Spoilers: Meh. I still haven't caught up enough to actually spoil anything for anyone. Season four begins on Monday!!
Disclaimer: Fanfiction, people. Enough said.
Author's Note: Okay, partially based on my love of the internet, partially based on my love of Parker Booth, and partially based on my love for my baby brother and my dad who have the funniest conversations you've ever heard.
And I'm making this a chapter story, I think, just to force myself to write more. I'm being lazy lately, so… But Summer holidays in like three weeks, so I should be updated more again soon enough. But I'm gone for the whole of next week, so here's a chapter to keep you content.
Booth stared at the screen, dumbfounded.
"You found that on the internet?" he asked, amazed and disgusted at the same time. Parker grinned widely, but gave his dad a depreciating look.
"Duh, dad," he said, in true seven-year-old fashion. "Everything's on the internet."
Booth looked to Brennan - who had recently appropriated herself in the doorway of her office – for help. She smiled. "Luddite," she teased, rolling her eyes. She briefly wondered why she was hesitating in the doorway of her own office.
As Parker spoke up, she remembered exactly why.
"What's that?" he asked, curiosity in his voice. Brennan had read somewhere, probably in Sweets' office, that four-year-olds ask something like four-hundred questions a day; she figured it was probably similar for seven-year-olds.
"It's someone who's afraid of technology, Parker," Brennan answered, not wanting to discourage the boy's inquisitiveness to save his father's ego. Parker, however, giggled at this revelation.
"Daddy's not a luggite; he's not afraid of anything!" the boy declared proudly. Brennan didn't bother correcting to boy as Booth's eyes bored angrily into hers. However, she did smile smugly.
"You know what else he's afraid of?" she teased. From his expression, Brennan could just about feel the hissed 'Bones!' that would have been said at any other moment had his son hot been situated on his lap. Brennan took note.
"That's right, Parker," she lied, knowing Booth's mind was probably going wild with images of clowns. "Your dad's not afraid of anything." Parker grinned proudly before turning back to the computer. Booth looked thankfully at Brennan, who nodded only slightly, smiling a little.
Until she'd net Parker Booth, Brennan had never understood the way boys idolized their fathers. Now, it not only seemed clearer, but obvious. With a father like Seeley Booth, it was perfectly reasonable; expected. He most definitely was a good man.
Brennan knew Booth lived for his son; Parker was something that prompted him to be a better person. And for that, she thanked the little boy.
Still, she had no idea why on Earth they were sitting in her office in the middle of the day. When she asked them that, Booth just looked at her incredulously.
"'Middle of the day', Bones?" he queried smugly. Taking the bait, she took the watch out of the pocket of her lab coat and regarded it curiously. It was almost six PM. Brennan turned back to Booth and Parker unfazed.
"Oh, I guess I lost track of time," Brennan said lamely, debating whether or not to bother kicking them out before returning to work; she figured they'd probably leave eventually. Which brought her to another thought.
"Booth, why are you here?" she asked unceremoniously. Booth grinned at her and nudged Parker. Parker looked up from the screen.
"Because, Bones, we wanted to take you to dinner," Booth announced. "Isn't that right, Buddy?" He looked at the little boy expectantly and he nodded, curls bouncing. Brennan looked pointedly at Booth.
"I can't, Booth, I have to work," she said, though, to his surprise, there was no anger in her voice. Just impatience and a little reluctance.
"Please Doctor Bones?" Parker suddenly said. Brennan looked suspiciously at Booth, wondering whose idea the begging had been. By Booth's expression, it hadn't been his, but he wished it had.
"You and your dad can go, Parker," she explained to the boy, who shook his head furiously.
"Nu-uh. Dad said we aren't allowed to eat until you come with us," the boy protested, throwing his father a rather distasteful glance for a seven-year-old. Brennan raised her eyebrows and pointed at Booth.
"That's very unfair, Booth," she told him. "You can't starve the boy." Booth snorted.
"He's not going to starve, Bones," he said, rolling his eyes. "He eats about as much as you do, and he's about a third your size," he laughed, sounding rather proud. Trust Booth, Brennan thought, to be proud of his son for eating so much.
"Besides," Booth added, "It isn't my fault if he starves."
As Booth threw her a brilliant smile, Brennan rolled her eyes and picked up her coat.
"…and the grass went everywhere! So we had to dive away so we didn't get blown up, but the grass went so far that it hit us anyway, and it stuck to me!" Parker finished his story with an heaved sigh and an emphatic arm gesture, nearly hitting the car door.
Booth's eyebrows shot up in amusement, while Brennan's furrowed in confusion. Booth spoke almost immediately. "And that's how you got grass stains on your knees," Booth concluded. Parker nodded, ecstatic that his father had bought his story. After all, it wasn't his fault that Captain Fantastic had given him white pants to wear to school on P.E. day.
