Ch 14

"Booth and Dr. Brennan didn't wrap up the Broadsky case. It's still open." Sweets said to Daisy and Daisy nodded walking up to the Psychologist whom Cheyenne had another appointment within a couple of weeks or so with.

Lacey watched Daisy from talk with Sweets purposely eavesdropping on the conversation. It was late probably eight thirty and Brennan and Booth were on some rooftop chasing some sniper guy down that had a problem with Booth.

"What went wrong Lancelot? Booth didn't get Broadsky?" Daisy said making a sad face. At that moment Cheyenne and Hodgins came around the corner wearing smiles.

"Hey Lace." Cheyenne smiled at her sister, but didn't receive a playful smile in return. She shrugged it off Lacey was just a serious person. She didn't mean anything by it. Cheyenne turned her attention to Sweets and Daisy as Hodgins said his hellos.

Sweets looked to Daisy as he spoke. "Booth only nicked Broadsky, he let him know he was serious, but Broadsky made a kill."

Daisy nodded understanding. "Lance, let's go I'm hungry." Daisy said half whining.

As they walked out of the automatic doors Hodgins looked to the girls. His wife could be heard coming toward them. "They're a real trip, but ya gotta love'em." Hodgins said and Angela walked up eying him suspiciously.

"Who is a trip?" Angela asked and Hodgins couldn't answer, his eyes were on the man behind Angela.

Cheyenne smiled. "No way." She whispered incredulously as she stared at Billy Gibbons, Angela's dad and the lead singer of the band ZZ Top. Lacey looked to her sister and saw the childish, elfin like, grin on her little sister's face. It was good to see it and made Lacey smile too.

Hodgins swallowed, Billy had dropped by the lab earlier today and put his two cents worth in as far as baby names went. Hodgins had stood his ground, sticking with Michael, but he also woke up with a tattoo of the name Billy written on him. He wondered why her father was still here.

"Oh, Dad this is Cheyenne and Lacey they are Tempe's third cousins. She is fostering Cheyenne and is going to adopt her hopefully soon." Angela said smiling and Billy smiled and introduced himself.

"It's so nice to meet you Mr. Gibbons." Cheyenne said trying to hide the excitement in her voice.

"Call me Billy." He said smiling at the girls and they chatted, eventually Angela forgot why she had come to see Hodgins in the first place.

"Will do." Cheyenne said telling him all about the guitar Angela had given her, Billy signed it for her and showed her a few tricks. Lacey smiled at her sister, she was in her element she had always enjoyed the 'famous stuff' Lacey never was into it. She never had the time to be into it.

Booth and Brennan walked into the Jeffersonian together and looked at each other as both recognized Cheyenne's voice accompanied by an accomplished a guitar echo throughout the Jeffersonian.

"Rumour spreadin' a-'round in that Texas town 'bout that shack outside La Grange and you know what I'm talkin' about. Just let me know if you wanna go to that home out on the range. They gotta lotta nice girls."

Yep, Angela's dad was here thought Booth as Cheyenne's strong voice echoed throughout the building and the guitarist took on a life of its own. They had walked through the doors as Cheyenne sang 'have mercy…'

"Have mercy! A haw, haw, haw, haw, a haw. A haw, haw, haw." Cheyenne was smiling at Billy and now glanced to Angela, Lacey and Hodgins.

"…Well, I hear it's fine if you got the time and the ten to get yourself in. A hmm, hmm. And I hear it's tight most ev'ry night, but now I might be mistaken. hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm." The guitar started again and Billy smiled at Cheyenne as she hmm, hmm, hmmed.

Brennan spoke up, "I think Angela's dad is here I believe he knows this song. He likes to play and sing it often."

Booth only smiled, "It's his song Bones. La Grange, it's a classic bar song."

"Oh." They turned the corridor walking toward Angela's office. Angela was watching Chey sing, as was Lacey even Hodgins. Booth couldn't help but smile at Brennan. She caught his eye for a moment, and hesitantly returned the smile.

Billy had caught the moment the two had shared and switched up the song. Playing a fitting tune, he glanced at Angela a second and she gave him an impish grin shaking her head back and forth as she heard the first couple of chords he played.

"I gotta find out what's in my mind, I'm a little mixed up but it feels so fine. Why does love have to come and go, If it's got to leave why does it go so slow?...Just tell it...Tell it like it is. Tell it..Tell it like it feels. Tell it to my baby..."

Brennan listened to the lyrics and they made her sad. When Booth heard the same ones he glanced at the doctor standing waiting for him to get back up. Waited for him to lift his self out of the darkness and dirt alone on the ground and let her climb back up on the see saw seat. So they could balance each other out, and lift each other toward the light, not the darkness.

