Early Saturday morning Booth arrived at Brennan’s apartment to pick her up for the trip to Huntsville. Brennan waited until they were headed out of town to bring up their marriage.
“Booth now that we know the marriage is legal, we need to discuss what we are going to do.”
“Bones I know you don’t believe in marriage, but it is a little late because you are married and now we have to decide what to do.”
“Booth I know you don’t want to get a divorce because of your faith.”
“Bones what gave you that idea.”
“Sweets, he said that if a Catholic gets a divorce he is excommunicated from the church.”
“Bones if we get a divorce I will not be excommunicated. Besides, there are several reasons why we cannot get a divorce.”
“Booth I have something else to tell you.”
“What is it Bones?” Booth had that look like he was not going to like what she has to say but he is prepared to listen like when she talked to him about his brother at his birthday party.
“Well Booth, Angela knows about the marriage.”
Booth looked over at her while he was driving and asked. “Did you tell her? I know the two of you are best friends, but I asked you not to say anything until we figured this out.”
“Booth no I did not say anything this time. She saw the certificate.”
“When did she see it? I thought you had it.”
“I inadvertently gave it to her with the other marriage certificates for Simon Compton. I did not think they saw it because none of them said a word.”
Booth turned to look again and exclaimed. “THEY never said a word. Who are they?’
“Well it was Cam and Hodgins”
Booth breathed a sigh of relief and mumbled. “Ok so only they know.”
“Not quite Booth.”
“Who else knows Bones?”
Bones could hear the exasperation in his voice but she knew he will remain calm while she tells him. She was getting very good at reading his expressions. In fact he was the only one she could read because she is usually so bad at reading people.
“Well Booth, as far as I know, Angela said almost everyone at the Jeffersonian knows and quite a few know at the FBI office.”
“Who knows at the FBI office?” Booth asked looking a little concerned.
“Angela did not go into detail but I’m sure that Agent Burns and Marcus who went with me to the church know.”
Booth looked at Bones when he said. “The question is does Sweets know?”
Bones: “I don’t think so.”
Booth: “Well that is one thing in our favor.”
Bones: “Do you think Andrew knows?”
Booth: “No because he would have been in my office by now. He did ask me who you married but I told him he needed to ask you.”
Bones: “We need to think about this logically and rationally.”
Booth just looked at her. He knew she could not be rushed and since they have just arrived in Huntsville there was no more time to talk about it. Booth drove over to Carol’s house so they could all go together for the bridge opening ceremony. As they pulled up in front of the house they could see little Andy running around the front yard. It did not seem that long ago that I was changing his diapers, Booth thought.
Bones was getting out of the car as Carol came out of the house to greet them.
Carol: “It is so good to see both of you again. I know that you will be surprised when you see the town. So much has changed since the last time you were here. I’m sorry my husband is not here right now he is over at the community pool getting it ready for the grand opening next month.”
Bones: “That’s all right I am so glad everything is turning out so well for the town.”
Carol: “Dr. Brennan we can’t say enough of what you did.”
At that point Booth joins the two women and Carol turns to him and says. “Agent Booth it is so nice to see you again and by the way congratulations.”
Booth looks at her with a dumbfounded facial expression. He has no idea what she is talking about and before he can ask Bones asks. “Was it to difficult to change it?”
Carol: “No, the inscription had not been prepared before your call and so it was easy to have it changed as you requested.”
Booth: “What changed?”
Bones: “Oh it was something they wanted to put on the bridge into town.”
Carol: “We had better go to the bridge for the ceremony.”
Bones: “Is Andy coming with us?”
Carol: “No my neighbor is going to watch him; he is in the terrible twos.
Bones: “What are the terrible twos?”
Carol: “Wait until you have your own child and you will soon know.”
On the drive over to the bridge, Bones thought about having her own child and she thought back on when she had asked Booth to be the father. Now that they are really married they could have a family. Something she has not had since she was fifteen.

At the bridge entry was a number of elected city officials and town citizens waiting for the opening of the bridge. Carol accompanied Brennan to the group and as the ceremony was getting underway, Booth’s phone rang. He stepped away from the crowd to answer it and did not hear all of the speeches and the mayor say. “Thanks to Dr. Temperance Brennan and her husband Agent Seeley Booth we now have a new bridge connecting this town to the rest of the country. Without further ado Dr. Brennan is going to cut the ribbon.”
With that, Bones cut the symbolic ribbon to the bridge, she looked over to see what Booth was doing and saw that he was on the phone and had not heard the speeches. She could tell by his expression that there was something important about this call. She excused herself from the group and went to Booth.

