(In the future)

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I don't own Bones.

Oooooooooooooooo

The sun was hot, beating down on the beach goers with quiet intensity. Brennan was standing in waist deep water, the salty water gently tugging her one way then another. Her son was on the beach with his father, building a sandcastle while their daughter swam in the ocean water, diving and floating as the mood took her.

While Brennan kept watch over her nine year old daughter, ready to help the child if she grew tired or became distressed, she moved a few feet over to the right staring at something in the water. She was uncertain what she was seeing and wanted to identify it if possible. As she moved closer, she realized she knew what had caught her attention and it was time to get out of the water. "Christine, go to the beach. It's important you listen to me, get out of the water."

Surprised, Christine stopped splashing in the water and knew that if her mother wanted her out of the water, it was for a good reason. Moving through the water, she noticed something in the water in front of her and sidestepped it, moving towards the shore. Once she was there, she joined her mother who was staring at the water. "What is it Mom?"

Her arm around her daughter's shoulders, Brennan used her free hand to point at something rolling ashore. "It's a jellyfish. The warm ocean water can be a breeding ground for this species. The current carries them ashore. When we see them in the water it's best to leave the water since their sting is painful. Even dead ones still have active stinging cells."

Her face scrunched up in disgust, Christine pointed at the one that rolled further ashore. "I saw that one and walked around it."

"That was a smart thing to do." Brennan was proud of her daughter. The child was sensible most of the time, which couldn't be said of all young children.

A scream and and the sound of crying caught Brennan's attention. Turning her head to the left, she saw a child of about ten crying and walking ashore. A woman of about thirty seemed to be angry and grabbed the child's arm. "Don't be a baby, Brittney. You probably got brushed by a fish. They can't hurt you."

Concerned, Brennan walked down the beach, looked at the water and noticed a jellyfish moving past the child and being washed closer to shore. "Ma'am, that is a jellyfish. I believe your child has been stung and she is reacting to that."

Startled, the woman grabbed her daughter's hand and rushed to shore. When they arrived, she leaned over and examined her child's leg and found it red. "For goodness sake, why don't they warn people about this kind of thing?"

The child who had been stung, continued to weep. "Mommy, it hurts."

"It is important that you don't rub the area." Brennan examined the child's leg. "I don't see any tentacles attached to your skin which is good. You need to rinse it with vinegar as soon as possible. Don't use an ice pack on the area. I recommend you see a doctor. I believe there is a walk-in clinic down the road, perhaps five miles."

Suspicious, the woman straightened and stared at Brennan. "How do you know what to do? Are you a doctor?"

"Actually I am." Brennan decided not to explain she wasn't a medical doctor because she knew the woman would ignore her if she knew her doctorate wasn't in medicine.

"Well, okay." Taking the child's hand, she walked over to a set of towels and a bag, picked them up and started walked towards the parking lot. "They need to warn people about jellyfish in the water." Continuing to fuss, the woman felt that her vacation was now ruined.

Watching the woman and child leave, Brennan hoped the woman sought aid for the child. If not, the child would be truly miserable.

"She didn't say thank you, Mom." Christine was outraged. "She could have said thank you."

"I didn't expect to be thanked. It's alright. Her concern is for her child." Brennan was used to the rudeness she came across. Some people were rude and were outraged when their perfect world turned out to be less than perfect. "Let's go play with your father and brother."

Irritated, Christine watched the woman and child disappear from view then turned to walk towards her father. "Okay. I don't want to be stung by a jellyfish, so no more swimming."

"Yes, no more swimming, at least for today." The warmer oceans were becoming a problem and an increase in stinging jellyfish was one of those problems.

Ooooooooooooooooo

That evening, Booth was sitting near the hotel pool when his son ran by him and leaped into the pool. Since the child didn't know how to swim, the boy sank out of sight. Horrified, Booth left his chair and leaped into the water, found his son and brought him to the surface.

The child spluttering and coughing clung to his father's neck while he was carried to the edge of the pool. Booth found the pool ladder and pulled himself up while Brennan leaned over and lifted the child into her arms.

"Hank, why did you jump into the pool?"

