Years ago

The next five years in the lives of the Booth family passed relatively uneventfully. Booth and Bones continued to work together to catch murderers. In fact both of them received a commendation from the President of The United States during one of their cases. It was a serial killer that made his presence known in many states for years, which had caused a lot panic along the upper eastern seaboard but when a body was discovered in Virginia the case was given to the F.B.I.'s best and they had done what numerous law-enforcement agents before them had been unable to do; they solved the case.

Since his marriage, Parker finished his forensic anthropology graduate program and in his mother's opinion wrote one of the best, besides her own, dissertations that she has ever read. When "Dr. Parker Booth" was announced at his graduation Booth clapped and cheered harder than anyone. He couldn't be prouder of his "squint" son. As planned when Parker became a full-fledged forensic anthropologist, he became his mother's assistant but he had to earn that position. He went through a few intensive interviews with the big shots of The Jeffersonian not including Cam or Bones. The board was convinced that there would be favoritism for Parker and even though Bones insisted that she could compartmentalize her feelings for her son and focus on his ability as an anthropologist but the board wouldn't risk it so Parker earned his job as the assistant to the best anthropologist in the country on his own accord, yet another reason for his parents to be extremely proud of him.

Parker and Emily had been married for four years when they found out that they were going to be parents and the news got even better when the ultrasound reveled twin girls. The entire family was ecstatic. Morgan couldn't wait to become an aunt and surprisingly Booth and Bones weren't really freaked out to become grandparents. In fact, they embraced the whole concept. Bones never knew her grandparents so she quite anxious to become a grandmother and spoil the girls whereas Booth's grandparents always meant a lot to him so he couldn't wait to be the kind of grandfather to his grandchildren that his grandfather was to him.

Meanwhile, soon after Parker's wedding Morgan had decided that she wanted to finish high school early and start college. Having faced her own mortality with her cancer, she didn't want to waste anymore of her life in high school. Technically, since she tested out of the majority of her classes she had all the credits that she needed to graduate by the time she was a sophomore so when Morgan was 16, much to her father's chagrin, she started college. Booth wanted his little girl to be a kid or more accurately a teenager living a teenagers life, going to school dances, football games, sleeping in until noon on weekends, for as long as possible but it was not going to happen. Morgan enrolled at Georgetown University at sixteen and graduated four years later with two degrees; one in Criminal Justice and one in Forensic Science.

With her degrees, Morgan wanted to work at the F.B.I. and be a Special Agent like her father. Of course, Booth wasn't happy about it and would have forbidden her to do so if he thought it stood a chance in hell to work. Like any parent, he wanted his children to live long and healthy lives and being an agent for the F.B.I. may not allow for that to happen but Morgan could not be persuaded to change career paths so after many fights between father and daughter Booth finally gave up fighting with Morgan. She was as stubborn as he was and he knew that once she made up her mind there was no stopping her.

To become a Special Agent Morgan had to be twenty three with three years of experience so as soon as she graduated from college she got a job doing forensics at the F.B.I. and was actually assigned to the team that worked cases with her parents. During those cases, Morgan was very professional. She always referred to her parents as "Agent Booth" or "Dr. Brennan." Of course Bones was able to separate the personal and professional relationship with no problem but Booth, he had to bite back a grin every time he heard Morgan call him "Agent Booth." He thought it was adorable. Morgan's goal was to put in her three years then on her twenty third birthdays she is going to submit her application and cross her fingers.

Booth, Bones, and a forensic team, including Morgan were at a crime scene when Booth's cell phone rang. "Booth." He answered.

"Dad it's me."

"What's up?"

"It's Em."

"Is she okay? Is something wrong with the babies?" Bones, who was standing next to Booth, looked over at him with concern filling her face.

"She's in labor. We're going to have our babies."

"What hospital?"

"Booth what's wrong?" He waved her off and turned away from her. "Give me that." She tore the phone out of his hand and put it to her own ear. If Booth wasn't going to give her the answers she needed than she would get them herself. "Parker what is going on?"

