(After 'The Secret in the Siege')

Thank you for reviewing my story. It's the only way I can tell if anyone is still interested in it.

I don't own Bones.

Ooooooooooooooo

It was a week before Booth was due to leave for vacation and Harris's world was being altered in unexpected ways. He'd had a meeting with the Deputy Director and the Director of the FBI and it looked like he might be promoted to the Indianapolis Office as Special Agent in Charge. He'd talked it over with his wife and she had told him to take the job if it was offered. She would support him even if it disrupted her career. She knew she was a good lawyer and she could find a firm to hire her in Indianapolis and if not, she would open an office and work on her own. Grateful, Harris knew she was making a sacrifice for him, but he also knew she was a brilliant lawyer and she'd do well no matter where they were.

Stepping into Booth's office, Harris closed the door behind him. "I need to talk to you."

Even though he was busy, Booth thought he knew what Harris wanted to talk about and he knew that this conversation couldn't be delayed. "Yeah, you had your meeting with the Brass?"

"Yeah, and I've gone over to Sally's office and talked to her about it. She's willing to move with me if I get the promotion." Harris sat down on the chair in front of Booth's desk. "Look, you need to find a new lieutenant because if I get this promotion I'm going to be leaving the week you come back from vacation. Do you have any idea who you want to take over my office?"

"I've known about this for a week and I've thought about it. I think Lester will do." Booth saw the look of surprise on Harris' face and he shrugged his shoulders. "He's young, but he's a good investigator. He's willing to learn, the other agents in the bullpen like him and respect him plus I think he's going to be running the place 20 years from now. He's organized, he knows how to run an investigation by himself and with a partner. With my training, he'll be fine."

Amused, Harris chuckled. "It's your decision. I just thought you'd pick Charlie Burns."

"I did offer the job to him and he told me no." That had surprised him, but Charlie was up front about what he wanted from the FBI. "He likes what he does and he doesn't really want to move up into a supervisory position. He knows his limitations and he doesn't want to manage a bunch of prima donnas . . . that's what he calls the squints at the Lab. He doesn't hate them, in fact he likes most of them, but he doesn't like their . . . um, independence. Plus, he and Bones have clashed in the past. You know that. If he took the job, he'd be their liaison when I couldn't be and he really doesn't want to do it."

Charlie got along with almost everyone, but Harris knew that Dr. Brennan made Charlie feel stupid and he didn't appreciate it. He'd told Charlie not to take it personally, but Charlie had let his feelings be hurt by Dr. Brennan one too many times and he refused to work with her. "Well, I'm afraid Dr. Brennan and Charlie are like oil and water. I'm sure he'd be miserable if he had to be their liaison when you're not here."

Brennan had talked to Booth about Charlie and he knew that she didn't understand why Charlie wouldn't work with her. She didn't deliberately try to antagonize Charlie or any of the agents at the FBI, but she didn't tolerate mistakes and she would call the agents out if she felt her crime scenes were compromised. She had found Charlie less that satisfactory on a couple of occasions and had told him he needed to improve his performance. Charlie had let Booth know he refused to work with her and he'd accommodated the agent's request. "Yeah, I know. Charlie is happy where he is and Lester is ambitious. I know he'd like the opportunity to move out of the bull pen."

"Well, the only one else I see who might resent Lester being promoted might be Agent Hawthorne. He's been here two years longer than Lester." Harris didn't really like Hawthorne. The agent had been reported more than once for poor work performance. The agent liked shortcuts and that didn't really work when it was important to make sure everything was documented and verified in case something the agent had done was brought up in a trial.

"Yeah, well, Caroline dragged him into my office last week and read him the riot act in front of me. He screwed up some chain of evidence and now he's on the DOJ's shit list and mine too." Booth had been furious that Hawthorne had made his office look bad and he still hadn't forgiven the agent. "There is no way he's going to be my lieutenant. He has too much baggage . . . He'd better make some changes soon or he's going to find himself out on the sidewalk looking for a new job."

Harris had heard all about it the day Hawthorne had been called out by Caroline and he didn't need the reminder. "Alright, just thought I'd mention it."

"Bones refuses to work with Hawthorne and Cam has told me she won't work with him either. Clark thinks Hawthorne is an ass, so he won't work with him. Hawthorne has burned too many bridges at the Lab." Booth expected his agents to do their work with as few mistakes as possible and chain of evidence was too important for anyone to get wrong. "Fairburn is giving Hawthorne a chance to improve and so far, he seems to be taking this seriously, but I'm sure Fairburn would stop me from making him my lieutenant even if I wanted to do it."

"Okay, well I guess that settles that." Harris knew he'd have to handle things like this when he took over the Indianapolis office, but he was confident he'd be capable of handling whatever came his way. "Have you told Lester?"

Slowly shaking his head, Booth smiled. "No, I'm going to let you do it. You need the practice since you're going to be in charge of a field office pretty soon. If Hawthorne complains you handle that too."

"Got it." Harris stood up and looked around the office. "It's going to be strange not seeing your ugly face."

Rolling his eyes, Booth shook his head. "Don't you have work to do?"

