Ch 4
Parker Booth woke up and was immediately confused. Then he was confused about why he was confused, because he was in his room at his dad's, which wasn't so unusual. Then, he remembered that he'd fallen asleep at the hospital, and it all became clear.
He also remembered it was New Year's Eve. He looked at his dinosaur clock and grinned. It was only 11:15! He could get up and still have New Year's at midnight with his dad and Tempe! As long as she was still there… but she wouldn't leave when his dad was hurt, would she?
They were acting weird tonight. Parker didn't get it. He got out of bed and saw that he was still dressed, so he changed into his pajamas – the camouflage ones, and hurried to the bathroom first before looking for the adults.
When he finished, he crept stealthily into the living room, because he could hear the television on in there. He snuck up behind the couch, crouching low on the floor like he imagined his dad had to do all the time when he was being an FBI agent.
He could see the backs of their heads. They were pretty close together, in the right corner of the couch. They weren't moving or making any noise at all, and it occurred to him they might have fallen asleep too.
He snuck around the side of the couch and popped up beside the armrest, grinning and yelling, "Boo!"
Booth had been dozing and would have clocked his son in the head with his cast when Parker startled him if Brennan's reflexes hadn't been so quick – she grabbed his arm by the sleeve and pulled it back just in time.
Parker looked scared, but recovered quickly. "Sorry, Daddy. I didn't know you were sleeping."
"Uh-huh. You scared me, Parker, and I almost hurt you."
"I'm sorry," Parker repeated, bottom lip sticking out. "Did I scare you too, Tempe?"
She shook her head with an apologetic smile. "I'm afraid not," she told him truthfully. "I heard you coming, and I could see the top of your head when you came around the side of the couch. Get lower next time," she advised.
Parker nodded seriously, absorbing the advice.
Booth rolled his eyes. "You're encouraging him." He turned back to Parker and asked, "Are you hungry, buddy?"
"Yeah," Parker nodded, perching on the arm of the couch and leaning into Booth's side.
"What would you like?" Brennan asked him.
"You're going to make it?"
"Well, I think your dad trying to cook with his thumb in a cast probably counts as a fire hazard. It's definitely a safety hazard, at any rate," she said.
Parker giggled at that and said, "Do you know how to make grilled cheese?"
"Of course. Is that what you want?"
He nodded eagerly and said, "Yes, please."
"Booth?" she asked, turning to him.
"What? Me? Oh, hell yeah, if you're offering. If it's as good as your mac and cheese I'll take five or six."
Smiling at the compliment, she got up and headed to the kitchen, laughing to herself as she heard Parker say in a loud, scandalized whisper, "Daddy, you said 'hell' to Tempe."
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Both of them were lured to the kitchen by the time the first sandwich was emitting odors. She had to laugh again at the eager, identical looks on their faces.
"What, it's a compliment, Bones," Booth insisted, helping Parker onto the stool on the other side of the counter. He took the other one.
"You're easily impressed when it comes to culinary skill. I find it amusing," she said, flipping the first sandwich onto a plate and putting the next one in the pan.
She cut the sandwich in half and put it in front of Parker.
"Hey, I'm the injured one!" Booth objected, although she knew he was joking.
Parker, however, immediately handed half of his sandwich to his dad with a smile. "We can share, Daddy."
"Thanks, pal."
He took a huge bite just as his partner said, "Booth, don't, it's too–"
"Ah! Hot!" he said, sticking his tongue out with the huge bite still stuck to it.
"Daddy, nobody likes see-food," Parker reminded, as Booth looked around for somewhere to spit it out, flapping his hand at his mouth frantically.
It must have cooled enough, because he suddenly smiled and chewed. "This is really good, Bones," he said just before swallowing.
Rolling her eyes, she turned to Parker. "You might want to let yours cool a little bit more," she advised.
He nodded, smirking at his dad. Brennan turned her attention back to the sandwiches that she still had left to grill. A few moments later, Parker said, "This is the bestest grilled cheese on the planet!"
