The hours sped by as Lauren read the books. They really were great, even thirty years later. When she finished the second one, she decided to get up and walk around. Testing out the crutches, she moved to the other side of the room to look in the trophy case. She was surprised.

On one side she saw an FBI badge, and a couple of medals, a framed letter, a basketball trophy, an army medal and a belt buckle with a rooster on it.

On the other side she saw a plastic pig, a brainy smurf, a beer dispensing helmet, a framed letter, a pacifier and a glass dolphin.

"What is all this stuff?"

Brennan turned to her.
"Oh…a lot of those are really long stories…mostly just prized possessions of mine, and Booth."

Lauren smiled and hobbled over to the wall. She gasped.

"Oh my…"

It was a framed canvas with six pair of eyes painted on. Three brown, three blue.

Her fingers reached up to trace one brown pair.

"That is a painting from my best friend, Angela. She made that for Booth and I for Christmas one year."

"Your eyes, all of you."
"Yes…you know about the last name stuff. Well, this is also kind of a thing with Booth, and me. When we adopted Angela, I chose her because of her amazing brown eyes, like Booth, so when we adopted Jared, and then Cara, he chose them based on their blue eyes."
"Like yours."

"Yes."

Lauren turned back toward the other pair of brown eyes.

"Parker…" I love him, she thought.

"Yes, those are his eyes."

Lauren stared a moment longer, wondering what he'd been thinking about when this Angela had seen him.

"This should be creepy, but somehow it isn't."

"I feel the same way."

Lauren spun around, almost falling in the process to see Parker standing in the doorway. She blushed at the way she'd been caught staring at his eyes, or the painting of his eyes, at least. She worried he could see her thoughts.

"Hi."
"Hi."

She swallowed as he came nearer.

"Bones, do you mind giving us a minute?"
"No, that's fine. I want to talk to your dad, anyways." She said as she left the room.

Parker looked at her for a moment.

"Would you like to sit down?" he asked.

"Yes please."

He handed her the crutches and followed her to the chaise lounge, making sure she was situated.

"I'd like to look at your ankle again, please."

"Okay."

He smiled as he released the bandage. He'd gotten lightly sunburned across his nose today, and she loved him. His hair was lighter from being in the sun, and she loved him. He was so kind, and she loved him.



"Skills…I really am sorry." He kept his eyes on her foot.
"I know. I'm sorry too, for what I said. Parker…I…"

"Skills, I did some thinking today…about you, and me…"
"Okay" she thought maybe he was going to tell her he cared about her.
"I…I think maybe we should just forget about this whole thing and try to go back to being friends."
"Oh."

He checked her ankle and held it in his hand as he rotated it, careful to keep his touch light.

"Skills?"

"Yeah…Parker…that sounds like a good idea."

"Good." He rewrapped her foot and smiled. As he got up, he turned back to her.

"The bag's for you, by the way." He said as he closed the door.

She looked beside her and pulled the brown paper bag up. She looked inside. One large, friendly, family size bag of Cool Ranch Doritos….damn it.

Parker left the room thinking he should be feeling better about this. He'd thought all day about her, and had come to the conclusion that she wasn't interested. He was sorry about that; he really, really liked her, maybe even loved her, and for that reason, he decided to give her an out. He knew she'd feel bad ignoring him all the time because she didn't care about him as much as he cared for her, so he figured that if he lied and told her he just wanted to be friends, then she'd feel comfortable being around him. It sucked though, no doubt about it.

By the evening, her ankle felt strong enough to walk out to watch the basketball games. She sat by Brennan and helped keep score, laughing the way the siblings tried to trick each other and their dad. At one moment, Booth and Parker made an excellent play, and they turned toward the two women with identical looks of pride on their faces. Brennan laughed, and Lauren tried to, but it got stuck in her throat. She knew she really needed to get over him. She was trying to talk herself into it. She knew he'd feel bad if he had to stop being around her just because she couldn't control some immature emotions, and she wanted him to be comfortable around her. It was not fun though, not at all.