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Disclaimer: Bones belongs to Fox.

Brennan exited her shower wrapped in a towel to find her daughter sitting on her bed. "Good morning." Brennan kissed her daughter's forehead before walking to her closet to grab some clothes to wear.

"Good morning, mom." Natalie was already dressed. "So, what happened with the investment?" Brennan hadn't had a chance to talk to her daughter about that.

"We got the investment, but Caroline sent her nephew to be kept in the loop." Brennan walked to the bed with her clothes in hand.

"So, you're like partnered up with this guy?" Natalie asked interested to know.

"Yes, I have to keep him informed on everything." Brennan sat on the bed next to her daughter.

"Ugh, that means he'll be with you all the time at work." Brennan stared at the wall, being with Seeley Booth all day wasn't bad at all. "What's he like?"

"I don't really know him yet. It's not like we had a lot of time to bond." Brennan grabbed her panties and put them on without removing the towel from her body.

"I'll wait for you downstairs while you get ready." Natalie exited Brennan's room.

---

"Why do you have to pick him up?" Natalie called from the back seat.

"He's new here and he doesn't know the city yet. If something happens to him, I'll be held responsible." Brennan parked outside Booth's hotel. He was already waiting for her outside the main entrance and walked towards the SUV the moment Brennan parked.

"Wow, you didn't say he was a hottie." Natalie wondered why her mother had failed to give that very important detail. Booth sat on the front passenger seat and before Brennan could introduce them, Natalie jumped in. "Hi, I'm Natalie Sullivan-Brennan. That's my mom." She pointed to Brennan as she shook hands with Booth.

"Hi, I'm Seeley Booth and I guess I'm her new partner." Booth pointed at Brennan too.

Brennan drove to drop her daughter off at the high school. "There's no ring. Single or gay?" Natalie asked, popping her head in between the two front seats when Brennan stopped at a red light.

"Why would you say gay?" Booth asked suspiciously.

"Brokeback, gotta ask." Brennan shot her daughter a glare that told the teen to sit her butt back down and put her seat belt on. Natalie knew that look and quickly did what her mother silently said with that glare.

"Love you." Natalie kissed Brennan's right cheek when they arrived at the high school. "Hey, she may be all rational and compartmentalizing on the outside, but inside she's a softie." Natalie told Booth and quickly made an escape before her mother shot her another glare.

"Please excuse her. Hormones and Angela Montenegro have had an effect on her." Brennan told Booth with a bit of a smile as they drove away.

"She's nice and it looks like you guys have a close relationship." Booth commented to make conversation.

"Yeah, she's great and we do have a close relationship. She knows that she can talk to me about anything and that I'll never be too busy to sit down and listen to what she has to say."

"There's not really much resemblance." The teen looked nothing like Brennan.

"I know, everybody tells me that. I guess she does look more like her dad's side of the family." Booth noticed her use of "her dad's" instead of "my husband's"; and how she didn't wear a ring. I guess all she has of married is the title. Booth thought. "Speaking of resemblance, you look nothing like your aunt." Brennan commented with a light laugh.

"I know; she married my uncle. Didn't really work out, but we keep in contact." Booth was glad they had made conversation.

------

The day had actually gone by quickly. The new partners found they were really comfortable with the other, and that neither was what they had expected.

Natalie entered the Jeffersonian. She had gone straight from school. "Heya, Sweets." She smiled at the security guard and he gave her a visitor's pass.

Natalie saw her dad talking with his current girlfriend, if she could be called that. "Hi, dad." Natalie hugged and kissed Sully.

"Hey, baby." Sully kissed his daughter. He loved his daughter a lot; she was his weak spot (aside from sleeping with women). "What are you doing here?" He asked her.

"I came to show my mom my graded physics test." She told him with a smile as she hugged him one last time before making her way to see her mother.

"Hi, Natalie." Perotta was trying just a little too hard for the teen to like her.

"Bye, perra...tta." She said with a giggle as she walked away. Spanish class had finally paid off.

"It's Perotta." The blond woman said through clenched teeth.

--
"Hi, mom." Natalie entered Brennan's office and walked straight to give her a hug and kiss.

"Hi." Brennan opened her arms to hug her daughter.

"I came to show you my graded physics test." The teen pulled out a piece of paper from her backpack.

"Congratulations." Brennan hugged her again.

"No, this was thanks to you. If you wouldn't have helped me, then I would have failed. She's really good in science." The last sentence was directed at Booth. "Hi, Booth." The girl shook his hand and he said 'hi' back.

