UPDATE! Enjoy!

Chapter Ten: Baseball Game

"Come on, Seel!" Joseph Booth called back to his young son, who was juggling a jumbo soda and a tray of nachos with a baseball glove on his hand.

"Coming, Pop!" Seeley responded, hurrying to catch up with his father, without dropping the food in his hands.

Joseph Booth smiled at his son, who he hadn't spent much time with lately, what with all the drinking. Joseph shook his head, trying to forget about all that.

He knew he shouldn't drink so much and he was trying so hard to stop, but the pain of his wife's recent passing made it so hard. Especially since the alcohol seemed to ease the pain. But it made him angry, as well. Angry at himself for being so weak, angry at his boys for looking so damn much like her, angry at God for taking her away from him. Just...angry.

But he'd been making a real effort to stop. He hadn't had any alcohol in over a week and today he was with his oldest boy, Seeley, at the Veteran Stadium, watching the game. His younger son, Jared, had been too young to accompany them and instead was at him with Joseph's father, Hank.

When Joseph and Seeley reached their seats, there was already a man seated there with a young boy seated next to him and a little girl, about Seeley's age, was seated on his lap, instead of her own seat on his other side.

Joseph nodded politely to the man before taking his seat, allowing Seeley to sit in the seat next to where the little girl should have been sitting.

Seeley smiled at the little girl, who smiled back at him, shyly.

"Hi," he said, smiling the Booth patented charm smile, "My name is Seeley. Seeley Booth."

The little girl blushed, but still smiled back. "I'm Temperance Brennan. But everybody calls me Tempe."

Seeley's smile widened. "That's a pretty name."

The girl's blush deepened. "Thank you."

Seeley felt a nudge in his ribs and turned to look at his father, who was smiling slyly at him. "Well, look at you, my little Casanova over here. Aren't you gonna introduce your old man?"

Seeley blushed and turned back to Tempe. "Uh...this is my Pop..."

"Joseph Booth." Joseph said, holding out his hand for Tempe to shake. "Nice to meet you." The little girl was hesitant to take his hand. "Relax, I won't bite."

The man, whose lap she was sitting in, chuckled. "Tempe's quite shy. Hello. I'm Matthew Brennan. Nice to meet you." The men shook hands and Matthew put his arm around the young boy's shoulders. "This is my son, Russ." Russ nodded in greeting and Joseph said hello.

"You guys from around here?" Joseph asked.

Matthew shook his head. "Nah, we're here on Spring Break. My wife is back at the Hotel but a friend of mine got us these tickets and I just couldn't refuse. My wife's not one for sports, though."

Joseph smiled politely. "Yeah, neither's mine. She would do anything to get out of seeing any kind of sporting event, even one of her own son's games. But that never stopped her from showing up after and showering him with kisses, did it, Seel?" Joseph ruffled Seeley's hair, while the young boy blushed scarlet.

"Po-op!" he whined. Joseph back handed him softly, but Seeley flinched as if he was anticipating a punch from a boxer. Matthew seemed to notice this but restrained himself from commenting.

"So, Seeley, how old are you?" he asked, instead.

"I'm nine and a half, sir." Seeley replied, politely, ever the gentleman that his mother raised.

"You're pretty big for a nine-year old. That's good. Means you'll make a strong man someday, like your father here." Seeley nodded and thanked Matthew, not commenting on how little he wanted to be like his father when he got older. He had no desire to lose his temper on his wife or kids and make them as terrified as he was of Joseph. So he just nodded.

"How old are your kids?" Joseph asked.

"Russ is twelve and Tempe will be eight soon. My little girl is growing up real fast." Matthew replied, wrapping his arms around his little girl.

"Daddy!" Tempe said, flushing in embarrassment.

"What?" Matthew asked, innocently. "No father ever wants his little girl to grow up."

"It doesn't matter. Growing up is inevitable. Nobody can stop it. No matter how much they want to." Tempe explained with a blank expression.

Matthew shook his head. "You know, Tempe, sometimes I think you're a little too smart for your own good."

Tempe cocked her head to the side, slightly. "I don't know what that means."

Matthew smiled slightly, shaking his head again. "Of course you don't." He poked her in the ribs and she let out a strangled squeak and he laughed, kissing her cheek, before setting her back in her seat as the game was about to begin.

As soon as Tempe was seated next to him, Seeley leaned over. "So," he said, conversationally, "who're you rooting for?"

"What?" Tempe asked, surprised that this older boy was willingly talking to her. At her school back in Chicago, she was a fairly quiet child, and only really spoke to the teacher or her best friend Angela, who she'd known since she was very little. But never had anybody, besides Angela, initiated a conversation between her and themselves.

"Are you rooting for the Phillies? I am. The Phillies are awesome!" Seeley's smile was wide and contagious, making Tempe smile in return.

"I guess so." she responded. "I don't really watch baseball all that much, though. I wouldn't know who was winning."

Seeley's eyes widened. "Really? You don't know the rules?" Tempe shook her head. "Well, I'll teach you. Just ask me anything you wanna know and I'll tell you. I've been on a Little League team for three years. We won the Championship lat year and came real close two years ago. We're just starting our season now but I'll bet we win the Championship again."

"There's no possible way of knowing that for sure, though. Why would you bet on it?" Temper asked, blankly.

Booth furrowed his eyebrows, staring deeply into her crystal blue eyes, trying to tell if she was joking or not. But her look remained serious and he shook his head. "You take things a little too literally, you know that?"

Tempe blushed furiously. "Yes, I'm aware of that. Thank you." She spat.

"Hey," Seeley said, holding up his hands in surrender. "Relax, I didn't mean that as a bad thing. I'm just saying..." Tempe visibly relaxed, as did he. "Okay, so first of all, what do you wanna know?"

"Well, first of all, what direction do they run when they get a hit?"

Seeley's eyes widened at her question. Was she serious? One look into her eyes told him that she was. "Oh, boy," Seeley said, "this is gonna be a long game."

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PS: Who is excited for the next episode of bones where Bones will be acting like a little kid? I know I am! XD