Chapter 9 "Nicknames: Bones and Jar-head"

Hey guys! So sorry for that short chapter last time! Glad that some of you liked it though!

Thanks to those who reviewed:

Heth, HawkAngel XD, kimmiej77, cinderella2122, Ashlyn Darke, bb4evr, Tiva4evaxxx, and Viktorija.

You guys are awesome!

This chapter is dedicated to the amazing Billie and Amy B.! Love you guys!

Oh yea, and while you're reading this chapter, remember, Booth and Jared's father is NOT abusive and/or an alcoholic in this story, he's a good guy.

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Friday, March 15, 1984, 9:34 pm

"So you like to look at bones...?" Booth stated slowly, though it came out as more of a question.

Tempe and him were sitting on the couch with Rusty's head on Booth's lap and Mac's on Tempe's. They were both absentmindedly petting each dog, subconsciously encouraging their calm state of mind as they slowly fell asleep.

Jared had long ago plugged in his headphones and turned the volume on his Walkman all the way up. His homework laid untouched before him on the coffee table. Their mom had requested that he work on it, but of course Jared only leaned over it every time one of his parents were in the room.

Booth had simply ignored his actions, like almost always. He knew it was wrong, but he didn't want his brother to take revenge, so he often battled the idea of telling or not. Tempe however, had stared, fascinated. At her house, it was never a question of if she did her homework, only of did she remember to write her name (which she always did), put it in her backpack (again she always did), and did she at least try the extra-credit (almost always). Her brother Russ, while not always as diligent as her, always did and checked his homework, even begrudgingly. It never entered her 7-year-old mind that someone could deceive one's parents so; sure, she always knew it was possible, but never had she seen someone do it in real life.

She was soon, however, distracted by Booth's eager questions, and answered them all honestly, before asking her own as well.

Tempe sighed, slightly irritated at Booth's comprehension with her answer to his question, 'What do you wanna be when you grow up?'. She had replied that she wanted to be a forensic anthropologist, and when questioned what that was, her explanation only caused more confusion.

"It means that I want to solve crimes and help people find their loved ones by examining bones if missing/unidentified people, who may have been murdered or not."

"Oh... I get it, sort of." Booth said, grinning when Tempe rolled her eyes. "Bones!" he exclaimed in delight after a short silence.

"Yes Booth, bones." Tempe slowly said in response, wondering if her new friend was slow in the head.

"No, Bones, that's what I'm gonna call you from now on!"

"What?! Why?!" Tempe questioned, mouth agape and eyes wide.

Booth chuckled, shaking his head at her expression and thought that she was absolutely adorable, "Aww, c'mon Bones, you're a genius, I'm sure you can figure it out."

"No, I understand where the idea behind the name came from, but why must you call me that? Isn't my name enough?" Tempe reasoned, hoping to persuade him to drop the unwanted nickname.

"Because I can, because it fits, because I want to, and because I think you should have a special nickname." was the smug response, accompanied with a playful and, as always, sincere grin.

"I already have a nickname."

"But it's not special."

"What makes Bones so special?"

There was a short silence, before Booth responded, with a sweet smile, " It comes from your dream, what you want, it's like a sign for your wishes."

Here Tempe tilted her head, staring in wonderment at the boy sitting across from her. One second he was a goof ball, and in the next he was so serious. She wasn't sure which she preferred, though both sides of him did have one thing going for them; they were both equally sincere.

Booth then spoke up again, "Plus, I gave it to you, and you know that makes it all the more special."

Tempe rolled her eyes; the goof ball was back.

When she then looked back up at him, Booth's eyes had softened, and for some reason, Tempe knew what he wanted to say but did not; he wanted to say also, that the nickname was to show that she was special to him, from now on, that's what it would really stand for. She looked back at him with a responding question in her eyes, glancing at Jared to empathize her thoughts, how come Jared didn't have a nickname? Booth's response was to raise his eyebrows, as if to say Jared? Why would Jared deserve a nickname?

Temperance giggled in response, but continued to stare at Booth, though a smile played at her lips, waiting a serious response. The younger Booth boy finally sighed, because it seemed he couldn't deny his Bones anything he wasn't truly against; all she had to do was show him in the smallest way that she wanted it, and he would give it to her.

