A/N: I had to post this tonight in celebration of Bones getting picked up for a second season! If you'll excuse me, I have to go do the Dance of Joy (and continue to bounce off the walls).

Thank you for all the great reviews everyone! Enjoy: )

Chapter 7

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The Alibi

7 pm

Three hands of cards had come and gone, and still Booth was none the wiser as to where Sidney had gone. In addition, Sidney's absentee friend hadn't shown either. The only good thing, apparently, was that at least tonight Booth hadn't come away with empty pockets - he'd actually done pretty well, not that it lessened that nagging guilty feeling. Booth excused himself and put on his jacket as he walked out.

Booth had walked only a short distance when a man sprang out of the adjacent alley, grabbing Booth roughly and pulling him back.

"Hey!" Booth said angrily, pushing the man off him and stepping back.

"Look man," he said, as Booth recognized him as one of the bartenders from the Alibi, "you can't keep going in there; poking around like that. People know you're FBI, and when Marcus hears you've been in there asking about Sidney he's not gonna be happy."

"Yeah - thanks," Booth said, rearranging his coat where the man had wrinkled it. He stalked off, leaving the man to call after him.

"Watch yourself next time you come back here then, and don't say I didn't warn you!" The bartender gave up then, going back to his cigarette.

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Brennan pulled over in front of Booth's apartment, stepping out of the car and leaning against the door, gathering her nerve. After a moment, she sighed and walked up to the door, knocking loudly before she could talk herself out of it. When no one answered and she heard no movement within, she walked over to the window and peaked in. Where is he?

"Breaking and entering, Bones?"

She jumped and spun around, seeing Booth standing there, a tired smile on his face.

"God, don't do that!" she said, more happy to see him than the annoyance in her voice conveyed. "Where have you been anyway?" she asked, putting her hands in her pockets and trying to ignore the effects of her current adrenaline rush.

Booth looked away, but didn't answer immediately.

Brennan pursed her lips. "It's just, we already found all the evidence and we were looking for you." She paused, waiting for an answer, or any kind of reaction before continuing. "Basically, the case has been on hold, and I think we owe it to Serena to give this case our full attention. She deserves to find out what happened, instead of just waiting around for years and years for her parents to come back, to have any idea of what happened to them at all!"

Booth held out his hand as Brennan grew more and more upset. "Wait a minute - I have been working on this - "

"Then tell me where you were!" she yelled, growing impatient, and angry that she had once again started to lose control of her temper.

"The Alibi. Sidney disappeared the other day. He's the best link we have between the disappearance of Serena's parents as well as your own. He has friends there - I was just trying to get information."

Booth still looked guilty, and Brennan realized why he had been reluctant to tell her where he had been. "You were gambling," she said, anger gone from her tone.

Booth looked down at his fingers, where Brennan realized he was fiddling with the poker chip again.

"Are you okay?" she asked, somewhat awkwardly.

Booth looked up, surprised at the concern in her voice. He smiled reassuringly (though whether it was to reassure himself or her, he wasn't certain). "Yeah."

They stood in silence until Brennan remembered why she had come in the first place. "I...um, I wanted to - apologize, for what I said to you the other day at the lab. I was being irrational. I had no right to judge you - I mean anthropologically speaking -" by this point she had begun rambling, and didn't notice Booth's slight smile.

"Bones -" Of course, she didn't hear him, and continued.

" - it's only natural to assume that one's predetermined -"

"Temperance," Booth said more loudly, touching her arm, "you don't need to apologize. I understand, you were upset. You had good reason to be."

Brennan nodded. "I'm still sorry," she shrugged. They both smiled then, glad to at least be on good terms again. Brennan remembered Rebecca's visit. "Oh - Rebecca came by the lab earlier with Parker, looking for you. She said she was reconsidering moving him to New York and to tell you she needed to talk to you.

Booth looked startled, but happy. "Thanks. I should, um," he pointed over his shoulder at the apartment, presumably at the phone inside.

"Yeah, sure," she nodded, turning back toward her car.

"I'll see you tomorrow after I check in at headquarters and we can go over any new developments."

"Bye," Brennan called, getting into her car.

Booth had already turned, walking back to his apartment, looking much better than he had when she had first seen him.

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FBI Headquarters

8 am

Booth walked down the hallway to his office, dramatically more cheerful than he had been the day before. After talking to Brennan he had called Rebecca, and he had to admit it had gone much better than he had anticipated. Not only was she not moving Parker to New York, she had decided to let Parker stay with him. Apparently Rebecca's fiance had been transferred to a higher position in Manhattan, but they would need to travel a lot. While Booth disapproved at how easily Rebecca seemed to be able to just leave Parker behind and go off with her fiance, he was also extremely happy that the circumstances had played out this way. There was still about a week until they were scheduled to leave for New York, but with all the chaos of packing Rebecca had decided that Booth could pick up Parker that morning.

He had just reached his office and started opening the door when Cullen spoke from across the hall. "Booth - meet me in my office."

Booth sighed and closed the door, following Cullen. "Sir?" he said, sitting down.

Cullen took a file folder out of the top drawer and threw it on the desk in front of Booth.

"What's this?" Booth asked, taking the file and opening it.

Cullen folded his hands on top of the desk. "That - is your new case. I've closed the Pearsons' file - "

"What? Why?"

Cullen sighed. "I reviewed the case, and there's simply not enough evidence there. You could look forever; I don't think it's worth the time."

Booth couldn't accept that, or the fact that it was Cullen who was saying it; he'd never been known to give up easily. "No, there's more there, we can solve this. I have a lead!"

Cullen shook his head, his gaze directed at the mahogany wood of his desk. "I'm sorry Booth, the case is closed. That's final."

