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Disclaimer: Bones is not mine.

The Meal with Max

"Something's changed."

Sweets glances up to find Angela in the doorway of his office for the second time in three weeks. He has no doubt as to what she's talking about now because he's seen it himself, and it's confused him to no end.

"Doctor Brennan and Booth?" he clarifies anyway, unnecessarily.

"Who else?" Angela harrumphs, crossing her arms. She seems to have bounced back from having a baby remarkably quickly. Without waiting for him to invite her, she shuts the door and flops down on the couch in front of his desk. "Well? Haven't they seemed…different?"

"I believe they've resolved something between themselves," Sweets answers. "They've been increasingly comfortable with each other, which means they've overcome whatever obstacle that threw off their dynamic in the first place."

Angela sighs and shakes her head. "I just can't understand it. I mean, a couple of weeks ago, I could have sworn Brennan was completely out of it. She just looked so…shaken. And now, it's like they've…I don't know, come to their senses or something. They're so normal together."

Sweets shrugs. "I think bringing Hannah in and taking her out of the picture played a huge role in their development. Booth and Brennan have been very single people from the moment they started their partnership."

"They dated some people," Angela corrects. "I remember."

"Dated, yes," he replies. "That's the key word. Dating to them—to Booth at least—is very different from fully committing to a relationship. Booth has a very clear picture of what love is, and he believed he had it with Hannah."

"Believed," Angela echoes. "Obviously, he wasn't in love with her, because he's always making goo-goo eyes at Bren when he thinks we don't notice."

Sweets nods. "Anyway, because they were such solitary figures, the introduction of Hannah threw their partnership for a loop for a while." He shrugs. "Now that she's gone, they seem to have recovered their previous relationship."

"Recovered it," Angela says, her disapproval clear. "You mean they're just back to where they started. Great. It's been seven years, give or take, and they've gotten nowhere. Hodgins and I have gotten married. You've gotten together with Daisy. Cam has a daughter now. And those two? Well, they might as well be statues." She huffs in frustration and sits back, her arms crossed. "Tell me it's okay I'm feeling this way."

Straightening, Sweets nods and grins. Finally, a problem dealing with them that he can solve. "Okay. You're Doctor Brennan's closest friend, and as such, you've had a front-seat view on their evolving relationship since the very beginning. You obviously care for Doctor Brennan, so it makes perfect sense that you're emotionally invested in her relationships. And since you've seen firsthand how Booth affects her—positively—you feel very strongly toward a romantic relationship involving the two of them."

"Which means it's perfectly fine that I'm about half a second away from locking them in a supply closet together until they admit that they're madly in love with each other?" she presses.

Sweets takes a look at her frustrated glare and figures she's actually prepared to do just that. He can't blame her really; God knows he's wanted to do the exact same thing for a while, though he's backed off some after the abject failure of his book. Either way, he figures Brennan and Booth have a whole lot to learn about each other, and locking them in an enclosed space with no chance of retreat would do them a world of good. If only he weren't afraid of Booth shooting him in the face once they got out.

"Absolutely," he replies finally. "I think, given the circumstances, it's a valid train of thought."

Angela sighs and shakes her head. "What's it going to take to shove them in the right direction? It's been seven years, for crying out loud! They should be having…I don't know, baby Booths and baby squints right now, not…doing whatever they're doing!"

"I think their renewed normalcy is a good thing," Sweets points out. "I mean, they've been thrown into chaos for a little while with Hannah in the picture, and it's a good sign that their relationship has found its way back to the way it was."

"But still…" Angela groans.

"Look at it this way," Sweets says. "They need to get back to what they had before in order to move on. They can't leap straight from a strained friendship to a romantic relationship; they need to recover their dynamic, become good friends again, and resolve whatever issues remain unsolved between the two of them first, before they can really move on."

She groans again and shakes her head, flopping back against the couch. "They're hopeless. I'm getting gray hairs over them. Seriously. As if the baby isn't enough."

Sweets perks up, a smile curving his lips. "Speaking of which, how's Allison?"

"Perfect," Angela says, beaming. Then her smile slips into an exasperated frown and she adds, "Want to know who's not fine? Hodgins. Seriously, he's wearing me out more than the baby is. The house is jam-packed with stuff for the baby, and every day, he comes home with more. It's like he thinks we're a storage facility or something! And he spends every waking moment fretting over the baby. Oh, she's going to stick her hand into a socket, she's going to fall into the pool and drown, she's going to fall down the stairs and break her neck…"

"All valid fears," Sweets interjects.

