BOOTH'S NEW LIFE
Chapter 11:
The Shallow In The Deep And Feeling Stupid
Timeline: Last week of October, 2010 (fifth week upon the team's return to D.C.)
Season/episode: 6x06 - "The Shallow in the Deep"
Booth arrived to his apartment, and opened the door carefully.
When that afternoon his babysitter had called him to tell him that she was sick and wouldn't be able to take care of Parker, he was going to forego the celebratory drink with the squints. However, Alex had pleasantly surprised him by offering to stay with Parker and the girls at his home. He had argued against it saying that she didn't need to do it, that her girls may be unsettled or that their schedule would be thrown off by the new environment, but finally Alex had told him that it would give her some time with his son, and it will help their relationship. She had looked really eager to do it, and her smile had undone him, so he had caved and accepted her help with a heartfelt thanks and a kiss.
Now, it was late and the kids should be asleep so, not wanting to wake them up, he was entering his apartment as silently as possible. He was using his Army training to avoid making noise.
He closed the door behind him without making a sound, left his weapon in the safe just as silently, and walked into his living room. The scene he found stopped him in his tracks. Sarah was in her carrier; while Maya and Parker were one on each side of Alex on his couch, and they were all sound asleep. He could do nothing but to smile a big toothy smile at the sweet scene in front of him. His beautiful, strong girlfriend was fast asleep with a smile on her elegant lips holding protectively to her body not only her daughter but his son too.
He felt his feelings for the doctor grow all over again, and fixed the warmhearted scene to his memory. After some moments, he decided that he had indulged on that warm feeling long enough, and started working on the sleeping arrangements. They really couldn't sleep like that the whole night.
He took off his suit jacket, and left it on the armchair. He then very carefully picked up Parker without waking anyone up. He took him to his own room, wordlessly thanking Alex for making him change into his PJs, and tucked him in bed. He kissed his brow tenderly, and left the room closing the door softly.
Once he was back in the living room, he proceeded with the risky business that was moving the Foster family to his room. Yes, moving a small sleeping kid is a high risk: if they wake up they cry, and wake up the entire house.
He first pushed the carrier to his room and parked it at one side with the baby still resting peacefully in it. He opened the bed, and getting some extra pillows from his wardrobe, he created a barrier to stop the babies from falling from the bed.
That done, he went back to the living room. He scooped Maya in his arms, and took her to his room and into his bed without disturbing her sleep. He saw that she was wearing some pink pajamas but no diaper, so he assumed that she was potty trained and put her on one side of the bed to make sure that she could run to the bathroom if she needed it. He also pushed the small pink lion that he had found with her on the couch back into her hands, because it must have been the stuffed animal she liked to sleep with.
Once more he repeated the trip to and from the living room, but this time he left on his bed the shoe-less, clad in jeans and t-shirt mom. He made sure that Alex was on the other side of the bed, leaving the middle for Sarah. And last but not least, he got Sarah out of her carrier, changed her diaper, and put her between her sister and mother on the bed with the purple dragon that she had been holding onto while in the carrier.
He then made sure that they were all properly covered by the blanket, took some sleeping clothes, and left the room through the bathroom door switching off the light.
Once in the bathroom, he made a quick job of his night routine, changed into the sweat pants and t-shirt that he had just picked, and went back to the living room. He left the door connecting the bathroom and his room slightly open, and the bathroom light on to make sure that Maya could move around safely though.
Once he was sure that everyone was comfortable and safe, he threw himself on the couch, and fell asleep almost instantly feeling more at peace than he had felt in a long time.
The sun came out for Alex in a foreign room, in a strange bed, and with only a pink lion and a purple dragon for companions. The stuffed animals told her that her two girls had been there recently, and the noise of plates and cutlery told her that they probably were in the kitchen. Feeling a little more awake, she looked around the room and correctly deduced that she was in Booth's room. She groaned in embarrassment realizing that she must have fallen asleep on his couch shortly after the kids did, and that Booth probably carried her and her daughters to his bed.
Thinking about what she knew of his apartment, she remembered that he didn't have a spare room, meaning that he must have slept on the couch. She groaned again, and this time she also chastised herself for falling asleep.
She got out of bed, and looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a pair of jeans and one of her comfy t-shirts, which wouldn't have been too bad, if it hadn't been this particular t-shirt! It was a way too big and much worn out t-shirt of Taz, the Tasmanian Devil from the Loony Tunes that she used to wear when she was pregnant with Sarah because it amused Maya to no end. She loved the t-shirt, but it was probably the least flattering t-shirt in the world! She had put the t-shirt in her purse the previous night thinking that if Booth returned later than expected, she may want to be more comfortable. She must have been really distracted to pick this particular t-shirt… And her hair was a mess!
She groaned once more, and accepted that there was nothing to do with her looks. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, got out of the room, and followed the kids' laugher to the kitchen.
What she found there was three, well make that four, kids covered in flour. Sarah was seated in a high chair, obviously from Parker's early childhood, at the kitchen counter. Maya was by her side, kneeling on a chair, trying to help Parker mix a very colorful batter, which told her that they were making M&M pancakes. Booth was frying some dough already, probably the surviving dough from their first try which must have been an adventure if the scattered flour was anything to go by. Alex burst out laughing revealing her presence to them.
Booth turned around at the sound of her laugher, and smiled sheepishly seeing that he had been caught indulging the kids with M&M pancakes with fluff on a school day. Taking in her disheveled appearance, his eyes turned darker, and he was forced to cough loudly to cover his reaction. It didn't go unnoticed by the doctor who decided that her appearance wasn't that bad after all seeing as it was appreciated by the agent. She blushed and smiled, embarrassed, making Booth smile in response.
