Fic: Bones: In the Trenches, Part 13/30
Chapter 13: The Whites of Their Eyes
Author: amilyn
Rating: PG-13 (themes, abuse)
Warnings: physical abuse, psychological abuse
Chapter 12
Chapter 13: The Whites of Their Eyes
***
"Temperance! Go pick a few tomatoes!"
"Coming!"
She pulled a shirt on quickly and pulled her still-wet hair out of the collar. Their morning run was a consistent eight to ten miles, and the heat of July meant she was still red-faced and breathing heavily even after her shower. She felt strong. Cleansed. Powerful.
She glanced in the small mirror and deflated. Two purple-and-brown bruises on her right arm and one on her left, that with its fading yellowish mark, were visible. She was weak. Useless. And Claire was right: no one would believe anything she said. No adults had since before the state came and took her away.
She grabbed another shirt, ran back to the bathroom, and peeled out of the first, yanking on the one with sleeves that came to her elbows.
"Temperance!"
"I'm coming!" She took the stairs two at a time.
Claire grabbed her arm and twisted the skin between her thumb and finger. Temperance struggled not to wince; it was the same spot Claire had grabbed when she was two minutes late for their run this morning.
"I wouldn't rush down those stairs if I were you. This is just fair warning. As big a klutz as you are, you'll fall, and the last thing I need is to have to spend all day in the emergency room."
"Yes, ma'am." Not even a year ago, her parents would have been concerned about her if she fell, not about what a bother it would cause. She swallowed. Why had she ever believed people caring about her was how things worked in the real world? She'd been a fool.
She washed the three ripest big-boy tomatoes at the spigot and brought them inside, tucking them in her shirt hem so as not to drip on the floor. Once they were in a plastic container Claire added them to their cooler.
"Bread, lunchmeat, fruit, tomatoes, lettuce, carrot sticks, deviled eggs, mayonnaise, cheese, mustard, cottage cheese, and beer and soda in the other cooler. Okay. Let's get going!" She grabbed the drinks and gestured. Temperance picked up the bigger cooler. "Guys! Get your pathetic asses down here! We've got to head out!"
As Curtis packed the trunk, Temperance pointed to the car next to the garage. "Why don't we ever use that car?"
"That?" Claire scoffed. "That's just Curtis and Mike's 'project car.' Every now and then they get some idea that they'll fix it up or rebuild the engine. They never do, of course."
Temperance saw how Brad's lip curled in disgust, but Claire seemed oblivious to it as she climbed into the front seat.
It took forty-five minutes to get downtown, fifteen to park, and another twenty to walk past the museums and out onto the grounds of the planetarium. Curtis and Brad set down the big cooler and spread out woolen, green, army blankets.
"Perfect. We got here early enough to get the best spot. We'll be able to see everything from here." Claire started making sandwiches and laying out food. "Temperance, why don't you and Brad play frisbee?
Temperance glanced at Brad and suppressed a shudder. "Are you sure you don't need help with the food?"
Claire's expression was obscured by her huge sunglasses and the Cubs cap that matched her husband's cap and shirt, but she just waved them off.
Brad rolled his eyes. "Come on. I guess without Mike here, I'm stuck with you. Pretty sure you're going to suck, though."
Her jaw tightened, and she jogged backwards away from him. "Don't be so sure about that."
He threw the disk, and she tracked it, calculated its curve, jumped, caught it, and whipped it back, putting a spin on it so it would curve at the last minute, just like Russ had taught her. She and Russ had played on every camping trip and family outing from the time she was old enough to get a frisbee airborne all the way through last fall's trip to Starved Rock. That had been the last family outing they'd had before...everyone left her. She grabbed the frisbee out of the air again and flung it as hard as she could at Brad.
He caught it inches from his forehead. "Whoa! What the hell are you trying to do?"
She shrugged and smiled. "See how badly you suck at this?"
Brad threw it higher and farther from her, and she sprinted for it and returned the throw each time. She grinned until even her forehead ached. By the time Claire called them for food her shoulders and calves were warm, and her throat and chest were burning. She tossed the frisbee onto the grass next to the blankets and sank to a cross-legged position.
"So, Brad, are you ready to take that back?" She took a bite out of a devilled egg.
"Take what back?" He stared and that smile she didn't like spread slowly across half of his face. He looked like a canine predator when he did that.
Temperance looked away and out over the lake as she crunched on peppers and carrots and celery.
"You looked good out there, Temperance," Curtis said. "Looks like Claire's going to turn you into an athlete yet."
"Only if I can dig her out of those books," Claire laughed.
Temperance clenched her teeth and managed not to comment on Claire having pulled her Biology text from her hands and thrown it into the car trunk. There was quite a while until dusk, and reading would have been a good way to pass the time. Instead she continued to stare out over the waves moving in and out. There were sine waves she couldn't entirely calculate. She tried to see the line graph in her head, the steady wash in, the increased height of the waves as the water responded to a shallower basin, the disruption of water washing back out and pushing under the next wave. The physics was still beyond her, the stuff of this year's math and next year's physics classes.
