Brennan had disappeared upstairs shortly after she finished eating dinner. She tucked Christine in and spent a few minutes watching Henry sleep. She returned to the living and said goodnight to Parker, who had just come home from Cody's house and was heading upstairs to finish up the homework he had neglected due to the project.
She is now currently sitting beside her partner on the couch. After a few more minutes of tension-filled silence, she removes her head from its position on his shoulder and raises her hand, resting it against the right side of his face, her thumb brushing against his cheekbone. She turns his head towards her, their eyes meeting. His brown eyes aren't as warm as they usually are and that immediately makes her stomach churn. Tired of the silence, she speaks up. "Hey, are we going to talk about what happened with Jared?"
Booth closes his eyes and lets out breath, gaining strength from the warmth of her hand against his cheek. His eyelids slide open again and he finds her still looking directly at him, waiting, her eyebrows furrowed, her eyes more gray than their usual blue and filled with confusion and genuine sympathy for something she has yet to find out about.
She offers him an encouraging smile and drops her hand, shifting closer to him. "You're really worrying me, Booth. Is Jared okay?" She sighs.
He nods, lifting his hand and smoothing the wrinkle in her forehead with the pad of his thumb. "He asked me if I knew the name and number for a good divorce attorney."
She stiffens. "For him or for," she swallows, "you?"
He narrows his eyes. "Him, Bones, him," he assures, his voice stern.
She heaves a sigh of relief, though she's unsure where the thought of it being about him came from. "Jared and Padme are getting a divorce?"
"Apparently."
"Did he give you a reason why?"
He shakes his head. "When I asked, he told me it was none of my damn business."
She nods. "They seemed happy, though more so than not, marriage ends in divorce."
He cups her cheek and kisses her, his way of reassuring Brennan that they aren't just some stupid statistic. He pulls back and smiles at her.
She shrugs. "Surely your brother's relationship issues are not the only reason you're upset, so what else occurred during this phone conversation?"
He just sighs.
She studies him for a minute and nods. "Jared's drinking again, isn't he?"
A little surprised that she guessed that, he nods and takes a couple seconds to confirm. "He was drunk when he called me."
She rubs his forearm. "Do you believe that he started drinking as a result of his breakup with Padme?"
"I have no solid proof, but I just know my brother fell off the wagon before they even discussed the possibility of divorce." He pauses. "I called him out on it, and he, again, told me to mind my own damn business."
"I assume you told him about Hank. How did he react to the news?"
He sighs. "After I told him that Pops was sick, that he was dying, I asked him if he was gonna come visit him. He said he was really busy, but he'd see what he could do. I wanted to reach into the phone right then and strangle him, Bones." Anger, which had lain dormant since he hung up the phone earlier, rises to the surface. His pulse quickens and his breathing grows heavy.
She squeezes his arm and looks into his eyes again. "I'm sorry."
"Pops raised us. He rescued us from Hell. He did everything he could to make sure we turned out all right. I don't care how busy you are, you make the time for family, whether they're sick or perfectly healthy. God, Bones." He balls his hand into a fist and pulls himself away from her. He punches the couch cushion and grunts. "I know I shouldn't be surprised. He's a screw-up. He's always been a screw-up."
She doesn't know what to say and she can tell he's not finished, so she stays silent, her hand cupping his forehead, tenderly brushing her thumb against his exposed skin.
"He's family, but I told him that if he didn't get it together, he wasn't gonna be in our wedding or even invited to the ceremony. I'm not gonna let him near our kids if he's drunk." He sighs. "He got pissed and we got into it. I walked out onto the porch because I didn't want Christine to hear me screaming at him. I didn't want to scare her."
"I know you love him, Booth, but I don't want him anyway near our children either if he's drinking heavily again." She leans against him, resting her head on his shoulder again. She takes his hand and weaves their fingers together, sighing deeply against him.
"I got so mad that I just hung up on him mid-sentence." He finds himself calming down with the proximity of their bodies. He wraps his arm around her and lets out a breath.
After another few minutes of quiet, she gives his hand a gentle squeeze and lifts her head. "Are you okay?"
He turns and allows his fingertips to delicately trace along her hairline, down the side of her face, and across her jaw before tipping her head with his index finger and engulfing her lips in a warm, sweet kiss. He pulls back and smiles, pressing another kiss to her forehead. He nods. "Working on it."
"I'm sorry. I know how important family is to you." She settles back into his side, nuzzling her head into his shoulder.
"Honestly, right now, I'd be fine if I never talk to Jared again. I'm pretty sure our relationship is beyond repair at this point and I don't think I care. I have a lot more important things to worry about right now besides him screwing up his life again."
She nods.
"I've been protecting him and saving his ass practically my whole life and it's obviously been a huge waste of my time. Whatever I say, he'll just do the opposite or tell me to go to Hell, so why bother even trying? Jared's a grown man. If he wants to piss the rest of his life away, I'm just gonna let him." He shrugs. "Can we not talk about this anymore?"
She smiles and separates from him. "Would you like to watch a movie with me? Though, the probability that I'm going to fall asleep before the opening credits is high."
He laughs. "Go to bed, Bones."
"So that's a no on the movie?"
"Yeah, it's a no. I can tell you're exhausted."
She yawns, not even trying to hide the fact that she's extremely tired. "Are you going to join me now? Or will you be coming to bed later?"
"Would you like me to come to bed now?"
She nods. "Yes." She pauses. "I don't like when you're upset and I'd feel better if you weren't downstairs alone." She starts to stand up, but stops and looks at him, a small smirk on her face. "And Angela told me to go home, cuddle with my sexy FBI special agent husband, and sleep, which sounds like an excellent use of my time right now."
He stands up after she rises from the depths of the couch cushions and hooks his arm around her waist. He presses his lips against her temple and sighs into her hair. "I love you."
She leans into him and nods. "I love you too." She smiles and they turn off the lights and head upstairs, the highly emotionally charged conversation they just shared put in the back of their minds for the time being.