(Season 12)
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A/N: This is a reminder that these stories are not in chronological order. I write them as I think of them.
I don't own Bones.
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Parker had met someone on the plane on the way to Washington D.C. from London and they had talked most of the trip about a variety of topics including outdoor sports and activities. He had been ecstatic when he had found out that Dene was visiting an aunt in College Park, Maryland for the next five weeks. Her aunt was a professor at the University of Maryland and Dene visited her once a year during summer break.
It turned out that Dene Pinkley was one year older than he was, but she didn't seem to mind the age difference. Of course, Parker didn't see why anyone would think it was bad for a seventeen-year-old to be interested in an eighteen-year-old. After all, his father was five years older than his wife.
Just before their plane landed, Parker and Dene exchanged phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses. They were both determined to explore their friendship during the summer and since Parker's father didn't live that far away, it wouldn't be a burden to meet up once or twice.
Once they were off the plane, Parker spotted his family right away. Taking Dene's hand in his hand, he pulled her towards his father and step-mother. "Dene, wait until you meet my family. You'll love them." Now closer to his family, he released her hand and waved. "Hey you guys."
Christine squealed and raced towards her brother. "Parker . . . you're here." Once she was close enough, she launched herself up and her brother caught her hugging her before placing her down on the ground. "Chrissy, how you been, Monkey?"
Pulling his hand, Christine tried to drag him towards her parents and brother while Dene followed behind. She didn't see her Aunt yet and she thought it might be nice to hang out with someone while she waited.
Parker hugged his father who thumped him on the back, then his stepmother and last, but not least, he pulled Hank from his Brennan's arms and hugged his little brother. "Hey there Tiger."
Feeling a little shy, Hank looked towards his mother and reached for her. Since he knew that his little brother might not remember him, Parker gave the child back to his mother. "Sorry."
Brennan patted the teenager on the arm. "He's just not used to you Parker." She felt bad for Parker since he appeared to want to hold his little brother, but Hank was just a toddler and he might not remember Parker very well since he'd only seen him twice before and one of those times, he'd been two months old.
He understood that the little boy was afraid and he didn't want to be the cause of any tears. "That's okay. He'll get used to me." I hope.
Booth smiled at the young lady standing behind his son. "Hi, I'm Seeley Booth."
Holding out her hand, Dene smiled. "I'm Dene Pinkley. I met Parker on the plane. It's nice to meet you and Mrs. Booth."
"Dr. Brennan." Booth shook her hand, "My wife is a forensic anthropologist." Releasing her hand, he smiled at his wife. "She's the best in the world."
Since it was the truth, Brennan didn't correct him. "It's nice to meet you, Ms. Pinkley."
Puzzled, Dene studied Brennan's face for a moment and smiled. "You're Temperance Brennan. You write murder mysteries. I don't read them, but my mother loves those."
Amused, Booth chuckled. "Yep, her books are pretty popular." He knew those kinds of statements annoyed Brennan, but the girl was being honest.
And Brennan was annoyed, but she knew that not everyone liked to read murder mysteries. She knew for a fact that Cam preferred to read romance novels, so she wouldn't hold anything against the child. "Are you being met by anyone? We can take you home if you need us to."
At that moment a woman rushed over to where Dene was standing and gushed. "Darling, I'm so sorry I'm late. I was pulled over for speeding and the policemen insisted that I needed a ticket. I told him I needed to pick you up from the airport, but he didn't care. Policemen are like that. They don't help anyone. They just write tickets and keep us from our duties."
Booth stared at the woman with hooded eyes, but didn't say anything. He had no intention of embarrassing his son or Dene.
A little alarmed at the words coming out of Dene's aunt's mouth, Parker moved over to where Dene was standing and pointed at his family. "We have to leave. I'll call you." Turning he walked over to where his family was standing and shrugged his shoulders. "Can we leave? I sure am hungry."