If she got to stay at this school, where they offered the level of classes she needed. And if she could do enough studying despite the Maxwells.
They played more frisbee and then card games, chasing down the cards that blew away and losing a few into the lake. Temperance read a few chapters in summer reading paperback for AP Language that she'd sneaked in with. Her sweaty hands stuck to the book, but the midday heat was somewhat cooled by the breeze off the lake. As her eyes tired from the glare on her pages, Temperance watched clouds drift along high up in the sky as the afternoon drifted into evening.
It was perfect weather for the fireworks, which started at dusk with a huge explosion Temperance felt in her chest.
Unlike some of the later arrivals, they had enough space to spread out. Brad came back from the hacky-sack game he'd struck up with a group of shaggy-haired teens wearing open flannel shirts over t-shirts with band images emblazoned on them. He plunked down on his back to watch the show. Curtis sat between Claire and Temperance, and, early in the show, he put an arm around Temperance's shoulder. She wasn't sure why she didn't twist away.
She cast a furtive glance up at him. His face rainbow-lit by the pyrotechnics, and he wasn't looking at her. His hand was warm, and the feel of it draped over her shoulders was all too similar to her father's arm around her last year.
The cascade of colored confetti blurred. It should be Dad's arm. She should be able to lean against his shoulder. It should be Mom on the other side, tucked in close to his chest with her hands on Dad's back and thigh, not Claire, who sat several inches away from her husband.
It should be like it was last year.
The next explosion produced a deep blue weeping willow effect as the charge exploded and released bright components that burned themselves out as they fell. Burned and gone, just like life had been, and just as fast.
At the next shower of bright-colored confetti, she counted from the visual to the sound of the explosion. By her calculation, they were just over a mile from the launch point of the display. She wondered exactly what chemicals burned in which colors at what temperatures as she studied the carefully-crafted fireworks. The entire area smelled like spent matches and a smoky haze clung to the air.
The grand finale was met with whistles, cheers, and applause, but to Temperance it just felt like another loss, another good thing that was over.
***
Chapter 14
***
Posting Schedule: This story has 2630 parts (I miscounted), which will post here and at LJ on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays so that the story will finish posting the week Bones comes back.
Author's Notes
The following are real places:
Chicago Museum Campus is at the lakefront in the southeast corner of Grant Park and encompasses the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History.
Thanks upon thanks to my wonderful betas and sounding boards: jsq, bluemorpho, and havocthecat. HUGE and effusive gratitude to my line-editor and prodder to make this story as good as I could at this time, as well as encouragement and sounding board services while I planned and wrote for two years to Ayiana.
Feedback is most assuredly welcome.
***
Author: amilyn
Rating: PG-13 (themes, abuse)
Warnings: physical abuse, psychological abuse
Chapter 12
Chapter 13: The Whites of Their Eyes
***
"Temperance! Go pick a few tomatoes!"
"Coming!"
She pulled a shirt on quickly and pulled her still-wet hair out of the collar. Their morning run was a consistent eight to ten miles, and the heat of July meant she was still red-faced and breathing heavily even after her shower. She felt strong. Cleansed. Powerful.
She glanced in the small mirror and deflated. Two purple-and-brown bruises on her right arm and one on her left, that with its fading yellowish mark, were visible. She was weak. Useless. And Claire was right: no one would believe anything she said. No adults had since before the state came and took her away.
She grabbed another shirt, ran back to the bathroom, and peeled out of the first, yanking on the one with sleeves that came to her elbows.
"Temperance!"
"I'm coming!" She took the stairs two at a time.
Claire grabbed her arm and twisted the skin between her thumb and finger. Temperance struggled not to wince; it was the same spot Claire had grabbed when she was two minutes late for their run this morning.
"I wouldn't rush down those stairs if I were you. This is just fair warning. As big a klutz as you are, you'll fall, and the last thing I need is to have to spend all day in the emergency room."
"Yes, ma'am." Not even a year ago, her parents would have been concerned about her if she fell, not about what a bother it would cause. She swallowed. Why had she ever believed people caring about her was how things worked in the real world? She'd been a fool.
She washed the three ripest big-boy tomatoes at the spigot and brought them inside, tucking them in her shirt hem so as not to drip on the floor. Once they were in a plastic container Claire added them to their cooler.
"Bread, lunchmeat, fruit, tomatoes, lettuce, carrot sticks, deviled eggs, mayonnaise, cheese, mustard, cottage cheese, and beer and soda in the other cooler. Okay. Let's get going!" She grabbed the drinks and gestured. Temperance picked up the bigger cooler. "Guys! Get your pathetic asses down here! We've got to head out!"
As Curtis packed the trunk, Temperance pointed to the car next to the garage. "Why don't we ever use that car?"
"That?" Claire scoffed. "That's just Curtis and Mike's 'project car.' Every now and then they get some idea that they'll fix it up or rebuild the engine. They never do, of course."
Temperance saw how Brad's lip curled in disgust, but Claire seemed oblivious to it as she climbed into the front seat.
It took forty-five minutes to get downtown, fifteen to park, and another twenty to walk past the museums and out onto the grounds of the planetarium. Curtis and Brad set down the big cooler and spread out woolen, green, army blankets.
