Daddy's Little Girl

By Hazelmist

A/N: Sorry I know this is like 5 years later but here's chapter two! Unfortunately, I've only seen the first few episodes of season 8 and none of season 9 so please no Spoilers and I am ignoring those seasons obviously. This story was already in motion LONG before season 8 premiered so this story is AU after the season 7 finale.

Chapter One: 5 Years Later

2017

It starts with the call.

It's almost five in the morning when he gets the call and he's understandably a little groggy and disoriented. Yesterday had been another rough day and he'd spent another disappointed night in his office, going over the same dead ends. He knows it's hopeless but even after all these years he can't stop himself from trying to do something.

"What's the matter? Is everything okay?" he asks in between yawns.

"Damn, I forgot about the time difference. Don't worry we're both fine. What time is it there?"

Seeley Booth squints at the digital clock. He won't be getting any more sleep tonight. "It's not important," he says, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "What's up?"

He can hear her take a deep breath on the other end of the line and even though she's thousands of miles away, he knows that something's seriously bothering her but that she hasn't quite made up her mind whether she wants to share it with him. He sighs.

"You just woke me up out of a sound sleep and you're not even going to tell me what's bugging you?"

She chuckles because he knows her so well. Almost five years ago his world fell apart. His relationship with so many had been strained, and shaken, and destroyed altogether as he pushed them away; but it had surprised them both when she had reached out to him after everything that happened and it actually helped him cope. Maybe it's because she is so far away most of the time, maybe it's because they do share something like he had with her, maybe it's because sometimes he can almost pretend that it is her.

It's probably because she actually lets him see his kid.

"Maybe I just missed you," she teases him. Booth rolls his eyes.

"Rebecca, I know I'm easy to miss but I think it could've waited until the time difference was more agreeable, don't you think?"

"It couldn't wait," Rebecca exhales on the other line and he can hear her anxiously fiddling with something. "Seeley, I'm not sure I should tell you this," she hesitates, still nervous. "Parker could be wrong and if I were to get your hopes up…"

Booth gets up from the bed, suddenly wide awake and alert.

"Tell me."

She tells him. He get so quiet that she wonders if he hung up on her or if one of them had lost service and the call was dropped.

"Seeley?"

Her voice comes to him from miles and miles away. He's lost in a memory, caught up in the enchanting blue eyes of a woman that captivated him with love at first sight. He realizes suddenly that he still believes in fate, that he never stopped believing in it, despite everything that had happened and even though she refused from their very first meeting to even entertain the idea of it. He almost laughs at the absurdity of it all, because there are billions of people in the world and thousands of countries and cultures that she could have easily lost herself in. And yet of all the places, and all the people, somehow five years later he gets this phone call from Rebecca.

"You're sure?" he finally asks, picking up the framed photograph on his bedside table. It's the same picture that he carries with him everywhere. A restored copy of the photograph he'd been found clinging to on a night nearly five years before when his world had literally been blown apart. It was all he had left of them, until now.

"I'm not certain of anything right now," Rebecca sighs into the phone, but she knows that she's about to make his mind up for him right now if he hasn't already. "But Parker…he's sure."

He carefully replaces the picture and rises from the bed. He's followed so many false leads, gotten his hopes up so many times, and felt that painful heartache grow stronger with every disappointment that he wonders if this will be the one that breaks him. Will he finally accept that they're gone? But this time it's different. He can feel it. It's more than just a desperate hope or a gut feeling. This is it.

Rebecca knows it too, she wouldn't have called him otherwise, but she's still worried.

"Seeley, promise me you're not going to do anything stupid."

But he's already hanging up on her so he can call the airline. He calls out from work for the next week and books the next available flight. He's airborne and crossing the Atlantic by the time the first rays of sunlight light up the faces of the woman and the newborn baby in the framed photograph on his nightstand.

"You're an idiot," Rebecca tells him as soon as he lands. She 's waiting for him at the airport with Parker, despite the fact that she told him he's in this on his own if he's going to play the reckless hero and do this without thinking it over first or taking the proper precautions.

"Probably," he says, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "But you already knew that when you called me."

