Chapter 12 – The Baby in the Bough

Booth was driving his SUV to the crime scene, with Brennan sitting next to him. They had just been driving home when Booth had gotten the call. Brennan had wanted to talk with Booth over dinner of an important matter that her accountant had mentioned. However, since it appeared that wasn't going to be able to happen, Brennan decided to mention it now. "What do you know about the Cayman Islands? "

Booth thought about it for a few seconds before he told her. "Great diving, you know? Lots of sea turtles." He knew that she hadn't gotten an offer to go on an excavation in a while. The last one being over three years ago. Maybe this was her way of mentioning it. "Why? Are you going?"

Brennan shook her head. "No." She paused, trying to think of a way to tell him of her plans. She decided to be straight forward. "My accountant wants me to set up a tax shelter there."

That gave him a start. He knew that they were well-off, but to be able to do that and still not worry about money. "Tax shelter? Exactly how loaded are we?"

Brennan noted that Booth used the term 'we' and not 'you'. Which was quite a step up from when they first got married. She knew that he still wanted to split half the costs on the major items in their home, but he had come around to the idea of her making more money than him. Brennan couldn't help but respond a little indignantly, "That is an offensive way to phrase the question." She then paused before she smiled slightly at him as she mumbled, "Quite loaded. I'm betting on a seven figure advance for my next book."

Booth hadn't been expecting that. "Seven figures. Wow. With…without the decimal point?"

Brennan said defensively, "The publishers make considerably more."

Booth still couldn't believe it. "What's the first of those seven figures?"

Brennan told him primly, "A prime number. What did you used to do with your money?"

Booth snorted as he said, "I used it for food and rent."

~BONES~

Officer Delpy still didn't believe the boys luck. "There's not even a scratch on the boy. It's a miracle."

Brennan scoffed at that, "Well, hardly! Car-seats are specifically engineered to protect the child."

Booth snorted softly, "From what? Flying out the back of a car and landing in a tree?" Booth saw that the baby was getting fussy. "Oh, look at him, Bones. He looks a little fussy there. Why don't you pick him up and give him a cuddle?"

Brennan didn't like how Booth said that. She narrowed her eyes as she told him, "What? Just because I have breasts doesn't mean that I have magical powers over infants. You're the one with the son."

Booth rolled his eyes heavenward. He knew that Brennan was great with…Parker. Of course, he hadn't really seen her interact with other children, but he knew that she could do it if she put her mind to it. Just like she had done the one time that he had to leave Parker with her that one afternoon to go to a fresh crime scene when they first started dating. But he also knew how uncomfortable she got around them, at first. "All right, fine. I'll take him. Here you go." He handed her the diaper bag before he grabbed the baby. "You have fun with the diaper bag. You look good. Come on, little man! Whoa-ho. Hi! Why don't you say hi to your grumpy old Auntie Bones."

Brennan said indignantly, "No! I am not grumpy!" She then turned to the sheriff and informed him, "The vinyl seat melted and fused to the body so we need that brought back to the Jeffersonian. And the driver's door for particulate evidence."

The sheriff nodded his before he sniffed the air and said, "The kid smells a little ripe. Might want to take care of that."

Booth sniffed a little as well and sure enough smelled that the little man needed a change. He sighed as he watched Delpy walk away, "Yeah. Okay, Bones, I'm gonna have to change him. Just hold on to him here. Here you go. Here you go. Okay? Got him?"

He handed the baby off to Brennan as she tried to protest. "What? Oh! Woah! Arrrgh."

Booth started to take off his suit jacket and lay it down on the back of the fire truck as he told Brennan, " kay. Here we go. We'll work together on this one. Changin' Diapers 101." Brennan gave the baby back to Booth. "Here we go. Here we go, little big man. Okay. watch your…" He cradled the baby's head in his hand as he gently laid him down on his jacket, "Here. Right here. Look at that. All right. Get me a diaper there, Bones."

Brennan looked through the diaper bag. "Right. There you go."

