Present Time

Morgan stood in front of the mirror in the bridal room at the church staring at herself in her wedding dress. The dress fit her like a glove. The tiara on her head looked like it was meant to be there and her veil fell down her back perfectly. In fact her entire ensemble was perfect. Too bad her parents would never see her in it.

"You look beautiful sweetie." Angela whispered tearfully coming up behind her niece.

"Thank you." Morgan said softly, running her hands over her wedding dress. "Mom was the one that found this dress. It had gotten pushed back behind a bunch of other dresses. As soon as she saw it, she said it was my dress even before I had it on and she was right. It was like it was meant for me. I didn't want anything to frilly, poufy, or fancy. I wanted something simple and mom gave me what I wanted." Morgan was wearing a form fitting white sleeveless satin dress with roses embroidered on throughout the dress.

"Even though she never admitted it, your mother had a great fashion sense."

"She told me, everything she learned about clothes, she learned from you."

"Now that sounds like your mother." Morgan reached up and touched her tiara.

"I didn't want to wear this stupid tiara but daddy said…" Morgan took a deep breath to keep from crying. "Dad said that I was his princess and princess's wear tiaras." Morgan couldn't keep her tears from falling. She turned to Angela.

"Oh sweetie." There were no words of comfort that Angela could give the woman in front of her so Angela did the only thing she could. She held Morgan, tears of her own falling.

"It's not fair." Morgan sniffed, pulling away from Angela and wiping her eyes. "They should be here."

"Yes baby. They should." Angela agreed. "They may not be here physically, but I promise you that they are watching."

"I hope you are right."

"Trust your Aunt Angela." Morgan sniffed and nodded. "Now let me fix your makeup."

Over the two years since her parent's death and the dedication of the new lab, Morgan withdrew from her family, friends and coworkers, just like her mother would have done. She was angry and heartbroken and the only way she knew how to deal with it was to throw herself into her work. She was at the office before the sun rose and returned to her apartment long after the sun went down. The powers that be saw how hard Morgan was working and they promoted her to Special Agent In Charge just like her father was and with that promotion came a new bigger office; her father's old office. After his death, another agent cleaned out his office and gave Morgan the box. When Morgan moved into his office, she pulled the box out of her closet and returned almost everything to its rightful place and being among her father's belongings filling the office, she felt his presence.

Morgan's personal life wasn't better than her work life. Since she was working all of the time she basically had no personal life. She pulled away from her brother, her sister in law, her nieces, Angela and most importantly, David. Obviously, she cancelled the wedding and didn't reschedule it. She just put it off indefinitely. Whenever Angela, Parker or David would ask Morgan would either ignore it or tell them she had to think about when to reschedule it. Morgan couldn't think about getting married, having a wedding without her parents.

Thankfully, David was a trooper. He knew how badly Morgan was hurting over the loss of her parents and he couldn't blame her. He had known them for almost twenty years and his heart was broken as well so he was very understanding and very patient. He knew his girl and he knew he couldn't push her. He knew pushing her could result in losing her and that was a risk that he was not willing to take so he waited patiently over the next two years.

On the day of the dedication of the new lab, Morgan had a heart to heart with her big brother and during that conversation, she finally admitted that she was angry; angrier than she had ever been. She was angry at the world and her parents for leaving her. Getting that anger out was the best thing for her because even though she was still heartbroken, she was able to move forward with her life. She and David moved into her childhood home and even though they kept much of what was there before, they brought in their own things and made it their home and finally Morgan set a second wedding date and followed through with it.

"Okay. Now let me get a picture." Angela demanded, handing Morgan her bouquet.

"Really?"

"Yes really." Angela took a few steps back. "Now smile." Morgan smiled and Angela snapped a picture with her phone.

"Are you posting this picture too?" Angela had taken numerous pictures and then posted them to her social networking page.

"I am."

"You've been posting pictures like crazy."

"Because I am proud."

"Knock knock. Can I enter?" Parker called from the other side of the closed door. Morgan walked over and opened the door.

"You may enter."

"Hey squirt."

"Hey squint." The siblings stood for a minute looking at each other. "You look beautiful Morgs." Parker whispered over the lump in his throat.

"Thank you."

"You…you…look just like mom." Morgan responded by kissing Parker's cheek.