Once Harris was out of the office, Booth leaned back in his chair and sighed. Harris was a good friend and he'd known him since his army days. He didn't have a lot of friends and he knew he was going to miss Harris, but the agent deserved a chance to move up in the FBI.

Ooooooooooooooooo

Booth entered the house carrying Christine. He had swung by Day Care and picked her up since Brennan was working late that evening. Once they were home, Booth changed clothes, fed his daughter, then prepared dinner. He planned to bake a lasagna for him and make a mushroom risotto for Brennan. He didn't mind vegetarian dishes, but when it was his turn to cook, he liked to cook a hearty meal that gave him enough leftovers to last for a few days. He was a meat eater and Brennan was never going to change that.

While he was putting his lasagna together, he heard a knock on the front door, ran his hands under some running water in the sink, wiped them on a hand towel and went to find out who his visitor was. Opening the door, he found his brother on the porch. "What's up?"

"Can I talk to you?" Jared looked over his shoulder and back at his brother. "I won't take up too much of your time."

Stepping back, Booth allowed Jared to walk past him then closed the door. "Come in the kitchen, I'm putting a lasagna together. You can stay for dinner if you want to. I'm making Nana's recipe."

"Thanks." He didn't visit Booth too often since they didn't really get along that well, but they were brothers and they had a special bond. Following Booth into the kitchen, he saw that his brother was in the middle of layering the lasagna. "Need some help?"

"Nah, I'm almost done. I need to start Bones' risotto after that, but we can talk." Washing his hands, he wiped them dry and returned to the counter to continue putting his lasagna together. "What do you want to talk about?"

Sitting down, Jared tried to relax. "Well . . . you know I do house inspections now. I like the job and I get to meet a lot of interesting people, but . . . um, well . . . I've come across a situation that looks like it might be a problem. Well, it is a problem, maybe a big problem."

His lasagna ready, Booth washed his hands, placed the pan in the oven and turned to face his brother. "What is it?" Jared sounded nervous and that worried Booth.

"Well, I was inspecting a house that's being sold. The potential buyers wanted to make sure there weren't any problems before they got the loan." Jared looked at his fingernails trying to remain calm. "I was down in the basement looking for termite and bee damage, water damage . . . stuff like that and I moved a set of shelves. Behind the shelves I found what looked like a secret door."

"A secret door?" Booth laughed.

Irritated, Jared shrugged his shoulders. "It's not funny. It looked like part of the wall but there were scratch marks on the floor that showed where the door swung out. There was putty around the door acting as a seal and the latch to open the door had been puttied over. I decided to check it out, because well, it just seemed like someone was trying to hide something. I used my pocketknife and worked the putty out of the cracks and around the latch. I got the door open and when I went in, I found a light switch near the door. I turned it on and um . . ." He shook his head, removed his phone from his jacket pocket, pulled up his photos and handed it to his brother. "This is what I found."

Moving through the pictures, Booth could see why his brother was upset. "Is anyone living in the house right now?"

"No, it's empty. That's why I waited to tell you about it tonight." Jared exhaled deeply. "I know I should have called the police, but I think you should handle this. The house is behind the French Embassy. There are some woods between the house and the embassy, but still, it's close enough that it might make them nervous if a bunch of cops showed up. As it is, you can tell the French to fuck off and get away with it." Taking out a notebook, he wrote down the address and handed it to Booth.

Taking the slip of paper, Booth looked at it then back at his brother. "Yeah, that's not how that works." Booth sat down next to Jared and handed the phone back to his brother. "Send me a copy of these photos right now. Once we're done, I'll start the ball rolling on this." After the pictures were transferred, Booth looked at them again. "Okay, thanks for letting me know. I have that lasagna in the oven. You can stick around and let it cook and eat some of it, or I can take it out of the oven and place it in the fridge. If you can stay though I'd appreciate it. I need someone to watch Christine until I get back. If you can't do it, I'll call Angela and see if she can watch Christine or I can check with Mrs. Moore and see if she can watch Christine. She lives across the street and she's pretty reliable. She can use the extra money."

His stomach rumbling, Jared smiled. "Let it bake and I'll stay and watch Christine. I'll call Padme and let her know what's going on, so she won't worry."

Grateful, Booth stood up. "Okay, I don't know how long I'll be. If it's real late, you can sleep in Parker's bedroom. It's closest to Christine's bedroom. I have to call Bones to let her and Cam know what's going on. We'll all be at the crime scene if you need any of us."

"Don't worry about it, Bro." Jared hadn't planned on staying the night, but he could if he had to. "Maybe I'll get Padme to come over and we'll watch Christine together. It depends upon if Padme is still grading papers . . . Just take care of this, Seeley. Make it right."

"Got it." Booth left the kitchen, called Brennan then Cam to give them address of the problem house. Once that was done, he called Morris Harris to get the ball rolling at the Hoover. Once that was done, he went into his bedroom and changed back into his suit. If he was confronted by French security, he needed to look like he was in charge. Jeans and a t-shirt weren't going to cut it. On the way out the front door, he called out to his brother. "Hey, don't eat all my lasagna."

He heard his brother laughing as he closed the door. "Terrific."

Ooooooooooooooooo

Let know what you think of my story. Thanks