Temperance pulled the car into her assigned parking spot. She turned to Booth, sitting in the passenger seat, "Are you sure you don't mind stopping here?"

"Not at all," he said, reaching across his body for the door latch. "You need to pick up some things for when you stay at my place. Now is just as good a time as any." With a 'Click' the door swung open. He started edging his way off the seat.

Temperance smiled, "Are you sure you're okay with having some of my stuff at your place?" Booth turned back to her with a questioning look. "Well, when Angela had a lot of her things at Hodgins' it got weird between them. And it took advice from Gordon Gordon to set things right."

Booth returned to his task of getting out of the car, "Hodgins and Angela were dating at the time…Doesn't apply here." Temperance's smile faded a bit. "Don't worry about it," he continued.

She turned off the engine and got out. Booth was still trying to situate the arm sling when she appeared on his side of the car. She leaned down and slid her arm around his waist. "Here, put your free arm around my shoulder," she suggested. Booth did as instructed. She placed a foot on the outside of each of his to set a base for her to distribute his weight. "Now, stand." As he did so, Temperance pulled up as much of his weight as she could. 'Lift with your legs' she thought. Once Booth was on his feet they were standing in as close an embrace as Booth could remember. He could feel her hair brushing his cheek. The aroma of her skin filled his nostrils. He felt her arms around his waist and her thighs on the outside of his. Their abdomens pressed together. Was the dizziness from the simple act of standing, or the touch of her body against his? Like so many times lately, he found he didn't care. "Are you okay?" Temperance asked, feeling his unsteadiness.

He gulped and stepped back a bit, "Yeah…I'm okay."

"You could have stayed in the car," she continued, "I wouldn't have been long."

"I needed to get up and moving around." Temperance looked into his eyes, "Get hold of yourself," he thought. She nodded and stepped back warily…making sure he had his balance.

Temperance closed the car door and then encircled her arm around Booth's free arm. The two began moving towards the walkway to her apartment building.

As Booth scanned through the after discharge care paperwork, Temperance began putting basic necessities into an overnight bag. Clean undergarments, toiletries, toothbrush in a travel tube, "I should get one of these for Booth," she thought. "I won't need work clothes," her internal narrative continued. "I'll bring him back here Sunday night." She packed some nightclothes and a robe. Temperance looked at his shirt hanging on her closet door. She moved to the shirt. Making sure Booth wasn't near her bedroom door, she leaned in and drank in his aroma. When she lifted him out of the car she was sure he could feel her heart racing. Her legs tingled at the rememberance of his legs between hers. Temperance opened her eyes and straighted out the shirt on the hanger. She had safety-pinned his socks together and they hung from the wire as well. She thought about moving them out of sight, but decided against it. "We're not going to be here long enough to worry about it." She concluded, and moved back out to the living room, overnight bag in hand.

Booth was standing by her bookshelves, fingering something. As she got closer, she realized what had caught his attention. Moving forward, she wrapped her arm around his waist. Her hand held the side of his waist. He jumped, "Sorry," she laughed.

He turned to her, "I'm normally more on the ball than that." He smiled, "I guess I just felt I was in a place I could be comfortable and let down my guard."

"You are," she softly said.

He turned back to the figurines he had been studying. "You put them on display?"

She nodded, "Mmmm…in case you haven't figured it out yet, I put all my favorite pieces of art on display."

"Somehow," Booth mused, "I don't' think a plastic pig figurine and a figurine from a children's cartoon would be classified as 'art'."

"It doesn't matter," Temperance said, "they're my favorites."

