disclaimer: I do not own Bones, these character's, with the exception of Brennan who is in fact all mine, belong to HH

Temperance. Brennan was five years old the first time he saw the word on his father's wrist. Usually hidden by a watch inscribed to the "World's Greatest Dad," they were ten letters that his young mind couldn't place and quickly forgot.

It was years later, when a fifteen year old Brennan pulled open a worn copy of Bred in the Bone and immediately became engrossed in the lives of Kathy and Andy that the word, or more correctly name, came to mind along with the extreme similarities between Andy and one Special Agent Seeley Booth.

It all came full circle when, at seventeen, Brennan Zackary Booth was helping Angela and Jack Hodgins box some old photos and other keepsakes for their move. The first dozen or so albums and boxes were full of wedding and family photos, several of which included himself, along with his father and Parker. But there was one box, larger than the rest and filled to bursting, overflowing with pictures of a close group of friends, only some of which were familiar. Brennan immediately recognized Seeley, Angela and Jack, Cam and even Doctor Goodman. The other two faces, one man and one woman, were almost familiar, but couldn't be placed. As he sifted through the stack of photos before returning them all to the box, two caught his attention. One more group photo with his father's messy scrawl above each face of the wedding party: Angela, Hodgins, Cam, Billy Gibbons!!, Zack, Caroline, and finally Temperance Bones. The second showed his father at the beach, shorts slung low around his hips, arms wrapped tightly around a woman, his face split in the biggest smile Brennan had ever seen. The woman was smiling too, both her hair and the wrap knotted loosely around her hips blowing in the gentle breeze, and leaning into Booth with a familiarity that only occurs between two people in love.

The quiet 'pop' of Seeley Booth's knee as he squatted next to his son drew Brennan's attention away from the photos scattered on the floor. Looking from the sad eyes of his heartbroken father to the tears streaming down Angela's face and Hodgins' clenching and unclenching fists, the boy prepared himself for whatever was to come. Whoever she was, this woman had cause a lot of pain when she left the close knit family this group had become.

"Let me tell you the story of Temperance Brennan…"