Here's the next chap. thanks for all the support in this little April endevor, lots of you have told me how you don't usually like to look into fics with original characters, so thanks for giving this one a chance. Dedicated to all my wonderful readers, the ladies in teh Anti-Boneyard (courtesy of my friend Willgurl, check it out!) and to Booth and his sexy jeans.

There are 206 bones in the human body. It has approximately 5 quarts of blood. 38 organs. Facts. Empirical truths Brennan knew to be true. One simply cannot survive on only 103 bones and 2.5 quarts of blood. She knew that.

But, then why did it feel like half of her was missing?

"Zach have you finished your body yet?" Brennan asked shortly.

"No Dr. Brennan there are some marks that I…"

"Great. I told the DA we'd have them done by two. I can't…" She stopped. Zach was staring at her, wide eyed and stunned. Angela and Jack were both exchanging and throwing concerned looks toward her.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she still couldn't get her heart rate to come down she sighed. Turning on her heel, she bounded down the platform steps and shut the door to her office behind her.

Booth had been gone for nearly three weeks and he'd only been able to call twice. She wasn't really worried at this point…just missing him.

"Deep breaths Temperance. Zach didn't do anything wrong. He's just doing his best and not allowing himself to be rushed, like you taught him. C'mon." Brennan paced in front of her desk muttering and fanning herself, trying to calm down. "I had no right to snap at him…I should apologize."

She stood staring at the door, but didn't move.

"Nobody blames you, you know."

Brennan nearly jumped out of her skin and turned to face the person sitting quietly on her couch.

"April, how did you get in here."

The girl shrugged. "Through the door. Same way as you."

Brennan made a face at her and started needlessly straightening the files on her desk, embarrassed to have been caught in one of her weaker moments.

"You really miss him, huh?"

Brennan looked up and met April's dark green eyes. "I know how you feel. It's tough, not having your other half around, especially when you feel like…you need someone to hold you together."

Brennan could only nod and their eyes were locked in a gaze filled with common sorrow as understanding passed between them. Then, as both were more comfortable pretending emotions didn't exist rather than confronting them, they immediately broke the contact and turned away.

Brennan glanced at the clock and was about to ask why April wasn't at school when she remembered.

"How was your meeting with Dr. Wyatt?" She looked up, waiting for the heavy sigh and huge eye roll that had followed that question every time it had been asked for the past two and a half weeks. When it didn't come, she looked up from the email she'd been skimming over. April sat perfectly still, hands clasped tight in her lap and stared at the table in front of her.

"Um…I don't know." She shrugged and turned her head, nearly gasped when she saw tears standing in the girl's eyes and immediately gathered that something was wrong. Putting aside the papers, she moved to lock the door and then went to sit beside her.

"What do you mean? Is everything alright?"

Again, April only shrugged, now blinking hard so as to not let the tears fall. "One minute I was just staring at him, like I always do, not saying anything. The next…I said something about him reminding me of my dad…and I just...I couldn't stop talking."

---

"He says I need closure…what the hell does that mean?" April's tears burst forth but her voice remained steady, angry. Brennan's heart seized, her mind racing with the right thing to do. She almost glanced at the door, wishing Booth were there to show her how to comfort this girl, not realizing she was already doing it.

"I..don't know, April. I'm…not very good at psychology."

April wiped her sleeve across her eyes and nose and took a shaky breath. "I just…I miss them, you know?" She mumbled "You and Seeley are great but…I really miss my mom and dad. I miss them and I wish…" Her voice grew tight and she trailed off, turning her watery green eyes on Brennan, hoping for the answer to a question that was not clearly defined.

---

Okay, I mean, my dad wasn't some abusive psycho, and he wasn't cold. He was just…military, through and through. He showed his love in other ways. In the way he trained our guys to be the best so they could protect us as well as possible. In the way he made sure I always did my homework and brushed my teeth, he just took care of his own. And if I ever doubted that he loved me, mom made sure I didn't doubt for long. She never said 'I love you' either, it was always 'we love you'. Always. No matter where we were, even if dad was a hundred miles away, she'd kiss me on the forehead at night or put a band aid on my scraped knee during the day, and she'd smooth my hair and say, 'we love you very much, baby'.

---

Brennan watched as April picked at her fingers and chewed on her lip, her self-conscious fidgeting reminding her so much of herself at that age that she had to close her eyes for a moment to focus.

Then, putting a gentle hand on April's arm, she squeezed. "You wish you knew why."

April nodded, holding her breath as the sobs worked up again and her tears fell down. She was used to Brennan's brutal honesty, but the heart aching accuracy in pinpointing what April was thinking was something she still had problems coping with.