Booth grinned his charm smile grin at her, placing a gentle hand on top of her's for a quick second, as if to say it was okay, before taking a deep breath and opening his mouth to shout, "HEY JAR-HEAD!!!! STOP WATCHING TV AND BLASTING YOUR MUSIC AND DO YOUR HOMEWORK ALREADY!!!"

Right after Seeley's yell, Jared turned to him, shocked his little brother would just give him away knowing the consequences of, not Jared getting in trouble, but what Jared would do to HIM if he gave him away. Bren stared at him as well, shocked not so much at his behavior, because it seemed as if something he would do, but at his loudness; he'd startled the dogs, causing them to wake up and jump on the ground, barking loudly.

A loud voice rang through the house, not Jared's or Seeley's, but their father's, "SEELEY! YOU DO NOT YELL IN THIS HOUSE AT 9 O'CLOCK AT NIGHT!"

Booth cringed a bit at his father's tone, but all three of the kids knew full well that Jared would be in so much more trouble than him. A split second later, Mr. Booth was in the living room, first glaring at Booth, with a warning in his eyes, calming the dogs, and turning to Tempe to flash her an apologetic smile, as if to tell her that this wasn't something that happened all the time.

Finally, his eyes landed on Jared, who was furiously scribbling on his homework, trying to get as many math problems done as possible before his father came over to see how far he was. It was far too late though, and Robert yanked his son's paper away. Jared protested as his father lifted the paper closer to his face, but soon gave up with a groan, and buried his head in his hands.

After about 30 seconds of silence, Rob Booth lowered the paper and angrily stared at his eldest son, "In half an hour's time you've finished one problem?!"

"And started on the second." Jared replied weakly.

"JARED BOOTH DON'T YOU EVEN TRY THAT WITH ME!" Was the outraged roar. Jared cringed, and ducked his head for a second, before lifting it again, a new look in his eyes.

"WHY THE HELL DO YOU EVEN CARE DAD?! IT'S MY LIFE NOT YOURS!!" He responded, standing up to match his father's stance.

"YOU ARE MY SON! I REFUSE TO LET YOU WASTE AWAY YOUR LIFE!!"

"YOU ARE MY FATHER! I REFUSE TO LET YOU GET IN THE WAY OF WHAT I WANT MY FUTURE TO BE LIKE, BECAUSE YOU WON'T BE IN IT!"

There was another moment of silence where there was only heavy breathing, and the air was filled with tension, so thick you would break that imaginary knife everyone's always talking about.

"Rob? Jar? What's going on?" Lauren said, entering the room in light green pajamas. She had been in the shower, so she hadn't heard anything until now.

"Our son has been lying to us."

"I never lied to you, I never said I WAS doing my homework."

"No, I guess you were just deceiving us, because you've never lied to us right?" Was the sarcastic response.

Here Jared simply glared at his father.

"You're not going anywhere this spring break-"

"WHAT?!"

"That birthday party, forget that-"

"That's Mike's party! I told him weeks ago I'd-"

"Well too bad! You should have thought of that BEFORE you decided to give up on all your responsibilities!"

"It was just a bit of homework! It's not like-"

"IT WASN'T JUST THE HOMEWORK JARED! YOU'VE BEEN SHIRKING YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES ALL MONTH!"

"What are you talking about?!!!! No I haven't!"

"You forgot to wait for your brother at the bus stop, not once, but 9 times!"

"It happens! Besides he's 10, the stop is less than a block away from home!"

"You left the dogs outside before going to school twice!"

"The neighbor brought them in the first time and the second they waited on the porch!"

"You've failed 6 tests and barely passed the other 12 this month!"

"They were just pop quizzes, and I failed 4, not 6!"

"There is so much more Jared, but we would still be here all year before we got through them all!"

They continued arguing, yelling at each other for a good amount of time, while the other three in the room observed. Some were stunned, others feeling guilty (though Booth knew he had done the right thing despite that), and the dogs were simply whimpering, as they circled the pair, unsure as what to do.

Finally, in the middle of Rob's turn at yelling, he stopped abruptly.

