A/N: I'm actually overcome with the amount of reviews I've received! Thank you all SO much! :D I love you guys, I really do.
Oh, and also, I have a message for Suki: Why read two chapters of my story before deciding it's not to your taste and proceeding to review telling me so? It's be fine if you'd given me something constructive on how to improve my writing, but all you did was flame. FanFiction's all about unleashing your imagination (hence the slogan), and that's exactly what I've done.
Some people deal with horrible things this way, and I'm one of them. I'm afraid that's something you're going to have to deal with if you continue to use this site. I clearly stated in the description of this story that it involved rape, so don't come crying to me when you read something you don't like!
Okay, rant over. Sorry about that! I guess I should have said that I don't want any flames- I've never been too fond of fire :P
Um, someone asked me what time this is set. The answer is, I'm not really sure, but Angela isn't with Hodgins yet and Booth obviously isn't with Hannah.
Anyway, enjoy chapter three! This chapter involves a description that will lead up to rape (no actual intercourse is involved in said description); I'm going to put that part in italics (it will be the second part in italics not including this A/N and the lyrics at the beginning of the chapter.) So go ahead and skip it if it's not your cup of tea (there Suki, ya happy? :P)
Thanks for reading!
I'm awake, I'm alive,
Now I know what I believe inside.
Now it's my time,
I'll do what I want 'cause this is my life.
Angela
"Okay, Doctor Brennan." Simmons re-entered the room just as Tempe was drifting off to sleep. "We're going to place an IV," She continued, turning her back on us to collect some medical supplies. "We'll give you some fluids to avoid some dehydration, and pain medication if you want it. You must be in a lot of pain." Brennan nodded sleepily, lying back on to the bed and not even flinching as two needles were poked through the skin on her arms, and bags filled with transparent liquid were attached.
"How long would it take for the pain relief to work?" I asked, watching as my friend's body language gave away subtle hints of the pain she was in. Clenching her hands, gritting her teeth. At the best of times she was difficult to read, but at that moment anyone could see she was hurting.
"They're usually pretty quick." Roads stepped in to answer my question. "It should only take a minute or two before they begin to take effect. I nodded, raising a hand to stroke Brennan's hair and leaning down to kiss her soothingly on the forehead.
"Okay?" I whispered, so only she could hear. As if she were the only one who mattered, the only one who deserved to matter.
"Yeah." She whispered back, taking hold of my hand as her doctor asked her to put her feet up on to the stirrups at the foot of her bed.
"Now I'm just going to lift your gown, okay?" A nod. Stroking her cheek with my thumb as she shut her eyes, I watched as Doctor Simmons muttered a few preliminary observations for Roads to make note of. I only heard smatterings of the various sentences that were uttered, but they were enough to turn my stomach- "Blood loss" and "Bruising" being two of the lighter ones. I kissed the top of Brennan's head again as Simmons took swabs of blood and what I presumed to be semen, and bagged them to send to the lab.
"Okay, you're doing really well Doctor Brennan. Nearly done now, I just need to have a quick look inside your cervix. Is it all right if I go ahead with that?"
"Y-yes." Temperance coughed, tears running freely down her cheeks. Making no effort to wipe them away, she gripped my hand tightly in her own, choking out a restrained sob.
"That's it, sweetie." I murmured in her ear. "Let it all out."
Temperance
Some things in life we are bound to forget.
Like the name of a particularly monotonous book or a neighbour's birthday.
We forget these things because in the backs of our minds, they are not prominent enough to stand out like a dancer in the spotlight.
Other memories grasp on to our weaknesses and lodge themselves in the deepest and dustiest corners of our brains.
Like the remnants of a storm that hasn't quite settled, these memories take hold of us and prepare themselves to claw their way out and stun us in to remission at any given moment.
Any time that you allow yourself to contemplate how your life could have been different and explore the deeper feelings that you usually confine to the put of your stomach, they pounce, attacking with all the force and brutality of a ravenous beast on the prowl for its destitute prey.
As I drifted in and out of sleep, only vaguely aware of what was going on around my bedside, I contemplated all the things that I knew I shouldn't, for risk of going insane. Hazy images filled my head as I lay there, of both the past and the present. I pictured the things that, a long time ago, would have given me nightmares, but I was far too used to them by that time.