She shakes her head, unable to hide her smile as he hugs Parker. His son has grown quite a bit since he'd last seen him and he shares another glance with Rebecca.

"Hey, I see him every day and I swear he grew a whole six inches last night. He's eating me out of house and home. Pretty soon, I'm going to need you to increase your child support."

"You'll use any excuse to get more money out of me," he jokes, slapping his son on the back and whispering, "Stop growing or else your Mom's going to make your Dad go broke."

Parker and Rebecca laugh.

"Just wait 'til you see her, Dad! She's grown a ton! She's not a baby anymore. She can walk and talk and she's already this high!" Parker says, demonstrating how tall Booth's daughter is with his hand. The mood immediately sobers even as Parker chatters on oblivious. "And she's still pretty, Dad, but I think she did something to her hair and she wears glasses, really ugly ones and she-"

"We can discuss this later, Parker," Rebecca says, quickly intervening before Booth got overwhelmed. He's gripping his bag so tightly that she worries the handle might snap. "Come on, let's go to the car." She takes him by the arm and starts pulling him after her. He starts to protest, wanting to immediately go after them, but she gives him a pointed look and then glances at their son leading the way. He reluctantly allows her to drag him to the car.

"Where's Captain Fantastic?" He doesn't catch himself in time and she narrows her eyes at him.

"He's at sea for a couple more weeks, thank god!" she exclaims, relieved. "I'm sure he'd be thrilled if he knew I called you here," she adds sarcastically.

"Then let's hope he never has to find out," Booth says under his breath. She sighs and suddenly loops her arm through his, bringing them closer together so they can talk without their son or anyone else overhearing.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

"Rebecca, I need to see them. How would you feel if I kept Parker from you for five years?"

"That's what I'm afraid of," Rebecca confesses. "If I ever lost my son or thought I was going to lose him…" she trails off, unable to even contemplate it. "Seeley you have to be careful."

"I'll be fine."

"No, you're not getting it." Rebecca pulls him to a stop right before they reach her car. "Seeley, you have to be careful with her. That little girl means everything to her and if you threaten to take her from her she's going to run and this time you'll never find her."

"She means a lot to me too!" he argues. "I haven't seen my daughter in five years!"

"I know, Seeley, I know," she says, rubbing his arm soothingly. "But this isn't just about your daughter, is it?" she whispers.

Booth refuses to look at her, staring hard at the pavement.

"Are you any closer to catching him?" she asks quickly as Parker hails them over, wondering what's taking them so long.

"I'm working on it," he reassures her, but she's anything but reassured. She grabs his arm before he can walk away.

"You better not drag Parker in to this mess too," she warns him, digging her fingernails into his bicep. "Or I'll kill you before he gets to you."

"I've already lost my daughter, Rebecca. Do you really think me capable of putting my son in danger too?" Booth snaps.

Rebecca softens and releases him, whispering, "Just be careful, Seeley."

"I'll be careful," he agrees, giving her shoulders a quick squeeze before they get into the car.

Temperance dreams about him all the time. Sometimes she'll relive the past. It could be something as simple as going to a crime scene or examining a body in the Jeffersonian, or maybe they'll be in their old house or one of their apartments going about what had once been a daily routine, but most of the time she dreams that she's home and that they're in their old bed together. Those are the dreams that she treasures and the ones that burn in to her memory when she comes gasping awake.

Tonight though, it's different. When she wakes up he's still with her.

The bed she'd adopted at her latest European dwelling place isn't nearly big enough to hold the two of them, let alone someone as big as Booth, but she knows it's him even before she opens her eyes. The warmth and scent of his body surrounds her, cocooning her against the slight chill of the dawn that hasn't yet broke. Their limbs are entangled and he lay mostly on top of her. The weight of him and the drop in temperature was what woke her.

She doesn't question it. Right now all she wants to do is feel. She doesn't want to wake him, so she keeps her eyes closed, breathing in his scent and letting the fingers of the one hand that is free roam his bare back. Her fingers take a lazy inventory of the vertebrae within her reach, sliding over the skin that's still sticky with dried sweat. She smiles.

