Chapter Eleven: Lucy Booth
Tempe arrived at work the next morning, it was about 8.30 am, and she didn't really want to be there because she knew the task she has ahead of her; analysing Lucy Booth's body.
Name: Lucy Booth, Age: twenty seven years old, younger sister of Seeley, dark brown wavy hair, hazel- green eyes and had the complexion of Mocha, well used to. Her skin was an eerie greyish colour now; the colour of death. Tempe stared at her sad helpless face and felt a deep sadness grow inside of her, who had taken this innocent life, Booth's sister's life, why, how, when, where, the questions kept popping up in her head like the numbers in a game of Keno. She was about to go insane, she was screaming on the inside. I have to get out of here, i have to get far far away from here, run… no! she stopped herself short, I can't go, I have to stay here and do this, I have to do this for Booth.
Another thought kept poking at her conscience like the constant throbbing of a migraine, right behind her eye, which was the worst place to have a migraine. The thought was that of her mother, she hadn't closed her case yet, and she might not ever get to, the path to finding her mother's killer still seemed distant and it was almost invisible to Tempe's naked eye. That thought troubled Tempe deeply, more than anything she wanted to give herself closure, but fate has a funny way to twisting itself around someone's life, it was her job to give other people closure, and yet she couldn't find it for herself. Is that really my fate? She said to herself. Is that really my Mother's fate?
She couldn't stand this any longer, she decided to go and see Angela, to look at the computer generated image of her mom again. She needed closure. Her Mother needed closure.
As she was walking towards Angela's office she couldn't help but think of Booth, poor Booth, she said to herself, First being shot now his sister being found dead in a storm sewer, no one deserves to have that fate, again with the fate topic Brennan.
"Hey sweetie, how's Booth?" says Angela. Tempe didn't even notice someone was speaking to her, she was too busy day dreaming, day dreaming about Booth, snap out of it Brennan!
"Oh hey, sorry I was just…"
"Hey sorry if I startled you"
"No it's fine. Have you heard from Courtney?"
"Yeah, turns out she was hiking in Peru and wanted to shut herself off from the high- tech world of modernisation"
"Sounds like a reasonable excuse. I'd give anything to do that again somedays, but im not exactly twenty- something anymore"
"Well maybe you should do that Tempe, great stress relief, and take Booth with you" she adds with a wink.
"Thanks for the suggestion Ange, but I've got stuff here I need to do. No holidays for me yet"
"Oh well, there's plenty of time for that isn't there. Now did you want anything?"
"Yeah actually, I got side- tracked, I need to see that image of my mother again" Tempe gives Angela a sincere look and Angela knows exactly what she means.
A couple of minutes later Angela has the generated image of Tempe's mother on her 'Angelator'. When Tempe sees the image again she feels her heart sink into her stomach again, she really had hoped she would see something new in the thousands of sparkling pixels that made up the image on the 'Angelator', but nothing, no new leads, zero, nill, nothing. She turns away from the machine and puts her hands over her face and runs them up through her hair, she felt more screwed than before.
"What am I gonna do Ange, there's nothing there, nothing!" she says, more like yelling at Angela.
"Whoa easy sweetie, it's gonna be ok, we'll solve this ok"
"No it's not that simple alright!" and with that Tempe storms out of Angela's office, goes back into hers, grabs her car keys and heads home, she'd had enough for one day. She had to go spend time with Booth.
Meanwhile back at Tempe's condo Booth was lapping up being 'sick', he's in his singlet and blue boxers, with nearly a whole carton of empty, half crumpled beer cans littering the floor and the coffee table. He's asleep on the couch while the football is playing loudly on the television. There's also a half eaten pepperoni pizza on the ground beside the couch.
Tempe arrives home several minutes later to find the aftermath of cyclone Booth. She surveys the scene of the crime and finds the victim and the suspect asleep right in the middle of it. She turns off the TV and walks over to wake him up, being careful not to tread on any greasy strings of cheese or stale pizza crust that lay in her path. She was absolutely discusted and nearly runs to wake Booth. She shoves and shakes him and he wakes up with a start.
"Oh hey, you're home" he says in a drowsy voice.
"Booth what is this?" she says, using her hand to point out the mess to him.
"Oh I hope you don't mind, you had nothing in the fridge or cupboard so I got pizza"
"Yeah I do mind Booth, you drank all my beer!"
"You had nothing else!"
Tempe sits down in an armchair, almost sitting on a beer can, she throws it away.
"Sorry for yelling, I've just had a tough day"
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
Tempe looks up at him, she cant believe he just said that.
"Yeah you can start by cleaning up all this" gesturing to the stale pizza and empty beer cans strewn in every place imaginable.
"Ok sorry" He gets up without much hesitation but burps and gets a waft of his breath "Oh man, I stink, I'm gonna go have a shower then I'll come and clean up ok" He goes to lean down and kiss Tempe but she also smells his pizza and beer breath"
"Ok, why don't you brush your teeth while you're there"
"Good idea" he says, and heads down the hallway to the bathroom.
Tempe decides she'll wait until Booth gets out of the shower to start cleaning up, so she goes into her bedroom and turns on her computer to search for anymore clues in the spreadsheets she had started compiling, one for her Mother, and one for Lucy Booth.