UGH! I'm in total Bones withdrawl...and no alerts SUCKS!!

"You coming with Bones?" Booth turned off the ignition and reached for the door handle.

"No, that's okay, I'll wait here." Brennan looked at her hands, suddenly slightly uncomfortable to be there with him.

Booth just rolled his eyes and pushed the button on her seatbelt to release her.

"Just come on Bones."

Brennan contemplated for a moment as Booth walked around the front of the car. When he took one last glance at her and started up the sidewalk she threw open her door and ran to catch up with him.

"Yeah, I probably should come with you to make sure Parker wants to go. After all, we both know he likes me better than you." Brennen bit back a grin as Booth gave her an appalled look and quickened her pace.

"My son? Likes you, a squint, better than me?" Booth sounded as if she'd just announced that she was related to the Tooth Fairy, he too quickened his pace to keep up with her.

"I'm not just a squint, I'm the squint, Booth." She broke out into a run, laughing when Booth protested and ran up beside her.

"No way Bones, I catch bad guys. Parker definitely likes me better." He reached across in front of her to hold her back as he sprinted the rest of the way to the door.

"Hey!"

Booth rang the doorbell and she repaid him for cheating by elbowing him playfully in the ribs.

"He likes me better."

"Does not."

"Does to." Brennan stuck out her tongue, in a rather uncharacteristically childish gesture, but quickly retracted it when Rebecca opened the front door.

"Hi." Rebecca leaned on the door frame, obviously blocking entry into her house. She noticed Brennan standing beside him.

"Are you working today Seeley?"

"Oh…no." Booth motioned toward Brennan at his side. "Bones is joining me and Parker for lunch."

"Hi Rebecca." Brennan nodded at her.

Rebecca returned the gesture and looked over Seeley's partner, trying to keep a polite smile on her face. She felt a part of her die. Seeley was really past her, he was finally entering into a real relationship.

Even though she was sure he would deny there was anything was between them, Rebecca knew Booth would only introduce Parker to someone he was serious about. She was a suprised when she found out he'd spent the weekend with her, and even more suprised when Parker told her he enjoyed it. Dr. Brennan wasn't like the other silly flings Booth had had over the years, and she'd been spending a lot of time with Parker lately. Dr. Brennan was the real deal, and Rebecca knew it.

Somehow, knowing that made her happy and sad at the same time.

Finally Rebecca returned her gaze to Booth, with sad eyes and a small smile.

"Good for you Seeley." She said quietly.

Booth studied her face for a moment, and captured her meaning.

He nodded slowly, "Thanks Rebecca."

Brennan watched the interchange and felt like she was looking at them from another room. Another planet. She was sure there was some sort of conversation going on that had nothing to do with the one she was hearing.

They're reading between the stripes, or something like that. I'll have to ask Booth later.

Parker heard the doorbell from his room and came barreling down the stairs and around the corner. The first thing he saw was his father out on the doorstep.

"Daddy!" The boy opened his arms as wide as he could, putting some wind resistance on his running. But as he got closer he saw that his father was not alone.

"ELMO!" Parker picked up speed and rushed at Brennan, who had to brace herself for the impact of his flying hug.

She bent low, picked him up and wrapped her arms around him. She loved doing that.

"Hi Parker." Then looking at Booths she whispered, "I told you so."

Booth rolled his eyes.

"Bye Rebecca."

The trio turned away from the door and started toward the car. Booth placed his hand on Brennen's back to guide her while she grasped Parker's hand.

"Bye Rebecca." Brennan said politely, feeling a little bit guilty, like she was walking away with the family Rebecca could have had.

"Bye Mommeeeeee!!!" Parker's farewell turned into a squeal as his father snatched him off the ground near the car and tickled him.

"Ignore me? Your own father? For a squint? You will pay for that!"

"Daddy," Parker giggled, "Elmo isn't a squint. She's the squint!"

