A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Hope you guys enjoy Chapter 2!
He fakes a call from Hacker and excuses himself, idea forming in his mind. He needs to get away, just for a day, and with any luck his plan will work out.
She, of course, looks disappointed when he tells her his excuse. Hacker called with a case nearby. No, you're not needed, there's no body. It's an easy fix, I'll be back before night. Look, don't worry. Just have a girl's day with Christine.
She caves yet again, and he kisses his girls goodbye before he leaves, climbing into the SUV and driving, his plan slowly etching into his mind. He stops at a nearby restaurant- the best Thai one he can find- and makes a reservation. Then, to avoid her in case she decided to come into the town, he drives until he finds a nearby one. He parallel parks, pays the meter, and tosses his keys into his pocket. And then, he starts looking.
She can't help but feel sad that he got a case, but she lets him go anyways. "This is good," she says out loud to herself, Christine out of earshot. "Now I can put my idea into action."
Christine is only slightly disappointed at the change of plans, all too happy to go with her to town. Brennan loads up the stroller, just in case, and they head off, in summer dresses and floppy hats.
The town is tiny, with one main road, little stores lining the sidewalk. She lets Christine enter any store she wants, and before long the stroller is laden with bags of clothes and candy. They have lunch at a tiny café, sandwiches and smoothies, and stop by a Chinese restaurant to make reservations. She's thrilled to learn the restaurant offers a daycare service - apparently, lots of families come to visit, with parents that would appreciate a romantic dinner alone - and immediately enrolls Christine, who is too busy mulling over what fortune cookie she wants to notice what her mother is doing.
She's nearly giving up on her plan when she sees the store, crammed between two larger ones. There's a small stall for her stroller, it being too large to make it through the doorway, and once inside she makes Christine hold her hand, cautious of the glass and delicacy lining the shelves.
The ring display is at the very end, and only there does she hesitate. When a woman proposes, what do they do? Do they buy a ring for the man they're proposing to? No, maybe not. Should she buy a ring for herself? That feels too presumptuous. Are there couple engagement rings?
Head spinning, she watches Christine's small hand drift across the glass covering the display, biting her lip in a decidedly Brennan way. She points at one in particular, a flat silver one, with a little sign that claims it can be engraved. "That one, mommy," she says. "Daddy would like that one."
She stares in shock at her daughter, so amazingly intuitive, before taking a closer look at the ring. It is pretty, she muses. It is wide, but thin, and would be just the kind of thing he'd like.
Nodding decidedly at her daughter, she calls over the manager. "I'd like that one, she says. And just like that, she's made the hardest decision of her life.
He can't find it anywhere.
Sighing, he runs a hand through his hair, dragging his fingers through it and pulling out the knots that have entangled themselves through the salt-scented wind. He's leaning against the hood of his car, phone in one hand, staring at the time.
It is five o'clock, and he cannot find, for the life of him, a ring.
Oh, he's looked. He checked every jewelry store in the town. He's mulled over every display, every diamond, every precious stone. He's even been to a child's jewelry store, for goodness' sake (he didn't find Brennan's ring, but he did find Christine a cute little braided bracelet). He needs to find one before tonight. It's necessary to his plan. If he doesn't, what the hell will happen? It's not like he can propose with the tab off of a soda can or something. He has to have a ring.
He leans his head back to stare at the sky, still blue, the sun just beginning to lower itself. Time is running out, out, out and there is no way to stop it. He needs to find a damn ring and he needs to find one soon. In what is beginning to be the crappiest vacation ever, he needs to show her one perfect, shining moment of glory, even if it is just a moment.
He's so busy lost in his own thoughts to notice the glinting of silver on the table just off his line of sight, but when he does it nearly blinds him for a second. Blinking, he walks closer. A woman, hair braided neatly back and a long summer dress covered by a knit shawl, sits behind the table on which what feels like a million pieces of silver are glinting sunlight. His fingers reach to trace a couple of the items. There are rings, but a quick scan of them tells him none of them are worth buying, and he's just about to start feeling discouraged again when he sees the tiny box.
Intrigued, he reaches for it and picks it up. The box is full of charms, and he dips his hand in and pulls it out, feeling them run through his fingers like large, metal grains of sand. A couple stay on his palm, and he picks through them. A silver heart, a key, a bikini.
A dolphin.
He picks that one up in particular, trying not to lose it. It feels minuscule between his fingers, and when the lady finally focuses in on him, she smiles. "Cute, isn't it? I have chains you could put 'em on. I also have bracelets, if you prefer to buy more than one-"
Suddenly his hands are diving through the box, looking for charms that remind him of her. The tiny food delivery box with chopsticks. The heart. The key. The skull. The skeleton, the brain, the letters "T" and "B". Finally, when he's collected enough to fill a bracelet, he hands them to her, watching as she connects them carefully before handing the bracelet to him. "That'll be fifty dollars," she says serenely, and he hands over the money without a second thought. He misses the surprised look on the lady's face, shocked he thought she was being serious, lost in his thoughts again, imaging her face when he gave her the bracelet.
It wasn't a ring, but when had they ever stuck to the traditional before?
