On December 27, Booth was waiting outside customs for Parker. He smiled when he saw his eldest then started to frown. He looked a little green around the gills. His suspicions were confirmed when his greeting hug was weakly returned and there was a wince when he clapped the teen on the back. "Hey bud, are you okay?"
"Yeah dad. Just a late night followed by an early wake up call, long bumpy flight and it seemed like nobody in my section had time to take a shower this morning."
"Ouch. Sorry the flight sucked, but I'm glad you're here." They started walking towards the car and Booth asked, "You hungry? We can stop on the way, I'll save you from leftover tofu frittata." He grinned and then frowned when Parker seemed to turn even greener, "You sure you're okay? Hope you're not coming down with anything."
"Nah, I'll be fine. But, food doesn't sound too good, and definitely will pass on tofu."
They arrived at the car, and loaded the bags. Booth observed the teen closely and as the they pulled out of the lot. When they hit the freeway, he remarked casually, "So, flying while hungover, definitely not a good time huh?"
Parker sighed. He should have known his dad would figure it out. There were definite downsides to your father being a top FBI agent. "Did Mom text you?"
"Nope. Powers of observation bud, plus I know you had Colin's Boxing Day party last night, that's why you didn't fly out till today. I take it I'm right?"
"Yeah. So, how much trouble am I in?"
"Depends. Did you do anything exceptionally stupid?"
Parker hesitated, "Define EXCEPTIONALLY stupid."
Booth shrugged, "Driving, fighting, anything illegal." Parker shook his head between each option much to his father's comfort level, but he still looked like he felt guilty about something. Booth had a horrible thought, "You didn't have sex did you?"
"DAD! NO! Not dating anyone remember!" Parker was indignant.
Booth let out a sigh of relief, yes he had known Parker wasn't dating, mainly because in his opinion his son was crushing on his good friend Kayla. "Yeah, I know, but, booze has a way of clouding good judgement."
Parker muttered almost, but not quite, under his breath, "Tell me about it."
Booth heard it. "So, you want to tell me what happened? 'Cause so far I'm thinking that flying trans Atlantic in coach while hungover is punishment enough."
Parker stared out the window for a moment before blurting out, "Kay and I kissed."
"Oh. Wow. I'm guessing from your tone it didn't go as well as it could have? Was this before or after you got drunk?"
"It was a nightmare, and kinda in the middle." At his dad's raised eyebrows he added, "I'd only had one beer, was mid way through the second. We were talking and then I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. And for a little bit, I thought she thought so too, she was kissing me back. And then she stopped, pulled back, looked at me like I'd grown a second head and then she left the room and the party. After that, I had a couple more pints." He sighed and shook his head, "I've totally blown it."
"Maybe. Maybe not."
Parker looked at him like HE'D grown a second head and exploded, "Haven't you been listening Dad?" At his father's nod he continued, "IN WHAT UNIVERSE does it work that you kiss your good friend, she walks away, and it ends up okay?"
Booth looked sheepish, "Um, mine."
"WHAT?"
"About 2 years before Bones and I finally got together, I kissed her and asked her to take a chance on us. She said no."
Parker looked at him in disbelief. "Dad, you're not helping by making crap up."
"Dead serious. She turned me down flat."
"Really? What did you do?"
"Well, in the immediate aftermath, I drank more than I should have," he gave his son a knowing look, "but she'd given me the option of staying friends and I decided that having her as a friend was better than nothing. " He shrugged, "so I tried to move on. Dated a bit, without much success. Then the army asked me to go to Afghanistan and I decided the change of scenery might help and besides Bones was going off to Indonesia for a year, so I left.
Parker digested this bit of information, "Wow. I had no idea Dad."
"Well, you were what, ten? I'm pretty sure you were more interested in Pokemon and Transformers than your old man's love life. Not that there was anything to take an interest in at that point."
Parker thought for a moment, trying to recall the timeline in his mind. "Wait, didn't you date Hannah after you came back from Afghanistan?"
Damn, Booth thought. He hadn't expected Parker to remember Hannah, but then again, he shouldn't have been surprised. Hannah WAS the only woman besides Bones that had been introduced to Parker as a girlfriend. "Um, yeah."
"So, what happened?"
"Quick version - Hannah and I didn't work out, I spent some time pissed at the world. When I cooled off, Bones had changed her mind, and we decided to give it a shot. And it all worked out."
Booth stopped the car in front of the Royal Diner at the look on his son's face he said, "I know you said you weren't hungry, but hangovers require eggs and banana pancakes. Trust me. You'll feel better with some food in your stomach." He glanced at his phone and continued, " and you might want to turn your phone on. Your mom was wondering why you hadn't checked in."
Parker pulled his phone out, "Geez. Yeah, that was pretty stupid of me." With that the phone started buzzing with incoming texts. Parker smiled.
"Kayla?"
"Yeah. She says she's not mad, just needs some time to think, wants to talk when I get back to the UK." They headed to Booth's usual table.
"Well that's good, " Booth trailed off when he saw that his son wasn't smiling any longer, "now what's the problem?"
"I dunno. We're good friends. What if try dating and we decide it's not for us? "
Booth shrugged, "If that's what you both want, you go back to being friends. It only gets complicated if one of you wants more than the other."
