(A/N): So, longer chapter here guys! I was amazed at the responses I got to this, I mean, I can't believe this is an original idea. So… Yeah, hopefully, this makes some sort of sense, though you can always PM me and I will do my best to reply quickly for you. As with my other multi-chapter fic, I'll do reviews in here, so I can also reply to guest ones too. Without further ado, review time:

MstgSzy: I always felt that Max's first instincts were to protect his oved ones, so him running off over confrontation when he had his granddaughter with him. I love Cullen too. I always felt as though he genuinely liked Booth and Brennan, especially when they helped his daughter. As for the film, no I haven't heard of it, but it sounds interesting.

Audray1909: I think there'll be a lot of cliffs, sorry, but I'll try not to leave you dangling too long!

MeganLucy26: Yeah, I get what you mean, I think the show is awesome enough as it is. Still, I hope you enjoy this one.

LoveShipper: I know, right? Even I didn't see me coming up with this and I wrote it haha

ZinaR: I still plan on updating the other one by this weekend, but here is the next one for this. I hope it lives up to the expectations from the first chapter.

Guest: There're a lot of cliffs here, sorry, but I do plan on updating this one more regularly as I have a bit written for this already.

Jsboneslover: Yeah, I thought it was a good plot idea. Brennan was hurt enough by her dad coming back, so, to have her on good terms with her dad and then her mom showing up out of the blue sounded awesome.

So, I think I forgot last chapter, so I'll do a blanket disclaimer here; I do not own Bones or anything associated with them. I just play with them for my own amusement. Now, I have to get back to revising, of which I have less than twenty four hours in which to do so hehe. I'll manage it, I always do.

Heaven Can Wait

Chapter 2

Ruth Keenan sat demurely in the waiting area of the Jeffersonian, glancing at a tall, slender woman who had haltingly introduced herself as Angela. She knew that the woman had made a call as soon as she'd seen Ruth and insisted that whoever had answered get there immediately. Since that call nearly ten minutes earlier, the two had sat in silence, though Ruth could feel Angela taking surreptitious glances at her. She sighed a little, shifting in her chair. All she wanted was to see her daughter. Ruth had been in witness protection since 1993. After two years, she'd broken down and gone back to check on her children, despairing when she found neither of them still at home. She had assumed that the memories were too much for them and they'd moved together, Russ looking after his baby sister as both his parents wanted him to. She'd just decided to track them down when she'd felt someone watching her once again. Knowing she couldn't go back to her husband, and not daring to look for her kids with someone clearly after her, she did the only thing she felt she could and handed herself into the FBI, agreeing to give up everyone else bar her husband in return for WitSec. The only thing she hadn't given up was the identity she had assumed after her family disappeared off the grid in 1978. She knew her children would still use their names as Russell and Temperance Brennan, and refused to put them in danger by revealing her name as Christine Brennan. No matter how many people had asked over the years, she'd never given that information up. A couple of months earlier, she'd finally bought herself a television for her small apartment in New York, where she once again worked as a book keeper. She had tuned into the news one night only to see a picture of her daughter pop up on screen along with a handsome man in a suit.

Ruth nearly spat out her soda as she almost fell of the couch searching for the remote control, turning up the volume as the news reporter focused on a grainy video of her daughter and the man emerging from a smoking building together, wide yet exhausted smiles on their faces.

"-saw the end of the serial killer, Christopher Pelant. Dr Brennan, of the Jeffersonian Institute, and Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI have solved countless cases in their almost nine year partnership, and I am certain we can all sleep a little safer tonight knowing that thanks to this unlikely team, another killer is off the streets."

Ruth paused the image on her daughter and her partner and sat staring at the grainy image for what felt like hours until she finally came to a decision. She wanted to find her children once again. Everyone that could have come after her or her husband were long dead, and she was more than ready to leave Witness Protection. She didn't care how long it would take her, she would find her children. Maybe even finally track down her husband. She had always been extremely careful with everything, never searching for her husband or children in over twenty years. It was time to change that. It was time to go get her family back.

