Brennan woke the next morning alone in the bed and peering around confused. It took her a moment to realize that Parker wasn't there. The digital clock on the bedside table flashed red numbers 9:14. Allowing a few more seconds of laziness, Brennan swung her legs over her bed and shuffled slowly into the living room from where she could hear a faint noise.
Sure enough, Parker sat on the couch, legs crossed, staring fixedly at the television screen that was displaying a variety of colorful cartoon characters in what looked like an underwater themed show.
"Have a good sleep?" Brennan asked when the show went to commercial.
Parker turned his head and smiled at Brennan. "Yeah," he said. "Your bed is comfy. Thanks for letting me sleep in it."
"You're welcome," Brennan walked to the kitchen and Parker, after turning off the television, followed her.
"You hungry?"
"Yep," Parker hoisted himself up onto a stool and watched Brennan turn on the coffee maker.
"Well," she poured coffee beans, "we can either have cereal, toast, basic things, or we can make pancakes."
The boy's face lit up. "Pancakes?"
"I take it you like that idea?" Brennan smiled at his enthusiasm.
"I like pancakes!" Parker nodded. "Can I help make them?"
"Sure," she went to the cupboard and got out the supplies needed. "Do you want to carefully get out the eggs from the refrigerator?"
"Okay," Parker lowered himself down from the stool and tottered over to the refrigerator. He opened it and looked around for a minute, then stood on his toes reaching up to the egg carton while Brennan got out the flour and other ingredients.
"Thank you," she said when he put the carton next to her on the counter.
"'Welcome," he chirped. "I like making pancakes."
"Do you?" she asked, searching for a measuring cup.
"Yep," Parker said. "Daddy's a good cook. Has he ever made food for you?"
"Um…" Brennan tried to think while looking for a pan. "I don't think I've ever had a meal of his before, but we're made small things together."
"You'll have to come over some time when I'm with Daddy and he can cook us one of his meals!" Parker said excitedly. "Then we could all play together after!"
"That would be fun," Brennan laughed, now pouring flour. "But you'd have to check if it's okay with your daddy first," she tapped his nose teasingly with a finger of flour. "You want to crack and egg?"
"Yeah!" Parker giggled, wiping the flour off his nose and taking an egg out of the carton, carefully breaking the shell over the bowl Brennan had handed to him. "And I think Daddy wouldn't mind you coming over."
"Well that's good."
"Yep," Parker was concentrating on not letting any shells get into the bowl. "Daddy likes you; he'd want you to come."
Brennan almost missed the glass measuring sup she started to pour the milk into. "What?" she asked quickly.
"Daddy likes you," Parker said this like he was discussing favorite colors. "He says that you're very smart and nice and pretty."
"He told you that?" Brennan questioned, the open jug of milk in her hand, temporarily forgotten.
"Mmm hmm."
"When did he say that?"
Parker looked up from his bowl, tossing the egg shell into the sink and thinking for a moment, recalling what had happened…
About a week or two earlier, Parker Booth sat on the sofa in his father's apartment, resting his head on his father's arm. Booth was reading Parker a story while Parker did his best to read along and look at the pictures. Booth had been less than thrilled to read parker Cinderella, but the boy had missed the end of the book which had been read during school, and finished on Thursday when he had a dentist appointment. Booth had reluctantly checked the book out of the library to finish reading to Parker who wasn't as upset anymore.
"I like that story," Parker said after Booth had finished reading and closed the book. "I like Cinderella."
"Do you, bud?" Booth said, smiling at his son.
"Don't you?" asked Parker. "Would you marry a lady like Cinderella?"
Booth looked slightly startled. "I don't know, Parker. It depends on certain aspects…"
"What kind of 'spects?" Parker wondered.
Booth sighed. "I dunno, Park," he repeated. "I guess I would like for the girl to be kind, good to you, smart, funny, and pretty would be a nice bonus-"
"- like Bones!" Parker interrupted before Booth could go on.
Booth grinned and ruffled his son's hair. "Yeah, bud, like Bones."
"Are you gonna pour the milk, Tempie?" Parker asked Brennan who still stood with the open jug of milk after Parker's story.
"Huh? Oh, yes," Brennan poured the milk into her measuring cup, smiling slightly at this new information, sure it was truthful but didn't mean anything, except for an answer to a five-year-old boy's inquisitive questioning.
"Do you like Daddy, Tempie?" apparently the interview wasn't done yet.
Brennan looked at him. "I… yes, Parker. Your Daddy and I are very close friends."
This seemed to satisfy Parker and he dropped the subject and went on mixing the ingredients with the eggs while Brennan turned on the stove to allow the pan to heat up.
