(The Signs in the Silence)

This is a sequel to chapters 199, 200, 203 and 204.

I don't own Bones, but we all know that.

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The garden was peaceful and Booth and Brennan were taking advantage of the sunny afternoon. Samantha Winslow was reunited with her birth parents and the partners were satisfied that a bad situation had been turned around. Samantha was no longer with her abusive kidnappers and from now on she would be loved and taken care of.

"You know, when I grew up, I had a father . . ." Booth had a lot on his mind. During their investigation into the death of Duval Price, they had uncovered the fact that their potential murderer, Amy Shenfield had been kidnapped as a baby and because she was deaf her kidnappers, who had stolen her to raise as their own child couldn't accept her handicap and had abused her. Desperate to get away from them, the girl had run away only to be kidnapped again by the Shenfield's friend, Duval Price. Terrified, Amy had killed the man and had fled his apartment only to be found later by a policeman in an alleyway covered in blood. While interrogating the Shenfield's, Mike had struck his wife Denise and Booth had lost it. Amy's story had horrified him and when Mike had abused his wife in front of him, Booth had struck the man. "Never mind." The fact that Booth was also a victim of child abuse didn't excuse what he had done. Not to him.

"He hit you. I know." Brennan had known for quite a while that Booth had been the victim of child abuse and she felt she understood him. She too had been a victim while she was in Foster Care and she knew that the abuse was never forgotten. No matter how much you tried, you never forgot. "But it's not the same, Booth."

Worried about his temper, the rage that Sweets said that lived within him, Booth jammed his hands in his pants pockets. "I've got to do better . . . I have a son of my own and look . . . I just . . . I don't want him to ever see that side of me, ever!"

She could see the stress her partner was under and she wanted to help him. "Your son is very lucky, Booth. You have to know that."

Removing his hands from his pockets, he started to walk across the garden with Brennan by his side. "Yeah, I know . . . But I just . . . I want it to be more than luck. That's all."

"And it is, Booth. It's much more." She strode by his side and tried to formulate what she wanted to say. It was important to make him see what she saw. "You work hard to take care of Parker when he's with you. You're kind and gentle and I have never seen you raise your voice with him . . . well, one time, but he had just talked to Howard Epps and you were frightened. Parker understood that he should never talk to strangers after that and you raising your voice did no harm. He knows you love him and he loves you, Booth. He admires you and Parker brags about you to me when you leave us alone."

Surprised, Booth stopped and faced Brennan. "He does?"

"Yes, he does." Placing her hand on his arm, Brennan smiled. "He's so proud that you're an FBI Agent and that you arrest bad people . . . He's seen you play hockey and he thinks you're so good at playing your game that he thinks you could join a professional team."

"Well . . . I'm good, but not that good." Booth smiled and felt a certain sense of relief. The smile fading away, he looked down the row of roses, not sure he wanted to look at Brennan while he said what he had to say. "When I found out that Amy . . . Samantha had been abused by the Shenfields and then Mike Shenfield hit his wife in front of me . . . I hate people like that. They use their size and strength against someone they're supposed to love . . . They hit them and beat them and they don't care what they're doing to the person they're beating . . . That slap . . . it triggered something inside me . . . Sweets says I have this deep well of rage inside me and he even asked me once what would happen if I lost control of that . . . I try not to let that happen. I have to keep that under control."

The pain in his voice was obvious and Brennan worried about him. "And you do . . . I have seen you lose your temper, but the objects of your rage have been miscreants . . . Abusers and kidnappers. I don't know much about psychology . . . it is a soft science that isn't quantifiable, but I have observed that your rage is triggered by people that are abusers or people that imperil someone you love . . . I have felt that same rage . . . I've never told you this, but when you were kidnapped by the Gravedigger and I was trying to find out where you were . . . I lost my temper and I knocked Heather Taffett to the ground with a brief case. I didn't have time to do anything else to her since I had to rescue you, but if there had been time, it is possible I might have kicked her too . . . Not my finest hour I'm sure, but I too can lose my temper under the right circumstances."

A little shocked, Booth stared at his partner with admiration. "Really? You hit Taffett with a briefcase? Man I wish I could have seen that." That sounded so hot. No one messed with Brennan and got away with that. That's what he loved about her. She could take care of herself when she had to and she could take care of him when she needed to. She was the best partner he had ever had. "You and me, we've been through a lot, but we're not like Mike Shenfield . . . we could never hurt someone we're supposed to love. We've seen what it's like to be hated and abused and we don't want that for ourselves or anyone we love . . . We're strong and . . . we can control our anger . . . most of the time. We didn't let our past destroy us or keep us from becoming more than our abusers thought we would be . . . My old man thought I was a loser, he'd tell me that when he hit me. He'd say I was weak and he was trying to make me strong . . . yeah . . . but I'm not a loser. I was never going to give him that satisfaction and you . . . you're the best forensic anthropologist in the world, you showed your abusers that you weren't a loser either . . . We didn't let them win, Bones. We didn't let them break us and keep us down."

"No we didn't." Brennan moved closer and kissed him gently on the lips. Stepping back, Brennan looked around and saw that they were still alone. "I think we should go to the diner and get something to eat. We haven't had lunch yet."

"Alright, the diner it is." Walking through the rose garden, Booth knew that he would be alright. Brennan was in his corner and he was in hers. They would both be alright.

Oooooooooooooooo

She had just finished a cup of coffee in the break room and was staring out of the second story window down on the rose garden below, when she spied Brennan lean over and kiss Booth. Shocked, her mouth fell open and she stared at the couple while they walked away and she knew that something had changed between Booth and Brennan. The line had been crossed, the walls had come down.

"I'll be damn."

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