Aiden walked into the kitchen after Antonia and watched as she stepped to the stove. The water was nearly boiling for the spaghetti, and the sauce was simmering. She slowly dipped the spoon into the sauce, bringing it to her lips, she blew lightly over it as the steam rose from the spoon. She could sense Aiden approaching her, and waited for his inevitable questions. "You're in pain." He said, watching as she tasted the bit of sauce, smacking her lip as she placed the spoon in the spoon holder and turned slowly.
"I will be fine." Antonia said, her eyes clashing with his.
"Where did she kick you?" He asked.
"My ribs." She said, "Right here." She said, putting her hand over a spot directly over her abdomen, she winced at the pain. "New rule, no shoes in the house." She mumbled, glancing back to the boiling water.
"She could have really hurt you, she could have kicked at the baby." He said, noticing that she refused to look at him. "Tex."
"I know all of this, Aiden. It doesn't make it easier. I'm going to have be alone with her, she's going to have fits. She was abused." She said, staring at the water. "I just have to be more careful, and she has to learn that she is safe."
"What happened in the room? What did she say? What did you talk about?" Aiden asked, noting that Antonia was becoming more agitated. "Sorry." He said, taking a step back, he watched as she busied herself at the stove, and he kept quiet, moving toward the plates to pull them from the cupboard.
"Thank you for bringing Fiona." She said softly, stirring the spaghetti into the boiling water, she looked to him and smiled slightly. "It was an amazing and wonderful surprise, and I just… I want you to know that I appreciate it." Antonia smiled.
"I just want you to be happy." Aiden said, setting the plates on the counter, he moved toward the silverware, when suddenly there was the sound of squealing down the hallway.
Antonia nearly dropped the wooden spoon into the boiling water when the two girls came careening into the room, smiles on their face as they laughed. "Uncle Bean, when is dinner going to be ready?" Fiona asked, noticing the surprised look on the faces of the two adults, she immediately felt guilty for surprising them. "Sorry." She giggled.
"Yeah, you're sorry…" Aiden said, winking at Melody to let her know that he was being silly as he moved forward and grabbed Fiona and tipped her upside down as she giggled. "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" He laughed.
"Let me go! Let me go, Uncle Bean!" Fiona giggled as Melody laughed and hopped up and down to try to 'save' her friend, only to be lifted up by Aiden's other arm as he held both giggling girls upside down as he stomped around the kitchen.
"Okay, okay, Uncle Bean…" Antonia laughed, looking at the upside-down girls as they giggled. "Set the table please." She said, watching as he released the girls from his clutches and they giggled and laughed. "Wash your hands, girls." Antonia signed and spoke to the girls, who nodded and ran off to the bathroom to wash up, while Aiden watched Antonia turn back toward the stove. "It looks like they're getting along very well." Antonia smiled, listening to the water running in the bathroom as the girls giggled. "Fiona has a big heart. Must run in the family." She said, as suddenly she felt his arms around her from behind, his chin resting on her shoulder. She turned her head to look at his tender smile. "You're not setting the table."
"Very astute observation, Doctor Booth." He mumbled into her ear, he felt her shake her head slightly. "I think you're wonderful." He whispered, starting to pull away to set the table, he felt her hands clamp onto his to hold him in place for a moment, he kissed her temple tenderly. "Hey." He whispered, feeling her hesitance in her stance, he couldn't see her eyes, but he could tell she was thinking. "She'll be alright, she just has a few more mountains to climb than we do. We can't stop what happened in the past, but we can control how things move forward." He said, feeling her grip relax slightly. "I'm going to go set the table." He said softly, feeling her nod silently, allowing him to step backwards.
He grabbed the plates and walked toward the table, listening to the girls in the bathroom. "Alright, ladies. I think your hands are clean now." Aiden called, hearing their giggles as they turned off the water and rushed into the room quickly. "No running." He said while signing, and Melody's smile dropped a little, thinking for a moment she was in trouble. She glanced to Fiona and could see from her smile that the tone in his voice must have been friendly, for she didn't seem worried, so her smile returned back to its care free state.
