A/N: Oh wow, according to my Story Stats thing over 250 of you have read (or at least clicked on) my story! Thank you all for taking an interest!
Also, thanks to those of you who have favourited or put it on Alert, and an absolutely massive thank you to my reviewers; Fairy Demon26, Miss P, daffodil101, broall and Michalice W. You guys are just great for bothering (:
If you've favourited (and I know a lot of you have, or at least put it on story alert), please do review as well. It does literally only take a few seconds, and even if you're not great at reviewing (I know I'm not!), then just leave me a sentence or two to make me happy.
Anyway, to answer daffodil's question: Yes, we will indeed see Booth in the next chapter or so. So keep tight, keep reviewing, and I really hope you keep enjoying.
This chapter's in Angela's point of view.
Thanks! (And sorry for the long A/N!)
It's getting harder to stay awake,
And my strength is fading fast.
You breathe in to me, at last.
"Temperance Brennan?" We looked up in unison. A young, pretty nurse stood at the doorway to the main part of the ED, which sectioned off into lots of different cubicles and examination rooms.
She was looking all around the room, her searching eyes trying to pick out a likely face from the few bits of information she had from the notes she held in her hand.
Her gaze settled on Brennan's, and for a moment time seemed to lock into place, seconds dribbling past like a hazy fog that pressed down on her shoulders.
I stood, and held a hand out for my friend to take. This time, she welcomed the gesture, and as I helped her to her feet her breathing became more erratic as she attempted to steady herself.
"Would you like to come through here please?" The nurse's tone was bright, and in the form of a question- although it wasn't one we could really refuse. The nurse showed us through to examination room three, where a woman with dark hair in her late thirties was sitting on a swivel chair, her brow furrowed as she read through a copy of the notes.
Upon our arrival, she looked up and gave us what I presumed must be her most reassuring and consoling smile.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Simmons. I'm one of the hospital's rape and sexual assault specialists." She extended a hand to me, a courteous but seemingly unnecessary considering the circumstances. I shook her hand nonetheless, and she motioned towards a mousy looking woman standing in the corner whom I hadn't previously noticed.
"This is my assistant, doctor Haley Roads." Simmons offered her hand to Tempe, who just blinked at the outstretched fingers as if they were foreign objects. The doctor didn't seem to take any offence by this, and only renewed her smile.
"You must be doctor Brennan."
"Yes." The answer was short, and Simmons' smile faltered slightly as she turned to me.
"Are you a friend?" I tried to return her smile.
"I'm Angela Montenegro. Temperance is my best friend."
"I see. And were you the first person she contacted following the alleged assault?" My smile faltered at the word 'alleged'- it was as if she were implying that Brennan was making it all up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her flinch for the same reason.
"Um, well yeah. She turned up at my apartment." Roads began scribbling something down in a notebook with a plain black cover.
Evidence for the police.
"I see. How long ago was that, roughly?"
"About an hour ago now, I guess."
"And when she arrived how would you say-" Standing beside me, Tempe had become more and more agitated as we spoke, and finally she burst out, cutting doctor Simmons off mid-sentence.
"I can talk for myself you know!" She snapped, immediately recoiling back into her shell as soon as the words had left her lips, still bloodied from the cut. Simmons turned back to her.
"Of course, doctor Brennan. I'm sorry if I offended you, it's just I need to-"
"Collect all the evidence, I know." She sounded tired, and her voice remained emotionless after her outburst. "I do it every day for work."
"Then you'll know how important it is. Do you think you're ready for this?" She nodded shakily, gripping my hand tightly as though I could suddenly fly both of us out of the window, away from all of this.
"Y-yes." She stuttered. The doctor smiled reassuringly.
"Okay, let's get started then. Don't worry, we won't hurt you. Just concentrate on getting through this and it'll be over before you know it." Somehow, I doubted that last sentence. I was sure that, however fast the rape kit was completed, it would seem like an eternity to Tempe.
"For identification purposes, I'm not allowed to touch your clothing, so I'm gonna need you to undress yourself, okay?" A slow nod. "You can take your time; there's no rush. Nurse Taylor has gone to get you a gown to wear." We both knew there was no point in her explaining as Brennan already knew how these examinations were handled, but we listened patiently anyway.
