DISCALIMER: I don't own Bones and i don't make any money from it.
Chapter 3.
At the same time both Booth and Temperance on each end was starting to worry about their little girl.
Temperance might in her silent mind think she was the worst mother that had ever walked the face of the earth due to her daughter's sweet voice so often saying that she was stupid. Something she knew she was in fact not.
But in fact she was a really good mother. She always made sure her daughter had what she needed and also sometimes what she wanted as she like Seely tended to spoil her.
She never expected to love her daughter as much as she did, but she didn't mind it at all. She was to Temperance the cutest little girl in the world and there was not a moment that she didn't think of her. Which was also why she always knew how long it had gone since she saw her last and when it was time to worry.
This was to her one of those times. So she got up from her desk and walked into her boyfriend's office asking, "Have you seen little Booth?"
"No, in fact I was just about to go into your office to ask you the same or rather when you saw her last?" he asked.
Temperance didn't look at her watch before answering, "Two and a half hour ago, she asked me if it was OK for her to explore. And since she had done so for as long as she could remember I said it was OK. The trouble is that she usually would have come back half an hour ago as it's when she usually ask if we are going home."
Seely as the good father he was knew that this was true, because even of their daughter did love exploring around at the lab and could do so for hours she also liked being at home to relax in her own private sphere. And when she asked both tried to finish as fast as possible, it didn't usually work, but she was with one of them after that. Not asking was not like her.
Booth looked at Temperance and said, "I know, you haven't been fighting with her so she would hide?"
That actually wasn't that unusual either, only they hadn't so she answered, "No and I really don't like this."
"She has probably got caught up and something and lost track of time," he said trying to calm her.
"No, Booth, that is not like her, what if something really bad has happened, what if…" she stopped; she didn't want to finish that thought.
"Bones, will you calm down, it's not like it's the first time she has been gone, she was lost jus the other day, although then she was angry then. Don't you remember when she was three and wanted to explore at home and was gone for hours and you thought she had been kidnapped but turned out she was up in the attic looking at your old junk," he said with a little smile.
"I remember, but just promise me we will find her now as always," she said, looking into his brown eyes.
"I promise, now let's go find little Booth," he said looking back into hers.
She smiled a little before reaching up just a little to kiss him, before dragging him out of the office to search for their daughter.
After looking high and low for almost two hours the couple were starting to feel even more worried and frustrated than before as they didn't see nor hear their little girl any place. Not to mention that the building was huge and there were so many places she could be. Even with help it would take forever to find the lost girl.
"Tempe, if it was you, where would you hide?" Seely asked looking at his partner.
"I don't know what I have to do with any of this, I mean she is her own individual and what I do or not has nothing to do with her," she answered.
"It got everything to do with you or at least a little as she's half you, I been trying to put myself into her mindset but it won't go as she's a girl so please humour me," he said looking at her with pleading eyes.
"I dunno," she said as her mind started to think back to when she was young and tried to hid or explore.
"You're not even trying," he said with a sigh.
"I know where she is," Temperance said, turning in less than a second and headed down the hall.
"Bones," he yelled after her in a slightly frustrated tone as he hurried after her.
Booth had no idea where she was actually was going, of course he knew most of the building in and out, but she could be heading anywhere. He only knew one thing he had to keep up with her as best he could which wasn't always easy as she wasn't exactly telling him when she would turn or change direction.
In fact he almost crashed into her when she finally stopped outside the door of one of the storage room and leaned her head into it to listen.
"Bones," he said again raising his brows at her.
"Shhh," she said holding a finger in front of her lips before saying, "She's here, listen."
Booth did as her, leaned his head against the door to listen and soon heard his little girl's soft cries from inside. He looked surprised at Temperance asking, "Why hasn't she come out to find either if she's in trouble?"
"I don't know, but something is keeping her there, so I suggest you open the door carefully," she said looking at him with eyes asking him to do just that.
Seely nodded before slowly opening the door slowly and very carefully to see their little girl sitting on the floor knees pulled up, hiding her face in her hands as she was both shivering like she was terrified of something and crying.
Bones by instinct ran over and wrapped her arms protectively around her young girl before Seely even had a chance to get to her.