"Melody is really cool, Uncle Aiden. She showed me how to sign different colors, and stuff." Fiona exclaimed. "It's like a whole different language!" She said excitedly.
"It literally is a whole different language, silly kid." Aiden said, making a face at her, as he pointed to the seats where each little girl would be seated. "What did she teach you?" He asked, signing as he spoke.
"Um… This is blue." She said, holding up her hand, twisting it. "And this is pink." She said, glancing to Melody as she held her index finger out and tapped her lips lightly. Melody nodded and smiled, glancing to Aiden as he smiled back at her. "And this," She said, holding her fist with one hand as she held her other index finger to it. "That's Bean." She giggled.
"Yes, yes, I know what that is." He laughed, shaking his head. He moved toward the kitchen to help Antonia, and watched her for a moment as she stood beside the stove. Her hand was on her side as she closed her eyes for a moment. "Let me see it." He said, walking toward her, her eyes opened wide as she turned away from him and pulled the strained spaghetti out of the sink, sliding it into a bowl, she handed it to him without a word. "Antonia, you're in pain."
"And you are a pain." She smiled overly sweetly at him and he rolled his eyes. "I'm fine. She's five. I was kicked by a kid. I'm fine, Aiden." She said, more resolutely.
"Just because you say it in that tone, doesn't make it more true." He said, shaking his head.
"There's nothing you or I can do about it. It's bruised, it hurts. Thank you for your concern, but I'll be fine." She said, nodding toward the dining room. "Now get that spaghetti in there before those children eat the napkins." She said, turning to grab the pot of sauce, when she turned back around, he had already disappeared into the dining room. She stepped into the dining room, and Aiden was scooping noodles onto the girls' respective plates. She watched as their eyes lifted, and each one smiled brightly.
"Hi, Ant!" Fiona said excitedly, glancing to Melody, who signed the same. Fiona tried to sign the same, watching Melody carefully, the other little girl watched her friend try, her eyes glittering with excitement at the chance to teach someone so eager to learn how to talk to her.
"Look at that, you're going to be a full blown interpreter in no time." Antonia smiled as the two girls giggled. She placed the pot on the trivet on the table, and began to scoop sauce over their pasta, signing to Melody as she watched the little girl pick up her fork and look at her.
"What was that you said to her?" Fiona asked curiously.
"I just reminded her to eat slowly." Antonia said with a smile. "Sometimes we forget that there are seconds." She signed, winking at Melody, who smiled.
"Nobody goes hungry here." Melody signed back a mantra that Antonia had been telling her each day, before each meal.
"That's right." Antonia replied. "Nobody goes hungry here." She said, looking to Aiden, who smiled up at her as she scooped some sauce over his spaghetti, she set the pot down, and moved toward her chair, setting her hand on his shoulder as she leaned in to kiss his cheek. "So, Miss Fiona, what have you been up to lately?"
"Uh, well…" She said, turning to look at Melody, who was immersed in her spaghetti, she didn't feel so bad about chatting. "Well, we finally moved into the house." She said with a nod. "We stayed at Uncle Aiden's for a few days, and that was fun. His bed is very bouncy. Good for jumping."
"You were jumping on my bed?" Aiden asked, teasing her.
"Uh, only a few hundred times." She shrugged, giggling at his faux angry face. "And we ate all of his food!"
"This is true." Aiden said, looking to Antonia. "I had no food in my refrigerator when I came home." He said, slurping a long noodle of spaghetti, spraying sauce on his face.
"Aiden!" Antonia exclaimed as the two girls giggled, shoveling noodles in their mouths as they attempted to slurp their spaghetti.
"It's spaghetti, Tex. That's how you eat it." Aiden said, watching across the table at the two girls as they continued to try to eat their spaghetti like him.
"You're going to make a mess." She laughed, shaking her head. "Why do I have to be the adult here?"
"Slurp your spaghetti, Ant!" Fiona said, laughing as she attempted again.
"I will not slurp my…" She said as she slipped a noodle into her mouth quickly and slurped it up, smiling when the girls laughed.
"See, you can be a kid too!" Fiona giggled. "You guys are so fun. Mom would never let me do that." She giggled, watching Aiden as she wiped her face with a napkin, he rolled his eyes and she let out a giggle.
