Alright guys, it's time to find out what happened to Darius.
Christine's Pov
As I got ready for school, I wasn't happy. I didn't have any side effects, like a hangover, left from the alcohol I had consumed on Friday night anymore, but I didn't know how to deal with what was going on right now. Today would be the first day I got to see Kate since… since Darius had gone missing and I was going to try my hardest to be there for her because I was her best friend, but if she asked me if I thought Darius was okay then I was blatantly going to lie to her because I couldn't say what I really thought. I hated what I really thought, I hated that I couldn't have that innocent hope that most people had when their loved ones disappeared. I mean, I prayed that Darius was alive and well somewhere, but the reality was that I was a scientist's daughter and I knew the facts. No one had seen or heard a thing from him since Kate saw him when she went to sleep Friday night, or at least no one was admitting to it. We only know that he left her house himself at about seven the next morning because Kate had somehow remembered to put the security camera's on after the party.
I made my way downstairs and went into the kitchen, where my parents both were. Dad was on the phone with someone, but I didn't pay attention to who he was talking to because I didn't really care. I was just glad that Dad had been trying his hardest to work out what had happened to Darius – he even had the local police keeping an eye out since Darius was now an official missing person.
"Christine, what do you want for breakfast?" Dad asked and I looked at him as I grabbed my lunch out of the fridge.
"Nothing, I'm not hungry." I said and I could feel both of them looking at me in concern.
"Christine, I'm sure Darius is okay." Dad said and I finished placing my lunch in my bag and zipped it up before I looked at him tiredly – I hadn't slept well last night and was just thoroughly exhausted.
"You know, I want to believe that Dad, but I… I just can't." I said, my voice breaking as small tears formed in my eyes. "I know enough about your work to know that most missing people turn up dead or never turn up at all, so even though I pray he's okay, I can't help but fear the worst. And the worst thing is that I have to go to school today and see Kate, knowing that, and I'll have to lie to her if she asks me if I think he's alive."
"Wouldn't it be better if you told her the truth?" Mom asked and I looked at her in disbelief.
"If Dad went missing and you didn't know what you know, would you want someone bluntly telling you that they thought he was dead?" I asked and she seemed to become thoughtful.
"Well, Booth and I's relationship is quite different to Kate and Darius', so I can't answer that objectively." Mom said and I shook my head.
"You two might have been together longer, but you love dad and Kate loves Darius. In that sense, you are no different, and from what I've seen in the past is that neither of you can stand to think of the other being in danger, so I'm sure you can understand what Kate must being going through." I said and I felt Dad's hand land on my shoulder as Mom's face became understanding.
"I can understand where you're coming from and I realize that you're worried about your friend's safety." Mom said before getting up and coming over to me, hugging me. "I'm sorry this is happening Christine. I'm sorry that you're in so much pain. We'll do everything we can to find him."
"Thanks Mom." I said as I hugged her back, not wanting to let her go yet, but I had to get to school, so I slowly pulled away. "I have to get going or I'm going to be late."
"I'll drive you." Dad said and he said it in a way that I knew there was no reason to protest, so I followed him out of the door and climbed into his S.U.V.
"You haven't heard anything, have you Dad?" I asked as we drove down our street and Dad sighed. Well, I was trying to be hopeful.
"I wish I had better news Christine, but there has been no sign of Darius since he left Kate's house Saturday morning." He said and I nodded, which is when I felt him look at me. "I'm sorry Christine, I wish there was something more I could do."
"Don't worry Dad, I know you're doing everything you can and that makes me feel better." I said, because that's who my father was. There were just some things you couldn't change.
X
Dad dropped me off at school and I instantly ran over to Kate who was waiting by the entrance near the parking lot, hugging her tightly. She hugged me back just as tight, showing me that she was as messed up about this as I thought she was going to be. I couldn't blame her; if it was Michael who was missing like this, I would be freaking out. To be honest, I wouldn't even be here, I'd be nagging the police and looking for him myself.
"Has your dad heard anything?" Kate asked me as she pulled away and I shook my head.
"No, I'm sorry. But he's got everyone looking for him despite it not being his job – they're not going to stop until they find him. I won't let them." I promised and she nodded.
"Yeah, it's how they're going to find him that's worrying me." She admitted and I went to say something to try and reassure her, but got interrupted.
"Hey." Michael greeted as he arrived and I hugged him tightly, which he returned before looking at Kate. "How are you holding up?"
