Father Mears stood at the door of the classroom, wondering where Sister Mary Agnes was. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her in the last few days, but she seemed to be enjoying the second grade class during this week of Vacation Bible School. He chuckled to himself. Maybe all the young woman had needed was a challenge...something to get her Irish up. Once she was focused on the work at hand and became less worried about all the things that might go wrong, things had been much better for both of them. Pleased with himself for making this discovery, he nodded in satisfaction, deciding to look for something else to challenge his young protege' when VBS was finished.

"Good morning, Father Mears." Mary Agnes smiled at him as she tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, please…"

"Ah, good morning, Sister. How are you today? Ready for the story about Joseph?" Father Mears stepped aside to let her walk through the door. "It's a great story."

"It is, but I'm not convinced that all of it is suitable for younger children, especially the part about Potiphar's wife wanting to seduce Joseph." Mary Agnes seemed positively scandalized at the thought of having to explain that facet of the story to her young charges. "I think perhaps we'll have an abridged version of the story in class today."

"I'll leave that up to you, Sister." Trying not to appear nosy, Father Mears cleared his throat as he pretended to look over one of the day's activity worksheets. "So, has Dr. Brennan been...helpful?"

"Oh, yes, Father. She's suggested several enjoyable activities for the class that go along with the stories, and she's even helped me answer some difficult questions." Seeing the priest's consternation, Mary Agnes quickly explained. "They weren't faith questions, really. Mark Ellis wanted to know how dinosaurs could've fit in the ark, since several species of them were very large when they were on the earth, but Dr. Brennan explained that dinosaurs and people didn't live at the same time, and he was satisfied with that."

"I see. Well, very good, Sister. I'll let you get back to work. Oh, by the way, don't forget to remind the children about the program Friday evening…"

"Of course. Our class will be presenting a wonderful skit." Mary Agnes grimaced slightly as Father Mears left. She sincerely hoped her class would be ready to present a wonderful skit…

Oooooooooo

Sister Mary Agnes pinned the large picture of Joseph in his coat of many colors to the bulletin board, standing back to enjoy it while Brennan supervised the giggling children as they washed the excess marker stains from their hands. "A fine job there, little ones. I'm sure the real Joseph never had a coat as fine as this one." The second graders had drawn multicolored flowers, birds, zigzags, curlicues, and all sorts of other fanciful designs all over the poster sized picture. "I think we'll just leave this up here for a while to enjoy your work."

Brennan smiled as she glanced at the picture. "Joseph's coat was probably made of several different types of linen in a variety of woven patterns, but I would agree that a coat such as the children have illustrated would be much more beautiful. That poster was a good idea, Sister. It certainly encouraged the children to work together, which is a very important skill in the real world."

"Thank you, Dr. Brennan." Grinning happily, Mary Agnes clapped her hands to get her students' attention. "Alright, children. It's time to discuss our story. Please come sit down…"

The children jostled for position as they came over to sit around their teacher's chair. After gently shushing them, the young woman began their discussion.

"Well, children, Joseph had a very eventful life, didn't he? His brothers weren't very nice to him, throwing him in a pit and then sending him far away from home with a caravan…" Mary Agnes paused, deciding to omit the detail about Joseph's brothers selling him as a slave. "Then, while he was in Egypt, because of a series of terrible misunderstandings, Joseph ended up in jail…"

Brennan sighed sadly as she sat in the back of the classroom, having been very familiar with that scenario as it pertained to Booth and his time in a federal penitentiary. Christine had been quite young at the time, and her mother hoped the little girl had no real memory of that horrible part of their lives.

"...But Joseph never lost his faith in God, did he?" Pausing, the young nun nodded at her students. "It was a very hard time in his life, but he always did things the right way, just as God had instructed, and after a few years, Joseph was called into Pharaoh's presence to interpret some dreams. Pharaoh's bad dreams had troubled him greatly, and no one in his court could help him understand what they meant, but then a man who had been in jail with Joseph remembered him, and suggested that Pharaoh ask Joseph for help."

Mark raised his hand. "I dreamed about big, scary dinosaurs last night. What does that mean, Sister?"

Chiming in, Tommy blurted out, "I dreamed about ice cream. I love ice cream. It was chocolate with sprinkles..."

