1Title: Missing Pieces
Author: SplishySplash, Ihave207Bones
Pairing: Booth/Brennan friendship
Episode: Baby in the Bough
Rating: K
Summary: Andy has to spend the night with Brennan and Booth comes over to help out.
Title: Practice Makes Perfect

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Lullaby and good night
In the sky stars are bright
'Round your head
Flowers gay
Set you slumbers till day

Booth pulled his SUV to a stop in front his partner building and sighed as he got out, pulling a plastic bag full of baby supplies out with him. He took his time up the steps to her apartment, wondering how she was doing. Having a baby in a domestic environment, in her home, would be an eye-opener. When he reached her floor loud baby wails filled the hallway.

He raised his hand to knock on the door and could hear Brennan trying to console the infant with frantic whispers that sounded like she was pacing back and forth in front of the door. Changing his mind he dropped his hand to his hip and fished in the pocket for his keys and opened the door himself.

Brennan didn't turn to face him as she paced around the room bouncing the screaming boy in her arms. "Please stop crying, Andy." She chanted over and over. Her hair was falling out of her pony tail and her feet was barefoot against the hardwood floor. As she turned to face him he could see the dark circle under her blood shot eyes.

"Hey Bones," Booth said and set the bag down on the floor. He slid his feet out of his shoes before crossing the apartment to assist the distraught woman.

"He won't stop crying, I've done everything that you specified," She cried, overwhelmed tears escaping her blue eyes. "I've tried to feed him and he wouldn't eat, I've changed his diaper. . ."

A small smile came on to his face as he took the squirming baby into his arms and pulled her into an awkwardly placed hug. "It's okay," He assured both woman and baby as he took his free hand to guide Brennan's head to his shoulder.

After a moment, Booth broke away his embrace with the anthropologist and motioned for her to sit on the couch so he could calm the screaming child. After checking his diaper he picked up the small blanket that lay on the back of the couch and wrapped Andy securely inside of it. He snagged the bottle that rested on the side table as he walked away rocking the crying infant while cooing softly, hoping to give Brennan some quiet time.

Booth wandered into her bedroom and pushed the door open with his hip. "Okay little man you've had your fun, you've made the beautiful woman cry and now it's time for you to calm down so you can go to sleep," He said. Cradled close to Booth's body the boy's cries started to subside after some time had passed. "There's a good boy, let's see if we are hungry."

He placed the bottle into Andy's mouth and his cries lightened to soft mews as he accepted it greedily. Booth walked around her room only then realizing that it was his first time in her bedroom and he smiled as he took in her modestly modern decor. The walls were a dark green with matching cherry wood furniture and one of Angela's large paintings hung on the wall next to her row of framed doctorates. He walked to the side of the bed and smiled softly at the picture on her bed side table was of both of them and their friends taken at some formal gala they had been forced to attend. Her room was one out of a magazine down to the matching tightly made bed and the etched closet doors.

After taking in the small amount of framed pictures that rested on the bureau he noticed that the baby had fallen asleep. Booth sighed with relief and left the bedroom, he placed Andy in the playpen before turning his attention to his partner. She had her face buried into the armrest of the couch, her shoulders were shaking. Booth sat on the couch and pulled her into his arms; she immediately tensed but soon rested her head on his chest.

It was a long few minutes until her sobbing subsided and she laid there in silence, Booth almost thought she had fallen asleep. "How did you get him to stop crying?" She asked her voice scratchy and raw.

"I had a little chat with him and told him that enough is enough," Booth said, toying with her messy ponytail absent mindedly.

"I don't know what I was thinking Booth, taking care of an infant. . ." She cried again.

"Sometimes babies just need to cry, Bones." Booth said reassuringly as he tightened his arms around her. "You're doing just fine. I know this is a hard time for a baby to be dropped into your lap and it's okay that you are tired and overwhelmed."

She scoffed and closed her eyes, soaking up his warmth. "He's been crying for the last two hours, I don't understand how you came here and got him to quiet down and eat in only five minutes."

Booth chuckled slightly and she looked up at him.

