Booth and Brennan were having a late dinner. Christine had eaten earlier and was now in bed asleep. She had come home from Angela's exhausted after swimming lessons with Michael Vincent. Brennan had bathed her and put her to bed while Booth had cooked dinner.
Booth sat at the head of the table humming what Brennan assumed was a Christmas carol, although it was beyond her which one it was. Booth's ability to carry a tune was questionable at best, although that never stopped him bursting into song whenever one of his favourite songs came on the radio. And of course, there was their song, Hot Blooded, which he always sang with great gusto, and a disregard for the actual words. She smiled to herself as he passed her the bowl of mashed potatoes.
"I think I outdid myself tonight Bones!" he said, grinning at her as he picked up a chicken leg and bit into it.
"Bone!" Hank squealed, holding out a chubby hand towards his mother, fingers opening and closing.
"See what I mean?" Brennan said, shoulders slumping, her eyes wide, mouth downturned. "He keeps calling me that!" she said as she handed him a piece of chicken thigh meat to chew on.
Booth laughed loudly "Aww come on Bo, um, what do you want me to call you then? I've called you Bones for years! I can't just start calling you Temperance. You're Bones! You're my Bones!" Booth suddenly sobered.
Brennan tilted her head to one side and stared at this man. He was right. He'd only called her Temperance a handful of times in all their years together. Twice, when she was distressed. His use of her Christian name soothed and calmed her. And on the day they were married. It would seem odd if he suddenly began calling her Temperance. She doubted she would respond if he called out to her using her name.
"Well. Maybe, when we're with Hank, you can call me Mommy or even Mama. Just until he gets the gist of calling me that?" she said slowly, thoughtfully.
Booth burst out laughing again, then, seeing her face "You're not kidding? You want me to call you Mommy whenever Hank is present?"
"Yes" Brennan said in all seriousness.
Booth frowned and leaned his elbow on the table and cupped his chin in his hand, staring at her. "It really bothers you that much that he doesn't call you Mommy?" he asked
Brennan nodded.
"Well then Mommy. Hank and I will make sure that we call you by your right name! Won't we Hank?" Booth said, leaning towards his son and picking a bit of chicken off his cheek "We want to keep Mommy happy, don't we fella".
Hank banged his hands on the tray of his high chair and looked at Brennan "More!" he demanded, both hands pumping open and closed as he reached towards the whole roast chicken on the table.
"Mommy will get you some, but can you say Mommy? Hank? Mommy?" she said as she picked another piece of chicken from the carcass for him, and added a piece of roast potato to his bowl.
Hank was focussed on his food "chick" he said holding up a piece of chicken, then popped it into his mouth.
Brennan smiled and looked at Booth "I'm worrying about nothing, aren't I?" she said.
Booth grinned at her. "I think you might be. But if it makes you happy."
He looked at his son who was chewing happily on his food. "Boy's got an appetite. He's growing fast, isn't he?" he said.
Brennan smiled and nodded her agreement "He certainly is. Which reminds me. I need to take him shopping for new shoes tomorrow."
"Shoes!" Hank echoed.
Booth frowned "Didn't you just buy him new shoes a few weeks ago?"
"I did, but he's had a growth spurt and they don't fit him anymore. I suspect he's going to have big feet like his Daddy. Aren't you Hank?" she said, grabbing at Hank's bare foot.
"Feet Mama" Hank giggled pulling his foot out of Brennan's hand.
She looked up at Booth, eyes wide "Did you hear that? He said Mama! Hank! You said Mama!" she laughed.
"Bone!" Hank laughed.
"It's a work in progress Bo. Mommy" Booth said, shaking his head and forking a whole roast potato into his mouth, which he chewed with a big grin on his face.
They finished their meal, Hank spread half of his onto the tray of his high chair. Booth lifted Hank out of his seat and received a chicken and potato kiss on his cheek for his trouble. Brennan grabbed a handful of paper towel and began cleaning up the highchair while Booth took Hank into the bathroom to wash up his face and hands. He popped him down onto the floor, holding him until Hank got his balance, then followed him down the hallway to the living room as he toddled along on his bare feet.
Brennan was waiting with two large glasses of red wine and they sat down together on the sofa, to watch their son playing.
"So. You're going to go buy shoes tomorrow?" Booth asked.
"Yes. He'll need them for Christmas day." She replied, sipping at her wine.
"About Christmas. I invited Aubrey. He's got nobody else." Booth said.
Brennan nodded "Of course! I would hate to think of him being alone on Christmas"
Booth squinted at her "But you wanted to be alone on Christmas. Just us. Quiet day. No fuss" he said.
"Yes, but that's different. We wouldn't be alone. We would be together. James is literally, on his own. He would end up eating at the diner, or worse, eating a burger alone in his apartment, watching It's A Beautiful Life on repeat" Brennan said.
Booth laughed loudly.
"It's not funny Booth. Too many people spend Christmas completely alone." she said.
"I know it's not funny. It's just that you've done a complete three sixty. Anyway, it'll be good having him here. Christine adores him, and he'll be more than happy to sit on the floor and play with Hank while the grownups sit at the table and drink the wine he will bring." Booth smirked.
Brennan raised an eyebrow. "That's not very nice Booth. But you raise a good point. He has terrible taste in whiskey, but he really knows his red wine." Brennan grinned along with him.
"So, there will be you, me, Max, Aubrey and the kids" Booth said, pulling a pen and notepad from his shirt pocket.
Brennan shuffled in her seat and held her glass up to her mouth "and Angela and Jack and Michael Vincent" she said into the glass, muffling her voice.
