DISCLAIMER: I have no claim on these characters, although, clearly, they have a claim on me…

Temperance Brennan was concentrating very, very hard on becoming invisible.

Not that she believed in such far fetched flights of fancy, or validated the impossible mechanics of the human body it would take to actually disappear into ones surroundings without visible trace.

She sighed.

But the wish was there, nonetheless.

Funny, she'd never appreciated wishing, until she'd met Booth.

And now, damn the man, he'd somehow managed to be very, very late to this little rendezvous with her father.

All of which meant Booth would be wishing he was invisible, and a hundred miles away, when she got through with him.

Her father studied her from across the diner table.

"So, how long has this been…going on?"

She shrank a little in her seat. "A while."

Her father raised a brow. "A while."

She shrank a little further. "A few weeks. It's no big deal, Dad."

"You didn't think it would be polite to let me know?"
She sat up, glaring at him. "Well, considering I'm a grown woman-"

"-I haven't finished."

She opened her mouth. Shut it.

"Now, I know I don't have a hell of a lot of leeway with you-"
She smiled insincerely at him. "Oh, I don't know, Dad. You certainly have the freedom to leave. Right now."

Her Dad laughed. "And miss being able to scare the hell out of Booth, make you severely uncomfortable, and have one hell of tale to tell to your brother? Forgive me, sweetie, but you've got to be kidding."

She stared at him. "You're not going to tell Russ."
"Pretty sure I am."

They stared at each other for one beat. Two.

Then she sighed and sat back. "What do you want?"

"To get through this meeting without either of you throwing me out. And, you know. Entrance to your apartment without me having to break in nine times out of ten would be nice."

She held out a hand. "Fine."
Her father took her hand in his and shook it, gently. "That's my girl."

She yanked her hand back. "Don't think you can be nice to me after you've blackmailed me."

"Who's blackmailing? You just underestimate how much I know about the amount of teasing you can take from Russ."

She stared at him, debating how wise it was to kick out a criminal who also happened to be your father, when you'd told him two seconds ago you wouldn't.

She was saved from having to find out by a squeeze on her shoulder.

She turned to see Booth standing there looking from one to the other.

"So, "he said cheerily, rubbing his hands together. "What did I miss?"

"Sit down, Agent Booth."

Booth looked at her, obviously aware of her father's frosty tone, and sat down next to her, deliberately sliding in close, his arm around her shoulders.

Her father looked between them, then just as deliberately laid a hand on her arm.

Booth spoke first. "So. You know."
"I know."

Booth nodded, then spoke to her out of the corner of his mouth.

"I thought we were gonna tell him together, Bones."

"You were late," she reasonably pointed out, sliding out from under his arm and pushing her father's hand away. "I had to talk to him about something."

"What, the weather wasn't an option?"

"We did that already." She muttered.

"Mm." Her father agreed. "Outside the diner."

"Too windy for baseball, too cold for picnics." She parroted her father's words from earlier, giving her partner a see? look.

Her partner sighed, and glanced upwards once, before focussing on her father.

"Okay. So…we're good, right?"

Her father sat back, watching Booth.
Booth, she noted with reluctant admiration, didn't shrink.

"Define good."

"I don't wake up in the night with my legs broken, you don't start warning Bones here about the dangers of dating someone on the right side of the law, that kind of thing."

"I can't promise that. It's pretty much in the job description."

"What, paterfamilias or criminal?"

"Both." She jumped in, brightly.

They looked at her.

"Stay out of this, Bones."

She bristled. "What? Why?"

"Agent Booth and I are having a discussion."
"Oh." She sat back, thought a minute. When she looked up, her partner and her father were still glaring at each other.

She tapped Booth on the arm.

"Excuse me? Just to clarify, is this the metaphorical equivalent of getting your ya-yas out?"

Booth swung around to stare at her.

"Where did you learn about that? And no. "
"Ah. Angela warned me something like this would happen, I just didn't think it would be so soon."
Booth glanced at her father, then sat back and rubbed a hand over his face.

"I think you'll find the usual rules don't apply with you, Bones."

"You can say that again." Her father sat back also, smiling ruefully at Booth.

She glanced warily between them.
"I have no idea what just happened."

Booth smiled at her, and slid over to put an arm around her again.

Seeing as she was trapped against the window, she couldn't slide away again, and so contented herself with glaring at him, instead.

He smirked at her, and looked at her father.

"Just a father-potential son-in-law bonding moment, right Max?"

Her father just looked at him.

Booth stiffened slightly against her side.

"Too soon?"

Her father said nothing.

"Yeah," Booth said to the air. "Too soon."

They sat in silence for a moment, before she tapped Booth again.

"So, what do we do now?"

"I can think of a few interesting discussions we could have." Her father said, smiling thinly at Booth.

"I can think of nothing that would please me more, Max. Except, you know, for the root canal I have scheduled."

She rolled her eyes, and catching her, Booth nudged her.

"You know, you could help, considering you started this."
She sputtered. "Me! How did I start this? You were the one who came on to me!"
"I meant we should have done this together, Bones. Maybe then the atmosphere in here would be a little less hostile."

He leaned close to mutter in her ear. "And we can discuss just who came on to who a little later."

She cleared her throat, flustered.

