Thank you for the reviews! We are so glad you all are enjoying this story so much. Here is another chapter from us to you. Warning: you might experience a little bit of heartbreak at the end of the chapter.

Brennan was trying not to worry about Louis at school. He had gone in by himself, insisting he was fine. She loved his excitement, but she still couldn't help but worry how the other children were going to treat him. Visually, he looked different. Despite the curly blond hair and green eyes, he had a European appearance to him. Then there was his limp.

"Dr. Brennan?"

"Huh?" she looked up. Cam was standing in front of her desk.

"You're back!" Cam said excitedly.

"Yes, I am," Brennan nodded.

"Good cos we have a body under concrete at a construction site," Cam told her.

"And you want me to...?" Brennan trailed off, staring at her blankly.

"Go out with Booth like you usually do and get the bad guy," Cam said encouragingly.

"No thank you," Brennan said, looking down at her paperwork in front of her.

"W-what?" Cam stammered.

"Send an intern. I feel I will be of better use here in the lab, and the intern can get more field experience," Brennan finished. Cam stared at her like she had two heads.

"B-but..."

"The answer is no, Cam," Brennan said firmly, looking at her finally. Cam could see she was serious.

"Are you and Booth-?"

"That is none of your concern," Brennan interrupted. "Now please, get the intern over there before someone destroys evidence."

"Okay," Cam bowed her head, turning to leave. Dr. Brennan didn't want to go out in the field? Something very odd was going on here.

Booth was still trying to forget what Sweets had said about flushing toilets and toothbrushes getting swarmed with fecal matter. He knew Brennan was back at work, and although she didn't show up at the Diner to meet him, he knew she couldn't resist a case like this. He looked at his watch. She wasn't usually this late.

"I'm here," Arastoo said, wiping his brow. "Sorry. I got caught in traffic." Booth stared at him. Arastoo began to set up and get ready to look at the remains. Booth was still staring at him.

"What?" Arastoo asked. "Is there something on my face?"

"You're not Bones," Booth said stupidly.

"Yes, I know," Arastoo nodded. "As flattered as I am that you'd think I would be in the first place, I must have a look at these remains."

"Bones does not send an intern out in the field. Ever," Booth added for emphasis.

"She did today," Arastoo told him, bending down to get a closer look. Booth turned away and pulled out his phone. He was getting to the bottom of this. When she didn't answer, he closed his phone slowly. Why was she doing this?

"The victim appears to be a male in his late twenties," Arastoo said over his shoulder.

"What?" Booth asked, not listening.

"Male. Late twenties. He appears to be the only body here. Are you writing this down?" Arastoo asked, accusing.

"Sure," Booth agreed, moving his pen convincingly.

"We'll need to take this two by three by four meter section to the lab," Arastoo added. "Booth?"

"Yea. Got it. Slab back to the lab," Booth confirmed. "I gotta go."

Brennan was scanning more documents when Booth came barreling into her office. His presence was overwhelming, and from his expression he was a whole lot of everything. Brennan braced herself.

"Where the hell were you?!" he demanded. "You're sending interns out in the field now? What the hell is that about?!"

"It's a great learning experience for them," she answered.

"Oho! Is it now? Cos before you ripped a strip off a poor intern for even thinking they could join you in the field. Why the change of heart?"

"I don't appreciate you questioning my teaching techniques," Brennan shot back.

"It's me, isn't it? You're mad at me!" he shouted.

"That's absurd. Why would I be mad at you?" she asked. She stayed calm. It was getting hard to do.

"I don't know! That's why I asked!" he went on. Her head was spinning. She so badly wanted to shout at him just why she was angry at him because yes, she was angry.

"Could you step back? You're spitting on me," she said instead, wiping her arm off.

"You're just gonna sit there and pretend you're not mad at me?" he asked, incredulous. She just looked at him.

"Everything all right in here?" Cam asked, peeking into the room from the doorway.

"Cam! Why is Bones not in the field?" Booth demanded.

"Because she's letting the interns have a learning experience?" Cam said, unsure.

"Fine, take her side!" Booth yelled, storming off.

"I got this," Brennan said to Cam, getting up to follow him. She caught up with him at the front steps of the building. "Booth!"

"What?!" he snarled.

"Why are you so upset that I'm not in the field?" she asked. She stood with crossed arms, waiting for his answer.

"Because! That's what we do, and you're just abandoning it..."

"I'm not abandoning it! I'm letting interns..."

"Have a learning experience. Yea, you told me already," Booth snapped. He took a step closer to her. "I don't know what's gotten into you lately, and I'm very hurt that you can't trust me enough to tell me."

"It has nothing to do with trust," Brennan replied.

"Is it Hannah? Huh? Are you mad cos I moved on?" He had to know.

"Booth, that's ridiculous."

"Is it now? Cos you got all weird after I told you about her," Booth said. "It's kind of coincidental."

"You're happy. I'm happy that you're happy. Why would that upset me?" she asked. Because I thought you'd wait. Because I thought you were so madly in love with me. Because I realized too late that I do love you. Because I feel betrayed that you got over me so fast. Her mind was going a million miles an hour with all the things she wanted to say, but she held them inside of her.

"You're happy I'm happy?" Booth repeated.

"Yes," she nodded.

"Really."

"Why is that so hard to believe?" she asked.

"It...it's not," he said finally. He stood there feeling guilty. Sometimes he felt like a hypocrite for telling her how in love with her he was and then falling into the arms of the next woman he saw. Maybe it was his own guilt making him think she was angry at him because of Hannah. Maybe he was angry at himself for making the choice to be with Hannah. His head hurt from all the thinking.

