AN: There's something that I've done in this chapter that might upset some of you, but please keep in mind it's been planned for quite some time and not something I threw in for the heck of it, even if there has been a lot of it in fanfiction lately. You'll understand when you get to it. With that, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

He pulled away from the kiss, his hands holding the sides of her face, thumbs gently stroking her jaw. Was she really here with him? He looked at her and watched tears courisng down her cheeks before he brushed away several that fell from her eyes.

"How? When, why" Emotions swirled in his eyes as sadness mingled with confusion and anger.

"I..." Brennan sighed and took a breath before she started to speak again. "When I woke up in the hospital, something occurred that made me question whether it was wiser to follow the original plan or stay out in the open."

Trying to keep his anger in check he takes a deep breath and slowly releases the air. "So who has known you were alive? I am assuming your father knows. God forbid you dissapear and not tell him." Temperance looked at him, shock evident in her expression. She reached for a small silver pendant around her neck and began to play with it. Booth watched her for a second and his heart squeezed. He hadn't meant to be abrupt, but in his defense, she had just literally appeared out of nowhere. "God, Temperance," he murmured as he closed his eyes and pulled her into his arms, "I'm sorry."

Brennan wrapped her arms around him for a moment, resting her head on his shoulder before she began to speak again. "Yes, my father knew what was going on. He's the one to help me facilitate the entire thing."

As the words left her mouth, his eyes snapped open and a low growl rumbled in his chest. Brennan pulled back and looked at him with wide eyes as warmth spread through the pit of her stomach at the sound. "Did you just growl at me?"

Booth looked at her incredulously. Here he'd been thinking that she was dead, and now she was standing in the flesh before him telling him that her father knew what the hell was going on and she wanted to know if he was growling at her. God, sometimes he just wanted to throw her over his knee…

"So, you're telling me that your father has known all along that you were alive, and YOU couldn't have him tell me. ME!" He pulled away from her warmth and started to pace. He winced as he realized the action wasn't comfortable with a bad hip. Healing well his ass. He was going to have a few words with both his doctor and Mr. Addy about that. "You let me think you were DEAD. I buried you. I stood next to your best friend while holding my son's hand and wiping away his tears. And all along you were alive living it up somewhere." Great Booth, instead of taking her into the bedroom and ravishing her, you start a fight. Good one. Soooo damn smart. Running a hand through his hair he struggled to remove his suit jacket.

Brennan looked at him with an open mouth, struggling to find something to say. This wasn't the reaction she was counting on when she came to his house.

Stopping, he turned to her and saw the stricken look on her face. He let his jacket dangle from his arm for a minute before flapping it off unceremoniously. This was not the way their reunion should be going. Motioning for her to come to him, he pleaded with his eyes, "Can we just forget what I just said?"

"Forget what you just... What is wrong with you? I couldn't wait to get here so I could have the opportunity to see you, then you yell at me over something I had no control over, and now you want me to forget it?" Well if she was going to play that way…

"Do you have any idea the hell I have been through?" Collapsing onto the sofa he groaned at the pain in his hip. "I saw you in the casket, I watched them close it. I helped carry you and I buried you, I put you in the ground. I stood there and watched them put your casket into the ground. I watched them put all of the dirt back and when they were done it looked like a small pile of dirt." He took a deep breath and tried to calm his emotions. "I stood there all day. Annie took Parker for me to Rebecca's because I just couldn't leave you. It was almost dark when Jared found me your grave staring at your headstone, just staring." Tears threatened to escape and fall despite the fight he was putting up. "All I could think of was your name, Temperance Brennan, and how I would never... How I would never have the opportunity to argue with you about changing it." He leaned back on the couch and rubbed the palm of his hand over his face to hide the fact that a few tears managed to escape and make their way down his cheeks. He took a deep breath and looked up at her, their eyes connecting in an intense gaze. "You and Parker were the only good in my life, and it felt like that was being taken from me. You were gone and I'm not able to play with my son the way we used to. My damned injuries are keeping me from being the man I want to be."

"At least you've had people you care about around you. I made the decision to stay im Witness Protection with the provision that you were told. My identity was changed again, and I've been on my own in the middle of Nowhere, West Virginia counting down the days until I could go back to my life." Brennan looked down at Booth and clutched the small medallion around her neck again. Her grip tightened as she began to pace the room. "All I could think about was the fact that my being away from you and my friends was keeping the lot of you safe, and that was the only consolation I had until I found out I was pregnant."

"What?" Booth's eyes flew to her belly, noticing for the first time the roundness of it. He'd been too caught up to notice the changes, but now everything was so obvious to him. Now the book dedication made sense to him. Mackinaw was the town she was supposed to move to as Joy Keenan, and Gerard Majella, he was the patron saint of mothers. "Pregnant?"

"So excuse me if I'm not going to let a little anger on your part go unpunished. You're not the only…oomph." She didn't continue her thought as he was standing before her and kissing her lips. She thought about fighting him for a moment, but her entire being was rebelling against the thought as her arms wrapped around his neck and her hands wound through his hair. He swept his hands down her sides until they were resting on her abdomen as though protecting the life that lay within her. Booth broke the kiss and took her hand, leading her upstairs for the reception both of them had been hoping for.