Clinging to his mother, Hank watched his father finish climbing the ladder. "I want to swim."

Now that his son was safe, Booth grabbed a towel and dried off his face and head. "Hank, you don't know how to swim. I've told you before you can't go into the pool without Mommy or me."

"Booth, I think it's time that Hank took swimming lessons." Brennan had witnessed the boy jump in the water and had raced towards the pool just as her husband had dived into the pool. Relieved that Booth had found their child, she had felt the need to hold the boy as soon as she was close enough to pull him into her arms. "There is a program at the YMCA. I will register Hank for lessons as soon as we get home."

His towel now draped across his shoulders Booth patted his son's back. "Hank you cannot get into any pool unless Mommy or I are with you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Daddy." Though he had sunk to the bottom of the pool, Hank was unafraid. "I didn't swim very good."

"No, you didn't." Brennan hugged her son and felt the child begin to squirm in her embrace. Placing him on his feet, Brennan held her hand on his shoulder. "Promise Daddy and me that you will not get into the pool if we aren't with you. Until you learn to swim, you're in danger of drowning if you're in the water unaccompanied."

Slowly nodding his head, the boy knew he had upset his parents and he hadn't meant to do that. "I promise." Pointing at Christine who was in the water, swimming across the width of the pool, Hank found it unfair that his sister could swim and he couldn't. "I want to swim."

"I'm going to take you for lessons when we get home, Hank." Brennan frowned as she stared at her partner. "Booth, I think it would be best if we went home and removed temptation from Hank. I didn't think of all the ramifications of being near water with a child that can not swim. I should have and I'm embarrassed that I didn't."

"Bones, come on." Booth placed his arm around her shoulders. "We've been on vacation with Hank to the beach twice and nothing bad happened either time. He's just getting older and braver. If you want to stay away from the beach and the pool, that's fine, but I don't see why we need to go home. We can drive west from here, find a hotel and just relax. No need to go home." He really wanted to stay away from home for his vacation. He knew if they were home, the Lab would take advantage of Brennan and call her if they needed help and that wasn't his idea of a vacation.

Since Brennan wasn't ready to return home either and she didn't want to disappoint Christine who loved to stay in hotels, Brennan decided Booth was right. "Alright, I don't want to be unfair to our daughter. She loves going on vacation."

"She's just like her Daddy." Booth waved at Christine who had called to him to witness her diving. "Vacation at home is for the birds."

"I don't know what that means." Brennan knew that Booth was using an idiom but she felt that he purposely used ones that were meaningless. "Why are birds involved when we vacation at home."

Chuckling, Booth knew that his wife might be a genius, but she didn't know everything which made her human. "It just means worthless, that's all and I'm right. The only time I like to vacation at home is when I'm tired and I'm rarely that tired."

"I see." Brennan sighed. "I like this hotel, but between the jelly fish intruding at the beach and Hank's sudden need to swim, I think it would be better if we did leave. We can come back here once Hank has learned to swim and we're sure there isn't a jellyfish infestation. With the waters becoming warmer it might be wiser to consider vacations in the mountains in the future."

Per usual, Booth agreed with her logic. "Yeah, that cabin we stayed in a few years ago was near a lake, so we had a place to swim and we didn't have to worry about jellyfish. It's cooler too."

Hank was now standing at the edge of the pool waving at Christine and Booth worried the boy might jump back into the water. Moving over to where the boy stood, Booth placed his hand on the child's shoulder. "You promised Hank."

Looking up, the boy smiled. "Yes . . . Daddy, I'm just looking."

He'd been a boy once and Booth knew what that meant. "Just as long as you're just looking. Why don't we go get an ice cream cone? How does that sound?"

"Chrissy!" The boy shouted at his sister. "Chrissy, we're going go get ice cream."

Not to be left out, Christine swam across the pool, climbed the ladder and raced over to where her towel lay. "I want butter pecan, Dad."

"I approve of your diversion, Booth." Brennan gathered their towels and her bag while Booth walked back towards the hotel entrance with their children. "I want coconut ice cream."

"You got it Bones and thanks, it is a great idea. You can't go wrong with promises of ice cream."

Ooooooooooooooo

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