Finally, it was Parker who broke the spell telling her that she should sit down because breakfast was about ready. He was right, not even five minutes later everyone had a plate of pancakes; even the two girls had their own plates with very small pancakes in them. Maya could eat on her own mostly; she just needed some help cutting the pancakes, and so once Booth did it, she devoured her plate in no time. However, Sarah needed to be fed so Alex took care of it while she ate her own breakfast.
"So M&M pancakes?" Alex asked feigning annoyance.
Maya, not knowing that her mom was teasing Booth, jumped to his defense, "Don't be mad at him, mom… I told him that today was special so we should have a special breakfast!"
"I figured that having you all here was special enough and indulged them," he admitted, giving her his charming smile just in case. He was pretty sure that she had been teasing him, but his charming smile never hurt. "Don't know where she got the idea, though. I swear it wasn't mine."
Alex knew where the idea came from perfectly well: they were what Maya called Daddy's pancakes because it was the special breakfast he always made. However, she refused to dwell on the sadness of it, and followed her daughter's example, by focusing on the good side of it. She laughed at them, which prompted Sarah to laugh too showing the very colorful dough in her mouth.
The shadow that crossed her eyes just before she started laughing didn't go unnoticed for Booth, though. He just followed her lead and put it aside for later and laughed with them.
They all laughed, and enjoyed their breakfast, even if Parker rolled his eyes constantly at his father for making goo-goo eyes with the nice doctor.
Parker had to admit that he liked her. He had always thought that his father would end up with Bones, but it seemed that it wasn't going to happen, and Alex was very nice. She was different from Bones, but she was funny too, and his father was always smiling when she was around so he was happy with the arrangement. He was going to have to tell his mom everything about breakfast, though. She loved gossip almost as much as Angela and she'll complain if he didn't!
When they finished breakfast, the run to make it in time to work started for both of them. Booth cleaned the kitchen while Alex changed the girls, and Parker went over his morning routine in the bathroom.
Ten minutes later, Booth kissed Alex and the girls goodbye.
"I'm sorry for what the couch did to your back," Alex told him after breaking the kiss. She had heard his back crack when he was making breakfast, and she had noticed how stiff he was, from his movements she could see that he was in pain.
"I'm a big boy, I'll survive," Booth answered smiling at her. "A hot shower will ease the muscles and I'll feel better in no time." Lying to her and tell her that his back was fine would have been fruitless, so he decided that honesty was definitively the best policy here.
"Do you have an ouchy?" Maya asked him sweetly, her face marred with worry.
"No, Maya, sweetie, I'm fine. I'm a bit sore from sleeping in the couch, but I'm perfectly fine; don't worry."
"Promise?" she asked in a tiny voice.
"Promise," he answered confidently and kissed the little girl once more.
And with that the doctor left Booth's apartment in a hurry with her daughters and a portable mug of coffee, courtesy of a thoughtful FBI agent.
While Booth arrived on time to work, having only to go about his normal business in his own apartment, Alex was forced to go back to her apartment to shower and dress appropriately for work before taking the girls to daycare, and going to work. Therefore, it was no wonder that she arrived late to the hospital. It was, however, surprising for her coworkers, and they soon started trying to pry out of her the reason for her delay.
"So?" Jen asked her smiling mischievously, and pointing to the Phillies' portable mug that Alex was carrying. Jenifer had always been very observant, and today was no exception.
"So what?" Alex tried to avoid feeding Jen's addiction to gossip, while doing her best to contain her need to smile.
"Oh, c'mon, Alex, don't be like that! Is he hot or not?" Her voice made clear what the nurse was talking about.
"She's never meeting Angela Montenegro!" Alex thought. "I wouldn't know, Jen."
"You're not gonna tell me that you haven't sleep with him yet, are you?"
"I haven't, but I've slept in his bed," Alex answered smirking. She loved messing with her friend.
"What? Explain yourself Alexandra Foster, and do it right now!"
Alex laughed, and being in the good mood she was, she answered, "I fell asleep on the couch, and he put me and the girls in his bed to sleep. He slept on the couch."
"Wow! You found a gentleman!" Jenifer commented happy for the doctor.
"Oh, shut up!" Alex laughed and started walking away.
Thankfully, the nurse was needed somewhere else which prevented her from following the doctor, and Alex escaped the third grade. For now.
Booth arrived at the Hoover in a great mood after having such a great morning. Still, he was a little worried about the pancakes' issue. He knew that he had unknowingly made the same breakfast that the girls' father had done in the past, and while Alex hadn't looked upset about it, he had seen a shadow of grief cross her eyes. Plus it was a very weird breakfast, and his gut was telling him that it was important, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out why, aside from the obvious, that it is.
Anyway, he wasn't allowed to dwell on it because Evelyn knocked on his door effectively stopping his mental ramblings.
"Doctor Brennan is here, sir," the young woman announced opening the door for his partner to come in.
"Thanks for coming here, Bones. I know that with that ship going to the lab you have a lot of work, so I appreciate it." Booth pointed to one of the chairs at the other side of his desk, and Brennan took a seat.
"Of course, Booth; you said that you wanted to talk about Shaw's training as secondary liaison with the lab, and you wanted to include me in the process. I'm here because I agree with you, as your partner I should be included in her training."
"I'm glad to hear that because this part of her training is going to be mostly on your shoulders. I want you to go over certain cases with her, and by certain cases I mean those in which science was particularly important."