"I have a feelin' that I'm goin' insane, I've fallen in love but can't remember her name. She prob'ly stepped out and she's coming back again, but if I don't know her how can I let her in?"

Cheyenne started to sing the chorus and Brennan glanced at Booth. Should she tell him how badly she missed him? How she cried the other night because of him, hell no! What was she thinking? He needed time and space, they could talk some other time about them, maybe, hopefully.

"Just tell it...Tell it like it is. Tell it..Tell it like it feels. Tell it to my baby."

Brennan continued to stare at Booth as Billy glanced to Angela and Ange yelled a couple words, not lyrics but shouting words that Cheyenne was about to skip over.

(Spoken: Fine! So fine!)

Brennan's eyes were torn from Booth settling on Cheyenne and Angela. Booth stared at the anthropologist as she watched Chey and Ange. He missed her, but how could he tell her? He couldn't. They would talk some other time about them and what they were or weren't, right?

"How could this ever have happened this way? Well, sometimes love turns out that way. Sometimes it's cold and sometimes it's hot, But it's better to have it than to need it and not!"

Cam had left about an hour ago, now Mika the night watchmen had a front row seat at his very own concert and he smiled hearing the voice downstairs. Angela, Billy, Hodgins, Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan and her cousins were the only people in the anthropology department left in the building.

Billy smiled and nodded at Cheyenne and Cheyenne returned it as he stood from the couch.

Billy turned to his daughter, "Angie, you take care of the little one in there." He smiled as he motioned to her almost seven month large pregnant stomach. Meanwhile Lacey's hand absentmindedly found its way to her abdomen, of five months and still she was the only one who knew.

One couldn't tell if she were pregnant. She really didn't have a big bump, although she had gained weight all over. It was like someone was inflating her whole body. Angela didn't gain the weight, but had the large baby bump.

She and Angela were carrying their kids so differently, low, high, curled up on the side. She didn't know where her baby lay only that it was in there. She wished she could look at it all the time like Hodgins and Angela did.

"And you…better take care of my Angie and my grandson." He winked at Hodgins but before he left he tapped Chey on the nose and winked at her and Lacey. "Take care of my Angel's best friend girls." Cheyenne smiled as did Lacey.

"We will." They answered in synchrony.

Billy placed his hand on Booth's shoulder and shook his head removing his hand and placing it on Temperance's shoulder he smiled. "Take care of those babies and remember this…" He pointed to her heart. "...oh and let down your hair sometime baby angel."

"Remember what? You never specified. And I do let my hair down." Brennan sighed.

He never answered her. Though, she never did get Angela's father and just looked at the man strangely as he silently walked out of Angela's office.

She looked to the man she did get for the most part or at least he got her. "Booth, what is it with men wanting women to let their hair down?" She didn't wait for a response it was a rhetorical question.

She exhaled, "At least he didn't ask me to shake it out." she said to Booth shrugging her shoulders. But Cheyenne had overheard her, smirking she glanced at Booth. Hodgins had overheard too and shot Booth a curious look. Booth was a little embarrassed, but not overly.

"Your dad is awesome Angela! Why did you change your last name?" Cheyenne said

"He is a pretty cool guy. Oh, and I didn't, I didn't know him until I was fifteen." Said Angela

"I thought you were sixteen?" Brennan wondered

"Nope, my mom brought me to a concert when I was fifteen and said 'Angie, that man with the beard on stage is your father.' She asked if I could see him and I nodded yes and then said 'Which one? All of my 'Uncles' have beards, dad's band members all look the same from a distance."

"So, your mom was a groupie?" Cheyenne asked

"Yep, and Mandarin Chinese I might add, maybe it was a fantasy thing…eww gross not going there. I don't care how old you are the image of your parents is just wrong."

All the heads in the room nodded in agreement, Hodgins and Booth pulled faces.

Not long after Hodgins and Angela left and Booth and the girls helped Brennan to turn off the lights in the large building. Cheyenne glanced at Lacey as Booth walked with the trio to the parking lot they were in.

"Booth, are you parked over here?" Brennan asked wondering why he was walking with them.

"Nope, just thought I would walk you guys to your car. I have to go through this lot anyway, the expedition is over there." Booth said pointing toward the government issued vehicle.

Brennan smiled slightly at the idea of Booth walking her and the girls to their car. He didn't need too and she didn't need him too. Though, she wanted him too and need and want are two very different emotions. A see-saw needed two people to work, no if ands or buts about it. Tempe unlocked the car and Cheyenne climbed into the front passenger seat as Lacey hopped in the back.

