Hello all! Firstly, I'd just like to thank everyone out there who read/reviewed my other Bones one-shot Prove It. As always, I really appreciated the feedback!
Here's another one-shot. I had this crazy idea to use the books in my bookshelf as prompts. My bookshelf is arranged according to colour (which looks pretty cool, I must say) so I'm starting with the PINK books. You didn't really need to know that, but I thought I'd throw it out there regardless.
Anyway, this particular one-shot was inspired by the first book on my shelf James and the Giant Peach.
Bones belongs to Fox, James belongs to Roald Dahl and everything in between belongs to me (except for the flat screen).
On with the show!
Something Peculiar
Something is about to happen, James told himself. Something peculiar is about to happen at any moment.
---
Parker sat on Brennan's rug, glued to the hundred-and-three-inch flat screen that had somehow made its way into the anthropologist's apartment. He was animatedly watching James and the Giant Peach.
"See Bones, beautiful isn't she?" Booth asked as he casually slung his arm around her shoulders - subconsciously (or not-so-subconsciously) bringing her closer. He tilted his head towards her new television, eyes on only her.
"I still do not see the significance of the oversized peach," came her reply – her own eyes preoccupied with the movie.
"It's 'cos you missed the firstest part Doctor Bones!" Booth's child turned around from his position on the floor to explain, "You didn't see the crocodile tongues!"
If anything, Brennan now appeared more confused. She stared at the flat screen intently, trying to understand what the five-year-old found so interesting about colossal fruit.
Booth sighed.
Parker soon fell asleep, but Brennan and Booth sat contently on the couch for the next hour and watched. Brennan didn't notice Booth's arm still around her, she didn't notice how her head had positioned itself on his shoulder. She yawned quietly and he simply held her closer. But neither of them saw any harm, any suggestion, any tension, or any ulterior motive in it. Neither even thought to think of it.
"I still can't believe you made me buy this," Brennan said lightly during the credits, indicating the flat screen.
Booth simply gave her his best charm-smile.
---
Upon opening her front door at the sound of a knock exactly one week later, a book was thrust into Brennan's hands.
"Doctor Bones! Look what we got from the li-bree!"
Brennan smiled down at Parker and stood aside to let him and his father into her apartment.
She glanced at the book now in her hands. James and the Giant Peach. She couldn't force the responding grin from her face.
The older Booth smiled cheerfully and relaxed into his partners couch after placing the Thai food he had brought with him on her coffee table.
Parker jumped onto the couch next to his father and indicated that Brennan should join them with an elaborate wave of his little arms.
"We'll start at chapter one," the boy informed the adults as Brennan sat on Parker's other side. Booth ruffled Parker's hair and the little boy opened the book wordlessly. Brennan – much to Booth's surprise – began to read...
"Until he was four years old, James Henry Trotter had a happy life. He lived peacefully with his mother and father in a beautiful house..."
They sat that way through the entire first and second chapter – the flat screen and Thai food forgotten – until Parker fell asleep.
---
The two Booths turned up at her door again the next night.
Parker went straight for the couch.
They read through chapters five, six and seven before Parker inevitably fell asleep.
Booth grabbed a blanket from Brennan's linen closet and laid his son down beneath it on her couch.
He looked over at her, now seated on the far end of the three-seater and smiled as she softly patted the section of the couch beside her, indicating with a tilt of her head that he should sit. He took the hint and sat down familiarly close to her. They sat that way for an age, content with their thoughts.
Well, not content exactly.
Booth struggled between his imagination and reality. He often found himself in such a predicament. He knew there was a high chance he could bridge the gap between the two – himself and Brennan, his imagination and reality. He was almost certain he could. Almost certain. What if he was wrong?
Brennan on the other hand, knew she was right. As always. She knew all it would take was a simple touch, a few words perhaps, and everything would change forever. She wanted it too. There was no doubt about that. But there was some irrationality in the situation that she couldn't shake.
"You know," he said quietly, huskily, she thought before she could stop herself, "It's only seven thirty," he continued.
She waited a moment – still mentally berating herself for her previous thoughts – before answering.
"Well," she began softly, seductively, the word drifted through his mind, among other inappropriate thoughts.
"What do you propose we do?" she continued, not completely oblivious to his preoccupation. She gazed up at him, awaiting his answer. It was a long wait. She briefly wondered when it was that she had realised the effect she could have on him.
He wonders how she had never realised it before.
They sat that way for a while, neither one wanting to honestly answer her question, even though both minds were brimming with propositions...fantasies. She closed her eyes in frustration.
Meanwhile, Parker lay opposite the adults, pretending to still be asleep. He watched curiously as his father and 'Doctor Bones' continued to just stare at each other. The little boy didn't know why they were just staring, but his 'gut' (as his father referred to it) told him something was happening. Something important. Something strange. He remembered his beloved book...
Something is about to happen, James told himself. Something peculiar is about to happen at any moment.
---
I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you loved (or didn't love). Just as a side note, you can expect more Bones fics from me; I'm really enjoying writing them at the moment.