(Season 1 and after "The Change in the Game')

Thank you for reviewing my story. I appreciate it.

I don't own Bones.

Oooooooooooooooooo

Brennan's personal story had come out in bits and pieces over the months when Booth started working with her, but then Booth thought that was fair since she didn't really know that much about him. He hated talking about his past and his private life, so he hadn't expected to hear about his partner's past either.

The first inkling that his partner had been in Foster Care was when they had investigated the murder of a young boy named Charlie Sanders. When Brennan had talked to Charlies' foster brother, Shawn Cook in the interrogation room, she had talked about what it was like being in the system. Booth has listened to her describe to Shawn how his clothes were carried in a garbage bag when he moved from one foster home to the next and how he had been separated from his brother. It didn't take a genius to realize that Brennan was talking about herself. When Booth had talked to her about it, she had admitted that she had been in the system until her grandfather had rescued her. Since he had been saved by his grandfather from an abusive father, he knew that she must be grateful to her grandfather for saving her from being raised by the state of Illinois.

The next time he had heard about Brennan's stay in Foster Care came when they were under quarantine at the Lab because Hodgins had failed to follow safety protocols and they had all been exposed to Valley Fever. Booth had overheard Brennan talking to Angela about waking up Christmas morning when she was fifteen and found that her parents weren't home. They had gone shopping the day before and they never returned. By January 1st, she was in Foster Care because her brother couldn't handle the situation. Booth felt bad for his partner and knew that she probably hadn't fared well in such an environment. He thanked God that he had never experienced Foster Care and that his grandfather had taken him and his brother in to finish raising them.

Three months later after investigating the deaths of several people killed in a plane crash on a golf course, Brennan had given him a copy of her file on her missing parents. It wasn't much, but Booth had felt honored that she had asked him to look at it. She trusted him enough to look into her parents disappearance and he'd tried to do a little investigation, but the record didn't have much information. He did notice that the file mentioned that the Brennan family car had been found in New Jersey and impounded in a federal impound lot where it was still being stored. He tried to get permission to open the case, but his supervisor Mickey Santana said he had enough on his plate and since there wasn't any new information attached to the Brennan's disappearance, he wouldn't allow Booth to reopen the investigation. He tried to do a little work on it on his own time, but he didn't have any real clues to work with and had to stop, at least for the time being.

He did find it odd that there was no mention of Brennan's grandfather in the file. As far as the FBI was concerned, his partner's relatives consisted of her parents and her brother. Curious, he had pulled Brennan's personnel record and found that she had been in Foster Care from age 15 until she aged out at age 18. He wondered why Brennan had told him that she had been taken out of Foster Care by her grandfather, but he decided not to ask her. Their friendship was growing and the last thing he wanted to do was to make it look like he was accusing her of lying.

Three more months went by and Christine Brennan's remains were found in Limbo. Her remains had been discovered in Sunset Memory Cemetery in Salisbury, Pennsylvania in September of 1998. The coroner had sent the remains, some soil samples and a few artifacts found with the decomposed body to the Jeffersonian. Her remains were assigned a number and those remains were examined by Brennan when they came up in the rotation. After examining the remains and the artifacts, it was determined that Christine had died in 1993 which was a shock to Brennan. Her parents had disappeared in December of 1991. Her mother had died two years after she had disappeared from Brennan's life and that discovery had upset her.

Booth was allowed to open up the Brennan case and one clue led to another. Christine's murderer was suspected of being a pig farmer by the name of Vince McVicar. He claimed that Matt Brennan aka Max Keenan had killed his wife when she and Vince decided to run away together. That story didn't make sense to Booth and he assured his partner that McVicar was a liar. After further investigation, McVicar was arrested for the murder of Christine Brennan and Booth thought that would be the end of that until Brennan's father called her and told her to quit looking for him.

Both Brennan and her brother, Russ were shocked. Their father wasn't dead after all and he was ordering them to quit looking for him. Brennan felt betrayed. Not only had her mother died two years after she had fled Chicago, but her father was alive and well and he wanted his children to leave him alone.

Ooooooooooooooo

A few months went by and Matt Brennan aka Max Keenan made an appearance and altered both his daughter and his son's life. In the few short days he was in the District, he killed two men, the first one a former FBI agent by the name of Garret Delaney. Max assumed the identity of a Catholic priest so he could communicate with his children. He was in town trying to keep some rogue FBI agents from killing his children to get at him. Ultimately, the bad agents lost and Max won. He provided some material evidence that would prove that Marvin Beckett was innocent of the murder of Special Agent Augustus Harper and that Garret Delaney had been the actual murderer. The notebook and tapes that belonged to Gus Harper had also listed the dirty FBI Agents that were involved in bank robberies in Ohio in 1978. They had taken money from bank robbers and looked away from their crimes. Deputy Director Robert Kirby had been the leader of this group of rogue Agents and when he tried to kill Russ Brennan, Max hadn't taken that well and killed the man.

