Disclaimer: I don't own Bones or any of the associated characters. Please don't sue.
Chapter Three
Seeley Booth peered through the living room window, looking for any sign of Temperance. He saw her back into the wall, and a large man come at her, his fist in the air. Seeley turned away; he couldn't watch him hit her. Seeley ran around the back of the house and crawled carefully up the drainpipe, almost slipping a few times. He finally made it through the window, which Bones had left open for him.
"Stop, please stop!" He heard Temperance scream. Seeley walked slowly down the stairs, careful not to make any noise. Temperance saw him, but made sure not to make her relief obvious. He snuck up behind the so-called foster father and tapped him on the shoulder. The man whirled around and Seeley slammed his fist into the man's face, thrusting him back.
"Come on Bones," he said quickly, pulling her with him. The foster father scrambled to his feet and punched Seeley's mouth. Booth felt blood trickle from his lips and lost his temper.
"Get out of here," Seeley warned Temperance, but she shook her head. She wasn't going to leave him to fight this alone, like her foster mother had. Hank, her foster father, beat up her foster mother Leslie. Leslie was relieved when Temperance came along, which gave him a new punching bag.
"Bitch," Hank hissed, "After all I've done for you, I get this?" Temperance felt her blood rush through her body.
"You haven't done anything for me," she yelled. She wasn't afraid of this man, not anymore. Hank flew at her, but Seeley jumped in front of her and started pounding him everywhere. He punched his face and his chest, until he saw enough blood, and started standing up, but Hank kicked Booth's chest, throwing him against the wall. Temperance remembered when Booth saved her from Jacob, and she knew she had to do something.
"Leave him the hell alone," she growled, and kicked Hank in the groin. He dropped to the floor, leaving him at her mercy. She kicked him in his stomach as hard as she could, just like Seeley had done to Jacob. Booth grabbed her shoulder.
"Its okay, Bones, I know you hate him, but you don't want to kill him," he reminded her. Hank lay on the floor and groaned in pain. Seeley tossed him the house phone and opened the front door.
"Call an ambulance if you need it," Booth told him, and shut the front door behind him and Bones.
"Are you okay?" Booth asked her, walking back towards Tyler's house. She looked at him like he was crazy.
"Why did you give him a phone?" She asked. He turned towards her.
"If he dies, no matter how much of a bastard he is, you and I would rot in prison for it," he reminded her. She nodded.
"I guess so, but I want him to die. Think about all the girls that family might foster in the future. All the poor girls who he might beat up or even kill? What about them, Seeley?" He sighed.
"You can have him arrested, Bones."
"I can't, I don't want to move house and schools again. I turn eighteen in six months, I can wait until then." He grasped her hand in his.
"No, you can't, you don't deserve this," he said again. He remembered the first time he met her, when he was a sophomore and she was a freshman. She looked younger than all the other freshman girls, and was picked on a lot for it. She was paired up with him in science class that year, and she insisted she did most the work. He found her strange then, but saw her in a completely different light now.
"A-Are you okay?" She asked him, touching a cut on his face gently. He laughed and touched a bump on her head.
"Yeah, you've got a lump the size of a ping-pong ball on your head," he informed her.
"Thank you, Seeley;" she said solemnly, "I've needed a friend like you for a long time. Thanks for sticking up for me, and everything. I wish I could do this same for you." He gathered the girl into his arms as she broke down, letting everything she had bottled up free.
"Hey, hey Bones, it's okay, you can stay at my apartment as long as you want," he said gently. She shook her head.
"W-Won't your parents care?" She asked.
"I live with my cousin Peter, he's 22, and he won't mind. My dad beat me up, too, so I went to live with him," he told her. She looked up at him, and knew what she should do.
TBC…sorry it's been a few days. I've had major writers block, and rewrote this chapter at least four times! Please review, should Bones live with Booth? Tell me!