AN: Okay, so this chapter has a little bit of a tongue in cheek feel to it at one point. I thought the mood needed to be lightened a little bit. No offense is meant by it, so I hope you take it in fun. With that, please enjoy. I'm hoping to update Alphabet Soup next so look out for that.
Brennan lay on her side, her hand resting lightly on her abdomen. Pregnant, she was pregnant. She sighed, closed her eyes and rolled onto her back. Everything felt overwhelming. First she's seeing Booth's dead grandmother in the chapel of a hospital, then her birth control fails and she's pregnant, and to top it all off she discovered that said grandmother predicted that she and Booth would be together. Her head was spinning and it made her stomach turn just a little.
When she felt the bed depress next to her, she opened her eyes to look at Booth. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips.
"How are you feeling?"
"Besides sick? I don't know. I feel like I have no say in what's going on in my life right now."
"Bones, you always have a choice."
"Really, because your grandmother's prediction…" Booth chuckled and kissed her again.
"Do I need to be the one to point out that predictions are made all the time but that doesn't meant they're going to happen? What's happened to the rational scientist I love so much?"
"She's taken an irrational turn."
"Well, I know what will help."
"Booth, I'm not in the mood."
"Wow, your mind jumped right to the gutter. I was just going to suggest helping me go through the boxes in the attic."
"Oh, um sure." She blushed a little and took Booth's offered hand as she got out of bed. Pulling her flush against him, Booth kissed her deeply, leaving her slightly breathless. "Hmm, maybe I was wrong about being in the mood."
"We'll have time for that later. Come on before the vultures claim everything."
"Vultures?"
"My family. They get a little…competitive when it comes to claiming things."
"Ah." Booth led her to the attic, his hand never leaving hers as they made their way inside. Brennan held back for a moment, looking at the large family all laughing and talking as they sorted through the boxes. Booth leaned over as he saw her tense up.
"Hey, it's okay."
"I know, it's just…" Brennan shrugged helplessly. Booth squeezed her hand and led her through the maze of people and boxes. Against a back wall of the attic was an old trunk, the lock removed.
"Here, I thought these might interest you." Booth let go of her hand and opened the trunk. Temperance reached in and picked up one of the quilts inside, running her hands over it slowly. She looked over at Booth and smiled.
"These are beautiful. I once did a thesis on the history of crafting in America, primarily on the culture of quilting."
"Huh. I didn't think you'd be that interested in it," Booth chuckled as he watched her examine the quilts.
"When I was a little girl, about four or five years old, we lived next to this woman…what was her name?" Brennan thought for a moment before shaking her head and continuing. "She used to baby-sit me while my mom and dad were at work. Anyway, what I remember most about her was her quilts. I used to sit with her as she pieced the quilts together and would ask her when they would be finished. She always would laugh and say, 'Patience is a virtue, and so are you Temperance'. I never really understood what she meant then." A shiver ran down her spine as words washed over her. A woman of two virtues.
"What happened to her," Jamie asked from nearby. She and Sebastien were sorting through a box of old photographs.
"I don't know. We moved not long after that. She promised to make me a quilt for my birthday, but I never got it because we left before she finished it." Brennan refolded the quilt and picked up another one. "I cried so hard when the quilt never made it."
"Grandma Connie made all of those quilts herself. Everyone wanted one," Jared added to the conversation, "but we hardly ever got one. She always said they were for someone else."
"Did she ever say who they were for," Brennan asked, shaking out the quilt in her hands. A folded piece of paper fell out of it.
"Oh don't start with that whole 'little miss virtue' thing again," Natalie griped from her spot in the attic. "I hated hearing about it when we were kids, and I don't need to hear about it now."
"That's because you always wanted grandma's predictions to be about you," Booth said in response. Brennan looked back and forth between Booth, his brothers and Natalie as she picked up the paper.
"Whatever Seeley. You can't honestly tell me you believed all that nonsense."
"Why are you being so defensive about this? No one's said anything about them."
"Isn't that why we're all here? You make a phone call about Grandma Connie's Bible and suddenly here we all are sorting through her stuff."
"Natalie, will you just drop it," Sebastien said with a frown. This was not a time to have another fight break out between his brother and cousin.
"This is ridiculous. We're going through all this trouble…"
"If you don't want to be here, then go home."
"Enough, all of you," Mr. Booth said, his voice booming in the large space. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. "This is no way to act around family, let alone around guests. You're too old to be acting like a child, so stop it." Natalie opened her mouth to protest again, but one look from her uncle and she shut her mouth.
