(The Family in the Feud)

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I don't own Bones.

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Because Booth and Brennan had to be in West Virginia for a case, it was Max's responsibility to get Jared to his doctor's appointment. With the help of Max and the housekeeper, Jared was able to get into the back seat of Max's car for the drive to his appointment. Once there, Max went inside and asked the receptionist to get someone to help him get Jared out of his car. Once they were both in the office, Max sat down next to Jared and waited patiently for Jared be called in the back. After a while, Jared was ushered into the back office while Max waited for him in the lobby.

Forty minutes later, Jared came back out with a smile on his face. He was now wearing a short cast on his leg and he had good news. "It's healing like it should. I only have to wear this for a few weeks then I can graduate to one of those boot thingies."

"That's great news, Jared." Max opened the exit door and waited for Jared to come outside. "I don't think we'll need help getting you into the car now." Max followed the younger man to the car and once there opened the passenger door, took his crutches from him and watched as Jared was able to get into the car by himself. Popping the crutches onto the back seat, Max hurried around to the other side, got into the car and before he started the car turned to face his charge. "Want to go for a drive? We can stop by Arby's or McDonald's and pick up something to eat."

"Sounds great. I'd like to go for a drive. Being stuck in the house has been awful . . . well, not awful, but boring as hell." Jared shifted his leg to find a more comfortable position. "What time do we have to pick up Christine from Day Care?"

"We may not have to. It will depend upon when Tempe and Booth gets back." Max started the car, left the parking lot and drove towards a nearby Arby's. As he approached the restaurant, he turned on his turn signals and noticed a car weaving in and out of traffic in oncoming traffic. Cautiously, he pulled into the turn lane and decided to wait to cross the two lanes of traffic before turning into the restaurant's parking lot. The driver behind him became impatient and honked his truck horn. Ignoring him, Max waited for the weaving car to move down the road towards him. It was his intention to let the car pass him then turn. The driver behind him didn't understand what was going on, drove around Max's car, made the left turn to cross the lanes to move into the restaurant parking lot and was hit by the weaving car that had sped up as he passed the last car in front of him.

Not surprised about what had happened, Max pulled out his phone and called 911, reported the accident and placed his car in park. "I'm going to see if anyone is hurt." Once out of the car, Max noticed several drivers had parked their cars behind the accident and left their cars to see if they could help. The driver of the car was pinned to the back of his seat by his airbag and was asking for help. While one of the drivers cut the airbag and deflated it, Max checked on the pickup truck driver. Upon spotting Max, the young man cursed him and shook his fist at him. "If you'd have turned none of this would have happened."

"If you had waited behind me none of this would have happened. You were the one who couldn't wait and pulled around me. I was waiting for that car to pass me before I crossed the lanes." Max shook his head. "You have only yourself to blame." Moving back to his car, Max got in, checked the traffic in the lanes to the right of him, saw that the lanes were free and moved into the road.

"Thank you." Jared glanced at Max then back at the road.

Surprised, Max flipped his turn signal on and got in the right lane. "For what?"

"For waiting before you turned. For noticing that car coming towards us was driving recklessly." The thought of being in another accident made Jared shudder. "If you hadn't waited and did what that pickup truck had done, I might have got hurt or killed. So, thank you."

Spying a Burger King up ahead, Max flipped his turn signals on. "My wife used to say I drive like a little old lady who only drives to church on Sunday . . . My mother was teaching me how to drive before she died. She told me some horror stories about car crashes and limbs being amputated and heads being crushed and bodies being burned alive . . . she wanted me to be a careful driver and believe me I am. I always give myself time to get where I'm going . . . Also, when you're wanted by the FBI for as long as I was, the last thing you wanted to happen was to be pulled over by a cop for something. Slow and easy might not win the race, but it will get you where you're going in one piece." Pulling into the Burger King restaurant parking lot, Max elected to use the drive through. "That truck driver back there was impatient and adding that to the driver of the car . . . well, someone was bound to get hurt."

"Point taken." Jared studied the menu and pulled out his wallet. "Two whoppers with bacon, a large fry and a large Coke."

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The case took a few days to solve, but Booth and Brennan were pleased with the outcome. Booth felt like they were working together like a well-oiled machine and Brennan's time off hadn't impacted her efficiency. He knew she liked professionalism most of the time, so he found it odd that she had kissed him at the crime scene. Not that he minded, he found it exciting, but she seemed to be more comfortable sharing her emotions since Christine had been born and he was going to have to make a few adjustments. He did remind her that public displays of affection at crime scenes were not professional, but she didn't seem to care what he thought of the situation. He just hoped no one mentioned it to his boss or worse the Director.

Brennan was still working with Ethan Sawyer about the Pelant problem, but she knew it was going to take time. Ethan's insistence that Pelant was probably watching them had started to worry her.

"Angela, is it possible to track someone using store cameras, personal laptops and phones?" Ethan was a genius and if he had thought of it, then it was possible that Christopher Pelant had too.

"Sure, Bren." Angela turned to face her friend standing in the doorway of her office. "A really good hacker can do more than that. He or she can use traffic cameras, airport cameras, Ipads, anything with a camera and connected to a computer and WIFI would be fair game. What are you concerned about?"

