Chapter Nineteen: Siblings United

Hannah pulled her coat closer to her as she stood in the car park, flicking the occasional look at her watch as she waited for her brother to come and get her. It was cold and he was late and the more she looked at her watch, the more irritated she was getting.

"Stupid idiot, can't make it anywhere on time... Probably forgot about today..."
"I heard that talking to yourself is the second sign of madness." A voice came from behind her and Hannah turned to see Brennan standing slightly behind her, a smile on her face. Hannah chuckled and buried her face in her scarf.

"What's the first sign?"
"The first sign of madness, as I have been informed, is asking what it is. But I've always thought that talking to yourself was a sign of intelligence. One can have the most intelligent of conversations with oneself." That got a decent laugh from Hannah that made Brennan feel quite impressed with herself.

Since having gotten back a week ago, both Brennan and Sweets had acted as a sort of buffer between Booth and Hannah. It wasn't as though Hannah were about to turn on him and fight him (although they all knew that she was quite capable of taking him on if need be) but it was the icyness between them that was beginning to burn away and made Hannah snappier and made Booths fuse shorter than it had ever been.  The team had found it easier to work when it was just one of them there, even though Booth and Hannah worked better as a team.

"Can I ask you something?" Brennan asked Hannah, moving so that she was standing right beside her. Hannah nodded, curious as to why Brennan was asking if she could ask a question. Generally, she just came and straight out asked. "How would you feel if I was seeing your brother? For sexual, emotional and intellectual purposes?" Hannah cocked her head and frowned at the question. Looking at Brennan, she could see that she was waiting for an answer and, ignoring the pang of sadness that reverberated through her stomach.

"I mean, I wouldn't be overly surprised? Not entirely sure how he would meet your intellectual needs, though. He can be quite dim." Brennan nodded.

"You wouldn't be hurt?"
"Doc, I've been hurt and disappointed too much to let it get to me. If you and Gus are seeing each other, then I say good for you, just don't let him be too much of a pain the ass, okay?" Brennan nodded and pulled out her phone, fingers flying over the keys as she sent a text. Hannah's brain twisted over what the doc had said and couldn't help but smile at the thought of Gus seeing Brennan. 

The sound of a car horn interrupted the brief thought of tiny, smart Gus like creatures and Hannah turned to see her brother turn into the carpark, his hair sticking up at odd angles because of driving with the windows down.

"Thank sweet baby camel babies, I've been driving in circles for the last twenty minutes and thought ya'll would never talk." Gus said as Hannah had peered through the window.

"20 minutes? I though you were going to do what I told you and just go to the diner." Brennan frowned and Hannah snorted.

"Yeah.. Gus do what you say... Good luck with that, Doc. When we were younger, we had a dog and I'm pretty sure Bilbo Barkins was better at listening than Gus was." Gus scowled.

"Bilbo Barkins? Do I even want to know?"

"Oh trust me. It'll give you a good look in to how Gus Price works. I'll tell it you sometime." Hannah winked as she pulled the door open and got in, unable to help the grin that was on her face from getting wider. Brennan shook her head.

"Are we still on for tonight, Tempe?" Gus asked over Hannah. Brennan nodded and Gus smiled and nudged Hannah who nudged him back, a little harder than she had originally aimed, but still not hard enough to make him bruise.

"See you later, Brennan."

"Bye Hannah. Bye Gus." She took a few steps away from the car and Gus took off as Hannha put her window up, shivering at the breeze. Turning to him, she asked,

"How long have you been seeing Brennan?"

"Three months."
"You hid it from me for THREE WHOLE MONTHS? Did anyone know?"

"Booth and Angela, I think?"

"And you didn't think to tell me, you're sister?"

"You seriously can't be mad at me, can you sis? Ya'll didn't say to anyone for ages about you and Booth!"

"That's different because of certain rules, dingbat. Ya'll are completely free from bosses saying you can't." Gus sighed as he pulled onto the highway and looked over at Hannah, who was watching him with bright eyes. He could see that she was finding the whole thing funny. Her eyes were bluer and he had noted that with the adult version of his little sister, her blue-grey eyes changed, mood dependent. 

