AN: This will be between a two-shot and a five-shot story. The whole thing about Booth not having any legal rights to Parker has always bothered me simply because, in my head at least, that doesn't make any sense unless Booth was a huge idiot or Rebbeca was more manipulative then we thought. Since Booth isn't an idiot and we don't know much about Rebecca other then she kinda bugs me I decided to fix that.

Since I'm not a lawyer nor do I have any real inclination to do a whole lot of research on this other then what I already googled, I might take a few little liberties.

On with the show!

Brennan was sitting in her office finishing up a file on her and Booth's latest case when Booth suddenly burst into her office. He was clearly pissed and was mumbling under his breath until he collapsed on the couch with his head in his hands.

Brennan got out of her desk chair and made her way over to sit next to Booth to see what was wrong. "Booth? What's wrong?"

"Rebecca." Booth mumbled without lifting his head from his hands.

"What did she do?"

Booth lifted his head to look at Brennan. "You know how I said that Rebecca was letting me have Parker for the next three weeks before they went on a six-week vacation?" Brennan nodded her head in affirmation. "Well, she just called and said Drew decided to take Parker on a father-son fishing trip during those three weeks. He says he wanted some quality time with him before the family trip." Brennan just stared at Booth in shock as she processed this information. Suddenly Booth jumped off the couch and started pacing again. "I'M HIS FATHER! I SHOULD BE THE ONE TO TAKE HIM FISHING AND WANT QUALITY TIME WITH HIM! I THOUGHT THAT WAS WHAT THE SIX WEEK VACATION WAS! BUT NOOOO, IT'S PRACTICALLY A FAMILY REUNION. I get that Parker should spend time with his step-dad's family but, I feel like I'm being replaced!" Booth slumped back down on to the couch throwing his head onto the back of it with a groan.

"You're a good father Booth. I know that you know that, and most importantly Parker knows that. Rebecca could try to replace you but every time her boyfriends tried to take on your role as his father he always comes back to you. When a scientist looks for proof they look for patterns in the data, and this is a consistent pattern. Parker ALWAYS comes back."

"Thanks, Bones. But, that doesn't change the fact that I won't see my son for over three months."

"What!?" Brennan was absolutely shocked by this.

"Well, Drew's taking him on a fishing trip for two weeks, then a week packing for the six-week family reunion. Then Rebecca doesn't like disrupting Parker's routine at the start of the school year. So, I generally don't see him for the first few weeks of the term. So, that's over three months. I'm not a squint but I can add."

"Booth, that's not right. Seeing you should be a part of his routine. It shouldn't be a disruption. And you most definitely see your son more than once every three months."

"I want to Bones but, I have no legal rights to him."
"Well…" Brennan got up and went over to her desk and grabbed a stack of papers and came back over to the couch.

"What did you do Bones? I told you I can handle this on my own."
"I know Booth but, this didn't seem legal. I know you and I know you're not an idiot so I think something happened so that you forgot about signing a document giving you rights or maybe you just didn't know that you signed it." She handed Booth the stack of papers that was information on the 'Acknowledgment of Paternity' form that unmarried couples sign when they have a kid.

"How'd you get this Bones?"

"I know how to work a search engine Booth."

Booth just laughed. "Right. Of course, you do." Booth started reading the pages that Brennan printed out, suddenly remembering that when he was signing the papers after Parker was born, the stack seemed larger then he thought it should be. Brennan saw the memory flash in his eyes and knew that he remembered something.

"Booth, what are you thinking?"

"I was thinking that the forms I signed after Parker was born was larger than I thought it would be. The problem was that I was in such a hurry because I snuck off base and I didn't understand the legal jargon that Rebecca's lawyer just gave me the cliff's notes version."

"I don't know what that means."

"It means that he gave me a summary of the forms. I actually did tell her that I wanted legal rights to him now that I think about it. I didn't question any of it."

"Ok, well do you have any important documents or anything legal regarding Parker?"

"Yeah, I kept everything. I made Rebecca give me copies of everything and as far as I know. After Parker was born I got a package of legal documents about him, it was his birth certificate and other documents."

Booth had stopped paying attention realizing that there was a good chance that he had legal rights to his son and his ex-had just tricked him all these years. Brennan put her hand on his arm to try and regain his attention. "Go home, get all the legal documents you have on Parker and bring them back to my place and we'll go over them together. If we find an AOP form, we should probably call Caroline and get her help."

