Disclaimer: I do not own Bones and never will, but I am obsessed!

Author's Note: Thank you to my reviewers, especially SouthunLady. You make me excited to keep writing. I think Angela has a lot to do with Lucy's personality. I have a whole backstory in my mind that hopefully I will be revealed eventually. Enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 4: Honey Pie

July 18 8:15 PM The Brennans' Apartment

Lucy and Brennan had prepared, eaten, and cleaned up their dinner of veggie burgers and baked sweet potato fries. While Lucy had bathed, Brennan had sent a quick e-mail to Hodgins warning him that he may be needed to examine particulates from a crime scene. She also chatted briefly with Angela, knowing that she would be needed for a facial reconstruction after the skull was glued back together. Angela had been helping with an exhibit on ancient Greece and had not seen the agent. Angela wanted a full description of the new guy, and when Brennan mentioned in her own awkward way that he was good looking, Angela couldn't contain her squeal. Brennan, however, was not in the mood for girl talk, and calmly but sternly assured Angela that there would be no personal interactions between the agent and the doctor. When Angela couldn't get the disappointed tone out her voice, Brennan made the excuse that Lucy was calling her and abruptly hung up the phone. Brennan swore under her breath that this case would be the last she ever worked for the FBI if things didn't change. She could very happily focus on the bodies in the basement, tell their stories and give them closure. Let the FBI deal with their own cases. Lucy interrupted her thoughts by actually calling for her, and Brennan made her way into the girl's bedroom. Every evening that Brennan was in town, the girls would read together for half an hour any book of Lucy's choosing. Lucy had picked out a book by Jane Goodall the last time that they were at the library, and the pair was currently half way through it. Brennan was reading aloud tonight, the voice was soothing to Lucy and she snuggled into her mother on the full bed. Just as Brennan was getting invested in the story, there was a knock on the door. Brennan sighed and handed the book to Lucy.

"That will be the courier with that case file. I'll be back in a moment, Luce."

"Sure, Mom. No problem."

Brennan walked quickly to the front door. She peeked through the peephole and instead of a pimple- faced kid in a cyclist outfit, there was Special Agent Seeley Booth. As she opened the door she noticed he was not only holding a case file, but there was a white box in his left hand as well.

"Hello, Dr. Brennan. I have the case file for you. Sorry I am here so late, I had to track down some original X-rays for you, but to make it up to you, I brought you and Lucy some apple pie. Best in the District!"

"I don't like pie."

"Everyone likes pie, Dr. Brennan."

"Well, I don't. I don't like my fruit cooked."

A cheery voice jumped in next. "But I love pie! Thanks, FBI guy. Pumpkin is my favorite, or maybe berry pie, but apple isn't all that bad. Mom, can I have my piece, please? I know I already brushed my teeth, but I can do it again before bed, and I didn't have any other dessert tonight. Pretty please?"

"Well, Squirt, it is up to your mom." Booth set the case files on a nearby table and waved the box in front of Brennan, making puppy dog eyes that matched her daughter's expression. Brennan knew when she was beat.

"Very well, but under one condition. Lucy may have the pie if you stop calling her Squirt."

Booth stopped waving the box and tried to keep a sad look on his face as he turned to Lucy. "Sorry, Squirt. I guess no pie for you. I like the nickname. It stays, the pie goes."

"Mo-om." Lucy begged her mother to reconsider. This FBI guy was being really nice, just like he had promised, and besides she liked the nickname. It made her feel special. Her mother could be so strange sometimes. Aunt Angela had once told her that her mom had had a rough childhood and sometimes those hurts got in the way and that was why she acted weird. Brennan never talked about her childhood with Lucy, perhaps she studied the past of others so that she could forget her own, that was Lucy's theory anyway. Lucy almost never pushed her mother, but she thought it was time to press just a little bit.

"Mom, you aren't being very nice. Agent Booth came over to bring you the case files, just the way that you wanted them, and he brought dessert. He didn't know that you didn't like pie." She turned to Booth, "Just so you know, she likes sorbet. Passion fruit is her favorite, but we both like mango."

Brennan shifted her gaze between the two conspirators. She really was beat this time. "You are right, Lucy. I apologize, Agent Booth. It was very thoughtful of you to bring the pie. I will get you a plate, Luce. Agent Booth, would you care for a piece?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. Thank you, Dr. Brennan. You know, you can feel free to just call me Booth."

"Alright… Booth," she said slowly, testing the informality as she spoke. "You may continue to call me Dr. Brennan." Before he could comment, Brennan had headed to the kitchen for plates and forks. She also grabbed some vanilla ice cream that had been left over from a sleepover that Lucy had had the previous week. She decided that a little ice cream would taste good and went back to the cabinets and drawers to grab a bowl and a spoon.

