I would love to thank everyone for their reviews and alerts. As I always say, I love them. I mean that. I hope you'll all enjoy this chapter.

Thank you as always to MaudlinMuse. You're help is invaluable. xoxox

Chapter 8

"A boy about this high and a smaller one about this high." Booth demonstrated impatiently to the third teenage usher in a row. "The smaller one has blonde curly hair and the other has dark curly hair." The smart ass kid swaggered over to the counter after giving his friend a quick glance.

"Geez I dunno Mister...what were they wearing...jeans?" he asked sarcastically.

"Very funny genius. My kids are missing and I DON'T find the matter funny. He took out his badge and flashed it. "Wanna answer my questions down at the FBI headquarters?"

The kid paled, his bravado suddenly vanished.

"I was only messing around Mister." he said. "It's just that the kids you described could have been just about any of the kids that passed through here today."

"Then THAT was the answer." Bones said with a disapproving frown.

"Ok." The kid said. "Sorry." he added begrudgingly.

"See Bones... THAT is what happens when kids don't get discipline." he said, nodding back towards the unhelpful and uncaring young man behind the counter.

"I can see that Booth." Bones said. "I would hate for that to happen..."

"Ok Bones...I get it." Booth knew exactly what she was referring to.

"Where next?" she asked, happy to let the matter drop. Booth sighed and tried to get his mind back into work gear. What would he do if this was a case?

"We go back to where we started and we look for clues." he said. "We must have missed something."

"Damn they're gone." Lance said as he peered behind the trash can.

"What're we gonna do now Lance?" Parker asked. He had no doubt that Lance would have another plan. Lance pulled out the money that was left in his pocket. He didn't think he had enough.

"Follow what I say...ok?"

"Ok." Parker said nodding enthusiastically. Lance walked up to the counter and Parker trotted obediently behind. The older boy's heart thumped noisily in his chest as he tried to keep his face kind of bland.

"Hey Mister." he said. "My Dad returned our shoes cos they didn't fit and he forgot to get the new ones."

"You sure?" The kid behind the counter asked disbelievingly. "I don't remember that...where's your Dad?"

"I dunno." Lance said. "Bathroom maybe...I could go get him." he bluffed. It felt like hours passed while the kid decided what to do, while in essence it was barely a minute. Luckily for him the people behind him were getting impatient.

"Give the kids their damn shoes so we can move it along a bit."
"Yeah just give him the shoes!" someone else yelled. "We're gonna be here all day."

"What size?"

Lance muttered their sizes deciding to make them fit if he had to. The boy sighed and begrudgingly handed over the sizes Lance had asked for.

Lance grabbed Parkers arm and dragged him back to where their lane had been. Thankfully it was still theirs. Their names still clearly on the screen.

"Quick. Put them on." he said handing Parker his shoes.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Bones asked.

"Evidence... in the shape of a miracle." Booth said. He was running out of ideas.

"Oh? I don't think that's possible Booth." Bones said as they walked across the bowling alley foyer and headed towards the lanes.

"I don't mean literally Bones." he said. "I meant that we would find the piece of the puzzle that we need to find the boys."

"Ohhh." she said. A flash of movement stopped Booth in his tracks.

"Well, lookey, lookey here." he said with his eyes narrowed at the pair that were trying to look angelic and innocent.

"Uh oh...trouble." Bones said. She was absolutely dismayed at the flood of relief that washed though her at the sight of this naughty pair.

They looked at each other knowingly at the sight of their two young boys...sitting like a pair of angels, bowling shoes on apparently waiting for their game to start. Right.

"And who said there was no such thing as a miracle?" Booth asked sarcastically. "Here's the two saints we've been searching for all afternoon."

"They don't look like saints." Bones said with a smirk she managed to keep hidden, even though she was overjoyed to see their boys safe at last.

"No they don't...not at all..." He stalked over to the two miscreants who despite their forced bravado looked a little pale. "More like angels with dirty faces."

"Actually I think they're a little pale Booth." Bones said as she stroked each of their faces.

"Yeah I just bet they are."

"Um...hi!" Lance said nervously. "I thought you'd never come back." Booth narrowed his eyes.

"Pardon me?" he asked.

"We've been waiting for you." Lance lied through his big toothy falsely planted grin.

"Uhhuh." Booth said. "You don't honestly expect us to believe you've been here all along waiting for us?"

"Yeah...we have... we been waitin forever? Where you guys been anyway?" Parker added. "I thought we were gonna bowl." Booth narrowed his eyes at his son as he saw and finally had to acknowledge a side of him he hadn't seen before. There was no one controlling his speech or making him do this. Booth saw red. He yanked Parker's hand and pulled him off the seat before he landed a sharp smack to the seat of his pants.

