A/N HUGE HUGE shoutout to the story "2018 Bonesology Xmas Challenge: Christmas Peace, Love and Understanding" by mphs95 for the inspiration. I admit I've been stuck on this story and this helped me get unstuck. I got some ideas for conversations between Marianne and her "new family" from that. I appreciate mphs95 letting me spin off of her story a little- you should check out the original story, it's a great one.

Now Mom was gripping the edge of the chair her knuckles were turning white. "You don't think I should have come back." This wasn't framed as a question-more of a statement, and she looked directly at me as she said it.

I sighed. "I want to say no, Mom, but the way things were handled...maybe you weren't ready to deal with your past and should have waited until you were. And if you never were, well that would have been on you, Mom. All I know is it felt like you were trying to brush over everything in the past so you could get on with your future with no guilt. I can't live like that Mom. My past, as Bones has said, makes me who I am. Good or bad, it stays with me. I've worked though some of it but I don't try to forget it or pretend it never happened. I get the feeling you'd like to do both. The problem is that I am part of your past. Are you going to ignore me now that you've gotten the life and the wedding you wanted? And where the hell does that leave the rest of my family? Christine, Parker? Are they disposable too because they come from a son in your difficult past? And that's what I won't tolerate Mom. If that's where your head is, you have to see I can't let you in so that you can walk away when you don't want to think about how hard something is. I have to protect the family I have now. I have to, Mom, even if you won't."

Mom's eyes were closed and tears were trickling down her face. "No, Seeley. I deserve those comments, but no I don't plan to walk away." She gave a small choked laugh. "Reggie had suggested several times that I should have tried to contact you and Jared. Obviously he was right and I was wrong, and I'm paying for that now."

Bones' voice piped in here. "Reggie suggested it, but you didn't believe it was worth following up on? Why not? Even with your explanation that you needed time to recover from your ordeal with Booth's father, it was decades before you made contact again. Was the suggestion about coming to the wedding also Reggie's idea and not yours?" Bones shook her head, a look of disgust on her face.

Mom held up her hand. "Leave Reggie out of this inquisition. Both of you. Reggie did encourage me early on to contact my children, but the fact I didn't was my decision, not his. As for the wedding invitation it was my idea and Reggie was very enthusiastic about it. He was so looking forward to the families meeting and wanted to enjoy having our whole family at the wedding."

I leaned forward, hands clasped in front of me. "Meeting at the wedding, Mom. That didn't strike you as off? We couldn't meet before, right? Because that might have been awkward and difficult. And God forbid anything in your life be difficult after Dad. "I let out a long breath. "And that's what gets me too. As long as everything was comfortable for you it didn't matter what anyone else thought or felt. The main thing for you is that you were happy. OK and maybe your new family but screw what your old family thought. And you don't see why this is a big deal? Another question, Reggie's kids. They seemed happy enough at the wedding but are you telling them about any of the conversations we've been having? Or does that upset your perfect world and perfect family too much?"

Mom sighed. "I've told them some. They've seen how upset I was after some of our talks and that upset them. I haven't gone into extensive detail though. I have with Reggie, who's been encouraging me and standing by me through this."

I snorted. "Good for Reggie and his kids. So now I'm the bad guy here. Great. Because it's not enough my mother threw another family in my face but now instead of facing up to what she did, she's gotten her new family to hate me. Nice."

Mom shook her head, hard. "No Seeley. I did not make you the bad guy. I explained to the kids that we were going through a rough patch because of mistakes I made. And Reggie actually has sided with you several times when I have told him some of what we talked about." She chuckled slightly at the surprised look on my face. "Yes, Seeley, I did actually take responsibility for my actions that have brought us to where we are now. And Reggie certainly agreed with you about all of us not meeting until the wedding. Trust me I heard about that for a while."

I gave a slight smile. "I do like Reggie, Mom. That was never the point. The point was how you dealt with it. And how you dealt with it afterwards. I've never said you don't get to be happy, but on the flip side you don't get to tell me how to feel about being abandoned and basically having everything brushed under the rug so it didn't upset you. Guess what, I'm human and yes I resented being treated like I didn't matter. First in how you brought up my family and then you saying you were going to forgive yourself because you deserve to be happy." I let out a long breath. "In that respect Bones was right. If you forgive yourself to be happy then you didn't actually need me at the wedding. You wanted absolution. I can't grant that, Mom. Not right now and certainly not when you first brought it up. And quite frankly you don't have the right to insist or demand it. If it comes, it comes when I'm ready. My timetable. No one else's."

I paused to take a breath and felt Bones shift next to me. I looked at her and said, "Something on your mind there, Bones?"

She nodded and glanced at me before turning to face Marianne. "I will not apologize for my comments regarding your handling of the wedding and your reentry in your son's life. A mother should do anything to try to prevent her children being hurt and you failed to do that because of your own self-involvement-"

"Geez, Bones," I muttered under my breath.

After raising her eyebrows at me, Bones continued. "However I concede that you have at least been willing to deal with negative conversations both with Booth and myself as well as Reggie and his children. That is to your credit, but you must understand that just as Reggie's loyalty is to you, mine is to Booth. His forgiveness, how much he allows you into our family life, in all of that I will be following Booth's lead. However, understand this, Booth and Christine are my priority. Always. If at any time I feel that your involvement in our family is detrimental, then there will be no involvement. Booth may wish to continue that given that he tries to believe the best in people, but I will do what I can to protect not only Christine, but also Booth. He is more used to protecting others but that does not mean that sometimes he does also need someone to look after and protect him. I will always do that, even if you will not." She turned slightly to face me and cupped her hand on my cheek. "We have each other's backs, remember? Even more so since we became mates. I know you want to forgive her eventually, but someone needs to make sure you do not get hurt any more than you have been, if possible."

I put my hand over hers and gave her a small smile. Then I looked over at my mother, who was leaning back in the chair, eyes closed, suddenly looking tired and ten years older. In a small voice she asked, "So where do we go from here?"

I looked at the floor for a couple of minutes. There was nothing but a loaded silence in the room. Finally I looked up. "I have no idea, Mom. I really don't."

I know, a cliffhanger-again. This seemed like a good place to wrap up this chapter though, and I'm still sort of figuring out exactly where I'm going, although I will say I have a clearer idea after this chapter.