Chapter Fourteen: I am not weak

5:39 AM-

It was early, and Temperance climbed the steps of her father's apartment slowly. The heavy weight of her sleeping daughter weighed down on her. She reached the top step and raised her hand to knock, rapping at the door, it took only two knocks before Max opened the door. "Hey, Dad." Temperance said as she started to step into the apartment, nearly knocking over her father as he reached for the little girl. "Thanks for taking her so early…" She whispered.

"It's no problem… it's no problem… I'm glad you changed your mind." He said as he tried to lift her from Temperance's arms, though she turned with the little girl and headed directly toward the spare bedroom. "Tempe, I can take her…"

"No, I can put her in the bed." Temperance said as she walked toward the room, glancing into the living room as Max followed her almost anxiously. "Dad, I can do it…" She said, opening the door quickly, she stepped inside and flipped the light switch on. She looked to bed, noting that the sheets were disheveled, the bed not made. "Who was sleeping in her bed?" Temperance asked as she carefully lay the little girl down on the sheets and turned to her father in the doorway.

Max chuckled nervously. "What is this? The three bears?" He said as he watched the irritated glare on his daughter's face. "I didn't get a chance to make the bed from the last time she was here." He said quickly as Temperance nodded and tucked her daughter in, kissing her softly, she reached down for the little girl's bag. Slowly, she pulled the stuffed elephant from within it, and tucked it in the little girl's arms. She paused for a moment, her brow furrowing as she moved closer to her daughter. She breathed in slowly and swallowed hard. "What is it, Tempe? Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She mumbled as she stood up. "Yeah, I'm… I'm fine." She said as she leaned down and kissed her daughter's cheek. She turned and looked at her father and sucked in a deep breath. "Thank you for watching her today." She said softly. "I just… I feel a little better knowing she's with family." She said as she walked past Max and into the living room. She glanced to the coffee table, and furrowed her brow, she said nothing as she stepped toward the door. "I'm meeting Agent Harding at the Jeffersonian." She sighed. "We are doing some… interrogations this morning." She nodded, watching Max for a moment, she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "Thank you for watching her today, Dad. I will call and check on her in the afternoon." She whispered, nodded, and walked briskly toward the door, she turned and gave her father a weak smile, waved, and walked out into the hallway, closing the door quickly behind her.
----------------_____________--------

"What do you think?" Agent Harding asked, his eyes trained forward as his expression hardened.

Temperance shrugged as she peered into the interrogation room, "He doesn't look like a murderer to me."

"And what gives you that impression?" Harding turned to look at her, his brow softening and his lips turning upward into a half smile. "Is there some anthropological angle to his face that says otherwise?"

"No," Temperance replied, fighting a smile of her own. "It's just a feeling."

Harding lifted his eyebrows. "I thought you relied on facts rather than feelings, Doc."

With a sigh, Temperance rolled her eyes. "Let's just get this over with."

"After you," Harding said, motioning for her to exit the observation room before him.

Entering the hallway, Temperance waited for Harding to step in stride beside her. "You can go in first," she stated, stopping next to the door that led inside the interrogation room. Harding paused, his eyes scanning hers. There was something about the look on her face that alarmed him, but she averted her eyes away as the moment lingered. He brushed it off and stepped inside the room, Temperance following right behind him.

Temperance shivered. She looked down to see goosebumps racing across her flesh and it suddenly dawned on her that she was soaking wet. Her clothes, now dripping with water, clung to her like a second skin. She turned her head to the right and caught the reflection of herself in the two-way mirror. Her wet hair was matted against her forehead, drops of water falling from the ends and dripping onto her soaked shoulder. She shivered again, only this time it was for a different reason.

How did she end up here? she wondered. This was a room she had been in numerous times; too many to actually count. So while it should have brought her at least a familiar comfort, today it only confused her. She was seated at the wrong side of the table. this wasn't right. None of it was right.

The clicking of the door echoed into the quiet room, and Temperance looked up and into the eyes of a familiar face. She didn't speak to him. She only waited silently as he took the seat across from her. With a furrowed brow, his eyes scanned her appearance and he noticed her shivering. He cleared his throat.

"We'll get you some warm, dry towels," he said with one quick nod towards the mirror. He turned back to face her. "Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, perhaps?"

"No," She replied softly.

The door opened and an agent she'd never seen before stepped inside with two towels and a wool blanket. He placed them on the table before her and left the room as quietly as he had entered.

"Would you like to change your clothes before we get started?"