"All right you two. I need a picture." Parker and Morgan didn't even bother to argue with Angela. They just posed and smiled.

"Everyone is ready Morgs. Are you?"

"It's now or never right?"

"Atta girl." Parker said grinning.

"Do you need anything sweetheart?" Angela asked and Morgan shook her head.

"Thank you Aunt Angela for everything."

"You are very welcome." Morgan embraced her surrogate aunt and lately, mother.

"I love you."

"I love you too. Now let's go get you married."

Morgan and David didn't have a big wedding party. The flower girls were Morgan's nieces Rebecca and Lauren and the ring bearer was David's nephew Austin. Morgan's only bridesmaids were Emily, her sister in law; David's sister Abigail and Angela and Jack's daughter Avery. David had Parker, his best friend Nate and cousin Chad standing up for him.

"Now don't trip." Parker advised.

"Great. Now you've jinxed me."

"Okay serious moment."

"Please Parker. I don't need a serious moment. "

"I need it." Parker turned and looked at his sister. "I know that I'm not your first choice as an escort down the aisle." Tears filled Morgan's eyes. "And I'm okay with that because I wish like hell it was dad here with you instead of me but he's not and you are stuck with me."

"I'm not stuck with you." Morgan mumbled tearfully.

"Since I am a father of two girls I know how important this job is and what it means to a father to walk his daughter down the aisle. I am not dad Morgan but I am going to perform this duty with honor and pride; the way dad would have." Parker wiped the tears off of Morgan's cheeks with his thumb so he wouldn't mess her makeup and then he wiped his own.

"Thank you Parker. I love you."

"I love you too squirt."

"It's time Morgan." The wedding coordinator told the siblings.

"Show time."

Parker proudly walked his sister down the aisle to her future; a future with a wonderful man, her best friend; a future as a wife; a future as a mother; a future that was about moving on to bigger and better things.

"Sam come and look at this." Terry/Bones called. It had been three years since their "death" and the former Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan-Booth always referred to each other as Sam and Terry.

"What's up?" Sam asked walking into their den.

"You need to see these pictures." Terry had Angela's social networking page up and right now it was filled with pictures of Morgan's wedding day.

"I can't."

"It's our daughter's wedding day. Since we can't be there the least you can do is look at the pictures."

"We don't have a daughter." It was killing him that he was missing his baby girl's wedding.

"Shut up." Terry yelled.

"Sam and Terry Butler have no children." Sam shouted back.

"Seeley and Temperance have two children and regardless that my hair is short and blonde and you have a beard and no hair on top of your head but we are still Seeley and Temperance, parents of Parker, Morgan, Emily, and now David; grandparents of…"

"STOP!" Sam shouted as his tears fell. "I know that Seeley and Temperance have children and grandchildren. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about them. Our daughter is getting married today and I am not there to walk her down the aisle. Do you have any idea what in the hell that's doing to me?"

"Yes I do because it's doing the same thing to me. I found her dress. We choose the flowers together. We planned every part of her wedding together and I wasn't there. I didn't see my little girl walk down the aisle."

The two of them stared at each other for a few minutes, their faces mirroring the agony the other was feeling. They fell into each other's arms, sank to the floor and held each other through their sobs. Most of the time, they handled the fact that they were no longer in their children's lives fine. It hurt everyday but they both tucked their hurt away and continued to live their lives except at night. When they were in their bed, in the darkness they would allow their tears to fall. Very rarely did their heartbreak surface during the day but today was different than the rest. Today, their baby girl was getting married and they weren't there.

After the couple finally calmed down, they returned to the computer and looked through Angela's pictures of their daughter's wedding. Seeing Morgan, David, Parker, Emily, Lauren, Rebecca, and the squints; seeing how happy they all were eased their pain a little but that did not stop their tears from falling.

David and Morgan decided to go to North Carolina for their honeymoon. One of Morgan's favorite memories growing up was the two weeks she and her family spent at a beach house. She looked forward to those summers every year. As Morgan finalized her wedding plans she began to feel more nostalgic than normal. She missed her parents desperately and thought going to North Carolina would help that and David agreed.

