Thank you for the response to the last chapter. It's been a lot of fun writing this one. Now we get to see Father Mitch's view of season six. I'll be honest and admit I did not care for season six, and as such I will be having Mitch have a bit more distant, and uninformed, view of events than normal. I hope the approach works for this chapter. Gregg.

Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

I had hoped during the seven months that Seeley and Brennan were gone would bring about some positive steps in their long hoped for relationship, but once again such hopes were thwarted by the soap opera aspects that seemed to dominate. During that seven months I had been contacted a couple of times by Seeley, but nothing significant had been discussed. He had simply wanted a familiar voice to listen to some inner thoughts. Given all that had happened the previous year, I did not bring up the subject of Brennan, and he didn't volunteer anything.

It was at the end of seven months that Seeley suddenly showed up one afternoon. I was shocked as it was supposed to be another five months before he was to return. He looked in excellent shape, no doubt from spending a great deal of time working out in his spare time. There was something about him, though, that I couldn't quite pinpoint. I soon found out.

Seeley had found a girlfriend. And not just any girlfriend. A beautiful blonde girlfriend. That would have been bad enough, but that wasn't the only strike in the count. She was a reporter. A beautiful, blonde reporter as his girlfriend? Given my personal feelings on the matter of Seeley and Brennan I was sorely tempted to ask him if he was out of his mind. I didn't out of respect of my role as his priest and confessor, but also out of respect of Seeley himself. Even as a wilder college jock he had always had a real sense of responsibility about him, and I was not about to call that into question now.

I did question him about how he was doing after having been back in a war zone and the likely ops he had had to participate in. I could sense some unease, but nothing like what he had been like when he was originally in the military. He spoke for a while about some of the unclassified things he'd been involved in. As I suspected, he had gone in for the right reasons this time, and was firmly in control of his demons. Then I asked him about Brennan. That was when I knew.

Seeley had a pained expression on his face, but put out a false sense of bravado telling me that she was fine, and that he had been honest about Hannah, the reporter he was involved with. When I asked about Brennan's reaction he clammed up. I'm sure it was all above board, and he said as much (but nothing else), so I knew that somehow he realized that she had come to an epiphany and was ready for what she had rejected the previous Spring. This was going to be difficult, and I was not sure I had the wherewithal to actually counsel them on this one.

I am quite sure that Seeley was less than thrilled with my somewhat lukewarm response to his news. Surely that was what kept him from coming in very often. His confessions were less and less often than in the past, and they were generally sedate by comparison, and almost never mentioned Brennan.

I did get a slight clue in on who this Hannah was, though not from Seeley. Brennan herself came to visit twice during the time that Seeley was involved with the blonde reporter. The first time was a few weeks after the woman had moved in with Seeley. Surprisingly, Brennan actually liked the woman. The way I understand it, Hanna was one of the few people who had ever approached her and wanted to be friends with no seemingly ulterior motive. I could tell that despite the obvious pain over Seeley having moved on, the overtures on the part of Hannah were important to Brennan. She also said something very telling. She said that she wanted Seeley to be happy. I saw the sadness in her emotions for a fleeting second, but the words were genuine. Brennan had grown emotionally in the time that she had been away. It gave me a bit of hope on the chance that this new relationship Seeley was in didn't work out.

The second visit proved my suspicions regarding Brennan. She came in one afternoon, slightly disheveled, which was a far cry from the always composed, well dressed lady who usually showed up for a small chat. She asked me if I would be willing to hear her out, but not in the role of a confessor, which she did not believe in. I told her that I would be happy to listen to her as a friend. It turns out that the night before she had almost been killed when she had not been paying attention to an oncoming car when she was walking across a street. Fortunately Seeley was in the vicinity and saved her. When she was in the SUV with him she broke down and admitted her true feelings. She let him know she knew she had made a serious mistake the year before in rejecting him, and that she was sorry. I can imagine how much it cost her emotionally to admit that, given how confidant and sure of herself she usually is. I instantly knew what Seeley had done in the face of that admission, and she confirmed it when she said that Seeley had told her that he was involved with Hannah now and that she was not a consolation prize.

We talked for a while, and I told her that she had been right to tell Seeley. Maybe it was too late, but he deserved to know the truth. It can be a raw, and dangerous emotional wound in a person to think that someone you cared so much for, even loved, for so long, didn't return those feelings. When she left, I feel that for the first time in all the times that she had come to visit, I had made some headway and actually helped her somehow.

I didn't see either of them again until a fateful day when Seeley came in one morning, obviously very hungover, and looking despondent. I had a strong suspicion as to what happened, but I let him tell me.

It turns out that Seeley had been blinded by his fondest dreams. As a result he had not really listened to what Hannah had been telling him. She loved him, though not necessarily in love, but she had no real desire to be married. Seeley, thinking in terms of what he wanted more than anything, someone to love and be loved by for 30, 40, or 50 years. He bought a ring and proposed. Hannah, staying true to what she had been telling him, turned him down. They were now officially over, and the night before Seeley had gotten very drunk. Now he was here at the church talking to me.

