Broken Bones

Episode 85 ''The Shallow in the Deep'' Part 1

Venus POV

It's been a few weeks and finding a clue of a single family member or someone close to any of the 31 children I was in the program with, is much more difficult than I anticipated. But it's something I won't give up on, even if I'm tired. 

Luckly Temp and I are receiving an amazing find of a boat ship that was used for slavery back in the day. We were given the honor to identify the remains of each victim in that boat and I have cleared a space in the Jeffersonian to display the exhibit and to commemorate them.

Right now Temp and I are at Booths door as today he has to get some papers signed from Sweets as Temp keeps on knocking on his door calling him out, "Booth!... Booth?... Are you there?" I look at Temp, "I'm sure he's coming right now to answer the door Temp." We then hear Booth say, "No, I'm in South Beach, working on my tan." 

He finally opens the door for us as we both smile at him seeing that he was in his robe as Temp tells him, "You need Sweets to sigh your post-Afghanistan Fitness for Duty report." He seems that he forgot as I chuckle a bit, "Did you forget?" He pretends he didn't letting us in while taking the bag of breakfast I brought for him beginning to look inside "Me?".

I smile shaking my head as Temp and I both enter as Temp then states, "Well, generally you wear more clothing, and you've been avoiding this for weeks." I close the door as Booth explains, "Well, I couldn't sleep. And I got up at the crack of dawn." 

He starts stretching as we could hear his bones cracking as he felt relief as Temp asks, "Do you always have this pronounced a release of gas in the morning?" It seems he misunderstood what Temp was saying looking at us asking, "Is it that bad?" I chuckle a bit, "Not the same gas you're thinking of Ranger. It's called synovial gas, that's what the cracking is." "Synovial gas? What's that mean?"

I wasn't sure how to slowly ease it up for him until Temp tells him bluntly, "Well, there comes a point when your body can't hide all the abuse it's taken." Booth confused asks, "What do you-what do you mean, 'certain point'?" I then nod a bit with a small sweat drop, "Well, considering you've been shot and beaten, and jumped out of airplanes. The skeletal damage alone is..." It seems he was catching up as he sighs, "Oh, God. I'm falling apart." I shake my head, "No, you're still fine." But Temp adds, "It's your skeleton that's falling apart." 

Booth then looks at me, "Then what about Blueberry? She's about the same as me when it comes to injury." I scratch my cheek a bit, "Well... I'm a bit different from you Booth... It's not determined yet if I will get to the stage, you're at when I'm older, because whatever was injected in me during that time is well... never conducted before until me." He nods a bit seeing my point as we go sit in his living room as he goes get ready in his bedroom.

We are now at the FBI headquarters as Temp was still in the same topic of Booth getting older as she tells him, "The compression fracture to your T3 alone should have incapacitated you years ago. Then, there's the fracture to your sternum from when that obese girl shot you and Ven. Fractures to your metatarsals from when you were tortured. Rib pitting from when you foolishly tried to act as a human shield." He questions her, "Rib pitting?" "And that's before we even get to your compromised ligaments, both intertransverse and interior longitudinal."

I nod, "Yeah, that's pretty much accurate." I sigh a bit remembering all those times, "I remember it as if it was just like yesterday." Booth points to me at first before Temp, "First off, that's a bit creepy. And second how do you have room in your brains to remember all that?" 

I shrug, "Well, it's easier to remember all of it, especially if it's people you care most about." Temp nods, "We care about you, Booth. And the more abuse a body takes, the sooner it degenerates." We get to the elevator entering as Booth says, "That's it? That's all you got for me?" I shrug a bit as I try to find a bright side to it, "Well, it can be a good thing Ranger."