"Good," she said. "Can we please be civil with each other? It's causing a scene." She turned to go back inside.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out. She paused and looked back at him. He tried to convey with his eyes that his sorry was for more than just yelling at her just now. Why he couldn't just say it, he didn't know.

"Apology accepted," she said softly. Then she was gone. Booth clenched his hands and felt like he was going to be sick. He just realized that he had been kidding himself big time. He was still in love with Brennan.

Brennan picked up Louis at school, and the first words out of his mouth were:

"I made a friend!" He looked at her with big shining eyes, and her heart melted.

"You did?" she asked, getting excited for him.

"Yea!"

"Who?"

"Parker!" Louis exclaimed, bouncing up and down in his seat. "He's in grade four, but he was so nice to me! He even asked me to play with him in the yard!"

"Parker," Brennan repeated. As in Parker Booth? She glanced back at the school. Shit. Booth's son did go to this school. How did she forget that? He fit the profile, being nine years old and all.

"Can he come over sometime?" Louis asked. "Pleeaase!"

"Um...sure," she nodded. Of all the kids in the school, he had to pick Parker as his friend. Booth was gonna find out very soon about Louis, and Brennan didn't feel ready. She knew it had to happen sometime, but not immediately. When they got home, Louis was still talking about his first day at school and how his teacher was amazing and how the kids were fun and how he just loved, loved, loved the play yard! Brennan felt a little better than she had that morning. Louis was gonna be all right.

"Oh God," Hannah said, coming in and seeing the room.

"What?" Booth asked.

"You're gonna propose," she accused.

"No!"

"Um, candles, wine, dark room?" Hannah gestured. "Toothbrushes?"

"Yup."

"Are you trying to say nicely that I have bad breath?"

"No, no. Just...take the new toothbrush. We both need one. Trust me."

"Something Sweets said?" Hannah asked.

"Yea. Don't ask," Booth shuddered. They sat down and he opened the wine.

"So what's this really about then?" Hannah asked.

"Nothing. Can't I make a romantic dinner for my lady?" Booth asked. What was her problem? Why was she so terrified of a proposal? This was making a red flag go off in his mind. He wanted to ask her about this fear, but he felt it wasn't the right time. He barely listened to her as she went on about the story her editor wouldn't allow her to write. He kept thinking about Brennan and the look on her face when he said he was sorry.

"Louis?" Brennan said, coming into his room. He was all ready for bed, and she was going to say goodnight, but she had to know about his limp. She was making herself ask him.

"Yea?"

"Sweetie, I'd like you to tell me the truth about what happened to your leg," Brennan said in a rush. She saw Louis' eyes widen in fear. "I won't get mad," she went on hurriedly. "I just want to know because you can trust me. I want you to know you can trust me with anything." Louis looked at her hesitantly. Could he? He wasn't sure. He picked at the dead skin on his heel absently. He looked at her again and saw her earnest face, and he decided he could trust her.

"Okay," he agreed. She sat down next to him as he took in a deep breath. "I...I didn't listen to my mother when she told me not to play away from home. She wanted to make sure I wouldn't do it again..." He trailed off, struggling not to cry.

"Louis," Brennan said, "you can tell me." He looked at her again, his eyes wet.

"She kicked me really hard with her boot," Louis whispered. Brennan wanted to vomit. That explained the pattern on the bone. The mother must have been wearing something steel toed to do that kind of damage.

"How many times?" Brennan asked, keeping her voice controlled. Louis was crying harder now.

"Seven times," he gulped through his tears. Brennan felt an immense hatred towards his mother just then. It made her feel almost glad she had been murdered.

"It's okay," Brennan soothed, pulling him onto her lap. She rocked him back and forth. She started wondering what else had happened to this poor boy. She remembered the bruise then.

"Louis?"

"Y-yea?"

"Who hit you?"

"W-what d-do you mean?"

"The bruise on your cheek when I met you. Who gave that to you?" she asked. He sniffed hard.

"Papa," he croaked.

"Why did he hurt you?" she asked.

"I tried to run away," he answered. He looked at her mournfully. Brennan was trying not to have a conniption fit about this news. She wondered if a local had murdered his parents after seeing them abuse Louis.

"You're safe now, Louis," Brennan told him firmly. "No one will ever hurt you like that again. I promise." He nodded and buried his head into her shoulder. She gazed around his room, and her eye caught something on the nightstand. Carefully so that she wouldn't disturb him, she reached for it. Before she could look at it properly, he stirred. She tucked it into her shirt pocket quickly. When Brennan finally got him settled to sleep, she crept to the door and turned off the light, but then she heard his little voice.

"I love you, Temperance." She froze at the door, her heart feeling as though it was going to burst. She looked back at him seeing his face in the light from the doorway.

"I love you too, Louis," she said. And she did. She had never loved anyone as much as she loved this little boy right now in this moment. She shut the door quietly and went to the living room. Heart pounding, she pulled out the photograph. She saw two adults surrounding a little boy in what appeared to be a happy family photo, but Brennan couldn't see it that way, not after what she had heard. Then she looked closer. Their facial structure was all wrong. She looked harder. Definitely different from Louis. She felt her heart sink then. These people, these monsters, were not Louis' parents. Brennan felt herself start to panic. If they weren't his real parents, then could they still be out there looking for him? Had he already been adopted once? Was he a victim of a kidnapping? The questions burned her mind. One thing was for sure, she was going to need help finding this out, but she was terrified Louis was going to be taken away from her, especially after she promised he would never get hurt again. Angela. She could count on Angela. She would talk to her first thing tomorrow. Brennan knew she couldn't keep Louis a secret forever, but she was not going to let anyone take him away from her. Not on her watch.