Ch.7

Cheyenne waited patiently in Brennan's office for Angela. She really wanted that acoustic guitar, wanted to show Angela that she could in fact play it. Especially when she found out whom Angela's dad was, that made her a bit apprehensive to play in front of her. Though deep down Cheyenne knew Angela was accepting of pretty much everyone. Cheyenne sang quietly along to a song that had come onto Pandora.

"At seventeen she left Long Island bound for Hollywood, another story like the ones you've heard before, he left her broken just like you figured, like you knew he would…she shut her heart after his ring rang off the door..".Cheyenne's eye's settled on the door as the door knob turned and the door opened up for, Booth? What was he doing here? Where was Angela? She quite singing and started humming the lyrics. "It's the story of your life you're tearing out the page, new chapter on the way…It's the story of your life you live it every day…"

She flicked her dark irises from the doorknob to his eyes and decided to sing the last bit quietly. "You can run you can run, but you won't get away, I don't know what's coming up or where will you go now….It's the story of your life…" Cheyenne ended her soft singing abruptly starring at Booth, he starred back.

"What's up Booth?" said Cheyenne.

Booth looked at the teenage Bones who sat behind Bones' desk in her office chair. The teenager who had waited in happy anticipation for Angela and found him, he knew she didn't like him. Though, he felt Cheyenne was judging a little early. She was mad at Booth for what? Moving on when Brennan had told him too. He only did what she had said for him to do. Cam had pulled him aside once and mentioned "whatever this is with Hannah…" She had also told him not to hurt Brennan, but she had hurt him. He realized how childish that sounded he didn't mean to hurt her intentionally and he knew she didn't mean to hurt him intentionally. He was only acting rational as he saw it. Brennan didn't want him, Hannah did. Pandora continued to play off of Brennan's computer.

"She hit the ground, she built a fine career and every weekend walked the dogs behind the sea, in the salt she met a man who knew at once, but wait…is he the one we need him to be? In the story of your life…you're moving down the page…you can run, but you won't get away."

Then, there was that moment that millisecond of old almond orbs locking onto dark blues at the hospital, when he had thanked her. There was another moment or rather a discussion after a case one night about love. He remembered how Bones said it was only induced nor-epinephrine, epinephrine, and serotonin levels that caused him to react to Hannah in the manner he was. He disagreed with her.

"Earth to Booth, Seeley are you there?" Cheyenne asked wondering where his thoughts had taken him.

Her voice pulled him back momentarily. "I was looking for you and Bones. I found something on your biological parents. I just need forensics to confirm that you are who I think you are." Booth said.

Cheyenne looked confused. "I'm not in trouble I didn't do anything wrong. Why would you think I'm someone I'm not? Who do you think I am?" her dark blue irises questioned Booth in such an eerily similar way as Bones he had to hold back a chuckle.

He didn't believe what Brennan had said then, but maybe now because he swore he saw something in her eyes last night as they look at one another. While Hannah and Cheyenne spoke. Though, he had to check himself-she doesn't want you she said it Seeley. Forget Bones, and open your eyes to what is in front of you. Hannah is more than just some consolation prize, yes that she is.

"Where is Bones?" Booth asked

Pandora continued to play the same song. "I don't know what's coming up, where you will go down it's the story of your life…look around look around and the world will find you, look around look around and the world will find you…"

"Bone storage, she is probably on her way back right now. Angela is supposed to be bringing the acoustic in today and I decided to wait in Tempe's office."

"Did you find anything on my sisters? It would probably be easiest to track Lacey down, actually scratch that I don't know." Cheyenne said

Booth inhaled and exhaled. "Can we just wait for Bones, Cheyenne? She is your foster parent and I would like to discuss your case with her as well."

Brennan walked into her office finding Cheyenne in her desk chair music playing softly in the walls of her office. She looked to Booth meeting his eyes he looked frustrated and impatient. "Why do you need to wait for me?" her gaze settled on Booth as she questioned him. "Booth?"

"Booth thinks he may have found a link to my biological parents." Cheyenne's irises flicked to Brennan's.

"How? Have you had your mouth swabbed or blood drawn Cheyenne? Forensics will need to match-"

Booth had, had enough. "Bones, remember Margaret, your second cousin?"

"Yes." Brennan answered. "Maggie."

Booth glanced at Brennan. "Well, Maggie had an older sister she didn't know of." Booth looked to Cheyenne. "That older sister was your mom Cheyenne." He looked to Brennan. "And your other second cousin Bones."

"How do you know this for sure? Does Maggie know?" Brennan inquired.