"No. This will be fine," Temperance stated, picking up one of the towels as she started to dry her hair.

"Dr. Brennan," he began, "I know this is difficult, but I need to ask you a few questions about... what happened. Can you remember the last thing Agent Booth said to you? Did he seem... different... before he boarded his plane?"

Temperance's gaze shifted. She sat still, focusing her eyes toward the bottom right corner of the room. She could see the airport in her mind, the edges fuzzy at best. And then she saw his face. Warm, chocolate brown eyes staring back at her, his mouth turned upward in a charming smile. His lips began to move, but she heard no sound. His face was the only clear thing she could see. And then she heard to explosion again.

"Dr. Brennan?" The Agent spoke louder, causing her to jump in her chair. She focused her eyes on him again, but there was still a far-away look in them. The agent cleared his throat. "Did he say anything to you, Dr. Brennan?"

Temperance shook her head slightly, "No, not anything of importance, I don't think. Just that... he was nervous about flying."

"Nervous about flying?" He questioned. "Seeley Booth has flown numerous times, Dr. Brennan. Why would he suddenly be nervous?"

"The weather. He said it was the storm that made him nervous," she said to him, Booth's words now playing again in her mind as her eyes focused on the corner of the room again. Flashes of the flaming debris laid out on the runway now replaced Booth's face in her mind. She could see herself in the reflection of the window as she watched helplessly, her wide eyes and her opened mouth staring back at her in shock and horror.

"And you believed him?"

"What?" She asked, shaking her mind free of the violent scenes.

"Agent Booth told you he was afraid to fly because of the weather... and you believed him?"

Temperance straightened herself in the chair. "Why would Booth lie about that?" She asked defensively.

The agent ignored her question, moving forward with more questions of his own. "Did Agent Booth ever act suspiciously, Dr. Brennan? Did you ever feel as though he may be hiding something from you?"

Brennan pressed her lips together in a thin line, anger beginning to sprout from within. "He... he wouldn't tell me where he was going. He said his mission was confidential, but there have been several times since I was partnered with Booth that the FBI has sent him on other missions that he could not discuss with me. Booth is...," she paused, her heart sinking as she fought for control of the tears that were now gathering in her eyes. "Booth was...," she corrected herself, "a man of great professionalism, and I respected that."

"So, he was hiding something from you."

"You're misconstruing my words!" Temperance spoke angrily. "If Booth were hiding something from me, I'm sure it was for a very good reason, and in the best interest of his status as a very capable special agent. Isn't is your job as his superior to know about his missions? Why are you asking me what he was hiding? Shouldn't you already know the answer to your own questions?"

"You and Special Agent Booth were extremely close, were you not?" he asked her, pressing on still. "Did Agent Booth ever confide in you, Dr. Brennan? With personal matters, I mean?" The agent asked, folding his arms atop the table. "Is it possible, Dr. Brennan, that Booth shared with you some extremely confidential matters related to his mission, matters that you are now trying to deny knowledge of?"

Temperance's jaw tightened. A swell of so many mixed emotions rose within her chest until she ached with the force of it all. "Why are you asking me this? Booth was my partner. And he was an extremely decent man. What you... what you are suggesting is extremely inappropriate. And if you don't mind, I'd like to go home and get cleaned up now. I have a funeral to prepare for."

Harding was about to ask another question to the janitor from the girl's school, when suddenly, Temperance kicked her chair back and stood up. He looked up at the woman and noticed her face had gone pale and her eyes had darkened remarkably. "I don't think we have any more questions for him, Agent Harding." She said sternly, her eyes pleading silently for a moment alone as she watched the agent open his mouth to reply. "It is obvious that he doesn't know anything, Agent Harding. He's a hard working man with a job that provides him with the money he needs to survive. He's not a murderer, Agent Harding."

"Doc, I don't think…"

"Stop calling me Doc…" She grunted angrily. "We're done here with Mr. Lambert. He's answered your questions. We need to let him go, he didn't do this."

Harding stood up beside her and reached for her arm. She allowed him to turn her slightly, but wrenched her harm from his grip as he moved them toward the corner. "Doc, you can't just dismiss the possibility without a full line of questioning."

"You questioned him, he said he didn't do it."

"He could be lying."

"But he's not. Leave the man alone… his wife died almost a week ago, the man is grieving… he wasn't even at work on the day that the kidnapping occurred."

"He has no alibi."

"He was at the hospital with his wife, Harding." She insisted.

