Disclaimer: Don't own anything you are familiar with
It's been a few days; midterms will do that! But I'm back, for now.
"Is it time yet?" the voice screamed down the stairs to her parents that were sitting on the couch with the laptop placed on the coffee table in front of them.
"Almost princess," Booth called up to the girl who had just got out of the shower and changed into her pajamas and was all ready for bed. Normally she would be headed to her bed right about this time, but her parents decided to extend her bedtime by a little bit due to the time difference they were working with. "Why don't you come on down here so we can begin."
Christine came barreling down the stairs, jumping from the third step and falling to her knees as soon as she hit the ground. Brennan turned around with a stern stare and immediately Christine rose to her feet giving a quick, "sorry mommy," before snuggling herself between her two parents.
The young girl sat staring intently at the empty screen for a few seconds before turning to her father, "is it working daddy?"
Booth chuckled, "it's working princess, you just have to wait a few minutes. It's only 2 AM in England right now, he might have to wake up."
With the six hour time difference between Washington DC and England, it was sometimes very hard to coordinate communication with Parker, especially with Booth and Brennan's work schedules. However, since it was not a school night, and he had nothing big the next day, Rebecca agreed to let Parker get up in the middle of the night to talk to his family back in the States.
Christine huffed and placed her chin in her hands. "Come on Parky!" she demanded.
Just then the computer screen popped up with the beeping indicating that someone was trying to video chat them. Booth grinned widely and pressed the accept button and covered his ears as his daughter screamed "Parky" as his son face appeared on the screen.
"Christie!" Parker chanted back with a wide grin on his tired looking face. He looked and saw his father and stepmother's faces on either side of his little sister's. "Hey dad, Hey Bones!" he exclaimed happily.
"Hey Bub!" Booth responded as Brennan smiled and responded with her own "hello Parker."
"How are you guys?" He asked, not waiting for answer before he continued "and how's my baby brother?"
Brennan chuckled and Booth's grin got even wider at the mention of the baby, "we're all doing great! Your little brother is anxious to meet you."
"Yeah? Parker questioned. "I hope I will be able to be there when he is born."
Booth gave a soft, almost sad smile. He knew how much his son really wanted to be able to experience the things happening in the other half of his family, but unfortunately that was kind of hard to do when you currently lived half way across the world. "I wouldn't worry about being here for the birth Bub," Booth tried to reassure his son, knowing after talking to Rebecca a few days ago that Parker coming out anytime before summer would be near impossible. "It will be more fun for you to come out here and see him when he's a few months old. That way he'll be able to do more than just sleep, eat, and poop."
Parker smiled, knowing perfectly well what his dad was trying to do. He decided to just go with it and appease him. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Before anything else could be said, Christine loudly and pointedly cleared her throat reminding everyone in the room that she was still there. "Excuse me," she huffed, "the baby is not even here yet. Let's not talk about him anymore."
Parker smirked at his sister's jealous state, "so what do you want to talk about Christie?"
Christine shrugged, "I don't know?" she stated.
Parker laughed, "how is school going? Is the second grade hard?"
Christine gave her brother an are-you-kidding-me look that spoke a thousand words.
"Sorry!" Parker laughed, "I just thought that it might be more difficult considering you totally jumped from Kindergarten to second grade."
"That's because I'm smart!" she responded matter-of-factly.
Parker rolled his eyes, "ok, ok." He relented. "So what's going on in the second grade?"
Christine launched into a long story about something dealing with Michael and recess and peanut butter sandwiches and kickball and a math test. The whole time, Parker just kept smiling and nodding despite not really understanding a word of what she was speaking of.
"Well I'm glad you had fun," Parker told his sister.
Christine nodded as she tried to suppress a yawn, and lay her head on her mother's shoulder.
Brennan kissed the top of her forehead and said, "why don't you say goodnight to you brother. Daddy will go tuck you into bed."
Christine nodded and blew her brother a kiss "g'night Parky. I love you."
"Night Christie," Parker responded, "I love you too."
Christine held her hands up as her dad picked her up and carried her up the stairs.
Parker chuckled quietly and looked to Brennan, "I really miss her."
"She misses you too," Brennan responded, "we all do."
Parker nodded, and looked down sadly. He lifted his head after a few moments and said, "I was chosen to show my science project to the entire school at an assembly this week."
That's great Parker," Brennan gushed her praise, "what is it about?"
"I made a model of the digestive system," Parker smiled, "You can poor colored water into the top and it will travel the entire system showing all the important steps."
"That sounds great Parker, I'm really proud of you."
Booth came back down the steps and sat down next to his wife. "Why are you proud of him?"
"your son is becoming quite the scientist." Brennan answered.
Booth rolled his eyes and muttered something sounding a lot like 'squint.'
Parker smiled and continued, "my soccer team is going to the championships next week."
Booth's face lit up at the mention of sports. Yeah, it's only soccer but it's still a lot better than talking about science.
"Awesome!" Do you think you have a chance of winning?"
Parker shrugged, "I don't know." He smiled to his dad, "I can't wait until we move back to DC. I really want to get back to a place where there's a decent youth hockey team."
Booth grinned widely to Brennan, "that's my boy!"
The three of them continued to chat for about a half hour more before Brennan began to notice Parker looking really tired. She nudged Booth in the side and gave him a pointed look. Booth, was able to read what his wife was trying to say in her eyes and looked to his tired son. "Hey Bub," he said, a little sad to be ending the conversation so soon, "you look tired. Maybe you should go to bed."
Parker nodded and yawned, "yeah. You're probably right."
"Goodnight Parker," Brennan said, "I'm going to go get ready for bed. I think your brother heard you talking about soccer and decided to play with my ribs being the ball."
Parker laughed, "good one Bones! Goodnight, I love you."
Brennan walked upstairs after giving her stepson a "love you too."
Booth smiled and responded, "well I should let you get some sleep. Your mom won't be too happy with me if I keep you up all night."
"Yeah, "Parker agreed. "Thanks for talking to me. I really miss you."
Booth furrowed his brow, confused as to why he'd be thanking him. "Hey," Booth said pointedly, "you know I will always talk to you. Anytime- within reason. I will always drop anything I'm doing to talk if you need me."
Parker smiled, "thanks dad, I love you."
"I love you too Bub, I'll talk to you soon."
"Goodnight" Parker said, finishing the call by turning his video cam off.
Booth stared at the blank screen for a few moments, then sighed, "Goodnight" before turning the lights off and heading to join his wife in bed.
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