Hello and thank you, once again for your reviews, alerts and encouragement! It is soooo amaaaazing! All of the science for this chapter was plucked from the internet. Perhaps cause it's not that popular is Australia, I know absolutely nothing about baseball and I am sorry if that shows (drop me a line if it's really out - and I apologise in advance, lol!) thanks again and enjoy!

I don't own Bones!

Booth swung his door open with a welcoming smile and greeted his unexpected guest, "Heya Bones, come in." His voice aimed at the bathroom, "Hey Bud, come say hi to Bones!"

"You must have felt your ears burning – he's been talking about you all morning."

Naturally, Brennan reached for her ears, confusion written across her face, "Are they red? My ears feel temperate enough." Booth opened his mouth to answer but thought better of it and closed it with a smile and a slight shake of his head.

Placing herself on his sofa, she continued unaware of his internal debate, "I brought Parker the recording of the show, and the Dude has offered to meet us for lunch – he said he had to execute a few hours before his flight."

"Hey, did you hear that Bud? Bones is gonna introduce you to the Science Dude!"

Parker bounded into the living room – excited as a flea in a doghouse, "Woah, cool! Hey, how are you going, Bones? I haven't seen you in ages!" He wrapped his arms around a taken aback Brennan.

She beamed from ear to ear and her reply was muffled by the boy's mop of boyish curls, "11 and a half months to be exact! I'm good Parker." She pulled him back to take a good look at him, "You have grown at least a half a foot! How was your vacation?"

He shrugged, "Meh! Boring. I'm spewing that I missed out on the show!"

Concern washed over her face and she placed a soft hand over the boys forehead, "Oh, are you currently nauseated?" she looked up at Booth, "perhaps we can postpone our lunch until he's feeling better?"

Booth laughed as he watched his son's face fall, "No way! I'm cool Bones! Observe, Analyse, Deduce! I am not sick!" he demonstrated his wellness by dancing around the room.

"I can't argue with that!" she laughed, "Is that ok with you, Booth?"

"Are you kidding? Of course! Are you ready bud?"

"Yeah!" The kid punched the air in excitement and muttered quietly, "Man, Matty's gonna be so jealenvious!"

Booth chuckled at his son's enthusiasm as he ushered the trio out the front door, "Jeali-what?"

"Jealenvious, Booth, it's a portmanteau of jealous and envious – implying that his peer would be both jealous and envious of Parker's lunch date with the Dude, as I explained yesterday" She gave Booth a cat-who-ate-the-canary smile as they made their way to the vehicle.

Parker laughed and shot his Dad a der look, "Yeah, Dad, like Bones said" offering her a high five.

"It is a pleasure to meet you young man! I hear you are quite the budding scientist!" Professor Jude extended a hand to his greatest fan and the young man shook it earnestly, not quite able to get his mouth around the words to reply.

"Yeah, a regular squint in the making aren't you bud?" Booth gave his son's shoulders a gentle, encouraging squeeze.

"I'm gonna be an entomologist and I'm going to play in the World Series!"

"Ahhh, to have a goal is to have control!"

"Very wise Dude." Parker smiled at Brennan's retort, his affection mirrored in the eyes of his father. She was just the perfect balance between cool and smart and hot and she didn't treat him like a child – like Hannah had.

He was happy that his Dad and Hannah had broken up. She treated Parker like a baby and she smelled funny and she kept trying to get his Dad's attention by sucking his face off and stuff. It was really gross – didn't adults realise that kids don't like watching chew-face sessions when one of the chewees is their parent!

Anyway, it was just good to have things back to normal – Dad, Bones and milkshakes in the Royal Diner! They ordered their food and settled into conversation.

"So you enjoy your baseball, Parker?"

"Oh, yes Sir!"

"You know... sport is science in motion!"

Parker looked to his Dad for confirmation and was met with a shrug, "What do you mean Professor?"

"Well, did you see Jeter's performance at the World Series?"

"Yeah, man, that was awesome!" Parker corrected himself, "Amaaazing! Did you see his bat – it splintered into like, a million pieces!"

Booth and Brennan laughed at his enthusiasm, "It is highly unlikely that his bat..." Brennan's correction was interrupted by a gentle dig in the ribs and a reproachful stare from Booth... "that... Booth! The physical attack is not necessary!"

His reply was breathed with faux annoyance, "Clearly it is Bones."

