A/N: Soooo sorry about the long delay! I was away for a few days! Anyway, here is the next chapter I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Three

A week had gone by and there hadn't been any cases. Booth was getting caught up on his paperwork which was supremely boring. He missed everyone at the Jeffersonian although he didn't want to admit it. And he had only seen Bones twice that week when he had managed to drag her out of the lab for dinner.

He picked up his phone and dialled her cell only to get a busy signal. After dialling her office and home number to no avail, he began to get panicked. What if something had happened to her? He had been fairly relaxed in the last week regarding her protection only because he wasn't getting anywhere with the case and nothing had happened to her. Besides she got mad at him on Tuesday and told him to stop checking her apartment for hit men.

He sat swivelling his chair back and forth, not sure what to do. If he went over there and she was fine then she would make a big deal about it, but if not… He shuddered to think of that. His mind made up, he grabbed his jacket and headed in the direction of the Jeffersonian.

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She was staring intently at the skeleton in front of her, hoping that it would provide her with a cause of death. 'He could have died of natural causes.' She thought. 'He is 700 years old after all.' Her cellphone rang and as she reached for it, she hoped it was Booth.

"Brennan." She said.

"Tempe?" the voice came through the phone.

She stood in shock. It was Russ.

"Tempe?" Russ repeated.

"Where are you? Are you okay?" she said frantically. She saw her team approaching but stood frozen in her spot. They all knew about her father, but did not know the details nor did they know that her and Booth were working on the case.

"What happened to Dad, Tempe?" Russ said brusquely.

"You first." She replied.

"Bren are you okay?" Angela said, coming towards her and noting the panicked expression on her friend's face.

At this moment Booth entered the lab. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw her standing on the platform, her team in tow. He was about to scold her about not being able to reach her, when he saw the look on her face.

"Listen, Tempe I just found out that Dad's dead, you want to tell me what's going on?" Russ said angrily.

"Ummm…" she replied. She glanced over and saw Booth. She held the phone away from her face and quickly mouthed 'Russ.'

His eyes widened and she knew he understood. He immediately headed up the stairs and swiped his card, never breaking his stride as he moved towards her and guided her to her office, ignoring the looks on the others faces.

"I'm putting you on speakerphone." She said. "Booth's here."

"What?" Russ said. "I am not talking to him, he's FBI Tempe."

"You talk to us both or I'm hanging up." She said.

"Tempe, no!" Russ replied.

"My office number is 623-148-7283." She said as she hung up the phone. She turned to Booth and saw a mixture of concern and love in his eyes.

"He's okay." She said, her eyes brimming with tears.

He moved towards her subconsciously and pulled her into a hug, not caring that Hodgins, Zach, Cam and Angela were all staring at them from the platform.

"I thought he was…I didn't know…" she said, her words muffled by her face pressed into his chest.

He placed a kiss on top of her head and ran his fingers through her hair lightly. She pulled away from him and looked him in the eyes.

"What do I do?" she asked. "I feel like this is happening all over again. I don't want to do this again."

Her desk phone rang, startling them both.

"Answer it." He replied. "Talk to him, he is your brother."

She moved away from his arms, leaned over and picked up the phone.

"Brennan." She said, her voice wavering a little.

"Fine." Russ said. "Put me on speakerphone. But I am not telling you where I am."

She pressed the button and Russ's voice echoed in the office.

"What the hell is going on Tempe?"

"I don't know." She replied. "We are still investigating his death."

"Start from the beginning." Russ demanded.

"I think the beginning starts with you." She retorted. "After all, you were with him, weren't you?"

Russ sighed. "I haven't seen him in about four months. We were in a motel in Kentucky. I woke up in the morning and he was gone."

"Is that where you are now?" she asked.

"I'm not that stupid, Tempe." Russ answered. "Now what happened?"

Booth spoke up. "They arrested your father in Fairfax. We brought him in for questioning and he confessed to the murders of Garrett Delaney, Robert Kirby and Pete Norris. He also mentioned some names in connection with whoever is after Temperance."

"He talked about Mom." She said softly.

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Right." Russ said finally.

Booth continued. "The FBI took him into custody and less then three weeks later he was killed. I don't have any leads so far."

"Of course not." Russ said bitterly.

"Excuse me?" she said angrily. "Booth is working this case as hard as he can. He is putting in hours after work to figure this out and he is putting his job on the line."

"Temperance, it's okay." He said.

"No it's not!" she replied loudly.

"Look Tempe, the FBI has their hands all over this. For all we know, they killed Dad. Booth is FBI. It's not hard to connect the dots." Russ said.

"He let you go!" she shouted. "And he was willing to let Dad go again. I was the one who decided that he needed to go to jail for what he had done."

"Why would you do that?" Russ said. "He was just trying to protect you. Everything was fine until you started trying to find out the truth. He told you stop looking and you didn't. And now he is dead. It's your fault Tempe."

His words stung her and she felt like she had been slapped in the face. She stood there, unable to say anything as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"I can't believe you…" Russ started. "Never mind." There was a slamming noise and then the sound of a dial tone filled the room.

Booth moved around her and pressed a button on the phone, pulling the room into silence.

"Temperance…" he started.

She flicked her eyes over to him and he saw a brief flash of hurt before it was replaced with a steely gaze.

"I should get back to work." She said, reaching up and wiping the tear away. Before he could say anything, she turned and walked out of her office.

He sighed and leaned against her desk. He hadn't been able to glean a lot of information from the phone call but he did know two things.

Max's death wasn't Temperance's fault and Russ Brennan was in Washington.