(Season 6)

This is a sequel to chapter 209.

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I don't own Bones.

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"I talked to my mother this morning, she's thinking about coming down to see me." Hannah watched Booth to see how he would react. "We can take her out to lunch."

Shrugging his shoulders, Booth looked up from his newspaper. "Sure, okay. If I'm not working on a case then I'll go with you."

"Alright, I'll let you know when she's coming." She remained quiet for a few moments debating with herself whether she wanted to bring up something that had been on her mind for a while. She was curious and she didn't see any harm in bringing up the topic again. "You know I mentioned that when Jared was here he told me that your parents are still alive . . . you said you didn't want to talk about them, but I was wondering if . . ."

His face expressionless, Booth stared at his girlfriend for a moment. She had stopped talking and was staring at him, expecting a response and he wasn't sure he wanted to give her one. Clearing his throat, he placed his paper down and leaned on it. "I haven't seen my mother since I was 8 years old. I haven't seen my father since I was 9 years old. As far as I know they're alive, but I don't care if they are or not. They have nothing to do with me and I don't have anything to do with them." He stopped talking and continued to stare at Hannah. His facial expression cold and distant.

"I see . . . When Jared told me that your father abused you and that's why your grandfather raised you, I . . ." She instantly got a reaction, but not one she expected.

Standing, Booth quietly stared at his lover for a few moments, exhaled deeply, turned on his heels and left the apartment. Standing in the hallway near the elevator, Booth wondered why Hannah thought it was appropriate to talk about his past when had told her that he didn't want to talk about it. If he had heard that her parents had abused her, he would have never dreamed to embarrass her by bringing it up and yet she thought nothing of embarrassing him.

Swiftly moving down the hallway, he reached the stairs and went down to the lobby. Out onto the sunny street, he looked both ways, decided it wasn't too chilly for a walk without a jacket and turned left walking away from his apartment building without a backward glance.

Staring down at Booth as he walked down the sidewalk, Hannah held the curtain back and knew from the way his hands were jammed in his pants pockets, his hunched over shoulders, that Booth was angry. "Well . . . I guess that was a mistake."

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Not sure why, he walked over to partner's apartment building and looked up. He could see her apartment but since it was daylight he had no idea if she was home since he couldn't tell if the lights were on. "Fuck it."

Entering the building, Booth waved at the security guard sitting behind the desk across the room. "Hey Richard, do you know if Dr. Brennan is home?"

After checking the cameras in the parking garage attached to the building, Richard looked up. "Her car is here Agent Booth. Want me to call her apartment and see if she answers?"

"Nah, I'll just go up." Moving over to the door leading to the stairwell, he opened it and looked back at the security guard. "Have a nice one."

"Yeah, you too." Richard made a note in his log that Agent Booth had entered the building, picked up his magazine and continued to read where he had left off.

Outside his partner's apartment, Booth leaned his head against the door and realized he might not have a right to visit her on her day off. They were partners, but he wasn't sure she considered him a friend anymore. What they were, he really wasn't sure anymore. He had always considered her a friend, but when she went to Maluku, she never called him or wrote to him. His few letters to her had gone unanswered and he thought she had given up on him. When they got back to the District, he had found out from her that she hadn't contacted anyone and though it should have made him feel better, it hadn't. Brennan had isolated herself from everyone she knew and he wondered if that was because of him. Had he done that to her? He wasn't sure. He wanted her in his life, but he didn't know what she wanted and that confused their situation.

After a few moments, he sighed, straightened up, knocked on the door and waited. Shortly, the door opened and Brennan smiled at him. "I wasn't expecting you, do we have a case?"

"No . . . um, no, I was just in the neighborhood and I thought you might like to go to the diner for a shake or something. We don't do that anymore and I thought . . ." He stopped talking, looked down at his shoes then shook his head. "I just wanted to talk to someone . . . it's okay if you're busy." Looking back up, he gave her a sad smile. "I'm sorry, I know it's your day off and you probably have things to do." Turning, he walked towards the elevator. "I'll see you Monday."

"Wait, Booth." Confused, Brennan stepped into the hallway. "I'm not busy at the moment. If you'd like to come in . . ." She pointed at the open doorway. "I was baking some cookies. If you'll come in and wait, I can give you some once they're finished baking and they're cool enough not to burn you . . . They're oatmeal with raisins."

He loved her cookies and he didn't want to turn them down. "Thanks, Bones. If I'm not in the way then thanks, I love your cookies." I love more than your cookies, but yeah, I can't tell you that. Entering the apartment, the scent of baking oatmeal cookies hit him and his mouth watered. "Um, thanks for um . . . letting me take up some of your time."

Brennan felt that Booth was acting oddly and started to worry that something might be wrong. "I'm just baking cookies, Booth. You're not interfering with that." Moving across the living room to the kitchen, Brennan entered the room, walked over to the oven and checked to make sure if her cookies weren't burning. The cookies were light brown, seemed firm and the edges were starting to look crispy. After she removed the tray, she placed it on top of the stove and placed the second sheet of raw cookie dough in the oven. That accomplished, she turned and looked at her partner. "You wanted to talk to me?"

