The Moments in the Memories

Chapter 4

"Hey, Dad." Parker sauntered into the hospital room.

"Hey, Buddy." His dad walked over to him and briefly wrapped an arm around the young teenager.

"Rose said Ali and me are allowed to visit now." Parker carefully propped his decaled skateboard against a wall.

Booth took the portable car-seat that held a sleeping Ali from the nanny. "The doctors said it was okay as long as you're on your best behavior. No skateboarding up and down the halls if you get bored, okay Parker?" The kid had taken to carrying the thing everywhere he went.

"I'm not that dumb, Dad. Best behavior, I promise."

Booth turned back to the nanny. "Thanks for bringing them by, Rose."

"No problem, Mr. Booth. I'll be back in an hour." Rose set down the stuffed-to-capacity diaper bag in the corner and then left.

The thirteen year old boy took off his coat and plopped down into one of the ugly blue chairs beside the bed. "Is Bones any better?" She really didn't look so good. She was super skinny and her skin looked kind of gray. Coma patients in a hospital sure didn't look like the coma patients on TV.

Booth lifted Ali out of the car-seat. "She's about the same, Buddy." He settled gently into the chair next to his son, cradling the little girl against his chest. The baby stirred, but then snuggled in to continue her nap.

"What's that thing in her neck?"

"It's called a tracheostomy tube, Parker. It's connected to the ventilator." Booth pointed to the relevant machine. "It helps Bones to breathe."

"Oh." Parker nodded. "What about the thing on her stomach?"

"It's a feeding tube. It goes through her belly directly into her stomach. The doctors have to give her a special formula since she can't really eat." Booth explained as simply and honestly as he could.

"Does it hurt?" It looked like it would hurt.

"Well, she can't really feel it, Parker."

"Oh." Parker silently worked something out in his head. "Well, if they can't feel it, maybe we should give Ali a feeding tube…so she doesn't scream whenever Rose tries to feed her."

Being careful not to disturb the baby, Booth reached over and mussed his son's hair affectionately. He smiled as the teenager frenetically smoothed it back into place. "I'm pretty sure that Ali would feel it, Buddy, since she's not in a coma. And I don't think she'd appreciate a feeding tube over the bottle."

Booth looked toward the figure in the bed and sighed. "It's just that Ali was never supposed to be on formula and she really hates it."

"No kidding. When she gets babyfood from the jars she's fine. But when she sees a bottle, she goes crazy!"

"I'm sorry, Bud. Does it bother you too much when she screams?" Booth wanted to make sure his kids got along well together, and not being the center of attention anymore was a big change for Parker.

"Nah. It's cool. Most of the time, she's totally awesome. She always laughs when I make funny faces at her, and she lets me tickle her all the time. She even likes to play with the wheels on my skateboard." Parker smiled and reached out a finger to gently touch Ali's chubby cheek. "She's my little sister, ya know?"

Booth blinked back the sudden moisture in his eyes and smiled back. "Yeah, Parker. I know." He rubbed a broad hand over the baby's back in rhythmic circles.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Parker took the opportunity to visually study the various equipment and displays in the room before his gaze settled back on his father and baby sister.

"It's not like I expected."

His dad looked at him in confusion. "The hospital?"

"No. Not the hospital." Parker tilted his head toward Ali. "Being a big brother."

Booth shifted in his chair to more fully face his son. "What did you expect?"

"I dunno. When you and Bones told me she was pregnant, I had all these ideas about how awful it would be…"

"Am I in trouble?"

When his dad sat the soon-to-be twelve year old down in the living room to talk, that usually meant he was about to be punished.

"No, Parker. You're not in trouble." Dr. Bones sat down next to his dad on the couch, and his dad took her hand. They were always holding hands.

"We've got some big news for you, Buddy."

"Are we getting a dog? Please say we're getting a dog." Parker had asked for a dog every day since they moved into the house. Because really, what was the point of such a huge yard if he couldn't play in it with a dog?

"No Parker, we're not getting a dog," Dr. Bones announced matter-of-factly. "I'm pregnant."

"Way to ease into it there, Bones," his dad hissed under his breath.

Parker leaned forward to peer at her stomach. "You don't look pregnant. Jimmy Holt's mom is pregnant and her belly is way out to here." Parker held his hands out in front of him as far as he could.

"Jimmy Holt's mother would likely be carrying several fetuses if that were an accurate representation of the distance to which her uterus had distended. It is more likely that she is carrying only a single fetus, but is quite advanced in her pregnancy. Your unfamiliarity with women who are in the last stages of their pregnancies likely led you to describe her in such a hyperbolic manner."

"Thanks for clearing that up for us, Bones." Booth rolled his eyes.

Parker laughed. He loved how Dr. Bones talked to him the same way she talked to everyone else. She never treated him like he was a stupid little kid the way some adults did.