"Booth, I was merely..."

"Zip..."

"Booth!"

"Zipit!"

"Zip what?" confusion once, again lit up her face.

Parker and the Dude looked at each other and grinned knowingly.

Booth shook his head, trying to hide his smirk from his adorable partner, "Never mind, continue, Dude." He rolled his hand in a signal for the professor to go on.

"When bats break, it's not magic; it's science. It's not uncontrollable or especially random.

"Observe: Jeter did not "brand" his bat."

"Huh?" Brennan found the Booth boy's identical puzzled looks endearing.

"He hadn't rotated the bat so that it's its brand was facing up, toward the sky."

"Oh! Why would that make a difference?" Parker was beyond curious at this little titbit on one of his favourite subjects.

"Analyse: the wood grains of his bat were not oriented edge-on to the flight of the ball."

He held up a finger while he fished through his laptop bag, pulling out a stack of papers and handing them to Parker he explained, "Now, flap the papers like you're fanning a fire or a cooling your cheeks. The stack of papers bends with every wave of your hand. If you, on the other hand hack, or karate chop, the pages edge-on, they're stiff. They can take a larger load without giving in."

"Deduce! Despite its strength, wood is a little bit brittle. When you bend a material like wood enough, it layers are stretched apart, and it breaks." His hands gestured an explosion, "To prevent that..." he held up a finger raised an eyebrow and paused so that Parker could catch on.

"To prevent that – you gotta hold the bat so that the ball hits this side." he hit the stack of papers edge-on into his palm and handed them back to the Professor "At the end of the wood grains!"

"Amaaazing!"

"Well done Parker." Brennan was happy that he was associating his favourite sport with science.

"That's really cool! I'll have to get Stevie to pitch for me and see if I can busta bat like Jeter! He's by far the fastest pitcher at school!"

Brennan voiced apprehension, "I think, by explaining the physics behind Jester's bat breaking, the Dude was endeavouring to prevent you from making the same mistake, Parker"

The professor came to his defence, "As a scientist yourself, Dr Brennan, I am sure you disapprove the credulous acceptance of theories and likely appreciate the importance of independently testing and proving scientific conjecture"

She thought for a moment and concluded, "Of course." And as an afterthought, "So long as you wear the required protective equipment," a smile crept upon her features, "I imagine it would be quite stimulating. Be sure to tell me when you do."

Their lunch was over too quickly and after photos, handshakes and friendly hair scruffing, the trio made it back to Booth's apartment a little before dinner.

With pleadings in the form of two sets of chocolate puppy-dog eyes, Brennan's arm was twisted to stay for dinner. After watching The Science Dude – Jeffersonian Special... twice, a red-faced Brennan said goodnight to a very weary looking Parker and Booth went to tuck his floppy-tired son into bed.

"The little guy was snoring before his head hit the pillow!" Booth collapsed drowsily next to Brennan on the sofa, handing her a beer on his way down.

Her eyebrows shot up in amusement, "That would have been quite humorous to observe!"

Booth gave her a sideways glance and chuckled then, leaning his head back on the couch he let out a deep breath and his demeanour sobered, "Thanks Bones."

With eyebrows still skyward, she took a pull of her beer, "For what?"

"For today, for the Dude, for keeping me distracted. You're a good friend and you are going to make a great Mom, Bones – Parker was absolutely thrilled."

"Oh... I fail to see the correlation between my success as a mother and... Parker's enjoyment today, but, you are welcome just the same."

"Bones, about the baby..."

"Booth, it's ok. I still have a great deal to process myself regarding the procedure and am quite willing to postpone my plans so that you can grieve the loss of Hannah's presence in your life and come to a decision yourself. I'm aware that it will take some time and..."

His head sprung up from where it was lazing, "So, you're thinking about it? With me, I mean. As the Baby Daddy?"

"Yes, of course, as I have said many times before – you possess many admirable traits that cannot otherwise be identified in an anonymous donor situation. I have always maintained that you are my optimal choice. I had a discussion with Angela yesterday that also served to reinforce my opinion. That said, I don't want you to feel pressured into making a decision – I realise that a relationship as serious as a heart attack would require time to properly recover from."

"You spoke to Angela about it?"

"No, she merely relayed her experience with pregnancy and the like. I made no mention of my intentions to conceive and your offer to impregnate me."

