Title: Six Bodies in the Pasture
Disclaimer: I own nothing, Though I'm always willing to buy it. I hope you like, after this chapter, there is going to be A LOT more about this case, I'm just trying to hold it off for as long as I could (just because I don't know how much fluff, I will be able to get out of it) We'll see, because I already know who killed the victims. Im just not telling...
Thanks for all the reviews, Please write more...It really motivates me to get my behind in gear. I HEART you all!!
Chapter Four: The Deal after the Shower
"You found Amalie?" She whispered, taking a hold of the boy at her legs and slowly stepping away from the door way. "Will you please come in?"
"Thank you, Mrs. Jacobs." Said Booth solemnly. "You have a very nice place here."
"Please call me Joella." She responded, the feeling in her stomach dropping about ten feet. "Where is my baby girl, Agent Booth?"
Booth looked to Brennan and took a deep breath. "We found her in a pasture about six miles outside of Washington D.C."
Joella Jacobs said nothing, as she led them into the sitting room. The room was painted with dark colors along with modern-like furniture, and looked as if a child had ever stepped foot in the room. "Connor, please go up to your room." She said without emotion.
"I'm so sorry for your loss, Joella." Said Booth, taking a seat next to Brennan on the small black leather couch, their bodies pressed next to each other didn't go noticed by the pair.
The woman sat on the recliner, staring at the window as the tears ran down her face. "How. . . . did it happen." She asked after a few moment of silence.
"Her neck was broken." Said Brennan, Booth gave her a slight smile to show his appreciation of her. "She was found with five other bodies."
"A serial killer got Amalie?" Cried the woman. "What have I done to deserve this?"
Both partners looked at each other to figure how to calm the woman. "Would you mind if Dr. Brennan checks out her bedroom?" Asked Booth, trying to make it less hard on all three of them.
"The police already went through it, if you want to knock yourself out." Cried the woman, her makeup was trailing down her face accompanied with red eyes. "Its up stairs on the left." Brennan nodded and got up with a slight push from Booth.
"What can you tell me about the day Amalie disappeared?" Asked Booth, watching his partner
disappear up the stairs.
Brennan climbed the stairs up to the second floor, looking around with curiosity at the pictures hung on the walls. A family of four, wedding pictures, picture of the boy and of the girl stood out next to the random paintings that filled in between them. She opened the first door on the left, revealing a room decorated in the cliched pink walls and a white crib sitting next to the wall. Toys neatly on the shelves along with stuffed animals placed on a canopy in the corner. Nothing out of the ordinary.
She walked deeper into the room to the window observing for any anomalies. What caught her attention was the tiny scrapes on the window frame making a mental note to come back to that. She looked in the crib, three weeks of dust had collected on the white wooden frame, she pulled out her black light to look for traces of blood, none were on the crib, floor or anywhere for that matter.
Something shifted in the closet, catching her attention. She walked over to the white washboard closet doors, opening them slowly. Connor was sitting on the floor, curled up in the fetal position.
Brennan squatted down to him. "Hi bud." She said, uncomfortably. "My name is Tempe, what's yours?"
"Connor." He whispered. "Did you find my baby sister?"
"Yes we did." Answered Brennan softly, trying to gain her confidence. The woman could take down gang leaders, but struggled to talk to a child.
"She's not coming home is she?" Asked the boy with a sniffle.
"No Connor, she's not?" Said Brennan with a sad smile. "Do you know what happened the day Amalie disappeared?"
"We went to the park and then daddy took Amalie to the doctors and mommy went to get her fingers done. We had dinner and Amalie went to bed. Daddy gave me a bath and I went to bed. When I woke up she was gone." The boy started to cry, "I am her big brother, I was supposed to take care of her."
"Oh Connor. I'm sorry." She said, the young boy wrapped his arms around her neck and he started to sob into her shoulder, unsure of what to do she patted the boy on the shoulder awkwardly.
Booth came upstairs in search of his partner, only to see her on her knees with a crying boy in her arms. It broke his heart to see her, Brennan's eyes had turned red, her teal scrubs growing wet at the shoulder. She was whispering to the boy. "Its alright, Connor."
The boy let go of her and ran out of the room to his mother. And she stood to full height, turning her back to her partner as if to hide the moisture coming form her eyes. "Bones?" He said, placing his hand on her elbow. "Did you find anything?"
She only nodded and pointed at the window. "There are some scrapes on the window that can have some particulates for Hodgins." She said, trying to remain professional. Booth grabbed a pair of gloves, placing them on his hands and grabbed the scraper from her bag, and scraping the particulates into a evidence bag. He took off the gloves and placed them back into her supply bag along with the evidence.
"Lets go, Bones." He said placing a hand on the small of her back, and leading her out of the house. She said nothing as they got into the SUV. "Hey, are you alright?"
She shook her head. "Yeah, I will be fine. What did you get from the mother?" Trying to be professional, but failing miserably.
