A/N

Sorry for the delay with the new chapter. It was growing over 3000 words and I was fighting with the second part, so to get something up I have split it into two.

Ch16 should be up tonight.

Right now I think the story will end up at approx. 22-23 chapters.

Saturday, 9PM

Booth wasn't happy, at least not nearly as happy as he should have been.

After Parker was asleep he sat staring blankly at his computer screen wondering how a day which had started out so wonderfully could have ended so screwed up.

Actually he knew the answer to that…

Rebecca had pulled the same crap a few times before, just showing up with Parker way ahead of time without bothering to call ahead, "I was in the neighborhood and figured you wouldn't mind…" Best as he could tell it was entirely intentional – she just used his near desperation to see his son as a lever so she could do as she damned well pleased. And he was utterly helpless to even say anything about it, she had him so totally by the balls. Just say "boo" and she could punish him by withholding access to Parker, and he had zero legal recourse. On the other hand if she was running very late he just had to suck it up and be grateful for whatever scraps of time he could get. Of course if the shoe was ever on the other foot she'd be the first one to have a cow.

The other times she'd done it he'd been so happy to have some extra time with his boy that he didn't let Rebecca's manipulative tactics faze him. But never before had her shenanigans come at such an inopportune time. He'd originally offered to go pick up Parker first thing Saturday morning, and she was the one who'd suggested 4PM, but even so his resentment at her showing up so early was nearly canceled out by the thrill of getting to see his little boy.

He tried to just chalk it up to bad timing, and he figured letting his two favorite people in the whole world spend a little time together before Bones left wasn't a bad thing, although not something he would have planned this soon in their pseudo-relationship. After all, even if Bones wasn't the type to ooh and ahh over kids the little guy was quite the charmer – he took after his old man. But his attempt to make the best of the situation flew out the window with the crap Rebecca pulled once he opened the door and let her in…

----

Rebecca's demeanor was perfectly pleasant until she'd entered the kitchen far enough to see Bones still sitting at the table, at which point she became icily polite.

"Will you excuse us for a moment please?"

"Of course."

Bones immediately got up and took her wine glass with her to the far end of the den. He tried to catch her eye but failed. Rebecca continued, barely lowering her voice at all.

"If you think I'm dropping off Parker so he can play second fiddle to your girlfriend you've got another thing coming!"

"She was going to leave before four o'clock," he explained, trying to defuse her and work in at least a token reminder that she was ridiculously early. But it was futile.

"Well I don't care about that because she is going to leave right now. Parker is not setting foot in here until then."

He was left speechless by her nerve in expecting him to help free her up to go do whatever in hell it was she had planned while at the same dictating terms to him.

She wasn't quite finished…

"And you're not seeing him until you have those," which she said with as much disgust possible, referring to the three cleaned weapons leaning against the wall, "locked up and out of sight."

He knew it was pointless to state that of course they would have been safely put away by four. He said, "Just give me a few minutes," to her back as she was already stalking back out to her car.

He turned around in the open doorway, and Bones was already standing there with her small bag. It was clear she had heard everything. He felt helpless and humiliated, "I'm sorry…"

She patted his arm, "It's ok. I understand. I don't want to be underfoot. Call me later?"

His shoulders sagged. It was obvious nothing more was going to happen under Rebecca's hostile gaze from where she stood by her car. Not that he wanted it to in front of her. He'd have to wait until some other time for another pleasantly womanly armful of Bones.

He shook his head, "No. I've taken enough of your time this weekend. You go work out, and do your laundry and work on your book. I'll talk to you one way or another on Monday. That's a promise." He tried to give her his best smile. It wasn't one of his best efforts given the circumstances, but it would have to do. She flashed a quick smile of her own in return and squeezed past him in a hurry to leave.

He watched her walk quickly to her car, then he locked away the guns. When he went outside and saw Parker eagerly waving at him from the big kid booster seat in the back of Rebecca's car he nearly forgot about the earlier ugliness in his joy to see his son. In fact he felt a stab of real guilt for forgetting his priorities in his resentment about Rebecca's crap. Screw her. He's what it's all about.

-----

Booth rubbed his tired eyes, not really seeing the website in front of him, and he kicked himself again for stupidly overcompensating for his earlier guilt. In wanting to make it up to Parker he had let him eat too much ice cream for dessert. Then they'd roughhoused so much afterward he vomited up everything, dinner included, which really made Booth feel like crap. Like kids did at that age, Parker was already over it by the time he put him to bed early for pancakes and Mass in the morning, but Booth knew Rebecca would rip him a new asshole over it. He sighed, figuring that it was better to tell her himself and take his lumps rather than let her find out from Parker.

That issue settled for the moment, his thoughts returned again to his frustration over Temperance's premature exit. How they parted should have been an excellent indicator of the progress between them so he could best figure out how to proceed, but Rebecca had scuttled it with a vengeance, clubbing Bones over the head with his baggage, and probably spooking her with her use of the word 'girlfriend'. All of that coupled with the frustration of his now visceral need to touch her left him feeling wronged, terribly cheated, but simply feeling like he'd had to allow the woman he loved to be kicked to the curb was the biggest insult of all. And the fact she'd been so understanding had only made it all chap his ass even more.

It was strange, but this episode was what had finally made him get over his hesitation to use the L-word even in the privacy of his own thoughts. Now he fully accepted that he loved her and that's all there was too it, no more beating around the bush at least in his own mind. The novelty of the realization was such that earlier he'd even given it a test drive, saying it out loud to make it more real, "I love Bones."

But instead of the goof y thrill he expected, it actually made him feel worse about the way their fantastic day had ended. He'd really wanted to call her, to hear her softly husky voice on the line, but he decided he probably shouldn't inflict his moodiness on her. He would stick to his plan of giving her some space, not crowding her.

But Booth felt the need to do something, which was why he was currently staring at the florist's web site. He knew she despised Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and other celebrations as being overly commercialized if not outright fabrications, but he knew there wasn't a woman born who didn't at some level appreciate the beauty of flowers.

After having such a wonderful time with a woman early in a budding relationship he'd always loved to send flowers as a follow-up, the trick being for it to be sweet rather than cheesy. The type of the arrangement had to be carefully calibrated to send the right message, neither suggesting too much nor too little, and in this case it was trickier than at any time in the past. If this was a more conventional relationship… Fat chance … the way he felt would have easily warranted sending roses, possibly even red ones at this stage of the game. Or if he needed to make sure he didn't overplay his hand, pink, white or yellow ones. But he decided roses of any color were too strong a statement given how he needed to tiptoe his way forward with Temperance.

Yet some generic bouquet suitable for your grandmother wouldn't say anything at all. He finally settled on something which he felt would subtly reflect just how special she was to him while not being too heavy-handed. He then struggled with what to have put on the small card and finally decided to keep it simple:

Thank you for the wonderful time.

It's great to be back.

-- Booth

He decided that the flowers themselves would serve as the apology for running her off – anything more explicit would just remind her of unpleasantness that he wished forgotten.

He filled out the delivery address and his billing information. Women ordinarily loved to be seen receiving flowers by their female co-workers, but he knew in this case that sending them to the lab would be a truly catastrophic mistake. So he entered her apartment address, crossing his fingers that the delivery person would find someone to leave them with. After a few minutes of reviewing his choices he finally clicked Submit and was committed. The ringing of the telephone surprised him…

A/N

Please review. As always I want to entertain while not being somewhat unpredictable.