This is my next attempt at predicting the future! I'm happy with this and I hope other people like it too.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Bones...
The Wonder in the World
"I didn't do anything wrong, man!"
Booth stood up and slammed his hand on the metal table, pointing at the crime scene photos with the other.
"She had a kid," he said, and she hoped that the guy heard the murderous tone to his voice. "Would you like to be the one comforting this baby when she's screaming for her mommy who you beat up and held under the lake until her lungs were full of water?"
Brennan saw the defiant look in the suspect's eyes change to one of fear. They were finally getting somewhere, which was good because they had been in that interview room for two hours and her back was really starting to ache from the position of the baby.
"You killed her," Booth finished. The suspect's silence was enough of an answer for him and he signaled at the camera in the corner of the room for the officers to arrest him. Booth sat back down as the officers came in and handcuffed the man to lead him out.
"She was having an affair!" he screamed on the way out the door. They both heard him repeating it down the hall.
Booth rubbed his face with one of his hands and Brennan put her hand on his arm.
"Are you okay?" He took a long pause before he spoke.
"I'm just thinking of that baby," he told her, his voice shaking a little.
"She's going to live with her grandparents, Booth," she reminded him.
"I know. I know." She watched him take a deep breath and then stand up. "Come on, Bones, let's go do some paperwork." He held his hand out to her and she took it to pull herself to her feet with a wince. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," she said quickly as she rubbed her lower back with her fist. "The baby has been pressing on my sciatic nerve all day. Sitting here for two hours aggravated it."
"Back pain. That's normal, right?" He put his hand over hers and led her out of the interview room. "Maybe we can wait until tomorrow to do paperwork."
"I'm fine, Booth," she insisted. "It's completely normal to have aches and pains at the end of pregnancy. The baby is simply moving to a head down position in preparation for labor and as a result is pressing on nerves and causing pain."
"The paperwork can wait, Bones. You need to lie down," Booth said as they neared his office. He ran into it quickly and came out with her coat and some files. She wanted to protest, but she also knew that lying down would ease her pain.
"Let me use the bathroom before we leave," she told him and headed for the ladies room. She had left out the part about the baby pressing on her bladder as well. She was enjoying the pregnancy, but was becoming increasingly uncomfortable as the days passed and she grew closer to her due date. Angela had told her that it only gets worse the closer she got and she was definitely looking forward to having the baby.
After she emptied her bladder, she washed her hands quickly and went to find Booth so they could go home. As she walked from the bathroom to his office, where she could see him sitting, she experienced a strange feeling of a pop and a gush of warm fluid down one of her legs. She caught Booth's eye as she stopped and looked down to find that she couldn't see her feet and therefore couldn't determine exactly what had happened. She looked up as he ran over to her.
"Bones?" Booth asked worriedly.
"I'm fairly certain that my water has broken," she told him, her eyes wide.
"Oh, my God," he got out. "Okay, here we go, off to the hospital." He ushered her to the elevator and hammered the down button until the doors opened. He waved at the people inside to get out quickly and hurried her in. "Are you okay? Are you having contractions?"
"None that I can feel," she told him. She looked at the anxiety in his face and started to smile. "You were right. This is exciting."
"I doubt you'll be thinking that in a few hours," he said, but he grinned all the same. "Do you want to call Angela?"
"Oh. I should call her," she said, pulling her phone out of her pocket and dialing the number.
"Hey. Did you catch the killer?" Angela asked as she picked up.
"Yes, we did," Brennan said. "Booth and I are going to the hospital now."
"Oh my God, are you in labor?" Brennan listened as she yelled for Hodgins before she spoke again.
"I haven't experienced any contractions, but it appears that my water has broken."
"Oh, Sweetie, that's great! Jack, Brennan's in labor. Go tell Cam so we can leave early." She heard Hodgins wishing her good luck and then Angela was speaking to her. "Do you want us to meet you guys at the hospital?"
"Labor is a long process, Angela. We'll likely be there for at least five or six hours before anything significant happens." The elevator doors opened to the parking garage and Booth led her out and to his SUV.
"We'll come by at five-thirty then," Angela said. "Aw, good luck! I'll see you in a while."
"Thank you, Angela. Goodbye." She hung up by the time they reached Booth's SUV and he held the door open for her.
