(The Bond in the Boot)

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I don't own Bones.

Ooooooooooooooooo

The pipe below his kitchen sink had ruptured and Booth felt it was time for he and Brennan to get serious about looking for a house. The apartment he was living in was old and the supervisor didn't make repairs unless he was threatened and even then, Booth considered his work to be a half-ass job. He had stopped asking for repairs to be done after his second year living there and took care of the repairs himself, but he was tired of funding the repairs and he hoped this was the last repair he needed to make.

After he cut off the water, he examined the pipes and realized that he didn't have a clue how to fix the pipe. That worried him. He'd learned how to fix pipes from his grandfather and had even helped replace the pipes in this grandfather's house, but lying on his stomach staring at the pipes he realized that he had found something else he couldn't remember. Determined to fix the pipe, Booth drove to the bookstore to look for a book on plumbing, but he didn't find one that made sense to him. Disgusted, he left the store and drove over to a hardware store he liked to do business with and looked for a plumbing book for dummies. He'd seen those books before and he'd always snickered about their existence. Now that he actually needed a book like that, he couldn't find it.

Back home, he called a plumber and asked how much it would cost to fix it. The plumber had insisted that all of the pipes in the wall needed to be replaced, quoted him a price and Booth balked. He didn't want to spend that kind of money on a place that wasn't his. Disgusted, he mentioned the problem to Brennan that evening and she looked at the pipes herself. "You need water until we move, Booth. Not unless you want to wash dishes in the bathroom."

Annoyed, Booth leaned against the counter and stared at Brennan's hips while he tried to ignore the obviousness of her statement. "Didn't you say you have a house you want me to look at. If it's the right house, we can go ahead and buy it and move in. Tim Pearson can replace the pipes if he wants to rent the place again. In the meantime, I'll tell him the pipes are bad and we can stay at your apartment until the pipes are fixed or until we move to our place."

Crawling backwards, Brennan emerged from the crawlspace below the sink and turned to stare at Booth. "That is actually an excellent plan. Your lease is up in three months. We have that long to find our place and move before you have to sign a new lease . . . If we run past the deadline, we can pack up your things, put them into storage and we'll live at my apartment until we find what we're looking for."

"I like your plan too." Booth stared at the sink and shook his head. "I've been a sucker for keeping this place up, but the rent is cheap and the repairs never cost that much. I'd rather put my money into something we own though."

Moving to her feet, Brennan closed the door on the crawlspace and turned to face Booth. "I think we've come up with a reasonable plan . . . I am sorry that you've forgotten about how to work on plumbing. I know you are disconcerted, but it is something that you can relearn. I know you can."

Confident that she was right, Booth smiled. "Yeah, if I need to relearn it I can. I learned it once, I can learn it again."

Ooooooooooooooooo

Still practicing with his weapon at the shooting range, Booth was improving and could qualify at that point, but he still wanted to recertify as the same gifted marksman he was before he had the operation. He wasn't sure if that was possible, but he didn't want to give up. He had too much pride to give up.

While he and Brennan were working on a case, they both managed to look at the house that Brennan was interested in. Once they both looked at it, they decided that it was too much money for so little square footage. Continuing their search for houses that were available on the market, they both looked at listings and tried to determine if any of them were worth looking at. The price of the houses made Booth feel sick, but Brennan reminded him that he had agreed to let her pay for the house. He didn't remember making that concession, but he knew that Brennan would never lie to him and he could only assume that they had argued about it and he'd lost. He hated to let her pay for the house, but he couldn't back out of something he'd agreed to just because he couldn't remember it.

After they closed their case, Booth was looking in the newspaper when he spied a house that both he and Brennan might agree to. It was two stories, with three bedrooms and one and a half baths upstairs. Downstairs contained a living room, kitchen, a full bath and a spacious guest bedroom that could be turned into an office. There was a basement with an open floor plan. The back part of the basement had been used as a utility room and Brennan didn't see why it couldn't still be used as such. Booth thought they could put up a wall and divide that room from the rest of the basement. He thought he might be able to turn it into a recreational room.

