Authors Note: Pretty standard stuff, guys. Still so happy and appreciative of the feedback this fic is getting, so thank you so much for reviewing every chapter even when they're super frequent. I hope you keep enjoying it. Without futher ado…
Chapter Four
From now on our troubles with be miles away…
They'd been walking for a good five minutes down a road that showed no sign of ending, and Brennan began to suspect Albert was merely giving her more time to calm down.
"Can we just….can we just get it over with?" Brennan asked suddenly, her voice cutting through the silence.
Albert didn't seem surprised by her outburst. He glanced back and nodded. "Of course." He slowed to a stop, and then slowly turned around.
Brennan did the same, and found herself staring at a familiar street. The Royal diner was in sight now, and Albert immediately began walking toward it.
"We've taken some liberties with time, you understand," Albert informed her casually as Brennan followed him toward the familiar diner. "We'll be looking in the diner about dinnertime…"
It was still dark outside, but Brennan just shrugged, unbothered by yet another illogical impossibility. She'd lost count of all the ones she'd witnessed that night.
Albert was soon standing outside the diner, peering in the window, but Brennan's pace was slower. Soon, though, she came up beside him and looked down at the old man, expectant and impatient.
Wordlessly, Albert pointed. Following with her eyes, Brennan glanced inside and saw Sweets, sitting alone at the bar of the diner, eating.
"Alright…" Brennan glanced from the young psychologist to Albert. "I don't understand. Sweets always eats at the diner."
"He does," Albert acknowledged. "But it's Christmas Eve. And these are the highlight of his holiday plans."
Folding her arms, Brennan kept her face impassive, though her gaze stayed trained on the young psychologist's back. She thought, briefly, of Angela and Hodgins. "Right, because…because he never met Daisy."
"It's more than that, doc," Albert murmured. "He's got no family…he moved here and works a lot, so not a lot of close friends, either. Sweets has no choice but to spend Christmas alone."
"Oh…" Brennan's chest tightened as she realized Sweets was in the position she herself was in this year….worse, because she could have been with her father and brother.
"Don't underestimate the impact you've had on his life…you and Booth getting sent to him for therapy changed everything. He wasn't working as a profiler before you two let him join your team…however reluctantly. And for Sweets…the team became a surrogate family." Albert arched an eyebrow. "Much like it did for you."
Brennan tightened her jaw, still not moving her gaze from the window as Sweets paid his bill and walked out of the diner alone.
He walked right by them, and Brennan followed Sweets with her eyes, fighting the useless, unprecedented urge to reach out to him.
In spite of their vast academic differences…she and Sweets had more in common than she'd ever thought, namely their reliance on the makeshift family the team had formed.
The difference was, when Daisy returned from the Maluku islands….she didn't have some anthropology journalist in tow.
Brennan was still staring after Sweets when Albert gave her arm a gentle tug. "Sorry, doc, but we gotta keep going."
"Right," Brennan muttered, allowing herself to be led down the street.
~(B*B)~
Soon Brennan had followed Albert around the corner of the familiar street, only to find herself facing a complete unfamiliar one.
"Of course," she muttered, eyeing the buildings and wondering which was their current destination.
She got her answer almost immediately, as Albert led the way to the entrance of a motel.
"Wait a second."
Albert turned, expectant. "Problem, doc?"
"I….where are we?"
"Somewhere in Georgia, at the moment," Albert replied casually. "You coming?"
Brennan stared warily up the cheap motel, cliché enough that the T in its sign was no longer lit up. "I don't…you said we were going to Russ'. You're saying Russ is here?"
"Well, not at the moment…he'll be back in a second. But your father is."
At that, Brennan swung her head to look at him, real surprise on her face. "What?"
"You're surprised?"
"I thought…" Brennan flushed slightly, embarrassed even admitting a speculation that went along such an illogical premise. "I thought you were going to show me him in jail." When Albert just looked at her, expressionless, Brennan explained, "Because of my testimony, that's…that's why he got out."
"But remember," Albert began, quirking his lips in a small smile. "He only came back because of you." Before Brennan could process the implications of this, Albert's eyes lit up. "Oh, there's Russ, let's go…"
Glancing over, Brennan saw her brother, carrying something, walking up the stairs of the motel. She and Albert quickly followed.
When they got to the third floor, Russ pulled out a key and unlocked the door to one of the rooms; Brennan and Albert slipped in easily behind him, not noticed as always.
Though she'd been warned, it was still somewhat of a jolt to see her father sitting on one of the two double beds.
Max looked up at his son's entrance. "There you are, kiddo. Was starting to wonder."
Russ set two McDonald bags down on the bed and grumbled, "Picked up some Christmas dinner."
Digging into the bag, Max arched an eyebrow. "That took two hours?"
Russ flopped down on the bed, grabbing the remote. He seemed surly, though having no idea of the circumstances Brennan couldn't discern why. Voice gruff, Russ replied, "Sent some more stuff to Amy and the girls."
In contrast to his son, Max seemed perfectly carefree, unwrapping a Big Mac as Russ flipped listlessly through the channels on small television. "Didn't you already send the big Christmas delivery a few weeks back?"