While Brennan gathered plates, Booth and Lucy had struck up a conversation. Lucy felt a little pity for the guy. He was nice, and as Aunt Angela would say, he was "Hott with two T's." And her mom was treating him like crap, but he was taking it in stride. She couldn't help it; she was rooting for this one.

"Don't worry too much about my mom. She really will warm up to you. I hope. I'll lean on her a bit. I can be very persuasive, you know."

"I'm beginning to get that."

"Maybe you could give her a nickname of her very own?" Lucy had suggested, a bit sarcastically.

"Yeah, I'm sure that would work," Booth responded upping the ante on the sarcasm.

Brennan returned from the kitchen juggling the ice cream and the dishes. Booth whispered to Lucy, "Do you think that she would respond well to Grumpy?" as he went to help Brennan with the armful and cut up the pie. Lucy just giggled until her apple pie a la mode was set in front of her at the table. Lucy and Booth proceeded to talk about her summer and random things. Booth kept his conversation flowing with Lucy, but his eyes rarely left Brennan's face. She had kept her head down and was focusing on the ice cream in her bowl almost as hard as she had been focusing on that leg bone earlier in the day. Lucy tactfully left her mother out of the conversation as she could tell that her mother wasn't really up for conversation. Lucy was not offended that the agent was staring at her mother and was rather halfheartedly talking to Lucy. She really was excited that the agent seemed to be interested in her mother, despite her mother's oddities. Could he actually like her? A small hope began to grow in her chest that this agent could make her mother happy. It would be nice for her mom to have someone. Perhaps she would have to ask Aunt Angela about it. Her mother hated Angela's meddling, but Lucy was almost looking forward to it. The second Aunt Angela saw the FBI guy and her mother together; she was going to know that there was something there. Lucy was now regretting that she was going to Madison's horse show. Lucy was going to be missing the real show, the one that would take place on the forensic platform the next day.

Booth wasn't sure how Lucy did it. She was obviously as preoccupied as he was, but she still managed a halfway decent conversation, and he couldn't help feeling drawn to the two brunettes. He also felt silly at the thought that if the daughter liked him maybe he could get the mother to at least tolerate him. Eventually, the table grew silent as all three contemplated their respective thoughts. The silence was comfortable to all but Brennan, who excused herself in order to put away the leftovers and rinse the dirty dishes. Back in the safe solitude of the kitchen, she was free to envy Booth's easy manner and how close he seemed to be with her daughter after just a few minutes of conversation. Why was it so easy for some people to connect to others and why was it so difficult for her? She and Lucy loved each other unconditionally, and Angela was like a sister to her, but no one else could manage to break her hard shell. Why couldn't she just soften up, like Angela was always telling her to do?

Booth interrupted her musings by bringing in the last of the dishes. He was in very good spirits as he set the dishes in the sink. "Lucy went to her bedroom. She said she would be waiting for you to finish your bedtime reading. She told me that she wanted to give us, and I quote, 'a few minutes of privacy.' Then she winked at me." He chuckled at his own comment and the confused look on the doctor's face.

"I don't know what that means, but it is past her bedtime, so I should probably go finish our chapter before it gets too much later. Thank you for the dessert." She paused. She really should make an effort with Booth. They had to clear the case if nothing else. "I'm sorry if I was uncivil earlier. I am not used to trusting strangers or the imbeciles from the FBI." She caught him eying her suspiciously. She realized that she was probably not apologizing very well. "Well, I don't think that you are an imbecile."

"Well, thanks"

"Don't thank me yet. I simply do not have enough data in order to draw any valid conclusions about your intelligence."

"Dr. Brennan, did you just make a joke?"

"No, I don't think so." She said that with such sincerity that he had to grin. She was something alright.

"Well, you should go read to your daughter. She's waiting for you." He began to walk towards the door and Brennan followed him unsure of what else to do. "She is an amazing kid you know. She's crazy smart, incredibly charming, and she's pretty gorgeous, too. Those blue eyes can really pierce your soul."

"Thank you Agent... sorry, Booth. I am very proud of her."

Booth opened the door. "You should be proud, she's just like you." Finally getting the last word, Booth closed the door, flipping his lucky poker chip as he whistled down the hall.

Brennan puzzled over what he could mean by that comment as she made her way to Lucy's room. And though she read to Lucy for twenty minutes and despite the fact that she was intelligent and was able to compartmentalize better that anyone else that she knew, she couldn't remember a word she read. For the first time in a long, long time, she was distracted. She nearly forgot to kiss Lucy good night, but by the time that she was two pages into the case file that Booth had left her, she had managed to push the feelings of confusion to the side and focus on the case. The sooner she could solve the case, the sooner this agent would be out of her life, and she could go back to her old ways. And for the first time in an equally long time, she wondered if the old ways were really the best ways.