Title: Object of my Affection
Author: Shannon - shannyfish
Disclaimer: I do not own "Bones" or its characters, Fox does. This is merely for entertainment purposes only.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Booth and Brennan must struggle with not only the Grad Students trying to take Zack's old position, but also help get through a tragic end.
Warning: Post Season Three - "Pain in the Heart". Would take place during Season Four, probably mid to late. Warning! Do not start reading this unless you plan on reading all…like…one hundred chapters (it might be that many…might not…). This will be an epic/saga-type fic and shall include all kinds of fun plot twists. The rating of this story will most likely fluctuate, FYI.

Chapter 37 – "Halloween Morning"

Author's Note: Okay, so I'm actually swapping chapters around…so hopefully this all will still make sense… : )

Trailer #1: h t t p : // www . mediafire . com / ?20w12iod0dd

Hopefully this all shows us, just remove the spaces : )

…………………….

Booth Residence

"Da-ad! I'm going to be late for school!" Parker yelled.

Parker's voice permeated through the bedroom walls and Booth groaned in protest. He rolled onto his other side and stared at the clock. His alarm should have gone off…it was Friday…and he was supposed to have Parker to school early on top of it all. "Damn," he cursed quietly. He figured that he must have deactivated it the night before by accident.

"What time is it?" Brennan asked sleepily as she clung to Booth's body. His shifting had interrupted her sleep.

"I'll be out in a minute!" Booth called and then sighed. He rolled over in Brennan's direction and noticed that she still looked sleepy. "It's Halloween…I was supposed to be up an hour ago to start getting Parker into his costume."

"Do you want me to get him ready?" Brennan offered.

"He's probably already ready," Booth told her and pulled her close and savored their warm skin coming in contact together. He smiled and leaned in and kissed her gently, "Plus, Jared's coming in in a couple hours. I should really get to the airport."

Brennan frowned; she had expected to spend a longer morning with Booth. "Let me come with you to drop off Parker at school at least," she said.

"You gotta be ready in ten minutes," he told her before placing a kiss on her lips once again and then shot out of bed in order to be ready.

Brennan got out of bed quickly as well and collected her clothes as she made her way to her overnight bag. She carefully folded her clothes and set them next to her bag before retrieving a new set of clothes from the overnight bag. She dressed quickly and then proceeded to the bathroom to brush her hair and her teeth. She was ready when Booth was and followed him out of the bedroom with Booth. It wasn't a surprise to Parker that she'd spent the night; she'd done it several times over the past week.

Parker was already dressed in his costume, he'd picked Iron Man. "I don't understand how Halloween is allowed at public school when there's a separation of church and state," Brennan said as they headed for Booth's vehicle.

"Halloween is not a Christian holiday," Booth argued. "Isn't it like a Pagan holiday?"

"Its origins are linked to the Celtic festival called Samhain," Brennan informed him. "It's linked to their harvest, but they also believed that it was the day that the boundary between the living and the dead ceases to exist."

…………………..

En Route to the Jeffersonian

"Can I go with you to pick up Jared?" Brennan asked. She really didn't have much to do at the Jeffersonian besides identifying bodies from Limbo. Normally, it would be something that she wouldn't have any problem in doing, but right now…she just wanted to be with Booth. Maybe she needed the day off…maybe she was just falling for him… There had been two other men in her life that she had truly cared about, neither seemed to work out in the long run. The first had been a previous professor, who she never intended on talking to again after she found that he had become soft over the years and no longer cared for the pure science of what they did. The second was Sully, an F.B.I. agent that she had been seriously involved with…but he bought a boat and she just couldn't leave… He said he'd come back in a year…but he hadn't returned yet and it had been almost two. Sometimes she wondered if she'd broken his heart and if she had silently broken her own. Angela had always been the one quietly prodding her, but it wasn't until very recently that she'd taken up any of Angela's advice when it came to Booth.

"Don't you want to put together bones and return them to their relatives?" he asked surprised.

"I don't have to," Brennan said evenly.

Booth looked over at her surprised. "Who are you and what have you done with my partner?" he asked. He looked back at the road and placed one of his hands over her forehead, "Or are you sick? That's going around."

"I'm not sick," she argued and pushed his hand away. "And is that all we are? Partners?"

Booth could hear that she sounded a bit disappointed. He hadn't meant it like that. He was just so used to the title and girlfriend seemed like a lower status of their relationship. They had been friends first and then the best of friends…sure they had been working together for nearly four years, but still girlfriend didn't seem right. Lover seemed dirty to him…like it was something in which they were doing something wrong. It just didn't seem right. "I don't know what title to put on our relationship."

"Well, aren't we dating?" Brennan asked.

"Sortive," Booth admitted.