Booth smiled at her, remembering when they did this with Parker. Even back then she had an aversion for changing diapers. "Thanks. Baby powder."

Brennan sighed as she started looking through the bag again. "You know, Booth, I have better things to do with my time. There's no powder."

Booth looked at her and repeated, "No powder?"

Brennan nodded her head as she continued to look through the bag, "Yeah. Hey. Wait a minute." She pulled a key from the bag and showed it to him.

Booth looked at it closely while he asked, 'Where'd that come from?"

Brennan told him, "There's a rip in the lining of the bag. Seems like someone was trying to hide it."

Booth nodded his head as he said, "Okay. I'll get an evidence bag and I'll ask EMT if they have any baby powder. Just watch him."

Brennan watched him jog away and yelled out, "Wait. Wait. Wait! Booth. There's a baby! I don't feel comforta…" But it was pointless. The baby made a gurgling sound and Brennan looked down at him, trying to remember what she did with Parker when he was a baby. "Coochie-coo?" That did not work though. The baby actually started to cry. "Oh! No no! No need to fuss! Obviously something is upsetting you. Children have toys; you must have some. Let me see." She rummaged in the bag and retrieved a purple stuffed elephant. "You know, elephants are not purple. This is wrong." The baby kept on crying though causing her to sigh. She had turned back to look for something else for the baby when Booth came up to them again. She looked back at the baby and noticed, "Hey, look at that: he flipped over!"

Booth rushed over to the baby and turned him on his back again. "Bones! That's because you gotta watch him. Jeez. Woah. Okay, look, little big man. If you're gonna be in my jacket, we gotta get you out of that diaper. Woah. Okay, where's the key?"

Brennan pointed to where she placed it. "I put it on your jacket."

Booth couldn't believe her! "Next to the baby?"

Brennan nodded her head in confusion, "Yeah."

He exclaimed, "Are you crazy? You know that babies put everything in their mouth, Bones! He could have swallowed the key! It's so dangerous. All right. Okay." He picked up the baby whilst Brennan looked for the key. Booth tried to soothe the baby as he rocked him back and forth, "Shh shh shh shh. The key, Bones. Look for the key."

Brennan shook her head as she looked up at him, "It's not here. Oh, no. He must've..." They said it at the same time, "Swallowed it."

Booth looked at the baby and then back at her as he started to cry again. "Okay." He handed the baby to Brennan. "Here you go. Get used to him."

That confused her a lot. "What do you mean?"

Booth grimaced slightly as he thought of the nights to come. "That key was evidence. You know how chain of custody works. That kid stays with us until we get the key back."

Brennan looked at the baby she was holding and then he started to pee on her. "Ohhhh. Ahhh."

Booth took the still-peeing baby from her as he looked down at her pants. "Wooh. That's a stream."

~BONES~

After having called in DCFS, setting all matters straight with the baby, and setting up Parker's old crib – the couple sat on the floor exhausted. Thankfully, at Russ' insistence, they were both registered foster parents. That didn't mean that they had expected to take any child, no less, a baby in anytime soon. Brennan leaned her head against Booth's shoulder and yawned. "I'm so tired."

Booth chuckled softly as he rested his head against the top of hers. "Welcome to parenthood, Bones."

Brennan sighed as she told him, "I don't remember it being like this with Parker. He never cried as much."

Booth snorted. "That's because he had just got passed the crying stage to regular sleeping stage when we started dating. The first few months, when I had him, I didn't sleep at all. There was this one time when I…" But then Booth heard her soft snores, telling him she fell asleep. He smiled down at her before he gently scooped her up in his arms and carried her silently to their bed. He placed her down on the bed before he went back to their guest room – where the crib was set up – and said goodnight to the little man, took the baby monitor, and turned off the lights before heading back to his room.

Booth placed the baby monitor on the nightstand before he himself slipped under the covers, wrapping his arm his wife's waist – bringing her back flush against his chest – and fell asleep as well.

~BONES~

Brennan and Booth were walking around the Medico-Legal Lab Floor as he told her jokingly, "You know, you look very mom-like with that baby monitor."

