Triplets by Angel4buffy73
Rating: M
Disclaimer: Sadly, I own none of the characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel or Bones but I do love them all.
Pairing: Booth/Bones, Angel/Buffy, Angelus/Lindsay
Summary: What happens when Bones finds out that there is more to Booth's family than he has ever told her? What will they think of her when they meet her?
Booth was sitting in the Diner waiting for Bones to show up for their lunch date. He was tapping his gambling chip on the table as he was worried because that when he asked her to the party that it would lead to some information about him that he had never shared with her and he hoped she wasn't hurt.
Bones walked towards him wearing one of her patterned dresses that he loved so much. When she wore a dress it showed off her amazing figure and he would always feel a response in his body that he knew if she had any idea about she would turn away from him and it would ruin their relationship and he was more scared of that than just about anything else in life.
Bones sat and they made small talk while they ordered their lunch. He was trying to work up the nerve he would need for this conversation. It's now or never, he thought to himself.
"So Bones I have something to ask you?"
"What is it Booth?"
"Well you see its well, its, you see well Pops is turning 80 in a few weeks and there is party for him and he would like you to come."
"Oh when is it?"
"It's the last weekend of this month."
"Well if we are not working a case I can go out for the evening I suppose."
"No well it is in Los Angeles so you will have to take some time off and book a flight."
"Oh LA, why is it in LA?"
"We have family out there." He said evasively.
Pinching a chip off his plate she thought about this and answered, "Well I will have to check my schedule but I will get back to you."
"It would mean a lot to him if you came along, he really likes you."
"Well in that case I will try and arrange it. Where are you staying when you go out there? If I come with you I will have to book accommodation and it would probably be easier if we are at the same hotel."
"Oh we, you see, well we will, um we will be staying at my brothers."
"I didn't know that Jared and Padma moved to LA."
"They didn't." He stopped and took a deep breath and told her the truth finally. "We are staying at my other brothers."
She stopped eating his chips and started at him. "What? You..what? How come I didn't know you had another brother?"
It was time to tell the whole truth to her, once she knew this then there was nothing that she didn't know about him. "Well actually I have two other brothers besides Jared."
"You do? Who are they?"
"Their names are Sean and Liam."
"More information please? What do they do? How old are they?"
"Sean is an assistant district attorney and Liam is a private detective."
"Really? So how old are they?"
Looking sheepishly at her he answered "Well they are, they are um both 38"
"But your 38, so that would make you, well that would make you all triplets."
"Yep you got it. Sean is the oldest and Liam is the youngest." He took a large gulp of his coffee nearly burning his tongue but he had to do something to stop looking into her eyes waiting for the hurt and the anger at not having told her this before.
"So you are in the middle. So what are they like? Are they married?"
"Sean was married when we were just out of school but is divorced but has been in a relationship with Lindsay for over 10 years now and Liam has been married to his high school girlfriend for nearly 18 years."
"Oh my goodness. I can't believe you have this whole big family you never told me about. Do you have any nieces and nephews?"
"Yeah, I have three nephews and one niece."
"Oh really, um, how old are they?"
"Well um Connor is," he paused thinking about their ages, "Um 17, Dawn is 16, Harry and Allan are 9."
"Why..Why have you never told me about them? In the five years I have known you, you have never mentioned them. Do you not get along with them?"
"No we get along great. They're my brothers I love them. Look Bones I am really sorry I never told you but there are some things you don't understand about my family."
"What and why would you think you couldn't tell me?"
"Because well because we are triplets and people tend to forget there are three of us and they talk about us and treat us like we are one person most the time. They think we are all the same and have the same interests and same personality."
"I can understand your reticence in telling me and I understand that may have happened when you were younger but not at your age. Really Booth that is just ridiculous."
"Well gee thanks Bones and you wonder why I never told you before now."
"I'm sorry Booth that came out wrong. So will I get to meet them at the party?"
"Well yeah the party is at Liam and Buffy's place so everyone will be there. So will you come?"
"Like I said I will have to check but I must admit to being intrigued by seeing the three of you together."
"This is not one of your anthropological studies Bones they are just my family."
"Ok I see why you thought that but that is not what I meant. I just would like to see how you interact with them after seeing you be the over protective father figure in your relationship with Jared, I am curious how you react around them. Too see how different you are in personality when you have the same looks and same DNA."
"Ok sorry for snapping at you. You don't need to find somewhere to stay either as you can stay at Buffy and Liam's if you want to they have heaps of room."