"I've had years of practice, Bones," He said, and slumped down against the couch. He placed his feet on the coffee table and she made herself comfortable against him with her toes tucked underneath her and her head still resting against his chest. "There was this one time when Parker was only two months old and he cried and cried for almost six hours straight. Both Rebecca and I were stretched so thin that we took him to the emergency room and the doctor took him, gave him the evaluation and he said that there was nothing wrong with him. So we wrapped him up tightly, because it was snowing and he fell asleep in the car. We put him to bed and it was the first night that he slept all the way through and sure enough we didn't have any more problems."

Brennan was silent for a moment. "Were you scared?"

"I was terrified, but after the doctor said that there was nothing wrong with him I felt like an idiot because he was able to get my son to fall asleep when his mother and I couldn't. As we were leaving the doctor told us that infants feel more content when they feel like they are in the womb and wished us luck." Booth said with a shrug.

"I was terrified." Brennan said softly, her gaze dropping to the floor. "I was asked to watch him and I couldn't get him to stop, no matter how hard I tried. I kept thinking that I did something wrong and he was sick."

"Well, welcome to parenthood, Bones" Booth said with a hidden smile, and pulled her hair tie out so her hair fanned across shoulders. "At times it's the scariest thing ever, but most of the time it's a rewarding experience."

She didn't respond and her breathing evened out to soft hiccups indicating that she had fallen asleep against him. Booth smiled softly as he reached for the throw that rested on the loveseat next to him and placed it over them before allowing himself to fall asleep.

It was the early hours of the morning when the soft cries from the play pen woke the agent. He looked at the woman who was curled into his side and smiled, before he slid out from underneath her careful not to wake her and padded heavily towards the infant.

He picked him up as his cries turned to little attention moans and carried him into the bathroom to switch out his diaper. When he came out of the bathroom with a smiling baby in his arms, the kitchen light was on and Brennan stood in the middle having finished preparing a bottle for him.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you," Booth said quietly. She shrugged as she stood next to him and placed the bottle in Andy's mouth. Booth took the bottle to adjust it and smiled at her. "Want to give it another shot?"

Brennan shifted nervously and with a reassuring smile from her partner, held her arms out and Booth passed her Andy. He stood back to watch the woman with the baby and couldn't help but realize that she did look like a new mother with the baby in her arms as if she was going to drop him. She had the standard terrified look gracing her features mixed with a tentative smile on her lips, with her hair sticking out in all directions and the thick dark circles around her eyes from not removing her makeup, crying and tiredness.

She held the bottle with her freehand awkwardly and watched as he ate it greedily with his eyes struggling to remain open as he was slowly losing the battle with consciousness she stood quietly watching Booth as he took a towel and wiped the mess around his lips.

Taking a clean towel he placed it on her shoulder while brushing her hair out of the way, bringing a shiver through her body and he smiled coyly. "Now bring him up to your shoulder so you can burp him."

She did as she was asked after placing the bottle on the counter she placed the baby to her shoulder and patted his back like Booth had shown her earlier. Booth stood behind her and placed a hand on her back, watching the scene with a smile on his face. The unwanted air came out and Andy fell asleep with his face against her shoulder.

"Great job, Bones." Booth said encouragingly as Brennan placed the sleeping baby back into the playpen. She watched for a moment as his small chest rose and fell under the one piece outfit that he wore as she covered him with the blanket almost amazed by the small being.

She took a deep breath and turned to face him with an accomplished smile on her face. "That was easy." She commented as she turned the kitchen light off, following Booth back to the couch.

"You were amazing Bones and it only took a little practice." Booth said, laying on the couch and stretching the length of it. She sat down in the space that was remaining and Booth pulled her down to lay with him with her head on the crook of his arm and her legs tangled with his, his spare arm holding her protectively around the waist to keep her from falling off.

She flushed and burying her face into the couch. "Thanks Booth."

"Practice makes perfect, Bones." Booth said with a yawn before falling asleep with Brennan awake and listening to his breathing which soon soothed her enough to fall back asleep