"Booth?" Brennan stalled a moment talking to him and saying goodbye before she got in the driver's seat and left.

He turned instantly looking into her eyes. Those damn dark enigmatic blue eyes that locked onto his orbs instantaneously.

"Hhmm?" he asked

She didn't know what to say. "Cheyenne has a good voice, I do too so maybe it's genetic." She smiled at him ever the slightest. "Tonight in Angela's office was fun. I know the girls had fun, Chey especially." Tempe said and Booth smiled back.

"She does Bones, and yeah it was, it was a lot of fun." He said a bit wistful but his tone was mostly full of happiness.

"See you tomorrow?" Brennan asked

Booth stepped toward her and embraced her in a hug she wasn't ready for, pulling her toward him. Once in his arms a place which, she had learned to escape too. Where she hadn't been for so long and now, it felt so good, so right. She didn't realize she was holding him as tightly as she was. Cheyenne hooked up her ipod to Tempe's running car.

"Drink to all that we have lost mistakes we have made, everything will change...but love remains the same…"

He breathed her shampoo in and held her as tight as he could. Bones, his Bones. They had wasted so much time, but he didn't want to rush the time either. Could he trust himself with her? He exhaled and pulled out of her embrace.

"So much more to say, so much to be done, don't you trick me out, we shall overcome 'Cause our love stays ablaze…"

Such a brief moment, it lingered not yet a moment, but not a non moment either. Temperance thought a bit frustrated as she looked back into her partner's eyes.

"Booth?" she exhaled his name.

"What Bones?"

"But we should have had the sun, could've been inside, instead we're over here…"

"I said I wouldn't let you forget." She looked up at the night's sky littered with stars and reached for the empty seat high in the air. "What did you wish for?"

"It's not time yet Bones." He smiled into Brennan's dark blues and Cheyenne watched out the passenger's seat window as he took her hand in his. "I won't forget Bones."

She raised an eyebrow, "Promise?"

She felt her fingers take hold of the empty seat, it was there. She wasn't sure she should pull. Should she tug on the seat? She wasn't strong enough to pull herself up or to lift him up out of the darkness he had plummeted into. Time, oh she never knew how impatient felt, until now.

"Half the time the world is ending, truth is I am done pretending, too much time, too long defending
you and I are done pretending..."

He chuckled, "I promise, scouts honor Bones, besides you wouldn't let me."

"I thought you were a Sergeant not a Scout." She said and he smiled wider wanting to squeeze her hand, but holding back, holding in.

"You're right, I am. It's just a saying silly." Booth said and Brennan smile back into his eyes again.

"See you tomorrow Booth." Brennan said and Booth let go of her hand.

"See ya tomorrow Bones." He said.

Cheyenne and Lacey were both watching the anthropologist and agent out of the windows now. The car was quiet as Booth hesitantly walked away toward the expedition. Both girls pretended they hadn't been watching as Tempe opened the driver door and got inside. Cheyenne glanced in the rearview at Lacey and couldn't help but smile. Lacey surprised her with a wink back and then she yawned.

The trio drove in silence for a while finally the three fell through Tempe's apartment door, exhausted from the day. It was ten at night and they had to be at the lab bright and early tomorrow too. Tempe went to bed with some leftover Thai from the other night, Chey made frogs in a hole and Lacey had two Peanut butter and honey sandwiches along with a bowl of Leapin Lemur's, a gluten free cereal that tasted like Reeses peanut butter coco puffs.

Lacey was fast asleep having already put her plate and bowl in the washer. She awoke in the middle of the night and grabbed the glass of water off of her night stand in the large office turned guestroom. She lifted her shirt up and set the glass on her stomach, she smiled as the water in the glass rippled ever the slightest as the five month old baby inside her moved around.

Cheyenne was in between dreamland and sleep where one is almost drifting asleep. Her eyelids fluttered back and forth twitching as she started to fall into a deeper sleep. She rolled over and scrunched the comforter up next to her as she slept. Her dreams were active, whatever they were about. Although, Angela had made one of her dreams come true today and she smiled in her deep sleep as she dreamt of singing with Billy again.

Temperance lay flat on her back staring at the ceiling for some time now. Time, it was inevitable, it would find her wherever she was. She still didn't – couldn't let the moment from earlier tonight go. She had wanted to stay with Booth or even have him stay with her. So, she held him tight and said her sad goodbyes. Though, at that particular moment he felt so perfect in her arms.

"Drink to all that we have lost, mistakes we have made, everything will change, everything will change…I, oh I, I wish this could last forever…I, oh I, as if we could last forever."

