Pieces—Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Still don't own them and I'm relatively sure that I never will.

Author's note: I think I recall in one episode that Brennan's grandfather took her out of the foster care system, but I could be wrong. I have included that information in this chapter of the story so if I am wrong, I apologize for the error. Thanks for reading and reviewing. Enjoy.

I'm all alone now/

No love to shield me/

Trapped in a world that's a distorted reality—Reflections, Diana Ross

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Brennan stepped into her office, noticing the pile of paperwork and folders strewn across her desk. She sighed; dismayed that she had allowed her work area, her sanctuary, to become so cluttered and messy. She moved quickly, shuffling the papers into a nice tidy pile, arranging them in order of importance. As she began filing the folders in the same manner, Brennan's hands stopped moving, hovering above one file in particular. Ruth Keenan a.k.a Christine Brennan.

Feeling her knees buckle, Brennan quickly sat down behind her desk. Her team had apparently decided to use her mother's real name instead of the alias that Brennan was so familiar with. She slowly opened the file and studied the 3D image that Angela had created that aided in identifying her mother's remains. Brennan stroked the image of her mother's face with her left index finger, remembering how beautiful she always thought her mother was.

Christine Brennan was a natural beauty with a fair amount of grace and a great ease with people—qualities that Brennan had simultaneously admired and envied when she was younger. She smiled, recalling her mother's speech one evening on how Temperance would be a beautiful woman who would have men lined up waiting to date her and her father's response of how she would date any of those men over his dead body.

Brennan's eyes filled with tears as she realized that her mother would never know the type of woman she had become. At 15 years of age, Brennan had fervently waited for her mother and father to return. With each passing day, then weeks, months and years, her hope had quietly faded. Logically Brennan knew that for her parents to leave one day and never return, something had to have happened…something life altering or ending. She thought that she had accepted that logical conclusion many years ago, but then fifteen years of anguish, hurt and loss had crescendo when she walked by Angela's office and saw the one face that she never imagined she would see in the Jeffersonian.

Through unshed tears that refused to fall, Brennan read through the file on her mother's case. She studied Hodgins' findings on the particulates on her mother's remains and the movie ticket found with her. His conclusions proved without a doubt that Christine Brennan had been alive when her daughter had her 17th birthday in a foster home. Brennan felt a rise of anger in her chest as she thought of the foster care system that she had endured before her….

"Before my grandfather took me into his home…" Brennan muttered, realizing that she had completely overlooked that person in her life. She had lived with the crotchety old man for six months before she turned 18 and legally became an adult, setting off for her freshman year of college. A few weeks into the first semester, Brennan had received a phone call from her maternal "grandfather's" neighbor advising her that the man had died.

Her grandfather was yet another shattered illusion in the life of Temperance Brennan. She knew that she would have to speak to Booth about the man who was probably an old acquaintance of Max and Ruth—he could possibly provide another lead that could assist in locating Brennan's father.

Brennan's anger did not dwindle with the new thought of her father, who was very much alive. How could he just stay away from his children? She would be sure to ask him that very question when she and Booth found him. Not being a religious person, Brennan found that she did not have a great deal of faith in humanity, especially after witnessing the atrocities that mankind inflicted on each other. However, her faith in Seeley Booth and his ability and want to help others never wavered.

She pushed the thoughts of her father away for the moment as she continued to read through her team's findings and conclusions. Zach's narrative on the condition of her mother's remains and the mottling on the inside of her skull was very thorough indicating that Brennan's protégé's skills were more than adequate. She then perused her own findings, ensuring that all of the details of the damage to her mother's skull and the potential weapon used to injure her mother were in order before she signed her name to the report.

Removing her mother's dolphin belt buckle from the plastic bag attached to the folder, Brennan ran her fingers over the cool metal. She knew that she would take the small reminder of her mother after McVicar's trial was over and place it in the small box where she kept all of her family photographs.

Exhaustion overtook her again as she placed her head on her desk. Clutching the last physical piece of her mother that was still available to her, Brennan finally slept.

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Russ had managed to sleep for a few hours after his sister left. He awoke at nine o'clock that morning to find that Brennan was not home. Stepping out of the shower, Russ heard the front door open. He dressed quickly, grabbing a towel to rub over his wet head and made his way into the kitchen where he found Angela unloading a grocery bag full of breakfast items.

"Um, hello."

"Good morning Russ!" Angela smiled at him as she moved about the kitchen and pushed the start button on the coffee machine. "I hope you and Bren are hungry. If I know your sister, she probably has not eaten in the last day or so…"

"How did you get in? Not that I'm complaining about someone cooking breakfast for me." Russ continued to towel dry his hair as he watched Temperance's best friend buzz around the kitchen in a manner indicating her familiarity with his sister's apartment.

"Spare key," she replied breezily. "Okay, you've got your choice of cereals or pancakes with bacon or…"

"Jeez, Angela, it's a wonder my sister doesn't weigh a ton!" He chuckled as he sat down at the dining table.

"Speaking of your sister, I would have thought my entrance would have woken her up….you know one of her ex-boyfriends surprised her one day like that…and well, that's why she doesn't have a television."

"I'm not following."

"He came to retrieve the television and woke her from a dead sleep. She thought it was an intruder, startled him and well…. bye-bye television." Angela placed a bowl, a container of milk and several boxes of cereal on the table in front of Russ before she turned to walk down the hall to Brennan's bedroom.

"She's not here." Russ chose a box of Cheerios and poured some of the contents into the bowl.

Angela slowly walked back and stood in front of Russ, eyeing him suspiciously. "What do you mean she's not here? Where is she?"

"I don't know," he said around a mouthful of cereal. "She couldn't sleep and left the apartment around 3 a.m. I thought it was her when I heard you come in."

