A Quiet Evening

Premise: Bones spends a quiet evening, thinking and contemplating. Set shortly sometime after Season 6 finale

A/N: I own none of the characters involved in this story.

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She shut and locked the door behind her; the deafness of the quiet apartment was a stark contrast to the usual din that she experienced at either the diner or at The Founding Fathers that she and Booth quite often frequented after completing a day of work. Today she needed to be alone; everything was starting to crowd in on her and she needed to be alone. Between Vincent's death, the birth of Hodgins and Ange's son, and her pregnancy, she was starting to feel overwhelmed and like she was drifting through a slight fog.

She set he keys, bags, and the Thai take-out she had gotten on her way home on the kitchen counter before heading to her room to change into a pair of sweats and an over-sized sweatshirt. Bones was planning a quiet evening with some Thai food, a glass of white grape juice, and a movie. She turned off her cell for the first time in quite sometime. True, she did have a landline available at home, but most people she knew would usually contact her on her cell anyways.

Bones loathed watching anything on TV, except for the odd documentary, and most evenings she usually spent at the lab, catching up on the paperwork that seemed to pile up on her desk during the day or the course of a case or if she were at home, she would write on her latest Kathy novel, if she hadn't gone out with Booth or her colleagues from the lab. But tonight was different. She wanted to what Booth called veg. She had been confused at first by his comment, but once Cam had explained what the phrase meant, she understood what Booth was referring to. After letting out a sharp breath, she made her way to the kitchen and put her meal together. After rummaging around in the utensil drawer, she found a set of unused chopsticks and made her way to the couch in front of the massive TV that Booth had purchased a number of months ago, much to her dismay.

Not one to usually eat dinner in front of her not much used TV, she put down her meal and picked up a remote that turned the TV and then went through the Netflix queue to find a movie to lose herself in for a couple of hours. Booth had set up the system a few months ago; especially Parker had wanted to watch something one evening that she was looking after him while Booth had been on a date with Hannah. Why Rebecca hadn't been to look after Parker that particular evening she didn't know why, but Bones had suspected that Rebecca had been out of town that particular weekend and Booth had forgotten to make other arrangements, especially finding a sitter for Parker. And since everybody else he knew had had plans and she didn't, Bones had been asked to look after Parker. She didn't mind having Parker over, as he came over quite a bit to use the pool in her building, but she didn't exactly have the most child-friendly apartment. Sure she had a few toys available for when her nieces came over, but it wasn't a large selection; usually they brought over their own entertainment or they went for an evening out. Parker had entertained himself as best as he could for a bit, but as the evening wore on, he started to get a little bored. Bones had tried everything possible to make him entertained, but knew little of how to entertained a preteen, or a tween as they were called in some circles, for a long period of time. Bones had phoned a number of her male colleagues, including Hodgins, asking what she should do. On a number of occasions, she had either gotten voicemail or had interrupted whatever they had been doing at the time, but getting advice that ended up being useless. Eventually she and Parker had put in a DVD on her computer and had a somewhat pleasant evening.

Flicking through the queue, she couldn't find anything that she wanted to watch. Bones moved over to a bookcase that held a number of DVDs. Most of them were work-related or documentaries, but she had a number of movies available at her disposal. Most of them were of Booth's choosing, but there were a few of her own choosing, but there were a few of her own choosing. Soon there would likely be a small selection of children's movies, but that wouldn't for a few years, if she could help it. Just the thought of children's DVDs on her bookcase interspersing her own made her unconsciously move her right hand to her abdomen area. Even though she thought her child in technical, scientific terms for the majority of the day, Bones occasionally caught herself thinking about her child in purely emotional terms, even though she was still in her first trimester.

Returning her focus to the DVDs, she picked up one that had caught her eye; it wasn't one that she exactly loved, but it was a good pick up when she needed it. The movie was intelligent, but it was also funny and a bit irreverent at times during the film. Bones didn't really care tonight what she was watching; she just wanted something that could lull her to sleep and make her forget everything that happened in the past few weeks, especially more than she would admit to anybody. Booth had tried to talk about Vincent's death in the last few weeks, but she didn't want to open up to him as to how she was really feeling. Somehow he knew that she was still somewhat emotionally fragile and still needed some time to comprehend Vincent's death and that it would take time for her make more sense of it.

She let out a sharp sigh and realizing that she was still holding the DVD she had just selected from the bookcase, she walked over and put the DVD in. After she managed to get her movie started, Bones picked up her plate and resettled herself on the couch, allowing to be succumbed to the movie.

