Battleship

The way the morning sun was beating through the curtains, it was clear that it was going to be another hot day. Booth shifted in bed, his arm moving to the other side of the sheets, and he frowned at the cool temperature. It had been three days that Brennan had been at a lecture for some bones found in some country that Booth couldn't pronounce, and he knew that there was another two days before she'd return. He rolled onto his back, sighing as he closed his eyes.

He heard a toilet flush.

Booth didn't think anything of it, his son was potty trained, and very often he'd go into the bathroom, do this thing, and then make his way down the hallway to his parents room. Booth closed his eyes and sighed, waiting for Benjamin to come running down the hallway, landing precariously on one of his father's sensitive parts that he had seemed to have perfected landing upon. It's no wonder he has no younger siblings. Booth laughed to himself.

The toilet flushed again.

Booth looked up and toward the door. It stood slightly ajar, and he kept his attention on the little bit of hallway he could see from there. "Ben?" Booth called. "Benji?"

No answer, just the sound of the flushing toilet again.

"Benjamin." Booth called, rolling from the bed, he pulled the blankets back onto the mattress and padded to the door, opening the door slightly, he looked down the hallway. "Benji?" He called.

No answer.

"Benjamin." Booth called again.

Toilet flushed again.

Booth walked quickly down the hallway to the guest bathroom, Ben's bathroom, and immediately knew something was wrong. A stream of water was flowing from under the door onto the hardwood floor in the hall. Booth pulled at the doorknob and swung the door opened.

Ben jumped back from the toilet, his mouth agape as his father surveyed the disaster area. "Oops." Ben said, unsure of what to say at this point.

"Benjamin Matthew Booth!" he exclaimed, looking around at the water flowing from the toilet. Overflowing and continuing to run down the side of the toilet, the entire room was filled with water. "What are you doing?" Booth asked, grabbing the boy from the ground, he instantly regretted it. Cold and soaked, the boy let out a screech. He knew he was in trouble, but Booth had no idea what to do. "Why can't you do these kinds of things when your mother is around?" He asked, swinging Ben back and forth as the boy tried to get from his father's arm. Water dripped from his little feet and Booth looked down into the toilet as he reached for a towel hanging from the towel rack. "Do you have any idea how bad this is?" He asked, seeing something sticking out from the drain of the toilet, Booth needed to take care of his son before he took care of the toilet.

He hurried down the hallway with Ben in his arms, slipping on the water as he moved. "I'm sorry, Daddy!" Ben exclaimed again and again, chanting this over and over as he tried to get his dad to put him down. "I'm sorry!"

"Not as sorry as you're going to be when your mom gets home." Booth said, his empty threat obvious by the tone in his voice. He set his son down on the floor outside of his bedroom, grabbed a towel from the linen closet in the hallway, and wrapped him up tightly. "There, all set." Booth said, "Now, get in your room, and change… don't touch anything else." Booth said, sending the pouting boy into his bedroom, Booth then ran toward the bathroom.

Ben went into his room and changed, listening to the sound of his father's grunts of irritation, and the sound of water sloshing, and towels being tossed from the room. He tiptoed down the hallway when he heard the sound of porcelain being slammed together. Booth's voice grunted unintelligible words of irritation and a yelp of pain at one point.

"Daddy?" Ben called from the hallway.

"Bedroom, Benjamin." Booth called.

"But, Daddy." He said, turning to see his mother walking slowly up the stairs. He wanted to run to her, but was more concerned about his father's predicament. Brennan put her finger over her lip to keep Benji from giving her away.

"No but…" He said, swinging the door open to scold the boy, he came face to face with Brennan. "Bones." He said, glancing to the boy.

"Mommy is home." Ben smiled slyly.

"What is going on in there?" She asked, noting the floor was still wet, and though Booth stealthily tried to block the doorway, she could see that the toilet was in pieces on the floor. "Booth?"

Booth then turned, picking up something from the counter and deposited it in her hand. The plastic toy boat was still intact, if but a little squished from being shoved into the pipe of the toilet by Ben. "He sank my battleship." Booth said, catching her confused expression as he leaned in and kissed her cheek. "I missed you." He said, and turned around and continued his task of cleaning up the mess in the bathroom.