"Oh no, no, I don't think so. I think I would be more comfortable at a hotel. Maybe your sister in law, Buffy was it? Maybe she could recommend something in the area?"
"I'll ask her. They are all looking forward to meeting you."
"They are? So you have told them about me?"
"Yes of course I have. We talk regularly."
Just then Booth's phone rang.
"Booth….Oh hey we were just talking about you…Yeah she wants to but needs to check if she can get away…No she wants the name of a nice hotel in the area…..yeah no I told her that be she said she would be more comfortable at a hotel…yeah ok. So how are you?...Oh good…..yeah he is really looking forward to seeing them too…..yeah ok I'll talk to you later." Booth flipped his phone shut.
"Was that one of your brothers?"
"No that was Buffy ringing to see if I had asked you or not."
"Did she think you wouldn't?"
"Well they are keen to meet you. Parker talks about you and they know we spend a lot of time together, at, well at work and they are curious, especially Buffy. It's a girl thing I think." He gave her one of his cute little sheepish smiles that he knew she couldn't resist hoping she could forgive him. "So am I forgiven for not telling you about my family?"
"No I have gotten used to discovering information about your family in snippets but I wish you felt you could tell me about those parts of your life that are important."
"Ok well you know now and you will discern more about me than you probably ever wanted to know if you come out and spend the weekend with us."
She smiled and he relaxed as he knew he was forgiven. "Ok I will see what I can do."
...
Three weeks later they are on a plane bound for LAX. Parker was in the window seat, Booth in the middle seat and Bones in the aisle seat. Parker was sleeping after taking turns between playing a game console and looking out the window. He had been so excited while they were waiting in the airport for their plane that he had worn himself out.
"Pops is looking forward to seeing you again." Booth told Bones while shifting trying to get a comfortable position for his tall frame in these small seats while trying not to wake Parker.
"I find that I am looking forward to seeing him again too. He is very entertaining and cares about you a great deal. I find that I am interested in seeing how you all interact."
"Bones I told you we are not a study, we are just a family."
"I know I know. So tell me more about them."
"Who?"
"Your brothers and their families."
"Oh ok. Well Angelus is a prosecutor and he.."
She cut him off. "Who is Angelus?"
"Oh," he realised his mistake straight away but she would know soon enough anyway. They mostly only used the names around each other. "Um well I mean Sean. He um, well Buffy started it really, our um, well our names all have Angelus in them."
"No Booth your name is Seeley Joseph Booth, I've never heard you mention the name Angelus before."
"Well when my mom was pregnant she was really sick with us and a few times they thought one or more of us might not make it. This was nearly 40 years ago so you know it was pretty scary for her. So well um well when she was pregnant she prayed a lot so when we were all born safe and healthy we all got Angelus as our third name. Sean Michael Angelus Booth, Seeley Joseph Angelus Booth and Liam Henry Angelus Booth and well Buffy started calling Liam Angel and then one day Sean Angelus and it just kind of stuck."
"Does she have a nickname for you too?"
"No, no there was no way I was having anyone call me that, I let them call me Seeley but well it is Buffy and you will understand once you meet her she has a way of, well you will know once you meet her."
"I don't understand is she intimidating and you are afraid of not doing what she wants. Children of abusive parents sometime marry people who…"
He cut her off, "God no Bones it's not anything like that." He laughed. The thought of Buffy being intimidating to him or his brothers was rather cute. "It is, well, Buffy is, she just has a bubbly easy going personality and she makes everyone feel good about themselves and that it makes you want to do whatever she wants I suppose. You will know what I mean once you met her."
"What does she do?"
"Well it is nothing that she does specifically it's just…"
"No." she cut in, "I mean what is her career choice? You all seem to be in law enforcement of some description so I wondered if she was in some way involved maybe with Liam's business."
"No she is a full time mom. Will four kids and another on the way she works more hours than we do."
"She's pregnant?"
"Yeah she is about 6 months along. It was not planned but they are all very excited about it."
"Is that why you want to be married so you can have a similar life to them?"
"Well it is not why I want it. I'd love to be married and have more kids but yeah they have such a great relationship and wonderful family that if I got half that lucky I would be a very happy man. Don't get me wrong," he stopped and looked at Parker who was still sleeping, "I love Parker and if he is the only child I have I am very blessed but I admit to dreaming of having more." He looked at her wondering if she would ever fall in love with him and imagine a family with him the way he dreamt of one with her. She looked back at him not saying anything but it was not hard to picture Booth married with more children and she found that she didn't like to think of him with another woman even though she wanted him to be happy and she didn't know why.
