Chapter Six:

Booth rushed over to her noticing the pained expression on her face. She buried her head into his chest. He stroked her hair, calming her down. "It was just a dream Temperance."

She looked up at him, her eye were glossy, her face was tear streaked from the night before. Booth never thought his partner would be that vulnerable. It was a whole new side of her. "I know it was just a dream Booth. It just seemed so real, and she seemed to be in so much pain." She muttered. She pushed off his chest and looked at him. "You are the only one besides Angela who knows about Elizabeth, and she only found out because the picture fell out of my purse one day." She told him.

"Bones you really should talk about her more. She's your little girl. You need to grieve for her and remember her." Booth explained. They had told the men when they got back from war that they should talk about their experiences with others, to help deal with the pain.

"But to grieve her is to accept that she is gone, and I just can't. I feel her still. I'm her mother, I would know if she was gone." She shot back at him.

"Don't get mad, but I told Cam to run your DNA against the girls that were found." She was getting ready to interrupt when he stopped her, "It would be a conflict of interest to have you on the case with a suspicion that a victim could be Elizabeth, but we don't know that yet. DNA would be the quickest." She nodded in agreeing with her partner.

"You're right Booth. Besides the chances of Elizabeth still being alive are slim to none, right?" She said. Brennan really didn't want to accept that her daughter was gone, but there was no evidence that she could hold on to.

"Bones there is always hope. We don't know anything for sure. Ethan could have made a mistake, the bracelet may have been bought at a market, but . . . there is a strong possibility that Elizabeth may still be alive." Booth explained to her, helping her off Parker's bed.

"Thanks Booth." She whispered. She followed him into the kitchen where a self-sufficient Parker had decided to "help" by trying to pour his own cereal.

Booth caught his son in time from dumping a whole gallon on milk to compliment the entire box of Coco Puffs. He ruffled his son's hair while Brennan started to help him clean up the mess. At that second Booth realized how truly lucky he was.

Later at the lab:

Booth had dropped Parker off at the FBI to shadow an agent there, in fact, his boss, Cullen had volunteered considering that Booth needed to work on a case that wasn't exactly made of a child's young mind. Cam had collected the sample from Brennan and was now running the electrophoresis machine to read the DNA.

Angela walked in to the office, looking extremely tired. "Angela, you look like hell." Brennan commented.

"Gee, thanks Bren, you don't sugar coat things do you?" Angela replied. "Besides, I have a very good reason for looking bad."

Booth grabbed his coffee cup from Brennan's desk. "If I need to leave you two to talk about your sordid sex lives, you can find me with Hodgins betting on the beetle races."

"Booth, you have a . . ." Brennan started to comment on his gambling addiction. Booth put up a hand to silence her to explain the obvious sarcasm she didn't pick up on, but Angela beat him to it.

"I have a treat for you. I need you at the Angelator." Angela explained to them. She grabbed Brennan's hand. "This is something you both have to see." Entering the next room, Brennan's curiosity peaked.

"What do you have for us Ange?" Booth questioned.

"Well, I couldn't do a facial reconstruction until the bones were cleaned and the skulls put back together." Angela began with the obvious. Both of the children's skulls had been smashed and Zach and Brennan were taking turns putting the pieces back together. "But what I could do was compare what Brennan's child would look like to definitely rule out her as a possibility."

"How did you do that?" Booth asked. He knew there was aging programs out there, but there were so many variables.

"Easy, I took both of your facial structures and meshed them together, then decreased the age to three years old, and voila." She proclaimed. The three of them watched as Brennan and Booth were meshed together with the aide to the Angelator, and then made younger. "None of the missing children could possibly be a Brennan."

Brennan looked at the 3D model of what her child would look like. "Booth." She whispered.

Booth stared at the picture. "She's beautiful Bones." Angela quietly left the room for the duo to get some privacy.

Booth and Brennan left the Angelator several minutes later. Brennan seemed satisfied with Angela's assessment and was going to congratulate her when she heard her best friend across the lab.

"Will you two quite it with the King of the Lab crap!" She screeched. "I swear, sometimes I feel like I am a kindergarten teacher."

Zach looked at his mentor. "I think I should be king of the lab because I finished piecing the skulls back together."

Hodgins countered back, "I should be king because I can link the two victims together."

Booth put his fingers to his mouth and whistled. That got the group's attention. "You," he pointed to Angela, "get to sketching. Hodgins, tell me what you found."

"Both girls had residue of fertilizer on them."

"The were found in a sporting complex." Booth said, getting exasperated.

"Dude, let me finish. The fertilizer is only used in one specific neighborhood in Virginia, it is something about their homeowner's association."

"Do we have an address for the missing girls?"

Zach looked at the computer. "Here is the kicker, only one girl lived there who is in missing persons, McKenna DeLaney." Zach wrote down the address and gave it to the duo. They waited for Angela to finish with the sketches before the left for Virginia.

Booth put a protective hand on Brennan's back and escorted her out the door. "Bones are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah Booth, thanks." She answered. The unseasonably cold air in November hit their faces, and Booth pulled Brennan closer, rubbing her arms. Sweets would have had a field day with that. As if reading his mind, Brennan looked at her partner, "Maybe we should cancel our appointment with Dr. Sweets today. I don't think we'll make it."

AN: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. It is much appreciated and it feeds the soul. I got this chapter out for Red Lighting who needed a pick me up. I will write a little more, hopefully. I hope that everyone had a good day. Please review and give ideas. I like Dr. Sweet so I am going to try to incorporate him some how. What do you think?