Haha!! Finally suceeded in throwing in a twist no one saw coming (pats self on back) glad to hear it. Now, many of you had questions as to Max's motives and what he is or isn't responsible for, and many of you will find your answers in this chap...

---Monday---

The day seemed gloomy on purpose. Gray ominous skies ushered in what would surly be a horrendous thunderstorm that night while incidentally providing the perfect backdrop to the drama playing out below.

"Dad?" The shock in Brennan's face quickly turned to anger. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Behind him Brennan saw another figure standing in the shadows.

Russ no doubt.

Max glanced at his daughter before returning his gaze to Booth.

"I'm sorry Tempe, but something has to be done."

"Something has to be done about what?" Brennan turned back to David and Madison. The little girl had huge fat tears rolling down her cheeks and her tiara lay on the ground a few feet away, broken in two.

David was now completely still, biting his lower lip, having mustered up a courage he had no reason to have and imitating perfectly the stony expression both Parker and Booth wore. Brennan didn't know whether she felt proud of her seven-year-old son showing such courage, or angry because he had to.

The sound of her father's voice brought Brennan out of her thoughts.

"I'd stop reaching for that gun if I were you Agent Booth. You wouldn't want your children to see you like that would you? A killer?"

Booth paused and Brennan looked at him.

"Just shoot him Booth. Gordon Gordon will talk to the kids later." She spat, a familiar fire blazing in her eyes.

Max's mouth dropped. "But Tempe…"

"No! You have no right to drop back into my life and do this. I haven't seen you in three years and now not only are you here but you're trying to take my kids from me? No."

Brennan suddenly turned and marched right up to the man holding Madison. Before he had a chance to react she'd rammed the heel of her right hand directly into his nose, eliciting a sickening crack when it broke. As he let go of the little girl to tend to his wound, Brennan grabbed Madison and pulled her close, kissing her forehead.

Booth almost smiled at the way Brennan went from fearless warrior to tender mother like the flipping of a light switch.

God I love her. A thought he couldn't help but have, even though he knew it was entirely off topic at that moment.

"Sweetie I want you to go inside. Go right now, find Aunt Angela and stay with her okay?"

"No mommy I…"

"Go Princess." Booth said calmly, his eyes never leaving Max's face.

Madison's eyes flickered toward her father and then back to her mother. She nodded and ran to the door, ignoring completely the battered and broken pieces of a tiara at her feet.

Brennan took a deep breath and stood, looking at the figure holding David. The broad shouldered man glanced at his bleeding colleague, then at their fearless leader. He really didn't want to go head to head with this woman, especially since they'd been given instructions in no uncertain terms of what would happen if one hair on any of Max's families' heads was harmed.

He didn't want that either.

After receiving a curt nod from Max, the man put David on the ground and stepped back.

"Go take care of your sister." Was all Brennan said, running a hand over the top of his head reassuringly. David looked at his father and mother, then at his older brother.

"Parker too?" He questioned, biting his lower lip in a way reminiscent of his mother.

Booth nodded, his hand still poised on his gun, which rested in it's holster, and answered before Max had the chance.

"Parker too."

Max raised his eyebrow, but didn't object. "Fine. Doesn't really matter. We'll come back for them. Tempe too."

Booth heard the door click shut and whipped out his gun, training it on Max's head.

"Like hell." He muttered.

Brennan stepped forward. She could tell by the way their attackers were moving that none of them had guns. Booth couldn't shoot unarmed men, the reasons why were really too abundant to point out.

"Seeley." She put a staying arm on his shoulder and he relaxed only slightly.

"I haven't cocked it yet Babe." He said, only half-jokingly.

"Babe?" Max rolled his eyes. "Original Agent Booth."

Brennan turned to her father slowly, the look of fury on her face was one Booth had never seen matched. He wondered how many of them would make it out of this alive.

"Dad. You're quite fortunate I'm someone who can't stand to have questions left unanswered or you'd be a dead man right now." She told him gravely, stepping between Booth and her father, indicating this was fight she intended to take on alone. Booth understood and did not protest.

"So tell me what this is all about."

Max seemed satisfied that she'd finally asked. "Well, Tempe, it seems Agent Booth here has a few enemies."

Booth knitted his eyebrows together and glanced at a few of the other men.

"What are you talking about?" Brennan looked back at Booth and then at her father. "Of course he has enemies. We both do."

Max left his eyes on Booth, the amusement that had been there before was replaced with hostility and they grew cold.

"I gave you three days Agent Booth. You did nothing. You let them be in danger."

Booth narrowed his eyes, realizing Max knew as much about the situation his children were in as he did.

"How do you know about any of that?"

"C'mon Booth, you really think a guy like me spends twenty years on the run and doesn't rack up a few contacts?"

Booth's shoulders slumped and Max continued, both of them ignoring the wide-eyed look Brennan was giving them, her mouth open with words she couldn't figure out how to say. Why did the both her father and her husband seem to know about something she didn't?

"They each had an agent on them. They weren't in any immediate danger, I wouldn't allow that to happen. And I am going to find out who is behind all this."

"Oh? So you knew about the man parked out in front of David's school today? Because I can tell you for a fact the agent I passed on my way to kill him certainly didn't."

Booth's mouth dropped and he tilted his head.

"No…that's impossible."