"My mom? You may have found my mom?" Cheyenne

Booth looked at her sadly, "She was given up for adoption which is why Maggie knows nothing of her older sister. Angela is working with Cam double time as am I to get all of this figured out but we will need a blood sample for forensics." Booth

"And you, you met my Aunt? What did you guys say her name was? Maggie?" Cheyenne said her question going unanswered as the partners spoke among themselves.

"How did you find out she was given up for adoption if no one knew anything about her Booth? How do you know she existed?" Brennan asked afraid of the answer.

"Amy Williams is Maggie's mom. Autopsy results showed she had two children not one. That other child was born when she was in her early teens maybe fifteen. The baby was given up for adoption because Amy was not married and too young to raise a child on her own. In her early thirties she had Maggie. Amy never knew what happened to her other daughter and she never named her at the hospital. I don't even know if she ever had the chance to hold her." Booth looked between Brennan and Cheyenne.

"That made it a little harder, although I was able to track down the hospital she was born in and then I went to the foster agency who had recieved her. She was adopted out and named Lindy Martin she married and had two kids." Booth said and turned his attention to Cheyenne "I'm sorry Cheyenne but I did find your mother isn't with us anymore. She was murdered when you were around eleven."

"I bet it was my step-dad! Lacey, Lacey Martin is the other child that my mother had. She is nineteen, she is my half sister." Cheyenne said

Booth looked at Cheyenne and Cheyenne looked to Brennan leading Booth's eyes to crash into his partners. Bones spoke in a low tone. "Booth, do you think my dad might know anything about this?"

"I don't know Bones. I do know that Cheyenne needs to come to the Hoover with me Cheyenne the lab can finish out the tests they need to do at their lab. The Jeffersonian is a bit busy right now. We will get our results faster, blood can't sit it needs the centrifuge and the Jeffersonian's is being used. " Booth said

Lyrics drifted through the air. "There's a reason we live so far from Hollywood…in the country looking hard to find a home, we're nothing perfect all considered but we're so damn good…It's the story of your life…yeah we're moving down the page…it's the story of your life."

"Wait if this is all true, if it turns out true. That means I'm your third cousin Tempe." Cheyenne said feeling a weight lifted, she belonged somewhere if only Tempe would agree to take her in like no one ever had before.

With a new chapter on the way F.B.I Agent and foster kid climbed into his expedition. Once settled Booth was ready for the questions to start. They did. A car accident ahead Booth turned on his lights to get around traffic. Cheyenne unlike Brennan thought it a clever idea and when he turned them off and they were rolling along with the rest of traffic she turned and smiled at him. "Nice move F.B.I."

Booth smiled back into Cheyenne's dark blue irises "Fast cars are your thing Cheyenne?"

Cheyenne smiled "Booth, you have to remember I'm use to coppers." She laughed and Booth chuckled along with her as they head toward the Hoover.

Booth's mind raced as he waited for Cheyenne's lab results at the Hoover. Now that Booth had seen deep into Bones eyes at the hospital and spoke to her in that unspoken language they had. Now that Cheyenne had told him she wished he never moved on. That Brennan said she had made an irrational wish the same night as he. He might have changed his mind about Bones and how she felt toward him. But was she was truly ready for a relationship or had her own chemicals acting too strongly for her. He couldn't be sure, it was Bones after all.

Though, if she had, had some kind of 'revelation' in Maluku, why didn't she call him in Afghan? She had a sat phone, hell all one needed was a computer or new iphone which came with face time. Depending on where and what he was doing at the time he would be able to retrieve messages left at base. Then there was always the old fashioned letter and of course packages-filled with snacks, razors, flavored drinks, and mainly more snacks that wouldn't melt on the plane ride overseas.

Though, none of that really mattered now, right? Right, because it was in the past. Yet, he still struggled with it. Struggled with Bones rational and why she never kept in contact. At least he knew she never kept in contact with anyone else, which made him feel a bit better knowing he wasn't being totally ignored by her, singled out.

Cheyenne's voice drew him back to reality as the two sat in his office together. "You still love her don't you? She told me that you wanted to be more at one time." Cheyenne felt it was intervention time.

Booth wasn't sure how to respond at first, he did love her but she didn't love him. He had to deny the feelings he had for Brennan for they were only false. If he broke it off with Hannah for Bones. Would Bones run? Was she ready for a relationship even if she claimed she was? No, who was he kidding, wishes were wishes and this was Bones that they were speaking of. He inhaled knowing he couldn't look away from Cheyenne but had to keep eye contact.