"Mom? Where's dad?"

"Right here. Is Emily and the girls okay?"

"So far everything is fine. Em is in labor and we are on our way to the hospital."

"What hospital? Your father and I are on our way."

"Whoa mom. Slow down."

"I'm not even moving." Parker laughed.

"Mom, it could be hours before the girls are born. I told dad that I will give you a call when she starts pushing. There is no reason for you guys to hang out in the waiting room for hours."

"But…"

"I know you guys just landed a case and you need to keep working the case. We're at Washington Memorial and the hospital isn't far from the lab, especially with dad's siren. I promise that I will call you in plenty of time to be here when the girls are born."

"Okay. Fine." Bones finally relented.

"Is Morgan with you? I need to get a hold of Morgan and tell her."

"She's here. We will tell her."

"Thanks mom."

"We love you guys."

"We love you too." Bones ended the call and handed the phone back to Booth.

"Really? You took the phone out of my hand like I was a child?" Booth asked as he took his phone back.

"You weren't giving me the information that I was asking for so I got it myself."

"I couldn't pass any information on to you because I didn't have all the information to give. Parker was still telling me what was going on when you ripped my phone out of my hand."

"Quit acting like a child Booth."

"Excuse me, Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan, I found this approximately twenty five feet away from the victim. I think it could be a scrap from the murderer's clothes." Morgan told her parents holding up an evidence bag with a scrap of fabric in it.

"It needs to be sent to Hodgins for analysis." Bones told her.

"Yes ma'am I know."

"Hey sweetheart, guess what?"

"Don't call me sweetheart at work Agent Booth." Morgan hissed through her teeth and Booth just grinned.

"Emily is in labor." Morgan's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Your brother is going to call once Emily starts pushing."

"Thank you for the information Dr. Brennan. I'm…I'm going to get back to work." Morgan returned to the crime scene with a huge grin on her face.

"I hope the excitement of the impending birth doesn't cause Morgan to become distracted from her job."

"Come on Bones, you know Morgan. She won't be distracted." He flashed his charm smile.

"I suppose that you are right. She is like me. She isn't easily distracted from her work."

"You can say that again."

"Why?" Booth just laughed as they returned to work. "Why Booth? Why did you want me to repeat my last statement?"

Morgan walked into the labor and delivery room carrying two "It's a girl" balloons and two giant teddy bears. "Any news?" She asked her parents.

"Nothing yet. What took you so long to get here? I called you over an hour ago." Bones asked.

"I had to finish cataloging my evidence."

"Of course."

"Nice bears." Booth commented. "A little big don't you think?"

"They will grow into them." Morgan smarted back.

"You're father is right. Those bears are not practical. They are too large for the girls to enjoy them for quite a few years."

"They're just stuffed animals mom."

"You should have bought them a gift that will contribute to their intellectual development."

"Why would I do that mom? You will take care of all of the intellectual gifts. They need Aunt Morgan to buy them fun presents." Booth laughed and Bones glared at him.

Thirty minutes later the waiting room door opened and an ecstatic Parker was motioning his family back to Emily's room. "I can't wait for you guys to meet the girls. They are so beautiful. They are so small but the doctor said that they are healthy." Parker was so happy that he couldn't stop talking. "Here we are." Parker opened up a door and the four of them stepped into the room and chorus of "Aww's" went up when they saw Emily on the bed holding too pink bundles in her arms.

"I would like for you to meet our daughters." Parker reached down and took one of the babies from Emily's arms. "Mom, dad, Morgan, this is our oldest Lauren Elizabeth." Parker handed the baby to his mother.

"Her first name is after my sister and her middle name comes from my mother."

"It's beautiful." Bones commented as she looked at her grandchild. "And so is she."

"And this…" Parker announced proudly as he retrieved his second baby from Emily. "Is our youngest daughter, Rebecca Temperance."