She laughed. "Thanks, Parker." She put a large white pill on Booth's plate and said, "It's close enough, and it's better to take this with food."
"Happy New Year to me," he sang under his breath before taking the pill.
They went through six sandwiches in the next twenty minutes, before Booth finally said, "All right, unless we want to go back to the hospital, I don't think I can eat any more."
"I don't want to go back to the hospital," Parker said seriously. "But Tempe," he added slyly. "You promised to give me my candy when we got home if I didn't ask you for it at the hospital."
"That's right, I did say that," she said.
She gave him his candy bar since Booth didn't object. They went into the living room because it was getting close to midnight. Parker ate his candy bar, watching the television eagerly.
"Is this your first time to be up at midnight on New Year's Eve?" Brennan asked him, watching him hop in place out of sheer excitement.
He nodded eagerly.
"Oh! I almost forgot!" Booth said, hurrying into the kitchen.
He came back with noisemakers, sparklers, and a lighter, and passed them around. Parker had used sparklers the previous Fourth of July, and knew how to hold them properly.
Now more excited than ever, Parker was giving them minute-by-minute warnings.
"How's your wrist?" Brennan asked quietly.
Booth was starting to get that slightly drugged look about him again; it had worn off shortly after they'd left the hospital, but was returning quickly.
"Good. Feels good now," he promised quickly. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Really," he added. Then, wanting the attention off of his arm all of a sudden, he looked around for something else to talk about and his eyes settled, totally by themselves, on her chest again.
Specifically, on the necklace she was wearing. Mainly. That was the story he was going to go with anyway. He was fairly heavily drugged at this point anyway; he figured she'd cut him a little slack. "You're wearing the necklace I gave you," he said quickly, when he looked her in the eye again and saw that mild amusement was starting to give way to impatience.
Feeling sheepish for apparently misinterpreting his actions, Brennan said, "Yes, I am" and felt her cheeks turn pink as she remembered Angela's reaction to the necklace, a few days ago. The necklace had one dolphin facing upwards, the other down, so that a pearl hung from the nose of the second dolphin. Angela had had more than a few remarks to make about the position of the dolphins – specifically, what it looked like they were doing, in Angela's opinion. Dolphins were dolphins, that was just the way their bodies were shaped! That had been her defensive response to Angela, and she was going to stick with that.
Parker blew his noise maker loudly, and they both jumped.
"Sorry," he said sheepishly, grinning at them both. "Daddy, can you light my sparkler?"
"Not yet, buddy, we'll wait until it gets down to one minute, okay?"
"Yeah, I guess," Parker agreed reluctantly. He turned his attention to the television screen, where Dick Clarke was saying that everyone needed to gather their loved ones nearby. "What does that mean?" he asked.
"Uh, he's getting everyone ready for the traditional countdown."
"Why do you gotta be near loved ones?"
"Because it's tradition that at midnight, you kiss the people around you," Brennan explained succinctly, since Booth was now examining his cast with great interest and acting as though he hadn't heard Parker's question.
"Why?" Parker persisted.
"It's just the tradition that's developed in modern American society; that the appropriate way to usher in the new year is by being with people who are important to you. It's supposed to bring good luck. Actually, as far back as Babylon in about 2000 B.C…"
Booth groaned. "Bones, you can't go back to Babylon to explain it to him. The ball's going to drop in less than two minutes."
Parker wasn't interested in the history of the occasion anyway; at least, not at the moment. He was looking very thoughtful, and finally asked, "So, we all gotta kiss each other when the ball drops?"
"Well, of course you don't have to do anything, Parker; it's just a tradition. It won't actually bring you any sort of luck, because luck itself is a fictional construct based on…"
"Bones!" Booth interrupted again. "Think Christmas trailers," he said pointedly, so Parker wouldn't get what he was referring to.
"Oh. Okay. Sorry," she said quickly, smiling at Parker. "If you want to participate in the New Year's experience, then, yes, Parker."
