Summary: Brennan switches one daily pill for another.
Note: As I understand things most folks seem to think our dynamic duo somehow slipped up on the birth control to end up preggers. I personally feel they are way too mature, intelligent and responsible for that kind of thing. So...this is my take on that theory.
Disclaimer: It is impossible for ferrets to own TV characters.
Brennan failed at her first attempt. Suppressing a yawn, she applied greater pressure at the two markings on the pill cover and turned clockwise again. She was successful this time, so much so that the white pills almost spilled out of the bottle and into the sink.
With a silent curse, she jostled them from her palm back into the bottle, leaving one behind and tightened the bottle's cap once again. Placing the bottle at the edge of the sink, she closed the cabinet door and glanced up at her reflection in the cabinet mirror.
Booth told her she was beautiful and glowing every chance he got, but she couldn't quite believe it. On the contrary, she was tired even after nine hours of sleep and felt every bit her 36 years of age. Not to mention she was queasy. Depending on which studies you favored, roughly 70% of pregnant women experienced bouts of vomiting in the morning. She was amongst the lucky 30% that didn't, but that didn't mean that her stomach wasn't 'apprehensive' on some mornings. Mostly she just was not hungry in the morning, making the morning ritual of eating for two surprisingly challenging.
As if on cue, the microwave beeped urgently in the kitchen. It had beeped three times as she dressed already, meaning that whatever Booth left in the microwave (most likely prepackaged microwavable pancakes) were done three minutes ago. She was certainly not in the mood to eat...and Booth knew that, but leaving something in the microwave or toaster before he jetted out the door was his way to ensure that she would eat something. He knew for a fact that she hated wasting food, what with half the world starving, so she nibbled on whatever he left out of obligation more than anything as she readied in the morning.
Sighing heavily, she took the big oblong vitamin in her hand and popped it into her mouth. Reaching to the bottled water on the sink vanity, Brennan took a quick gulp to wash down her pill and smiled at how subtly Booth set things up around her apartment. The beeping microwave, the water bottle on the vanity, the cabinet slightly open so that she could easily spot her pills, even the her car keys and jacket on the chair by the front door next to her brand new yet ugly 'rolling' briefcase. He was always overprotecting her.
Brennan absentmindedly felt the gold Pavrati necklace around her throat. He knew for a fact that she would resist every attempt he made at overtly taking care of her. That much he knew. So he went around it, somehow setting the stage for her so that she literally did as little as she could. At first it annoyed Brennan. Pregnant women were not handicapped and in most parts of the world worked straight to the end, but she did later come to appreciate his little efforts as she got more tired, more pregnant, more everything.
In the kitchen, the microwave beeped again, so she took one quick glance at her reflection and decided to get going before whatever was in the microwave turned stone cold. Opening the medicine cabinet door once again, Brennan shoved the bulky bottle of her bulky pills back in its place, jostling the entire row of toiletries on the shelf. As she did so, her eyes flickered to the left of the bottle and she caught sight of a little pink compact she had all but forgotten months ago. It tumbled out of a box of Alka-seltzers. She had replaced them with a new prescription, but now there they were. The same ones she had looked so frantically for when she came back to her place the day after to pick up a week's worth of clothes. How could they have been right there in her cabinet all along?
Forgetting the microwave altogether, Brennan slowly reached out for the pink compact with a crinkle in her forehead. She ran her nail along its edge and after what seemed like an eternity, flicked the compact open by pressing on the indentation. A neat circle of pills with numbers were revealed and Brennan felt a pang in her heart to see that it stopped at day fifteen.
Realizing that she was holding her breath, Brennan snapped the compact shut and shoved it back into the cabinet, closing the mirrored door behind it just as quickly. Walking barefoot out of the bathroom, she paused in the walk-through closet she now shared with Booth. Seeing his hockey team t-shirt hanging close by, she grabbed for it without a second thought and kept going right into their expansive bedroom. Ignoring the fact that it was already 7:49, Brennan hugged the t-shirt tightly and climbed back into bed. Brennan closed her eyes shut, not caring if her clothes got wrinkled and instead wallowed in the smell that was all Booth's.
Day fifteen was when it all microwave beeped again, but she failed to hear it completely that time. All she could see in her mind's eye was the row of pills that ended at fifteen. It was the day that her favorite intern died. It was the day she and Booth finally found their way to each other. It was the day they conceived a whole new life.
Brennan thought back to the words and actions Booth and her shared on that night for several long minutes. She knew he would call soon and when he did, she would not be at work. He would overreact, come back home and get her, suggest a doctor's visit. In short, his casual stage-setting would dissipate and his full blown anxieties over her and their baby would completely and irrationally take over him. There was no way she could express her feelings as she didn't quite now what she was feeling in the first place.
Sighing sadly into the shirt, Brennan eased out of her fetal position and rolled tentatively onto her back. Sweets had taught her a technique for sorting her feelings out when more than one was vying for control. Of course she would never let on that she actually utilized his techniques, but this one did seem to work. She swallowed her nervousness, taking comfort in the fact that she was all alone she went through the simple yet clarifying motions.
Placing a hand over her heart, she mused for five seconds before she realized that she mostly felt sadness. Sadness for losing Vincent when he was so young and so full of promise. She was sure that she would never be able to forget the moment he faded away. It was imprinted into her psyche and filled her with sadness whenever she remembered him. She wrote the letters S-A-D-N-E-S-S with her finger across her heart.
Moving the same hand to her forehead, Brennan reasoned that she was thinking mostly of the improbability that she would have conceived on that day - their first time together - while still faithfully taking her birth control pills. The pack that sat in her cabinet still. The fact that she had been so careful her entire adult life, just screamed irony. Once was all it took to beat the odds. With Booth at least. He always referred to that night as destiny, she always countered that destiny did not exist. Nevertheless Brennan paused and wrote the letters A-M-A-Z-E-M-E-N-T.
Moving her hand further down to her stomach, Brennan stilled for a longer time until she deduced that her instincts did not fail her. Over the past few months, her regrets had faded away and her life was better for the love she had shared with her partner. Although her stomach was supposed to indicate her 'gut instincts', according to Sweets anyway, Brennan's hand unconsciously moved a little further down to her womb.
She was in love and he loved her back. They were going to be a family.
Giving the shirt she clutched a soft kiss, Brennan turned her head to peak at the alarm clock. It was past eight and she was officially late. The microwave must have gotten tired of beeping and simply given up, because the apartment was silent. The sun was streaming through their dark curtains in ribbons and it was promising to be a beautiful day.
Swinging her feet out of the bed, Brennan found shoes, smoothed out her somewhat rumpled outfit, and headed out. The queasiness was gone and she did want breakfast, only with Booth and at the diner. Work and everything else would still be there at ten.
Locking the apartment door behind her, Brennan pulled her ugly yet safe rolling brief down the hall towards the elevator. As soon as she reached her car, her phone vibrated, saving her the trouble. A picture of a grinning Buck filled the screen.
'Perfect timing', she muttered and smiled. Images of fluffy pancakes and her perfect partner filled her mind. It was going to be a beautiful day.
PS - The odds for conceiving while on the pill is approximately 0.1%.