Brennan fidgeted nervously in the back of the FBI van. She concentrated on taking deep breaths and fiddled with her hands as she waited. Her doctors had agreed to release her, though Booth had continued to fight her on the subject. That she could handle. It was the constant fussing and doting that she had to endure from him on the plane ride to California that had nearly made her lose her mind.

She had been in the van for only around half an hour when she saw the agents starting to file out of the building. Her heart dropped into her abdomen. If the mission was over this quickly, surely something had gone wrong. She found herself saying a silent prayer to a god she didn't believe in that Booth hadn't been injured. Or worse.

Her curiosity got the better of her and she could no longer sit still and abide by Booth's rules. She jumped from the surveillance unit and approached an agent who was putting his weapon back into a case nearby.

"What's wrong?"

"There isn't anyone in there," he answered her as he jerked thumb toward the door.

"No one?"

"Just a dead body in the garden."

Brennan ran into the building and found Booth and Hodgins standing in the foyer. "Where is everyone?"

"They've initiated the evacuation plan," Hodgins said.

"What?" Brennan asked.

"The evacuation plan. Remember when I was telling you two about the first Facility?"

"Vaguely," Booth did remember Hodgins speaking of a group of inhabitants that had tried to escape around the time he mother was first taken.

"It was in Wyoming. When the first group of inhabitants tried to escape, The Leader was afraid that they had compromised his position. He had a plan in place to move everyone to a second location. This one. If he had those plans once, he had them again."

"You think they're all off in some new secret location now? You think that's The Leader's body outside?"

As the men spoke, Brennan left Booth's side to wander about The Facility, hoping that it would jog her memory of being there the week before.

"Yeah and I think your mother may have led the charge. Her and George. The rest of the work could've been carried out by the other inhabitants. The plan and location would've already been in place; with George's position in The Facility he would've had inside information."

"What if they rebelled against Mom? What if they've killed her?"

"I don't think they have Booth."

Booth turned to see Brennan return. "How do you know?"

She took him by the hand and led him down a long, stark hallway lined on either side with large, steel doors. Hodgins followed along behind them as she led him into the seventh room down on the left. "This was your mother's room."

"All these rooms look the same Bones, how can you be sure that you found the right one?"

"Because of these," Brennan said as she opened up the nightstand drawer.

Inside was a picture and three rings.

"She made sure she got these back to me."

Booth took the rings from the drawer and slowly placed them on Brennan's hands. He rubbed his thumb along her wedding rings.

He let go of her hands and removed the picture. As Booth examined the image of his mother and his daughter, smiling up at him from the photograph, it all finally made sense.

"George didn't mess up."

"What?"

"When he used the wrong name on the flight manifest. He didn't mess up."

Brennan and Hodgins exchanged confused glances.

"Mom made those reservations. She knew. She knew that using that name would lead us to The Facility. She wanted me to know what she had done." He stopped and drew a breath. "Even if she didn't want me to find her."

"Your mother is the hero. Because of her everyone wins."

"Everyone but The Leader," Hodgins added as he smiled and left the room.

Booth had already realized that.

However, that realization didn't make any of this hurt any less. The reality of where they were standing hit Booth hard. He was in the room that his mother had lived in; in the room where she had sat night after night during his childhood, probably reading a book or sewing the hem of a dress. It was where she was when he had his first fight, when he walked across the stage at his high school graduation, all the nights he had spent in some hell hole waiting on the perfect shot. This room was where his mother had fallen asleep the night Parker had been born, and when Christine had made him and Brennan a real family.

He closed his eyes tight against the onslaught of memories. He sank to his knees as he recalled nights spent praying that God would bring his mommy back. Times that even as an adult when he forgot that she was gone. That when for the briefest of moments he forgot that she was dead. He gripped the photo so hard in his hands that the edges crinkled. His tears fell unchecked onto the matte finish of the digital print. He mourned for his mother and grieved for the family that had been taken from him.

Booth finally had all the answers for the mysteries of his childhood.

He almost didn't feel her hand at first. He didn't notice that Brennan had dropped to her knees as well. Didn't realize that she had placed her hand over his knuckles, which had turned white from the force he was exerting on the picture. Almost didn't know that she had laid her forehead against his and was swaying back and forth while holding him in an embrace made awkward by their positions on the floor.

But then he did.

And then he knew. He knew that everything was going to be fine. His mother couldn't give him back the years that his father had stolen from him. She couldn't return to him the memories that they never had the chance to make. But she had done the one thing that only she could do.

His mother had returned his future to him.

Hester and George stood in the middle of a large open room. Around them were all one hundred inhabitants. The pair had told their story only after they had relocated everyone to the new Facility. They had not revealed that George had been the one to end The Leader's life; that he had put a bullet through his head with the very gun that The Leader had given him to stop The Inhabitants from leaving, were anyone to ever attempt it.

Otherwise, everyone was well aware that they might have been brought to The Facility under false pretenses. But no one wanted to leave. This was their family now. For whatever circumstances had brought them together, all that mattered now was that it was what it was supposed to be.

As she and George passed out brushes, cans and rags, Hester stood back to observe a section of wall that had already been completed. She smiled at what she saw.

"Yes, I think that this is the perfect shade of blue for the walls."

Author's Note:

I started working on this piece last winter. It has changed shape and direction many times over these past months mainly because I found myself very unsatisfied with the ending. The original ending of this story was miles away from what you've just read. And I do think that the ending I have now is exactly what it needed to be. Although, judging by your comments, I don't think it is what many of you were expecting. My intention was to have the entire story posted well before the end of season seven, but obviously, that did not happen.

I have to thank three very special people for all their help while I was writing this story. First of all Frankie, who was there in the very beginning when I said, "I have this weird idea, what do you think?" Rynogeny, who was also there from very early on and wasn't afraid to say "this isn't working," and then proceeded to help me figure out how to make my vision for Booth's unhappy ending a much clearer reality. (The idea for the evacuation plan was all hers.) And last but not least I have to think someonetookmyname for her detailed and quick beta work. Because when I was ready to publish a chapter she was always quick on the draw to look it over and point out all the flaws that needed to be fixed first. She never made me wait and I am very thankful for that. Without these three ladies, this story never would have been written.

I also want to think each and every person who read this story. To thank those of you who put this in your alerts or added it to your favorites. Everyone who reviewed a chapter and those who faithfully reviewed every chapter made me smile a little bit more with each ding of the incoming email.

This story has consumed me over the past eight months and it feels good to finally have it all out. I have learned a lot while writing and I know that I have truly grown as a writer through this experience. My original goal was to reach 30,000 words (my longest fan fiction to date), and this ends at just under 40,000 and it looks like it'll limp to just over 100 reviews.

And if anyone is still reading at this point I just want to thank you all once again for sticking with me despite the delays and broken promises and I hope that you enjoyed the ride at least half as much as I did!

Thank you!

~ Bailey