Disclaimer: Yeah :smiles sadly: I don't own any of it either.
(A/N: Hey all! This is my first Bones story and I'd love your feedback. It's based, in part, off the Beach Boys song "Santa's Beard." You don't need to know the song to get the fic. Anyway, I figure this to be set during the Christmas time after 1x09 The Man in the Fallout Shelter. Please enjoy! -TT)
"Ecuador? Really?" Booth dropped his head down slightly in disbelief. "Bones, its Christmas."
"You say that as if it means something," she took another sip of her coffee.
"It does," he frowned. "Christmas is all about hope and joy and love," he listed off, "It's meant to be spent with living, breathing people. People like-"
"Like family?" she pointed out cynically and he felt bad for even mentioning it.
"Or friends," he suggested softly and she looked over at him.
"Daddy!" Parker came running into the diner with his mom behind him.
Booth slid off the barstool and smiled. "Hey Bud!" He picked him up in a hug. "Hey Rebecca."
"Hey Seeley."
"Hi Dr. Bones!" she smiled. "Daddy can we go see Santa?" Booth let Parker slide down and looked to Rebecca curiously.
She shrugged, smiling. "He's been talking about it all day."
"He's at the mall today and Dustin said he's gonna go. He said if I didn't give my Christmas list to Santa I wouldn't get what I want. He said I might get a doll instead!"
Brennan frowned. "Parker," she shook her head, "Dustin is misinformed," Both Rebecca and Booth quickly looked at her as she continued to the little boy. "Santa is not-"
"Bones," Booth hissed, stopping her.
"Daddy, I gotta get this to Santa," he continued to make his case, with list in hand.
"Alright," Booth smiled at the determined little boy. "We'll see to it that Santa doesn't bring you a doll," he laughed.
"Yes!" Parker wrapped a hug around his dad's legs.
Rebecca stepped forward with Parker's duffle bag and Booth threw it over his shoulder. "I'll have him back after dinner tomorrow," he told her.
"Sounds good." She nodded. "I should get going," she thumbed to the door.
"Right, well thanks for dropping him off."
"Sure," she squatted down to give Parker a hug and a kiss goodbye. "I'll see you tomorrow. I love you. Bye Seeley, Dr. Brennan."
"Bye Rebecca," they both chimed.
"Daddy, can we go now? I don't want him to leave," Parker pleaded.
Booth chuckled seeing the boy bob up and down impatiently. "Have you eaten anything?"
"Mm hm," he nodded quickly.
Booth put the money down for the tab. "Ok let's go." Parker dashed for the door, pushing on the glass and coaxing a jingle from above the door. Booth took two steps before he noticed his partner wasn't following him. "Bones, you coming?"
She drew an arm up to her chest and raised her eyebrows. "Me?" She asked incredulously, "You want me to come along with you?"
"Well, I was kinda your ride here." He smirked. "But if you'd rather walk…"
She smiled and grabbed her coat, joining the Booth boys out the door on their Santa escapade.
The traffic was crazy, the parking a nightmare, and the lines to see Santa seemed a mile long; but seeing the excitement on Parker's face was well worth it.
Booth leaned in to Brennan with a smile. "Look at him," he gestured towards his son. They'd gotten in line behind a mom and her three boys, which gave Parker someone around his age to pass the time with until it was his turn to see Santa.
"Yes, he socializes very easily with other children," she remarked, watching them playing a few feet away.
"No," he snorted lightly, "he's shaking, honest to goodness shaking he's so nervous to meet Santa Claus."
She turned to him inquisitively. "I'm curious, why you let him believe that Santa actually exists?"
"Whoa, Bones," he shushed her, feeling the disapproval of her words from nearby parents, "This is neither the time nor place for one of your debates."
"I'm just saying, even if there was a 'Santa Claus,' rationally speaking, he couldn't deliver gifts to all the children of the world in one night. It's not logical."
"He's five years old. Things don't have to be rational when you're five."
"They should be."
"No they shouldn't. Kids should be innocent and naïve."
"Naïve to things that are clearly impossible?"
"You know what, it's called magic, alright Bones? It's possible because of magic." He knew he would win an argument with a little kid using that reasoning but he hoped that maybe, this once, she'd just accept it and drop the subject.
"There's no such thing." He sighed.
"I'm sorry," the mother in front of them turned around. "I would appreciate it if you would not discuss this here, around the children. Maybe take your discussion home and talk about it with your child if that's what you choose but some of us would still like our kids to have a little of the 'impossible' for Christmas."
"Here, here!" a few others chimed in with "yeah" and "uh huh."
"Ok everybody just simmer down." He leaned in to Brennan again. "Bones, do you think that maybe you could pretend- just for now- that you don't have to have a rationale for everything in the world? That maybe you can just believe and leave it like that?"
"Like you believe the Christ myth for Christmas." She nodded.
"Bones," he groaned that she was opening another testy subject. The lady in front of them turned around again to shoot Brennan an angry look.
