When on vacation, it can be difficult at first to sleep in a strange bed.
Wednesday Evening
Brennan had only been her knees with Parker for a few minutes, surrounded by toys, when he asked after his Dad.
"Dr Bones, when is Daddy coming home?"
"Not for a while, Parker, sorry." She wondered how much she should tell him, how much he would understand.
His face fell. "I want Daddy!"
"We can go and see him tomorrow," she promised.
"I wanna go now!"
"Not now, Parker, it's getting late. Daddy's in hospital, he's not very well, and he'll be asleep, I expect."
"I want to go see him."
"I tell you what," Brennan said patiently. "If you go to bed now and go to sleep, it will be the morning very quickly, and then we can see your Daddy."
She helped a protesting Parker locate and change into a pair of fleecy red pajamas with penguins all over them. She wondered curiously whether they had been Booth's purchase or Rebecca's, and made up her mind to ask Booth next time she saw him. Parker climbed into bed, then out again.
"What's the matter?"
"Where's Baba?"
Brennan looked at him blankly. "Who or what is Baba?" she asked.
"Baba! I need Baba!"
Parker looked ready to cry. Brennan helplessly looked at his bag. "Is it a toy? Is it in there?"
Parker shook his head. "I can't find him."
"We'll ask Daddy in the morning."
Parker's bottom lip stuck out. As Brennan looked at him, she could see his resemblance to Booth, with the determined set of the jaw and a serious look in his eyes. She tucked him into bed and turned to leave.
He sat up. "What about my story? Daddy always reads me a story."
Brennan looked at the books on the bookshelf. "Which story do you want?"
"That one." Parker pointed to a book called Horrid Henry.
Brennan picked it up and flicked through it. "There are a few stories in here. Which one do you want?"
"The one where he goes to see the bones. That's Daddy's favourite."
Brennan located the story and read it. "No, you got it wrong," Parker cried out just as she thought he was falling asleep. "It doesn't say he knocked over the bones, it says he knocked into all the bones."
"That's what I said," Brennan said, confused.
"No, you got it wrong." Parker made her read again, correctly this time. Then he made her change her voice for the different characters. Horrid Henry had to sound tough, he told her, and Perfect Peter had to sound whiney. It took several attempts for Brennan to get the voices close enough for Parker to lay down again, satisfied.
Parker was now looking sleepy, so Brennan put the book back on the shelf and crept out of the room.
"Dr Bones!" She stuck her head back round the doorway. "Kiss!"
"Sorry." She went back to the bed and kissed him gently on the forehead. He put his arms up and gave her a cuddle and a kiss, before turning over and settling down.
Brennan went back to the kitchen and sat down at her laptop with a sigh of relief. She turned it on and read the words on the screen. "…as she stared down the barrel of the gun she suddenly knew…"
"Dr Bones."
Brennan jumped in her seat and turned round. Parker was standing in the doorway rubbing his eyes. "I can't get to sleep."
"Parker, you've only been in bed five minutes," she scolded him, pushing him gently back towards his bedroom. "If you stay in bed and lie quietly you'll soon get to sleep."
"I wanna see Daddy."
"I said we'd go tomorrow."
"As soon as we get up?"
"Well, after breakfast, yes, I promise."
Brennan wondered how Booth was, whether they would discharge him next day. She hoped so.
"Now, back to bed."
Reluctantly, Parker went.
Brennan turned her attention back to her novel. "…as she stared…"
"Dr Bones?"
She looked up, impatiently.
"Can I have a drink?"
An hour later, Brennan had read five stories, fetched three drinks and written two words of her novel. She finally sat down in front of the laptop with a deep sigh, read back what she had managed to write and deleted the two words again. Now that Parker had finally fallen asleep she intended to have a real writing session, maybe even finish the chapter and start the one she had been looking forward to since she started the new book. She tilted her head towards the screen and thought, then her fingers started flying as the words flowed.
It was nearly 2am when she eventually saved her work for the last time of the evening, closed the laptop and stood up, stretching and yawning. At least she had managed to write nearly to the end of the chapter, and she was reasonably pleased with what she had written. She took a last look round the room, then headed for the bathroom, peeking in at Parker on the way.
She readied herself for bed, peering into Booth's shaving mirror as she cleaned her teeth, and stared down at his bed trying to summon the courage to get into it. Feeling a yawn creep up on her unawares, she made herself pull back the covers and climb in. A few minutes later she was asleep.
It could not have been too much later that she woke up, startled. Her heartbeat sounded loudly in her ears as she sat up, trying to work out where she was and what had woken her. The noise sounded like crying. Parker! As the thought struck she jumped out of bed. It was cold in the bedroom, and she spied a dark blue bathrobe on the back of the door. Grabbing it, she wrapped it around herself as she padded down the hallway in bare feet to Parker's room.
