Bones and All.

iv. The One Where Mallory's Legs are Nice

FOUR THE ONE WHERE ...

( APRIL 'O4 )

    FOR PREFACE, MALLORY never claimed to be all that.

    Well, to be fair she sorta was, before all her crazy baggage filled itself to her emotional brim. The thing was the name Mallory Dunne meant something once upon a time. It used to mean far more than being associated with the sentences, the girl that went missing and the girl who came back. The fact that it's all she's known for now is superbly frustrating for the carefully woven-out girl Mallory spent so many years weaving herself to be. It all seems very superficial and shallow and every other synonym used to describe someone out of touch but like, obviously, Mallory understands she's got some issues with appearances.

     This is not a mistake on her part.

     See it her way: Mallory's got two big brothers, each great and wonderful and sometimes annoying in their vast differences. They take up plenty of space in her heart. Jesse had hopes to fill the Dunne Lawyering Shoes their dad didn't care to fit into. Caleb was never too loud to proclaim his dreams but Mallory knew the way his eyes gleamed over the way Moses would say the Body Shop was his to own one day. Back then, Jesse was not so cautious of everything. He was home more. Back then, Caleb was not so angry at everyone. He slept more. Mallory hopes and prays it isn't because of her but some nights she notices how there is always a little less liquor in those fancy bottles that decorated the china cabinet downstairs than there'd been the night before. The garage where . More proof is the bathroom Caleb and she share being left in disarray, poorly hidden cigarettes butts and boxes of Hangover relief thrown in the trash for her to mourn over. The Dunne brothers are all a little different now, even their (once) too gentle little sister, but the point is, they're still and always have been, terribly easy to love.

    (Mallory doesn't say this about just anyone...)

    But she'll say it about her brothers.