On day, towards the end of their honeymoon, Morgan and David drove into South Carolina for a hockey game. They were close to the border of South Carolina so it was only a few hours' drive to Charleston and for a hockey game on their honeymoon the couple decided it was worth the drive. The South Carolina team was playing their beloved Capitals and the capitals were on fire this year and they didn't disappoint their two biggest fans. The Capitals won big. It was perfect and they loved every minute of it.

It was late when the game ended so the newlyweds got a hotel for the evening close to the arena and it turned out it was a great choice because it happened to be the same hotel that the Capitals were staying in and in the elevator Morgan and David got some pictures and autographs of their favorite players; the perfect ending to a perfect day.

The next morning they took the scenic way back to their beach house in North Carolina. Before they made it out of South Carolina, they stopped at a store that sold homemade wooden…well pretty much everything. Morgan and David's bedroom was done in wood and when Morgan saw the store she had to stop to see if there was anything she could find to add to their bedroom.

Morgan had an affinity for jewelry like her mother had. In fact she had all of her mother's jewelry and she wore a piece along with her own every day. Both of her jewelry boxes were full and she was in the market for a new one and in that store she found the perfect one. She turned to show David when a woman with short blonde hair caught her eye and then quickly turned and walked away.

"You okay honey?" David saw Morgan staring at an empty space in front her looking slightly pale.

"Umm yeah. Did you see that woman with the short blonde hair?"

"No. Why?"

"No reason. She just reminded me of mom." Fresh tears filled Morgan's eyes.

"I'm no expert but I think that's going to happen to you for the rest of your life."

"I know." Morgan sniffed back her tears and changed the subject. "Look what I found." She held up the jewelry box. "Isn't it pretty?"

"Yeah. Sure it is. What is it?"

"A jewelry box."

"Don't you already have a bunch?"

"They're full." David wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Of course they are." Morgan laughed and they continued shopping but she couldn't get the blonde woman out of her mind.

"We need to go now." Terry whispered, grabbing Sam's arm and dragging him out of store.

"What's wrong?" Terry was pale and shaking.

"Come on." When they got out of the store Terry pulled him to their car. "Get in." She demanded and he did without argument. "Go."

"Where to?"

"Anywhere. Just go." Sam started the car and pulled it onto the street.

"What in the hell is going on?"

"Morgan."

"Morgan. What about Morgan?"

"She's here."

"What?"

"She is here. She and David were in that store."

"What?" Sam pulled over. Now he was the one shaking. "Are you sure?"

"I know our daughter. It was her."

"What are they doing here? Does she know? Did she track us down?"

"I…I don't think so. On Angela's page she said they were taking their honeymoon in North Carolina, Maybe they changed their mind. If she had figured out that we were still alive Parker would have been with her." Booth nodded.

"Did…did she see you?"

"I think…yes she did."

"Oh no."

"I didn't know she was there."

"It's not your fault."

"As soon as I saw her I turned away so she probably didn't even realize that it was me."

"I need to see her."

"You can't. We can't risk it."

"I'm not going to go in but I just have to see her." Sam pulled the car back out onto the road and did a u-turn.

"Are you sure that you…that we should do this?"

"Hell no. We should or I should drive home as fast as I can go but I can't. I can't go until I see her; until I know that she is okay."

"We should park like we are doing a stakeout."

"That's exactly what we are doing because we are on a stakeout. We are staking out our daughter."

Like the old days, Booth parked the car in an inconspicuous spot and waited. Neither of them spoke. They held hands and silently watched the door, hoping Morgan and David didn't leave.

"There." Terry said pointing. "There she is."

Booth's eyes widened when they landed on his daughter. "She's beautiful." Tears fell from his eyes but he quickly wiped them away because they were blurring his view of Morgan. "She looks happy Bones. Doesn't she look happy?" Bones slipped from his mouth and neither of them realized the slip.

"She looks very happy." She whispered.

"Morgs, I'm sorry. Daddy is so sorry for leaving." Sam reached out and touched the window. "I love you my Angel. I love you so much."

Booth and Bones, Sam and Terry were gone at this point, Booth and Bones watched silently as the newlyweds got into their rental car and drove away from them and out of their lives. They would have been better off had they never seen their daughter and son in law. They were so close but so far away. They wanted to reach out to them but they knew they couldn't. It hurt more than leaving the first time. Booth wanted to follow them and watch for just a little while longer but he knew that wasn't a possibility. He pulled the car back out onto the street and drove away from their daughter…again.