He's a lot heavier than she remembers, and as time goes on, the weight of him on top of her starts to make her uncomfortable. She's reluctant to wake him, wanting to savor this moment, but the weight of his body is crushing her. Her arm goes numb, her fingers stilling in their exploration. She opens her eyes and tries to wriggle free but his body doesn't budge a muscle. With every second that passes, he seems to get heavier and heavier. He's crushing her, suffocating her, smothering her. She squirms and pushes at him and finally opens her mouth.

"Get off me, Booth!"

Something's wrong though, because he's not moving. For the first time she notices that he's not moving at all. And the warmth that had been radiating from his body has diminished significantly. She pauses, sniffing the air but his scent has also changed. She stops pushing at him because now something else is worrying her.

"Booth?"

There's a moment, when everything and everyone in the bedroom and in that tiny shabby apartment with the paper thin walls is too still and too quiet. For one moment all she can hear is the sound of her own breathing and the rapid increase of her heartbeat.

And then she hears the child scream.

"Christine!" she yells. Her heart and her adrenaline go into overdrive. She finds her hidden reserve of strength and shoves Booth off of her. When she rolls him over though, the sight of his eyes actually stops her from going to her daughter. She gasps and claps a hand over her mouth.

His brown eyes are wide open but they don't see her. There's a bullet hole in the center of his forehead. What she thought was sweat is blood and it's all over her. It's on her hands, in her hair, and smeared over her skin.

"No! Booth you can't – No!" she screams, pressing her palm to his lifeless heart as if she can start it again herself with sheer willpower. Because he can't be dead. He can't be dead. Booth can't be dead!

"Mommy!"

Christine comes running into the bedroom and Temperance automatically turns from Booth's body and opens her arms. Temperance hugs her and her hands leave bloody prints behind, staining her daughter's white night gown and tainting her rosy cheeks.

"Mommy, I had a bad dream!"

"It's okay," she lies to her daughter. But it's not okay. Mommy's bad dream has come true and her daughter can sense it.

The little girl pulls away and takes in her disheveled dirty appearance. She's too young to understand what happened, but the sight of her mother so discomposed and covered in blood is enough to frighten any child. Her bottom lip trembles.

"Mommy, what's going on?"

Temperance opens her mouth to explain, but movement catches her eye. She freezes. He's suddenly standing in the doorway smiling at them. As if losing the man of her dreams wasn't horrible enough, the man from her nightmares has arrived.

"Well, isn't this a lovely family portrait," Christopher Pelant says, walking into the room. He turns to her daughter. "It's a shame your mother already killed your father, Christine, I would've loved to have had that pleasure."

Temperance stares down at her bloody hands, horrified. She glances back at Booth's body, stunned.

She doesn't notice him taking something black from his satchel, holding it gingerly in his gloved hand. But she does hear the click of the safety coming off and looks up in time to see him aim the gun first at her and then -

"CHRISTINE!"

Temperance makes a move toward her daughter but she's too late. She catches Christine in her arms before she hits the ground, but her daughter's already gone.

Temperance wakes up sweating and trembling in the shabby bedroom of their latest apartment and this time she's alone and awake in the bed barely big enough for herself. She leans back against the wall, putting her head in to her hands. She's had plenty of dreams before of Booth and Pelant but never quite like this. They had both been in this room with her and it had felt so real. Since they had moved here over a year ago, she thought her nightmares of Pelant had stopped. It was one of the reasons why she'd felt so safe here. Obviously she'd been mistaken.

Getting up, she shakily makes her way to the room where her daughter sleeps. If she had been screaming in her sleep, Christine hadn't heard her. She's snoring softly, curling her small body around a stuffed animal almost as big as herself. A fleeting smile passes over Temperance's face, before she recalls the nightmare again. She carefully checks Christine's pulse just to be sure she's alive.

It felt like only moments ago when she'd held her daughter's dead body in her arms. Many times she'd dreamt of losing her daughter or watched her walk into danger without being able to stop it, but the nightmare had always ended before Christine died.

