A/N: Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thanks to all who have reviewed alerted and made this story a favorite. Seeing all of those notifications in my inbox really made me so happy. So thanks again! Also, I have an idea where I want to take the story but the details are kind of fuzzy. So, if anyone has ideas of where to take the story or plot points they'd like to see happen, just let me know!
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Brennan and Booth woke up that next morning and went to the diner for breakfast.
"So, are you going to tell me what makes Bren tick?" Booth said, leaning back in his chair, "I wanna know everything about you. I mean, you know practically everything about me. I haven't shut up about me."
"That's common in Alpha Males. You take charge of everything. You are the leader of the football team and you usually lead the conversations between us, or anyone for that matter," Brennan informed him.
"Well, you can be the Alpha Female now. You talk."
"What do you want to know?
He looked at her. Bren looked genuinely confused. Booth could tell she wasn't normally put in this situation.
"Tell me everything." Booth looked at her. She now seemed confused, or was she troubled.
"I don't know where to start…" Brennan began fiddling with her napkin. She was nervous. She didn't want to talk about her parents or her brother. She hated being reminded about her time in foster care. She had just left that all behind a few months ago and Brennan was not about to go back there.
Booth stared at her. She wasn't looking at him. She was staring at her empty salad plate, practically tearing her napkin into shreds.
"Start at the beginning. I already know when your birthday is. What are your parents like? You know about my dysfunctional family. I wanna know about yours."
Brennan looked up at him. She had tears in her eyes. "Let's talk about something else. What's the line on the game this weekend?"
"Whoa, Bren, I'm surprised you know what 'the line' means. But I-"
"It's not that hard. It's used in betting on either the underdog or whoever is supposed to win."
He sighed. "Bren, are you okay? Did I say something wrong?"
"Can we…." She looked around the diner. It was full of people. Brennan didn't want to make a scene in front of all of those people, "Let's take a walk."
They got up and Booth went to the counter to pay the bill. Brennan waited just outside the door and as soon as he started opening the door, Brennan started to walk down the street. She could hear thunder in the distance and noticed clouds rolling quickly over their heads. Brennan knew a storm was coming soon and she could feel the metaphorical storm building inside her, the thunder waiting to explode like a sonic shock wave.
"I was in foster care all during high school. My parents left me and my brother alone when I was fifteen. Russ left a few months later. I had been living on my own for a while when one of my teachers discovered that I was walking the sixteen miles to school every day. She offered me a ride home and I accepted. She asked why Russ didn't pick me up any more and I told her all of my problems, which was admittedly the biggest mistake of my life. All teachers are mandatory reporters. If they know or sense there is a problem with a student, they have to report it. I was in seven foster homes in four years. The next was always worse than the last. Do you see this?" She pulled up her skirt to show Booth a burn scar on her thigh. "This was because I accidently let the water boil over for the pasta they made me make them every night. And this," she dropped her skirt, turned around and raised her shirt. "See this? This is because my younger foster brother ate a snack too close to dinner time. And apparently, it was my fault for letting him eat." She hid the healing chemical burn, most likely from ammonia, Booth thought, and turned away from her.
He had no idea. If he had known about these scars, both physical and emotional, he would've never pushed her on the subject. She was sobbing quietly, Brennan's tears flowing harder than the rain was coming down. The raindrops on her shirt were slowly masking the drops made by her tears.
Brennan waited for Booth to say something. He was pacing on the sidewalk in front of her, thinking of the best thing to say. She began to walk away. He looked up and realized she was almost half way down the block. He jogged to catch up with her.
"Bren, look at me."
She kept walking and when Brennan didn't stop, Booth grabbed her shoulder and spun her around. His hand was still in the air and she flinched.
"What was that? Did you think I was going to hit you?" Booth tried looking into her eyes. But she was hiding her face; her eyes were clouded over by pain she hadn't felt since she showed up on campus.
"I would never hit a woman, especially you," he told her. He slipped a finger under her chin to lift her face. He wanted her to look him in the eyes. He wanted her to know that she could trust him.
"Bren, that's all behind you now. You don't need to face any of that anymore. I'm here for you. I won't push you for anything else but if you ever want to talk about this again, you know where to find me. I'm sorry I brought it up."
Brennan looked in his eyes and saw his concern. She half-smiled.
"It's okay. You didn't know, Booth. I'm sorry I went kind of crazy on you. You're the first person I've told. Ever."
They started walking back toward the dorms. It was pouring now and Brennan started shivering. Booth pulled her close, wrapping an arm around her, protecting her from both storms.
XXXXXXXX
Apart from that, the week passed somewhat uneventfully. Apart only during class, Brennan and Booth had become inseparable. She practically lived in Booth's dorm room now by the amount of time she spent there and she and Drew were becoming fast friends too. They had become known at the diner by name in less than a week and Brennan had become as much as a campus-wide known face as the football players. Booth had been considered the most eligible bachelor on campus and Brennan was now known as the girl to be jealous of.
Booth and Brennan went to pick up Hank and Jared at the airport on the Thursday night before the game.
They arrived at the airport about an hour before Hank and Jared's plane was about to arrive. As they took their seats in the arrival waiting area, they heard an announcement.
"Flight 476 from Philadelphia had been delayed. There is dense fog coming in their flight path. The flight will stop in Cleveland until it is safe to continue."
Booth groaned. "Well, I guess we should make ourselves comfortable. Good thing we both brought homework. That only lasted for a little while, however. As soon as Booth spotted the arcade, he was gone. Brennan sat in the waiting area while Booth scored several high scores on the racing game.
When he rejoined Brennan in the arrivals waiting area, she was dozing with her linguistic anthropology textbook wide open on her lap. He smiled and sat next to her, finally succumbing to sleep himself.
It was almost three in the morning when Hank and Jared's plane finally landed.
The pair came out of the terminal to the waiting area to find Booth sprawled out on a chair, head slumped back with his mouth hanging open and Brennan lying down on his lap, covering several other chairs.
Jared looked at his grandfather and grinned. He had a mischievous look on his face and Hank didn't like it. He opened his bottle of water and poured it into Booth's gaping mouth.
Booth shot up like a rocket, spitting the water all over Brennan and Jared.
"Booth!" Brennan yelled, wiping the water off of her face.
"Jared, I swear to God, if I hadn't missed you so much, you'd be dead right now!" Booth leaped up to hug his brother and grandfather.
"Pops, Jared, this is Bren," Booth introduced.
They all shook hands and Booth took Hank's bags. They all began chatting while heading toward the parking lot.
"Nice, Seeley. She's pretty hot," Jared said to his brother under his breath.
"Knock it off, man. She's my tutor. AND my friend."
"Does that mean I can hit on her?