"Booth, science is always important in our cases," she said a little upset that he would think otherwise.
"I know that. Don't get angry, Bones," Booth answered in an apologetic voice, trying to show his honesty. "Yet, not all the cases are the same, right? Some are special… like Robert's murder, we had no skeleton and Angela grew one… well, that's pretty special, if you ask me!"
"Oh! You mean those cases when science was particularly challenging or lateral thinking was unusually important?" she half asked, half stated, finally understanding her partners' intentions.
"Yep! Or that time that the victim looked like chili con carne, or when the body was being destroyed while in the lab because of the acid," he confirmed it giving her some other examples. "I'll have Sweets go over the cases when his profiling was more useful, or his insight was important. But science is your thing, Bones, and I think that you should do your own list, just leave the serials out, at least for now."
Brennan smiled, and nodded. It was quite obvious that she liked the idea of teaching the young agent more about the work in the lab, and the science involved in solving cases. "Okay, I can do that. However, I would like to know why do you want me to leave serial killers out of the list?"
"Because, Bones, serial killers are a different type of murderer, and I want her to concentrate on your average murderer with his or her petty motives like jealousy, greed, you know… we'll graduate her to serials later," Booth said giving her his second reason. His first and most important reason was that he was sure that Taffet had an accomplice out there and he didn't want to worry the squints needlessly until he could either prove it or at least have a lead to follow. There was no reason for them to live fearing the Grave Digger when they could do nothing to find the accomplice and it didn't look like he or she were going to do anything.
"So Sweets won't go over those cases with her yet?"
"Those cases are at the bottom of Sweets' list, yeah," he answered honestly. "At the beginning of mine though," he thought.
"C'mon, let's go give Sweets his list, and then I'll buy you a coffee for your troubles before you go play with that ship," Booth said giving her his charming smile. The sooner they left that conversation about serial killers the better.
Brennan nodded and stood up. "If we're fast we'll have time to discuss that list over our coffees."
"You already made that list in your mind, Bones?" Booth asked feigning surprise. He stood up too, and they both left his office to go to Sweets' office bickering about the list.
Booth and Brennan burst into Sweets' office without bothering on knocking, only to find Daisy and Sweets on his couch having some morning delight, like Angela would say. They were extremely grateful for the back of the couch covering the young couple so that they could only see their ridiculous underwear scattered through the room, and their feet.
"Oh!" Brennan gasped surprised.
Brennan's exclamation got the couple's attention.
Sweets raised his head from the couch, and squawked, "Agent Booth!"
He was followed by a naked and embarrassed Daisy raising her torso from the couch while covering herself with her hands, and yelling, "Dr. Brennan!"
Brennan recuperated from the initial shock, admonished Daisy, "You should be at work, Ms. Wick. It is a very important day!"
Booth was finding it way too funny, so he did his best to not laugh and just smirked. Then, he put the list of cases he wanted the shrink to review with Shaw in front of him, and said, "Pick this. It's the list of cases you gotta work with Shaw."
"You serious?" Sweets asked astonished with Booth behavior.
"Pick it up and go back to your fun." Booth's smirk grew. He was having a hard time not laughing at their baby duck.
Finally, Sweets grabbed the list, still looking mortified at being caught in the act by Booth, who was quite obviously trying very hard not to laugh at him, and the partners left his office.
Seconds after the door closed behind them, the young couple heard loud and clear Booth's laugh coming from the corridor.
"I'll never live this down!" thought the young psychologist.
After the unpleasant surprise of finding Sweets and Ms. Wick in the psychologist's office, the partners had a coffee and discussed the list of cases that Brennan would review with Agent Shaw as planned. This meant that when Brennan finally arrived to the lab, the Amalia Rose was already entering in the museum.
She walked fast feeling anxious to start working on such a great project, only to be intercepted by Ms. Wick who desperately wanted to explain her relationship, or lack of, with Sweets to her mentor.
"Dr. Brennan, about this morning…"
"What about it?" Brennan asked, her voice making clear that she was uninterested in her intern's private life.
"I don't want you to think that Lance and I are dating again, because we are not. That was purely accidental intercourse," Daisy justified, or at least tried to justify, her actions.
"You had intercourse accidentally? What were you trying to do Ms. Wick?"
"I was returning a book," the intern said sounding more like a teenager than a PhD candidate.
"And your pants fell off?" Brennan asked in total disbelief.
They finally reached the lab doors, and joined Angela, and Cam who was directing the technicians as to where the pieces of the ship and the remains should go.
"All of the pieces of ship without remains attached, straight to the Early American workroom, door on your right. If it has remains attached to the platform."
Cam turned around to face Brennan, and asked to the anthropologist, "Okay. How much of this is there?"
"I have no idea."
"So when you said, old remains, the ship part of it just slipped your mind?" the coroner asked sarcastically to the other woman.
"No, of course not," Brennan answered completely oblivious to the admonishing tone of her boss.
Cam shook her head at the absurdity of the conversation. She took a deep calming breath, and silently thanked Booth again for considering that his partner probably would find it unnecessary information for the lab and not mention it. She still remembered his warning, "Those old remains of that ship Bones talks about, they'll probably come with the ship attached." She was really happy that the agent knew his partner so well, because thanks to that comment she decided to call the head of the American History department to confirm Booth's suspicions, and coordinate the arrival of the ship, and the exhibit with him.
"This is incredible. I can't believe this is an actual slave ship. Where did they find it?" Angela asked fascinated with the project.
