the floor, kicking and writhing under her onslaught.
His laughter appeared to be infectious as she too started to laugh softly, shortly after that she stopped, noticing he was panting for breath.
Temperance leaned in close to the remains that had come in over lunch, her forehead creased in a slight frown.
"What's wrong?" Zack asked, hovering slightly having not been told to do anything as of yet.
She looked up "the spinal cord has been snapped in three places, half her hair literally torn from her skull and-"
"What's that?" Zack stepped forward and pointed into the nineteen-year-old woman's mouth. Her two year old daughter had been murdered also but her body had not only been burned like her mothers but her bones had been crushed to powder by some sort of heavy object, the only way to identify the child was through her mother.
Unless of course they wanted to start trying to identify her though the almost microscopic remains.
As unorthodox as it seemed they didn't want to take any more time over this than necessary, if she could be identified from the more discernible remains of her mother then it would mean that they would find the murderer a lot faster. And time was the one thing they were running out off.
Temperance gently eased the object from between the victim's teeth 'it's a note' she said slowly.
"It must have been put in after the fire," Zack surmised, silencing when he caught the already-knew-that look from his superior.
"You mean he not only killed her but watched her burn as well?" Angela stared at the skeleton in horror struck empathy.
"And crushed her daughter," Jack added in casually, crossing his arms and leaning against something nearby.
'You need something Ange?' Temperance peered closely at the tiny piece of paper and began to unfold it. It was as thin as tracing paper and incredibly hard to open without tearing it.
"I've finished the sketch," she said, holding up the notepad that she held clutched to her chest "and run it through the computer. Melissa Pacroft is the one that seems to fit best but you'll need to check," she sounded a little off put when she realised that her intended audience had just sighed exasperatedly and put the note on the table, paying little or no notice to a word she'd just said.
"What is it?" Jack straightened up.
"Catch me if you can," Temperance sighed, tearing off the latex gloves and throwing them in the waste disposal before turning her back. "This is taking to long!" she exclaimed "we should have caught him by now" she turned back to her colleagues "why is he so much better than us this time?"
"He's not," Jack said "no one who does this is better than us," his voice firm "we just need too-"
"Right," Temperance said, her composure back in place "Zack, get this under the microscope, find out if there's any traces of DNA on there, find out what pen was used. Hodgins, help him. Angela, let's go look at this-Parker?"
"Hello Bones," he grinned at her, she shot a worried glance over at the body on the table and was mildly relieved to find that Jack and Zack had shown the initiative were stood in front of the gurney, shielding it from no-longer-so-innocent-eyes.
"What're you doing in here Parker? I thought I told you to stay in Angela's office," she crouched down to his level.
"She left. Got bored. Wanted to see what you were doing," he shrugged the smile still in place.
"Why don't we go back there now?" Angela said, "I've got to show Tempe some of the pictures that we were looking at,"
He shook his head and wandered over to the table, bypassing its guards completely and walking round the back.
"Wow!" he exclaimed, wide eyed.
Everyone whirled round, breathy sighs of relief being let loose when the realised he wasn't looking at the body, his back was too it but was looking at the jars on the side that held any organs they had managed to salvage.
"Is that a brain?" he exclaimed, wonder seemingly radiating from him, pointing at something that was practically unidentifiable to anyone who wasn't trained in the profession but was most definitely not a brain. That organ had been beyond rescue due to the fact it now painted the walls of the room the victim had been found in.
Temperance didn't know whether to laugh at the boy's excitement at the sight of human insides or be horrified. She settled for attempting to distract him "come on, you shouldn't be in here,"
He ignored her and went on exploring, approaching another gurney with a sheet half covering what was on it.
This particular skeleton was perfectly clean. The remains of a fifteenth century man who had been buried some fifty miles from the Jeffersonian. It's identity having being found it was waiting to be shipped out to another burial site as a children's playground wasn't the best place to put him back.
Parker reached up and took a hold of the skull, running his little hands over the smooth cream surface of the skull with awe.
"Parker!" Temperance exclaimed, "put that down!"
He obeyed, sort of anyway by putting it on the floor at his feet, but just as Temperance came over to rescue it he kicked it, hard enough for it to roll a few feet but not enough to fracture it.
He giggled and followed it, kicking it again when she came to pick it up once more.
"Parker!" she said, her voice rising slightly "that isn't a toy," it's someone's head! Of course she didn't say that last bit because she would have had to answer the questions that would undoubtedly come flying forth.
He cocked his head to one side and didn't move for a moment. Allowing his guardian to think she'd won before he bolted, the makeshift ball forgotten he ducked down and ran underneath the gurney that was still being guarded by Zack and Jack, the body on top had thankfully had a sheet thrown over it.
"Stop running Parker, this isn't a playground," how could she be so stupid to bring a child to a place like this? He'll be used to having someone's undivided attention all the time, especially on a Saturday afternoon when he'll be at the park or with a friend or with Booth. She thought sadly.
He shouldn't be here now, he should be at home with Booth, playing soccer or football or whatever her colleague and his son did together. Dammit! Why did she keep thinking of the way things should be?
Rebecca's murderer should be behind bars.
Rebecca should be alive.
Booth should be awake.
Parker should be at home.
Life should be perfect.
Parker laughing as he was nearly caught by Zack and dodged behind a cabinet just in time jerked her out of her reverie.
"What's going on in here? Doctor Goodman came down the steps and looked around, raising an eyebrow at Zack who was sprawled defeatedly on the tiled floor before allowing his gaze to slide up to Jack who crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.
"Doctor Goodman!" Zack cried, scrambling to his feet "catch him!"
Doctor Goodman looked down just in time to see Parker shoot past him, Temperance on his heels.
"What on earth is going on in here? Why's Parker here? Shouldn't Agent Booth be with him?"
"You haven't told him"' Jack looked at Angela who stepped back, swallowing nervously.
"I haven't seen him until now and I would have thought the hospital would have called or you would have told them," she said, "someone should have told him,"
"Told me what?" Goodman looked at Zack as he straightened his lab coat and tried to look a least a little more professional than he had a moment ago.
"Booth's in a coma," Jack said shortly.
Temperance skidded to a halt as the elevator doors closed with Parker inside. How was one little boy faster than she was? She paused a moment to catch her breath then her eyes widened. That elevator only led to one place…
She shot towards the stairs, ignoring the strange looks she as getting from passers by as they ascended them, she had to beat him down there. He could not get in there, he just couldn't.
Parker looked up, he hadn't pressed the button because he couldn't reach it so someone had probably pressed it at the other end.
He liked this game. It was fun.
The elevator pinged as it came to a halt, as he slowly left it a man in a white coat got in and the doors closed once more. A grating of metal indicated that it had started to go up again.
The room was dimly lit, gurneys were everywhere, in neat rows, plastic sheets covering something on each one.
The one furthest from him caught his attention and he walked over to it, stepping lightly as the squeaking of his sneakers on the tiled floor wasn't exactly a pleasant sound.
What was under there? He went to lift a corner of the sheet when a hand clasped down on his own and the other over his eyes.
He screamed in surprise.
"Easy," a soft voice soothed as he was lifted into someone's arms, "easy," he'd closed his eyes when the hand had come down over them and now that he was ensconced in a tight embrace he reopened them.
"Bones," he said "you caughted me!" he sounded half-delighted half put off by the idea but at least he wasn't asking what he was about to uncover.
Temperance nodded and, heart beating in her chest unnaturally hard, she walked briskly from the morgue.
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