Brennan shrugged her shoulders as she told him, "I have a responsibility under state law as a foster parent. I've already bought him toys and clothes."

Booth smiled at that, "Ah, so you've bought him some clothes?"

Brennan said, "Well, I sent an intern, who apparently loves bears, which in reality would devour a small child."

Hodgins walked up to them then and gave them his results, "I tested the ground bone for strontium."

Brennan told Booth in terms he would understand, "Strontium is an element found in most rocks."

Hodgins smiled as he saw Booth's expression before moving on, "Human beings absorb it through the consumption of local vegetation and water. Over time, the isotope collects in the bones, meaning…"

Booth looked heavenward before finishing for the bug man. "You could use it to figure out where someone's from." Brennan and Hodgins looked at him in shock. "That is right, people. I am a constant surprise."

They were interrupted by the baby crying being heard through the baby monitor. "I don't understand. He's been fed; he's changed; I patted him, and now he's just...complaining."

Booth smirked as he saw the first tell-tale signs of fatigue from his wife. "He's acting like a real baby."

Hodgins smiled at them before continuing, "The victim was from northern West Virginia. Tucker County to be more precise."

That made no sense. "Well, are you sure she's from Tucker County? The crash was in Pendleton."

Hodgins nodded, "Very sure. Particulate matter collected from the salvaged area of the car contained guano from a Corynorhinus townsendii virginianus."

Brennan was happy with those results. "So we know where to look." She then looked at the baby monitor, which was still transmitting the baby's cries.

Booth looked at her with a raised brow before he asked, "Are you gonna get him?"

Brennan shrugged, "I figured you'd get him."

Booth threw her words back at her, "Don't you have a 'responsibility under state law'?"

Brennan huffed slightly. "But you're the baby daddy."

Booth knew for a fact that she had no clue what she was saying by that. "Baby daddy?"

Brennan nodded as she explained, "You have prior experience with pre-verbal infancy."

Booth shook his head as he told her, "You can be the daddy mommy."

Angela came up to them then, breaking up their bickering – much to Hodgins' disappoint – and said, "Okay, you two had better get your act together or I'm suing for custody. This is my rendering of the victim."

Brennan looked at the photo and back at the baby while she observed, "Numerous genetic similarities. Cam's running DNA tests to be sure, but I'm comfortable with the assessment that this was the child's mother."

Booth said sadly, "He misses his mother. He's sad."

Brennan felt a rush of emotions surge through her at those words. She reached slowly for the baby and took him from Angela as she told Booth. "We need to go to Tucker County."

~BONES~

Booth was driving through the town as he told Brennan, "The last coal mine closed about eight years ago. This place is a ghost town."

Brennan nodded, "The local economy was devastated."

Booth agreed with that. "Yeah. That could be why our victim was driving a junker. She couldn't afford registration, insurance..." He then couldn't help but say, "You know, I don't wanna sound insensitive here, but I'm telling you: real estate? It's gotta be a steal. I mean, we could build ourselves a beautiful house on the river. I could come out and fish. We could put in one of those media rooms. You know, I saw a one hundred and three inch flat-screen TV…"

Brennan gave him a look before she said, "We don't need another residence, Booth."

Booth shrugged as he said, "Just, you know, tryin' to give you a little financial advice."

Brennan then looked back at the baby. She couldn't help but think how lonely he was. It was so sad.

~BONES~

They pulled up at a trailer park by some train tracks. Booth started to get out and Brennan followed, "Okay."

Booth shook his head and told her sternly, "No no no no no no no no no."

Brennan asked concerned, "What?"

Booth pointed at her seat and told her protectively. "No no no no. Look, the front door is open. You stay here."

Brennan started to protest, "But…"

Booth shook his head again, "Bones, there is a baby involved. If you hear gunfire, anything like that, drive away."

Brennan wasn't going to just leave him. "But…I'm not leaving you."

Booth wasn't going to budge on this topic. "Yes you will, because this is about the baby, not me. Promise me."