"Yes, but we have to make sure…"

"Make sure of nothing! The man didn't do it! So get your head out of the sand and just see things as they are, not how you wish they could be! It's the same story with all of you FBI agents. You all let your bravado and your egomaniacal attitudes lead the way. It's not always in the first place you look. Just tell him he can go, Harding. Tell him that he can go…" She looked at him as he stared into her eyes. He waited for a moment, his eyes moving to the pleading eyes of the man sitting at the table, and back to Temperance. "Let the man grieve in peace." She said as her eyes began to fill with tears and she turned, storming angrily from the room as quickly as she could.

Harding stepped out of the interrogation room quickly, his eyes roaming the hallway for Temperance, looking back and forth, he made his way quickly toward the elevator, figuring that she had made for the exit as soon as she could. He paused for a moment and turned sharply, heading toward the stairs, he swung open the door, and nearly found himself slamming Temperance in the back with the door. She sat on the top step, her body folded over her knees as she sat, not crying, but on the verge of crying, staring at the steps.

"Doc?" He asked, stepping onto the first step, he sat beside her on the step. She continued to stare at the step, her eyes focused on the rubber topped runner that ran across the concrete step, her eyes running circles around the material as she tried desperately to block out all outside noise and contact. "Doc, come on… you have to talk to me."

"I don't have to talk to you." She said, looking up at him suddenly, her blue eyes freezing him in place, the coldness within them was foreign for him, but a familiar feeling deep in her chest, she was used to the cold, she was used to the distance.

"Then who are you going to talk to?" He asked, his voice serious and stern, her cold stare never wavering. "Tell me what you saw in there." He whispered. "Please."

"I didn't see anything." She replied. "I didn't… hear anything, I didn't… feel… anything."

"Then why did you leave?"

"Mind your own business."

"This is my business, Temperance." He said, her first name foreign on his lips, but her attention was suddenly on him, and the ice in her stare was beginning to melt. "This is our investigation… we're a team… and when one of us is too upset to sit through the interrogation, it affects the way we do our business."

"Just… go finish the interrogation, forget about me. I'll just… you can have my grad students help you… I can't… focus. I can't seem to focus."

"We have a few more questions for him, nothing too invasive, then we have to interview the father of the boy... and I'm not going to finish this without you." He replied, settling in on the step as he watched her red rimmed eyes staring at him for a moment.

"Christopher, you have to finish the interrogations without me, I'm not going in there."

"Yeah you will…"

"Please don't be stubborn about this." She replied. "I can't do this."

"Doctor Brennan… there are a lot of things that you do understand, and one of them is the history and patterns of human nature, why people do the things they do. You may understand more about a person simply by looking at them, by the shape of their jaw, the way they walk, the way in which they speak. And, you may understand a hell of a lot more than me about the skeletal system and the marks that life gives each body… You're an investigator in practice, and in your heart, Doc… and despite what you think you can't do, I know you can do this."

"I don't… understand human nature."

"You say you don't, but your actions and reactions to the suspects are spot on. We're getting somewhere, Doc. We're getting somewhere."

"Christopher." She said softly, her eyes burning into his for a moment as he watched her swallow hard. "I don't honestly think that he did it." She whispered, her eyes flashing to the door behind them. "There was no motive, and as creepy as that janitor is… he's harmless."

"He did give off kind of a creepy vibe, didn't he?"

"I don't know what that means." She replied, her expression blank before she glanced to the door and back again. "I think we're at a dead end." She replied.

"I think that we need to look at the evidence a little more closely… then we'll find what we're looking for." He said softly as he gave her a slight nudge.

"We need to find that third body." She said insistently, as Harding nodded his head.

"That's right." He said with a smile. "Let's finish this interrogation up, and I'll get on the case of the recovery team and step them up a little."

"I'll go back to the lab… see if I can find anything in the evidence we already have… maybe there's something we missed in the cars." She paused and looked over at Harding for a moment. "I'm not weak."

"I never said you were." He replied. "Now let's get into that room before they decide to give it to someone else." He said with a smile as he stood up and held his hand out for Temperance.

"I thought I was going back to the lab…"

"After we finish this interrogation. You're not a quitter, Doc."

She reached her hand up and allowed him to help her from the step, she brushed herself off and straightened herself, looking to Harding for a moment and attempted a smile. He gave her a charming smile back as he stepped up and opened the door, allowing her to walk through the doorway and down the hallway, confidently, and without faltering.