Raine thank you for your brilliant ideas. I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on the story and thanks to everyone else who's still reading this fic.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bones as if that wasn't obvious.
Also there will be a link to the dress Althy is going to wear. It is a Google link. It is the very first picture. Let me know what you think. Althy's description should help.
Chapter 18
Family Secrets
Zach and I got up around nine and had breakfast in bed. We then went down to the hotel gym and exercised a little. Truthfully, we had a little contest of who could run faster the longest. I won! And to celebrate I treated myself to an ice cream that I shared with Zach.
At eleven we laid out the clothes we were going to wear for the reunion. Zach had decided to wear black pants and a nice button up shirt with out a tie or anything. It was a great move. I decided to go with a green dress I picked up in Egypt. It was low cut, strapped, dark green dress. It went down to my knees, wide and had a beautiful green sash with a ribbon. With it I planned to wear my single diamond necklace and the matching earrings.
We arrived at my parents' house at around twelve-thirty, my mother looked a little angry. Punctuality was number one to her. So she was a bit angry when we fifteen minutes later do to traffic. She huffed for two seconds before hugging us.
"Althy." someone called I saw Peter standing his black hair was cut short and his glasses were perfectly positioned over his blue eyes. He was eighteen years old and was planning on becoming a computer programmer.
He walked over to me and hugged me. "Zach, hey." said Peter and high five-ed him. "It's about time you two got together." I laughed as Adam and Andy walked in. She just waved as her brown haired twin hugged me.
"You need to visit more often Althy." said Adam.
"I try." I responded as the sound of wheels filled the room. My father wheeled in on his wheel chair. During Zach's and mine freshman year of College Dad had an accident that left him paralyzed from the waste down, which usually explained his grumpy animosity of everyone and everything that went wrong.
"Althea, and Zachary." he said. I bent down and kissed my father on the cheek.
"How are you, Dad?"
"Eh," he replied "and you?"
"I couldn't be happier if you tried." I told him.
"Really, well come on sit down. Your mother's making lasagna." My mother was Italian and loved to make traditional Italian dishes.
"I missed mom's cooking." I told him.
"So Zachary," said my father as we sat down in the living room. On the couch where Zach and I ended up doing most of our homework on, "How are you?"
"I'm well sir, thank you." responded Zach.
"Is it true that you were wrongfully sent to the….loony bin?"
"Um…yes, but Althy managed to get me out with some of her charm." he smiled at me. "Jackie helped too."
"Ah yes, your Japanese friend." said dad.
"Yeah," just then my mother came in and asked Andy and me to set the table. I reluctantly left Zach and helped Andy set the table.
"Andy, is there something going on with dad?" I asked. "More than the usual, I mean."
"I don't know Alths, yesterday I caught him on the phone with some guy telling him to get to some hotel and some room…" my eyes grew. Was it really him? "Althy….Althea" I snapped out of that quickly and we grabbed the plates.
Ten minutes later everything was set and we sat down to eat. Mom and Dad at either end of the table, Adam or Andy on the left and Zach, myself, and Peter on the right.
Mom passed around the lasagna and a few other smaller dishes and Dad started up a conversation.
"Althea how is your work at the Jeffersonian going?" asked Dad.
"It's great. We put away a Neo-Nazi who killed this sweet little girl's family…"
"The girl that Nancy adopted." explained mom.
"And what about that Homeland Security Agent?" asked Dad. I decided to humor him a little.
"What Homeland Agent?" I asked
"The one you work with."
"No…he works for the FBI Agent Booth and he works mainly with Dr. Brennan."
"Right…" we are for little bit and Dad once again started up.
"How was Egypt?"
"As if you care," I replied, he ignored me.
"You and Zach, you really do not look good together. Perhaps you should date Jonah." he said and clasped a hand over his mouth.
"Eric" said my mother.
"I was right, thank you Andy." I said and turned to my father "I cannot believe you. I am twenty-six years old. You can no longer tell me who I can and cannot see. Jonah is a psychotic lunatic." Andy looked away. She felt guilty. She had nothing to feel guilty about.
"So is your boyfriend,"
"Althy…" said Zach grabbing my arm lovingly to stop me. "You don't have to defend me."
"I love you." I told him "And you dad, should be happy that I found someone who loves me and who doesn't act like he has the biggest 'wand' on the planet."
"Love, I thought he was incapable of emotions."
"Why, because he has a high IQ and basic reasoning skills?" he said nothing "If he is than so am I."
"You were meant to shape the future."
"I help put murderers behind bars."
"Next you'll be carrying a gun, women shouldn't carry guns."
"Come on Zach, this dinner was a mistake." I said and we stood up.
"Althy, please don't leave." said Adam.
"And P.S. Dad," I starred right into his eyes. "IF I ever see that Neanderthal I will end him and I won't need his gun to do it."
"Althy, Zach."
We headed out the door and as soon as we got into the car hot tears fell down my face. Zach pulled me close to him and held me tight.
"You really didn't have to do that for me." he said "But I appreciate the fact that you did."
"He's just so….everything and everyone has to be just the way he wants them to be. He even has the guts to wonder why I couldn't settle on any one carrier."
"I believe the word Agent Booth would you would be bastard or pain in the ass." I laughed a little and whipped my tears away.
"Why don't we go somewhere?"
"Where should we go?"
"Anywhere that's not here."
"We could go back to the hotel or go to the park. It's cold, but I believe walking is relaxing."
"I believe your right."
My cell phone rang. The sound of Mozart's fifth rang in a phone tone. I picked it up "Calloway….hello Booth…yeah I know it was him…can you have him terminated or something...great….I'm fine. We'll see you guys when we get back. Tell everyone hello from us." I hung up and Zach waited for me to tell him. "Apparently Jonah doesn't work for Homeland anymore, officially. Unofficially he had a desk job. Dad called him and told him to get to know me and woo me. God I hate him so much right now."
I put the key in the ignition and started it up.
"Althy," called Adam as he ran to the car.
"Adam, what is it?"
"About dad…."
"It's ok; we both know how he can be."
"Yeah, so here." he handed me a small box. "Since you weren't here on your birthday," I gave him a hug and accepted the box.
We ended up just going back to the hotel. I went down to the salon and got my hair layered. It looked good. We had lunch own in the restaurant and watched a few movies.
"Are you going to open the present your brother gave you?" asked Zach.
"I completely forgot about it." I told him and grabbed the box. I opened it and saw a bracelet. It was silver and had blue stones surrounding the name Althea.
"It's beautiful." I told him. "I think I'll wear it tonight."
"I think you should."
We took turns in the shower and by eight we were ready to go. Zach looked really handsome and I don't think I looked too bad in my green dress. "You look really beautiful."
"Thank you." I grabbed my purse and we headed out of the hotel.
YAY! Another chapter finished. Not bad. Once again ideas and such are welcome. Please hit the green button and review. Here is the link to the dress. Very coool, no?
.com/images?hl=en&um=1&q=formal+attire+for+women&sa=N&start=20&ndsp=20
