(The Promise in the Palace)

Thank you for reviewing my story. I appreciate it.

I don't own Bones, not even a little bit.

Ooooooooooooooooo

So proud of his baby boy, Jared talked it over with Padme and they decided that they wanted Seeley and Temperance to be their son's godparents. Though Padme wasn't Catholic, she knew that Jared was and he took comfort in his faith. Since her relatives were living in India and Jared's remaining relatives were nearby it made sense to raise her son as a Catholic and to allow Jared's brother and sister-in-law to be Joseph's godparents. She knew that if anything happened to her and Jared her son Joseph would be taken care of and that was important to her.

To say he was surprised would be an understatement. Booth hadn't thought about who his brother was going to name as godparents for his son, but he had never thought he was in the running. He and his brother had only come to like each other recently and he knew that Jared had a lot of friends where he worked. They had spent so many years barely tolerating each other that Booth felt like the last few years were a mere blip in time. Jared had given up liquor and he had grown up. Booth had never expected either of those things to happen and he couldn't be more proud of his little brother.

To make Joseph's day special, Brennan suggested that they have a party at their house after the baptism. Booth agreed, but wanted to do a barbecue. "We can invite Jared and Padme's friends, our friends and we can get to know each other better. The weather is supposed to be nice that day and we can use our backyard. It's big enough."

Pleased with the suggestion, Brennan opened a notebook and started to plan the logistics. "It's too late to send out invitations in the mail. I think Padme can send email's to their friends that she would like to come and I will send emails out to our friends and family. I think we can invite forty people to the barbecue and still have room to move around without stepping on each other . . . I'll borrow some chairs from Angela and Cam and buy an extra folding table to hold the food and drinks."

"That sounds good, Bones." Booth had some important news of his own to pass on to his friends and family and the barbecue might be the perfect time for that. "I'll get Aubrey and Sweets to help with the barbecue. It's time those two became friends. Sweets has been keeping Aubrey at arm's length for a while now and that needs to end soon. Aubrey is up for a promotion and Sweets needs to accept that Aubrey isn't going anywhere."

"Yes, I have noticed that Sweets has turned down several invitations to our home lately." Brennan had assumed that the young psychologist was angry with Booth or her for some reason but had not considered that he might be trying to avoid Aubrey. "You know this doesn't make sense to me, he recommended Aubrey for the job here in DC when the Deputy Director asked him for his opinion, so I don't understand his antipathy now."

Checking Brennan's list, Booth picked up a pen and added a few things. "Well, I think I do. We were Sweets' friend for a long time. He doesn't have any family and once he got to know us, he adopted us. Now Aubrey has come along and he works with me more than Sweets does and I think he's . . . you know, jealous."

"Jealous." Brennan considered Booth's explanation and decided he might be right. "We are capable of having more than one friend at the same time. I'm not sure why Sweets would think we value him less that Aubrey . . . but, I will admit I don't really understand the nuances of situations like this. I have a hard time understanding what motivates people to do the things they do since most of the time the things they do aren't logical . . . I will invite Sweets to the barbecue and I will not mention who else is invited. You will make sure that Aubrey attends and we will contrive to get them to talk to each other in festive surroundings. It might help Sweets see that we have many friends and we value all of them."

"Good idea. We'll do that." Quickly jotting down a few more items, Booth gave the list back to Brennan.

The list in her hand, Brennan stared at the items Booth had added for a moment before commenting. "This seems like an inordinate amount of meat."

Chuckling, Booth laughed. "39 people plus Aubrey, Bones."

"Ah yes, I see your point."

Ooooooooooooooooo

Surprised to be invited to the party honoring Booth's nephew, Sweets entered Booth's office and stood near his desk. "Brennan has invited me to the barbecue . . . I was surprised. I'm not family."