Brennan looked back at Andy and then at Booth, before she sighed and said softly, "I promise." She watched as he walked into the trailer and sighed anxiously. She then turned back to Andy and said as she started to climb to the back seat, "We will find out what happened to your mother. I promise. You know, Booth is an excellent investigator and, I don't like to boast, but I am the best in my field." Andy started to fuss. "What do you want? Ah. How, how about some visual and auditory stimulation? Okay. Let's see. Um."

Brennan gave up looking for something and then started to waggle her fingers, "Phalanges! Phalanges. Phalanges! Dancing phalanges. Dancing phalanges! Yeah-hah-hah. Booth thinks bones are dry and boring, but– show me your phalanges."

The baby started to wiggle his own fingers as Booth came out with a handcuffed Lou. "Hey, Bones. Her husband, real genius, doesn't even remember where he was last night."

Brennan slammed her door shut as she told Lou, "We've got your son in here. His mother's dead and now you're the only one…"

Lou shook his head, "Oh, no no no no no. I never wanted to have a kid. She did it because she thought it would, uh, straighten me out, but I told her I couldn't handle a kid because I'm a free spirit?"

Booth shook his head in disgust as he said, "What you are is a drunk, Lou. All right, dispatch. I need a forensics team and a car for a burglary suspect and a possible murderer…"

Lou objected loudly, "Woah! I didn't kill her! Why would I? Who else would feed me?"

~BONES~

Brennan was carrying Andy out of the trailer as Booth looked at them. "First the key, now jewelry. What's next? Are you gonna let him play with a bowling ball?"

Brennan said defensively, "What? I'm watching him!" Booth took Andy from her and placed him in the back seat as she told him, "Meg had a number of bone conditions that would have caused chronic pain but she wasn't taking any pain medication."

Booth handed her back her pendant. "Here. It was probably because she didn't want it affecting her, you know, her supply."

Brennan smiled slightly at Booth's obvious discomfort. "What, you mean her breast milk? You know, you can say the word breast, Booth." She then mumbled suggestively, "I know you can."

Booth stood outside his door as he told her, "Yeah, I know, Bones."

Brennan honestly didn't get why Booth was so shy about speaking about such topics in public. "Well, didn't Rebecca breastfeed Parker?"

Booth slid into his car as he told her, "I am not. You know... I am not discussing that with you."

Brennan joked slightly, "Would teat make you more comfortable?"

Booth almost yelled, "I am not talking teats with you!"

Brennan huffed, "Why not?"

Booth shook his head in exasperation. "Enough!" He blew a breath out before he went on, "So our victim wasn't taking any painkillers."

Brennan jumped right back into it. "No, but her occupational markers in her lateral upper condyle and lower discs suggest that her job requires manual labor. Her pain might have been excruciating."

Booth nodded. "Probably had no choice. I mean, jobs around here are pretty scarce. All right, what do you say we go talk to her boss?"

Brennan was silent for a few seconds before she asked, "Were you breastfed? I was." Booth couldn't believe the things she wanted to talk about sometimes.

~BONES~

Brennan just disconnected with Angela as she turned back to Booth. "I've got the bank's address. It's in Petersberg, one town from Huntsville."

Booth smiled at Andy as he said, "Great! I'll request a warrant. That'll give us time to go to Family Services in Parsons to…"

Brennan started to walk toward Booth as she shook her head. "What? No! Not yet."

Booth was surprised as she took Andy from him and held him protectively. "Bones, I know this is difficult but we both agreed that we'd keep Andy to get the key. Now that we have the key..."

Brennan started to walk to the truck as she told him firmly, "No. You can't leave him with Family Services in the middle of nowhere. Cam still needs to review his medical records."

Booth knew that this was going to be hard, but still. "Oh, well... I mean... Bones, there are doctors there."

Brennan gently placed Andy back in his car seat and told Booth, "You have no idea what that place will be like, Booth. Med students, underfunded, understaffed…"

Booth knew that tone anywhere. "Bones."