"I don't understand."

"It's complicated," Booth tried to explain. "We were really close before, Bones. I just don't feel like calling you my girlfriend is an adequate title for what we have."

"What's a better one?" she questioned. His logic was acceptable.

Booth thought about it for a moment as he continued on. He figured that it would be best to take her to the Jeffersonian and to get Jared on his own. He knew that she wanted to go with him, but Jared wasn't exactly someone he was proud of all the time. "I don't know…I haven't thought of one that fits quite yet."

"Let me know if you figure out a better one," Brennan said dropping it. She didn't think that what Booth said was unreasonable. She was happy at the moment with them just being together. She knew that it was still hard for Booth since it hadn't been long since Rebecca had died, plus he was still working through custody of Parker.

"Sure," he said quietly and continued on towards the Jeffersonian.

Brennan looked over at Booth, "Do you think that our relationship is at all beneficial to Parker? I don't want our relationship to adversely affect Parker, especially with the loss of his mother."

"Of course not," Booth said. "Parker loves you."

Brennan smiled, "I love him, too."

"Look, I should talk with Jared first," Booth started to explain his reasoning for taking Brennan to the Jeffersonian. He didn't want her to think that he was just rejecting her for no good reason. Jared Booth wasn't the perfect brother, but he wasn't either…they had history and Booth needed to speak with his brother. He wasn't going to allow his brother to mess up the holidays, especially one in which Parker would immensely enjoy the festivities. He didn't want Parker to be upset his first holiday season without his mother.

They'd go trick or treating tonight with Brennan and Jared and then on Saturday he and Brennan would take Parker with them to the Jeffersonian's Halloween Ball. They'd been spending plenty of time together over the next two days, but he really was cautious about Brennan meeting Jared right off the bat. His family wasn't perfect, though he knew that hers wasn't either. Brennan's family was full of criminals it seemed, though well intentional. His family was full of drunks who abused him in various ways.

"Alright," Brennan responded, but kept an eye on him. She wasn't very informed on the subject of Booth's family, but didn't push it. Booth knew all about her family, but that was because her abandoning parents were criminals and Russ seemed to follow in their footsteps.

"You're not going to be mad at me for dropping you off at the Jeffersonian, are you?" Booth asked her.

"No."

"You sure?"

She laughed, "Booth, I'll be fine. Angela and I can go have coffee and go on a long lunch…and I'll identify remains from Limbo."

"You don't sound as thrilled as you normally do."

Brennan shrugged, "I just wanted to spend the day with you."

"Sorry."

"It's okay."

……………………

Washington Dulles International Airport

Booth easily bypassed airport security with a flash of his badge and was waiting for his brother outside the terminal when the airplane touched down. His relationship with Jared had sometimes been a rocky one, but he was still his little brother and it was his job to be there for him. Jared had called him after Rebecca's death and had explained that since he'd accumulated quite a bit of leave that he'd use it to spend the holidays with him and Parker. Who was he to refuse such an offer? After all, holidays were about spending time with family.

He waited with coffee in hand for Jared, he half expected his little brother to be the first one off the plane, having using his status as a lieutenant commander of the U.S. Navy to get him preferential treatment. He wouldn't put it past Jared to do such a thing; it went right along with Jared's ego. But Jared wasn't the first one out…he was the last one out escorting a flight attendant off the flight. Just like Jared.

"Seeley!" Jared exclaimed.

Booth smiled and noticed Jared snag a piece of paper from the flight attendant and then flashed her a smile as she walked away. "Making friends?" Booth asked.

"Since I plan on being here for a while, I figured it would be a smart option," Jared told him. "Have to have someone around to have a drink with every once in a while…or just for some company," he said flashing his smile towards his brother.

Booth just nodded lightly, "Do you have any other luggage?" he asked. Jared was toting around a duffel bag and a rolling carry-on.

"I've got the rest mailed to your apartment; I figured it would be less wrinkly that way." Jared smirked, "Plus, less hassle and less likely that it'll get lost."

They walked out of the airport and towards the parking structure where Booth had parked the F.B.I. issue dark SUV. "Look, you know my partner?"

"The scientist?" Jared asked curious at the subject that his brother was currently pursuing. He'd talked to his older brother a few times about his overly intelligent partner, but he didn't understand why his brother was bringing her up now. "Isn't she a best selling author now, too?"

"Yeah," Booth said. "Doctor Temperance Brennan."

"Right. So, what? She still irritating you?"

"No," he said with a frown. "We're sort of…dating."

"Sort of dating?" Jared asked and laughed as they headed through the dimly lit parking structure.

Booth frowned, "Why is that so funny?" he asked confused. He didn't understand his younger brother sometimes.

