A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews! Here's the next chapter!

"So what is it you do again Temperance?" said the man standing next to her. He was a cousin of Booth's but she couldn't remember his name.

"Umm, well please call me Tempe." She started. She didn't like anyone other than Booth calling her Temperance, it just didn't feel right. "And I am a forensic anthropologist. I specialize in identifying human remains."

"You mean like dead people?" the man said, a look of distaste on his face.

'Here we go again.' She thought to herself. For the past three hours she had explained her job to half of Booth's family, most of them not understanding why she would do something like that. They had listened to her explanation and then quickly moved to another topic. For most of the time, Booth was next to her so he steered the conversation into something that she wouldn't be bothered by, but right now he was nowhere to be found.

"Yes." She said, in response.

"Umm, interesting…" the man trailed off. "So what do your parents think of this?"

She flinched at his question. "I don't have contact with my parents." She replied, thinking this was the simplest way to end this line of questioning.

"Wow, that's too bad." The man said sympathetically. "What happened?"

"Excuse me?" she said rudely. She had been thrown by the question.

"Oh well if you don't want to talk about it." The man said.

"I don't" she replied, firmly.

"Well…" the man trailed off. "I should go find my mother. It was nice to meet you Temperance." He walked off, leaving her standing alone again. She scanned the room but couldn't see Booth anywhere. She felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and came face to face with a petite blond woman.

"Hi." The woman said. "My name is Melanie. You must be Seeley's new girlfriend."

"Umm… yes, I am." She said awkwardly. "I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan. But you can call me Tempe."

"Oh..well it's nice to meet you Tempe." Melanie replied. "I was listening to you explain your job to Mark. It sounds….interesting."

She surmised that Mark was the man she was just talking to. "Thanks." She replied. She was about to ask Melanie what she did for a living, when she was cut off.

"So you and Seeley are partners?" Melanie asked.

"Yes we are." She replied, a smile coming to her face.

"It must be exciting working with the FBI." Melanie said.

"Yes it is." She said. "All aspects of my job are exciting." She tried not to sound defensive.

"Right." Melanie said. "I can imagine that it must be difficult explaining that to people."

She relaxed immediately. "Yes it is. Some people think what I do is bizarre." Maybe Melanie would be different from the others.

"Explaining to adults is one thing, but to children it must be extremely difficult." Melanie said. "But I guess you two will figure out what to say."

"I'm sorry, what?" she said, completely confused.

"Well, when you and Seeley have children." Melanie said. "I mean obviously not now, because you're not married yet, but in the future…"

"I don't want children." She said bluntly.

"Really?" Melanie said. "How come? I have two and they are the most precious things in the world."

She felt her heart pound. "I just don't want them."

"Want what?" Stella said, coming over to them.

"Children." Melanie replied. "Tempe was explaining that she didn't want children."

"You don't want children?" Stella said questioningly.

"I'm fine with Parker." She stumbled out.

"Oh." Stella said. "I didn't realize. After Parker was born, Seeley was so gung ho about having more children but I guess things change."

"Yes." She replied shakily. She was trying to think about the best way to change the topic. 'Think.' She berated herself. 'You have a doctorate and you can't think of anything to say?'

"Oh don't worry." Melanie piped up. "You will change your mind."

"Umm…right." She said, awkwardly. "I should go find Seeley. Have you seen him?"

"No I haven't." Stella said.

"Okay, well excuse me." She turned and walked away from the two women, who were staring after her. She walked by several people until she reached the front door. She dug for her shoes in the big pile by the door, grabbed her coat and headed out to the porch.

She took a deep breath and let out a shaky sigh. 'He wants more children.' She thought to herself. The thought kept running through her head. She sat down on one of the benches and sighed again.

This afternoon had definitely been frustrating. She knew that people wouldn't understand what she did for a living. She knew she shouldn't get riled up at the looks of disgust on their faces. She had seen it so many times before. But this time was different, it was Booth's family and she wanted to fit in. She also had to contend with several of his aunts and cousins trying to get spoilers for her next book out of her. 'But at least that meant they liked me.' She thought. She heard the door creak open and turned to look. A woman stepped out of the door and walked towards her.

"Hi, I'm Kate." The woman said. "I'm Seeley's second cousin."

"Hi, I'm Tempe." She replied. "I'm Seeley's partner. And girlfriend." She added as an afterthought.

"Listen Tempe, don't worry I don't want children either." Kate said smiling.

"You heard that?" she said.

"Oh yeah." Kate replied. "I have been getting the same line from my mother for a long time. It's hard for people to understand."

"Tell me about it." She muttered.

"Why is so difficult for people to believe that a woman doesn't want children?" Kate said.

"Well, anthropologically speaking, procreation is one of the defining factors of our species." She replied. "Since the woman has the child bearing capabilities, people look negatively towards those who do not want to participate on instinct."

"That's cool." Kate said.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble." She said. "Booth says I have a habit of doing that."

"That's okay." Kate replied. "You're the forensic anthropologist right? And author? I have read your books. Very good by the way."

"Thanks." She replied. "And yes, I am a forensic anthropologist."

"So what do you do exactly?" Kate asked.

She held in a sigh. "I identify human remains by looking at their skeleton and determining factors such as age, race, height and how they died."

"That's really neat." Kate said. "And you work with Seeley to help solve crimes?"

"Yes, we are partners." She replied, relaxing a bit. Kate didn't seem disturbed by her job. "What do you do?"

"I work in a non-profit as a fundraiser." Kate replied. "Not a real job, according to my father. You can see I am the black sheep in my family."

"Black sheep?" she asked confusingly. "I don't know what that means."

Kate laughed. "It means that I am the one that my family thinks went down the wrong path."

The door squeaked open again and Booth stepped out.

"Escaping the party are we ladies?" he said with a grin on his face.

"Hey you are not allowed out here unless you brought hard liquor." Kate said, laughing. "And you seem to have escaped yourself."

He sat on the steps of the porch. "Yeah well, you know the family." He ran his fingers through his hair.

"That I do." Kate replied.

"How are you holding up?" he said to her. "Is my family being nice to you? I mean other then all the dead body questions."

"Yeah." She said, saying a little white lie. "They are being nice." It was partially true, some of them were being nice.

"Good." He replied. "I'm glad. Listen you two, I think it is close to dinner time so we should head in. I have got to go tear Parker away from the tv."

"He hasn't been watching tv this whole time?" she asked getting up off of the bench.

"Umm.. possibly." He replied. "Don't worry, I will let you give him a nice anthropology lecture later to diminish the effects of the tv."

"Hey!" she said, crossing over to him and punching him in the arm.

"Let's go inside and get some food, shall we?" he said. Kate got up and headed inside. She was about to follow when he pulled her back.

"I thought we were going inside." She said.

"Yeah." He replied. "Forgot something." He leaned down and kissed her gently. "Now we can go get dinner." He said grinning as he lead her inside.