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"You've got everything? You're sure?" Booth asked his son for what felt to him (and probably Parker too) like the three millionth time.

"Yesssssss, Daaaaaaad."

"Toothpaste? Toothbrush?" he asked again.

He looked up to see Bones standing in the doorway, a fluffy stuffed puppy in her hand. "Flopsy Puppy?" she asked, referring to the animal she held.

"FLOPS! I almost FORGOT YOU! Thanks, Bones!"

"Now have you got everything?" Booth asked his son again, but his eyes met with Brennan's and she nodded and smiled.

"Definitely, yes," Parker proclaimed.

"Okay then. Let's get this show on the road."

Parker ran out ahead of them to claim his position in front of the portable DVD player that was already loaded with a disc featuring The Backyardigans.

"Have I told you lately that I love you?" Booth asked, slinging an arm around Brennan's shoulders and picking up her jean jacket off the couch with his free hand.

"All I did was grab his dog off his bed," she shrugged.

"It's not just that, Bones. You amaze me a little more every day," he smiled, holding her door open for her and kissing her sweetly.

"Are you guys going to be mushy all weekend?" Parker piped up.

"Hey, I think Bones and I have done a good job of keeping the mush to a minimum, buddy," Booth retorted indignantly.

Parker sighed despondently. "I guess."

Booth laughed and jogged around the front of the vehicle to slide behind the wheel. When it was like this, him and Bones being mushy and Parker being a typical 7-year-old boy, he was so calm and relaxed. And just… happy. This was definitely the right thing. He needed to have her here more. Always.

"You look like the cat that ate the cockatiel," Brennan commented, causing him to chuckle again. "We're not going to have a sing-a-long or anything, are we?" she asked, looking slightly horrified.

"It's canary, Bones. And can't a guy just be happy? Favorite kid, favorite girl, heading into a weekend of nothing but jelly beans and chocolate bunnies?" he eyed her suggestively. "I'd be just stupid not to be excited."

Brennan rolled her eyes. "Yes. The bunny-eating. How could I forget?"

He smiled again and reached over to squeeze her knee as he merged into traffic. She captured his hand and laced their fingers together, resting their hands on the center console. When he looked over at her again a few moments later, her sunglasses were perched on the bridge of her nose, her head resting against the seat. Oh yeah. Marrying her.

So. No pressure.

Those were Booth's words, and she had been reminding herself of them frequently in the remainder of the week since he had asked her to go home with him for Easter. But even though she wasn't usually one to perseverate on 'what if's,' they swam in her mind now. What if she unknowingly said something completely socially inappropriate during Easter dinner, horrifying Booth's family and friends? What if she couldn't make conversation with them that didn't involve skeletons or decomposed bodies or genocide? What if…

Her train of thought was interrupted when she passed the open door of Parker's room and saw a familiar, tan-colored pile of fluff laying beside the bed. Flopsy Puppy. One time, Parker had forgotten him at Rebecca's when he came over to Booth's for the weekend, and she distinctly remembered a full two hours of consoling the boy when bedtime came and he realized he had left his friend behind. The kid ended up falling asleep exhausted from his own tears between her and Booth, and they had followed shortly after. The next morning, bleary-eyed, she wondered out loud to her partner how a smart kid like Parker could attach so much emotional significance to an inanimate object. Booth had shrugged and told her, "Because to him, it's home."

In any case, she knew she couldn't withstand another heartbreaking performance such as that one, so she went in and swept Mr. Flops off of the floor and presented it to the thrilled little boy in the living room, and tried to understand why the grown man in the living room seemed so thrilled with her as well. Apparently, her multiple Ph.D.'s meant little in this relationship; the man she loved was blown away by her picking a dog off a bed. She didn't like to think that he was quite so easily impressed; however, it still pleased her a little bit. After all, if she was able to forget about skeletons long enough to notice and retrieve Flopsy Puppy, maybe she could perform the same feat with his parents later.