"Valid, yeah. You don't think I'm terrified of those things happening too?" Angela sighs heavily. "But Jack's already paranoid, and adding a baby to the mix makes it twice as bad. He's like another kid himself."

Sweets gives her a reassuring smile. "It's just a phase, Angela. All fathers go through it in the beginning. Ask Booth; I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing."

"Well, it'd better end soon," Angela moans, "because I'm this close to locking him out of the house until Allison turns sixteen, which is definitely old enough to know not stick her fingers into electrical sockets."

"Well," Sweets says, trying to usher her out as politely as possible, "I actually have a patient coming in a couple of minutes, so would you mind…?"

She leaps to her feet quickly. "Is it that alien guy again? Because if it is, I'm totally out of here."

Sweets grins. "Maybe."

She shakes her head and heads for the door. "Thanks for the talk, Sweets. You know, you're more useful than Brennan gives you credit for." With that said, she disappears from his office, leaving him sitting alone behind his desk.

"That's what I always tell you guys," he mutters with a sigh, turning back to his paperwork.

Booth raps his knuckles on the doorframe of Bones' office at eleven-thirty, grinning when she looks up from her computer.

"Booth. What are you doing here?"

"I need a reason to visit my partner?" he asks, sauntering inside. He settles in the chair across from her desk and eyes her stacks of paperwork. "Are you really reviewing all that?"

"Yes." She pushes back from her computer and sighs. "I'm behind in my reports, and I'm going to have to work late tonight to make up for it." She gives him an apologetic glance and adds, "I'll have to cancel lunch today."

"Cancel?" he protests. "But I've been looking forward to this all day." And he really has. When she looks at him, he pouts as pitifully as he can manage until she cracks a smile.

"I really can't, Booth," she insists, though it sounds half-hearted at best. "I have so much to do."

"Do them later," he says. "Lunch takes an hour tops. We can go grab something at the diner and maybe take a walk afterwards. It isn't good to be cramped behind a desk all day, Bones. Didn't you tell me that?"

For a moment, she bites her lip in consideration, and he has to stare at the back of her computer to keep from fixating on the way her teeth pull at her kissable, kissable lips. Finally, she admits, "You have a point."

"Don't I always?" he teases. "Come on, just an hour."

At that moment, her phone rings, and he grabs it off the desk before she can. Flipping it open, he says casually, "Doctor Brennan's phone."

"Hi…this is April Collins?"

It sounds more like a question than a statement, but Booth recognizes the name. "Oh hey, April. It's Agent Booth from before, remember?"

Her voice flushes with relief and recognition. "Hi, Agent Booth. I was actually calling for Temperance Brennan…?"

"Yeah, she's here." Booth glances over in amusement to catch the indignation stamped all over Bones' face. She motions in annoyance for him to hand over the phone, but he sticks out his tongue at her and turns away again. "Did you want something?"

"Well, I wanted to thank her…"

"April Collins says thanks," he tells Bones, pulling the phone away from his ear.

Her brow furrows in confusion. "Who?"

"The girl you saved at the bar," he clarifies. "She says thanks for saving her life."

"Well, I didn't actually save her life. I'm not sure Fred Knowles would have gone so far as to kill—"

"Temperance says no problem," he tells April loudly. "Thanks for calling." He grins as Bones glares at him in irritation, and throws up a hand to ward her off as she tries to lunge across the desk for the phone.

"Is that all then?" April asks on the other end of the line. "She doesn't want to talk to me?"

"She's kind of busy," Booth answers, stifling a chuckle as Bones rounds the desk and reaches for the phone. He stands and backs away from her hands, rebuffing her attempts by stretching to his full height when she tries to snatch at his hand.

"Booth!" she hisses, almost pouting as he keeps out of reach. "That's my phone!"

"If that's all…" he says to April, grinning widely as Bones huffs and plants her hands angrily on her hips.

"Yeah, thank you."

"Bye," Booth replies, hitting the button to end the call.

"I'd prefer that you didn't use my phone at your convenience," Bones puts in as soon as the call is over. "It's my phone and therefore my private property."

He ignores her, instead staring at the background on her phone. Slowly, a wide grin spreads across his face and he holds up the screen so she can see it. "Bones, you set this picture as your background?"

It's the photo she snapped at the aquarium with them sporting those ridiculous sea animal hats and mile-wide smiles. He'd almost forgotten about the picture entirely.

"It's a good picture," she mutters, looking flustered. "I thought it captured my eyes quite well."

He glances down and raises an eyebrow. "Yep, it got your eyes pretty well, all right. And my face. We're cute together, don't you think?" He shows her the picture again teasingly, and she glares at him.

