Chapter Seven

"You know if I didn't know any better I would think you're avoiding me." Booth said walking into the Mitchell's backyard, smirking as the brunette peaked over the book she was reading from as she layed in a hammock. Nudging her in the hammock to scoot over, he laid opposite of her and poked her shoulder with his shoe.

"I'm not avoiding you and stop touching me with your feet." She grimaced, making him laugh. "I don't see how I am avoiding you when you know where I live and I see you everyday." Tem added and he hummed in response.

"Correction, you see me everyday and immediately either run inside or duck behind a tree." He noticed her cheeks turn crimson at his words and smirked again. "So once again, Temperance, you have been avoiding me and you know what? It hurts, so hurtful." Booth teased.

She finally put the book she was clearly hiding her face behind down and sighed. Raising his eyebrows at her he waited patiently for her to speak. "I apologize, it appears that way but I wasn't avoiding you.. I've been… busy." She hesitated and he nodded pretending not to notice it. "Brad and Lisa have been telling me about their extended family that they want me to meet and I am finally not messing up every order at the coffee shop. It's nothing personal, I just haven't had a lot of time."

He knew he should believe her, and he honestly was doing his best to do so. However, something had been off about her since they had all gone to the mall and even though she had tried to hide it the rest of that day, Booth knew she didn't have nearly as good of a time after lunch as she had before. That had been almost two weeks ago now and he felt bad that they hadn't hung out since then. He started football camp at the university and it had taken place of their daily runs, plus Pops was helping him restore a car and it was really turning into a busy summer.

"I understand, things have been crazy for me too. I've been up at the butt crack of dawn everyday and over at the football stadium and it has me wiped out. Pops is out for the evening and Jared is with friends so I'm bored by myself. Do you want to head to town with me? Maybe get some dinner?" He put on his best smile knowing he could win her over.

"Don't use your charm smile on me." She warned as she sat up in the hammock and sighed and looked at the house. "I suppose that would be okay. Brad is in DC and Lisa is working so I happen to be free this evening."

"It's a mark of respect." He winked as he carefully got up not wanting to tip her in the hammock and piss her off. Well he thought about it for a laugh but knew that she would probably never speak to him and then he would be without a dinner partner. "I'm going to go change, meet me on my porch in like ten okay?" Booth grinned, probably too excited to be going to dinner with her but he somehow couldn't help it.

Booth was right, he knew he was right, she was not going to tell him he was right but… he was definitely right. It was with her best efforts that she had been not only avoiding him but Megan the last couple of weeks. Her only problem was it was easy to avoid Booth because while they were neighbors there wasn't anywhere that they would run into each other. Her best friend however, it was nearly impossible considering they worked together.

Working at the coffee shop was one of the best things to happen to her though, she thought she was making decent money with tips and it allowed her to put away every penny she could for her future. It also allowed her to have something to focus on, she didn't have to worry about her thoughts overpowering her while making drinks and serving pastries. Her foster parents were great about her having a job as well, they thought it was allowing her to find herself in her new community and feel more independent.

It was when she wasn't working that was a problem. She typically hung out at home with a book or doing research at the library. When Brad and Lisa were home and free from work they loved board games and she often found herself learning yet another new game she had previously never known existed. The rest of the time though she was trying to find a way not to have thoughts, not to think about her parents who disappeared or her brother who abandoned her. She tried to not think about the sick feeling she constantly had when she was alone and afraid for her future or that her past may somehow find her. She was so happy to have been placed with the Mitchells, yet she was always terrified of being moved yet again.

So she did the only thing she knew how to do, she avoided what made her happy and tried to focus on what she knew she could control. Herself and her knowledge. Temperance knew she could bury herself in books and learn up on everything that interested her and never get hurt. It was working for her so far, she would work, come home and make herself busy and then go to bed to do it over again. That was until a certain teenaged "puppy eyed boy" - a term she still didn't understand but she was still learning according to Megan - decided to interrupt her reading time.

"You're such an idiot." She whispered to herself as she changed from the relaxed clothing she had been into a pair of jeans and a tank top. It was when she found herself fixing her hair that she really rolled her eyes. "He's just being neighborly, stop overthinking it." Brennan scolded herself before leaving the house.

