"Shit, I'm late picking up your mom from the airport, aren't I? But like, can she blame me? You are not the easiest one to get dressed. You gotta stop throwing your shoes at me." Angela murmured to the smiling baby on her hip. Ruth's bright blue eyes and gapped toothed grin made up for all the fussing the night before. Her sandy brown curly hair and dimpled cheeks made Angela think back to a studly FBI agent that worked with them on a single case over two years ago. What was his name? Surly? Whatever. Angela began looking around at the different arrival boards as Ruth bounced up and down on her hip. "Yes, mama is coming home. You just need to chill a little. I swear, how Bren does this alone, I will never understand." She mumbled.

"Looking for someone?" Brennan's raspy voice rang out and Angela whipped her head around with a wide grin.

"BRENNAN!" She sauntered up, Ruth's hair bouncing with the motion, her giggles permeating the air causing her mother's heart to burst. She had missed her daughter dearly on the dig. Hugging her friend and her daughter tightly, she was about to pull her daughter into her arms when Homeland Security got involved.

Now sitting in an interrogation room, Dr. Temperance Brennan was anything but cooperative.

"I told you, I've just spent the last few months working on digs in Guatemala to identify remains in mass graves. The skull I transported was one that I was taking to the Jeffersonian, where I am employed as a forensic anthropologist. I can give you the credentials of the head curator so that he can tell you that I have all the proper protocols to carry human remains." She rattled off, only to hear the door open and close. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the last person she thought she'd ever see again. Seeley Booth.

He rolled his shoulders and stood up tall. The last time she saw him, he was completely nude in his apartment, sprawled amongst his sheets. She was slipping out of his bed after a night of passion. Little did she know they had conceived a child together, a child she wanted to get home to, and she wanted badly to leave this room.

"She works with the FBI on identifying bodies."

"I do no such thing." She mumbled under her breath. Her eyes on the table.

"She also writes books." Booth said, throwing the book on the table. Her author's image facing the officer. It was that in that theatrical moment that Brennan knew Booth had set the entire thing up.

"I love your writing." The Homeland Security officer, Bennet Gibson, mentioned with a smirk. He later asked for her signature on her book. Booth stood in the back of the room while the interaction occurred.

Booth was trying not to picture Brennan naked, her milky white skin, her flushed face as they kissed and sucked. The sound of her moaning. He knew that alcohol had lowered their inhibitions, but that hadn't stopped them from having the best sex of his life. He wasn't proud of the fact that he had pictured her many times while having sex with his current girlfriend, or when he was alone.

"Oh by the way, your friend wanted me to let you know that she's taking your daughter back to your place, so don't worry about picking her up from hers." Gibson said to Brennan. This caused Booth's hair to stand on end. Daughter? Brennan had a kid? She made no mention of having a kid when they worked together the last time, but then again, their working relationship was less than ideal and their personal relationship was a bit … volatile.

"I'm just going to grab a cab." Brennan said as she grabbed her bag and began to skirt out of the interrogation room.

"Woah, hey, I was going to drive you, we need you to work on a case." Booth began and Brennan shook her head.

"As Officer Gibson just stated, I have a daughter I haven't seen in a few months that I would like to get home to, plus I've been traveling all day." She continued to walk out the door as Booth followed.

"It'll be a quick detour, your friend is watching your daughter, right?" He asked and watched as the cogs in Brennan's brain turned.

The duo walked up to the crime scene and Brennan spoke with the other squints. He wanted to ask the Jeffersonian crew who she had a kid with, or how old her daughter was, maybe he could set up a playdate with Parker, get to know Brennan better. Maybe their one night stand could turn into something more. You're with Tessa. He reminded himself. But as he watched her looking over Hodgins' shoulder at the various findings, he knew that their one night wasn't a standalone.

-BB-

"Hey, Ange, I'm so sorry." Brennan said as she walked into her apartment. The nighttime sky had engulfed Ruth's pink painted walls. Angela had painted one of the walls with a beautiful array of colors in an abstract design. Closing the magazine, Angela simply shook her head.

"When Homeland Security got involved, I knew it would be a long night. I heard that the FBI guy convinced you back into a case." Brennan nodded, still looking at her daughter. "He's Ruth's father, huh?" Brennan only nodded once more.

"It was a one night thing. He technically fired us from his team and we went to this pool hall. We drank tequila and he told me that he felt like we were going somewhere." Brennan all but whispered.

"And then he was gone the next morning?" Angela inquired.

"No, I was the one that left. I thought it would be easier, you know I hate the morning after stuff, the cuddling and the love talk. But then in the weeks after, I realized I was pregnant."

"Why didn't you tell him?" Angela knew her friend, she knew that Brennan was an incredibly rational person. But she also knew that her friend wanted a family more than anything. Her mother and father disappeared when she was fifteen, her brother couldn't take care of her, so she went into foster care, her grandfather got her out when she was seventeen, but then died when she was in college. Angela and the Jeffersonian crew was her pseudo family.

"What if he didn't want her?" Brennan finally looked at Angela and the tears in her eyes said it all. She was a mother protecting her child.

"That's his child, Bren. If he doesn't want her, then we keep living how we have been, but if he does, then it's another person that will love her. But, sweetie, you have to understand, he's going to be angry. You hid her."

"I didn't, I didn't hide her." Brennan shook her head. "I tried to call, but the FBI had sent him on a couple undercover missions and then I don't know I took that as a symbol."

"You, Temperance Brennan, the hater of astrology and all things soft science, took symbols from the universe?"