Christine grabbed her brother's hand and started chattering. "We're having pizza tonight. Mommy said that Daddy can have meat pizza and he promised to share it with me . . . "
Before he followed his family away from the waiting room, Booth stared at Dene's Aunt who was still complaining about the ticket. Since it wasn't his business, he decided not to say anything, turned and caught up with his family.
The glare on Booth's face, didn't go unnoticed by Dene.
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Parker arranged to meet Dene half way between her Aunt's house and his father's house. This was their first opportunity to get together since they'd arrived in the States six days ago, so they wanted to spend the day together. The Ihop was busy, but not too busy. Finding a table in the back of the restaurant, they sat down and smiled at each other.
"I'm glad you could meet me." Parker had looked forward to seeing Dene again. "Bones let me borrow her car. She and the kids went with Dad this morning, so I could use her car. Bones made sure I had a valid driver's license first. She's a stickler for stuff like that, but I don't mind. It just means she cares."
Dene agreed. "I have my driving license, so my Aunt let me borrow her car and she took the bus to work. She lives close to University and would have walked, but it's supposed to rain this morning and she didn't want to take the chance." She decided to broach the subject of Parker's father's reaction at the airport when her aunt talked about her speeding ticket. "Your father seemed to be angry when my Aunt talked about her speeding ticket . . . is he a police officer?"
"Worse, he's an FBI Agent." Parker said it with a smile so she wouldn't take it seriously. "He's had a few speeding tickets himself, but he never complains about the police. He told me if you're willing to do the crime, then you have to be willing to pay the price . . . He has a lead foot and he's been caught more than once speeding. I know because I was in the car last year when he got one and Bones told me about the other four." Parker laughed. "He didn't like her ratting him out, but Bones believes in honesty."
"I think my aunt offended your father." Dene wasn't sure if she should apologize to Seeley Booth or not. "She has a tendency to distrust authority."
Parker shook his head. "Don't worry about it. He didn't mention it to me, so I don't think he cared that much." Parker leaned back as the waitress placed a glass of water in front of him and asked him for his order. Once he and Dene had told the server what they wanted, they continued their conversation. "Hey, you mentioned that you like rock climbing. Would you like to do that while you're here? We can meet up somewhere and spend the day rock climbing or hiking or both."
She loved the outdoors and if Parker was willing to go rock climbing with her, she wouldn't turn it down." I don't have any gear with me."
"Not a problem." Parker leaned on the table before him. "I don't have any gear either. We can buy some and then go rock climbing . . . I guess I should tell you I've never done that before. If you don't mind showing me how that would be great." He hoped she would be willing to be his teacher.
"Of course, I don't mind." Dene had taught a friend of hers how to climb and she had liked being the master of the situation. "Let's check on some places in the area, buy what we need and make arrangements to go next week sometime."
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Brennan received a phone call from a number she didn't recognize and curious she answered. "This is Dr. Temperance Brennan." The person who answered was extremely nervous.
Dr. Brennan, hello, this is Dene Pinkley. I'm Parker's friend from England.
"Yes, I know who you are." Brennan found it odd that that Dene was calling her. "How may I help you?"
Dr. Brennan . . . Parker is at Valley Health Page Memorial Hospital. We went hiking at Old Rag Mountain and we found a good place to rock climb . . . he was doing so well, but . . . he has a broken arm. The hospital needs a guardian to come, so that he can be released. We're in Madison County, Virginia. I'll stay of course until you get here . . . I'm so sorry.
"Please don't apologize." Brennan stood up and removed her lab coat. "I will inform his father as soon as I end this call and we'll be there was soon as possible . . . Is that the only injury he sustained, a broken arm?"
Well no. He has some bruises and cuts too. He says he's fine and not to worry about him, but we do need his guardian to come to fill out paper work. He has his mother's insurance card, but Parker is a minor.
"We'll be there as soon as possible." Brennan ended the call, glanced at her watch then called Booth. "Booth we need to drive to Valley Health Page Memorial Hospital in Madison County, Virginia to get Parker. If memory serves me right, that is near Shenandoah National Park."
