Disclaimer-- again i own absolutely nothing... blah-dey, blah-dey, blah. You know the drill.
I know this is soon to add another chapter but... i hate leaving anything unfinished.. Hehe hope you enjoy
March 3rd
About One Month Later
Temperance Brennan was starving.
Her hunger was affecting her so much so that she realized that she had no idea what Angela was talking about- Brennan hadn't been listening since she slipped into the Artist's office.
All she could think about was Macaroni and Cheese. In all of its yellow varieties.
Angela noticed she wasn't listening.
"Listen sweetie- apparently none of this is getting through to you."
Brennan snapped to attention.
"Yes, it was Angela, please proceed."
"Bren, I just asked you if Giant Zombies could have made these wounds- and you said that it was an excellent theory and that you would have the intern look into- and although I would love to think that you just made possibly your first joke… I really doubt it, so spill it- what's up?" Angela tipped her head to one side and frowned.
"I am sorry Ang. I'm just really hungry."
Angela shook her head,
"Then go eat Brennan. This case isn't going to fail miserably if you're gone for two hours."
Temperance nodded, but Angela could tell that she was extremely preoccupied.
The artist watched her best friend strip off the gloves and slip off her blue lab coat- walking out of the Jeffersonian without another thought. Well Okay- there were more thoughts… mostly about the secret marriage that neither she nor Booth would talk about.
She still remembered nothing about that fated night.
Instead of discussing it like rational adults, they completely ignored the fact that it had even happened. For some reason the thought of bringing it up completely terrified her.
The fact that they had had practically back to back cases since returning had helped them avoid that conversation.
It's fine like this.
She thought pacifistically.
There was nothing that they could do. It wasn't an issue. We'll just leave it like that.
"Brennan." She said automatically into the cell phone.
"Hey Bones, where are you- I need to talk."
"I'm in the diner- eating some lunch."
"Lunch? I thought you just had breakfast."
Brennan frowned.
"It was a very small breakfast and I was still hungry- and I really don't need to be explaining myself to you."
"Yeah- ok Bones, whatever- I'll be there in um- 10 minutes,"
She heard the tires screech through the phone. It would be more like 5 minutes with the way that her partner drives.
"OK Booth- bye."
He hung up and she returned to her giant plate of Mac N Cheese.
March 31
st3 Weeks Later
Temperance threw up everywhere.
The scary thing was, the body wasn't too bad- almost all of the flesh was gone- there was almost no smell and the sight wasn't even disturbing compared to the many others that she had seen.
The simple truth of it was- she'd had worse. And besides, Booth hadn't thrown up- instead he gallantly held her hair back while she emptied the contents of her stomach on the far side of the four-runner.
Macaroni again and Thai food- it was the only thing that sounded good these days.
"You feelin' any better?" He asked kindly.
"No." She moaned, and then retched again.
Brennan attributed her upset stomach to the earliness in which she and Booth had been called out.
It was barely 6AM, and they had traveled almost 40 minutes to get out here.
Now she was sitting in the passenger's seat of the car, shivering with the adrenalin of puking her guts out.
Booth was on the phone, pacing back and forth outside the car. Brennan had told him that she would not be able to identify the key points of the remains in the frame of mind that she was in right now- he had sent a FBI tech to get her a bottle of water, telling her that he would take care of it and then handing her the water bottle and pointing at the car.
"Cam, she was throwing up everywhere-" He spouted into the phone, after his partner had climbed in. "Yeah I know… It's not like her… She's afraid that she will contaminate the remains. Will you send a team out to bring it in and document everything?"
"I'll come out there myself." She replied. "Just get Dr. Brennan somewhere where she can rest. I'll send Angela to her apartment to make sure that she actually rests."
Booth didn't think that that would be necessary but he agreed and hung up the phone.
"We're going home Bones. You are one sick puppy."
"I don't know what that means." She managed to get out, before making good use of the large bucket in her lap.
Booth was asleep on her couch- and Angela was out on her balcony sketching- Angela loved Brennan's balcony, the view wasn't great but it was full of people constantly moving by.
Ms. Montenegro adored this balcony.
Brennan figured that this would be as good a time as any to figure out what the heck was wrong with her.
The problem was, she had an idea, and the probability of her being correct made her worry and hope that she wasn't right for one of the first times in her life.
Slipping out of bed and into her bathroom she closed the door- opening her medicine cabinet and pulling it out.
She began to count days in her head. Trying to disprove what she knew might be happening.
Thirty minutes later she sat on the bathroom floor- her knees drawn up to her chin- staring wide eyed at nothing in front of her.
"Bren? Are you in there?"
Angela's voice came muffled through the door.
When she got no answer she opened it- shocked to find her best friend in a very Non-Brennan-y fetal position.
She knelt down in front of her taking one ice cold hand in hers.
"Temperance what's wrong?"
Brennan seemed to come back to herself from a long way off- focusing on Angela's face only after several seconds.
