A/N Long angsty chapter-conversation with Mom. Enough said-you have been warned.

Usual disclaimers apply.

I was sitting in a booth at the Founding Fathers when Bones hurried in the front door. Spying me, she made her way over and sat down.

"I apologize if I am late. I was finishing up some paperwork-" She stopped and looked. "You mother has not arrived yet."

"Nope, she hasn't. And you're not late. I was a little early." I looked around and then saw Mom coming in the front door. "Incoming," I said under my breath.

"What's incoming-?" Bones broke off as she saw my mom too. "Ah."

"Seeley." My mom stood awkwardly by the table.

I stood up. "Mom."

She looked at Bones. "Temperance. When Seeley agreed to meet me, I didn't realize you would be coming…" Her voice trailed off at Bones' and my expressions.

"Bones is with me on all of this. I get that she has made you uncomfortable with some of her questions, but I told you before, we're sharing a life. She has the right to know-and she thinks I have a right to know, even if it's a question I may not have thought of. If you're not OK with that, we're going to have a problem."

"No, it's not a problem," she answered quickly. "Just unexpected. It is good to see you Temperance. How have you been? And how's Christine?"

Bones' facial expression was closed and her voice a little cool as she replied, "We are both fine, Marianne."

Mom sat down and folded her hands together on the table. "Thank you for meeting me. Both of you."

I nodded. "I thought this might be better than lunch. It tends to be a little more quiet and private."

"It's fine, Seeley. I only suggested lunch as a possibility. It wasn't something written in stone." She took a deep breath. "So should we continue with the small talk, or get straight to what's on your mind?"

I gave her a long stare and said, "Let's get some drinks and get to it, shall we?"

Bones nodded. "I think that would be best."

After we'd ordered and received our drinks, I leaned back a little. Bones and Mom were both looking at me-with Mom looking a little nervous.

"Ok-now that we've decided to jump right in, here's a question for you. It's about Reggie's kids."

Mom blinked. "I thought-"

"No, Mom, not why you didn't tell me about them. I want to know what you told them about me and Jared. You said you told them about the two of us, and they weren't old enough to get why you left. Well, at some point, they were old enough. I met them at the wedding, Mom. I didn't meet a couple of six year olds. They were old enough to get why you left Dad-why you left your kids. Didn't they ask questions? If you told them you had two other kids, didn't they wonder why we never saw each other?"

Mom sighed and looked down. "I never went into too many specifics with them when they were younger. I gave them updates as I got them-"

"Not what I'm asking, Mom." I gave her a hard look. "I want to know what you told Reggie and his kids about why you never contacted or saw your first family-in spite of the fact that you said you thought about us every day."

Her head jerked up. "I've told you several times that I did think of you every day. It broke my heart every time I got news of how you and Jared were doing-it killed me to know that I wasn't there to see it. And yes, I would tell Reggie-and eventually his kids-whenever I heard anything about the two of you. I know you're angry but you don't get to tell me how I did or didn't feel."

"Yet you expected Booth to be happy for you when you returned to announce a marriage and a second family with no warning." Bones' voice was slightly sharp-I get the feeling she was still a little angry about Mom's reaction to her being here. "You didn't have a right to tell him how to feel about that situation, either."

Mom glared at Bones for a second, then let out a long breath. "Fine. It took me a long time to tell Reggie about what happened-I blamed myself for a long time, Seeley. I didn't rush right into trusting another man. It took a lot of talking, a lot of time before I could bring myself to tell about what happened during my marriage to your dad. When I could finally tell him about everything, I told him my biggest regret was leaving my kids. He encouraged me to talk about the both of you, you know. Wanted me to find out what was going on with you, even if I couldn't go back to your father."

"Which you did by writing . Pops told me. Again, though, still not answering the question."

Mom's face was white now. "You know I wrote her?"

I sighed. "Yeah, Mom. You kept track of us but didn't bother to actually contact us. So I know you knew about some of my life-school, joining the FBI, Jared's joining the Navy. But I'm asking again, what explanation did you give his kids about not seeing us-or meeting them? Or did none of you care?"

"Of course not. I told them that I traveled a lot and you both had a family back home that was taking care of you." She paused. "Regardless of what you think, I didn't go straight from leaving your father to raising another family. I spent a lot of time on the road-a lot of time trying to learn to be happy again. That wasn't anything that happened overnight."

Bones cut in. "But what did Reggie's children say about Booth and Jared? Booth is right-they must have had questions."

"When they were younger, I would tell them when I got a letter-sometimes I would read the letters to them-or at least the parts about you and Jared." She got a wistful look on her face. "They were always so excited to hear about you. They loved those letters-so did I."

"And when they were older? When they would have been old enough to understand the circumstances regarding your marriage?" Bones seemed to be in full-blown scientist mode now, probing and questioning the unknown to find out the truth. "It was decades before you reentered Booth's life. I cannot imagine that as Reggie's children grew older that a vague story would have sufficed as an explanation."