"Little Booth, what happened?" asked Bones in a really concerned tone.
"It was a spider on the handle," the little girl whispered.
Her mother's eyes immediately went to the handle to see if it was still there and concluded that it was. It wasn't really that big, but for person that was terrified of them it had to be pretty scary.
"Booth," she said, nodding her head towards the handle to make him take care of the matter.
He was just about to crush it when Temperance got an idea and said, "Wait."
Booth looked surprised at her, as did Lizzie as Bones walked over to pick up the little spider before walking back to her daughter that looked at her with big terrified eyes.
"I am not let him get near you, but did you know that this little creature in a way is nature's own garbage man?" she asked as the spider settled in the palm of her hand.
"How?" asked Lizzie looking at her mother wrinkling her nose.
"The net's the build trap other bugs like flies, mosquitoes, wasps and others. The spider eats them so there will be less of them. I there wasn't for this little guy and his friends we would have to many insects. And they can make hours to make their nets," said Temperance.
Lizzie nodded, still halfway hiding as she asked, "Is he dangerous?"
"No, not to you, but he is to other insects," Temperance answered calmly.
"He still doesn't look very nice," he daughter concluded.
"I know little Booth, but that is not his fault," Bones said.
"Can you please get ride of him?" Lizzie asked and looked at he father with pleading eyes.
"I can," he said and took it from Bones, he was about to sqush in when Lizzie said, "Take him outside, don't kill it, please."
Booth sighed and as he walked towards the door with the tiny spider wondered if Temperance had managed to take care of Lizzie's arachnophobia.
The same night the couple lay pretty wrapped up in each other when both got woken up by a horrible scream. Bones start up fast, her eyes searching the dark to find where the sound had come from as it now was quiet.
That only lasted for a second though before there was a new scream. It took Bones a second to get that it wasn't coming from their room, but their daughter's and it was no pleasant scream either meaning she most likely were having a bad dream.
"Should you go or I?" Temperance asked Seely as she could tell he was awake as well.
"Would you mind as you are wearing more clothes and it would take longer for me to get dressed to get to her," he said as he was at the moment not wearing anything as it had been a very hot night. Otherwise he would most likely had worn a boxer and a T-shirt.
"No, be right back," she said and gave him a brief kiss before leaving him to tend to Hanna Elizabeth.
Once inside her room, Bones turned on the little light next to her bed only to find her daughter shivering a twisting violently as she was mumbling.
She slowly put a hand on her whispering, "It's ok little Booth, mummy is here."
Little Booth slowly opened her eyes to look at her as small tears were starting to appear. Bones bent down to hug her tightly for comfort as the young girl continued to cry.
"Shhhh easy, what's wrong?" Bones asked in a soft tone.
"Spider on the door, he grew really big, bigger than daddy and he was chasing me into his net, trying to eat me," she managed to get out, still shivering a little.
"You of course know that the chance of that happening is very little as even if a spider is big it can not become bigger than a human, it's impossible in every way. It's just your fear that is making it grow bigger, which is understandable. I should not have presented it to you the way I did," said Temperance with a sigh.
"It's OK mummy, you didn't mean anything by it, you were just trying to help and I don't really get why I am that afraid of them as I like most other bugs," she said giving her mother a hug.
Temperance that was not used to her calling her mummy looked at her a little surprised and said, "It's not uncommon to be afraid of spiders, they are after all not very pleasant creatures. And considering some are quite dangerous it is only natural to be afraid. And what did you just call me?"
"Mummy as that's what you are and thank you for being understanding in your own weird way," the little girl said with a satisfied sigh slowly closing her eyes drifting of to sleep again safely protected by her mother's arms.
After Temperance had been gone for about twenty minutes Seely was starting to worry that something was really wrong as normally she would have come back by then.
He sighed, slowly turning on the lamp on the nightstand before getting out of bed very slowly, only to find a boxer and a T-shirt in the closet. After putting it on he slowly walked over to his little girl's bedroom that was right next door and very gently opened the door.
He smiled when he saw his Bones sound asleep, holding their little Booth closely.
Knowing he had nothing to fear after all he went back to their bed and hugged her pillow instead of her, slowly falling asleep with a smile on his lips.
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