Truth

Booth paces in the kitchen as he listens to his ex on the phone. He is facing away from her but Brennan can tell from the set of his shoulders that he is angry. She frowns, her protectiveness of her partner rising up at Rebecca could be saying. She had thought they had gotten past this years ago when Brennan had a talk with Rebecca about Parker and how the boy needed to spend more time with his father. As she waits for him to get off the phone, she starts to think of different reasons for the phone call and suitable reactions to them.

"Yeah, Rebecca," Booth snaps out. "I'll talk to him. Bye."

"Did Parker do something?" Brennan asks as soon as he hangs up the phone.

"He's been lying to Rebecca and us," Booth says angrily, walking past her towards the stairs.

In his room, Parker leans back in his desk chair with a smile, the phone pressed to his ear. He chuckles as he listens to Mia talk, his hand idly playing with a pencil. He looks over at the brisk knock on his door, raising his eyebrows as his dad enters with an angry expression. He knows he is in trouble and he has a pretty good idea why.

"Hey Mia I got go." He avoids his father's eyes as he straightens in the chair. "Okay. Bye."

"I just off the phone with your mother," Booth's tone is ominous as he walks closer to the teen. "She says that you haven't spent more than two nights in a row there in weeks. That apparently you've been here. The thing is, you weren't here then. So where were you Parker?"

"Dad, I can expl-"

"Where were you?" Booth says sternly, one hand on the desk as he leans down to try and see Parker's eyes.

"Greg's," Parker answers with a sigh, leaning back in the chair to look at his father.

"Greg that lives two blocks from Mia, that Greg?" Booth pushes off the desk to pace a little to ease his anger. "You know I like her but you can't lie to your parents to see some girl."

"She's not just 'some girl'!" Parker protests, rising his voice in anger. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Hey! Watch it!" Booth's tone is sharp and he has stopped his pacing. "You're grounded both here and at your mother's, where you will begoing to tomorrow night. Understand?"

"I hate it there!" the teen yells passionately, standing from his chair. "I have for years!"

"Why?" Booth asks with narrowed eyes, having caught the tone of truth in his son's outburst. "What's going on Parker?"

"It…it just doesn't-you know…feel the same as it does here," Parker grits out, walking to lean against the window and looking out with a troubled expression.

"What do you mean?" When he doesn't receive an answer Booth walks over to stand on the other side of the window, looking intently at Parker's face as he speaks in a much calmer voice. "Hey, talk to me Parks. Are you treated badly or something?"

"No. No, it's…" He sighs, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling as he tries to collect his thoughts. "Drew just…"

"Drew?" Booth feels his pulse race with anger at the thought that Rebecca's husband may have mistreated his son.

"He's not like M-Bones. When I'm around him I don't feel, I don't know, accepted?" Parker looks down at his sock-clad feet, struggling through his feelings of frustration, embarrassment and hurt. "He's not a jerk or anything like that. But when he looks at me it's like we're both very aware that I'm not his kid…like he just sort of puts up with me because he loves Mom. I love Mom but that isn't home and I can't stand being there for long.

"Look I know you think I stayed at Greg's cause its close to Mia but I swear that's not why." Parker finally looks directly into Booth's eyes, pleading to be believed. "She doesn't even know that I've been staying there; she would kill me if she did. I stay at Greg's cause he's one of my closest friends and because it's close to here, to home."

There's a long pause where Parker looks around his room with a downcast expression that Booth watches. Finally Booth nods, placing his hands in his pockets. "Okay. I'll talk to Rebecca about you staying here more."

"Really?" Booth feels a sting to his heart at the surprised hopefulness on his oldest son's face.

"I don't know what she'll say Parker," Booth cautions, though in the back of his mind he's hoping that Brennan still has the number for the lawyer they were going to use years before if Rebecca refused to fix a custody agreement. "And you still have to go tomorrow and you are damn well still grounded."

"Yeah," he sighs, looking guilty and ashamed.

"We need to know where you are, that you're safe. We love you. And next time talk you got to talk to me or Bones. We can't help if you don't talk to us, ok?"

"Yeah. Thanks Dad." Parker half smiles at his father relieved. He knows there is a chance that his mother will say no, but he placing his bet on his dad, especially if he takes Bones with him. As both he and Booth know, it's really hard to argue against Bones.