A/N: Happy 2017 Everyone I'm back and the story is back

Disclaimer: I don't have any rights to the show bones nor will I ever :(

Chapter 1 – Widow's Son in the Windshield

Brennan looked around at the scene and asked, "Why am I here?"

Booth sighed. He had gotten used to working with his wife. And ever since Zach left (when he arrested her father) she hasn't been working with him. Not even a phone call that related to them meeting up or something. Actually they hadn't had a date night since that one amazing night after the non-wedding. Sure they still did things at home, but it seemed almost forced – like she didn't want to do it. As if she was perpetually angry at him. And he didn't what that was about. "Ya know, you used to like come out to the field."

They started to talk over each other. Brennan said, "No car fires, no tanker barrels…"

"You used to insist to me…"

"… full of acid. No explosions…"

"…you were insistent…"

Brennan huffed, "… Don't tell me you brought me out here for a car accident…"

Booth really just wanted to fix this stalemate they were in, "…Now you're just anxious to get back, ya know, I can barely get you out of your lab coat."

Brennan told him, "Well, with Zach gone, I'm needed at the Jeffersonian."

Booth smiled and nudged her, "Well that, that kid seemed pretty good, with the sublixicated sternacallum thing…" Booth then looked at her disappointedly. "You used to correct me."

Brennan didn't want to talk about this. "Why am I here, Booth?" Booth pointed at the skull in the windshield. Brennan's eyes widened in shock, "Ohhh…"

Booth let her look at the skull for a few more minutes before he asked, "So, um, it's been three months since Zach shipped off to Iraq?"

Brennan nodded absentmindedly, "Uh-huh."

Booth tried to make her tell him the real reason why she wasn't going out in the field with him. "How hard can it be to replace him?"

Brennan ignored him, "Male. Caucasian."

Booth still went on though, "Yah, I'm just saying. I mean, you at the lab; me at the field – we are not working at our full symbiotic potential."

Brennan again ignored him, "Late teens or early twenties. Completely devoid of flesh or odor."

Booth wasn't going to give up, "It just seems like, maybe you don't want to work with me anymore?"

Brennan looked at him and said honestly, "I work with you."

Booth knew they still worked together. At home, through her lab, but not in the field. "You know what I mean, Bones."

Brennan looked around at the scene and asked, "How did this skull get here?"

Booth rubbed his hands together, happy to finally get her active in this case. "Ask our eyewitness. Come on!" This was good, it was a start.

~BONES~

Booth and Cam were eating dinner at the diner, as friends. Booth told her, "I mean, how hard can it be to replace one weirdo squint?"

Cam shook her head with an amused smile, "I'd hire Clark, but it's not my call."

Booth was tired of hearing that answer. Enough was enough. It needed to stop, "No, no, but it is. You've given Bones enough time. Just hire the guy."

Cam eyed Booth for a while at how he was acting. "Usually when you get all blustery, its 'cause you think something's your fault."

Booth sighed. Cam didn't know all the details, but he still needed to talk to someone about this. "Yeah, well. You know… I did arrest her father for murder. She could be having trouble with that."

Cam snorted, "Yeah. Exposing a parent to the death penalty can have a chilling effect on a partnership."

Booth knew that. He hadn't wanted to do it, but it was his job. He liked Max, but that didn't take away the fact that he killed a man – and a big important one at that. "Well look, I asked Bones if, if, if that was a, a problem; she said no."

Cam shook her head at how Booth was talking, "Well, I gotta wonder if deep down anybody is that rational."

Booth knew that. But he also knew Bones, very well. There might be something in there that dealt with her father, but very little. What he really was worried about was the fact that he didn't know what the main reason for this sudden separation was about. "You're not reassuring me here, Camille."

Cam smiled at him, "If you are looking for reassurance, find someone who's not such a good friend, Seeley."

Damn, if she wasn't right. But hardly any of his friend's knew Bones that well or even knew about his marriage. This was really starting to get frustrating.

~BONES~

Booth walked into the lab looking for Bones, he was excited. He saw Cam right away, "Where's Bones?"

Cam looked at Booth with an amused smile, "You arrested the Deputy Director of the Secret Service for voyeurism?"

Booth really didn't care about that. "Yeah. Bones in her office?"

Cam's smile grew as she thought about it more, "That is awesome and really, really stupid. You got to love a self-destructive man with values."

Booth really just wanted find Bones. "Where's Bones?"

Brennan called out. "Right behind you."

Booth turned around with a smile on his face, "Oh great, look, listen I got Charlie to check out all those places with the red rock."

