I own none of the characters of Bones
Over the past three weeks Booth and Bones may have been living in the same house but they couldn't have been further away from each other. Booth continued to sleep in the guest room while Bones was in the master bedroom. After their first major blowout fight Booth came home from his breakfast with Parker and apologized through a closed door but she never responded.
After that first miserable week home and Booth was sure that Bones wouldn't hurt herself he attempted to go back to work. He made it a day and a half before Cullen put him on paid leave until further notice. He was worthless at work anyways; He couldn't concentrate on anything but his missing son and his extremely depressed girlfriend. He tried to do some investigating of his own but he was but he found that he no longer had all of the access that he used to have. Cullen saw to that. He knew that his agent wanted to be involved in the search for his son but Booth could actually slow the investigation rather then help it. He managed to stay at home for two days before going stir crazy. He started leaving during the day and driving through Washington D.C. trying to spot Julie and Chase. He drove down every street over and over again but he never saw them and he returned defeated every night but it never stopped him going back out the next day.
--
Booth pulled into the driveway on the third week anniversary of Chase's kidnapping. Not an anniversary that he every wanted to celebrate. The past three weeks have been the longest of his life. He shut off his SUV and walked into the cold empty house with a heavy heart. He immediately went to the master bedroom to check on Bones. He cracked the door and saw her in the same position she was in when he left her hours ago, laying on her back staring at the ceiling. As he did every night he walked over and kissed her head.
"Hey Bones, I'm home." She responded by rolling over. "Yell if you need anything." He knew she wouldn't but he always offered. He slowly walked back downstairs, grabbed a beer, went to the couch and turned on the TV but he didn't watch it. He just needed the sound to drown out the painful silence. He desperately wanted to reach out to Bones, to talk about this nightmare and help each other through this but she built her walls back up and this time they were made of brick and he didn't know if they would ever come back down.
He must have dozed off because he was suddenly awakened to the sound of Bones sobbing. This wasn't a new development. She cried every night. What was new was Booth deciding that he wasn't going to let her cry alone this time. Over the past weeks, whenever he heard her crying he went and tried to comfort her but she always tensed up pushed him away and he let her. Tonight he didn't care how many bruises he ended up with he was not going to let her push him away. Flipping the TV off he jogged up the stairs and found her in the nursery. She was sitting on the floor against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.
"Bones sweetheart." His heart broke again when he saw how broken she was. He sat down next to her and attempted to put his arm around her but she pulled away from him.
"Leave me alone." She sobbed.
"No Bones, I'm not going to leave you alone. Not anymore."
"I want to be alone. I've always been alone."
"You're not alone anymore Temperance. I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you." He reached for her again and she struggled against him. "Bones please, let me be here for you."
"You…can't. I don't deserve you. I don't deserve anything. I don't deserve Chase. That's why he was taken away. I'm a horrible mother."
"Bones you are not a horrible mother."
"Yes I am." She cried. "I let Julie take him. I should have protected him. What kind of mother would let her son be taken right out of her arms?"
"Julie is a very sneaky, calculating person. There was nothing you could have done. She would have gotten Chase one way or another."
"Quit patronizing me."
"Bones… I'm not."
"Yes you are. I know you hate me. I deserved to be hated. I hate myself."
"I don't hate you."
"Hate me." She screamed as she began to pound her fists on his chest. "Please hate me." He grabbed her wrists and pulled her to his chest. "Booth, please hate me." She sobbed into his chest. He held tightly on to her and ran his fingers through her hair for the next thirty minutes until her sobbing subsided.
"You okay sweetheart?" He whispered.
"Why don't you hate me?" She mumbled.
"Chase's kidnapping is not your fault Bones. I have no reason to hate you. You did nothing wrong."
"I…I didn't…protect him." She hiccupped.
"You did protect him. During all of those months that she held you captive you protected him. He is alive today because of you and what you did."
"And he is gone because of me."
"No Bones, he is gone because Julie took him not because of anything that you did or didn't do."
"I just miss him so damn much." Those simple words caused her sobbing to begin again and this time she was joined by Booth.
"I'm sorry Booth." She whispered an hour later. They had stopped crying and they were just sitting on the floor in silence, Booth still running his fingers through her hair.
"I told you that you have nothing to be sorry for."
"I do. I've said some rotten things and been positively hateful towards you."
"It's okay Bones."
"No it's not Booth. I blamed you for everything and you didn't deserve it. I know this wasn't your fault. I was…I still am so angry and I took it out on you."
"Temperance…"
"Please don't say that it's okay because it's not. I don't know if anything will ever be okay again."
"It will be."
"I should have expected this."
"Expected what?"
"Everyone I love leaves me. I'm still waiting for you to leave me. I knew that Chase would eventually leave me but I thought that I would have had more than two days with him. I thought that I would have been able to get to know him, to find out if he was going to be smart like me, handsome like you. I'll never know if he will have inherited your stupid charm smile. I'll never know what his first words, see his first steps, I'll never know my son." He lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes.