Bones: “What is it?”
Booth: “Another corpse in an antique car, this time in an old garage. Bones we need to leave as soon as possible to check this out. It may be related to the other victim we found in an old car.”
Bones: “Of course, just give me a minute to say goodbye.”
Bones quickly went over to Carol and explained that she and Booth had to leave to do their job but she appreciated that they had changed the plaque on the bridge to show her name and Booth’s name. She said when she and Booth have time they will come back to town to see how it is recovering.

On the drive back to Washington, Booth said. “Sorry Bones you did not get to stay longer. You should be proud of what you did for that town.”
Bones wished that Booth had seen the plaque. She knew that after seeing the inscription in her ring and hearing that Booth was in love with her, she wanted to stay married to Booth. There was something else but she could not put her finger on it that made her feel this way. It was when the mayor addressed her as Mrs. Booth; she had a sense of harmony.
Booth: “Bones what are you thinking about?”
Bones: “Did Parker go through the terrible twos?”
Booth: “Huh, I think so, what made you ask?”
Bones: “I was just thinking what it would be like to have my own child.”
Booth just looked at her out of the corner of his eye; he did not want to pursue this conversation because the last time he ended up having brain surgery. Instead he said. “The car they found is in an old abandoned garage and it looks like it has been there for some time.”
Bones who was lost in thought for a moment asked. “Do you think the two victims are related?”
Booth: “I don’t know yet but we will soon find out.”
He had just pulled the car into the parking lot of the old garage. They could see that the FBI forensic team was already there waiting. Bones went to check the remains while Booth questioned the tech team. The tech team told him that the car had been found by a couple of young boys playing hide and seek.
Bones went over to the car to inspect the remains while Booth went to question the boys about when they found the car and did they disturb anything. After he finished he joined Bones at the car along with the two techs from the FBI, Marcus and Joan. Bones was having Marcus gather some specimens when Joan turned to Booth and said. “Agent Booth I told your wife, uh Dr. Brennan, that there is something unusual about this car just like the other antique car. It looks like the real thing but on closer inspection it is a replica. A good replica but a copy none the less.”
Booth pretended he did not hear her slip about Bones when he asked. “So both cars are fakes, is that it?”
Joan: “Yes.”

When Bones was through examining the body, Booth instructed the tech team to send the body to the Jeffersonian and the car to the FBI forensic lab. He then turned to Bones and said. “Bones we need to check the ownership of these two cars because it does look like there is a connection. What about this victim?”
Bones: “It appears that this victim was killed in the same manner as the first one we found, but this one was killed first.”
Booth: “I’ll drop you back at the Jeffersonian to determine exact cause of death and I’ll try to trace down the owner of the car.”

The rest of the weekend Booth worked on tracing the cars’ owners and Bones was determining the cause of death of both victims. Neither of them had time to discuss the marriage. On Monday, Booth called Bones to let her know he discovered the vehicles owner and both cars are owned by the same person. He had asked the owner to come to the FBI headquarters this afternoon and he wanted Bones to be there.

That afternoon while Booth and Bones waited in his office, Booth started to ask Bones about her ideas about the marriage.
Booth: “OK Bones we have a few minutes and we need to decide what to do.”
Bones: “Booth you said there were several reasons why we can’t get a divorce and one of them was not because of your religion. What is one of the reasons?”
Booth: “Well the first and foremost is we won’t be able to work together as partners.”
Bones: “But if we stayed married they could separate us as well.”
Booth: “Bones if we stayed married they MIGHT separate us but not necessarily whereas if we divorce they most definitely WILL separate us.”
Bones: “Then we should stay married because we are partners and ……….
Bones was interrupted by the arrival of the cars owner, Jillian Ambrose. Ms Ambrose was a woman in her late twenties, obviously well educated and well to do.
Booth: “Thank you Ms Ambrose for coming in today. This is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan. We just wanted to ask you some questions about two cars that we have located that are registered to you.”
Ms. Ambrose: “Please call me Jillian, yes I am the owner of these cars your assistant mentioned, but I have not seen them for several months now.”
Booth: “When was the last time you saw them?”
Jillian: “Well the Duisenberg was taken seven months ago and the Model T has been gone for over three months.”
Booth: “Were the cars stolen?”
Jillian: “Not exactly.”
Bones: “What do you mean not exactly?”
Jillian: “Well due to the recent economic conditions I’ve had to liquidate some assets.”
Booth: “You mean sell the cars to pay the bills.”
Jillian just looked at Booth and nodded her head.
Booth: “Who did you sell the cars to?”
Jillian: “You need to ask my step brother. He is the one who sold them.”
Booth: “Where can we get in touch with your step brother?”
Jillian: “He works for some construction firm. Here is his number.”
Booth: “Thank you.”