XxXxX

"I'm telling you Margaret, this is a bad idea." Richard Booth followed his wife up the steps of his son's house as he carried a large grocery bag of food. Jared took up the rear with their suitcases, laughing to himself as his parents bickered.

"Oh it is not. Seeley will appreciate the support and a few home cooked meals."

"The boy knows how to cook, dear."

"I know that, but I can still take care of my son now, can't I?" Margaret didn't bother knocking. She pulled out a key to the house and opened the front door.

"He's a grown man that doesn't need to be mothered. Jared, tell your mother I'm right." Jared set down the suitcases and shook his head.

"No can do, dad. Telling mom not to mother someone is like trying to keep the sun from rising every morning."

"Will you look at the mess in here?" Margaret moved to the couch and picked up Seeley's jacket before straightening up the coffee table. She noticed the book laying haphazardly in its box on top of the packing peanuts. "Can't even pick up after himself right now, poor thing."

"Margaret, you know Seeley is perfectly capable of…"

"Richard Thomas Booth, you stop right there. He's still hurt and I'm sure there's a lot he can't do right now." She swatted her husband on the arm before she finished straightening up the coffee table. "I'm going to go make some dinner. Why don't the two of you take our things to the guest room and Jared can go find his brother. I'm sure he probably needs something to eat."

"Yes dear," Richard sighed as Jared once again picked up the suitcases. The younger man glanced at the book on the coffee table and frowned. How in the world had Temperance Brennan managed to get a book published posthumously? With a shrug, he followed his father upstairs to deposit their luggage. Maybe it had already been in process when the accident happened.

XxXxX

Booth pulled Temperance closer to him and sighed in contentment as he swept his hand over her rounded belly. He kissed her bare shoulder and snuggled closer to her, sated from their recent activity. Brennan smiled and turned in his arms, her tummy resting gently against his own flat stomach.

"I missed you so much," Booth murmured and kissed her on the lips. Brennan shivered a little, amazed at how such minimal contact could send sensations down to her toes. Misinterpreting the shiver, Booth pulled the covers up to her shoulders and ran his hands un and down her arms to warm her.

"I missed you too," Temperance replied back, resting her head against his chest. As Seeley made another pass down her arm, he again rested his hand on her stomach.

"How did you decide… I mean you always said you didn't want kids." Brennan rolled slightly so she could look at Booth, the sheets falling down her back a little.

"It was a couple of things really. The time I spent with Emma and Haley was wonderful, but while I enjoyed being around them, it wasn't enough for me to want children of my own. It was Parker though that made me realize that if I were to be with you, then he would always be a part of my life."

"You haven't even been around Parker in close to a year."

"I know," she began and sighed as she tried to think of a way to explain. "I've seen the way you are with Parker, and how much you love him. It must be nice to have that, to have someone love you unconditionally. It's something that I'm realizing that I still have from my father. He never stopped loving me, but too much has happened…I don't know if I could ever have that with him again. I don't know that I can overlook anymore of his faults and just forgive them."

"You've done a pretty good job so far."

"Have I? When I found out that he hired someone to be my guardian, I was furious, and didn't think I could forgive him of that. I want to, but…" she shrugged then snuggled down onto Booth's chest again. "I want to be able to love someone with no strings, like you do Parker. When I found out I was pregnant, my first instinct was to terminate it, but with you, I couldn't do it. You deserve the love that another child could bring, and I want this with you. I never thought I would, but I want more than I have. Does that make sense at all?"

"Of course it does. Seeley leaned forward and captured her lips, pulling her closer to his side. He pulled her bottom lip in between his teeth and touched his tongue to the tip of it, sweeping along the surface, tasting her. She moaned a low, sexy sound and shifted until she was practically on top of him as the bedroom door opened and Jared Booth stepped into the room.

"Hey bro, mom says to get your….Holy Mary mother of God!" He stood stalk still in shock as Booth and Brennan pulled away and clutched at the sheets to keep themselves covered.

"Jesus, haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Booth ran a hand through his hair and looked at his brother with exasperation, however Jared didn't notice. His eyes remained fixed on Temperance.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Temperance and Seeley looked at each other and sighed.

"It's a long story."

XxXxX

Margaret and Richard stared at the couple in front of them as Booth and Temperance casually finished off their dinner. Jared sat next to his brother and shook his head in disbelief.

"So, let me get this straight," Richard began. "You're expecting a child with your dead girlfriend."

"Yes," Booth looked at Booth his parents and took a sip of his milk.

"Who's not really dead."

"Yes."

"But let everyone think she was."

"Yes." Margaret and Richard looked at each other once more and Margaret shrugged.

"Well, as long as Seeley's happy, then so are we."

"But how is it that you aren't really dead?" Temperance pushed her plate away and began the tale behind her death.