"Yeah" Parker snorted, "like that happens in real life." He looked at his dad, who had a weird expression on his face, "WHAT? Who? Mom?"
Booth signaled Joanie for a cup of coffee, buying time as she greeted Parker and he gave their order. He supposed that he could cop out and let Parker think he was talking about his mom, but honestly, he knew that without Parker, he and Rebecca probably would not be in each other's lives. "Cam."
"As in Aunt Cam?" At his father's nod, "Wait, you were friends wi..."
Booth held up his hand in warning, "if you say benefits, I'm changing the wifi password and not telling you." At Parker's smirk, he added, "I HATE that phrase."
"Okay, but, really?"
"Yeah."
"So how'd that happen? And when?"
"I met Cam through friends in the summer of '92. Neither one of us was looking for dates- that fall I was going back to the army and she was heading to New York, but we hit it off as friends. Over the next 10 or so years we were very rarely in the same place, but we wrote, and when we were in the same city, we'd have dinner. When I got out of army in '03 we were both in New York. She'd just gotten out of a relationship, your mom and I weren't together at that point. So we dated for a while. Then I got transferred to DC and neither one of us wanted to do the long distance thing and both of us recognized that while we were great friends going beyond that was more a matter of convenience than being THE ONE for each other. And your mom and I wanted to try and work it out. So, we went back to being friends. When Cam moved to DC we tried again, but same result."
Parker mulled that over, "Wow. Does Bones know? Does Arastoo know?"
"Bones definitely knows. As for Arastoo, I assume he does. I've never told him directly, but Cam probably did. And with the way gossip flies around the Jeffersonian, particularly when it comes to personal lives, he might have known before they started dating."
Parker fell silent, processing what he'd learned. Their food arrived and while he'd initially thought he wasn't hungry, after a tentative bite he had to admit that his dad was right about the banana pancakes. After a few bites, Booth asked, "Better?" At Parker's nod he added, "Good. Look, I know that it's legal for you to drink in the UK, but given the family history be careful okay? I'm not going to tell you to never do it again, because God knows that there's been a time or two when I tried to find the answers to my problems in the bottom of a bottle, but the next day the problems were still there and then some."
Parker nodded, "Based on how I felt this morning it's going to be a while before I want to look at a pint again."
Booth smiled, "Good. Addiction is a bitch to deal with, so do whatever you can to avoid going down that road. "
They ate in silence for a couple of minutes. Booth could see that his son was trying to work something out, but couldn't tell if Parker didn't want to talk about it or wasn't sure how to. He gave the teen a little while longer to try and figure it out before he gently asked, "Anything else on your mind?"
"Sort of. But, I'm not sure how, I mean, I don't want to..." his voice trailed off.
"Just say it, Bud."
He took a deep breath and then blurted, "What went wrong with you and Mom? Was it because you were gambling? Because of me? Something else?" Parker made a face of mild disgust, "I mean, she's said that you guys missed your moment, but that seems like, I don't know, an explanation out of a chick flick. "
Booth chewed while he thought before answering. "Missed our moment huh? That's probably accurate. " At Parker's eye roll he elaborated. "When we found out that you were coming, I wanted to get married. I was 30, had almost two years at the FBI under my belt, I was ready to settle down. Your mom was just getting started in her career, and the idea of taking on a husband AND a baby was a little overwhelming. So, she said no. I didn't take it well - looking back on it, I think my folks leaving messed me up more than I knew. I couldn't see that it was marriage in general she didn't want and not me in particular. Then September 11 happened and I was recalled back in the army. I reported for duty a couple of weeks before you were born. I was torn because while I wanted to serve, I'd started to build a life outside the army that I didn't want to leave. During that stint, my unit had a few close calls, and some of the action was pretty ugly. I'd started gambling - pool, cards, sports provided an escape from reality. When I got out two years later, I was kinda messed up, your mom had gotten used to doing it on her own, and it didn't help that my job was in New York. When we finally were at least in the same town, we'd had three years of separate lives. So yeah, I think it's fair to say that we never quite got on the same page at the same time. " He looked at his son and waited for him to make eye contact, "But I hope you understand that even though you may not have been planned, you were ALWAYS wanted."
"I know Dad." It was a rare occasion when Booth welcomed the "doh, how dumb do you think I am?" tone that the teen sometimes affected.
"Ok, good. As long as we're clear on that." Father and son exchanged smiles. Noting that most of the pancakes were gone, "Feeling better?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
"So, anything else you want to talk about? No pressure. Just sayin that any discussions of love lives will be less embarrassing for both of us if Christine and Bones aren't around to hear."
Parker turned red at the thought of discussing sex with his step mother, or having his little sister ask questions. "Oh God. Definitely. So, back to Kay and I any advice?"
"Figure out what you want. When you get back home, tell her and really LISTEN to what she says. And if you're not in sync, then talk to your old man about it okay?"
"Okay. Thanks Dad. Guess we should roll on home?"
"Only if you're ready. Cause just warning you, headache or no, Hank is pretty excited to see his big brother, and he's still a little shaky on the concept of indoor voice."
"Maybe one more cup of coffee then."