As she left the office, Bones looked at Booth with a puzzled look on her face.
Booth: “What is it Bones?”
Bones: “Why did she not ask about how we found the cars or what has happened?”
Booth: “Bones she is embarrassed about her situation and would rather not know anything about the cars.”
Bones: “Are we going to talk to her brother?”
Booth: “Yes, but first tell me what you found out about cause of death.”
Bones: “Well both victims were killed by the same weapon. Hodgins noted some interesting particulates but we have not determined what the weapon is yet.”

Booth wanted to ask Bones what else she was going to say about staying married other than we are partners but there were too many people watching them. He knew he would have more time once this case is solved. He knew that another reason for no divorce was that he loved her and wanted to stay married to her, but she did not know that. Of course there is the reason that to get a divorce a marriage has to be consummated and that has definitely not happened. If a marriage is not consummated you get it annulled: you don’t need to get a divorce. So no divorce, Bones has agreed that they stay married. Now he has to figure out how to persuade Bones stay married in EVERY sense of being married.

Bones who was back in her office now was thinking about staying married to Booth. She could see his reason about that if they did get a divorce they would be split up as partners. They could continue to work as partners even as married partners, which is why she agreed to stay married. But was that really the only reason she thought as she looked at her ring.

Two days later, Booth and Bones were headed over to see the brother of Jillian Ambrose. They entered a small office building which showed Caruso Construction on the outside. Booth introduced himself and Bones to the receptionist who showed them to Derek Caruso’s office.

Booth: “Mr. Caruso we understand that you helped your sister to sell these two cars.”
Derek: “Please call me Derek. Yes actually she is my step sister, but she is having some financial problems now and I wanted to help her. So I told her that I would sell the cars for her.”
Booth: “So did you sell the cars?’
Derek looked from Booth to Bones and then to the floor when he answered. “No, I was going to surprise her by pretending to sell them and later give them back to her.”
Booth: “But you gave her the money.”
Derek: “Yes, I even made arrangements to have someone pretend to be the buyer, pick up the cars and then take them to one on my warehouses for storage.”
Booth: “But the cars were found with dead men inside.”
Derek: “I have been on a major construction project and did not know that neither car had been delivered for storage. The dead men were probably the men pretending to be the buyers.”
Booth: “How was the whole deal to work?’
Derek: “My men were to pick up the cars from Jillian’s mechanic. Load them onto a trailer and take them to storage.”
Bones: “Why did you not report anything to the police when you found out the cars were missing?”
Derek: “Then Jillian would find out and ruin my chances.”
Bones: “What chances?’
Derek: “To make her think of me other than an older brother. You do know we are not related and I have loved her for over ten years since she was sixteen.”
Booth: “You never told her?”
Derek: “No. She was always smarter than me, richer than me, had a better education and I never felt I could tell her.”
Booth: “So you had no idea that these cars are phony?”
Derek: “No.”

“Thank you for you time. We may need to contact you again so don’t leave town any time soon.” Booth said as he was leaving with Bones.

Several days later, Booth and Bones were sitting in the Founding Fathers Bar having their usual drinks after another case is solved.

Booth: “Well as it turns out the trusted mechanic was the one who had switched the real cars with the fake ones several years ago and when Jillian said she was selling them he panicked. He murdered the so called buyers and then dumped the cars. He did not know that Derek was actually buying the cars.”
Bones: “If Derek loved her why didn’t he tell her?”
Booth looking at Bones uttered: “Some men are afraid that the feelings they have for someone will not be returned.”
Bones thought about this answer and stated. “Booth you always say that love concurs all, he should just tell her.”
Booth was looking at his drink and thought for a second. He then looked at Bones and opened his mouth to tell her, but he was interrupted by the arrival of Cam, Hodgins and Angela at the bar. He thought to himself some other time but not right now.
Bones: “Booth, were you going to say something?”
Booth: “Later Bones.”