Thank you for your reviews of the previous chapter. mphs95, 554Laura, Robinangelena (I miss them a lot too), JAG'ed Bones in the Casckett, LoveShipper, Bones2014, Vmf447, Annarita, Phyllis, Poppyblue5, jsboneslover (thankfully I haven't actually. My kids picked up unwanted words unfortunately from their friends though), mendenbar (what your hubby said is so hilarious, but probably true), doge.
It's been a long time since I updated this. Now that the very hectic Christmas challenge is over I'm glad to have a bit more breathing space to put up chapters at a less break-neck pace.
Daddy's Defender
"Thank you for coming in on such short notice Mr and Mrs Booth."
"Dr Brennan." Brennan instinctively replied.
"Yes. Dr Brennan." Principal Hartman replied politely.
"You said that Christine got into a fight today? Is she okay?" Booth asked, the concern in his voice evident.
"Yes she's well. She and the other student involved in the altercation had been checked by our school nurse. Christine will have a rather sore hand. Unfortunately, the other child has a nasty bruise on his cheek."
"His?" Booth, clearly proud did little to mask his amused chuckle.
"Booth." Brennan hissed angrily at her husband before addressing the school principal. "We have always taught Christine that hitting another person isn't right."
"Christine's teachers do agree it is rather unexpected for her to do so, she has always been a good student." The principal added.
"She's in Fifth Grade. Kids that age get into fights. I know I did." Booth shrugged.
"The circumstances of your upbringing are entirely different from Christine's." Brennan turned to her husband again, getting a tad irate at her husband's apparent lack of concern over the gravity of the matter.
"Oh and you've never been hauled up to the Principal's office?" Booth asked.
Brennan answered his question with a silent glare. "Right never mind, of course you've never. Forget I asked, Little-Miss-Perfect."
Principal Hartman cleared his throat. "If I could get both your attention please." He grew concerned over the couple's bickering in his office.
Brennan frowned at her husband before the couple returned their attention to the school principal.
"Christine has not been herself in the past week."
"She hasn't?" Brennan asked, now even more worried. "I certainly haven't noticed anything like that at home."
"She's been keeping to herself and her teacher, Ms Fields, has noticed that she doesn't seem as cheerful as she usually is."
"I've been working late in the lab for past week. We have a high profile case on hand." Brennan turned to Booth. "Did you notice anything?"
"Not really, I mean she's been spendin' a lot of time in her room but she does that sometimes. You know, when Hank starts annoying her."
"Children acting out in school is usually a symptom of underlying issues at home." Principal Hartman paused remembering the bickering between Christine's parents just moments ago. "If I may ask, how are things in your marriage?"
Booth's thoughts wandered back to much earlier that morning when he had been woken from sleep by his wife's sensual ministrations on his body. He grinned cockily. "Our marriage is just fine, thank you very much. We don't have any problems at all."
"It would be unrealistic to say that we have no problems at all but our marriage has always been strong. Our children know that." Brennan replied, providing a more accurate depiction of their life together.
"Ms Fields and I have been unable to get Christine to tell us why she struck the boy. I was hoping perhaps you could. If there is an issue, if he's bullying her, or the other way round, we'd like it to be addressed."
"Yes of course."
"Mr Booth, Dr Brennan, you must understand that regardless of the reason, Christine still hit another student. As such she would need to be punished."
"Yeah, we get that." Booth nodded. "Detention right?"
"Yes."
"That sounds reasonable," Brennan agreed. She leaned toward Booth whispering, "What exactly do students do at detention?"
Booth gave Brennan a rather incredulous look. "What you've never…" He seemed to remember that Principal Hartman was staring at them. "I'll explain later." He whispered back.
"So, we can take Christine home?" Booth asked.
"Yes."
"Right."
"If you could find out the reason why the fight started." Principal Hartman said as the couple stood, ready to leave the principal's office.
"Yes we would keep you apprised of the situation." Brennan replied.
The car ride home was silent and the couple waited until they got home before addressing their daughter.
Christine dropped her book bag on the island in the kitchen, sitting herself on the chair while Brennan went about slicing an apple for her. Wanting to address the situation before Hank got home from school she tried to obtain information from her sullen daughter.
"Would you like to tell us why you got into a fight Christine?" Brennan started.
Christine studied the counter top, keeping silent.
"Look if this kid's picking on you or somethin' you've gotta tell us okay?" Booth said as he retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge.
"He's not." Christine replied, still refusing to make eye contact with her parents.
"You sure about that?"
"Yes."
"Christine if you're not going to explain yourself, we can't help you." Brennan said as she pushed the apple slices towards her.
"Principal Hartman said I'm gonna get detention."
"Yeah." Booth said. "Whatever the reason, it's never right to solve problems with violence."
"But you shoot people, and you probably hit some of them too, right Daddy?"
Booth was taken aback by his daughter's answer. "Yeah but it's kinda my job. I mean, I don't go around shooting people for fun. I only do so if I really have no other choice, like if I need to protect myself or Mom, or Uncle Aubrey."
He decided to keep the fact that Brennan had struck a suspect years ago to himself.
"I didn't hit Dexter for fun."
"I didn't say that."
Christine stared at the apple slices. "Am I gonna get punished?"
