Disclaimer: I don't own Bones, Fox, or Parker.
Note: I am still looking for a reliable beta reader to scan through/edit my stories and such. If you feel that you could help me out a lot here, drop me a note/review along with your email so that I am able to email you the next chapter for things.
So I'm done with my beta rambling. On with the story!
Visiting Tempe's and his daddy's workplace was always fun. Daddy started to make it routine that he took Parker once a month or every two months. Daddy trusted Parker and the team of squints (Parker finally learned what a squint was after hours of wheedling it out of Daddy) to take care that Parker didn't blow himself up or something. Luckily, Tempe's and Daddy's boss was very understanding about this, and allowed Parker the freedom to run around—granted he didn't blow the building up.
This hub in the middle of the building was also a good place for Parker to practice his eavesdropping skills, even though Daddy had sometimes caught him at it and gently scolded him and told him eavesdropping was bad. Parker made sure to nod and look seriously into Daddy's eyes on the occasion of one of these lectures.
Eavesdropping was fun, and Parker would never give it up, even if Daddy sent him back to Mommy again all the way in California.
Parker was proud to say that he had turned seven in August right before school started. Thinking about it, Parker thought of all the things he had heard over the summer in bits and pieces over the building, but a big conversation had occurred somewhere near the middle of August:
August 12
Parker had been running around, playing Detective Agent Parker, with superpowers and he could save the world.
"Oh no! DAP—" (Detective Agent Parker, to the weaklings that didn't know) "—has been sighted!" Parker gasped to himself in third person. "DAP must go into stealth mode and avoid detection!"
Executing an impressive tumble—well, at least in Parker's opinion—behind a large object, Parker waited silently until footsteps walked past. Cautiously sticking part of his head out to see, Parker realized that he had concealed himself behind a large couch in—Parker squinted—Angela's office? Interesting. He didn't know that Angela even had an office, but apparently the funky hand-painted nameplate said she did.
Just as Parker was about to stealthily get up and sneak out of the office, he heard more footsteps, and he quickly shot back behind the couch again. Peeking an eye out, he saw the door open and two people, Tempe and Angela, walk in. It looked like they were carrying lunch from Wong Foo's.
Parker pouted. He wanted lunch from Wong Foo's. He wondered if he should just walk out and declare that he was there, but decided against it. The conversation that followed would hopefully be interesting, and hopefully Daddy would've gotten some Wong Foo's for him anyways in his own office.
So Parker settled down behind the couch, one eye still warily taking in the surroundings, and listened intently as Tempe and Angela began to talk.
Of course, Parker never figured into his "calculations" how long two women could talk of useless things before at last turning to something that Parker thought was interesting. As they breezed through random topics, Parker ticked them off on his fingers.
Asian cuisine…the newest sale at Macy's…Tempe's new book…a brief debate on which brand of camera was better than the other…strategies to win at Monopoly…a news story on pollution in the Potomac river…Angela's grandmother's recipe for prize-winning apple pie…
And then finally, out of the blue, came the topic of Booth. At this, Parker stopped nodding off and pricked an ear to listen.
First came Tempe's voice, abrupt and sudden. "He said that he had feelings for me."
Angela. "What?"
"Booth. He admitted that he had feelings for me."
Parker wondered what kind of feelings. Happy feelings? Angry feelings? He might ask Tempe about that later.
Wait, he couldn't. Parker chewed his lip distractedly. Asking Tempe meant confessing to Tempe that he had been eavesdropping. And no one was supposed to know that he had been eavesdropping.
Parker let out a low sigh in knowing he would have to live with his curiosity for a bit more time, and then started to listen as voices started once again, with Angela.
"That's fantastic! Does he know that you have feelings for him?"
"You see, Ange, that's the problem."
"Oh. I see."
"I don't know what to do. I mean he's really great and sensitive and sweet and all that—but then he also seems to be fierce, stubborn, and independent. I—I don't know what to do!"
"Whoa, Tempe." Angela reached over and calmed her friend. "You're babbling. I honestly think that you should tell him. It sounds as though you've really appealed to him—appealed as in figuratively speaking. Being the fabulous matchmaker I am, my vote goes for telling him."
Parker still hadn't figured out what Tempe was going to tell his Daddy.
Tempe gave a sigh, much like the time when Parker had overheard her talking to Angela in her own office, on that first visit. "We'll see, Ange."
Parker's birthday, August 20
Daddy, Tempe, and the Squint Squad (as Parker had drawn on alliteration to name them, much to his Daddy's delight) had taken Parker to the fair for his birthday.
"I'm not going on the Ferris Wheel, and that's final." Looking up from his cotton candy for a second, Parker saw Tempe staring stubbornly at Daddy.
"C'mon Bones. It'll be fun, and nothing will happen. Look, I'll even go with you."
Tempe eyed his daddy suspiciously. "What if the car stops at the very top?"
His daddy sighed exasperatedly. "I'm an FBI agent, Bones. I'll climb down from the Ferris Wheel and—operate it again. I've been trained to do worse, though."
Tempe gave his daddy another eye-scorching glare that clearly said "If you dare try and leave me alone in that car for one second, you are dead", before cracking.
"Fine."
His daddy smiled, and towed her off towards the Ferris Wheel.
After a fun day spent at the fair, Parker was bursting with ice cream and cotton candy. Fetching one last bag of cotton candy at the fair to take home (and hoping that the bag would last until tomorrow), Parker waved good-bye to the Squint Squad as they drove away before hopping into Daddy's SUV.
Daddy said that Tempe was going to visit the house tonight because they needed to discuss something on a new case they had, and Parker nodded agreeably.
Of course they would discuss the new case.
Upon reaching home, Parker did his best to feign sleepiness; plodding up the stairs, and collapsing on the bed. Coming into his room, Daddy laughed and properly tucked Parker in with a good-night kiss before Parker heard him go back downstairs.
Once Parker heard words being spoken downstairs, he tiptoed out of bed and to the bottom of the stairs that led to the dining room they never used. Ducking behind a large silverware cabinet, it offered Parker a good view of what was going on down there. Not to mention top-notch sound acoustics.
Parker twisted his head around the cabinet just in time to see Daddy looking at Tempe kind of strangely. He whispered something in her ear, and Tempe blushed.
And then his Daddy kissed Tempe.
Parker made a silent disgusted face. Didn't his Daddy know about cooties?
A/N: And that is where it shall end for this chapter! I already have this story all figured out, and I'm eagerly anticipating the end. I'd say maybe two or three more chapters before the finale! Haha, I hope you liked their kiss, and er...Parker's opinion on that particular kiss. Well, I have just figured out that I'm rambling here, so basically, just review and you'll get more chapters! Oh, and yes, that was a threat.