Booth helped the boy bathe in the other bathroom, made sure that he was cleaned up, his hair washed, and checked him over for bumps and bruises as he held eye contact with the boy the entire time. When he was wrapped up in the towel, Booth took the smaller towel and rubbed the boy's head playfully, and smiled when he heard a playful giggle emitted from the little boy's lips. "That's a good boy." Booth laughed as he hugged the boy closely, knowing that right now, that's what he needed as he felt him cling to his shirt. "Do you feel better now?" Booth asked, feeling the boy's head nod, he glanced to the clothes that Parker had brought them.
Booth pulled the towel off the boy's head and quickly pulled the sweatshirt over him, laughing lightly as he attempted to pull his arms through the sleeves, he stood in front of Booth with his hands outstretched, with a good amount of the sleeves hanging over his hands. "We're going to have to do something about clothes, aren't we, little man?" He laughed as he helped him pull on the sweatpants, which were also entirely too long for the boy's small legs. "It'd be easier if I had little boys, but little girl clothes just won't do." He said as Seeley glanced toward the door and back to Booth. "I bet you're wondering if I found your daddy or not." He said, watching the inquisitive look on the boy's face, staring directly into his eyes.
"The answer to that is… not yet." He said, lifting the boy up with a resounding grunt as he helped pull the sleeves up on the sweatshirt so his hands could be seen. He lifted the boy's soiled clothes from the floor and stepped out into the hallway, just as Temperance walked out of the girl's bathroom, their clothes in her hand as both Booth and Seeley glanced to her.
"Are they okay?" Booth asked.
"They're fine." Temperance said. "They were just surprised. They're in their bedrooms right now." She said, watching the boy's hands as he gripped Booth's shirt. "Is this all you could find for him to wear?" She asked, approaching the little boy, she smiled. "Hi Seeley." She smiled, catching Booth's eyes, she gave him a sideways glance at his surprised expression as she held her hands out to him, he glanced to Booth and then reluctantly let Temperance take him, cuddling into her, he rested his head on her shoulder, feeling her motherly embrace. "What are you looking at me like that for? Did you expect me to call him Booth too?" She asked with a laugh as he shook his head and smiled at her. Her expression then turned to one of more concern, and he shook his head.
"I don't even know where to start." He whispered as he watched Temperance nod. They walked down the stairs; Seeley nestled in Temperance's neck as she turned the corner toward the laundry room. Booth followed behind her, as they stepped into the room together. Booth lifted the boy's clothes to the washing machine, dropping his shirt and into the washer, and his pants and underwear followed, as a slip of paper flew from the pocket of the pants, landing on top of the clothes. Booth was about to reach into the machine to grab it, but Temperance was just a second quicker, and pulled it from the washing machine as she tossed the girl's clothes in as well. "Hey…" He said, starting up the washing machine.
"Hey yourself." She said with a playful smile as she walked out of the laundry room with Booth on her heels.
"You're holding him, let me see the paper." He said as she turned into him.
"You will get your turn." She said, trying to open the paper with one hand, he quickly grabbed it from her as she felt Seeley sit up a little in her arms, looking to the paper as Booth unfolded it much to Temperance's chagrin. "Booth…"
"You snooze, you lose." He said with a snicker as he walked past her glare with a grin as he began reading the note. "It's from Jared."
"Obviously." Temperance said. "What does it say?" She asked, glancing to Seeley.
"It says…"
"Daddy?" A small voice whispered from the steps as he looked up to see Grace standing on the stairs, dressed in her pink heart pajamas, holding a book in her hands.
"Daddy will be up for story time in a couple minutes, Squeaker."
"No." She said, holding the book up. "I wanted to show the little boy my book." She said softly. "My fluffy bunny book."
Booth looked to the little girl, and to Seeley, and quickly decided that Gracie had possibly created an ideal diversion for he and Temperance. He smiled at his little girl and then to
Seeley. "That sounds like a great idea." He said with a smile. "Come on downstairs…" He said, watching the little girl smile as she pounded down the rest of the steps and ran to the couch, pulling herself up onto it, she set her book in her lap as Temperance's eyes met with Booth's. She watched him for a moment as he nodded toward the couch, and she gave a knowing glance.
"Seeley, would you like to see Gracie's fluffy bunny book?" She asked softly, as the boy held his grasp on her. "She'd really like to show it to you." She said, watching the little boy glance to the little girl as she smiled happily and patted the spot next to her on the couch. Reluctantly, the little boy released his hold, and allowed Temperance to set him down on the couch. His eyes caught hers and she smiled at him, watching him relax as she carefully pulled the small blanket from behind the couch and covered the laps of the two little ones as they sat together.
