Here we go...next chap is a biggie...
---Monday---
Brennan pulled back from the kiss and noted the fatigue in Booth's eyes when he tried to smile at her.
"How about we just head home?"
Booth glanced at the clock, it was only 2pm, but he didn't argue.
Their hands laced as they rose from the couch and Brennan grabbed her bag leading the way out of the office.
"Who knew any of us would live to see the day when Temperance Brennan would leave the lab before 6pm?" He asked teasingly, earning a playful slap on the stomach when Brennan smiled up at him.
"Very funny Booth. Really, I'm laughing on the inside."
Booth wrapped an arm around her waist and she leaned into him as they made their way toward the group of squints and the kids.
"Daddy! Mommy! Guess what?" Madison yelled, running over and tugging on their shirts, "Angela made a pit'uwe of me in the…the…big floaty thingy!" She pointed enthusiastically toward Angela's office where a picture of Madison spun around slowly in the Angelator. Madison wearing an unmistakable smile.
Brennan turned wide-eyed to Angela.
"Did she really do that?" Brennan panicked slightly at the thought of her daughter learning how to do the signature 'charm smile' already.
"No Sweetie, I took a picture I had of Parker and sort of…altered the picture I did of Sonny." She winked. "Looks real though, right?"
"Oh." Brennan relaxed visibly and ruffled Madison's hair who immediately returned to look at whatever Hodgins had been showing them on a computer screen.
Booth squeezed Brennan's hip. "Don't get too excited Babe, you know she'll learn it eventually." Booth smiled as David poked his sister playfully in the side and she squealed, glad his youngest children were completely unaware of his most recent near-death experience. He wished it would always be that way, but one look at Parker told him it wouldn't.
"Don't sound so satisfied about it. You know who that charm smile works best on don't you?"
"Who?"
"The opposite sex Seeley." She shrugged one shoulder and Booth's face immediately darkened.
"Not if this ex-sniper has anything to say about it." He said, straightening his posture and watching Madison carefully from the other side of the room.
Brennan burst out laughing.
"What?"
"It's just good to know some things never change. You will always be the same old overprotective Booth. FBI homicide investigator and ex-sniper Army Ranger."
Booth kissed her, "You can bet on it Bones."
Then he glanced up at Parker, his feet dangled over the edge of the walkway above them, his head pressed into the banister, eyes closed.
"Listen Bones, I'm gonna take a minute with Parker, could you…"
"Yeah, of course. David really wants to see those pirate bones I'm examining, we'll be right over there." She pointed to a nearby exam room and went to collect David and Madison while Booth headed for the stairs.
-------------------------------
"Hey."
Parker looked up. "Hi dad." He smiled up at his father and watched him sit down beside him, both their arms threaded through the banisters of the walkway.
"Ah, yes. The land of the squints." Booth sighed and looked out over the lab platform where Zach's assistant and Brennan's were arguing over who should clean the bones.
"It's very bright." Said Parker.
"And shiny." Said Booth.
"And clean." They said together, Parker remembering word for word the phrase his father used so often to describe 'Brennan's Domain'. The two laughed softly for a moment before the heavy silence descended again.
"Are you okay?"
Booth looked over and found Parker's eyes as wide and innocent as they had been when he was a child, he hadn't sent those eyes in a long time.
"Yeah, Parker. I'm fine."
Parker nodded and turned away again. "We thought…"
"I know what you thought. But it's not true, okay? I'm right here."
Parker was still nodding, and now added cracking his knuckles to his nervous fidgeting.
"It's just that…someday you won't…you won't be able to…I don't know if I can handle it Dad."
Booth frowned, he'd just had this conversation with Brennan, but for some reason, this seemed different.
"What do you mean?"
"I…If you were to…ya' know…go. I don't know if I would be able to handle it…taking care of them." He gestured with his head to where David and Madison were chattering animatedly at Zack. "And mom and Tempe too…I don't know if I could handle it."
"Hey." Booth said gently, "I'm not going anywhere Parker, not for a long time if I can help it. But…if that happens…I know you'll be able to handle it."
"How? How do you know?" Parker asked desperately, his black Converse shoes stopped swinging beneath him as he stared intently at his father.
Booth smiled. "Because Parker, you're you. You're as stubborn as you're mother, and as strong, if not stronger than me." Parker scoffed but Booth continued, "Because of the way you watch Sonny out of the corner of your eye when we're at the park or the store. Because of the way you wait on the corner so you can walk David home from the bus stop."
Parker's mouth dropped, he didn't know his father knew he did those things.
"And because of how strong you were today. She may not say it, but Tempe really needed that strength today. Your strength."