"Say what?" Booth asked, turning to look at her.
Brennan held the glass in front of her face, sipping at her wine for a moment, then dropped it down "I invited Angela and Jack and Michael Vincent. I didn't know you were inviting Aubrey. But it will be fine. We can add another table onto the end of the dining table and extend into the living room. And Angela will bring the ham and sweet potatoes and Jack's famous gravy." she said.
"But I make the best gravy, Bones. Mommy. He's not listening. Bones, I make the gravy" he repeated.
"Well, they offered and I accepted. You can make yours too. There's no gravy law that says you can only have one jug of gravy on the table is there?" Brennan said.
"Just as long as you know, I will be making my famous gravy." Booth said sulkily as he jotted notes on his pad. "Max is going to help me on the day cooking the meat. Which reminds me, I'll need to ring up the butcher and order extra." he noted that on his pad.
"Shall we buy dessert from that bakery downtown?" Brennan asked.
The phone began to ring. "yeah, I guess that would be a good idea. Booth." he said into the phone. "Max! Hi, we were just making some plans for Christmas day. We've got a few extra's it seems. Wait. What? Uh, sure I guess. Seeing as you've already invited them. Christmas Eve? Are they. Great. No. No. Why would I be annoyed that Russ and his wife and two girls are coming Christmas Eve and will be happy to bunk down in our living room" he glared at Brennan.
"Give me the phone" she hissed. "Booth" Brennan stood up and walked over to him, hand outstretched.
"Right. Sure. OK. Yes, the more the merrier. I'll talk to you tomorrow Max. You still need me to pick you up from the bus station? At two? OK. Sure. Seeya." Booth hung up the phone "Oh My God, this is crazy!" he said to Brennan. "We need to rethink this whole thing."
"Russ is coming? That's wonderful! We haven't seen them for years! Russ has been so busy with his business. I did speak to Amy a few months ago on the phone. Emma and Hayley are growing up so quickly. This is wonderful Booth! My whole family will be together for Christmas!" Brennan said, her eyes shining.
"You don't think it's going to be too much? Maybe you can call Angela and tell her about Russ and Amy and the girls. They won't mind, will they?" Booth said, trying to work out in his head where he was going to sit everyone.
"Don't be ridiculous. You cannot take back a Christmas day invitation. I wouldn't. They're our best friends. And Russ and Amy and the girls are family. And Aubrey is like family. We'll work it out." Brennan said, taking the pen and paper out of Booth's hands and making her own notes.
The phone began ringing again.
"Don't answer it!" Booth yelled.
Hank started crying, frightened by his father's loud voice.
Booth picked him up and began bouncing him up and down "There, there buddy. Sorry buddy." he started walking towards the hallway "I'm taking him to bed. Don't answer "
"Too late" Brennan said as she picked up the phone and waved it at him.
Booth rolled his eyes and walked towards the nursery, clucking and bouncing Hank.
He came back to the living room fifteen minutes later, to see Brennan with a large sheet of paper on the coffee table, writing furiously.
"Hank's quiet" Brennan said.
"He fell asleep the minute I put him in his bed. What exactly are you doing? And who was on the phone? Or don't I want to know?" Booth said quickly, running his questions together.
Brennan kept writing "It's a seating plan. That was Aubrey on the phone. You don't want to know" she said looking up, then said "He's bringing Jessica. She's making dessert" she said determinedly biting on the end of the pencil.
Brennan put the pencil down on the table and looked up at Booth, who looked ill. "Booth. It's going to be fine. We just need to move the living room furniture down to the end of the room, we can hire a long trestle table and extra chairs. See? We've done this before. Remember that time we had Christmas at my apartment? We had almost this many people and it worked fine. And we managed just fine at Thanksgiving with all the extra's." she said, grinning.
Now that it was happening, she could see it in her mind. The children coming down the corridor to find their Uncle and Auntie and cousins there. Poppy Max would be there too, and Uncle Jack, Auntie Angela and Michael Vincent would arrive mid morning. And Christine would be over the moon that Uncle James and Jessica will be in attendance as well. She started to feel quite celebratory.
"We'll have to put some fold out cots in Christine's room. We don't want the girls being in the room where the Christmas tree is. How will Santa deliver all the presents if they're there" she said using air quotes.
"When is Dad arriving?" she asked. "Two o'clock?" she added.
Booth nodded.
"Great, after you pick him up, can you go to the market and order the extra produce we will need. Ask for Randy. He knows me and will make sure we get the best quality. And then you might need to go past the store and grab some wine, spirits and soft drinks. And maybe I'll write you a list so you can get the items from the supermarket that don't require refrigeration. That will save some time on Christmas Eve." Brennan said, not looking up from her notes.
"uh, we have to go get the Christmas tree " Booth started to speak.
"Oh! You may need to cut back on the size of the tree. Just because of space issues. And now that Russ and the girls are coming. I'll need to get gifts for them all. Don't worry. I'll take care of that."
"Big of you" Booth muttered. He could feel his vision of Christmas Day slipping away and being replaced with an extravaganza of Brennan proportions. "I should have gone along with quiet day plans. This has gone from zero to sixty in seconds" he thought out loud.
"Sorry? Did you say something" Brennan asked, her voice bright and exuberant.
"Me? No. Just agreeing with you" Booth said, knowing that there was no other choice.
"Don't worry. I'll have a detailed shopping list ready for you tomorrow." she said smiling.
"OK Bones" Booth said, feeling completely helpless. This wasn't going to be quite the Christmas he was envisaging after all.