"Temperance?" Bones asked with tears in her eyes. Parker and Emily had kept the girls' name to themselves.

"She is named after both of my mothers." Bones handed Lauren to Booth and she took Rebecca.

"This is so not fair." Morgan complained. "Why couldn't you of had three babies because then I would have one to hold."

"Don't worry squirt. You'll get your baby fix." Parker assured her.

It took twenty minutes but Morgan finally did get her baby fix. Her parents finally relinquished their granddaughters and Morgan was able to hold both girls at once. As she stared at the precious little girls, her nieces, in her arms she was mesmerized with them. She couldn't believe how small and beautiful they were. Morgan has never been a big fan of kids. In fact she had never held a baby before today. Unlike most girls when she was a teenager she never babysat and she had no desire to have kids of her own, something her mother assured her would change one day, but the instant Rebecca and Lauren were placed into her arms she was filled with a love like never felt before. She loved her nieces with her whole heart, more than she thought possible.

"So how are you feeling grandma?" Booth asked later that night when they got settled into bed.

"I feel fine."

"I mean do you feel old now because you are officially a grandmother?"

"Why would I feel old just because the girls were born?"

"I dunno. I have just heard that some people, woman especially, feel old when they become grandparents."

"Well that is just ridiculous. I am not old. I am in excellent health. My body mass index is still within normal range. My hair is still full and healthy and I only have a few gray hairs unlike you." Bones reached out and ran her hand through Booth's hair. His hair didn't have much gray in it. The gray in his hair was lightly scattered except for right above his sideburns. That was where the most gray was.

"My gray hair makes me distinguished."

"Of course it does." Bones leaned against Booth and he wrapped an arm around her.

"I can't believe that Parker is a father." Booth mumbled softly.

"Parker is going to be a wonderful father. He had a great example."

"I remember the day he was born and now he has his own children. Time goes so fast." Booth mused out loud.

"Morgan looked wonderful holding the girls didn't she?"

"She really did."

"I think that she will make a wonderful mother."

"She had a great example."

"Do you think she will change her mind in regards to not having children?" Bones asked softly. So far, Morgan had been adamant about not having children.

"I think that she may. You did." Booth told Bones with a grin.

"I want her to experience being a mother; the utter joy that goes with it. There is nothing better than being a mother."

"Not even being married to me?"

"Being married to you has been a wonderful experience, one I would not trade for anything but being a mother, it's a better experience. The two experiences can't even compare."

"I understand exactly what you are saying Bones." The two of them lay in bed silently, thinking of their children and grandchildren.

"I've been thinking." Bones said suddenly, causing Booth to jump because he was in the process of dosing off.

"When aren't you thinking sweetheart?"

"Yes I know that I am always thinking. I should have made a more specific statement. I am thinking about something in particular that I would like to share with you."

"What's on your mind?"

"We are getting older, not old but older. We both have spent our entire adult life working with very little time off."

"Are you suggesting that we retire Bones?"

"No. I don't think that I am ready for that but…"

"But what Bones?"

"I don't want to spend the remainder of my life working constantly. I want to spend time with our grandchildren. I want to spend quality time with you, Morgan, Parker and Emily. I want to travel the world."

"You have traveled the world."

"I have but it has always been for work and never with you. I want to travel the world with you. I want to walk upon the Champs Elyse holding your hand. I want to see an Italian sunrise from our balcony together."

"Then let's do it."

"Do what?"

"Spend more time with our kids and grandbabies. Let's spend more time together. Let's travel the world. Let's retire."

"Retiring seems so final. I enjoy my work. I'm not ready to give up my work and neither are you. You enjoy it too much." Booth took a few minutes to think and then he sat up with a large smile on his face.

"How about we drop down to part time? You've got Parker in the lab now that can handle everything and since he is easier to work with, there are agents willing to work with him."

"I am not difficult to work with." Bones said haughtily.