"I think the punishment your school is meting out to you is sufficient." Brennan replied, a little angry at her daughter's lack of cooperation with them. "And unless you are willing to tell us your rationale for striking Dexter, I would like you to go to your room until a time I deem appropriate."
"Fine. I wasn't hungry anyway." Christine huffed as she jumped off the chair and hurried to her room.
That night after Hank had been put to bed, Booth and Brennan knocked on Christine's room door.
"Come in." Her small voice could be heard through the door.
Booth pushed open the door and sat down at the foot of Christine's bed. Brennan sat next to Christine perched on the edge of the bed.
Christine looked at her mother, but refused to make eye contact with her father.
Booth sighed. "Parker called."
"He said he wouldn't tell!" Christine protested.
"Yeah well this time he was right to tell us okay? Hey, look at me will ya?"
Christine finally looked her father in the eyes. "What your friend Dexter said, was kinda mean and but he wasn't wrong."
"Dexter said you're an ex-con. He said you shouldn't be Deputy Assistant Director at the FBI. He said you killed other FBI Agents. I didn't want to believe him. I said he was a liar because I know you would never do that. But he kept saying it was true." Tears started streaming down Christine's cheeks.
"I know I'm not supposed to use the internet without you or Mommy's supervision but I looked. You were in jail." She swiped at her tears. "I remember when I was little, before Hank. You went away for a long time. I wanted to talk to you but Mommy said you couldn't. I can't remember what Mommy told me about where you went, but the part about prison kinda sounds familiar. I remember worrying that you didn't come home because we moved and you didn't know where our house was. I also remember hearing Mommy cry at night."
Booth looked at Brennan who offered him an encouraging smile. He looked at his crying little girl and blinked back his own tears.
"So you punched Dexter cause you thought you were defending me?"
Christine nodded.
"Hey c'mere." Booth stretched out his arms and was relieved that Christine came willingly to him. He held her tightly to him.
"Your friend wasn't wrong. Your memories are correct. But I think your internet search wasn't that spot on."
"You went to prison didn't you?" Christine stared back at her father with large, disbelieving eyes. "I tried to remember but I thought it was just a bad dream I remembered. You couldn't have. You're FBI."
Booth sighed, nodding. Brennan spoke, re-telling the past to their daughter.
"Yes. Your father was incarcerated for approximately three months. And yes your father did have to kill Delta Force Agents. But if he didn't, they would have killed him and me. You would have been orphaned if not for his actions." Brennan paused, the thought of leaving her daughter an orphan sending a stab of pain through her heart.
Booth continued. "I was framed by some guy who didn't want to get caught for all the wrong things he had been doing. If you did a little more research, you would've found out that I was cleared of those charges and I got my job and my family back. So yeah, Dexter was right but he probably didn't know all the facts like you did."
"At the ages of ten and eleven, I doubt they would have the skills to do a thorough internet search. Though I suspect if we were there to supervise and guide you Christine, you would have found the truth yourself." Brennan added.
"I thought only bad people went to prison."
"Yeah I used to think that too. But you know what? After being there myself, I changed my mind. All I need you to know is that I was in jail but I was set up okay? I wasn't there because I did something wrong."
"I knew it. You're a good guy Daddy." Christine offered her father a small smile.
"You're right about that Pumpkin. Why did Dexter bring that up anyway?" Booth asked.
"He said he heard his Mom talking to his Dad."
On a hunch, Booth asked, "Do you know what Dexter's Mom does?" He wondered if she was a journalist or reporter fishing for a story.
Christine shrugged. "I don't know."
"What about his last name?"
"McCarthy."
Booth cast a meaningful glance at Brennan, who nodded her understanding.
"This is what I need you to do Christine," Brennan began, "like your father said this afternoon, you should never solve any of your problems with violence. You will go to detention as required of you, and tomorrow, you would go to school and apologise to Dexter."
"But he teased me and he said bad things about Daddy. Wasn't he wrong too?"
"Yes he was. But that is for your father and I to address with Principal Hartman and Dexter's parents."
"You gotta trust us on this one Pumpkin." Booth added.
"Okay."
"And I'm glad that when you thought you couldn't talk to your old Mom and Dad, you called your big brother."
"Why didn't he just tell me the truth. He knows what happened too right?"
"He figured we'd want to tell you ourselves, just like back when it happened. Your Mom called him to explain the situation to him."
Christine nodded, deep in thought.
"Now c'mon. Let's go to the kitchen for a snack huh? You must be starving."
Christine jumped out of bed, obviously hungry. She hugged her mother, then father, then headed for the kitchen.
Brennan waited for Christine to leave the room before turning to Booth. "McCarthy?"
"Yeah. The defence attorney we're going up against tomorrow morning. She probably knows Caroline's gonna put me on the stand. She's gonna try to discredit me."
"That's is highly unethical."
"Yeah well it won't be the first time a suspect's lawyer does something like that. At least I'm prepared right? I'll call Caroline later."
"And I will inform Principal Hartman on our findings as promised."
"You guys coming?" Christine called from the kitchen.
"Be right there!" Booth replied.
"I guess we should tell Hank too about this, in case history repeats itself.
"I figure we have a couple more years. I tell ya one thing Bones, given what we've been though, we've got a whole lot of stories to tell those two."
"I couldn't agree more Booth."
As always reviews are greatly appreciated.