(The Shallow in the Deep)

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I don't own Bones.

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Here he was again, standing outside a door and wondering if his fate was to always be on the outside looking in. A little nervous, Max stared at his daughter for a few seconds before he knocked on the doorframe of her office. "Tempe, may I speak to you?"

Surprised to see her father at her place of employment, Brennan looked up, flipped her magazine over and nodded her head. "Yes, you may."

Slowly moving into the office, Max tried to gage his daughter's response seeing him and decided that she was unreadable. His daughter had the same ability as his late wife to hide her feelings and that was very annoying to a man who made a living reading his marks emotional states. "I haven't heard from you for the last two weeks and . . . well, I wanted to see if you've made up your mind about whether or not you're going to give up on me."

Calmly, Brennan pointed at the chair in front of her desk and waited for her father to sit down. Once he was settled, she nodded her head. "I have thought over your actions and how they were influenced by outside forces beyond your control and I have decided to give you one more chance. You have been dishonest with me and Booth and I have forgiven you, but if you continue to abuse my trust then our relationship will be finished. I think you've pushed the boundaries of trust too far, but Booth said you were trying to do by right by your family. I don't see it, but Booth does and he is better able to understand personal motives than I am able to do. He thinks he understands your motives about the pages and the tape and he was able to help me to understand why you did what you did . . . If you are withholding anything else from me, it would be best if you told me now. If I find out later that there are more secrets then our relationship will be finished no matter what your motives are."

Relieved that he was still in his daughter's life, Max smiled. "I promise there are no more secrets. You know everything as far as I know. The Justice Department has all of the pages and the tapes that belonged to Agent Harper. As far as I know, that's it. If Harper had anything else hidden away, then I don't know about it. Kirby is dead and so is Delaney. Congressman Abbot is dead and I had nothing to do with that. I wasn't even in the country when he was arrested and then when he was killed. I guessed those papers and tape were going to show up sooner or later, but I thought I'd be dead when that happened."

"If you knew that Abbot was part of Kirby's crew then why didn't you tell us after Kirby was dead?" There was still something odd about Congressman Abbot and his interest in her and Booth.

Max sighed. "Tempe, I didn't have the pages or the tape and I didn't have a way to get my hands on them. I didn't have any proof against Abbot. It would have just been my word against his and I was tried for the death of Kirby. Who was going to believe me?"

"You could have told us after we told you about Abbot's interest in us. We didn't need proof. We needed information." Brennan still felt like her father was hiding something from her, but she couldn't prove it and she was annoyed.

He wasn't sure how to answer that question, but he knew he had to be very careful. "I thought about telling you, but Booth told us at your little get together that some guy at Homeland Security was interested in you and that meant to me that Abbot wasn't the one you should be worried about. Booth said that Danny Beck from the CIA was investigating that situation and that it might have to do with some murder of a Federal employee. Abbot might have been a lot of things, but getting involved with someone in Homeland Security and killing some Fed doesn't make sense. There are two possibilities here. Either that Homeland Security guy talked to Abbot and got him to go after you two because he had something on Abbot or the other possibility is that they were just friends and Abbot tried to get the Homeland Security guy to dig up some dirt on you two. We'll never know . . . Abbot came across as an ambitious man. He wanted to run for the Senate next. If he could stop the partnership between the Lab and the FBI, he could say it was to save a lot of tax payer money and who was to say he was wrong? Would a guy like that be interested in something nefarious at this late date? After he was starting a new career in politics? He managed to keep his distance from Kirby, so why risk everything to do something else unlawful? I'm inclined to believe that he wanted to break up you and Booth's partnership for revenge and for no other reason, but was using some bullshit plan to cover up the real reason. Kirby and his gang were neutralized and Abbot was safe. The congressman was just being a sneaky bastard and he should have left well enough alone."

It did seem logical. Brennan leaned forward on her desk. "Either theory is logical. If Abbot was trying to get revenge then it's done. He's dead and that will be the end of it. If the Homeland Security person of interest if responsible then this isn't over . . . We still don't know why he would be interested in Booth and me. We didn't investigate the death of the Federal employee that was murdered and neither of us have any connections at Homeland Security. It made more sense if Abbot was pulling the ropes or chains or whatever it is, but we don't know that for certain. Booth is trying to get Danny to divulge the name of the Homeland Security person of interest, but Danny won't do it. By the way . . . We think Danny has another agenda and that we are merely bit players in his investigation . . . that's what Booth calls us. He thinks we are minor characters in whatever is going on, but that we need to be wary nonetheless. You should be too."

"Oh, I will." Max decided he needed to know more about what was going on. He didn't trust Danny Beck and he wasn't going to trust the man to take care of anything. The CIA had its own agenda and the hell with everyone else. "I'm a law-abiding citizen now and that should be all I need to get by. I'm not anyone important and I have no connection with any law enforcement agencies. Whoever this traitor is at Homeland Security won't be interested in me."

