(In the Future)
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I don't own Bones.
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"But Dad, Emma got the tickets from her brother as a birthday present." Christine was trying to get her father to drive her and Emma to New York City to see a play. "Emma's parents are in Paris and her brother can't take us because of National Guard this weekend. Mom is working on some old bones, so that leaves you . . . I'll pay you to drive us to the play."
"Really?" Booth was starting to get very irritated with his daughter. "I told you Hank has a hockey game this Saturday. It's his first game. Why should I make him miss it because you want to see a play? You can see that play next weekend or the week after."
Her frustration was growing by the second. "Why is Hank's game more important that taking me somewhere? You're just showing favoritism."
Furious, Booth stepped back and placed his hands in his pockets. "Is that right? So, chaperoning your skating party last Saturday was nothing? Paying for ten teenagers to skate and all that food you ate was just for kicks? You don't think I really don't do anything for you? Why is it that what you want to do is more important than what Hank wants to do? Am I only supposed to do favors for you?"
She had lost the argument and she knew it. "It's just one game for goodness sake. He doesn't really like hockey anyway. Emma and I are supposed to meet up with some friends and we're all going to sit together during the play. Next week is too late. We'll miss all the fun."
Calmly, Booth shook his head. "You are going to Hank's hockey game on Saturday morning and I may . . . may take you to the play next week. It will depend upon how you behave this week. You're acting too much like a spoiled brat instead of the adult you almost are."
Her eyes cold, Christine straightened her spine and lifted her chin. "I am 16 years old and in some societies, that is an adult. I am not acting like a spoiled child. Those tickets are expensive and Emma wants to make sure we get the most out of the play. You just want to control everything I do. You want me to be your little girl for the rest of your life."
Rolling his eyes, Booth removed his hands from his pocket. "That's right. I don't want you to grow up. I want to have to drive you everywhere and pay for everything until I die of old age . . . Your Mom and I have spoiled you too much. You can wait one week to see the play, but if you keep pushing me, you'll never get to see it . . . it's time you grew up, Christine. The world doesn't revolve around you. This is a family. We share. We did the skate party last week for you and this weekend is Hank's first hockey game. If you can't support your brother, then you can stay home and I mean stay home, you can't go anywhere until I get back. I'm going to be at that hockey game and your mother is going to finish her contractual obligations with the Peruvian government, so you can do the laundry. Be useful . . . We all have obligations. The sooner you get that in your head the better for everyone."
"Fine. I'll stay home." Christine sighed. "You could get Uncle Jack to take Hank to the game."
Booth shook his head. "Hank deserves to have his family in the stands cheering him on. If you can't be there for your brother then I feel sorry for you, but I will be there."
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He picked her up at the Lab and waited for Brennan to buckle in before he said anything. "Angela is going to keep Hank until we get back . . . the game wasn't over. His coach is pretty angry about the situation, but Hank understands. He's worried about his sister more than the game."
"Well, I don't understand the situation." Brennan had been on the verge of completing the identification of the two bodies that the Peruvian government had contracted her to identify and now she was on the way to Cecil County, Maryland and her job was incomplete. "Why wasn't she with you at the hockey game?"
His eyes on the road, Booth moved around a slow moving tractor trailer and moved back into the right lane. "She wanted me to take her to New York to see a play. I told her that wasn't happening since this was Hank's first hockey game and she decided to stay home . . . She knew about the tickets since last Tuesday, but she waited until Saturday morning to say anything. Like I was supposed to drop everything and take her to New York. She stole my Mustang and she and Emma were supposed to meet up with some of their friends at the play this evening. A Sheriff's deputy in Cecil County pulled her over for a burned out tail light and when he checked her driver's license he saw it was a learner's permit . . . She stole my car, Bones and defied me by leaving the house when I told her to stay home."
"I don't understand how she thought this was alright." Brennan hugged herself. "Did she think we wouldn't notice she was gone, that your car was gone? This is so unlike her. Normally she's more rational than this . . . isn't she?"