He was sitting on his front porch when she stepped onto it and laughed at how silly he looked slumped over a chair sideways. "Didn't Hank tell you to stop sitting like that?" Hank Booth was a wonderful human, at least she thought so at least. He was so kind and gentle and she could tell that he loved his grandsons more than anything. "I'm fairly certain that was the conversation I witnessed."

"It's not fair that he likes you more than me." Booth murmured as he sat up. While she knew it wasn't actually true, the older man had said those exact words a time or two when his grandsons were getting on his nerves. "Seeley, Tempe has read three books this week alone! Seeley don't break my chairs, Tempe always sits in that one." Booth said in a voice she presumed was meant to be mocking his grandfather. She laughed at his tone and headed towards the road when he stopped her.

"Wait, I want to show you my car first." She had seen the two Booth men working on the car the last week or so and figured it was something for Booth. "Pops bought it to restore and then when it's ready it'll be mine." He beamed and she couldn't help but smile brightly with him. They walked around it and he pointed out everything and anything he could and she nodded and commented pretending to understand what he was saying about the vehicle. "Soon I'll drive you to dinner instead of walking when Pops isn't home."

"I can't wait to see it complete, I imagine fixing it yourself would be very stimulating." A memory of her own father and brother working on the family car popped into her mind and she quickly dismissed it as they walked up the street to the main road in the small town. "So are we doing pizza or chinese tonight?" As much as she had been wanting to avoid all social interaction with her friends, Tem had to admit being around Booth again did feel good. It reminded her that she was capable of having a 'normal' life no matter how hard it seemed sometimes.

"Hmm, pizza. I think, what do you want?" He asked and she shrugged, not really caring too much what they ate. "Oh come on don't do that, last time you refused to choose you ended up hating what we got." He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder and shook her slightly as they walked making her sway. "That smart brain of yours has to know what it wants to eat."

Rolling her eyes she shook her head. "Pizza sounds good to me, promise. Can we stop by the coffee shop afterwards? Meg is working tonight and I'd like to stop in and see her." She knew she hadn't been making an effort outside of work to see their friend and was starting to feel bad for her efforts to avoid the two of them.

"Yeah, that'd be great. She told me about a new cupcake that was being added to the menu, so we can try it."

They followed through with their plan and joked around during dinner and settled into a booth at the shop watching as their friend hopped around from table to table. "I always feel bad when I'm in here and it's busy, I feel like I should help out."

She didn't work nearly as many hours as Megan did thanks to her foster parents who didn't want her to work her life away, even though she would happily do so if the opportunity arose. Megan didn't have the same luxury though, she picked up more hours than any teenager should work in preparation of having to cut back during the school year. Her friend's hard life at home was another reason she still hadn't told her that her parents weren't actually her parents.

"It looks like it's about to die down." Booth said as he swirled his hot chocolate around in the mug. "You worry about her too much, you're a good friend." She smiled though she didn't feel like one most of the time.

Their visit to the shop was shorter than usual but Booth made sure to joke around with both girls knowing that each of them was struggling in their own way. He often thought he should feel weird having girls as his close friends instead of any of the guys he hung out with, but there was something easy about being around both Tem and Meg. Like he didn't have to try extra hard to be a likeable jock.

He walked her to her front door like the gentleman his Pops was raising him to be before heading to his own home.

"Have a nice date?" Was the first thing he heard as he walked through the door. Hank Booth, the very reason he was alive and doing well, was sitting in his rocking chair smirking as Jared giggled on the couch.

"Shut up dweeb." He mumbled, throwing a pillow at his brother. "It wasn't a date, Pops. Tem and I go out all the time, we're friends. Besides, I have a girlfriend, remember?" Granted he hadn't seen said girlfriend since the end of school where she immediately went up to the Hamptons for the summer but they had talked once, no twice, yeah twice.

There was nothing wrong with that, right?

poll question! this story is very early in development and will obviously be following a couple years time while bones and booth are in high school. if i were to start the companion piece that takes place at their first case, would anyone want to go ahead and start reading that or should i wait a bit?