"I do." Suddenly she was hugging Brennan tight, surprising her. But she quickly recovered and rubbed the girl's back as she pressed her face into her shoulder and sobbed. "I know why my mom left, she couldn't help it…but what about dad? Why did he have to leave me too? Was life with me really as bad as everyone always says?"

Brennan was so caught up in the helpless ache invading her chest at being unable to soothe April's pain, that she at first didn't hear the question. But when she did, her hands stilled and she pulled back.

April looked up, her face blotchy and her eyes red and rimmed in running mascara. She hiccupped and waited.

Brennan frowned. "Who says that? Who could ever say that life with you was anything other than…unexpected and…completely…enjoyable?" Brennan was outraged at the very idea of someone taking the fragile self-image of this young girl and tainting it with a lie so hurtful as that.

April laughed at Brennan's awkward wording and sat up, still hiccupping slightly but trying to calm down. "A surprisingly high number of people actually." Brennan still seemed puzzled and was now bordering on seething rage, so she continued quickly. "Well, plenty of foster families, not just parents, but the sibs are brutal. Then sometimes my teachers or…the kids at school.

---

Okay, that was something I didn't meant to say. I mean, you'd think the whole 'parents' dieing thing would give him enough material to last us twelve sessions…and yet I keep talking. About them, about the fosters and the system. About Tommy and Seeley and Tempe…but what I hadn't intended to talk to him about was Peirce.

---

"This boy said that to you? That you were worthless and…that?"

April nodded. "He did, in front of the whole class. That was…um, the day you, found me. Remember?"

Remember? How could she forget?

"He made you do that?" Brennan sounded livid and April almost smiled, she sounded as if she would karate chop the next warm blooded mammal to walk through her office door.

"Well, not make me per say. More like…gave me the last push over the edge. I mean, most days I ignore him, it's just talk…"

"You mean he says this sort of thing on a regular basis?"

April merely flicked her eyes toward her, refusing to confirm or deny Brennan's guess. "On that day…I was already upset because of hurting you and Seeley…"

"When did you…"

"For making you fight because of my bad behavior. So anyway, that day instead of just saying it, he grabbed my arm and pushed me up against the locker. He's strong and I couldn't get away…He, um, he whispered to met that no one would ever love me so I should take what I get…then he, uhm, then he…kissed me. Or, made me kiss him."

Brennan sat opened mouthed as the girl's confession settled on her ears. After a moment, her stunned expression turned to a tight-lipt frown and she felt the rage rising within her.

"Did anyone, does anyone at the school know? Teachers? Your principal?" Brennan asked in as controlled a voice as she could muster. She and April now sat side by side and she held her white hands in tight fists while she waited for the girl to answer.

April, the black curtain of hair still on either side of her face, shook her head from side to side slowly. "No," she almost whispered, "He's…rich. His parents are on the school board. He can do whatever he wants."

"No." Brennan said sharply, causing April to tense up. She closed her eyes a moment, willing herself to calm down. Then, reaching over, she pushed April's hair aside and waited for the girl to meet her gaze.

She did, tentatively.

"April, no one has the right to do that. To make you feel small and…powerless. No one. You have to stand up for yourself."

"That's easy for you to say Tempe!" April said suddenly, exasperated and breathless from trying to keep herself from crying. "You're strong. You have a gun and you kick criminal butt! I'm just…me. I'm nobody, nothing." Again her head fell forward and Brennan wasn't sure whether to be angry or upset. Perhaps she was a little of both.

"April, why would you…"

"Because it's true!" She stood, shouting and moved away, crossing her arms protectively over her chest. "Nobody has ever wanted me. Why would they? I can't stand up for myself Tempe, there's nothing to stand up for. How would I do it? I'm not strong enough Tempe, I'm just not."

Brennan sat on the couch, caught in a staring match with an emotionally wounded teenager standing not ten feet away. Suddenly, the irony of the whole situation hit her. April, standing there with her black tank and pants, silver chains on her pants and boots. April, with her black nail polish and hair, teary eyes with the running mascara and that stubborn tilt to her chin…it was ironic. That child thought she was nothing, weak, and yet Brennan couldn't imagine a single person in the world who would be brave enough to pick a fight with her at that moment.

Averting her eyes so the ever-perceptive April wouldn't see the smile in them, she stood and slowly closed the distance between them.

"April, you're wrong." She said quietly when she stood directly in front of the girl. "You're the strongest person I know."

April, who'd been watching Brennan carefully until them, suddenly dropped her gaze disbelievingly. In the next moment, she felt a gentle nudge on her chin, pulling her gaze back toward Brennan's.

"I'll prove it to you."

Alright, we're winding down now, The Angst Train may finally be reaching it's destination. If you're still onboard, go ahead and drop me a line.