Disclaimer: While I want Bones to be mine, mine, mine – wanting is not getting. And in this case, is definitely NOT having.

Previously...

"Guess we'd better get a move on then" Booth said huskily. Brennan turned without looking at him to open the door, and both momentarily got tangled up with each other again as they tried to manoeuvre around each other and the inward opening door. For the briefest of moments she was almost sure she felt something hard brush against her hip – and it definitely wasn't his belt buckle. She bit her lip to hide her smile.

Everything was going to be alright, she thought as her heart skipped a beat – maybe she should trust 'driving with her heart' more often – who knew where it was going to take her. Her doubts, fears and tears were long forgotten as they headed out the bathroom door together and home to quickly pack.

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Chapter 3 – Hitting the road

Brennan was the last to arrive back at the Jeffersonian, the mini-van was packed and five excited workmates running on adrenalin were sitting in the dimly lit interior of the van noisily chatting away, eager to get going. She smiled as she realised this was a vastly different group in front of her compared to only a few hours ago. She was happy she could make a difference.

She gave her bags to Ernie the driver who loaded them in the back of the van, but hesitated at the door as she heard the friendly banter and talk. Even after all this time, she still felt a little awkward in social settings – even if they were like her family, and the doubts started playing around in her head again. She remained more than a little nervous about this spur-of-the-moment trip away, and she still hadn't enlightened them as to where they were staying or what they'd be doing. In all the excitement of the last couple of hours, nobody had even thought to ask where they were going.

Booth watched as Brennan approach the van then stop at the door in hesitation. She was chewing on her lower lip, a sure sign she was worrying or nervous about something. He melted at the sight of her; he knew that she was trying to use her heart and despite how uneasy it was making her feel, she was doing it anyway. Brick by brick she was lowering those enormously high walls she had built over the years to protect herself, and he couldn't be happier than help her slowly crush those bricks to dust. Because with every brick she removed, lowering that wall just a little more, allowed him to glimpse what was shining on the inside, and every one of those rays that he spied only served to cement his love for her.

Brennan's thoughts were interrupted when she saw his hand reaching out from the interior of the van, "Come on Bones, let's get this show on the road" he gave her his charm smile and for once she took his hand without protest. And in the instant she felt his touch – all those doubts were instantly banished.



He gently guided her into the empty seat next to him, and to avoid his eyes, she looked around at the van. Everybody had their own double seat. And as she noticed everyone sat in pairs, she felt a flutter again. Not now, she thought furiously. To ignore the butterflies, she observed the details. There were four seats to a row, one row on either side of the van with a small aisle running between the rows of seats. Hers and Booths seats sat behind the driver, facing the back of the van. In front of her sat Cam, while Richard sat in the seat next to Cam, but on the other side of the aisle - opposite Booth, and both of them sat with their backs resting on the sides of the van so they could chat to everyone.

Typically – like two randy teenagers – Angela and Hodgins' sat up the back together behind Richard in the one seat – giggling and whispering when they weren't contributing to the chatter. She smiled at her best friend and raised her eyebrow – even she knew they were up to no good.

Ernie slammed the door shut and headed over to Rebecca's to pick up Parker. As the trip was officially underway, she watched as Hodgins pulled out a large silver hip flask filled with alcohol. "Does this feel like a high-school excursion to anyone else?" he sniggered and took a quaff from the flask, "because we may as well pretend we are 15 again" he then passed it to Angela. Yep, she was right – two horny teenagers up to no good at the back of the bus.

Ange grinned as she took the flask from her love, "So does this mean we get to play Truth or Dare?" she sipped, swallowed, grimaced and handed the flask to Richard, an eyebrow raised and her grin was positively evil.

"Truth or Dare?" Richards deep laugh was infectious, "I've been trying to forget about that game since I was 15", he laughed again, took a long swig then handed the flask on to Cam, who was rolling her eyes. "That game got me into so much trouble, I still cringe at the memories" he laughed again, shaking his head at the thought.

Cam smiled at her boyfriend, took a taste then wiped her mouth daintily before passing it onto Brennan, while trying to be the mature voice of reason, "How about we save the game for when we won't corrupt a six-year-old with your perverted 18+ rated game Angela?"

Brennan was confused by the conversation, she'd never heard of 'Truth or Dare', but followed the actions of the others and had a nip from the flask and passed it onto Booth without comment.

"I appreciate the concern for my sons' well-being" he said with a laugh, "especially if Angela has got anything to do with the dares - and has her hands on alcohol of any kind" he continued with a twinkle in his eye, he held the flask up in a mock salute then took a mouthful himself.

He leaned forward to Angela handing her the flask. As he settled back in his seat, he pulled a couple of CDs out of his jacket pocket and waved them in the air for all to see, "How about something that six-year-old will enjoy with us", he turned around to Ernie and whispered something in his ear, then turned to face everyone with a tight grin on his face. "I propose we have..." he paused for effect, "wait for it people..." then spread his arms out wide as he announced, "our own version of air guitar championships!"

