Here is the next chapter! I'm so glad that you guys like it so far. Don't worry about being confused because there is a lot that won't be explained until pretty much the last couple of chapters. It's kind of the way I roll. haha
It's my way of keeping you hooked... like a drug dealer but with words instead of drugs. Crack is whack, just say no. Stay in school!
R&R!
"I don't know what is going, Booth." She murmured into his shirt, "I'm so confused."
Booth hesitantly held her in his arms, "You have to tell me what is wrong, Tempe. Otherwise I can't really help much." He whispered soothingly in her ear.
Another wail emanated from upstairs. Booth looked toward the stairs and then back at Brennan, "Come on. We'll go together." He said, relinquishing his hold on her and pulling her by the hand up the stairs and down the hallway. Booth stopped at a door in the hall and gently pushed it open revealing a yellow nursery with white furniture lining the walls.
The room was decorated in with pictures of cartoon animals shaded in pastels with matching fabrics and curtains. On the wall was a picture of herself, Booth, Parker and the twins in the snow and on an adjacent wall were wooden block cutouts spelling the name 'Abigail'. He walked into the room and straight over to the crib bending over and scooped up a small bundle in his arms. He turned and smiled at her, rocking the bundle in his arms.
Brennan hesitantly stepped over to him and reached for the bundle herself. He shifted the baby into her arms and she gently pulled the fabric of the blanket down to see the baby's face. She had big blue eyes and was curiously studying Temperance's face. She felt a strong hand on her shoulder and looked up at a blurred Booth because of tears in her eyes, one of which escaped down her cheek. Booth tucked her hair behind her ear and gently kissed her cheek, "Are you okay?" he asked.
Brennan shook her head no, "I'm so confused." She whispered, not taking her eyes off of her child.
"After Janice gets here you and I will talk, okay?" he asked.
Brennan rolled her eyes, "Yeah okay."
"We will." He assured her, guiding her out of the baby's room with a hand on her back, "I'm going to make sure the kids are okay. You'll feed Abby?" he asked.
Brennan nodded in response but after he turned away. The last time she had taken care of an infant, at least, the last time she could remember taking care of an infant was when she had temporary custody of Andy, but this infant, this child was hers. She slowly made her way down the steps overly cautious of each step to make sure she didn't trip or fall and moved back into the kitchen.
There was a bassinette in the corner that she hadn't registered on her first trip into the kitchen which she gently placed Abby into and retrieved a pre-made bottle from the refrigerator and warmed it in the microwave. Just as she was about to pick Abby back up the doorbell rang.
She scooped the baby back up in her arms and hurried to the door and opened it. Outside stood a tall lanky woman with a large smile and bright red hair, "Hey Tempe!" he woman greeted her, "Oh! Let me look at your beautiful baby!" she said taking Abby out of Temperance's arms and coddling the baby, "Are the kids ready yet?" she asked.
"Yeah, here they are." Booth said, walking down the stairs followed by the twins and Parker. Brennan crouched down almost intuitively to gather up the twins in her arms and hug them goodbye. They hugged her back excitedly and she kissed each of them on the cheek.
"I love you guys so much, you know that right?" She said softly.
"Love you too, Mommy." The little girl said.
"Love you too." Taylor repeated.
With a heavy sigh she reluctantly let them go and stood up. They went to their father to say goodbye and Brennan reached out and pulled Parker into a hug, kissing him on the cheek and telling him she loved him as well.
"I love you too, Bones." He said curiously, pulling out of the hug, "Are you sure you're feeling okay?" he asked sounding concerned.
Brennan plastered a smile on her face and nodded, "Yeah. Don't worry about me. I'm fine."
Parker studied her face, giving her the impression that he didn't believe her, "Okay."
Brennan smiled at him and turned back toward Booth, then turned abruptly, "Oh! Do you have money for lunch?" She asked him.
Parker turned back toward her and smiled, "Uh, yeah. I gotta go or I'm going to miss the bus." He said skipping down the steps.
"Have a good day at school, Park!" Booth yelled out the door after him.
"Bye Dad." He shouted over his shoulder as he walked down the walkway.
Janice handed the baby back to Brennan and she carefully shifted the baby into her arms more comfortably and watched her children run out the door to the waiting minivan in the driveway. Brennan sighed as the van pulled out of the driveway and Booth shut the front door and turned to face her expectantly.
"What?" Brennan asked defensively even though she knew exactly why he was looking at her like that.
"What is going on with you, Tempe?" he asked, "You've only been awake for an hour and a half and I can already tell that something is very off with you."
"Don't call me Tempe." She said quickly under her breath.
Booth shifted on his feet and stared at her diverted eyes questioningly, "What do you want me to call you then?" he asked.
"Bones." She answered simply.
Booth released an exhausted breath and guided her back into the kitchen and sat down at the table with her, grabbing the baby's bottle before he sat down in the chair adjacent to her own. Brennan tentatively offered the baby the nipple of the bottle and a pang of excitement passed through her stomach when she latched onto the bottle in the first try. Brennan smiled and looked up at Booth who looked concerned, "Talk to me, please." He said softly.
