A/N: Sorry this took so long, had a busy weekend at work. This chapter is a little awkward and I apologize. It just didn't want to come out.I hope I did a better job than I think I did. Leave feedback, it helps the story along! Enjoy!
The conclusion of the airtight case against the senatorial candidate, Casey's first court appearance as an expert witness for the Jeffersonian, was the day before Casey's 24th birthday. Dr. Brennan and the others had a surprise party planned, but there was one problem: they couldn't keep Casey in one place long enough to get set up.
Casey was on cloud nine, and thoroughly bouncing off the walls. She had helped put the bad guy in jail. Was there any bigger adrenaline rush? They had tried to give her busy work, but she finished very quickly and was back to bugging the crap out of the rest of the crew. She was in and out of Dr. Brennan's office every five minutes while Dr. Brennan tried to make the arrangements with Sid. Finally, she put Sid on hold and called Angela's office. "You have to do something with her if you expect me to get this together!"
Casey stuck her head in again, just as Angela came up behind her. "Come here, kid," she called.
Casey turned to see Angela. "What's up? Is there something going on?"
"Calm down!" Angela commanded. Geez! The kid was like a ten-year-old on speed sometimes! "Um, Hodgins wanted to talk to you." She hoped Jack would forgive her. "Get a bottle of potassium cyanide and meet him in his lab." Casey trotted off like a hyperactive puppy, giving Angela enough time to warn Hodgins.
"You have to keep her out of Dr. Brennan's hair for a little bit!" she told him. "I have actual work to do before the party, and Brennan is trying to get everything set up."
He rolled his eyes. "I don't do babysitting! Where's Zack?"
"He called Booth, said he had an errand to run, then left. I don't know where he went!"
Hodgins groaned. "Okay. I'll keep her out of everyone's hair."
Angela flashed him the smile that still melted him. "Great! She's on her way. I sent her to get a bottle of potassium cyanide."
He looked at her funny. "Why?"
"Well, I had to get a few minutes to warn you. And that was the only chemical I could come up with off the top of my head!"
"Do you know what potassium cyanide is?" he asked.
"Well, yeah!"
Casey rushed in the door. "What do we need cyanide for?" Casey asked. "We're not killing the lab rats, are we?"
Hodgins grinned at Angela and mouthed 'You owe me!'. "I was kidding with Angela and she thought I was serious. No, we're not killing the lab rats."
"Oh," she said. "Okay. So what did you want?"
He mentally prepared for the coming argument. "The Russians had nothing to do with Kennedy. The Cubans and the teamsters were in on it together."
Angela rolled her eyes as she slipped out the door, Casey's reply following her: "You have to be kidding! The Cubans had neither the power nor the resources to pull off a cover-up of that magnitude! And while the teamsters had both, what they lacked was the cohesiveness to keep that many people silent!"
Angela was watching and listening through the door when Zack came up beside her. "What are they fighting about?"
"Oh, they're not fighting," Angela assured him. "Sadly enough, this is them having fun."
Zack looked very confused, as Casey shouted "You don't have even one shred of evidence! You're pulling conspiracy theories out of your ass rather than giving it rational thought! You'll soon be one of those people blaming the Baptists!"
"Spoken like a true Catholic!" he retorted.
"Maybe we should intervene?" asked Zack.
Angela shrugged. "Maybe."
Zack entered the room. "What are you fighting about?" he asked.
"Fighting?" asked Casey.
"We're not fighting," said Hodgins.
Casey smiled. "We were just expressing a difference of opinion."
"At the top of your lungs?" Zack inquired, still not convinced.
Hodgins put a hand on Casey's good shoulder. "Sure. Just having a little fun." He looked down at Casey. "We'll start in on spontaneous human combustion later."
Angela looked over her shoulder and saw the thumbs-up from Brennan, who unfortunately was confused and put her thumb out to the side. Angela showed her the proper way to do it, and she corrected it. But, incorrect or not, the message was clear. "Okay, guys, I'm hungry. You all want to go to Wong Fu's?"
"Sure!" said Hodgins as if it was the first he had heard of it.
"Me, too," agreed Zack.
"Okay," agreed Casey.
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Casey still didn't suspect a thing as they drove to the resteraunt, but as soon as she saw the "CLOSED" sign on the door, she became suspicious. "Why is it closed?" she asked. No one answered her, though, and they all walked on in as if they hadn't noticed.
Casey stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the inside. Dozens of balloons filled the dining room, and there was a big banner that said "Happy Birthday Casey!" She drew in a deep breath, totally speechless. "What is all this?" she asked in wonder.
Zack put his arms around her and kissed her. "Your birthday party, Casey. Did you forget?" She nodded, in shock. Zack led her to the table, and sat down beside her.
She looked around. The whole team was there, plus Booth and Cam, Terry, and a few of the firefighters from her department. She hadn't made many friends in D.C., but they had covered all their bases. Sid brought food, ice cream, and a huge red velvet cake. Casey smiled, talked, joked and laughed. She blushed when they sang "Happy Birthday".
But she just wasn't herself. She faked it well enough, and Zack thought he was the only one who noticed. He watched her quietly, waiting for a moment when he could talk to her alone. Also, he had her present in his pocket that Booth helped him pick out. It had been his idea, but given the nature of the gift, he had no idea what he was looking for.
