(After 'The Steal in the Wheels')

A/N: JBCFlyers19 and karenb wanted a sequel to chapter 158.

I really don't own Bones.

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This period in her life wasn't something she had been prepared for. When she was fifteen years old her parents had disappeared from her life. Their car had been found on the east coast and the passenger seat had contained blood stains. When the weeks went by and her parents had not returned, when her brother had abandoned her to the state of Illinois, Brennan had come to the realization that her parents had died and she would never see them again.

She had lived in Foster Care homes after that. Sometimes ignored, sometimes abused and in one home she had almost died because the Little family had strict rules their foster children had to abide by. A broken dish had almost cost her life and once she had been rescued, she had been placed in a group home where she had been ignored most of the time until she aged out.

At the time, she believed that if her parents had truly been alive, they would have made it back to Illinois and they would have rescued her from her hellacious existence, but they didn't come and rescue her. She had been alone and she had taken care of herself.

Then fate had intervened and fifteen years after her parents had disappeared their fates had been revealed. Her mother had died two years after she had been attacked by Vince McVicar after they had fled from their home. They had spotted McVicar and he had spotted them. He followed them across the country and had tried to kill both Max and Christine. Christine had eventually died from the attack but Max had lived. The man she had thought had died when she was fifteen was alive and had been living another life without her in Coos Bay, Oregon. While she had been punished by foster families and new school mates for being different, her father had been on the west coast living his life.

That fact alone made it hard for Brennan to trust her father. A man that was supposed to have loved her had abandoned her and left to her own fate. Once he was back into her life, Max had worked hard to gain that trust back and Brennan had repelled his efforts for many years. Trust was a huge issue to Brennan. Once you broke her trust, it was hard for her to forgive, but eventually she had done that. She had forgiven him and grown comfortable with him in her life. She had included him in parties and dinners and allowed him to visit his grandchildren.

All was well between them and then the unthinkable happened again. He left her, but this time not willingly. He had been shot while protecting his grandchildren from men who were trying to kill them to get revenge against Booth. Max'd had heart surgery recently and a pacemaker implanted to help with a heart problem. The shooting had aggravated his condition and he died. He was gone and she would never see him again. There wouldn't be a miraculous return and once more she was an orphan.

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Booth had seen how hard Brennan had taken the death of her father. He had felt guilty because the reason Max had died was because a man who hated Booth with all the passion an obsessed man could feel felt that Booth should suffer before he died. He had arranged to have Christine and Hank Booth murdered, but Max Keenan had prevented that from happening and died from wounds he sustained protecting his grandchildren. He had been shot and he had died in the hospital talking to Brennan. It was a quiet death. One moment he was talking about a trip he had made with her when she was a child and the next minute he was gone. No one had been prepared for Max's death and Booth could see the struggle that Brennan was having accepting that her father was gone.

He could see that she needed hope and though she appeared to be better since the funeral, she was still quiet and sad. She needed to see that sometimes fate could be good. "Come on Bones. I want to take you on a little trip. We won't be gone for long, just a few days . . . Please come with me."

"I don't understand, Booth. What do you want me to see?" Brennan had almost lost her children and she still found it hard to send them off to school not knowing if she would see them again. To take a trip out of state and leave her children behind made her feel like she was abandoning them. "What is so important that I must leave my children behind?"

"Trust me, Bones . . . please?" He didn't know if he could explain what he wanted to do or what he hoped to accomplish, but he knew it was important that they make this trip at this time. "It's just for a few days and we'll be right back. Angela and Jack will watch over the kids and Aubrey says he'll stay at their house to help watch over the kids. "Trust me."

And of course she trusted him. How could she not trust someone that loved her and was willing to die for her. He deserved her trust and she would go with him. "For a few days, Booth."

"I promise, Bones. For just a few days."

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Confused, Brennan stood in the cemetery and tried to understand what was so special about this particular cemetery. "I don't understand Booth."

"Please be patient, Bones. It won't take long." Booth glanced at his watch and hoped that the man would appear at least near the time he had appeared the last time. After a while, with Brennan making impatient noises next to him, he started to think that his plan had been a foolish one. "Bones, I . . ." Before he could continue the stranger he was looking for appeared on the path. He walked past them, giving Booth an odd look. Hesitating the younger man shrugged his shoulders, walked over to the grave stones of John and Judy Little, removed his envelope from his jacket pocket and pulled a worn sheet of paper from it. Glancing back at Booth, certain he'd seen the man before, the man cleared his throat nervously and began to read.