Moving over to the kitchen table, Booth sat down and folded his hands on top of the table. "Yeah . . . We haven't really sat down and talked since we both got back from our trips . . . not really . . . not like we used to and I just want to make sure you're okay and to find out what you found in Maluku. Did you make a great discovery? Will I see it in 'Archaeology Now'?"

Surprised, Brennan sat down and faced her partner. "You read 'Archaeology Now'?"

"Well sure. I started subscribing after that mummy turned up . . . uh . . . Anok?" He saw her nod her head and he smiled. "The Egyptian government threw that party for you because it was a big deal figuring out that Anok didn't kill his brother three thousand years ago and well . . . it was a big deal to me too and I wanted to know more about your world so I subscribed to a magazine about archaeology." Shrugging his shoulders, Booth sighed. "I should know more than I do, but I do know more about that stuff than I used to."

Impressed, Brennan reached out and touched his hand. "Learning for learning's sake is a wonderful reason to do something, Booth. I approve and if you have any questions feel free to ask me."

"Thanks . . . Bones, I have a weird question that I'm going to ask you and I don't know how to ask it without sounding pitiful." Booth was uncomfortable, but there really wasn't anyone else he could ask. If he asked his grandfather or brother then he knew exactly how they would react and he didn't want to deal with the fallout at least not at the moment. He needed someone neutral or at least as neutral as they could be under these strange circumstances. "I count on you to be truthful because we're friends . . . we're friends right? That hasn't changed has it?" He had been wanting to ask her that question since they got back and he might as well get an answer to that question before he asked his other question.

"Yes, of course we are." Brennan had assumed that Booth knew that, but clearly he didn't. "My leaving for Maluku had nothing to do with our friendship, Booth. I went on that dig because I needed to think about what I wanted for the future and I needed the space from you and everyone at the Lab to do that. I didn't mean for everyone to think I was giving up my friendship towards them. I suppose I should have found a way to call everyone but the phone we had was supposed to be used for business or emergencies. Charging the phone was a problem. We had to run a generator and . . ."

Interrupting her, Booth held up his hand. "Yeah, I get it, I'm glad we're still friends . . . um, well, here's my question. How would you handle it, if someone you know knew something bad about you from your past? I didn't tell them. They found out from someone else. It's kind of embarrassing and well . . . you know me, I don't live in the past and I don't want to talk about it with the person who knows about it but they do."

Not sure what he was talking about, Brennan assumed that the someone Booth was talking about was probably Hannah. Clearly whatever it was that Hannah knew about was upsetting Booth and he didn't want to talk to her about it. "I can only guess what you are talking about from the little information you have given me, but my advice is to be honest with whomever it is you are talking about. He or she knows about something that embarrasses you and you don't want to talk about it, but we both know that the issue will not disappear. That person will become more curious because it will appear you are hiding something and that may lead to complications in your relationship . . . You know I don't like to lie and I hate to be lied to. I prefer honesty when dealing with people and I know you do too. The person you are talking about will appreciate that too."

"So it's a trust issue . . . I guess I knew that, I just . . ." Booth pointed at the stove. "Better check your cookies."

Moving over to the stove, Brennan removed the hot baking tray from the oven and placed it on the counter. "They're fine." After she removed a sealed container from the cabinet, she filled it with some of the cooled cookies from the first tray, walked back over to the table, sat down and pushed the container over to where Booth sat. "I hope you enjoy the cookies."

"Thanks, I will." His hands around the container, Booth sat quietly for a few moments and finally nodded his head. "I'm glad we're still friends, Bones. No matter what it looks like, I missed you when I was in Afghanistan. I missed solving cases with you and well, I'm glad we're partners again."

"Me too, Booth." Brennan felt like her friendship was solid with Booth. It was what she had wanted all along and if she now wanted more, she would have to accept the fact that that wouldn't happen since Booth had found someone else. Their friendship was very important to her and she could be friends with Hannah if that helped Booth. Still, she hoped Hannah would be careful with Booth. Her partner had killed over 50 men in his life, most in the Army and a few in the FBI. She knew he felt every death and Hannah would be making a mistake to treat those deaths as something to gossip about or worse to hold against Booth. "If Hannah knows something about your past and that makes you uncomfortable, then talk to her about it. Honesty is best, Booth. If she loves you then she will hear you out and not prejudge you."

A sad chuckle was his reply. He knew that Brennan meant well, but motives in people never was her strength. Still, she had given him her honest opinion and that had been what he wanted. This was about trust. He trusted Brennan and she knew most of his secrets, but he wasn't sure he trusted Hannah. He thought he loved Hannah, but he didn't know if he trusted her with the knowledge of his past, what he had done and what had been done to him. "I'll try to talk to her Bones and thanks for talking to me . . . and thanks for the cookies. I'll give you the container back when I empty it." Standing he leaned on the table. "Did you want to go get that milkshake?"

"No thank you." Brennan stood up and walked over to where her tray of cooled cookies were. "I have to finish this then I'm going grocery shopping and when I come back I need to do laundry. I'm glad you came over, Booth. I'm always glad to see you and to talk to you."

Slowly nodding his head, Booth picked up the container and smiled at his partner. "I'll see you Monday."

Once he was gone, Brennan sat down and stared at the table top. She wished she had considered all of the ramifications when she had chosen to go to Maluku. She had considered what that trip would mean for her, but not for Booth. It was a mistake that she would have to live with.

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