Thanks for all of the reviews for this story... they really mean a lot... we are at 144 now... can we make it to at least 150 for the story... you guys would make my week!... here is the epilogue... hope you enjoy...

Four Weeks Later…

He was leaning on the doorway of the nursery with his arms crossed even though his left was still supposed to be in a sling. Christine was sleeping peacefully in her crib. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was finally back in her own room after he repaired the holes in the walls and cleaned and repainted the wall. He had absolutely refused to let her stay in the nursery with the markings of Pelant in it.

He was just staring at her, wanting nothing more than to go hold her but knowing that if he did she would wake up and he didn't want that.

It was late and he knew he should still be in bed himself with Brennan but he was still having more sleepless nights than not. He would fall asleep fine but keep waking up fairly quickly, half expecting to be alone again. No matter how much he would try to go back to sleep after, he would find himself unable to do so. He would then go to the nursery to watch Christine sleep. She seemed to be the only one who didn't sense the tension between the parents.

The two of them were still friendly and got along well, but that spark that was once there just wasn't the same anymore. He wasn't sure but he also felt like the harder they were trying to get it back the further away it was getting.

There weren't really random kisses and 'I love you's' anymore. They were still close but that intimacy that had always been there was now missing. He didn't know if it was him pulling back or her or if it was both of them pulling back.

There were still the custody and kidnapping problems that they were dealing with too. He hoped that once that was settled things would go back to how they were. He wasn't sure it would but it would be one less stress that they would be dealing with. He was hoping that he would get an answer from the person that he called soon so that the entire mess can finally be finished with. He didn't know if it would help their relationship or not, but he didn't think it could hurt. They were prepared for whatever could come their way if the charges held and they would be relieved if they were dropped, but they both wanted to be prepared for the worst case scenario and not get their hopes up.

He was also hoping that maybe once they both started working again things could get back to normal. Neither of them were working right now: him because of his arm and ribs and her because of Cam. He was given time off to heal from his injuries and not be stuck on desk duty and Cam was worried about Brennan working in the lab currently because if the charges stuck anything that she was looking at in that time period could be brought into question. He had gotten to listen to her complaints about Cam essentially banning her from the lab while the charges were still in place. He was eventually able to convince her that Cam was right but she was not happy that he seemed to be siding with Cam.

He hadn't realized that he had been leaning in the doorway for as long as he had until he shifted his eyes from Christine for a moment to look out the window. He saw that the sun was already beginning to rise. He looked back to her crib to see her eyes open. She was still quiet though so he just continued to watch her.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even sense Brennan come up behind him until she put a hand on his back. He couldn't help but to tense slightly at the unexpected touch. He quickly relaxed again but she had already removed her hand.

"Couldn't sleep again," she said. He knew it wasn't a question, but he answered anyway.

"No."

"We aren't going anywhere." He walked over to Christine's crib to pick her up and put a little space between them.

"I want to say I know that, but knowing and believing are two separate things. I want to believe it but… it's just difficult…" he trailed off as he picked her up with both arms. She looked at him and giggled, slapping his cheek with her hand. She giggled more. He smiled down at her. "What? You think it's funny smacking daddy?" he teased her. She smacked him again and giggled again. "Of course you do. What is it about you and your mother that you both enjoy smacking me huh?" he continued to tease her.

"You know you should really still be in your sling and resting your arm," Brennan told him, as he was lifting Christine up high to make her giggle again. As she got higher though he caught a strong whiff coming from her diaper. He decided to use her statement to his advantage because he was pretty sure this was going to be a messy one. He normally didn't mind diaper duty but when the smell was that bad he knew it was bound to be a bad one.

"Well, I guess then mommy will have to take care of diaper duty now then, huh," he told Christine. "Here let's go to mommy so she can change your diaper so daddy can rest his arm," he continued, going over to Brennan and handing Christine to her.

"Booth!" Brennan said, laughing as she could instantly smell the diaper when they came closer. "That is not what I meant and you know it!"

"Sorry, Bones," he said smiling. "You told me to rest my arm. You should have been more clear." He was saved from her responding to him by the doorbell ringing.

"Isn't it a little early?" Brennan asked as she was changing Christine. The doorbell rang again and again and again and Christine started crying.

"I'll go see who it is," he said. The doorbell continued to ring and he was getting annoyed because it was making Christine very unhappy.

He walked downstairs and went to the front, looking to see who it was. Once he saw that they were ok, he opened the door. He was quickly barreled over by them as they invited themselves in.

"About time you opened the door, Cherie," Caroline said as he closed the door. He turned around to face her as she continued her rant. "Why aren't you dressed?" she asked him. He was still in a pair of shorts and t-shirt that he attempted to sleep in. "Go get dressed. Seeley Booth and get that lovely daughter of yours," she continued as she pushed him to the stairs. "Me, you, and that little angel have somewhere we need to be. Don't worry, I got a car seat in my car for the little angel." She was starting to push him up the stairs.

