Michael's Pov
I sat on my bed in my bedroom, Katherine's head resting on my lap as she slept. She had been trying to comfort me when she heard the news, but in the end, it was more me comforting her. She couldn't believe that Darius was gone and neither could I. Dad had talked to me about it and calmed me down, so obviously, I knew that this was reality, but I didn't want to accept that my best friend was now dead. I knew things like this happened, but why did they have to happen to him? Darius had never hurt anyone, as long as you didn't count the guys he'd hit because they didn't know the meaning of the word 'No' when it came to Kate. Oh god, how was Kate going to take this! Not to mention, the rest of our friends.
I suddenly heard my phone ringing and grabbed it off the bedside table, seeing that it was Christine who was calling me. I quickly answered the phone, glad that Katherine was out like a light.
"Hey Christine." I said and I heard a sniffle on the other end of the phone.
"Hey, I wanted to see if you had gotten home." She said and I smiled slightly. That was just like her, she could be crying but she'd still worry about me.
"Yeah, Katherine's asleep on my lap. She tried to comfort me, but she was upset herself. I think I comforted her more than she did me." I said. "Have you talked to Kate?"
"No, I wanted to go see her but Mom told me not to. They have to do this by the book according to everyone. I think Dad's going to talk to Darius' parents then her." Christine said and I wanted to be mad about that, but even I knew that if our parents wanted to do this case and not be called biased, they had to do it the way they always did. "I don't like it, but I understand it now. I just don't know how she'll take all this and I want to be there for her, but I don't know how."
"Christine, we just lost our best friend, we're not instantly supposed to cope with it." I said, because it was the truth. "I'm not going to school for a little while, I can't face everyone and listen to the endless questions, and I want you to skip for a while too."
"Don't worry, I don't think I could handle going to school tomorrow." Christine said. "I can't go there knowing he won't be there."
"I can't go for the same reason. We need to get used to this Chris, and we can't do that at school." I said sadly, because I didn't want to go to school and play football when my best friend wasn't there to play with me.
"I think it'll get easier when our parents catch whoever did this." Christine said and I hoped it would. I wanted to know who did this to my friend.
"Just take care of yourself Christine, no matter how hard this is." I said, because the last thing I wanted was to see my girlfriend get sick.
"I should be saying that to you Michael. He was your best friend, you knew him longer and better than I did." Christine replied. "Somehow, you care about me no matter what's going on."
"That's kinda my job as your boyfriend." I replied, which is when I saw Katherine start to stir on my lap. "Sorry Christine, Katherine's stirring. I should go."
"I get it. I love you Michael." I understood why she was saying that. With all that was happening, I was glad to have her.
"I love you too." I said and I hung up the call, hoping I got news sometime soon.
Booth's Pov
As Sweet's and I walked up the Evan's path towards the front door. When Darius had disappeared, I had hoped that I wouldn't have to tell them that their son was dead, now I had no other choice.
I knocked on the door and waited with Sweet's. Sweet's had wanted to do this himself to save me the pain of doing it, but I owed it to this family to tell them the truth.
The door opened and revealed Darius' father, Simon. "Agent Booth, I'm assuming this means you've found my son." I was well aware that he knew what my job was.
"I'm afraid so Mr. Evans. Can we come in and talk?" I asked and he nodded, opening the door wider to let us in. I walked into the kitchen and saw Amanda sitting at the table with their youngest, Nathan. When she saw me, he face dropped.
"Um, honey, can you please go to your room?" She asked Nathan and while he looked curious, he nodded and walked off. "My son is dead, isn't he?" She asked.
"Yes, we're very sorry for your loss Mrs. Evans." Sweet's said and she nodded, before hiding her face in her hands, while Simon went to stand behind her.
"We appreciate that. To be honest, we've been fearing the worse since he disappeared. Darius wasn't the type to just disappear or forget to call." Simon said and I nodded.
"Have you informed your daughter?" I asked and Amanda nodded.
"Faith's flying down from Hawaii now, she'll be here tomorrow." Amanda said and I nodded.
"Mr. and Mrs. Evans, we need to ask you a few questions about your son." Sweets said and Amanda nodded, though I knew she was barely holding it together.
"Did Darius have any enemies at school or anyone he had a falling out with?" I asked and Simon shook his heads.
"To be honest Booth, that's probably something you should talk to your daughter and Michael about, or Kate. He didn't often tell us much about his school life, other than the good things. Personally though, I can't see why anyone would hurt my son." Simon said. I didn't like that thought of asking Christine, but he was right.