"The guy I love has disappeared without warning, but considering Booth is looking so hard I'm coping as best I can. Still, I'm not going to ask you two what you think because I don't want you to have to lie to me, especially you Christine." Kate said and I could see there were tears forming in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. "I just need you guys to help me get through this until I finally get an answer, whatever it is."
"You have us." Michael promised and even though I didn't say anything, I agreed with him. Still, I could see he wasn't coping all that well either.
X
Our day at school didn't go very well. All our friends knew by now that Darius was missing and let's just say tension was high in our group. People in the school knew as well and honestly things weren't going well. I was honestly glad when the day was finally over, because I didn't want to stay here another minute. Usually I liked school, but today, today I hated it. I wanted to stay with Kate, I will admit that, but she was promised she'd call if she needed to talk.
"Hey, how are you getting home?" Michael asked me as we walked into the parking lot. Originally, my father was going to come pick me up because of everything that was going on, but unfortunately, they found a burnt body dumped in an abandoned car somewhere so that took his focus for now.
"I was planning to just catch a bus to the Jeffersonian so I could pick up a book I left there, then I was just gonna catch one home." I said and he rolled his eyes.
"You make things so difficult. I'll just drive you there and then drop you off home before going home myself." Michael offered and I looked at him.
"You know we're both still grounded right." I said and he nodded.
"Oh, I know, but with everything that's going on I really don't think they're going to be mad at me for driving you somewhere I was already going." He said as he opened my door for me and I nodded, agreeing with his argument as I climbed in. It took him exactly ten seconds to get into his side of the truck, I counted. "I think Kate's handling this as well as she can."
"I think you are too." I said and he looked at me then. "You can't hide that this has shaken you Michael. He's your best friend."
He sighed. "I just want to go to the lab and hopefully not learn anything I don't want to learn." He admitted and I nodded. I couldn't help but admit that that's also why I wanted to go to the Jeffersonian right now.
Angela's Pov
I stood in my office, working on the facial construction of the murder victim that was currently up on the forensic platform, and I had this deep pit in my stomach. None of us wanted to think the worst, but the victim was a Caucasian male who Brennan put between 16 to 18 years of age. She was also certain that the victim was a football player. Right now, the chances of this victim being Darius were far too high for anyone's liking and I hated it. I didn't want to give this victim a face, because so many people were going to be hurt if this was Darius. I knew that I could have just waited for confirmation with the vid number, but we didn't know if the car the victim was in was the victims or stolen.
"Angie, how's it going?" Hodgins asked as he came in and I looked at him.
"It's nearly finished." I said and Hodgins came over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"Angie, there's no guarantee that this is going to be Darius." He said.
"But what if it is Jack. We knew this kid; he grew up side by side with our son. And if this is Darius, what are we going to say to Michael and Christine? They're still only kids and they've gone through so much already, I don't want them to have to go through losing a friend like this." I demanded and he pulled me into his arms then.
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down." He said, but I couldn't. I didn't want this to be Darius. Unfortunately, my face reconstruction finished then and I looked up at it.
"Oh no." I said as I looked at the screen and saw on it Darius' face. No, I didn't want this to be how it turned out.
"The murder victim, it's Darius." Hodgins said and right as he said it a gasp came from the door. Standing there in the side doorway, looking up at the screen was Christine and Michael. Christine had tears forming in her eyes as she placed a hand over her mouth and Michael just looked devastated.
Christine's Pov
As I stood there, in the side doorway of Angela's office, I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything but stare at the facial reconstruction of Darius' face on her screen, which wouldn't even have to be matched to a database. I had seen his burnt body on the forensic platform, I'd… No, this couldn't be happening.
Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my cheeks as I placed a hand over my mouth to stop the sobs from coming out. I couldn't even look at Michael who must have been devastated, not even when he turned around and left the room as fast as he could.
"Michael!" Hodgins shouted as he ran after Michael past me, while I heard Angela place down her tablet that connected to the Angelatron.
"Sweetie, come here." Angela said and before I knew it I was being hugged by Angela as I cried. I barely registered that she did it, but I took comfort in it. Why did this have to happen?!
"Angela, what's going on, I saw Michael run out? Why is Christine crying?" Mom asked as she came into the room along with Cam and Angela only slightly turned away from me.
"The murder victim, it's Darius Evans." Angela said and Mom came over to me, taking me and hugging me just like Angela had been, only tighter. I had let out another sob when Angela had said Darius was a murder victim. I couldn't understand who would do this?