"Off the coast of Maryland. This could shed enormous light on the slave trade," Brennan answered as excited by it as the artist.
"Or give me nightmares. One or the other," Cam said with her voice full of sarcasm.
Hodgins joined them bringing an old book with him, and giving it to Angela. "Hey, they said this was for you."
"The Jeffersonian Board of Directors wants us to try and identify the remains," Brennan said as if that was new information for the rest of the scientists there.
"Yes, I knew that, and I've been meaning to ask you, Dr. Brennan, how? These people have been dead for nearly 150 years," Cam asked, glaring at the anthropologist.
She knew that Brennan tended to not consider the logistics of this kind of thing, and to forget mentioning important information like that. She normally just found the answers elsewhere or considered herself all those things that Brennan ignored, but this project was getting under her skin and making her inpatient with the quirks of the other squints. The idea of her ancestors treated like cattle, bought and sold like property, was disturbing, to say the least. She was angry at the slave-traders, slavers, masters, and at the society that condoned it, accepted it, and benefited from it for centuries. She was saddened by the pain they endured in life through slavery, and by the horrible death the crew of the Amalia Rose suffered. This was definitively not going to be an easy project for her.
"Yeah, well, this might help. It's a copy of the outgoing manifest, and it lists all the slaves they were transporting to New Orleans. There's age, and race, and degree of color. This is really detailed, in a totally horrible, disgusting, sucky kind of way," Angela said looking through that book that Hodgins just gave her.
"Slaves were considered property. They were as carefully catalogued as livestock or silverware," Hodgins said solemnly, and the group shared a sad look at the thought of it.
Soon after, they were on the platform working on identifying the remains with the help of all the squinterns. Cam had called them all, and pulled Dr. Edison and his squintern, Mr. Fisher, from Limbo to work on these remains. If she wanted this project finished as soon as possible, she needed all the hands and brains she could get.
Cam's voice full of shock at what she had just found with the remains broke the concentration of all the scientists working on the platform. "Over here. Now. Uh, n-not kidding, even a little bit. Dr. Hodgins."
"Yeah? What have you got?" Hodgins asked running to her boss, knowing that whatever she had found must be very weird to provoke such a reaction.
"That. What the hell is it?" Cam asked pointing to the pink fluff that covered the skull in the box in front of her.
"Wow. It's some kind of organism that anchored to the bone. Interesting," Hodgins said enthralled by the pink fluff. He took the skull carefully in his hands, and moved it to under the light to see it more clearly.
"Alien sea life hitchhikes in on a slave ship, and that's all you can say… interesting?" Cam asked with her naturally charming sarcasm.
"I think in this context, interesting is a way of acknowledging life-forms beyond Dr. Hodgins' expertise," Brennan explained.
"A temporary condition, I assure you," Hodgins stated still focusing his eyes on the skull. "All right, listen up! Pull any other bones with pink slime and bring them over here," he ordered to everyone on the platform. "It's possible that 'alien' is an appropriate adjective. I mean, we may be looking at NTI, here."
Hodgins' excitement about the pink fluff was, in Cam's opinion, more than a little funny, but that didn't really explain what he was talking about. "What's he talking about?"
"I have no idea," Brennan answered looking at the entomologist with the same confusion that the coroner.
"NTI, as in Non-Terrestrial Intelligence?" Hodgins half asked half explained looking at them as if the others should know these things.
"Oh no," Angela muttered fearing that her husband could go on one of his rants about conspiracies, alien life, or any other of his weird obsessions.
"If alien life-forms were going to exist somewhere on Earth, the ocean floor would be it."
"Please tell me you're kidding," Cam pleaded clearly wanting Hodgins to stop wandering around the SyFy Channel world and come back to the real world.
Brennan studied the bones, and her expression grew concerned. "Judging by weight and texture, all of the affected bones appear to belong to the same skeleton. Something is very wrong…"
"You mean aside from the pink alien form?" Cam asked.
"I doubt that the slime on the bones is alien, but yes, aside from that," Brennan answered. She pointed to a hole in the base of the skull and explained the problem. "This puncture would have extended upward into the anterior base of the brain, resulting in immediate death. This man was hooked through the mouth like a fish; and given the condition of his cartilage he died approximately two months ago."
"So we've just found a two month old murder victim covered in pink slime in a 150-year-old slave ship, is that about right?" Angela asked summing up the odd circumstances.
The other scientists nodded, but only Cam spoke, "Great! If a slave ship wasn't enough, we also have a case. I'll call Booth. Angela, make a facial reconstruction so that Booth can start looking into it. Hodgins take the pink slime out of the victim. And Dr. Brennan you can have one intern working on this case at a time, the rest stay with the ship."
Having given her orders to the other scientist, Cam walked to her office to inform Booth about the new case.
Hours later, Booth hung up the phone in his office, and turned slightly in his chair to look at Sweets and Agent Shaw. They were both standing by his desk waiting for instructions on how to proceed with the case.
"Well, Hodgins is still trying to ID the pink slime… he's hoping that it's an alien form and wants to name it after Angela… but Bones scanned the bones, and she told me that the victim was 19 or 20 years old, and he suffered child abuse. Angela gave us a face, and the face gave me a name… problem is the name and the face don't match." Booth gave Shaw a print of the driver license associated to the face to see if she could reach the same conclusion that he did. "Mike Casper is 28, married to Claire Casper, he has a kid, a dog, and a cushy aerospace job… see the problem?"
"ID theft?" Shaw suggested, and smiled when Booth nodded.
"That would be my guess, Shaw. You go, and bring both Claire and Mike Casper here for an interview," Booth ordered.