"You're just pulling my leg, aren't you."
"Oh definitely. Good luck fulfilling the intellectual, sexual and emotional needs of Temperence Brennan. I want front row seats at the wedding."

"Damn you, Hannah. Damn you."

*********************

Booth sat at his desk and stared blankly at his screen, his mind wandering aimlessly as he waited. He waited for nothing imparticular but he waited nonetheless. 

Sweets walked in to his office, not even bothering to knock when he saw the blank look on Booths face. Flopping into one of the seats adjacent to him, Sweets crossed his legs and began to drum a random beat with his fingers on the arm of the chair, waiting for some sort of acknowledgement from Booth.

"You know, I can sit here as long as I want because I don't actually have any appointments to do today. Except for you.  And you're late, Booth. By an HOUR." Sweets finally said with a sigh. Booth blinked and looked at him.

"How long have you been there?"
"Five minutes? Maybe less? I wasn't really watching the time." Booth leaned back in his seat and blew out a breath, picking up the football that was behind him and tossed it from hand to hand.

"I don't need to see you, Sweets. There is nothing wrong with me."
"Oh sure. Because sitting at your desk and staring into space is a completely normal thing to do."
"It is. For lots of people."
"You aren't just people, Booth. You're you! And you're heart broken!" Booth scoffed.

"I'm fine, Sweets. Just a little bored because, for once, nobody is dead."
"You're bored because Hannah," Sweets saw him grimace slightly, "is off seeing her dad and not here to annoy the blue blazes out of you." Sweets stopped when he realised what he had just said and groaned. "Hannah's going to kill me now."

"She's seeing her dad?" Booth asked, eyeing the doctor as he slumped in his chair, rubbing his eyes. "She swore she never wanted to see him." Sweets shrugged.

"I guess her brother is going with her and they both decided it was time. You know Hannah. Closing doors."
"I also know how stubborn she is."

Sweets watched Booth for a moment before speaking again.

"You think this is your fault, don't you?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Sweets."
"You think that because you broke up with her,  it pushed over into going to see her dad." Booth rolled his eyes.

"I thought it would be good to see her dad. I told her she SHOULD go."
"And when did you say this?"
"When we were together!"
"And now she's acting on that notion because she knows you were right but because now she doesn't have you 'hovering"... her terms, Booth, not mine.... She thinks she came to the conclusion herself." Booth snorted and stood up, grabbing his coat. "What are you doing?"
"She's going to need someone after she's seen him." Booth went to move past Sweets but Sweets stood up and stopped him, eyes wide and shaking his head.

"You broke up with her a little over three weeks ago. You broke up with her because yes, you were told to, but because your jobs wold be in danger and if you go now to wait for her, you'll freak her out and you'll hurt her more." Booth stared at Sweets for a moment and sighed.

"I love her, Sweets. I hurt her in a way I never wanted to and I know she won't want to see me but I need to see her to know that she'll be okay."
"You're mad."
"As a hatter." Sweets shook his head, hiding a smile. Booth pushed past him and left the office, heading for his car. Sweets stood there and sighed, his brain turning as he thought over the last three weeks and how much of a mess they had been.

Slowly, a thought... No, an idea, began to form in Sweets head and he followed after Booth, altering his path to take the stairs to the upper offices.

                      ********

The buzz of the prison door being opened was something not unfamiliar to Hannah as she stepped into the meeting room. There was a desk and a sheet of glass that divided the room. Two seats were on her side, one was on the otherside. In her chest, Hannah could feel her heart pounding madly.

"You alright?" Gus was staring through the glass at the seat, himself a little anxious at this meet. He hadn't seen his father face to face in quite some years and honestly didn't know what they were going to see. Hannah shook her head.

"I don't know why I finally agreed to this. I don't want to see him." Gus put an arm around her and gave her a gentle squeeze before tugging her towards the chairs and pulled hers out for her.

"Because you need closure."
"You sound like Booth." She growled as she sat down and leaned on the desk. She began to tug at the blonde curls that hung around her face and looked over at Gus who was watching her, his face looking more lined than it had before they had entered the prison. "You're right though. This will be good. For both of us." Gus smiled and the siblings both looked towards the door on the otherside of the glass as there was a loud, if slightly muffled, buzz and the door was opened.

