A/N: I just felt like a little tragedy. Don't read if you're not in the mood.
Update: This story has been edited January 2012. Working on this story knowing what Booth and Bones are going through in season 7 is making it harder. But it doesn't have anything to do with it. No new content has been added; only editing.
HUGE WARNING! (I wish these words could flash) Character death!
Disclaimer: I own nothin' from the Bones characters to Heaven 911, by DJ Sammy. I only own Kelsey.
The living room clock read eight-thirty and Temperance knew she ought to march upstairs to tuck in her daughter, but she didn't have the strength to do it. She knew exactly what she would find on the second floor. She couldn't face it.
Instead, she got to her feet and walked to the window. Outside, she could see the outline of her car in the driveway. Her eyes fell on the empty space next to it. For so many years, another vehicle had been parked there. She could still remember it, almost imagining its shadow in the darkness of the night. She sighed.
Tearing her eyes from the window, she casted her gaze around the living room. Every piece of furniture stood in the exact same spot. She hadn't had the courage to change anything around. Maybe she should've had. Maybe it would have been easier to move on if everything hadn't looked the same.
Five minutes had passed. Temperance grew more anxious. If Kelsey didn't go to bed, she would be grumpy in the morning. Tomorrow was her class picture. She couldn't be grumpy for that day. She had to face it. Taking a deep breath, she slowly made her way up the stairs.
The light in her daughter's bedroom was still on, but it didn't surprise her. Kelsey, or Kelly, like he used to call her, would be ready for bed. She never needed to be told twice. Temperance approached the bedroom quietly. A soft voice reached her ears. She peered into the bedroom through the door left ajar and caught sight of her daughter kneeling in front of her bed, a picture of her father between her hands.
"It's been a year, Daddy. I really, really miss you. Mommy says you're safe now, in a beautiful place called heaven."
Temperance's heart caught in her throat and she immediately found herself fighting the tears that had been threatening to fall almost every night since Booth had died.
At night, she dreamed of him. She saw him when he had walked in an abandoned warehouse where the serial killer had been supposedly his victims. She dreamed of the shot she heard of the shots she heard as she waited outside the warehouse, near the police cars. She remembered the paramedics bringing him out of the building, on a stretcher, and felt the twinge of pain as the ambulance doors engulfed him. Worst of all, she relived coming home to her happy daughter who had been completely oblivious to her father's death.
"We had your favorite dinner tonight. I ate it all up!" Kelsey added, proudly. "Even though I don't like carrots."
Temperance smiled as she remembered the ongoing fight between Booth and his daughter about that particular vegetable. Her smile faltered as she realized that, now, Kelsey simply chewed up on them quietly, no fuss.
"I learned how to swim this summer! I can even open my eyes while I'm under water!"
She had brought Kelsey down to North Carolina to visit Russ to clear their heads. Russ had taught his niece how to swim, while Temperance had watched from the poolside. Seeing the joy and pride in her daughter's eyes had somehow washed the pain away in her heart. But at night, when Russ had tucked Kelsey in for the night, more tears had fallen. If only Booth would have been there to see his daughter swimming.
"Can't you see me?" Kelsey asked.
"I wish Daddy could see me, Mommy," she had told her, after climbing out of the pool.
"I'm pretty sure he can, Kelly."
She had never believed in Heaven, much less in God. She had always seen death as an inevitable fact of life, where the body simply shut down and decayed underground. Until Booth had died… She now found the idea revolting. Booth needed to be alive somewhere so they could be together again, one day. He just needed to be.
"I started kindergarten this year. I carry a picture of us in my Blue's Clues lunchbox."
When Kelsey had mentioned a Blue's Clues lunchbox, Temperance had had no idea what she was talking about. When her begging began incessant, and pleas had turned into sobs of despair, Temperance had turned to her best friend for help. Angela had brought her goddaughter the lunchbox.
"You were the greatest daddy."
Booth had certainly been one terrific father. Never once had he let them down; never once had Temperance doubted his love for them. Their marriage had lasted six beautiful years. To this day, Temperance still wore her wedding ring.
"I can swing on the swing by myself," Kelsey added, as if suddenly remembering. "Even though I miss you pushing me. Can't you see me?"
Temperance slowly pressed her forehead to the door. Hearing her daughter talking to her father was more than she could bear. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to interrupt the little girl in her prayer. She may have had different beliefs, but she had respected Booth when he'd told her never to interrupt someone's prayer. So, desperately fighting the urge to burst into the bedroom, she let her daughter talk.
"I miss how you used to tickle me," Kelsey said, laughing softly. "Tickle my belly. My belly hurts."
A few tears fell from Kelsey's eyes onto the picture frame.
"I try not to cry," she continued, her voice cracking.
Maternal instincts kicked in before Temperance could stop them. Crouching down beside her daughter, she gathered her in her arms.
"Sshh, it's okay," she whispered as she kissed the top of the little girl's head and ran her fingers through her long, brown hair.
"Mommy says it's okay," Kelsey went on, still clutching the picture frame to her heart. "I know you don't like it when I cry. You never wanted me to be sad. I try Daddy but it hurts. Is it true you're not coming home?"
"Sweetie, can you please sit down? I need to talk to you."
"Okay," Kelsey had replied, jumping down from her bed and sitting on the edge of it, her feet dangling off the mattress.
Temperance had taken a deep breath.
"Honey, Daddy had an accident."
"Is he going to be okay?"
"I don't think so. He was very hurt. He's not coming home."
Temperance could still remember her daughter's shriek as she threw the biggest tantrum of her short life, denying over and over again that her father was dead. It had taken hours for her to calm down. She had eventually cried herself to sleep.
"Maybe someday, I can visit you in heaven, okay?"
"Come on, Kelsey. It's time for bed. You need your sleep."
Temperance felt her daughter nod against her chest.
"It's time for me to go to bed now," Kelsey said she climbed on her bed and settled Booth's picture on her nightstand.
Temperance pulled the sheets and Kelsey slipped in between them.
"I sleep with the light on just in case you come home and kiss me goodnight."
Instead, Temperance pressed her own lips to her daughter's forehead and wished her a good night. As she walked back to the door, she listened to the end of her daughter's prayer.
"I love you so much. I miss you Daddy," Kelsey whispered as she closed her eyes.
Just like she always did, Temperance would give her daughter thirty minutes to fall asleep, before she'd come back to turn off the light. Kelsey wouldn't notice a thing. Then, tomorrow, she would start looking for a new house, one in which Booth had never lived. They had suffered long enough. It was time for them to move on.