Booth had had time to think it over and he thought he knew the answer. "Boys . . . those friends Emma and Christine wanted to meet up with at the play are probably boys . . . she's changing from a little girl in to a woman and she's filled with raging hormones . . . either that or she's just decided to do what she wants and to hell with the rest of us . . . This reminds me too much of the stunts Jared pulled when he was a teenager."
Brennan was having none of that. "Booth, please don't transfer the sins of your brother to your daughter . . . She's sixteen, independent and the transition from child to adult is a difficult one . . . she has made a mistake and she will be punished, but that doesn't mean she is going to be like Jared."
"God I hope not." He worried about the Booth's propensity for addiction and that made him fear for his kids, but he knew he had a lot more to worry about at the moment. "Our kids are smart, independent, head strong and I'm proud of that, but that also means they're going to test us . . . we just have to get through to them that they need to be responsible and for every decision they make there are repercussions, good or bad."
"When we pick up the girls, I want them to go back with me while you drive your Mustang back." Brennan wanted to talk to her daughter and she didn't want Booth around when she did it.
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Christine and Emma walked into the room and found Booth and Brennan waiting for them. "I am so sorry." Christine glanced at Emma. "I really am sorry."
Booth shook his head and walked over to where his daughter and her friend were standing. Pulling Christine into a hug, he didn't say anything. He was relieved to see she was fine. Releasing her, he patted Emma's arm. "We've paid your bail, Christine. We're going to take you back home, but you have a court appearance in a few weeks, so we'll be back . . . Emma, you didn't do anything wrong, legally, so you don't have to come back . . . morally is a different story."
"Thank you, Sir." Emma knew she wouldn't be getting away with anything. Once her parents and brother heard about what happened, they'd probably make sure she never stayed home by herself again. "I'm sorry Mr. Booth . . . Dr. Brennan. We should have waited for Rick to take us to the play next week."
"You should be sorry. You both could have been killed. Christine has only been driving for three months and not without adult supervision." Booth wasn't in the best of moods. "We can go home. You girls will ride back with Bones. I have to go find a tail light for my Mustang before I can drive back home." He planned to take his time driving back to the District. He was angry and he wanted to make sure he was calmer when he got home. This was not how he had wanted to spend his Saturday.
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They had just left Elkton when Brennan cleared her throat. "What your father didn't tell you was that he talked the Sheriff out of charging you with auto theft, Christine. Booth insisted he had given you permission in the past to drive the Mustang although not to New York. The Sheriff let it go, so you are being charged with driving without adult supervision with a learner's permit and a broken tail light on the car. This situation could have been much worse."
Christine hunched down and felt her cheeks burning. She had thought driving back with her mother would be easier. She had been wrong. "I made a mistake and I'm sorry."
"No . . . using salt instead of sugar when baking a cake is a mistake. Stealing a car and driving it to New York is theft and reckless endangerment. You are not experienced enough to be on the road without adult supervision." Brennan was very disappointed in her daughter. "Emma, you should have known better too . . . Booth says this is about boys. Is it?"
"No . . . no." Christine was mortified. "I mean we were going to meet a couple of boys we've been talking to online, but it's safe. We were going to meet them at the play and that's all. We aren't stupid."
Brennan sighed. "Apparently you are if you were meeting strangers is a large city without letting your family know. Your father and I have seen what happens when young trusting girls or boys meet strangers. It could end up badly. You could have been raped or murdered . . ."
"Mom, oh my God. Emma and I have been talking to Harry and Ryan for months." Christine couldn't believe her mother thought she was so stupid. "They aren't murderers or kidnappers."
"You hope they aren't." Brennan knew that she would have to get Angela to check Christine's history on her computer and have Booth check on Harry and Ryan. "You clearly didn't think anything through. You meant to do what you wanted to do and damn the consequences. You left our home even though your father told you you couldn't. You took his car and you drove your friend on highways you are not familiar with. How were you going to explain your absence and the absence of the car?"
