Hello Bones fans! This story is set about a year into the future, when Booth and Brennan are already in an established relationship. I realized when I finished this that I might have Parker acting a bit younger here than he would be in the show, but just go along with it. I don't think you'll be disappointed; not if you like fluff that is :)
***
It was the eleventh time in two hours that they had listened to "Life is a Highway" from the Cars soundtrack. Brennan was not the most patient woman under the best of circumstances, and this seemed worse than waiting for lab results or for the ever-tardy Booth at the diner.
"Um, Booth? Do you know how much longer it will be?" Brennan spoke softly so that Parker, who was busy singing along in the seat behind them, wouldn't hear her.
Booth chuckled and glanced at her before focusing back on the road. "Ya know Bones, I expected to hear a lot of 'are we there yet's from Parker, but not from you."
She made a face at him and sighed, dropping her head back against the headrest and turning to look out of the window as Booth began to sing along with Parker. It hadn't seemed to take this long the last time they made the trip. She was thankful that Parker wasn't cranky; that would have made the drive feel even longer.
"Light its hi hey! I wanna right it all along!" Parker was slaughtering the lyrics, though he could carry a tune much better than his father. Together they made quite the toneless nonsensical duet.
The track changed to "Real Gone," and Booth encouraged Brennan to join in the singing. Parker wasn't even attempting these lyrics, content to simply hum and bob along in his seat, eyes alight and blonde curls bouncing.
"I don't know the words, Booth."
"C'mon Bones, you can't tell me you don't know the lyrics yet; we've been listening to this CD for the whole trip! Put that genius brain of yours to work!" He smiled at her, catching her eye and reaching over to nudge her playfully.
What was the phrase that Booth would use in this situation? If you can't defeat them, you should join them? It didn't sound quite right in her head, but she wasn't going to ask him. He'd laugh at her. Lovingly of course. Instead, she started to sing, gaining volume and confidence until she could give Sheryl Crow a run for her money. Parker enjoyed this immensely and intensified the bobbing and humming behind her.
As she finished the song, she caught a glimpse of muddy water through the trees ahead of them. They rounded a bend in the road and started downhill toward the river. A gleaming new bridge became visible, contrasting starkly with the old, cracking asphalt which comprised the road on both shores.
"Look Park! It's Bones' bridge!" Booth pointed out of Brennan's side of the windshield, and Parker leaned forward, straining against his seatbelt and craning his neck, trying to see what his father was talking about.
He wasn't tall enough to see through the right part of the glass, however, so he turned to his father with a puzzled look on his face.
"A bridge made of bones, Daddy? Do we have to cross it? Are there al-gators and trolls underneath?" Parker's imagination was running wild, and Booth laughed.
Brennan answered him with her typical scientific efficiency. "No Parker, your dad meant that it is my bridge because I financed its creation. There are no alligators anywhere near here; they only live in the southeastern United States, mostly in Florida and Louisiana. And there are no such things as trolls."
Booth just shook his head. "Bones paid for the bridge, Park. And there's nothing to be scared of here."
Brennan rolled her eyes. "That's what I said, Booth!"
"Yeah, except you sorta gave him a Big Mac worth of information and I condensed it into Happy Meal form."
Parker and Brennan spoke at exactly the same time, and neither stopped to wait politely for the other to speak. "I don't know what that means," said Brennan, her eyebrows scrunched together, a line appearing on her forehead. Parker was squealing, but a few real words came out, mostly "McDonalds!" over and over and a few "can we go?"s for good measure.
Booth didn't respond to either of them; instead he slowed the SUV and pulled off of the country highway onto a slightly muddy patch of grass. "Want to get out and see what all of that money bought you instead of a heavenly theater-sized flat screen?"
Brennan gave him a look and an indignant shake of her head. "You got your TV. They got their bridge." After a few years of pleading and wheedling and even a little shameless begging, Booth had convinced her to get a TV for her apartment. This had turned out to be a good investment since both Booth boys were over at her place often and she wasn't sure that there would be enough to keep either of them entertained without hockey games and Disney movies.
"The TV in your apartment is not 103 inches." Booth grabbed Parker's hand as he hopped and danced around them, happy to be out of the confines of the car. He placed his hand on the small of Brennan's back and together they trekked toward the new concrete and steel structure.
There was a footpath across the bridge, and they walked to the apex and stared down into the swirling water below them. Parker shrugged out of his father's grasp and moved a few feet away from Booth and Brennan, holding onto the railings and trying to press his face between them. Booth called out a warning to his son, but didn't move to restrain him again; the railing would keep him from falling and there wasn't much traffic to worry about.
