Chapter 12

Tuesday 11 AM: Hospital

Booth approached Brennan's hospital room. He knew that she was determined to go home today and wouldn't want to waste time waiting for him. He stopped at her room and knocked on the door. In another minute a woman came to the door. When she opened it he asked "I'm here to pick up Dr. Brennan, is she still going home today?"

"Yes she is we are just finishing up with getting her dressed. She should be ready in 10 minutes." The woman closed the door and went back to helping Dr. Brennan.

Booth was wearing a big grin now that he knew everything was alright. When he saw the door closed several things started going through his mind and none of them were good. His body started to empty adrenalin into his system and he could feel his face turn red. Now that he knew she was alright he got control and made himself relax.

In exactly 10 minutes, as the woman had promised, the door opened. He walked into the room to find Brennan already dressed and in a wheelchair with her purse on her lap. Booth went to her and kissed her lips gently.

"Are you ready to go?"

"I can say in all honesty, YES." They all laughed at Brennan's eagerness to go home.

"Booth this is Mrs. Nancy Frederick. I've hired her and a Ms. Theresa Milner to take care of Angela and I for the next one to two weeks while Hodgins is at work. They are both nurses here at the hospital and work part time taking care of people at their homes." She saw Booth starting to protest that he could help her. "I don't want any argument on this. You and the others are working on a new case and both you and Hodgins will be tied up for most of the day and possibly into the night. Now please take me home."

Booth stood at attention and gave her a salute. "Sir, yes Sir." He picked up her small bag and they started to walk out and to the elevator.

Nancy bent forward and whispered to Dr. Brennan. "You've trained him very well. Was it hard?"

"We've had a few heated discussions but he finally started to respond satisfactorily to my efforts to train him."

Booth, wisely, kept his mouth shut the rest of the way to the front of the hospital. Booth left the women at the front while he ran to get his SUV. He pulled up in front and got out. When he saw Brennan start to get up he quickly told her to sit still and he would pick her up. It was still hurting her to get up and down so she decided to do as he said since the SUV was so high up.

Booth picked her up easily and deposited her into the passenger seat in the front. The nurse had already taken the wheelchair back into the entrance of the hospital and was returning when she saw Booth hold the 2nd passenger door open for her.

"I'll be following you in my own car Agent Booth. If you would wait here for me I'll pull up behind you and follow you."

"Okay." Booth closed the door and ran around to the driver's side. He waited until Mrs. Frederick pulled up behind him then took off for Brennan's apartment.

By 12 noon Booth was parking inside the underground parking space designated for Brennan's apartment. Mrs. Frederick pulled into a guest parking space and joined them at the elevator. Brennan was walking on her own but holding on tightly to her partner's arm. As the elevator opened he walked in slowly so that Brennan wouldn't have a problem keeping up. He could tell that she was experiencing some pain.

"Would you like for me to carry you the rest of the way?" Booth asked.

"No, I can make it just walk slowly. I have to get some exercise and this walk will be a good beginning."

They made it to her apartment without any problem. Booth just walked slowly and held onto her hand in case she started to go down. He pulled out his own key and opened the door and they all walked in. Angela came out of her bedroom at the sound of the door opening and greeted them.

"You must have been a good girl since they let you out today." Angela said as she hugged Brennan. She turned to Mrs. Frederick and shook her hand after letting go of Brennan. "Hi, I'm Angela Hodgins."

"Hello Mrs. Hodgins."

"I think you should go right to bed Dr. Brennan. You're looking a little pale, are you experiencing any pain?" Mrs. Frederick looked at Brennan. She could see that she was leaning heavily on Booth.

"A little but my Doctor told me to expect it when I went home. Let's go to my bedroom Booth."

Booth picked her up and took her into her bedroom and placed her on the bed. She gave a sigh of relief when he set her down on her own bed. "I don't know what it is but it always feels so good to get back to your own bed. I think I'll be taking a nap now. Can you stay the rest of the day Booth?"

"Yes, I told Cullin that the squint squad was going to be working on the skeleton for the next two days so since I wouldn't be able to do anything until they gave me an ID I was going to spend the rest of the day with you."

"Did he object in any way?"

"No, he knows the routine by now."

"Good, can you see if there is anything in the kitchen for me to eat? I'm starving."

"Sure, I'm hungry too, how about you Mrs. Frederick?" Booth asked as he headed for the kitchen.

"Anything you're having will be fine for me."