"Alright, alright. I'm going." He stopped in at the nursery where Brennan was still trying to soothe Christine from the doorbell. "Hey, can you get her dressed while I get changed. Apparently Caroline has somewhere me and her need to be."

"Where and for what?"

"No idea. I felt it was best not to argue with her as she was pushing me up the stairs."

"Ok, but she may still be fussy for a while from the doorbell."

"Well, Caroline will just have to deal since she caused it." He went over to the master bedroom to change.

He quickly came back in jeans and a button down shirt. Brennan had just finished dressing Christine when he came back in. He watched as she packed a bag with some more diapers and things for her.

He went over to pick Christine up.

"Booth," Brennan said to him, not facing him.

"Yeah?"

"Your arm sling," she reminded him.

"Bones…" he whined.

"You are still supposed to be resting your arm and you have no idea what Caroline is going to be taking you. I've humored your wishes of not letting me and Christine out of your sight for long periods of time these past few weeks. Humor me." He stayed silent and was just blinking at her back. He watched her turn around at his silence. "Booth?"

"I don't know what shocks me more. The fact that you are actually humoring me because I know you can't stand to be smothered or the fact that you just asked me to humor you." She pointed to the doorway and glared. He cringed. She was really getting that mom glare down. "You're really getting good with that mom glare…" he said. "Too good…" he mumbled under his breath.

"And yet the only one I haven't needed to use it on is Christine." She pointed to the door again.

"Alright, alright. I'm going. What is with all the bossy women in my life," he said leaving the room.

He came back a moment or two later with his arm in the sling.

"Happy?" he asked her. She was still facing away from him, packing the bag, so she turned around.

"No, it's still too loose." She came over and adjusted it so that it held his arm properly. "Now, I'm happy." She went over to the bag and gave it to him. He put it over his right shoulder so that he would still be able to carry Christine in his right arm. She was big enough where she liked being held in his arm and looking over his shoulder. Brennan went to get Christine, who was still clearly unhappy about the doorbell but at least not bawling anymore, kissed her forehead and gave her to Booth. "Do you know how long you'll be?"

"This is Caroline we're talking about. No idea. I'll see you later."

"I'll be here since I'm not allowed at the lab."

"Ok." He left the room with Brennan following behind him. As soon as he made it down the stairs, Christine was instantly snatched from his arm by Caroline.

"Hey there little angel. Your daddy is a pain in my—"

"Caroline!" Brennan warned.

"—butt, you know that." Caroline was holding Christine with Christine looking over her shoulder now as she headed to the door. They could both see that Christine was wide eyed.

"I think she's afraid of her and isn't sure if she should cry or stay quiet," Brennan whispered to him.

"Can you blame her? I'd be terrified too," he whispered back.

"You coming, Booth?" Caroline asked, walking out the door.

"Uh… right…" He looked to Brennan. "When they find my body somewhere just remember to tell them that Caroline was the last to see me alive and that she has Christine."

"That's not even funny."

"I wasn't trying to be. Caroline is scary when she's mad and apparently I did something to piss her off."

"Let's go, Seeley Booth!" He heard her call. He quickly ran out of the door.

Once he got outside he saw that Christine was already in the car seat of Caroline's car and that Caroline was getting into the driver's seat. He quickly climbed into the passenger seat to avoid pissing her off more. She pulled away from the house. It was silent for a while and he decided to break the silence which proved to not be a good idea on his part.

"So—" He was quickly cut off by Caroline.

"Nope, Cherie. You don't get to 'so' me. You're lucky I like you 'cause I don't much like being hollered at and I've had some hollering being done at me lately 'cause of you."

"I'm not—"

"Let me guess, 'you're not following' what I'm talking about, huh, Cherie. I'm talking about that favor that you called in a couple of weeks ago. You could have told me when we were signing those documents that you had a pal who was a judge that might be able to help, but nooo, not one word so he's been busy hollering at me for weeks about how we should have come to him first cause he could have made it looked like it was filed without actually being filed."

He stayed silent, figuring that he really shouldn't say anything and dig himself a deeper hole with her.

"What, don't have anything to say for yourself, Cherie?"

"I—" he was cut off by Caroline again.

"Nah uh, Cherie, you don't get to say anything," she told him. Christine didn't seem to like hearing her father getting yelled at and started crying in the backseat. "Look what you did now. You upset the little angel."

"Caroline, pull over," he told her. She wasn't. "Now, Caroline, so I can go in the back with her and try to get her to calm down from your shouting." She eventually did and he climbed into the tiny backseat. He really hated that backseat, but his daughter was more important to him than his comfort. The rest of the drive was made in almost complete silence except for Christine's occasional whimper as he was trying to calm her.