Finally, when everyone was starting to leave, he pulled her off to the side. "Happy birthday," he said, kissing her. She put her arms around him and clung to him, and he could feel her heart racing. "What's wrong?" he asked.
She forced a smile. "Nothing," she said.
He looked her right in the eye. "Something. Tell me."
She was no longer able to keep the eye contact. "I've never had a birthday party before. Birthdays have never really been a reason to celebrate."
Angela had come to him with the conversation from the other night, and so he had already figured out that she had been abused. This was just one more piece of the puzzle, one that he wasn't sure he wanted to see the picture of, but some how he had to. Like she had needed to see his back after that incident in the bar. But now was not the time to push, so instead of asking questions that she probably wouldn't answer he simply said, "When you're ready to talk, I'll listen." She nodded, still looking at the floor.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black velvet box. "If you're not much for birthdays, how do you feel about birthday presents?"
Her face changed instantly from the disturbed expression she had worn to a small smile and she opened the box and took out a fine silver chain. A St. Florian medal hung at the end. She looked up at Zack with a big smile. "Thank you," she said, kissing him. She offered it to him and unfastened her other one. He clasped it behind her neck, and she put her arms around him.
He simply held her for a long moment, wishing he could come up with one of what Hodgins called his boy-wonder, Rain Man ideas to fix what was inside her, hurting her. But what was broken inside couldn't be fixed by a genius forensic anthropologist. If they could be fixed, it was only by Zack Addy, the boy in love with her.
"Casey!" called Booth from the doorway. "Care to go for a ride?"
"Why?" Zack asked.
Booth frowned at him. "Don't worry, I'll have her back soon. I hate to pay late charges." Zack wasn't sure what that meant, but he did know that as Casey started to pull away, he had a strong instinct to pull her back to him, not letting go. He didn't understand it, but it was there. Maybe it was his realization that he couldn't help her.
"Its okay, Zack. I'll be back soon." She adjusted the sling on her arm and followed Booth.
Zack felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't explain. If he believed in premonitions, maybe…
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"So," she asked as she and Booth pulled out of the parking lot. He was acting really strange, almost pissed off at her, like that night after the fight. She was unsure about what she had done, but felt sure she had done something. "What's on your mind?"
"How old were you when you got your driver's license?"
Casey had expected several things, but this was not one of them. "Sixteen, why?"
Booth slammed on the brakes, stopping dead and throwing Casey into the dashboard. He whipped the car into a parking lot and stared her right in the eye. "Then why is there nothing on record about Casey McKnight until six years ago today. Your 18th birthday. Who are you?"
She looked at her shoes. "You know who I am. Casey McKnight, semi-fearless grad student, clumsy firefighter, damn good tennis player."
He was still staring at her. "I don't like being lied to."
She unbuckled her seatbelt. "I'm not lying to you. I am who I am!"
"Oh, so now you'll pretend to be a philosopher? Confuse me with double talk? People don't forget when they get their license."
She reached for the door handle, and Booth hit the power locks. "What the Hell do you want from me?!" she demanded. "What do you want me to say? That I have a past?"
"I know you have a past! What I want to know is what is in that past that is bad enough to lie to me and my team. Why are you trying to hide who you are?"
She pulled at the door handle, but finally turned to look at Booth. "I'm not hiding who I am, I'm just plain hiding!"
Booth sighed. "I don't know what that means. Look, if you've done something-"
"I haven't done anything wrong! I tried to do what was right! Now, all I want to is live this life and be safe!" Tears welled up in her green eyes, and she went on. "I don't even know what it feels like to be safe! And now you want to know who I am! If I tell you, none of us will be safe!"
"Huh?"
"If I tell you my real name, I'll be signing my own death warrant, and Zack's, and probably yours and Dr. Brennan's and everyone elses too!"
"What are you talking about? Casey, or whoever you are, this is me! Whatever is going on, I'm your friend. You can talk to me about it. If someone's trying to hurt you, I can help!" This had taken an odd turn. What was she hiding?
"Yeah, right!" she spit out in a bitter tone. "Like the FBI was going to protect me six years ago?"
He shook his head. "I don't know anything about that. What happened six years ago?"
"I was told they would protect me if I helped them, but they couldn't do it."
"But this is me," he argued. "You know if I promise you something, it will happen! I can protect you."
"Can you protect Zack? Or Hodgins? Or Dr. Brennan? You can't protect us all!"
"Why would someone hurt them?"
"To hurt me!"
Booth shook his head. This was getting him nowhere. "Does Zack know? Or are you lying to him too?"
"I'm not lying!" Her eyes could have shot daggers through him.
"You are since we don't even know your real name!" His face softened to what he hoped looked hurt. "What would it hurt? Just for me to run your name through the computer? Your real name?" His eyes pled with hers. "I'm your friend, Casey. Let me help you."
He looked sincere. She wanted to believe him. She had carried this for too long. "You promise you won't tell the others? Not even Zack?"
"Of course."
Her eyes burned with tears she would not let fall. "I mean it. You take this to your grave, and you protect us."
He nodded somberly. What was she hiding?
She shrank back in the seat, as if trying to make herself as small as possible. "My name is Martina Dalton."
He sat in stunned silence as she recounted a story that was sure to give him nightmares.