Life is a Zoo

Brennan's brow was set into deep furrow as she blinked several times and then pulled her lower lip into a worried nibble as she repeatedly hit the backspace key; the sentence would certainly not do. How she had thought that 'Kathy's swimsuit caused Andy's eyes to nearly stumble out of their sockets as he struggled to look her in the eye.' would actually move the plot along was a mystery. Even if they could spontaneously fall out of their sockets, eyes couldn't stumble – that would imply they could walk around all of their own volition. She pursed her lips together and stared at the screen for a long moment. The deadline for her next chapter was rapidly approaching and her publisher had already extended it four times. As patient as they had been with her being a best selling author with a very demanding real job, they wanted a chapter by the end of the week. She paused and leaned back in her chair, not quite fully relaxing before another idea hit her. She quickly started typing away only to hit the backspace key about six words in. There was no getting around the fact that she had a formidable case of writer's block and she wasn't going to get very far if she didn't find some inspiration soon.

"Bones! You in here?" Booth called out to his partner as he strode purposefully towards her office, fully expecting her to have her nose in some squinty journal or be longingly caressing a piece of bone that would no doubt date back several thousand years. If that's what thrilled her, hey, then more power to her, but today he had plans and they didn't involve dead guys.

"Booth," Brennan glanced up as he came into view, her lips pulled into a smile – if Booth was there, that meant they had a case, and a case meant that she could put off this chapter for a little while longer. The appearance of Parker poking out from behind his father took her by surprise and caused her to give Booth a quizzical look.

"Dr. Bones!" Aside from his mop of blond hair that was all Rebecca, Parker Booth was a perfect miniature version his father. He gleefully trotted along after his dad knowing that he had the whole day to spend with him; a day full of monkeys and ice cream and anything else he might be able to talk his dad into.

"Hey, Bones, I just wanted to drop this off," He slid the file he'd been carrying onto her desk; he'd felt the need to drive it over to the Jeffersonian before heading off for a day with Parker. They had a court case coming up and she'd been asking for this; she'd probably stay up all night reviewing it.

"Dr. Bones, we're going to see zebras and monkeys and kangaroos!" Parker seemed to hop just a bit as if he was imitating the kangaroos himself.

Brennan let out a soft chuckle, "You are; well, you should make sure that your father takes you through the giant panda exhibit as well – they're endangered."

"Parker wanted to go to the zoo," Booth flashed her one of those smiles that could send the average woman melting right into a pile of goo. Somehow he felt compelled to explain why he a grown man was going to spend the day looking at wild animals when he had plenty of work to do.

"It's daddy's birthday, he wanted to go to the zoo," Parker corrected his father insistently.

"Your birthday?" Brennan glanced at the calendar on her desk; she was sure that she hadn't missed Booth's birthday and surely it didn't come early this year – that would be impossible.

Booth mouthed silently, "It's actually on Saturday," His eyes pleaded with her to just go with him on this one and not spoil the day for his son who seemed far too excited at getting to spend a weekday in the summer with his dad to let anyone suck the wind out of their sail; least of all one annoyingly beautifully forensic anthropologist who had a penchant for being a little too precise at times, "Parker wanted to go to the zoo didn't you bud?"

"It's your favorite too, Daddy; specially the really big monkeys," Parker started to giggle as he scratched himself under the arms and jumped up and down.

"Actually, those are apes," Brennan reasoned that he was either talking about gorillas or orangutans and both of them were greater apes.

"You should come too, Dr. Bones," Parker sounded insistent as if he'd just come up with the most amazing idea. "She should come too, shouldn't she, Daddy?" He knew that his dad could talk Dr. Bones into it; he could do anything because he worked for the FBI.

"Bones has bones to look at Parker," Booth wasn't about to guilt Bones into coming along with him and Parker, although the idea of her walking around the zoo with them did sound nice. Getting Bones out of the lab would be a good thing, but she always seemed to have something she was working on.

"Can't you come with us? Please?" If Booth's eyes had the ability to turn most women to goo, Parker's did the same task with a swirl of warm fuzzies and lightning speed.