"Okaay! Gotcha Bones"

After a looong pause...

"So, why did you and Hannah decide to terminate your sexual affiliation?"

"Geeze, way to take the romance out of it, Bones!"

"Oh... was your relationship lacking romantic sentiment?"

"No, look, it's complicated, it... it turned out to be based a little too much on the wrong things and not enough on the right things. And then other things kinda just got in the way of the right things..." He trailed off – he was beginning to get uncomfortable.

"That sounds very ambiguous, Booth. Are you saying that there was too much focus on the actual act of sexual intercourse and not enough on the building of a mutually beneficial, socially recognisable relationship based on the emotion of love?"

"Wh... B... who the hell are you? Sweets?" He plucked himself off the sofa and stalked into the kitchen to replace their empty beers.

Brennan raised her voice to account for his absence, "Booth, that's a nonsensical question, of course I am not Dr Sweets"

"Well, then why are you going all psychologist on me?" He raised two beer filled hands in question as he rounded the corner and sat back down.

"There would be no risk of that – I assure you. You are aware of my opinion of psychology. Though, I can see you are uncomfortable with my question and you are simply trying to divert my attention from it by arbitrarily inserting Dr Sweets into the conversation."

His silence confirmed her supposition, "My intention is not to make you uncomfortable, Booth, I just assumed, seeing as you so openly discussed your sexual liaisons with Hannah that you had changed."

His words were quiet, laced with resentment and defeat, as his elbows rested tensely on his knees, "People can't change remember?"

"I never said that, Booth, if that is what you are implying. I said that I am a scientist and I can't change."

"Bones," he paused, "I never asked you to change!"

"And I never expected that I would have but..."

Booth's head swung around to get a read on Brennan but she was simply staring at a spot ahead of her. "It's been a tiring day, Booth, I had better get going."

"Bones, wait," she stood and was halfway to the door, "would you stop with the running away already! Can't you just admit your feelings?"

With that, Brennan swung around to face him, her voice low and trained, "I am well aware of my feelings, Booth, there is nothing clearer to me. But you," she emphasised the word with a jab to his chest, "You at least owe me the decency of clarity of thought!" she turned and headed for the door, "I will give you some time to get your emotions sorted before I broach the subject again."

"What are you talking about? I know how I feel, Bones! I know because it affects every God damn aspect of my life! It's plagued my mind for the last six years!"

Facing him again, Brennan was not one to back down, "Booth, just yesterday you were in love with another woman! How can you tell me you know your emotions? It goes against all of the laws of monogamy and "true love" that you profess to live by! You need to know how you feel about Hannah, about Me and about what it is that you say you are so sure about because..." her breath hitched, and she surged on through the veil of tears, "I feel the effects of it every day too, Booth! And the last two months have been bordering on unbearable!"

"Bones..." his voice dripped with concern and apology, "I'm sorry, you're right but, respectfully, Temperance, you're wrong too. I do know how I feel..."

"I love you Booth. I loved you back before we left; I loved you back before then even. I just... honestly, I just don't have the energy to hide it anymore. I have analysed and scrutinized my feelings for so long that I can't even remember why I hid them in the first place. I am exhausted and hurt and I need to think things over myself too. So, just... let it go ok?"

He held her gently by the shoulders. "Ok, just... don't give up on us, Bones, I have screwed up, I know but, we'll work it out. I promise."

"I am not going anywhere," she managed a shy smile and looked down at her feet, "By that I mean – I won't leave DC... again"

"...for some deserted island"

A laugh pushed it's way through her tears, "Maluku is not deserted, Booth. Whilst basic, it most certainly has the framework for modern habitation"

He feigned shock and moved closer to her, bringing his hands down to her hips, "Modern enough to be able to communicate with the outside world?"

And... point made!

"As I said before, we were..."

His mouth stopped her excuses before they got to the point of irritation. He was quite pleased with the results as his lips drew promisingly over her lazy smile. Brennan opened into the kiss long enough to taste his malty warmth and reassure him that this was far from over before she drew back to look him in the eye. With a smile, she whispered, "I am not going anywhere, Booth."

With that, Brennan was out the door before her beaming grin rebelled and broke though. Though her exit was designed to keep the bulk of her elation unrevealed, her plan was foiled with the Super Sleuthy Boothy chuckle from behind the peep hole.

Oh, by the way... Please review ;)