Well hello again, to all who are reading this. Once again a reminder, I appreciate reviews and especially intelligent input. Please feel free to contact me. I own nothing; I'm just playing with the characters. I promise to put them back as… close as to how I found them when I'm finished.

It was bright when Anden woke, slumped with her head on her arms at the kitchen table. Sunlight streamed in from the windows, momentarily blinding her. And then she realized just what had woken her. There was pounding, and finally it sunk in that it wasn't her head. Standing and stumbling towards the front door, she undid the latch and opened it.

"Oh sweetie, you look…" Angela trailed off as she pulled Anden into a hug, rubbing her hands up and down her back before thrusting her away to take another look at her. The fine boned face was puffy, red and had tear trails down her face. But it was still Anden, little pixie-like Anden, who had only aged a few months it seemed, instead of the twenty years. She still looked like a teen, unlike Seeley who had grown into a man. Her heart ached at the thought of him, but she squared her shoulders and turned her attention to Angela once more.

"I know how I must look Ange," Anden stepped further back and invited Angela in. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Bones who looked about as well as she imagined she did.

"I know it must be hitting you both pretty hard. Cam told me that the kids were at your parents so I decided you might need some cheering up." Angela grabbed the bags that were on the stoop, pushing two at Anden then taking a few more. Anden saw chips and hamburgers and bottles of wine.

"Lord be, Ange. You didn't really have to do this." Anden started to protest. But Bones just shook her head, setting her bags on the kitchen counter.

"It's alright to remember him, and let him go Anden, anthropologically speaking." Bones put in and plopped down on the stool at the kitchen counter. Anden sank down onto the stool next to her and cupped her face in her hands.

"I just… It's been twenty years Tempe. I never thought past the today, I never imagined there would be a day I'd have to say goodbye. Not even when that bastard took himself off to fight in the Middle East."Anden paused, sniffled though no more tears would come. "The FBI was supposed to be the safe job." Anden repeated.

"Nothing is ever safe when one is a homicide investigator." Ange put in. "Hell, even I get threats now and again. Nothing we ever do is safe. That's part of life, Andy." Angela put a hand on each of their shoulders. "So let's open the wine and tell some Booth stories." Angela reached into one of the bags and grabbed a bottle of wine, moving to a cabinet and grabbing three glasses.

"It's too early!" Anden proclaimed. "Though I can't believe I'm saying that." Anden laughed a bit. Angela moved around the kitchen with ease, knowing exactly where to go. She poured the wine then grabbed a bag of chips, tearing the plastic open.

"It's almost four in the afternoon." Tempe said as she grabbed a glass and a handful of chips.

"Jesus Mary and Joseph. I slept that long?" Anden looked to the clock, then grabbed a glass and took a few swallows. "So Seeley stories then?" She looked to Ange, who nodded. "Let's start with favorites then. Ange, what's your favorite Seeley story?"

"Well. I'd have to say that one Christmas, when Booth got stoned off that vaccination to the Valley Fever? 'What are the lights on the ceiling Doc?'" Angela mimicked the tone of Seeley's voice almost perfectly, and that had Anden grinning. It was a memorable Christmas for them all. Even Anden, who hadn't been there but had been at home with three angry children, one of whom actually understood why Seeley was gone. One didn't care, and the other simply didn't understand what quarantine was until Seeley had come home later.

"That was actually a bit annoying, cause I totally wanted the stoned effects." Ange pouted. Tempe grinned and shrugged a bit.

"Booth was always an overbearing alpha male, but I remember this time when we were checking out the house of this one suspect. We reached to open the door, and there was this little wire, and Booth wouldn't let me go in. I got angry at him, used some choice words with him. But he didn't listen to me, and pretty much as soon as we got to the car, the house just blam, blew up." Tempe reached for the bottle of wine and filled them all up. Anden made a face and pushed up, going to the cabinet and taking down a large bottle of whiskey. Taking three shot glasses down, she set them in front of the three, pouring shots.

"I'm sorry they're not Dixie cups, but shot's will have to do." Anden grinned and knocked back her shot, refilling her glass.

"So what's your memory?" Tempe asked Anden, who shrugged slightly. "How do you choose one memory out of twenty years of them?" Anden paused to think as she munched on a hamburger. She balled up the waxed paper, crinkling it idly.

"Well, tell us about your honeymoon?" Ange got a dreamy look on her face. Anden grinned to Angela and tossed the ball of waxed paper at her.