"Me, sir?" she asked both eager to do it, and happy that Booth trusted her to go on her own. Until now, she had only gone out with him.
"Yep. You're taking Wendell with you. Apparently he volunteered. The rest of the squints and squinterns will continue to work on the slave ship. Until Hodgins can kill the pink alien stuff there's not much they can do. However, I asked Angela to make a simulation of how our John Doe looked when he was a kid. He isn't in the Missing Person's Database; but he was abused when he was a kid, so if he ran away, we may get lucky and ID him through the Missing Children's Database."
Shaw accepted her orders with a smile, and left the office to pick up Wendell, and then the Casper's.
Booth turned his attention to the psychologist, who was still there. "Charlie is doing a background check on the Casper's, and once Shaw is here we'll go over it together. You can sit in the interview if you want, but until then there's nothing you can do. Go have a coffee or something."
Sweets didn't get the hint, so he didn't leave the room, and started talking about fishing nets, and whatnot, while Booth did his best to read the report on his desk and ignore the shrink. After some long moments, he had had enough and blurted, "Okay, why are you still here?"
"I'm weak. I'm weak, Agent Booth," Sweets started babbling and pacing around. He sounded pretty desperate, and he obviously needed Booth's advice. "I broke up with Daisy, but I can't keep my hands off her."
"What's new?" Booth asked sarcastically. He really didn't want to get involved in Sweets' relationship with Daisy. Still the younger man wanted help so he turned to look at him, and tried to give it. "All right, you're a guy. Life goes on."
Sweets walked to his desk, and faced the agent trying to have a real conversation. "Yeah, that's the problem. We broke up, but it just goes on. It's… it's like she's a magnet. Should I just let it happen?"
"Here. Pick it up," Booth said picking up a magic eight ball and putting it back on the desk in front of Sweets.
The psychologist shook the ball, and read the message, "yes, definitely. You think?"
"I don't know. How am I supposed to know?" Booth asked him frustrated.
"Years of experience? The perspective of age?" Sweets asked not considering that Booth may be sensitive about his age.
Booth's arms were resting on his desk, and he let his head fall on them sighing in annoyance. "Age!"
Stretching himself up again to lean on the back of his chair, he turned to look at the younger man even more frustrated than before. "How is it I went to sleep Han Solo, and I woke up Obi-Wan Kenobi?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," asked Sweets, very confused.
Booth growled at him. "First Bones wants me to stop hunting 'cause in her opinion my skeleton is falling apart, and now you want the perspective of age… I'm 38 for Christ's sake! If you want the perspective of age, go talk to Pops!"
The shrink finally understood that he was annoying the agent. In his opinion, an angry Booth was a very scary Booth, so he left the room in a hurry giving some weak excuse about work before he could make it worse.
Shaw was driving to the Casper's house in her issued SUV with Wendell in the passenger seat. He looked nervous, and he was obviously trying to gather the courage to ask her something.
The agent suspected that it had something to do with Evelyn and her decision to reject him without giving an explanation. Genny thought that Evelyn was making a mistake. Wendell is a good guy, he is a lot like Booth, and it is obvious that he really likes her so in Genny's opinion he was a good candidate for her friend. She understood Evelyn's fear all too well, but she didn't want to see her friend alone because she was scared. She had also refused to explain to him why she was rejecting him even though it was clear that she liked him too claiming that he didn't need an explanation and she wasn't obligated to give it. Maybe Evelyn was right about the second part, but not about the first: Wendell needed an explanation, and the guy was like a dog with a bone, he wasn't going to let it go until he got it.
"Okay, ask," Shaw asked bored of waiting, and a little annoyed with Wendell's constants glances. The squint kept looking at her as if he was going to find the courage to ask on her face.
Wendell, surprised at hearing the agent's voice, turned his head to look at her and stammered something that was supposed to be a question. "Wh-what?"
"You know, about Evelyn… just ask me why she rejected you. The sooner we get over this conversation the better. We're close."
"Okay. Why did Evelyn reject me?" he asked after taking a deep breath to calm himself. "Booth told me that you two share something, something big, really important. Well, what's that and how does it relate to rejecting me?"
"I can't answer that. In fact, I can't really tell you why she rejected you. She made me promise, and I keep my promises. But I can tell you that she really, really likes you, and that you should find the best sushi in DC and talk her into explaining it to you."
"Thanks," Wendell said smiling.
Shaw nodded and smiled back. She had kept her promise to her friend of not telling, but she was helping Wendell win her. She hadn't promised not to give some tips to the guy.
Shaw and Wendell bought the Casper's back to the Hoover for an interview. Then Wendell went back to the lab to work on the remains of the Amalia Rose, while the psychologist and the two agents conducted the interview.
They got nothing out of it because they lawyered up as soon as they understood that they were suspects. The ID theft was a motive, and Mike had a fishing boat which gave him the opportunity.
Angela's simulation of John Doe's face when he was a child and his ID from Missing Children's Database arrived when Booth was getting ready to leave for the day. Angela identified him as Liam Molony. He ordered Charlie to have someone run a background check on him, and have three copies of it handed to Evelyn first thing tomorrow. With that Booth considered his job done for the day, secured his station, locked his office, and left.
