A/N: So guys...guess what? Yep, that's right, I've posted a new chapter lol. Now, I know this was really fast, but I can't say that this will be a regular thing for me. New chapters back-to-back will be rare. Thank my job for putting me out in gas with nothing but this to work on... oh, and the watching the gas pumps and the register...

Anyway, I wanted to clear up something. This fic takes the place of the Season 1 finale. Consider this an alternate to The Woman in Limbo. Eveything after that episode has yet to happen. As far as B&B are concerned, there is going to be UST up the butt with them, just like the show at Season 1's ending. I'm going to be upfront and say that they won't be getting together in this fic because I like to keep AUs as close to canon as I can. That's what makes AUs fun to write for me. Change one thing, and see how the characters would have reacted. So, now that's out of the way, here's the second chapter. :)


2

Dr. Temperance Brennan felt distinctly hurried. She's gone through many court days, but she couldn't remember the last time it fell on the day that everyone seemed to need her. She didn't necessarily mind, after all she is a world renowned forensic anthropologist, she could handle whatever her co-workers wanted from her. Booth was mostly responsible for her hurried feelings. She knows she has to go to court, but she can't get there without her original notes and she can hardly find them when he's pushing her out the door.

She was forced into relying on her photocopies when he insisted. They were nearly out of the Jeffersonian when they ran into David who brought up her notes again. She knew she needed them. No one was going to accuse her of improvising again.

"What? Bones, come on!" Booth complained as she wrestled out of his hold, "All right, I'll wait in the car. You've got three minutes," he called after her.

The forensic anthropologist was only half listening to her partner. She was occupied with her attempts to remember where she had put those notes. Brennan took pride in her memory and her organization skills. She didn't forget things and she didn't carelessly leave her notes about. Logically, they would be either in her office or on the forensics platform. However, considering that she doesn't leave closed cases on the platform, the only possibility left was her office.

Her phone rang just as she passed the office her forensic artist, Angela Montenegro, used. She knew she had to get those notes, but she could multi-task and it could be important. In fact, she was sure it was. She just saw Booth and Angela and they were the only people that made up her list of potential social calling candidates.

"Brennan," she answered.

"Yes, Dr. Brennan. I'm Agent Mark Mason from the FBI office."

"Agent Mason, you are aware that I already have a partner within the FBI?" she questioned, "I will only work with him, and any case you wish to give me should first be presented to Agent Booth," Brennan informed him hurriedly.

She had just found her notes and was ready to end what she viewed to be an unnecessary conversation. She realized she was the best forensic anthropologist in the world, however, that did not mean she would work with just anyone. In fact, she saw the ability to choose who she wanted to work with as a perk for being the best. She'd be happy to go out to meet Agent Mark; however, he needed to go through the proper channels.

"I-no, Dr. Brennan, I'm not asking you to work with me. Well, I am, but not in a murder investigation," Agent Mason hurried to explain.

"Then I fail to see why you would need me to begin with. Forensic Anthropology involves the identifying of remains that are too decomposed, burned or otherwise destroyed to be identified through normal means. Considering that the victim would have to be dead in order to reach that state, I can only conclude that you do not understand what my work entails," Brennan told him irritably as she began to walk out of her office.

"I simply want to meet you at the Hoover Building, Dr. Brennan! This is only to verify the identity of your mother, Christine Brennan," Mason blurted out in frustration.

Brennan stopped in her tracks, all thoughts of court cases and notes forgotten.

"What did you say?" she managed.

Agent Mason pounced on the opportunity to get a word in.

"I've been working on your parent's missing person's case and I believe I've located your mother. I just need you to come by the Hoover Building to confirm."

"I don't know what that means. Are you saying that she is dead and you need me to identify her?" Brennan questioned numbly.

"No, no, your mother is alive. At least, I believe she is. I just need you to confirm," he repeated.

Brennan didn't hear anything past Mason telling her that Christine Brennan was possibly alive. She took pride in her quick mind; however she found that it had stopped completely. Her brain fixated on a single word. One that the doctor would refuse to even consider in her occasional fantasies. Never had she entertained the idea that one or both of her parents could be alive after those first few years. They had to be dead, or they wouldn't have left her. Now she was struggling to face the notion that they may have simply abandoned her like her old classmates and fellow foster children stated all those years ago….