Christine cleared her throat. "I was going to call you this afternoon and tell you that I was at Emma's and I was going to stay overnight." It seemed like a good plan at the time.
"And you didn't think your father would drive to Emma's to check on his car and you?" Clearly her daughter wasn't using her considerable intelligence. "This is all very disappointing, Christine . . . Emma . . . Perhaps Booth and I aren't very good parents. We thought we were, but perhaps we aren't . . . We try to give you what you want, but that isn't always possible. We never hit you in anger. Booth and I are very careful how we punish you. We want you to learn from your mistakes, not just punish you . . . Perhaps you think we are terrible parents like Booth's father or my father and you think you have a right to defy us and break the law . . . Are we that terrible?"
Christine didn't want to talk about her grandfathers. Her father's father had been an abusive monster and Max had been no saint. "No of course not. You guys are the best. I'm lucky you're my Mom and Dad is my father . . . I just wanted to go see the play and I thought Dad was being mean . . . not mean like his father, okay? Just controlling. You know he can be a control freak . . . I just wanted to see the play with my friends."
"And now you won't see the play at all." Brennan didn't feel like she was getting through and it made her feel inadequate. "Your father and I will have to talk over what your punishment will be, but Christine . . . remember Uncle Jared. He was irresponsible and rarely took responsibility for anything he did. You know what happened to him. He was murdered and his body was burned to try to cover up who he was and how he died. His irresponsibility almost got your father killed. You've seen the scar on his stomach. He almost died Christine. It had been a very close thing and it was all because of your Uncle Jared . . . Think about that and tell me that isn't the life you want for yourself."
Emma sat in the backseat horrified at what she was hearing. Christine cringed and finally started to cry. "I'm not going to be like Uncle Jared, Mom. That isn't me. I'm sorry for what I did and I won't do it again. I'm sorry."
Satisfied for the moment, Brennan nodded her head. "I accept your apology. Now you have to convince your father that you won't do this again. He is very disappointed in you. He's afraid that you might be following Jared's path."
"Well I'm not." Christine pulled a tissue from the box on the console and blew her nose. "I'm not a loser like he was."
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She waited in the front yard for her father to come home. When he finally arrived, she waited for him to pull his Mustang into the garage, lock the garage door and walk towards the front door. Unable to wait any longer she raced across the walkway to her father and threw her arms around her father's chest. "I'm sorry, Dad. I really am. You're right I was acting like a brat and I just didn't see it. I do now."
He placed his arms around his daughter and hugged her. "You scared your mother and me today Christine. Anything could have happened to you and we may have never seen your or Emma again." Booth released her and lifted her chin up so he could look at her worried face. "Growing up is hard, I know, believe me. There's these rules that you have to follow and you think you're too old for them, but Honey we all have to follow rules. Even your mother and I have to follow rules. No one can escape them. You need to think things through before you do whatever you plan to do. You have to take responsibility for your actions and today I didn't see you even trying."
"Dad, I'm not your brother Jared, okay?" Christine wanted her father to see that. "I did a really stupid thing and I'm sorry. I know I could be in worse trouble than I am. I know that . . . I'm not going to grow up and be Jared. I won't do that."
Booth hoped his daughter meant what she was saying. "At least you're aware of what can happen if you live your life like you don't care what happens. You're sixteen years old and like Pops told me once, it's time to put away childish things. If you want to be treated like an adult then try to act like one . . . Your brother didn't get to play the entire game today, but he didn't care about that. He was worried about you. You owe him an apology."
"I know and I already apologized." Christine had seen the worried look on her brother's face when Angela had brought him home and knew that her stunt had hurt him as well as their parents. "I'll make it up to him. I promise."
"Good." Booth placed his arm around his daughter's shoulders. "Okay, let's go inside. I'm hungry."
She knew that she had made a huge mistake and she thanked God she had such caring parents. "I love you Dad."
"I love you too, Monkey."
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