"His name is Seeley." Brennan scolded.

"Booth is fine." He shot them his charm smile and Natalie couldn't help noticing how that smile was directed at her mother.

"Do you want to have lunch with us?" Brennan asked as she realized they had missed lunch time.

"No, I'm meeting Michelle at the mall."

"Need money?" Natalie shook her head 'no' at Brennan's question. "If her mother's not picking you two up, then call me." Natalie nodded before leaving. "We stayed up all night studying for that test." Brennan told Booth as they exited her office to grab some well deserved food.

"It paid off." Booth told her with another smile.

"Yeah, except for the part where I could hardly stay awake for my meeting with Caroline." They laughed as they entered the elevator. "I forget to eat when I have a lot of work. You should have said something." They kept talking as they headed towards her SUV.

-----
Days later

Brennan was walking back to her office when she saw Sully and his girl of the month. After a brief moment, Brennan started to walk to pass them. She didn't care what he did or didn't do. Perotta saw her and took the opportunity to kiss Sully passionately. Brennan was glued to the floor. She was over him, she really was, but the little show going on before her hurt her 'woman pride' as Angela would say.

"Hey, I'm a little confused with the report for the new building construction..." Booth walked behind her as he read from the file in his hand. He noticed that she wasn't paying attention and stared ahead to look at what she was looking at. What he was like a dagger through the heart. Sure, maybe they're not in good terms, but kissing someone like that in public where your wife could see should be illegal. Booth knew what it was like to hurt like that, and if he would have seen that with Rebecca and Charlie he would have died.

No one should have to bear to see something like that.

Booth, taking the risk of getting his ass kicked, spun Brennan around with his hands on her shoulders and walked with her towards the elevator. He rambled about the file, just to provide distraction for her. They walked to her SUV, and she apologized and told him to grab a cab to take him to his hotel. Brennan started walking towards the direction of the diner they'd been going to for lunch. Booth walked behind her.

They sat on a table by the window; it had silently become their table. Booth ordered them each a coffee. Brennan was silent, trying to convince herself that she wasn't affected.

Booth took a long sip of his coffee and decided to tell her something personal. Maybe that way she'd open up and talk and if she didn't, then at least she'd know that she wasn't the only one who's gone through rough times in life.

"My girlfriend of years, Rebecca, left me standing at the altar the day of the weeding." Brennan stared at him. Why would he share something like that with her? "I found out she ran away with a close friend of mine named Charlie. They had been seeing each other behind my back for a while. Everybody knew, but no one told me." Brennan could see the sincerity in his eyes as he spoke. "I would have liked to be told. To know what was going on." He took another sip of his coffee. "Anyway, this was over a year ago. I admit that at first I had trouble getting over the deception, but I got over her. I really did. She came back with Charlie a few months ago. It was hard to re-live those wounds when I saw them at work. I'm an FBI agent, they're FBI too. I took a sabbatical year and Caroline gave me the opportunity to come here. I don't regret it." He told her with a smile. He continued to drink his coffee, he had never talked to anyone about that and it felt right to do so with her.

"My parents were killed in a car accident when I was fifteen and I went into the foster care system." Why was she telling him this? "It wasn't a good time for me. Senior year, I was seventeen, my friend Natalie and I joined the army. They would help pay for school and after foster care the army would be nothing." Brennan said with an awkward laugh. "I met Sully that summer. We had a thing…when the summer was over I started school." Brennan took a sip of her coffee. "I didn't know I was pregnant." Booth placed a hand on her forearm. He could tell it was something difficult to tell and that she probably hadn't told anyone about that. "To make the story short, Sully's grandfather basically forced us to get married. Things were never good between us." She gulped the rest of her coffee. Booth didn't ask why she hadn't gotten a divorce, although he wanted to know.

-----

The weeks passed and the partners had grown very close. They even saw each other on the weekends.

"Don't forget its Natalie's birthday party tomorrow night." Brennan told Booth as they headed out of her office for the day.

"Of course not, she reminded me today." Booth placed his hand on the small of her back as they entered the elevator.

"Ouch, looks like the new guy's pretty close with Temperance." Hacker, another business associate of the company, told Sully as they both watched the partners enter the elevator. Hacker was resentful of the fact that Brennan always turned down his advances.

"We'll see about that." Sully felt confident that he could have Brennan eating off the palm of his hand if he wanted to. He would show the new guy that Temperance Brennan was still his.

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