"Brennan, you need to tell him. Maggie is almost sixteen months old now. You cannot keep pretending that her father is off in some far off country. He is two blocks away from your house, Brennan. Two!" Angela spoke softly, rocking the young child in her arms. "You even moved to be closer to him."
"I know but…"
"He has a child… a daughter. Don't you think he would enjoy fact that his daughter is almost as smart as her mother?"
"Angela… it just isn't like that, okay? With us it is different… it has always been different." She averted her gaze, fixating on the bright coloured keys dangling from her diaper bag.
"I know it is, Bren. You two are the most suborn people I have ever met but he will want to know about this… her. He deserves to know he has a child."
Brennan meekly nodded in response. As good as a mother she knew she could be, her daughter deserved both of her parents. Once he was a man who prided himself on taking care of his family, sure that part of him hadn't changed… she hoped.
"So how was your lecture?" Angela smiled, placing the now slumbering child in her mother's arms.
"It was um… uh… eventful." She fumbled, rocking her daughter softly as she gripped her mother's shirt tightly.
"You didn't go, did you? What was his name this time?" Angela sternly spoke to her friend, trying not to wake the child.
Brennan looked down at her daughter and sighed, chewing roughly at the inside of her bottom lip.
"We go through this every couple of months. You come up with some lecture you need to do, just to cancel it at the last second so you can romp around with some guy who is half your age and has no idea you have a child. She is a human being, Brennan." Angela glared, firmly.
"I know but… you don't know what it is like Ang. I am a single mother."
"By your own devices. You know for a fact if you told him about her that he would be involved in her life, 110%. His natural instinct to protect his young is still intact. He may not act like the Booth we all knew and loved but he will love his child, he will." Angela placed her hand on her friend's arm trying to keep the tears at bay.
Temperance Brennan had for years declared her need to be independent and do everything herself but in the few months since Maggie's birth Angela had seen Brennan's walls come crashing down without the security of Booth's arms to protect her. She was fragile and petrified. She needed Booth to survive, not the man he was now but the man he once was… the man who loved her.
"But what if he doesn't?" Brennan whispered her deep darkest fear, that her child would be rejected by him just as she had.
"He will, Bren. He will. And if he doesn't we will send your father after him."
"I am not sure that will be necessary, Angela." Brennan shrugged, "Maybe I should just send him a certified letter."
"What would it say? 'You have a daughter and I was too much of a chicken to tell you I was pregnant when you returned so she has spent her life fatherless. I would appreciate if you would step up and act like her father.' Real original, Bren. You need to tell him in person."
"I am sure I can articulate my meaning much better with written words." Her words fell flat.
"You have been saying you will do that for months and you never have. You see him weekly. You have had ample time to tell him but instead you hide from him at all costs. Do you really think he believed you had an emergency dig for exactly ten months, starting the week after he got back? I got news for you Bren, no one did."
Brennan stared at her confidant blankly, unsure of what to say. They had gone round and round with this only to reach the same conclusion, Brennan was a chicken.
"I need to get Mag home." Brennan turned to walk down the sidewalk to her car, "For dinner." She added for emphasis.
"Kiss her goodnight." Angela smiled, waving at her friend. They both knew Brennan had reached her limit and was fleeing.
"I will." Brennan spoke softly, rocking and humming to the suddenly waking child.
As Brennan pulled onto the main street her heart began to race. Her eyes fluttered down toward the clock. 7:07 p.m. In exactly twenty three minutes Parker's soccer team was to play their arch rivals. She wasn't sure if Booth was going to be there but she knew without a doubt Rebecca would be. Maybe Rebecca would know what to do; she did have experience with having Booth's child and it was her duty to tell Rebecca Parker had a sister.
With an expelled breath, Brennan made a sharp left and turned onto the freeway. She had just enough time to make it.