(The Con Man in the Meth Lab)

Thank you for your reviews. I really appreciate them.

I don't own Bones.

Oooooooooooooo

Sitting on the bench outside the Founding Fathers, Booth stared at the cars as they slowly drove by. His disgust and anger over this brother's refusal to quit drinking worried him. He'd always taken care of Jared and in the end his help didn't seem to matter. When they were young, he'd stepped between Jared and their father more than once to protect the younger boy from being harmed and as he got older he'd found old habits hard to break.

It was only when he'd entered the Army that he'd found himself too far away to help his brother out and Jared had had to take care of his own problems. While he'd been away, serving his country, his brother seemed to blossom. Jared had joined the Navy and risen through the ranks. He'd been so proud of his brother's accomplishments until he realized that, lately, the younger man seemed to be walking down a path he shouldn't. Drinking had been their father's downfall and now he saw that it probably would be his brother's too and there wasn't anything he could do to prevent it.

Jared was a man and he needed to take responsibility for his own actions. Booth had taken hits for his brother in the past and it hadn't stopped the next hit from coming. He'd lost the RICO case because of his brother and now it seemed like it still wasn't enough. Nothing ever seemed to be enough when it came to his brother.

Booth had had enough. He'd had enough of protecting someone who didn't think about the consequences of their actions. This time, Jared had done the unimaginable and it had caused him real pain. He'd talked to his partner and had told her that he was a loser. He was the loser. After all he'd done for his brother and to be betrayed like that was hard to forgive. Why his brother would betray him like that was something he didn't understand but there had to be consequences for his actions. He'd save his brother's career while jeopardizing his own. He would never do that again.

They'd both grown up in a house filled with pain caused by an alcoholic father but it seemed he was the only one who'd learned from it. He was always careful when it came to drinking. He tried to guard his temper although he knew that he failed more times than he meant too. He had a son and as Parker grew older, he was determined to never let the boy see that side of him.

Booth knew he was no saint and he'd made mistakes but he hoped he'd learned from them and he never hid from them. He'd gambled and that gambling had led him into trouble more than once. It was what held him back in the FBI and he hadn't really cared. It wasn't until he'd met Brennan that he realized that there were things worth changing for. Brennan had been the reason he'd given up gambling and she was the reason he'd finally got his act together. She may not have been aware of it but he was very much aware of it.

Leaving the Founding Fathers, Brennan saw Booth and walked over to where he was sitting. Carrying a slice of cake on a plate with two forks, she stopped beside him and asked, "You going to come back in for cake?"

His arms folded across his chest, Booth replied, "Bones, I just need some time, that's all."

Not wanting to bother him if he wished to be alone, Brennan asked, "Do you need time and space?"

Grateful that she cared enough to come and check on him, Booth smiled, "Just some time."

Sitting down next to him, Brennan placed the plate filled with cake on her knee so that her friend would have access to it.

Accepting the fork, Booth cut off a portion of the cake and before he placed it in his mouth, he spoke quietly, "My Dad drank." He hoped by telling her that, she would see that his past wasn't perfect and he'd had his own problems to deal with when he was growing up.

Suddenly, Brennan felt like a book had been proffered to her and in it she found some of the secrets about her partner that up until now she didn't know existed. My Dad drank. Seeing Booth's life from the outside, she realized that a lot of assumptions she'd made about him were probably false.

Swallowing his bite of cake, Booth twiddled his fork between his fingers, "When he drank he was dangerous. He was a violent man and filled with rage. He used to take that rage out on his family."

Listening, Brennan remained still. Not wishing to draw attention to herself, she silently wished that he would open up and tell her more. He knew so much about her, about her past and yet she didn't really know that much about his past. She knew about his being a sniper in the army and she knew about Rebecca but the rest of his past, his early history was a book she'd never had a chance to read.

Staring at the traffic once more, Booth confided in his partner and his friend, "He beat my mother so mercilessly that she finally ran away."

Uncertain, Brennan asked, "Didn't she take you with her, you and Jared?"

Shaking his head, Booth sighed, "No."

Appalled, Brennan sat beside her partner speechless.

Turning to look at his partner, Booth assured her, "It's alright, my grandfather took us in." Even though it was the truth, it was a truth filled with omissions. He wasn't ready to share any more information about his childhood and if Brennan believed that he'd been rescued from a house of horror early in his life then it didn't do any harm. He didn't want her to treat him as something broken and he knew that if she knew about the horrific beatings he'd suffered at the hands of his father, she might see him as something to pity and that wasn't something he could bear.

"I'm glad, Booth." Partially relieved, Brennan responded, "I'm glad you had family that could take care of you."

Taking his fork and slicing off another piece of cake, Booth smiled, "Yeah, I was very lucky."

Ooooooooooooooo

So what do you think of my story?

A/N: We know from "The Party in the Pants" that Brennan knew about Booth's mother abandoning him. We just don't know when he told her.