"Since when?" Booth turned away from his PC and waved his young friend towards the chair next to his desk. "I think you've been part of our family for a few years now. Do you think I'd let someone I don't trust babysit my baby girl? She calls you Uncle Sweets."

His cheeks slightly red, Sweets nodded his head. "She does and I love that little girl like she's my niece . . . I just, well . . . I don't go out in the field with you anymore. Agent Aubrey does and well, um . . ."

"Sweets, I'm not pushing you away, okay?" Booth hated conversations like this, but he knew he needed to get through to his young friend. "When Aubrey transferred to the Hoover he already had experience as an agent. He just needed training in murder investigations and he's learning fast. It's my job to train agents to move up in the ranks which allows me to move up in the ranks. That's how this works . . . You're a psychologist, a good one, but you're not an agent. Since Bones wanted to work at the Lab more I need backup and she wasn't going to stay out of the field unless I accepted Aubrey as my protégé. This has nothing to do without our friendship. You're part of my family and I expect you to be at the barbecue helping me feed that crowd Bones has invited . . . okay?"

"Yes, okay." Somehow feeling better, Sweets smiled and stood up. "Do you want me to bring anything?"

He considered it for a moment. "Only if you have beer you like or some fancy wine cooler thing. You know what I like and what I buy. I'm not buying any cute beer that tastes like dandelions or raspberries. Not with my money."

Amused, Sweets grinned as he walked towards the door. "Got it. Tell Dr. Brennan I'll be there."

Ooooooooooooooo

Two days before the barbecue, Booth asked Aubrey to meet him in his office for a quick meeting.

"You wanted to see me?" Curious, Aubrey entered the room and sat down on the chair near the window. "Have you heard anything about my promotion?"

"Not yet, but I'll let you know when I do." Booth closed the file he had been studying and clasped his hands on the desk top. "This is kind of personal and I don't normally interfere with someone's personal relationships, but I need to talk to you about Sweets."

A slight frown on his face, Aubrey crossed his legs and tried to relax. "I don't have a personal relationship with Sweets . . . as a friend or anything else."

"You know what I meant, don't be such a smart ass." Booth shook his head. "Since you've been my partner, Sweets has been feeling like I'm not his friend anymore . . . He doesn't have any family. His parents were old when they adopted him and they died right before he joined the FBI. He's alone in this world and Bones and I kind of adopted him a few years ago into our family. I'm just telling you this so you'll understand why I'm talking to you about this. I need you to do me a favor and try to be his friend. He's a good profiler. He knows his job and he's helped me close a lot of cases. He can do that for you . . . I just think if you tried to show him some friendship it might benefit both of you."

"Especially since I don't have any family either except for that sick fuck of a father wherever he is." Aubrey gave up on his father a long time ago and he planned to never forgive the conman for what he had done to his mother. "You know I haven't done anything to make him my enemy. He's the one that's been treating me like I don't belong here. I even told him that you're a stand up guy and you'd never throw away old friends."

Surprised, Booth nodded his head. "I talked to him a few days ago. He's coming to the barbecue and I think you should use that opportunity to get to know him better. He's into Star Trek and I know you're into Star Wars so there has to be some common ground there somewhere."

"I'll see what I can do." Aubrey knew that Booth was giving him some sound advice. If he got his promotion, then Sweets would come in handy as his profiler in the future. "I'll just turn on the old Aubrey charm. He'll see I'm a great guy and we'll go from there. If I get my own department I'll need Sweets' experience as a profiler. I've read some of the cases he helped solve and he's got good instincts."

"Good . . . before you ask me if I want to you to bring anything to the barbecue the answer is no unless you have a favorite beer or wine." Booth opened the folder. "I'm not wasting my money on cute beer."

Appalled, Aubrey shook his head. "Cute beer? What do you take me for?"

Waving the younger man out of his office, Booth returned his attention back to the forms he was studying. He'd wasted enough time on personal crap.

Oooooooooooooooo

Let me know what you think of my story. Thank you.