Brennan shook her head and looked down at the table, "I don't know. The last thing I remember is getting shot by Daniel Cooper. You and I were just partners, Parker was six years old turning seven in a month and you and I had no children together." She said, feeling the tears welling in her eyes, "I don't even know the little girl's name. I found out that this is Abigail because of the placard on her wall and you said this morning, 'Taylor you need to finish your eggs and the little boy responded to you, but what is the little girl's name?" she asked desperately.
Booth sat back in his seat. His complexion had gone ashen and all of the muscles in his face were slack, "You don't remember any of this?" he asked softly, almost sounding as though he were going to be sick.
Brennan shook her head and wiped the tears that were falling from her eyes with the back of her hand, "But I want to Booth. I really want to remember, please don't doubt that."
Booth shook his head, "I don't doubt you." He said, his voice was raspy, "You're a wonderful mother and I don't think I've ever seen you happier than here in this family."
Brennan nodded, coddling the baby in her arms, "What is the little girl's name?" she asked.
Booth cleared his throat and leaned forward on the table, resting his forearms on the surface, "Her name… is Christine and her twin brother is Taylor and they are both three and a half years old. Abby there," he said gesturing at the baby in Brennan's arms, "Is nine months old. You and I have been together for five years now. Married for two years."
"Married?" Brennan asked, raising her voice slightly, "I'm married as well? That doesn't sound like a compromise, Booth!" she complained.
He let out a half hearted laugh, "In my defense, you proposed to me."
Brennan's eyes widened, "I did?" she asked, puffing out her chest like he often did when his alpha male attributes were complemented.
He smiled genuinely this time, "Yeah. You were keeping the kids at your office in a playpen so that you could work and watch over them at the same time. You had also hired a part time nanny to keep them occupied while you were working on the remains or out in the field with me. Anyway, one day while you were on the platform the nanny comes running out of your office shouting at you to come immediately. So you rushed into your office to find that our little Teener was trying to walk by herself. It was early and she hadn't really even crawled by herself before she was on her feet. You immediately grabbed the kids and ran over to the Hoover to find me. I was in a department meeting when you found me." He said, laughing at the memory, "You stormed in, interrupting the whole thing. Cullen wasn't too happy about that, but when you put Teener down on the conference room table and encouraged her to show daddy what she could do, everyone in the meeting was mesmerized by her and forgot all about the meeting. She took about three steps on her own and then lost her balance and before she even touched the table I had grabbed her. I was coddling her and telling her how amazing that was and she was cooing up at me and then, I don't know, you just blurted out the words, 'Marry me'. Right there in front of everyone in my department." He laughed.
Brennan laughed as well, "So, the wedding?" she asked, curious as to what it was like.
Booth held up a finger and stood up from the table moving to a bookshelf in the corner of the kitchen and picked up a frame and looked at it before turning it around for her to see. It was a picture of them at their wedding on the dance floor at the reception. Her dress was a pastel blue fitted in the torso and falling away from the body all the way to the floor. His tux was a standard traditional black with a blue tie to match her dress. They were clutching each other in what appeared to be a slow dance; him smiling widely and staring at her and she had her head thrown back in a fit of laughter.
Brennan studied the picture and rubbed her thumb over the picture, "Angela took this." She stated.
"Yeah." He said looking over her shoulder, "We had a church ceremony but you forced the priest to remove everything religious from the service."
Brennan smiled, "Now that sounds like a good compromise."
"On the day of the wedding instead of the usual procession where the bride and her father walk down the aisle together slowly, you barreled down the aisle, dragging Max along with you and when you reached the alter everyone was laughing and shaking their heads. You had said 'If I wanted to take my time getting to this point I would have taken longer than two weeks to plan the wedding'."
They both laughed and smiled at each other. She could see that their relationship was still just as stable if not concrete after being together in a romantic sense. She could only imagine how broken up he was about her no longer remembering the last five years with him, but he seemed to be extremely understanding.
Normally when something was wrong with her he would push the issue and become extremely overprotective of her, but right now it was almost as though he was waiting for her to make the call; to let him know if she needed something which was comforting in a way but made her realize how much she missed his hovering, "You don't seem upset about this, Booth."
He straightened up and walked around the other side of the table and sat back down, "I am upset about this, but it isn't your fault. I'm going to take you to the doctors though so we're both going to call out of work today." He said.
"Why aren't you angry at me, Booth?"
Booth gave her a comforting smile, "Things have never been easy for us Temperance. In fact, the only easy thing about our lives is our relationship and even then, people and criminals try to take advantage of us. This thing, this memory loss, it's just another bump in the road. I'm just praying that the memory loss isn't due to a serious underlying health problem."
Brennan nodded and put the bottle down on the table and hitched the baby up onto her shoulder. She slowly and methodically patted the babies back until she burped and then cooed softly in her mother's ear.
He smiled at the picture in front of him, "Five years…" he thought out loud to himself.
It was a strange situation. She both felt like a stranger to this lifestyle while also feeling like the whole scenario was a very long déjà vu. She felt at home but she wasn't entirely comfortable with the domestic atmosphere. Perhaps she just needed to get used to it.