Booth was about to gently reprimand his son when Bones interrupted.

"Actually, I don't have any remains to look at and I have a pretty bad case of writer's block," Brennan offered a smile and shut off her laptop, "The zoo would be a nice break if that's ok with you." She didn't want to impose on Booth's day with his son, but she did need some distraction if she was ever going to get an idea that she could carry further than two sentences to complete her chapter.

"Yeah!" Parker grinned victoriously, "Now you can help celebrate Daddy's birthday too." Parker knew that you spent your birthday with people who were special to you and he knew that Dr. Bones was special to Daddy.

It was a nice day to be strolling around the National Zoo; it was midweek and not at the height of tourist season quite yet so the crowds weren't all that thick. Parker was alternately running to the next exhibit and running back to Booth and Dr. Bones to tell them to hurry up because they were going to miss the tiger sleeping or the elephant swinging his trunk back and forth. Of course the cotton candy and the soda he'd had along with the three bites of hot dog might have had something to do with that.

Brennan hadn't typically been comfortable around children, but since she'd cared for Andy and she'd gotten to know her nieces she didn't find them nearly as intimidating as she had before. Parker Booth was enough like his father that she found it amusing the way he seemed to zigzag all over, using up needless energy.

"Hey, bud, we're almost to the pandas," Booth knew that the large black and white bears were a favorite of his son's and he was getting the impression that they were also a favorite of his favorite forensic anthropologist too.

"Yeah!" Parker galloped ahead, glancing back every so often to make sure that the two very slow adults were keeping up with him. When they finally entered the viewing area, Parker seemed to have a myriad of questions, "Can he do flips?"

"They aren't known for their acrobatics," Brennan looked at Parker with a little confusion; the animals were currently sprawled out as if they were lying on a beach in the South Pacific taking a nap.

Booth leaned over and whispered, "He's talking about an animated movie."

"But they're not animated, they're sleeping," Brennan replied, gesturing toward the sleeping animals.

"Kung Fu Panda!" Parker swung his arms with absolutely no coordination at all as he jumped around and managed to knock Dr. Bones right in the jaw with his fist.

"Parker!" Booth was conflicted between getting his sugar infused son calmed down and seeing if his partner was ok, "Bones, are you ok?" He immediately reached out to check the spot that she was gingerly touching herself.

"Dr. Bones, I'm really sorry," Parker looked like he was about to cry as he looked at the lady that had made this trip to the zoo extra fun by telling him interesting things he never knew about all of the animals.

"I'll be fine," Brennan rubbed her jaw and regarded Parker a bit warily but found that she felt something akin to goo as she saw his eyes brimming with tears.

"You gotta kiss it and make it better," Parker started tugging on his daddy's shirt; his daddy's kisses always made his boo-boos feel better.

"See, Bones is gonna be fine, but you gotta keep your arms to yourself, bud," Booth felt as if he'd dodged a bullet.

"No, Daddy you gotta kiss her and make it better," Parker couldn't believe that his daddy would withhold something as powerful as a cure all kiss from someone who he knew was so important to his daddy like Dr. Bones was.

Booth flashed Bones an awkward smile; he knew his son and his son wasn't going to give up until he gave in and if he didn't give in he'd have to explain that kisses really don't cure anything at all and he wasn't ready for that conversation. He cleared his throat and found himself looking into Bones' eyes and suddenly the kiss that he'd intended to plant on her cheek to placate his son ended up on her oh so soft lips and for much longer than the peck he'd planned. His eyes widened as he pulled away, sure that she was going to put some kung fu moves on him.

"Do you feel better, Dr. Bones?" Parker seemed relieved that his daddy had kissed it and made it better – Dr. Bones was smiling after all.

"Yes, Parker, I do," Brennan couldn't help but smile and as she glanced over at Booth, she noticed a grin spreading across his face too. She might have started her day off with writer's block, but after that kiss she had plenty of ideas. Of course not all of them had to do with Kathy and Andy and her book; Saturday was Booth's birthday after all.

Now I have no idea when Booth's birthday really is, but I'm sure you'll forgive me. I'll have the next location up as soon as life allows.