In the course of my lifetime, I had learnt that in order to stay mentally intact, you have to detach yourself. Being rational and logical was never a life choice for me- I had been that way as long as I could remember, but it certainly aided me in my search for relief against the limbic padlock and chains I frequently found myself struggling against.
All of a sudden, a voice floated in to my system, filling up the gaps of my mind. Growing confused, I tried to work out who it had come from- only to hear it speak my name again.
"Temperance?" The voice was low-pitched, meaning that it was man. So it couldn't be Angela. All the hospital staff had called me 'Doctor Brennan', so presumably it wasn't them. No, this voice was familiar, but my powers of deduction appeared to be asleep at that time. The only way I could solve the mystery was to open my eyes… Open my eyes…
Booth leaned over me, his concerned look boring though my chest and in to my heart. I tried to smile, unable to think what had happened to me. Did I faint? Was Booth just coming to get me to interrogate someone?
As though I had conjured it, the reality of what had really happened crashed in to my skull, filling every spare inch of my sanity with insanity, taking no prisoners and holding no mercy. I had been raped. How had it happened? I was trained in several different self defence arts, and yet someone had still managed to invade my privacy.
At that moment, I felt no rational explanation, nor logic to comfort and soothe my aching brain with. Usually, I could find solace knowing that these things happen with some deeper meaning, but this time it seemed like all taking my innocence had achieved was a few minutes of ecstasy for whoever had done that to me. I was just a tool, like I had been many years before.
I had promised myself I would never let anything like that happen again, which was precisely the reason I had worked so hard to become skilled in the martial arts. But I had failed myself, allowed someone to use me in that way- and at that moment, when grief and bad reasoning filled me, I hated myself.
"Hey, don't cry Bones. It'll be all right, you'll see…" Booth brushed away the tears that I hadn't even noticed, and enveloped me in a gentle hug. From over his shoulder I saw Angela standing near the doorway of my hospital room, biting her nails. It had been a habit she had long ago tried to rid herself of, but in a crisis I knew her to go back to these old comforts the way a small child will go to its stuffed animal in the hopes it will bring them some kind of release. I coughed, once, twice.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I'm here to see you, of course! Have the police spoken to you yet?" I looked over at Angela. Why hadn't he asked her these questions? As though he'd read my expression, he spoke again.
"I only just got here from your apartment. I had to stop for gas or I'd have broken down, so Angela hasn't filled me in yet." I nodded.
"No, we haven't spoken to the law enforcement yet. The doctor gave me something for the pain I was experiencing, and it made me feel a little fatigued. I think they're planning on interviewing me and Ange later though…" I trailed off; staring up at the clock that was not dissimilar to the one I had seen in the examination room. Only this one seemed to be broken, the second hand clicking backwards and forwards over and over rather than continuing on its journey around the clock face. Booth followed my gaze, staring up at the wall above Angela's head. After a few moments, he spoke again.
"Well, are you feeling better now? Do you think you're up to talking to them soon?"
"Booth," Angela cut in. "Don't push her too much, she's had a pretty rough night." Seeley squeezed my hand.
"It's a good job she's tough then isn't it?" He looked in to my eyes. "Look, I know it's hard, and if you're not ready then that's fine. But the quicker we get all the details-"
"The quicker you can find the guy who did it." My voice was pretty much emotionless. "Yeah, I get it."
"Right, of course you do. Just let me know, okay?" I took a deep breath.
"I'm ready now." Angela came to sit on the side of my bed with me.
"And you're sure?" She asked, putting a hand on my shoulder. I nodded.
"It seems illogical to keep putting it off just because it might be difficult for me." I reasoned, and they both nodded, Booth getting to his feet.
"Okay, well I'm gonna go put a call in to-"
"No!" I begged. "Can't you do it?" My eyes filled with tears again.
"Um… Well…"
"Please, Booth." Angela pulled me closer, and I rested my head on her shoulder. "I don't want to talk to anyone else right now."
"I don't know if that would be a very good idea Bones… Are you sure?" I nodded quickly, and he sighed, running a hand through his already messy hair.
"Maybe it would be better if you knew the facts anyway, Booth. Then you'd have a better idea of who to look for." Angela's logic made sense, and I nodded to show I agreed with her.
