(Season 11)

A/N: This week's Bonesology challenge will span a couple of weeks. Write a multi-chapter story about the team renting a huge beach house for the summer. Not all team members have to stay there at the same time. Some can stay one week, some others, some all summer. You choose. Length of story is up to you, but it should be multi-chapter. The setting is beginning of season 11, after Booth has recovered from his injury.

I don't own Bones.

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Once Booth was discharged from the hospital, Brennan picked him up from the front of the hospital and with the help of the nurse who had wheeled him down from his room, Booth was soon buckled into the passenger seat of the SUV. Once the nurse was gone, Booth complained. "Bones I don't like seat belts you know that. What if we have a wreck? The seat belt will rupture me for sure."

Wary of Booth's logic, Brennan loosened the seat belt and slid the loop that should cross his chest so that it was now behind him. Now the only restraint he had was the part that went across his waist. "This isn't a perfect solution, but it will do for now."

He wanted to just unbuckle it completely, but Booth knew that it would just trigger an argument and he wasn't in the mood for a fight. "Let's go home Bones."

"About that, there has been a change in plans." Brennan closed the passenger door, strode around the driver's side and hopped in. While she closed the door, she placed the key into the ignition. "We aren't going home."

Since this was news to Booth, he turned to stare at his wife. "What do you mean? Where are we going?"

She had known this moment would come, but she still hadn't really formulated a way to tell him of their new plans yet. "You need rest and it's been a long time since we've actually gone on vacation and since you can't return to work for a minimum of six weeks, I've rented a beach house in Norfolk. It has five bedrooms and four bathrooms. It's has wheelchair access which means access to the house should be easier for you and it's right on the beach. It's a two story building. Two bedrooms are downstairs and three are upstairs. There is a screened in veranda and a hot tub although you can't use the hot tub since you do have an open wound. There is a fully functioning kitchen and a living room and an entertainment room that the children will enjoy . . ."

Since Brennan didn't seem to have any plans to stop describing the house, Booth held up his hand. "Stop . . . just stop." He knew she must have started planning this as soon as he was placed in the hospital, but he had had no input at all and he didn't want to go to any beach house. "I want to go home Bones. I don't want to go on vacation. I'm not in any shape to enjoy the beach or a beach house. I . . ."

"We're going to the beach house, Booth." Brennan was determined to get her way. "Christine and Hank are already there. With Angela, Hodgins and Michael Vincent."

Angry that Brennan was making plans without him, Booth exhaled deeply to argue and started to cough. Holding his hands over his side, Booth feared he was going to hurt himself since the wound in his stomach was barely on the road to healing and his blood loss made him feel as weak as a kitten.

Worried about his cough and his wound, Brennan opened the door, hopped out of the truck and rushed around to the other side of the truck. The door open, she stepped up on the step bar and placed her hand over Booth's hands. "Booth you mustn't cough."

Struggling to stop coughing, Booth nodded his head and somehow found a way to stop. "Damn it that hurt."

While Brennan lifted Booth's shirt to inspect the bandage over his wound, a nurse ran out of the building and over to the truck. "Is there a problem?"

Brennan stepped down and turned to face the nurse. "He was coughing and it caused Booth great pain. I think he's alright."

Peering into the truck, the nurse placed her hand over Booth's wrist. "Are you alright Sir?"

The pain fading, Booth nodded his head. "Yeah, I'm okay." His face was pale and there were beads of sweat on his forehead, but he was sure he was alright or as right as he could be.

A little hesitant, the nurse released Booth's wrist and turned to face Brennan. "If things change and he thinks something is wrong, please bring him back here."

Brennan nodded her head, closed the passenger door and walked back around the truck to the driver's side. "We're going to be in Norfolk, but I'm sure they have adequate hospitals if we need them." Once in the truck, Brennan started the engine and pulled out of the drive through in front of the hospital. "We'll be in Norfolk in four hours, Booth. Please let me know if you need to stop at any time. There is no reason to rush. Christine and Hank are fine and they'll have fun playing on the beach while they wait for us to arrive."

Resigned that he had no control over his life at the moment, Booth nodded his head. "We're going to talk about this."

"I know." Brennan was certain that once Booth was at the beach house he might like it, Brennan patted his knee. "It really is a lovely place. Hodgins has rented this house before and when he told me about it, I knew that it would suit our needs. You need rest Booth and a chance to recover. You won't do that if you're too close to work. I know you and I know you will try to return to work before you're ready. We will be four hours away from work and the temptation will lessen with distance."