Brennan corrected, "Pink syenite."

Booth waved that off, even though internally he was jumping up and down at her correction, "There's only one place that uses the pink rock in its foundations. It's an old deserted bank on the Anacostia River."

Cam's eyes widened, "Bingo, baby."

Brennan looked at them confused, "Why 'bingo, baby'?"

Booth told her as if explanation, "I checked into the ownership of the place."

Brennan still didn't get it. "Why, 'bingo, baby'?"

Cam tried to explain, "Shell companies owning defective titles, blah, blah."

Brennan shook her head, "I don't get the significance."

Booth was probably a little too excited over this find. But he was going to start working with Bones again, he just knew it! "It's deserted, isolated. It's a fortress."

Cam interjected, "Serial-killer heaven."

Booth stepped closer to Brennan and tried to put on his best charming face, "Look, I want you to come with me."

Brennan paused for a second, seeing that Booth really did want her to come with her. If she was being honest with herself she did too, but… "I've got work to do here."

Cam looked at Booth's face and knew that she needed to do something. She was his friend and she could see that Booth wanted Brennan with him. "Uh, Dr. Brennan, if this building has been used for some sort of ritual cannibalistic killing as indicated by a skull which has been gnawed upon, a trained anthropologist's eye could be crucial to the case." She then added to seal the deal. "Rationally speaking."

~BONES~

Booth and Brennan were sitting on the bank stairs waiting for the tech team to open up the vault. He had been trying for the past months to get Brennan to talk about her father's arrest and how he was only doing his job. But each time he tried to broach the subject she gave some excuse to either hang up or leave, or – his personal favorite – she kissed him. But he knew that at that moment she couldn't go anywhere. "When I put your old man in jail, you said you understood."

Brennan huffed slightly. She knew that she had been 'distant' from her husband the past few weeks. But she just didn't understand something and it was taking her a lot longer to figure it out. "Don't start again, Booth. We'll be together as soon as I replace Zach."

Booth smiled at that acknowledgement and leaned forward toward her, "Yeah, how's that going by the way?"

However Brennan was saved from answering that as one of the tech's yelled, "We're in!"

Booth jumped up and said excitedly – perhaps a little too excitedly, but hell Bones was working with him again. "They cracked it!" After some difficulty with opening the door Booth and Bones entered it, with Booth leading with his gun and Brennan right behind him with her – very boring – flashlight. Booth whispered after a few seconds, "Maybe you're mad at me sub-consciously."

Brennan looked at him as if he were crazy…which he must be to suggest such a thing considering he knew that she hated psychology. It was a soft science. "What? I don't believe in that."

Booth sighed. He knew that, but he was sensing that all the hard work they had put in the last few months after the whole Sully debacle was all for naught. He told her honestly, "Look, something's changed between us. You can at least admit that so we could figure it out."

Brennan looked around the vault as she told him the truth. "Yeah, I would. Yes, if I actually believed anything had changed. "

However the argument left Booth as he heard a beeping sound after the walked into the room. He feared the worst and just reacted on instinct. Protect his loved one. "Get down!" He tackled Brennan and fell on top of her to the floor, but the expected explosion didn't happen.

Brennan smiled softly up at Booth as she looked at his scrunched up face. She whispered, "Why are your eyes closed?"

Booth opened his eyes slowly and looked down at Brennan's smiling face. He smiled slightly back and whispered, "I thought we were going to get blown up."

Brennan flashed her light up at the vault door. "It's just a transmitter."

Booth started to get up slowly, "Oh, now whoever owns this place knows we're here."

Brennan took Booth's offered hand as he helped her up and asked with amusement in her voice. "I'm curious. In an explosion, how would shutting your eyes help?" Sometimes her husband did the funniest things that were not rational at all.

~BONES~

Booth walked onto the platform in utter disbelief. "Bones, I mean, you see what's going on here, right?"

Brennan looked at Booth rather confused. "What are you talking about?"

Booth pointed an accusatory finger at her. He honestly couldn't believe it. Now she was punishing him – even though he was the one that was trying to work everything out – by even taking away the whole squint squad. Unbelievable! "You, you're getting all of them to help you now."

Angela tried to explain the find that they came upon, "Booth, the vault is filled with priceless artifacts."

Cam added, "And probably materials stolen from other victims."

Hodgins snorted slightly at Booth's claim, "It's going to take months to sift through all that evidence."

Booth couldn't take it anymore. He snapped, just a wee bit, and said imploringly, "No, this is enabling. You're enabling somebody with a mental problem."