"Temperance Brennan listen to me. You will know Chase. You will find out that he is as smart as you and as good looking as I am. And just so you know every Booth boy has the charm smile so you will definitely see that smile on Chase's face. You will see his first steps and hear his first words, I promise you that Temperance and have I ever broken a promise to you?" She shook her head. "And I'll be damned if I'm going to start now." He bent forward and kissed her forehead. "One more thing Bones I'm never going to leave you. People that you love leaving you is part of your past, not your future. You have so many people in your life right now that love you sweetheart. The squints and Angela they love you and trust me when I say they will always be around. Parker loves you and he's not going anywhere and Bones I am here for as long as I live because I love you."
"Why? After everything that I said or did why do you still love me?"
"Because you're you and besides you weren't the only one that said horrible things. I did too and I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for everything that has happened Bones."
"You have nothing to be sorry for."
"Neither do you."
"I just want him home."
"We'll get him back."
"I hope so." He gently pressed his lips to hers in a sweet gentle kiss. When they broke apart he heard her stomach growl.
"Hungry Bones?" He said with a smile.
"Yeah. I don't think that I ate today."
"Bones, you really need to eat."
"I know." She said softly. "I've been too sad to think of anything besides Chase." He untangled himself and pulled her to her feet.
"Come on Bones. Let's eat." He let her downstairs and placed her at the table. He poured her a glass of orange juice and set it in front of her. "Drink up." He ordered. She automatically lifted the glass to her lips and took a sip. "Good girl." He popped some bread into the toaster and started scrambling some eggs for the two of them.
"Can I help?" Bones asked.
"No I got it under control." Ten minutes later he was placing a plate of eggs and toast in front of her. He refilled her juice and joined her.
"Booth this is delicious." She said. "I didn't realize how hungry I was."
"More?" She nodded and he scooped some more eggs on her plate.
"Where do you go every day when you leave?" She asked softly. "I know that you're not going to work."
"I drive all over town looking for Chase, hoping that I can maybe see Julie coming out of a grocery store, walking out of an apartment building, driving down the street, anything."
"Are you going back out tomorrow?"
"I'm going out everyday until he is home."
"I would like to go with you, if that's okay." She said softly. He reached across the table, took her hand, brought it to his lips, kissing it softly.
"That would definitely be okay."
"Thank you." She whispered, smiling through her tears.
--
"Seeley Booth." Julie jumped up and grabbed the carrier with the screaming baby. She ignored the grateful looks that the other patients in the waiting room shot the nurse. Seeley has been crying since they walked in the office. He actually had been crying since he woke up. Theses past three weeks all the baby did was sleep and scream and Julie finally gave up and decided to take him to the doctor. She couldn't handle it anymore. She was losing her mind.
"Let's check his weight." Julie took the baby and laid him on scale. "5lbs 11oz." The nurse said after a few minutes. Julie picked up the screaming baby and followed the nurse down the hall to the room.
"So what brings little Seeley in today?"
"He won't stop this screaming." She snapped. "That's all he does is scream. I'm losing my damned mind. I've had no sleep and I'm exhausted. I just want some damn peace and quiet." The nurse looked up in surprise at Julie's tone of voice and lack of concern for her child. Most new mothers first concern would be for their newborn child, not their lack of sleep.
"How old is your son?"
"Look at the damn chart. He is a month old."
"Umm okay." The nurse was shocked by this woman's attitude. "The doctor will be in shortly."
"Would you please shut up?" She walked around the room bouncing the screaming child in her arms.
"Hello you must be Allison, I'm Dr. Kane."
"Hi."
"And this must be Seeley." She held out her arms. "May I?" Julie shoved the baby into the doctor's arms and he quickly stopped crying. "Hello there Seeley." Dr. Kane crooned to the baby. "Seeley is an interesting name. How did you come up with it?"
"He's named after his father."
"Is his father involved?"
"Not right now but he will be very soon."
"So you told my nurse that Seeley has been crying a lot?" Dr. Kane placed the baby on the table and began her exam.
"No not a lot. He cries all the damn time."
"Is he eating?"
"Barely because he is too busy screaming his head off."
"I physically I see nothing wrong with him. I am concerned about his weight. He is in the tenth percentile for his weight. What was his birth weight?"
"I…I…uh…I don't remember."
"You don't remember?"
"I was on a lot of drugs for the pain, okay?"
"First thing I'm going to recommend is that you change his formula." She wrote down the name of a formula and handed it to Julie.
"So if he is fine then why the hell is he crying all of time?"
"Do me a favor and pick up your son." Julie sent the doctor a weird look but did as she asked. The doctor observed how she handled the baby.
"Allison I'm going to be honest with you. I don't see a mother's touch. You are very tense and Seeley can sense that and that's probably why he is crying all of the time. You look very uncomfortable holding him and he knows it. Have you considered parenting classes?"
"Are you saying that I'm not a good mother?" She roughly placed the baby back into the carrier.
