Saturday, September 1st- 12:00pm-
Booth entered the restroom slowly, allowing for another patron to excuse himself past him, and glanced to the two stalls. One of the doors were closed, and he could see his son's sneakers beneath it. He waited a moment without saying a word, and when he heard a light sniffle on the other side of the door, he let out a sigh. He cleared his throat and the sniffling stopped.
"Parker?" Booth said, sighing softly. He waited a moment, and when the little boy didn't answer, he leaned against the stall. "Parker, come out and talk to me." He said, and still heard nothing. "Unless you crawled out of the tiny window above the toilets, or flushed yourself down, bud. I know you're in there, so you may as well come out."
"I don't want to." Parker sniffled.
"Do you want me to break the stall door down?" He asked.
Parker sniffled. "You wouldn't do that. You'd get in trouble."
"I'd get into any kind of trouble if it meant you were safe and not upset. So are you going to make me break the door down, or are you going to flush yourself down the toilet?" He asked. After a moment, he heard the slide of the lock on the door, but Parker made no move to open the door. "Come on, pal. Come out and talk to me, because trust me, whatever you're thinking is going on is a million times worse than the truth. I guarantee it."
It took another moment or two, but the door opened slowly, and Booth could see one brown eye looking out at him. "You can't guarantee it." He said softly. "You don't even know what I think is going on."
"No. But if you'd give Bones and me a chance to tell you what's going on, you can tell us what your worries are, and I am sure that we can make sure you feel better."
Parker stared at his father for a long few moments.
"If we don't get out there soon, Bones is going to order for us, and eat all of our french fries." Booth said, giving the boy a pointed look. "Is that what you want?"
"No." He whispered, sighing.
"You didn't even say hi to Bones yet, you just ran off in here. That probably didn't make her feel very good." Booth said, watching Parker's eyes drop to the floor as the door opened a little further.
"I'm sorry." He said, stepping out of the stall, the boy rubbed his palm over his eye to swipe at a tear. "Dad? Can I ask you a question?"
"Anything." Booth said, tipping his head as he tried to read his son's expression.
"Are you and Bones replacing me?" He asked, as new tears formed in his eyes.
"No." Booth said, outright without even a half second pause. "You aren't going anywhere." He said, leaning down slightly so that he could meet his son eye to eye. There was a moment where he wanted to tell Parker that even the thought of replacing him was ridiculous, but knew that it was so much more important to diminish the boy's fears, and focus on the now.
"I never could, and never would even think of replacing you, Parker. You are the most important person in my life, do you understand that? There is nobody in this world that is or will be more important than you." He said, feeling bit choked up himself. "Do you understand?"
"I... I just..." The boy swallowed. "What about Bones? You guys are getting married. Isn't she more important to you than me now?"
"No. Bones has nothing to do with where you stand in my life, Parker." He said, watching Parker's eyes narrow. "You are the most important, and Bones knows that, so there's no argument. You got that?"
"I dunno." He whispered and shrugged. "Who is Michael?" He swallowed.
"Well, he's a kid who lost the most important person in his life." Booth said, suddenly feeling extremely fatigued, he touched his son's chin gently and watched his kind brown eyes focus on him, a bit of a wrinkle appearing in his forehead.
"He lost his dad?" He asked, swallowing hard. Parker suddenly felt a pit of guilt building in his belly.
"He lost his mom, actually." Booth said softly. "His mom passed away. Bones and I have been taking care of him." He said, watching Parker swallow hard. "You didn't know, pal. It's okay."
"I shouldn't have run off." He sighed. "I should have asked."
"Yes, but it's okay. You have to stop jumping to conclusions so quickly. You jump without looking, and you end up in deep water." Booth said.
"I don't know what that means." Parker said, lifting an eyebrow curiously, the corner of his lip turning up.
"I know that you hang out with Bones too much when you start quoting her." Booth said, listening to his son's giggle. "Let's go out there and we'll talk about it all, okay? You can ask us anything, and we'll tell you anything you want to know." He said, watching Parker nod, and a bit of color returned to his face, the tears now dry. "Alright?" He asked, and Parker nodded. Booth touched his shoulder and they turned together, with Parker leading them out of the restroom.
They walked out of the bathroom and turned toward the table, and Booth's eyes focused right on Brennan. She was sitting facing the bathrooms, her focus on the baby in her arms as she spoke with him. Her eyes were bright blue and happy, and she had a smile on his face that brought one to his own lips. She talked with Michael happily, giving him a little tickle as her eyes lifted to meet the two of them as they approached the table.
Parker saw the happiness in Brennan's eyes too, and thought for a split second that she would be upset that he hadn't said hello, but when their eyes met the joy that he had seen when she talked to Michael didn't waver for a moment. And for a split second he wondered if she always looked at him like that. "Parker." She smiled, reaching for his hand, he stepped up and immediately leaned in for a hug. She wrapped her arm around him tightly, kissing the side of his head. "I missed you." She whispered into his curls.
"I missed you too, Bones." He said, pulling from the hug. He listened to his father sit in a chair behind him, and he took a step back. "I apologize for running off when you got here." He said, sighing softly.
"That's fine." She said, reaching for his hand on the table, she gave it a little squeeze and then repositioned the baby gently onto her lap. "Michael." She said, focusing the baby's attention across the table. "See over there?" She said softly. "That's Parker." She said, watching Parker smile shyly across the table. "I was just telling Michael how smart you are, and how kind and thoughtful you are." She said, watching the baby giggle and babble toward the boy. "While I don't believe he actually understands what I'm saying, he knows from my tone that I am speaking kindly about you." She smiled. "How are you feeling today, Parker?"
"I'm good, Bones." He sighed, smiling at her, though his focus was brought to the baby's bright blue eyes again. "Hungry." He shrugged.
"Good, because I ordered our lunch." She said with a conspiratorial smile. "I hope you don't mind that I got you a chocolate milkshake." She said, watching Parker's smile brighten.
"Bones." Booth said, pretending to admonish her, but grateful that she was being so sweet to him, sweeping the earlier issue away.
"Thanks, Bones." Parker grinned, sending his smile back to his father, who shook his head.
"You both are trouble." He said, wagging his finger at Brennan as their lunch was served, just as Michael let out a joyful squeal of delight. "Make that all three of you! Nothing but trouble!" He exclaimed with a laugh, as waitress suddenly appeared with their lunch at the table side.