"This is my fluffy bunny book, little boy." Grace said with a smile.
"Gracie, his name is Seeley."
"Oh." She said, glancing to the little boy. "This is my fluffy bunny book…" She said, pausing for a moment. "Little boy." She said, not looking up at her mother for reassurance,
Temperance shook her head and looked to Booth. "Alright…" She said, reaching for the paper.
"Not so fast, sticky fingers." Booth said, pulling the paper out of his wife's reach. "It looks like he was in some kind of trouble." Booth said softly, reading over the paper.
"Will you please let me read it, Booth?" She whispered.
"Dear Tempe." Booth began to read. "First, I am sorry for doing this to you, but I don't think that there is anyone that I can trust with my most treasured possession more than I can trust you. The little boy here is Seeley Joseph Booth, my son. Named, obviously after my brother whom we both lost so many years ago. He's five years old, kind hearted, and at this point probably pretty scared. We lost his mother almost a year ago to cancer, and since then, I have gotten into quite a bit of trouble trying to make money to keep us going. All of our possessions are in the car, and you'll see that it isn't much. There are some pretty nasty thugs after me, and I didn't want Seeley to get stuck in the middle of it. Please take care of him, I know you will. I just have no other choice but to leave him behind. Please tell him that I love him, tell him not to be afraid. When I can, I will come back for him. Please don't look for me, I need him to be safe." Booth paused, looking up at Temperance. "Thank you, Tempe… Jared."
"Booth." Temperance whispered, looking to the little boy as he pointed to something in the book and smiled at Grace, who giggled. "What do we do?"
"Well, for starters… it explains all of the crazy stuff he was talking about when he got out of the car." Booth shrugged.
Booth stood close to the house, his body hidden in the darkness of the house as he watched the person who was sitting in the car, staring at Temperance's car. The figure was dark, so he couldn't get a good look, but the lights of the car were on, and the car was running as Booth stood staring at the car, his eyes flickering to his wife, who was watching him very closely as he stepped slowly across the lawn toward the driveway. He paused for just a split second, wishing that he had his firearm, he knew that Temperance would have the one he kept locked in the car, so he slowed when the car parked in front of the house, and the lights turned off, his eyes flicked to Temperance, and she had a phone pressed to her ear.
The person in the car then swung the door open sloppily, and Booth squinted slightly as the person's face came into view. His breath hitched as he watched Jared stumble clumsily from the car, his eyes on Temperance's car. "Jared?" Booth called, the man's eyes shot to him, and they widened, stumbling slightly.
"Seeley?" He said, squinting his eyes as he stopped. "What the… You're dead!" He shouted.
"Jared, are you drunk?" Booth asked.
"You're dead!" He shouted at Booth. "You can't do this to me, Seeley! You're dead!" He screamed.
"Jared, stop yelling."
"Fuck you!" Jared shouted. "What the fuck are you doing here, you miserable sonofabitch?" He screamed, his speech slurring as he shouted. "What the fuck are you doing here? You're dead! Where is Tempe? What the fuck is going on, what kind of sick fucking joke is this?" Jared screamed, stumbling again. "What kind of sick fucking joke is this, you son of a bitch!" He screamed.
"Jared, calm down!" Booth exclaimed, catching eyes with Temperance, he watched her for a moment as Jared suddenly came at him. He was ready to defend himself if need be, but his brother simply wrapped his arms around him, squeezing him tightly as they stumbled backwards. He smelled of beer, cigarettes, and body odor, but his grasp was strong. "Jared,
it's alright."
"It's not alright! It's not alright… You're supposed to be dead! You're supposed to be dead, where the fuck were you? Where the fuck were you?" He shouted, pushing against Booth, he stumbled backwards and fell onto the grass, tumbling onto his back. His hands covered his face as Booth approached him quickly, he looked up to see Temperance getting out of the car.
"Bones?"
"I'm okay." She said, still on the phone.
"He's supposed to be dead, Tempe! Why didn't you tell me he wasn't dead?" He screamed.
"She didn't know where you were, Jared! None of us did! Where the hell have you been? You dropped off the grid!"
"You were gone! I had no reason to be here! I have… I have no reason to be here!" He shouted.
"Why are you here now, Jared?" Booth asked.
"This is supposed to be easier… this wasn't supposed to happen like this! It wasn't supposed to happen like this!" he screamed. "You're supposed to be dead! You're supposed to be in the fucking ground!"
"Why does it matter?" Booth asked. "Why does it matter if I am alive or dead? I'm alive… You need to calm down."
"I can't calm down!"
