Paying It Forward

"Dr. Brennan, this is Thompson in Security."

"Yes, Harry?"

"There's a young man here to see you whose name is not on the visitor log for today. Were you expecting a Sean Sanders?"

"No, I don't believe so…."

"Uh, M'am, he says to ask if you remember a Sean Cook you and Agent Booth once helped during a case?"

Officer Thompson heard a gasp through the line.

"Dr. Brennan, are you okay?"

He heard the scientist take a deep breath before she answered.

"Ah, yes, that is one name I remember well. Can you escort him to the Lab, please Harry?

"Certainly, Dr. Brennan."

Brennan thought back to the small blond boy whose hair was as straight and shaggy as Parker's was curly. How many years ago had she sat with him in the FBI's interview room, describing their mutual foster care experiences with the unmistakable smell of black plastic trash bags used in place of proper back packs?

She closed the computer file she was working on, and moved toward her couch, watching through the glass walls of her office as Harry Thompson approached with a tall young man wearing a Jeffersonian visitor badge.

"Dr. Brennan, I hope I'm not interrupting your work. I was hoping to invite you to lunch."

Sean Cook extended his hand and shook hers firmly.

"My brother David is over at the Hoover Building, visiting Agent Booth as we speak. We're both back in town for our mother's sixtieth birthday, and wanted to thank you two for the enormous difference you made in our family's lives twenty-two years ago."

"Of course, Sean. I'd love to see your mother again. How is it that you go by the name Sanders now?"

"Margaret adopted us, and we use it to honor her. We didn't drop Cook, we just use it as our middle name now."

Brennan removed her lab coat and pulled her jacket from the coat tree near her office door.

"Allow me, please, Dr. Brennan," said Sean politely, as he took her coat and held it for her to put on.

Brennan picked up her phone to alert Cam she'd possibly be late returning from lunch, left her office and walked to the lab's exit with Sean.

"The weather isn't too chilly; would you like to walk over to Booth's and my favorite diner?"

"Sure, that'd be great."

As they walked, Sean related that he was now an accounting major at the University of North Carolina- Charlotte where the Levine Scholars Program covered his tuition in full.

"UNC's Belk School of Business has a forensic accounting program. I want to do something to insure that government foster care funding is spent as effectively as possible to benefit kids like we were, Dr. Brennan. My brother is studying chemistry there to do research like Dr. Hodgins someday soon. We both want to pay forward the help you gave us, so we could stay with Margaret."

Two blocks later, they spotted Booth walking ahead of them, deep in conversation with a lanky brown-haired man.

"Booth!"

The two men turned around.

"Bones! You'll never guess who this is!"

"David Cook Sanders!" Brennan declared, extending her hand to Sean's brother.

Booth eyed his wife's blond companion. "Then you're Sean, right?" he ventured.

"Yes, sir, I am," Sean responded, shaking Booth's hand firmly.

David spoke up. "We both owe you more than we could ever repay. You made it possible for us to have a family, Dr. Brennan. As I told Agent Booth, Margaret adopted Sean and me. That's why you didn't recognize our names at first. Mom has done so much for us; we use her surname to honor that."

"Sean tells me you are studying chemistry, David. If you need a summer internship, I'm sure I can help you obtain one," Brennan offered.

"That's most kind of you, m'am, but Sean and I both have work-study internships at UNC. I was lucky enough to win an International Baccalaureate Scholarship and the Clariant Chancellor's Scholarship in Chemistry. I'm a Molecular Chemistry teaching assistant, and my brainy little brother here teaches three Principles of Accounting sections each week. Lots of paper grading, laboratory classes, as well as our own course load; keeps both of us hopping."

"We share a small house close to campus, and our jobs cover room and board expenses," Sean continued.

Entering the Royal Diner, the four of them found a table, and the brothers took turns updating Booth and Brennan on their lives with Margaret. Helen brought their burgers, fries and drinks with quiet efficiency, keeping their coffee cups and soda glasses filled as the conversation continued.

"Is your mother still in Alexandria?" Booth asked the brothers.

"Yes, sir, same house, same street, same neighbors. She's still best friends with Sarah Nelson, Skyler's mom. Thanks to your efforts, his father has been in Keen Mountain Correctional Center for nearly fifteen years now. There's some talk he'll come up for parole in five more years, but I hope they make him stay there. I know Skyler does. He and his mother went to counseling together for several years, and today he's a middle school science teacher."

Booth looked both young men in the eye. "You boys have achieved the kind of future we hoped for you. Margaret Sanders gave you love and support and you fulfilled the potential her generosity offered you. She has a right to be very proud of her sons."

"She used part of her trust fund to establish a scholarship in Charlie's memory at Northern Virginia Community College's Alexandria campus for criminal justice students."

"Your mother is a very good woman," Brennan declared. "Please give her our best wishes for her birthday. It means a great deal to Booth and me that you took the time to visit us. We don't often hear such positive results from our investigations. Seeing young people like you mature responsibly makes our efforts worthwhile. We appreciate the effort you made to come see us."

The brothers thanked Booth and Brennan again for the justice they gave Charlie, and rose to leave the diner.

"You never know, Bones, you just never know…when Sam called me from the Hoover's Security desk, I'd never have guessed at first who David Sanders was. The moment he said David Cook, though, I knew. Boy, that brought back memories, huh?"

"Yes, Agent Booth, it did. Our work brings justice for many victims, but it's certainly satisfying to hear from a live beneficiary! Most of the people we help can't revisit or speak."

"Well said, Dr. Brennan." And he leaned over to kiss his partner.