Unfortunately, Booth was wrong. Mattie didn't show up the next day, either. Booth was able to calm his cousin's nerves by saying she was probably really sick. He tried to entertain him by taking him to the park, which worked for several hours. Then they went back home and read comic books and watched TV for a few hours.

Booth decided that if she didn't show up on the third day, he was going to go house to house looking for her or call the cops, because he didn't know how much longer Jett could handle not knowing where she was. Booth knew that she had been hiding something from him the one day he had been around her, and wondered if that had anything to do with her disappearing act.

He got up on the fourth day in Chicago and turned off his alarm. He tried to focus, but his mind kept pulling him back to the dream he had been having. It was another weird dream that the babysitter had been in. Booth tried to focus on the images his mind and could only come up with a warehouse, a scared, tied up Mattie, and then her arms wrapped around his neck even though her hands were still bound together. Oh, and a lot of pain on his part for some reason. Booth shook his head. He hoped that he never saw that happen to anyone, again, especially someone he knew from outside the military, like the innocent babysitter.

He was brushing his teeth when he heard a knock at the front door. He immediately went to the door, glancing at the clock as he passed it. Five 'til eight.

He opened the door to see Mattie standing there. She still wore that jean jacket, but she was wearing some high school t-shirt that looked just as big as the Northwestern shirt and jean capris. He thought she looked paler, and, if possible, even more sickly skinny. She looked tired, and faded. Her brown eyes had lost the fierceness they had when they had first met.

"Hello, Booth." She greeted him like nothing had changed.

"Mattie, where have you been?"

"My foster house."

"Are you okay?"

"Don't worry about it, Booth. I can take care of myself." She entered the house, brushing right past him. Booth couldn't believe it; she had disappeared for two days, without a word to him or Jett. And now she wanted to pretend like it everything was fine. With all these weird dreams about her, Booth was a lot more protective of her. No matter how weird or irrational it was.

"I've been guessing where you were for two days to try and calm Jett down, and know you're telling me not to worry about it. I hate to break it to you, but that's not going to happen." Booth noticed that his voice was rising, and he really didn't care.

Mattie looked towards Jett's door, and went to close. The moment it was completely shut, she turned to Booth and almost hissed, "You need to keep your voice down or you'll wake Jett." She began walking towards the kitchen.

"Mattie, you better have a good reason for not showing up, because the moment he sees you he's going to ask you where you were."

"And I'll tell him I had some family issues."

"See, but you already told me you were in the foster system," Booth pointed out, blocking her path.

"I do have a foster family," she tried to walk past him. He wasn't going to let her do that again. He grabbed her upper arm, and immediately heard a small whimper escape her lips. He released his grasp, and saw her un-scrunch her face. Booth knew he hadn't used enough gripped her hard enough to hurt her, unless…

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, you just grabbed me and I wasn't expecting it."

"You whimpered, Mattie, and I didn't grab you that hard."

"Booth, I already told you not to worry about it."

"And I already told you that wasn't going to happen."

Brown met brown, both eyes showing determination. Booth knew that he wasn't going to give up; he was worried about the girl. Mattie finally sighed. She pushed a blonde lock of hair out of her face. "Why do you care so much? I barely know you."

"Because, you're special to my cousin, and I hate seeing people in trouble."

"You'll do well in law enforcement."

Booth gave her a half smile. "We'll see. So, are you going to tell me?"

She gave a small nod. "But, if Jett comes out, then the conversation ends. He doesn't need to know about this."

"Fine."

Mattie removed her jacket for the first time since Booth met her, and what he saw pissed him off. She had bruising up and down both of her arms; some were beginning to fade, but others looked new. He recognized the type of marks, too. They were similar to the ones that his father had inflicted on him and Jared when they were kid.

"They beat you?" he finally managed to asked.

"They gave me warning. I stayed out too late; it was my fault-"

"No. Nothing you could have possibly done gives them a right to hurt you like that. And I'm betting the marks aren't just on your arms, are they?" She shook her head, and lifted her shirt, showing several more bruises scattered across her stomach. Booth wanted to do something to help her, but didn't know what to do. He finally went towards the phone.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm calling the cops."

"What? You can't!"

"Mattie, they're beating you! I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing."

"Booth, I'm handling the situation. I stay out of the house during the day. And Larry usually has the night shift, so it's not that bad when I go back." Booth picked up the phone, anyway. We was about to start dialing when Mattie grabbed the phone out of his hands. "Booth, please. I don't want to be moved to another house where things could be worse."

"Worse than beating you?"

"I've heard of some of the houses other foster kids have been to. It can be a lot worse. I have two more months and then I'm out of the system for good. I don't want to deal with a living hell, when I can handle a nightmare instead. Plus, I don't want to leave Jett. Your cousin and aunt and uncle are the closest thing I've to a family in two years; they've reminded me that good people do exist. You've reminded of that." Booth sighed. He wasn't going to win this conversation, and he knew it.

"Fine. But, I don't like it."

"I didn't expect you to."

"Just answer one more question for me. How often do they do this?" Booth motioned to her arms.

"Depends. At first, it was a night when Larry got drunk, about a week after I got there. By mid- June, it was whenever we were both awake and at the house. Usually, it's just a slap on the face, but if I ever misbehave or an accident happens, then I take a more severe beating."

"What happened two nights ago?" Booth knew her disappearance was linked to the abuse.

"They ordered me to clean up after dinner, and I ended up making more of a mess. I was going to clean it up, but they decided I should be punished instead."

"You didn't want Jett seeing you that badly hurt." She shook her head. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"No. I-" Booth placed his hand over her mouth to stop her from talking, and picked up her jacket and handed it to her. He had seen a door open. He walked to the other side of her to block a possible bruise sighting.

When they heard the bathroom door closed, and Booth removed his hand from her mouth. She quickly slid on her jacket, and turned back towards to kitchen and began making Jett breakfast. Booth went and sat down at the table, watching Mattie prepare his cousin's breakfast as she did three days ago.

"Booth," Mattie said quietly as she poured the juice, "thank you."

He simply nodded. Whether she liked it or not, he was going to find a way to help her. She was going to be the first one on the good side of the cosmic balance list.