How are you doing? Its been a couple days. Man this chpater is loaded. Just check it out. Enjoy...
The next morning, Ashley woke up to the feeling of hot breath of the skin of her neck. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked up and saw Joe sound asleep.
She traced the lines of his shirt, and then across his collarbone. She was bored and enwrapped in him, as her finger rested on his chin, she watched as his eyes opened.
"Hey." He smiled and her finger dropped from his chin.
"Hi." She breathed louder than she meant to.
"How are you?" He asked, taking her hand in his.
"I'm hungry." She smiled, lifting their hands onto the couch.
"Wow." He said, turning his head from her and huffing.
"What?" She almost had a whine to her voice.
"You just completely ruined the moment with your love for food." He said, shaking his head back and forth.
"We skipped dinner last night and just munched." She whined.
Joe sat his head up and felt something scratching him. Lifting a sticky note out from his hair, he turned around to Ashley so she could read it aloud. "Joe, called your dad. Ash, we have to be to work at 7 am."
"What time is it now?" Joe asked her.
Ashley lifted up Joe's wrist to check his watch. Gasping she covered her mouth and started to laugh. "6:00."
Ashley sat up with protests from Joe. "It's summer vacation. Let them sleep in."
"Summer doesn't stop murderers." Ashley said, holding out her hand for him.
He stared at her for a minute before taking her hand as she pulled him up onto his feet. "I can't tell if you sound like Brennan or Booth more in that last sentence."
Ashley rolled her eyes. "You start breakfast."
Joe held two fingers up to his forehead. "Yes sir."
"Shut up." She said, rolling her eyes heading toward Brennan's bedroom.
She pushed open the door and saw the two laying sound asleep on the bed. She started clapping and Booth's eyes instantly shot open while Bren's took a little longer to open and once both their eyes were wide awake.
"Alright, time to get moving. You get in the shower, you get dressed. I'll wake the little one. Move it you have a half an hour to get dressed so you can eat and get to work on time." Ashley exited the room, again.
Booth turned to a sleepy Brennan and smiled. "Why do I feel as though we've been drafted?"
A half an hour later, Booth and Brennan emerged from the bedroom slightly more awake now. They saw a fully dressed Parker sitting at the table eating a pancake with Joe and Ashley. Booth also noticed Parker's backpack sitting in the chair next to him.
"You going to school or something buddy?" Booth laughed, grabbing a pancake with his bare hands.
"No, I get to go to the Jeffersonian with Ashley today." Parker said with a mouth full of pancake.
"Yep, my shift starts at nine, so the scout and I are gonna hang out here til then." She smiles at the boy lifting his thumb up.
"And what are you doing today, Joseph?" Booth asked, slightly amused at last night's conversation with Joe's dad.
"I'm driving her to work like always, delivering a round of papers, and then picking her up from work." Joe smiled.
"The richest kid in DC is delivering papers, funny." Booth laughed, handing Brennan a muffin.
"It's a nice part time job, Booth." Brennan said, taking a bite.
Booth thought now would be the best time to bring up the subject as they all seemed to be in a good mood. "Your dad invited us to his party, he felt as Ashley's parents we should be there."
Joe looked down towards the floor as Ashley glared at him, and Brennan did the same to Booth. Parker just giggled. Ashley breathed in. "Joe?"
His head shot up. "Okay, so yeah I told him you were her guardians. You're over here all the time anyway, Dan and Mel treat you like crap, Josh is a jerk and the twins are spoiled."
"The twins are nice." Ashley could really only see that as the only problem in his statement.
"Besides, its at the Jeffersonian this year anyways, I just figured you deserve parents like them so for one night you could just pretend." He said, standing up and leaving the apartment.
Ashley got up to follow him, but Booth's hand came up to her face and instead he made his way calmly out of the apartment, and looked down at Joe sitting in front of the apartment's door on the hallway carpet.
"Hey." Booth said, sitting down next to him.
He looked at the older man. "Hi."
Booth breathed out. "It's hard, you know."
Joe looked down. "What?"
Booth looked at the opposite wall. "She's different, and she doesn't realize she's beautiful and amazing. And she doesn't think that anyone could love her, but all these thing make you love her even more. But she keeps pushing you away."
"How did-" Joe was cut off as he continued.
"And you try the little things to make her believe but she's stubborn, and you know you can't push her. You hope that all these things will one day make her see you as not just a friend or a colleague but a man, a man who loves her no matter what, a man who she loves too." Booth said, his eyes falling to the floor.
After moments of silence, Booth heard Joe laugh. "So you and Tempe aren't married?"
Booth looked to the boy and smiled. "I'd like to be."
"How long were you gonna keep pretending?" Joe asked.
Booth shrugged his shoulders. "As long as she let me."
The two stared at the floor for a few more minutes, and then they heard the door open and Parker poked his head around to look at his father and Joe.
"Mommy Bones wants to know if you guys are okay now." Parker said with a smile.
Booth looked to Joe and then turned to his little boy. "We will be back in a minute."
"Okie dokie." The little boy said, closing the door as they could hear him telling Bones.
After a few seconds of silence, Joe stood up, holding his hand out. "Come on, Booth. Let's go get our women."
Booth took it as the boy helped him up. "What do you mean?"
Joe smiled. "If you can wait for Tempe as long as you've had, then I can wait for Ash."
"Okay." Booth said and joined him inside.
Walking over to Brennan, Booth placed a kiss on her cheek. She turned to him to say something but let it go and just blushed. Watching her, he smiled.
"So Bones, you going to go shopping with Angela?" Booth asked.
"Why would I go shopping with Angela?" Brennan asked.
"Well if we didn't go to our fake daughter's best friend's party, what kind of fake married parents would we be?" Booth winked at Joe.
"What?" Ashley asked.
"I'll tell you later." Joe leaned over and whispered.
Parker jumped up from the table, standing on his chair. "Come on, daddy. You and Bones don't want to be late."
Booth looked to Bones and laughed hysterically. They got their things, and after they both gave Parker kisses goodbye, Ashley gave them both hugs. "Thank you."
She turns to Ashley and hugged her back. "You're welcome. You two be good."
Booth laughed. "They will, come on Mom we're going to be late."
"Alright Dad." Brennan joked.
They left the apartment and Joe turned to the other two, clapped his hands, and smiled. "At least he's not home alone."
Ashley laughed at the reference and Parker looked confused.
How'd you like it, on my way to a baseball game today. I'll update in the next couple days. Isabelle and my youngest brother are playing for the Orioles.
Anyways and Always: Favorite, Follow, and Review!