**So...it's official...ONLY A WEEK UNTIL THE NEW SEASON STARTS! OMG! I'm so excited! Yall don't even know...I'm not the squealing type (very often), but all of the previews I've seen have made me squeal like a little school girl! :D :D :D :D

Well, I think this chapter is one of my favorites so far. It gave time for reflection on Booth's part and time for admittance on Brennan's part. However, a couple of other people will be coming into play in the next chapter! :) I'll be sure to start working as soon as I can ;)

Don't own them...*sigh*...

Sitting in class, Temperance was completely miserable. Not only did her side hurt, she knew she had majorly offended Booth. She wasn't big on the whole "people skills" thing, but she picked up on how bad the situation actually was as he spent the classes that they had together sitting on the other side of the room. Temperance watched as he chewed on the end of his pen, a desperate look in his chocolate eyes. Why did he care so much? Hell, why did she care so much?

It took all Booth had to control the urge to get up and drag Temperance out of class and to the hospital. He knew she was terrified, as she should be. But he didn't understand why she didn't want to get out of that situation.

The bell finally rang to go to lunch. Temperance allowed Booth to leave the room before she even began to pack her things into her backpack. Once she had, she wearily walked to the cafeteria. Spotting Booth sitting with his football friends at their new table, she looked away as soon as his eyes found her.

His stomach did flips as he watched her go through the lunch line. He watched as she carefully kept her hand on her side as she one-handedly picked up a tray and placed food on it. After trying to get his attention for the past couple minutes, one of Booth's friends eventually punched him in the arm. "Dammit! What was that for?" Booth snapped.

"We've been trying to get your attention for the past couple of minutes, Booth! Don't tell me you didn't hear us…" the other guy replied.

Shaking his head, Booth's jaw clenched tight. "What'd you want?"

"We were wanting to know if you were going out with us Friday after the game," another guy offered.

"Uh," he stammered, pretending to be interested in the food that was on his plate. "Probably not this week, guys," he told them, glancing back up long enough to see Temperance sit down at a table across the cafeteria.

"Oh, come on, Booth!" one of the guys groaned. "And why are you watching that girl? Was she that great in bed?"

The guy chuckled until Booth quickly got out of his chair and grabbed the significantly smaller guy by his shirt. "What did you say?" Booth demanded an answer through clenched teeth, his eyes dark and narrowed.

"I, I, I…I'm sorry, man!" the other guy stuttered, holding his hands up as a peace offering.

"That's what I fucking thought," Booth spat back at him, dropped him, and then stormed out of the cafeteria. Going by his locker, he snatched his backpack out of it, threw it on his shoulder, and headed towards his vehicle.

Once inside, he took a deep breath as he noticed his death grip on the steering wheel. He knew who he needed to talk to. He also knew that person would have all the answers to his questions.

Using his key, Booth unlocked the side door of the house and quietly walked in. He shut the door and sat his bag on the floor. "Seeley?" he heard from the den.

Booth walked down the steps that lead into the den and sighed as he propped himself against the doorway. "Hey, Pop," he greeted gloomily.

"What are you doing home?" Pop curiously asked. Seeley knew he wasn't mad, he just had the same people-reading skills as his grandson and knew something was going on.

Lowering his head as he ran a hand through his messy hair, Booth let out a deep breath. He didn't even know where to begin. After a few moments of silence, his grandpa got out of his chair, patting his grandson on the arm as he walked by. "Come on, you can help me get dinner started. It has to cook for a while," Pop told him.

Booth followed his grandpa back to their kitchen. He sat on a barstool at the island in the middle as Pop began to pull things out of the refrigerator. "You're gonna make me use my old detective skills, aren't you?" Pop chuckled as he placed a bowl and some vegetables in front of Seeley. The kid still didn't crack a smile.

"Chop," his grandpa instructed, handing Booth a knife. "My first gut feeling is that this is over a girl, am I right?" Pop asked.

Booth nodded as he began to cut.

"This girl…for her to have you this worked up, you must care about her." Pop's words cut through Seeley's heart as he nodded and chewed on the inside of his cheek. "My next guess is that she's not letting you protect her like you think she needs."

Looking up in shock, Booth forgot that he was slicing vegetables and cut his own finger. "Crap," he groaned, moving to the sink. He stuck his finger under cold water to wash the blood away as Pop looked over his shoulder.

"I'll take that as a yes to my last question," Pop smirked. He may have been old, but he still had it.

"It's not just that, Pop," Booth sighed, turning the water off and reaching for a paper towel. Wrapping it around his finger, he returned to his seat at the island.

"Then what is it, Shrimp?" Pop asked.

"She's the girl I went out with Friday night. Her foster-mom said she could stay out till midnight, but about ten o'clock, her foster-father called saying she had to come home. When she got to school this morning…" Booth stopped. His heart was racing and his stomach was doing flips as he began to really think about it again. "When she got to school this morning, her face was all bruised and she had some broken ribs with a nasty bruise on her ribcage."

Pop's eyes narrowed. "And the foster-father did that," he concluded, more to himself than to Seeley.

Booth nodded. "I nearly begged her to go to the hospital. She kept telling me she wouldn't go and that she's been through 'a lot worse' so she could handle it." A silence filled the air as he looked down and saw his finger was no longer bleeding. Picking the knife back up, he resumed his duties, hoping it would take his mind off of her.

"I know you don't want to hear it, Shrimp, but you can't save people every time you think they may need it. Obviously you care about this girl, right?" Booth nodded. "Sometimes that just means standing by until they realize that they need you."

