First of all… I promise I will finish "Blame it on the mistletoe" one day!! I just got myself into a dead end on that story but I'll find a way out!

About this one, here's the thing: I loved so much to see Booth and Brennan with a baby that I thought about giving it a turn in the course of events. What if the little baby had none to take care of him and he was going to be back in the system if Brennan didn't keep him? Would she finally leave him with Family Services? I think no, and that can lead to a very interesting story…

I'm kind of assuming the last two episodes of season 3 didn't happen, so Zack will still be around, Booth hasn't been shot but Max is free already.

PROLOGUE

"Is Andy gonna be alright?" Booth asked after Cam had explained the genetic condition that suffered the cute little baby they were taking care of. He looked at his partner and he saw the same apprehension in her eyes.

"Absolutely…" the pathologist replied, and the agent released a big sigh, his heart racing wildly. "Very treatable. My friend can treat him as an ambulatory patient. Andy is gonna be fine…"

"Thanks, Cam…" Brennan replied, hardly holding her tears. "Really…" She looked down to see the baby's tiny hand that was holding tightly her index.

"Don't mention it…" Cam smiled to the partners and left them to share the moment with their charge.

"Yeah!" Booth exclaimed and went to take a seat over the couch arm, near the baby.

"You're gonna be fine!" Brennan said leaning over the baby.

"Our little guy is going to be fine!" Booth said and stroked the baby's head with his fingers. He looked up to meet his partner's blue eyes and saw the debate of emotions in those blue pools he knew so well. "Andy is going to be fine…"

"I'm thinking about keeping him permanently, you know?" Brennan said and saw the surprise in Booth's face.

"What?" He just couldn't believe it: all the three years they've been partners she'd always said she didn't want kids, and now she was planning to keep a baby that wasn't even her own. "Keep Andy? Like forever?"

"Yeah…"

"Why?"

"I know that being still a baby he has great opportunities to be adopted, but with his condition there won't be many people wanting to keep him forever. Foster parents looking for adoption prefer healthy kids, and Andy needs a lot of care! I could give him the attention he needs…" she said and then went silent when she saw the way Booth was smiling at her. "What?"

"Wow…" he murmured. "And you said you didn't want kids…"

"On the other hand…" she said looking down at the baby again. "I'm not sure about it…"

"Why?" Booth asked confused.

"I don't know anything about babies…" she confessed. "So far I had never pictured myself with one… but Andy…" Just as if he knew they were talking about him, the baby looked up to Bones and shot her one of those toothless smiles that would melt the coldest heart.

"You learn fast…" he said reaching to take her hand that was resting on the edge of the baby's seat. "You're great with kids! Your nieces love you, Parker loves you, and Andy… he loves you too!"

"Do you think so?" she asked, her voice showing how nervous she was.

"Yeah…" he said in a low voice, leaning close to her like he often did. "I'm sure. You're going to be a great mother, Bones…"

Only then the realization of what she was going to become hit her: she was going to be someone's mother, she was going to share her life with a little baby she'd see grow and become a developed man in the future. He saw the fear gripping in her eyes, but he knew she could do this. He would be there for her, to help her. "Andy is a very lucky boy…" he said squeezing her hand tightly.

His smile somehow reassured her and let her know everything would turn out just fine. Over the days she had been taking care of Andy, she had often let herself wonder what it would be like if she kept him. She had grown more attached to the baby than she was willing to confess; his bright smile made its way directly to her heart and filled her with a joy she had never experienced before. Although she had not carried him in her womb, she knew she would do anything to spare him from any kind of harm. And when she wondered what his life would be in the foster care system, she felt the urgent need to take the baby in her arms and hold him tight. The only moment that anguish would stop was when she considered that the best way to be sure Andy would have a happy life was that she gave him all he needed.

That was how Temperance Brennan had decided to have a son. And Seeley Booth would raise a second child.

A couple of days later…

Angela was standing on the platform, her drawing notebook in her hands, watching the scene in front of her: Bones was carrying Andy in her arms while Booth made the baby laugh by ticking his belly. Andy's happy giggles filled the room, but didn't overpass Brennan's happy smile. Since she had announced her decision of keeping the baby, it seemed to her friend that her smile showed a lot more joy and her eyes were brighter. Angela was totally thrilled about Brennan's decision.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard about it, you know?" Sweets commented to the artist. They were both waiting for the anthropologist and the agent to go to the platform so they could go over the remains leading their current case. "Dr. Brennan keeping the baby… I never expected…"

"I did…" Angela said. "She was so worried when we didn't know about his condition… People always see her like a cold woman but she's so capable of love! I know that better than anyone!"