"Give it back," she gripes. "I have work to do, Booth, and I need to make a few calls."

"You don't need to work at all," he answers, holding her phone high and out of reach. "We're going to lunch right now, and you're leaving all your files behind. Got it?"

"Booth—"

Her phone rings for the second time, cutting through her protest, and Booth lowers the phone just enough so he can see who's calling. One look at the name causes his smile to fade, and he thrusts the phone at her hurriedly.

"You take it," he says.

She takes one look at the name flashing on the screen and laughs. "Dad," she reads. "Are you afraid of my father, Booth?"

"No," he mutters. "It's just that we don't get along too well, that's all. I mean, whenever we run into each other, one of us always ends up with a black eye. Sometimes both us."

She grins and shakes her head at him before answering. "Hello?"

Booth can't make out their conversation since Bones' side mostly involves noncommittal yes or no answers. After a moment, he takes a slow walk around her office, glancing at her bookcases. Nope, nothing's changed about her reading habits. All the pictures on her desk are the same too, and he smiles to see the one with the two of them and Parker at the annual Jeffersonian Halloween party. How long ago was that? Two years? Three? And she still hasn't moved the picture or put it away. Some things don't change, he muses fondly.

His attention turns back to her when he hears his name on the tail-end of her sentence.

"Yes, I was just about to go to lunch with Booth." She listens for a moment before shooting a look at him, smugness filling her expression. He raises an eyebrow in confusion just as Bones says, "Yeah, Dad, why don't you join us?"

Booth lets out a loud groan and slaps his forehead with his palm. "Bones," he hisses, "do you want us to kill each other?"

"In twenty minutes," she says, ignoring him. But the grin on her face widens. "Yeah, I'll see you. Bye, Dad."

When she ends the call, he groans again and gripes, "What made you say that, Bones? If you wanted to spend some quality time with your dad, you could've told me. I would've steered clear."

"You're very rarely frightened," she replies with that grin still spread wide across her face. "I admit, it's quite amusing when you are."

"Entertainment," he grumbles. "That's all I am?"

She ignores his question pointedly. "Well?" she asks cheerfully, collecting her coat and gloves. "Are we going to lunch or what?"

"Manipulative," he mutters, following her out of the office. As they leave the building, he tugs on his gloves and leads her to his SUV. After making sure she's seat-belted in securely, he pulls out of the parking lot and heads to the diner.

"So what did he want to talk to you about?" Booth asks when they're on the road.

"He's my father," she replies. "Does he need a reason to talk to me?"

Booth shrugs. "I don't know. It's just usually, he wants to talk to you about something."

"It's probably something about a Christmas party," Bones answers.

Booth shoots her a surprised look. "Christmas party? You're having one this year?"

She nods, a wide smile of excitement on her face. It isn't too often he sees that expression on her, and he can't help but stare at her out of the corner of his eye. When she glances back over at him, though, he averts his gaze hurriedly and coughs.

"We were thinking about it," she replies. "Although our family isn't large, it would still be quite festive to have a Christmas together. At least, I think it would; our last get-together was fun."

With a fond smile, he remembers the Christmas he and Parker drove out to the trailer and hooked up a Christmas tree to his SUV. He remembers well the smiles that lit up all their faces, but he remembers best the one that lit up Bones' face. The one that made him think of the girl she must have been once, innocent and beautiful, back when she must have believed a red-suited man would climb down her chimney and leave her all sorts of delights under the Christmas tree.

Grinning, he looks over at her and says, "Good for you. You should always spend holidays with some kind of family."

"I think you and Parker should come," she offers after a moment. She glances at him and adds hurriedly, "I mean, unless you're doing something with your family…"

He smiles happily at her, at her invitation. "Sure, Bones, I'd love to come. Can't say the same about Parker, though. He might be off skiing with Rebecca and Captain Fantastic." He rolls his eyes and feels a thrill of satisfaction when Bones laughs and calls him childish.

They pull up to the diner a few minutes later, and Bones smiles. "Look, his car is already here."

Booth suppresses another groan and pushes away the uncharacteristic nervousness that curls in his gut. He's never nervous because he's always been an outgoing, friendly type of guy. But there's something about Max that unsettles him, makes him unsure of himself. Maybe it's the fact that it's Bones' dad, not just any other old guy. Maybe it's the fact that Booth wants to make a good impression, to be liked by Max. To be approved.

It's like I'm prepping to marry her or something, he thinks with a snort. There's no need to get so worked up about it. It's only Max, after all.

"There's my girl," Max exclaims, holding out his arms for a hug once he spots Booth and Bones in the doorway of the diner. Bones gives him a quick hug and smiles.