Stepping into the office, Brennan closed the door behind her and motioned for her friend to come to her. Once Angela was standing next to her, she handed her a note. It's possible that Christopher Pelant is monitoring our actions. Everyone at the Lab and possibly at the FBI. A friend of mine says that if Pelant has found a way to evade the ankle monitor then he has means to do more. We know Pelant is a computer genius. After all, he wrote a fractal program on the end of a bone and it shut down your fans on your computers causing them to overheat and catch on fire. I need you to be aware that Pelant may have found a way to watch us. Do you understand?

"Yes, Honey. I do." Angela folded the note and placed it in her pants pocket. "I'll start looking into this." She was worried. Angela considered herself to be pretty smart when it came to computers, but Pelant might be better at it than she was. She'd just have to be careful and not leave footprints anywhere while she looked. "Don't worry, Bren. As they say, forewarned is forearmed."

"Alright." Brennan knew that she was a genius but not when it came to computers. She used them and understood how they worked, but she never cared to learn more than that. Her interests lay elsewhere. "I'll leave you to it."

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It had been a while since Pete Jackson had visited with Max, but he felt that he needed to talk to the conman as soon as possible. Arranging a time to visit Max, Pete arrived the next day at the Booth and Brennan household after the couple had left for work. Standing at the front door, Pete decided that the house looked fairly average for very unaverage people to be living in. He liked it. The door opened and Pete smiled at his old friend. "Hey Max."

Glancing past his friend's shoulders, Max didn't see anyone parked on the street or standing at end of the driveway. Old habits were hard to break and he didn't really want anyone to connect him to Pete Jackson. "Come in." Once the computer hacker was in the house, Max motioned for Pete to follow him. Once they were in the back yard standing near the oak tree, Max leaned against the tree and frowned at his friend. "What's so important that you had to see me this morning?"

"Well, you know I have a lot of time on my hands and I've been monitoring Angela Montenegro. She's one smart cookie and I really like her. She's almost as good as I am when it comes to computers." Pete smiled while he talked about Angela. The young woman intrigued him and he felt protective of her. She reminded him of his late wife. "Lately, she's been searching for someone online. It took me a while to figure it out and I had to search a lot of her code, but she's looking for signs that a computer hacktivist named Christopher Pelant has been online . . . Here's the thing, the man was arrested and convicted of hacking into Pentagon computers and exposing American soldiers to danger while they were in a war zone. He said he was doing it to show flaws in programs at the Pentagon and in the military computers, yada yada yada. Anyway, I was curious why she was looking and I did some research and found what I was looking for in some FBI computer files and some files at the Lab where Tempe works. Booth and your daughter think the man evaded the monitoring system that is in charge of his ankle bracelet and that he murdered a young woman and a reporter. They couldn't prove he did it because of the ankle monitor, so the man is still under house arrest."

"Okay." Puzzled, Max shook his head. "What's your point Pete? Is this Pelant fella a danger to my daughter?"

"Maybe." Pete placed his hands in his pant pockets. "Tempe is in contact with a computer genius named Ethan Sawyer. She's trying to get him to find out how Christopher Pelant was able to commit two crimes when the ankle monitor said he never left his house. I know Tempe is doing this, because a friend of mine knows Ethan Sawyer and he's been to see him. Ethan told him what he was working on. I don't think he was supposed to tell anyone, but Ethan is a paranoid schizophrenic and he has his days when he's really out there. My friend was visiting him a couple of weeks ago and Ethan started talking about being watched. Bill thought Ethan was slipping into paranoia, but after talking to him, he realized that Ethan might be on to something. He told me about it because he knew I could probably find out if Ethan is being watched or not. Bill doesn't know that I know Tempe, he just wants me to make sure that Ethan isn't in any danger from Pelant. Bill knows who Pelant is and the guy makes Bill nervous.

Max was confused. "Wait you have a friend that just happens to be friends with a friend of Tempe. That seems . . . suspicious. What are you up to?"

Amused, Pete laughed. "Don't you go and get paranoid on me, Max. The world of computer hackers is smaller than you think. Sure, there are kids sitting in their bedrooms trying to break into Microsoft and the Pentagon, but the really serious hackers, the geniuses in the field belong to a small group and we all know each other. In the past, I monitored what Pelant was doing, but the man came across as extremely dangerous and I avoided him. My friend Bill has been friends with Ethan Sawyer for a long time and I check up on Angela because she fascinates the hell out me. You see, it's all connected in a strange bizarre kind of way."

Rubbing his chin, Max stared at his friend in wonder. "Should I take care of this Pelant fella? He seems dangerous to me. If he didn't think there was anything wrong in exposing our soldiers to danger then I think it's safe to say the man is dangerous. Killing two people and getting away with it is probably making him feel invincible . . . maybe too invincible. My daughter and that boyfriend of hers might be in real danger."

"Well, like I said I'm checking into this stuff and I wanted to let you know what's going on." Pete noticed the curtains in the kitchen part and a younger man stood there watching them. "Let me see what Angela is doing about this and I'll get back to you . . . We're being watched."

Glancing at the window, Max waved at Jared. "That's Booth's little brother. I'm babysitting him since he got in a car accident and broke his leg. He's okay . . . Find out where Pelant lives and let me know. I may have to stop him before he goes after my daughter or Booth. I don't want my granddaughter becoming an orphan."

"Got it." Pete handed Max a piece of paper. "I came prepared."

"I appreciate the visit, Pete. You're a good man." Max placed the paper in his pants pocket. "I'll arrange to meet you at the library next week."

Pete patted Max's shoulder and left. He had a few things to take care of and if Max was going to do what he thought he was going to do, then he needed to see what Pelant was up to and if he was still at his house. He'd help Max as much as he could.

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