Kirra noticed him first. "What do you want?"

Booth froze. He didn't mean to make it so obvious he was eavesdropping. "Sorry, I heard your conversation. Did you lose a puppy or something?" he asked walking towards them. The way they were describing Mattie made her sound more like an animal then teenager.

"No, we lost our foster kid," Larry answered. Booth became very aware that he had been drinking sometime that morning; the stench still remained on his breathe.

"How old? I might have seen them when I was running." Booth fought to keep his voice even, but that proving to be challenging.

"Seventeen year old girl."

"What's her name?"

"Matilda."

"Don't be stupid, Larry; her name is Mattea."

"Now who's being stupid? It ends with a 'e' sound, not and 'a'."

"You said her name was Matilda!"

"Yeah, but she doesn't go by the whole damn thing."

"Mattie?" Booth cut in. Both foster parents turned to him.

"That's it. You know her?"

"What type of people can't remember the name of the girl who's been living with them for over a month?" Booth asked ignoring the question.

"She doesn't talk much," the woman defended.

"Doesn't matter! She's been living with you for a month! Then again, what type of people beat a girl who they're supposed to look after?" That caught both the 'parents' attention.

"Hey, who are you to question our parent techniques?"

"You beat her! How can that possibly be a good thing?"

"She doesn't listen otherwise," Larry answered. Booth couldn't hold back the anger that had been building in him since he identified these people. He punched Larry square in the jaw. Kirra let a small scream escape her lips.

Larry fell to the ground, but immediately stood back up. "You shouldn't have done that, punk."

"You might be good at beating a teenage girl, but there's no way you can take me."

"And what makes you so special?"

"I'm an Army Ranger. Spent the last four years serving my country." Larry obviously didn't think much about it, because he went up and attempted to attack Booth. The soldier quickly defended himself against the assault , and got a quick punch to the stomach. Kirra decided it would be a good idea to join in on the fight. So, while her husband was trying to breathe again and Booth's attention was focused there, she went up behind Booth and kicked him in the back. He faltered a little; he still hadn't fully recovered from the torture he sustained while he was captured in the dessert. It was enough time for Larry to get back up and punch him in the nose. Booth ignored the pain that ran through his face, and got another couple of punches that affected Larry's breathing. Booth quickly turned around to find Kirra trying to repeat the attack on his back. Booth caught her leg, but refused to actual cause her injury. He had never hit a woman, and never planned on it- though she was tempting him. When she started to lose her balance, Booth gave her the leg back before bolting across the yard.

"Hopefully, Larry, you have some idea of how much you've hurt Mattie. If I find out that you lay another finger on her, I will come back but I won't stop after beating your ass. I used self control this time, next time you won't be so lucky."

Booth ran the long way back to Jett's house, just in case the two decided to call the cops on him. (Though explaining why their foster daughter was black and blue would be an interesting challenge for them.) Once Booth turned onto the street, he slowed to a jog; and once in the driveway, it became a walk. He hoped that Mattie had already taken Jett to the park. Booth wiped some sweat off his face with his arm, and noticed that there was some blood mixed in with it. He checked the only place Larry had been able to hit him, and found that it was his nose was letting blood flow out of it like a river. All the more reason for no one to be home.

He tried the door, hoping to find it locked, but he was easily able to enter the house. He heard someone in the kitchen, and someone in Jett's room. He hoped that he could sneak into the bathroom without being seen. He was about half way there, when Mattie turned around in the kitchen and saw his back.

"Booth, how was your run?" He froze in place, hoping Jett wouldn't come out right now.

"Good, I'm going to take a quick shower and then I'll join you at the park."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"You sound different."

"How?"

"If I were to guess, I'd hypothesis your nose was stopped up; but considering you sounded fine this morning, that's fairly unlikely."

"Huh. I wonder why. Maybe it's the pollen in the air."

"Why aren't you facing me?" she asked rather suddenly and bluntly.

"No reason."

"Booth…" she walked around to his front and saw the bloody nose and what had come off his face and fallen onto his shirt. "What happened?" She asked running to get paper towels from the kitchen. She ran them under cool water as he answered.

"Nothing, Mattie. Don't worry about it."

"You're covered in blood. What happened?"

"I got into a fight. You should see the other guy."

"Who is he?"

"No one you know."

"Then why did you tell me to see him?" Booth laughed once he realized she was serious.

"It's a saying, Mattie. But seriously, I'm fine. This is nothing compared to what I've gotten playing hockey."

"This is a safe neighborhood, Booth," Mattie returned to the point as she approached him with the paper towels. "Most people don't just start fights unless provoked. So I want to know at least where this person lives, so I can avoid taking Jett around them."

"I don't know the street names," Booth lied. Luckily, Mattie didn't even notice. Actually she pulled out two kitchen chairs facing each other and motioned for him to sit. Booth complied.

"So do you randomly fight strangers?"

"No, just jackasses."

"So you have a relationship with this person?" she asked as she sat across from him.

"Please, can we not talk about this?"

"You told me earlier I didn't have a say about you worrying about me. I don't see why you get to have one about me worrying about you. And this might hurt a little," she added holding the paper towel to his nose with some pressure.

"Ow!" he whimpered. "Because I can take care of myself."

"And I can't?" Booth suddenly realized the stupidity of his words. Mattie might not protect herself up to Booth's liking, but she wasn't dead either.

"All I'm saying is that I was in the army, I can beat up like that drunken idiot." Mattie looked up into Booth's brown ones. With the glint in her eye, he knew she had figured out what happened.

She pulled the towel away and looked him in the eye before asking, "He did this to you?"

"Who?" Booth played dumb.

"My foster dad, Larry." Booth knew he couldn't lie to her about this anymore. She needed to be able to trust someone, and he wanted it to be that person.

"Yeah. Oh, and by the way, if you want to stick around, you're going to want to head back to that hellhole. Your social worker is coming by today."

"No one told me that."

"Yeah, well they were complaining how they couldn't find you and your social worker would be there in the next few hours. And they needed you there so they could keep on getting that check." Maybe they never said those exact words, but it was obvious.

"I'll go back after lunch… How did Larry even get a chance to hit you? He's not very quick. He usually corners me."

"Kirra hit me on my back- when I wasn't expecting it. I only made that mistake once. But look, I really don't want Jett seeing me like this; so if you let me take a shower," he said, looking towards Jett's door before standing up. But Mattie caught his wrist.

"After you answer one more question. Why did you go picking a fight with my foster parents?"

"Look at your arms and you've got your answer," he replied before pulling away from her grip and heading towards the bathroom.

So, what did everyone think? I'm slightly superstitious, so having 13 reviews is kind of bothering me... So please review.