"I don't know about that. I was mostly trying to keep myself from crying." Parker smiled and shrugged, turning away.
"That's just it Parker." A feminine voice said softly.
Both Booths turned to find Brennan standing at the top of the stairs, the most tender look on her face either of them had ever seen.
She approached them slowly, "I needed that today, because I knew I wasn't alone in my…fear. Besides, you wouldn't be alone. I'd be here still."
Parker turned away again and she sensed that was not what he wanted to hear.
So young and yet still such an alpha, so much like his father.
Brennan crouched down on his level. "Parker do I ever say something if I'm not absolutely sure I'm right?"
"No."
"So if I tell you that if something should ever happen to Seeley and he…if I tell you that there is no one I'd rather have looking out for Salim, Sonny and I than you, if that were to happen, would you believe me?"
Parker looked at her a moment and then nodded. "Yeah I would."
"Good, I'm saying it now." She quickly kissed him on the forehead and stood up. "And you know I'm always right."
Parker and Booth laughed, nodding as they stood up, both groaning loudly as their backs cracked from the sudden movement.
"Well that didn't sound good." Brennan raised an eyebrow at them.
"Yeah Dad, what was that?"
"Hey! I'm old. What's your excuse?" He put his arm around Parker's slim shoulders and they headed for the stairs.
"My excuse is that uncomfortable piece of furniture you call a couch. I feel like I slept on rocks."
"That bad huh?"
"Oh yeah. You guys should definitely consider a new one. In fact, I'm demanding it."
"Demanding it?"
"Yeah, I'm the one that's got to sleep on it all the time."
"Well…maybe you need your own bed." Brennan turned around suddenly.
"Yeah, and where would we fit another bed Bones? The kitchen?"
"No, in a bedroom. Maybe we should buy a house Seeley, or a new apartment at the very least."
They'd made it to the bottom of the stairs and were headed to get Madison and David away from poor frazzled looking Dr. Addy.
"A new apartment?"
"Yes…or a house. Obviously ours is too small. Our dresser doubles as our office, David and Madison share a room and Parker sleeps on the couch. It's not practical. We need a bigger space and I think I like the idea of a house."
Booth studied her for a moment and noted the determined look on her face. He knew it was no use arguing, not that he really wanted to argue.
"Okay. Sure. We'll start house hunting tomorrow." Brennan smiled, satisfied. "Alright Princess, David, it's time to go."
"But Dad…" Their whining began, "Can't we stay just a little longer?"
"C'mon guys, Daddy's tired, but how about we stop at the video store on the way home and pick something up, then I'll make popcorn and we can have movie night." Brennan put on her best doesn't-that-sound-like-an-absolutely-brilliant-idea face. And the kids bought it like it was on sale.
"Cool! Movie night."
"Yeah. Cool!"
They bounded down the platform and sprinted for the door, calling out 'goodbyes' to the grateful squints and lab techs they were leaving behind. Most of them loved when the 'Little Booths' came to visit, but they were certainly tireing.
"Parker why don't you come along? I'm sure Rebecca won't mind."
"That's alright Tempe, I've got a Biology test in my last class and practice after school so I'll just go back." He reached for one headphone and put it in the ear not facing them, "Not that an afternoon of hyper kids and funny colored cartoon characters isn't appealing."
Brennan rolled her eyes and strolled ahead to the doors with Parker while Booth paused to check a text message on his phone that had been waiting since he'd left the EMT at the Hoover Building.
His heart stopped as he read the short message.
Who will protect them once you're gone?
Booth snapped his phone shut and ran after his family toward the doors, hardly able to breathe.
But it was too late.
He burst through them and out to the cloudy, dark mid afternoon air, a cool breeze hit him but he hardly noticed, too focused on the sight before him to really notice anything about the weather.
The sight of little Madison struggling, sobbing in the arms of a black-clad man three times her size. The sight of David's hands being held tight against his sides as he was lifted off the ground, screaming for all he was worth. The sight of Parker to his right, being held firmly in place by two other men in black who hissed at him to stop moving, 'they didn't want him anyway'. And the sight of Brennan, looking from one face to another, trying to decide who she would hit first and immobilized by the sight of her children in danger.
"Well Agent Booth?"
Both the children quieted immediately and everyone turned toward the sound of the voice as a man stepped from the shadows.
"Who will protect them once you're gone?" The man asked quietly, the anger in his voice tinted with concern.
Booth reached for his piece, wondering whether or not this time would be different. If this time, Brennan would stop him from shooting her father.
Uh-huh...uh-huh...who saw that coming? If you did you deserve MAJOR kudos cuz I didn't even know it was coming until I wrote it. lol.