"Ow!" Parker yelped. "That hurt." A big fat tear rolled down his cheek. He brushed it away with the back of his hand, not wanting Lance to see him as a cry baby. He had NEVER seen his Dad look at him that way.

Booth turned his attention to Lance, who was still so shocked and opened mouthed at the smack Parker had just received that he almost missed the large hand that hoisted him off the seat and landed a matching smack to his own now smarting ass. "The jig's up." Booth said in that deadly quiet menacing tone that brooked no argument. "We know exactly where you've been."

"Bones?" Parker appealed desperately with a sob. He didn't like the look his Dad was giving him. Not at all. Lance rubbed his stinging rear and looked around him to see who was looking. God he hoped no one from school saw that.

"I can explain!" Lance appealed to Bones with sad dog eyes.

"Get those shoes off and march young man." she answered. Her hands were planted firmly on her hips and she looked very much the pissed off Mom. THIS was the final straw, Bones thought. Searching desperately for them and worrying about them and to finish up with them lying about it all to top it right off...like it was nothing. Bones was starting to think there might be something very satisfying in this spanking business.

Not a word was said on the way home. Booth's mouth was set in a grim line and Bones just stared out the window, blindly watching as the scenery flew by.

Lance and Parker exchanged a quick glance and Booth saw them in the rear view mirror. Well that was something, they weren't fighting.

Booth parked the car and then opened the car door for the boys. They looked at each other and winced. Neither were too keen on passing Booth to get into the building.

"Come on, come on...out." Booth said. Bones could see the boys hesitation. She whispered in Booth's ear.

"I think they're scared Booth. They think you're going to smack them." Booth whispered.

"I know."

"Oh." Bones mouthed. Intimidation. This really wasn't unlike when they brought in a suspect. "You need to get out boys." She said helpfully. With a groan Lance finally evicted himself from the car. He did his best to keep his bottom as far out of Booth's reach as he could.

Didn't help him. Booth popped a swat off his rear end with ease.

"Ouch!" Lance yelped. As Lance stood rubbing at his bottom, Parker planted himself firmly back in the seat. There was no way he was moving from that spot.

"Out." Booth said sticking his head in the car. Parker looked him directly in the eye and buckled his seat belt. "Parker!" Booth said with shock.

"No."

"Now." Booth said.

"Don wanna. You're gonna smack me." he said.

"I'm not going to argue with you Parker, now undo the seatbelt and get out of the car."

"No."

"I'm going to count to three." he said. "One..." nothing. "Two..." Parker folded his arms. Booth sighed. "Two and a half..." Parker looked stubbornly out of the window. "That's it! Three." He wouldn't allow himself to be beaten by hardened criminals, he certainly wasn't going to be beaten by a stubborn eight year old.

He unclicked the belt and lifted Parker out...careful to dodge the kicking and flailing legs.

After the initial squeal at the sudden sting from the two smacks he got for his trouble, the somewhat chastened little boy quieted a little. "Inside." Booth said as he stalked inside expecting the others to follow. He didn't let go of Parker's hand for fear he would run. Normally he wouldn't, but then normally he wouldn't pull any of the crap he'd pulled lately.A flummoxed Lance didn't bother to answer but followed behind as close to Bones as he could get without actually hanging on to her.

"You're...you're in a lot of trouble young man." she said.

"Yeah I got that." Lance said.

She smiled at Booth who had a twinkle in his eye at her attempt at parental sternness. She was cute...then he looked down at Parker and back at Lance...the kids...not so much...well not today.

Booth opened the door and both boys made a bee line for the bedroom. Booth clapped loudly.

"Not so fast." he said "Sofa." The boys looked at each other and walked sadly to the sofa... this was NOT goin to be pretty.

Booth made for the bedroom himself.

"Where are you goin Booth?" Bones asked. "Do you want me to watch the suspects?"

"They're not really suspects Bones...they're just kids...naughty kids. I'm pretty sure they have enough sting still in their tails to keep them obedient for now." he said. You do whatever you want.

"Good." she said. "I'll start dinner."

"Oh good Bones. That'd be real nice." Booth said with a smile. She smiled.

"So they can eat dinner?" she asked.

"Of course they can eat dinner." Booth said. "I'm not a monster."

"I know." she said.

Booth walked into the boys room and straight over to the desk where the guys had said they'd left the note they found. He uncrumpled the paper and read it before sticking it into his pocket. Ok, he thought...let's see who did what and how honest they could be.

"Look." Lance said as he looked at Parkers face. He was trying hard to be brave but he kept swiping at his face. The kid was obviously scared. "If ya want I'll take the blame for the money." Parker tried to smile.