"We talked about what she did through out the day, played at the park her husband took Amalia to the doctor, just to get the final rounds of her immunization and she took Connor with her to . . ."
"Get her nails done. That's what Connor said." She filled in. "Where is her husband?"
"He was still at work, he is a teacher and its parent-teacher conferences at his school and he wasn't due home for another three hours." Explained Booth, he was beginning to worry about the forensic anthropologist. "Lets get you home, you must be tired."
She listened to the proposition but shook her head. "No, we've got to run the particles and ID the other bodies. . ." She started, Booth interrupted.
"Bones, you haven't slept in awhile. Besides you smell funny." He joked, trying to lighten the mood.
She gave a dry laugh. "You sure know how to make a girl feel better about herself." She said with a weak grin. "Besides, I can't get my stitches wet, remember? That doctor might come find me in my sleep."
"That's where I come in, Bones. I'll help you wash your hair and get you settled." He said with his charm smile. She was about to argue when her cell phone rang.
"Brennan." She answered.
"We've identified victims four and five." Said Cam on the other line.
"How did you do that?" Asked Brennan, truly surprised. She may have worked at the Jeffersonian for a long time, but some of the things they figured out still amazed her.
"Angela finished the faces and we made a positive ID with the pictures Booth provided on the missing persons." Said Cam. "Did you get anything from the Jacobs?"
"Not much, I found some scrapes on the window pane and I've got it for samples." She said, as if nothing was bothering her.
"Go home and get some rest, Dr. Brennan. We have finished all that we could for today and I sent everybody home. Just go home, curl up with some ice cream and watch a sappy movie." Responded the head of forensics.
"Alright," Brennan sighed, she wasn't in the mood to argue. "I'll see you tomorrow." She hung up the phone and placed it in her pocket. In the last hours her right hand had become more and more useable, which she was happy for.
"Do you want Thai or Chinese food for dinner." Asked Booth with his charm smile in full swing.
She shook her head, a sad smile gracing her lips. "Thai food."
They ate dinner on her couch in silence, some jazz music playing softly in the background. They listened to the notes coming from the alto saxophone accompanied by a trumpet fight their way through the maze of infinite possibilities.
They finished dinner as the trumpet beat the alto in the end of the song. "You ready for me to wash your hair?" Asked Booth, finally giving into the silence.
She nodded and motioned for him to follow her into her bedroom. "I need help getting this shirt off, they don't make scrub tops for crippled people." She said wryly.
"Was that a joke?"He teased, really trying to lift her mood. Whatever happened with the little boy really startled her.
"Yes." She responded, taking off the sling that held her left arm and allowed him to remove the top from her body, careful not to pull her hair. She stood there in her bra, opening her drawer and pulled out a light pink tank top. She pulled the string of the scrub bottoms only tying it into a knot, she gave an angry sigh-her fingers not cooperating with the string.
Booth chuckled and helped undo the knot in her pants. "This isn't how I imagined this to happen." He said with a chuckle. Only Seeley Booth could get away with a sexual innuendo and not get thrown on the floor, or maybe it was the cast on her left hand and the bandage on her right hand causing her to be off her guard.
She flushed a deep crimson and lightly slap his shoulder as he got the knot out of her pants, he stood up and grabbed a pair of pyjama pants from her top drawer and helped her into them. "Go into the kitchen, Bones. I'll grab your towels and shampoo." He offered.
"But..." she started.
"I know where you keep your towels, Bones." He said, giving her a slight push out of the door. "Don't worry, I can find it."
She shook her head, a true smile graced her lips as she left her own bedroom into the kitchen, waiting for the agent to return. When he did make it back, he had an arms full of shampoo, conditioner, her brush, some hair ties and a couple of towels. "I'm impressed." She said.
"I know you well enough to know where you put your towels, Bones. Now lets get this show on the road." He said, pulling one of her chairs into the kitchen and placing it at an angle.
"I don't know what that means." She said out of curiosity.
He sighed. "It means lets get this done." He said, helping her into the chair and pulling her hair into the sink. Carefully he turned the sink on, grabbing the hose and gently wet her hair.
Expertly, he placed shampoo on to his hand and ran it through her hair, massaging her scalp with his muscular fingers. The strawberry scent instantly filled the air causing him to smile. His smile grew into a grin as her eyes closed at his touch, Temperance Brennan was under Seeley Booth's spell. Almost exactly where he wanted her to be. With the warm water, he washed the suds out of her hair followed by placing the conditioner into her hair, allowing it to deep condition, he massaged her temples, moving to her shoulders.
She sighed, as his hand ran over her exposed shoulders, but didn't say anything. Soon his hands left her shoulders, returning to rinse out her hair.
When he finally turned off the sink, she groaned inwardly, as he placed the towel on her hair shaking out of the water. "Where did you learn to do that?" She whispered, as the euphoria ended.