In the car, once Parker got settled and they were on the road, she flipped her dark sunglasses down over her eyes and rested against the seat, trying to prepare herself for what was to come. What would Booth's parents be like? She had learned precious little about them…Booth always seemed a little cautious in speaking about his family, likely because he didn't want to make her uncomfortable in her lack of knowledge about her own. They would probably be warm. Stable. Maybe a little indulgent of their "baby boys." Probably traditional, in many ways. That part worried her more than any, being that she wasn't what one would call a traditional woman. "We broke the mold with you," Max told her every now and again, ruefully, and she couldn't help wondering if there was a catch to that compliment. She wasn't sure when her ruminations turned to dreams, but the next thing she knew her hand was being squeezed across the car's console.

"Wake up, beautiful. We're almost there."

She tried to shake off her sleep. Almost there? But she wasn't ready! She hadn't even planned how to greet these people…or how she was going to explain the work she did…or how to explain her relationship with Booth…

"Yay, Grama and Grampa's!" Parker cheered from the backseat. They turned into a long driveway, and her mind switched tracks to a different reverie.

Big brick, two-story house. Expansive front yard. Swing on the front porch. She had a sudden, unbidden memory of her 12-year-old self, swinging lazily on just such a swing, nose buried in her biology book while Russ cajoled her from the yard to just be normal and come play baseball with him, tossing the ball and hitting it purposely so that it would land with a 'thump' at her feet, while she glared and tried not to laugh at his antics and her mother looked out the screen door at them with a wistful smile on her face. It had been a long time since she had spent any amount of time in a house like this. Now it was staring her in the face once again.

She was an angel when she slept. To be honest, he sort of thought she was an angel all the time. A stubborn, sassy-mouthed, sexy angel. He fought himself over whether or not to wake her, but he knew how out of it she was when she first woke up in a strange place, and if his family thought he'd had to drug her to get her there (which they might with all the drooling and disorientation) well, they'd probably never let him live it down.

"Wake up, beautiful. We're almost there."

She stirred slightly at his soft words and then startled awake at Parker's shrieking from the back seat. As he turned up the driveway he could navigate with his eyes shut, he watched her jaw clench and relax, clench and relax.

"You know it's going to be okay. They're going to love you. Just like Parker and I do."

"You don't know that. They've never met me."

"They know their baby boy has excellent taste."

Brennan rolled her eyes. "I'm sure."

"Well, we're about to find out," Booth barely had the words out before Parker had bolted from the back seat and was tearing up the sidewalk to the porch.

"Grampa !!" David Booth, a kid-at-heart grandfather of four scooped his tow-headed grandson off the ground and squeezed him tightly.

"PARKER! Oh my goodness, you've grown at least six feet since the last time I saw you!"

The little boy giggled. "Nuh-uh, Grampa! I'd be taller than Daddy!"

"Maybe it's time I get my eyes checked," the older man chuckled.

Booth held his hand out to Brennan and she clutched it tightly. "Relax, you're never this nervous. You've looked serial killers in the eye. This is nothing like that."

"You're right. These are your parents." Brennan swallowed.

"Was I this nervous the first time I met Max?"

"Technically, you didn't know it was him. The second time you met him, he had just handcuffed me to a bench. Not exactly a Meet the Parents sort of weekend."

Booth groaned. "Please tell me you didn't watch that."

Brennan blushed and opened her mouth to speak just as Booth's mother approached them.

"This must be the beautiful doctor we've heard so much about," she smiled and held her hand out. Bones quickly dropped his hand and reached to shake his mother's.

"Temperance Brennan, Emily Booth. Mom, this is my girlfriend."

Emily shook Brennan's hand and squeezed gently. "It's so nice to finally meet you, hon. Happy Easter. We've heard a lot about you."

"But I'm pretty sure my baby brother never mentioned what a knockout you are," Booth rolled his eyes at his older brother Jared.

"Bones, this is my older--"

Jared interrupted him. "Smarter, smoother, hotter--"

It was Emily's turn to interrupt. "And married--"

"Brother Jared," Booth finished.

