Universe 2 (2004 - 2007)
Brennan had been in the new role for a year, and had finally started taking most weekends off when a beautiful Saturday morning found her jogging through her favorite park. When she reached the cutoff walk that led out to the National Mall, she slowed down and decided to do her cool down while walking along the reflecting pool. This was one of her favorite places to walk because it afforded views of so many of the iconic buildings and monuments in this city she had come to love. This morning there were several street vendors set up to entice the always present tourists. The cherry blossoms had peaked a few weeks ago, and it was early on a Saturday morning, so it was a perfect time for her to take a leisurely stroll among the early riser tourists before heading to her favorite spot for a weekend breakfast.
She was walking past a caricature artist and noticed that along with her display of caricatures, she had some additional sketches for sale, including famous DC buildings and some portraits of the founding fathers. She stopped to study the portraits, because, of course, the subjects were familiar to her and she was intrigued by the quality of the work. The artist walked over to her, introduced herself as Angela, and asked if she was interested in purchasing any of the works. Brennan remarked that she seemed to have an innate ability to recreate the skeletal structure of her subjects. Angela was shocked that a random person on the street would notice that detail and told her that she had an instructor in art school who was an expert in that area.
Angela took one of the portraits from the board and she and Brennan sat down on the bench next to her display and spent 20 minutes breaking down the details of the piece, with Angela describing her process. They then spent the next hour just chatting about their lives and discovered that they were the same age. Angela talked about where she went to school and her dream of living in Paris. Brennan told her about her graduate degree from Northwestern, her doctorates, and her position with the Jeffersonian. Angela had to get up a couple of times to make sales, and each time she wondered why a person who seemed so intelligent would be so interested in her life. At those same times, Brennan wondered why she seemed to find such a kinship with a person whose life and work seemed to be so different than hers. But an idea came to her, and she wondered if meeting this artist was one of those things that the universe had put in front of her.
That was a philosophy that Michael had - the universe put people and opportunities in your path, and it was up to you to accept or reject those opportunities. He didn't believe in fate, because that signified things that were meant to happen - preordained, if you will. But the universe - that was a different story. People, opportunities, were brought in close proximity to each other through a series of choices. Then, they could either connect, repel like a pair of magnets, or just simply move past each other. And that was another choice. The universe brought Temperance to Northwestern University, and she worked hard to get to the Masters program where Michael was. So the universe put the two of them in proximity and she decided that he was the one to teach her all of the things that she couldn't learn in the classroom.
When Angela sat back down, Brennan asked her if she was looking for employment, because she had an idea for her. She said that she was impressed by how Angela could capture the underlying features in a person's skull, so she suggested that she come work for her at the Jeffersonian. She saw value in being able to put a face to the nameless sets of bones they worked to identify. Angela couldn't believe her luck, that a job utilizing her artistic skills had just dropped into her lap on a sunny Saturday morning. She eagerly accepted and Brennan told her to come see her the following week and they would work out the details. So Angela became a part of her support staff that spring and they quickly learned that in addition to her artistic skills, she also had a tech background. Over the next few years, she developed those tech skills, tailored to the forensic work they were doing in the lab and became even more valuable to their work.
Also, over the next few years, Angela and Brennan became close friends. They had such opposite personalities, but somehow they meshed. Brennan was a good steadying influence on Angela, and Angela was teaching Brennan to open up. Michael had taught her so many life skills - things her parents weren't there for. Angela was able to teach her some of those same skills, but from a woman's perspective. A lot of the things Michael taught her had a hedonistic bent, but as time went by, Brennan found that wasn't really how she wanted to live. So Angela helped her to reshape those ideas and it seemed to put Brennan on a better path, one that she found more sustainable.
Angela found herself attracted to her workmate, Dr Hodgins, and they eventually started dating. But Brennan wasn't interested in following her down that path, so she found a different way to fill her weekends. She started to write a novel about a forensic anthropologist who worked with an FBI agent to solve crimes. Of course, she knew all she needed to know about the anthropology part, but she had to do quite a bit of research on the FBI and the methods they used to solve crimes. She was pleasantly surprised how much she enjoyed the endeavor. The research took her back to her love of learning from all her years of schooling. And it was fun to think about the things she did with ancient sets of bones, and how the techniques could be used to discover cause of death in a more recent death. And then how it could lead to solving a murfer.
It took her about 8 months to finish the book and she reached out to a publisher she knew from her college days. Soon the contracts were signed, the novel published, and it sold like hotcakes. The publisher came to her with a contract for a whole series of books based on her main characters, Kathy, the Forensic Anthropologist, and Andy, the FBI Agent. The number of dollar signs on the contract made her head spin, but she loved the entire process, so she knew she wouldn't have any trouble fulfilling the contract. This made her a very rich woman, and as each of her novels rose on the best sellers list, the bonuses kept coming. She could have quit her job to write full time, but she really loved what she was doing and didn't think the isolation would be good for her. So, she bought a nice apartment and decided that she would never fly coach again.