Suddenly, in perfect timing with his announcement – music blared loudly from the speakers situated around the van, Booth half stood in his seat facing them and doing his best guitar-playing imitation 

to Deep Purple's opening riff of Smoke on the Water. The van erupted in hoots, hollers, whoops, laughter and clapping. Brennan chuckled at his antics. As the driver turned the music down slightly, Booth commented while still working his solo, "I brought a couple of compilation CDs I made up of 70s and 80s rock – I'd hoped we'd be able to listen to them at some point".

Before anymore could be said, the van had come to a stop in front of some houses, and Ernie turned to Booth "We're here". He turned the music down some more as Booth went to collect Parker. She watched quietly as the front door opened with a bang, light spilling onto the front porch and a blonde curly-haired boy running with his arms wide open who then launched himself into his father's arms. Booth caught him easily and smothered him with a bear hug and kisses on the face. They could see the excited smile on Parker's face and she heard Angela's voice "Awww, he's so cute! Look how excited he is to see his Dad. Sweetie, you must have done some fast talking to get her to agree to let him come away with us".

They all watched as he wiggled his way out of father's arms, give his mum a fleeting kiss goodbye then run towards the van. They saw the look of annoyance on Rebecca's face as Booth went to grab Parkers gear, then their attention was distracted by the little whirlwind that is Parker Booth clambering up the stairs and diving straight into Brennan's arms "Bones!" he squealed, "missed you!". He threw his little arms around her neck, gave her a sloppy wet kiss on the cheek, "Hey Parks, I missed you too" she said with a smile as she returned the hug and kiss, then he was gone – repeating the greeting for each the passengers.

Parker too had benefitted from the close bonds forged by his Dads work colleagues, and now it was like he had a third family, full of aunts and uncles that he could – and did on a regular basis – charm with the infamous Booth smile. They had all grown close to Booths son, each in their own way and Booth had to admit it had caused a subtle change in his boy that was evident to both he and Rebecca. Thankfully both could see it was a positive change for the youngster – it seemed that his third little family were a very good influence on him.

His favourite was of course Bones, not only because his Dad 'liked' Bones the most, but because she taught him really cool stuff too. And when she helped him with his school projects; he always got an A. He also liked that he got to teach her about kid stuff, like cartoons and how to win on Playstation – not very many adults let him tell them all about his favourite things and then ask questions – that's how he knew she was special, because she listened and talked to him and didn't treat him like a baby.

Brennan smiled down at Parker as he settled himself next to her, telling her how excited he was they were all going on holiday together as Booth got back in the van. For everyone looking on at the scene in front of them, they marvelled at just how far Brennan had come in the last four and a half years.

With Parkers gear safely stowed, Booth sat down watching Bones with his son as Ernie closed the behind him, then he roused himself from the sight, "Let's get this show on the road!" he yelled happily.



"YEAH!" everyone yelled their reply. Booth turned to Parker who'd been watching his dad with a smile on his face, "Buddy, we're all going to play air-guitar championships to pass the time while we're travelling" Parkers face lit up with excitement, "and you and I are going to show everyone how it's done – just like what we do on our 'boys weekends' ok?" he said with a grin from ear to ear.

"Cool! Can we do 'our' song first?" Parker asked, bouncing up and down in his seat, his excitement evident. "Sure thing bud" Booth replied, then he turned to Ernie "Can you put on track 14 please Mr Music, then when the song is done can you press pause?"

"No problem" replied Ernie, as he moved his hand to push some buttons on the CD player. Booth and Parker moved to the ends of their respective seats so they were near each other in the aisle, they bumped knuckles and turned to face the gang, then assumed the position: left hand held up and out to the side, fingers splayed – ready to play the strings on the 'neck' of the guitar, while the right hand is down low in front of the belly. They looked at each other with the same silly grin, and then music filled the van.

The moment was priceless. Their movements were perfectly synchronised, both were strumming their 'guitar', their faces wore identical expressions – lips pursed and brows furrowed in mock concentration and both were singing their lungs out to Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N' Roses.

The gang burst into laughter, whoops and whistles as this father and son team worked their magic. Angela had pulled her digital camera out of its case and was busily taking happy snaps while trying not to shake the camera from laughing so hard.

The Booth boys played in perfect unison and the gang were a little surprised at how well Parker mimicked the guitar playing on the song, he was clearly having a ball. He turned his head and nodded at his dad, and Booth moved his hands so he was playing 'air drums'. They got some more whoops and whistles for that mean manoeuvre. Finally the song ended and Ernie hit the pause button.

The van erupted in loud cheers and clapping and both Booth boys wore the same huge grin. The elder grabbed the younger's' hand and they took a bow together as best they could while sitting in their seats. When the cheers, clapping and laughter had finally died down, Booth announced "And THATS how you do it, you wanna-be rock stars!" everyone laughed again, and he continued "So now, you each have to score our performance out of 10, at the end of the trip, the person/team with the most amount of points wins".

"What do we win Dad?" asked Parker, he was certain no-one could beat him and his dad. Booth opened his mouth to respond, but Brennan got in first.

"How about I supply the prize, but it will have to be surprise for now, because I don't know what it is yet" she said as she watched his face beam with delight, then continued, "And I promise it will be great for whoever wins the championships, ok?" he slid across the seat and gave her a huge hug, "You're the best Bones!"