"I dreamed about fluffy white kittens." Annie stuck her tongue out at Mark. "Kittens are a lot better than dinosaurs…kittens are way cuter. I have a new kitten…"

"Alright, children, let's get back on track…", Mary Agnes stifled a giggle as she called her students back to order. "The Pharaoh was impressed with Joseph's wisdom, and after a while, Joseph was given a position of authority in Egypt, making sure that the people of Egypt were prepared for a famine that was supposed to come. Does anyone remember what happened next? Yes, Christine?"

"There was a huge famine, and there was nothing to eat in Israel, so Joseph's brothers had to come to Egypt to buy food.", Christine explained. "And they didn't recognize Joseph, but he recognized them."

"That's right. Joseph played a few tricks on his brothers, but eventually he told them who he was, and his brothers were worried, remember? They thought he'd be really mad at them, and he might want to get back at them…"

Fiona interrupted. "But Joseph was nice to them, instead."

"Very true. His brothers were quite surprised to find that Joseph had forgiven him, but Joseph said that he thought the Lord had sent him ahead to Egypt so that his family would be cared for during the famine. Joseph forgave his brothers for all the bad things they had done to them, and they became a family again."

Aaron shook his head. "Wow...that's crazy…"

"I might agree, Aaron, except I know that the Lord calls us to forgive each other. It's a very hard thing to do, believe me. It's one of the hardest things in the world…" Sister Mary Agnes nodded sadly. "But we still have to try."

"Even when my brother hits me?" Fiona asked. "Or when my sister cuts my doll's hair?"

"Yes, even then. Even when really bad things happen. Did you know that Jesus forgave the people who crucified him?"

The children sat quietly for a few seconds. Finally, Lucy spoke up. "Yeah, but Jesus is perfect, and we're not…"

"That's true", Mary Agnes agreed, "...but we can ask Him to help us forgive others." Glancing at her watch, the young nun smiled gently. "I see it's time to go home. We can talk about this some more tomorrow, if you want. Don't forget your notes about tomorrow evening…"

Oooooooooo

"You okay there, Bones? You've been quiet this evening. Hard day at Bible School?" Booth handed his wife a glass of wine as he settled on the sofa next to her.

"No, Bible School was fine. Christine enjoyed herself, especially when the students pretended to be in the camel caravan that took Joseph away." Brennan sipped her wine and smiled. "I don't think the children really understood that part of the story. They just wanted to pretend to that they were riding camels."

"Yeah, I get it. That story has a lot of parts that might be scary for little kids." Booth nodded as he took a drink of his scotch.

"Sister Mary Agnes did a good job of condensing the story down to the essentials." Brennan sighed as she lay her head on Booth's shoulder. "She told the children about Joseph being imprisoned under false circumstances, and it made me think of you…"

"I see. I guess that was upsetting for you, wasn't it?" Booth kissed the top of his wife's head. "But that's all water under the bridge now, isn't it? We can't do anything about the past."

"She said that your god calls his followers to forgive others, even for things that extreme, but I don't know how you could ever do that in those circumstances, Booth. I know you've forgiven a lot of people over the years, but the people who imprisoned you took so much time away from you...time you could've spent with your family...and you'll never get it back. That must be so difficult for you…"

"You're right. That was hard, and I'm not sure I've actually completely forgiven those bastards. The point is that I've gotta try, because otherwise I end up carrying all that shit around in my soul, and those guys don't deserve to be a part of my life any more. If I can forgive them, it helps me let go of all the pain and anger, and eventually it won't bother me as much."

"So you think forgiving people makes you feel better?" Brennan's brow furrowed as she thought over Booth's statement. "I'm not sure I understand…"

"Well, did you feel better when you and Max patched things up? It took a long time, but eventually you guys worked stuff out, right? You get along well with Russ now, too." Booth swallowed hard as he pulled his wife close. "And you forgave me when I started gambling again, and I'll always be grateful for that. Sometimes it's hard to forgive another person, because you have to let go of worrying about who's right and who's wrong, but I think, in the end, it's worth it. It makes things easier for everyone in the long run."

"And if I ever did anything wrong, you'd forgive me, right?" Brennan smirked slightly as she sipped her wine.

"Definitely." Booth chuckled as he gave her another kiss. "Of course, I know you'll never do anything like that, so I guess we'll never find out."

"Of course." Brennan patted her husband's knee. "Don't forget that we're supposed to go to the Bible School program tomorrow evening. The class is doing a skit."

Booth chuckled as he took another sip of scotch. "I'm looking forward to it. I bet it'll be wonderful."

Brennan nodded. "I'm not sure about wonderful, but it'll definitely be interesting…."