A/N Firstly i know nothing about how the adoption system works so anything mentioned is from my imagination. If it is wrong i am sincerly sorry. Secondly just so the ending makes more sense this story is set roughly in early 2009 and Parker is about 7. Hope you enjoy...
Angela peeked her head through the closed hotel door to see her best friend sleeping peacefully, curled up on the bed.
Temperance had stumbled into the hotel a few days earlier, beaten and tired. Through thick tears she had embraced her friends for the first time in two years, telling them how sorry she was while Angela cried with her. Afterwards Maura had sat her down and after pouring her a glass of water had asked her to explain what had happened. Temperance tried her hardest to relay the events of the past 10 hours but all she could see was the look in Booth's eyes before John had struck him the first time. It was the last time she had seen his eyes open but for the life of her she couldn't remember what colour they were. She sat there, deep in thought going through all the possibilities, while Maura and Angela tried to coax her into speech. After a few minutes of rocking back and forth, deep in her thoughts she had cried out in frustration frightening the surrounding people and waking a sleeping Lilly in the other room. Temperance looked up at Maura, tears where streaming down her face, as she sobbed how sorry she was over and over again. "What for?" asked Maura, kneeling down to embrace her friend. Temperance curled back into herself. She hadn't slept for the better part of the day and her mind was beginning to betray her. She kept hearing Booth's screams one after another, and then they stopped, the same moment his heart stopped beating forever.
"I'm sorry I killed him" she whispered.
"Who, what happened Tay, Temperance?" asked Maura.
"I killed Booth" she whispered. She repeated it over and over till the tears streaming down her face chocked her into silence. Maura shrank back against the wall as Angela let out a strangled sob.
"We have to get her to lye down" instructed Cam through the silence. Hodgins and Zack looked at her questioningly.
"Temperance" she explained "She's exhausted and I'm afraid that if she doesn't get some sleep she might go into shock" The two men nodded in understanding but neither where able to speak. They gently helped Temperance up and lead her to the bedroom where she collapsed in a heap onto the bed, sleep claiming her before her head hit the pillow. She slept on through the next day, not even Lilly's screams could wake her, her body and mind where exhausted beyond anything she had felt before and for the first time in her life she wanted to shut her brain down, to stop the thoughts racing through at a million miles per hour. Just five minutes she begged five minutes where I don't have to see his face and hear his screams. Her only solace lay in Lilly, the daughter she had betrayed, and that was how Angela found her the next morning, curled up on the bed, Lilly lying by her side.
"I was surprised when Maura told me you where Lilly's mother" Angela commented, breaking the silence that filled the room.
When no reply offered itself she continued on "I always thought you didn't want children"
"I didn't" Temperance tired voice filled the stale room sending chills down Angela's spine and causing a cry from Lilly who by now had sensed a deep change in her mother.
"Why did you keep her then, if you didn't want children?" continued Angela.
Temperance sat up slowly lifting Lilly so she was lying in her arms. She looked at Angela through glass blue eyes, as if the tears from last night had frozen in place.
"I didn't have a choice"
"You could have put her up for adoption" questioned Angela, joining Temperance on the bedside.
"I did" commented Temperance a few minutes later.
"After I found out I was pregnant I discussed the situation with Maura. We both agreed the best option was to put her up for adoption. It took a while to find a family for her, especially because I was in witness protection but eventually we found a family who were looking for a child. They had two kids already but the wife had had an accident a few years earlier and couldn't have children any more. They had always wanted three kids so they decided adoption was the option for them two"
"What happened afterwards" prompted Angela through the threatening silence.
"Lilly was about four months old and we had been living with Maura. I wasn't coping with having her at all"
"Post-natal depression?"
"I don't know, that's what the doctors said" shrugged Temperance.
"When we went to meet the family Lilly was really grizzly, she'd been like that all day and I was exhausted. When I handed her over she started screaming and wouldn't stop. I couldn't handle it anymore so I ran away, out of the building"
Angela lay a comforting hand on Temperance's back as she struggled through the story.
"That night I couldn't sleep. My whole body hurt and I broke down completely. I cried until the next morning. After that I went to the lady and told her that she couldn't take Lilly, that I needed her just as much as she needed me"
"She was your family" whispered Angela.
"Yes" nodded Temperance. She drew in a deep breath.
"After that thing got a bit better. I still wasn't very good at being a mother but anything was better than feeling alone again, like I did when my parents left"
"Well, from where I stand you've done a pretty good job" complimented Angela.
"No" whispered Temperance, shaking her head so that the tears in her eyes splashed over Lilly's sleeping face.
"I did the one ting I promised I would never do and that was taking away one of her parents"
"Bren, you didn't kill Booth" insisted Angela.
"Yes I did" she persisted.
"No" said Angela. "John killed him okay; he was the one who pulled the trigger"
"But if he hadn't stayed with me than he would still be alive, wouldn't he Ang"
"That's just as good as saying Maura's responsible for inviting Booth down here or I'm responsible for letting him come. Temperance if you look at what's happened anyone could be responsible but you can't look at the big picture. The truth is Booth was killed by whoever pulled the trigger and that was John" yelled Angela. She prepared herself for the fight coming but Temperance didn't even look at her. She just lay back down on the bed, turning her back to Angela and whispered quietly to her.
"I wish I believed that"
Angela hung her head down in defeat. She didn't even know the woman lying in front of her anymore. The last two years and especially the last few days had changed her and Angela didn't know how to deal with the new Temperance, or Taylor or whoever she was now. She slowly exited the room, looking back only once to see if any fragments of her old friend where still there. She saw nothing though; it seemed as if the old Temperance had died away with her partner…
Doctor Michael Thomson walked briskly down the hospital corridor towards his latest patient. A male, severely bashed had been found earlier that day on the side of the road. He displayed several head, chest and back wounds and boar evidence of injuries prior to his most recent ones. The only explanation Michael could find was torture, but even a crime buff like himself didn't want to consider that thought. He opened the door to the room where the man lay awake now.
"How are you feeling today?" he asked.
"Okay" replied the man.
"Well I have to ask you a few questions is that okay?"
The man nodded in response.
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Seeley Booth" he responded.
"Well Mr. Booth what is the last thing you remember?"
"Being hit in the face, hard"
Michael smiled. It was uncommon for a victim to remember being attacked but when I did happen it always made his job easier. "Can you tell me who hit you?"
Booth sat back in thought for a minute. "My girlfriend" he answered. "She had just told me she was pregnant and I had asked her to marry me. She wouldn't though because she thought I was just asking because of the baby. After that she slapped me hard in the face. I can't remember past that point"
Michael sat back confusedly. Booth's recollection couldn't possibly explain the extensive amounts of injuries he had. "Can you tell me your girlfriend name and what year it is?" he asked, dreading the answer he felt was coming.
"Her names Rebecca and its 2002" answered Booth. He looked at the doctor, who smiled grimly. "What's wrong?" he asked.