Brennan smiled cheekily at Booth's surprised expression and climbed into the car, satisfied with having won, yet again.

--------------------------------------------------

"Oh no Ange." Brennan turned away from the table to speak louder into her cell phone.

Across from her, Booth and Parker were playing finger soccer with tiny balls of napkin paper while waiting for the food to come.

Booth looked up when he heard Brennan's distressed tone.

'Well when do they think they can fix it?" Brennan drug her hand across her face as she listened carefully to Angela's analysis of the situation.

"I don't know Sweetie. The electric company was here and they say they'll have to check the wiring in the whole building. It will probably take the rest of the day." Angela quickly turned away from her partner in crime, Hodgins, who was trying desperately to make Angela laugh and spoil her plans.

"Really? That's awful." Brennan shook her head.

Now when am I supposed to finish that analysis of the my Revolutionary War skeleton?

"Yeah, I know. So anyway, you might as well take the rest of the afternoon off, you can't do anything in a dark lab." Angela smiled at the look of mock disapproval Hodgins was giving her.

"Yea, you're probably right. Just make sure Zack checks to make sure the generators have kicked on in the cryogenics lab, we don't want any of the materials in there to get too warm."

"I'll make sure he knows Sweetie. Bye!" Angela hung up the phone just before she burst into laughter.

"That was my best plan yet!" The grin that brightened her face made Hodgins want to dance.

"Yea, but what is she going to do to you tomorrow when she finds out the power never went out and you made her take half a day off for nothing?"

"I'm not worried," Angela practically floated off the platform, "She'll be so happy after spending the afternoon with Booth, she probably won't care."

"Probably?" Hodgins raised his eyebrows in his 'conspiracy theory' smirk.

Angela shrugged, "What's life without risks?"

-------------------------------

"Everything okay with Angela?" Booth asked after Brennan closed her phone.

"Yeah," She sighed, "But the lab lost power, everybody has the rest of the day off."

Booth was amused at her reaction to this news.

"Your words say 'good' but your tone says 'bad', so it's very confusing." Booth laughed at his own near-almost perfect imitation of his partner.

Brennan smiled.

"You can't use my own words against me." She threw an out-of-bounds paper ball at him and he feigned astonishment.

Parker's eyes lit up. "Does that mean you can come to Putt-Putt with us?"

"What's Putt-Putt?" Brennan drew her eyebrows together in a confused frown.

"Please Daddy, can she come?" Parker gave puppy-dog eyes to his father, the very ones his father had originally given to him.

"Of course she can Bud, that is if she wants to." Booth ruffled his son's hair, turned to Brennan and smiled at her expression. That cute, I-don't-know-what-that-means, expression.

"What's Putt-Putt?" She repeated as the waitress sat their food down in front of them.

"Miniature golf Bones." Booth cut into his steak and smiled when he saw it was perfectly cooked on the inside.

Brennan poured her salad dressing in a zigzag pattern while she pondered this.

"How can golf be miniature? As I recall it's a game that requires a relatively large amount of space."

Booth ignored her question as he stared at his son.

"What are you doing Parker?" He sat down his fork and folded his hands in front of his mouth to hide an amused smile.

Parker looked up from his plate, where he was piling as many French fries as he could on top of his hamburger.

"Makin' a Tater-burger." He said, lifting the burger to his mouth, which could now barely fit around both buns due to it's expanded height.

"Yea, I used to love Tater-burgers!" Brennan laughed as ketchup squirted out of the sandwich and began it's decent down Parker's chin. She grined as she reached over to wipe it off with her napkin.

"You know what 'Tater-burgers' are but not miniature golf?" Booth was constantly amazed at how Brennan's almost childlike view on the world. Things she should understand were lost on her, yet things he wouldn't think she would comprehend in a million years, came as second nature.

Booth shook his head.

"Where in the world are you from?"

Brennan stared at Booth as if he'd grown a third eye.

"Ohio."

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