Sorry it's been so obscenely long. I'd tell you why...but you wouldn't believe me #'points accusitorily at aliens standing behind computer'#. Okay, this chap has a lot of April so I hope you guys are okay with that. Ummm...that's it. Enjoy!
Booth pulled the SUV as far off the freeway as he could and stopped.
"You go ahead and go to the body, I'll get your kit from the back."
"Booth I can get my own…" She paused as a semi-truck whizzed by the car and it shook fiercely in the wake of displaced air.
Booth raised his eyebrows.
"You know, just this once, I think I'll let you be the alpha male." She grinned as he squeezed her hand.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me, thank logic."
He gave her a confused look.
"You're broader, more muscular. If you get hit by a speeding vehicle, it won't cause nearly the damage it would cause me."
"Thanks for your concern Bones." Booth said, rolling his eyes.
Booth led Brennan down into the ditch between the two lanes of highway to a small drainage pipe under the bridge. "Body was found by some highway workers doing their community service. Looks like somebody stuffed it in a bag and threw it out the car window while they were driving down the freeway." He grunted slightly and shifted the kit to his other hand, it felt like she'd packed the entire lab inside it.
"Not sure how long it's been here, but it probably got washed down with the rain."
Brennan snapped on her gloves and carefully finished unzipping the bag where a small hand had poked through.
"Did anyone touch the bag or move the body in any way?"
"No ma'am." A man in a bright orange vest answered. "I had them all step back until the cops showed up."
Brennan nodded and carefully studied the contents of the bag, which mostly included badly decomposed bodily organs and fluids, which had collected near the bottom of the duffel, and a small skeleton, huddled into the fetal position.
"Bones?"
"Female. 10-12. Possibly Asian decent…the body has been in this bag for at least two years. I can see several healed fractures as well as fresh ones that occurred closer to TOD in all her extremities." She turned to look at Booth over her shoulder. "It's possible she was beaten."
Booth's eyes darkened and his frown deepened, but her merely nodded and wrote down the rest of her preliminary analysis.
---
"Okay Bones, they know how to process a scene." Booth said, hooking her elbow and pushing her toward the SUV.
"Could have fooled me…hey! Are you trying to compromise the evidence? Get your boots away from there." Brennan pulled her arm free and started back toward the drainage pipe, where a Forensics team was attempting to keep hold on their respective tempers.
"Bones." Booth warned, this time taking her arms and spinning her back toward him. "Overzealous much? They're doing their best, and their best will be better without you breathing down their necks." He raised his eyebrows and dipped his head to peek over dark sunglasses.
I swear she misses ordering people around when she goes on these trips.
Brennan stuck out her chin, hands on her hips "Booth! This is unacceptable. Where did you find these…these…bookies?"
He smiled sweetly and gently grasped her upper arms.
"Babe," He said quietly, "Let them do their jobs. I take responsibility for any contaminated evidence, okay?"
Some of the tension left her body and she dropped her hands to her sides, but her face remained set in the same strong defiance.
"Fine. But I am holding you personally responsible." She said, poking him in the chest to emphasize her point.
His face broke out into a full grin. "I look forward to it." He resisted the urge to kiss her and instead squeezed her arms and winked.
"And it's rookies, not bookies."
Brennan pursed her lips and huffed, pulling out of his grip and stalking off toward the SUV. Booth shook his head, an amused smile still on his lips as he turned toward the men and women swarming the scene.
"Hey, guys! Don't make me look bad, alright?" After quick visual confirmation that the Forensics team did, in fact, know what they were doing, then joined Brennan in the car.
"Okay, the body won't get back to the lab for about an hour…who feels like pie?"
Brennan turned slowly from the window, determined not to fall for his playful tone.
"No Booth I…" Unfortunately for her, it was nearly impossible to resist him when he smiled like that.
"Ugh. Fine." She said, rolling her eyes and trying to suppress her own smile but failing miserably.
"Pie it is."
---
Bright pink spiky hair. Lip ring, black and white striped leggings, hot pink Pumas and a black Bon Jovi Concert tee.
I guess some things will never change.
---
April blinked a few times and stared in shock at the wildly dressed girl before her. After a bit of gawking, a rarely seen smile spread across her lips.
"Misty!" She practically screamed, causing more than a few heads in the hallway to swivel in their direction. Haphazardly dropping their books, the girls embraced tightly.