"Darius left Kate's house in the morning, are you sure he didn't come home at any time?" Sweet's asked and Amanda shook her head.
"We're sure, we have camera's around the house and he wasn't on them." She said and I nodded as I wrote it down.
"Is there anywhere you can think he might have gone?" I asked.
"Normally, I'd say Kate's as the first answer, but since he was there I'm guessing he went somewhere to train. Darius loved football and dedicated his life to it, he wanted to become professional. His favorite place to train was the school's football ground." Simon said and I nodded as I stood up with Sweets.
"Thank you, we're going to do our best to find whoever did this." I promised and Simon came over, shaking my hand.
"I know you will Booth." He said and Sweets and I started to leave.
"Booth." Amanda said and I turned back to look at her. "I know you're going to have to talk to Kate, but trust me when I say she never would have hurt him. Also, Kate's parents are… not the best parents. She'll find it hard to say some things in front of them, because of how they'll react." Amanda said and I nodded.
"I'm aware, Christine has constantly told me Kate's parents suck. I have to talk to her with them around, but I'll be careful." I promised. I had no delusions about what Kate's parents were like. They were gone more than they were home and they constantly disagreed with what she did.
Christine's Pov
I sat on my bed in my room, scrolling through the photos on my laptop, though I'd taken the keyboard off and was solely using the touch screen. I had thought that looking at photos would make me feel better because I was seeing the four of us when we were happy, but they just made my chest hurt. Right now, I was looking at a picture of all four of us from Halloween last year – Kate and Darius were dressed as very good looking vampires and Michael had made me dress up as a Jedi like him.
A knock at the door made me drop screen and wipe my eyes as I watched it shut down. "Christine, I made dinner. Do you want to come down?" Grandpa asked through the door and I wanted to say no, but I knew that wouldn't end well.
I got off the bed and headed over to the door, unlocking it. I had been allowed to get a lock on my door, but there were rules to when I could use it. Mom was the reason I had eventually gotten it. I opened the door and tried to smile at him, but I knew it wasn't fooling him.
"Yeah, sure." I said and I followed him downstairs.
"I made one of your favorites, lasagna and salad. I figured we could take the leftovers to Tempe' and Booth." He said and I nodded. While I didn't want to eat all that much because I just didn't feel all that much like eating, I knew that was a good idea. Sometimes when they were on cases,
Grandpa and I sat down at the table and started to eat dinner, but to be honest, I played with my food more than I ate it. Don't get me wrong, I loved lasagna, but I was just having a hard time eating.
"Hey, is there something wrong with my cooking? I blame it on my age if there is." Grandpa said in a joking manner and I shook my head, a small smile on my lips.
"No Grandpa, I'm really not that hungry. The food is delicious though." I said and I saw him sigh.
"Christine, if you want to talk, I'm here." He said and I nodded.
"I know that, but I don't know what I'm supposed to say. Normally I do, but this time I just don't. I knew that death is a part of life, but I… I never expected that I'd lose someone I cared about while I was still in high school. Darius was nothing but kind, so it's so hard to think that someone killed him. I want to be there for Kate right now, but I'm not allowed to be because she's a suspect, even though I know she didn't do it." I said in frustration. You can grow up around death and accept the reality of it, but nothing can prepare you for the loss of a friends.
Suddenly the door opened and I saw my dad come into the house, which made me push away from the table and walk over to him. "Dad, I didn't think you'd be home so soon."
"I talked to Darius' parents, but Kate's parents are being difficult. They're coming into the burau with their lawyer in an hour." He explained and I nodded, noticing the Sweet's was behind him.
"Christine, how are you?" Sweet's asked and I sighed.
"I'm doing the best I can." I replied. "Um… Grandpa made lasagna, so you can take the leftovers with you for you and Mom." I said and I saw he wasn't buying my calm attitude.
"I'll do that. Bones often doesn't eat when she's solely focused on a case." Dad said and I nodded as I headed toward the kitchen.
"I'll put them in some containers for you to take." I said as I went into one of the kitchen cupboards.
"Christine, I can to that." Grandpa offered.
"Don't worry about it, I've got it." I said and I saw Dad was concerned, but he didn't say anything as I placed lasagna in two separate containers. I took the containers and placed them in a bag I found, before giving them to Dad. "Make sure you eat after you talk to Kate. Mom's not the only one who forgets to eat, especially when you and her are a very important case."