Wordlessly she lifted her free hand.
In it was a long white plastic stick. Two small irregular gaps showed at one end.
One of the gaps had a single word written in the center.
Positive.
"Oh My…" Angela gasped. "Are you sure Hon, these tests have been known to be wrong."
Brennan's voice was dry and raspy, and she had to clear her throat several times before getting anything to come out.
"This is the third one. They've all said the same thing."
That's when Angela noticed the small white and pink boxes laying all over the floor.
Angela did the only thing she knew to do. She hugged her friend tightly- listening for tears. Even when none came.
The two of them sat on her bed. Brennan was wrapped tightly in a thick blanket- Sitting ramrod straight against her headboard. Things still hadn't sunk in.
Angela broke the silence first.
"Do you know who the father is?"
"Booth." Brennan replied, with surety in her voice. "It's Booth. I haven't-…I haven't been with anyone since Vegas. It has to be him."
"You guys didn't wear any protection?"
Temperance broke out of her trance long enough to glance at her friend.
"I still can't remember what happened that night. We were both so drunk- I doubt either one of us thought through the consequences of unprotected intercourse. I still don't remember what happened."
"And there's been no one else? You're sure? I mean, I know that Sully came back for a visit a month ago-"
"No Angela. We didn't… we didn't do anything."
"Oh... Oh." Things were starting to fall together- Brennan's recent and constant cravings and the mood swings. She'd made two interns cry in the past 3 weeks, and they were both men.
"Are you going to tell him?" Angela asked seriously.
"There seems to be no other course of action. He is the father, he deserves to know."
Angela let out a deep breath.
"When?"
"Tonight I suppose. This changes everything; there is no good reason for me to put it off,"
"May I tell Hodgins?" The artist asked. "And sweetie I will understand if you say no."
Temperance thought about it.
"You can tell him. Just make sure it doesn't get all over the Jeffersonian. Everyone is going to know in a few months anyway, and I would prefer to keep the scrutiny to a minimum until absolutely necessary."
Angela nodded.
"I understand completely." She replied. Hugging her friend tightly. "This is SO amazing."
Angela stood and left- slipping out the door in absolute silence.
Booth, completely unaware- slept on for another two hours.
He smelled Mac N Cheese baking in the oven, even before he opened his eyes.
That was all she had eaten for the past 3 months. It was getting insane. Maybe she was missing Zack- and was trying to relive the old days by eating Mac and Cheese everyday for lunch…
And now apparently dinner.
He sat up- looking sleepily over the top of the couch.
There she sat, gazing intently into space while cramming her face with that beautiful Macaroni that she had only made for him once.
The Forensic Anthropologist definitely had a gift when it came to cheesy pastas.
She noticed him- suddenly. And he could have sworn he saw a flash of reproach and dismay cross her face.
"There's another plate of food in the oven." She said- standing slowly, "I'll get it out for you."
Booth stood shakily, trying to get his equilibrium to even out- he was always dizzy when he woke up, it was a miracle that he hadn't fallen into her coffee table and broken something.
"It's amazing Bones." He said- after finally getting to the table and eating a few spoonfuls in virtual silence.
"Seeley there is something I need to talk to you about."
She said it with the bad news tone. That coupled with the fact that she used his first name sent him into a state of near-panic. She literally never used his first name.
He knew this tone as he used it often enough when giving death notices to the families of the deceased. He was almost proud that she was learning his techniques and using them. But it would be better if she wasn't using this particular one on him.
"Ok." He responded. Trepidation mounting in his chest.
"I am going to have a baby."
He sighed in relief- he'd thought she was going to tell him something bad.
Joy flooded him at the thought of Brennan experiencing parenthood- She would be a great mom. He was sure of it.
When he had first met her he thought that she had the emotions and capacity for love- of a rock. (Or a Bone in her case) and, quite frankly, she used to just annoy him.
But now, now she was becoming more and more human- starting to allow herself to experience the moments in life that he had taken for granted up until meeting his partner.
But that was in the past.
Over the last three years she had become his closest and dearest friend. She still had her rough edges, but they were the ones that endeared her to him. And most of them were the only reason that she still needed him around.
But after she overcame her extreme social awkwardness and insane lack of tact- that was when Temperance Brennan would no longer need him in her life- he knew that the one thing that was for certain about Bones was that nothing was extra, nothing was unneeded.
She liked facts and if his usefulness would prove to run out… their partnership would be terminated.
That was a time that Seeley Booth didn't want to think about. He would remain in denial until the moment that it happened.
Ignorance about such things was bliss.
But a small flash of worry at whoever the father was rose up in him- he quelled it with concentration, and a little bit of reasoning that Bones herself would have been proud of.
Whomever she would have a baby with, she would trust implicitly- Bones didn't make decisions like this without some serious forethought.
The father had to be Sully. He had come to visit her a little while back. They must have decided then.