"I haven't seen you in foreva' and a day. Where have you been?" Misty practically shrieked, her hands gripping April's tightly.
April just shrugged and shook her head, too excited to speak. "A lot of places."
"Oh my Gawd we have so much to catch up on." She rolled her brown eyes skyward for a moment and then brought them back to April's. "Let's skip second period and find someplace to tawk."
April glanced at her abandoned Geometry book near her feet. A worn out text book with folded papers sticking out every which direction, unfinished homework and notes. Homework copied on Salmon colored paper with holes in it where she'd tried and failed to solve a problem so many times, her eraser ripped through. And notes, evidence of hours spent attempting to understand what Mr. Blackwell was explaining, even though she was pretty sure he was speaking German.
It was not a hard decision.
"Sounds good, just throw your stuff in my locker."
Misty did and soon the girls were strolling happily, arm in arm, though the thinning crowd in the hallway and making small talk. Then, moments after the tardy bell rang, their voices echoed in silence as everyone rushed off to class.
Paying no attention to their sudden solidarity, April made a comment about the preppy girls in her art class having 'the combined IQ of a Peanut' and Misty cry out with laughter, catching the attention of a security guard down the hall.
"Hey! You two, where are your passes?"
The girls glanced over their shoulders and then back at each other.
"I say we scram."
"Definitely."
Giggling, they ran to the next flight of stairs, jumped the last three steps and bounded out the door, the shouts of a heavyset security guard fading behind them. They weren't being chased anymore, but kept running anyway until they found a set of bleachers near the baseball field where they could stop and catch their breath.
---
I love sunny mornings. The way the dew sparkles like stars at midnight, and the way the frost crunches the grass beneath my feet. I don't know, it just feels sort of…magical somehow. Like a clean slate for a new day. Like you can start over fresh.
---
"Phew! Remind me never to run in heavy boots again!" April collapsed on the lowest level of the bleachers.
"Yeah, you're tellin' me! I almost twisted my ankle like twice." Misty exclaimed, dropping down beside her friend. They leaned back and fell into silence while they caught their breath.
"So last I heard you wah with some family one county ova'. The Dicken's place, right?"
Her face darkened. "Yeah. That's right."
Misty didn't notice her stiffened posture and continued smoothly. "How were they?"
April sat forward and pulled on a tall weed between her feet.
"I don't wanna talk about it." She mumbled.
Misty opened her eyes and sat forward, studying April carefully for a few moments before she spoke.
"Oh." She nodded and looked away, tugging on a lock of pink hair. "Mike Tyson or Hugh Heffna'?"
The corner of April's lips curled for a moment, she liked Misty's clever way of approaching a scary, very private subject.
"Mike Tyson."
Misty didn't even flinch, only nodded knowingly. "That sucks."
April thought about telling her friend that what really sucked was being kidnapped and almost blown up, but decided against it.
After a moment Misty reached behind her into a silver-sequined purse and retrieved a small cardboard box. Taking a cigarette between her lips, she offered the box to April.
"Na, I quit."
Misty's eyebrows shot up and she carefully lit her cig, taking a long drag before exhaling to respond.
"You did? When did this happen?"
April shrugged and brushed her bangs off her forehead.
"Tommy said he didn't like the taste." She saw Misty's jaw drop in the corner of her eye and smiled.
"You and Tommy Hopkins?" Misty asked, blowing a puff of smoke skyward. "Wow, is that ever a blast from the past." She shook her head with a smile and kicked the dirt in front of their seats.
"I always knew you two was perfect for each otha'."
April nodded. "Yup, you always did."
---
It really is stupid how long it took us to get together. We danced around and around for so long it's actually sad. Flirted the way children do, water fights, passing notes, the whole nine yards. It was nice then, pretending. It was sort of like playing house or being in a soap opera. Nothing was serious, feelings weren't really involved, 'going out' meant holding hands at recess.
Then we grew up. I think it literally happened in one night. I met his parents, who found out I didn't have any, and therefore, Tommy wasn't to have anything to do with me.
Later that night, I snuck over to his house after finding out the worst possible news I could have heard. He held me while I cried. I think that's when it happened, that's the exact moment we grew up. When he gave me my first kiss, and it was nothing more than a soft press of his lips against my temple.
