Chapter 4
By the end of the service, there was not a dry eye in the church. Even Booth and Dr. Brennan were dabbing at their eyes. It had been a relatively simple service, with each of the Addy children playing a part. Steve, Matt, and Zach read the eulogies, with each of them taking a part of their parent's lives. Lizzie had read her mother's favourite reading from the bible, and Sam had read his fathers. Dani's contribution was at the close of the service, and reduced those of the congregation who were not already crying to a bawling mess. She had used her experience with computers to scan all of the family pictures she could find (her mother had been a avid family photographer), and then, selecting ones with her parents in them, she had created a slideshow of the pictures, complete with headings, music that her parent's had listened to, and edited in a way that it ran as smoothly as the latest Hollywood romance flick. The slideshow was shown on a screen that was set up, with a projector connected to a laptop sitting to the side.
Zach sat, watching the slideshow, tears clouding his vision, and an arm wrapped around Dani's shoulders. Dani had her head nestled into his side, and Zach could feel moisture soaking through his shirt from the flood of tears she was crying. Zach glanced sideways, noticing that each of his older siblings was huddled up with their respective significant other, that is, their wife, husband, or girlfriend. He and Dani both were unattached, so they had gone to each other seeking comfort. Zach had a feeling that it wouldn't be the first time that he and Dani would be left alone to struggle with dealing with everything that had happened. He knew, logically, that it was inevitable. His older siblings would be able to be supported better by their own attachments, than by anyone else, in their time of turmoil they were going through. He and Dani would simply have to do what they had done for the majority of their short lived, and band together.
XO XO XO XO XO
The graveside service that followed the church service was short, but meaningful. The squint squad stood together, minus Zach, of course. They were standing across the grave from Zach and his family, and they could all see how Zach and Dani were drawing comfort from each other. Booth watched them, standing between Sweets and Bones. Sweets opened his mouth to say something; but Booth shot him a look.
"Not now, Sweets" Booth whispered, and Sweets sighed, rolling his eyes.
"What's not now" Bones asked, having overheard Booth's comment. Booth looked at her and shook his head.
"Later, Sweetie" Angela muttered, catching onto the discussion. Brennan pursed her lips, but fell silent.
In his head, Booth's thoughts flew back to the conclusion of the church service, when Zach, his brothers, and a couple of other men Booth had guessed were Zach's uncles and cousins, had grouped together to carry the two coffins out. Dani, and Zach's older sister, Lizzie, had walked in front of the coffins, each of them carrying a large photo of one of their parents.
Zach had looked small, pale, and ridiculously young next to the other men. The suit he was wearing didn't look rights, and seemed to dwarf the young Squint's skinny frame. Booth realised with a pang that Zach really wasn't that much older than a boy, and he had just lost his parents. He instantly resolved to at least be nice to the kid in the future.
After the completion of the graveside service, Zach had slowly walked up to the group, wiping at his eyes as he approached them, trying to get rid of the tears. Dani walked behind him, not even bothering to wipe her tears away and she sobbed.
"Um, Lizzie asked me to ask you guys if you want to come around to the house now for some late morning tea. Mom's friends organised it. It's really going to be family and close friends, but Lizzie said, because you guys are like my second family, you are welcome."
"Of course we'll come, sweetie." Angela said, hugging Zach. Zach stiffened at the contact, relaxing only when Angela drew away. Dani stood silently beside Zach, watching him interacting with them. He was obviously uncomfortable with being unable to show any control over his emotions in front of his work colleagues, but she couldn't think of anything to make him feel better. Zach wrote out the address for his house, and some directions for them to follow to get there.
"Zach, we have a GPS, we can figure it out" Booth said, rolling his eyes.
"Those things are unreliable, at best, Agent Booth" Zach replied, and Dani nodded to back up her sibling.
"Yeah, there are a lot of streets that have the same name in this area, getting lost is really easy. Usually, I'm all for technology, but in this area, GPS's are a waste of time."
Booth turned his attention to the younger girl, who avoided his gaze, obviously having just realised that she might have just crossed the line.
"Is that so?" Booth asked, keeping his voice friendly. Dani nodded, and Zach backed her up.
"Yes, that's another reason I don't like driving. It's easier to just navigate for someone else and have control of the music." Zach added, and Booth let out a chuckle.
"I'll take your word for it."
XO XO XO XO XO
Booth let out a low whistle as he pulled up down the street from Zach's parent's house. All along the street cars were parked, and Bones raised her eyebrows at him questioningly.
"I though Zach said that only family and close friends were invited?" Booth commented to Bones, who shrugged.
"Well, Zach is part of a big family, once you consider all of his siblings having cars, some of their spouses, his uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, and then all the close friends. This probably is gong to only be a small number of them." She told him in her 'logic voice.' In the back seat, Sweets and Cam shot sideways glances at each other, grinning.
The group were walking up the sidewalk when they first saw Zach's house. In his mind, Booth grinned. It was exactly as he imagined it to be; a large, multi story house, with a green front lawn, a white picket fence, and rose bushes growing along the front porch. The door was wide open, and there was a constant stream of people walking down the garden path towards the dwelling.
Hodgins was smiling, eyeing a large tree that was in the lawn, and imagining a young Zach, examining a book, or some interesting object that he had found in its shade while his siblings played basketball in the driveway.
Dr. Brennan led the way down the garden path and stepped up onto the porch, crossing it in a few steps before entering the house. An elderly woman was standing by the door.
"Hello, my name is Rosie. I don't believe we've met."
"I'm Dr. Temperence Brennan from the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington. We all," she gestured at the rest of the Squints, plus Booth "work with Zach."
"Oh, that's lovely, I am Zach's Aunt."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Rosie" Booth nodded his head, shooting a look in Brennan's direction.
"We're very sorry for your loss" Dr. Brannan said, catching Booth's hint.
"Thank-you dear. Zach and the others haven't come back from the cemetery quite yet, but they should be back soon. Help yourself to tea or coffee in the kitchen."
"Thank-you" Dr. Brennan said, leading the team towards the kitchen.
"Good job, Bones. That was the best job I've seen you do of comforting someone yet." Booth grinned.
Angela was looking around her. The house was clean, and there were many photographs that decorated the walls. She could pick Zach out in many of them. After the entire gang had gotten a hot drink, they moved back into the living room and looked at the pictures. Angela smiled as she spotted one.
"Hey, Hodgins, check out little Zach" she whispered. Hodgins came over, followed by the rest of the team. They all looked at the photo frame she was pointing at. It was obviously taken at Halloween, as Zach, and Dani, were both standing beside a pumpkin. Zack looked about six in the photo, making Dani about three. Hodgins sniggered and Angela hit him on the underside of the head.
"They look so little" Dr. Saroyen gushed and Booth rolled his eyes, though he privately thought the photo was kind of cute. Zach was dressed as Luke Skywalker, with a mini lightsaber hanging from his bet, and an arm around Dani's shoulder. Dani's dark hair had been coiled on the side of her head, in a perfect imitation of Princess Leia's. Both of them were grinning at the camera.
"You think they look cute there, wait till you see this" Sweets said from down the wall a little. The squints moved towards him, and as they reached the photo he was pointing at, Angela sighed.
"Awwww, that's so cute."
"Don't let Zach hear you say that" Booth said.
"Hear you say what?" asked Zach from the doorway.
"Angela's gushing about how cute you were when you were little" Hodgins said.
"Oh, I thought it was something bad for a moment there." Zach walked over to them, and Angela hugged him. Zach didn't stiffen up this time, but leant into the embrace slightly.
"You okay, Sweetie?" she asked. Zach could only shrug in response.
