paladinsuitsyou | OOM: Scene 9, or Booth gets backstory

There is no substitute for pie, really.

Hannah's had an interesting afternoon, which has involved a small amount of explaining things (to a very select group of friends) and a large amount of dodging questions and comments (from just about everyone else). So, yes, the teenager-free thing very much matters.

"Hey, Agent Booth," she says, sitting down opposite him with a vanilla latte (venti, skim, extra shot). "Where's Brennan?"

"On the phone with the lab," Booth says. "Angela's got updates. Could take awhile. So you're kinda stuck with me."

His coffee is just...coffee. Nothing fancy, nothing sweet.

Hannah veers between black coffee with almost no sugar and elaborate Italianish concoctions. It just depends on her mood. This is a concoction day -- the sugar releases endorphins and the calcium in the milk is soothing.

"I can deal with that," she says. "Welcome to Neptune."

Booth hates the Italian pretentiousness of Starbucks too - what's up with the venti, grande, whatever crap? Can't he just get a medium coffee?

"Thanks," he said. "I've been here long enough to meet the sheriff. And your principal. Fun times."

Although he'll admit he still has no idea what he's walked into, he's pretty sure that "Welcome to Neptune" is not the innocuous statement it appears, especially after talking to Trina Echolls.

"You've hit the highlights, then," says Hannah, not even trying for sincerity.

"Where are you staying?"

"I'm at the Camelot," Booth says morosely. "The FBI is not as generous as the Jeffersonian. Brennan's at the Neptune Grand."

"Ah, yes, the Camelot," says Hannah. "The place in town for assignations. And federal agents. Which, when you think about it, don't really go together."

"They're not doing anything illegal, though," Booth notes. "At least, most of them aren't."

Clearly, he doesn't know about the body found in the ice machine. He does have a pretty good idea about the drug dealing, but it's not really his area.

That was some other fleabag motel. Possibly. Hannah has trouble keeping them straight and anyway, has never set foot in the Camelot.

"Some of them are. Drugs. Hookers. The usual cheap motel stuff."

Like she said, welcome to Neptune.

"Did you get what you needed at school?"

"Out of my jurisdiction," Booth says, and if you think you hear relief in his voice, you'd be right.

"Yeah, these kids shot a video of our victim when she jumped - you probably saw it on the news. Except it wasn't her - couldn't have been."

Booth sighs. "We found Lynn Echolls in an exploded federal building, not a swamp or a net. It's not right."

Hannah laughs in a not actually amused sort of way.

"You know, I might actually be surprised if you were talking about any other family in Neptune. But the Echollses? What is right?"

"So far as I can tell, not a lot," Booth says, remembering his interviews with the two children. "You know the kids? I mean, probably not Trina, but Logan's not that much older than you, right?"

"Couple years," says Hannah. "Um, and, yeah, I know him. Knew him. Sort of. Um, it's . . ."

Hannah stops to gathers her thoughts. She'd rather not have to tell this story again, but she's past being overly bothered by having to, too.

But it's still not exactly easy.

"Do you remember, right after the whole thing with Epps, what I told you about my first boyfriend?"

She's pretty sure he does.

"That was Logan Echolls."

"Oh," Booth says, his voice studiedly neutral.

He didn't much like Logan Echolls before meeting him. His esteem did not increase when they did meet. He didn't much care for the guy Hannah told him about. So Logan Echolls, so far, is losing the war for Booth's good opinion.

Too bad he's not really a suspect.

"Having met the guy, I can see that."

Hannah shrugs, lightly. "Well, then you've managed to get an accurate picture of him faster than I did."

It's very calm. She's come to terms with most of this.

"It's why Sam went all . . . alpha male or whatever that was, when you asked about him. It's really not a nice story, it ends very badly, and everyone at Neptune High knows it."

"Just...how badly did it all end?" Booth asks, not entirely sure he wants to know the answer. Still, it's going to bug him unless he asks.

"Very."

Hannah sighs, sips her coffee, takes another
moment to think.

"It ends with . . . it ends with Logan telling me he only asked me out because of my dad in front of my friends. And it ends with me forgiving him for that. And it end with my dad dragging me out of Logan's hotel room, literally. The Grand, not the Camelot, if you were wondering.

"And it ends with me being packed off to an all girls Catholic boarding school in Vermont that night. And it ends with me finding Milliways a little while later, and immediately running into a very drunk Logan, who dumped me, on my first visit. And it ends with me coming back to Neptune High at the start of junior year to discover that I had one hell of a reputation. Which hasn't really ever gone away."

So, did he want the answer?

"Oh, kiddo," Booth says softly. "That's awful."

Not...really. But he's glad to have it. It explains some things, both about Neptune and the people in it. And why Hannah wants to go far, far away from it.

"But - why would he ask you out because of your dad?"

"Hey, it's Neptune," she says, more or less confirming everything he's thinking.

A pause.

"About Dad. This is off the record. Completely. And I need your word on that, or I won't tell you."

Booth's frown deepens slightly. If Hannah's asking him that, her father must be involved in something...shady, to say the least.

And he hates the thought of that, that her dad might be putting her in danger, but Hannah's 17 going on 30, and has proven she can take care of herself pretty well, all things considered.

So he says, "Okay. You have my word."

Shady? Try completely illegal.

Hannah stares at a spot on the table for a moment, then looks up at him.

"Daddy had -- has a drug problem. Cocaine. He's getting help, and he's doing really well." A slight smile. "I'm not giving any choice about that.