"But I can't just sit here and let him keep beating the hell out of her!" Booth argued, tossing some of the chopped carrots into another bowl.

"Trust me on this on, Seeley. Just let her know you're there. And if it happens again, we'll figure out a way to fix it." Pop turned the stove on after he sat a pot of water on top of it. "And with her being in foster-care, trust is most definitely a huge underlying issue for her."

Nodding again, Booth's heart sank. If it happens again… Those few words made him want to kill the bastard, right then and there.

Booth returned to school as the last bell of the day rang so he could go to football practice. They were going to have their first game of the season Friday night, and hell…after the day he had, he just needed to hit some people.

Once practice was over, he retreated to the field-house with his teammates and got cleaned up. He took a quick, cold shower and gathered his things up. Walking out to his vehicle after he was done, Booth saw someone sitting on the parking bumper in front of his SUV. The small frame of the person made his heart skip a beat.

He was still sore from their last conversation, but he wasn't going to let that make him a complete jerk. "What are you doing?" he asked, his eyes narrowed as he walked up behind her.

Jumping, Temperance stood up and faced him as he took a couple steps past her. "I, uh…you weren't in class after lunch," she reminded him, tucking a curl behind her ear. "I was wondering if something was wrong with you."

"Everything's fine," he told her, his voice colder than usual. He threw his stuff in the back of the SUV and began to walk to the driver's side.

"Booth, wait…" she asked, following him to the driver's door. Her blue eyes traced his whole body from the ground up, eventually landing on his brown ones. "I'm sorry," she spoke softly, tugging at the sleeves on her jacket.

Handle with care, if not, you'll lose it forever, he recited in his head. He knew that he had no choice but to give in if he wanted to keep her. Wanting to stand his ground and make a point, the clear blue eyes staring at him quickly changed those plans for him. "It's okay…" he whispered, carefully pulling her to him.

He put his arms around her shoulders and sighed as her arms wrapped around his waist. "I need to explain this to you," she told him, backing up a step or two.

Shaking his head, Booth pulled her back to him. "You don't have to explain anything. You were right. I've only known you 5 days, who am I to tell you what to do?"

"Not that," she told him, backing away again. "I want to explain to you why I won't go to the hospital." Booth leaned back against his SUV and surveyed her face as she began to talk. "If I go to the hospital, it's a law that since I'm in foster-care, no matter what I tell them that happened, they have to send social workers to investigate the incident. And as much as I hate them, social workers are generally pretty smart. So, even if I told them I fell down some stairs or fell off a bike, they'd know I was lying."

"And if they investigate, he'll think you told someone," Booth finished with a nod and wide eyes. She already told him that, why was she explaining it again?

Brennan shook her head. "Not just that. The social workers will know I was lying and they'll put me in another half-ass, wretched group home with 30 kids and 15 beds. And I cannot go back to that again, Booth," she told him. Her eyes were the clearest blue he had ever seen them. "I have to ride this out for the next year so I can avoid being moved to another house with shitty foster-parents."

"How do you know they'll be shitty?" he asked.

Closing her eyes and reopening them, Temperance shook her head. "Seeley, I've been in nine homes in two years. Each and every time a social worker shows up, I have had ten minutes to throw my stuff in a trash bag and get in their car so they could drive me over to another overcrowded group home or another foster-home. Do you know what that's like? Having to shove all of your belongings into a trash bag? Do you know what it's like to not have anybody in your life that wants you?"

His heart broke as he watched a tear fall her face. Reaching out for her hands, he sighed. "That's not true," he whispered as he reached and cupped her cheek. "I want you," he softly admitted, staring into her teary eyes. "I know it's absolutely crazy that we've only known each other 5 days and we're standing here like we've been together for 5 years," his eyes pierced hers, "And I can't explain it at all…trust me, I've tried…but I want you. I want every part of you," he promised as more tears slid down her flushed cheeks.

"I doubt that," she spoke softly, not actually meaning to say it out loud.

"Am I going to have to get the tutu out to prove it?" he asked, straight faced. A grin slipped across her face as she lightly laughed, wiping at the wetness on her face. "There's that smile," he smirked as he pulled her to him, her not fighting it this time.

After standing there in silence for a short time, Booth pulled back and looked down at her. "You have to promise me something," he informed her.

With a raised eyebrow, Temperance cocked her head to the side. "What exactly do I have to promise you, Seeley Booth?"

"You, Temperance Brennan," he told her, pointing a finger at her chest, "Have to tell me if he does this again. Can you do that?"

With a nod, she grinned. "He's out of town until next Monday," she informed him.

A giant load of stress was lifted off of his shoulders and he let out an accidental "Thank God…"

Temperance smiled and fell back into his chest. "This is the craziest thing," she whispered.

"What is?"

"I have known you less than a week and I already feel more secure than I have in two years," she admitted, shyly looking up towards his face.

Knowing that admitting things like that weren't easy for her, Booth smiled and kissed the top of her head. "In that case, mind if I take you out Friday night after the game?"

"I'd like that," she replied, her blue eyes were big as she smiled up at him. "Is my presence required at this game?" She had never been big on sports. She understood the methods of them, just not the interest.

Chuckling, Booth smiled. "No, but I'd like you to be there," he urged.

Temperance looked up as she bit her bottom lip. "I suppose I can make an appearance. You know, so the whole one person I know sees me supporting the football team."

"I'll introduce you to some people tomorrow, that way you'll have someone to sit with at the game. How's that?" he asked, rubbing her back.

"Um…sure," she complied. "Works for me."

Temperance Brennan was happier in that moment than she had been in two years. And it was the damnedest thing she had ever experienced.