(After The Stargazer in the Puddle)

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She'd hesitated to go and visit her father and Booth was beginning to wonder if she ever would. "Bones it's been a month since Max was arrested. Aren't you going to go see him?"

With mixed feelings warring inside her, Brennan closed the file she had open on her lap top and turned to face her boyfriend. "I'm not sure I should see him. He's in prison awaiting trial for murder. What would it accomplish for me to actually go see him?"

Her answer had surprised him and Booth wasn't sure how he should answer her. Moving from the couch to the dining room table where Brennan was sitting, Booth used those seconds to think over his answer. After he sat next to her, he placed his hand over the top of her hand as it rested on the table. "Okay . . . Max did some terrible things in his life, we can't gloss over that fact. For sure he killed Deputy Director Kirby and he probably had McViker killed in prison, but Max is your father. He abandoned you when you were a kid and I think he feels remorse for that. He gave himself up so that he could have contact with you even though he knew he'd go on trial for murder if he was captured. This is a death penalty case, Bones and he's risking his life just to get back into your life."

The warmth of Booth's hand on top of her hand felt good. Carefully she turned her hand over to allow Booth to actually grasp her hand. Connected to him, Brennan felt calmer as she thought over the situation. "He may feel remorse for abandoning me, but it doesn't change anything. One moment I had a father and a mother and the next moment I didn't. They went Christmas shopping and I never saw my mother again . . . My mother and I had a fight the night before she disappeared, we fought over a boy. She thought I was changing myself to please Scott. I had started smoking because he was smoking. She told me I was too dreamy and emotional and that I needed to use my brain. I slapped her hand away when she touched me and I never saw her again. I loved her and her last memory of me was slapping her hand away."

Her sorrow filled voice made Booth realize that his girlfriend was still mourning the loss of her mother. Feeling sad for her, he pulled her hand up and kissed it. "Bones, I'm sure she took that all in stride. Teenagers can be a pain in the ass. You should hear about some of the crap I put Pops through. Your mother knew you loved her and she loved you. I bet she forgave you the second after that happened." Booth hated that Max and Christine hadn't found a way take Brennan with them, but the past was the past and they had to live in the present. "Go see Max. Talk to him. Ask him why he didn't take you with them. Find out what really happened to your mother. We think we know, but find out for sure. Ask him questions that you've always wanted answers to. Don't let this opportunity go by, you may not get another one."

"Would you go see him if he was your father?" Brennan knew that Booth hated his father, but for different reasons than she had. "If your father abandoned you would you talk to him?"

He knew he had to be careful with his answer. This situation had everything to do with Brennan and her lack of trust and he didn't want her to be sidetracked into his messy past. "You know my mother ran away and left me and Jared behind 23 years ago. I promise you, if she walked through that front door right now, I'd be very glad to see her. I only saw her once after she left us. She came to my high school graduation. I didn't get to talk to her because she left before the ceremony was over, but she left me a gift of some money and a graduation card with Pops. That hurt believe me, but I would speak to her Bones and I'd gladly do it."

Slowly nodding her head, Brennan looked into Booths' warm brown eyes and sighed. "Yes, alright, I'll go see him, but don't expect me to forgive him for what he did."

"I won't." Booth hoped she gave Max a chance, but that was up to her. Brennan had to find it in her to forgive her father. Since he hated his father's guts, he wouldn't blame her if she chose to see him once and then never again. "I'm in your corner, Bones. No matter what you do about your Dad, I'm with you."

Her love for Booth seemed to grow every day and it was because she knew she could count on him. "Thank you."

A slight smile on his face, Booth leaned over and kissed her. "You're welcome. I'm your family now and you're not alone. If you need me to do something you let me know. If you want me to go with you to see Max then I'll do it."

Brennan thought about it momentarily and then shook her head. "I think it would be better if I confront him alone, but thank you for the offer."

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Max was nervous, but he'd learned a long time ago how to control his emotions. His wife had always claimed he had the best poker face and he took great pride in that fact. When his daughter entered the visitor's room, Max remained seated at the table. He wasn't sure how they had rated a private room for their first meeting, but he wasn't about to question it. "Hello Tempe."