Charlie began the introductions around the table, "This," he said, patting the woman's thigh to his right, "is Julie. She works in Latent Prints." Jon extended his hand as he had done with Cam and Angela. Charlie continued, indicating the man with the glasses, "This is Tom, from Research…that includes Personnel Records as well." Jon shook his hand. Moving everyone's attention to Tom's right, "That's Tammi, she's our computer whiz. She's in IT." Again, Jon held Tammi's hand as before with Julie. Turning towards the blonde, "You've kind of already met our 'den mother' so to speak." Christine shot Charlie a dirty look. At a poke in the ribs from Julie, Charlie added, "Christine. She's our Audio specialist." Jon repeated his touch, but with more tenderness and warmth. Christine smiled. Charlie continued, "And of course, you know who I am…"

"Chaz," Jon interrupted. Charlie stopped, looking confused. "I've decided I'll call you 'Chaz'…"Jon paused, "If that's okay, that is."

Charlie thought about it…he looked at Julie, who gave an appraising, and then an approving look, "Okay," he smiled. He then introduced Jon to the group, "This is Agent Jon Smith. He's the guy I told you all about."

Jon smiled at the group, "Pleased to meet you all. I'm not big on formality; so is there anything each of you would prefer to be called?"

Julie looked at Chaz and then at Jon, "Jules is what he" nodding at Chaz, "calls me. You might as well follow suit."

Tammi smiled, "I've always wanted to be called, 'Tams.'"

"Then Tams it is," Jon said, smiling. He turned to Tom.

"Tom is just fine," he said, shaking his head.

Jon turned to Christine, "How about you? While Christine is a beautiful name, and it suits you, anything I can call you that would be less formal?"

"I…I don't know, "she said embarrassed.

"Aw…come on…" Chaz prompted. Followed by the rest of the table, including Jon, "Tell us…You know you want to…"

She smiled; Jon could see her traveling back in time in her mind, "Ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to be called 'Cricket'." The table went quiet….evaluating the name. She looked at Jon. He was lost in his own happy memories of childhood.

Jules asked, "Why Cricket?"

Christine answered, "Well, I can make a chirp like a cricket."

Jon sat back, smiling, "Oh…we've got to hear this!" He said, shaking his head and clapping his hands. The rest of the table joined in.

After many protestations, finally, she adjusted her lips into an almost grimace and the sound of a high-pitched chirping cricket rose from her mouth. The table exploded in applause and laughter. "Just goes to show you how my mind works," Jon said, "When she said 'Cricket' my mind went to something totally different."

"Really?" Cricket asked, more intently than Jon expected. "And just where did your mind go?"

Jon began, "When I was a kid, there was this television show called…"

"Hawaiian Eye," Cricket finished, smiling.

Jon, shocked, continued, "And on the show there was a character called…"

"Cricket Blake," Cricket finished for him. She continued, "She was played by…"

"Connie Stevens," this time it was Jon's turn to finish a sentence. He looked at her admiringly.

She looked at him innocently, "What? I used to watch re-runs with my father." Jon smiled and nodded. "I had such a crush on Robert Conrad," she continued.

Jon threw up his hands in mock frustration, "There it is again! Story of my life! Losing out to a taller guy!" The table laughed. "Although, for a taller guy, he was pretty short. You know he was only about 5' 8"."

Cricket offered him condolences, "That's okay. You look tall enough for your feet to hit the ground."

Jules asked, "So what do we call you?"

"Anything but Jonny or Smitty," Jon laughed.

I got it," Tams looked at him and sweetly offered, "Dad."

Jon's jaw dropped. He was utterly flabbergasted.

Jules also felt like helping, "How about Grandpa?"

Jon was struck speechless. Fingers were being pointed his way and laughing accusations were flying, "You said, 'anything'." He finally gave up, and, nodding his head, agreed to being called 'Dad' or 'Grandpa.' "Booth can't find out," he thought. "I'll never hear the end of it…I'll be dead meat." He looked over at Cricket; she had a 'You asked for it' look on her face.

Brennan and Booth looked into each other's eyes. The world seemed to have stopped. Booth started to speak, "There's some things I need to tell…" He was interrupted by Brennan's cell phone. She made no move to check it. It repeated its ring. "You should probably get that….it might be important," Booth said.