He drove to Parker's school to coach his hockey team. Parker had a bunch of activities after school hours, which he loved and so did his parents because they extended his time there until six allowing both of them to pick him up without problems every day. On Fridays when he had the science camp and the art class in the Jeffersonian, Booth would drive him there and then go back to work, so it still worked pretty well. Tuesday and Thursday he had Spanish and baseball in that order. Mondays and Wednesdays were French and hockey days though, so Booth was at his school at five to coach the team. On Thursdays Booth picked Parker up on his way to his own hockey practice and Parker, who's hockey things were in his dad's SUV, will either join them for a bit or "coach" them, repeating some of what Booth had said to his team the previous day. These activities not only kept Parker at school until Rebecca or Booth could get to him, but allowed Booth and Parker to bond through hockey. Also it was very good for him because it allowed the kid to practice sports, learn science, art, Spanish, and French. Booth was incredibly proud of him, and Parker had made a bunch of friends in those classes, so he was thrilled.
Once Parker was in the car, they drove to the Jeffersonian. Booth planned on convincing Cam to have dinner with them to take her mind off the slave ship. Convincing may not have been the right word, though considering that he planned to bribe her with homemade lasagna, Parker, and helping her prepare for the interview about her article about brain injuries in veterans.
Father and son arrived to the lab, and not seeing Cam on the platform, they walked to the Ookei room following the noise generated by Daisy and Hodgins arguing over a skeleton covered in some kind of pink fluff. It was obviously the skeleton of their victim and the pink slime that the entomologist was still trying to ID.
"I don't understand why you can't just pluck." Daisy was clearly frustrated with the lack of progress in cleaning the bones done by Hodgins.
"If I pluck them off one by one, it's going to take a week, Ms. Wick, so what you need to do is stop telling me how to do my job," answered Hodgins aggravated with the impatient intern.
Parker found the pink organism fascinating and immediately started to ask questions to Hodgins while completely ignoring the argumentative squintern. "Bug Man, what's that pink thing?"
"I don't see how this is going to hurry things up," Daisy continued the argument as if nothing had interrupted it.
Hodgins signed in annoyance, and lifting one finger he told the kid to wait a second. Parker knowing that Jack was going to read the riot act to Daisy waited patiently. "If I figure out what they are, I figure out how to get them off. Any more questions, Miss Wick?"
"Not at this moment." The irritation of both squints was palpable, and Booth who was leaning on the door watching the scene was starting to crave popcorn. He also could see that Parker was feeling more or less the same way which amused him even more.
"Well, Parker, I still don't know what it is… but I intend to find out," Hodgins answered the boy's question. He looked a lot calmer than a second ago, and in Booth's opinion the crazy entomologist was already talking like a dad. Just not to Daisy. But really no one, not even a parent of small kids, could have enough patience to deal with Daisy for more than ten minutes.
Hodgins took a flashlight to illuminate the skeleton better, and coaxed Parker to join him and watch the pink fluff making a movement with his free hand. "Aha! Yes! It's a type of benthic worm… that's a type of marine worm, Parker," exclaimed Hodgins very excited with his discovery. Turning his attention to the squintern, he said, "See, Miss Wick? Progress."
Cam entered the room at that moment, glared at Booth with suspicion, greeted Parker, and then gave her attention to the entomologist. "Okay, the only way I can get DNA to confirm the ID of our ID thief is by using bone marrow, but your alien organism has sucked it dry."
"Contrary to popular rumor, it is not my alien organism. Not yet, anyway. But I have narrowed it down to a type of benthic worm."
"That's a type of marine worm, Cam," Parker supplied seeing that the coroner was glaring at Jack.
"How can you not be able to ID a fluffy pink worm? How many of those could there possibly be?" Cam asked in disbelief.
"Oh, you'd be surprised," Jack answered very excited. "You see, Parker, most people don't know it but there are a lot of weird creatures in our planet."
Cam rolled her eyes at the entomologist, and gave up the intimidation act for the day. "So, Booth, what are you doing here? And don't tell me that you're fascinated by pink worms!" she asked the agent who was still observing the scene from the door.
"Nope, don't really care for Hodgins' pink fluffy thing. I'm here to invite you to homemade lasagna," the agent answered with his charming smile plastered on his face for good measure.
"You are going to make your lasagna for me because…" the coroner asked suspicious of the agent's intentions.
"You said that you wanted my help to prepare your interview, Camille."
"Don't call me Camille, Seeley," she retorted automatically. "No sane woman would reject your lasagna," she said walking past him to get her purse and jacket. "But don't think for a second that I don't know what you're doing, Big Guy."
Booth shrugged his shoulders; he didn't care that she knew, nor had he expected her not to. "As long as you come. And don't call me Seeley."
"Oh, Booth; thanks," the coroner added once she was back with her things ready to leave.
"You're welcome."
Booth signaled Parker that it was time to go, and after a brief goodbye to Hodgins, and the other squints, the Booth boys followed Cam out of the lab.
Hodgins went back to work on the pink fluff, but after some seconds he noticed that he wasn't being harassed by Daisy any more. Surprised by it, he lifted his head form the skeleton to find the squintern staring blankly to the open door Booth had left through. Hodgins shook his head in amusement; Booth was apparently the magic recipe to shut up the talkative woman.
Angela joined them in the Ookei room at that moment. She was ready to go home, and her husband noticing it, started packing to leave too. Angela raised her one eyebrow to ask Hodgins how he had mastered the art of silencing Daisy.
"Not me; Booth," Jack answered smirking. "She's been like this since he left," he explained a little bit better.
"Booth was here?"
"Yes, he invited Cam to homemade lasagna, and off they were… Daisy too," Hodgins said; laugher evident in his voice.