"Nah." he said shaking his head full of messy blonde curls. "Like Joel said, lying is the worst..."

"Yeah...can't get much past him." Lance agreed.

"I never tried before but I guess not."

Booth came back into the room and pulled the coffee table across and sat on it so that he could look them both in the eye.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"Um...the movies." Lance said. Parker was right...lying would just make things worse. Good start Booth thought. He was impressed that Lance hadn't tried to lie.

"Who were you with?"

"Friends from school." Lance said.

"Why did you sneak out? Why didn't you just ask if you wanted to go to the movies?" Lance shrugged.

"I dunno. I thought you'd say no...or you'd wanna take me. No one else's folks were goin."

"You were wrong. I would have driven you there and picked you up...I'd even have given you the money to go." Booth said. Lance felt like crying.

"I didn't know." he said, his head dropping in shame. Booth lifted his chin.

"I know, but that's not good enough. You have to trust us. You have to trust the answers that we give you. If we say no...it's because we have a reason. Lance nodded.

"You're still gonna punish me huh?"

"Yeah...I am." Booth said. "Now we need to talk about another couple of things." Parker chewed his lip nervously.

"How did YOU come to be there Parker?" Parker blinked his eyelashes rapidly.

"Um...I um..."

"The truth Parker." Booth said.

"I saw a note." he said quietly. "I... um... asked if I could go." Booth narrowed his eyes. Something here didn't add up. They hadn't exactly been bosom buddies, why would Lance just agree to take him?

"Oh...so Lance just said he'd take you?" Parker brushed an annoying tear from his face.

"Not exactly." he said. He suddenly found his shoe very interesting.

"Oh?" Booth said. He took Parker's finger off his shoe lace and tilted his chin up.

"I um kinda convinced him." Parker said.

"And how would you have done that?" Parker looked at Lance.

"Don't look at him. I'm asking you."

"I told him I had money." Booth's eyes widened...wow...it had been Parker?

"Did you?" Parker shook his head."Is that how you paid for the movies?" Booth asked. Lance nodded slightly. "Parker gave it to you?" Again Lance nodded.

"He didn't know where I got it." Parker said with a sob.

"And where was that?" Booth knew the answer but he was determined to make his son say the words.

"I took it from your wallet." he said and burst into tears.

"You need to go to your room and stand in the corner." Booth said. "I'll be in soon."

"You need to stand in the corner over there Lance." he said softly.

BONESBONESBONESBONSBONESBONES

"Get any answers?" Bones said as Booth appeared silently in the kitchen.

"Yeah." he said. "Parker took the money from my wallet." Bones frowned at Booth's sad expression.

"Are you ok?" Booth shrugged.

"I don't know." he said honestly. "My kid stole from me. He manipulated Lance...hell Bones, I feel like I don't know my own kid." He flopped onto the kitchen stool dejectedly. Bones came behind him and wrapped him in a warm hug.

"Is that comforting you Booth?" she asked. He chuckled.

"Yeah Bones it is."

"Parker is still the same Parker ...he's just growing older and learning how the world works."

"Is that how the world works Bones?"

"Sometimes. If no one shows us a better way, I guess we learn to get what we want from instinct." Booth took a cleansing breath and stood.

"Well it's time he learned that way is NOT acceptable."

Parker rested his head on the wall. He tried to imagine what it was gonna feel like to be spanked. Those couple of swats had stung but a spanking had to hurt a lot more than that. He sniffed. More than that, his Dad was mad at him and he'd looked sad too. He hadn't meant it. He'd had just wanted to go with Lance.

Booth opened the door so quietly that Parker didn't even hear him. He watched his son as he alternately sniffed and wiped his face on his sleeve. When had he grown so big? It just seemed like yesterday that he had been so little. Why hadn't he seen it?

He was so lost in his thoughts that Parker jumped to find his Dad standing behind him.

"Hi." he said sadly.

"Hi." Booth took his hand and walked him over to the bed. He sat and Parker climbed into his lap.

"I'm sorry Dad."

"I know you are sport. But that's not gonna be enough this time. What you did was VERY wrong. VERY wrong."
"I just wanted to go with Lance."

"That doesn't make it ok." Parker nodded.

"That's not all." Parker looked up. It wasn't? he thought.

"I heard ...and I didn't hear it from Lance...but I heard, that you weren't so nice to Lance. You tried to make him feel like you belonged more than him." Parker looked guilty.

"I liked it when it was you and Bones and me."

"Lance was all alone Parker. He had no one."

"That's sad."

"Yes it is...or was..."

"I'm sorry about that now. I like Lance." Parker said.

"Well that's good. See.. you have to give people a chance.."