"How have you been?" she asks, her eyes bright.

"Good, good." Max glances over at him, and he manages a pained smile.

"Hey, Max."

"Hey, kid." Max claps him hard on the shoulder and asks, "So how've you been?"

He forces a laugh. "Okay. You know, catching killers. The usual."

"Come on, sit down." Max ushers them quickly to a booth and takes a seat across from Bones, leaving Booth eyeing both sides. He's a bit wary of getting too close to Bones (his self-control is seriously in doubt, after all), but there's no way he's going to be spending lunch bumping elbows with Max. So, after a moment, he slides into the booth next to Bones and pretends not to notice when their knees touch.

"So, anything interesting happen lately?"

Absolutely. I broke up with my girlfriend, kissed your daughter, and got the cold shoulder for almost a week. Then Bones and I had a heart-to-heart, right before I made her bawl like a baby. After that, I spent the night at her house and posed as her half-naked boyfriend to scare off a potential stalker.

"Normal cases, every day things," Booth answers offhandedly. "Nothing really important."

"I experienced Booth's handcuffs firsthand," Bones says, very matter-of-factly. Booth stares at her in growing horror as she adds, "He came to me a couple of nights ago and handcuffed me against my will. We spent the night together after that."

Max's eyes are practically bulging out of their sockets now, and Booth throws up a hand to forestall the punch he knows is coming. "Whoa, whoa! That definitely isn't what it sounds like."

Bones shoots him a confused look. "What? That's what happened."

"You make it sound like we—we had—" Booth splutters. At Bones' confused look, he averts his eyes, certain he's red hot with embarrassment, and chokes out, "You make it sound like we had sex or something."

"That isn't what happened?" Max asks, his voice sounding carefully controlled.

Bones seems to have realized her mistake, thank God, and shakes her head hurriedly. "No, although I understand the misunderstanding."

"What happened?" Max asks, his eyebrows raised.

"We had a talk," Booth mutters.

The eyebrows raise higher. "One that involves handcuffs?"

Why did Bones ever bring this topic up? Why? "She wasn't too willing to talk," Booth sighs, staring over Max's shoulders to avoid his gaze. "We were going through…well, we had stuff we had to talk about."

Bones nods. "We just talked. There were several issues to resolve, and we managed to talk most of them through." She doesn't mention the part where he held her as she cried into his shoulder, and he's glad for that. It seems almost…private somehow. Something that should be between the two of them only, something to be shared not even with her father.

Max shrugs and narrows his eyes at Booth. "As long as nothing happened…"

"Nothing did," Booth assures him, though he's flushing at the mere thought of anything happening between him and Bones.

The rest of the meal passes by quickly but a bit tensely on Booth's part. He mostly sits back and let Bones and her dad bond a bit, since they haven't seen each other in weeks. Every once in a while, her leg bumps up against his, and he scoots away slightly, not sure he can handle even the heat of her knee pressed against him. That's how sorry his self-control is, and he has to look away every time she licks her lips (is she doing that on purpose?) or takes a long swallow from her drink. God, he's like a teenager again. It's both a good feeling and a bad one. Mostly bad, though, because at the rate his thoughts and hormones are going, Max is going to give him a big, black shiny eye before lunch ends for kissing the hell out of Bones.

He shakes away those thoughts with some difficulty. Jeez, he's a grown adult, and he can't keep himself under control? Hasn't she made it infinitely clear that they're supposed to be friends, nothing more? Maybe she can't handle anything more, and maybe he can't either. Maybe it's their fate, their destiny, to always be friends. They tried being more once, didn't they? At least he had, and she'd shot him down with barely a second look. It didn't work once, so why does he think it'll work this time?

They finish up their lunch with Bones promising to drop by Russ's house to arrange some sort of Christmas get-together. Booth picks up the tab as Bones walks ahead with her dad, and he can't help but smile at the way her eyes gleam. It's a spark that's been missing for too long now, a spark he's missed subconsciously. That night at her house when she let out all those words she'd kept in for too long seems to have put the life back in her, and he's glad he pushed her. She seems so much lighter now, like she used to be. He's glad to have played a part in putting that smile back on her face and in her eyes.

In the parking lot, Max pauses and turns, touching Bones lightly on the shoulder. "Go ahead, okay? I'm going to talk with Booth for a second."

Behind them, Booth groans inwardly and wonders what on earth Max has to talk with him in private about. He shoots a helpless look at Bones, but she grins, probably amusing herself with his fear of her father, and heads toward his SUV, leaving him and her father alone.

"So," Max says.