"Yes you are Bones. You are a pain in the ass. All of the forensic techs are scared to work with you on a case. Well all of the techs except for Morgan."

"I am not a pain in the ass. I can't help it if other people can't do their job."

"Bones none of my techs have ever ruined a crime scene."

"Because I am there to supervise them."

"Okay whatever Bones. Now what I was saying was you and I aren't the only team anymore that can deal with murders where there is nothing left of the victims except their skeletons or they are so far gone that no one can identify them. There are other people now that can do our job, granted not as good as we can but it can be done and because of that, we can take some time off to spend with our family and each other."

"Can we do that?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course we can do it. We can do whatever we want." Bones' blue eyes shone with excitement.

"I want to go to Paris and Italy. Where would you like to go Booth?"

"Ireland for sure. I've always wanted to travel to Ireland."

"I've never been to Ireland either. We will be able to experience it together for the first time."

"It will be amazing sweetheart." Booth pulled his wife into his arms and they shared a passionate kiss. "I'll betcha that old people don't do what we are about to do." Booth commented as he pulled her pajama top off of her body.

"That is a misconception. People seem to think that "old people" don't have sex but that is far from the truth. The geriatric population enjoys intercourse. In fact, STD's run rampant in nursing homes. Many geriatrics don't believe that they….oh….hmmm" to stop her from talking about how people having sex Booth did the only thing he knew that effectively worked. He attached his mouth to her breast.

"You were saying?" He lifted his head from her chest.

"It's not important."

"That's what I thought." He grinned and returned to her chest.

Six months later

"It's open." Booth yelled from his desk without looking up from the mountain of paperwork.

"Got a minute?" Hearing Morgan's voice Booth gladly looked away from his paperwork.

"I always have time for you." Morgan shut her father's office door. "Are you here as my daughter or a forensic tech."

"I'm off the clock so I am here as your daughter."

"Well as your father, let me give my favorite daughter a hug." Booth came around from behind his desk and hugged his daughter.

"I'm your only daughter."

"Only a small technicality." Morgan settled herself on a chair in front of his desk and Booth sat on the edge of his desk.

"So I went and saw the girls yesterday. They are getting so big." Morgan said. Booth knew she didn't come to see him to talk about Parker's girls. There was something else, something more serious on her mind and she was stalling.

"When mom and I had them over the weekend they were trying to crawl. They were on their hands and knees, rocking back and forth, trying to get the momentum to go but they couldn't find it but soon." Booth's mind drifted to the past. "I remember when you were learning to crawl. It was so funny. I would give your butt a little push to help you along and you would fall over onto your side. You got so mad but you always managed to get back up and try it again."

"You pushed me down?"

"No I tried to help you and you fell down."

"Yeah. Sure you did." She said with a grin.

"So did you come here to chat about Rebecca and Lauren?"

"No."

"What's on your mind Angel?"

"I submitted my application for Special Agent."

"You didn't waste any time did you?" Morgan's twenty third birthday was the day before.

"I've wanted this for a very long time. Of course I didn't waste any time."

"Morgs, are you sure that you want to do this? Aren't you happy working forensics?" Even though he knew that this was coming for the last three years he still had to give it one more shot to get her to change her mind.

"I enjoy the forensics dad but it's not what I want to do."

"What department are you hoping for?"

"Homicide."

"What about fraud, identify theft, or white collar crime?"

"Desk jobs?"

"Nothing wrong with a desk job."

"I'll work a desk job if you do it." Booth cringed. He spent enough time behind a desk. He couldn't stomach any more.

"Touché." He sighed. "I just want you to be safe. I want you to live a long healthy life."

"You have lived a long and healthy life."

"There have been a couple of close calls. Angel, I really, really want you to change your mind. I don't want you following in my footsteps."

"I am doing this dad. With our without your support but I really want your support." Booth stood and began to pace around his office and Morgan waited patiently. She knew her dad well enough to realize that he had to take some time to work things out in her head.