Clearing her throat to move away from the silent moment that was moving toward being too intimate she continued the conversation. "So she, Buffy I mean, is pregnant at 38 for the fourth time. I am guessing Harry and Allan are twins."
"Um yes they are but no this is her third pregnancy."
"Oh is um one of them adopted because if Connor is 17 and Dawn 16 they can't be twins also."
"No they aren't, obviously. Um Connor is not Buffy and Liam's, he is Sean and Darla's son. Sean dated Darla all though High School and after school they got married. They had Connor but Darla didn't want to have kids and one day she just left. Connor was about one and half at the time. Buffy and Angel, I mean Liam, had just had Dawn and Sean couldn't cope. He was pretty broken up when she left and still in law school so Buffy helped him out a great deal and in the end he decided that Connor would be better off with them so they took him in. I'm sure they were thinking it would only be for a short while but the arrangement worked for them all and Connor was happy so they kept him."
"Oh my goodness, does he know that his parents didn't want him?" She pictured this small baby going through what she did with her parents not wanting to be with her. While rationally she know knew they had a reason they left but for many, many years it felt very different. She felt and affinity for this child she was to meet later in the day.
"Oh it wasn't like that and yes he knows. He calls Buffy mom, and both Sean and Liam dad. He calls Darla by her name when talking about her which isn't very often. He knows that he lives with Buffy and Liam not because Sean didn't want him but wanted a better life for him, a family for him."
"But Sean is with Lindsay now surely they could be a family?"
"Well yeah but Sean was angry at Darla for a long time and he, well he comes across very um, well he can seem very cold at first, which is what makes him such a great prosecutor as he has this steely glare that cuts though most people and makes them very uncomfortable. He was messed up about family and relationships for a long time. With what we went through as kids and then with Darla….well it took him a long time to even admit to himself little lone us that he and Lindsay were together but by then Connor was settled and happy where he was. They asked him what he wanted and he wanted to stay where he was. It hurt Sean a lot but he knew it wasn't about him but that when you have kids you do whatever it takes to keep them safe and happy."
"Oh, ok I suppose."
"Look Bones this will all make much better sense when you've met them all tonight, trust me it's not all as strange as it sounds."
"So what is Liam like?"
"Liam is the quieter one of us. He was a total bookworm when we were kids, rarely got his nose out of a book for anything. He used to, well he used to get bullied a lot in middle school because of it. Back then we were all short and scrawny. Once we moved on to high school we grew but before that there wasn't much to any of us. Sean and I played sport but Liam was not interested. He was painfully shy and really didn't have that many friends until he met Buffy. She was a little firecracker back then." He paused and smiled thinking about the first day they all laid eyes on little Miss Buffy Summers. "Some of the older kids were bullying him. It was her first day at our school, Sean and I spotted the trouble as the same time she did and before we could get to him she had marched over and given these great big senior jocks a tongue lashing. They just cringed as everyone stopped around them and listen to her berate them. It was amazing to watch. Within a week they were a couple and have been ever since then."
"So that means they have been together for over 22 years."
"Yep and they are still madly in love with each other."
"Wow, that's um, well that's um well wow. People really stay together that long?"
"Yeah they can if they are best friends as well as lovers." He lowered his tone when he said this and she had to look away again. She could feel herself slightly blushing but didn't know why. A change of subject was needed.
"Ok. So how come Hank didn't come with us."
"Oh well he is going out to spend a month in LA with Liam and Sean and he leaves tomorrow as he had some fishing trip already planned before I told him what day we were going out. I can only get a few days so we are a day early. Plus this way he flies out with Jared and Padma and we get to have a night without Jared."
"Gosh Booth that is a bit rough, I thought you guys had worked out our problems."
"We have but he will always be my little brother not my best friend and well he, well he just annoys me some times."
"Well after seeing you with him I hate to think how the three of you treat him when you are together. He is an adult now who is getting married in a few months."
"I know but, let's not talk about him ok. We are going to land soon. We will deal with all that tomorrow when he gets here."
"You had better wake Parker up then."
Booth turned to his son and just smiled. He loved Parker so much. He leaned in a gentle shook his shoulder, "Hey bub, wake up. We are going to be landing soon."