She shrugged innocently in the face of displeasure then pointed behind the mom. "The line's moving."
"Jeffery, Alan, Greg, come on we're next."
Parker also joined his dad's side after losing his playmates. He watched his friends being loaded up on Santa's lap, all trying to tell him what to bring them. "Daddy," he tugged on his dad's jacket sleeve. Booth bent down to listen to his son. "Is that really Santa Claus? I mean the real, real Santa?"
Booth looked up quickly at Bones to make sure she wasn't going to say anything. "What do you think?"
Booth pretended to examine Santa along with Parker from their place in line. "He looks like his picture."
He smiled at Parker. "I think so too. You got your list all ready for him?"
Parker nodded as he drew it from his pocket.
"Next!" a Christmas elf ordered. Booth lifted Parker up onto Santa's lap, before stepping back out of the way.
"I don't understand the justification for leading him on about Santa?"
"What you didn't grow up believing in Santa when you were little?"
"I would hardly use my family as a template for how to raise a child," she scoffed. "Santa's just another lie my parents told me."
"Aw come on." He cocked his head in a smile. "You didn't love the stories about how he would slide down your chimney to place presents under your tree for you and ride away in his sleigh with his flying reindeers?"
Brennan smiled softy at the memories of when her dad would read her Christmas stories. She'd curl up in a blanket with Russ and drink their hot cocoa. Then later, she and her mom would bake cookies for Santa to eat. She even remembered waiting in line to see Santa at the department store nearby to give him her own Christmas list just like Parker. Her eyes drifted behind Booth to where the man dressed like Santa was talking with Parker and she frowned. "Booth."
"I know, I know," he started in, already prepared for her rebuttal. "Reindeers can't really fly and going up and down chimneys is not only dangerous but also pretty near impossible, but I'm telling you, Bones, it's a little bit of Christmas magic that you just love to believe in- logical or not."
"No Booth, look."
He followed her finger to where Parker was. He already had Santa's stomach pillow in one hand and the other hand was going for the beard. "Oh no," Booth's heart sank seeing the disappointment in his son's face. "That's not good." Parents in line behind them audibly groaned. Between his partner and his son, it'd be a miracle if anyone there still believed in Santa.
"You're not Santa." Parker's bottom lip quivered in his discovery. He slid off the man's lap, grabbing his list back and ran to his dad, burying his face in Booth's leg to hide his tears.
Booth was at a loss as to what to do. Does he come clean to Parker about Santa? In front of everyone? Does he explain away this faux Santa? How?
Brennan observed the heartbreak in the little boy. Was letting someone continue to believe in Santa really a bad thing? She looked at Booth, still struggling with a decision, and took matters into her own hands. She bent down to Parker. "Hey," she rubbed his back softly, trying to coax his face out again.
"Bones-" she looked up briefly at him and he stopped.
"Hey Parker." It worked. He drew his face back rubbing his eyes with balled fists before looking at the doctor. "It's ok. You know, this man, he's just helping out Santa." Parker blinked, processing that information. "Santa's really busy, especially this time of the year, so sometimes he has to send other people out to act like him so he can keep on making toys for you."
"Really?" he sniffed.
She looked up at Booth whose mouth was hanging open in surprise. "Mm hm, isn't that right Booth?"
His lips curled into a smile and nodded. "Yeah, she's right, Bud," he said crouching down too. "This man takes your list and gives it directly to the big man himself."
Parker looked at the list in his hand and the back at the man re-stuffing the pillow into his shirt. He slowly walked back to the man and "Santa" froze wondering what this kid might do next, kick him in the shins perhaps? Start screaming? Parker simply held out his piece of paper for him to take. "Can you please give this to the real Santa?"
The man in the costume smiled. "Of course I will."
With a sigh of relief, Booth quickly got them out of the mall before anymore Christmas mishaps could occur. They headed to the Jeffersonian but before they even were halfway there, Parker was asleep.
"This little trip must've worn him out," Booth chuckled looking in his rearview mirror at him.
"Yes," she smirked, "He's had quite a day already."
"That was great what you did back there Bones." He smiled. "How'd you come up with that?"
She looked at Booth, smiling. "It's what Russ told me when I'd pulled off Santa's beard," they laughed.
"Well thank you."
"A little Christmas magic, right?"
He laughed. "You don't believe in magic."
She shrugged. "Well, like you said, he's five years old. Let him be five." Booth stole his glance from the road a moment to smile at his partner. "Then again, he does has your investigative skills." She nodded. "There's a good chance the 'Santa' notion won't last 'til Christmas anyway."
"Wow. The Spirit of Christmas herself, Ladies and Gentlemen."
She looked at him questioningly. She'd gathered enough in his tone to recognize it as sarcasm but that was it. "I don't know what that means."
He chuckled at the irony. That was his point in a nutshell. "Never mind, Bones." Maybe someday she'll get it.
Thanks for reading! Comments appreciated!