"Ok, thanks, Bones! I'll see you in an hour." With that Booth ran out of her office and to his apartment to find the documents about Parker. Brennan watched amused as Booth ran through the lab and skidded around the corner, nearly knocking a security guard over in his hast to locate the papers.

"Hey sweetie, where's studly off to in such a hurry?" Brennan looked up as Angela walked into her office. "We could also hear him yelling earlier, but now he looks like he's on cloud nine. Oh! Did you finally get on that ride! I bet he was thrilled!"

"I don't know what that means. In regard to, why he was upset, Rebecca's new husband wants to take Parker on a 'father-son' fishing trip for three weeks when Booth was scheduled to have Parker. After the three weeks Rebecca, Parker and Drew, Rebecca's new husband, are going away for six weeks to a family reunion and Rebecca doesn't let Booth see Parker the first few weeks into the school year because she doesn't want to 'mess with his routine." When Brennan told Angela about how Rebecca doesn't want to mess with Parker's routine, she had used air quotes and Angela couldn't help but smirk at how far her friend had come. But once she registered exactly what Brennan was saying her amused expression turned into one of equal parts shock and horror.

"Bren! That's not right! Is he going to do something?"

"Well, I asked if he ever signed an acknowledgment of paternity form. Booth is too smart to not be informed about this. Or at least want legal protection."

"Studly is definitely more than just brawn my friend."

"I don't know what that means."

"He's more than muscle and a gun. He's smart."

"He's very smart. He learned to lay small because of his abusive father."

"It's law low sweetie, and do me a favour and don't tell Booth that."

"I asked Booth about an Acknowledgement of Paternity form and he told me that when Parker was born he signed a bunch of papers, but since he snuck off base and didn't know what a lot of the forms meant because of the legal jargon he took Rebecca's lawyer at their word. He probably has one but was tricked by Rebecca."

"That bitch!"

"I agree. I told Booth to get every document he has about Parker and bring them back to my place so we can look at it together. So, I've got to be going. I need to speak to Caroline on my way home." With that Brennan grabbed the last of her things and left the lab.

Angela left Brennan's office and went to find Can. After walking in her office, she regaled the entire story to her, minus the sexual innuendos at Brennan and Booth.

"That bitch!"

"That's what I said. You knew Rebecca earlier, was she always so vindictive?"

"I really don't know. I met her at a frat party about a year after Booth and I broke up. All I can say was that I didn't like her and she freaked me out a little. Booth and I decided we were better off as friends and I wasn't a threat to her relationship with Booth but she treated me like I was. I dunno, I always thought it was just college crap."

"At least some of this crap with Parker might be dealt with."

"Seel is many things but, he isn't an idiot. I'm glad that he remembered to ask for something."

"Nothing gets past Dr. Brennan though."

"Thank god for that. But I've got to say, hold on to your hats people. We are in for a bumpy ride."

An hour later Brennan was in her apartment working on an article on her laptop before Booth said he'd arrive. On her way home, she had stopped by Caroline's office to see if she had any information on family law, specifically about AOP's. Luckily, she did and gave Brennan a brief overview of what an AOP is and what rights a father has once signed. Essentially the AOP gives the father the same rights that he would if the couple had been married before the child was born. If Booth had signed an AOP he would have guaranteed visitation with Parker but he would be forced to pay child support. To Brennan's knowledge, Booth had been paying child support so he was getting screwed over in the agreement while Rebecca was reaping the benefits. Caroline had said that if Booth did sign an AOP and the terms weren't being followed then she would handle the legal side of things. After her talk with Caroline, Brennan had gone to Wong Foo's and picked up dinner for the two of them and was setting it in the oven to keep warm when she heard Booth knock on the door.

"Come in, Booth." Sure, enough the door opened and Booth entered.

"Bones! What have I said about keeping your door locked? Anyone could have walked in."

"But I knew it was you Booth. You have a very distinct knock." Booth mock glared at Brennan from the other side of her kitchen counter in frustration. "Would it make you feel better knowing that I unlocked it five minutes ago, right before I knew you would arrive?" Brennan said smirking at him.