Shortly after the first book was published, she walked out of the Jeffersonian one day on her way to lunch. An older man walked up to her. "Are you Temperance Brennan?" She was a little wary of a stranger approaching her, but there were enough people walking in the area that it gave her a sense of safety, so she told him that she was, in fact, Temperance Brennan. He told her that he had something important to discuss with her and asked if it would be okay to sit - there was a bench just a few feet away. She was still puzzled, but again, felt safe with the number of people who were strolling past on that beautiful afternoon.
They sat down, the two of them on either end of the bench, and turned to face each other. He began. "I know this is going to be difficult for you to hear, and to understand. But Temperance, I'm your father." Her eyes opened wide and she stared intently at him. "You can't be my father. You look nothing like my father, and I believe my father died over ten years ago." He pursed his lips and stared at the ground. "I didn't die. I'll explain exactly what happened to your mother and me, and I hope you will forgive me for leaving you so suddenly. And yes, my appearance has changed drastically because I've had extensive plastic surgery. I've been on the run for years Tempe, and I needed to alter my appearance to protect myself from people who wanted to kill me." She sat there dumbstruck. How could this be possible? "I have no way to confirm that you are who you say you are. What do you want from me? Are you looking to attach yourself to me because I've just written a novel that is on the best seller list?"
The man smiled and shook his head. He then went on to tell her things about her childhood that no one other than her father could have known. And details about what happened the day he and her mother had disappeared. He even told her what was in the wrapped presents sitting under the Christmas tree when they disappeared. She could never bear to open the wrapped gifts, but this past Christmas, Angela urged her to take them out of her closet and see what her parents had purchased for their 15 year old daughter. So she did. And she was glad she did. The contents in the boxes made her smile, and it gave her a tiny bit of closure.
As she listened to him talk, she realized that this must be her father. Her eyes began to water and a single tear started down her cheek. "Mom?" His face fell and he took her hands in his. "I'm so sorry Tempe, but your mother died less than a year after we left. One of the men we were running from caught up to us. Tempe, I would have stepped in front of a bullet for her, but he caught us off guard and by the time I realized what was happening, she was gone. He thought he got me too, and that's the only reason he sped away." He then went on to explain the entire story to her. He and his wife had been part of a criminal enterprise. When the gang did some horrible things they weren't a part of, they picked up their two young children and fled to Chicago and created new identities. He explained to her that they never went back to their criminal ways and lived a normal family life. He told her that their original family name was Keenan, and her birth name was Joy. In fact, he said, he was no longer going by Matthew Brennan, but had reverted back to his birth name, Max Keenan.
He told her about the day they disappeared. How the couple had gone out to finish Christmas shopping and were followed by one of the hit men from their old gang. They knew the whole family was in grave danger, so they drove in the opposite direction from the family home and disappeared so that no one could find their children. There was no way to get word to them without leading the gang to them, so they had to trust that 19 year old Russ would assume care of his sister. He told her that he started looking for her and for Russ in the past few months and was dismayed to find out that Russ had shirked his responsibilities and she had to spend time in foster care. But he told her how proud he was to find out what she had made of her life, and that he had never doubted that she had it in her.
Brennan's head was spinning listening to all of these revelations, but then he dropped another bomb on her. He was still on the run. But now it was from the law and not members of his former gang. He found out that some people had their eyes on her and Russ and he knew they were in danger, so he took care of the problem. She looked at him askance. "What do you mean, you took care of the problem?" He looked around before responding. "It's better you don't know the details honey, but trust me. None of the people I was worried about can get to you now. You and Russ are safe. But this is the reason I need to lay low. I'll stay in contact with you now that I've found you. But I won't be living anywhere near here, and you won't be able to contact me. I'll contact you." She was skeptical. "Have you spoken with Russ? I only hear from him about once a year, and last I knew he was living down south somewhere." He nodded. "Yes. I had this same conversation with him a couple of weeks ago. Tempe honey, I'm so sorry about everything that's happened to our family. I want you to know that I love you and your brother with all my heart. And that everything I've done for the past dozen or so years has been to keep you both safe. There's a possibility at some point I could go to prison for some of the things I've done. But if it happens, it's all worth it because you and Russ are safe." Brennan sat there, still trying to sort out everything she had learned in the past 20 minutes. Max stood up, leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm so sorry baby. I love you." And he walked away quickly and disappeared around a corner.