Ok, so this is the next chap, still groveling for your forgivness with chaps...I know, low...but since I can't actually send you money or a lifesize cardboard cutout of DB, this will have to do.

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There's nobody else like him. Nobody. My friends used to ask why I love Tommy Hopkins. I just smile and say…because.

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April and Brennan waited in the stuffy SUV while Booth took Parker inside. Most of the afternoon had been tense, with April and Booth avoiding eye contact and conversation with one another.

That is, until Parker decided he needed just one more ride on the swings and Booth hesitated because he'd yet to spend any time with Brennan. April offered to take him and smiled at Booth for the first time, her form of an apology.

"Thanks Angel-face." He grinned, snatching up his crossword and Brennan's book before leaning over and kissing his goddaughter on the forehead quickly.

April only shrugged. "Just try to keep it PG okay? There are kids and families around here." And she'd walked off, leaving the pair alone under the Oak tree.

Now April sat in the back seat of Booth's SUV in an awkward silence with Brennan. She was blowing hot breath on the window and drawing faces in the fog it made when the scientist suddenly turned around to speak to her.

"So, how did things go while I was gone?" She asked, readjusting her seatbelt so it didn't cut into her clavicle.

April looked over from where she'd been staring out the window.

"Fine I guess…" a small secretive smile graced her pale lips, "I think Seeley's fingers hurt."

Brennan frowned. "Why?"

"Because he had to dial for take-out almost every night. The fingers aren't made for that kind of abuse." She smiled, her green eyes sparkling in the evening sun.

Brennan's frown deepened. "I told him to make you real food." She grumbled, turning back around to face the front and flicking on the air conditioning.

"I don't mind." April shrugged, looking out the window again. "He's been busy with this big case…I like take-out." She bit her lip, worried she'd said something wrong. Well, judging by the shade of red Brennan's ears were turning, she'd definitely said something wrong.

"Yes but in order for your body to heal correctly you need proper nutrients and you don't get that from take-out." Brennan said without thinking, glaring in the direction of the house where Booth was emerging through the big red door.

April's face darkened and she turned to look back out the window. She was still sensitve to references to her jaded past. Rodger's face and the bone chilling fear she'd felt ever moment of being with him was still fresh, and she hated it. It was in the past, that was where it belonged. She didn't want any of it to be a part of what she was now.

What she didn't realize was that everything leading up to that point made her who she was now.

"I'm fine." April mumbled, just as Booth opened the door and climbed inside. Brennan glanced at her but remained silent.

"Okay, Angela knows you're coming over Bug, apparently she's got a whole 'girl's night' planned. Sounds debilitating boring but…"

"Did you make any real food for April while I was gone?" Brennan turned toward him suddenly, her arms folded across her chest.

Booth stopped and drew his eyebrows together, throwing a sidelong glance at the woman next to him, he could feel her icy glare boring into his temple.

"Yeah, a couple times." When he received no response he continued. "But Bones, I mean there was this case and…"

"Booth I told you, in order for her body to heal properly…"

April cut off the fight before it could get going.

"Um…hello? Mind waiting until I'm gone to duke it out over who was more right or wrong about me?" She waved her hand between them. "I'm right here and I'm fine. Take-out never killed anybody okay? Just drop it, there's nothing you can do about it now."

Booth and Brennan glanced back at her and then at each other, a silent truce passing between them.

April sighed. "Just give Tommy Angela's number when he calls, okay Seeley."

Brennan perked up at mention of the boy's name.

"How is Tommy doing?"

When she'd left Tommy had only been out of the hospital for two weeks and on bed rest at home. He should have been fully recovered by now.

April bit her lip and looked away and Booth stiffened, a change that did not go unnoticed by Brennan.

"Did I miss something?"

"Tommy was sent to military school a week and a half ago." Booth answered quietly, stealing a glance at the girl in the backseat.

Brennan drew her eyebrows together. "Why?"

"Because of me." April answered quickly.

"April…"

"Save it Seeley. You and I both know it's true. Tommy's parents don't want their precious boy to risk Harvard for some foster home reject so they sent him away." She said harshly, glaring at his rearview mirror.

"April you're not…"

"Whatever." She sat back and sighed, tracing imaginary shapes on the window.

"You know," she said after a few moments of silence, "Tommy doesn't even want to be a lawyer. He thinks lawyers are sleazy. He should know, both his parents are attorneys."

Brennan winced at the venom in the girl's words and Booth's grip tightened on the steering wheel. She understood April's hostility, the Hopkins had never been exactly warm toward the girl, and now they'd taken away one of the few people she'd learned to trust.

Brennan wished she knew something encouraging to say to her, one of those fake little things people were always saying to each other that didn't really mean anything, but seemed to help none-the-less.

"You know what he wants to be?" April's disturbingly calm voice interrupted her thoughts. Brennan shook her head.

"A doctor." April bit her lip, but her eyes gave away a teary-eyed smile. "He wants to find a cure for cancer. He says if he does, he'll name it after my mom."

April hastily swiped a hand across her eyes and looked away again, this time with a peaceful smile on her face.

Booth glanced at Brennan, who returned his smile and he reached for her hand.

"You're a lucky girl April." Brennan said quietly, noting that she had never ascribed anything to luck before meeting Booth, and it didn't bother her near as much as it probably should have.

April only nodded, but the spark in her eyes spoke volumes.

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That's why I love him. Because.

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