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Within the hour they were sat in a booth at IHOP, once again at Parkers request. Brennan had always avoided the place in the past, preferring independent restaurants like the Royal Diner and the Founding Fathers, but she was quickly coming to learn that Parker had inherited Booth's powers of persuasion.
Parker's face lit up the moment the waitress returned to the table with the biggest stack of pancakes Brennan had ever seen. She'd even been convinced to pass on her usual choice of salad and allowed herself to tuck in to the pancake stack, enjoying watching the boys fight over who was stealing all the good pieces.
'Dr Bones?' Parker looked across the table at her, syrup smeared all around his mouth. 'Why don't you eat the bacon, it's the best part!'
'I'm a vegetarian,' the vacant look on his face told her that he didn't understand fully what that meant. 'That means that I object to animals being ki..' She was stopped by a soft kick to her shin from Booth's direction. She looked at him for some clarification, trying to figure out why it was that Booth didn't want her to finish her sentence.
'What she means is that she doesn't like the taste of meat.' Booth was looking at her in that way he had that suggested he was trying to tell her something with his eyes, but once again she wasn't sure what it was.
'Well that's partly correct, but it's also…' She felt Booths foot connect with her leg again – obviously he didn't want her to continue with the sentence.
'Bones!' This time Booth was shaking his head at her, once again amazed that someone with as high an IQ as Bones could be so oblivious at times. 'How about we go and get washed up Parker?'
Booth and Parker excused themselves from the table and headed in the direction of the bathroom. The waitress, a late middle aged woman who seemed to have a permanent smile on her face, came over to clear the dishes.
'Excuse me for interrupting ma'am, but you guys must be the happiest family I've had in here for as long as I can remember!'
Brennan opened her mouth to correct the waitress, acknowledging to herself that it was a reasonable assumption for any spectator to make, but Booth's words sprang to mind, his insistence that there was more than one type of family. Today she'd felt like part of a family, and she was surprised at how content it made her feel. Knowing there was no way to explain the situation, she simply smiled back, happy to play along with the illusion.
As Parker needed to be dropped off at Rebecca's straight after dinner, Booth had driven them to the restaurant. After paying the check and leaving, Parker took Brennan's hand in his own, leaning into her side as he let out a big yawn.
'Can Dr Bones sit in the back with me?' She was used to sitting up front next to Booth, but couldn't see any reason to deny Parker's request. She genuinely enjoyed spending time with him, which had been becoming more frequent recently with the science lessons once a week after school, and she'd also noticed that Booth seemed to be dropping by more often on weekends when he had Parker. She climbed into the back of the car, sitting in the middle seat at Parker's insistence. Parker climbed in next to her, buckling himself in before curling his body into Brennan's side. Her arm automatically reached around his shoulders, tucking him in closer, surprised at how natural it felt.
Booth had barely pulled out of the parking lot before Parker dropped off. Brennan smiled to herself, observing how peaceful he looked, like he genuinely didn't have a care in the world.
It was only a short drive to Rebecca's house, which was made in silence except for the radio playing quietly in the background. She'd noticed that there'd been more silences between them recently, not because they didn't have anything to say to each other, but because they didn't feel the need to fill the silences with small talk. Small talk had never really been her thing, and a lot of the time when she did try to start a conversation, it ended up with them bickering over their differences of opinion. Like the time when she'd compared Jesus to a zombie, or when they'd got into a debate as to what constitutes a sport. Even in the times when they did end up bickering, it wasn't like when she fell out with Cam or Sweets, she knew that neither she nor Booth would seriously take offence.
Somewhere along the drive she'd drifted off, resting her head on top of Parker's, who'd managed to sleep for the entire drive, and showed no signs of stirring even now.
Booth stood there and looked at them for a few seconds before moving, attempting to remove Parker with as little distruption as possible. His hand reached down to unfasten the seat belt, unintentionally rubbing up against the side of Brennan's thigh as he did so. She stirred slightly in her sleep, lifting her head up off Parker's, but didn't wake up.
He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he'd been stealing glances at them in the rear view mirror as he'd drove, feeling his heart swell with pride looking at how relaxed Parker was with Bones and vice versa. He'd thought back to when he'd first started working with Bones, the person she was back then would never have welcomed such contact or let down her defences enough to do something as intimate as fall asleep together.