Booth's a different story, Temperance thinks, shuddering. They had stood over death so many times together, chased so many forms of evil, and he could be such a damn hero that it seemed only natural that she would have seen him die in her dreams many times since they'd met. In the past she used to dream he'd died for her or because she hadn't been able to save him, but this nightmare had been different. Pelant had said she'd killed him and she had had his blood on his hands to prove it. The worst part, though, was that her daughter had been there to judge her for it. And then, as if that wasn't enough, Pelant had forced her to watch him kill Christine, knowing that there was nothing she could do to save the one person she loved more than anyone else.

Temperance isn't one to read into her dreams. She never believed in fate, or destiny, or religion, or any of that other superstitious nonsense that Booth put so much faith into. But like everyone else of average intelligence, she has them and they play on her memories, and her hopes, and her fears. She knows it's merely tapping in to a part of her subconscious but that doesn't make them any less frightening, especially when they never stray far from her waking thoughts.

She kisses her daughter's forehead and brushes the hair from Christine's face before she leaves the bedroom.

For the first time in several months the need to hear Booth's voice and the need to know that he is alive and well is so strong that it overpowers her survival instincts. She dials his number from memory, before she recalls that they're not even on the same continent anymore. A recording tells her she has the wrong number. She stares at the phone, wondering if she should redial it, but instead she buries it in her purse. She decides that she's safer and better off not knowing.

Rebecca managed to convince him to at least wait a day. He spent what was left of it with his son who he hadn't seen in months and Rebecca who he hadn't seen in almost two years. The lack of sleep combined with the jet lag and a day well spent playing ball with his son caught up with him quickly and he ended up falling asleep on their couch.

Rebecca hears him in the kitchen early the next morning. Of course he makes them all breakfast, successfully managing to get their teenage son out of bed before seven on a Saturday. That had to be some kind of record.

As Rebecca leans against the counter with her coffee and watches her son interact with his father, she wonders, not for the first time, how it is that all these years later Seeley Booth has never been married and is still a single man. She had been surprised when years ago she heard he was planning on proposing to that reporter girl Anna or whatever her name was, but she was even more shocked when what's-her-name turned him down. Of course she had been the first woman he had proposed to, but she had been stubborn and fiercely independent, and he had been even more stubborn and only trying to do the right thing. They'd been too young and unprepared for Parker. Perhaps if they'd been older and Parker had come along a little later…

Rebecca shakes her head. No matter how good of a father Seeley is to Parker, she doesn't regret her decision to turn him down. She likes the life she has now, even if it does get lonely at times, and she knew from the moment that she'd met Temperance Brennan that he'd met his match. When Temperance had approached her, and told her bluntly that Booth was worried that she didn't think he was a good enough father, she knew that this brilliant woman was the one for Seeley.

Or she thought Temperance had been right for Seeley, until the moment she was accused of murder and took off, taking Seeley's daughter with her. She's been gone for almost five years now, and as far as she knows, Seeley hasn't even gotten a single letter, phone call, text, or email, and has no idea where they are or even if they're still alive.

Until now…

Rebecca swallows the last of her coffee and sets the empty mug in the sink.

When Temperance left and took Christine with her, he had been devastated. But when he couldn't find them and weeks turned into months and months into years, it nearly killed him. The worst part, Rebecca knows, is that Booth can't save Temperance even if she does come home. She'll go to a jail for a murder that he's convinced she didn't commit and the guy that's responsible for it will remain free.

Rebecca worriedly eyes her son and wonders again if she made the right decision calling Booth here. But her son would've told him anyway. Parker is just like his father, he always does the right thing. That's what she doesn't like about this whole thing. Sometimes doing the right thing creates a lot more pain than it should. Or what you thought was the right thing turns out to be all wrong.

She hugs her son before he leaves and prays his father knows what he's doing.

Booth might have dropped everything and flown halfway across the world hoping to see his daughter, but he's never been happier to spend time with his son. Parker is so smart that it astounds him that he inherited half his genes. Booth isn't stupid and neither is Rebecca, but sometimes he does things that make Booth wonder if he's part Brennan.

