As always if you think you've seen it before then it doesn't belong to me.
Brennan had been sitting in the back of the SUV trying to keep Angela calm, coaching her through deep breathing exercises as Booth sped through the city. Ten minutes later they pulled into the hospital sirens blaring almost loud enough to drown out the angry curses of Angela from the back seat. Brennan's carefully arranged hair and dress looked slightly worse for the wear by the time Booth came around to open the door and help them out of the back, not that he noticed. The carefully chosen bouquet of daffodils he had brought was squashed next to Brennan in the seat where his wild turns had thrown it around.
They met a frantic looking Hodgins at the door; no one questioned how many traffic laws he had broken to beat them there, but Booth considered offering a seat in the admittance wheelchair with the way he was hyperventilating. He stood back and watched in amazement as Brennan went between the two of them, tasking Hodgins with finding a nurse while she sat Angela down and began wheeling her inside.
He followed her carefully, his hand resting steady on the small of her back, as they got both of the Hodgins' settled in. Offering him a small smile she pressed a kiss to his check and stepped out of the room to call the rest of their surrogate family and tell them the happy news. He glanced between the happy couple in the hospital room and the woman in the hallway, his heart swelling at all the love surrounding him.
.
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They sat in the hospital cafeteria several hours later, clothes rumpled and hair mussed, the now wilting bouquet of daffodils resting on the table between them as they sipped at terrible cups of coffee. The silence stretched on between them and while it wasn't uncomfortable, there was awkwardness to it that neither of them knew how to break. They kept their eyes on their drinks, sneaking glances at the other when they thought they wouldn't be looking and blushing furiously when their gazes met.
"Not quiet what we wanted for our first date I guess," Brennan said eventually a small smile playing around the corners of her mouth.
"I don't know what you're talking about Bones, beautiful woman, sterile atmosphere, canned music, crappy coffee. I think at least part of this date is going perfectly," he offered up with his most Boothy charm smile, mischief playing in his eyes.
"I knew it! You do have a thing for terrible coffee, all these years I just thought you didn't know how to make it."
"You forget I was in the army Bones, I'll drink mud if it had caffeine in it. Do you think this place has pie?"
"With the state of this coffee I wouldn't count on it," she said with a mischievous grin reaching into her purse. "I did manage to sneak you a cup of pudding from the nurse's station though, it's chocolate."
The grin on his face as she passed the creamy treat over was thanks enough, though he mumbled a longer one through the mouthfuls of pudding he was shoveling in.
"You know, I take that back Bones. Crappy coffee, beautiful woman who sneaks me pudding this is a perfect date," he said with a smile as he finished.
"I can honestly say it's like no other date I've ever been on," she answered a full blown grin breaking out over her face as she reached over to wipe the last bit of pudding from the corner of his mouth.
"Good then you'll be willing to come on another once in a lifetime date with me next weekend?" He questioned, trying to keep his voice steady as she causally liked clean the finger that had just been tracing his lips.
"I'll have to check my calendar."
"Bones!"
"What Booth, I'm a very busy person."
"I'll help you clear your schedule Baby."
"Still not working for me," she answered with a laugh as she gathered their trash and tossed it away. Walking out of the cafeteria with a spring in her step, she offered him a teasing smile over her shoulder enticing him to follow her.
Booth couldn't help but grin as he ran after her, wrapping his arms around her waist just outside the bank of elevators. Dropping a tender kiss onto the side of her neck he whispered with a sultry grin, "you're not going to make this easy on me are you Bones?"
Brennan shivered at the passion the usual endearment now held before turning to him with a grin of her own, "Angela informs me that is half the fun, so far I seem to agree." She captured his lips in a kiss before he could protest, earning them several looks of disgust from the crowd exiting the elevator in front of them not that either of them noticed.
.
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Angela was still in labor when they returned to the maternity ward, though the crowd in the waiting room nearest her had grown in their absence. Sweets was there bearing an enormous stuffed teddy bear in a garish shade of pink, the boyish grin on his face faltering every couple of minutes as Angela's never ending stream of highly invented ways to remove her husbands manhood drifted out of the room towards them. Cam and Michelle seemed to be in their own world, pouring over dorm essential on the laptop they had balanced between them, a grouping of pink balloons proclaiming 'It's a girl!' floating nearby.
Wendell was sitting in a chair trying desperately to appear interested in whatever soap opera was unfolding in the TV in front of him for mo reason other than to have an excuse to drown out Fischer's chatter. And Clark was chatting away at Angela's father seemingly unfazed by the lack of response he was getting from the intimidating Texan. There were smaller teddy bears and bunches of flowers all in the same pink theme scattered between the rest of their lab family and Booth couldn't help but smile at the woman next to him who truly was responsible for bringing them all together.