When she had finally gotten to Washington DC, she had accidentally found her husband sat near a sand box in a park. She didn't know why he was there, and she could only see the back of his head, but she knew Max, and she knew it was him. She had been searching for Russ for days, wanting to see him or contact him before she approached Temperance, whom she had found much easier to track down to a city, at least. Despite knowing that she worked at the Jeffersonian, she didn't know which part, or when she worked, so she was only at slightly less of a loss with her daughter. She had watched carefully as Max had turned around, not missing his incredulous look upon spotting her, slightly surprised that instead of confronting her, he had bent down briefly before almost running away. She had attempted to follow, but he had been gone before she could properly follow him. So instead, she had approached the main museum at the Jeffersonian, and through a mixture of eavesdropping and vague questions, she had found herself outside the Medico-Legal lab. The rest had been a blur until she found herself beside Angela, hoping to finally see her daughter after too many years.

The doors to the lab opened and Ruth stood automatically as her daughter stormed in, followed by her partner that had been on the news with her. Her daughter blinked as she looked around, skimming over Ruth herself before addressing the woman sat beside her.

"Ang."

"Bren." Angela jumped up and hugged her tightly as the man stood slightly back from the two hugging women, shooting Ruth a curious glance. Ruth felt awkward as the women parted and three sets of eyes locked onto her. Maybe it would be harder than she thought.

"Bones." Booth murmured, placing a gentle hand on his wife's elbow. "Maybe we should take this to your office, for privacy."

Angela opened her mouth, but Booth's hard glance at the artist made her close it again against the inappropriate comment she would have surely come out with. It didn't matter how long he and Brennan had been together, or that they had a child together (who had stayed at the Hoover building with Max, Cullen and Sweets), Angela still had an unhealthy interest in the pair and their intimate relationship. He would've lost his temper with her a long time ago if he didn't know how much the woman actually loved them and how much his wife loved her in return. Brennan glanced at her husband before nodding shortly. She already gotten a glimpse at the woman and had seen all that Angela had seen in the woman's face and bone structure, though she badly wanted to reject the evidence, no matter how irrational it made her. "Okay." She whispered, Booth's grip on her elbow increasing a little as he tried to comfort her and guide her inside simultaneously.

Angela slipped a hand to Ruth's back and guided her into the main lab, smirking as she heard the older woman gasp at her surroundings. No-one stopped really long enough for the woman to take everything in before they were across the room and stepping into Brennan's office.

Booth guided Brennan to one of the couches and sat her down, taking a seat beside her and squeezing her hand gently. "It'll be alright Bones."

"You don't know that, Booth. I can see her bone structure. I see what Angela saw in her. Is it irrational to want to disregard that so I can say she is no relation to me anyway?"

"No, it's human Bones. Just stay calm and we'll get all the facts in first. Then react how you see fit."

"I… I don't want Max hurt by this either, even though he will protest that he doesn't need protecting."

"Like father like daughter then, eh Bones?" Booth nudged her playfully, making her smile as Angela entered with Ruth, guiding the woman to sit on a second couch opposite the first one. It had been placed in there after Christine had been born, the new parents sometimes needing naps at the same time during the day. Neither had liked the thought of Booth sleeping in the FBI building, so they'd just gotten another couch for Brennan's office instead and Booth went there when he was tired.

"Temperance." Ruth breathed once everyone was settled, her eyes fixed on her daughter's face.

"Who are you?" Brennan asked bluntly.

"Tempe, sweetheart, it's me, your mom. Christine."

"You mean Ruth." Booth interjected calmly, one arm around the back of the couch, fingers resting gently on the back of his wife's neck, moving in soothing circles against her skin.

"What?" Ruth asked in shock. Sure, she had introduced herself as that at the front desk, but as far as she had known, her daughter never knew about her being Ruth, and no-one other than Angela had been told that she was indeed Ruth Keenan. Booth sighed as Angela rolled her eyes and Brennan stiffened in her seat.