"Yeah," Russ muttered.
Finally, Max seemed to get the message that his son didn't want to talk, and turned his full attention to the food.
Brennan watched them for awhile, her father and brother, existing in silence. "So…what? They're still on the run?" She sighed, frustrated. "Russ came back."
"Yes," Albert agreed patiently. "Because you got a message to him. Through your father, who was only back because of you."
Brennan studied Russ for a long moment; her brother looked aged, hardened.
She started to comment that at least her father hadn't been arrested, but of course that was useless. After all, he hadn't been convicted. Brennan thought of his life now, the apartment, the job he loved…running from motel to motel, on the lam, couldn't compare.
"Are we done here?" Brennan asked abruptly, already turning her back on her family members.
Nodding, Albert turned as well. "Yes. But I want us to stop by Russ' old place…."
Brennan wordlessly followed Albert out the door of the motel room, and instead of stepping into the balcony style hallway of the place, they were suddenly just inside the front door of what Brennan recognized as the apartment where her brother lived with Amy and his stepdaughters.
Down the hall, Amy was standing in the doorway of a bedroom, obviously speaking to her daughters. "Now go to sleep. Santa'll be coming soon, and you don't want to be awake."
A voice floated through the doorway. "Okay. Night, Mom."
"Goodnight, sweetheart." Amy gently closed the door. Once it was closed, though, she lingered for a moment, closing her eyes and rubbing a hand over her face.
Then she moved to a closet down the hall. Albert nudged Brennan to follow her, and she got close enough to see Amy gathering up dozens of gifts, stacked in the closet, all marked "Emma". There was another pile next to it, with Hayley's name.
"The gifts Russ sent," Albert clarified in an undertone, as if Amy might hear them.
It took Amy two trips from the closet to the living room to set all of Emma's presents under the tree. However, instead of retrieving Hayley's, Amy merely closed the closet door, her face tightening as she did.
Brennan cut her eyes at Albert, who was watching the scene in front of them with a sad expression. "Why isn't she getting all the gifts?"
Instead of answering, Albert nodded at the mantel in the living room. Stepping closer so she could see, Brennan noticed there were only two stockings hanging there.
One with Amy's name. One with Emma's.
None for Hayley or, obviously, Russ.
Brennan turned her gaze, angry and accusatory, on Albert and lied quietly, "I don't know what this is."
"You sure?"
"Hayley's not...you're saying that little girl, she…she died?"
"Yes," Albert said quietly. "Over three years ago, when her cystic fibrosis was getting bad…"
Shaking her head, Brennan protested, "She got better."
"With the help of the doctor you got to see them." He shrugged a little. "And the fact that you got Russ came back to see her."
"That isn't medically relevant-"
"Even so…" Albert waved a hand at the scene before them.
Brennan closed her eyes for a long moment, but then they snapped open as she realized something. "But Russ…he sends gifts for both girls…"
"Right. He sends money, gifts, regularly…but Amy has no way of contacting him. Max insisted she never know where he was, and Russ didn't want them in danger, so…"
"…he has no idea," Brennan finished. "Oh, my God…"
She pushed past Albert, heading for the door.
"Dr. Brennan-"
"We can go right," she asked over her shoulder, not waiting for an answer before slamming through the door.
~(B*B)~
Albert caught up with her in the middle of the street. He was squinting again at his pocket watch. "Alright, it's time for one more-"
"No," Brennan cut him off fiercely. Her face was set, a muscle jumping in her clenched jaw, but her eyes were pools of pure fear.
Albert blinked at her. "No?"
"No. No more. I'm done with this, I…I want to go home." Brennan's voice broke at that last sentence, and she winced as she realized how childish it sounded.
His eyes softening, Albert placed a hand on her shoulder. "Why now?"
Brennan didn't answer.
His voice gentle, Albert pressed, "Temperance."
Closing her eyes, Brennan softly admitted, "I don't want to see Booth, alright?"
Silence fell for a moment, and to her intense embarrassment Brennan felt tears rising to her eyes, merely in anticipation of what might be coming.
"What are you afraid of?"
"I'm not afraid, I just…" Brennan exhaled shakily, pressing her lips together. "There isn't any point. Booth would…without me, Booth would be fine. I know that. Unless, unless it's like Hodgins and he's….dead because of the Gravedigger, or Epps' accomplice or something-"
"He isn't dead," Albert assured her quietly.
Brennan chanced a glance at him. "He's not?"
"Without you as a partner, Booth's case load was very different. Some were the same, by pure coincidence, but a lot of cases you worked went to someone else."
Something unclenched in Brennan's chest, and she nodded for longer than necessary. Then, stubbornly, she told him, "Then I'm still not going. There's no reason. He…he's probably fine."
"It's not like you to make definitive statements without all the evidence, doc," Albert told her with a small smile. "Trust me. I think you need to see this."
Author's Note: So, as you can see, big chapter is next up (and one more big one after that). Feedback assures that it'll be posted quickly (don't you all love my completely obvious hints?). Hope you enjoyed this one, too. Let me know what you think!