A/N: I promised I'd keep updating on this story even after I started my new one, and I'm keeping good on my word this time. :) If you don't know what I'm talking about, you should check out my new chaptered fic, The Family in The Tree. It's going to be a lot of fun. Alright, now that I'm done shamelessly plugging my other story, here's some more of this one. Enjoy!

Maybe God can be on both sides
Of the gun, never understood why
Some of us never get it so good, so good
Some of this was here before us
All of this will go after us
It never stops until we give in,
Give in, say when...

- Say When, The Fray

That was the summer she left him. Seeley woke up early that morning, less than a month after he turned twelve, and something was off. The house felt quiet and uneasy, as if a scale had been suddenly tipped overnight. Even the birds held their breath outside, quietly gazing into the window like little winged spectators.

It was then he noticed the open suitcase on his bedroom floor, half-filled with his own clothes. His door was open, and there was a shuffling in the room down the hall, like someone quickly trying to organize a stack of papers before they were due. He sat up in his bed and waited, and soon his mother came back into his bedroom, a stack of envelopes in her hands. She jumped when she saw him sitting up, staring at her.

"Goodness," was all she said, staring at him from across the room, tightly grasping the envelopes. She looked harried, and to Seeley suddenly much older than she was. She stuffed the envelopes into the bottom of his suitcase in an almost matter-of-fact way, as if they had always been there and she was simply putting them back where they belonged.

"I didn't mean to wake you," she finally said, smoothing the front of her wrinkled blouse. Her clothes looked like she had slept, or maybe had been up all night, in them. "You can be such a heavy sleeper, like a rock really. I suppose I was being loud. I'm sorry."

"Mom, what's going on?" he asked, rising from his bed and walking over to the open bag. Pants, shirts, underwear. She had folded them shoddily, much unlike her usually Spartan creases. Everything about it screamed.

"Well anyway, now that you're up," she said briskly, avoiding his question. "Finish packing this, as full as you can. Then you can help Jared with his. I have a few things I have to do before…"

"Mom," Seeley said forcefully, and her head snapped towards him, like she was suddenly seeing him for the first time. "What's going on? Why are we packing?"

"Pittsburgh," she said cheerily, but her eyes held a sort of repressed anxiety. "We're going to Pittsburgh… to see your grandfather." She smiled through tightly drawn lips, and Seeley raised his brows and sort-of smiled in response. He believed her, but at the same time he felt a missing truth.

"Why didn't you say so?" he asked, slowly opening one of his drawers and pulling out a handful of shirts.

"It's a surprise," she said, her voice cracking over 'surprise'. "I wanted… we wanted to surprise you kids. It's been so long since you've seen your grandfather."

"Where's dad?" Seeley asked, and he saw his mother pale visibly.

"Work," she responded, after a too-long pause. "He's just… he's working right now. But he'll meet us there."

"He's not coming with us?" Seeley asked.

"He'll meet us there," she repeated, staring not at Seeley but the window beyond him. "Now, finish packing up, and hurry."

"What's the rush?"

"You should be ready before lunch."

oOoOoOoOo

Booth paused before he put his key in the lock, resting his forehead against the front door and listening for sounds within the apartment. He couldn't hear anything through the door—no TV, no music, no loud voices, no alarms. He wondered if they were in the apartment at all, it was so silent; he had seen her car out front, but there was a park close by, and there was always the possibility they had walked there. It was where he usually took Parker on the afternoons he had him.

He turned the key and pressed the door open, letting himself in. He had opened his mouth and was about to call out loudly, but as soon as his eyes fell on the living room couch his lips spread in an awed smile instead.

Sitting in the middle of the couch, with her head leaned back on the back cushion, Brennan was sound asleep. The boys were curled up on either side of her, their heads in her lap. She had one hand resting on Jamal's shoulder, the fingers of her other hand in Parker's curly hair. On the coffee table in front of them was a children's dinosaur book, with pictures and captions, laid open to a page about velociraptors. On the opposite end of the table, several more books were stacked. Booth tip-toed over to the table, sifting through them one by one—more dinosaurs, machines, planets, and a book that from the cover appeared to be mostly about snot.

Brennan stirred, seemingly woken by his presence. She spooked slightly, but relaxed when she saw it was Booth standing on the opposite side of the table. She looked down and seemed surprised to realize there were two small people sleeping on her. Booth picked them up one at a time, moving them each to opposite ends of the couch and resting their heads on the armrests. He helped Brennan to her feet and she stretched her back, raising her arms above her head and letting out an almost feline sound. Booth jerked his head in the direction of his room, and they wandered in, shutting the door behind them.

"Did you have a nice nap?" he asked. She smiled, taking a seat at the foot of his bed and nodding.

"We went to the library."

"I noticed. What's with the snot book?"

"Your son picked that one out," she said, grinning. "He thought it was hysterical, had to have it." Booth puffed out his chest and smiled.

"That's my boy," he said, and she laughed, making an effort to keep her voice down so as not to disturb the children in the opposite room.

"I guess I just got tired once we sat down and started reading," she said, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to force them open.

"Looks like you weren't the only one," Booth said, looking at his closed bedroom door. "When I got home and didn't hear anything, I half expected them to have you hog-tied with a sock in your mouth or something."