It didn't seem fair, that I had just found the love of my life and now I was being sent away. I knew I'd never see him again.
---
"So where are you now? Anybody I know?"
April shook her head. "You don't know them."
"You sure? 'Cause last yea' I went through five fosta' homes in less than eight months." Misty held up five fingers proudly.
April snorted, shedding her black jacket as the heat became more intense. "That's not really something to be proud of Mist. You know, if you just tried to do what they tell you maybe they wouldn't…"
"What the hell is this?" Misty snapped, cutting short April's well intentioned sermon.
April glanced over and saw the flash of anger and hurt mixing in Misty's brown eyes. It was quickly hidden away under a façade of bravery and she crossed her arms defensively, awaiting an explanation.
"Sorry." She muttered, digging her black boots into the dirt.
"Yea, you should be. You know betta' than that." Misty puffed her cig one last time before throwing it to the ground and stomping it out. "You can't try to be what they want you to be. You gotta give 'em your worst right off the bat. That way, if they keep you around, the worst is ova' and nobody is disappointed later. You know that betta' than anybody." Misty said quietly.
April nodded and searched for a way to change the subject, embarrassed to have made such a stupid slip. "I'm not in a foster home."
"Group home?" Misty asked, her voice light again.
"No…I'm being adopted." She said hesitantly. Staring through the chain link fence at the baseball field.
"Really?" Misty glanced at her friend and found the dark green eyes were expressionless. She sighed and rose, walking along the long metal bench behind them.
"What?" April turned to watch, she could tell by her friend's sudden quiet that she was bothered by something.
Misty shrugged. "I'm happy for you, that's awll. I mean, if they survived you pushing 'em then, they must be good. 'Cuz you can do some of the worst I've seen."
April averted her eyes and quickly turned away, her heart speeding up. "Yeah."
Misty stopped and sat down, touching April's arm so she would look at her.
"April, you did push them…didn't you?"
She gnawed on her bottom lip and bounced her left leg nervously. "I don't have to."
"Are you kiddin' me?" Misty leapt to her feet. "What are you thinking? You gotta push 'em. If they don't see the real you before it's too late…"
"But that's not the real me Mist! I'm not like that."
"But you're no goody two shoes eitha'. You gotta push their buttons now, before it's too late April. While you can still get away if you have to. If you trust 'em, and you wait too long…Gawd April. Anybody can be Mike Tyson, anybody! You know that." She said, her voice shaking noticeably.
April's vision started to get blurry and her chin trembled. "But…"
"No buts. April, you're right. You aren't like that. You don't throw stuff or steal things or break curfew. But one day you might slip, you might do somethin' wrong…then what?" Misty waited, her own eyes beginning to water. "Eitha' you end up back in the system or…or worse. It's happened before April. I was there, I rememba'."
---
I remember too. I remember every single stupid detail.
That cute little white house with the perfect little white fence, the one I thought I'd live in. That nice couple who said they loved me, who I believed because I was too naïve to know they were lying. That pretty dog in the backyard and whispered promises of adoption and a new life.
That pregnancy test that read 'positive' and ruined everything.
---
Flashes of memories she thought she'd left behind suddenly moved inside her mind and April sank to the ground. She bowed her head to her knees and pressed her fists over her eyes. Tears burned behind her lids and she gritted her teeth as the first of the sobs worked it's way up her throat.
---
A garbage bag full of clothes I didn't fit, an empty room and bare mattress that wasn't mine anymore. And I was glad for it because it had changed when they knew about the baby. Nothing I could do was right. I was a screw up and they made sure I knew it.
And what I hated even more was that I missed it. Even as we left the driveway, left the neighborhood and I was rubbing a bruise hidden under my shirt…even then I was missing them. Because lies about something better are easier to take than the reality of what's worse.
And I remember pulling over so I could puke, and covering with dirt before my Social Worker could see the blood.
---
Her whole body began to shake with the sobs and Misty was immediately at her side, arms wrapped around her shoulders, trying to hold her steady.
"I'm sorry April. So sorry." She sobbed as well and held on tighter, neither felt the gravel grinding into their knees as their tears soaked the earth. "I didn't mean…I just don't wanna see you hurt again. I don't want them to hurt you."
---
I know she doesn't. I don't either. Now what do I do?
---
Hopefully the next update will be up soon. Lemme know what you thought!