"Not at all. New single mothers sometimes have trouble adjusting to motherhood. The parenting classes may help you to be able to adjust."
"I don't need a damn class to tell me how to be a mother to my child." She grabbed the carrier and walked out of the room.
"Okay she was an odd ball." The nurse said as soon as the door slammed.
"I'll be in my office." Dr. Kane said. Her nurse was right. There was something off with that mother and she was concerned for the child. The name Seeley Booth sounded vaguely familiar but she wasn't sure why. She logged on to her computer and did a search of local hospitals using the name Seeley Booth. She was looking for the birth record but she found so much more. The hospital records had lots of entries for Seeley Booth but all of the records were for an adult, not a child. As she skimmed through the records she was amazed at all of the injuries that this man had sustained; concussions, broken bones, injured ribs and gunshot wounds. From what she could see she was surprised that he was still alive. As she logged out of the hospital's mainframe and located her favorite search engine she thought that maybe Allison had somehow come in contact with the adult Seeley Booth and decided to name her son after him. She was shocked when her search engine came back with thousands of hits on Seeley Booth. The first article caught her eye. When she clicked on it her eyes widened in shock as she read the article about the kidnapping of best selling author Dr. Temperance Brennan's newborn son from the hospital. The baby's father was Seeley Booth.
"Oh my God." She whispered as she dialed the number at the end of the article. After multiple transfers she was finally connected with the lead investigator on the case.
"Sam Cullen."
"Mr. Cullen. My name is Dr. Eliza Kane and I think that I just treated the kidnapped child of Dr. Brennan and Seeley Booth.
--
Julie was pacing around her living room. She was furious that stupid doctor had the nerve to tell her that she was bad mother. It wasn't her fault that Seeley had inherited his mother's bitchy tendencies.
"Would you please shut up?" She screamed into the living room towards the nursery. That brat hasn't stopped screaming since they left the office. She tried to feed him but he fought her so she gave up. She tried to walk with through the apartment but it didn't work so she finally gave up and put him in his crib where he continued to scream. She couldn't take much more of this. She picked up one of her many pictures of her one true love and ran her fingers over his face.
"Oh Seeley, your son is being such a brat. He just keeps screaming all of the time. I'm trying to be a good mom but it's so hard when all he does is act like his selfish bitchy biological mother. If you were here with me and we were raising our son together things would be better. Every boy needs his father but as long as she is around that can't happen. I can't expose him to her. She is a bad influence." A sudden knock at the door caused her to jump. She placed the picture back on the table and went to answer the door. She opened it a crack.
"Can I help you?"
"I am Mike Clark from the department of child and family services."
"What do you want?" Julie snapped.
"We have had several complaints regarding a screaming child."
"He's a newborn. Newborns cry."
"Ma'am I can hear him screaming all the way out here. The complaints also cited a concern that you have been screaming at him also."
"I may have been frustrated at times."
"We have a concern for the safety of the infant so we have an order of protection."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that we are taking custody of the child until we can evaluate your parenting skills."
"You can't take my son." She yelled.
"Yes we can. We have a court order. " Julie weighed her options. She knew that if she tried to fight this she could easily be arrested, especially since there were two police officers standing at her door. She couldn't risk being arrested and losing Seeley forever. If she was in prison then he would be free to live his life with her and she couldn't have that.
"He's in the nursery. Just follow the screams." She moved off to the side and they entered her apartment. Most parents that the social worker had encountered are either hysterically upset, begging him not to take their children or they would become very angry. This woman did neither. She just stood off to the side watching them take her son. He handed her a business card.
"This is my number. Call me in the morning and we will schedule your first evaluation." She nodded. "Do you have any special instructions regarding your child?" She shook her head. "What is your son's name?" She was going to tell him that the baby's name was Seeley but that may raise suspicion.
"His name is Patrick." Another name wouldn't hurt anything.
"Would you like to say goodbye?"
"No, I'm fine. Just take him." Mike nodded at his partner and they slowly left.
Once she was alone she relished in the silence. It had been so long since she had a good night sleep. She turned on the TV and enjoyed being alone. As she sat there she thought about how long these past four weeks have been she considered that maybe she had jumped the gun by taking the little brat. Maybe this was the best thing for everyone. She wouldn't have to deal with the screaming brat anymore, someone else could deal with him but most importantly that stupid man stealing bitch wouldn't have the joy of raising Seeley's child. Having made her decision she headed off to bed for the first good night sleep in over a month. Before she turned off the light she picked up the picture next to her bed.
"I'm sorry that I gave away our son. I just couldn't do it alone. Maybe when you see the light and realize that I am who you are meant to be with we can get him back. I love you Seeley Booth and I will never give up on us."
--
Booth slowly hung up his phone. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. He ran upstairs to find Bones. He burst into the bathroom where she was showering.
"Bones." He yelled and he heard her yelp.
"Booth." She shrieked as he whipped the shower curtain open.
"We have to go to The Hoover." His eyes were shinning with tears. "We have a lead."
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