Brennan placed a casserole dish on the table and pushed a large serving spoon into it.
"Ooh! Mac and cheese!" Brandon cheered, his fork in his hand.
"Nobody makes mac and cheese like your Gran" Booth proudly said, giving Brennan a gently slap on the behind as she headed back to the kitchen.
"Booth!" she cried, jumping as his hand connected. "The children!"
Booth laughed loudly and grabbed the serving spoon and scooped out a large portion of noodles and dumped them ceremoniously onto the plate in front of Brandon. "Enough?" he asked the boy who nodded enthusiastically. "Heck, yeah!" Brandon replied.
Erin followed Brennan out of the kitchen carrying a large bowl of salad.
She stood next to Booth and offered him the bowl, "You want some salad Pops? I made it myself!" she said proudly. Booth grinned and used the tongs to serve himself some salad on his plate, then motioned to Brandon. "Salad" he said. Brandon screwed up his nose but Booth was having none of it. "Salad" he repeated pointing to his grandson's plate. Erin put the bowl in front of Brandon and took her seat next to Booth.
She sat quietly waiting for her brother to finish putting two bits of lettuce, a slice of cucumber and a sliver of tomato, reluctantly on his plate. Booth breathed out loudly and grabbed the tongs and dumped a large portion of salad onto Brandon's plate. "Eat it" he said, then put the bowl in front of his granddaughter.
"Thanks Pops" she said sweetly. She served herself a large portion of salad and pushed the bowl to where her grandmother was now seated. "Here you go Gran. I know you like salad" she said smiling at her grandmother. Brennan smiled at her "Thanks sweetie. You did a great job!" she said, serving herself.
Booth watched Erin start eating her salad, ignoring the mac and cheese.
"You want me to serve you some?" he asked. Erin screwed up her nose "No thanks. I don't really. Um. No offence Gran" she said looking at Brennan "I don't like the taste of it. There's something weird in it." she said.
"The nutmeg" Booth and Brennan said together. They looked at each other and laughed. "That's what I love about your Grans mac and cheese" he said. "I remember the first time she made it for me." he said looking into his wife's eyes.
Erin leaned one elbow on the table and rested her chin in her hand "When was that Gran?" she asked.
Brennan swallowed the mouthful of salad she was chewing and frowned.
"Well now. That was a long, long time ago" she said.
Booth grinned "I remember it like it was yesterday Bones" he said, reaching across the table to grab her hand, the love for his wife apparent on his face.
"This isn't gonna be one of those love stories is it?" Brandon said rolling his eyes and shovelling another mouthful of macaroni into his mouth.
"Well now" said Booth, his eyes sparkling.
Booth was in his early eighties, but he had the vigour and spark of a much younger man. His face, though lined, was still handsome and rugged. His hair was silver, but still thick and wavy as it had been in his youth. He was very proud of his hair. He still wore it the way he did when he was in his forties, despite Brennan telling him that it was probably time to just let it go. He would stand in front of the mirror every morning, gelling, spiking it up, pushing it around until it sat just so. Brennan would sit on the edge of the bed watching him primp and preen. It still made her smile, forty years later.
Booth leaned back in his chair, one hand in front of his chin, his index finger tapping at his bottom lip.
"We were on a case where we had to investigate some bones that were glowing." he said.
Brandon immediately turned his attention to his grandfather. "Glowing bones? Awesome! Did you take them home and try them out in the dark? Were they like light sabers? What colour were they?" he fired a series of questions at his grandparents.
Brennan frowned "Of course not Brandon. We were working. You cannot just take home evidence to play with. What's a light saber?" she turned and asked Booth, who choked on his mouthful of macaroni.
"from Star Wars" he said. Brennan stared at him blankly.
"The swords that were made of light? That Darth Vader and Luke fought with?" he said nodding at her.
Brennan shrugged, her bottom lip dropping "I don't know what you're talking about. Swords are not made of light. That's not actually possible, they're usually forged from steel. Anyway." She dismissed the question. "We had to put on radiation suits because they were worried about possible contamination." she said.
Booth laughed, "and we had to take those tablets. I remember mine got stuck in my throat and started dissolving. Tasted terrible!" Brennan laughed. "You still don't swallow tablets properly. I've never understood that" she said.
"so what happened?" Erin asked.
Brennan looked at Booth "Remember Angela turned down Hodgin's proposal?"
"Is that Great Auntie Angela and Great Uncle Jack?" Erin asked, recognising the names.
"Yes! They were our best friends for many years" Brennan said, feeling a small tug in her chest. Jack and Angela had passed away about five years ago, three years apart. Their sons Michael and Jack Junior lived in New York now. They were successful musicians, in a band together. They had both inherited their grandfather's passion for music.
She sighed and looked at Booth, who winked at her, mischievously.
Booth laughed "We were talking about believing in love, and you gave me the dopymean making us happy cos we smell stuff and something about our features looking"
Brennan interrupted him "Symmetrical. I explained to you that dopamine and norepinephrine stimulates euphoria in our brains, because we have biological triggers like scent and symmetrical features, that indicate that the person you are looking at is a good breeder. Like you. I always thought you would be a good breeder" she smiled at him.
"ewww. Can we not talk about you two breeding? We're eating! That's so gross" Brandon interrupted his grandmother, his face screwed up as he helped himself to another large scoop of mac and cheese. "And by the way Gran, I love the nutmeg!" he added.