"But two years ago, he owed some favors to the Fitzpatrick family, and he paid them by coming forward to say that he was the mystery 911 caller, who found Logan on the bridge that night. And it wasn't true. And when Logan dragged me into the equasion, Dad backed off the story, so Logan would leave me alone.

"It's in the past, Agent Booth," she says, very firmly.

To say Booth is shocked is something of an understatement. He is, perhaps, gobsmacked.

"That's...involved."

When the power of speech returns a little, he's able to give Hannah a very, very hard look. "You're sure. About your dad being off the drugs."

It's clear, here, that he's got more than Tom's illegal activities on his mind.

"Cause if he needs a little extra persuasion..."

Sam's not the only one who can go alpha male at the drop of a hat.

"I'm sure," she says, firmly. "I've searched the house, I've driven him to counseling, I've had a front row seat for withdrawl. I'm really very sure.

"Besides, he knows that if he screws this up, I'll go to my mom. And she'll raise hell."

Frankly, neither Sam nor Agent Booth is quite as intimidating as Steph Denenberg.

Booth nods once, lips tight, but no longer quite so frowny.

He hasn't met Steph Denenberg. He has no idea.

"You'll tell me, if you need anything, though, right?"

It's all he can think to do. He's promised not to say anything or do anything, and as long as Hannah feels safe, he'll hold to that.

If she should for one second feel threatened or at risk, he'll do whatever it takes to help her.

"Yeah, I will," she says. "And Brennan knows all this, too.

"I know this isn't exactly the officially recommended course of action, but I'm trying to salvage something that even sort of resembles a relationship with my father out of all this."

She's not sure that she will, but she's trying.

"So," she says, with a nod, "what do you need to know about Logan?"

"I can respect that," Booth says.

Unsaid is: But if anything else happens to you because of it, that man will have hell to pay.

He'd like to think it's understood.

"Is he really as..." Booth gropes for the right word. "Useless as he seems?"

"Keeping in mind in that I haven't talked to him in a while, and that I'm the wronged ex-girlfriend and therefore not even slightly impartial . . . yeah, he is.

"But, I kinda don't know that he had much of shot of being anything else, you know? He's handsome and charming and he was popular at school. Son of rich and famous, if very screwed up, parents, and rich and famous himself for being famous, and getting arrested. He's like, Paris Hilton, but without the dog. And I never saw him . . . I never heard him talk about much of anything with any kind excitement or enthusiasm."

Well, except for certain things that can probably be wholly attributed to his being a teenaged boy and that don't need to be discussed with Agent Booth in a Starbucks.

Booth nods.

Even Hodgins - rich family, yeah, but high expectations. It sounds like expectations for Logan were always low. He's lived up to them rather well.

"He seems bright enough," Booth says. "Just...god, cynical. Sister's a lot the same. You ever meet her?"

"Not really," says Hannah, shaking her head. "Um, she was the guest director of the school play last year. Hamlet. Back when everyone thought she was dying. And then it turned out that she was the principal's illegitimate daughter with a former deaf student who was a lunch lady.

"I ran into her the bathroom day, I don't think she even saw me. Too busy fixing her make-up."

God, this town. All Booth can do is shake his head.

"What kind of place is this?" he asks, then gives Hannah a rueful look. "Don't answer that. I've had at least three people shrug and say, "It's Neptune" since I got here."

Hannah starts to shrug, then stops herself.

"It's . . . Neptune is a pretty bipolar town, Agent Booth. Very rich, and very poor. And all the problems that come with both of those things -- drugs, gangs, racial and class divides, a bunch of entitled people and a bunch of who resent that. Add in a couple of really high-profile murder cases, leave to simmer."

"And I'm just adding one more," he says thoughtfully. "Explains why no one's really thrilled to see me, doesn't it?"

"Are people ever thrilled to see you? I mean, I like you. But you're FBI, Agent Booth. You show up at someone's door, and things are about to get bad.

"Or at least, you know, pretty awkward," she adds, thinking of the effect of his visit to her high school.

"Thrilled? Not so much. Sometimes a little less...generally irritated, though. The sheriff thinks my investigation is one big joke."

Booth is not a fan of Vinnie Van Lowe, for some reason.

"Everyone else is acting like it's just one more irritation. I guess being interrogated by the cops or the feds or whoever is pretty routine for all concerned, huh?"

"Well, the sherriff is . . . " Hannah dismisses Vinnie with a vague wave of her hand.

"Probably. I mean, I really doubt you're gonna intimidate someone like Logan by interrogating him by now. Just speed dials his lawyer and waits."

And that's all that needs to be said about vinnie, really.

"Yeah. He didn't bother with the lawyer, even. Just seemed kinda...defeated, somehow. I guess his mom was the only relative he really got along with, most of the time."

Hannah shrugs again. "I wouldn't really know. He never mentioned her. Or any of them, really.

"I'm sorry I'm not more help."

Booth waves off her apology. "No, don't worry about it. I mean, it wasn't exactly a deep spiritual connection you guys had, if I understand things right. Anyway, he's not a suspect or anything. I'm just trying to get a handle on why Lynn bailed on them the way she did."

"No, it really wasn't.

"I'm assuming you've seen all the public stuff, right? Tabloids and Tinseltown Diaries and all?"

Booth nods, then makes a face. "Yeah, and it's all awful, isn't it? But there's not a lot concrete there - I mean, yeah, rehab, drugs, abuse allegations, whatever, but...I don't know. Why not just get a divorce? Faking your own death seems extreme."

Hannah shrugs. "Got me," she says. "Maybe . . . yeah, I got nothing."

"Me either," he says. "And I feel like I'm not gonna get anywhere until I figure stuff that out."

OOM: Scene 9, or Booth gets backstory

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