"Dr. Brennan? Is something wrong?" her superior, Dr. Goodman, asked in concern.

Her eyes snapped to his face, but she had no explanation for the former archeologist. She was still trying to process what Agent Mason had just told her and the feelings that came with it. For the first time in a long while, her impressive ability to compartmentalize utterly failed her. Brennan's mind was stalled.

"Bones! Chop-chop, we've got a court case to go to in like… now!" Booth yelled suddenly, "Bones?"

Booth took in his partner's appearance. They'd been working together for some time and he thought he did a pretty good job of reading her. However, the way she looked now pretty much escaped his knowledge of her facial expressions. She was deathly pale and her eyes stared at nothing in particular. Booth had seen his partner surprised, but this went beyond any kind of shock he'd ever seen her display.

He noticed that she was holding her cell phone to her ear and snatched it from her nerveless fingers.

"Hello?" he barked aggressively.

"Wh-what? Dr. Brennan?" Mason asked in confusion. He was just about to end the call when he hadn't received a response from Brennan.

"No, Special Agent Seeley Booth," he corrected harshly, "Who is this?"

"Agent Mark Mason. I assume you're the FBI's liaison to the Jeffersonian. I work in Missing Persons and Kidnapping."

"What did you tell her? This doesn't have anything to do with her brother does it?" Booth demanded.

It would not surprise him if it did. The man apparently could not stay out of trouble; an actual disappearance on his part might upset Bones. He knew they didn't keep in contact, but he doubted his partner didn't care about the only family she had left.

"Agent Booth, I'm sure Dr. Brennan appreciates the concern, but I can't disclose that."

"What? Look pal, we're batting for the same team here, not to mention whatever you told my partner has her upset. Unless you want this investigation out of your hands and in mine, then you start talking," Booth threatened.

Mason sighed. He doubted that Booth could really do anything, but he just wanted to close this case. What was a minor breach in confidentiality if it brought him results?

As Mason informed Booth of the situation, Brennan seemed to snap out of her shock. Booth's raised voice had attracted the rest of the Jeffersonian team and they all tried to question the anthropologist. She wasn't in a particularly talkative mood, however, and retreated to her office.

"Yeah, I'll bring her by," Booth ended the conversation noticeably more subdued.

"What was that all about?" Hodgins asked curiously.

"Yeah, Bren's never looked like that before. Spill, Booth," Angela demanded.

Instead of answering, Booth pulled out his own phone and dialed.

"Yes, I'm going to need you to take Dr. Brennan off the witness list for today. She won't be able to make it," he looked to Brennan's form in her office as he ended the call.

"Booth!" the artist demanded again.

The agent sighed, "That was the FBI. They found Bones's mother."

"Good God," Dr. Goodman said in shock.

"I don't understand. Dr. Brennan always seemed to have accepted the high probability that both of her parents would be dead," Zack mused.

"Whoa, hold on there. First off, Bones can be sad about that. Not everyone is a little squinty robot. Second, they found her alive," he corrected irritably before heading off to talk to Brennan.

The Jeffersonian team stared at one another for several moments.

"Following Agent Booth's logic, Dr. Brennan should be happy that her mother is a statistical anomaly. She didn't seem happy," Zack stated.

The team had to admit that he made a point.


"Bones? You okay?" Booth asked gently as he sat next to her on her couch. Brennan was staring at the floor.

"I always thought that for my parents to disappear like they did, that… that they'd have to be dead," she told him quietly.

"But they aren't. Or, your mom isn't at least," Booth said for her.

"I don't know what to think of that. What do I think of that, Booth? Should I be happy?" she asked him.

"Are you happy?"

She thought over the question carefully.

"Yes. There is a significant part of me that is happy…. I'm angry too. Is that wrong?"

"No, Bones. I don't think that's wrong. I think you're normal. You know you're going to have to meet her and Agent Mason, right?" Booth asked carefully. He knew of his partner's tendency to ignore painful subjects, such as her parents, and the fact that her biggest issue was confronting her was going to hit his partner hard.