"Yeah I thought he was gonna take you from me."
"That will never happen." Booth said as he pulled Parker close and kissed his blonde curls. "Besides, there's enough of me to go around." Parker giggled.

"Are you still mad?"

"I'm not happy that you STOLE from me...but I forgive you."

"So you're not gonna spank me?"

"Of course I'm gonna spank you. You messed up BIG time Parks. I'm not gonna let you get away that."

"It's gonna hurt." Parker said, his eyes filled with tears.

"Yeah it will. I hope you remember that next time your tempted to take something that doesn't belong to you."

He knew the little boy was scared so he thought it was better to get it over, besides Lance was still waiting in the corner. Parker found himself suddenly staring at the floor as Booth tipped him over his knee. He was already crying when the first heavy swat landed.

"Ow..." he yelped. Booth took a deep breath and landed several more firm swats in quick succession doing his best to ignore the his son's anguished cries. "Daddy stopppp." he howled. Booth didn't stop. He hardened his heart and managed to land another half a dozen hard smacks all over his wriggling target. Parker yelped and squealed and fought him through every single spank until he finally broke into loud sobs. Booth stopped spanking and gathered the distraught child back up and into his arms where he held him tight while he sobbed his heart out. He clung on to his Dad's shirt and hid his face in the folds.

"Do...you...still...lo..ve...me?"

"Oh Parker." Booth said, his own tears threatening to fall. "That will NEVER change."

"Pro..m..ise?"

"Yes. I promise." Booth said. He rubbed slow and gentle circles on Parker' back until the sobbing slowed and eventually stopped.

"You ok now?" Booth asked.

"'Cept my butt hurts bad."

"Yeah that's kind of the point." Booth said with a smile. "How about you go help Bones set the table while I talk to Lance."

"Okay."

BONESBONESBONESBONESBONES

"Lance..." Booth called. Lance blew out a breath. He was almost relieved that it was his turn. It'd been torture to listen to Parker's wails. Geez he was only a little kid. Booth didn't have to smack him so hard.

Booth didn't miss the look of disdain that Lance gave him as he walked past him and into the bedroom. Booth once again sat on the bed but this time he pulled Lance to stand between his legs.

"You're angry Lance." he said. "I owe you an apology for not seeing that Parker was being mean." That took Lance aback a little.

"Really?" he asked surprised.

"Yes." Booth said. "I want you to know that you're very much wanted here. I love Parker but that doesn't mean there's no room for me... for both Bones and I...to love you both."

"You...LOVE...me?"

"Yeah...I do." Booth said realising the fact himself for the first time. Lance smiled but then he remembered why he'd been mad.

"If you love Parker...why'd you spank him so hard?...He was really screamin." Booth smiled. He did love this kid. Here he was about to get his own ass busted and he was concerned about Parker.

"I didn't spank Parker any harder than I'm gonna spank you. Let's just say it was a shock to his system." Booth said with a grin. "He's never been spanked before." Lance smiled.

"Oh." he said "Hey wait...you're still gonna spank me? But you apologised."

"Um yeah...for not seeing through Parker immediately. There's still the fact that you sneaked out and you lied...pretending you were at the alley the whole time. Really Lance? You really expected us to believe that?"

"Yeah I was thinkin that probably wasn't that smart."

"Nope." Booth said. "And to think you could have gone to the movies, you wouldn't have had to take Parker and I would have paid...all you had to do was tell the truth. Go figure." Lance rolled his eyes.

"Parker ain't that bad." he said. He chose to not dwell on the other stupid stuff he'd got wrong.

"It's time." Booth said. He tugged the boy's hand and he tipped over his knee. Lance squeezed his butt cheeks together and his eyes shut tight, like that would lesson the sting of that first swat. It didn't. He jumped a little and tried to shift away from the volley of smacks that he knew was coming but Booth held him tight. "Ow, ow, ow, ow." he squeaked. "Booth that hurts!"

"Uhhuh." Another few solid whacks to each cheek and the fire had well and truly been lit. Lance tried hard to rock from side to side in an effort to avoid Booth's stinging spanks, but that hard hand managed to catch him over and over. He never knew where the next swat would land. When the final two caught the tender underside of his bottom he knew it was over.

"I'm...so..rr..y." he sobbed... "Reall..ly."

"I know you are son." Booth said as he helped Lance to stand. He held out his arms and the boy fell into them and cried onto Booth shoulder...as Booth soothed him and gently rubbed his back Lance soaked up the comfort he'd been missing for so long, until finally he felt ready to pull away.

"Hungry?" Booth asked to break the embarrassed silence that filled the room. Lance crinkled his nose.

"Kinda...what's Bones makin?"

"Mac and cheese."

"Yeah I'm starving." He said.

TBC