Like now for instance as he shows his Dad the remote control boat he built from scratch. It's supposed to be able to turn in to a plane, but one of the pieces, and Parker knows exactly which one, needs to be replaced with another piece of a different material. It boggles Booth's mind, just like that time he made the mobile for his baby half sister. Booth knows he's driving his mother up a wall taking apart all of her appliances and then putting them back together (not always successfully). It brings a smile to his face and he wonders what Christine will be like at this age, if she's already started to show tiny signs of the kind of person she'll grow into, if she's driving her mother crazy too. The smile slips from his face as he remembers that he already missed almost five years of her life, and he's not even sure if he'll be able to see the next five.

"Relax, Dad, they'll be here any minute."

"And if they don't show?" Booth asks, anxiously rubbing his hands together.

"They will," Parker says confidently. "They come here like every Saturday and if they don't…" Booth glances at his son and is surprised to see him looking extremely guilty. "I kind of followed them home the other day on my bike. I'm pretty sure I know where they live."

"Parker, you've been spying on them?" Booth isn't sure whether to be grateful for his son's nosiness or angry.

Parker squirms and shrugs. "Kind of," he mumbles as he skips past his father and puts the boat into the water.

Booth marvels at the fact that she didn't notice Parker lurking. His son wasn't exactly the stealthiest person, but maybe that's why she never got suspicious, because he was just a kid. Still, after all the years she joined their family outings, you'd think she'd at least recognize him despite the years that had passed. She was after all a forensic anthropologist. Then again, if she had recognized his son, Booth was sure that he wouldn't be here right now waiting for them and actually hoping he might get a chance to see them again.

Christine threw a tantrum when her mother told her they couldn't go to the park. She wasn't usually this difficult. But Temperance wasn't usually this difficult either. Ever since her nightmare, though, she'd been on the edge. The fact that Max hadn't answered her phone calls wasn't exactly helping matters. He was supposed to be coming in sometime today and she'd feel a lot better if he was here. It wasn't the first time he hadn't answered his phone. Despite his caution, he still frequently forgot to charge his cell phone and it was most likely dead.

Temperance felt bad that she was anxious and taking it out on her daughter. She didn't believe in gut feelings, remember? It had only been a dream! Sighing, she apologized to her daughter and told her Mommy was having a bad day. Christine stopped her crying and came over for a hug. Then Christine whispered in her ear that Mommy would feel better if she went to the park.

Temperance laughed and decided that she was right.

Now, she wonders if this was a mistake.

She wanted to make it up to Christine so she'd sought out the ice cream vendor. She'd only turned her back on her daughter for a second, but it had been a split second too long. When she turns around her daughter's gone.

"What's that?"

The boat is a beautiful thing indeed. More than one curious child had been drawn to it. He can't help but notice that he's gathering a few admiring stares from the adults as well. He's so proud of his son.

The little girl steps closer and repeats her question this time not in English. She's small and can't be more than six. Parker grins and answers in the same language just to show off but immediately switches back to English for his Dad's sake. The girl trots closer to the water's edge and stumbles over a rock. Booth swoops in and grabs her, carrying her a few feet back before he puts her down a safe distance away from the water.

"Careful," he tells her softly as he sets her back down on her feet. One of her shoe laces is untied and he gets down on one knee to quickly fix it. "You okay, now?" he asks, looking up into her face for the first time.

The little girl sniffs and nods, brushing her brown hair out of her face. A pair of the most incredible blue eyes looks back at him and knocks his heart right out of his chest. She's so beautiful, more beautiful than he could have ever imagined. He looked at those few pictures he had of Temperance as a child so many times that he knows, even before he asks, who she is.

"My name's Christine," she tells him as he takes her by the hand and gently leads her back to where her half brother stood.

I know, he thinks to himself.

Parker's smile confirms it. Booth looks heavenward and sends up a silent prayer. He thanks God that four years and three hundred and sixty-one days later he got to look into her eyes again and hold his daughter's hand.

A/N: I posted the first chapter ages ago and all of this was written BEFORE season 8 aired which I have NOT watched. So no spoilers please. I'm sure this has been done before, but I couldn't resist posting it since I spent so much time on it while I was waiting for season 8. I've decided not to change anything though, and just keep it as an AU. Should I post the rest? Anyone interested in reading more?