"Has Kelly started looking for a job yet?"

Booth and Brennan were driving through Maryland, following a trail of bones and traces of sulfur dioxide.

"No." Booth sighed. "She sits on the couch. She goes hiking with Jeremy. She takes Parker to and from school. Everything but looking for a job."

"It's only been a few weeks, Booth, maybe," Brennan eyed Booth, trying not to point out how his complaints were similar when she actually had a job. "she needs some time to adjust"

"She's just going to have to adjust to something else when she finally gets off her ass and finds one." He flipped open his phone and pressed a button. "This is Booth, I need the address for-"

Brennan started drifting away as Booth talked to the other FBI agent assigned to him for the case. She was concerned about Kelly. Booth had told her about how Kelly had left her job after being backed into a corner about the Kennedy trial. Brennan had been understanding of the fact that Kelly was not one to compromise her beliefs for a job, but she didn't understand how Kelly could actually get up and leave. She loved her job, it was her quiet rebellion. She walked with criminals but came home to her family of crime fighters. Brennan smiled a little, remember the conversation she and Kelly had a few weeks ago in Brennan's apartment. It's like you're all a gang of superheroes. Kelly had laughed. My crime fighting superhero family. And from the hours of 8 to 5, I'm your archenemy, but from Happy Hour onward, you're my home-base.

She had been glad that Kelly had assimilated into Booth's life so effortlessly, like she had always been there. Perhaps she had. If Brennan could rationalize ghosts, it would be the memory of Kelly that she would attribute to that rationalization. She wasn't a shift in the geomagnetic field effecting the temporal lobe, she was simply a memory. They had all unknowingly lived with a ghost for years.

Brennan glanced over at Booth, still on the phone with the other agent. His mother had said that the day would come when Kelly wouldn't need Booth anymore, but Brennan disagreed. The two may drift apart, but like magnets, they'd find a way back. She had quit her job for him. They both adamantly protested the fact that it was because of him, but Brennan's untrained eye could easily read that Kelly's unending respect for her brother would never allow her to compete with him.

"The Jeffersonian has an Office of General Counsel." Brennan told him once he was off the phone.

"What?" He cast a quick glance her way as he turned onto the highway.

"Lawyers. The Jeffersonian employs a handful of lawyers. However, there is talks about adding a few more attorneys to the payroll."

"People sue the Jeffersonian?" He laughed with disbelief.

"It happens quite frequently." She nodded. "But the OGC also protects intellectual property, controls ethics, fights tort claims… There's the whole Freedom of Information Act… they also assist the U.S. Attorney's office if there's ever a trial."

"You're telling me this because…"

"I can put in a good word for Kelly. It won't be the exciting criminal defense world, a lot less time in a court room and more paperwork, but I think she'd be good at it."

"Kelly sitting behind a desk?" Booth snorted a little. "I want to be there when you suggest it to her."

"You think it's a bad idea." Brennan nodded, looking out the windshield.

"No, I love the idea." Booth explained. "The thought of my little sister hanging out in jails really does not sit well with me. If I had to chose, I'd have her representing mummified remains in a court of law. I just don't think she'll go for it."

"Why?"

"Tort law?" He looked at her incredulously. "Negligence? Liability? Defamation? Not really Kelly's thing."

"There are intentional tort laws like battery, assault and wrongful imprisonment." Brennan reminded him.

"Would she really be dealing with that at the Jeffersonian?"

"No." She conceded. "But abuse of power, maybe."

"Not unless Cam decides to go postal on the Squint Squad." He shrugged "I say it's worth a shot. When life hands you lemons,"

"I know this colloquialism." Brennan interrupted with a smile. "You make lemonade."

"No," Booth laughed. "You make orange juice and then wonder how the hell you did it."

"That doesn't make sense." She furrowed her eyebrows together.

"Pops used to tell us that. He was saying we're given the tools to make one thing, but try something else and see what happens."

"Couldn't he have just said that?"

"Telling a 10 year old that they "possess certain skills" and should that they "should utilize the environment around them" to "create a different outcome" or whatever it is you would have said doesn't really stick. Lemons and orange juice, though…"

"Working as the Jeffersonian's counsel would be very different for her."

"Orange juice." Booth nodded and grinned. "It would be nice to have her on our side."

"And in our offices." Brennan agreed. She knew that Booth would never say it, but having her there would allow him to keep an eye on her, however covertly he chose to do so. She only hoped that Kelly wouldn't see that.

*

9 year old Kelly Booth jumped off the last step out of the big, yellow school bus that had taken her class to the farm. Darting around her classmates, she spotted her brother up ahead, speaking with her teacher. She grinned as she ran towards him.

"Seeley!" She called out as she nearly knocked over Jenny Sheldon. Her brother had joined the Army and now he was home, taking a bit of time off to start on completing his college education. When her teacher, Miss Childress, had sent out a note to the parents asking for chaperones for their farm field trip, it had been Seeley who had offered to take his mother's place.

She ran up next to him and slipped her little hand into his large protective one. She looked up at him and grinned a lopsided grin. She was 9. She knew she was getting too old to be holding her brother's hand, but she didn't care when she heard some of the boys in her class teasing her. He gave her hand a light squeeze.

"You're going to protect me from the goats, right?" He asked as he grinned back.

"Your brother was just telling me about the run in with the goat at the petting zoo when you were little." Miss Childress smiled at Seeley. Kelly frowned back. Seeley should not be sharing personal stories with her teacher.

"Goats like to play headbutt." She stuck her nose up in the air at her teacher. "I do too."

"Kelly." Seeley tried to admonish her for being rude, but he smiled a little.

"I'm going to do a head count." Miss Childress said gracefully, backing away from the two of them. "Thank you again, Mr. Booth, for helping us out today."

"It's my pleasure." He smiled back.

"You like her." Kelly whined once Miss Childress was out of earshot and they started off towards the entrance to the farm. "You think she's pretty."

"Maybe I do." He shrugged, still holding her hand.

"If you start dating her, I better get good grades." She pointed a small finger up at him.

"I don't think I'm going to start dating her." He chuckled

"Whatever." She conceded, "I can get good grades without you."