Taking a firmer hold on my arm to steady her stance, she leaned down to slip her shoes off, before very slowly starting to undo her maroon coloured blouse, fingers fumbling on the pearly buttons. I tried not to gasp or allow any indication of shock to pass my expression as she shakily dropped her shirt to the ground, uncovering the various patterns of bruising that were spread along her ribcage and lower back.
I had seen Brennan with bruising before; after all she was hardly a careful person when it came to chasing down criminals, but I had never seen her body battered to this extent. She looked up at me, her eyes shining, and I gave her the warmest smile I could conjure from my stilled heart. As though encouraged, she took a deep breath and started to unbutton her black trousers, allowing them to fall to the floor. Tempe stood shivering in the middle of the room, clad only in her underwear and a lone tear dribbling down her cheek.
As though she sensed that my friend was finished undressing, doctor Simmons span back round in her chair from where she had tactfully turned away to give Temperance a little of the privacy she had left.
"All done?" Another warm smile graced her lips, and she got to her feet. "Now, my assistant is going to take some photographs of your injuries if that's okay. It'll help the police with their enquiries.
"Okay." Brennan's voice was ore confident now, as if she had regained some control of her usual self. She turned to me, brushing away another tear with the back of her hand. "Can Angela stay?"
"Sure, if that's all right with both of you." I nodded.
"Of course it's all right. I wouldn't leave you!" I said the last part quietly so that only Tempe could hear, hoping that it would make her feel a little bit better. Doctor Simmons's assistant came forward, sporting a large self printing camera- a bit like the old polaroids. She started giving directions to Brennan; telling her to lift her arms, to stand with her feet apart, all the while snapping pictures with her camera at the various sites where my friend had received injury.
"Hold out your hands please." From her voice, it sounded as if the assistant was nervous, as if this was her first time doing such a thing. Or maybe it was because no matter how many of these cases she helped doctor Simmons with, she still couldn't grasp the fact that it could happen so often.
That's how I felt after a few months working at the Jeffersonian. I frequently wondered how so many people could even hurt another human being in the ways that we had seen from some of our cases, let alone murder them in cold blood.
After a moment's Simmons, Tempe held her hands outwards, her palms facing upwards. There were ligature marks on both her wrists, indicating that she had been tied up. I shuddered, a cold shiver running down my spine like icy water. Doctor Simmons continued to make notes in her file, her facial expression now tied up in a frown, her lips straight and her brow creased as if she was concentrating too hard.
Once all the necessary photographs had been taken, the assistant backed in to a corner from where she had stood for the majority of the time we had been in the room, and her boss came forward to take her place, handing her a hospital gown to slip over her head. I helped her to tie it up at the sides.
"Okay, we're done taking photos. You're doing so well, I'm so proud of how brave you're being." Brennan stiffened, and I bit my lip. She wasn't exactly fond of people who acted in a patronising way towards her, and although her doctor meant well, it seemed she couldn't help but seem a little condescending.
"How much longer will this take?" I cut in before she could lash out a bitter retort as she was sometimes known to do. Doctor Simmons turned to face me.
"Well it depends on what we find. We still need to do an internal examination, and make an assessment of whether or not we think this actually a case of rape or sexual assault." Finally, her patience broke.
"You think I've made this all up?" I took her hand again and squeezed it gently, but she didn't seem to want an ally at that time.
"No, of course not!" Simmons was quick to defend her words. "I'm sorry if it came off that way, but in order for the police to start searching we need to be certain that this was a sexually motivated attack." I was starting to grow annoyed at the doctor's apparent ignorance.
"So you think that all of this" I indicated to my friend's bruised ribs and to the dried blood that still clung to her skin. "Is made up? Just a fairy tale?" Doctor Simmons raised her hands in submission.