"What about the trial?"

He chuckled humorlessly at getting her right.

"I already told the prosecutor to take you off the witness list. You'll testify tomorrow," he told her.

"Booth! This case is important! I can't believe you did that," she exclaimed.

"Bones, you just found out your mother is alive. If you care that much about the case, then you'll deal with this first, and then you can be your regular objective, rational, squint self tomorrow," he flashed his unique smile.

Brennan wasn't in a tolerant mood.

"My state of mind has not been affected in any way," she protested, "I'll be just as objective today as I am at any other point in my life. I'm going to request to be reinstated on the witness list and I'd appreciate that, in the future, you not make my decisions for me."

She got up to sweep out of her office, but Booth grabbed hold of her elbow and gently pulled her back to the couch.

"What are you afraid of, Bones?" he asked quietly.

"I'm not—" she started to protest.

"Temperance, this is your chance to find out what happened. Isn't that what you've always wanted? The truth?"

She sat silently for the longest time. Brennan had to admit that her partner was right. One of the most important reasons leading to her career choice was the thirst for truth. She realized long ago that she may never find it for herself, but if she could do so for others, she often felt that in a way she was getting closer to locating her own. It made no rational sense, but it was one of the few feelings she could never compartmentalize despite her best efforts. Sometimes, she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

"What are you afraid of?" Booth tried again.

"What if they were right all along?" she blurted out.

"Who? Right about what?"

Brennan refused to answer that question.


Christine had been with Agent Mason throughout the entirety of the phone call. She had insisted despite knowing that her daughter may be busy but she wanted to see if they could meet as soon as possible.

Her heart had leapt into her throat at the start of the call. She could hardly believe that Mason was actually talking to her daughter. She longed to do so herself, but they both agreed that it would probably be best if they attempted to ease her into the situation. Despite Temperance's forward personality, Christine figured her living status warranted a bit more tact, even for someone like her daughter. At least, she thought her daughter might be similar to the teenager she remembered.

The beginning of the call seemed to confuse Mason just as much as it did her, which she thought was amusing. Perhaps Temperance was very similar to her memories. She was surprised when Agent Mason blurted out his reason for calling. It was only a few moments later when the conversation seemed to deteriorate and Mason began to question if her daughter was even on the other end of the call any longer. The notion that Tempe may have hung up on them saddened her more than anything she could remember.

Everything took a weird turn when another FBI agent took over the conversation. Christine remembered that her daughter worked with the FBI, but she couldn't understand the concern that this Booth displayed. Mason eventually told him about her and then thanked the other agent before ending the call. He seemed relieved.

"Agent Booth will be bringing Dr. Brennan by shortly," he informed her.

Christine frowned, "Who is Agent Booth and why does he need to bring Temperance anywhere?"

Mason shrugged, "Apparently he is the FBI's liaison to the Jeffersonian. I've heard about him, but we don't get much news about the good stuff down in Missing Persons. He gives them the murder cases the higher ups assign to them. He also said something about being Dr. Brennan's partner. Had to have misheard, though. That would mean he actually brings her out in the field," he snorted.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"This isn't anything against your daughter, Mrs. Brennan, but scientists and techs don't belong out in the field. They don't know how to handle themselves. I've certainly never met one that could anyway," Mason explained.

She decided to move on to something else.

"What did she say? When you told her about me, I mean," she said uncertainly.

Mason chuckled, "I'm going to be honest and tell you that the entire call was weird. She didn't seem too inclined to listen to me at first. The doc seemed to be concerned that I was going to ask her to work with me on a murder case."

"Temperance must work on a lot of them then," Christine wasn't sure what to think about that.

"Maybe. At any rate, she started lecturing me on what she does once I told her it wasn't a murder investigation. That's why I had to just come out with it. Dr. Brennan wasn't letting me explain anything to her," he said with mild frustration.

She had to smile at that. Temperance had a tendency to become fixated on topics.

"I probably should have informed the both of your children about the investigation sooner. Probably would have made things much easier. She didn't say anything after I told her what was going on, and then Agent Booth started in on me…. I guess it doesn't matter. I told him where to meet us and he said he would bring Dr. Brennan."