"Well, it wasn't anything like the sordid affair you had with your first husband. We discovered Parker was soon to be born, as I couldn't stop throwing up. We went on a cruise to the Caribbean, and… I'd never been seasick a day in my life. I'd no idea just why I was losing my lunch, so Seeley insisted that we take a pregnancy test. He'd never really been too overbearing alpha male-like until the day he saw that pregnancy test. Ever since then, he's been terrible. But it's sweet. Like this one time when I was so tired. Lieney had just been born, and so I was dealing with a six month old girl who already had a temper on top of Parker, who was just about two and a half. Those terrible twos." Anden smiled fondly. "Seeley came home and wrangled the kids up after his shift at the pub, which let me tell you is no picnic. The customers at my parents pub had never been too terribly happy after I left, and saw Seeley as the bad guy for 'taking me away'. He was just as exhausted as I was, and yet he cooked dinner, bathed the kids, and put them to bed. All while I laid face-down on the couch." Anden laughed. Tempe grinned widely, and Ange just pouted slightly.

"Sully went to the Caribbean. Why does everyone like going to sail down there?" Tempe put in.

"Freedom, Tempe. Freedom." Anden grinned at that, remembering how she loved to take her little boat out, sailing around the coast from Pennsylvania to the islands as a young girl with Tom, her oldest brother. Sometimes Tom would stop on an island and let her take the big boat out by herself, as long as she came to get him the next day. She felt like a pirate, that she did, as she sailed out on the sea and snuck drinks of the rum her brother enjoyed. All three of her children loved sailing as much as she, and even Seeley had come to love it after a while, though they hadn't done it in some time.

"I don't understand." Tempe said, her face contorting in confusion.

"The sea down there is warm, the breeze a constant on the sea. It feels free to sail down there. To sail anywhere, really. No rules, just the breeze blowing through your hair and the spray of the sea on your face." Anden's face got dreamy as she spoke. Angela patted Tempe on the arm and smiled.

"No rules, just right, like Outback Steakhouse." Angela used the copyrighted motto that Seeley had spent so long explaining. Tempe nodded, as if suddenly understanding.

"I was hoping your favorite memory was some hot steamy love scene," Ange pouted as she sipped at the scotch. Anden smiled and refilled the glasses before leaning her chin on her hand.

"Seeley and I could never really keep our hands off one another," Anden sighed. She brightened almost as soon as the sigh ended, giggling excitedly."Remember that Christmas party, the one after the Valley Fever thing? Cullen nearly suspended Seeley for the way I was dancing with him." Anden grinned, and she saw the look on the other's faces as they too remembered. Anden had been drinking quite copiously down in the lab with Zach and Hodgins, trying out their moonshine pure liquor, and she was quite snockered by the time Seeley had come looking for her. Knowing his wife loved to dance, he took her out of the dance floor, and that's when he discovered just how soused she really was. Her body had rubbed all sorts of sinful over his body, and both of them were half naked by the time they were "escorted" home by a couple of his fellow agents. At first, Anden remembered he tried to get her to stop, but after a few minutes he couldn't hold back, and had her writhing just as much as he was. The sex had been fantastic that night; it had Seeley walking six kinds of funny, and Anden herself couldn't sit straight for nearly two days.

"So speaking of hot steamy lovin', just how was Seeley in the sack?" Ange couldn't help herself. She had entertained all sorts of fantasies on Booth until she found out he was married, and had been for almost fifteen years at that point.

"Well, we have three children, and would have had a dozen if it weren't for birth control." Anden grinned, trying not to blush. It wasn't the fact that she minded talking about her sex life, but… These were her husband's co workers!

"I thought Catholics didn't use birth control." Tempe put in. Anden waved her hand.

"Most Catholics don't have Seeley as a husband, either. Or me for a wife." Anden murmured. Ange's eyes grew very wide, and Tempe blushed, her eyes finding their way to her lap.

She looked out the window as a big black SUV when by. She did that every time one of those damn trucks drove by. "It just doesn't feel like he's gone, you know? Two weeks ago it was our anniversary for Christ's sake. He turned thirty five only last month!" Anden looked down, sighing. It wasn't fair that Seeley was taken from her so soon. She had spent more time with Seeley than without him by this point, and while she wasn't the type to have no life without her husband, it was definitely… strange not to have her husband in her life anymore.

"Andy, he's dead. We buried him." Ange said. Anden shrugged and sighed.

"When Liam died, I felt it. I felt it when Seeley's dad died." Anden put in. "But I didn't feel when Seeley died. I didn't see his face, and although his body was mangled, I'm still not sure it was him." Anden looked to Tempe, who nodded.

"Although I have every reason to have confidence in the authentication department, they are not primarily remains handlers. I doubt this was Seeley as well." Tempe put in hesitantly.

"If he's not dead, then why hasn't he come home?" Angela put in. "Why hasn't he called or even written?" Angela just said, and all three went silent. Finally, Tempe broke the silence.

"Are you going to be alright off Seeley's pension?" Bones asked as she ripped open a bag of tortilla chips. She took one, then tossed it down and hopped off the stool, going to rummage through the fridge. Anden watched as she took out salsa, and then brought it back to the counter.

"Seeley never really told you what I do, did he?" Anden asked softly. Tempe shook her head, and then looked to Ange, who shrugged.