Booth smirked.
She glared at him. "Who came onto whom, Booth."

"Have you two finished?" Her father asked mildly.

"He started it." She muttered, then yelped as Booth's fingers dug into her ribs.

"Alright, kids, listen up. You," He pointed at Booth, "are going to treat my daughter with the respect she deserves. I know you have to be pretty bright in order to keep tracking me down, so I'm trusting you to be smart enough not to screw it up with Temperance."

She snorted.

Her father's gaze swung around to fix on her.

"And you-"

"-Me?" She interrupted. "Why am I getting the father potential son-in-law lecture?"

"Because the usual rules don't apply with you."

She snuck a glance at Booth. He was smirking at nothing in particular, refusing to catch her eye.

She sunk a little in her seat. Males. Alpha males.

"Fine."

"You will let him take care of you. Understood?"

She sighed. The man really did want what was best for her. Even though she was going to have to hurt what was best for her very shortly.

"Understood. Thanks, Dad."

Her father smiled at her, then cleared his throat. "Okay, well I'd better get going. I'll see you for lunch on Sunday, sweetie?"
"What?" She'd never arranged lunch.
"I'll see you then, Max." Booth spoke up.

She studied him. Booth had arranged lunch. With her father. Voluntarily. Without arresting him.

Booth poked her, and she stopped staring at him, nodding hurriedly at her father.

"Um, yes. Lunch. Sunday. Got it."

Her father squeezed her shoulder as he passed, nodded to Booth, and was gone.
Booth let out a breath, then smiled at her.

"Well, that went well."

She huffed a laugh. "Well? Booth, I don't think there are words for what that was."

"Ah, come on, Bones. He gave us his blessing. He's coming for lunch. Life is good."

She raised a brow at him. "Where exactly in that conversation did he give us his blessing?"

Booth frowned at her. "Well, I definitely picked up the blessing vibe, okay?"

"The blessing vibe?"
"It's kind of…well, it's a feeling…you know Bones, I should be mad at you for starting without me."

Her jaw dropped open. "You were the one who decided to show up late and leave me with no support. It didn't make you look like a great potential suitor, not being punctual."

"Suitor, Bones? I believe boyfriend is the term these days. And I was late because you told me to pick you up at home, but you'd already left."

Oh. She'd been a little scattered today, with this meeting. She'd forgotten.

She nodded, with a kind of grim acceptance. "So this is my fault."

"Yep," Booth said cheerfully, his hand starting to play with the ends of her hair. "How are you going to make it up to me?'

"By not pointing out you were acting like I was some kind of property before?"

His hand started to trace down her arm, and she batted it away.
He sighed. "What, Bones?"

She mimicked his gesture from before, sliding in close and throwing her arm around him.
"That."
He grinned at her, his face inches from her own.

"That wasn't possessiveness, Bones, it was lust. I hadn't touched you in nearly eight hours, what am I supposed to do?"

Oh. "So you're not possessive of me."

He closed his eyes briefly, then sat her back a little as she studied him.

"You know, some women would have found that last remark at least a little romantic."
"I find it more interesting that when confronted with my father all you can think about is how much you lust for me."

"Okay, gross overstatement, a, and two, Bones, you already belong to me. Nothing your father, or you, or God Himself can do will ever change that. That's why I'm not possessive, Bones. I'm completely safe in the knowledge you're mine."

Oh. "You know, from what I understand I don't think God has a hand in people owning other people."

He groaned, and buried his face in his hands.

She watched him, a slight smile on her face.

"Booth."
He spoke from behind his hands, his voice muffled.

"What."

"You're mine, too. You know that, right?"

He raised his head, and reached to cup her cheek.

"I know that, Bones."

They looked at each other for a moment and her gaze drifted to his mouth.

"So…what are the dangers of going out with men like you?"
"Well, you know. Dangerous, debonair, passionate. Could be risky."

She pretended to consider this. "Good thing I have considerable expertise in the area of danger. Having a criminal for a father helps, of course."
"Mm."

She looked at him. "What?"

"I was just thinking, as fathers go, yours isn't that scary. In fact, I find you a whole lot more intimidating."

She blinked at him. "What? Why?"

"Well, when you do the Death Stare-"

She kissed him, loving the feel of him, the taste of him, under her mouth.

"Shut up, Booth."

Booth raised a brow at her, his voice a little hoarse. "Yes, ma'am."

She raised a brow back. "So, are you too afraid of me to come back to my place?"

"I'm sure I can master my fear."

"Good."

Taking him by the hand, she led him from the diner.

And in the shadows across the lot, a man watched the couple, chuckling as he saw the woman take hold of the man's tie and pull him to her.

Smiling, he stepped back into the night, glancing back once.

"Ah, Temperance. That's my girl."

The End.

Author's note: Ah, The End. This feels like a good place to leave this story considering I started out and ended up with next to no plot, no planned character arcs, barely any dialogue, and the vague thought I wanted to put Brennan's father in somewhere and get Booth and Brennan together eventually. Thanks so much to every single one of you that stuck with me through this endeavour- especially those that have continued to read, review and favourite my work. I very much appreciate this, and as a consequence will put a little more thought into my next story!

Hope you guys all have a fantastic week!!

Kickstergal.