Seeley Booth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
paladinsuitsyou) wrote2007-10-21 02:26 pm
paladinsuitsyou) wrote2007-10-21 02:26 pm
OOM: Scene 9, or Booth gets backstory
Previously...
Starbucks, Booth reflects, has no soul. It's beige and green and sort of bland, but at least you can always count on your coffee having exactly the same amount of burned flavor.
If there were pie, he might come to a grudging acceptance of the coffee company's hegemony. As it is, he sort of resents them. Muffins are no substitute for pie.
Still, it's quiet and teenager-free, which is all that really matters right now.
Starbucks, Booth reflects, has no soul. It's beige and green and sort of bland, but at least you can always count on your coffee having exactly the same amount of burned flavor.
If there were pie, he might come to a grudging acceptance of the coffee company's hegemony. As it is, he sort of resents them. Muffins are no substitute for pie.
Still, it's quiet and teenager-free, which is all that really matters right now.
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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?"
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A pause.
"About Dad. This is off the record. Completely. And I need your word on that, or I won't tell you."
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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."
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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.
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"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.
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"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.
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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.
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"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?"
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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?"
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"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.
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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?"
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"I ran into her the bathroom day, I don't think she even saw me. Too busy fixing her make-up."
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"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."
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"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."
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"Or at least, you know, pretty awkward," she adds, thinking of the effect of his visit to her high school.
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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?"
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"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."
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"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."
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"I'm sorry I'm not more help."
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"I'm assuming you've seen all the public stuff, right? Tabloids and Tinseltown Diaries and all?"
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