She is so infuriated and upset she says nothing. The drive to Ethel's is silent. When he stops the car she just looks at him.

"Where are we?"

"Just trust me."

She rolls her eyes and follows him to an apartment. He knocks on the door.

The sixty something, grey haired woman opens the door.

"Well hello Agent Booth. It's so nice to see you again. Who is this?"

"This is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan."

"Please do come in," she says sweetly.

"What are we doing here?" Temperance asks again as Ethel leads them into the living room.

"I have someone I want you to meet."

"Please to have a seat. I'll go get him," Ethel tells them.

Temperance sits down in a chair far away from Booth.

Ethel returns with a pajama clad toddler with dark hair and blue eyes.

"Hi Nathan. Do you remember me I'm..."

"Yes. You're the FBI agent that came to visit us yesterday."

"That's right,"he nods his head.

"Who's she?"

"Nathan I'd like you to meet Dr. Temperance Brennan, she's my partner."

"Hi," he smiles nervously, "You aren't going to give me a shot are you?"

"No. I'm not that kind of doctor," she answers.

"Ethel if you could excuse us for a moment I'd like to have a word with my partner," Temperance smiles.

"Of course."

Temperance drags Seeley outside.

"What are we doing here? What does this have to do with anything? This has nothing to do with any cases we're working."

"Temperance he's your son."

"What?"

"Nathan. That boy in there, he's your son. DNA proves it."

"There's no way,"she disagrees.

"I promise you. He's your son. He's lived with Ethel since he was six months old."

"How can you know that he's my son?"

"The DNA proves it. Temperance don't you see it?"

"See what?"

"He's yours. He looks just like you. I know that you thought he died, and you let that part of you die with him, but he's here. He isn't dead. He's a healthy little three year old boy who needs a family. I know that this is all a shock but you have to believe me. I know that I'm not your favorite person right now, but you have got to know that I would never lie to you. Now can we go back in there?"

She nods nearly crying. When they return to the living room Nathan is on the floor playing blocks. Temperance joins him as Seeley talks to Ethel.

"What are you building?"

"A castle," he tells her.

"Are you going to be in construction when you grow up?"

"No. I'm going to be a fireman, so I can save people."

Seeley and Ethel watch them.

"Your partner, she seems nice," the woman comments.

"She is," Seeley nods.

"She and Nathan have the same eyes. They're big, and kind, and gentle. They have eyes full of questions, uncertainty and love just waiting to be awarded to the right person."

"That they do," he smiles.

"Did you figure out what happened to Nathan's parents?"

"I studied the case files, and talked to the first responder. I looked at the files, and their conclusion is solid. They swerved to miss the driver coming at them head on, and they went into a tree,"

"It's such a miracle," she adds.

"What's that?" he questions.

"He survived."

"Who?"

"Nathan. He was in the back seat."

"Of?"

"The car. He and his three siblings were in the mini-van when it crashed. It flipped end to end several times before hitting that tree. Nathan was in the last row, by himself. He came out with just a few scratches and bruises. His parents, and his three siblings were killed," she reveals

"He's been with you since then?"

"Yes. He's my last."

"Your last?"

"My last foster child. When he's gone I'll be too old for any more."

"Are they looking for a permanent home for him?"

"He's a wonderful boy. This is all he's known, they won't move him."

"Not to be rude Ethel, but how old are you?"

"I'm sixty three. I'm much too old to be raising a boy, but he deserves to have someone."

"Thank you so much," he tells her.

"Sure," she smiles.

"Hey Bones you ready to go?"

"Uh I guess," she answers.

As they're pulling away from the apartment he glances over at her. She stares straight a head with a look that is a mixture of fear, shock, and sadness. Her eyes suddenly dart over to him as his dart back to the road.

"You ok?" he asks her.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"This changes everything. You just had your entire world turned upside down yet again. You have a son that you thought no longer existed."

She says nothing.

"You're still in shock aren't you?"

She answers with a question, "Do you know where Rock Creek Cemetery is?"

"Uh huh," he nods not fully understanding. He drives in the direction of the Cemetery.

Soon they stop just inside the cemetery. He turns off the ignition.

"What are we doing here?" he asks.

"Get out," she tells him.

He does. He follows her for several hundred yards before she abruptly stops. He nearly falls over her.

"Yeah I'm still in shock," she admits.

He stares quietly at a gravestone.

"I was really groggy when I got out of surgery. When I came out of it they told me what happened. Pete still hadn't made it back. He finally got home around four or five the next morning. He found me sitting in the living room wide awake, just waiting on him. When he asked what happened I didn't want to tell him. I told him to leave, to go somewhere else. That whole day I stayed in bed, I've never done that before, or since. The day after that I came here. No one said anything. They just put a tiny pine box in the ground, and this tiny little placard. I stood here for four hours, by myself. Pete he never came. I was glad, I didn't want to see him,"

"I'm sorry that this happened, and I know it's hard to wrap your brain around, but that little boy needs you," he tells her.

"You don't understand. Every time I let my walls fall something terrible happens,"

"Tell me what you felt immediately after finding out you were pregnant."

"I felt sick," she admits.

"It comes with the territory,"

"No, not like that, I don't know how to explain it. I knew that Pete didn't want kids, and it was never something I had ever given any thought to. I was scared out of my mind."

"What happened after you got done being scared?"

"I realized that it might be a bad thing, that maybe I did want it. So I embraced it, Pete didn't. He hated it. I...the reasons never made any sense to me, and they still don't."

"What reasons?"

"Why I kept him."

"We all wonder at some point or another what it would be like to hold our own child in our arms for the first time."

"I never got that. I never held him, or saw him. One second he was inside of me and the next thing I knew he was just gone."

"But he isn't. The child you buried, the child you lost, and mourned for, he wasn't yours. He was someone else's. That three year old boy that you played blocks with today, the one who has your eyes, he is yours."

"What do I do?"

"Embrace it."

"I don't know how. I've turned myself off. I don't want to deal with those emotions. Even if I did I don't know how to take care of a child, and my life... it's much different than it was then."

"That boy, Nathan, he needs you."

"He seems content."

"Ethel is sixty three years old, she's happy to take care of him, but she wishes that she wasn't it for him."

"I just don't think that I can do it. I... I'm not a mother. I don't know how..."

"You are a mother. You are Nathan's mother. The bones of the infant laying beneath your feet under a stone in the ground that says baby Brennan, he is not yours."

"What do I do?"

"You fight, you fight for your little boy."

"I can't do this alone. I never..."

"I'll help you. Even if you hate me I'll still help you."

"I don't hate you. I can't hate you for bringing me the truth. I can be upset with you for getting into things that you have no business being in, but I can't hate you."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Do I really have a choice?"

"Sure you do. If it's too much I can make those results go away."

"And risk losing your job."

"I've probably already done that."

"Why?"

"Something wasn't right. It didn't feel right to me. My gut told me to dig deeper, to examine what was beneath the surface, kind of like what you do," he smiles.

"I still want to be your partner," she tells him.

"But?"

"I'll be taking a temporary leave of absence to get things... to put things back together."

"If you need me..."

"I will," she tells him, "I don't have a clue what to do with a three year old boy."

"What about Pete?"

"He doesn't need to know."

"It's his son too."

"He doesn't deserve to know."

"Ok. I disagree, but I'll stay out of it."

"Thank you," she tells him as they walk toward his SUV.

"For what?"

"Being... for never letting me down," she tells him.

"I've got a lot of explaining to do. I might get fired you know."

"Then why did you do it?"

"I had to."

"Why?"

"For you."

"You don't owe me anything."

"I owe you more than you know," he tells her.