What happened next?
A/N: This is my speculation on what might have happened after Booth and Brennan closed the door to Hank's room leaving the children to their sleepover.
He pulled the door softly closed behind them as they left the children to sleep. They moved quietly down the hallway toward the living area. "Have you eaten dinner yet?" She asked.
Booth was lost deep in thought so it took a long moment for the question to penetrate. "What? Oh, no. I wasn't really hungry, haven't been for a while."
Brennan started moving more quickly now headed to the kitchen. "Here we have some leftovers I'll heat up for you. You need to eat; otherwise you'll wake up in the middle of the night famished. Then you'll have to get up, hunt up some food, and end up losing valuable sleep. You need both food and sleep so that you can function at full capacity when solving cases."
Booth smiled weakly before replying. "Thanks, you're right. I'm already feeling hungry, and what you got there looks really good. Load me up."
Brennan smiled at him as she served up his plate. She knew he was just saying that to make her happy and was willing to go with that if it meant he ate. She could also see that he seemed to be holding back on saying something. Or maybe he had something he wanted to say but was struggling to get it out.
"You know the way Christine is with Hank; the way that little girl loves her little brother?" Brennan nodded yes as he continued. "That's how I was with Jared. When we were kids he was my little brother and I loved him so much. I did everything I could to protect him." He paused and with tears in his eyes smiled before continuing.
"Once I could read we'd lie in bed together…we shared a room, had twin beds but we'd get in the same bed and I'd read to him, travel to other worlds. I know it was an illusion but we both felt so safe then and life was still so full of possibilities. We still had dreams of having the kind of family you'd see on TV; all of those after school reruns of 'Leave it to Beaver'" He paused briefly to use his palms to wipe the tears from his cheeks before picking up his fork to start eating.
"I always tried my best to protect him. That became harder as we got older and he became more of a little punk." He gave a watery chuckle, then sat up straight and looked her in the eye. "He was my little brother. I tried to protect him, I tried tough love, I tried to cut him off for his own good, I promised to not bail him out again, through it all he was my little brother and I always hoped that next time he'd get things right. Get his life on track. No matter how angry or frustrated I'd get with him, he was still my little brother."
As his tears started flowing again Brennan walked around the counter and held him as he grieved for the little brother who'd never get another chance to make his life right.