Instead, Booth wrapped an arm around Brennan's shoulders and pulled her into his embrace. Together they turned to look at the view.
"It looks like Carol did a wonderful job managing the construction. I'm pleased with the results. I hope that this is bringing more tourism to the town."
Booth turned his face toward Brennan and nuzzled his nose gently into the soft hair above her ear, breathing in his favorite scent of citrus shampoo and Bones. "You did a really wonderful job, Bones. You gave these people- this town- their lives back." He didn't tell her that he was extremely proud of her generosity, her kindness and her heart, lest she find his comment patronizing in some way, though that's what he was trying to express.
She could tell that's what he was really saying, and she smirked at him, head tilted, one delicate eyebrow and one corner of her mouth lifted. "It was an economically beneficial decision; I got a very large tax fracture for committing my resources to this project…"
He pulled her shoulders tighter to his chest, forcing her toward him and allowing him to duck his head and meet her lips with his own for a quick but tender kiss. "If you have so much money that you consider a multi-million dollar bridge construction project a tax break, then we need to talk about what you're gettin' me for my next birthday. I was thinking maybe a 1962 Cadillac or a '69 Mustang in dark red…"
Brennan cut him off with another kiss, rising up on her toes to bridge the gap in their heights while simultaneously running a hand up through the hair at the nape of his neck and pulling his head down towards her. This kiss was a bit more passionate and lengthy, involving an expert slide of soft lip against soft lip and the familiar dance of tongues.
When they finally broke apart, Booth was grinning. "Or ya know, that works too."
Their moment was disrupted by Parker, who had grown bored of looking at the view. He had subsequently thrown all of the lose rocks he could find into the river below. With no more rocks and no other amusements in sight, he was restless again. "Daddy I'm hungry. Can we go get McDonalds now?"
"No buddy, we're going to go eat with some friends at their house. They have a little boy, so maybe you can show him some of your cool big kid toys."
Parker looked conflicted as they headed back to the car, as he carefully weighed the benefit of being able to show off to a younger boy against the chore of having to share his things. He seemed to come to the conclusion that sharing was acceptable, because he began skipping back toward the car, leaving Booth and Brennan to follow at a more leisurely pace.
"How old is Andy now? Three? I bet he's getting so big! You probably won't even recognize him, Bones!" They were both looking forward to seeing their former charge again.
"Hey! Of course I will, Booth! It is unlikely that his underlying bone structure and the presence of certain heritable traits will have changed much in the past two years."
"Ah, right Bones." Booth was chuckling at her again, and continued to tease her until they made it to Jim and Carol's small and somewhat dilapidated, though warm and inviting home.
The family inside must have heard the SUV pull up in the gravel driveway, because a chubby little boy with slightly bowed legs and big blue eyes burst through the front door of the house, followed closely by his parents. He stopped short of the car, however, when he didn't recognize the people getting out and ran to hide behind his mother's legs.
"Hey, Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan, welcome back to Huntsville!" Jim moved to shake hands with Booth and Brennan while Carol scooped Andy into her arms and moved toward them as well.
"Andy! My man Andy! How ya doin,' buddy? You've gotten so big!" Booth was enthusiastic about seeing him again, and though Brennan didn't show it quite as strongly, she was too. Andy seemed a bit cautious, but he still managed a wave and a quiet hello.
Parker had been standing a ways behind Booth and Brennan, hesitant about meeting these new people. Carol spotted him, however, and instantly asked for an introduction. "This must be your son! He looks just like you Agent Booth!"
Booth agreed and introduced Parker, who shook hands somewhat shyly with both of the adults. Booth didn't bother to mention that Parker was his son but not Brennan's. Brennan made a noise like she was about to set the record straight, but Booth cut her off and again questioned how Andy was doing, this time to his parents.
Jim offered to lead them inside so that they could talk where it was a bit cooler. The group climbed the porch steps and entered the little house, the Grants leading the way. Parker was holding tight to Brennan's hand, still a little unsure about being in a new environment. He seemed to loosen up a little, however, when he saw that dinner was almost ready. Seems you could always trust a Booth to think with his stomach.
Dinner was pleasant and the adults lingered at the table, sipping the wine that Booth and Brennan had brought, while the boys played some sort of complicated make-believe game that involved cowboys and shootouts and spaceships and aliens. Parker was doing most of the dictating, but Andy didn't seem to mind. He was enchanted with the older boy, and seemed happy to play whatever part Parker assigned to him.