After 20 minutes Booth came back with a tray loaded down with food. Angela followed him in with a tray full of drinks for everyone. He laid the tray on the bed and handed a small plate with a sandwich and chips to Mrs. Frederick, Bones and Angela then took the last sandwich for themselves while Angela handed out the drinks. Booth sat on the other side of the bed while he ate his sandwich.

In between bites Booth was telling Bones about the new case they were working on and how far they had gotten so far. Mrs. Frederick was listening closely. She found the whole thing fascinating. When she saw that Dr. Brennan was done she started picking all of the plates up.

"You don't have to do that Mrs. Frederick; I'll take care of it." Booth said as he started to get up.

"That's okay Agent Booth. Why don't you take a nap with Dr. Brennan? She needs to get some rest from all of the activity this morning."

"Since we'll be together for the next couple of weeks why don't we start using each other's first name? You can call me Angela."

"That sounds good to me, my first name is Nancy. I don't know your first name though Agent Booth."

"Just call me Booth."

"His first name is Seeley, but he doesn't like it so we all just call him Booth." Brennan said.

"Okay Booth and Temperance, get some rest." Nancy said as she picked up the tray of dishes and was followed out of the room by Angela with her tray of glasses. Booth got up and closed the bedroom door behind them then went into the bathroom. By the time he came out Brennan was sound asleep so he just kicked off his shoes and took off his pants and shirt and lay down beside her. He pulled her into his arms and rested his chin on the top of her head. They both stayed in that position until 3 p.m. when they were awakened by a knock on the door.

"Temperance and Booth, it's time to get up now. You have several visitors here to see you." Nancy said after knocking on the door a second time when she didn't hear anything.

"We'll be there in a few minutes Nancy." Booth said.

Brennan rubbed her eyes as she started to get up. "Would you help me up?"

Booth went over to her side of the bed and pulled her up. "Did you want to go to the bathroom?"

"Yes but I can make it on my own. Would you get dressed and call Nancy in here, then you can leave. I'm going to need her assistance." Brennan said then walked into her bathroom by herself. Booth watched her then he got dressed and went out to the living room and told Nancy that Brennan needed her.

Booth went over to Max and Russ and greeted them by shaking their hand. He just nodded at Sweets. Angela was bringing in coffee for everyone along with cream and sugar and cookies. He took the tray from her and set it down on the coffee table. Angela went back into the kitchen and brought the pot of coffee out and poured it into all of the cups.

Max was the first one to speak up. "How is she doing Booth?"

"She's doing okay. She is still sore from the surgery but she seems to be doing okay. She walked pretty much on her own from the parking garage she just hung onto my arm and I went real slow."

Fifteen minutes later Brennan and Nancy came out to the living room. All of the men stood up when she came in. Brennan looked at all of them with a smile. "Please, sit down everyone."

Booth held out his hand to her and she sat down between him and Angela. He fixed a cup of coffee for her and sat back down.

Sweets took this as a signal that he could begin. "Now that we are all settled in I want to tell Max and Russ why they are here. I know that all I told you was that Temperance needed your help. The reason that she needed your help is that she wants to better understand why her family left her. She has come to the understanding that she is afraid of forging personnel relationships because of her past. To be specific, she is afraid that if she should allow herself to love someone again, as she did her family, she would run the risk of being abandoned again.

"Max, why don't we start with you? Please explain why you and your wife left your children behind."

Max Keenan looked at his daughter. Unbidden, tears started to form in the corners of his eyes. Before they could fall he quickly brushed them away.

"Your mother and I didn't want to leave you and your brother Temperance. Without going into specifics let's just say we had become involved with unsavory people that threatened our family if we didn't do what they wanted. We didn't want to be involved with their business practices but they pulled us in. We hoped that by moving away and changing our names we would be able to escape them, but they were relentless. You and Booth have had to deal with the McVicars so you know something about how ruthless they are. Because of the way their minds worked they were determined to come after us just because we opposed them and what they did. Your mother and I had seen how ruthless they were. We saw what they did to people that opposed them. The only difference between Hitler and the McVicars was that they wanted to walk over only a few people at a time where as Hitler walked over whole countries."

Max got up from his chair and sat on the coffee table in front of his daughter. He took her hands in his. "We were so deathly afraid that they would kill you and your brother. Your mother couldn't sleep at night because she was so worried about you and Russ. Finally, a couple of weeks before Christmas, we were told by someone on your mother's side of the family that the McVicars had located us and were coming after us. That night we decided to leave you and Russ behind and draw them away from you two. We hoped that the county would put you two in a foster home together. By letting you go into the system we hoped that the McVicars wouldn't be able to locate you since that sort of information is usually closed to strangers.