"Perfect. We got here early enough to get the best spot. We'll be able to see everything from here." Claire started making sandwiches and laying out food. "Temperance, why don't you and Brad play frisbee?
Temperance glanced at Brad and suppressed a shudder. "Are you sure you don't need help with the food?"
Claire's expression was obscured by her huge sunglasses and the Cubs cap that matched her husband's cap and shirt, but she just waved them off.
Brad rolled his eyes. "Come on. I guess without Mike here, I'm stuck with you. Pretty sure you're going to suck, though."
Her jaw tightened, and she jogged backwards away from him. "Don't be so sure about that."
He threw the disk, and she tracked it, calculated its curve, jumped, caught it, and whipped it back, putting a spin on it so it would curve at the last minute, just like Russ had taught her. She and Russ had played on every camping trip and family outing from the time she was old enough to get a frisbee airborne all the way through last fall's trip to Starved Rock. That had been the last family outing they'd had before...everyone left her. She grabbed the frisbee out of the air again and flung it as hard as she could at Brad.
He caught it inches from his forehead. "Whoa! What the hell are you trying to do?"
She shrugged and smiled. "See how badly you suck at this?"
Brad threw it higher and farther from her, and she sprinted for it and returned the throw each time. She grinned until even her forehead ached. By the time Claire called them for food her shoulders and calves were warm, and her throat and chest were burning. She tossed the frisbee onto the grass next to the blankets and sank to a cross-legged position.
"So, Brad, are you ready to take that back?" She took a bite out of a devilled egg.
"Take what back?" He stared and that smile she didn't like spread slowly across half of his face. He looked like a canine predator when he did that.
Temperance looked away and out over the lake as she crunched on peppers and carrots and celery.
"You looked good out there, Temperance," Curtis said. "Looks like Claire's going to turn you into an athlete yet."
"Only if I can dig her out of those books," Claire laughed.
Temperance clenched her teeth and managed not to comment on Claire having pulled her Biology text from her hands and thrown it into the car trunk. There was quite a while until dusk, and reading would have been a good way to pass the time. Instead she continued to stare out over the waves moving in and out. There were sine waves she couldn't entirely calculate. She tried to see the line graph in her head, the steady wash in, the increased height of the waves as the water responded to a shallower basin, the disruption of water washing back out and pushing under the next wave. The physics was still beyond her, the stuff of this year's math and next year's physics classes.
If she got to stay at this school, where they offered the level of classes she needed. And if she could do enough studying despite the Maxwells.
They played more frisbee and then card games, chasing down the cards that blew away and losing a few into the lake. Temperance read a few chapters in summer reading paperback for AP Language that she'd sneaked in with. Her sweaty hands stuck to the book, but the midday heat was somewhat cooled by the breeze off the lake. As her eyes tired from the glare on her pages, Temperance watched clouds drift along high up in the sky as the afternoon drifted into evening.
It was perfect weather for the fireworks, which started at dusk with a huge explosion Temperance felt in her chest.
Unlike some of the later arrivals, they had enough space to spread out. Brad came back from the hacky-sack game he'd struck up with a group of shaggy-haired teens wearing open flannel shirts over t-shirts with band images emblazoned on them. He plunked down on his back to watch the show. Curtis sat between Claire and Temperance, and, early in the show, he put an arm around Temperance's shoulder. She wasn't sure why she didn't twist away.
She cast a furtive glance up at him. His face rainbow-lit by the pyrotechnics, and he wasn't looking at her. His hand was warm, and the feel of it draped over her shoulders was all too similar to her father's arm around her last year.
The cascade of colored confetti blurred. It should be Dad's arm. She should be able to lean against his shoulder. It should be Mom on the other side, tucked in close to his chest with her hands on Dad's back and thigh, not Claire, who sat several inches away from her husband.
It should be like it was last year.
The next explosion produced a deep blue weeping willow effect as the charge exploded and released bright components that burned themselves out as they fell. Burned and gone, just like life had been, and just as fast.
At the next shower of bright-colored confetti, she counted from the visual to the sound of the explosion. By her calculation, they were just over a mile from the launch point of the display. She wondered exactly what chemicals burned in which colors at what temperatures as she studied the carefully-crafted fireworks. The entire area smelled like spent matches and a smoky haze clung to the air.
The grand finale was met with whistles, cheers, and applause, but to Temperance it just felt like another loss, another good thing that was over.
***
Chapter 14
***
Posting Schedule: This story has 2630 parts (I miscounted), which will post here and at LJ on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays so that the story will finish posting the week Bones comes back.
Author's Notes
The following are real places:
Chicago Museum Campus is at the lakefront in the southeast corner of Grant Park and encompasses the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History.
Thanks upon thanks to my wonderful betas and sounding boards: jsq, bluemorpho, and havocthecat. HUGE and effusive gratitude to my line-editor and prodder to make this story as good as I could at this time, as well as encouragement and sounding board services while I planned and wrote for two years to Ayiana.
Feedback is most assuredly welcome.
***