The boy was sitting up in bed sobbing his heart out. Brennan sat down beside him and put her arms around him. He cuddled up to her and gradually his crying eased. "I want my Mummy, I want my Daddy," he whispered.
"Oh, Parker, I'm sorry, my sweet – we'll see Daddy tomorrow, I promise, and hopefully we'll bring him home." Brennan found herself gently rocking the child and soothing him.
He calmed down and snuggled into her bathrobe, which she wrapped round him as well, but would not settle enough for her to leave him.
"Parker, please," she begged. "I'm so tired, and you must be, too."
He looked up at her. "Dr Bones, can I sleep in your bed?"
Brennan thought longingly of climbing back into bed and snuggling down. She looked at the small boy on her lap looking hopefully back at her. How could she resist those big brown eyes?
"All right," she said reluctantly. After all, in most societies it was perfectly acceptable for children to share a bed with adults, she rationalised to herself. "But you must promise to go straight to sleep."
He nodded, and she carried him into her room – Booth's room. Already she was starting to feel as if she lived here. They both settled down in bed, and Brennan tried to sleep. She found herself staring at the ceiling for a while, feeling the tiny shifts in the body next to her as Parker wriggled around to get comfortable then fell asleep, twitching slightly as he did so. Eventually Brennan felt her eyes grow heavy and then she must have fallen asleep too.
Thursday morning
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP…
"What the hell...?" Brennan had not even realised she had been asleep until she was woken up by the piercing beep of Booth's alarm clock. She put a hand out from beneath the covers and frantically groped for a button, still more than half asleep. Mercifully, the noise ceased. Next to her, Parker shifted slightly, and she held her breath, but he muttered something, turned over and went back to sleep.
Brennan did the same, only to be woken again just a few minutes later. She swore out loud and opened her eyes to discover that it was light and that the clock was displaying 7.10am. It couldn't be morning already! She felt as though she had hardly slept at all. This time she managed to find the off button instead of the sleep button, and she curled up again hoping for a couple more hours of sleep, but Parker sat up.
"You said a naughty word," he said gleefully. "I'm telling Daddy."
Brennan managed a faint smile. "It was under extreme provocation," she assured him. "It's allowed under those circumstances."
He shook his head. "Daddy says you should never swear. Can we go and see him now?"
Brennan groaned. "How about a bit more sleep first?" she suggested.
Parker shook his head, his curls flying about his face. "You promised!" He stuck out his bottom jaw, and Brennan's heart melted.
"Let's have breakfast," she said, suddenly realising that she had been so busy with Parker the evening before that she hadn't actually gotten around to eating anything.
Parker jumped out of bed. "I want Fruity Pebbles," he yelled.
Brennan looked at him blankly. "I don't know what that means."
"It's breakfast, silly," he said, jumping up and down impatiently.
"Well you go and get dressed then, and I'll go and look in the cupboards."
He looked at her as if she was stupid. "I eat before I get dressed, you idiot."
"Hey," Brennan protested. "That's not nice."
He pouted. "My daddy says it. And my mummy says that I must always eat breakfast before I get dressed, otherwise I get milk all down my clean clothes."
"Oh." That makes sense I suppose." Brennan let him lead her to the kitchen. She put on Booth's bathrobe again. It wasn't so cold this morning, but somehow she felt a lot more comfortable wrapped in the towelling robe than wandering around Booth's apartment in just her nightdress.
She looked through the cupboards, but could not find anything that could either answer to the description of Fruity Pebbles or satisfy an impatient Parker. Eventually she turned to him in despair. "I think your Dad must have meant to go shopping before you came," she admitted.
The bottom lip started to tremble, and she could see Parker's eyes filling with tears.
"Okay, okay, don't cry, please," she begged him. "How about we have breakfast at McDonalds?"
Instantly his face lit up. "Yeah!"
"We'd better both get dressed then," Brennan suggested.
"But I always have breakfast before I get dressed," he complained. Brennan cursed his childish logic.
"But they won't let us into McDonalds with our pajamas on," she pointed out, "and they don't do cereal with milk for breakfast, either." She gave a small grin of triumph when he accepted her words and ran off to get dressed.
Half an hour later she was trying to figure out how to strap him into his car seat. Only the thought of what Booth would have to say stopped her from abandoning the task altogether. Eventually she thought to ask Parker, and he gleefully showed her which bit fitted into which part of the clasp. She ran inside for the files she had forgotten for the meeting later on, then they set off hungrily for the nearest fast food restaurant they could find.
Thanks again for all the reviews! More always welcome. And why are you all so sure that Brennan won't get a chance to do any writing?
Next update as soon as I can, but it might be up to a week, sorry!