A/N: Guess what! I'm not dead! :D I finished my NaNoWriMo on time and am going to post it up for all of you to see! This is just a quick intro to get you interested. More chapters to follow!

Bones is sadly not mine. :(

Warning: This fiction mentions child abuse A LOT. I mean, we're talking about Sweets' history. It can't be avoided.

The interrogation room door slid open silently. Special Agent Seeley Booth and Dr. Lance Sweets entered the room. The two bore grim expressions.

"Sweets, why don't you stay out here for now?" Booth suggested.

Sweets nodded and held out the files for Booth to take. He was shaking.

Booth took the files and walked into the room where a girl was. She was sitting on the chair with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her long black hair was in a tangled mess that hung in curly waves over her slight frame. Her chocolate brown eyes were wide with fear. A large bruise in the shape of a hand was visible on her cheek that wrapped over her jaw bone. That led your eye to the bruises across her throat. On her arms were long bruises in various colors from someone gripping her a little too tight.

Booth slid carefully into his seat. He opened up a file. Clipped to one of the pages was a school picture of the teen who sat across from him. "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth." He greeted quietly. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Alison." She said while not meeting Booth's gaze. "Alison May Shankle."

"And when's your birthday, Alison?" Booth asked.

"December 20th 1994."

"So you're almost 17?" Booth questioned.

"Yes, sir." Alison replied. She shivered and rubbed her hands on her upper arms. It was late November and she was clothed in a spaghetti strap tank top and basketball shorts.

"Alison, I need to ask you some questions. You're not in trouble, but we need to have your answers on record. Alright?"

Alison nodded.

Booth opened up a file folder and pulled a picture out. He slid the picture across the table. "Can you confirm that this is Laurence Shankle?"

The picture was of a man probably in his mid-sixties. "Yes, sir." Alison replied.

"Is Laurence Shankle the man that gave you those bruises?" Booth asked.

Alison squeezed her eyes shut and looked away. She looked back and her eyes were glassy. She met Booth's gaze. "You don't know what it's like." She told him. "You don't know what it's like to wake up in the morning and think, 'I wonder if dad will beat me today. Maybe he'll take it easy and only use his bare hands.'"

Booth decided not to respond. "Is that a confirmation?" he asked instead.

"Yes." She said firmly. She looked down at the picture again and a flash of anger went through her eyes before it was replaced with fear again. Her feet slid from the chair down to the floor. They were clad in thin sneakers that were close to disintegrating they were falling apart so badly. On her left foot you could see her pinky toe through the side of the shoe. Her hands clasped themselves together on the table.

"Now, Alison, I understand that this will be hard for you, but we need you to tell us about what Laurence Shankle did to you."

The teenager's eyes widened. She chewed on her lip. It was a mannerism Booth knew all too well from someone else. "I can't." She decided.

Sweets took this as his cue to enter. He came in without any files and sat down in the seat next to Booth. "You probably think we don't know what you're going through, but I can guarantee that we do." He kept his voice calm and even despite how fast and hard his heart was pounding.

"Prove it." She challenged.

Booth glanced Sweets direction. Sweets accepted the challenge. "He's either drunk or high all the time. He likes a glass of Budweiser every night at exactly 7:15. If you spill or the foam goes over the edge he hits you. If he runs out of money he hits you. If he runs out of drugs he hits you. Sometimes he'll lock you in the closet and other times he'll make you lie down on the bed and whip you're back with a belt." Sweets had to fight hard to keep the lump in his throat down.

Alison swallowed hard as her eyes glazed over. "How…?"

Sweets took a shaky breath. "Laurence Shankle was my biological father too." He put a hand out to touch Alison's clasped ones, but she pulled away automatically. "I'm your brother."