Booth missed her and it was apparent to him and anyone else. Stepping out of a much needed shower that pulled him from his silent reverie he crawled under the comforter. Though, it didn't comfort him much, he took a pillow and held it in his arms as if he were a child again. Or maybe a man that just missed his love, his best friend and needed something else to hold onto besides the pain that visited him most often right before he drifted off.

Lacey and Cam were walking onto the platform. Cam had an announcement, "The biological entity is loose and airborne. We need to stop it." At that moment the lights in the Jeffersonian went out. Cam looked to Lacey and Lacey shrugged as Cam sighed.

"We also have a blackout and are in the middle of a blizzard. This is wonderful, just wonderful." Said Cam

Brennan and Booth sat in Booth's elevator with Booth's precious stadium chairs. Sweets looked down at both of them and decided to seize the moment.

"Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan?" Sweets asked as two heads looked up toward him.

"What Sweets?" Booth said

"Yes?" Brennan asked

"How is your relationship? I…I know that in the past you have expressed feelings toward one another and with your recent breakup with Hannah, Booth." Sweets said as Booth slung a bag of peas at him. Sweets got the hint and got up to leave as Booth yelled at him.

"Don't talk about Hannah! Just…just….don't mention her name." Booth said and Brennan flinched when peas collided everywhere. The tone of Booth's voice mixed with the actual words that fell from his mouth, had metaphorically, struck her.

"Corrupted by the simple sniff of riches blown, I know you have felt much more love than you've shown,
And I'm on my knees and the water creeps to my chest…"

Brennan flashed back to the night when they had their disagreement, when he had shot her down. Though, did she really expect him to confess all to her that night and accept her with open arms when he was with another? No, that would have been irrational and idiotic to think such a thing. Though, Cheyenne had said 'screw rational' and Lacey said that she 'hoped that there was such a thing as wishes.'

"But plant your hope with good seeds, don't cover yourself with thistle and weeds, rain down, rain down on me, look over your hills and be still, the sky above us shoots to kill, rain down, rain down on me…"

Brennan was quiet for a while before carefully picking the right words. One carefully chooses how they spend their time, for each moment is not to be wasted, a moment could be ephemeral or everlasting. It's what you make of it. Brennan heard Lacey's voice so loud that her own thoughts became mere whispers. Booth was sitting next to her and she felt surrounded although that was a foolish thought.

He looked into eyes that were as big as a doe's, only blue. She stared back sad, fragile, and scared. They were both so very scared of what ifs. Bones, oh Bones. He wanted to tell her to keep massaging as long as she liked. When she had started massaging his thigh, he thought he must have been trapped in the elevator with an angel.

"Booth?" she said his name dragging out the 'th' just like always. He never admitted it, but he liked the way she let his name linger on her lips just a little longer than anyone else he knew.

Those eyes, damn those eyes were piercing through him, boring into his. "Hhmm?"

"Should we talk about…about us?" she stammered the words out.

He sighed hanging his head a second, "Yeah I think we should." He said and she nodded.

"But I will hold on, I will hold on hope…"

Cheyenne was walking out of the restroom humming the tune to La Grange which had been stuck in her head since yesterday. Angela seemed worried for some reason and Hodgins was carrying watermelons to be smashed for an experiment of his.

Vincent walked toward Cam's office and stopped in his tracks. Lacey was wandering the corridor as if she were drunk, he called her name and received no reply and then watched as she collapsed hitting her head hard on the tile floor of the Jeffersonian. A sticky red substance was quickly pooling between her legs.

"Oh God. Dr. Saroyan! Angela! Someone please help! I need help!" Vincent yelled as he bent down next to Lacey. The blood, there was so much blood.

When he didn't get a quick enough reply he reached down and picked Lacey up into his arms. Her head rolled around and she mumbled something incoherent. He headed toward the platform where he hoped to find everyone. Someone needed to call Dr. Brennan immediately because he was taking Lacey to the hospital. How did no one know she was pregnant and why didn't she say anything? He rushed to the platform yelling for Dr. Saroyan.

songs- La Grange, Tell It by ZZ Top, Love Remains The Same by Gavin Rossdale, Thistles and Weeds by Mumford and Sons

So, shoutout to Sergeant Moore-Semper Fi...even if Mila Kunis did have a conflicting schedule with the Greenville ball you still got a date. So kudos to you and on another note...new orders are to San Diego and then Okinawa, Japan...Okinawa is beautiful so should be fun ") Anyone want a seven year old expedition before I leave the states haha...Oh I swear it gets great gas miliage...

Thanks again so much for the reviews! I really do try to respond to all of them and take all suggestions into consideration...hope you like it and sorry for the cliffy. How do you guys like "Billy?" Oh no is Lacey okay? How will Bren find out in the blizzard? Reactions...