(a/n) I don't own Bones :(

Finally a proper update! Sorry it's taken me so long but hopefully it won't be as long between updates from now on as I've only got one more exam to go :D Thanks to everyone who's stayed with the story and welcome to all the new readers!

All mistakes are my own!

***Chapter Twenty Five***

Together, the three of them walked up to the automatic doors of the Jeffersonian. Brennan hesitated momentarily but Booth's squeeze of the hand he was holding gave her all the confidence she needed; it reminded her that he was there. That he would always be there. The doors opened and for the first time in 17 days, she felt like she was home again; she felt like things could actually be good again. Now she just had to face her co-workers. Her friends. Her second family.

She didn't have to wait long, just like always the sound of the doors opening attracted the attention of the person walking directly passed at the time; Dr. Jack Hodgins.

"Dr. B?" he asked startled. Hodgins recovered quickly; the shock passing and the questions buried – for now. "Long time, no see," he joked as he walked closer to her to ease any tension and automatically try to convince her that he would still treat her the same. Brennan just nodded, she couldn't understand why he was being nice to her, she had left them. But here she was being hugged by someone she considered part of her family, a friend. And apparently he still did too.

"Hi," she replied weakly, not knowing what else to say as the hug ended. She had been though a lot with the entomologist who stood in front of her but right now she had no idea of what to say to him. The floor tiles were suddenly more interesting to her as she looked down at the floor with no clue what to do next.

"And who's this little guy here then?" Hodgins asked, kneeling down in front of Zach who was the opposite to Brennan right now, a smile spread across his face at the sight of the place where his mum worked.

"I'm Zach," he beamed, lifting his hand to shake hands. Hodgins lifted his own hand and chuckled as they shook. He stood back up, ruffling the boys hair as he did, earning him a scowl from the five-year-old who immediately sorted his hair back to normal.

"You've got a cute kid, Dr. B." Brennan said nothing but lifted her head to smile at her friend.

"And polite," Booth added, reminding her that he was still there. He hadn't left her. Brennan squeezed on the hand that still connected her to Booth, thanking him with for being there.

"Most of the time," she laughed, easing the tension herself. It surprised her at how quickly things things seemed to be falling back it to place, how normal this seemed. But it could only last so long.

The familiar click of shoes along the tiled floor brought her back to reality, as she looked ahead to see another shocked face. The footsteps halted at the new people who had entered the lab but a few moments later were heard again as Cam took a few steps forward to where the four of them stood.

"Dr. Brennan," she spluttered, genuinely shocked, but happy, as the sight of her colleague. "How are you?" she asked.

"I'm good," she assured but not convincing anybody.

"How...? I mean...What the hell is happening?" Cam was confused, Dr. Brennan was standing in the lab once again with her son and had obviously come with Booth. But how had they met each other, Booth would've told them if he knew where she was, right?

"Uhm... We..."

Booth saw the uneasiness and the tension once again, not wanted Brennan to go through it once again, he spoke up; they needed to be getting started with their side of the plan anyway. "Bones and I have thought of a theory, we just need to look up some things first and we're hoping you can help," he summarised as briefly as he could. Brennan let out a sigh of relief as Booth explained but thankfully leaving out the part about the pub. The others were still safe.

"Okay... What do you need us to do?"

"We just need to run a few names and check a few people out, see whether they could be a murderer."

"So it's a job for Angela?" Hodgins concluded.

"Yes," Brennan sighed. The one person she was the most nervous about seeing was the person who would help them the most. It wasn't just that she had left, it was the fact that she had lied to her; for almost six years she had lied to her best friend about having a child. Brennan didn't know whether Angela would ever be able to forgive and that was what was hurting her the most.

"Better get a move on then, so that we can do this as quickly as possible," Hodgins said, motivating them to take those few feet towards Angela's office.

Angela had her back turned to the open door, as the five of them approached the office. Brennan hung back behind the others as Hodgins cleared his throat to get her attention. She automatically turned around and stood up from the couch, putting her sketch pad down on the table in front. A frown formed on her face as she took in the faces of the three people she could see in front of her; they all looked nervous and her head leaped to the worst; something had happened to Brennan.

"What?" she feared.

Hodgins took a small step to the right so that she had a clear visual of the person who stood behind them, her gaze focussed on the floor once again. Once her head had finally registered what she was actually seeing right in front of her, Angela gasped. All of a sudden, all the anger towards her best friend evaporated and she found herself striding in the direction of where Brennan stood.

"Bren," Angela sighed as she pulled her into a hug, shocking them all. It took a few moments for Brennan to react but as soon as she realised what was happening she happily hugged her back, neither of them able to resist their tears any longer.

Cam, Hodgins and Booth stood back, still in the doorway, and watched as the two friends reunited after the short time apart; none of them had expected for it to go this way. The silence that had fallen on them was broken as the two of them broke their hug and laughed as they wiped away the tears.

"Why?" Angela asked simply. The one question that was on everybody's mind was now out in the open and just waiting for an answer; whether they would get one or not was another question. They all looked at Brennan expectantly, waiting for her answer, knowing deep down that she would find a way to avoid the topic. Or not.