"I was afraid of that too when you first left me with them," Brennan admitted.

"But they were alright?" Booth asked, mostly concerned about Parker's behavior. While he was generally well behaved with sitters, sometimes when he was with other kids his age they became the gasoline to his fire, setting him off. Brennan nodded.

"They were fine," she said. "They watched a little more TV, then asked if I would take them somewhere. That's how we got to the library."

"They picked the library?" he asked. She smiled.

"I said they were good, Booth, not angelic," she said. "They wanted to go to Aladdin's Castle, but I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of taking them to an arcade on my own. I said we could go to the library, and if they behaved, perhaps you and I would take them to the arcade tomorrow. I hope that's alright." She looked up and saw that Booth was giving her a particular look, his arms crossed over his chest. He broke into a smile and bounced lightly on the end of the bed next to her, leaning over and nudging her with his shoulder.

"Lookit you, Bones," he said proudly. "Cutting deals in exchange for good behavior, just like a real mom. You're really getting good at this." She smiled and looked down at her lap, shrugging. He pulled her chin in his direction with his finger, his eyes betraying his sincerity. "I really mean it," he said. "You're good at this."

"Thanks, Booth," she said, trying to control her smile as it widened. "I really want to be. I want to be a… a good foster parent to him."

"You're better than a good foster parent," Booth insisted, his hand still resting on the underside of her chin. "You're a good mom."

oOoOoOoOo

Seeley felt the car shift into park, and slowly opened his eyes. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, curled up across the backseat of his mother's car with his pillow and blanket like a make-shift bed—all he knew was that it was dark when they stopped at that last gas station, and it was still dark. They had left the house late, later than his mother had wanted—he saw her jangle the keys anxiously in her hand as they shoved the last of the bags into the trunk, pealing out of the neighborhood just before five. The way she drove across town frightened Seeley, though he wouldn't say so; her urgency, her flightiness, the way she obsessively shifted the rear-view mirror. She did not calm down until they were well on the highway.

Now he could see the shadows beneath her eyes in the glow of the streetlights, the soft lines around her eyes and mouth, the heaviness that had settled on her. Jared was curled up in the front passenger's seat, arms wrapped around his raggedy stuffed dog even though he was ten and really too old for a stupid toy like that. In comparison he looked so young, so small, so light. He was like a baby bird, and in this light she just looked old and tired.

He lifted his head up and peered out the window, and realized where they were. He saw his grandfather's old brick house sitting on the corner of the street, porch light attracting moths, curtains pulled back. He was waiting for them, and it made Seeley smile sleepily as he lay his head back down on the pillow. Just a few more minutes of rest, was all he wanted. Just a few more.

"We're here," his mother said softly when she looked back and saw Seeley with his eyes open.

"Where's dad?" Seeley asked tiredly. She didn't answer, but instead got out of the car and met her own father halfway across the yard. Seeley dozed for a few minutes while his mother and grandfather talked outside in the nighttime chill, then jerked awake when the car door opened next to his head.

"Boy, you're jumpy," his grandfather said, almost in a sad way. Even though Seeley was twelve, his grandfather still bent down and kissed his cheek, mussing his hair like he did when he was five. "Come on, let's get you boys into bed." Seeley carried his pillow and blanket under his arm and dragged his feet walking into the old house. His mother brought one of her bags, but left the rest in the trunk 'til morning. Seeley's grandfather carried Jared in from the car, even though he was ten, because he was just a baby bird, with a stupid stuffed dog.

The couch was pulled out and made up with sheets, and Seeley collapsed on one side, not bothering with the blankets. His grandfather set Jared on the other side, pulling the covers up over both of them and turning the lamp out. Seeley was vaguely aware of his mother and grandfather talking quietly in the kitchen, and then he was asleep again.

oOoOoOoOo

"You've done really well, Talia," Mr. Peters said warmly, his fingers steepled in front of him on the desk. "Really well."

"Thank ya, sir," Talia Williams replied, wringing her hands anxiously under the desk where he could not see them. He nodded, looking out the window briefly before returning his gaze back to her.

"You must be excited," he said. "Today being your last day in the program." She nodded, showing her two gold-capped teeth and the one missing entirely. "What are you going to do once you're out?"

"My cousin got me a job," she answered. "She a cleanin' lady, she got me a job cleanin' at a apartment complex."

"That's a good job," Mr. Peters commented. The smile never once left his face; it was plastered on, permanently. "Do you have somewhere to live yet?"

"With my cousin," she said. "She gon' lemme stay 'til I find somewheres else. She got it together good."

"You're getting it together too, Talia," Mr. Peters said. He looked down at the sheet of notes in front of him. "And what about your nephew? Your brother's son?"

"Uh huh," she said. "Once I get to workin' steady, I'm'a try to get 'im back home with me, now that I'm clean. He need to be with his family, that's where he belong."

"That is certainly important," Mr. Peters said vaguely. "Family, that is. Very important."

A/N: Come on, you know I can only go so long without throwing in at least an inkling of BB-ness. :) Expect more at some point. By some point I think I mean the next chapter, though one can never be sure. So what did you think? Review and let me know!