Unbelievably, Brennan's father had revealed himself just before he had fled with her brother. Abandoned for a second time in her life by her father and brother, she was heart broken and it had taken days for her to accept that her family didn't want her and that she wasn't meant to have a family.

Upset for his partner, Booth was determined to track Max down, but the con man was good at covering his tracks and no one knew what alternate identity he was using and where he was living. Booth had tried to use Max's connection to Father Toby Coulter, but he since Coulter was a childhood friend there was nothing to connect him to the grown-up Max Keenan. The fact that the Father was in the late stages of dementia meant that Booth couldn't interrogate him and his leads dried up quickly. Booth wasn't the only one looking for Max Keenan and his son Russ, but no one else was successful tracking them down either. Booth found it a ridiculous situation. The full might of the FBI was searching for one man and his son and they were evading them all.

Ooooooooooooooooooo

Much to everyone's surprised Max Kennan eventually gave himself up and went on trial for the murder of Robert Kirby. Due to the machinations of Temperance Brennan and Max's lawyer, David Barron, Max was found not guilty during his trial and he was a free man.

Determined to become part of Brennan's life, Max decided to stay in the area and to have as much contact with his daughter that she would allow. Over time, Brennan relented and allowed her father into her life. She kept him at arms-length as much as possible but she tried to forgive him for being the terrible father that he had been. As time progressed, Brennan became more comfortable around her father, but she didn't trust him. She always felt that if something dire happened, Max would run and leave her behind again. Brennan wasn't sure what her future would be with her father, but for the time being, he was around and that was enough.

"Bones . . . um, I'm curious about something." Booth and Brennan had been in a relationship for four months and they were still learning new things about each other. "When we first started working with each other, you told me that your grandfather rescued you from Foster Care, but I know that you aged out of the system. Why'd you tell me that?"

A little embarrassed, Brennan placed her book down on her lap and turned to look at her partner. "I don't like to lie, but when I told you that, I didn't really know you. You were a stranger to me and your motives weren't clear as to why you wanted to know about my stay in Foster Care. I told you that my grandfather rescued me, so that you wouldn't ask me any questions about that time in my life."

"Oh, I see." And Booth did understand. He knew that his partner was all about trust and at the time, she didn't know she could trust him. "I found out later that you didn't have a grandfather in your life when you gave me your parents file to look into their disappearance."

She hadn't thought of that at the time and realized that Booth had known for several years that she had lied to him. "You didn't say anything."

"I didn't want to upset you." Booth smiled and tried to assure her. "It was okay to lie to me, Bones. You didn't know me at the time and you didn't know what I'd do with that information. You had to protect yourself. I know that."

"Foster Care was a terrible experience for me." Brennan was thankful that she had only been in the system for three years. "You know that I almost died when I was locked into the trunk of a car because I broke a dish . . . When I was placed in a group home, I found out that being ignored was better than being abused . . . I'm glad that Hank was able to take you and Jared into his home. At least you lived with someone that loved you and cared for you and you didn't have to go into Foster Care."

Booth was thankful everyday for his grandfather. "Yeah, I'm such a stubborn cuss, I'm not sure I would have made it out alive . . . Pops was the best thing that ever happened to me. He saved me from my father and I can never repay him for that . . . He's the reason that I'm alive today."

"Yes, I know." It made Brennan sad to think that Booth was so desperate as a child and that he had contemplated killing himself to escape his sadistic father. "I'm grateful for Hank's compassion and kindness . . . It would have been wonderful to have someone like him in my life as a child." She placed her hand on her stomach. "We must make sure our child is taken care of if he or she is ever orphaned."

"Yeah, I think that's a great idea." Booth frowned and thought about what they could do to save their child from a horrible fate. "We can set up someone we trust to be take care of our child if anything happens to us. Parker is okay. Rebecca's has some papers that will allow her brother to take him, if anything happens to her and me and Parker is still under 18. We just need to think about who we trust enough to take care of our child for us . . . not my brother and Pops is too old."

Brennan was in full agreement. "Definitely not Jared . . . we can make out a list of people that we deem trustworthy and weigh the pros and cons . . . We have time, but I'd like to get something set up before our baby is born."

Resting his hand on her stomach, Booth leaned over and spoke firmly. "Hey little baby, Mommy and Daddy love you and we're never going to let you fall through the cracks." Booth leaned over and kissed Brennan. "Hey, I'm glad we had this conversation. We have to do right by our little one."

Pleased with their plan, Brennan returned his kiss. "Yes, our child will never be in Foster Care if we can help it."

Oooooooooooooooooo

Let me know what you think of my story. Thank you.