"I'm sorry Cheyenne but I have moved on just like Bones asked me too." Booth said his voice stern, serious and solemn all at once.

Cheyenne wondered. "Did you want to move on? Or..."

"It was time too. I couldn't pretend I didn't have feelings for her anymore. We met the next day and she had an offer for a dig in Mappoo Mappoo and I had an offer-" Said Booth

"You joined the military again. You left for Afghanistan and that is where you met Hannah." Cheyenne said

"Yes. We both left each other and I never heard from Bones and that is where I met Hannah." Booth said as his office phone rang and Cheyenne listened as Booth said "Okay, yeah I understand. Uh-huh. Yes, sir we're on our way." He looked to Cheyenne "Looks like you are Lindy Martin's kid and Lacey Martin's half sister. That means you are also Bones' third cousin." Said Booth

"Let's roll." Said Cheyenne

Booth winked at Cheyenne "Let's roll." and in that moment there was a mutual understanding between the two. An understanding that Booth didn't want to talk of it anymore didn't want to speak of he and Bones' past that the rear view mirror was still shattered and broken. Even, if it had been replaced.

On the drive back to the Jeffersonian to tell Bones the news Cheyenne spoke. "She still loves you. Do you know that?" he had too have known that.

Booth glanced at Cheyenne. "Bones loves me like family, but she doesn't want to be with me Cheyenne. Hannah does, and I love Hannah."

"Do you believe yourself when you say that? I mean could you look yourself in the mirror and say it?"

"Yes, I know Bones and I know even if she claimed to feel more than for me than just partners-" Booth said but was cut off.

"Which she does and you can tell it by the way you two look at each other. Tell that you know she does feel more." Cheyenne said

"Maybe so, but Bones, Bones isn't ready for a relationship she has said that for six years. Why would everything all of a sudden change? Do you think she had a realization in Mapoo Mappoo or wherever? I never heard from her and if she said she had a realization you would think-"

"Think that she was going to what? Burst at the seams and tell you everything on her mind like she never has done. That's according to you anyway. She held it in and then never had a chance to say what and that she believed what she actually discovered on her dig to be true." Cheyenne

"I don't know about that Cheyenne." Booth said as he parked in the parking garage of the Jeffersonian and the two got out.

Cheyenne's dark blues met his across the hood of the expedition and held them a second. "I know you don't."

Booth wondered as they walked to Bones' office. Did she love him? No he reiterated to himself. Even if Bones claimed Cheyenne's outlandish thinking to be true Bones most likely was all talk. She would only run if he fell back into her arms, arms which had pushed him away so harshly. No Seeley, Hannah loves you and you love Hannah.

Cheyenne peered into Angela's office on her way to Tempe's. She not only found Angela but the acoustic as well. "Knock, knock Angela." Cheyenne said as she knocked on Angela's open door causing the artist to look up.

"Hey Cheyenne, I'm sure you saw what I brought in for you." Angela said smiling at Cheyenne's smile

"Oh yeah, couldn't miss it." Cheyenne said smiling walking over to it. Though, as she was about to pick it up Tempe walked in Angela's office.

"Hey Cheyenne, Booth told me about the results." Brennan

"Yeah, they were positive. Lindy was my mother which makes us third cousins." Cheyenne said and Angela eyed Brennan who had been acting odd all day.

"What? You two are related?" Angela eyed Brennan then glanced at Cheyenne.

"Yes we are. I will tell you later Ange. Cheyenne come on Booth invited us to lunch." Brennan said and Cheyenne looked to Angela and the guitar.

"Would it be okay if I stayed? Angela just showed me the guitar." Cheyenne asked hesitantly.

"Okay." Brennan said rushed and met Booth and Hannah at the diner.

"Wonder what is up with her?" Angela wondered looking to Cheyenne.

"Honestly, I think it's this case and Booth. She has a million mixed emotions right now and has no idea how to handle them." Cheyenne said grabbing the guitar.

Angela nodded in agreement "So, you going to play something?" asked Angela.

"What?" asked Cheyenne who at the moment was feeling totally uninspired.

"I don't know." Angela replied.

"Step one you say we need to talk, he walks you say sit down it's just a talk, he smiles politely back at you, you stare politely right on through. Some sort of window to your right as he goes left and you stay right between the lines of fear and blame you begin to wonder why you came…"

Brennan walked in the diner and spotted Booth and Hannah. She frowned a second wishing it was only Booth and walked up to the couple and took a seat across from the couple.

"Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness end and I would have stayed up with you all night…had I known how to save a life. Let him know that you know best 'Cause after all you do know best…try to slip past his defense without granting innocence lay down a list of what is wrong the things you've told him all along… And pray to God he hears you
And I pray to God he hears you…mmm yeahh…"

"No kids or family all she had was her work. No one would have ever missed her." Hannah said something along those lines Brennan couldn't remember all she knew was she had to get out of the diner and get back to the Jeffersonian.

"I…I have to go." Brennan said as she got up and left in a hurry. Hannah looked to Booth as she left in a rush. Booth wished that she wouldn't let the case affect her as much as she was doing. She was personalizing with it and she shouldn't.

Angela and Cheyenne looked up at Brennan as she rushed into Angela's office. She opened her mouth to say something then closed it. Cheyenne and Angela stared at her both sets of large eyes on her own. She turned and walked out of her office and into her own without saying a word. Angela and Cheyenne looked to one another. This wasn't good.

Brennan set the manila file down on her desk opening it reading more about Lauren Eames. She was a doctor, she was a woman, she had no children, no family, she had loved a man she worked with, she never told that man she loved him, and so she died with regrets. Brennan inhaled she didn't want to be like Lauren Eames. She had family, Cheyenne.

Everyone had left the Jeffersonian except Brennan and Cheyenne. Cheyenne waited in her office strumming away to the acoustic which filled the Jeffersonian as Brennan had her own ipod in doing research on Lauren Eames. Suddenly it all came together for Brennan, a certain possibility in which Lauren had died.

Brennan appeared in her office door way. "Time to go." Cheyenne nodded getting up. They both waved goodbye to the night watchman named Micha as they left the building. Not long after they walked into Brennan's apartment building and while Cheyenne made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner, Tempe couldn't sit still.

"I'll be right back." Brennan said and walked out of the apartment door. Cheyenne didn't ask questions only stared at the now closed door as she took another bite of her peanut butter and jelly. She looked out of the window she sat by last night and noticed it was lightning out again. The night's sky was turbulent so, so very angry as the thunder rolled again and again.

Brennan pulled into the same alley way that Lauren had come to and got out of the taxi. She walked out into the street in the pouring rain searching for something, anything to tip her off as to how Lauren died. Bingo! She didn't overdose! She had come here to help and was hit by a vehicle! In that moment she was almost pushed to the ground as a horn honked and she felt familiar arms around her.

Her dark blue irises looked into his in the middle of the pouring rain. "Booth what are you doing here!" she said

"I could ask you the same thing Bones. Come on let me give you a ride home." Booth said offering to drive her back to her place. Brennan wondered where he had come from. Oh well he saved her life again so she let it slide.

And so they drove in the pouring rain. Brennan's mind raced with what she was about to confess to him. "Booth Micha said that…" She went on not even realizing what she was rattling off exactly about the universe and its signals.

Booth looked at her confused. "Who is this Micha guy again?"

"The night watchman." Booth nodded slightly and let her continue. She spoke of Lauren Eames and how she had died with regrets.

"I got the signal Booth." She then stammered out. "I don't want to have any regrets." It was then Booth knew exactly what she was saying.

Brennan looked at him waiting for him to say something, anything. He sighed, "I'm with Hannah now and she's not a consolation prize. I love her." He said it so carefully and slowly he almost convinced himself it was true. Then the tears came, her tears and he had to look away.

Cheyenne brought the acoustic over by the window sill and started to play a song that she had always liked.

"Tried to break love to a science in an act of pure defiance I broke her heart. As I pulled apart her theories as I watched her growing weary, I pulled her apart. Having heavy conversations about the further constellations of our souls we're just trying to find some meaning in the things that we believe in but we've got some ways to go…"

She stopped singing a moment as she watched the lightning clap and the thunder roar outside. She smiled a sad smile wondering if Tempe was out in the raging storm somewhere. She had a strange feeling she was. She smiled a happy smile that Booth had discovered the link between her and Tempe now only to track down her sister and find out who murdered her mother.

Though, that was the story of her life she was the "hard knocked kid" she thought with a chuckle. Cheyenne started to strum faster on the awesome gift Angela had given to her. She watched the storm as her fingers worked the strings on the neck of the acoustic and her right hand strummed away.

"…of all of the things she has ever said she goes and says something that just knocks me dead. Yeah…you won't find faith or hope down a telescope, you won't find heart and soul in the stars…you can break everything down to chemicals, but you can't explain a love like ours…."