Bones grinned. "Well it's very nice to meet you both."

"David!" Emily admonished her husband. "Would you stop acting like an eight year old and come meet your son's girlfriend?"

The older man stood from where he was buried under a dogpile of Booth's nephews and Parker and came over to where they stood on the sidewalk. "Temperance," he shook her hand solidly. "A pleasure to meet you. Dave Booth."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Booth," Bones smiled. "Happy Easter."

"Eh. Call me Dave."

"Dave," she nodded, testing the name out.

"Well, now that Temperance has been properly put on the spot," Emily smiled, "what do you say we go inside and have a cup of coffee?"

So she had made it through the initial greetings without alienating anyone, she internally cheered herself on. She hadn't mentioned dead people, or Jesus being a zombie, or her initial thought when she was introduced to Dave that she had once dated a man of the same name who was a very good kisser, but had unfortunately turned out to be a member of a cult. The task of being appropriate was made a bit harder once they entered the house, Booth lingering on the porch for a minute talking to his father. Parker had apparently told Jared's twin 9-year-old boys, Jeffrey and Justin, some approximation of what she did for a living, and they descended upon her like vultures.

"So you do stuff with skeletons?" Jeff asked, jumping onto his knees beside her on the couch.

"Yes," she nodded.

"Do you ever get bodies that are really gross and gushy, with rotting guts and worms coming out of their eye sockets?" Justin followed up, grabbing his brother by the elbow and yanking him shrieking off the couch and tumbling to the floor so that he could take his place.

"Yes, but I don't really work with those. Our medical examiner deals with those kinds of remains, and I analyze the bones."

"That's what we call her. Bones," Parker announced.

"Are you scared that the skeletons are going to come to life at night and walk around and be all evil like in The Mummy?" Jeff asked, having picked himself up off the floor and shoved his brother aside so that they could both fit in the miniscule space between Brennan and the end of the couch.

"Noooooo," she replied, a little confused. "By definition, skeletons are not animated." Jeff seemed nonplussed by the whole thing.

"Boys, stop harassing Uncle Seeley's girlfriend," a pretty woman of about 40 scolded. "It's Easter. And you are going to scare your sister." For the first time, she noticed the little girl peering from behind her mother's legs, eyeing the stranger in the room with interest. "It's very nice to meet you, Temperance," the women said, offering her hand to Brennan. "I apologize for my sons. They are getting morbid in their old age." Figuring they weren't going to get any more out of Brennan with their mother hanging around, Jeff and Justin tore off into the next room, Parker hot on their heels.

"It's no trouble at all. I'm actually getting used to children being curious about what I do."

The woman laughed. "I'm sure. I'm Marisa. This little princess here is Miss Alison Booth. She's two. Ali, can you say hi to Temperance?"

The toddler looked up at her mother questioningly for a second before stepping out from behind her with a shy smile, hand extended. In it, she held a blue plastic Easter egg. It took Brennan a moment to realize that the egg was intended for her. "Oh," she exclaimed, finally reaching out and taking the proffered gift. "Thank you, Ali. It's my favorite color, too!" The girl beamed at her. For a baby, Brennan had to admit the kid was ridiculously adorable.

Booth, Jared, and their father entered the room at the same time that Emily brought in a tray of steaming mugs of coffee, which she sat gently on the end table before handing a cup to Brennan first. Booth sat beside her, putting his arm around her and giving her a reassuring smile. "Looks like you made a friend," he pointed out, noticing that Ali had plopped down directly on top of her feet and was now engrossed in a tiny stuffed rabbit that vibrated when you pulled out its tail. She smiled and tentatively touched the girl's dark waves and was almost shocked by the fine silkiness of it.

"Thank you both for having me here," Brennan said to Emily and Dave, who were now settling down in their respective seats. "It seems that you already have a houseful."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all. We love it; the more the merrier," Dave said.

"I just hope you enjoy everything," Emily added. "I never cooked for a famous person before."

"As long as you have lobster and caviar, I should be fine," Brennan told them, making it a point to smile broadly so they'd know she was kidding. She was pleased at the laughter that emanated from the group.