Christine hoped her daughter's silence wasn't a bad thing. She desperately wanted to see her and she hoped that she could believe Agent Booth. They both ended up waiting in silence within one of the many meeting rooms inside the Hoover Building. Mason had left the glass door open and it surprised her in a way that the FBI sounded like a business firm rather than a law enforcement agency.

As she waited, she thought about all the ways that this meeting could go. Ideally, Tempe would accept her they could go about repairing their relationship. Worst case scenario was her daughter not bothering to show up. That terrified Christine to no end and she thought it worse than anything Temperance could actually say to her. At least in any other situation she turned up and displayed that she cared that much.

"Bones, don't tell me you're rethinking this," she heard a male voice say in exasperation.

"I'm not," a familiar voice said firmly, "I just… need a moment."

Christine was certain that she knew who owned that voice. For years, she had not been able to recall it, but now that she heard it again, she could place it perfectly. It was more mature, but it definitely belonged to her Temperance.

"You've had a lot of 'moments' since getting here. Now you're just trying to get out of it," the male accused.

"Maybe I am!" Temperance shot back, "It's none of your concern, anyway, Booth."

"We're partners, Bones. We gotta help each other through the hard stuff. Now, helping you is going to involve pushing you in the right direction. I can do that metaphorically or literally. Your choice," Agent Booth told her.

Temperance scoffed, "Booth, you are well aware that I've incapacitated men that match your size as well as men that were significantly bigger than you in the past. What happened to the prep talks from earlier?"

"Pep talks, Bones, pep," he corrected, "And I already gave you one in your office, then in the Jeffersonian lobby, another in the car and one on the elevator up here. I'm pepped out, now it's time for tough love."

"I don't know what that means."

"It means that I'm not going to let you leave until you go in there and talk to your mother," he explained with exaggerated patience.

"Booth, she may not even be my mother! This could be a waste of time," Temperance ground out.

"Exactly! This could be a giant waste of time. If it is, won't you feel irrational and silly making this into such a big deal? What if she is your mom? For someone who likes the truth and facts and empirical stuff, you sure are quick to jumping to conclusions," Booth sounded smug.

"I'm not jumping to conclusions! I'm merely trying to prepare myself for a possible scenario," she snapped.

"What? Is the Dr. Temperance Brennan positing a scenario?" Booth asked in mock surprise, "What happened to following the evidence in a logical, rational manner? I thought entertaining different scenarios without the facts was baseless conjecture?

"Here are the facts, Bones. You got a call and received what might turn out to be some of the best news of your life. Then you got scared and that's fine. It's okay to be scared about this. Here's another fact though. If you run away without getting the truth, you might just regret that for the rest of your life. You've been waiting for this for fifteen years, Temperance. This is your chance to find out what happened," Booth reminded her seriously.

Temperance was silent. Christine began to worry that she may have left. Neither seemed to realize that they were so close to the meeting room and that they were quite loud. It was painful to have to listen to her daughter actually debate with Agent Booth over seeing her. She had tried to prepare herself for the event that Temperance would reject her before even speaking to her, but she found that nothing could have made her ready. It was heartbreaking. Mason was looking at her sympathetically.

"I hate psychology," she heard Temperance say finally; "It's a soft science."

"I'm right, aren't I?" Booth pressed, "Not everything fits into logic, Temperance, and this is the perfect example."

They just about walked past the meeting room Christine and Mason were waiting in. Both seemed distinctly uncomfortable as they realized that the room's occupants probably heard them arguing. Neither addressed it, however. Booth had too much tact and figured that the best course of action would be pretending that the argument never happened. Brennan may have said something but she was too preoccupied with the woman sitting at the table.


A/N#2: Whoo, that was actually a fun one to write. I think I got Booth and Brennan right, those two are really my only concern with this chapter. It seemed natural as I was writing this out, but y'all are really the only people who can decide that as I'm a bit biased. So, throw me a bone (no pun intended) and leave a review. I love them. Also, if you think of any other fics that have the same general idea as this one, then tell me that too in PM or review. I don't care which. I'm not kidding when I said that I was looking for something like this. I'm really craving one...

Thanks for reading and look forward to an upset Brennan...