In less than ten minutes, Booth pulled into the driveway of an old, two-story brick home. Tempe gave shouts of joy from the backseat as she struggled to get out of her car seat.

"You want to go in?" Booth inquired. Brennan silently nodded affirmatively back at him.

He opened the back seat door and let his daughter out, and then he proceeded to unlock the front door. Bren slowly made her way up the front staircase and stepped over the threshold.

The house was breathtaking. The front door led into a small vestibule that broke off into other parts of the house. A large family room on the left hand side was warm and inviting. Dozens of photos filled the walls: Tempe and Booth at the zoo, at the park, on vacation. It seemed like every moment of the little girl's life had been documented and framed.

"So, there's a guest bedroom upstairs, it's the first door on the left…I'll just put your stuff in there."

"Thank you." As he started to walk up the wooden staircase, a thought that had been gnawing at her, finally popped out. "Booth?"

"Yeah," he replied, swinging around to meet her question.

"You've lived here all this time?"

"Since she was about two…I wanted her to have a house…you know? A real home."

"No, I mean…you lived so close."

"Rebecca moved down here with Parker and a buddy of mine from Quantico runs the police department and he offered me a job, so, it just, kinda made sense."

From the top of the stairs, Tempe shouted down, "Where's Benji, daddy?"

"He's at Parker's house, remember? We'll go get the mangy mutt after church in the morning. It's getting late and you need to be getting to bed little lady."

"Ok," she said, a little disappointed, "Will you read to me though?"

"Do you promise to actually brush your teeth?" he inquired and, upon receiving a very convincing yes, responded, "Alright, go get in your pj's while I finish unloading the car and then I'll read you a story."

- - - - - -

Booth entered his daughter's room to see her already tucked into bed with her reading lamp on.

"Alright, what are we reading tonight?" She handed him a worn paperback as he said, "Are you sure you don't want to read a different one Temp? We've read this one about a million times."

"No we haven't! We read it exactly twenty two times. I made a list on the inside front cover. See?"

"Well, are you sure you don't want to read another one?"

"No daddy, this is my favorite. Please?" she asked, holding out the word extra long.

"Alright, alright. Here we go."

"Now don't forget, you have to read the title and the author and everything."

"I got it, ok. Matilda by Roald Dahl. Chapter one: The Reader of Books. It's a funny thing about mothers and their fathers…"

Booth got all the way to Chapter Five before he noticed Tempe had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He gently picked her head up and moved it from his shoulder to her pillow. He flipped over her light and leaned in to kiss her goodnight.

"I love you daddy," she mumbled.

"I love you too."

Me too, Brennan thought. She'd seated herself just outside the door for Booth's reading. I've missed so much.

- - - - -

As Booth left the room, he nearly crashed into Brennan. He held out his hand to help her up and gestured for him to follow him downstairs and into the kitchen. She silently followed.

"You want some tea?"

"Alright."

"Are you doing ok?...I mean, as ok as you can be?"

"I'm fine." Booth looked at her, questioning her unsteady answer. "Really, I promise."

"I know this is a lot, but we're going to figure it out."

"You have this way of making everything sound reasonable…I don't know what I'm doing here Booth."

"You're here to get away. You're here so I can help you. You're here to get better."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Well, you're color's coming back, I'd say that's a start…You know, Bones, anything you need, you just tell me, ok?"

"Keep calling me that."

"What? Bones?"

"Yeah, "she smiled softly. "I've really missed that."

"You got it. Bones."

"That's not going to fix everything. As much as I wish it could."

"I know that you and I aren't exactly as close as we once were, but you can still talk to me. You can still tell me anything."

"There's just so much…I don't know where to start…I don't know how to start."

"Well, we're going to take it one day at a time…you just go at whatever speed you need to."

"I want to tell you…I want to tell you so badly…everything that's happened, I wish I could just tell you, and it would fix everything and I wouldn't be the insane and unbalanced woman that I am, but it's just not that easy…I've been holding everything inside for so long, I don't know how to let it out."

"Why don't you start with just one thing? Something you haven't told anyone. Something…that hurts you. You'll feel better, when you start to let it out."

"You once told me that getting information out of live people is a lot different from getting information from a pile of bones. You have to offer up something of yourself first."

"Really? I said that?"

"Yes you did."

"Well, that seems fair…Do you want me to go first?" she nodded yes. "Well…what do you want to know? Something I haven't told anyone?"

"Anything, I've missed you Booth. I feel like, I don't know you anymore. And I just…I want to know…anything."

"Alright," he thought for a moment. "You know, I wasn't always going to name her Temperance….I had a whole list of names picked out. If it had been a boy, I would have named him Henry, after Pops. I was certain of that one, but I kept going back and forth on the girl name. I had a list, but I couldn't seem to pick one. I thought about Elizabeth, after my mom, or Amelia, just because I've always liked that name. I wanted her to have a good name. I mean, being stuck with a name like Seeley wasn't so great, so I really wanted to pick a good name. I finally decided on Amelia, but then…when I held her, and I looked into her eyes,…it just, didn't fit. None of the names I had picked out seemed right…Everybody always tells me that she looks like me, Angela said she was practically cut out of me, which, I guess, for the most part is true. Dark hair, brown eyes…but I don't always see it. From the moment I saw her, from the moment she smiled up at me…I knew…I knew right then, that she was a Temperance."

"Booth…" she mumbled, holding back the tears. "I'm so sorry." She paused a moment to wipe her eyes, and suddenly, Booth rushed over to embrace her, and she broke down. After several minutes she pulled away, and started to back away.

"I lied to you. That day…You asked me, if I was sure that I didn't want to see her, before…before you left. I told you that it was nessicary, and that you should just go…but it was a lie…That night, after you left, one of the nurses let me into the nursery, and…and I held her…I held her for…hours, it seemed like. She was so tiny and beautiful and perfect…From the moment I laid eyes on her, she had me…I didn't know it right away…but everything after that was going to be different…I wasn't going to be the same person."

"Aw, Bones. Why didn't you say something then?"

"I don't know…I was afraid. I knew she would be better off without me. I knew that she would have a better life with you."

He pulled her into a deep hug that seemed to never end. She could feel his heart beating inside chest, it was steady. Constant.

"I want to tell you something else."

Booth looked down at her, "Are you sure?"

She nodded.

"I never stopped loving you."

Booth's eyes widened, "Loving me? But I thought…"

"So did I. I didn't realize until it was too late…I love you so much, and it's killing me. I thought it was bad before you left, but after…after you took Tempe…I didn't really have a reason to live anymore. I thought work would be enough, but I sorely misjudged that…I don't know how I'm supposed to keep going…especially here. I don't know if I can do this…what if it doesn't work out? Me staying here? What if I have to leave? I don't know if I can go through that again…watching you walk away."

"I want to tell you something too…I'm never going to walk away. Ever."