"I can see your point." Brennan hated not knowing what was going on. "Booth and I feel like we should all be careful as we go about our daily lives. There is still something going on and just because Abbot is dead doesn't mean that we are safe. Only time will tell us that."

"Yeah, I get it." Max was definitely going to look into this mess further. No one was going to hurt his daughter if he could help it. His gut told him, there was something else going on, but he would find out what it was.

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Max met with an old friend at the man's house. "I think we have something else to worry about now."

Curious, Pete carried two bottles of beer into the living room and handed one of them to Max. "Kirby is dead. Delaney is dead. Abbot is dead and you told me that the kidnapping attempt against Parker was about his mother's job, not Tempe's. What's wrong now?"

Pete Jackson was an old friend of Max's and someone he had worked with in his younger days. He was one of the few friends Max had in the District and the man was reliable as well as someone he could trust. Max knew that Pete was retired, but Max needed his expertise. "It would seem that Congressman Abbot may have been working for someone in Homeland Security. I talked to my daughter this morning and I'm beginning to think that Abbot was trying to break up her and Booth's partnership because he was told to do it. Booth and Tempe think it's possible that it was made to look like he was trying to use someone at Homeland Security to get what he wanted, but I think it was the other way around. There's something going on and I don't like it. That friend of Booth's, CIA agent Danny Beck is supposed to be looking into a murder of a Federal Agent and he thinks it's connected to someone at Homeland Security. The same someone who might have used Abbot."

Alarmed, Pete placed his beer on the coffee table. "The CIA can't do jack shit in this country. It's against the law."

Max shrugged his shoulders. "I know that, but they can pass stuff onto other agencies and they can do some digging as long as they don't tell anyone. I just don't know who Danny is using to do his leg work . . . We need to do some of our own digging. I think Abbot screwed up his mission. Those four pages and tape I held back from Agent Harper's Diary were used by the CIA to try to bring down Abbot and someone didn't want Abbot to talk. They murdered him to keep him quiet . . . Of course, I just might be paranoid and Abbot was really just trying to get revenge for Kirby's death, but that seems all wrong to me. He didn't even make it in jail for twenty-four hours. He was arrested, someone panicked and they ordered a hit on Abbot. They didn't want him to rat. That means my daughter and her boyfriend could still be in trouble."

Though he was retired, Pete was getting bored with his life and if someone was still willing to use his special skills then he didn't see any harm. "It has to be done discreetly. We can't let anyone know we're digging around into a murder investigation especially if the victim is a federal employee. We don't want Homeland Security or the CIA onto us. It wouldn't turn out very good for us."

"Yeah, I get that." Max was nervous, but he needed to help his daughter and Booth. "This is about family Pete."

"Yeah, I understand that." Pete considered Max to be like a brother. The only other family he had was his ex-wife and she barely talked to him. "I get it. Let me start searching and I'll keep you informed. No phone calls, no email messages, no text messages. We talk in person or not at all."

Amused, Max chuckled. "You know I don't have a computer. I use burner phones and they're just phones, not smart phones. Big brother can track anyone if they want to. Why make it easy for them?"

"Yes, so we need to be very careful." Pete glanced at his computer in the corner of his living room and smiled at the thought of all the equipment he had in the basement. His PC in the living room was a smoke screen and no one suspected otherwise. "I've been looking for something to do and this is right up my alley . . . First, I'll track down who the Federal employee was who was murdered. That should be easy. Then I'll see where he worked and if there are any connections to Homeland Security or the CIA. I'll bet you ten bucks the victim was a CIA agent or connected to the Agency in some way . . . Yeah, then I'll try to see if there are any connections to Tempe or that boyfriend of hers and go from there. This is going to take time since I can't leave any footprints behind or at least any that lead to me or you . . . You'll have to be patient, but I think I'll be able to work this out . . . Remember, we meet in person. Not here and not at your place . . . I think maybe the Library Express on K Street . . . yeah, that will do for now. I'll send you a letter when I think we should meet."

Max could be a very patient man when he needed to be. "Don't forget to add Danny Beck into your equation . . . Oh and Tom Jones. He was the one that forced me to hand over the pages and the tape."

"Got it." Pete walked over to his computer and jotted down a few notes. "Okay? Anything else you can think of?"

"No, but if I hear anything from Booth or Tempe I'll pass it on to you." Max stood up. "Thanks, Pete. I knew I could count on you."

The computer specialist turned around and held up his notepad. "Always, Max. You're the only family I've ever had. You and me and Ruth . . . I mean Christine. God, she was a great gal and the way she could handle herself in the field, during a con. . . she was amazing."

"She really was." Max sighed. "I still miss her."

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