He shrugged and said, "All right. Daddy, light my sparklers now!"
Booth lit Parker's sparklers for him. Parker held them securely, drawing abstract shapes in the air but holding them well away from his body.
The on-screen countdown started. Parker counted along, loudly and excitedly, coming back over to them. His sparkler had died. Booth gave him a fresh one at "5."
"Count," Parker insisted in between shouting out the numbers.
Booth and Brennan joined in for the last five seconds of the countdown, everyone watching as the ball dropped. Parker's excitement was contagious. He cheered loudly when the numbers lit up at zero. On screen, everyone started kissing and "Auld Lang Syne" began playing.
Parker turned to his dad and hugged him carefully, holding his sparkler away from them both. He kissed him on the cheek. Booth hugged him with one arm affectionately and kissed the top of his head. "Happy New Year, bub."
"Happy New Year, Daddy!"
Parker shoved his sparkler into his dad's hand and hugged Brennan enthusiastically with both arms, grinning hugely and planting a very fast, somewhat furtive kiss right on her lips before she even realized what he was doing. "Happy New Year, Tempe!"
"Happy New Year, Parker," she laughed, as he hurried back to his dad to retrieve his sparkler.
"Hey, on the cheek next time, buddy," Booth muttered quietly to his son, although he couldn't help but be a bit impressed and proud of his son's nerve there.
"Your turn," Parker called as he headed around the coffee table to play with his sparkler and watch the people on screen.
Booth and Brennan looked at each other. Brennan shrugged, as though saying it was his call.
Well, Booth thought to himself. If it was his call, he wasn't about to be upstaged by his seven year old son.
He leaned in and kissed her. Surprised at how quickly he had moved, it took her a second to recover from the surprise and kiss him back, but as soon as she shifted her head to the right slightly, it was like being instantly transported to last week at Christmas. He smiled against her mouth and deepened the kiss, completely forgetting that Parker was awake and undoubtedly somewhere nearby.
Parker, luckily, was otherwise occupied. He was watching all of the happenings on television curiously. Lots of people were kissing, grown-up kissing – that part was gross. But there were fireworks going off, music, people singing a song he didn't know, and all kinds of celebrating with party horns and streamers and people screaming at the camera.
When the song ended, the on-screen festivities started to die down. He played with his sparkler until it died out, then turned back to his dad and his dad's partner to ask them if they knew that song and could teach it to him for next year… but they were busy. Wrinkling his nose in disgust, he tried to think of what to do.
He knew grown-ups didn't like to be interrupted when they were kissing, especially when they were kissing like that, but this was his very first New Year's Eve ever! He was supposed to be included in the celebrations, after all!
It didn't occur to him that he was somewhat responsible for the fact that they were still kissing. He just determined that they'd been kissing for long enough. It was definitely time to interrupt them. He went over to them and stood in front of them with his arms crossed. They didn't notice him. He didn't like not being noticed.
He pulled his party horn out of his pocket and blew it loudly in their direction. They both jumped, the kiss ending awkwardly and abruptly.
Their eyes met for a quick moment of surprise, disappointment, affection, and guilt before they turned to Parker looking sheepish, rather more like caught teenagers than adults being caught by a child.
"The song was over for a long time," Parker said firmly, trying to justify interrupting them. Because his dad looked kind of annoyed.
"Well," Booth finally said, wanting to avoid discussing what Parker had just seen if at all possible – hopefully if he distracted his son, Parker would just let it slide as part of the "New Year's Tradition." "What do you think of your first New Year's, Parker?"
"It was all right," he concluded, shrugging. "I guess it's more of a grown-up holiday. I like the noisemakers and the sparklers and fireworks!"
"You liked those, huh?" Booth asked, pulling Parker up onto the couch between them and ruffling his hair.
"Yeah," Parker agreed. "But I think this holiday has way too much kissing!"
"Oh yeah?" Booth countered, tickling him.