"I apologise profusely if I sounded tactless or in disbelief in any way. I understand that this is a very difficult time for you and your friend," I couldn't be sure to whom she was addressing this apology, but her eyes flicked between both of us in turn. "And from what we've seen today, there is enough battery alone to press chargers- I assume you both knew this?" I nodded slowly. "But we need to be able to say that rape was involved in order for the perpetrator's sentence to be determined, and in order to do that we need to do an internal examination." Temperance suddenly leaned into me like a once beautiful flower that was in the process of wilting, only a shadow of what it had once been. I put an arm around her shoulders, pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear so it wouldn't get on her nerves.
"Just do what you must to get sufficient evidence." Her tone was worn and she sounded exhausted. Doctor Simmons nodded, still unsmiling.
"Of course. We'll do everything we can. I need you to get up on the bed, please. Make yourself comfy, I'll be back in a second." She left the room, followed closely by her assistant.
"She shouldn't have said that." I placed a hand on her bony shoulder as she settled down on the bed, still a little shaken.
"She's just trying to do her job efficiently. I shouldn't have been so critical of her." I opened my mouth to reply, only for a cell phone to start ringing. Before I could protest, she had it up to her ear.
"Brennan." She answered the phone with her surname as always.
"You know you shouldn't really use that in here." The nurse made herself known again, and I rolled my eyes at her attempt to reprimand my friend. Tempe just ignored her.
I could hear Booth talking over the phone- he didn't sound pleased.
"Bones, where the hell are you? I'm at your apartment; I'm 'sposed to be picking you up to take you to interrogate the uncle, remember?" He was referring to the family member of the victim whose death we had recently been investigating.
"Oh, yeah." Brennan's voice was uncharacteristically quiet and uninterested.
"So where are you? The Jeffersonian?" She ran a stressed hand through her hair, glancing up at the clock on the wall.
"I'm in hospital." She admitted. The tone of Booth's voice changed immediately.
"Hospital? Wait, what happened? Are you okay?" Deciding to take some of the pressure from my friend's shoulders, I slid the cell phone from her grasp, pressing it to my own ear.
"Hey, Booth? It's Angela.
"Angela, what's goin' on?" The merest hint of urgency lingered in his normally calm and collected voice.
"We'll talk about it when you get here, okay?" Don't worry, everything's going to be fine." I said the last part more to comfort myself than Booth or Brennan. I knew that neither of them would but my terrible excuse for a consolation; Brennan was far too logical and analysed everything, and I figured that Booth would probably imagine the worst case scenario where his beloved partner was involved.
"Drive safe, okay?" I hung up, leaving Booth to talk to a hollow dial tone, and handed the phone back to Temp. She attempted a grateful smile.
"Thanks, Ange." I placed a hand on her back, tracing her delicate spine and sitting by her side on the bed to try and comfort her.
"Are you tired?"
"Yes, I am... I haven't slept since yesterday." She put her head on my shoulder, and sighed. "I'm sorry I woke you. It's just that I didn't know who else to go to." Brushing back a lock of her from her face, I cupped her cheek and looked in to her eyes.
"You know what? I'm really glad you did wake me, sweetie. But can I ask you something?"
"Of course; as long as it's something reasonable that I can theoretically answer."
"Why didn't you go to Booth? I mean, he's always been the one to help you out in times similar to this before..." She shrugged.
"With Booth, he's all about justice. I love that I have my own knight in shining armour..." She looked up at me, her pale eyes glassy. "But I didn't need a knight in shining armour. I needed a friend." She looked away again, as if ashamed for her words. "And you're my best friend, so it seemed logical to go to you. Does that make sense?"
I nodded. It made all the sense in the world, and I was glad that she felt she could trust me so much.
I suddenly imagined what would happen when Seeley discovered his Temperance lying in a hospital bed, bruised, battered and brutalised.
Pictures of his face when I broke the news to him filled my mind; of him breaking down, getting angry, hot tears slipping down his face.
And it made me want to cry.
A/N: I know there's probably some mistakes... I dunno if any of you spotted this (and why the hell am I even pointing it out to you?) but it's kinda weird that Booth came to pick Bones up at 3am... But hey ho!
So yeah, sorry about that!
Still, hope you enjoyed it! I worked hard to make this video :D
Don't forget to review, huh? Go on, make me happy.