(Season 6)

This is a sequel to chapter 210.

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She was waiting for him when he got home. "Seeley . . . I didn't mean to make you mad. I just wanted to understand you better. I asked Jared about your relatives . . . I thought there was just Jared, your son and your grandfather, but your brother mentioned your parents were alive and I asked about them. He mentioned that your mother ran away and that your father abused you. He also said your grandfather raised you and that I shouldn't mention it to you since you don't like to talk about your past . . . I just . . . You know so much about my past, but you never talk about yours. I didn't mean to upset you, I just want to understand you. To understand who I'm living with."

While she talked, Booth knew that not talking about his past would just make Hannah more curious. Either he could talk about his parents now or later, so he knew he might as well get it over now. After all, Brennan thought this was a trust issue and he knew she was right. Moving over to his recliner he sat down and waited for her sit down on the couch. Once she was seated, he turned to face her. "When I was eight years old, my mother ran away. My father had beat her so badly, she tried to get away from him and she fell down some stairs. She broke her hip and she had to be hospitalized. She never came back home. When the hospital discharged her, she disappeared and I haven't heard from her since."

Appalled, Hannah tried to keep the horror she felt to herself. She schooled her face and nodded her head. "And you were left with your father, you and Jared."

"Yes, my brother was three years old when Mom left and he can remember what happened next, that's how bad our situation was." Booth exhaled, trying to keep calm. The memories were like fresh wounds and he hated to think about it let alone talk about it. "My father was a drunk, an alcoholic and he beat the hell out of me and sometimes Jared when he was drinking. It didn't matter what I did or didn't do, he hit me . . . one day." He stopped, his voice was shaky and he wanted to stop but Hannah was staring at him waiting to hear his story.

Clearing his throat, he continued. "One day I did something he didn't like, I spilled some milk, the whole bottle and my father lost it. He . . . uh . . . he grabbed me and started to scream at me. He threw me on the floor and held me down . . . I was nine years old."

"Seeley, please stop." She knew she had pushed Booth too far and he was talking about something horrific. Hannah hadn't realized that her lover's childhood was this bad and she wanted him to stop.

"Why? You wanted to know so you're going to sit there and let me tell it to you." Staring at Hannah he knew he sounded harsh, but at this point he was furious that he had to talk about this time in his life. "He placed his hands around my throat and started to squeeze while he continued to scream at me . . . I didn't even know what he was saying, he just squeezed and I started to black out . . . my brother was screaming for my father to stop, but he was four years old and he was just as helpless as I was . . . I was seeing stars, I couldn't breathe." His breathing became ragged and he was back in time living that moment over again. "I was dying and suddenly . . . suddenly my grandfather was there and he pulled my father's hands away from my throat. I was gasping for breath, but I could see my grandfather was furious. He yelled at my father and pulled him into the next room. I don't really know what they said, but then I heard the front door slam shut and Pops came back into the room . . . He . . . He picked me up and held me. He was crying, I was crying, Jared was crying . . . after a while, he placed me in a chair, walked upstairs and later he came back down carrying luggage. He'd packed our clothes. He went back upstairs and got some of our toys and put them in some pillow cases along with our school books and he carried them out to his car . . . He came back in and he told us we were going home with him and we never saw my father again . . . you wanted to know, now you know." He was calmer, but something inside of him felt dead. He didn't understand it, but he felt different and he didn't like it.

His story had been horrifying and the look on Booth's face once the story was over told her that something had changed. She didn't know what it was, but she could see a strange calmness in her lover that she had never seen before. "Seeley."

"No." Standing, he glared at her, hating her for making him talk about that moment in time, that terrible moment when he almost died at the hands of his father. "You wanted to know and now you do. Never bring up my parents again. Never. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I do and I'm sorry." She was embarrassed. She had considered her boyfriend to be a fun, easy going lover. She had never considered that there were hidden depths within him and that he might not be the man she thought he was.

Unwilling to listen to more, he left the room, walked into the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge and sat down at the kitchen table. After the bottle was open, he took a sip and stared at the bottle, wondering if Hannah would stay or go. The next step was hers and he wouldn't try to influence her decision. At that moment, he wasn't sure if he wanted her to stay, so he would let her decide for both of them.

Once she was alone in the room, Hannah let what Booth had said run through her mind, the raw emotion as he told the story giving his words an added feel of horror. She had been curious and Jared saying they had been abused didn't begin to describe what they had actually been through. Hannah also knew that Booth had been brutally honest with her and he trusted her with information that could embarrass him. The brutality that he had lived through had not been his fault, but she knew that he was embarrassed. Standing, she moved into the kitchen and sat down at the table. "I'm sorry you went through that." She placed her hand over his hand. "I'm not leaving you, Seeley. We all have our secrets, some worse than others, but it doesn't affect what we have together. I won't mention your parents again. That is in the past. It's done."

"Yeah, it's done." Booth turned his hand over and squeezed her hand. "I didn't have a great childhood, not a normal one anyway, but my grandfather gave me a loving home. He took care of me and Jared until we graduated from high school. He gave us love and respect and I couldn't have had a better father. As far as I'm concerned, he is my father and Edwin Booth doesn't exist."

Slowly nodding her head, Hannah knew that her lover was calmer now and that a line had been drawn. She wouldn't cross that line again. She respected him too much to do that to him. "Would you like me to order something for dinner? I don't feel like cooking and I know . . ." Her phone rang and she answered it. After a short conversation, she ended the call and sighed. "The President is making a quick trip to Houston for some reason and he's taking the White House Press Corp with him. I need to be at the airport in 90 minutes . . . We'll talk when I get back."

"Sure." Booth watched Hannah leave the room and sipped some more of his beer once he was alone. "Don't worry about me . . . No one else does."

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