She hid a shy smile as she returned his hug, but Booth saw it and his stomach did a mini-somersault as he watched her with his son. Then he remembered where he was. "So, Richie, my man – score 

please for the 'Booth Boys Band' – and make it good, we want to win this mysterious prize!" he put on his best charm smile.

Parker looked at Richard too, wearing exactly the same charm smile. There were grins and chuckles all round as everyone looked at Booth and mini-Booth doing their best to win (or charm) them over. Brennan decided to keep a tally of the scores and all eyes turned to her when everyone had finished rating the 'Booth Boys Band'. "That's a total of 48.5 out of a possible 50 – 97 per cent – well done!" Parker bounced in his seat again – no-one was going to beat that!

And so it went, the four hour trip passed by in the blink of an eye – the fatigue and exhaustion long forgotten as everyone had multiple turns at wowing their friends. They all sang, laughed, cheered, clapped and whistled in support of each other, then add to that Hodgins seemingly bottomless flask of vodka that he surreptitiously kept refilling and handing around, it had been a long while since they had all let their hair down, get a little tipsy and had so much fun – especially together. Brennan couldn't remember a time in her adult life when she had laughed as much or felt so relaxed in the company of so many people.

Over the course of the trip everyone had a standout performance: Richard's was Born to be Wild by Steppenwolfe. He'd removed his tie and wrapped it around his forehead twice, forcing his large bouncy blond curls high up on his head, reminding most of them of John McEnroe when he payed tennis in the 80s. He sat on his knees on the seat, his wiry frame set in position, "Ready please Mr Music!" his eyebrows wiggling up and down cheekily at Cam, a tight smirk on his face as the music hit their ears. He hammed it up for his audience and his unruly curls bounced in time with the music – and they all had sore cheek muscles by the end of the song from laughing so hard.

Angela showed just what it was to be a rock stars daughter – her piece-de-resistance was an excellent impersonation of her dads band ZZ Top playing Tush – she'd put on her sunglasses just like he wears everywhere, she only wished she had something she could shove on her face to imitate that gnarly old beard of his.

Cams most memorable piece had them in stitches with her much vamped up version of Barracuda by Heart and like every teenager everywhere – used her hairbrush as a microphone. Hodgins was a complete surprise to them all – he was really good! And it was his awesome version of Alice Coopers Schools out that had finally convinced them he'd played guitar in a rock band when he was younger.

Brennan really didn't know any of the songs and was quite content to keep score, and hold onto Parker who had fallen asleep in her lap about an hour into the trip – despite the noise and excitement in the van. But she did get a chance to show them she wasn't quite as clueless as they all thought before Parker had settled on her lap.

She had studied Booths CDs for something that might have been familiar and was just about to give up when she saw the name of a song that triggered a memory of the time she'd spied on Russ using an old tennis racket as his guitar and how he watched himself pretending to be a rock star in front of the full length mirror in his bedroom. He'd caught her snorting in laughter while watching his antics as she looked through the slightly ajar bedroom door. He'd just about broke a rib when he'd tickle-tortured her for a full half-hour because she'd been spying. But he had played that song loudly over and over, driving them all crazy – she could even recall all the words he'd played it so many times – 

all she had to do was imitate what Russ used to do in front of that mirror. She was a little surprised the memory now triggered was so clear.

So she'd told Ernie the number of the song, and then she floored them all with a truly wicked rendition of AC/DCs Back in Black. She had surreptitiously taken her soft auburn hair out of the tight bun it had been in for work, and she threw her head and upper-body wildly up and down, her hair creating a breeze and all the while paying the guitar as she did her best head-banging imitation of the stereo-typical long-haired rockers of the 80s. When the song finished, she snorted at the stunned looks on her friends faces – seems she was full of surprises tonight. She chuckled again, raised an eyebrow then said "Score?" while holding her notebook and pen up in the air in an exaggerated gesture of impatience as she waited for them to respond to her act. She ended up scoring 48 out of 50, much to Booths amusement. Nobody had beaten his and Parkers first performance of the trip.

Finally though, it was with great relief for poor old Ernie the driver, who turned the music down to the light-hearted boo's of his rowdy passengers, but he just smiled as he said loudly, "We're here!" The noise stopped instantly as everyone turned to the windows and peered out into the dark, trying to get some kind of indication of where they were. "Finally!" Brennan nervously breathed.

To be continued...

A/N: I'm so sorry to take so long with this chapter. In my inexperience, I've now realised I should really have far more chapters in advance so when things get hectic, I can take five minutes to upload a chapter rather than weeks as I try to find time to write.

Also, I have quite a few people to thank for reviewing but unfortunately I lost all my emails during a change in provider and no amount of backing up seemed to help with recovering anything lost. So to all those who so kindly reviewed I thank with all my heart and apologise profusely for not responding...

With that said, I realise this isn't the best filler chapter but they had to get there and I kinda wanted to keep it in style, but please review – I didn't realise how much it helps a writer to spur them until I started this story... oh, and thanks for reading!