Jim and Carol talked about how the town was just starting to get back on its feet. Two gas stations and a restaurant had opened up within the town limits already, and the school was set to reopen in the fall. Jim had been hired as a teacher and the head of the science department. Carol was doing part-time freelance construction planning work with firms from neighboring cities and towns which were impressed by her work on the bridge. Andy was an inquisitive child who loved anything with wheels and playing with some of the neighbor boys. He was no longer having trouble with his inherited form of rickets and seemed to be in near perfect health.
The couples talked for a few hours, and when Booth suggested that they needed to be heading back to the city, Carol asked them to wait a moment while she went and grabbed something from another room. When she came back, she was holding a large framed and matted black-and-white photograph of what appeared to be all of Huntsville's residents, big and small, standing in front of the new bridge. There was a card attached to the frame, which was so full of thanks, warm wishes and signatures that it was difficult to read. Carol presented this gift to Brennan who looked a bit flustered and overwhelmed, but also genuinely happy. Booth noticed that her eyes looked suspiciously sparkly as she accepted the photograph.
They left in a flurry of goodbyes and promises to visit again. Andy had even warmed up enough to allow them to hold and hug him briefly. Parker was disappointed to leave, and it warmed Booth's heart to see his son getting along so well with the much younger child.
As the SUV pulled out of the driveway, the little family stood in the door of their home and waved goodnight. They were framed by the light streaming out of the house from behind them, giving them almost ethereal glow. Brennan was thoughtful as they pulled back out onto the highway, stopping for gas at one of the newly opened stations in town.
Both Carol and Jim were products of difficult pasts, and yet they were able to overcome the invisible but nearly irresistible force which urges history to repeat itself; urges people to perpetuate cycles of distrust and even violence. They were giving Andy the kind of childhood which they had never had, and it was enriching them both, healing them both, completing them both.
Parker was the first one to speak up. "Daddy, am I going to have a little brother? I think I would like that. Only I want one a little older than Andy."
Booth chuckled. "I don't know Park, but you won't be getting one older than Andy. You'd get a baby brother or sister. He or she'd have to grow." Booth kept his eyes meticulously trained on the road instead of looking over at Brennan who was watching him as he answered the question.
"Ew, gross! I don't want a sister. Riley has a little sister at his house. She cries all the time."
Booth just laughed, and the conversation petered out. Parker was asleep within fifteen minutes of leaving town. Booth felt inclined to talk about their visit, but he noticed that Brennan seemed lost in thought, her face drawn into lines of deep contemplation, eyes far away from the dimly lit interior of the vehicle. He switched the radio on quietly and decided to wait until she came back to him to speak.
Brennan had been thinking about children lately, and she had them on the mind again tonight. She blamed it on what she knew was colloquially called her "biological clock" which seemed to remind her at random and unexpected times of what Booth had said to her two years previously, that she didn't have that much time to think about whether or not to have kids. The interesting thing was that the more she thought about it, the more the idea of having children appealed to her. She was in a steady, committed relationship with Booth, which she knew that they were both completely invested in. She knew that if she was ever going to have a child it would be with Booth, someone who complemented her so well, who was such a wonderful father and an amazing role model. She didn't know much about raising children, but what was it that Dr. Goodman had said about her so long ago? Something about how she had a "disturbingly steep learning curve." She had learned to take care of Andy when he had come so unexpectedly into their lives (even if she had made Booth change all of the diapers), and she knew that she could learn how to be a mother to her own child. The idea scared her of course, but then Temperance Brennan wasn't one to resist a challenge out of fear. Brennan had been thinking about this decision for a while, though it was that evening, sitting in the Grant's home watching Andy and Parker play that she had finally decided that having a child was something that she truly wanted. She did want a family that she could love (even if she didn't label the emotion "love"); people with whom she could share her successes and sorrows. She wanted people who would be constants in her life for many years to come, and she knew that she could create that with Booth.
When she finally surfaced from her thoughts, smiling slightly at her decision, she noticed Booth subtly watching her. He spoke first, asking her whether or not she enjoyed the visit, what she thought of Andy, of the town, of the gift that they had given her.
She answered him, but she still seemed a bit preoccupied. Worried that something was wrong, Booth reached across the center console and threaded his fingers through hers. "What's on your mind Bones? Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong. Parker did a great job of sharing with Andy. He looked like he was having fun."
"Yeah," Booth said nodding, "Parker is really good with other kids. Even ones that aren't close to his age."
"And he wants a sibling. Well not a female sibling." Brennan laughed.
"Uh huh. I don't know if that's gonna happen for him. He may just have to deal with being an only."
Brennan looked confused. "An only?"
"An only child. Sorry, abbreviation."