"Everyone knows that Grandma Connie intended those quilts for someone else, but she never said who, so Seeley, if you want them then take them," Aunt Edie said from her corner of the room.
"Booth," Brennan said quietly as she looked at the piece of paper that had fallen from inside the quilt.
"What is it Bones?" Brennan handed him the piece of paper, her face a bit ashen. Booth looked at it and reread the note a second time in surprise. To my Little Virtue, Temperance I hope you will spend the years to come enjoying this quilt. I apologize that I was unable to get it to you earlier but this was a very special project, and I wanted it to be perfect. Please take these others, tokens of my affection for a little girl. Seeley looked up at her and noticed the color still had not returned to her face. Temperance was looking at the quilt that the note had fallen from. Letters emblazoned the front of it with a list of the seven holy virtues: Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Humility.
Temperance held the quilt to her and after a moment left the attic, fighting a losing battle on maintaining control of her emotions. Booth watched her leave, and as he stood to follow, Jared looked at him curiously.
"What was that about?"
"It would seem that we just found the owner of the quilts."
XxXxX
Brennan sat on the front porch of Jared's house, swinging on the bench there. She watched the sun slowly descending in the sky, the wayward quilt wrapped around her to keep off the evening chill. Booth came out of the house and sat down next to her, quietly handing her a cup of tea. She smiled in thanks and took a sip of the chamomile blend, her body both warming and relaxing from the brew. After a moment, she turned to look at Booth, her eyebrows knit together curiously.
"You never said anything to your grandmother about meeting someone you were going to marry when you were a child did you?"
"As a matter of fact, I did. I was seven or eight, and it was this little neighbor girl of hers…" At the look of horror on Brennan's face, Booth started to laugh. "I'm just kidding Bones. I never met any of my grandma's neighbors."
"That was just mean." She swatted at his arm as he continued to chuckle.
"Personally I think it was funny. Had I ever said anything like that to my grandma, then all of this would seem like a really bad TV movie or something. I could just see the description now…years after they met as children, Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan meet again. Will the innocent love they shared be rekindled, or will they not get over their dislike of each other." Brennan laughed and shook her head.
"I'm sure somewhere in there a "Don't call me Bones" is thrown in along with thoughts of a forbidden romance."
"And then you'll panic and leave the state when we sleep together for the first time."
"Why would I be the one to flee? You'd probably be more worried about the implications of what a romance would mean than I would."
"Is that what you honestly think?"
"No. I'm talking about the... you know, the storyline."
"Ah, well in that case, I feel it's a big mistake and we are no longer the team we were before."
"And in an unforeseen twist of events, I become pregnant from our one time together and then begin to panic and try to hide it from you." Booth laughed before sliding off of the swing and onto the ground before him, his hand over his heart.
"But I find out and vow to never leave you, and promise that I'll always be there for you and the child and after an amazing amount of cajoling by both myself and Angela, you agree to marry me." Their eyes locked and Brennan opened her mouth to respond, but nothing was forthcoming.
"Are you proposing?" Booth gave a frustrated sigh and sat back on the swing next to Temperance.
"There's no easy way to answer that question Bones."
"I don't see how. You either are or you aren't."
"No, it wasn't…I mean…gah, this isn't coming out right. We talked about this last night. While I may have at some point entertained the thought about what it would be like to be married to you…" Booth ran a hand through his hair. He wasn't sure how to explain his feelings. "You've stated multiple times that you think that marriage is archaic and don't understand how anyone willingly goes through with it anymore, and as much as I think that you don't really believe that, I respect your opinion and wouldn't want to pressure you into anything you don't believe in."
"But you're Catholic."
"What does that have to do with anything? We're together, that's all that matters isn't it?"
"You can't just give up your beliefs for me."
"If we were ever at a point where you wanted to get married, and we agreed to the ceremony, it most likely would not happen in a church. I don't get married in the church, then the church doesn't recognize the marriage. In the eyes of the Catholic Church, I'd still be unmarried and living in sin, so what's the difference?" Brennan looked at him critically for a moment and squinted her eyes, trying to work something out. After a long pause, Booth couldn't take the silence anymore. "What?"
"Who are you and what have you done with my partner?" Booth looked at her incredulously for a moment before laughing out loud. He leaned over, put a hand on either of her cheeks and kissed her soundly on the lips.
"You're a gem you know that? Come on, I think dinner's almost ready." Booth stood and offered his hand to Brennan. She took it and stood with ease, following him inside as the sun finally dipped below the horizon and twilight spread over the quiet suburban street.