Booth laughed "Atta boy! Anyway, we took the bones back to the lab. Remember Cam got that shrivelled finger she found to look normal using ordinary fabric softener? Fluffed it right up! That blew my mind! The things that your Gran, and the people she used to work with could do was amazing. You have no idea how smart this lady was" he said.
Brennan frowned "What do you mean was?" she said. Booth clamped his lips together and gave a tight smile "Sorry honey. Is. Are. You're still real smart. I didn't mean." He stopped talking and put a huge mouthful of macaroni into his mouth and smiled at her. "this is so delicious" he said with a full mouth.
Brennan stared at him for a moment then looked at her plate, trying not to let him see her smile. Booth had this way of putting his shoe in his mouth. She loved it, but didn't always like him to know she did.
"Anyway, to cut a long story short, it turned out that the bones were glowing because of an unusual bacteria that is found in seafood. It is phosphorescent"
"Which means it glows, right?" Erin asked.
Brennan smiled widely. Her granddaughter was so much like she was as a child. Bright, smart, intelligent, and, very interested in science. She had high hopes that Erin might venture down the road of Forensic Science. "Exactly right, Erin! Well done!" she said proudly, patting her on the arm.
"We were able to trace the bacteria to a seafood restaurant. Anyway, the team worked hard and we eventually found who had killed the person whose bones we found." She said, glossing over the details of the case that her grandchildren didn't need to know.
"While we were working on that case though, your Pops told me how much he loved mac and cheese. He called it Gods food, I think." Brennan finished.
"Actually, mac and cheese is God's best handiwork." he corrected her grinning. "And that night, your Gran invited me over for dinner. And guess what she made me?" he said looking at the two faces looking at him.
"Mac and cheese!" they answered in unison.
"Mac and cheese" Booth repeated nodding and smiling at Brennan widely. "She has made it for me once a week ever since then. And that was a long, long time before we were a couple. And as far as I'm concerned, she makes the best mac and cheese in the entire world!" he said before shovelling another huge mouthful into his mouth and chewing it grinning at his grandchildren, the creamy, noodles showing through his teeth.
"Aww Pops! That's disgusting!" Erin cried out covering her eyes. Brandon laughed out loud and filled his mouth with noodles and chewed and grinned at everyone at the table.
"That's enough of that you two." Brennan said, shaking her head. "Honestly Booth, Christine will not appreciate you teaching them any of your bad manners!"
Booth laughed out loud, "Well, they're living in my house now for two whole months. And what happens at the Booth's, stays at the Booth's. Right guys?" he asked holding two fists out.
The kids, grinned and fist bumped him. "Right!" they echoed.
Truth be told, they loved their time spend with their Pops and Gran more than anything in the world. Their father's parents were both deceased. Their grandfather had passed away just after their father and mother had married, their grandmother, had passed away when the children were barely toddlers. So Booth and Brennan had been the main influence on their lives.
They visited several times a year. Always at Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And they spent a good part of every summer holiday with their grandparents. Booth would take them swimming, they went on picnics, visited the zoo and Brennan would take them shopping and to visit museums and sometimes, if they were really lucky, they got to visit the Jeffersonian where she had worked. Not that any of her team were there any longer. They were all long gone, retired, or working towards retirement elsewhere. But Brennan still had some contacts there and she enjoyed taking her grandchildren there to visit and look around.
Brennan was still actively lecturing from time to time. She was one of the Jeffersonian's favourite lecturers and when she walked through the doors, there was always a full house for her talks.
"Well I think you should hurry up and finish your dinner. Then we can clean up and I think Pops has a movie for us to watch?" she asked looking at Booth as he scraped his plate clean of the noodles and sauce.
"I certainly do! Who wants to watch Madagascar?" he asked. Brendan and Erin sat and stared at him.
"Come on Pops! You do realise we're teenagers now, right?" Brandon said.
Erin was shaking her head "We're not babies, Pops" she said, a tinge of disgust in her voice.
"Really? I hadn't noticed!" Booth said, picking up Erin's hair and looking underneath it. He grabbed Brandon's chin and rubbed at it. "Is that a bristle?" he asked, jokingly.
Brandon smacked his hand away "Come on Pops. We're not really gonna watch that old time baby movie are we?" he said.
Booth laughed out loud "Of course not. How about The Hunger Games XII ?" he asked.
"Really! I'm dying to see that movie!" Erin almost swooned. "how did you get a copy of that?" she asked.
Booth swallowed "Err, Um. I know a guy. Don't worry about that. Let's help Gran clean up. I'll get the ice cream and we'll start the movie" he said standing up, gathering up the salad bowl and the almost empty casserole dish. He leaned down and sniffed the remaining mac and cheese, "mmmm guess what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow?" he said waggling his eyebrows at Brennan.
Brennan laughed and shook her head. "Not if I get up first and make you a healthy breakfast of bran flakes, fresh fruit and yoghurt" she said.
Booth screwed up his nose and stuck out his tongue.
"Yoghurt and bran. Blech. You're Gran is trying to kill me" Booth said.
Brennan rolled her eyes "I'm actually trying to keep you alive longer" she said firmly.
"We will not be eating mac and cheese for breakfast. Just let me make that clear." She said as she stacked the plates and carried them into the kitchen.
"That woman loves me" he said, winking to Erin as they followed her into the kitchen.