Sorry, i know it's a bit short, well, kinda. Anyway, it's basically fluff. (oh but between who?) You're gonna have to read to find out!

Chapter 7

Anticipation?

Angela, Boyd, and Brennan were all standing around the Angelator, with Boyd relaying his theory on the situation. Brennan had asked Angela run scenarios through the machine with the new information he had.

After about an hour Brennan grumbled, "There are just too many factors that we don't have." She sighed in defeat.

Just as she turned to go back and examine the bodies again, Zach and Hodgins came barreling into the room, nearly knocking Brennan over. "We've got it!"

"Got what?" Angela walked over and looked at the papers in Hodgins' grasp, avoiding his gaze. "What does all of this mean?" She said as she grabbed them out of his hands.

Zach piped up, too excited to keep quiet. "It means that they were hung and beaten with a wrench!"

"Don't sound too excited there Zach." Angela said as she heard the news.

"Lucas and Aidan were hung after they were beaten unconscious, but normally because of their young age they wouldn't have died right away because of the suppleness of the vertebrate. Lucas' disease caused him to die instantly, from his rapidly decreasing bone mass. Aidan, on the other hand, wasn't dying, so the captor hit him in the back of the head with the wrench." Hodgins finished and took a deep breathe.

"You two figured this all out?" Brennan looked up from the papers. "Good work. Ange, do you think you can run that through the Angelator?"

"Sure." She turned to her tablet and worked in the new information that they had. She played the new picture on the screen.

"Dr. Bones?"

Temperance quickly turned to Angela. "Turn it off!"

Parker made his way up to the doctor and tugged on her lab coat. "Were you just watching a movie?" He looked up at her, with a scared voice. Great, he's going to have nightmares now!

"No, we were just doing some work." She bent down and looked him in the eyes. "Did you see what was on the screen?" He shook his head and she let out a sigh of relief, but noticed that he still seemed upset. "What's wrong Parker?"

He looked up at all the people that were now staring at him and he just shook his head. Brennan suddenly understood that he had no idea who any of these people were, and he was probably scared because he had woken up from his nap alone.

"How about you and I go home now, okay?" Apparently that's all that had Parker wanted and he threw his arms around Temperance's neck. She wrapped her arms around him and picked him up. Standing up, she turned to everyone, "You can reach me on my cell."

She walked out the door only stopping to grab Parker's things from her office.

Angela, Zach, and Hodgins were all speechless, confused as to what had just happened; not only was Brennan leaving early, but she was leaving early with a kid in her arms. After a few moments Angela had to ask, "Wasn't that Booth's son?"

Opening the door to her apartment, Temperance realized that she didn't have any food. It was just about seven at night and Parker needed dinner, but she didn't have any food. "Hey Parker, do you like Chinese food?" She asked as she dropped her purse on the table just inside the door.

Parker jumped of off the couch that he had been situating himself in. "Can we go to the place where daddy always goes with you?" He gazed up at her with his pleading brown eyes, which she just couldn't say no to.

"Alright, but you go unpack your stuff first. I need to get changed." She said as she led him to the guest bedroom that he would be staying in.

As she changed, she thought about what Parker had said. She was surprised that Parker had seemed to know practically know her, even though they hadn't spent time together before. She finished changing and walked to what was now 'Parker's room'. She opened the door to find the floor covered with toys.

"Parker, did you bring any clothes?" She wondered how he all of these could have fit in those bags, let alone clothes too. She looked at the boy who was playing with a big yellow dump truck. He quickly stood up and ran to the door, when he heard her speak.

"Of course, silly. What else would I wear to bed?" He giggled as he took her hand. "Can we have food now?"

Entering Wong Foo's, she instinctively looked towards the bar to see if a certain FBI agent was there, only to remember seconds later that he was out of town. She mentally kicked herself for allowing him to run her thoughts like that.

Brennan glanced towards their regular 'squint' designated booth to see her three friends already sitting there. As she began to walk towards the table, she noticed Parker tighten his grasp on her hand.

"Hey Bren, is there something you're not telling us?" Angela shouted she approached the table.

"I'm just watching Parker for a day or two while Rebecca's out of town." She replied as she sat in the booth and helped Parker climb up next to her.

"Why isn't our resident G-man doing that?" Hodgins asked suspiciously. Brennan could see numerous theories running through his head. She looked down at the child who still refused to let go of her hand. This was probably a bad idea.

"He's in New York." She looked up to find Sid bringing over a huge dish of sweet and sour chicken and two plates. "Thanks Sid." He nodded in reply and walked away.

"Why? Is it for the case? And why aren't you with him?" Angela's interest was heightened as Zach asked these questions.

"No it's not for this case." She took a bite of her chicken before continuing, trying to sound calm. "Actually, he's not working on our case anymore." Her tone was hard, daring them to continue. Hodgins and Zach took the hint and started a new conversation with each other about some bug, but Angela wasn't scared into silence like the others.

