AU- Mostly pure fluff. I'm introducing a character named Rebecca Cantwell, who knows Booth. I don't want to say anything more about that character, but there will be a lot about B & B's baby. Enjoy.
"Hello. I'm looking for Seeley Booth. Some FBI guy said I could find him here." Wendell could hear the little girl's innocent voice from across the lab. He walked over to her.
"Hi. Agent Booth is in the field right now with a new case. You're welcome to wait here for him and Dr Brennan." Wendell told the unknown girl. She smiled at him and followed him to the platform. Hodgins and Wendell looked at her curiously for a while. She ignored them, but eventually looked over.
"What," she asked, "do you want?"
"Nothing," answered Wendell, "I was just wondering who you were."
"Rebecca Cantwell. But do call me TJ. And don't ask why. Where is Seeley?" the girl replied brusquely, "I need to speak with him urgently." Hodgins and Wendell just looked at her until she gave them a look of impatience.
"Ummm….Oh! There he is. Be wary of the body. It's usually very gruesome." Wendell practically shouted nervously.
"Of course it's gruesome. Seeley's working on it." With that she walked away. As she walked away, the two scientists looked at each other, and could barely keep from laughing at the girl's sincerity.
THe girl was completely oblivious to the two scientists as she walked towards the agent. She however stopped when she saw the woman standing next to him. Instead she just yelled.
"Hey! Seeley! We need to talk."
Agent Booth looked up and saw her standing there.
"Hey, Teej, how've you been?" Booth replied with his charming smile.
"Same as yesterday. And don't try to charm me," the girl began to walk away, "Come on, Seeley!"
After quickly grasping hands with the scientist next to him, Booth let go and quickly followed her up the stairs to the lounge. When he had gotten upstairs, she was waiting. TJl quickly pivoted, and spoke.
"This isn't what I came here about, but why didn't tell me Bones was pregnant, Seeley?" her voice almost broke at the end of the sentence. Booth stared at the girl in a look of disbelief, until understanding dawned on his face.
"Wha- How- Wait. How did you know? You know what never mind." Booth had seen her start to cry. "Hey. Listen to me. Rebecca Temperance Jane Cantwell. Bones being pregnant doesn't change anything. Bones will love you. I will love you like you are my own child. We are still going to adopt you. Both of us." Booth spoke in a calm, low voice, and the TJ stopped crying.
"Don't. Call. Me. Rebecca." she threatened. Then, as an afterthought, "How do you know she'll love me? She hasn't even met me."
"Because I love you Teej. Bones will love you, because I love you." Booth replied. Not knowing what else to do, the girl began crying, and moved forward to hug Booth. He smiled as he hugged her back. TJ was like family to him. And he knew he had made her happy. And that made him happy. And as he looked down at Bones smiling up at him, he knew she was happy, too.
"Oh, and TJ." Booth started
"Yeah?" she looked up at him.
"No one else knows."
TJ stared at him for a while, not completely understanding, until she saw him glance downwards. She followed his gaze and saw he was staring at Dr Brennan. She looked up at him again, shock on her face.
"No one knows that Bones is pregnant?", she asked in disbelief.
"No. We haven't told anyone yet," Booth said warily, noticing her expression
"Seeley," TJ started, "How far along is she?"
"Almost four months," he stated, matter of factly
"So she's in the second trimester. So you can start to tell people. The risk of miscarriage has increasingly been diminished," TJ responded
"Yeah, I guess. How do you know so much about pregnancy? You're only eleven." Booth looked at her.
"My mom was pregnant, remember?" TJ responded, walking away. But Booth could tell she had started to cry again.
"You were only seven. I didn't think Lyd would tell you much about being pregnant," Booth tried to get her to calm down. They both sat down on the couch.
"Mom didn't. It was Catie. She thought I was nervous about Mom, so she told me what was happening each week. Until the 34th week, at least," TJ said, almost laughing, almost crying at the memory. An expression of remorse crossed Booth's face, as well as anger for bringing up the subject to TJ. He metally kicked himself. How could he have been so stupid? He saw TJ looking at him, and tried to cover up his emotions. This only made TJ laugh.
"You've always been bad at covering up your emotions around me, Seeley. It's not your fault. I've been thinking about it a lot. But that isn't why I'm here. I still want to talk to you about the adoption. And now I think Dr Brennan should be having this conversation with us," TJ looked at him, waiting for a response. Booth thought for a bit, and then looked at her and nodded.
"Yeah, Bones should be here," he conceded, "She'll be your mother when I adopt you anyway. At least, I hope so."
"You're going to ask her to marry you." It was more of a statement than a question, and by her tone, Booth knew his niece approved. He had been talking about Bones nonstop to TJ ever since he had first met her, and TJ always knew he loved her, even when he wasn't so sure himself. Booth still looked over at her to see what she would say. TJ just nodded her head, and began to walk down the steps from the lounge. Booth sat their for a while. Now that he had gotten his niece's approval, he knew asking Bones to marry him was the perfect decision. He also knew he was bringing together a dysfunctional, but loving (and perfect to him) family. And with a smile on his face, Booth followed the same path his niece had taken a minute earlier. His smile got even wider as he saw the easy way in which TJ was conversing with the squints. She was already part of the family.
