"Grandpa!" Maggie giggled as she ran arms wide open to the front door, "You'll never guess what I did today." The little girl beamed as she wrapped her small arms around her grandfather.

"What Mags?" Max couldn't help but laugh at the infectious giggles radiating her small form. Maggie's smile was one that few could resist but the way her eyes lit up that morning spoke of a peace beyond her few years on this earth.

"Mommy and daddy took me to the zoo!" The little girl squealed as she squirmed from Max's grasp above her father on the couch, "Daddy even let me pet a goat! Mommy said the goat was going to eat my shirt but… but daddy let me! He was so warm and soft and… and… grandpa, can I have a goat?" The child began to ramble but all Max could focus on was the man sleeping soundly on couch.

"Your father?" The words slowly rolled off his tongue with a lightly masked twinge of disgust.

Max knew all too well how stubborn his daughter could be, but how she could keep a child from her father was beyond him. It was his duty as her protector to know these things, not just let her disappear without a fight. In Max's eyes he had given his daughter to the man now sleeping smugly before him, and all he was given in return was heartbreak in the form of innocent tears. For years he thought they would get married and live happily ever after, not run as far as they could from each other leaving one little girl with a broken heart and shattered dreams. And betraying that little angel's heart was one thing Max could never stand for. He better have a damn good reason for his actions, and even then, Max doubted if that was enough.

"Yeah," Maggie nodded, "He's the best daddy ever."

"Awe Maggiebear," Booth cooed, "That is not going to get you out of cleaning your room." Booth sighed as he slowly rolled onto his back, cradling his daughter tightly to his chest, "If you don't the tickle monster is going to come and get you." He laughed as he ran his fingers against her ribs until fits of giggles filled the room.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Maggie gasped between giggles, "Stop! You… you're not… grandpa make him stop!" The fleeting sense of fear filling Maggie's words was enough to send Max over the edge as his hand came crashing down, stopping Booth's movements with his protective glare.

"Booth…" Max growled as he tightened his grasp on the now wide-eyed man before him.

"Max!" Booth shrieked in horror, "We… we were just playing…" He hoarsely confessed, instantly petrified by the man who had held together the two woman he adored in his wake.

The two men's eyes locked but Max's cold as ice stare soon relented as gratitude and shame danced across Booth's features. For all he had done Booth owed Max his life and the sincerity rimming around his eyes was enough to pacify the fears Max held deep within.

"Grandpa," Maggie smiled as she broke the knowing tension, "I want juice."

"So demanding." Max chuckled as he felt a slight tug on his shoulder, "The Brennan woman…"

"Can't get enough of it." Booth finished Max's sentence as both men chuckled and in that moment a silent understanding seemed to pass between the men, one of a deep devotion to the two women that had found their way into their hearts.

"Margret, you need to…" Brennan's words stopped short when she heard a very familiar set of footsteps follow Maggie's soft ones, "Oh, hi dad." She tried to nonchalantly play off the pink hue rising up her checks but it was clear to everyone in the room she was hiding a very big, life altering secret. She was caught red handed with a small stick that for that moment seemed to hold all the answers she sought.

"With my increasingly busy schedule and appointments, it seems I have-" Brennan began to ramble as her mind tried to process how to best handle the situation and dispose of the evidence.

How was she to confess something she had barely been able to acknowledge herself? It had been weeks since the initial test, yet the shock of it all had yet to set in. She was pregnant... again by the man of her dreams, a time in her life when she should be ecstatic. Yet the thought of having another one of his children petrified her more than a gun to the head ever could. She was committing herself again to a man who had proved his flight response was just as strong as her own and the thought of him fleeing was just too unbearable.

"Booth is the father isn't he?" Max just smiled as his eyes raked over his daughter's radiating figure, "How far along?" At Brennan's gasp he knew he had hit the nail on the head, "Two months? No… no… I'd say three." He couldn't help but laugh as disbelieve mixed with an undeniable Temperance glare seemed to bombard his every movement.

"Temp, I survived three Brennan pregnancies. I think I qualify as an expert."

It may not have been noticeable to most but the way his daughter was carrying herself was a clear indication of a Brennan woman with child. She may have been able to hide it even from herself, but the way her hips lightly swayed against her grasping fingertips was an indication he would never forget. She was pregnant and he had a sneaking suspicion he would be seeing lots of blue in his future.

"I think it's a boy." Booth lightly chuckled as he slowly entered the kitchen and picked up his daughter as she slowly drifted to sleep. "Bones says it is too early to tell but I mean, come on, it has to be a boy. I am not sure if I can take another Brennan woman running around here."

"Booth!" Brennan hissed as her eyes locked on the man standing to her side, "I thought we discussed this."

"He's your father, Bones. He deserves to know. Did you honestly think he was going to be coming around here and not notice I am living here and you are carrying my child?"

"That reminds me, son," Max smiled his sly, cunning smile that seemed to stop the veteran FBI agent in his tracks, "you mind if we go for a walk… and talk?"

"Uh…" Booth's eyes fell on Brennan but she just smiled as she took their slumbering daughter in her arms.

"I think that is a wonderful idea." She nodded, unable to keep the sarcasm from dripping from every word. "And don't be gone long or dinner will be cold."

"Mark my words, Bones; whatever happens… you started it." Booth eyed his girlfriend with a knowing smile before being whisked away by a determined father-in-law. "And get rid of those stupid tests! I love you, you love me and we're pregnant. Get over it!"

And little did she know the romantic monster she had just created.