He experienced jealousy then- but that had always been there when he was thinking about Sully.
Pregnancy also explained a few things.
The puking- the constant consuming of macaroni.
The fact that she made anyone who didn't know her well cry within minutes. Booth almost grinned when he thought about those two, poor guys who had had the ill-fortune to mess with "her remains"
But this would affect their marriage. He would just have to buckle down and get the divorce.
To heck with his career- so what if the bureau found out he had been keeping secrets. It didn't matter.
All that really mattered was that Bones was having a baby.
She wouldn't want to be his partner anyway- she would probably be taking some time off.
With Sully. His subconscious growled.
"That's great news Bones, I can't believe you are having a baby. Congrats!" His voice sounded shallow- even to himself.
He raised his hand for a high-five, it was a guy thing. It was appropriate.
She didn't look happy- which drained his joy somewhat.
"We are." She said, looking steadily into his eyes. "We are having a baby."
That was when he felt the blood drain from his face- as her words began to sink in. His hand dropped awkwardly down to his lap.
She sat there, in her usual blunt, inhuman way- and stared at him, letting him go through this bombshell of information completely alone.
Then she did something that he had never expected- she reached out- and grabbed his hand reassuringly.
He had done that so many times when someone just needed the simple touch of another human being.
He seized her hand- and didn't relinquish it.
He needed her right now. To get through this- to understand this.
A rogue thought passed through his head… for some strange reason he had the most irresistible impulse to open his phone- dial the number that he had in his list of contacts but never really wanted to use.
To wait for that voice to travel down the hundreds of miles of phone lines between DC and wherever in the Caribbean he was and say two words.
I Win.
"You're sure it's ours?" Were his first words, although not the first sounds he made after she told him.
Brennan felt a flash of anger.
"You think I would lie to you?"
Booth frowned- mentally kicking himself for the use of those words.
"No- Bones it's not that, it's just. We have only been together one time. And I really thought if it would be anyone, it would be Sully. I mean you guys have a lot of history."
Bones crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.
"I did not sleep with Sully when he came to visit me- although he wanted to, I said no."
Booth wanted to know why. He knew that it probably had to do with her knowing that she was pregnant, but something in him wanted to know why.
Later. He said.
"You are the last man that I have been with."
She looked a little uncomfortable with this admission.
Who was he kidding; he was a little uncomfortable with this admission, once again, Bones did nothing without a reason.
The little voice once again wanted him to ask why.
But it still wasn't the time.
"I believe you Bones. I believe that this is my baby."
He smiled involuntarily, and without thinking he scooted his chair around the table, and placed his hand on her stomach- knowing that she wasn't far enough along to feel anything. But still comforted in her realness.
That this was in fact, reality.
Temperance felt the sterile and inhuman part of her wanted to tell him to remove his hand from her stomach.
But she knew instinctively what he was doing, and it comforted her to know that she wasn't alone in this.
They stayed like that for a few seconds. Then something struck Booth.
Something that was really the most important question that he could ask her right now.
"Are you going to keep it?" He asked, his brown eyes staring into her suddenly blue eyes.
For one thing- she hadn't really thought about it.
First it was just the enormity of having life inside of her.
But she knew without thought or reasoning what the answer was. She had always thought- that if she were ever confronted with a pregnancy, she would be able to remain objective about it and realize that she had no room in her life for a child.
But now- now everything was different
"Yes," She replied firmly. "I am keeping it."
He sighed in relief; he could not give up any child of his. And fighting with her about it would not be easy. Neither would getting custody of an infant with his job and criteria buzzing around, if she had wanted to give up the baby.
"I want to keep it- I want to raise it." She smiled gently as the possible scenarios ran through her head. This was going to be amazing.
"Do you want any involvement?" She asked, bracing herself for the possibility that he would want to have nothing to do with this accidental pregnancy. Maybe he'd had enough with Parker and Rebecca. There was a chance that he would want to just pretend this never happened.
Brennan knew that if he said that, she would be forced to terminate her partnership with him. You couldn't work as closely as she did with him and ignore this kind of bond.
Booth jerked and then stared at her in amazement.
"I do Bones- this is my- this is our baby. I mean- how could I not want to be involved in every aspect of his or her life."
Brennan would have sighed in relief as well- beginning to see how great of a father he truly was.
"This will actually be easier on you." She said.
Booth wrinkled his brow,
"How?"
"Well, unlike with Parker and Rebecca, we are still legally married. I will not be able to deny you any visitation rights should we for some reason, become estranged. You will be a legal guardian."
The one good thing that came out of them being married. Booth thought.
But then he looked down at his hand on his partner's stomach.
Ok, two good things.
Yeah i know mildly cheesy- tried to stay true to characters. :-P But anyhoo- reviews are welcome, even the ones that poke holes in my plotlines, characters etc.
I dont have a beta reader so if you notice any wonky parts just share