"Morgan, I wish like hell you would choose a safe, des k job but I know that would be like asking myself to do that, which I never would." He pulled the other chair up next to Morgan. "Sweetheart, I want you to be happy. You survived cancer baby girl. I will never forget when you got pneumonia. For a couple of days I thought that you were going to die and the fear I felt was unlike anything I had ever felt before. Losing a child, it's got to be the worst pain a parent can feel and I am terrified that if or when you become an agent something will happen to you." Booth told her tearfully.

"Beating caner, I feel like God is giving me a second chance and I don't want to waste that second chance. I want to give back and do something good like catch murderers."

"If your mother was here she would inform you that it was science that cured your cancer, not God." Morgan laughed because she knew her father was right.

"Losing a parent, I'm sure that is the worst pain a child can experience. Once I was old enough to understand what you did for a living and I realized the probability of you getting shot and killed was very high, everyday that you went to work I was terrified that you wouldn't come home ever again but I never said anything to you because I knew how much your job meant to you. This means as much to me as your job does to you." Booth leaned forward and kissed his precious daughter.

"How can I support you?" He asked softly and Morgan's eyes lit up.

"You can support me by not butting in." Booth faked surprise.

"Now would I do something like that?" Morgan rolled her eyes.

"I don't want you to interfere and pull any strings for me. If I become a Special Agent I want it to be on my own merits. I didn't even put you or mom down as references. You and mom have the best partnership that the F.B.I. has ever seen and you are very well known. I don't want anyone accusing me of becoming a Special Agent because of who my parents are."

"I understand that and I will respect your wishes."

"And if you change your mind about supporting me, I'm asking you not to sabotage my chances. If I'm going to fail I want to fail on my own."

"Even if I did change my mind, I would never sabotage you and by the way, you won't fail Morgan. You have never failed at anything and I know that you aren't going to start now."

"Thank you daddy." Morgan stood and hugged her father tightly. "I love you daddy."

"I love you too baby girl."

Seven months later, Bones, Booth, David, Parker, Emily, Lauren and Rebecca were in the auditorium at Quantico celebrating the latest class of new F.B.I, agents. Morgan's application was accepted about a month after it was submitted with no help from her father. A month later Morgan went to Virginia, to Quantico for an intensive twenty week training and now, her family was there celebrating Morgan completing the program.

Al l new agents could be assigned anywhere in the United States. They were permitted to put down their top three preferences but it wasn't guaranteed that they would be given what they desired. Morgan's three preferences were D.C, Virginia and Maryland, three preferences that were close to home. Booth wanted desperately to pull strings and get Morgan assigned to D.C. and the strings he could have pulled would have guaranteed her placement in D.C. but he made a promise to Morgan. He promised that he would not interfere and he always kept his word to his daughter. Like the rest of the family, he had to wait.

"Special Agent Morgan Booth." When the announcement was made Morgan's family jumped to their feet and cheered. Booth clapped just as hard for Morgan as he did for Parker while tears of joy slid down Bones' faced as she proudly clapped for her daughter.

"Congratulations sweetheart." Bones congratulated her daughter after the ceremony.

"Thanks mom."

"Let's see the badge." Morgan handed the badge to her father. "That's my girl." Booth told her. "I'm so proud of you. You did it all on your own."

"I got my assignment." Along with her badge and certificate, she was also handed her assignment.

"Where will you be?" Bones asked with a shaking voice. Even though that she had accepted that Morgan could be sent anywhere in the country, it didn't mean that she liked the idea. Morgan handed her mother her assignment and Bones' eyes filled with tears. "Really?" She whispered.

"Really? Really what? Give me that." He took the paper from his wife. "D.C.? You got assigned to D.C." Morgan was afraid that her father made her D.C. assignment happen but by the look of surprise on his face she knew he didn't have anything to do with it.

"I was assigned to Washington D.C. under Supervisory Special Agent Seeley Booth."