"I blame hormones and pregnancy brain." Brennan gave a small grin and Angela giggled. "God, how do I tell him?"

"Well don't do the Brennan thing."

"I don't know what that means." Brennan looked at her confused.

"It means, don't just walk up to him and say, you have a daughter. Ease him into it. Maybe introduce them first, let him get to know her. Then when the time comes, let him know." Angela shrugged. The two stood in Ruth's doorway watching the baby's breathing as she dreamed. Angela then kissed her friend's cheek and went home for the night.

Brennan stayed up that night wondering how to begin to introduce Booth to his own child.

-BB-

Booth walked into the Jeffersonian lab. He saw Zack Addy working with Angela on the tissue markers for the skull reconstruction.

"Where's Dr. Brennan?" He asked, his heart pounding.

"She's in her office with Ruth." Zack replied in his monotone voice as he continued to fiddle with the markers on the skull. Booth gave Angela a confused look.

"Ruth? Is that a new employee? Please tell me I don't need to get a new squint." He sounded exasperated. Angela smiled at Booth.

"It's okay, Studly. Ruth's her daughter. She's a little over a year old, cute as a button, just be careful if you like your suit, she's teething so the drool is insane." Booth smiled back and gave a nod back to Angela as he made his way over to Brennan's office. He stood outside her office for a moment as he watched Brennan type rapidly on the keys as the child in her lap slapped on the desk.

"Ruthie, what's gotten you all excited? Hmm?" She murmured in her daughter's ear, only causing her daughter to smile and giggle. Slapping the desk harder. "Careful, careful, you little phalanges can't handle that much force."

Booth finally decided to enter the room and lightly knock on the door. "Hey, there. I hope I'm not interrupting." He murmured, he enjoyed watching Brennan interact with her daughter far too much, but they did have a murder.

"Oh, Booth, my apologies. This is my daughter, Ruth." She stood up and placed Ruth on her hip. He was finally able to get a good look at the little girl. Her bright blue eyes and pink cheeks lit up at the sight of him, and he felt his heart melting. Like an instant connection between the two of them, he felt this innate need to hold her, protect her. Her unruly sandy brown hair was parted into pigtails with two pink bows. She was dressed in a simple t-shirt and sweatpants with socks and no shoes.

"Hey, Bren?" Booth questioned and Brennan looked at him with a quirked brow. "Where are her shoes?"

"Oh well children at this age hate shoes, she tends to throw them the moment I put them on her, so I take them off when we get to safe places, like my office, daycare, or home. It's better than having her chuck them at my head." She mumbled the last part, making Booth laugh. "Hey, you try being a single parent, she's a handful at times."

Booth's breathing caught. Single parent. He thought. She's all alone? Well, it seems like everyone at the lab seems to know Ruth, but where's the father? I can't just ask that, I just met the kid. He bit his tongue and just nodded.

"I have a son with my ex, and he used to do the same." Booth said. "I can ask Rebecca the next time I pick up Parker if she has any tips about the whole shoe thing." He continued and Brennan nodded.

"Thanks." She mumbled and bounced Ruth on her hip. "Here, they were placing tissue markers on the skull, I think we can get a proper ID." Brennan began carrying Ruth to Angela's office, and Booth followed. He smiled as the baby followed him with her eyes. He couldn't help this feeling in his stomach that there was more there, her smile, her eyes, her nose, the way she bounced all reminded him so much of Parker at that age. Maybe it was just that all babies acted the same. But he had been around babies since Parker and never felt that same innate need to protect them, to hold them. He just wanted to ask Brennan if he could carry Ruth for a little while, but felt he was overstepping.

"Brennan, is it safe to carry Ruth around the lab?" Booth asked. This got him a skeptical look from Angela, Hodgins, Zack, and Dr. Goodman.

"She's been bringing Ruth around the lab since she was an infant. This lab is Ruth's second home, Agent Booth." Dr. Goodman's rich voice filled the air.

"I think Ruth always felt comfortable because Brennan never stopped working, she was in labor and still at the lab." Hodgins laughed and Angela just shook her head.

"Oh my god, I remember screaming at her to not let her water break on my new couch!" Angela laughed, which caused Ruth to giggle, only making Angela laugh harder and reach out for the little baby. "Isn't that right, my little girl? Were you almost born in this stinky lab?"

"It has a state of the art infirmary, she and I would have been perfectly fine." Brennan stated before speaking with Zack about the tissue markers. Booth looked at Hodgins and then back at Ruth. He can't be the father. Sure, he had curly hair, but it just didn't make sense. Then Booth looked at Zack. They don't strike me as romantic partners. As he looked back at Ruth, he caught Angela smirking at him and shaking her head.

"What?" He caught himself asking, while the other squints conferred on different aspects of the case.

"Ruth isn't Hodgins' or Zack's daughter. So stop playing detective." She murmured back. Booth could only give her a sheepish grin. "Can you hold her real quick? I need to make sure they don't mess with my Angelatron." Before Booth could stop her, Angela was plopping Ruth in his arms.

The connection he felt before was a hundred times stronger. He placed her on his hip and looked at her face, her eyes seemed to gaze right into his soul. Her hands reached up and rubbed his jaw, the slight stickiness didn't bother him as he smiled into her touch. She definitely had Brennan's eyes, but he swore she had Parker's nose and that sandy brown curly hair was so familiar. Booth looked over at Brennan and then back at Ruth. She was a little over a year old. It's been two years. It can't be, can it?