They eventually made it to the courthouse and Caroline went to take Christine until he shot her a glare making it clear that he was carrying his daughter before she sent her into another fit. It was bad enough her face was still bright red from crying as much as she had been. Caroline decided to take the bag for him instead.

They made their way inside and over to his buddy's office. The door was closed but Caroline just pushed her way inside. The judge looked up from his desk at the intrusion and smiled.

"Booth, long time no see man. How have you been man? Other than the obvious problem anyway. You should have called me when signing the papers."

"Hey, Hank," he said as Hank wheeled himself around the desk. He smiled slightly as he attempted to explain. "My brain was a little fried at that point and I didn't actually think of it." Hank wheeled himself closer and he could tell he wanted to hold Christine so he passed her to him. Her face was still bright red, but she giggled when Hank held her and decided she was going to enjoy smacking his face too. Hank laughed as well.

"What happened to her?" He realized that Hank had noticed the bright red and tear streaked face.

"Caroline hollered at me about you hollering at her. Apparently she doesn't like hearing her daddy get hollered at."

"She is still in the room you know, Cherie."

"So, I'm guessing the early call means that you have results, good or bad, for me." He watched as Hank looked to Caroline.

"You didn't tell him yet."

"She was too busy hollering at me."

"Sit down, Booth," Hank told him. He sat, figuring it must be some bad news.

"I made some calls, pulled some strings. I wasn't able to get the charges completely dropped though. Based upon the evidence, though, that has still been being processed by your lab and the FBI, I was able to get the evading justice charge dropped because of the evidence that pointed to the fact that Pelant would have been able to hack into a secure network and quite possibly have her killed. The kidnapping and endangering Christine was more difficult to work with. Since you wanted the kidnapping dropped it wasn't that difficult to drop that charge, but she did endanger Christine and it was even worse since there was currently a warrant out for her arrest. They weren't willing to overlook that. What I was able to do though is get you both full custody, but there needs to be another trusted adult with her when she has Christine and you are not with them. You can make that list later and talk it over with her to see if you missed anyone you want to add. I was also able to get them to reevaluate in a year in which case it will either continue with the current arrangement or the trusted adult portion will be dropped."

"What would that last portion mean if something were to happen to me?" They both knew what he was really asking, what if he was killed or something.

"She'd retain custody, but either one of the trusted adults would need to move in with her, they would need to rotate spending the night, or Christine would need to spend the night with one of them. They would also still need to be with her during the day when Christine is with her and not in daycare. Sorry I couldn't do more."

"Nah, thanks man. I appreciate it. You probably got us more than what we would have gotten if I didn't know you. I owe you one man."

"Don't worry about it. After you write out the list, why don't you head back home to your family. How are things with you and Dr. Brennan anyway?"

"Tense. Hopefully this resolution will help things get a little further back to normal, but neither of us fully trust the other anymore I think so who knows. It's almost become like we're just two good friends living together. Maybe we'll get back to what we had, maybe we won't but we aren't going down without fighting it," he said, writing down the list of names. He put on all the squints, Sweets, Rebecca (just in case), and a couple of the FBI agents that he trusted, like Shaw.

"Don't be a stranger. You three need to come over for dinner one day," Hank said, handing back Christine.

"I'll call. We'll set something up."

"I've also spoken to Dr. Saroyan about the results of the charges after she called me, hearing that I was looking into it. Dr. Brennan is free to resume work."

"That'll make her happy," he said smiling. "She was pissed at being kicked out of the lab." Hank laughed.

"Now go home and have some fun until you get stuck going back to work. I'm late for court, but that's alright 'cause they can't start without the judge," Hank said leaving the office.

They followed and piled into Caroline's car. He just went into the back with Christine to start. He could tell Caroline was still pissed so chose to stay quiet. They soon pulled up to the house and Caroline actually wished him luck explaining everything to her. She also warned him that the next time he called in a favor about something that she was attempting to do for him without warning her that he was dead meat. He chose to just nod.

He took Christine and the bag and went inside. He found Brennan on the couch with her laptop. She moved it to the side as he came in. He handed her Christine and told her about the call he made weeks ago and everything that had been said by Hank. She nodded.

"Well, it could have been worse," she said.

"Yeah. Are you ok?"

"While I'm not happy that I need to be watched at all times with my daughter, I can understand the hesitancy of allowing me to be alone with her and will just need to accept it. Are we ok?"

"We'll find out. We've always held before. We might not get back to where we once were, but there's no reason we can't try."

It would be difficult work and maybe they would succeed in getting back to the intimacy that they had recently found, maybe they wouldn't, but at least they had their friendship and partnership in place. That would have to be good enough for now.

Once again thanks for all the reviews... please let me know what you thought of the epilogue in one final review!