Booth remembered what Brennan had said about having to wait forever; never knowing. He decided he was going to solve this, whether or not he had the FBI's resources behind him. "No it's not," he said, standing up. "I'm going to keep investigating."

"I'll suspend you," Cullen said matter-of-factly.

Booth opened the door and looked back. "Go ahead," he challenged, and slammed the door behind him.

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Medico-Legal Lab

Jeffersonian

Brennan sat an autopsy table, half-heartedly examining the remains of an Incan mummy, while Angela sketched it's face. Zack stood nearby, reconstructing one femur which had been crushed during the excavation in which it was found. Hodgins had just taken some samples to look at bug activity.

The day had been a slow one and Brennan was far more interested in solving the disappearance of Serena's parents than in identifying the mummy (a rarity considering how often she liked to let an investigation interfere with her regular work). However, Booth hadn't shown up yet, and Brennan found herself wondering if he had gone to investigate without her again.

A few minutes later Dr. Goodman walked up, finding Brennan seemingly staring through the bone fragment she was holding, lost in thought. "Have we acquired x-ray vision Temperance? It could come in handy on your next case." An amused smile crossed his face.

"What?" Brennan looked up from the bone, startled out of her thoughts.

Angela smirked. "Oh, she's just waiting for Booth to show up. They had an 'evidence date'."

"Ange," Brennan said warningly, and then turned back to Dr. Goodman. "We were supposed to continue with the Pearson case, but Booth hasn't shown up yet. He said he was just going to stop at headquarters and then come here. He was supposed to be here awhile ago."

Dr. Goodman nodded. "You think he may be in danger from whoever is responsible for kidnapping the Pearsons?"

Brennan shrugged. Truthfully, she didn't know what to think - she was probably just overreacting anyway with the stress of the past few days catching up to her.

"I'll call Deputy Director Cullen and ask if he's come in today," he said, and walked back to his office.

"So," Angela began, putting down her sketchbook, "you apologized to Booth last night?"

Brennan smiled. "Yeah, we're good."

Angela's smile then turned mischievous. "That's good. So...when are you two having a non-corpse related date?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "Cause you know, if I had a hot FBI guy for a partner - talk about salty goodness - "

"Ange!" Brennan laughed, smacking her friend on the arm.

Dr. Goodman cleared his throat from behind them, causing them to stop and turn expectantly. "I've been informed that Agent Booth has been suspended."

"For what?" Brennan wondered what could possibly have happened to get Booth suspended.

"Apparently, the Deputy Director decided to close the Pearson case due to lack of evidence. He told Agent Booth to move on to a new case, but he refused, even after he was warned that continuing the investigation would result in suspension."

"Well, does he know where Booth is now?"

"No." Dr. Goodman shook his head as Brennan and Angela exchanged worried looks.

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Brennan sat in her office, reading a report about a car that had been found recently that matched the description of the Pearsons' car. Booth had sent it to her a couple of days ago, but as they had both been somewhat preoccupied she hadn't gotten around to looking at it.

There was a knock at the door and Brennan looked up, relieved when she saw that it was Booth. "Hi. So, uh- I guess you heard, huh?" he said, gesturing over his shoulder into the main lab, where the other squints had just finished interrogating him on the specifics of his suspension.

Brennan nodded as Booth sat down across from her. She didn't say anything else for a minute, and Booth wondered if she was somehow angry at him again.

"Why would you do that?" she asked.

"What, get myself suspended?" he said, smiling sheepishly. "Well, it was kind of a heat-of-the-moment type of thing, but..." he paused working out what to say. "Basically what it boils down to is the fact that Cullen was wrong to close the case. Even he knew that we could solve it with a little more time, and I intend to find the truth no matter what. What you said the other day? About having to wait - no one deserves that, and I'm not about to let it happen to Serena."

"Thank you." Brennan smiled softly, and Booth returned it.

Just then a small figure with a mass of curly golden hair ran into the room laughing. Brennan was startled, until she realized it was Parker. "Hi Bones!" he said, before running to Booth and jumping into his lap. "The squints are nice Daddy. The bug guy let me hold a beetle that EATS people!" Booth laughed, and Brennan rolled her eyes, smiling; knowing Hodgins would jump at the chance to turn Parker into a bug-lover.

A few seconds later Angela came running into the room, out of breath. "There you are," she said, looking at Parker. "I was going to show him the Angelator," she explained, turning to Booth.

"Yeah, sure," Booth said, taking Parker off his lap. "Go on, go with Angela. I have some work to do with Bones okay?"

"Okay." Parker ran up to Angela and took her hand as she led him to her office.

Brennan watched Booth smiling at them as they walked down the hallway and out of sight. "So, I take it you talked to Rebecca?"

"Yeah. Parker's gonna be staying with me."

"That's wonderful. For how long?" Brennan assumed he meant maybe a weekend at most.

"Pretty much permanantly. Rebecca's still moving to New York with her fiance, but since his shiny new promotion calls for a lot of traveling, she decided Parker could stay with me."

Brennan looked appalled. "How could she do that? As a mother it contradicts the natural instincts that society teaches us. To just walk away from a child, her child so easily, it's just - "

"Geez, Bones," Booth teased, "whose side are you on?"

Brennan laughed, embarrassed.

Booth noticed the file open on Brennan's desk and picked it up. "So, you wanna go check this out? The FBI forensics lab is holding the car right now, and Angela agreed to watch Parker for awhile..."

"Yeah, sure."

Brennan and Booth left, heading to Booth's SUV.

Brennan wondered if Parker was having fun with Angela and the others, and found herself imagining Booth's reaction if Parker were to become a squint. She smiled and Booth looked at her, eyebrows raised. "What?"

"Nothing," she laughed.

Questions? Comments? Ideas?