As she entered the room, Brennan was honest with herself and admitted that the face that now represented her father was still something that she found disturbing. The man sitting before her looked nothing like her father, but plastic surgery could erase someone very easily replacing them with someone new. Brennan had seen that done to a young woman a few years ago. The would-be actress had had so many plastic surgeries she had completely erased herself, leaving behind someone that looked beautiful, but with no ties to her past and to her family history. "Your plastic surgeon erased you. I'm sure that is what you wanted to do, but still you no longer look like you are connected to me and Russ in any way. You have the face of a stranger."

Startled, Max lost his composure momentarily. Not sure what his daughter was trying to say, Max hid his consternation with a smile. "The FBI was looking for me as well as some very bad people, Honey. I needed to erase the face they were looking for to protect myself . . . erase seems kind of harsh though. I changed the look of my face, but I didn't really erase myself. I'm still me, your Dad."

Since she didn't want to pursue that part of the conversation any more, Brennan sat down and folded her hands on the table before her. "Why did you leave me behind?"

The question was blunt and Max had expected it. "Your mother wanted to leave you behind to protect you. That old gang we robbed banks for didn't appreciate it when your Mom and I bugged out. They wanted us dead and they wouldn't have hesitated to kill you and Russ either. We thought Russ would take care of you, but we were wrong and I'm sorry."

So her father had confirmed what Booth had thought had happened. "You could have checked or had someone check on me." Brennan was not in a forgiving mood. Foster care had been horrible and she had almost died due to her father's neglect. "You should have checked."

He heard the pain in her voice and Max knew that fifteen years hadn't healed his daughter's scars. She hated him and now he knew it. "Honey, if I could undo it I would, but I can't. All I can do is be your father now if you'll let me."

For weeks her emotions had been warring inside her. She had told Booth that she didn't know how she was supposed to feel and the situation had not been rectified. She loved her father, but she also hated him and she couldn't reconcile those emotions. She wanted to know her father better, but she dreaded to discover just how much she didn't know about him. He was a murderer and a bank robber. Was there more to him that would make the situation even worse? "Booth wanted me to come and see you."

Which told Max that this visit wasn't his daughter's idea. "I like Booth. He's a good guy."

"He's a very good guy." Brennan was proud of the fact that Booth was such an honorable man and was nothing like her father. "He believes in the law. He is a dedicated FBI Agent and a decorated War Veteran. He's nothing like you, Max. I can trust him. I can always trust Booth unlike you."

Her words were like stab wounds, but he knew that his daughter had a right to be bitter. "I am who I am, Tempe. I do love you though. You and Russ are all the family I have in this world and I am so proud of what you've accomplished. No one helped you, you made a career all by yourself and a best-selling author too. It just amazes me all the things you've accomplished. I wish your mother was here to see the things you've done, the life you've made for yourself. She'd be so proud."

The words meant a lot to her, but she couldn't admit that to her father. "I worked hard to get where I am."

Max knew she was proud and why not? She deserved to be. "It's too bad your brother didn't inherit your smarts too. The poor kid was always so average and a follower, never a leader."

Affronted, Brennan shook her head. "There is nothing wrong with being average, Max." Brennan took great pride in her intelligence, but she considered Booth to be of average intelligence and yet he was insightful, brave and filled with a sense of right and wrong. "Russ could have had a normal life, but he chose to be a criminal. He could have done the right thing, but he didn't. He abandoned me just like you did. You and Mom and Russ, you all made the decision to be on the wrong side of the law. I chose the right side. I chose how I live and you coming back doesn't change anything. You're a career criminal and that is nothing to be admired."

"Honey I know you're disappointed in me." Max sighed. "When you grow up having nothing and you see so many people with everything . . . well, sometimes you want some of those things too. Your mother and I, we robbed safety deposit boxes to finance our lifestyle. We lived modestly. We never wanted to be rich. We just wanted to be happy and that took money that we didn't have."

Brennan shook her head. "You could have worked for a living, Dad." Disappointed in her father, Brennan stood up. "I have to go."

Max knew the guard outside the door was watching him so he remained seated. "Honey, I'm sorry. All I can do is say I'm sorry I wasn't the father you wanted me to be . . . will you come back to see me?"

Not sure, Brennan shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know." With that she left the room not daring to look back at her father. She didn't want him to see the tears streaming down her face.

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