"All I can remember is you going on about how she was annoying and how she always puts in that she's smarter than you are," Jared said. "That right there should tell you that she's too good for you, Seeley."

"Gee, thanks," Booth mumbled. He beeped his vehicle as they approached it, so that it both let them know the exact location in the sea of vehicles and unlock the vehicle. "You know, Bones and I have—"

"You still call her Bones?" Jared asked shocked. "Please tell me that there's a double meaning to that name besides the fact that she uses skeleton bones in order to solve cases."

"We solve those cases together," Booth defended and opened the truck hatch, so that Jared could put his things inside. "Look, I just wanted to tell you that she's very important to me."

"Important, okay," Jared commented, his smirk still firmly in place.

"I mean it, Jared," Booth said.

"I got it," Jared said and pulled down the hatch on the back of the vehicle. He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door and then got in and shut it. "Look, Seeley, you have nothing to worry about… We'll make sure that this is a great Halloween for Parker. I want to take him to some haunted houses and –"

"I think he's a little too young for that, Jared," Booth argued. Parker was only six; he didn't think that taking him to a haunted house was appropriate at his age.

"Come on, Seeley, it'll be fun. Plus, we'll go to one of those ones that are made for kids his age. It's no big deal. The whole area will have all kinds of stuff, especially since it falls on a Friday this year."

"He's already going to have a long night at the Jeffersonian Halloween Ball the tomorrow, I don't think he needs to go out all night on Halloween," Booth said.

Jared sighed and shook his head as his brother pulled out of the spot and headed out of the parking structure. "You're making the kid go to some boring event at work?"

"Technically, it's not work, since I work for the F.B.I.," Booth corrected.

"You work with the Jeffersonian, so basically the same thing."

Booth frowned, "He wants to go."

"Why would any kid want to go to some party with boring adults everywhere?" Jared shook his head, "Aren't there any kids from his class having a party that you could have him go to instead? I mean, I think spending quality time with me is a better idea than subjecting him to such boredom. I mean, it's going to be the weekend…it's for fun after all."

"But he wants to go."

"That's probably what he told you because he knows that it's what you want to hear."

Booth didn't like the idea, but knew it was a possibility. He really hadn't thought of it like that, but he hated the idea of Jared knowing how to parent his son better than he did. He'd talk to Parker…

…………………….

Jeffersonian

"Okay, where is she?" Booth called loudly.

"Who?" Cam asked alerted to Booth's unusually loud voice. She immediately noticed the younger Booth at his side and smiled. "Jared!"

"Camille," Jared acknowledged with a nod and a smile.

"Where is she, Cam?" Booth asked again.

"Doctor Brennan?" Cam asked.

"Of course, Doctor Brennan," Booth said short.

Cam frowned, "You were late picking him up. The office said they tried to reach you and we even tried to reach you before she went to pick him up. She made sure she got pictures like you were supposed to," she informed him. "Angela's downloading them now and e-mailing them to everyone."

"Why does it sound like you're all adopting Parker and using some 'it takes a village to raise a child' philosophy?" Jared asked. He was starting to wonder if this was his brother…or maybe he'd just been brainwashed by all of the 'squints' that he worked so closely with. Of course, Camille worked there, so he wasn't sure if his brother had just gone soft…or maybe he was just head over heels in love with his partner and he'd gone crazy.

"It's not a crazy idea," Cam argued. "We're just like an extended family."

"An extended family that kidnaps Parker," Booth mumbled.

"Doctor Brennan is on your list of people who are authorized to pick up Parker from school, Seeley," Cam said. "Be nice to her, she didn't do anything wrong."

"She's right, Seeley," Jared spoke up.

"The Beltway—" Booth started.

Hodgins' voice interrupted, "I knew it was traffic on the Beltway!"

"Hey," Booth said and pointed towards Hodgins. "Where's Parker?"

"What's with the tone?"

"My son was abducted."

"Angela and Doctor Brennan have him," Hodgins told him. "I think Angela is lecturing him on not eating candy until you inspect it."

"At least it's educational here," Jared mused aloud with a smile.

Cam waited with Jared and watched as Booth made his way towards Angela's office. She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. "Too bad Sweets isn't here, he'd enjoy this."

"Who's Sweets?" Jared asked.

"Brennan and Booth's psychologist."

"They have a psychologist?"

"F.B.I. figures that they should have one," Cam explained. "Since Booth arrested Brennan's father and brother, they thought that it was a good idea. Sweets is still clueless at how they work well together."

"I hear they're dating."

"I think they've been dating unofficially since they started working together," Cam said with a smirk. "Anyways, I should get back to my morgue."

"I guess I'll just wait here for Seeley," Jared said.

"Just don't touch anything," Cam warned.

………………

TBC…