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As they pulled into the driveway of their rented summer home, Brennan cleared her throat. "I'm not the only one whose name is on the lease, Booth. Hodgins and I have rented this house. Our lease is for three months." She heard Booth inhale and quickly cut him off. "I'm not saying we're staying for three months although we will if you decide you need more time to recuperate. Hodgins and I talked it over and decided that it would be ideal to have a summer place available for our family and friends to use if they are looking for a vacation spot near the ocean. Max and Russ can use it and so can Cam and Michelle. I invited Aubrey, but he hasn't committed to coming yet. Also I think that some of my interns may benefit from such a restful place to vacation and I told them that they may come if they are so inclined. Of course, we will use one of the bedrooms downstairs and Hodgins and Angela get one of the bedrooms upstairs. Our children can sleep in the same room and that will leave two extra bedrooms for our guests plus the couch in the living room and the hammock on the veranda are available if we have an overflow of guests. I supposed they could sleep on the floor with blankets if it becomes necessary."

Appalled at Brennan's open invitation, Booth shook his head. "Where the hell is the peace and quiet, Bones? I like my privacy you know that. You've invited everyone that we know for God's sake."

"You're exaggerating, Booth. There will be peace and quiet for the first two weeks of our stay." Brennan knew she hadn't explained it as carefully as she should have. "The first two weeks are for just our family and the Hodgins/Montenegro family. No other guests are invited. You should be feeling much better in two weeks. After the two weeks, if you haven't had any reversals in your health then we can have company visit. I have no idea who will be coming since it's an open invitation and Hodgins may have invited people we don't know. On the other hand, perhaps no one else will be interested in coming."

Giving Brennan a look of pure disbelief, Booth snorted. "It's a beach house, on the beach and it's free, who the hell wouldn't want to come? I assume you aren't charging anyone to stay with us."

"Of course not." Brennan found that an odd question, but answered it anyway. "Why would I charge someone to stay here? I'm not running a hotel or motel."

Unable to prevent it, Booth rolled his eyes. "If you say so." Unbuckling his seat belt, Booth opened the passenger door which prompted Brennan to open her door and run around the truck just in time to help her husband get out of the truck. Since he was heavy and much bigger than she was, all she could do was try to cushion his fall if he fell to the ground.

Carefully stepping down to the driveway, Booth held his hand on his side and tried to will the pain he felt to go away. "You know if Jared wasn't already dead, I'd kill him." He knew it was a tasteless joke and he should be sorry that his brother was dead, but at the moment he was in an unforgiving mood. He hadn't dealt with how he felt about Jared's death yet and he knew he should be mourning his death, but right now he didn't have it in him to care. At the moment, he was angry with Jared and he didn't want to think about why. "Come on, show me this beach house you're so excited about."

Brennan chose to overlook the surliness in Booth's voice. She knew he was in pain and he hated for people to plan his life which is what she had done. Linking her arm with his arm, Brennan led her husband to the aluminum wheelchair ramp that led up to the wrap around porch.

His right hand on the rail, Booth used it to help steady his gait and to pull himself up the ramp to the porch. Impressed with the broadness of the porch, he liked the rocking chairs and straight-back chairs lined up against the wall. The front door was solid wood with a large oval glass inset. The glass was frosted glass with a fleur-de-lis design which Booth thought was pretty cool. Glancing back at his SUV, Booth sighed and opened the door. Once inside, Brennan followed him into the living room, closed the door behind her and pointed to the door inset in the left side of the far wall. "That bedroom is ours."

The children, who had been in the kitchen eating ice cream, heard their mother's voice and became excited. Christine slipped off of her chair while Hodgins lifted Hank from his highchair and placed him on the floor. Hank was already learning to walk and could walk, fall, walk with the best of them. "Mommy, Daddy." Christine raced to her father's side and threw her arms around his hips which caused him to grunt and wince in pain.

"Hey Baby." Booth produced a weak smiled for his daughter and rested his hand on her shoulder. "Did you have fun today?" Before she could answer, Hank managed to toddle over to where his father was and waved his fists in the air. "Da Da." Booth knew his son wanted to be picked up, but there was no way he could do it.