"Yes, it would. Thank you, Bones." Brennan pulled the food out of the oven and laid it out on the coffee table then sat on the couch. Booth sat down next to her with the paperwork he brought.

"Is that everything?"

"Yeah. This is every legal document or seemingly important document I have on Parker. It has everything from his birth certificate to school enrolment forms."

"Ok. Give me half so I can look. It should look like this." Caroline had been kind enough to give her a standard Acknowledgement of Paternity form that she had in her office.

"Great. Let's get to work." The partners sat for over an hour looking through every piece of information that Booth had on Parker. They were coming to the end of the file when Brennan realized that Booth reading a piece of paper much more thoroughly then he had the others.

"Booth?" When he didn't respond she tried again. "Booth?" It seemed as if he couldn't hear her. "BOOTH!"

"Huh? Bones why are you shouting?" Booth searched the room looking for the cause of his partner's shout.

"I said your name three times but you didn't respond." She watched him intently as he glanced down at the document in his hand. "What did you find."

"Oh, right Uh, I found it Bones. It's an Acknowledgement of Paternity form. Look, I signed it and Rebecca signed it, and it's even notarized. It says that once Parker had turned three years old, I had him every other weekend and when he started school I had him on school breaks and we split the holidays evenly. I'm also supposed to be paying child support at $600 a month and I've been paying closer to eight." Brennan had never seen Booth like this. He seemed numb. For six years he believed that he had no legal rights to his son when in reality he did. He was forced to bend to Rebecca's will when he had just as much right to Parker as she did.

Brennan looked at the document and quickly scanning it knowing immediately what she had to do. "Booth, I'm going to call Caroline." Booth just nodded acknowledging that he'd heard her. Once Brennan got off the phone with Caroline she came back over to Booth. "She wants to see it so I told her I'd scan it so she can look at it before we talk to her tomorrow. Is there any chance you remember who Rebecca's lawyer was? Did you have a business card or anything?"
Booth finally was pulled out of his trance and responded. "I'm not sure but it'd probably be in this mess if I did have it." Brennan and Booth started looking through the file looking for anything that would have Rebecca's lawyer's information on it. Eventually, they found a business card folded up and wedged in between a hospital discharge form and Parkers birth certificate. Brennan went and scanned the document and sent to Caroline along with the lawyer's contact information. Brennan came back to the living room and noticed that Booth had gotten a beer out of the fridge and was drinking it quickly. She just sat down next to him until he was ready to speak.

"What am I going to do Bones?" Booth didn't look up from his beer bottle as he spoke.

"Well, the way I look at it you have two options. You can talk to Rebecca, maybe figure out why she did it and come to an agreement so you'll get what you were entitled to. Or, you could go the legal route maybe even go to court." Booth just sighed. He didn't want to go to court. He knew that it wasn't going to go well for him considering he had broken the law trying to be there for Parker's birth, and that's why he rushed through the forms. He forgot he signed them. He wasn't certain any judge would take pity on him even though he was the wronged person here.

Booth pondered all of this then he sighed again. "I'll talk to Caroline but I'm hoping that I can just talk to Rebecca and figure this out without getting lawyer's involved." Brennan nodded quickly pulling out her cellphone and sending a quick text to Caroline asking her to not contact Rebecca's lawyer for another few days.

"I'll go with you to talk to Caroline. We're partners Booth, and partners help each other." After a moment of silence, a buzz from Brennan's phone indicating a text sounded. When Booth looked at her curiously Brennan said "That was Caroline. I just asked her not to contact Rebecca's lawyer until after we spoke to her. She agreed."

"Thanks, Bones. Oh jeez is that the time?" Booth suddenly got up and started shuffling papers into the file to leave.

"Wait, Booth. It's late and we're both going to Caroline's office in the morning. It makes no sense for you to go home then come back to pick me up by 8 am. Just stay in the guest room. All your stuff is still here from the last time you stayed over."

"Ok, thanks, Bones." The partners cleaned up the take-out containers then headed to their separate rooms.

"Goodnight Booth."

"Night, Bones. And thank you. For everything.

AN: Acknowledgement of Paternity forms are a real thing that they make people sign when an unmarried couple has a baby. When I looked it up (procrastination for the win!) I saw that they work with military personnel to deal with these things and they are signed at the hospital. Since Booth isn't an idiot I'm shocked something like this didn't happen.

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