(Season 12)
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I don't own Bones.
Oooooooooooooooooo
Christmas was done and the end of the year was approaching. Each year, Brennan had a meeting with her lawyer and they went over her various charities, scholarships, her will and investments. Most of the time, she made minor changes like increased funding for the two scholarships she had set up for foster kids continuing their education in forensic anthropology since education was getting more and more expensive. This year, she wanted to arrange the cancellation of medical debt for someone and she wanted it done anonymously.
"I would like to finish paying off the medical debts for Lawrence and Mary Clayton." Brennan handed two sheets of paper detailing what she wanted to her lawyer Clarence White. "Mary had breast cancer and her insurance didn't cover very much or at least not enough. She had to quit her job because the chemo made her sick so she lost her insurance at the time. Apparently, she was so sick her husband had to quit his job to take care of her. They don't have any family to fall back on. As you know, Medicaid doesn't cover enough. She has a new job now that she is cancer free, but she and her husband have had to pay their debts without help from insurance companies for a while. I hired someone to check into it and I find it amazing that they haven't filed for bankruptcy."
Taking the papers, Clarence read them and shook his head in disgust. The original debt had been for $150,000. Her insurance had been terrible with co-payments and huge deductibles. She had ended up with a bill for $82,079.35 and that wasn't easy to pay when you're unemployed. Apparently, they had lived off their savings while Mary was sick and now that Mary is cured, Lawrence found a job and is working as a teacher and Mary is working as a teacher's aide. "I can see they made arrangements with the hospital to make monthly payments, but this is still quite a debt. Can you imagine the hospital making sure they had to charge them down to 35 cents? God forbid they round the bill down." He muttered under his breath a few curse words and sighed. "Okay."
"Yes . . . My husband met Lawrence before Christmas." Brennan didn't want to get into how they knew Lawrence and why she and Booth wanted to help Lawrence and Mary. "He heard about Mary's breast cancer and told me about it. I would like to remove their financial burden and I don't want them to know who did it."
"Alright." Clarence usually didn't question why his client wanted to do things. She was a private person and didn't like to explain her actions to him. "I will contact the hospital tomorrow and make arrangements to clear their bill. Once that is done, I will have the hospital contact Mary and tell her her debt is paid. You're going to make her and her husband very happy Temperance."
She knew that Clarence was probably right, but she was doing it for Booth. Booth had grown attached to Lawrence because he reminded him of Hank Booth. She had seen Lawrence and the man really did look like a younger version of Booth's grandfather. Her husband had felt sad that he couldn't help Lawrence and Mary financially, but he had not asked her to help them. Booth never asked her to use her money for anything. He considered her money hers and not theirs. It was annoying sometimes, but they did have a mutual bank account and if he wanted to use it, he could. He rarely did. "Yes, I imagine it will." That taken care of, Brennan finished up her meeting and returned to work. She was working on an interesting case and the bones of the victim should be cleaned and ready for her when she got back to the Lab.
Oooooooooooooooo
Two days after New Year's Day, Mary was going through their mail when she found a letter from the hospital. "Got one from the Hospital, Larry. They're probably going to complain that we're not paying the bill off faster. We pay them what they agreed to, the greedy so and so." Bracing herself, she opened the letter, read it once, read it again and started to cry.
Alarmed, Larry put down the newspaper he had been reading and hurried over to the dining room table. Squatting down next to his wife, he placed his arm around her shoulders. "Mary what's wrong? Are they . . . are they making threats? What's wrong?"
Trembling, Mary handed the letter to her husband. "It's a miracle, Larry. I can't believe it, but it's paid in full. Someone paid our bill off."
Shocked, Larry took the letter, stood up and read the letter. Unable to believe what he had read, he read it again and just to make sure, read it once more. "Someone paid off our bill. It was done anonymously . . . I . . . I don't know what to say . . . someone paid off our bill." Tears flowing down his cheeks, Larry wiped the back of his hand across his face and stared at his wife with amazement. "I can't believe this. First, that Seeley fella gave us new coats and then we got presents from someone we don't know and now our bill is paid . . . off. Mary . . . I think that Seeley fella has been looking out for us. Who else could it be? For some reason, he's taking care of us."
The shock over, Mary mopped her face with a tissue and blew her nose. "I think you must be right, Larry. It makes sense. You said that he told you that you look like his grandfather and his kids were so happy to see you . . . maybe he's doing this because he can't do anything for his grandfather but he can do something for you . . . It makes sense. It's the only thing that makes sense . . . we should find him and thank him."
"No, Mary. He's being doing these things anonymously. He doesn't want us to know he's been doing this." Lawrence sighed. "He must have loved his grandfather so much, Mary. He must miss him to be doing this stuff for us . . . Bless him. We're going to have to add him to our prayers. We need to add him and his family to our prayers, Mary. We have to let God know that there is such a good man down here and he needs to watch out for him and his family."
"We will, Larry, but I'm sure God already knows that." Mary smiled. "I wish I could tell him thank you, but maybe we can save some money and pay it forward to someone else."
Pulling her into his arms, Larry hugged her. "Brilliant, Mary. You're brilliant. That is exactly what we're going to do. Most of our burdens are gone and you're healthy again and we're both working. I'm going to catch up with some repairs that I've been putting off around the house and once that's done, we're going to start a Good Samaritan savings account and when we have enough money saved up, we're going to find someone that needs help. We're going to see if we can lessen someone else's burden."
Ooooooooooooooooo
Booth found Brennan at home, making dinner while their children were playing in the living room. Once hugs and kisses were given to his children, Booth moved into the kitchen and hugged and kissed his wife. "Hey, I was supposed to cook dinner tonight, but thanks for doing it for me. I've had a long day and . . . well, thanks."
"You're welcome." Brennan patted Booth on his hip and returned to stirring her vegetable stir fry. "This way we can have a vegetarian meal tonight. You and the children have eaten too many fattening foods these past two weeks. I'm sure you all have exceeded your calorie count. It's time we started to eat sensibly again."
Amused, Booth nodded his head and smiled. "Aha . . . okay, yeah, I think we have overdone it this year. An extra vegetarian night won't kill us."
"That's the spirit, Booth." She knew Booth loved meat and she was grateful he agreed to two vegetarian meals a week. This third one was a surprise, but she knew he would go along with it because he was fair. The one cooking controlled the menu. They had agreed to that when they moved in together so long ago. "I want you to live a long time and if I can get an extra vegetarian meal in once in a while, I think that may help you in the long run."
"Thanks Bones." Booth walked over to the fridge and retrieved a beer. "Thanks for looking out for me. Thanks for looking out for all us."
"Of course and you're welcome."
Oooooooooooooooo
This was a bonus chapter. I hoped you liked it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.