Chapter 3 – Blast from the Past

It was now Friday night. Brennan was once again working late at the lab. Booth still hadn't called her back and she had tried calling him without any luck. She always got his answering machine, whether she called at his office or his cell phone. She had even tried to call at his house but he hadn't picked up the phone.

Angela was also nowhere to be seen. Nobody knew where she was and hadn't heard from her either.

So it was a worried Brennan who was working on her novel tonight despite the fact that she knew she was being irrational. Nothing had happened to her friends. They were probably safe wherever they were and probably had a good reason for not calling her. She also found herself being more worried about Booth than about her best friend. She pushed that feeling aside.

Her cell phone rang just as she was getting ready to leave. Thinking it was either Angela or Booth, she quickly grabbed her phone. When she saw the same unknown phone number, she groaned in frustration.

"Brennan."

"Tempe?"

"Ya..." she replied, unsure.

She could only remember two people calling her that: her ex and... her brother.

"Tempe, it's me... Russ."

She felt like the world around her had started spinning. She had to sit down. She searched fo the chair with her spare hand and soon found it. She steadied it and sat down. She still hadn't said anything.

"Tempe, are you still there?"

"Ya... ya, I'm here." She answered, her throat suddenly really dry.

"Sorry about the last couple of days. It was hard for me to... you know... call you after so many years."

"How..." she cleared her throat. "How did you get my phone number? Heck, how did you get my cell phone number?"

"Got it from your agent."

"My agent?"

"Ya. Listen, Tempe, I need to see you. There are some things you need to know."

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"Are you sure? Maybe we should look through more files."

"Angela, we've been at it for three days. It's them, OK? I searched through millions of missing person's reports and the only two that matches the descriptions Bones made were these two. Besides, the pictures even match your sketches."

Angela looked down at her drawings. She couldn't deny it. The people she had drawn from the skulls matched perfectly the two faces staring at her from their missing person's reports. She couldn't believe it. When Booth had showed them to her, she thought that she had read wrong. It just couldn't be, after all this time? She had taken the reports from Booth's hands and had looked at them from up close. There was no denying. The names were written in big red block letters: James and Paulina Brennan.

"I just can't believe it. Who's gonna tell her?" Angela asked.

"You should do it. You're her best friend. She'll listen."

"Ya, you're right. She'll listen to her best friend. That's why you should tell her."

"What? Me? No. I'm not her best friend, you are."

"By title only. Come on, Booth, she spends way more time with you than with me and she trusts you. By definition, you're her best friend. You're closer to her than I am. She calls me her best friend because she doesn't want to admit that her real best friend is in fact you."

Booth sighed.

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He knocked three times but he knew she wouldn't have heard him. He could hear the vacuum cleaner through the door. Was she cleaning? Why? Well there was no point in knocking again. He tried turning the doorknob. The door wasn't locked. He pushed it open slowly.

He stepped in the apartment and closed the door behind him. He could still hear the vacuum.

"Bones?"

Seconds later silence filled the apartment. He heard her footsteps on the carpet.

"Booth? What are you doing here?" she asked, shocked to see him. "Who let you in?"

"Well I knocked but I figured you didn't hear me with all the noise. So I let myself in."

"Oh. Why are you here?"

"I needed to talk to you."

"OK.. what?" she replied as she put her hands on her hips and stared at her friend.

"Here? Let's go in the living room instead. We'll be more comfortable."

Brennan looked at him strangely but he didn't notice. He avoided eye contact as they made their way to the living room but was forced to face her as he motioned her to sit down. Both of them sat down on the couch.

"Booth, you're scaring me. What's wrong?"

She looked worried.

"Nothing is wrong. Why would you say that?"

"Well wouldn't you if you saw me that way?"

"What way?"

"This way. You're all mysterious. First you tell me you need to tell me something, then you tell me to go in the living room because we'll be more comfortable and now you're avoiding eye contact. This isn't like you."

Booth felt his throat go dry. This was a really bad idea.

"Were you cleaning in here?" he stalled.

"Don't change the subject." She replied, a smile stretching on her face.

Booth looked into her eyes and felt his confidence shatter. Again, he thought it was a really bad idea. He knew exactly how this was going to happen. He would tell her then she would tear up. He would try to comfort her but she would push him away. She would tell him that he's lying, that it wasn't funny, that he shouldn't make jokes like that. She would tell him to leave. He would have to and that special bond that they had built over the last two years would be broken down to nothing. He didn't want to risk that and he had told Angela.

"She's going to hate me if I tell her."

"No she's not. Don't worry about it. This will only bring you closer."

"Well why don't you do it then? You're the one who said you two weren't close anymore."

"Because I don't love her. But you do. And I know that deep deep down inside of her, she does too."

Booth had laughed her response off then but was she right? Was that the reason why he was reluctant to tell her what he wanted to tell her? Because if he did, it would break her heart meaning that he would be breaking his own at the same time?

He felt that she was on the verge of saying something. He cut her off.

"Angela and I managed to identify your victims."

"That's great!"

She sounded falsely enthusiastic.

"The remains we found, well, they belonged to your parents."

Booth immediately looked away. He couldn't stand to look at her while her heart was slowly breaking. But when she didn't say anything, he felt like he had to look at her.

Her eyes were filled with tears that, he saw, she was fighting really hard to keep them where they were. Then, slowly, one tear trailed down her face and was quickly followed by another. Soon tears were pouring down her face.

"You're lying! It can't be them! I would have recognize them!"

"From their bones? Come on, Temperance, you're smarter than that! There is no way you could have recognized them."

He couldn't stand to see her like this. He reached out his hand to touch her but she violently pushed his hand away.

"Please leave."

She had said it so quietly that he had barely heard her.

"What?"

"Please go away!" she begged him.

She looked up at him. Booth could see in her eyes that she was serious but he wasn't going anywhere. He gently wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. Surprisingly, she went willingly. He slowly rubbed her back, trying to comfort her.

An hour later, after much sobbing, she fell asleep in his arms.