Parker giggled and squirmed with delight as his dad tickled him until they were both out of breath and Parker was saying that he couldn't breathe. He was now sprawled along the couch, his head on Brennan's lap, his legs across his father. He lay there catching his breath, feeling tired the longer he lay still.
Booth's spurt of energy had just about drained him, as well, or else the medicine was in full force now. His eyelids were getting heavier by the second, and he yawned into his hand and looked at his watch.
"I'm beat, Parks. Let's get you back to bed."
"Tempe can do it if you want to go to sleep now, Daddy," Parker suggested.
Booth clutched his heart dramatically, pretending to be mortally offended. "My own son! You don't want your one and only father to tuck you in anymore?"
"But Daddy, you always tuck me in. Tempe's never done it before. Besides, next time I come over she might not be here! Please, Daddy? You look too tired to read to me anyway…"
"I'm just giving you a hard time, bub. It's fine with me; I'm not even sure I'll make it to the bedroom, I might just sleep here. But you'd better ask her."
Parker turned to her with a hopeful look on his face. "Please, Tempe?"
"Uh, sure, Parker."
"Yay! I'm gonna go brush my teeth!" He threw his arms around Booth's neck again. "Goodnight, Daddy, I love you, happy new year, hope your arm doesn't hurt in the night!" Parker said quickly in one breath before running off to brush his teeth.
Left alone, they both looked away from each other, a bit embarrassed at getting so carried away with what had started off as simply humoring Parker by participating in the tradition.
"Um, thanks. For tucking him in. And humoring him all night," Booth finally said, although it looked like he was speaking to a throw pillow.
"You're welcome. He's very interesting."
Booth knew she meant that as a compliment, but couldn't help teasing her a bit. "Anthropologically speaking?" he goaded.
"Well, yes. But also in the entertaining sense. I've never actually tucked a child into bed though; what exactly does that entail?"
"A lot of bargaining," Booth said. When she looked confused, he explained further. "He'll sense weakness if you let on that you don't know what you're doing. He'll stall. Here's his usual routine. You tuck him under the covers, sit there with him while he says his prayers… please don't tell him you don't believe in God, by the way. Then I read him either one of his short books, or a chapter from a longer book, maximum. If he's still awake at the end of that, just tell him goodnight, turn on his night light, and shut the door. He's older now, it's a faster routine than it used to be. You don't have to check for monsters or anything anymore."
"That sounds simple. And of course I wasn't going to tell him there's no God, Booth. I respected your wishes about Santa, certainly you know that I understand that Santa is much less important to you than God."
"Yeah," Booth said, with a half-smile. "Thanks, Bones."
"Sure."
"I might not be awake when you finish. I'll try, but…"
"Don't try, that's ridiculous. The whole point of me putting him to bed is so you can go to sleep now. Your body has been through a lot today, and you've got enough drugs in your system to make someone twice your size drowsy; I'm amazed you're even still awake."
"Well, kind of hard to sleep through the last fifteen minutes or so," Booth said with a rueful smile.
She looked away, but she was smiling indulgently. He thought that being on medication seemed to be letting him get away with a lot, and wondered how long that would last.
"Anyway," she finally said. "I think I should stay the rest of the night, if it's okay with you. During the night your pain receptors are way more sensitive; you might wake up in pain and need more medication, and I could help you with Parker in the morning."
"Okay," he agreed immediately. When she raised an eyebrow in question, he said, "I didn't really want you to drive home in post-celebration traffic anyway."
She rolled her eyes, but let it slide. She'd now passed up two chances to argue with him… maybe he should break his arm more often, he thought.
"Well, um, you know, just… make yourself at home, if I'm asleep when you're done putting Parker to bed. I think you know where everything is, so just… use whatever you want."
"Thanks, Booth."
"TEMPE, I'M READY!!!" Parker called from his bedroom.
They smiled at each other as she got up. "Well, Happy New Year, Booth."
"Happy New Year, Bones."
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