A/N: Hoping to finish this before Christmas. Next chapter will be the next and will most likely be posted on the 24th or the 25th. Honestly probably could've finished this much earlier, but thanks to school and work...well.
Hope you enjoy!
Booth walks out of their room, tugging on the cuffs of his dress shirt. He feels slightly uncomfortable: dressing in a suit during a vacation feels backwards, wrong. He'd felt the need to look fancy, to make the night special, but he wore a suit so often around her that it felt too normal to be fancy. Still, it was the best thing he could do – wearing a Hawaiian shirt wasn't exactly fancy – and he figures she'll like it, even if she is used to it.
"Hey Bones," he calls, running a hand through his hair. "Where are you? Are you rea-"
He stops in his tracks, mouth still open, jaw dropping a little further. Wow.
She stands up from where she was sitting on the sofa, her hands smoothing from her belly down to her hem. The high-waist black skirt shows off her curves, and the silk blue shirt both emphasizes her body and brings out her eyes. Her hair is pulled up tightly, with a couple of locks left curling around her temples. Her cheeks color as he stares at her, eyes raking up and down her body from the bottom of her black heels to the top of her still-slightly-wet hair. She looks up at him shyly beneath her eyelashes, and although she would probably never say it out loud, he knows what she is thinking. She is happy to be looked at this way, especially from him, and when her lips curve up in a tiny smile he breaks. Striding across the room in quick strides, he places his hands on her waist and pulls them together, leaning his head down and pressing his forehead against hers. "Hello, beautiful."
Her smile is nearly smug now, and she presses her lips against his, her hands curling around the back of his neck.
"Eeeeewwwwwwww!"
Booth broke from her, already laughing as he looks down at the little girl by his ankles. One hand covers her eyes and the other is curled around her mother's skirt, her nose crinkled. "I'm hungry, mommy."
Booth laughs, leaning down to wrap his hands around her side and pick her up in a swift motion. Her legs wrap around him automatically, her hands grasping his suit jacket. "Can we go eat now?"
He raises his eyebrows a little, looking down at her. She looks just like her mother, but more...adorable, where Bones looks...well. He smiles at her, at the cute blue sundress with the silver accents, the black ballet slippers on her tiny feet. Brennan has obviously done something with her hair, because it is curlier, bouncier than usual, and there is just a hint of makeup on her eyes, just enough to keep Christine happy. He leans down, pressing his lips against her forehead. "You look beautiful too, Chrissie."
She smiles and blushes, looking up the same way her mother did, and he feels a burst of pride in his heart for her, for the family he has built. He kisses her forehead again, then places a quick smacking kiss against her cheek, making her smile and giggle. She kicks softly and he puts her down, chuckling as she immediately runs to pick up her tiny dog purse. One hand reaches automatically for her, pulling her closer to his side, bumping his hip against hers. She smiles before pulling his hand from around her and twisting her fingers between his. "Let's go eat."
The man at the table looks up at her from beneath raised eyebrows. "Sorry ma'am, I can't find a reservation."
Brennan widens her eyes at him. "What do you mean? I came here this morning. I made a reservation for seven. I asked about the daycare program you have."
He looks down his list again, finger dragging down the paper. "Nope. There's no reservation for a Temperance Brennan anywhere here."
She huffs, turning away angrily and looking at him. "What now?"
He bites his lip. "Well, I've already cancelled the reservations at the Thai restaurant, so..." He turns to the man, trying to let off a kind vibe so that the man will be nice to them. "How long's the waiting list?"
"We'll have a table ready in two minutes."
He raises his eyebrows. "Huh. That's not bad, Bones. We can wait."
"But the daycare is all filled. We won't be able to take her."
"What?"
They chorus the word, then look at each other before looking down at the daughter between them. She is playing with a bendy pencil Booth found for her, and her eyebrows furrow as she tries to shape it. Both of them are thinking the same thing, even though they don't know it:
I thought we were going to be alone. I can't propose in front of Christine. I need us to be alone. Christine will distract me and I will be unable to remember the moments I picked for my speech...'
Damnit. This cannot be happening. How the hell am I going to talk about visiting rights in JAIL in front of Christine?! I can't!
They look at each other again, worry mirrored in their eyes. There's nothing to do about it. They could, technically, walk around and look for a restaurant like this one, but he doubts that they'll find one. They might as well stay here, because this is the easiest choice.
"Okay. We'll wait."
"Stop kicking, Chrissy."
Christine's legs pause in mid-air, then drop slowly, at the same rate as the corners of her lips. He looks up quickly at her eyes, making sure they're not filling with tears. They're still dry, and the way her arms cross over her chest tell him that she's just annoyed, not sad.
He still smiles at her anyways, reaching across to tap at her menu. "Want me to read it to you?"
She shakes her head stubbornly, her lips moving as she tries to make sense of the words on the page. She's much more literate than most kids her age, but she still can't read fluently, which is, of course, to be expected. Brennan reaches beside her, gently reaching for Christine's hand and helping her read the words on the page. "Ch, Christine. It's a chuh sound."
He looks down at his own menu as she helps their daughter read, but his eyes do not read the words. He's still trying to find out how to salvage the night. Without a spot in the daycare, there is no way he will propose, not when his daughter is more than willing to do as much as she can to understand his words and interpret them in her childish way (which is scarily close to accurate).
Although he is oblivious to this, across him Brennan is thinking along the same lines. Her arm is wrapped around their daughter's shoulders and her finger is dragging lightly across the page, and although she is concentrating a sufficient amount to teach her daughter how to read the words on the page, the rest of her mind is still worrying. There's no way she's going to be able to propose during champagne, as she planned on doing. Her original plan was to wait until after dinner, order dessert, and then begin her proposal, which was a solid two minutes at the very minimum. Since that wasn't going to happen, she quickly changes the plans for the rest of the evening and decides that she'll propose to him out on the porch, by the beach. The moon will be out, she can light a couple of candles and break out a bottle of wine, and she'll still be in close range of Christine, who had a tendency to awaken at night.
Across the table, Booth is creating a similar plan. He figures there must be some chocolates at home, and although he wouldn't be able ask the waitress to wind the bracelet around the stem of the glass as he'd wanted to, he figures he could still make a pretty decent proposal.
If there is one thing that was similar between the thoughts of both, though, it is the idea that neither wanted to put off the proposal. The idea of waiting any longer – be it a day, be it a year – is torturing to them, and they shake it off the moment the idea springs to mind. Tonight, they think to themselves, unaware that the other is thinking the same thing. It's got to be tonight.