"Why were you following Bones?" he asked, looking down at his brother as he sat in the grass, his knees drawn up. "Why were you following her?"
"This was supposed to be easier… it was supposed to be easier…" He mumbled.
"Jared, you're not making any sense." Booth said as he looked to Temperance, and then to the house, his eyes lifting to the window of his bedroom, he saw two faces peering out, and felt a surge of frustration. His brother was making a scene, and his children were witnessing it. He needed to get him out of there as soon as possible. He looked to Temperance just as she put her phone away, and she glanced to Jared.
"I got him a cab." She said, looking to where Booth had been looking at the window. "Maybe he can sleep it off at a hotel?" She asked.
"Yeah." Booth nodded. "Can you check on the girls?" He asked, watching Temperance nod as she made her way quickly toward the house. He waited until the door was closed, and then leaned down to his brother. "You're making this a lot harder than it should be, Jared." He growled.
"Yeah? Well…. Fuck you." He spat angrily. "You… I thought Tempe could take care of things for me… do you think she can?" He said, suddenly desperate in his grasp of his brother.
"Jared, Bones and I will do whatever we can to help you. She got you a taxi, okay? It'll be here in a little bit… and I'll call in a room at hotel a few blocks from here. You need to sleep this off, okay? Can you do that? Our children are in the house, and we can't have you in there right now, not like this."
"You don't trust me?" Jared asked, his eyes widening. "You don't trust me…"
"Hey, I trust you… just… I don't want them to be nervous, okay?" Booth lied, but it seemed to calm Jared.
"I trust you too. Even if you're supposed to be dead." Jared patted his brother as he stood sloppily with Booth's help. "Take care of my car…" He mumbled. "Make sure you take care of him."
"Alright." Booth nodded as he watched the taxi pull up to the curb.
"Take good care of him, please… tell him I love him… and I'm sorry I had to leave him behind." Jared mumbled as he let Booth help him toward the car.
Booth listened to his brother's rambling, unsure of why he was referring to his car as a male, but just figuring it was because he was so drunk. He helped him into the cab.
"Sleep it off, okay? We'll talk tomorrow."
"Don't forget my car." He mumbled.
"I won't." Booth said, looking to the cab driver. He told him what hotel to take Jared to, and gave him several dollars from his pocket. He was about to close the door on Jared, when his brother reached out for him and grabbed his hand.
"I'm sorry." Jared said, before releasing his brother's hand, as Booth held his fist to Jared, who bumped it.
"It's alright man… sober up, I'll see you tomorrow." Booth said, stepping back as he closed the door and watched the cab drive away with Jared, as he picked up his phone and quickly dialed up the hotel, and then made his way quickly to the house to his family.
"So he planned to leave Seeley with just me." Temperance said as she watched the little boy yawn. "But why?"
"Because he knew that you'd look after him." Booth said, taking her hand. "He knew that you wouldn't toss him into a foster home, and you wouldn't treat him like dirt. He knew that you loved me when you lost me."
"Love you." She said, leaning up to kiss him. "I never stopped loving you."
"Ew!" Gracie exclaimed from the couch, sending Seeley into a matching tone as he exclaimed it as well, as Booth and Temperance looked over at the two of them.
"That's enough from the peanut gallery…" Booth said as he listened to the two kids giggle.
"What do we do now?" Temperance asked, watching Booth still smiling at the two children sitting on the couch.
"First… we get them to bed." He said, nodding toward the couch. "Then, we do some investigative work." He said, walking toward the couch, he lifted the little boy up and put him down on his lap, as he and Seeley flopped down on the cushions next to Grace. "Go get your sister, Squeaker… bedtime story time."
"Yay!" Grace exclaimed, hopping from the couch, as she ran for the stairs. "Nee! Nee! Nee!" She squealed happily as she took off running up the stairs.
Booth looked up to Temperance as he sat with the boy on his lap, and Seeley looked up at Temperance. She crouched down in front of him and smiled tenderly. "Do you think you like it here?" She asked softly, watching as Seeley nodded his head slowly. "And you're not so scared anymore?" She asked, watching him shake his head. "Good." She smiled. "It's okay to be scared, but just know there are plenty of people here that will do all they can to make you feel better, okay?" she asked, slowly lifting her fist, she watched him look up at her and down at her fist, as slowly a smile spread over his face. His eyes lightened at the offering of the ritual, and with a smile, he reached out, bumping his fist with hers, as he opened his mouth to an all out grin. "I think he's going to fit in just nicely around here." Temperance said as they listened to the sound of pounding feet on the stairs, and two happy little girls flopped down on either side of their daddy for their nightly ritual of story time.