"Uhm… I can see why Agent Studly offering to cook for you can be crushable. He's even fitter since he came back from Afghanistan… all the running around in the desert and all…" Angela said in an exaggerated manner while waving her right hand in front of Daisy. "Think he broke her?"
Finally, Daisy came out of her trance denying vehemently that she could have a crush on the agent. "I do not have a crush on Agent Booth! My Lancelot is younger and strong… and…"
"I thought you and Sweets weren't together anymore," Hodgins pointed out.
Angela glared at him for being insensitive and the entomologist made a show of closing his mouth loudly. "Daisy, think of him as eye candy: you can see but you can't touch."
"Of course not! Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth are destined to be together. Well, destiny is not real, but they are a perfect match so metaphorically speaking, using the irrational concept of destiny… they should totally be together. I wouldn't want to interfere with that! I'm merely worried for Dr. Brennan… is Agent Booth dating Dr. Saroyan again? Lancelot told me they dated in the past…"
Hodgins and Angela exchanged a confused look, and started walking together out of the room. "Miss Wick, take care of those bones, and don't mess with my pink worm!" Hodgins ordered the intern.
They were already half way out of the lab, when Hodgins asked Angela how could Daisy be so clueless as to what was going on with Brennan and Booth.
"She's as clueless as Sweets, Hodgy," the artist stated trying really hard not to laugh at the weird couple, or not-couple, that Daisy Wick and Lancelot made.
Next day Booth had lunch with Alex in the Founding Fathers. They had made a habit of eating lunch together if they could because it allowed them to talk and get to know each other better without the pressure of a traditional date. They felt more relaxed this way, and it was working wonders in their very new relationship. It also was easier for them than have dinner dates because during the day their kids were at school or daycare so they didn't need babysitters if they wanted to be alone.
"So, did you ID that poor kid?" Alex asked showing interest in his case, but before he could answer she thought of something else, "How's Cam? You said yesterday that you wanted to have dinner with her to distract her from the Amalia Rose."
"Cam is okay… she's a bit shaken by it, but she a tough girl, she just…"
"Needs to know that she has her friends' support," Alex finished the sentence for him, seeing he was having difficulties finding the right words.
Booth nodded sadly. He knew that Cam was fine, she will be fine, but he also knew that it was affecting her, and he worried about his old friend. "I talked with her on the phone before lunch, and she told me that they'll need a week or so to ID all the remains, and the Department of Early American History is working on the ship. They're restoring it or something for the exhibit. They think they'll be ready in two weeks, so the board is already planning an inauguration event for then. Oh, and Angela is making portraits for the victims, one for each… they're going to be part of the exhibit."
"That's good of Angela, to give faces to those people," Alex commented smiling sadly. "It's sad, you know, to think that at one time slavery was legal under the ridiculous excuse of race."
"It's more than just sad," Booth said softly.
"Yeah, it's pretty horrible," Alex agreed with him. He was upset, it was clear to her, and she recognize that he probably was also upset on Cam's behalf, so she extended her hand over the table to squeeze his in a supportive gesture.
Booth answered by smiling sadly at her. Then, he cleared his throat, and stirred the conversation in a different direction. "Going back to the case, we did ID the kid. His name was Liam, he was in foster care his entire childhood, until he was busted two years ago for B&E with another foster kid. Liam got a suspended sentence in exchange for testifying against the other kid, so I've put Shaw into tracking him down."
"You think that he could have killed him out of revenge?" Alex asked a little disturbed by the thought.
"If you want the truth, I still think that it has to do with the ID theft, not revenge… it sounds a lot bigger, the Casper's have a lot more to lose," he confessed. "I'm just checking everything.
Oh, and on the funny side, Hodgins discovered what the pink slime is… apparently is not alien, just some kind of marine worm. He was a little disappointed about it, until he discovered that piranhas eat the fluffy thing, and he's now enjoying the spectacle of seeing them do it," he added smirking. Hodgins was one weird guy for sure.
Alex laughed; Booth has some odd friends. "Okay, now changing topics completely… are we still on for dinner tonight, or would you distract Cam again?"
"No, tonight is Paul's turn. I have hockey practice today, and after it Wendell will babysit Parker for our date," Booth answered smiling.
With that the couple went back to happier conversation topics, like their next date, the kids, or Susan's last attempt at convincing Alex to introduce Booth to her. In this occasion, Susan had claimed that Alex didn't have to conquer Booth's heart but his stomach, and then she had tried bribery offering to make her best pie, and give it to Alex so that she could to give it to him. Susan's interest in meeting him, and the ways she came up to try to convince Alex to introduce him to her, were really amusing to Booth. He already liked the woman, and he hasn't met her yet.
Seeing as there wasn't much to work on the Molony case until they located Hunter Lang, Molony's accomplice in the B&E that got him caught, or the squints gave him more information, he decided to work on something different.
He read some of the reports from his agents about other cases; he made some notes about them, and the possible strategies to follow to catch the bad guys, or about things he wanted to talk about with the agents in charge of those cases. Then, he made a list of agents he wanted to talk with the next day, and left for the day, taking with him some agents' evaluation reports that Evelyn had printed because they were ready for signature and to be sent up the ladder. He'll read them once more at home after his date with Alex, before signing them. He'll still have a lot to do in the morning, but at least it would be one less thing.
He drove to Parker's school to pick him up, and they drove to Booth's hockey practice, while the boy told his father everything about his baseball practice, which was awesome, in the kid's words.
The practice was fun for everyone, even Parker who, having his gear in Booth's SUV, joined them for a little while. After it, Booth showered and shaved in the lockers for his date with Alex, something the other players noticed.