Once more I felt inadequate in counseling Seeley. I could understand the disappointment. I could even, to a degree, understand the anger that was coming off of him in waves. But for the first time I could ever remember, Seeley was genuinely questioning his Faith in God. Oh, he'd asked rhetorical questions in the past, and it was always in relation to some relatively benign, though important, event, but he'd never been on such a narrow precipice before. How does someone counsel someone whose Faith was such a fundamental part of them, and now was questioning that very foundation darkly, and seriously?

I decided that the best way to let him deal with this was to simply listen to what he had to say about what he was feeling. Seeley was too prone to holding things in, with some exceptions like confession, so I reasoned to myself that perhaps simply giving him an open, and inviting, escape to let out his feelings would be the best way to make him see what was always in front of him: God's love and forgiveness of his sins.

After that day I saw Seeley very regularly. He wasn't coming to confession, and I didn't press him on that as he was working his way back to his Faith, but I made sure he knew that my door was always open. I was happy to listen to the amusing stories of what was happening with Brennan. I cracked up when he told me of how excited she was to go through an exhibit of dead, putrefying bodies during a case. Seeley, naturally, was disgusted by the whole experience, but his eyes shown a genuine happiness when he talked of how excited Brennan was. I don't think she realized how much she was healing him just by her excitement and the joy of their work together. I began to feel much better about what was happening to Seeley for the first time in a long time.

During this time Seeley came into the church in a very excited mood. Still avoiding confession, he got straight to the point. He told me he felt at peace. Considering his anger and questioning of Faith, I expressed my surprise, and encouraged him to elaborate. Apparently he and Brennan had gotten stuck in an elevator at his building during the severe storm a couple of days previously. During the course of that day he and Bones began to open up about what was happening, and in a very happy tone Seeley said that Bones had referred to the possibility of sex between them as "making love". Knowing what I do about her general views on sex, I have to admit that this was a major step forward, and demonstrated how much she'd grown in the past year. Booth also opened up about his anger somewhat, and he told me that he and Bones were finally on the same page about the possibility of a relationship. His little writing a date on a slip of paper and burning it was also, in my mind, a good step for both of them. It brought to mind the old adage Hope Springs Eternal.

It was also during this time that a case, or group of cases came up that bore heavily on Seeley, and hence, on Brennan, as well. It seems that a former military sniper, one who Seeley knew well, was on his own personal mission, with no government sanctions for the sniper hits he committed. Seeley felt betrayed, and made it his own mission to bring in Broadsky. It brought to the fore all of Seeley's insecurities about his sniper past, but it also helped him. Booth needed to see a genuine difference between the kind of missions he undertook, and the personal, vigilante style of missions that Broadsky created for himself. I personally believe that it allowed Seeley to put to rest the deep moral qualms he'd had for so long, despite his personal abhorrence of killing.

During this case a fine young man, a Vincent Nigel-Murray, was killed helping Seeley and Brennan find and take down Broadsky. Seeley felt horrible as he had handed the phone to Vincent and Broadsky shot the young man who had the phone, obviously thinking it was Seeley through the thermal imager. Brennan faced a crisis of her own when the young man seemingly begged them not to send him away as he wasn't ready. True to her beliefs, she did not consider the possibility that the young man was talking to God, despite his own atheism. The old phrase there are no atheists in foxholes weighed heavily on my mind when I heard of all this. That night, according to Seeley, Brennan came to him and they made love.

Brennan came into the church not too long after and I was shocked to see her light a candle. When I approached her I asked if there was anything I could help her with. She explained that despite her own beliefs, and young Vincent's, she wanted to light a candle in his memory. I sat down with her and she gave her own rendition of her night with Seeley, how he had comforted her, and how she had finally been able to break through her barriers. She was slightly concerned about why it happened, but not that it did. I tried to assure her that it was alright. I didn't dare mention the moral aspects of the question of pre-marital relations, as I knew she would not appreciate it one bit, and would possibly break off any form of friendship with me. I respect her, and grow in my faith through our conversations, so I will not disrespect her like that and lose that fragile ray of hope in my, and her, life.

A few weeks later I got the shock of a lifetime. Seeley and Brennan entered the church one evening late, and Brennan sat silently by Seeley as he knelt in silent prayer, and then stood by him as he reverently lit a candle. Moving over to them I greeted them and they gave me what was easily the shock of the decade for me. Brennan was pregnant with Seeley's baby! I mentally chuckled when I recalled Seeley once a couple of years before saying in confession he had super sperm and could populate his own planet. At that moment of hearing the blessed news I don't think I could have been more shocked if the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, himself personally called me and announced the elevation of this humble priest to the Cardinalate. Imagine that miracle (or dare I say nightmare?), Cardinal Mitch? I think not. I am so not worthy of such a level of responsibility in God's plan.

God does indeed work in mysterious ways. I had began to wonder if this day would ever come about. Imagine. Seeley and Brennan having a child together, and in the normal fashion (though without a marriage, sadly). They are together, and I believe will be very happy. That doesn't mean there won't be any pitfalls along the way. Those should allow me to have some more soap opera moments. Now I'm curious if Seeley will be confessing to anymore impure thoughts. It'll definitely be interesting to find out. Now I'm off to see my own confessor.

A/N: I hope this rendition of season six meets with your approval. I am deciding whether to end the story with an epilogue, or allow it to continue with a couple of AU seasons. I'd love to get some feedback on that one. Gregg.