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About two hours later, dinner had been finished and Bones was stretched across the couch, snuggled underneath a light blanket and absorbed in the movie. Her body and mind were starting to relax and feel somewhat normal again; she could feel the tension in muscles start to relax and loosen.

She never realized how tense the last month had been for her until she had finally been able to relax. Between the Brodsky case, the birth of Ange and Hodgins' son, the death of Vincent, the other cases that she and Booth had undertaken and the telling Booth of her pregnancy, it had been hectic and rarely had she been able to take time for herself; it had been a rare moment that she had had to relax and let the tension release from her body. Sure she had been able to catch a moment here and there, but she never had had this amount of time available to her without her phone ringing.

With the movie now rolling the final credits, Bones moved to grab the remote and turn off the TV and DVD player. The relative silence of the apartment shocked her and sounded good all at the same time, with the faint sounds of sirens off in the distance; she couldn't discern what sort of vehicle it was, but it probably wither was a police vehicle or an ambulance. Allowing the sounds to wash over her, she closed her eyes and moved the blanket down to her hips. Bones placed her hands on her abdomen, wondering what the child would be like when s/he was born. Sure she knew how the embryo was developing and what sort of features were being developed and starting to show, if any, but she wanted to know what sort of eye and hair colour the child would have, what its facial structure would look like, would the child be more like her or Booth or would it be a mixture of two of them, etc. Even though she wasn't religious like Booth, she was starting to consider it a miracle and a thing of wonder. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to imagine what her child would look like.

The thought made her slightly panic for a moment. Her child. A tear slid down her cheek. It was the first time she realized her mom wouldn't be there for an important milestone in her life. While it had been hard when she had graduated from high school and college with her various degrees, they had only been brief moments of sadness and disappointment as she saw her fellow grads surrounded by family and other loved ones. But this time she felt the loneliness a bit more acutely. Sure she would have Booth, her dad, Ange and Hodgins, and her other colleagues to support her during the pregnancy, but she wouldn't have her mom to answer the questions that she knew she would have. Ange could probably answer all of her questions and the same with Booth and her dad, but it wouldn't be the same. Her mom should have been here, making sure she had everything, reassuring her and just being there for her when needed. Ange would be busy with Michael; Cam probably didn't know much what to do during a pregnancy; Rebecca could be useful, but they weren't exactly close; and Booth, was well, Booth. Probably for the first time since her mom had left that Christmas when she was 15, she wanted her desperately; wanting to tell her that she was pregnant and for her to hug her and congratulate her and make something for the child that she was carrying.

A light knock on her door broke her thoughts. She blinked her eyes several times, not really sure of what was going on. The knock came again, a little more louder and forceful than the first time.

"Coming," she said as she threw off the blanket and readjusted her ponytail holder to hold her hair more securely.

Another knock came, again a little louder than the second one. "I said I'm coming," she said as she quickly moved her way to the door. She took a quick glance through the peephole to see who it was; it was Booth, the last person she expected to show up at her door at this hour on a Friday.

She took a deep breath and unlocked the door. "Hi Booth," she said as she opened the door. "What are you doing here? I thought you had Parker over this weekend."

"Parker had something come up and I wanted to see how you were doing; you weren't answering your cell."

"I'm fine, Booth; just wanted a quiet night alone. Now if you could…" her voice trailed off.

"Leave you alone?" He finished off the sentence.

She swallowed sharply. "I would very much appreciate it," Bones said in her matter-of-face voice.

They were quiet for a moment, as a neighbour passed Booth in the hallway, before Bones continued. "How did you know I was at home?"

Booth took a sharp breath in. "Cam mentioned it when I dropped by the office when I dropped by the office earlier, after you had left."

Her eyebrows knit together; she was annoyed. "Why were you at the office after I had left?"

Booth sighed. "I had some paperwork that I need you to sign off on; it can wait until Monday."

She eyed him suspiciously ; she knew that he wanted to know how she was holding up, especially since her morning sickness had been particularly bad this past week. Taking a deep breath, she knew the last thing she should do was keep Booth in the dark, especially when she was carrying his child; telling him that she was pregnant was difficult enough. "You want to come in?"

He took a deep breath. "Whatever."

"What do you mean by whatever?"

"I mean whatever you want, Bones."

She took another deep breath, the anxiety and panic starting to build up slightly. "So do you want to come in or not, cause we could continue this conversation out here for the neighbours to hear. Of course if we go inside, we can have a more private conversation."

He let out a sharp sigh. "Inside." She could tell that her line of questioning was annoying him.

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A/N: So what did you think? Reviews are greatly appreciated.