"That's what Uncles are for, you know." Antonia said with a nod. "They let you do things that Moms don't always approve of."
"Like how Uncle Aiden told her we weren't coming to see you, and we did anyway?" She said, taking another bite of her spaghetti, she missed the look on Aiden's face. "Mom really did not want me to come here." She shook her head, looking up, she saw Aiden's pleading look and swallowed hard. "Oops." She mumbled.
"Excuse me?" Antonia asked, looking between Aiden and Fiona, she immediately noticed his red ears, and avoidance of eye contact as Fiona stared across the table at him. "What does she mean, Aiden?"
"Nothing." Fiona said quickly. "It's nothing. Mom was just being weird about stuff. That's all. I love you, Ant. I needed to see you! I needed to!" She said, panicking as she watched Aiden shake his head, still staring at his plate as he ate.
"Aiden?" Antonia said, watching him shake his head as he shoved more spaghetti into his mouth, his ears were starting to turn purple. "Aiden, stop shoving food in your face and talk to me." Antonia growled, watching his eyes flick to her anxiously, and then look back to Fiona, who looked almost as if she were going to cry.
"Mommy said that going to see you was dangerous, because of the bad guys." Fiona explained, jumping when Aiden slammed his palm on the table, her eyes widened, as did Melody's when the table shook, she looked up from her food and stared across the table at Aiden's angry face, frozen.
He swallowed, and shook his head. "We talked about this in the car." He said, watching Fiona stare at her plate, her hands moving to her side.
"Don't you dare yell at her for telling me the truth!" Antonia said sternly. "You're making her upset."
"We talked about this in the car, Fiona." He said, ignoring Antonia.
"Aiden, stop it." Antonia said sternly.
"I know! I'm sorry! I was just… I was… I wanted to…" Fiona said, tears flowing down her cheeks, she pleaded with Aiden.
"Your Mom didn't want you to come here?" Antonia asked, watching the little girl sniffle and shake her head. "I'm glad you did though, sweetheart." Antonia said, standing up, she walked around the table and crouched beside Fiona, looking over at Aiden as he sat, avoiding eye contact, shaking his head. "I'm glad you came to visit me."
"Uncle Aiden said if Mommy finds out, then he'll be in big trouble. He'll be in big trouble, and I'll be in big trouble." She whimpered, turning in her chair, she wrapped her arms around Antonia as she gently rubbed her back. She looked over at Melody, who was starting to slink under the table. She signed "No." to her, and beckoned her to come over, and Melody sat up, climbing from her chair. She walked over to Antonia and looked cautiously across the table at Aiden, pushing herself into Antonia's side.
"Well, it wasn't very nice of Uncle Aiden to put you in this position, having to lie to your mother." She said softly, resting her forehead on Fiona's. "I believe he had good intentions for both of us, don't you?" She could see that the little girl wasn't sure what she meant. "He wanted to make us both happy, didn't he?"
"Yes." She whispered, looking across the table at Aiden.
"And he should have known better than to ask a five year old child to keep a secret like that." She said, glancing to Aiden, his brow furrowed into a more sheepish expression, though Antonia's eyes were sharp and angry. She looked to Fiona and watched her nod, sniffling.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Aiden said, tipping his head a bit, he begged Antonia with his eyes, but was shut down by her angry glare.
"Why don't you finish your dinner." She said, poking the little girl's nose. "Then we'll have some cookies for dessert before Uncle Aiden takes you home, okay? And you two can have a nice long talk then, okay?"
"Okay." She nodded, sniffling, she turned back to her plate and picked up her fork, looking across the table at Aiden, he gave her a pleading expression, to which she looked back down at her plate.
"You, little girl, chair." Antonia kissed Melody's nose. Melody glanced to Aiden warily and back to Antonia, who gave her a reassuring smile. She smiled and turned toward her chair, climbing back up to her plate, she began to finish her dinner.
Antonia walked around the table, leaned down to Aiden's ear. "And when you get back, you and I can have a nice, long talk." She said as she sat down in her seat, picked up her fork, and dinner continued in silence.