"Oh! That I know!" the psychologist said. "I've told Dr. Brennan that her cold outside is nothing but a façade. If she only accepted that, it would be a lot easier to work the underlying issues between them…"

"Underlying issues?" Angela asked totally confused.

Sweets pointed at the couple. Booth was now carrying the baby while Brennan stroked his little head. "There's a deep emotional attachment between them that none wants to recognize as more than a partnership. But truth is they are a lot closer than what 'normal' partners are…"

"Meaning… they are… in love?" Angela asked, her full attention now on the new member of their team. If the guy saw things the way she did, she had found a valuable ally.

"Meaning they make the other complete in more ways we can possibly count. Psychologically speaking, they are so different that they shouldn't work together so well, yet they form one of the most solid couples I've ever seen, and I mean 'couple' in every sense of the word…"

The artist was now smiling happily to the therapist. "And they say I was imagining things that were not there… Andy's a lucky boy… He's gotten a great mom…"

"He's gotten a great father too…" Sweets said pointing at Booth, who was still carrying Andy and following Brennan to her office. "If Dr. Brennan and agent Booth weren't as close as they are, you can be sure she would have never considered keeping the baby. Although she will deny this, I'm sure that she made such choice 'cause she knew agent Booth wouldn't leave her alone on this one… After all, he's the one who has a son…"

Angela chuckled. "Yeah… She's even called him 'the baby daddy', though at the moment you couldn't know if she was referring to being a daddy with a previous child, or the daddy of this little baby…"

"My guess…" Sweets said, "is that her subconscious betrayed her, and she meant he had to play the father… while she was the mother…"

The artist shook her head in disbelief. "They are already building up a family before they even confess their feelings for each other…"

"In a way they have… but you can bet on this one: Andy will be the missing piece for the puzzle to be complete… if you know what I mean…" he said watching Brennan climbing up the stairs to the platform.

"Lance…" Angela said in a very serious tone, "if you are right and they finally see what's been in front of them for three years now, I promise I'll build you a monument!"

"What are you two talking about?" Brennan interrupted, her serious, professional mask on again.

"Nothing…" Angela hurried to say. "I have the ID of the victim…" she explained and turned to see the set of bones lying on the table. It was a tough case: the victim was a baby of around 8 to 10 months old. "It's hard to say with babies, but…" the artist sighed, "I think it's him…"

Brennan took the drawing her friend was handling her and compared it to the picture attached in the corner from the missing person report. "William Joseph Sanders", she read, "9 months old, disappeared a month ago, in a supermarket…" she moved her eyes from the picture to the little skull and back a couple of times. "Yeah, facial indicators match… Do we know the cause of death?"

"Suffocated to death…" Zack explained joining the group. "I see no marks of stabbing or beating in the bones, except for this fracture in vertebrae C2", he pointed at the mentioned bone.

"The baby must've been crying and whoever had him covered his mouth and pressed until he stopped crying… only that the baby was dead…" Brennan completed.

"Could it have been the mother?" Zack wondered.

"No. She didn't kill him. She filled the report about an hour after the disappearance and went straight from the supermarket to the police station. I was there when agent Booth interrogated her", Sweets pointed.

"Do we have something new?" Booth interrupted climbing up to the platform, Andy still in his arms.

"Angela identified the victim but we'll need DNA tests to be sure…" Bones said. She turned back to see Booth and Andy as the baby was reaching to pat her shoulder asking for her attention. She reached to take his little hand and shot him a sad, little smile.

"Something that can lead us to the killer?" Booth wondered.

"So far we have the cause of death, but…" Zach said.

"You could try to create a scenario in the angelator", Brennan told Angela. "To see how much strength it'd be needed to break the vertebrae like this… but I think it wouldn't be too much and therefore we would have a wide rank of physical composition for the killer to fit in…"

The artist shot one last look to the bones and sighed. "He was so small… Who could have done this to a baby?"

As if in a cue, Andy made baby sounds that got everyone's attention. Working with children was always difficult, but a baby made it almost unbearable. They needed to catch the murderer. Brennan's sad eyes showed what was in everyone's heart. For a brief second, she met Booth's eyes and they had that silent dialogue that allowed them to read each other like an open book. Then, at the tiniest whimper, she reached to take Andy in her arms, kissed his head and, as the baby rested his head on her shoulder, she pressed him to her chest protectively before she flew out of the platform.