"My dad was a barber, both him and my aunt ran a shop for many years when I was a kid. How else do you think I paid for college, it wasn't with my good looks."
"That's hard to believe." scoffed Brennan, with a playful grin. "You washed peoples hair for college money?"
"I cut, styled, the works. In fact I was very popular for it in school, it payed for my full tuition." He explained, with a huge smile. "And is that how you thank the guy who washes your hair by making fun of him?"
"Probably, I have never had a guy wash my hair before." She answered, as they walked back into the livingroom.
"Now sit on the floor and I will do your hair." He said, sitting on the couch, motioning her to sit in between his legs.
"That sounds like a threat." She said, taking her spot on the floor and he ran his fingers through her damp hair.
"Take it as you want." He said with a smile as he pulled the brush through her hair.
They sat in silence for a while, as Booth parted her hair down the center and began braiding the first half, in a tight french braid. As he made it down one side, she began to grow tired of the silence. "Do you want to have more children?" She asked.
It caught him off guard. "I would like a daughter." He answered after awhile. "I love my son, don't get me wrong, but I've always wanted little girl who looks like her mother, you know so I can teach her about the ways of the world, walk next to her on the pony rides at the fair, chase off prom dates, and walk her down the isle." He was hinting something, but she didn't know that.
"Really?" She asked, genuinely curious.
"Yeah, but at the rate I'm going I don't think its going to happen. I mean, Parker would love a sibling or two. Rebecca is closer to that than I am, her and Drew seem pretty cozy." He responded, finishing the first braid.
"What makes you so sure that it won't happen?" She asked innocently.
"I turn thirty-three soon, I'm almost past my prime." He said almost upset by the thought. "What kind of woman wants to go out with older men?"
Brennan almost snorted. "Booth, you are not old. A lot people wait until their thirties to find a partner and to have children, it has an anthropological reason and not to mention children of older parents do better at school, look at Zack, his parents were in their mid-thirties when he was born." She said in an excited voice.
"Easy for you to say, you only turn thirty one this year." He said with a smile. "With your body, you could easily have like ten kids in the next ten years and still look great."
"Like that would ever happen." She said with a laugh.
"Didn't you ever want children when you were younger?" He asked. Maybe there was hope for her.
"Yeah, I used to dream that I would have a fairy tale wedding with an absolute amazing dress with a really long veil, and go dancing under the stars. Then I'd go on a honeymoon to Australia where we would create the first born. I even had names picked out, if I were to have a girl her name would be Emerson Olivia and I were to have a boy his name would be Chase Riley."
He finished her hair as he listened to her. "What changed your mind?" He asked, he began to rub her shoulders again.
"Christmas of 1991, when my parents disappeared was the start of it, I couldn't stand if something to me and my children ended up in the system." She started. "And then I went to school, becoming more of a social outcast. Got my doctorate and traveled to Europe, Asia, South America and Africa working on identifying mass graves of children, who never got a chance to survive. Like the case we are working on now, I see those infants and wonder how people bring children into this world with all the violence and turmoil going on. . ."
"Bones there is so much more to that." Said Booth, "Its about the rush I got when I first held Parker in my arms the day he was born, or when I see him play soccer or t-ball. Its about making him happy, hoping that I was a big enough influence so that one day he would make a difference in the world, to stop all the bad people in the world. But Bones, you have to admit, from an anthropological stand point: people have been giving birth since the dawn of time."
She was silent for a second. "Your using my words against me." She said, turning around to face her friend.
"Is it working?" He asked, she knew he had been trying to change her mind about children since the beginning of their partnership, even just a little. More and more she had been changing a little everyday, even more drastic since he introduced Parker to her. The topic to her had been a roller coaster of emotions.
"I don't know yet." She answered truthfully, her blue eyes meeting his brown ones. He looked her over, with her hair in two french braids, he had to admit she never looked more beautiful. "But I'll make you a deal."
"What kind of deal are you proposing?" He asked with a raised brow.
"If you haven't found someone to marry by the end of the year, I'll go halves with you on a baby." She offered firmly.
"What?" He asked, hoping he heard her wrong.
"You want another child, you claim that your getting too old for it, and I'm just sitting her collecting dust so I might as well put myself to use. . ." She said with a smile.
"But, Bones you don't want children." He said trying to change her mind.
"But you do, Booth." She argued back. "Think of it as a. . . Christmas gift."
"Bones, you don't celebrate Christmas." He answered, he didn't know why he was trying to dissuade her offer. She was beautiful, caring, smart and she was offering.
"Well maybe I'll start." She responded, it wasn't the holiday she believed in, it was Booth.
He looked her in the eye again. "Alright, only if she has your looks and my brains." He said holding out his hand to make the deal official.
"What if he has your looks and my brains." She said, trying to challenge him.
He only shrugged. "That would work too." Was his answer as she placed her small hand in his, sealing the deal.