"I guess you're right. I just thought it might be a bit hard for you to talk to me about something like this. But of course I'll do it if you want me to. I just need to place a few calls first."
"Okay." He turned to leave, only to spin on his heel again and plant a kiss on my cheek before exiting the room. I took another deep breath, and allowed Angela to lie me back down on the bed, stroking my hair away from my face.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" I closed my eyes. Why did they keep asking me the same question? I touched the spot on my cheek where Booth's lips had brushed my skin.
"I'm sure. Will you stay here with me?"
"Sure, sweetie. I'm not going anywhere unless you want me to."
"Okay. Well... I don't. I... I think it might be of important value to me for you to stay with me at this time." My voice felt different. I felt it hard to speak with the logic my voice normally held had faded away, and it was hard to seem normal.
"Okay, we're all set." Booth entered the room a few minutes later. He took a seat beside my bed, and set up a little microphone to record the interview with. "Normally we'd have to do it in one of the hospital's conference rooms, but I got permission for us to do it in here. I thought it might be more comfortable." I nodded, flashing him a brief that I knew didn't quite reach my eyes- a trademark sign of insincerity. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Okay. Take your time, but you do know what information I need, don't you?" I inclined my head again. I knew all too well that in order to do what's best for me, he would need what's worst from me. An explicit account of what had happened.
'Ugh... Where am I?' I think, lifting my head groggily and groaning from the ache in my head. I have no recollection of how I got here, only a vague idea of what I had been doing before I had gotten to this point. I had been in a bar... Drinking... Scotch? Or was it vodka? Either way, I was certain that I had only had a couple of shots of whatever alcohol it was, not nearly enough to cause the amount of pain I am experiencing. My eyes focus slightly, and I look around in shock as the interior of a car fills my vision. I suddenly remember the little Ford Focus that was parked outside the bar. Grey in colour, and the only reason I had taken note of it at all was because it was parked at such an angle that it was hard to get out of the car door.
I am lying across the back seats of the car, and my eyes widen as I realise that my wrists are bound by something that cuts in to my skin, and a scrap of cloth around my mouth prevents me from talking. I groan again, louder this time, and a man turns round from the driver's seat. He wears his hood low, so I cannot see his eyes, only his square jaw and thin lips.
"Well good evening to you Ms. Brennan." He laughs, turning back round to focus on his driving. "How nice of you to join me." I want to correct him, to tell him that my name is Doctor Brennan, not Ms. Brennan. But I can't, and although I try to struggle I am too weak. 'Think!' I tell myself, putting the cogs in my brain to work. I consider all the symptoms, weakness, pain, memory loss... Was I drugged? Had he slipped something in to my drink?
Wait... Had we been on a date? I strained my memory, trying to decipher what was important and what wasn't. Well, someone had definitely driven me to the bar. I'd left my car at home, I knew that much.
"What do you want from me?" I tried to mumble through my gag. My kidnapper lets out another bark of laughter, and answers my muffled question as if he has had lots of experience of this sort of thing.
"Come on now Temperance." I hate the way my name sounds like bile on his lips. "You're a highly intelligent woman. Surely you can guess?" I want to throw up as I see the corners of his lips turn up in a twisted smile as he says that last part, and squeeze my eyes tightly shut in the hopes that this is all a terrible nightmare, similar to the ones I've had in the past. When I open my eyes, I will be safe and warm under my duvet, covered in a thin layer of sweat but otherwise unharmed. I open my eyes,but it has not worked. I am still gagged and bound in the back of a sick, twisted man's car.
I start to cry.
"I think this'll do." The driver of the car pulls over at the roadside, and my stomach twists in to knots as he switches off the engine, leaving the interior lights on to see properly. He climbs in to the back with me, and I try to wriggle away. He puts grips my arms firmly and twists me back round, so I am lying on my back looking up at him. For the first time, I see the hatred and the thirst in his brown eyes. I pushed against him as he straddled my legs, and he grinned at my pathetic attempts.
"C'mon, Temp... Is that the best you can do?"
Shut your eyes...
Okay, I think I'm gonna leave it there for now. I don't really wanna do explicit . (plus I'd have to change the rating).
I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to leave me a review (please? :D) and thanks for reading!