"When my parents died, the State of Illinois sent me to stay with you. I didn't have anyone else to take me in, so they gave me to you. I don't know why you took children in. You didn't like children. You never held me, consoled me or said a kind word to me. I had to obey your rules. If I didn't you punished me. You beat me, you called me trash and you treated me like trash." He paused and cleared his throat. "Then one day you went too far. You treated a girl that you had taken in pretty badly for breaking a plate and you almost killed her. You couldn't hide what you did. That girl was brave. She told the police what you had done and why. I don't know how she found the courage, but she told them that you beat me and that you were unfit to take care of kids." He wiped a tear that had escaped his lashes. "They believed her. Probably because she almost died and you couldn't deny what you had done. I had been telling my social worker for years that you were mean and she wouldn't listen, but you went too far and that girl saved my life. She saved her life too. She didn't leave me behind. I was only eight and I can only remember calling her Tempe. I don't know who she was, but she's my hero. She'll always be my hero. I was given to people that loved me and they eventually adopted me. I will never forget how you treated me and Tempe and because of you, I know what evil is and because of Tempe I know what good is."

He folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope. Turning he looked at Booth and Brennan. His attention now on Brennan he suddenly broke into a smile. "Oh my God, Oh my God!" Striding over to where a stunned Brennan was standing, unable to stop himself, he moved his arms around her and hugged her. "Oh my God, Tempe. I never thought I'd see you again and here you are. I always hoped you were okay and here you are."

Stunned at the turn of events, Brennan allowed Dustin to hug her. She had heard his words and when he talked about her and the car, she knew that the man standing near the gravestones was Dustin Nixon. "Dustin . . . It is good to see you again." She placed her arms around him and returned his hug. "Those graves are the graves of John and Judy Little, our foster parents?"

"You didn't know?" Puzzled, Dustin released her and stared at his hero in wonder. "If you didn't know that this was where the Little's were buried then why are you here?"

"I'm Seeley Booth, Temperance's husband." Booth held out his hand and shook Dustin's hand. "We met a few years ago. I was here checking on the Littles and you came by, read your letter then left. I don't know why I didn't tell you about Temperance then, but I thought she might like to meet you now, so here we are."

Filled with questions, Brennan decided to keep them to herself until she was alone with Booth. "Have you been well, Dustin?"

"I'm doing pretty good." Dustin was proud of his accomplishments. He'd come a long way from being the scared, angry little boy he had been when he'd been rescued and given to people that loved him. "I own a little used bookstore. It's not making me rich, but I love it. I'm married and I have two daughters . . . they're rambunctious kids, but man are they smart and my wife and I have a hard time keeping up with them . . . Tempe, thank you. You saved my life and I've never forgot that. If you hadn't told the social workers what was going on . . . I mean, I know the Littles were in trouble for locking you in the car, but you didn't forget me. You told the police that the Littles were abusing me and they believed you. Because of you, I was given a second chance and I was given to people that actually wanted me and who loved me. They made me their son and it was all I could ask for . . . because of you. I named my first born daughter Margaret Temperance Nixon Butler. Margaret is my adopted mother's first name and Butler is my new last name. Margaret knows about how you saved me and . . ." He couldn't continue, Dustin started to cry.

Not sure what to say or do, Brennan reached out and placed her hand on Dustin's arm. "I'm glad that things worked out for you, Dustin. I really am."

Pulling a handkerchief from his pants pocket, Dustin mopped his damp face and smiled. "Thank you for coming to see me, Temperance. I always hoped that you were okay, but I didn't know your last name and no one would tell me what happened to you. My adopted parents tried to find you, but the state wouldn't give them any information about you. They wanted to adopt you too, but . . . well, they couldn't find you. I'm sorry."

A chill ran down Booth's back. If Dustin's parents had found Brennan would her life had been changed so much that he would have never met her? The thought was chilling. "You still come and read your letter." It was a statement not a question.

"Yeah, it's kind of a tradition now." Dustin wasn't embarrassed. "At first I did it to give me a kind of peace of mind. They're dead and they can't hurt me or anyone else anymore, so there's no need to be afraid of them. I read the letter to let them know that I did okay when I got away from them and there are good people in the world unlike them. It was my psychiatrist's idea. I was angry when I was a kid about the abuse, but I had parents that loved me. They understood why I was angry and they had me see a psychiatrist. Things got a lot better for me after that. This little ritual is just a reminder that no matter how bad things might look for me at the moment, no matter what I'm going through, I've seen worse and there are good people out there like you, Temperance and my adopted parents who made sure I was saved for a better life."