Brennan realized that she needed to save the moment before Hank started to cry, so she leaned over and picked up her son. Standing as close as she could to Booth, she allowed Hank to lean towards his father and touch him. "Da Da . . . Da Da."

Booth placed his large hand around his son's face and kissed the boy. "I'm sorry I can't hold you Tiger, but Daddy is sick right now."

The boy didn't understand why his father didn't take him and began to whine. Christine shook her head and sighed. "He's been crying all day."

Glancing at the couch, Booth pointed at it. "Bones, maybe I can sit down and you can put him on my lap."

"That sounds like a bad idea." Brennan stared at Booth's mid-section and imagined their son kicking or punching Booth where his bandage covered wound was. "Maybe with a pillow covering your stomach . . . Christine go grab one of the pillows from our bed and bring it to me."

While Christine ran to get the pillow, Booth moved over to the couch to sit down. Observing Booth from the kitchen doorway, Hodgins, Angela and Michael Vincent watched the man sit down carefully while Brennan waited for the pillow. Not really wanting to intrude on the family moment, Hodgins motioned for Angela and Michael Vincent to follow him and they went out to the beach using the back door. They knew they had time to visit with Booth later, but his children needed his undivided attention at the moment.

Hurrying into the living room, Christine handed the pillow to her father and watched him as he placed it across his midsection. Staring at her father with just a touch of anxiety, she wondered if he was going to be okay. "Can I sit next to you, Daddy?"

"You sure can Baby girl." Booth patted the couch cushion and kept the pillow spread across his stomach. After she was seated, he patted her leg and turned his attention towards Brennan. "Okay, Bones, I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Carefully, Brennan placed Hank on Booth's lap and held her hand on the child's shoulder to make sure he didn't fall to the floor. There wasn't a lot of room on Booth's lap with the pillow in the way, but the boy seemed satisfied and grabbed Booth's offered hand. Placing one of Booth's fingers in his mouth, Hank gummed it in satisfaction while Booth worried that his finger was dirty.

Thankful that her family was together again, Brennan sat down next to her husband, her hand gripping Hank's leg. "Hodgins and Angela should be here. Perhaps they are swimming."

Booth didn't really care where they were, he had his family around him and that's all he'd wanted since he'd been shot. His family was the medicine he needed to get better and anything else was just icing on the cake.

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That evening as Booth lay on his bed with Brennan beside him, he cleared his throat to get her attention. "I don't want to stay three months. The doctor said I might be able to go back to work in six weeks . . . and I guess I'm going to see if I can get my old job back at the Hoover."

It was what they had talked about at the hospital the day after he woke from surgery so Brennan wasn't surprised. "Good. You're a good instructor, but a better investigator."

His hand finding her hand under the cover, Booth sighed. "We need to see what Padme wants to do about Jared's body. Since it's mostly ashes, she should have him cremated and then we can just bury his ashes with Pops and Gram, if that's what she wants to do."

"Booth, Jared and Padme were separated." Apparently Jared hadn't told his brother that before he died. "I'll check, but I think Padme will leave that decision to you . . . I could be wrong, but she seemed to have started a new life without him when I talked to her. They were living in separate homes although he was showering her with presents trying to get back into her good graces."

"Of course." Booth closed his eyes and tried to be more forgiving of his brother, but couldn't. "My God, I'm glad Pops wasn't around to see this mess. Jared was such an idiot . . . And I was an idiot to get involved in his shit."

Brennan gripped his hand and turned her head to see the side of her husband's face. "Don't Booth. You saved a lot of undercover agents by making sure the list didn't get into the wrong hands and you tried to save Jared. None of this is your fault. You did what you did because that is who you are. Jared is dead and that part of your life is over. Don't berate yourself for being you. You needed to help him fix the mess he helped create and it didn't turn out like you hoped it would. It's done and we should move on."

He wanted to accept that Jared's death wasn't his fault and logically he knew that it wasn't, but he still felt that he should have found a way to fix it all. "Jared never could get his shit together. All the opportunities he had and he wasted them . . . He was too much like Dad . . . just too much."

She heard the anger in his voice, but she didn't say anything. Booth needed to work his way through what had happened and she hoped being away from the District would help him. He needed to distance himself from the past and this beach house they were staying in was part of it. Friends, family, new surroundings, that was her plan and her plan would work. She knew Booth and she knew how to fix him.

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