Discovery

Chapter 21

Booth strode into his office, leaving the door open as he unbuttoned his jacket and dropped down into his seat, surveying his desk, looking for anything that was new. He instantly spotted the file that Chris had composed on Willow and her friends in Sunnydale and he picked it up, flicking it open, fully intending to do some reading before he was given a case.

"Booth, you're back. Did you have a good trip?" Sweets asked from the doorway. Booth lowered the file to look at the young psychologist.

"Oh, were you busy? Do you have a case already?"

"No, Sweets, I'm not busy and it's not case-related. Just some background checks on Willow and her friends."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? Some teenagers might see it as an invasion of privacy that they and their friends are being looked up."

"It's not so much Willow's friends I'm concerned about, it's the adults she hangs around with, specifically the librarian and the computer teacher at her high school.

"Are you worried that something's up?" Sweets frowned, entering Booth's office and sitting down opposite Booth at the desk. Booth rubbed his hand over his face.

"I don't know, Sweets. I mean, they're like her parents in that town. Willow and her closest friends don't appear to have a clear male role model in their personal lives and they spend a lot of time in the library, so it makes sense that the librarian takes them in a little, and from what I've seen, apart from Buffy, she's Willow's best girl friend, none of them have a good female role model, so it kind of makes sense for the computer teacher to take them in, especially Willow, because she is pretty good with computers."

"Did she admit to hacking the FBI?" Sweets asked, having been told by Hodgins about his theory. It made sense though. How else would Willow have been able to track Booth down using his work email?

Booth shook his head. "No, There isn't any evidence that she was actually the one who did it and she hasn't done anything harmful yet."

Sweets smirked. "You're proud of her, aren't you? It's completely normal for a parent to be proud of their child's accomplishment, even if they are of... questionable legality."

Booth sighed, hating that the younger man was right. Knowing to what extent Willow had gone to try and contact him was touching and he knew for a fact that Willow must have been very skilled at hacking to be able to infiltrate the FBI. There was a part of him that was swollen in pride at her actions and her obvious skill, while there was another part of him that wanted, in its own way, to try and stop Willow from doing such a dangerous thing. Booth shuddered to think what would happen if she got caught.

Obviously, the look on Booth's face gave him away, because Sweets smiled, obviously happy to have read Booth correctly.

"Willow sounds like a clever enough girl and she had good intentions. She hasn't done any harm, after all."

"I know." Booth sighed before he picked up the folder and leaned back in his chair. He opened up the folder and removed the note that Chris had paper clipped to the front sheet.

'Booth, I hope this is informative. As far as the kids are concerned, everything is reasonably normal, but you might want to check out the adults.' Booth frowned, and glanced at the top most background check. It was Willow's, Chris obviously thinking that Booth would be the most eager to read about his own daughter's history. He was right.

Booth scanned over the report. Nothing was out of the ordinary, other than Willow's medical records, which he already knew about. Her clear criminal record, with not even a parking fine to her name, was heartening though. There was no mention of her hacking, indicating that the FBI wasn't aware that Willow could hack.