"Why?" Angela received a glare from Brennan, but she kept going. "Did you two get into another fight or something? Sweetie, if you did, you need to go back and apologize to him right now."

She sighed, it was clear that she wasn't going to be able to avoid Angela's questions, so she might as well answer them. "No. We didn't get into a fight."

"Then…" Angela thought about it and realized who it must have been. She gave Brennan a questioning look, hoping that what she thought she meant was wrong.

Brennan looked down at the little boy eating his chicken to make sure he wasn't listening. "Booth punched Boyd."

"What!" She had gotten Hodgins and Zach's attention at this, as their heads snapped up. "Why?"

"I don't know, can we talk about something else please."

"Fine. Hodgins was able to identify the--"

"Something other than that!" She nodded her head in the direction of Parker.

"Aww, Bren, you make such a good mother!" Angela giggled.

"Ange! You know—" But she stopped when she felt a tug on her hand. She bent down and looked at Parker. "What is it?"

He pulled her head down so that he could whisper into her ear. He cupped his hand and mumbled something to her, only loud enough for the others to catch one or two words. Brennan sat back up and looked at the boy thinking for a few seconds.

"Do you like bugs Parker?" The boy nodded his head slowly. "Dr. Hodgins here works with bug for a living."

The boy's eyes went wide. "Really!" He whispered loudly.

"Yup." She thought back to some of the toys that had been in his backpack. "And you know how you like to color? Well, Angela here is an artist. She draws for a living."

A smile now played across his face as he looked at the people around the table. "What about him?" He said as he pointed at Zach.

"Zach is really smart and has the same job as me." He started to think about that.

"So…if I get really smart I could work like you?" He asked shyly.

"Yup." Parker just glowed at her response and crawled on top of her lap so he could see over the table and get a look at everyone, feeling a lot more comfortable than before.

"Bren, that is so cute. He has a crush on you!" Angela squealed. "Like father like son!"

Everyone laughed at that, but Angela earned a napkin in the face from Brennan and a confused face from Parker.

Almost an hour later, Angela gave Brennan a light elbow in her arm.

"What was that for?"

"Look down." Angela said simply, pointing at her lap.

Brennan looked down to find Parker asleep with his head in her lap and his arms withered around her waist. She smiled down at the small bundle. "I think that means it's time to go." She put a few bills down on the table and took the sleeping Parker up into her arms. "See you guys."

Brennan opened the door to her apartment for a second time that night. She quietly dropped her purse and carried the sleeping form in her arms toward his bedroom. Looking down at him she wondered if he would be uncomfortable sleeping in his clothes or if she should try to change him. She decided on the latter and quickly changed him into his footy pajamas. After she placed him in the bed, Temperance quietly walked to the door and was about to leave when she heard a small voice.

"Night Dr. Bones. I love you."

She turned around to the boy, but he had already fallen back asleep. Sighing, Brennan made her way into the kitchen and poured a glass of water. Going back to her thoughts from earlier, she asked herself what she was doing.

Finally after minutes of debating with herself, she picked up the phone and dialed the memorized number. The phone rang, but no one answered.

"Hey Booth, it's me, Bo--rennan. Anyway I just called to...let you know Parker was dropped off safe and sound and he's doing okay. Rebecca didn't exactly leave any information, like allergies, or emergency numbers, so if you can think of anything. Yea…well, night." She urgently hung up the phone and cursed herself for calling him. She sighed.

Booth dropped onto the bed in his hotel room. The long day had worn him out and he was upset. He had called Rebecca the night before telling her he couldn't watch Parker and ever since then, he had just felt like crap. Rebecca had been pissed that he had failed, again. She was supposed to be going out of town with her boyfriend and now she had to cancel.

At least the new case he was working on was easy, a one-two case. His team had caught the guy red handed trying to chop his next victim up. All that was left was the questioning, which would be done tomorrow. He decided to spend another night after that, and he would leave the next morning.

Propping himself up on the bed, Booth turned on the tv, hoping to calm himself down. He knew the time away was supposed to get him to stop thinking about Bones, and stop hitting fellow agents, but he just couldn't. Finding the tv to be unhelpful, he turned it off and stared at the ceiling. Why does she get me so worked up? She can be so…obnoxious, defiant, pigheaded, cocky, beautiful – Great! There you go again!

His thoughts were interrupted by the ring of his cell phone. Uninterested in talking to anyone, he quickly silenced it and turned over on the bed. Sleep was coming over him finally, when he heard the chirp of his cell phone that indicated a text message.

Booth groaned as he opened his cell. The screen displayed a message saying that he had one new voice mail, but he skipped over it and opened the text message.

Booth smiled for the first time in what seemed like days.

What do you think? Love your opinions! Things start to get interesting in the new chapter ;-P