Thanks for the reviews! Keep 'em coming :-)

I still don't own them, and i'm still making nothing out of this except experience.

Phone calls

Booth shoved his phone back into his jacket pocket, slung the jacket over his shoulder, grabbed his bag and waited until Brennan had finished her phone call. "So where are you off to?" he asked, forcing himself to sound casual.

"Pittsburgh," she answered, sounding preoccupied. "They just found a child's skeleton on a building site there. I'll drive up this afternoon and stay overnight."

"Anything for me?"

"No, the local police are handling it."

Bones sorted her bag out, pulling a light sweater over the tee shirt she was wearing, and pulled out her keys. "I guess I'd better go pack a bag," she said with a sigh.

Booth held the door open for his partner, swinging his bag onto his shoulder. "I'll see you when you get back then," he said, a trifle wistfully. "How long will you be away?"

"I'm not sure. Just overnight, I think. I'll check the bones out in the morgue, see what I can find at first glance, then bring them back to the lab for a proper look."

"Well, let me know if I can do anything, and I'll be there." Booth thought of his current workload, and wondered if he could manage to slip away for a day or so unofficially. It seemed strange for Brennan to be the one away working while he stayed in Washington.

She nodded. "Of course."

They walked companionably to the parking lot, and he stood with her while she unlocked the car. As she opened the door he was about to speak, but was interrupted again by a phone ringing. They both pulled their phones out, but this time it was Booth's phone. He grinned at her as he spoke into the phone. "Booth."

His expression changed as he listened. "What's the matter?...Why, what about? ...Tonight? ... Well, why can't you tell me now?... Rebecca!"

He shook his head in irritation. "All right then. What time?...Okay, see you then."

He flipped the phone shut and frowned. "Rebecca wants to meet me tonight. She wants to talk." He pulled a face at the last word.

"There's no problem with Parker, is there?"

"She wouldn't say what it was about. But knowing Rebecca, it's not going to be good." He was silent for a moment, thinking of his ex-girlfriend, the mother of his child. He still wasn't entirely sure what went wrong with that relationship, but the one thing that had gone right was his son. "Maybe she's going to muck around with my access to him again."

"Maybe she's going to allow you more time with him."

He gave a short laugh. "And maybe hell's going to freeze over. No, she holds all the cards on that one; I just have to accept what I'm given and be grateful."

Bones smiled sympathetically, and to his surprise and pleasure she touched him lightly on the arm. "Good luck with Rebecca," she said, then climbed into the car.

"Thanks, Bones," he replied, moved by her concern.

"Don't forget!" she called through the window to him as she drove away. "You still owe me a lunch!"

If you enjoy this story a quarter as much as I'm enjoying writing it, I'll be happy.

Please let me know of anything you think I did well, or badly. Speculation also welcome!