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Chapter 12
A mother I am not
I took Betty to my office and sat her down on the couch. I handed her a pencil and paper. She accepted it. She was frightened and I could tell she wanted her parents, but how do you tell a little six year old that her parents and brother are dead?
"Do you like to draw?" I asked.
"Yes," she said in a voice so soft I barely heard.
"Then, can you draw me a picture?" I asked "I'm going to be making a Halloween costume and when you finish you can help me."
Half an hour later I finished Zach's Vision cape when Betty came over to me with her picture. "You're all done?" I asked and she nodded. "Well let's see."
We sat down on the couch together and looked at the picture.
"Can you tell me about what you drew?"
"That's my mommy and daddy and my brother." she said pointing to three figures on the left. On the other side of the paper was a cloud, a dark cloud and some other figures under it.
"Who's that?" I asked pointing to the other figures.
"That's the mean people t…that came to our house. Mommy was really scared and told David and me to hide. Daddy went to talk to them. David told me we were playing hide and seek. So I picked the best hiding place. I hid in the basement behind the washing machine. I heard really scary noises…then nothing…then WAY later these men came in wearing really weird blue sweaters…Where are my mommy and daddy? Where's David?" Sadly most of her story was a tad hard to understand due to her soft voice and childish speech problems, but I got the gist of it.
"Althy can I talk to you?" called Booth just as I was about to reply.
"Sure," I said then turned back to Betty, "I'm going to go talk to my friends Seely, ok. I'll be right outside if you need me. Why don't you look through that book?" I pointing to a book of costumes "it has lots of pictures."
"Ok." she said softly and grabbed the book. I went to talk to Booth, taking the picture she drew with me.
"Did she say anything?" he asked.
"Yes, I asked her to draw me a picture. It's a psychological technique." I explained and showed him the drawing "Her parents and brother the darker figures are bad people she said came to her house…" I then explained Betty's story to Booth.
"Funny noises?" asked Booth.
"From the torture perhaps" I suggested "They could have been screaming in pain, the parents."
"What about the brother?"
"He must have tired to run away, or escape? Angela's reconstruction will hopefully tell us what happened. What are we going to do with her? I hope your not thinking of turning her over to social survives."
"What am I supposed to do?" he asked and I didn't have an answer. Apparently Jack did.
"She can stay with us." said Jack "I can call Delia and ask her to get things ready. Althy's mom loves kids." Well Duh, she did have six of them.
"Great, my mother will have another child to fuss over." I said "She'll be in good hands with us." I told him.
"Cues me…" called Betty as she pulled my skirt…. "Althy." she missed pronounced it as she had most of the words she said, but that didn't really matter to me.
"What is it honey?" I asked.
"Um…could I have some water?"
"Of course you can." I replied and got her a small cup of water from the jug by outside. "Here you go." She drank; she drank the whole cup's worth of water. "You want to help me?" she nodded and we walked back into my office.
"What we have to do?" she asked peeking up from the opposite side of the desk.
"I'm making a Halloween costume based off this picture." I said and showed her a picture of the Vision off my computer.
"He looks cool." she said softly.
So we spent the next hour making the costume and playing games. By then I had to get some work done. Jack volunteered to watch her having finished his own work.
"Betty, this is my cousin Jack," I told her "I have some work to do and you're gonna play with him, ok? Then when I finish I'll come back and get you."
"…You promise?"
"I promise." I said and watch her take Jack's hand and walk away.
Dr. Brennan and Zach ex-rayed the bodies and I finished processing the clothes. I also did a toxicology report on what was left of the livers. They hadn't had a chance to have breakfast, but Mr. Schwartz had dipped into the sacramental wine a bit. The police also recovered a burned note that had a picture on it. Some chemical magic and a little help from Angela and it turned out to be a swastika.
At one as I was about to take Betty, the amazingly annoying Dr. Sweets entered my office.
"Hello Althea." he said.
"Dr. Calloway." I corrected.
"Right, Dr. Calloway I'm here to examine Betty."
"Oh that's not necessary." I told him. "I already did that. Teen and child psychology is one of my many specialties."
"But…don't you have forensic work to do?"
"Already finished it, now if you don't mind leaving…"
"How are you and Zach?" asked Sweets.
"Well not like it's any of your business, but we're great."
"Have you told him your feelings...?"
"Stop right there." I told him. "I am not one of your patients so my personal life is none of your business, do you get that?" He nodded. "Good now please move."
He moved aside and I went to get Betty. Jack had strung up a couple of test tubes and they were hitting them with something and they made noises.
"Hey Althy," said Jack
"Hi," said Betty.