Brennan however stopped listening to him as she saw someone walk through the doors. "Zach."

Booth shook his head in aggravation, "No you! You! Bones! You're the one with the mental problem."

However Brennan pointed behind Booth, and the rest of the squints looked to see none other than Dr. Zach Addy. Angela couldn't believe it. "It's Zach! It's Zach." She then ran and hugged him fiercely.

Hodgins smiled gleefully at his ol' pal and shouted, "Whoa-hoho!"

Angela pulled back far enough to ask, still smiling widely, "What are you doing here?"

Zach however ignored that question and asked Hodgins, "Can I, can I move back in the place above your garage?"

Hodgins walked over to his best friend and said before hugging him, "Are you kidding? Of course! Come here."

Brennan had already rushed down, like a mother hen, and hugged Zach fiercely, "Welcome home, Zach!"

Booth however knew what it meant to be back early from assignment. Only a few options were left. "Did you get wounded or something?"

Zach looked at Booth and shook his head, "No, they just sent me home." Booth could tell that something had changed in the boy. He wasn't a boy any more. It unsettled him a little.

~BONES~

Booth still wasn't seeing it. "So our, uh, cannibal has a diamond tooth?"

Brennan explained, "Well, not the entire tooth: a diamond inset, left lateral incisor. It left a distinctive mark on the skull."

Booth smiled at the progress that they were making now on the case. It was great! "So if someone in the Building Conservancy or the cleaning crew has a diamond in his tooth – that's our guy! You got him!"

Brennan looked at Booth from under her lashes and said gently, "I'd like to be in on it when you interrogate him." She saw Booth's astounded and pleased look on his face and asked, "What?"

Booth sat up a little straighter, his eyes gleaming with happiness. "You would?"

Brennan tilted her head to the side, "Why are surprised?"

Booth honestly couldn't believe it but he wasn't going to let that stop him from moving into action. He started to grab his coat and say with joy, "Wait, are you serious? I, I've been trying to get you out of the lab since Zach left."

Brennan told him honestly, "Well Zach's back, so here I am."

Booth stood up and walked over to her and gently placed his hands on her hips, "That simple?"

Brennan looked up at him and asked him with a husky undertone, "Why? Did Angela say something to you?"

Booth shook his head, "No. Angela? Why? What?"

Brennan smoothed her hands down his chest, taking out all those invisible wrinkles, and then adjusted his tie, "I told you, that this wasn't about psychology. "

Booth squeezed her hip and then started to guide her out of his office, "Fine, fine, hah. Hey, you know what I say, huh? Welcome home Zach!"

~BONES~

Booth and Brennan rushed into the Jeffersonian, having thrown on their clothes haphazardly. Booth hoped Zach had something big, because Zach had interrupted something that he'd rather wished hadn't been. God, it hurt.

Brennan however was more worried about her assistant, "Zach? Zach!"

Booth rushed after her and asked, "Well, what did he say?"

Brennan ran to the stairs, taking out her card, "He said he needed to show us something immediately."

Booth followed her while asking in a strained voice, "Show us what?"

Brennan looked back at Booth, her own frustration leaking out. "I don't know. He didn't say; that's why we're here."

They both saw Zach lying atop an examining table. Booth felt a wave of pure panic rush over him. He pushed past Brennan and rushed over to Zach"Look out! Zach! Zach. Zach?"

Zach looked up at Booth confused, "Why are you listening to my chest?"

Booth was going to kill him.

~BONES~

Booth was really beyond frustration. He hated it went cops thought to pull this crap just because he was FBI. "Great, thanks!"

Brennan nudged him, "Show them the badge again."

Booth shook his head and slumped back in the chair, "Uh, they don't see why we have to see Jason in the middle of the night. Shift changes in two hours. Hell, they could make us wait till morning." After Brennan sat down next to him, he looked at her and said, "You know, you weren't upset because Zach was gone."

Brennan looked at him shocked. He finally guessed what had been bothering her. "Yes, I was!"

Booth sighed. He was tired and cranky and really worked up. "Okay, yeah, but you were more upset over the fact that I didn't stop him from going in the first place. I mean, look I could've said to him, 'Zach, Iraq is no place for a guy like you'."

Brennan knew he was right. This was what had been bothering her the most. She didn't want to blame Booth, but she had. Why? "And he'd never have left. You could have stopped him. Why didn't you do that?"