Disappointed, Temperance moved to her countertop and picked up the phone. It was Cam. "Hi Cam," she said, her eyes never moving from Booth. "Uh huh….okay…what's the address? Arlington National Cemetery?" She wrote the directions down. "Okay, are you going to call Jon?" A pause, "All right, I'll see you there."

Temperance moved towards Booth, she breathed, "I have to go."

He nodded, "I know."

"I can swing by and drop you off at your place on the way," she said.

"No," Booth said, "I can wait here until you get back." Then he quickly added, "If that's all right, that is."

She smiled, "Of course it is. I'll try to get back as soon as possible."

"No," Booth said. Temperance was taken aback. He continued, "Do your job the way you should. We owe it to whoever it is. I'll be here when you get back."

She smiled reassuringly through closed lips. Temperance nodded her head. She pointed to her refrigerator, "If you get hungry…"

"I'll order in," he smiled.

At the front door, she nodded, "I'll be back soon."

Booth smiled, "Have a nice day at work, dear."

Feeling better, she left.

Jon was standing by the CD jukebox hanging on the wall by the bar. Holding his club soda in his left hand, his right index finger was navigating through the available CDs and songs. Cricket walked up and entwined her arm with his, "Music buff, Jon?"

He looked at her, smiling "You're not going to call me 'Dad'?"

She took a deep breath, looking at the table, "They're pretty snarky, aren't they? Where did Chaz and Jules go?" Jon looked at the table and then shook his head.

"They're young. If it helps make a connection between the years, I can live with it," Jon explained. "Besides," he continued, smiling "I am old enough and they're young enough for me to actually be their Dad." After a pause, "You didn't answer my question."

"I don't want to look at you like you're my Dad."

"How do you want to look at me?"

She took a deep breath through her nose and squeezed his arm tighter. She turned to the jukebox. "Find anything good?"

Jon nodded. "You can tell a lot about a place by the kind of music on the jukebox. This place has a pretty good mixture."

"What does that tell you?"

"That at different times of the day, there's a different crowd. See…this bunch of popular, relatively recent songs means that at some time there's a younger crowd in here. Classic rock / pop means it's a bit older crowd, still working. And then for the older crowd, there's the more traditional….How old do you think I am?" He asked, turning towards her.

Cricket looked at him appraisingly, "I'd say about 50."

Jon cocked his head back and forth, "Pretty close. I'm 55." Cricket looked impressed. "I look younger when I don't have a beard or moustache."

"And how old do you think I am?" she asked.

"That's a minefield, buddy." He thought. "Better not go too overboard." Jon looked at her, "I'd say about 40."

Cricket smiled and gave his arm a tug, "Flatterer! But I like my man to be honest….try again."

How long had it been since he had been in such close proximity with an attractive, intelligent, if somewhat clumsy woman? "Who seems to genuinely be interested in me?" He was acutely aware of his triceps pressed into her breast. "Okay," he surrendered, "43."

She leaned in closer and whispered in his ear, "I'm 49." Jon leaned back and looked at her. She nodded. "I'm tired of all the boys wanting to have a go with the older woman, and the old men wanting to relive their youth. I want someone I can actually talk to, laugh with and share the joys and tribulations life has to offer." Jon's jaw dropped. "Am I scaring you? I know we've only just met a couple of hours ago, but even before the 'No Parking' sign affair, I thought we had made a connection. Was I wrong?"

Jon smiled, "Not at all. I just have to warn you," looking in her eyes, "I don't put out on the first date."

"What a coincidence," she smiled, "Neither do I."

At that moment, Jon's phone began buzzing. "Aaarrrgh!" he gurgled. "I have to take this."

"I know…" you work for the F…B…I" she said.

It was Cam. A body had been found on Memorial Drive at Arlington National Cemetery. The body has been badly burned. Cam had already contacted Dr Brennan and will meet them at the site.

Jon hung up. He started to shake his head and make his apologies when Cricket took his phone and started pushing buttons. When she was finished, she gave the phone back to him. "Call me when you get done…I'll be up."

He smiled and made his way to the door.