As I've been working on several new chapters for Venting Frustration, An End To Celibacy, and Here Now!, I decided to pen one more story in the Deep Regrets storyline. I am enjoying this look at Booth and Bones in that future time line, and have been thinking of several story ideas to write. This is one of them. I hope you enjoy it. Gregg.
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Dr. Temperance Brennan looked across the table at the Diner at her 17 year old stepson, Parker. Like most teenage boys, he and his Father had been having problems, and the arguments had been escalating. Now it was about college. Booth was determined that Parker begin working on applications, SAT's and any other needed items to get into an excellent college, despite the fact that Parker was only in the beginning of his Junior year of High School and this whole year was going to be devoted to working on those various items. While Bones was sympathetic to Booth's anxiety over his son's college education, she could also see Parker's point, too. She wasn't going to talk with Parker about that, though. She had found that the best way for Parker to come to his own resolution of his troubles was to simply have a warm, friendly conversation between them as friends, though not on the topic of concern. It had worked in the past, and she knew it would now. She didn't have long to wait before Parker asked her a question. She smiled.
"How did you fall so much in love with Dad?" Parker asked. He knew that Dr. Bones and his Dad loved each other more than any two people he'd ever known, and to him that said a lot when he would think of Angela and Hodgins, as well as Sweets and Daisy, and Cam and her husband Paul.
Bones' smile was one of warmth as she thought of Booth. She always smiled like that whenever he was brought up in conversation, or he simply entered a room. It was surprising that Parker would ask such a personal question, but it was also one that she would not hesitate to answer. She could see Booth in his son so much, that she hoped that he found a woman to love and cherish as much as Booth did her.
"Why do you ask?" she questioned. She enjoyed a little obfuscation in her talks with Parker, as he always rolled his eyes just like his Father and she found it to be very adorable in Parker.
"I guess I was wondering what it takes to have such a great relationship as you and Dad have," he said with a slight shrug.
That teen sangfroid was also endearing, that slight show of indifference that was anything but that. It told her that he was very serious about this. She knew that he'd had a few girlfriends, much to his Father's chagrin, since that meant his Little Man was becoming a Big Man, but those initial forays into dating hadn't gone well.
"To be honest, Parker, it took me a long time to know I was in love with your father, and before that it took a while for me to even like him," she admitted as she took a sip of her tea. She watched in amusement as Parker took a massive bite of the very large piece of apple pie he'd ordered. So much like his Father, she mused.
Parker's eyes bugged out. "You didn't like Dad from the start?" he asked. "Hearing it from Dad you'd think it was love at first sight!"
Bones chuckled, though the memories of that first case, and then a good bit of that first year of the professional partnership, were a bit disturbing considering her feelings for her husband now.
"Hardly, Parker," she told the young man. "The very first case we worked on together it was a toss up between wanting to either sleep with him or kill him."
She smiled at the widening eyes at her blunt assessment. She'd always been very honest with Parker, and when Booth was fumbling spectacularly with the proverbial "Birds and the Bees" talk, she'd taken over and been the one to talk about sex with Parker. Rebecca had thanked her profusely, and Booth had eventually conceded that she had done a very good, if a bit more thorough than necessary in his opinion, job of it. She'd also been honest about her own sexual past, at least in terms of her history, not the details, with him when he'd asked about women one time.
"So lust and hate?" Parker asked, a bit of a smile on his lips. He liked that Bones was so honest with him. It made him feel like an adult, and he knew that if he ever had any problems, no matter how embarrassing, she would treat him, and the problems, with respect.
"I believe that that accurately describes it," she conceded. She remembered the searing, lusty quality of that kiss in the entryway of the bar on that rainy night that she almost took Booth home to her bed during that first case. In the hindsight of so many years, she was thankful that she hadn't reduced him to another of her one night stands. It may have taken a lot longer than it should have, and feelings were hurt many times along the way, but the rewards of their now permanent relationship far outweighed the ecstasy of a one night fling.
"So I met you before the two of you became friends, even?" Parker asked. He remembered meeting her at Sid's that first time at Christmas and had loved her from the first moment although there hadn't been anything other than a "Merry Christmas" and a shy wave on both their parts.