"Not impossible Booth!" Max stepped forward, his voice rising with each syllable, "I told you to protect them! To take care of them. You've failed to do that. You're still running around the country chasing serial killers and sociopaths. Worse yet you're taking Tempe with you, is that what you call taking care of her?" Max thrust a finger in his daughter's direction.

"You've failed Agent Booth. I thought Tempe would be better off here with you, I see now I was wrong and they are coming with me. All of them." Max shook his head slowly, his mouth upturned in disgust, "You're lucky I don't kill you where you stand."

Brennan, at this point, had had enough and any hurt or vulnerability she'd been feeling upon seeing her father, vanished. She was not too keen on being out of the loop, but when someone threatened her partner, she got pissed. Especially when that partner happened to be her husband.

In one swift motion she stepped behind Max, grabbed his left arm and twisted it hard up behind his back. The pain radiating from his shoulder brought the man down to one knee and Russ stepped forward.

"Stay back Russ or I let Booth shoot you too." She hissed, not even bothering to turn around.

Russ stopped. "Tempe…"

"Now, is someone going to tell me what's going on?" She cut him off, "Because the older bones are, that much longer they take to set." She accompanied her last word with a slight push on Max's shoulder and he winced. She was only slightly disturbed that inflicting pain on her father after all these years was accompanied by a twinge of satisfaction.

Just like I always thought it would.

"Tempe please…"

"One more word Russ and I'll shoot you myself." Brennan snapped, her tone revealing the seriousness of her threat and Booth had to smile at the way Russ seemed to recoil in on himself. But his satisfaction faded quickly when Max addressed him once more.

"Well…are you going to tell her?"

"Tell me what?!"

Both men ignored her question.

"I am going to tell her. But in my own time, and that time is certainly not in the middle of my children being kidnapped."

Max's eyes snapped to Booth's in a glare that anyone else would have found intimidating. But…Booth doesn't intimidate.

"Well, Agent Booth, I wouldn't have to kidnap anyone if you weren't such an idiot." Brennan's grip tightened on his arm but he continued uninterrupted. "What if you hadn't made it out of there today? Who would protect them from the Mara Muerte then Booth?" Max shouted, and it echoed off the stillness of the fog slowly surrounding them and it was several seconds before anyone spoke. Before anyone breathed.

The calm before the storm.

Booth's face darkened and Brennan suddenly released Max, a look of confusion painted across her face.

"What has this got to do with the Mara Muerte?" She looked at her father and her father looked at Booth.

"You're right Tempe, Agent Booth does have some enemies. One of them a very angry gang leader."

Brennan's face was slowly graced with recognition and she began shaking her head.

"That's my fault."

Both Max and Booth's heads snapped in her direction.

"What?"

Brennan pursed her lips. "I beat up Ortez in the FBI building seven years ago. I wounded his pride. I can't believe he would hold a grudge over something so stupid for seven years …but it's the only logical explanation." The hostility left her features for a moment as she tried to piece together what pieces she had and for a moment, she was only a scientist working on a hypothesis.

"We haven't had any dealings with the Mara Muerte since then…so that's got to be it. If our family, any of us, are in danger from the Mara Muerte, then it's because of me." Brennan looked at her father and the scientist had been replaced with the warrior once more.

Booth fought to keep his expression impassive as guilt rose in his chest.

"No Bones. None of you are in danger."

"You can bet on that Agent." Max hissed. "Because I've taken care of Ortez. I've taken care of it, I've taken care of you, the same way I always have."

Max let his head bow in pain and grunted as Russ came to help him stand.

Brennan stared at her father and watched Booth out of the corner of her eye. He seemed tense, but under the circumstances, that was to be expected.

"You mean you murdered him." Brennan said quietly, anger, hurt and disbelief coexisting in her voice.

The answer she did not receive from either her brother or her father was answer enough for Brennan. "Get the hell out of my life."

"What?" Max's mouth dropped in shock.

"You heard me. If Booth says we were safe then we were. You had no right to take the law into your own hands, now get out of here before I take it into mine."

"Tempe…I'm your father. I was just trying to keep you safe." Max's shocked tone was now slightly pleading but Brennan didn't budge.

Instead she let out a bark of laughter that surprised all her male counterparts in the vicinity.

"And you really think David, Sonny and I would be safer with you, a wanted criminal, than with Seeley, a decorated war veteran and FBI agent? C'mon Max, my father? Try again. Not only did you abandon me over 20 years ago and have been absent at best since then…but you're a murderer. You kill people, you set them on fire. You robbed banks…you do all that and still expect me to call you my father?" She shook her head.

"No. I refuse to claim a murderer and a thief as family. You. Are. Not. My father." Her blue eyes were ice and Max shivered.

"But Tempe…"

"My name is Dr. Temperance Brennan-Booth and you will address me as such." She stated sharply, "I'm a grown woman Max. I'm old enough to choose for myself who to trust and who to believe. I trust Seeley with everything I am and with the safety of our family. He's never given me a reason not to and you have never given me a reason to believe a word you say. I've made my decision and he's it." She took a step back and stood beside Booth to illustrate her point.

"Now. If you value your freedom, you will leave right now and take all these men with you. If I ever see your face again I won't hesitate to get your picture into every post office and on every TV screen in the country and don't think for a second that I can't, or won't do it. You are a criminal and you've used up all your chances. Go now, and don't ever come back."

More tomorrow if it's wanted peeps.