"My pants are wet, Booth," she pointed out. "I don't want to get amniotic fluid on the seat."
"Right, towels in the trunk. Don't move." He ran around to the back of the truck and came back seconds later with a bath towel. She took it from him and laid it on the seat before she got in. Booth closed the door and ran to the driver's seat.
"Do you have the bag?" she asked him as he put the car in drive and pulled out of the space.
"It's in the trunk. You ready to have a baby, Bones?"
"Yes." She was silent for a few minutes as Booth left the parking garage and turned on the siren. "Booth. You don't need to use the siren."
"This truck has seen a lot of gross things, but I won't let it see a baby being born because we get stuck in traffic," he told her.
"You seem anxious," she said. "I would have thought you'd be calmer considering you've witnessed Parker's birth."
"This is different. Rebecca didn't even want me in the room until after she started pushing. I've never been in a room with a woman in labor before."
"Why didn't she want you in the room?" she asked quietly.
"I think she wanted to act like it wasn't happening. She wasn't ready to have a baby then." He glanced over at her. "I love you, Bones."
"I'm sorry," she mumbled as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "My hormones are making me very emotional."
"Hey, it's okay. You're pregnant, you're supposed to be emotional," he told her. They were quiet for the rest of the drive to the hospital until Booth parked and they were getting out.
"I think that the best strategy would be to let me deal with the contractions quietly," Brennan said as they walked towards the sliding doors of the hospital. "I've read that having a partner rub your back during contractions can also be very helpful. And I don't want any pain medication. Early hominids have given birth without pain medication for millions of years."
"Okay, no pain medication," Booth agreed. He realized that she was making a battle plan and didn't want to get in her way. He understood that she was perfectly aware of her limits and would let her decide when it became too much.
As they neared the sliding glass doors, Brennan experienced a sudden sharp pain in her abdomen and grabbed Booth's hand. They looked at each other and she hoped she was prepared for everything to come.
The lights were off and Booth was lying on the cot he'd had the nurse bring in after ten o'clock had passed. He'd stayed true to his word and let Brennan deal with the contractions as she wished. She was over eight hours into it and he'd noticed that she was not staying as quiet through them as she had started and he hoped that was a sign that they were nearing the end. He had worked with her for more than seven years and had never seen her admit to pain before this.
Booth had not slept at all in the two hours the cot had been in the room. He was lying on it, but he stayed awake to watch her. Every minute or two her face would screw up in pain and she would hold onto the rails of the bed tightly like she was doing now. He'd been rubbing her back but stopped a while ago when she yelled at him to stop touching her. He tried not to take offense to that, but watching her go through that much pain was making him feel sick.
Brennan was not aware of what time it was anymore. She had expected a lot of pain, but this was crazy. The nurse had told her to lie on her side to get one side of her cervix to dilate faster but the position made the contractions harder to deal with. She had an all new appreciation for the early hominids now. She could barely keep her thoughts straight through the pain. She held onto the rail on one side of the bed for dear life and groaned as the peak of this contraction washed through her abdomen and lower back.
"Booth," she forced out. She wanted to say she was sorry for snapping at him earlier and ask him to rub her back again but she couldn't speak at the moment. He moved to the chair next to the bed, though. She snatched up his hand as soon as it was within reach and squeezed it like she was squeezing the bed rail.
"Jesus," he gasped. He started to rub her arm out of instinct and thanked God when her grip on his hand loosened enough for the chance of his bones breaking to decrease. As the pain faded she opened her eyes and looked at him.
"I want the baby out," she whispered pitifully. "I can't do this anymore, Booth."
"It's almost over, I promise," he murmured. "Rebecca dropped Parker off a little while ago. He's in the waiting room with everyone else. He's so excited to see the baby, Bones. I'm sorry you're hurting."
"I'm glad, Booth," she said. "I'm so happy you're the father of our child. I love you. Rub my back again please." The last words were rushed because she felt the next contraction coming a lot faster than she had expected it to.
Booth watched as her face screwed up again and her grip on his hand tightened. He moved so he was sitting in front of her on the bed and pressed the heel of his free hand into her lower back like he had been doing earlier. The sound of her long moan made his heart beat faster.
The nurse returned just as the contraction was ending and checked on her progress after she complained of a large amount of pressure with the last contraction.
"You're ready to push," the nurse announced as she walked to the phone to call the doctor.