Mom's lips tightened a little. "No. Reggie and I talked about that a lot. When they would be ready to hear about what happened. Why I had to leave. When we finally agreed, we sat down together and discussed it."

"And their reaction?" Bones' eyes were fixed on my mom now.

"They were horrified about what happened. I told them about blaming myself, about how hard it was to leave Seeley and Jared. Why I couldn't go back, what happened that made me leave. All of it. And they said they understood." Her voice and face lit up. "They were absolutely wonderful. Reggie and I both told them we hoped that there would be a time we could all meet each other."

"Which didn't happen until right before you got married." My voice was bitter. "So this wonderful second family was supportive. Did you think the kids from your first marriage wouldn't be? And did you tell all of them why you never came back to even see us? Were we not good enough to be introduced to this perfect new family of yours?"

"That's not it, Seeley. It wasn't that none of them wanted to meet you. It's just that I needed to find the courage to face you again. I didn't know how you felt-how you would react. I'm not proud of the way I handled this. I suppose my getting married to Reggie gave me a reason to come back-to face my past and what I'd done to you. You have no idea how guilty I've felt for so many years. I've spent a lot of time over the years running away from that. Reggie helped me face it-made me realize that I needed to face down the past to be really happy."

Bones was frowning. "So are you saying that the only reason you wanted to include Booth in this new family you created was for the sake of your own happiness? Were Booth's feelings not a factor?"

Mom stared for a second, then a sad look passed across her face. "Of course I wanted Seeley's happiness. I thought sharing my happiness might make him happy. And I know that the life the two of you have has been good for him. Am I not allowed to have the same thing?"

"No one's saying you aren't, Mom. But here's the thing. You told Reggie's kids everything you knew about us. All of you talked about meeting me and Jared. The only ones not actually included in that plan were me and Jared. Can you not see how wrong that is? His kids were entitled to know everything-we apparently weren't. Why not?"

Mom shook her head. "It took everything I had to face you when I did. I don't think I would have been brave enough to handle it earlier than I did."

Bones spoke up. "My father made the observation that the longer a parent is away from a child they left, the harder it may be to come back."

Mom leaned forward. "Yes! That's certainly true."

Bones continued, "Yet you did not contact Booth at an earlier point in time. Based on that reasoning, contacting him would have been easier. Plus it would have given you a chance to gradually introduce certain elements in your life such as Reggie and his children-thus making it less of a shock for Booth."

Mom leaned back a little, and looked back and forth between me and Bones. "I've already said that I know I didn't handle this well, Temperance. I'm not quite sure what else you want me to say." She looked straight at me now. "I know I've hurt you a lot, Seeley. Both in the past and now. I can't justify it. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make it disappear, but I can't do that either. The best I can do right now is to keep talking-keep explaining to you why I did what I did. Fill you in on details about things have questions about. I'm hoping that will be enough-because I don't have anything else."

She turned back to Bones and frowned. "And why was your father talking about this? It's not as if this affects him."

"Max was discussing it because he knows how important Booth is to me. Plus I believe I had already mentioned that my father abandoned me years ago and recently came back into my life. I think he wanted to give a sense of perspective for Booth regarding this situation in order to help him work through this." Bones glanced at me, then back at my mom. "Booth told me once there is more than one kind of family. Max and Booth have certainly had some issues, but given Booth's and my relationship, that makes Max family of sorts to Booth."

"Mom," I cut in. "I'm talking to other people about this. People who care and want to help me get through this. Don't tell me you aren't talking to Reggie about this."

She sighed. "Yes I am." She paused. "I'm glad you have people who care enough to want to help. I think it says a lot about the man you've become. And I hope it does help, because I want to be a part of your life, and I want you to be a part of mine. As many of these conversations-and time-that you need for this to happen."

She turned to Bones. "And I apologize if I gave the impression I don't want you here. You're important to my son, the mother of one of my grandchildren-Seeley's right. You have the right to know the answers to your questions as well as his. I'm glad he has you." She stood up. "I should be heading back, and I'm sure you want to be there to put Christine to bed. I-we will keep talking, won't we Seeley?"

'Yeah Mom, I think we definitely should."

I think Marianne would have told Reggie's kids about Booth and Jared at some point, even if it wasn't right away. No one at the wedding at the end of the show looked confused like they were thinking "who is this?"

My personal opinion on Booth's mom-besides being somewhat selfish-is that she seems to want to take the easy way out. When she's talking to Booth in his office, she's talking about forgiving herself because she deserves to happy. When Booth doesn't respond to her at all, she says 'goodbye' and walks away. Not the actions of someone willing to face up to the harsh realities to what she's done, and not someone willing to fight to get the relationship to where she wants it. Relationships-meaningful ones, even with family-can be tricky and difficult, and often need a lot of work. To me, anyway, it didn't seem like she was willing to put in the work-instead she expected Booth to. Not the way it works.