"Bones is only twelve weeks along, Buddy. She's not showing quite yet." His dad patted his free hand against his girlfriend's knee. "But don't worry. She'll be out to there in no time!" He winked and Dr. Bones gave him one of her looks.

Parker probably would have giggled had he been paying attention, but he had moved on to more important things. "Am I going to have to babysit on my weekends with you? Jimmy said his mom told him that he might have to babysit when the baby gets older. Even though Jimmy's a boy."

"No Parker, you aren't going to have to babysit," Booth assured him. "Bones and I spoke to your mom about sharing Rose, and Rose agreed that she could look after both you and the new baby. It won't be so hard since by the time he or she is born, you'll be old enough to spend a little more time on your own."

"Cool." More freedom sounded like an excellent idea. Unless… "I'm not going to have to share my room or anything, am I?

"There is an adequate number of rooms in this house for each individual to have his or her own. Sharing your room will not be necessary."

"Good. I don't want to share." Parker's room was his domain. He had a loft bed, a computer, and his own TV. Dr. Bones had even given him the latest gaming system as a moving-in present. There was no way he was taking down his Philadelphia Flyers and Shaun White posters for ones with Winnie-the-Pooh all over them.

"Uh, Bones?" His father addressed his girlfriend, but kept looking at his son. "Could you give us a minute alone?"

"Sure, Booth." She smiled one last time at Parker before exiting the room.

Uh-oh. "Did I say something wrong?"

Booth got up from the couch to sit on the coffee table, directly in front of his son. "No, Parker. You didn't say anything wrong. You're allowed to have concerns about how a new baby in the family might change your life. And if you ever have any problems after the baby is born, you can come to your mom or me and Bones, and we'll talk about it."

His dad moved even closer and stared straight into his eyes. "I just want to make sure you understand something. This is really important, okay?"

Parker shifted in his chair, but didn't break eye contact. "What is it, Dad?"

"This new baby isn't going to belong just to me and Bones. He or she is going to be your little brother or sister. That means it's going to be your job to help protect him or her."

"What do you mean? Protect him from what?"

"Say you see something next to the crib that you think might be dangerous. It'll be your responsibility to make sure the baby can't reach it or to tell me so that I can move it. Or maybe you drop one of your allergy pills on the floor? You'll need to make sure it gets picked up so the baby doesn't get it." Booth paused to take a breath. "And when the baby grows up, there might be things like bullies at school, or other situations where I won't be there, but you will. It'll be your job to look out for him; to keep him safe when Bones or I can't."

Booth leaned forward, his face very close to his son's. "Do you understand, Parker?"

No. He didn't. He hadn't grown up with an abusive drunk for a father. He had never been abandoned or left to fend for himself in a sometimes cruel world.

But Parker dutifully nodded his head and told his dad that he did understand. Because he knew that's what his father expected of him, and he didn't want to disappoint the man he so looked up to.

"Can I go play on my computer now?"

Booth sat back with a sigh. "Sure, Parker." The last few minutes had been intense. Hopefully he had gotten his point across.

Parker leapt up and ran for the stairs.

"Thirty minutes, okay?" Booth called futilely after him. "Then it'll be time for dinner!"

Parker's stomach growled loudly, and the sound bounced off the walls of the almost silent hospital room.

He watched his dad crouch down to strap Ali back into her car-seat. "Rose should be back any minute, Parker. Why don't you get your things together?"

"Thank goodness. I'm starving."

Booth stood up and pulled a twenty dollar bill from his wallet. He handed it to Parker. "Why don't you ask Rose to order pizza from that place you like, okay?"

"Cool." Parker pocketed the money and slipped into his coat.

Rose appeared at the door. "Ready to go?"

"Just about." Booth carefully pressed his fingertips to Brennan's lips and then gently pressed them to Ali's. "Mama loves you baby girl," he whispered.

Parker squeezed Bones' hand in farewell and retrieved his skateboard from its place against the wall. He hugged his dad goodbye and stood patiently by the door. Rose picked up the diaper bag and collected the baby from her father.

While their small group waited for the elevator Parker kept thinking the same things over and over again. He really liked Bones. And he knew how much his dad loved her. What if his step-mom never woke up? What would his dad do? What would Ali do without her mom? She was so little.

Parker felt something new well up inside of him. He didn't know what it was, but he suddenly felt compelled to do something he had never done before.

"I can carry Ali, Rose. If you could take my skateboard?"

The nanny was surprised, but agreed to the swap. Parker hefted the car-seat all the way to the car before carefully following Rose's instructions on how to lock it into its base.

And from that day forward, the young man carried his baby sister whenever they went out together.

The skateboard stayed at home.

AN: Whew! Writing in a young teenager's voice was one of the hardest things I've done for this story. Please review and let me know how successful I was (or wasn't).