(The psychic in the Soup)
I don't own Bones.
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Dr. Brennan . . . Temperance, this is Reggie, Marianne's husband. I have some bad news and I thought it would be best to tell you first.
Concerned, Brennan glanced at the clock on her wall and wondered why Reggie was calling her at work. "What bad news, Reggie?" She heard him clear his throat, sniff and clear his throat again before speaking.
Um . . . Marianne is dead. She died of a heart attack this morning. A sob escaped his lips. I tried to save her, but . . . anyway she died and uh . . . and I called you so that you can tell Seeley. He may need you there when he hears the news and I didn't want to call him at work and tell him while he was alone. I just . . . Just tell him I'm sorry and I'll let him know when the funeral is.
Shocked, Brennan wasn't quite sure what to say. After a moment, she spoke. "I'm sorry for your loss and I will go over to the Hoover and tell my husband this sad news in a few minutes. I think you did the right thing by letting me know first." Booth was a very brave man, but Brennan knew he was emotional and there was no way she could predict how he would react to the news that his mother had died.
Thank you . . . um, I'll call you as soon as the funeral has been finalized. I'm going to bury her in The Atlantic City Cemetery in Pleasantville, New Jersey. We bought two plots there a few years ago . . . she wants . . . she wanted to be buried here where she'd been happy and had found me and the kids . . . She didn't want to be buried in Philadelphia. It would have been too hard . . . anyway, I'll let you know when the funeral is.
"Thank you, Reggie. I will let Booth know as soon as possible." Brennan heard the call end and she sighed. This death was unexpected. Marianne had been 67 years old and in good health. It was true she'd had a high blood pressure issue, but her mother-in-law had seen her doctor regularly and took medication to control it. Turning towards her PC, she closed the file she had been working on, logged off her PC and pulled her purse from the top drawer of her desk. She knew she'd have to let Cam know before she left the Lab. Cam was a good friend and she knew that Cam would be sympathetic towards Booth's loss.
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It felt strange to call on Seeley Booth at the Hoover so soon, but Avalon seemed to cross the agent's path when she least expected it. With the help of Angela, she had helped find the USB drive that Dr. Sweets had left behind containing his unpublished book. It was something that Booth and Brennan needed to read and she had found a way to get it to them. She had also helped solve an accidental death and a soul was now at rest. To her surprise, it appeared she wasn't done with the FBI Agent just yet.
Hesitating for a moment, Avalon stood in the doorway of Booth's office and noted the look of determination about the man. He was typing on his PC and seemed to take what he was doing very seriously. After she knocked on the doorframe, she entered the office. "I know you probably didn't count on seeing me again, but here I am . . . I've come to tell you that your mother is fine and she wishes she could have said goodbye before she left but there wasn't time. She doesn't want you to think she's abandoned you. She's just moved on and will be waiting for you on the other side."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Annoyed, Booth turned to face the psychic. "I hate that vague shit you do. What do you want?"
Unconcerned with the agent's attitude, Avalon shook her head. "I'm just the messenger. Your mother doesn't want you to worry about her and she insisted I talk to you. I have and now I'm going." Turning she walked over to the door and looked back. "You want to believe me, but you're afraid to. You're always afraid to admit that I know what I'm talking about. You'll understand one day." With that, she left.
Irritated, Booth turned back towards his keyboard. "She comes in here, tells me some crap about my mother and leaves . . . damn it." He didn't know if he should be concerned or not. Avalon had a tendency to be right about the things she said, but he didn't know if she saw dead people or if she was just a con artist. So far, she had helped him with a few cases and she hadn't been wrong about the stuff she had told him. Still, he didn't like her walking into his office and talking about his mother. "I'll call Mom when I go to lunch."
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Brennan found her husband in the break room filling a mug with coffee. "Booth, I need to talk to you in private."
His irritation growing, Booth threw his coffee stirrer in the trash. "Why the mystery? First Avalon comes here with some weird message about my Mom and now you want to talk to me in private."
Holding up her hand, Brennan shook her head. "We need to have this conversation in your office."
He knew Brennan was serious and decided to play along with her wish. "Sure." Once they were in his office, Booth placed his mug on his desk, leaned against the desk facing Brennan, crossed his arms against his chest and waited for his wife to speak.
Not sure how this was going to go, Brennan closed the door behind her and turned to face her partner. "Reggie called and he said your mother died this morning."
Feeling strange, Booth placed his hand on the desk and tried to understand what Brennan had said. "I . . ." Not sure of his feelings, he turned, placed the palms of his hands on the desk and leaned over. "Avalon said . . . Why did Reggie call you instead of me?"
"He didn't want you to be alone when you heard about your mother." Brennan watched Booth take a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Why do you keep mentioning Avalon? Did she come here to talk to you? If she did, what did she say?"
"She . . . uh, she came here to tell me Mom was okay. She said Mom wanted to say good-bye but she didn't have time. I didn't want to believe . . ." He didn't want to believe Avalon knew his mother was dead, but he had to face the fact that she had known something. Turning to face Brennan, he found her standing next to him and he pulled her into his arms. "Mom's gone again . . . I . . . I need to call Jared. I don't think Reggie would call him. Well . . . I don't know. Jared didn't want anything to do with Mom. Yeah, no he won't call him."
Brennan heard her spouse struggling with the bad news and she held him in her arms. "I'm sorry, Booth."
"Yeah." Booth squeezed his eyes shut and tried to accept what was happening. "She was gone out of my life for so long and then she came back. Two years. That's all I got. Nine years when I was a kid then two years now. She was only in my life for eleven years." He pulled away from Brennan and walked over to the file cabinets. "Pops and Grandma were my parents. Marianne was just a visitor. She threw me away when I was nine years old then demanded I accept her back into my life on her terms. Why should I feel . . . yeah, she was Mom. I'm sad, but more for what could have been not what is." He didn't think he was making sense, but he was confused about his feelings and he knew it.
"She loved you, Booth." At least Brennan hoped that was true. "She came back and wanted to be part of your life. She attended our wedding. She tried to be your mother . . .Two years wasn't very long, but isn't that better than no time at all? She got to see her granddaughter. She visited you a few times and you got to talk about your childhood with someone that knew you then . . . You told me that Max coming back to be in my life proved that he loved me. Were you lying?"
Shaking his head, Booth knew that he needed to stop upsetting Brennan which he clearly was. "No, I wasn't lying. Max loves you and Mom loved me." I guess she did, but I'll always have doubts. "Thanks for letting me know. I'm going to call Jared and let him know . . . When is the funeral?"
"Reggie doesn't know yet. Marianne is going to be buried in Pleasantville, New Jersey."
He felt a slight sense of betrayal, but he accepted that Marianne didn't want to be buried with his family or her family. "Okay, I get it . . . Bones, thank you for coming to tell me. That's not something I would have wanted to hear on the phone."
Stepping over to where Booth was standing, Brennan kissed him. "I love you, Booth. You aren't alone. You have me, Christine, Parker and Jared in your life. We all love you."
"Yeah." Booth returned her kiss. "I don't know what I would do if you weren't in my life. I really don't know."
"Well, that isn't something you need to worry about." Brennan walked over to the door. "Forgive Jared if he doesn't react like you think he should. He was four years old when Marianne ran away. He doesn't . . . didn't know her. Like you, he considered Hank and Marie to be his parents."
He knew Brennan was right. "Yeah, I get that." Once he was alone in his office, Booth sat down behind his desk, turned his chair to face the wall and cried.
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