"You don't really believe that?" Brennan tried to whisper. Booth rolled his eyes at her.
"No, Bones, of course not!" he said, whispering a little more successfully than his partner.
"Then why–"
"Just," he interrupted, "go with it." He held up a hand to silence her. She shrugged sulkily and folded her arms, but let it go all the same. Trying to change the subject to something that she knew other than death, Brennan turned to the excited face in the back seat.
"Do you have any homework, Parker?" she asked. Parker pulled a face.
"No," he said instantly.
"Are you fibbing to Bones?" Booth interjected. Brennan could see the grin that Parker missed.
"No," he said again. He looked back to Brennan with a concentrating frown. "Well, yes. But it's only little. And Mr. Giblin said I could do it in front of the TV," he tried.
This time, Booth turned a little in his seat, shooting his son a look. Parker frowned again.
"Well, he didn't, but it isn't very hard!" he tried again. Brennan looked between Booth and Parker. Neither seemed ready to give up.
"How about Booth – your dad," she corrected, "and I help you? Then you'll be done faster." Booth looked at her oddly.
That seemed like a totally strange concept to him. Though, whether he was shocked by the fact that she'd made the proposition, or by the proposition itself, he didn't know. Or maybe it was that niggling contentment at the back of his brain that made him wonder what the hell he was doing.
On auto-pilot, Booth pulled the car to a stop as Parker joyfully agreed to Brennan's – strange – proposition. Brennan looked out the window for the first time since they'd gotten in the car at the Jeffersonian.
Her eyes widened in surprise. "I thought we were going to the diner," Brennan said. Booth grinned.
"Don't jump to conclusions, Bones," he said, using her so frequent words against her. Brennan's eyes narrowed as she looked up to where Booth's apartment was situated.
"As long as you have something other than pie," she agreed. Booth just laughed as he jumped out of the car.
Parker groaned in time with his stomach. "How much longer, daddy?" he asked longingly. Booth didn't even turn around.
"Not long, Parker. How are you two going?" Booth asked, smiling as the pans sizzled agreeably. Parker smiled.
"Doctor Bones is really smart! She knows how to do everything!" the boy decreed.
Brennan looked at Booth as if pleading. As much fun as Parker was having, he knew Brennan was still awkward as anything around the boy. Booth grinned at her, and answered his son's enthusiasm happily.
"Yeah, she is," he agreed, his eyes not leaving hers. She smiled at the compliment, tilting her head slightly as his expression didn't waver. Their smiles were matching as he turned back to the stovetop. Brennan, about ten feet away at the dinner table, turned back to Parker, who was currently struggling through triple-digit addition.
She was determined that by the end of the night Parker would be the top of his class; he ought to be, with her helping him. But she managed to reign in her overwhelming habit of impatience and allow him to do it mostly without her help. He was a very bright boy, she decided, though that wasn't unexpected considering who his father was.
Brennan leaned a little closer to Parker and picked up a pencil. Parker held up a finger in happy declination. "I don't need help with this one! I can do it myself," Parker told her, his face totally determined. Brennan smiled challengingly.
"Prove it," she joked. Just as Brennan was starting to worry abut the appropriateness of her remark, Parker grinned at her before whipping his head back to the paper in front of him and writing furiously. Brennan smiled to herself; maybe she wasn't going to scar the child for life.
"One more?" Parker begged. Booth looked accusingly at Brennan.
"What have you done to my son?" he demanded. Brennan frowned at him.
"I've not done anything! I simply showed him that once you understand something, it can be a lot easier to handle, and therefore less frightening," Brennan defended, trying to stare him down. It didn't work very well when all Booth could think about was how many other situations that could apply to. Theirs, for one…
"But he… he wants to do math!" Booth said quietly but firmly, pulling his head back into reality. Brennan smiled widely at him. That wasn't helping his brain to keep grounded.
"Isn't that a good thing?" she asked sweetly. Booth didn't know how to respond, so he looked at Parker.
"One more sum, Buddy, then dinner," he told him before addressing Brennan again. "I do not want you turning my son into a squint, Bones," he warned, albeit a little more playfully. Brennan shrugged.
"You've put up with me for long enough; I'm sure you'd handle it," she said back, knowing she was right. Booth scoffed.
"Not the same thing," he argued back. Neither said anything, instead just stared at each other, half-smiles playing on their lips.
"Done!" Parker shrieked. "Is it right, Doctor Bones?" He shoved the piece of paper towards her excitedly. Brennan glanced at it for less than a second.
"Yes, Parker, this is correct," she said - almost proudly, Booth thought.
"Really?" he asked, turning his attention to his father, who was half way between glaring at Brennan and grinning at his son. "See, daddy? I got it right! This one was a hard one, too," he added. Booth smiled and ruffled his son's hair.
"Well done, Buddy, now clear up your stuff, and Bones," he said, his voice dropping an octave, "thank you."
Does it need another chapter?
