And here comes more angst-sorry. It's just turned out to be that kind of story. At least for a while, because unlike the Bones writers I'm not making Booth's forgiveness immediate. As I've said from the beginning, I do believe Booth would forgive his mom, but more for his own piece of mind than hers. And only after more time and effort than the show ever put into it. So until then, more angst and stress. Poor Booth – but we will get through this folks! And so will Booth. I would never do that to him.

Do I REALLY have to say I don't own Bones? I mean everyone knows that here, right?

After a prolonged, uncomfortable silence I raised my head to stare at my mom. "You say you want this relationship to get better. But when you talked to me in my office you said you were going to forgive yourself even if I wouldn't forgive you. That you were entitled to be happy. So what does that mean? What do you think I'm entitled to? I'd really like to know. Entitled to be be ht by my dad? To have my mom leave and not contact me again until it was a good time for her? What? Because a lot of times I get the feeling your happiness comes before everything else. I," Here I paused to take a sip of my drink. "I just get the feeling that what I want isn't as important. And I don't know how much of that will spill over to Christine. I can't do that Mom, I have to put her and Bones first. I have to. Christine can't wonder about whether her grandmother loves her enough. She deserves better. Hell, Mom, we all do. And you can talk about your courage in sharing Reggie with me so we could share happiness, but that was all about your happiness. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad you have a good guy who treats you right. But I kept feeling you had the same blinders on – the ones that only let you see what you want to. What has to do with you, screw what anyone else thinks. Including your own son. How do you expect me to feel about that? I mean I sort of felt in my office that you didn't care about whether I was happy or not as long as you were." I leaned forward now, jaw clenched. "i may not have Bones' IQ here, but I like to think I'm smart enough to know what really being a parent means. I have always tried to put the happiness of my kids first, Mom. First Parker, and now also Christine. What makes them happy makes me happy." I stopped and stared down at the floor, not sure how much how I could say with this anger rising back up inside me.

Then I felt a reassuring hand at my back, rubbing in small circles, I looked up and turned my face towards Bones. She leaned into me, putting her head on my shoulder, as I put my arm around her. I let out a long sigh and kissed the top of Bones' head. She shifted so she could look up into my face. "Booth? Are you sure you want to continue with this? We can stop this now or continue it later."

I felt a swell of emotion – not rage this time but love, contentment, and even happiness. I turned my face back to my mom but kept holding Bones. "See, this, Mom. This is what I mean. Bones and I put each others' happiness and welfare first. It's taken both of us a long time to able to do that, and that's because of our backgrounds. Neither one of us trusts particularly easily, and you need to know that. Because some of that comes from you. The relationship I think we're both hoping for, it needs to based on more trust than I think I have right now. I need to be upfront about this, since putting a happy face on this whole situation hasn't helped. It's made everything worse, at least for me."

Bones sat straighter but kept her hand on my back. "You have put other people before yourself, Booth. Often." She shook her head. "I used to wonder how and why. Before we were really involved. I came to realize it's who you are – who you always have been. You show it all the time with me, with Christine, with Parker. And you have been an excellent parent for as long as I've known you, Booth. I know you say you want happiness for your family and that they come first, but I see you put that into action all the time. Playing ball with Parker, reassuring me during my reconciliation with my dad, comforting Christine after a nightmare. All of those things may seem small to you, but they mean everything to the person you direct that attention to. Including me." She gave a small frown. "Perhaps I do not say it as often as I should. It does mean so much Booth. Particularly when we first met. I was used to handling everything on my own. I managed, but it means so much more now to know I have someone," she paused, "in my...corner? That is the saying, right?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, you got that one right, Bones."

She beamed at me like she had just received some anthropology award, but then sobered fairly quickly. Then she turned to look at my mother. "I don't think you truly understand Booth at all well. I suspect it is because you haven't been in his life for an extended period of time. He would have been exceedingly happy for you, Marianne, had you handled this in a more appropriate manner. But you didn't. I had told Booth that perhaps you didn't explain yourself well, but I believe it was more than that. He told me of your conversation in your office and quite frankly I was appalled. It implied that you had a right to be happy and Booth did not. I don't believe I have ever met anyone in my life who deserves happiness more than Booth. I consider myself extremely fortunate that he believes I can give him that."

"You do, Bones. You absolutely do."

Again she gave me a radiant smile, however brief it was. Then she shook her head. "I don't understand, Marianne. I understood leaving because you believed Booth's father might kill you. I still believe you might have had other options besides leaving them in that household, but I will leave that topic alone as we have all discussed that at length. But," and now she was starting to sound angry, "how you could dismiss Booth's forgiveness in order to forgive yourself? That does not take the courage you alluded to in Booth's office. Quite the opposite, in fact. It does suggest that Booth's feelings were not taken into consideration. And if they were not, then why invite him to your wedding at all? Why even come back into his life?"

As my mom let out a loud gasp, I rubbed my forehead and realized it was going to be a very, very long night.

Okay, so originally I meant for this to be more back and forth between Booth and his mom, but I was re-watching the episode to sort of jump start my muse, and watched the scene in Booth's office several times. I'm sorry, but I absolutely HATED, HATED, HATED his mom in that scene. It was all about her and what she's feeling. And seriously the snippet about how sharing Reggie was courageous and then brought it back to HER happiness – that's just the epitome of selfishness. Booth's mom really is a character I can't stand at all. At least Max's actions were for his kids' benefits, even if his methods were questionable.

Again, my plan for this story is to make any forgiveness about Booth himself, not his mom. Because my own personal opinion is she doesn't deserve it.