Another Early Morning

They were woken by Parker and the twins at a time that made them groan simultaneously, pull the covers over their head and turn over in an attempt to go back to sleep. This resulted in facing each other underneath the blanket.

"Come on, Seel. Rise and shine." Someone – his brother? – said with a laugh.

"They're not going to go away, are they?" she said with a pained expression.

"I'm going to beat him." Was his answer. She hoped he wasn't serious. Sort of. It was 6:00 on a Saturday.

"Okay, okay, we're up. What's the big deal?" he grumbled as they helped themselves to breakfast from the buffet spread on the dining room table.

"The kids are having a video games tournament and we couldn't very well let the self-proclaimed king of go-karts sleep through it, could we?"

"Why do I have to be up?" Tempe asked. She didn't think anyone would understand her, since she was not yet through her cup of coffee, but Lucy answered her.

"Parker said you two had a plan to bring down Seeley."

"Oh yeah." She perked up a little at the thought that the little boy had wanted her to play with him.

"They're downstairs already, setting up." They gave up all hope of going back to bed and followed Jared downstairs. There was a guest bedroom on the left as you came down the stairs, but the rest was open. A washer and dryer sat against one wall, and a TV against another. A beaten-up old couch and two armchairs sat facing it. They were each occupied by a five-year-old boy.

"Tempe!"

"Oh, no you don't. I'm not having a conspiracy. Go get Grandpa."

"You think he'll play?"

"Only if he gets to be your partner!" Parker looked at Tempe.

"Go on," she smiled, flattered again. He grinned at her and sped off.

"He's just like you." She said. Booth just dragged her to the couch Parker had vacated and picked up two silver controllers.

"They're wireless." He explained. "See, you push and hold this to go, and you steer with this, and you fire off the items with this." She nodded.

"It's different than the other thing."

"Gameboy."

"Yeah."

"Well, I think we're playing in teams, so you will fire off the items with this button."

"I thought that was to go."

"I'll be doing that."

"You're driving?"

"Yeah. Duh."

"Oh, very mature."

"We're getting ready to have a video game tournament, Bones."

"True." She conceded.

"So. Where is everybody?" Jeremy (or was it Kyle?) bellowed and down the stairs came a host of people who picked up controllers and arranged themselves around the room.

"Your entire family plays this?" she whispered.

"Well, Jared's worse than I am, and Lilah learned to play because we annoyed her, and Lucy is clueless, but her husband will play with Lilah because Mark is far too dignified for all this, and I'm told that the girls," he indicated Susanna and Margaret, who were six and eight, "Have been training to beat the boys."

"I've been instructed to infiltrate the enemy's camp." Alice said, plopping down on the sofa beside Tempe.

"I don't know what that means."

"Jared and Seeley are no more grown up than Parker and the twins and this race is a big deal to them."

"It's a tournament." Seeley corrected.

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes. "Jared wants to know if you're as hopeless as I am."

"She had never heard of Mario before yesterday in the car."

"Really? Wow. He's been hiding a secret life from you. Well, Jared will be pleased." They looked over. He was scratching his nose. "That's my signal to come back." Alice said, and smiled one last time at Tempe.