"So," Booth echoes, shoving his hands in his pockets. He waits for Max to get to the point, and he does, quickly and bluntly.

"You hurt her."

It's said very simply, a fact, not a question. Max's voice is hard enough to make him flinch.

He can't lie, not to Bones' dad. If there's any man that's owed the truth, it's Max. Patching up his relationship with Bones is one thing; making sure Max doesn't hate him or attempt to murder him is quite another, and possibly just as important.

"Yes," he says, equally simply. He doesn't wonder how Max knows; he just goes with it. "I did."

Max nods, taking in the information as calmly as Booth could have hoped. "I'm not going to ask you how. I'm just going to make sure you don't do it again."

"Make sure?" Booth repeats, a bit apprehensively. What does that mean?

Max doesn't move, but he sighs and glances toward Bones, who's waiting by the SUV with a curious look in her eye as she watches them.

"She's been through a lot," Max says finally, quietly. "More than she should ever have had to. A lot of that was because of me, because I was a lousy father. I won't ever be able to fix that. But now that I've found her again, now that she accepts me again, the least I could do is make absolutely certain she doesn't get hurt again, by anyone. That includes you, Booth. I don't care if you have a gun. I don't care if they'd arrest me if I assaulted you. I just know that if you ever hurt her, I'll make you regret it."

Booth swallows hard, not so much because he's afraid but because he knows how important this is. He knows how important it is that he say the right thing now.

"I hurt her," he says carefully, slowly. "I did. I'm not denying it. But I'm telling the truth when I say I had no idea I was hurting her at all. If I had…well, I would have fixed it. Like I told her, I would've made it right. The other night, like she said, we talked. We had a real conversation, probably the most honest conversation we've had in forever, and we worked through some things."

"And she's okay?" Max asks, seemingly unconvinced. "I'm not stupid, Booth. I saw her eyes today. She looked happy most of the time, but sometimes, when she looked at you, there was this look in her eyes…"

Booth sighs heavily and scuffs at the pavement with his shoe. "We worked a lot of things out. Not everything, but the important things. And she said she needed time."

Max nods slowly. "Okay."

He feels the sudden need to prove himself, to show that he's better than that one time, so he says, "I promise I won't again. I swear. The last thing I want to do is hurt her."

At this, Max gives him a knowing look and says, almost as matter-of-factly as Bones states case details, "You love her, don't you?"

He shoots Max a startled look for a second before remembering that this is Bones' dad he's talking to. The man probably knows more things about his and Bones' relationship than Booth suspects, given how absolutely protective of his daughter he is. So Booth sighs and admits, "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

Max raises an eyebrow. "Are you telling the truth?"

Booth laughs shortly, softly. "You have no idea. You have no idea how much I love her."

"I'm not talking about partner, friend love—"

Booth smiles. "I'm not either."

"All right."

"Yeah."

Standing there, looking at Max in the eye, Booth withstands the scrutiny Bones' father gives him, forcing himself not to fidget. He knows Bones will probably never go for a romantic relationship with him. He knows he'll never make the first move again, and she probably won't take that step ever. But still, some part of him wants to be accepted by Max, to bear that stamp of approval. To know that he's good enough for Bones, and that Max knows it too.

"Okay," Max says finally, simply. And Booth relaxes, a relieved smile spreading across his face. He sees the look in the other man's eyes and knows he's been accepted. Even if Bones never loves him back, Max has found him good enough to love her, which is enough for him right now.

With a smile in return, Max gives him a light punch to the shoulder. "That's for hurting her, kid. I'm going easy on you because you put her back together again. I don't know what you did, but she seems better."

Booth smiles. "Thanks."

Max eyes him sternly and adds, "But if you hurt her again, you're going to get a hell of a lot worse than that."

Booth nods. "If I hurt her again, you can have my gun." He's smiling, but he's dead serious.

The two of them share a knowing look, and Booth feels a solidarity he has rarely felt toward Max before. He knows that here is a man who is willing to go just as far, probably even farther, than Booth will to keep Bones safe and happy. If nothing else, they will always be connected by their shared concern for a woman who means the world to them.

"So I'll see you later then," Max says, clapping Booth on the shoulder. "You should come over for our Christmas thing later."

"Yeah," Booth replies. "I might. We'll see." He raises a hand to wave as Max gets in his car and pulls away. Once the car has disappeared into the street, Booth heads over to the SUV and Bones.

"What did he want to talk about?" Bones asks curiously, climbing into the passenger seat.

"Nothing much," Booth answers with a smile. Turning the keys in the ignition, he says, "Come on. You ready to get back to work?"