There was a message in his words that Brennan could use for herself, she was certain of that. "Don't be sorry that your adopted parents couldn't find me. I was placed in a group home after the Littles and the abuse stopped. I went on to University and graduated with a degree in forensic anthropology. I have used that degree to get where I am today. I have had an interesting life and I am happy. That is all I could ask for and more than I expected."

"I'm glad Temperance." Feeling bashful, Dustin glanced down at the toes of his shoes then back at Brennan. "Would you like to come and see my family? We could go out and eat, my treat."

"We have to leave in a few minutes, Dustin, but thank you for the offer." Brennan smiled. "Our children are staying with friends and we promised that this trip would be a quick one. I'm glad I met you again. I'm glad you have a better life."

"Because of you, Tempe." Dustin grabbed Brennan's hand and squeezed it gently. "What I said in my letter was true. You are my hero Tempe. You will always be my hero. Thank you for coming to see me. I'll let my parents know that you're okay. They'll be relieved to know that. They worried about what happened to you. We could have been brother and sister, Tempe."

Leaning forward, Brennan kissed the younger man on the cheek. "We're foster brother and sister, Dustin. You were my brother for a while and I will always remember what a sweet child you were to me. Thank you for rescuing me."

"Me, what did I do?" Dustin was confused.

"You told the next door neighbor what the Little's had done to me. They called the police. That was why I was rescued and that was why you were rescued. You were very brave, Dustin. I didn't save your life, you saved mine."

Stunned, Dustin stood staring at his foster sister for a few seconds then leaned over and hugged her. "I didn't know that was why the police came. The lady next door didn't like me and she was always telling me I was a liar. I didn't know she believed me."

"She believed you, Dustin. She called the police and after they rescued me, they called social services. They came out to check on what was going on and they took both of us away from the Littles and arrested them." Brennan had been told by the social worker what had happened and she had been in court when the Littles were convicted of child abuse. "They got what they deserved."

"Well, I guess the neighbor didn't think I was a liar after all." More than a little shocked, Dustin laughed. "Wow, she was a hero too. We were all heroes. What a kick in the head . . . Thank you for telling me and this doesn't change a thing. You're still my hero. You always will be."

Shaking Dustin's hand, Booth glanced at Brennan. "She's more of a hero than you know, Dustin. It was nice meeting you again."

Once they were on their way to their car, Brennan hooked her arm around Booth's arm. "How did you know about this? About Dustin and that he would be here?"

"When I asked you to take a chance on me outside the Hoover and you turned me down, I knew it was because you didn't trust me . . . You didn't believe in love and you didn't know if you could trust me not to leave you some day. Everyone else had, why would I be any different? I get that. I remembered you telling me about the car and the Littles and I wanted to confront them for what they did to you, but when I found out they were dead, I couldn't do that. I couldn't tell them that even though they had abused you, you turned out alright . . . I tracked down where they were buried and while I was here, Dustin showed up with his letter. I listened to him and I knew he was talking about you. Dustin's letter reminded me that you'd had a crappy childhood and that you needed and deserved friends. I wanted to be one of them no matter what was going on between us. Your friendship has been the best thing that ever happened to me. It changed my life and you deserve the credit for my happiness."

"Booth, I've told you before that I didn't turn you down because I didn't trust you. The fact is, I didn't trust me. I didn't know if I could give you what you wanted. I didn't know if I had your heart." They had spoken of this many times and Booth still insisted that he was the blame for her rejection. "Never mind . . . that's the past . . . You've changed my life too, Booth and you deserve the credit for my happiness too."

Reaching their car, Booth opened the passenger door and ushered his wife into the car. Once he was inside the driver's side, he turned, leaned over and kissed her. "I'm sorry that Max is gone, Bones, but he loved you and you have family and friends that are alive and well and we love you too. You're not alone and you never will be. You get that don't you?"

"I do, Booth. I know that my family will always be there for me. You will not walk away from me. You promised you wouldn't and you've kept that promise."

"I'll always keep that promise, Bones. Always."

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Let me know what you think of my story.