Brennan and Booth drove in an awkward silence back to her place. Oddly Booth thought of Cheyenne, glad that Brennan would have someone. That she wouldn't be totally alone. He had lied to Bones tonight, he didn't love Hannah and while Bones was too naïve about real love to see this clearly. He had a feeling she knew that something was up, maybe. For, she was living with Cheyenne and the kid had to of said something to Bones. Had she? Had Cheyenne said anything to Bones about what she thought Booth felt for Bones? Because Booth knew Cheyenne sure thought a lot of things and she wasn't shy about voicing them either.

Brennan got out of the car quickly glancing at Booth trying desperately to avoid his eyes.

"See you tomorrow Bones." She smiled a forced smile at him in return and shut the car door. She was glad she had said what she had. For she now had no regrets but why did it hurt so much? Her chest burned like she had the worst heartburn she had ever felt as she watched Booth drive away. She inhaled and swiped at a tear as she stood in the rain.

Cheyenne had placed the acoustic up and was rummaging through Tempe's ipod seeing what songs she had-not many. She settled on one she didn't know called If God Made You and let it fill the apartment.

"Hey kid, your time has come to change. Well I need you more than I need you more than I needed anyone in anyway tonight…hey kid, I know it won't be long, the captain's calling…come to see you back where we belong…"

The door knob turned and Cheyenne turned abruptly to see who it was and watched as a bloodshot eyed Temperance Brennan walked wearily in the door. Cheyenne said nothing and walked over to Tempe who had shut the door and stood a few moments frozen to the spot. She eyed the couch and on auto pilot she walked toward it. Cheyenne sat in silence next to her on the couch.

"I told him how I felt." Brennan said letting silence linger a moment. "He said he is in love with Hannah."

At first Cheyenne felt anger toward Booth? Though, she remembered Tempe had turned him down once before-but she didn't flat out lie to his face. She missed her chance she ran scared. "He doesn't Temperance."

"Then why would he lie?" she asked the sixteen year old desperately, her eyes pleading with Cheyenne's own irises for an answer. "He is so very scared to lose you. Scared to say what he really believes because it hurts. You hurt him bad last time so why should he believe you aren't going to do it again? He has a guarded heart just like you. While he is a risk taker he is still too wounded to take a risk right now. He needs time to heal." Cheyenne said

"Something inside me is breaking, something inside says there is somewhere better than this…"

Brennan suddenly leaned her head on the younger girls shoulder and Cheyenne was taken aback a second. Then she awkwardly gave Brennan a hug and rubbed her back in comfort.

"Sunset sailing on April skies bloodshot fire clouds in her eyes…I can't say what I might believe, but if God made you he's in love with me…"

Cheyenne hang on to Cheyenne glad she had someone that offered comforting words and a hug. It was something that she needed. Funny she found it in not only a fellow foster kid but a family member.

"Hey Kid...Do wishes count at all? Can you give me a sign...give me anything I won't tell a soul you told Hey Kid...Will you hold me when I sleep, will you find me when the tide decides that I got to leave…?"

Cheyenne brushed Tempe's hair back as the doctor mumbled a few words to her. It was late now Tempe had stretched out the length of the couch her head in Cheyenne's lap. Brennan's eyes landed on the window as the storm continue to rage through the night. "So much for wishing on a star." Said Brennan.

Cheyenne was quiet in thought a moment starring at the window along with Tempe. The lightning and thunder crashed as the wind blew the pelting rain against the window.

"Something inside me is breaking, something inside says there's somewhere better than this..."

"Maybe you will be like Harry and Sally in the end Temperance. You just have some turbulence to overcome first." The distant cousins stare out the window in thought for a moment and Cheyenne wondered if there was a plane in that storm right now.

Brennan wondered of Booth and of what Cheyenne had said tonight. Not one thing in particular but all of it. She was so grateful she had Cheyenne to come home to. She had Cheyenne to break down too and to listen to her when she needed it. Maybe, only maybe she would turn out like Sally in the end.

"Cheyenne?" Brennan's voice was a soft sleepy whisper.

"Hhmm?"

"Would you like to stay here permanently? Would you like it if I was to adopt you? We are related after all." Brennan said and craned her neck to look at Cheyenne's response. She wore a large smile.

"Yeah, Yeah I would like that Tempe." Brennan smiled laying back down. "Hey Tempe?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

Mmhmm."

"Sunset sailing on April skies bloodshot fire clouds in her eyes I can't say what I might believe
but if God made you, he's in love with me…"


Songs used: Story of Your Life by Five for Fighting, How to Save A Life by The Fray, Science and Faith by The Script, If God Made You by Five For Fighting...hope it's all still making sense :)