"This is it, Bones," Booth said excitedly. "We're gonna have a baby." She wanted to smile like he was, but she was just too tired. The nurse prepped her for pushing and explained the process to her quickly to get it all in before the next contraction. When it started to build, Booth pulled her leg back while the nurse grabbed the other and they began the final leg of the marathon.
The only good thing that Brennan could find about pushing was that it made the pain easier to deal with because it gave her something else to focus on. The bad thing was that it took nearly an hour to get anywhere significant. But after that hour, the rest was quick. She got to watch in amazement when Booth's facial expressions changed as the baby came out. She found herself smiling and her eyes filling with tears when the doctor placed the baby on top of her stomach and saw Booth with a look of such pride on his face. The intense pain she had gone through was almost forgotten already as she stared at their daughter, messy and screaming at the top of her lungs. She had not expected to feel this spectrum of emotions that made both her and Booth cry.
The feeling of holding the baby that had been inside her uterus for so long was incredible. It was even better than how she felt when she told Booth she was pregnant and he accepted her with a loving embrace. She could not find words to explain it accurately.
With a hand on his daughter's small body, Booth kissed Brennan soundly. This feeling was paralleled by the feeling of holding his son for the first time, or even better. He didn't love Parker any less, but now his heart could expand to love two more people just as much. She had given him a daughter. He was overwhelmed with pride and love and happiness. When the nurse took the baby to clean her up and wrap her in a blanket, Booth kissed Brennan one more time and followed the baby with his camera. He didn't want to let a single moment to slip by.
The nurse placed his daughter in his arms after she was wrapped up and he couldn't help the tears that fell down his face. He carried the baby back to Brennan's side and leaned down so that she could see her too. She pressed the blanket away from her face and looked up at Booth.
"She looks like you," Booth said. "She's going to be a genius."
Brennan smiled and gently touched their daughter's face with one of her fingers. She could not believe how beautiful this child was. They sat like that until the doctor had finished with Brennan and then Booth handed the baby to her.
"What should her name be?" Booth whispered.
"Olivia Booth," she decided.
"Can she have a middle name?"
"You can choose it," she said absently, distracted by the baby opening her eyes against the bright lights.
"Christine," Booth said.
Brennan looked at him, saw the respect in his eyes, and knew she couldn't disagree.
"Should I bring them all in?" he asked her as he stood.
"I think that you should bring Parker in first, so that he doesn't feel slighted."
"I will go get Parker." He kissed the two of them again and tried to collect his emotions by the time he reached the waiting room. Angela saw him first and jumped to her feet. He was struck by how much these people were his family as much as Parker was and he found his son first. He kneeled down to hug him tightly and whispered that he had a sister. Parker was excited enough that he announced it to everyone else and soon he was being hugged and patted on the back. He stood up to tell them that her name was Olivia Christine Booth and that Parker had to go see her first and he smiled at the pout on Angela's face. They were all as excited as he was.
Booth led Parker down the hall and into Brennan's room, where he walked up to her cautiously and peered at the baby over her arm. He grinned as she patted the bed beside her for him to sit and he hopped up.
"Can I hold her?" Parker asked innocently. Booth sat on the chair next to the bed and got him to sit safely next to Brennan, who placed the baby in his arms as soon as he was ready.
"Be careful to support her head," she told him before she let go.
"Her face looks squished," Parker said. Booth smiled again and agreed with him. A few minutes later Olivia started to cry and Parker handed her back to Brennan again. At one point Booth had been concerned about how she would react to a baby, but the ease with which she soothed Olivia quelled all his worries. He didn't have a thing to be concerned about.
After Parker had been with them for fifteen or twenty minutes Booth got up to tell everyone else they could come in as long as they were quiet. They filed in as quietly as he could have expected them to be and stood around the bed. Sweets, Hodgins and Wendell congratulated them again and stood further back as Cam and Angela gushed about Olivia to Brennan.
"Oh, Sweetie, she's adorable!" Angela said as she burped Michael on her shoulder.
"I don't generally like infants too much, but Angela is right," Cam told her.
Booth watched as she smiled at the compliments. She caught his eye at one point and they shared a knowing glance. They were both very aware of how much things were going to change, but right then they were in the middle of the happiest day of their lives and even Brennan couldn't refute that.
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