Hannah held her breath as a man walked in. She watched him as he approached the chair and sat down, eyeing his children warily.

He looked older than Hannah had anticipated. Although she hadn't seen Miles Price since he was sentenced to prison all those years ago, he looked older than he should've.

"You came." He said quietly. Gus nodded and looked at Hannah. "You both came." Miles let a small smile creep onto his face and Hannah managed to hold down a shudder. From her memory, that smile contained nothing but merciless tortures of abuse that had left scars deeper than anyone could fix.

But as Hannah watched Miles in silence, she noted that this man was different and that his smile... Had changed. It wasn't that his hair was buzzed short or that his beard was speckled with bright white strands. It wasn't the wrinkles that lined his face or the fact that his clothes fit him loosely.

It was the fact that his smile, was in fact, one that was not evil or terrible.

"Gus said that you wanted to talk." Hannah managed to get herself out of her inner thoughts and pushed the words out. Miles nodded.

"I wanted to talk to you. It's been a long time."
"Well, that's not exactly Hannah's fault now, is it?" Miles shook his head.

"You look so much like your mother." Hannah made a noise through her noise and Gus gave her a warning glance. "And Gus... You look like me when I was your age. Not that ya'll probably see that as a good thing."
"Well, at least you know that." Hannah commented. Miles looked at her, his blue-grey eyes looking sadly at her.

"I know you have reasons to hate me, Han. You both do. But I know that I made some really big mistakes by you two but I want you two to know that I am sorry for everything." Gus, who had been looking down at his hands as Miles had been talking, looked up at his father sharply just as Hannah inhaled to a point where she felt like her lungs were about to explode.

"Sorry doesn't bring mom or Rose back." Gus said lowly. "Sorry doesn't take back all the times you hit me and Hannah. Sorry doesn't take back all those times you threatened me. Sorry doesn't make us feel any better." Hannah looked over at Gus and put a hand on his arm and then looked back at Miles.

"I know this wasn't what you were expecting from me-"
"Honestly? Neither." Hannah snapped as she tried to comfort her brother while also channeling her FBI agentness. It was all she could do now to not leave, Gus in tow, and never come back. But her heart was telling her to stay.

"You think an apology is the thing we want? We've only just reconnected. Gus and I need TIME. We are trying to heal and I know that you are trying to say you're sorry for being an abusive, murderous father but lemme tell you something, pal. I don't NEED you. We have each other. I have Gus and our grandparents and my team and that's good for me. Your apology, as well thought as it was for you, is NOT something we need." Hannah, as she had spoken, had realised that she had switched between 'I' and 'We' and knew that in the time since she had been with Gus, she really did mean what she had said about the two of them.

Miles sat there quietly from a few minutes and Hannah looked over at Gus who was looking at her oddly.

"You're taking this oddly well." He murmured.

"Someone has to." Gus smirked and Hannah rolled her eyes. "We have to go. And I'm sorry that you're apology isn't enough and honestly, it never will." Hannah stood up and Gus did as well, him leading the way and knocking on the door to let the guard know they were done.

"I'm proud of you Hannah." Miles said mildly, after a bit of silence as they waited to leave. Hannah frowned. "You're definitely coming out better than I hoped."
"I had to. I didn't have great role models." And with that, the door opened and Hannah followed her brother out without looking back.
Hannah had one thought form as she left.

I wish I could talk to Booth.

Authors note:

Hey team!
Wow.... it has been a while! Like, a long long while!

I was going to write an update last week but then I needed to do a uni thing (which is passed) and now I have a week of holiday and will write much!

I decided to split this chapter up because I was like, ya'll deserve many chapters. So there is a sweet little chapter coming up next that hopefully will make us all happy.

Which means I managed to make it THREE CHAPTERS TILL THE END!

THEN I CAN START TINKERBELL.

I AM SO EXCITED I HAVE SO MANY PLANNED THINGS.

Comment below what ya'll have been up to since my last update and what ya'll think of this one!

Xxx
》Bree《