The price was a little cringe worthy, but Brennan had just received her advance on her next book. It was being published in two months and the Publisher felt that it would make even more money than the last one did. She was comfortable paying for the house and she made it clear to Booth that he would be responsible for repairs and upkeep. They were a partnership and since that was the original plan, Booth was fine with it. If he didn't know how to fix something, he knew he could find a book to help him learn what he needed to know or he could ask his grandfather. The man was a font of knowledge when it came to home repairs.

After they toured the home, the couple agreed that the house was probably their best option. It was a twenty-five minute drive from work, there were two grocery stores and a hardware store all within a fifteen minute drive from the house. There was a hospital twenty minutes away and a walk-in clinic in a strip mall just ten minutes away. All in all it wasn't a bad location and the house didn't need a lot of work at the moment. Brennan hated the paint color in the guest bedroom downstairs and in the basement and Booth knew that was an easy fix. He did know how to paint.

"What do you think, Booth?" Brennan liked the spacious back yard and the fact they had trees in both the front and back yard. "It's not perfect, but it is what we need."

"I think so too." Booth closed the front door and walked out into the yard. He checked the trees and though he didn't know a lot about them, they looked healthy to him. "If you want to make an offer go ahead . . . If you want to continue looking we can do that too, but so far this is the only house we've seen that we both liked." He wasn't sure they needed a four bedroom house, but the guest bedroom downstairs seemed like a good idea. He didn't want his grandfather climbing up and down too many stairs when he visited. Booth knew he could put railing on the stairs going down to the basement to make it safer for Pops and anyone else that needed a steady hand. "A little painting and I think we can get it the way we want it. The garage is a two car garage and I like the built in storage cabinets along the back wall . . . It's a nice house."

She agreed. "I think we have a house, Booth. I think this is what we've been looking for," Excited, Brennan turned and stared at the front of the house. "I've never owned a house before. I haven't actually lived in a house since I aged out of Foster Car . . . I've never needed more than an apartment . . . I feel like we're making the right decision."

"Good." Booth moved over to where Brennan was standing and kissed her. "This is a big step, Bones, but we're ready for this. If we can close on the house in the next few weeks, I can start packing up my stuff and your stuff. If we box up everything, we can get the movers to move us in in one day. Once everything is loaded into the house, we can take our time setting up the rooms, although we need to set up our bedroom and the kitchen and one of the bathrooms right away."

"Agreed." Brennan felt a sense of excitement. Her partner was recovering from his surgery, they were buying a house and they were becoming quite domestic. She had never dreamed that she would ever find someone that she could commit to, but she had found that someone and they were a family. A real family.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooo

"We've found a house to buy . . . Booth and I." Brennan was taking a mid-morning break with Angela at the Royal Diner. "It's a nice house and will suit our needs."

Happy for her friend. Angela grinned, reached out and patted Brennan's hand. "Oh Sweety, that sounds great. Booth is doing well, you're working together and now your moving into a house. I'm so happy for you."

"Thank you." Brennan had never felt happier. "Sometimes it feels odd that Booth and I are in relationship, but at the same time it feels right. He . . . He loves me and I love him. I've never felt that way about anyone before, Angela. He's my family now. If Max abandons me again then it won't really matter. Booth is my family and Russ . . . He lives in North Carolina, but I know he won't run away again. He loves Amy and the girls too much to destroy what he has. He has a family that he adores just like I do. We don't really need Max."

"Oh Honey. Don't give up on Max." Angela wasn't sure why Brennan couldn't accept that her father was back in her life. Perhaps she had been alone for so long that it was hard for her see that Max loved her and wanted to be in her life. "I don't think he'll ever abandon you again. He loves you. He doesn't have a reason to run away again."

Brennan wasn't sure about that. "That we know of." Shrugging her shoulders, Brennan sighed. "If he stays then that's fine. If he doesn't then that's fine too. He's been out of my life for fifteen years . . . I'm used to it."

Angela was aware that Max had disappeared a week after Booth had been operated on and the conman wasn't aware of what had been going on in his daughter's life since then. She didn't know what Max was up to, but she hoped the man showed up soon. If he didn't then that was his problem, but it was a big mistake that he might not be able to recover from. "Well, don't give up yet. So tell me about your new house . . ."

Oooooooooooooooooooo

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