"Christine, I promise we're going to find who did this." Dad promised and I nodded. I never doubted that they would find who did it, they pretty much always did.
"Trust me, I don't doubt that. You and Mom are amazing at your jobs, you always have been." I said and he raised his hand up, running it through my hair.
"Sweets and I better go." He said and I nodded, which is when he kissed my forehead. "Try to get some sleep tonight."
"I will." I promised and with that Dad turned and left with Sweets, while I stood there, watching them leave.
Booth's Pov
I walked into the conference room with Sweet's and saw Kate already sitting there with her parents, but surprisingly not a lawyer. When Kate saw me, her face gravened.
"Agent Booth, I guess this means Darius is dead?" She asked and I nodded.
"I'm afraid so." Sweets said for me. "I'm afraid we need to ask some questions."
"My daughter won't be answering any questions." Mr. Madison said and I saw a look of clear annoyance.
"Dad, you're here because I can't answer questions without you here, that's all. I can make my own choices, so shut up." Kate snapped as we sat down and her parents didn't look happy.
"Kate, watch your tone. We're your parents." Mrs. Madison said and I saw Kate glare at her.
"Yeah, and there's nothing I can do to change that. However, the guy I love has been murdered and I'm going to tell Agent Booth whatever he needs to know. You have no say in that." Kate said, then she looked at me and Sweets. I could see the pain in her eyes, but she was trying to keep it together. "What do you need to know?"
"When was the last time you saw Darius?" Sweets asked.
"The last time I saw him was when he carried me to bed after he came back from dropping Michael, Anna and Stacey. I'm not sure what the time was, I was too out of it by that time. I wasn't really feeling well that day. I heard him leave in the morning, but I'm not sure where he went." Kate answered, but then she seemed to remember something. "We have camera's, they should show you when and what time he left."
"We'll need that footage, I can get a warrant if I have to." I said, looking at Kate's father now, who sighed.
"No, I'll have the footage brought to the F.B.I." He replied, which didn't surprise me because he was all about image according to my daughter.
"Kate, do you have any idea if someone had a grudge against Darius?" Sweets asked and she shrugged.
"Well, I mean he got in a few fights at school, but that was mainly with idiots who wouldn't leave me alone or people who picked fights with him. No one had a real problem with him, though Mariah James was obsessed with him and Michael because she has a thing for football players. She didn't like that Christine and I were dating them." Kate explained and I wrote down the girl's name, since jealousy was always a good motive for murder.
"What about teachers or people outside of school?" I asked and she shook her head.
"He never had a problem with people outside of school or any teachers." She said and I sighed. Darius seemed to have no problems with anyone. "But, Darius and Christine were talking about coach Jackman the day we went bowling and I've seen him talking to Michael and her about him a few other times too. He never told me what about, but maybe she'll know. Darius seemed to want to avoid talking about football lately."
"I'll ask her. Thank you for coming in." I said and she nodded, which is when he parents got up and she followed.
X
I grabbed my phone off my desk and dialed Christine, because I needed to know what she was talking about with Darius when it came to Coach Jackman.
"Hey Dad, what is it?" Christine asked as she answered the phone.
"Sorry I'm calling right now, but I need to ask you something about Darius?"
"Well, I don't really think there's something I know that Kate doesn't, but go ahead." She said.
"Kate said Michael, you and Darius have been talking a lot about Coach Jackman a lot lately. What about?" I asked.
"Well, to be honest, he's been acting weird since we came back from Summer break. He's been more tense, yelling at the guys anytime they mess up any little thing. He's always been scary, but these days he's worse and I can't work out why. Michael and I have been talking about it and even Michael says he's sure there's something going on." Christine explained and I wrote down his name. If his behavior had changed that much, then I was going to look into it.
"Alright, thank you Christine." I said.
"Dad?" She asked before I could hang up the phone.
"Yes?" I asked.
"Do you know anything about what happened to Darius?" I hadn't expected her to ask me that.
"Christine, I don't…" I started, but she cut me off.
"Dad, please. I don't want to ask Mom, because I don't want the technical terms, but I do want to help." She begged and I caved.
"He died between nine and ten Saturday morning, and he died due to blunt force trauma to his head." I said, even though I didn't want to.
"Thanks Dad." Christine said and then the line went dead on me. I didn't care how long this took, I was finding who did this, for the sake of a lot of people I know.