Brennan told him passionately, "His mother is dead and his father is a felon. I've been in his situation, Booth. I am not turning him over until I'm satisfied that he is somewhere safe where he'll get the care he deserves."

Booth knew that he wasn't going to win this one and he had grown attached to the little man as well. "Fine. He can stay with us, for now."

Brennan smiled at him and said quietly, "Thank you."

Booth gave her a knowing smile before he said, "Okay. I'll go lock the back up."

Brennan turned to make sure that Andy was secure in the car before she impulsively blew a raspberry on his tummy and then another. They both laughed, before she looked around to make sure no one saw her.

~BONES~

Booth and Brennan were sitting in the open trunk, drinking coffee. Booth sighed into his cup. "You know, I'm gonna miss that little guy...And so are you, so don't deny it."

Brennan smile a little before she said, "I'm not ashamed to say that I have developed a certain...affection for Andy. It's a natural byproduct of care giving."

Booth looked at her for a few moments before he asked quietly, "Yeah. So, what do you think, huh? Change your mind about having kids?"

Brennan smiled at him as she said in a warning tone. "Booth."

Booth could tell that she had softened to the idea over the past few days. They would take it one day at a time. "Okay, all right. You got some time." He paused before he added jokingly, "Not that much time…"

Brennan swatted at him for saying that. "Booth!" She accidently knocked his cup out of his hands. He said in shook, 'Hey.' as she looked down at the mess. "Now look what you did!"

Brennan started to clean up some of the mess as Booth said in defense, "What I did?"

Brennan picked up some portfolios and was wiping them down as she nodded her head, "Yeah."

Booth shot back, "You're the one who hit me!" He then noticed that she was holding something and took one of the portfolios from her, "Woah, what is all this stuff?"

Brennan sighed. "It's information Carol gave me, from a structural engineer."

Booth smiled at her as he said, "Oh, so you took my financial advice, didn't you? Hm? We're gonna build that home."

Brennan shook her head as she said softly, "No. The congressman couldn't help so I'm rebuilding the bridge into Huntsville. I've hired Carol Grant as the project manager."

Booth's eyes widened. "Wow. That is going to cost a fortune."

Brennan shrugged her shoulders. "Well, to you it's a fortune, but with my advance, and selling the movie rights…"

Booth shook his head and gave her a look of amusement. Yes, he knew they were loaded. He just never got used to that idea. "Yeah, I get it. You know, I thought you said that towns lived and died liked organisms, that sometimes we should just let them go."

Brennan told him, "Sometimes it takes one thing, like a bridge, for a town to start recovering. Back on the scenic route the gas stations could reopen, restaurants, maybe a bed and breakfast for people wanting to stay in the area."

Booth looked at her proudly. "Wow. Listen to you. Good for you." He handed her the documents and sat back. He couldn't help but add, "You know, it's a, it's a shame."

Brennan asked confused, "What?"

Booth shrugged, "No kids, who's going to be proud of you?"

Brennan gave him a look and said quietly, "I don't do it for that. Plus, I have you."

Booth smiled at her and said, "Yeah, okay. I know. I know. You know, with next year's book, we should uh, we should get that second home in that town you saved. I mean, it only makes sense, right? Because every year, you know, plasmas, they go down, they get cheaper and cheaper–it happens all the time."

Brennan shook her head. "Forget it."

Booth had been joking of course, but still he like d the idea of it. "What? I'm just saying. Andy's going to miss his Auntie Bones. He's going to want to see you. We could all go fishing, come back home, plop ourselves in front of that one hundred and three inch plasma screen of heaven and football and you can make the five layer dip."

Brennan corrected, "Seven layer dip."

Booth said excitedly, "Even better! Seven layers! Perfect! You can talk to Andy, 'hello Andy, little baby, little baby baby Andy…'" Brennan grabbed the pacifier from out of his hand and shoved it in his mouth, to shut him up. But when he started to suck on it she started to laugh a little. The man could be so childish sometimes. Man, did she love him.