Parker continued to amaze him each day, growing in confidence and character. He did the best he could to try to make sure that Parker would grow as good a person as he could be, which he knew was difficult when he only had limited access rights. He had confidence in Rebecca, trusting that she had Parkers best interest in mind. Things weren't always easy between them, but he admired Rebecca as a mother, and Parker was living proof that they were going a great job.
His job didn't make things easy, it wasn't a typical nine to five, but he did his best to make it to as many of the important events that he could, the parent teacher meetings, softball games, birthday parties. He refused to be a part time parent, he knew his job as a dad was full time even if Parker wasn't living with him.
He couldn't imagine not being involved in Parker's life, the thought that any parent could have nothing to do with their child made him feel sick to his stomach. The complete unconditional love he'd felt the second Parker was born would never go away, no matter what. It had been touch and go for a while a few years back, with Rebecca being difficult about access, and he knew he'd never be able to not play an active role in his child's life.
Which is why he'd had to turn down Bones' request for him to be a donor. He still couldn't get his head around the whole idea, firstly that Bones wanted to have a baby, then she wanted his baby, but without him playing a role in the child's life. He couldn't deny that he'd felt pride that she'd chosen him, making him wonder if maybe she was trying to hint that she wanted more than their 'partnership', but her insistence that he have no involvement other than as a donor was his stumbling block. He knew that as long as there was breath in his body, he would never be able to take a backseat.
He'd wanted to explain it to her, to let her know that it wasn't an outright rejection, but then there was all the drama with the brain tumor and coma and amnesia, followed by her running halfway across the world so that she didn't have to face his rejection.
Neither of them had raised the topic since they'd started working together again, and he could honestly say he had no idea where she stood on the topic. His feelings towards her since the coma had been confusing to say the least, his heart was telling him that he loved her, but there was that part of his brain that kept on going back to the scans Sweets had shown him, trying to prove that his feelings weren't real, that they were just a side effect of the surgery that would fade over time. Booth knew how inexperienced Bones was when it came to emotional connections, despite the many sexual relationships that she seemed to insist on parading in front of him, and he needed to be sure of his feelings before he could even think of acting on them.
Looking at her, arm wrapped protectively around Parker, his heart over-ruled his head again and he felt another surge of love for her, another of many he'd felt recently, but he knew he'd be too chicken to act on it again.
He managed to get Parker out of the car without waking him or Bones. This was always his least favourite part of his week, having to say goodbye, and he was torn between wanting to wake Parker to get an extra few seconds with him or leaving him to sleep. Rebecca had opened the door before they even made it up the path, silently taking Parker from his arms. He couldn't help but feel empty, switching onto autopilot as he exchanged messages and plans for the next week with Rebecca.
He returned to his car, leaving Bones asleep in the back, and reached for his cell phone. He quickly sent a text to Sweets, both not wanting to risk waking her by talking, and unwilling to risk getting dragged into psychology mumbo jumbo. It had been months since the operation, and he knew he wasn't quite the same as before, but the feelings he was having were increasing, not getting less. It was time for another brain scan to show him if it all was just another figment of his imagination.
Brennan woke up to find Booth was already pulling into her parking bay. She looked around confused for a while, still caught somewhere between sleep and waking, feeling cold on her side where Parker had been. She didn't remember dropping off, and was fairly surprised and embarrassed that she'd fallen asleep, as over the last few months sleep had become increasingly difficult to obtain. She glanced at her watch and saw it was still fairly early, and debated with herself whether to invite Booth in.
'Coffee?' She blushed to herself when she remembered that Angela had recently explained to her that when people invited a member of the opposite sex in for "coffee", it was a euphemism for sex, which she found slightly ridiculous. She'd never had a problem being honest in the past – if she was inviting someone in for sex, she made that perfectly clear without having to make up some excuse.
Booth simply grinned in response, getting out of the car and opening the rear passenger door before she got the chance. As he placed his hand on her lower back to guide her back to her apartment, she liked the feeling that she was finally home.
TBC - feedback would be greatly appreciated!