He looked down, to see that Tempe had taken his hand, and was looking up at him with her intense stare. No one but Booth had noticed her get up, and he trusted that she knew what she was doing; If she hadn't, he was ready to jump up of course.

Rob's shoulders sagged, as he exhaled with a sigh. With his other hand, he rubbed his face, then patted Tempe's shoulder gently, before indicating that she should go back to the couch.

Bren shook her head, and brought her other hand up to join its partner in grasping the father of her new friend's dad's larger hand.

Booth watched, as his father's eyes soften, and a small smile appeared on his face. He got up and touched Bones's arm gently, encouraging her that his dad was okay now. She glanced at him with her amazing eyes, and something told him that behind those bright eyes, a decision was made, a very important one. He couldn't help but wonder if it was about him.

As the two made their way back to the couch, Rob watched, intrigued. He had also seen that look in that little girl's eyes; it had almost seemed as if she was making the decision then and there that she would trust his little boy. The thing was, she was so young, how could she consciously make that choice; for her to do that, she would have to know that there was a lot of people that couldn't be trusted. She was seven! Usually kids that age either trusted practically everyone or distrusted practically everyone, at least when they first meet them.

Robert Booth turned back to his eldest son, who had taken advantage of the brief pause to sit down, arms crossed with a frown on his face. Rob rolled his eyes, but refrained from stating how childish his 15 year old son was acting.

He didn't understand how his sons could be so different. They were like night and day; Seeley got A's and B's (well, for the most part) while Jared got C's and D's (again, for the most part). Seel looked after the dogs, even enjoyed it, but Jar only played with them occasionally, and never took care of them, etc.

Of course, in some ways they were the same. For example, both of them loved sports, though they preferred different ones. They both liked sleeping late and getting up late.

Still, that was really just typical boy behaviors, their differences were not. That didn't mean Rob didn't love them both equally, for he did, just for different reasons. His father had once told him that he didn't believe that every parent that say they love all their children the same, were telling the truth. "Every child is different, and every parent is different; they are people, and all people are different in some way," his dad had said to 20 year old Rob, "Therefore, the love their parent or parents give them in return must be different. Now, that's not to say, that in the end, all that love doesn't equal to the same amount, but the type of love, or the reason behind the love, is different. Sure, I love you and Mark both, because you are both my sons, but if you dig a little deeper, you'll find that I love Mark, because he loves going on my morning jog with me -among other things of course- while I love you because you know exactly how I like my bacon and eggs cooked, and will talk sports with me while you're doing it, again, just an example of many, I promise."

Just like his father, Robert Booth loved his sons for separate reasons, that equaled the same amount of love. He would, however, feel more pride toward Jared, if he acted the way Rob knew he could, rather than wallowing in self pity, and digging himself into a hole.

The oldest Booth wanted his Jar to succeed in life, and be happy, that's all any father wants, but Jared seems to have given up, at 15 for heaven's sake! Yea, Rob knew, it was probably just a phase, but what if he let Jared be, that might be encouraging him on the wrong path he was already trying to take.

"Jared," Rob muttered softly, looking at his son, "I don't want to fight about this anymore, I don't want to yell at you."

"Yea, well, I don't enjoy it so much either."

"Jared...." was the reply, spoken in a tone that was clearly indicating a warning, but not by his father, it came from his mother, who still stood in the doorway.

The eldest Booth boy sighed, before saying, "Sorry..." as a barely audible mumble.

His dad looked at Lauren for a second, a silent conversation took place between the two of them, before they reached an agreement and Rob went back to addressing Jared.

"Okay Jar, how about this, you go to that birthday party, and then the day after you can start your 2 week punishment. That means no friends, no leaving the house unless it's going on an errand or you get our permission, and if you behave, we'll think about shortening it."

Jared look like he wanted to protest, but stopped once he saw the look his mom threw him. "Okay dad." he replied with a heavy sigh.

"When I say behave, I mean doing all your chores, cleaning your room, being nice to your brother-"

"Yes!" They all turned to Booth, who had pumped his fist into the air as he showed his excitement. "Sorry..." was the next thing he said, grinning sheepishly when he noticed everyone was looking at him, especially his Bones.

She just shook her head in amusement. Booth really was weird; what had she gotten herself into?

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Kind of a random chapter, but hope you liked it all the same.