Thanks for the reviews! I still don't own any of the characters, sadly, and I'm still not making any money out of this writing.


Sometimes on vacation irritations can occur ...

Saturday evening

When Brennan came back with two steaming mugs of coffee, Booth and Parker were whispering together. Then Parker came over to her.

"Dr. Bones, can I sleep with you again tonight please?"

She looked at Booth in surprise. "I thought he was going to sleep with you."

"Yeah, well - to be honest, Bones, I don't think I'm going to sleep very well tonight, and I'd rather be able to move around without disturbing anyone. Would you mind?" He gave her the smile he knew she couldn't resist, and she found herself smiling back.

"No - I don't mind. As long as you're sure - it seems odd to be throwing you out of your own bed."

"You're not throwing me out, I'm going willingly, Bones." Booth stood up, leaning heavily on the arm of the couch with his good arm as he moved, and rubbed his face. "I'll just go and grab some things."

A couple of minutes later, Parker approached her. "Dr. Bones, can I have a cookie?" he asked.

"I'm just about to do dinner, sweetie," she answered. Parker scowled, and turned to his dad who was just walking back in the room.

"Daddy, can I have a cookie?"

"Okay, just one," Booth answered.

Brennan frowned at him. He noticed her look and frowned at her. "What?"

"I've just told him no, Booth, then you tell him yes. We're just about to eat."

Booth looked unconcerned. "He's my son, Bones. I'm allowed to decide whether he has a cookie or not."

"I know - but you're asking me to help take care of him, and then you're undermining what I say." Brennan was surprised at how bad she felt about this. She had hoped that she and Booth would take care of Parker together, but if he was going to let Parker get away with behavior like that, she was going to find it very difficult.

"Well, I said no to him taking his training wheels off, and you overruled me then," Booth pointed out.

"I did not..." She broke off as she realized that in effect, that was exactly what she had done. She looked thoughtfully at Parker, who was contentedly chewing on a cookie he'd fetched from the tin. She went back into the kitchen, putting the cookie tin away on a high shelf, then started thinking about food.

"I'll help, if you like."

She turned, to find Booth leaning in the doorway, watching her. She pushed her hair back behind her ears, self-consciously. "It's okay. It's all under control. You go and play with your son." Suddenly being alone with Booth was the last thing she wanted. Booth went away without another word, but she had a strange feeling he looked disappointed.

While she did the washing up, Booth took Parker through, helped him with his bath, tucked him into bed and read him a story. Brennan found herself leaving the washing up and creeping down the hallway to listen as Booth read. He stopped reading and stuck his head round the door at one point. "You can come in and listen properly, Bones," he said, amused. She blushed, but sneaked in and sat leaning against the bed to listen.

"I'm just learning how to do the voices properly," was her excuse.

Stories over, they both bent to kiss Parker goodnight and give him a hug, then left the room quietly. Booth offered to finish the drying up.

"You've got your arm in a sling, Booth. You're not meant to move it, remember."

"I can take it out for a few minutes, Bones. I'm quite capable of drying up some plates," he grumbled, but she refused his help and told him to sit and rest.

When all was put away tidily she went back into the living room and pulled out her laptop. It really was time she did some writing. She forced herself to think about how she had progressed on her novel.

Booth slipped his sneakers off and sat on the couch, twisted sideways to sit with his legs stretched out to the other end. He grinned as he saw her looking at his feet. "Good choice on the socks, Bones." He wiggled his toes as if to emphasize the point, and the skeleton feet on the socks moved accordingly.

She smiled, then tried to avoid thinking about what else she had picked out for him. Booth had transferred his usual belt to his jeans, she noticed, and wore his shirt hanging out, which was unusual for him. His left arm was inside the sleeve but then tucked inside a white sling to keep his shoulder immobilized. Round his neck, where his collar stood unfastened and open, she could see the glint of the silver chain she had seen him wearing before. As he stretched his right arm above his head, yawning, she caught a glimpse of well-toned stomach. He caught her glance and smirked at her. "And the rest of the clothes, of course. Parker got those boxers for me for Father's Day last year."

She looked down at her computer, steadfastly refusing to continue that train of thought. "I'm glad they were okay," she said. "I was imagining pulling out clothes that didn't fit, or something."

"Then I'd have to come home without wearing them." Was he flirting with her? She shook her head, refusing to continue the conversation, and turned back to her writing. Somehow, descriptions of her characters' underwear crept into her novel, and she highlighted the text and deleted it, irritated.

Booth picked up the remote and turned the TV on, flicking channels at random until she frowned at him.

"What's the matter, Bones?"

"I'm trying to concentrate, Booth. Please decide on something and watch it; flicking channels is just irritating and distracting, and far from achieving anything useful is just demonstrating that you feel you are in control of the TV; which you are, so it's a superfluous display of power."

He pulled a face, and settled for an old film. Brennan became absorbed in her work, and found the words starting to flow easier.

"Do you want some coffee?"

"What?" She looked up, confused. She had finally got into her writing and forgotten where she was, and was startled to remember that she was in Booth's apartment with him.

"I said, do you want some coffee?" Booth made as if to get up.

"Oh. No, thanks. I can't drink coffee in the evenings. It keeps me awake." She frowned, and turned back to her novel, trying to recover her train of thought.

"Oh, okay." Booth settled himself more comfortably.

She looked up, realizing how churlish she had sounded. "I'm not stopping you having one though."

"What? Oh, no, I don't feel like one."

"Then why did you offer?" She found irritation creeping into her voice.

"I just thought - never mind." Booth turned back to the TV, and Brennan turned back to her novel.

A few minutes later, Booth stood up and said something to her, but she was concentrating deeply and did not register what he said. It was only half an hour later when she finally finished her latest chapter that she realized Booth must have gone to bed. It was still fairly early, but he had looked tired all day, and she had a feeling his shoulder was bothering him more than he would admit. When she checked down the hallway Parker's bedroom door was tightly closed. She put her head round the door of Booth's room, just to check, and saw Parker sleeping peacefully on his own.

She went back to her writing, but her concentration had disappeared, and she found the words just would not flow. She tried watching TV, but again found it impossible to focus. Eventually she retired to bed herself, lying miserably in bed thinking about how different the day had been from what she had expected. She had hoped that she and Booth could have a good time caring for Parker and spending time together. Instead, all they had spent the afternoon and evening doing was bickering. And then she hadn't even noticed when he went to bed, or said goodnight to him.

Don't panic, the night isn't over yet ;-)

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