"No, sweety. We used to ask, but he just said you would tell us whenever you felt like it." Ange explained. Anden grabbed for her wine, then went up towards the stairs to the second floor. She paused about halfway up.

"It's easier if you guys just come up." Anden said. Tempe and Ange ran after her, pushing at each other playfully on the stairs. Both were terribly curious. Anden just grinned and continued upwards. She paused at what looked like the door to a closet and opened it. A small staircase ran upwards to the attic, and she grabbed the railing to steady herself as she went. She stopped at the entrance to her studio, where dress dummies lined one wall, each with an outfit of varying completion. The wall directly in front of them had dummies that had completed outfits. There was a couple with wedding dresses, but mostly held outfits that characters from movies had worn. Or at least, they looked like the outfits. There were tables once more covered with material, sewing machines and large mirrors. Anden swept a hand out as both Angela and Tempe gasped. Ange swung around and pinned her with a glare.

"You never told us you were Anden McKay the movie costume designer," She accused. Anden shrugged, moving further in her workshop and stroking a hand down a set of leather armor.

"You never asked. Seeley was his own person, and I was content just… letting people assume I was his housewife." Anden grinned and folded her arms behind her back, letting the two play through her workshop. They couldn't do much damage up here that couldn't be fixed…could they?

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An hour later, Tempe and Angela were begging her forgiveness as they tried to piece together the outer plastic shell of her embroidery machine. Anden just laughed and helped them up.

"Let's just go downstairs, girls." Anden suggested, and then walked along towards the door. She stopped, giving each a look that said simply 'move or I'll hurt you.' Both women eeped and ran towards the door. Anden grinned. Momma still had it. She stepped out and carefully closed the door behind her, then followed to the downstairs. The rest of the night found them eating pizza, drinking pretty much everything in sight, and watching movies. It was as if they were healing one another's hurt.

By the time Anden got Angela and Tempe settled into the guest rooms, Anden was seriously wondering how she was standing up straight. Then again, thoughts like that from her were most like due to the lack of alcohol; Tempe had cut her off a couple hours ago. Apparently no one could consume that much beer without being drunk. Anden shook her head as she climbed the stairs to her own bed. Obviously hey underestimated the publican in her. A few moments later found her snuggling into her down comforter, a little less of a comfort tonight as her bed was empty for the first time in ten years. Even when Seeley was gone overnight on cases, their eight year old son Aidan still snuck in to sleep on his father's side of the bed. When asked, Aidan said it made him feel safe when Daddy was gone. But tonight, not even Aidan was there. Anden sniffled and curled herself tighter, trying to stave off the loneliness coursing through her. Soon, sleep overcame her and she was lost in the black.

Seeley crept in as best he could, trying to keep his weight off his left leg as best as possible. The scars on the bottom of his feet had been noticed by his captors, and his captors had broken the now decidedly more delicate bones of his left foot, before rubbing shards of glass along the soles of his feet. His left foot had the most cuts. His face bore numerous bruises, his right arm was in a sling, and his breathing was still ragged from where he had been partially strangled. Still, he did his best to creep up the stairs, finding his bed in the dark that came from years of living in the same house. He kicked off his shoes in the direction of the closet, wincing when they thumped against the door. Anden stirred slightly when she felt the mattress dip under his weight, but she only rolled over, facing him. Seeley could see she was still asleep, so he slid into the bed, trying his best to pull her close and hold her. He released the breath he had been internally holding for the last week, ever since he and a carload of agents had been kidnapped by Gormagon. Rage filled his mind for a moment as his thoughts turned to that cannibalistic bastard, and he cringed. Memories were here as well. Although he had been tortured horribly in Afghanistan, it was nothing compared to the horror of this week. Nothing spelled torture the way of fear of being eaten did. His arms tightened roughly around Anden for a moment, until her hand came up and sleepily patted his cheek.

"There's a good lad Aidan." She murmured and promptly relaxed once more, already asleep. Seeley just kissed her hair and tried to relax himself. It wasn't working though, and so he wandered back downstairs, rummaging through the trashed kitchen for a glass. Turning to the fridge, he got out the milk and poured himself a glass. When he shut it, he turned to lean on the counter as he drank, but instead saw his partner, her fist pressed to her open mouth. And as he stepped towards her, she screamed and ran up the stairs.

"Anden! Anden come downstairs! Wake up, wake up!" Tempe ran up the stairs and into Anden's room, shaking the younger woman awake. Anden woke with a start and pushed Tempe off.

"What, what?" Anden said blearily.

"Booth's downstairs!" Tempe shouted. Anden jumped out of bed, running towards the stairs almost blindly. She slammed into Seeley, who grunted as he caught the brunt of her blow, also slamming up into the wall.

"Jesus Anden, it's alright." Seeley said softly, trying his best to soothe the women. Anden peered up at him, touched his face and them promptly passed out.

"Well shit, that went well."