A/N: So I usually don't write sequels but your reviews for 'The Battle in the Booth' inspired me. Thanks for all the support and I hope you enjoy. Again, if you feel so inclined, please leave a review :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the serenity prayer and the twelve steps belong to Alcoholics Anonymous. I also don't own BONES, just in case you were wondering.

Chapter 1

Month 1: The Steps in the Special Agent

"Hi, my name is Seeley and I am addicted to gambling."

A chorus of 'hi, Seeley' answered him back from the eight members of the group. He had gotten to know these people really well over the last three weeks as he'd been coming to these meetings everyday during his lunch hour. This time, he was a little late and so he was the last one to introduce himself with the customary greeting. Shrugging off his suit jacket, a little hot from his hurried run to get over here after his morning meeting ran late, he waited for Paul, who was running the group today, to announce the topic for today's meeting.

"So, now that everyone is here, let's begin," Paul started.

Booth bowed his head and with everyone in the group recited the serenity prayer.

"G-d grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference."

A moment of silence was observed before Paul started again.

"Last week, we were talking about how some of our members have decided to go through the steps again from the beginning to see what they have learned since the last time they worked through the steps. We also have some new members that are working their program for the first time. Seeley, since you were the last one here today, why don't you start the discussion?"

"Um, sure," Booth replied, sitting up and little straighter in his chair before addressing the people gathered in a small circle in the middle of a church basement. "Right now, I am on the third step and I have been thinking-"

"Would you mind repeating what that step is again?" asked Sue, one of the new members of the group. Booth gave her an understanding smile, knowing how scary it could be to start coming to these meetings for the first time.

"Of course, sorry about that. The third step is to 'make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of G-d as we understand Him,'" he paused for a minute to gather his thoughts before continuing. He wasn't sure what he was expecting from the meeting today but he didn't know it was going to be this involved emotionally. Of course, he knew what he was getting in to when he decided to do this again and he steeled himself, knowing that all of this was necessary to be the man that his son and his partner deserved again.

"The first time I worked the steps and worked the program, I was pretty young and still pretty lost in my addiction. I had just started a new phase of my job and was still pretty closed off to other options. I pretty much ignored the last part of the statement, the 'as we understood Him' part," Booth told the group, remembering the first time he read that part of the third step.

The rain outside had not stopped pounding all day long, which Booth didn't really mind. Actually, the rain reminded him of a night about a month ago when he had a tequila induced make out session with a beautiful woman in the doorway of a dive bar. But tonight was different, with the weather gods deciding to throw in some thunder and lightening into the mix as well. And tonight, instead of a beautiful woman in his arms, was his frightened two-year-old son, finally asleep on his chest after being startled by the noise of the weather for the last several hours.

Booth couldn't remember the last time he was this tired. What he really wanted to do was curl up in his bed with his son and try and get some rest before the morning came. But he had his fourth meeting tomorrow and he hadn't yet looked at the third step of the twelve steps that Pops had convinced him to try. Sighing, he sat down at his desk with his little boy cradled in his arms, knowing he needed to put the work in on the steps but also not wanting to risk waking his son up again. He needed to keep doing this though; tonight was the first time in seven months that Rebecca had trusted him enough to allow Parker to spend the night with him.

And that was worth every minute of every meeting he would ever go to.

Looking at the book he had received at his first meeting, he read the third step and started thinking about what he would journal about it. He personally felt that he had already given his life to G-d, not only when he went through communion but also when he was a sniper, he frequently prayed that G-d would get him home in one piece. And save for the last time when he was a POW for several weeks before coming home, G-d did a pretty good job.

Slightly shifting Parker in his arms so that he could write something down, he began writing about the times when he was a child when he thought that G-d abandoned him and his little brother to a physically abusive, alcoholic father, about how he prayed and prayed for help when he was in the Iraqi desert, and about how he felt like his prayers had finally been answered in the form of a tow haired little boy.

But as he wrote, he couldn't help but think about the spitfire forensic anthropologist who had called him 'a superstitious moron.' How could someone not believe in G-d? he wrote down, now more frantically as he thought about the infuriating woman. A whimper from his son stopped him as he stilled for a moment, hoping the boy would not wake up. But when Parker just burrowed further into Booth's flannel clad chest, Booth found that without even realizing it, he had written six pages about his history with his spirituality, confessing things that he didn't even know he was struggling with.

Maybe this shit really does work, he thought as he stood up with his son and headed for bed, hoping to catch a couple of hours of sleep before the sun made an appearance.

"What about now, Seeley? What does the third step mean to you now?" Paul asked when he was done with the first part of his story. Looking around the room, he noticed that nobody moved during the first part of his story. Encouraged by the silent support of the relative strangers in the room, he continued with his story.

"About two years ago, my partner asked me about how I can get my faith back after all the things that we see, all the death, all the bad things happening to good people. I told her that the sun comes up tomorrow and that it is a new day. What really surprised me though was when she said that she knew the feeling of getting her faith back too. This coming form the woman who told me that Jesus was essentially a zombie," he said with a smile on his face, chuckling at the shock on the other's faces at Bones' bold statement. "But she said something I'll never forget: she said two plus two equals four, that when she puts sugar in her coffee, it tastes sweet, and that the mysteries in the world will remain beautiful to her. And immediately, I understood the last part of the third step; that this is how she understood Him and accepted Him into her life. So this time when I came to step three, I thought more about G-d in the way that my partner had described than the G-d that I grew up with in the Catholic Church and the one that I still believe in to this day. It just made me think about the influence certain people have had on my life over the last ten years and what I would have given up knowing if I hadn't stopped gambling in the first place," he finished, shocked that he talked that much.

The group was silent for a moment, as if absorbing everything that he said.

"Sounds like a humbling experience," Pam, one of the more experienced members of the group finally said, sounding as if she had been through a similar experience at some point in her recovery.

"Everyday I wake up and get to be around the people I love is," he concluded simply, knowing it sounded corny, but meaning every single word.