"I... I thought I could... It was just easier..." she began, unsure how to explain everything that had been going through her head when she had left them all, when she had gotten the phone call from her father asking her where she was all those days ago. Why hadn't she just stayed in Booth's arms that night, why did she leave? Right now, she wasn't sure what she had been thinking at all. "I thought it would be easier to leave and solve it with the others rather than tell you everything," she rushed, wanting the conversation to be over with as soon as possible. "I knew you'd be angry with the decisions I'd made," she added as an after thought. How could she tell the people she had considered a second family that she had a son, a son that she had hidden from them. "I just wanted you all to be safe," she murmured.

"Aww Bren!" Angela exclaimed at her friends confession, pulling her into a second hug. She had been trying to rationalise her thoughts, unsuccessfully, just like always. Brennan hugged her back but pulled away sooner than the previous time, emotions that she didn't understand properly were whizzing around her head threatening to spill the tears that were forming in her eyes. Why was everyone being nice to her? "We would've, and still would, help you with anything you need. You know that right?" she asked.

"I know now," she admitted. She took another deep breath, holding back the tears that Angela had managed to stop and wipe away. "I thought that you'd back off and move on with a different case when we started arriving at the crime scene... but you didn't," she stated.

"Bones, we were never gonna let you go through this on your own, you know that right?" Booth asked, stepping into the conversation and simultaneously stepping closer to Brennan, placing his hand on the familiar area of her lower back, which didn't go unnoticed by the others. Something had changed between them, something had happened which had brought them closer together than they had been before. "I.. We are never gonna leave you," he assured. Cam, Hodgins and Angela agreed around him and the tightening in her chest worsened.

"Thank you," she whispered, not knowing what else to say. It was all getting too much for her, right now, she just wanted to run to her office and lock herself inside, hidden away. Just like she had been doing for the past few days. But she had only just come back from her hiding place, she couldn't go back so soon, she wouldn't.

Booth immediately sensed her uneasiness and automatically steered the conversation to what they had originally came here for, they could carry this on later. "Ange, we need you to run a few names for us. Bones and I here had an idea."

"And what might that be?" Angela asked, easing the tension slightly as she walked towards the new Angelator and picked up the control. Everybody followed and formed a line in front of it, Booth stood beside Brennan with his hand still on her small of her back for silent support. They were all waiting for the first step; for Brennan, or Booth, to start speaking.

"We... think it might have something to do with the children... they weren't biologically Rachel and Andrew's, they were... adopted," Brennan began, feeling it be best that it come from her. It was what they deserved, at the very least.

"Just like me," Zach piped up from across the room where he was still standing.

"Yeah sweetheart, just like you," Brennan agreed, holding out her hand for him to hold. Two years ago, when he was three-years-old, they had agreed to tell him everything – that Brennan was his mother but Rachel and Andy were just looking after him. The other three people in the room watched the interaction between mother and son, amazed by how easy it seemed to be for her. This was not the Dr. Temperance Brennan they were used to. Of course Booth knew there was this side to her, he'd seen it in her before.

"But I got to see you, and Maddie got to see her mummy too. But nobody else got to," Zach added.

"You know who Maddie's mother was?" Cam asked, surprised that they hadn't thought of the connection sooner.

"Yes, Jennifer Waters. Booth..."

"Arrested her two weeks ago," Hodgins finished. Things about the case were starting to become clearer, simple links that they had never even thought of were being revealed.

"She was released the next day; she wasn't giving us anything useful," Booth continued. "We kept two FBI agents on her at all times to make sure we was safe... And also, just in case there was a possibility that she would lead us to you," he admitted. The thought of him doing anything to try and find her made her heart jump in her chest, metaphorically of course, but another part of her rationalised that he was only doing it for the case.

"She's okay though?" Brennan asked, worried for her friend. This murderer was going after the people that were involved in knowing the truth; that's why the case had somehow made its way to them, she knew the Kents.

"She's fine, she's carrying on just like normal I suppose."

"Even though her daughter just d..." Hodgins began, but stopped himself as he remembered the five-year-old in the room.

"It's okay," Brennan reassured, "he knows. We tried to explain them what was happening, so they wouldn't be so scared and try to find answer on their own... Without all of the details of course."

"Them?" asked Cam.

"Me, Jessie, James and Dill!" Zach answered before Brennan had a chance to.

"Pete's children," Brennan said, answering their silent question.

"We would watch TV and read and stuff while mummy, grandad Max and the others worked so that we didn't get in the way... Tommy said that it was safer for us," he said, looking towards the ground. As much as he loved being here with his mum, he hoped that they could hurry up so that they could get back to the safety of the pub where the others were. Here, he was scared. And Brennan could see it, her first idea had been to send him to her office to play while they worked so that he wouldn't overhear anything. But seeing him now, she didn't know if she'd be able to work without being able to see that he was safe. She bent down in front of him so that she was eye level with him.