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Brennan and Parker had a fun and slightly sticky breakfast. The pancakes turned out quite good and the two had a good time making faces and various characters with blueberries, bananas, raspberries, chocolate chips, and syrup. It made a mess, but was well worth the fun. Brennan ran Parker a bath while she tidied up the kitchen. She put lots of bubbles in the tub and told him to call her once he was situated in the tub. She knew enough about taking care of children to know not to leave a small one alone in a bathtub.
"What are we gonna do today?" Parker asked once the kitchen was clean and both had a bath/shower.
"That's up to you," Brennan said. "We could go to the park again, play games here, your dad brought over you Play Station."
"Can we play here then go to the park again?"
"We can do that."
"Wanna play Play Station?"
Brennan looked warily at the box. "Alright, but you'll have to teach me."
"Okay!"
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Temperance Brennan learned something about herself while playing Play Station with parker: she stunk at it. Had she not been playing solely for Parker's amusement she might have chucked the black plastic box out the window in frustration. Instead, she tried to enjoy how happy it made Parker when he won a car race or found the hidden treasure first. Parker also seemed to take pleasure in teaching the "smartest lady in the world" how to work the PS2 controllers.
"I think I need a break, Parker," Brennan said putting down the control after being beaten for the twentieth time. "My thumbs feel like they're going to fall off."
"I'll turn it off," Parker said and did so.
"Would you like to go to the park now?"
"Yeah," he stood up and stretched.
"Why don't you go put on some socks and I'll get your coat and sneakers," Brenna suggested, also standing up.
"'Kay," Parker hurried off.
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"You can swing too, Tempie," Parker said as he pumped his legs, gaining height as he swung.
Brennan sat on the swing next to him and allowed herself to rock back and forth from the cool wind. "I'll just sit on the swing."
"If you want," Parker said as he went higher.
"Please be careful though, Parker," she said, watching him reach about the maximum height that could be reached with the swing.
"I know," Parker said, but lowered the height a little much to Brennan's relief. "Do you and Daddy spend lotsa time together?"
Brennan smiled and sighed, getting ready for another round of questioning. "Yes, we work together a lot. Our jobs keep us very busy, and we're lucky we get to do it together."
"Do you guys hang out outside work?" Parker asked, surely not intending to make it seem like a big deal or interrogation.
"I suppose we do," Brennan considered. "Yes, we have become best friends outside work."
"My friends Danny says that girls and boys don't play together because girls have cooties," Parker said. "Is he right?"
"Is this the same boy who disobeyed his mom and jumped off the swing?" asked Brennan.
"Yeah."
"Danny's wrong," she told Parker. "At your age boys and girls usually don't like to play with each other."
"Yeah," Parker agreed. "Danny also says that there's no such thing as boys and girls being friends out of work. He says that they have to like each other a lot, like marrying kind of like."
Brennan really did not like this Danny kid. "Parker, you shouldn't listen to what Danny tells you. He doesn't know what he's talking about. What he said happens sometimes, but it's not always true."
Parker nodded and smiled. "I don't believe a lot of what Danny says. He gets in trouble a lot. Sometimes he says things that get our teacher mad."
Brennan could believe that, the kid sounded like a brat.
"He says that my friend Kevin is a rat bastard because Kevin wouldn't give Danny his Hot Wheels car that Kevin got for his birthday."
Brennan looked startled. "Um, Parker, don't say 'rat bastard' again. Danny shouldn't have said that. The 'b' word is very bad."
"Oh, okay, I won't," and the child kept swinging.
I'm going to have to talk to Booth about this Danny kid, Brennan thought.
Parker slowed down his swinging, dragging his sneakers against the dirt to stop. "I'm done swinging. Can I go on the monkey bars?"
"Go ahead."
Parker ran over to the monkey bars. He practically is a monkey, Brennan said to herself as he jumped off the edge of the ladder to grab the first bar. He got to the end of the bars and let go, dropping to the ground.
"Ow!" he yelped and grabbed his ankle, sitting down.
Brennan rushed over to him and knelt down. "You okay?"
"I landed funny," he said, holding the ankle.
"Can I see?" Brennan asked. He nodded and she pushed back his pant leg and pushed down the sock. "Does this hurt?" she gently put pressure on an area of the ankle.
"Not really."
"How about this?"
"No."
She pulled his sock back up and his pant leg back down. "I think you just twisted it a little when you landed. It's not broken."
Parker grinned. "Daddy's right, you are smart," she smiled back. "Thank you, Tempie."
"Any time," she stood up and offered him a hand to help him stand carefully. "You want a piggy back on the way home?"
"Yes please!"
She helped him climb on her back and he held on around her neck as she walked back to her apartment.
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I might have one or two more chapters after this one. I'm not entirely sure yet though.
I hope you're enjoying the story.
I also hope you leave a review!