"Ruth Keenan, wife of Max Keenan and mother of Kyle and Joy Keenan. That's who you claim to be, right?" Booth reeled off after glancing to his wife, making sure she was okay with it before he said anything. Seeing her relax a little after he began talking, he knew that she was more comfortable with him taking the lead than she was with the entire situation as a whole.

"Well, yes, but how-when?" Ruth cut herself off, sending pleading eyes to her daughter. "Tempe, please, we never meant for you to find out. All that was in the past until you were fifteen. Your father and I, we had to leave honey."

"I'm fully aware of what transpired in 1991, ma'am." Brennan stated factually. Angela sent Booth a sympathetic expression. When Brennan became factual, she usually remained in that state until someone could talk her down. Years ago that person would have been Angela, but over the last five or so years that person had become solely Booth. Sometimes it would take mere moments to snap her out of it, whilst other times could see her resistant to breaking the state for hours at a time.

"Temperance, please."

"How can we be sure that what you're claiming is true?" Booth asked, his hand still making soothing circles on his wife's nape.

Ruth looked baffled. "I have no idea. I assure you I'm not lying, but I don't know how to back it up with anything other than my word. I'd ask you to find my husband, but I don't want him arrested."

"Why would he be arrested?" Brennan asked in confusion.

"Well, he is a wanted fugitive Temperance." Ruth stated slowly, confused by her daughter's confusion. "My charges were dropped when I entered witness protection, but I assume your father is still running."

"What about a DNA test?" Angela asked out of the blue, brow furrowed in thought. "We could get Cam to do it here. It'd be quicker to do it here than anywhere else and sweetie," she looked directly at Brennan, "I know you trust that Cam'll do it right, no matter what the results are."

Booth glanced at Brennan, who looked deep in thought. "Sounds like a good idea to me, Bones."

"…Alright. Ang, could you possibly go and tell Cam the situation in here and request that she perform a DNA test please?" Brennan asked her best friend hesitantly. Angela nodded, leaving abruptly to go and find Cam. Ruth fidgeted a little but glanced between the partners, her eyes narrowing at how close they were sat.

"I saw you both on the news a couple of months ago. You'd just caught a serial killer named Pelant or something. The news said you were partners." Ruth blurted out. Booth and Brennan exchanged a glance.

"We have been partnered officially for around nine years now." Brennan answered swiftly.

"There was a case before we were partners, but it didn't end too well." Booth added.

"You got me drunk to sleep with me."

"No, I got you drunk so I could fire you. Sleeping with you would've been the bonus."

"So you admit you wanted to sleep with me then?" Brennan murmured, a teasing smile lifting the corners of her mouth.

"Trust me, that was never an issue. The issue I had was that you ran away and said we weren't sleeping together." Booth murmured back with a lazy grin. The pair had surprisingly found themselves able to tease each other over that first case after they'd gotten together, it no longer being as sore a subject for them as it once was.

"So you two slept together what, nine years ago?" Ruth asked, making the partners jump as they recalled they were not alone in the room. Brennan shook her head.

"Nope. She refused to and we fought the next day. It took a year for us to even speak to one another again." Booth filled in for the woman, figuring that such ancient history given in such an abstract way couldn't hurt, whether the woman was who she said she was or not.

At that moment Angela walked back in flanked by Cam, who looked torn between concern and curiosity, two DNA swabs with labels in her hand. Booth silently thanked the medical examiner as Cam faced Ruth first. "Hi, I'm Dr Saroyan. Could I take a sample of your DNA please?"

"Uh, sure." Ruth opened her mouth and allowed Cam to swab the inside of her cheek. Cam closed the cap over the swab and handed it to Angela, who marked it with 'Possible B's mom' followed by 'Ruth Keenan' in smaller writing, showing everyone in the room what she'd written so there wasn't any doubt. Cam then turned to Brennan, who opened her mouth without prompting, letting Cam swab her cheek too. Cam handed the second sealed swab to Angela, who wrote 'Amazing Bren' on it, followed by 'Dr T Brennan', once again showing everyone what she'd written. Cam then took the swabs and excused herself, telling everyone that it should be done properly in a few hours, an hour extra if they wanted it double checking.

To Be Continued