Angela sighed, exasperated with Brennan. "I bet she's at the lab. Dammit!"

Russ studied her carefully as he continued to eat. "She left a note saying that she would be back soon. Just give her time, Angela. That's what I decided to do last night. Just give her some time and space."

"She's had time and space all week!" Angela exclaimed as she slammed several cabinet doors shut. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just…"

"Worried?"

"Yeah, I'm worried." Angela turned around and grabbed a few coffee mugs from the cabinet next to the refrigerator. She poured a cup for herself and Russ and turned back toward him. She found him standing with a picture frame in his hand waiting for her.

Turning the frame around, Angela saw that it was a picture of her and Brennan, taken during a candid moment. "You see this?" Russ questioned softly.

Angela nodded.

"This is the only picture I have seen in this apartment. She doesn't have any pictures of me or Mom and Dad. You—you are the only person she displays a picture of. I think that says a lot about your status in her life. If Tempe is anything like she used to be…well, she was not big on sharing her feelings when we were kids. She'll come to you sooner or later. You and Agent Booth…you are the two people that she trusts."

Tears formed in Angela's eyes as she picked up the frame. "She trusts you too, Russ."

Russ shook his head. "No, not yet. I have to earn that trust back. But at least she has you and Booth right now. Now, let's get started on those pancakes 'cause I'm starved."

Brushing away a few tears, Angela laughed. "Just out of curiosity, did you and Bren watch any television when you were growing up?"

Russ laughed at the inquiry. "I practically lived in front of the television. Tempe, on the other hand, always had her nose in a book. Our dad fed her appetite for knowledge and books by giving her more and more things to read and quizzing her. I took matters into my own hands one day and dragged Tempe out of the house and forced her to go to the theater with me to watch John Wayne movies all day."

"Wait, Bren knows who John Wayne is?" Angela laughed at the thought of Brennan being forced to watch hours upon hours of western movies.

"Knows him! She loves 'The Duke'!" Russ beamed at the memory of introducing Tempe to one of the greatest cinematic heroes in history. He remembered her rapt attention to the dialogue and plot of the movies, every once in awhile interjecting her opinion that certain things "would never happen in real life".

"Tempe was always so quiet and introverted. She barely spoke to anyone outside of me, Mom or Dad. Most of her classmates were intimidated by her intelligence so she was a bit of an outcast, I guess. I always made sure that she was okay, though. I stopped by the school to make sure that no one was messing with her. Tempe would never fight back if someone started something, you know?"

Angela almost choked on the coffee she was drinking. "I'm sorry. Did you, uh, did you just say that your sister would never fight back?"

"Yeah," he answered as Angela began laughing.

"Oh my. You've got a lot to learn about Bren. First off, she's fights back." Angela smirked at Russ over the rim of her coffee mug. "She did slap you, didn't she?"

Russ ran his hand over the right side of his face, recalling the pain that Tempe had inflicted upon him. "Yes, she did. In fact, Agent Booth said I was lucky that all she did was slap me."

Angela laughed again. "And he was right. Believe me; your sister has two assault charges on file and she's beat up a gang leader. Not to mention the time she shot a suspect."

"She what!" Russ' mouth was agape when the doorbell rang. He slowly started toward the door but stopped momentarily. "We are not done with this conversation."

Russ opened the door to reveal a nice looking dark haired man standing expectantly with a small bouquet of flowers. The man stared at Russ then at the number on the door. "Um, is Temperance here?"

"Not at the moment. Can I help you?"

"Can you…Um, not to be impolite or anything but who the hell are you?"

"I'm Russ Brennan, Tempe's brother. Who the hell are you?"

"Bro…? Um, I'm David….Temperance's boyfriend."

"Boyfriend? I didn't know that Tempe had a boyfriend. I just assumed that….well…that…" Russ faltered, unsure if his sister's so-called boyfriend was aware of Booth.

"Well I guess we're even, because I didn't know that Temperance had a brother." David made a small move to step inside the apartment. "May I come in?"

Russ moved aside, allowing the other man to enter. Angela looked up and smiled politely at David. "How are you doing this morning Angela?"

"Just peachy David. Yourself?" She continued her newfound task of mixing the pancake batter.

"Good, good. I came by to check on Temperance. She said something about having a tough case this week so…." He held up the flowers to show Angela.

"A tough case, huh?" Russ questioned the man's sensitivity. "Yeah, David, I would say that identifying our mother's remains would qualify as a 'tough case'."

"Your mother's remains?" David's confusion appeared genuine as he stared at Russ. "I'm sorry…Angela what the hell is going on here?" He turned to question the best friend who generally held all of the answers that Temperance did not freely give. "Where is Temperance?"

"I think she's probably at the lab but we're not sure." Angela walked over to David. "I'm sure that she was going to tell you about this…all of this…but this week has been extremely difficult for her. We're all giving her a little bit of time and space." She glanced over at Russ, who nodded his affirmation of her statement.

"I…uh….well…tell her that I stopped by, please." David turned and started walking toward the door.

At that moment, Temperance Brennan entered her apartment to find her brother, her best friend and her boyfriend staring at her.

"Morning," she mumbled, unsure why there were two more people in her apartment than when she had left earlier.

David stepped toward her, tentatively placing his hand on her arm. "Temperance, I think we need to talk. In private."

"Um, okay. Let's step outside." Brennan glanced over at Angela and Russ who were both watching the couple intently. "Pancakes?"

Angela nodded and smiled.

"I'll be back in just a few minutes." Brennan left to join David in the hallway.

Russ returned to his seat at the dining table and began munching on his cereal again. "I can't believe my sister is dating that putz."

Angela rolled her eyes at Russ' comment. She briefly wondered how much time Brennan's brother had spent with Booth for both men to share the same opinion of David.