10 years ago

Temperance and Booth sat at the dining room table talking quietly, the house was unusually silent, as they seldom were there in the afternoon when the children were at school. Even though the kids weren't home yet, they still kept their voices down, more out of the seriousness of the matter than anything else.

"It's his choice, Booth. He's not our child, and as much as I love having him here, it's time." Temperance said, touching her husband's hand. "We have to tell him."

"But what if we don't? What if we just… I don't know, I just would feel better if he stayed here a little longer, finished school where he is, you know? It's no use ripping the kid out of school, right?"

"I understand your point." She nodded, and was going to continue when the door flew open, and slammed shut, and a pair of shoes came running through the house. "Grace Keenan, please stop running." Temperance called to her daughter, as she heard a sharp squeak on the floor. "And take your shoes off!"

"How did you know it was me?" Thirteen year old Grace asked, walking into the kitchen, she could see that her parents were in a quiet discussion, and knew very well what that meant. "What are you guys whispering about?" She whispered as well.

"None of your beeswax." Booth said, giving his daughter a snotty sneer to make her giggle. She ran over to his side, and gave him a hug. "Go on upstairs, get your homework done, so we can head to the diner for dinner. Mama has to go back to work."

"Okay, Daddy. Can Goof come?"

"If all of his homework is done, and Aunt Angela says it's fine then yeah, sure."

"Awesome!" She dropped a kiss on his cheek and ran for the stairs. "Love you, Mama." She called.

"I love you, Gracie girl." Temperance called.

The next person to walk through the door did so a little quieter, and the sound of shoes could be heard tumbling from feet. "Seeley?" Temperance called.

"Just a second, Aunt Bones." Fifteen year old Seeley said, walking toward the kitchen, he also noticed that his Aunt and Uncle were sitting quietly at the table. He also knew that it meant that they were talking about something of importance. "What's up?" He asked.

"Sit down for a second, we wanted to talk to you about a few things." Booth said, nodding toward the chair.

Seeley nodded, smiling slightly, his brow furrowed in confusion as he sat down. "What's going on?"

Booth sighed, giving his nephew a moment as he tried to think of the words. "You know your dad got of jail a little while back." Booth said, watching Seeley nod his head, his eyes flicked to Temperance.

"Your father wants to regain custody of you." Temperance said, cutting to the quick. "And I think that it would be good for your relationship."

"Bones." Booth said, whispering in her direction. "We were going to do this, I don't know, a little more… sensitively."

"Sensitively? Why not just tell him the truth. There's no use in beating around the bush. Jared wants custody, and since Seeley is his son, I think that it is his right to have custody of him, or at least discuss it." She said logically.

"Yeah, Bones… but he's not a sack of flour, you can't just be like… hey Jared, here's that sack of flour that you…"

During their bickering, neither noticed that Seeley's face had been turning bright red. He wasn't sure if he was upset, or angry, or sad. "Stop!" he exclaimed suddenly. "You just want to get rid of me?" He asked, tears springing to his eyes.

"No!" Booth exclaimed, reaching for Seeley's hand, the boy pulled his hand off the table, and pulled his chair back. "Seeley, we don't want you to leave. We love having you here. I've liked having another guy around the house, especially when Parker moved out."

"But Bones just said you guys are sending me to live with my father." He said, trying to hold back his frustration. "I hardly even know him. I don't want to live with him!"

"Seeley, we're just talking about the possibility. Your dad has a good job now, he has a home. He loves you very much."

"I don't want to live with him! I want to live here! I thought you loved me. I thought you wanted me here!"

"Seeley." Temperance said, her voice calm and even, in a way that almost sounded emotionless. "There's no need to yell."

"This is so stupid!" He exclaimed angrily. He stood up and slammed his fist angrily on the table. "This is so stupid. You know what? Fine! I'll go live with my stupid father, okay? Because I don't want to be here where I'm not wanted!" He shouted, his fist slamming into the table. "I hate you! I hate you both!" He screamed on top of his lungs, and ran out of the room angrily, he ran upstairs to his room, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the pictures on the walls.

Booth looked to Temperance and sighed. "Well, that could have gone better."

Booth stood in the lobby of the Hoover waiting for Ace. He paced slightly, thinking of that first argument with Seeley, and the anger that he had been holding inside. He thought of how after that things started going downhill with the boy. They had started having joint custody arrangements with Jared, and while they got along well, Seeley's grades started suffering, and he became violent, punching holes in the walls when he'd get angry. The final straw came when he held Grace against a wall by her throat and threatened her, because she tattled on him for skipping school. Other than the occasional silent Christmas or Thanksgiving meal, that was one of the last times that Booth had seen his nephew.

Booth heard the door open as hurried feet rushed in, and he turned to see Ace looking around for him. "Ace." Booth called, seeing his friend's nod as he came toward him. He came up, and they greeted one another with the customary knuckle bump.

They then made their way together through the quiet hallways of the Hoover building, and walked to the interrogation room, where Ace had already arranged the arrival of their suspect.