Disclaimer – I do not own Bones.

A/N – Hope you enjoy:)

Mother Knows Best – Chapter 1

Five books lay in the bottom of the old-fashioned wicker basket. Its carrier was a glamorous middle-aged woman with blonde-white hair and a lilac trouser suit one. Ageing hands clutched at the handle as she slowly edged forward in the queue. Glancing down at her watch she realized that she had promised to meet her husband fifteen minutes ago at the front of the department store. They had split up in order to do their respective Christmas shopping and reunite for the things they needed to choose together. Having been separated for a good two hours, Mary Booth had spent an hour and a half of that time waiting in queue at the book section.

Catching sight of her husband walking through the store she called to him and waved him over to her. He obliged and walked over to her, any bags that he may have had a little while earlier, clearly had been stashed away as his hands were empty and were stuffed into the pockets of his suit jacket.

"Where have you been? I've been waiting by the door in that damned fragrance section for twenty minutes, people were giving me odd looks." Arthur said under his breath, glancing down to look at her purchases hidden from view in the famous brown paper bags.

"Sorry darling, but this queue is just so long but I simply must get these signed! Did you get everything you needed?"

"Hmm…" he said distractedly, looking into the basket and picking up one of the books and studying the back of it, "I was in the music section, a Canadian singer was signing CD's."

"Really? Do you know who they were?"

"No, she was blonde though, sitting with a man, I didn't know if they were a band or a couple but I think he may have been the manager… What is this?" He asked, gesturing to the book in his hands.

"A book by my favourite author who has come to New York to sign copies so be nice because we are almost there."

"I got that it was a book, but the story makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever." Arthur said dropping the book back in the basket and looking ahead.

"Well it wouldn't would it?" She told him simply, "Taylor asked me for it for Christmas, she hadn't read them so I thought it would be nice to buy her the whole series as well as the new one for me."

"When is she coming up?"

"The 23rd. She says that Joseph's gotten so big since we last saw him, I can't wait, the whole family's coming back this year, do you realize that that hasn't happened in more that ten years!"

"When are Jared and Seeley getting here?"

"I'm not too sure, I spoke to them both yesterday. Jared is bringing Sarah up, you know the girl he met in the summer. I've tried to convince Seeley to bring a girl home but he says there's 'no one' right now."

Arthur nodded in sympathy for his sons mostly and amusement for the observation of his wife trying to have their sons married off as soon as possible. He glanced up and saw the person in front of him was having their book signed. Mary stepped forward and thrust the basket into her husband's arms and collected the books from the bottom.

Arthur rolled his eyes at the antic and looked at the woman sitting behind the table. She was very pretty with tired looking eyes, yet her smile remained intact. She took a huge sip from the mug on the table full of what he presumed was coffee. The name plaque in front of her read, Dr. Temperance Brennan.

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

The woman looked up at them as Mary approached the table, she smiled politely, asking them how there day had been so far. Mary chatted away about having been there since seven that morning looking for Christmas presents. Dr Brennan smiled in understanding.

"Who shall I write to?" She asked pointing to the pile of books that Mary and place in front of her.

"Oh, sorry. These four are for my daughter Taylor Kemp, and this is for me, Mary." She told her separating the books into two piles.

"Kemp?"

"Sorry?"

"Mary Kemp?"

"Oh, no, sorry dear. Mary Booth."

The author looked up at that. She looked at them both for a second before returning to the books. A second later a loud ringing noise caused several people to jump. Dr. Brennan looked guiltily around before muttering an apology and reaching into her pocket for the offending item. She smiled quickly at the couple and answered it.

"Brennan."

Mary turned to smile at her husband when she saw a crowd of people outside, they were all following a young woman. She had her head covered by a jacket, with a man holding it over her head.

"That's why it is so packed today!"

"No Mary, it is packed because it is five days until Christmas."

"This better be important because I am in the middle of a book signing!" Dr. Brennan said sharply into the phone. Mary could hear the young woman's side of the conversation.

"Booth!" She cried into the phone. Mary and Arthur both whipped round in recognition at their name. She realized the misunderstanding and held the phone to her shoulder.

"Sorry, I meant the phone." A muffled 'Bones!' could be heard through the material of her top.

"I'm here!" Nothing could be heard as the caller had decided to speak at a normal speaking volume.

"I don't know, stay in and write some more I suppose. Is this really important now?!" Apparently it was because she sighed and listened to his argument.

"Meet your pare…What! Booth! No, I can't do Christmas by myself, let alone do it with someone else…I'll be fine!… What do you mean alone at Christmas? I won't be alone, I have Whiskers… A cat is company!…I'll be fine Booth!… Honestly, I'll even buy myself one of those turkey dinners…well I haven't had a real Christmas meal in years so I wouldn't know anyway… I will be fine by myself… there are hundreds of people alone on Christmas!

Mary raised her eyebrows in amusement to the one sided argument she was witnessing.

"And you won't be one of them!" Could be heard through the phone. She flinched at the noise and looked at the growing queue.

"Booth, I'm going to have to ring you back later… what we'll discuss this later… Booth!… Fine!…Yes!… Yes I'll come! Now get off the damned line!" She cried hanging up.

Dr. Brennan smiled awkwardly at the couple before her and picked the pen back up.

"Sorry about that."

"Don't worry dear." Mary assured comfortingly, easing the young authors guilt and embarrassment. Another loud ringing noise rang throughout the book section, this time belonging to the phone of Arthur Booth. He took it out and looked at the caller ID.

"Seeley." He told his wife, again Dr. Brennan looked up in surprise. He handed Mary the phone, certain that the call was going to be for her.

"Seeley?" She answered happily.

"Your father and I are just doing a bit of last minute shopping… you have? Excellent… when should I expect you and your friend… I'm not insinuating anything; I am merely asking when to expect you… Hmm… Okay Seeley, this friend is it female?"

Arthur noticed that he wasn't the only one interested in the conversation and that Dr. Brennan seemed intrigued by the parts she had heard. Arthur had to assume that his son's friend was female judging from the ladylike squeals of delight that were emitted from his excited other half.

"Brilliant! I shall see you on the 22nd!"

A/N – Okay so my first Bones fic, sorry if some of the information is a little inaccurate, I live in England and we are about five/six episodes behind but I wanted to make it as up to date as possible, not sure if I'm going to have the whole Booth/Cam thing in here though, it could very well become an Alternate Universe story. I just needed to write something about the two of them because Sky One have just announced that Bones will be returning in February! February!!! What am I supposed to do until February? Anyway, please review, I live off reviews.

LJ

X x x