"Hey, why don't you sit over there on the sofa and play with some of the things you brought with you, maybe you could read some more of that book! Then you could tell Grandad Max what happens," she advised, hoping that he would so that they could get some work done. He nodded eagerly, he had been reading the book for the past few days and every so often he would give Max an update about what was happening in the book.

"Yeah! I'll finish it and then he'd be really surprised!" he exclaimed, running towards the sofa where he'd left his bag. Brennan stood up but none of them spoke until Zach had pulled out his book and started finding the page he had last read to.

"Zach's real cute Bren, you should be proud," Angela noted.

"I am, everyday."

"Okay, so back to business," Booth began, bringing the topic back to what they were originally here for. "Apart from Maddie's mum, do you know anybody else's? Did Rachel or Andrew keep any documents anywhere that had the names of the parents on them?" he asked. Brennan shook her head. "You sure?"

"Yes Booth, I only know of Jennifer. I mean, there's some people I suspect to be parents but they didn't tell anyone, they kept all the information locked away somewhere. Presumably somewhere close by, in the house maybe, but I don't know for sure. They kept everything a secret," Brennan admitted.

"Who do you suspect?" asked Angela, bringing up all the documents they had on all seven children, including Zach's, as well as everything on Rachel and Andy.

"I can't say, there's a reason everything's kept a secret," she answered honestly. She had a inkling who Georgia's mother was but she didn't want to point fingers at anyone to be wrong, or to have the mother brought in when she didn't want to be. It wouldn't be her behind all this anyway.

"Okay, Bones, it's okay," Booth assured her. Now onto the next topic that they needed to look up. "You said earlier that there were two children that died while in the care of the Kents, do you think there'd be some sorta record of their deaths?"

"I suppose there would be something, I told you what I know. I wish I knew more, I do, but I don't know what..."

"Hey, hey, it's okay, just take a deep breath and think about things okay," he soothed, standing directly in front of her and putting his hands on either side of her shoulders to try and calm her down. Together, they took a deep breath.

"They don't tell me everything, but I've heard of three children that aren't there with them now; two died and one went back to his parents..." she began.

"Okay, so tell me about the child that went back to his parents, we'll check them all just to be sure. It's all right," he assured.

"His name was Tyler, they adopted him straight from birth but then two years later his parents, his mother I think, changed her mind and decided that she wanted him back. All the documents were reversed and in under two weeks he was given back to his parents," she explained. Angela, Cam and Hodgins had no idea what she meant by adoptions or documents but obviously Booth did, he knew what she was saying and hopefully they would explain it to them later or it would be simple enough for them to do their work without knowing all the details. "Last I heard, she was still in contact with Rachel and living in England with her parents... Hoflin... I think that was his surname, Hoflin."

"Good, that's good. Angela, would you run the name, Tyler Hoflin through the database and see if you get a hit."

"Sure thing," she agreed, beginning to type a set of variables into the control panel for her programme to search through. Hopefully she would get a hit soon enough. Booth nodded in thanks and turned back to Brennan, smiling at her before pulling her to his chest. He didn't care who saw them, all he saw was his Bones hurting and he couldn't stand that. He kissed the top of her head, just like he had been doing back at the pub and she smiled into his chest.

"We need to move, we don't have a lot of time," he heard Bones mumbled, her voice muffled by his chest. She lent back, his arms still around her and smiled up at him, they would have time for hugs later but right now they needed to work.

"Tyler Hoflin, lives with his parents Dianne and Thomas Hoflin in England like you said, neither of them have left in over a year or made any calls to the states either," Angela announced as the computer beeped to let them all know that the search had found all it could. "No large amounts of money have been transferred to any other accounts either."

"So we can rule them out," Booth confirmed, mentally crossing the name off in his head. One down, two more to go, that they knew of of course. He had had agents go through every inch of the Kents' house and they had found no documents to suggest that any of the kids had been adopted, there was nothing. He just hoped they weren't missing anyone. "Right, onto the next one."

"She's fine dad, you know he's gonna do anything to keep her safe," Freddie assured. After picking Pete up a few blocks away from the Hoover building, they had drove around for a while to make sure nobody was following them and then drove to the Jeffersonian. They parked away from the entrance but close enough so that they could see Brennan enter safely. They had waited only ten minutes before watching her walk towards the entrance, hand-in-hand with Booth and Zach.

Tommy knew that she would be safe with him, that she would be safe in the Jeffersonian but deep down he still saw her as the 15 year old girl who had come crying to his door telling him that her parents had gone missing.

"I know, I know, it's just..." he started, unable to voice what he was thinking.

"Dad we get it, she's family," Pete added from the back seats where he sat.

"But we're gonna get this guy, either us or the FBI are gonna find him and then he's gonna pay, one way or another," Tommy acknowledged.

A minute later, once he was sure they had gotten into the building together, he started the car and pulled out of the parking space, driving off in the direction of the pub. This guy had been a dead man the minute he had thought about harming her other family.

That's all for today! I'm already working on chap 26 and hopefully I can post it later this week :)

Thanks for reading!

~Beth :)