Brennan was looking at the crushed bundle of flowers in her had with distaste. It really was a shame that Booth's gift had been so carelessly forgotten in the drama surrounding his arrival because the flowers really were quite pretty. Looking from the wilted grouping in her hand to the multitude of gifts surrounding everyone in the waiting room she felt a moment of panic, she didn't have anything with her to present her goddaughter with at the hospital.
She could rationalize to herself that Gracelyn was an infant and likely would not notice that she was receiving any gifts today. But she couldn't deny the part of her insisting that she had been quite silly for forgetting to bring something along. As she turned her panicked eyes to Booth in question he responded almost immediately with a grin. Offering up a quick wave to everyone in the waiting room he ushered her back towards the elevators.
"Booth I can't believe that I forgot-"
"Shh Bones its fine, I don't have anything either and I'm no one else came with what they're holding back there. That's what gift shops are for anyways," he laughed calling the elevator to take them back to the main floor.
.
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Booth had never pictured Temperance Brennan as a woman who liked to shop. But as they left the tiny hospital gift store nearly forty-five minutes later he reminded himself never to assume things about his partner again. Not that it hadn't been cute to watch her agonize over the limited choices of small stuffed animals available and read through every card in the store to find the one with the right words to wish the new family well. He was touched when she chose a small pink vase and placed the least abused daffodil from his bunch in there for her goddaughter.
Gifts in hand they made their way back upstairs to the waiting room, where the addition of Miss Wick seemed to have increased the volume of the small space tenfold. Shaking her head with a small smile at her over excitable intern Brennan commandeered a corner of the room with two chairs left, gesturing to Booth that he should join her. Taking in the look of shock on the suddenly silent intern's face Cam looked up and offered the team psychologist a glare that made it clear he had best keep his girlfriend quiet on the partner's latest development for the sake of everyone's sanity.
Brennan and Booth were seemingly unbothered by the stares of their co-workers, many of whom were seeing them act openly intimate for the first time. As Caroline Julian made her way into the waiting room she took one look at the object of everyone's attention and then offered them all a look that sent them scrambling back to whatever it was they had been doing before. With a self satisfied smirk on her face she took a seat next to Clark who chose that moment to become intimidated by his surroundings and bury his chattering in the first available magazine American Baby. Seemingly pleased with herself Caroline pulled out a mess of pink yarn and proceeded to finish crocheting her gift to the newest soon to be squint.
Unaware of, or unwilling to submit to the chatter of their surroundings Booth and Brennan sat in their corner enjoying a silent conversation as only partners could. As the minutes dragged on and contentment once again settled over everyone in the room Brennan seemed to finally become aware of their surroundings. Looking between everyone in the room she turned to Booth with a smile.
"It's so much better to be gathered in the hospital for a happy celebration this time."
"What do you mean this time Bones?"
"Well usually when you and I are at the hospital it's because one of us has been stabbed or shot at. When everyone else comes along like this it's usually a more serious matter. It's nice for once to see everyone gathered here and feeling nothing but happiness and excitement."
Ignoring the presence of everyone else Booth turned to her with a smile, "You have such a beautiful, loving heart Bones. That is going to be one lucky little girl to have you as a role model." He pulled her close and placed a tender kiss on each of her cheeks before dropping one gently to her lips.
Hodgins chose that moment to burst into the room proclaiming, "It's a girl!" at the top of his lungs. The partners separated, the tenderness of their moment complete, and offered up their heartiest congratulations along with the rest of the squint squad in the room. As he watched Michelle subtly shooting pictures with her camera Booth couldn't help but smile as he thought of just how lucky this little girl was to already have such a large and loving family. He couldn't help the thought that flashed through his mind of a future gathering, him grinning at the door of the delivery room receiving everyone's congratulations-
"-If you'd like to just come this way please," Hodgins was saying as his grin nearly split his face.
'Booth?" Brennan turned to him with a question in her eyes as she drew him out of his thoughts.
"Coming Bones," he smiled placing his hand in hers and following after Hodgins.
First of all can I say wow! The feedback after last chapter was incredible, I'm glad you all enjoyed it so much :) On another happy note has everyone seen the previews for next week's episode yet? SQUEE! Is all I have to say to that. Hope you all enjoyed the continuation of the fluff in this chapter, more of it to come. See you all on Thursday as usual.
Sarah