"I am sorry that you went through so much suffering because of what we did. All I can do is ask you to forgive your mother and me." Max put his head down and just repeated the words "I'm sorry Temp, I'm sorry. We didn't intend for you to suffer as you did. Our only goal was to keep you alive."

Brennan reached for her father and put her arms around him. "I forgive you Daddy, and I forgive Momma also. I understand now that you only did it to keep us safe. You didn't leave me because you didn't love me, but because you 'did' love me." They stood up and continued to hug each other. Both of them were crying as they held on to each other. Max reached over for Russ and pulled him into their hug also. He kissed each of them before letting them go and sitting down again.

Brennan could hear everyone else sniffling and blowing their noses also. She got up from the couch again and went to a cabinet where she kept several bottles of whiskey and liqueur. She grabbed the bottle of Royal Crown and a bunch of glasses and went back to the couch. She poured a small amount into each of the men's glasses and gave it to them. She looked at Nancy to see if it was okay for her to have any. Nancy nodded an okay and held out one of the glasses for herself also. After they all had a drink they were quiet for awhile.

Sweets broke the silence. "What about you Russ? Why did you leave Dr. Brennan behind instead of staying or taking her with you?"

Russ didn't answer right away, for almost a minute he didn't say anything.

"You have to remember Tempe that I was still pretty much a kid myself. By the time Dad and Mom left I reached the age where I couldn't stay in the system for long and they wouldn't let me stay in the same place with you. At the time I thought you would be better off in a home with a woman to take care of you and for you to talk to. I didn't know how bad things could get in what they call the system. All I knew was that I couldn't take care of you." Russ was quiet for a moment. "Dam it Temp, I could barely take care of myself let alone a little sister. I knew more about what Mom and Dad were going through so I didn't wind up hating them like you did. When I was able to I tried getting in touch with you to see how you were but they wouldn't give me any information. When I came back to try and find you it took me several months to track you down. When I did find you, you didn't want anything to do with me and you wouldn't answer my calls or my letters. I don't know if you ever knew it but I used to watch you walk back and forth from school. Finally though I gave up on you letting me talk to you. I left to find work elsewhere. As you know I fell in with a bad crowd and didn't attempt to contact you anymore since you didn't want to see or talk to me."

Russ stood up and looked at his sister. "You hurt me too Temp. You were the only family I had left, as far as I knew, but you didn't want to be around me anymore and that hurt Temp that hurt more than you know." He went to the cabinet where he had seen her get the liquor from and found a bottle of whiskey and filled his glass. He downed all of the content of the glass in one gulp then returned to his chair and didn't say anything more.

Sweets leaned forward in his chair and put his tablet down that he had been writing in all the time Max and Russ were talking. "Dr. Brennan, is there anything you would like to say to your father and brother?"

Angela looked at her friend and held onto her hand while Booth held onto her other hand. She looked at her brother for a moment without saying anything.

"I guess it's my turn to say I'm sorry. I am sorry Russ for pushing you away as I did. I should have tried to understand that I wasn't the only one suffering. I made matters worse for you and me by rejecting any attempt on your part to contact me again and for us to re-unite as a family." Brennan looked up at Booth with sad, tear filled eyes. "Most of all though, I am sorry that I pushed you away so many times Booth, like Russ you have offered to make a new family with me but I rejected you. With Sweets help I have come to realize that my thinking has been greatly influenced by my child like way of looking at what happened to me when I was young. I understand now why my mother and father did what they did. I know that I would do the same thing for my own child."

Brennan looked at everyone else and said "With Sweets, Angela and Booth's help I promise that I will do my best to change my way of thinking about my relationships with all of you."

Nancy saw how tired Brennan was so she spoke up for the first time. "I think it's time to call an end to this so that Dr. Brennan can get some rest." She stood up to reinforce her right to end the session and get her patient back to bed. Booth stood also and pulled Brennan up then put his arm under her legs and picked her up with ease. He carried her back to her bedroom and put her down and helped her to take her robe off. She lay down and he pulled the covers over her. Before leaving he gave her a kiss on her forehead. Without saying anything he walked out with his head down so that Nancy wouldn't see his unshed tears that he quickly wiped away with the back of his hand.

TBC…