"No lobster on the dinner table," Emily said through her chuckles. "Maybe we'll put one in your Easter basket tomorrow morning."

"Then the kids would be upset that they didn't get one, too," Booth chortled.

"I get an Easter basket?" Brennan asked incredulously. The whole family looked at her like she had grown a second head.

"Of course you do," Jared informed her.

"What else would we put your chocolate bunny in?" Booth nudged her, teasing.

Hoping desperately that this was indeed an inside joke, she murmured "I can think of something," while giving a brief squeeze to his thigh.

She was pleased to see him gulp before he quickly changed the subject. "So what's the plan for tonight?" he asked his parents.

"Relax. Eat. Watch a movie."

"I call the couch!" Brennan thought she heard an echo before she realized Booth and his brother had said it at the same time. They glared at each other.

"I have seniority," Jared informed Booth.

"I have the guest," Booth shot back.

"Don't pull me into this," Brennan replied, holding up her hands in defense.

"No, Seeley's right," Emily said. "Seeley and Temperance get the couch for the movie. Besides, it will be her sleeping quarters, so she needs to break it in."

"Exactly," Booth grinned. A sideways glance at her partner proved that being at home with his very Catholic parents didn't do much to take the devil out of the man.

"Dinner was terrific, Emily. Where'd you find the recipe for those Cajun burgers?" Marisa asked, dropping into the chair-and-a-half with baby Ali in her lap.

"I found them on a vegetarian website that Seeley recommended," Booth caught his mother's conspiratorial wink.

"VEGETARIAN? Were those SOY?!" Jared asked with a disgusted look.

"Temperance is trying to move away from eating meat, Jared," Dave piped up from his recliner.

"Jared, are you telling me you didn't like them?" Emily asked, feigning hurt.

"I didn't know they were soy," Jared whined.

"Not bad, huh, bro?" Booth piped up.

"I guess not," Jared grumbled.

"Honestly, Jared, I might expect this pouting out of the boys, but you're forty-two years old," Marisa scolded with a teasing twinkle in her eye.

Everyone chuckled at Jared's expense, and he cracked a good-natured grin. "Who knows, doc. Maybe having you around might make our old man live a little longer."

Booth nearly choked on the sip of wine he'd just taken and shot a glance at Brennan. She just smiled brightly at Jared and answered, "maybe. I really appreciate your consideration, Emily. You didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to. If you're this important to our Seeley, you're important to us. We did the same sorts of things for Marisa, but it was mostly to keep her because we didn't know if another woman existed that would put up with Jared."

"Man, how did I get in the chute tonight?" Jared grumbled. "Seel's the one who brought home the love of his life that he hasn't been able to stop talking about for three frickin' years."

Thank you, Jared. Remind me to smother you in your sleep. Saved by the pounding of six little boy feet, Booth glanced up. Jeff, Justin, and Parker stood in the entryway of the living room in various character-print pajamas. "Graaaaaaaaaama," Justin sing-songed, "can we watch the movie now?"

"Oh, I suppose," Emily agreed.

Booth pulled a homemade quilt off the back of the couch and snuggled into the soft Durapela fabric, pulling Bones against him. He flung the quilt over them while Emily cued up the movie. "They love you," he whispered.

"I think I'm pretty fond of them too," she replied, dropping a tiny kiss on his scruffy chin. Booth wrapped his arms tightly around her middle, breathing her scent in deeply. T minus approximately fourteen hours…

A few minutes later, Booth smiled as he heard Bones scoff softly at the unbelievability of Disney's latest contribution to the film world. A sweet, red-headed princess who meets her prince one day and is all set to marry him the next, but before she can marry him she's thrust into the wild madness of New York City. "Shh, it's for the kids," he murmured against the shell of her ear. As he stroked his fingertips up and down her arms under the blanket, a terrific idea of some more adult entertainment came to him.

A/N: CLIFFY! What is Booth thinking? Like you don't know… review and ye shall find…