"Dr. Brennan, maybe you should take Christine home." Cam suggested and that's when I really registered what they were saying, causing me to pull away from my mother and shake my head as I wiped my eyes furiously.
"No, no, I want to be with Dad when he tells Kate." I protested, because I knew how Kate was going to take this and I had to be there for her – she was going to find out the guy she loved had been killed and I wanted someone to be there for her. Not to mention the fact that Dad would have to tell his parents.
"You can't Christine." Mom said and I looked at her.
"Why not?! She's my best friend and she's going to have to find out that the guy she loves was… was murdered." I said, finding it really hard to say that Darius was murdered, and Mom placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Christine, whether we like it or not Kate was the last person who saw Darius alive, meaning Booth and Sweets will have to interrogate her. They won't have a choice, we have to do this case by the book, meaning your father has to treat Kate like any other suspect, whether she's your friend or not." Mom said and even though I understood mom's reasoning, I didn't want to. I just found out one of my friends had died, I wanted to be there for Kate and I didn't want her to have to go through an interrogation because I knew she didn't do it. She couldn't have done it.
"Christine, none of us thinks that Kate did anything, but this is the way things go." Angela said, as kindly as she could. "Just let your mom take you home and then we can all work on finding the person who really did do this."
"But Michael…" I started, because he had to be taking this even harder than I was now. I wanted to at least be there for him if I couldn't be there for Kate.
"Let Hodgins be there for Michael now; you can call him later." Mom said and even though I wanted to protest, I just let Mom led me from the room.
X
I was home in what felt like minutes, though I knew it had to have been longer than that. Mom and Cam had talked about contacting Dad, but Mom said she'd call him to come home and tell him what happened then. To be honest, I never heard the phone call, I was in too much shook to really pay attention to anything. I just know that one minute it felt like I was in the lab and the next I was getting out of Mom's car and walking into the house.
"I'm going to go to my room." I muttered and before she could say anything I went up the stairs and pretty much slammed my door behind me, locking it for only the second time since I got it.
I managed to dump my school bag and kick off my shoe's, but the moment I got onto my bed I curled up under my covers and started crying my eyes out, clutching my pillow as I did. I wished this was all just a nightmare.
Booth's Pov
I used my siren to get home and the moment I got there I pretty much ran inside as fast as I could, seeing Bones sitting on the couch.
"Bones, please tell me it wasn't Darius?" I asked, because I knew the moment I got the phone call and she asked me to come home that this had to have something to do with the body we found today. I'd been dreading finding out who it was.
"The body was Darius', he's dead." Bones confirmed sadly and I sat down on the couch beside her, rubbing a hand over my face. I didn't want to have to be the one to tell his parents that he was dead, I didn't – I didn't want to tell Kate either. I couldn't even understand why someone would want to kill that kid.
"Does Christine know?" I asked and Bones nodded, looking towards the stairs.
"She came to the lab with Michael, they both saw the body and then Angela's facial reconstruction. Michael ran off and Christine just broke down." Bones said and I honestly didn't know what to say. I didn't want to see my daughter get hurt, but she kept getting hurt and now she'd lost her friend. "She's in her room crying, I called Max to come watch over her."
"I'd rather stay with her myself." I admitted, because I didn't want to leave Christine alone right now.
"So do I, but she's locked herself in her room, which means she must want to be alone." Bones said and I saw by the look on her face that she was as shaken about this as I was. "I want to comfort her, but right now I think the best thing we can do is our jobs. I'll go back to the lab and do what I'm best at, while you tell Darius' parents that their son is dead. Right now, they know nothing about what happened to him, so you should do what your best at and tell them and Kate. We at least know that Christine is safe here, so right now we need to do everything we can." I wished I could disagree with her and stay here, but she was right. If we couldn't comfort our daughter by being by her side, then we could do our jobs and find out who killed Darius.
Darius is dead! I'll admit I planned to do this from the beginning, but it wasn't easy to do - it's never easy to kill off a character. I planned to write a warning that there would be character death's, but I thought of it right before what happened to Darius, so I didn't write it because I felt that warning would give away what happened to him straight away. However, while I don't have any specific plans for the future on characters dying, I want to warn that it may happen and they may be characters from the show - I will say though that I don't plan to kill Sweet's, the show caused me to cry enough by doing that, so he's differently staying alive in this story.