What's wrong? What happened to Parker?
"He and his friend Dene went hiking and decided to do some rock climbing as well." Brennan wasn't sure why they had driven to Shenandoah to hike. "I suppose he fell and broke his arm. She didn't say he fell, but that is the implication."
I'll come and get you. I'll be there as soon as I talk to my boss.
Brennan was already on the way to Angela's office. "I'll arrange for Angela to pick up Christine and Hank from Day Care and take them home with her. She won't mind."
Good. See you soon.
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Parker was sitting on a bed in one of the examination rooms, when his parents arrived. Dene stood up and pointed towards the door. "I'll leave now."
"Please don't." Booth held up his hand. "It's going to be dark soon. We want to follow you back to your home to make sure you get there alright."
Surprised, Dene sat down. "Thank you."
Brennan and Booth moved closer to the bed and each hugged Parker careful not to put pressure on his cast. "I'm okay. Really. It was my fault. I just didn't make sure I had a place to move my hand before I moved. It was dumb and it wasn't Dene's fault."
"Have you ever gone rock climbing before this?" Booth was sure his son had never mentioned it.
The truth was always the best course of action. Parker shook his head. "Dene was teaching me, but this wasn't her fault."
She could tell that her step-son thought Dene was going to blamed, she just wasn't sure why. "No one is blaming Dene for anything." She glanced at Booth who shook his head then at Dene. "You probably should have told us you were coming out here though, so we would know where you were. If you had both been hurt or killed we wouldn't have known where to look for you."
Dene wasn't used to telling anyone what she was up to, but she saw the logic in Brennan's statement. "Yeah, you're right. I should have thought of that. I will the next time."
"Good." Booth helped his son stand up after helping the teenager put his shoes on. "Okay, I've already talked to your doctor and I've filled out the paper work. We can go home."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you where I was going." Parker knew that had been a mistake. "I just thought it would be cool to go hiking today and then try rock climbing. I left a note on the coffee table in the living room telling you I'd be back late . . . I know you don't want to know where I'm going to be all the time, but it would have been a good idea to have mentioned where we planned to hike. I'm sorry and I'm sorry for making you drive out here to rescue me . . . Boy Mom is going to be mad at me."
Booth shrugged his shoulders. "Good. She can yell at you for both of us." Now that he saw that his son wasn't seriously hurt, he was feeling a little angry. "I've seen a lot of dead bodies in my life, Parker and some of them was because someone went somewhere and didn't tell anyone where they were going. That someone was hurt and they died alone and in pain. I'm not asking for an itinerary, but if you're going to drive across the state and do something like rock climbing then I think you should tell me. At least I'll know where to find your body."
He thought it was funny and Parker laughed. The stern look on his father's face told him that Booth hadn't meant that last sentence to be funny. "Sorry. You're right. Like I said I'm sorry."
Since there wasn't anything else to be gained by talking about it, Booth moved over to the door and walked out into the hallway. Brennan knew that her husband had been afraid for his son since she had called him earlier that afternoon. "He loves you Parker. He was afraid for you."
His cheeks warm, Parker nodded his head. "I know and I am sorry. Thanks for coming to get me, Bones."
"You're welcome." Brennan glanced at Dene. "Come Ms. Pinkley. We'll go to where you have parked your car and then you can drive to where we are parked. We will follow you home. Perhaps we will stop for dinner on the way. We can talk in the parking lot about it. Do you have a preference for eating establishments?"
Dene wasn't sure how to take what she had witnessed, but she knew that these people cared about their son and that made her feel better about the situation. "No ma'am. I can eat anything . . . well almost anything."
"Alright." Brennan placed her hand on Parker's upper back and pushed him slightly towards the door. "You will need to call your mother when you get home."
"Oh joy." Parker knew that was one phone call he didn't want to make.
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