"Betty, how about you me and my friend Zach go and have some lunch?"
"Is he a nice friend?"
"The best" I told her. She took my hand and we came back to my office. "Now it' a little chilly outside let's see if I have anything warm for you." I found my shawl and wrapped it twice around her. "How's that,"
"Is fine," she said "It's really soft." I grabbed my black jacket, my purse and we headed to get Zach. He was on the platform taking another look at the remains so I kept Betty away so she wouldn't see the remains.
"Zach, come on let's go. We're hungry."
"I'm coming let me grab my jacket." he said and grabbed it after taking off his gloves. He then left the platform and kissed my cheek.
"Betty this is Zach. It was his costume we were making earlier."
"It looks really awsome." she said
"Are we heading to the diner?" asked Zach "because if you're driving a car seat will be crucial."
"We're not taking the car, but when we do…maybe I'll ask Booth." I told him "Until then, let's get going."
"Ok," said Zach and Betty and we headed to the diner.
We came in and sat down in a booth. Betty and I sat on one side, Zach on the other.
"Betty what would you like to eat?"
"Macaroni and Cheese please." said Betty.
We all ordered and ate. I had my much needed second cup of coffee. Then as we left Booth arrived.
"We have another set of victims."
"What?" I asked "related to the ones we already have?"
"No, another family, another swastika was found." said Booth "Althy please tell me you've got a profile of this guy done, please."
"Calm down, as a matter of fact I do. You're not dealing with simple hate here. This guy is a hard core Nazi" I told him as Zach covered Betty's ears with the music from my ipod. "He's a professional. He knows what he wants to do and he does it. No hesitation, no mercy. I'd estimate him to be, possibly twenty five-forty years old. His mother brought him up as a Nazi, his room probably filled with posters and swastikas, Hitler plastered all over…that's all I've got. As the case progresses I'll be able to tell you more."
"Ok thank you."
"Oh, Booth, can we borrow your car seat?" I asked "For Betty."
"Sure, I don't get Parker till next weekend." said Booth. "You guys still coming to the Halloween Party?"
"Yeah, if I can finish Zach's costume and…Zach, why don't we take Betty to the Halloween store down the street?" I asked as Zach put my Ipod back inside my bag..
"You want to get her a costume?" asked Zach.
"Yeah, I think she'd love it." I asked "I also have to figure out how I'm going to tell her about her P.A.R.E.N.T.S and brother." I added the last part in a whisper. "Betty did you enjoy my music?"
"Yeah, it sounded funny." she said. I couldn't blame her most of my songs were in different languages: French, Italian, Portuguese, and others.
So we got her a cute fairy costume and we took her home after that per Cam's and Booth's orders.
On the ride back Betty asked that question.
"Why can't I go home? I want my mommy and Daddy, I want my brother." she said starting to cry.
"Um…"
"I know their gone, the men in blue sweaters told me. What am I doing here with you then?"
"We're trying to find the people that made your parents and your brother goes away." said Zach
"Oh…ok…." she said as we pulled infront of the house. I let her out and she waited while I locked the car.
"Zach, I'll see what I'll come over around three. I need you to try on your costume." I told him and we kissed.
"Alright, take good care of Betty."
"Of course I will." I told him and took Betty inside. Mom and Andy were all over her as soon as that little girl came through the door. Jack came home twenty minutes later with some clothes for her and we sat Betty down in a room with a book.
We all sat down in the kitchen with a cup of tea.
"She's so cute." commented Andy
"She's so polite." said my mother.
"She's also traumatized." I told her "Booth is trying to locate her next of kin, but so far no luck. She'll have to go to social services when we finish, unless somebody adopts her now." At that moment my mother stood up.
"Excuse me, I need to call my husband." said my mom and disappeared into her bedroom.
"Andy, can you keep an eye on Betty?" I asked "I need to get a few things done."
"Sure I baby-sit all the time back home. Do you remember Ashley Bringer?"
"Yeah she married the star quarter back. We went to school together I wanted to claw her eyes out with a scalpol"
"Yeah she had kids." said Andy "I take care of them, twins. Roger and Raymond. You'll see them on your next reunion…which invitation should be coming in."
"Oh god, just what I need invitations to a high school reunion I went to for a year and a half and came out with one and best friend."
"Who after all this time your sleeping with." said Jack.
"Jack…Hodgins…" I said making a fake attempt to strangle him.
"You're sleeping with Zach?" asked Andy smiling "Peter owes me twenty bucks. Thank you Althy!" She hugged me and went to look after Betty.
Another Chapter finished, please review
