Alternate ending, or as I like to call it All's Well That Ends Well 2. lol I felt like this one was less realistic but I just HAD to write it. You'll see why later in the chapter. By the way, for those who read Chapter 15, no need to re-read the beginning of this one. It is the exact same thing. The new part is around the middle (like that helps you, huh!).

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"There. That's the last box." Booth said as he dropped the pretty heavy box on the ground beside the others.

He looked up at the people standing in front of him. They all looked so disoriented, so lost. Even Parker, who was visiting Booth for the week-end, standing among the Brennan kids and Temperance herself, looked lost. He had been pretty surprised when Booth had come to pick him up to find the SUV packed with strangers, Nathan on the front seat and the twins in the back with him. But Booth wasn't worried about his son. He already got along really well with Elena.

The past three weeks had been rather difficult for all of them. Booth and Temperance had stayed in Berkeley for two weeks so the kids would be able to finish school before moving and it had also given them time to put the house for sale and to pack the children's stuff. During that time, Temperance had also planned her parents' and her brother's funerals. She had decided to bury them in Westminster.

She was also doing really well with the kids but Booth couldn't say that he was surprised. Deep down he knew that she would make a good mother and that she did in fact have that maternal instinct she said she didn't have. She seemed to love her nephews and nieces more and more and they seemed to share that feeling. At first, things had been awkward but Booth had expected it. She had found it really weird to be cooking for six and hadn't known what to do when Nathan had come home from school and needed to be grounded. She had never grounded a kid in her life and she had turned to Booth for help. He had gladly helped her.

But the thing he would remember the most about this period of adjustment was the night his girlfriend had tucked Elena in. The little girl had asked her aunt to tuck her in and to read her a story and Brennan had found it really weird as she put the child to sleep. Booth had been on his way to the bathroom when he walked by little Elena's room. He had seen Temperance sitting on the bed beside her niece, her arm wrapped around the shoulders of the child, Elena cuddling to her aunt and Temperance's low voice had been reading her a story. Booth had leaned against the doorway for a couple of minutes, simply admiring the doctor.

As the weeks passed she was slowly getting the hang of it. She had taken the whole month of July off for some much needed and well earned vacation and she had plans on spending it with the kids. Then in August, when she would go back to work, the kids would be sent to a day camp.

They had left California a week ago. Booth had taken most of the kids' stuff over at his house while Brennan packed her own apartment. She still didn't know where she was going to put all of her stuff. Booth's place was definitely bigger than her apartment but there was no way there would be enough space to store everything. They had decided to keep some her stuff at her apartment until they were ready to move to a bigger house.

The funeral had gone pretty well. Temperance had felt somewhat happy that all of her friends had come for support and surprised to see that some of her parents' friends and former co-workers had bothered to come down to the cemetery for the funeral. Now her parents and her brother laid forever in peace in the Westminster's cemetery.

This had been three days ago and now, here they were, all standing in Booth's house which now looked rather small with seven people living in it.

"Alright you kids! Who wants to go swimming?" Booth asked in a motivating tone.

Booth smiled as they saw their face light up. They all shouted "Me me me" at the same time and Booth's smile grew even wider.

"The last one in the pool is a loser!" Corey shouted.

The four kids ran to their bags and rummaged through them for their bathing suits. Booth took Parker to his now crowded with sleeping bags room and helped him change in his. He could hear the kids yelling in the living room and wondered if they had bothered to use the bathroom to strip down and climb into their bathing suits.

As soon as he had had his bathing suit and his life jacket on, Parker ran back to the living room, letting his dad know he didn't want to be the loser. Booth slowly followed his son, a huge smile on his face.

Seconds later he heard them splashing in the water. Booth locked eyes with Temperance and smiled at her. She smiled back.

"Come on, let's go check on them."

They went through the kitchen and out on the deck. The sun was bright and it was really hot outside.

Brennan stood and looked at the kids who were already splashing around in the pool. She couldn't believe how happy they looked and wondered how they could act so happily knowing their parents had died and that they were miles away from where they had grown up. The more she looked at them, the more she felt herself loving them. Maybe she could do this after all.

Booth went to stand beside her and, as he watched the kids play in the pool he knew that this was the life he was meant to live. The woman standing beside him, the kids in the pool, they would become his family. He would legally adopt them, all of them. Suddenly a funny feeling spread through him. He grabbed Temperance by the waist and pulled her in front of him. His arms holding her tightly around him, he whispered in her ear.

"I want one."

Temperance's heart skipped a beat. Had she heard properly?

"What?" she said, surprised.

She turned around in his embrace to face him. She saw that he looked serious.

"I want one."

"What? A kid?"

"Yeah."

"But you already have one."

"I know but not with you."

She didn't know what to say. Here she was, in Booth's arms, kids screaming in the background, on a deck, at his house and he was telling her he wanted a child with her, what could she say? You could say yes, a voice said in her mind. Temperance shushed it. Booth knew that she didn't want to have any kids. He also once told her that she would change her mind but she didn't think she would. She had her brother's kids, wasn't that enough?

"What do you say?" he said, suddenly very nervous.

"But... we're not even a couple."

That was all she had managed to come up with.

"Oh come on, Bones. We've been a couple since day one, we just never made it official. We even moved in together."

"But we're not even married."

"Marry me, then."

"What?"

This time, her heart was racing so fast, she thought she was going to have a heart attack. Marry Booth? Was he serious? Did she even want to marry him? If she married him, then he would want children and he deserved to have a big family, just like he wants. But she couldn't give him that. Could she? What if she tried? Would that be a mistake?

Booth saw that several questions were racing through her mind. He felt his throat go dry. The last time he had proposed to someone, the person had said no. He wasn't ready to have that happen once again.

"Come on, Bones, marry me." He whispered as he put his forehead against hers.

He was being pathetic. He was practically begging her to marry him.

Temperance closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She'd take the leap even though it scared her.

"Yes." She whispered back.

She opened her eyes and saw that he was staring back at her. She felt his lips on hers and their kiss lasted a few seconds. He pulled away and rested his forehead once again against hers.

She saw him smile then felt his forehead slowly leave hers. She turned around to face the pool once again, felt him kiss the side of her head and his embrace around her tighten. She looked at the kids splashing around. She could get used to this. She still wasn't sure about all this whole baby stuff but she knew now that if it ever happened, she'd be ready. She'd know what to do.

The kids were busy playing and none of them paid any attention to the new couple. Parker and Elena, at the shallow end of the pool, with their life jackets, swam around in circle, their faces in the water and made a contest of who could stay underwater the longest. Neither of them spent more three seconds. Nathan and Corey, in the middle, seemed to be playing cops and rubbers or a game similar to that. Just like a lifeguard, Bridget sat on the edge of the pool, her feet soaking in the water, looking out for her brothers and her sister like she had done all of her life, ready to jump in the pool at the first sign of trouble. The sun shined on her hair and the little breeze made them sway in the air.

Everything was going to be just fine.

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Well the story is officially done now. I let you pick the ending you want for the story and hope you all enjoyed it.