"We were beginning to be friends at that point, but we also argued a lot more than not," she admitted.
"So not much has changed, huh?" Parker teased.
"For that you can pay for your own apple pie," she shot back with an arched brow, though she added a grin which told him she thought his teasing was funny.
"I'll even pay for your tea," Parker told her with a smile of his own.
"Ever the gentleman, just like your Father," she observed, a bit of pride in the young man shining through, even though she still had difficulty accepting the more chivalrous aspects of Booth's character.
"Is that good or bad?" Parker asked seriously. He would often see his Dad and Bones arguing about how ridiculous it was for his dad to hold the door open for her, or walk her to her car, or wait up until she called if she had to go out of town without him.
"For most women, Parker, that is very good," she told him honestly. "Your Father is a very good man who shows in many small ways like that that he loves me and cares, even if I find it archaic and annoying at times." She paused and then started up again. "In a way, that's how I came to think of your Father as a friend in the first place."
"Huh?" Parker asked, confused. Bones had a way of saying stuff that seemed vague and unrelated, yet dead on when she explained it.
"That first time I met you when you were four," Bones clarified. "We had been locked up in the lab under quarrantine, and the whole time while we were solving a case, your Father worked on convincing me that I should give Christmas a chance. I'd always been alone at Christmas, or away on digs, but not that year. When everyone was leaving I turned back to the lab platform and your Dad stopped and asked me if I wanted to join him at Sid's. I didn't join him right away as I had something to do first, but I did go and I realized that Booth really did care." She paused and smiled fondly at the memory.
"You do that a lot," Parker observed.
"What?" she asked.
"Get this faraway look and smile when you remember something about Dad," Parker shrugged.
Bones laughed. "That's because I have all these wonderful memories that make me happy," she explained. "I also have a few not so wonderful memories, too, so there are times I get very aggravated when thinking of Booth," she added.
"Like when he came back from Afghanistan and had that girlfriend?" Parker asked curiously. He remembered how upset he'd been at that time that he didn't get to see Dr. Bones very often, and when he did, she looked sad.
"Yes," Bones admitted, "but it was my own fault, and I have never blamed your Father over it. He had good reason to try and form a relationship with someone else." She gave Parker a pointed look that she saw he correctly interpreted to mean that that was all she was going to say on that particular subject. Even all these years later, and having married Booth, she still did not talk of that time with anyone. She felt a deep shame and regret over it that simply would not go away no matter how much she tried to shut out the memories. She felt her phone vibrate and she pulled it out and read the text message.
Bones, where are you guys? I know I blew it with Parker, but I can't make it up to him if he's not here. Come home soon? Please? Booth.
"Here's the check, Parker," she said as she passed him the slip. "You promised to pay. One thing, though. You asked how I fell so much in love with your Father. It was because he took the time to become my best friend, and made sure that I knew that there was someone out there who genuinely cared about me. Before him, I don't think I really knew what a friend was, even when it came to Angela, though she was a friend. When you meet someone you really like, not just lust after, remember one important thing. Everyone needs a friend. You're Father knew that, and it's the true foundation that makes my feelings for him possible. He may be my husband, but he's also my best friend."
"I was kind of a jerk today, huh?" Parker asked as they stood up.
Bones smiled, knowing that the side conversation had made him think about the real problem. "Maybe," she agreed, "but don't feel bad for sticking up for yourself. Even your Father needs to be brought down to the ground every now and then. Just remember, he's only thinking about what's best for you."
"Thanks, Bones," Parker said, a sheepish grin on his face as he moved to pay the check.
Bones was smiling as she walked out the door of the diner. She was really wanting to see Booth and tell him that he needn't worry about Parker so much. The young man was becoming a very upstanding person in his own right. She also wanted to thank Booth for being her friend. She would save her thanks for his being her husband until they went to bed, but she wanted him to know how much his friendship meant to her. She had meant what she told Parker. Everyone needs a friend.
A/N: Perhaps not the broadly philosophical discussion that would seem appropriate, but one that I think Bones and a seventeen year old Parker may have. I hope you enjoyed it. Gregg.