"Shaving, Booth? You got a date with the hot doctor?" one of them commented teasingly.
"Johnson if you keep talking like that I'm gonna kick your ass, and then I'd let her make you a eunuch like she threatened to do," Booth said using his boss voice. The other player swallowed and promptly shut up.
Booth made a quick job of putting on his suit, and a new dress shirt. "Wendell, you about ready?" he asked the squintern, who was already dressed and was getting his gear in his bag. Receiving affirmative response from Wendell, the agent got two ties out of his bag, and showed them to Parker. "Bud, what do you think, which one should I wear?" Parker pointed to Booth's favorite red tie, and once he had that on, they left the ring.
Wendell took Parker in his car to Booth's apartment, and spent the rest of the evening with the kid. Booth had left food ready in the fridge so he only needed to heat it up for dinner. After dinner Parker did his homework, with some help from Wendell, and then, they played videogames until bedtime. Once Parker was in bed, Wendell got settled in the living room with his books to study while he waited for Booth.
Meanwhile, Booth and Alex had a very enjoyable dinner at Sid's. Alex had insisted on returning there, not caring for an expensive restaurant, and preferring Sid's great food, and the relaxed atmosphere of the place. It was only Thursday after all, and they both needed to be at work the next day, so they couldn't stay long.
After dinner Booth drove Alex back home, and walked with her up the stairs the two floors to her apartment.
"You shaved again this afternoon; you wanted to look pretty," she teased him.
"You let your hair free, and you're wearing more make up than this afternoon," he retorted in the same teasing tone. She was still wearing the same red and black work dress, he noticed, that emphasized her figure. He could admit it; he loved that dress. Now her hair wasn't tied up in a bun anymore but free though, and her makeup was more appropriate for a date than a workday.
Alex laughed. "Truce," she offered. They were already by her apartment's door, where Susan was staying to take care of the kids, who probably were already sleeping.
Her laugh made Booth smile at her sweetly, and he accepted the truce with a nod. "Susan's spying on us again. You should expect a good grilling the moment you cross that door," he said in good humor.
"You feel observed again. Then you probably should kiss me goodnight and leave before she decides to pull you into the house and grill you instead of me," she answered smiling.
Booth accepted the invitation, and kissed her goodnight. He intended it to be a sweet, soft kiss, but was surprised when Alex grabbed him by the lapels of his suit jacket before he could retire, and kissed him thoroughly.
When they broke apart, she blushed, smiled a little, and with a goodnight and a promise to call him for lunch the next day, she went inside leaving a speechless, grinning like an idiot Booth.
Suffice to say that when Booth arrived home, he still had the silly grin plastered on his face.
Wendell did his best not to laugh at the agent, and contented himself with teasing him lightly. Booth paid him for his job, and the squintern left, still trying not to laugh. He wanted to live long enough to get his doctorate, at the very least.
He couldn't help himself, however, and had to make one last comment as he left the apartment, "you still have lipstick on your face, Booth."
"Shut up!" Booth shouted at the squintern, since the door was closing. Yet, he was unable to hide his smile, and with it firm on his face, he went into the bathroom to look himself in the mirror, to find that he had indeed red lipstick on his lips. His smile grew even wider. He had a very good feeling about Alex.
Alex closed the door to her apartment behind her and let her body fall against it. She was grinning like an idiot, and she could barely believe she had kissed the man so thoroughly and passionately after only a few dates. Until now their kisses had been sweet and soft, tentative even sometimes, and she knew he, being the perfect gentlemen he was, was going to give her another gentlemen-ish goodnight kiss. She had wanted more so she had changed the tune and opened the door for a little more passion to come into their very new relationship. She hadn't been disappointed; the kiss had turned out to be one hell of a kiss, and she had felt his strong arms bringing her closer to his body and one of his hands playing with her hair.
"That was some kiss, young lady," an old, tiny, black woman said pinning Alex under her knowing glare. She was clearly amused by Alex appearance: messed up hair, flushed face, idiotic smile…
"Susan!" Alex complained knowing very well that her friend had been spying them.
"Oh, no, no, no… do not get all flustered with me now. You were the one who instigated it," Susan said with her voice full of laugher while she picked her purse and things to leave the apartment. "The rugrats are sleeping, so I'm going to go. Enjoy feeling stupid for now… I'll want details and I expect to meet him soon, young lady!"
And with that Susan left, leaving Alex rooted in her living room looking at the closed door of her apartment in astonishment. She shook her head trying to clear it, secured the door, took off her heels, and walked further into the apartment enjoying the feelings Booth had elected, or like Susan said, feeling stupid.
Thanks for reading. Please tell me what you think :-)
To everyone who put this story/me in their alert/favorite lists, and to everyone who reviewed: THANKS :-D
Julianne: I'm glad you liked the last chapter. We had a little more of Alex/Booth here in this chapter, and we will have more in the future. Alex's presence in the chapters (and their relationship) will grow with time, so you'll get your wish.
While I don't let negative reviews affect my writing, I do believe that people should express their opinions in a civilized and polite manner. I don't like rude people. There's no need to be rude, when you can say the same thing without being rude. But thanks for your nice words, and like always thanks for your review. :-D
Kris: Thanks for your review, it is appreciated. :-) I'm glad you liked how I write and that you gave the story an opportunity even if you don't like non-B&B stories. I know that a lot of people don't like reading stories where they don't end together, that's why I put a warning about it at the beginning of the story. I'll understand if you don't continue reading. :-) The only thing I can tell you, is that the story will have a happy ending, just not a B&B happy ending.