Booth wanted to punch something. Anything. He was sitting next to his wife, while she was forced to go through what had been a difficult past. Like every time she had to deal with overwhelming feelings, she kept a straight face and had become impassive. And he hated that. He hated that she had to compartmentalize, that she had to rise up her walls back to deal with all the crappy memories thrown at her. He wanted nothing more than to take her away from this.
"We went through the files about the families who welcomed you…" explained Aubrey, opening several files.
"Welcome isn't accurate…" she replied coolly.
Aubrey nodded, looking at Booth like he was asking for help. He felt uncomfortable to have to go through so intimate memories. Especially when he knew that Booth would have his head if he hurt Brennan in any way.
"Hum… Okay… Right… Well, the families you had to live with… We already know that the suspect is a man, tall, in his thirties, so that's leaves us with four families. The others didn't have a son, or too old to fit the profile… So, we have the Petersons…"
He pushed a file toward Booth and Brennan. She didn't move to take it, and she kept her eyes on Aubrey.
"They had two sons and a daughter… Richard, Vincent, and Jenna… Richard lives in Scotland, Vincent is in the navy, at the other side of the world… "
"They were okay. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson were quite kind, but they didn't like my…point of view… They were very catholic…"
She had said that as if she was talking about remains. Professional, emotionless and straight to the point. She used to say that the emotions belonged to the victims' families. That her mission was to give the victims dignity by identifying them and allowing their families to grieve them. Her ability to detach herself from any emotional turmoil had been harder since she had opened her heart to Booth, but as he looked at her, he felt like he was back years ago.
After a silence, Aubrey took another file.
"Mr. and Mrs. O'Neill…"
Booth felt her tense; he leaned on her and took her hand. She didn't react at his touch, but he was relieved she wasn't pushing him away.
"They had one son… David…"
"David was younger than me, he was very kind… He was the one to warn me about the trunk punishment… He helped me…"
Booth felt sick. He never forgot when Bones had told Sweet about the time she was locked in the trunk of a car for breaking a plate. It had made him angry, and he was far angrier now. Bones looked at him for the first time.
"It's okay Booth…" she said softly.
No it's not okay I'm going to find them and to put them in jail forever he wanted to shout. But instead, he nodded, his jaw set, and the hand which wasn't holding hers clenched in a fist.
"David works in DC, we'll have to ask him a few questions… Then…"
Aubrey took a third file.
"The Monroe's… But their son Benjamin died in a moto accident two years ago… Then, at last, we have the Roberts…"
Bones paled and her hand came to rest on her belly. Concerned, Booth looked at her.
"Bones, are you okay?"
She didn't respond, staring in front of her as if she was miles, or years away from that conference room. Which concerned her husband even more. He gave the file back to Aubrey, glaring at him.
"Okay, stop all that bullshit; she didn't need to go through this, not now!" he growled, his protectiveness in full display.
He stopped when his wife talked.
"I'd like to speak to Booth… In private…"
Aubrey blinked at her.
"But… We need all the information to…"
"Get out…" said Booth, glaring at him.
Aubrey cleared his throat and got up.
"Okay… Well… Fine… I'm just going to… I'm going to grab something to eat… You know… Hypoglycemia… I'll just… I'm leaving now…"
He almost ran outside, shutting the door behind him. The silence then became quickly unbearable to Booth, heavy with questions he needed answers for.
Brennan kept her hand in his but didn't look at him. Stony faced, she began to speak.
"The Roberts had one son and one daughter… Jonathan and Marissa… Both were older than me… When I came to stay with them, I was sixteen, I've had already been in many foster families in the past few months… But despite my record, they were nice to me… The first week went well… I had a room of my own, I went to school, they never hit or locked me… I noticed how Mr Roberts was looking at me sometimes, but it wasn't the first time, and nothing had ever happened, so I didn't worry…"
Booth's stomach was a giant knot, but he remained quiet.
"One night… Mrs. Robert had left with Marissa, her mother was sick, so she went to see her for a few days… One night… I was sleeping, but something awoke me. Someone was touching me, touching inappropriate places. At first, I thought I was still asleep, having a nightmare like I used to have… But then, I realized… It was Mr. Robert. I turned on the light and he was standing in front of me, he wasn't alone, Jonathan was with him… I told them to get out of my room, so they just left… I was terrified, I knew that nobody would believe me, so I didn't say anything, Mrs. Robert came back… I avoided Mr. Robert and Jonathan as much as I could… But then, Mrs. Robert had to leave again… And they came back in my room the first night…"
She swallowed. Booth had to restrain himself for standing. He didn't know what to do, his heart was pounding in his ears with apprehension, anger, disgust and helplessness.
"Mr. Robert was holding me, he told his son that he was going to be a man… Historically, men took their sons to brothel to make them lose their virginity, it was a significant ritual supposed to mark a transition to adulthood…"
"Bones…"
His voice was almost a whisper.
"I fought back, I screamed, I kicked… And then Marissa came in before they could achieve their goal… She was supposed to be at a sleepover with her friends, but she had had flu over the past days, and she didn't feel well… The next day, the social worker took me away, and Mr. Roberts and his son had to face sexual assault charges… Many other girls had been raped before I came; none of them had said a word until then…"
Booth jumped on his feet. He paced in the conference room, taking deep breathes to calm down. When he punched the wall with a growl, she winced. He saw her and came hastily to sit beside her, taking both her hands in his and searching for her eyes.
"Bones…"
When she finally looked at him, he rested his forehead against hers.
"You're the bravest person I've ever met. You're so brave, so beautiful… I'm so proud to be the luckiest guy in the world for being loved by you… Bones, what happened to you…"
He inhaled sharply and closed his eyes painfully. God, he wanted to go get Max and to kick his ass to the moon for running away from his daughter.
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
She shrugged.
"I didn't see the point. They didn't rape me even if they tried, and we never got to talk about that until today…"
He took her face between his hands to look at her. The love and devotion she could see all over his face was almost overwhelming.
"I'll never let anything happen to you, you know that? Not anymore…"
She smiled.
"Although I can take care of myself, I find that I trust you with my life, like I always did…"
He kissed her tenderly.
"I love you…"
"I love you too, Bones… Do you feel ready for Aubrey to get back?"
She nodded. They had a murderer to catch.
Here we go another chapter! Thank you so much for the nice reviews, don't forget to follow or favorite this story if you like it, and don't forget to click just right there! Take care!