Booth tried to put into words what he knew Zach had going through his head. "Whatever Zach's deal is- okay his weirdness - whatever you want to call it…"

Brennan told him tersely, "I call it genius."

Booth gave her a pointed look and went on, "He's a… man. He's a, uhm, he's a strange man, but he's a man who wanted to serve a larger purpose."

Brennan scoffed at that idea, "This is some alpha male rite of passage?"

Booth told her flatly. "No." He would never have had let Zach go if it was for that reason.

Brennan tried to understand it. "You mean, go to war?"

Booth shook his head, "Wrong. No. Zach needed to leave the nest. The same way you did when you wanted to leave the lab and see the world for the first time. And I helped you do that. How could I stop Zach from doing the exact same thing in his own way?"

Thankfully Brennan didn't have to answer that as the night guard came over to them. But was Booth right?

~BONES~

Bones and Booth walked near the Reflecting Pool around sunrise as she talked animatedly, "The ancient Greek section translated the motto at the back of the vault door, 'will no one help the Widow's Son.'" They both sat on a bench. "Hodgins was right. This killer's part of something bigger."

Booth offered, "Here's your coffee."

But she went on, "Gavin Nichols' violin was in there. I bet there are belongings from other murder victims too. We have to catalogue every item in that vault."

Booth tried again. They had been up way too long for their own good, but he knew she wouldn't just go back home to rest. "Hot coffee."

Brennan couldn't stop her excitement though, "After we do the visual and microscopic examination of each human bone in the silver skeleton, we'll take samples and do an in-depth auxiological breakdown. We really have a lot to do."

Booth forced the coffee into her hands, "Yeah, starting with coffee." Man, the woman could be so stubborn.

Brennan started to lift the cup to her lips as she went on, "An isotope profile will allow us to narrow down possible geographical hits…"

Booth saw what was coming and abruptly covered her coffee cup with his hand just below her lips in essence she was kissing his hand. "Hey, it's hot!" She brought the cup down. "You were gonna burn yourself, Bones."

Brennan looked at him as her eyes turned a hint of deeper azure, "Thank you."

Booth took his hand away from the cup, his body already reacting to even the slightest touch of her. His own eyes dilated and turned to a deep brown. He tried to stay focused though, "Listen, this whole serial killer, it's not gonna be our usual case."

Brennan looked at him confused, "Why?"

He tried to explain it to her, "Why? Because it's big and he's bad."

Brennan shook her head. That didn't make any sense. "I don't see what difference that makes!"

Booth told her honestly, "'Cause you have to slow down, right. Take a breath. You have to realize that this is not a sprint, it's gonna be a marathon. Marathon, Bones, coming from the Greek meaning 'really really really long run'."

Brennan laughed softly at his attempt at humor. "It's not how the word 'marathon' originated."

Booth smiled at her for a few seconds before his gaze turned serious. "Look, there's something else I gotta know, and it's important. We solid?"

Brennan was shocked to even hear him ask that. "You and me? Yeah!"

Booth elaborated, "No, not just you and me. Squints, too. Zach is back for good. Angela and Hodgins have their head back in the game. Cam, she's locked in."

Brennan still didn't get it. "Why are you asking me this?"

Booth smiled softly at her as he leaned in, "Because. You and me, we're the center."

Brennan smiled back at him finally getting the meaning, "And the center must hold."

Booth leaned even closer, "Right. So, are we gonna hold?"

Brennan nodded, "Yeah. We'll hold. We're the center."

Booth whispered, "The center." He was about to kiss her when she held out her hand. He cautiously looked at it and then took it into his hand and shook it. He chuckled softly at the image.

Brennan looked at him through narrowed eyes, "What's funny?"

Booth leaned back and told her, "Ha, I thought you were going to kiss my hand again."

Brennan tilted her chin in deviance, "I did not kiss your hand. You put it over my coffee cup."

Booth shrugged, "Huh, felt like you kissed it."

Brennan shook her head, "No."

He lifted one eyebrow at her denial. "No?"

Brennan shook her head again, "Nope." She then deftly moved onto his lap, taking his coffee away from him as she whispered huskily against his lips, "This is a kiss." With that she closed the distance between them.

They passions flared from the interrupted moment caused by Zach. God, if they weren't in a public area, Booth would already be inside of her. He conceded with dry humping though as he curled his fingers into her hair. They would most definitely hold, if her sounds of muffled pleasure were any indication.

A/N: I hope you all seen Bones last night it was a great episode if you didn't see the new episode last night I won't spoil it

P.S. I will be posting every Wednesday instead of everyday

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