"Oh." Brennan looked back at the sleeping Parker. His arm was wrapped around a stuffed eagle which his father had given him for his last birthday. Parker had proudly explained to Brennan that the eagle was the mascot of his favorite football team in "Phil-delphia."
"Booth," Brennan began softly, reaching back to tuck a sweatshirt around Parker's lap so that he his legs wouldn't get cold. "Do you want to give Parker a sibling?"
Booth's head jerked toward her so fast that he had to automatically bring a hand up to rub at a spot on his neck that had instantly protested at the whiplash-like movement. He chose his next words carefully. "You know how I feel about kids, Bones. But I also know how you feel about them. And I'm ok with that. You and Parker are enough for me."
Her voice was unsteady when she replied, but her words were sure. "I suspect that you may not know exactly how I feel on the subject. I have recently amended some of my conclusions."
He was glancing at her as often as possible while still driving safely. "What are you saying, Bones?"
Though it had only been about an hour since they had left Huntsville and they weren't in need of a gas or bathroom break, Booth pulled off into a gas station and parked the SUV. By the bright neon lights in the convenience store windows advertising liquor, cigarettes and the Virginia lottery, Booth could see all of the emotions on Brennan's face as a she took a deep breath.
"I'm saying that… I'm saying that I want to give Parker a sibling. I want to have a child. I mean, you know. If you want to as well." She looked away from him as she said those last words, twisting her hands in her lap. Maybe he wouldn't want to have a baby with her. After all, they weren't married, and she knew that having children out of wedlock was generally frowned upon by organized religions like the Catholic Church.
He placed his thumb on her jaw, just to the right of her chin, and hooked his pointer finger underneath. He tipped her head up and met her eyes. "Temperance," he said quietly, reverently, "nothing would make me happier. But are you sure that this is what you want?"
She smiled at him. "Haven't I told you that I don't say anything without thinking? I want a baby." She was full-out grinning now. "I want a baby!"
She barely got the second declaration out of her mouth before Booth's lips descended upon hers, making speaking impossible. As he continued to kiss her senseless, she realized that thinking was becoming impossible. There was so much joy in their lips meeting. So much… love. There was a new passion, a new fire that had nothing to do with the attraction that they had for each other's bodies, and everything to do with hopes and dreams (at least Booth's hopes and dreams) fulfilled. When they finally broke apart, gasping for air, they began to laugh, giddy with newfound purpose. Their laughter woke Parker, who groggily questioned the celebration. Booth wanted to pull them both out of the car. To pick them up and spin them around and laugh until his lungs hurt. Instead, he answered his son's question with a huge grin.
"Sorry we woke you, Park. Bones and I are just happy."
"Why?" Parker wasn't going to leave it at that.
"Well," Booth looked at Brennan who raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Bones and I have decided to make a baby. Looks like you'll be getting a brother or sister after all."
"Oh." Parker didn't seem to understand why this was great cause for celebration, and he asked the first thing that came to mind. "Daddy, how exactly are you going to make a baby?"
Brennan was laughing now, more at the slightly panicked look on Booth's face than at Parker's question. She decided that this was one gem of parenthood that she could learn how to deal with later, and she mercilessly left Booth to fend for himself, opening her car door and hopping out, saying that she would be back in a minute with coffee.
She came back about ten minutes later with two coffees and a bottle of juice for Parker. The boys were talking about Transformers when she got back (she didn't know what that was, but she figured they weren't referencing the electrical components), so she assumed that Booth had explained things to Parker. When he fell asleep again about ten minutes later she was able to ask him about it. Immediately he looked a bit sheepish.
"I told him that when two people love each other very much, they pray for a baby and then they get one."
"You pray and all of the sudden you have a baby? Really Booth?"
"Uh, yeah."
A wicked grin spread across Brennan's face. "You know Booth, if you wanted me on my knees all you had to do was ask."
Booth instantly checked the rearview mirror to make sure his son was still asleep and oblivious to their conversation. "Bones. Did you just make a dirty joke?"
"Yes, I guess I did."
He just looked at her, a little shocked. They had known each other for five years and he had never once heard her say something like that. He hadn't even been aware that she knew how.
"What Booth? I guess I'm just in the right state of mind." She winked. "Let's get home and make a baby."
***
They brought Ava Margaret Booth home a little less than a year later and introduced her to her big brother, who was instantly disappointed.
"Dad! You said that people make babies by praying for them! I prayed every night for a brother!"
Booth groaned. Clearly he had some explaining to do.
***
Are your teeth aching from all of the sugary fluff? I hope so. I'm in cahoots with the tooth fairy. Please review if you have a second, it would make me so very happy!