First of all, Happy Bones Day for everyone!! I'm so excited I can't barely hide my anxious feelings.
So, I went throught a 1 day writer's block and then the inspiration came good and hard for Greed.
This chapter is dedicated to Unleashed Gummy Sweets for the gambling idea and CSI-4077 for the Parker idea, everything mixed and here's the story.
Enjoy!
Avaritia & Liberalitas
She walked down the street, her heels making soft noises in the pavement as she walked a much known path.
It was a bright Sunday morning, the spring weather came early this season and instead of taking the car, she stepped outside, enjoying the morning rays of light and the fresh breeze of flowers and fruits in the air.
She turned in the corner and stopped in front of a diner she had became used to, a place where she and her partner came after cases, seeking for closure to an eager stomach, preferably pie and coffee to warm their souls.
Behind a wide window, two familiar smiling faces stared at her, one of a man and the other of a child; their smiles so alike that it warmed her heart.
They waved vigorously to her from inside and in the bright morning light she waved back with a smile that now came easily to her lips. Without a second thought she walked to the door and pushed it opened, the bell ringing in the warm air inside.
"Bones!" A young voice erupted from the far corner of the diner, the little boy waved in enthusiasm in his father's lap who was now staring at her with the charm smile that was so characteristic of him.
"Hi Parker. How have you been?" She asked the boy while taking a seat in front of the Booth men. Her eyes dropped to the table and the smell of hot and dark coffee steamed from a cup placed in front of her, her own cup of coffee. – "Thank you, Booth."
And even when he didn't reply to the complement the glint she saw in his eyes spoke volumes of what he felt.
"I'm good Dr. Bones. I had an A+ in science last week!" The boy's eyes widened in pride and a little hint of a superior grin was in the corner of his small lips, immediately matched by the one of his father. Both beamed with pride. – "It was about the skeletal system."
"That's great Parker. You are definitely a very intelligent little boy." She reached up and ruffled his dark brown curls in a pride that didn't belong to her but she felt it nonetheless, receiving an adoring smile from him. – "One day you can become a scientist like me."
"Really?" The boy's eyes were bright with excitement.
"Really. You need to study hard and have good grades, and then you can become an excellent scientist." She smiled back at the boy, picking up her mug and tasting the hot liquid with her lips. The scent and the taste of it always reminded her of the man that was in front of her with a disgusted frown in his face.
"Oh no, Bones. My son will not be a squint!" The man said receiving very astonished looks from his son and partner.
"And why wouldn't you want your son to become a scientist?" She questioned, arching her eyebrows in challenge.
"Yeah daddy, I want to be like Dr. Bones."
For a while they all stood silent, the wheels in his head turning and turning, trying to find a reasonable answer for the expectant crowd in front of him, why wouldn't he like his own son, flesh of his flesh to become a squint like his own partner?
"Well… squints are very elitist; they only bother with their own world, with their own brainy friends, and if you were to become one of them, you would forget about your dumb father." His voice was steady, but there was a hint of fear mixed with sadness behind.
"Booth! Don't say those things. You're an intelligent man, of course not as intelligent as I am." She offered sincerely.
"Thanks a lot, Bones." Now, his ego laid flat on the floor, hurting from the reality that he would never be like them.
"I'm sorry… I just wanted to say that you're very intelligent in areas than I am not and vice versa." She took the cup to her lips once again, letting the dark coffee warm her throat, throwing an apologizing look above the mug.
"Bones is right, you're smart! And I would never forget you, you're my daddy and I love you." The little boy hugged his father tightly, wanting desperately to let his progenitor feel all the pride he had in him.
"All right… you can become a squint, but you better be a good one like Bones." He laughed genuinely and tickled the boy's sides and the giggles filled their private space.
She laughed too, placing the cup in the table once more, enjoying the feelings that came from the interaction between father and son. They looked so at ease with each other, so full of life and contagious happiness that she couldn't repress the thoughts of family and although she remembered her partner's words from long ago, that there was more than one kind of family, a part of her wanted to be part of this one. Where both called her by a nickname and welcomed her in their hearts like she was indeed part of them.
'A part of them.' She thought and it was such a beautiful feeling that the logic in not actually sharing genetic markers with them couldn't compare to what she already gained emotionally with both the little boy, who wanted to pursue a scientific career like her, and his father that had gave her that much heart.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the excited chat of the little boy.
"Dad, you know, Johnny at school has a new toy car. It's so cool and I really, really wanted one like that." His deep brown eyes sparkled in delight as she watched the scene amused.
"But bud, you already have tons of cars, why would you want another one?"
"Because that one is cooler than the ones I have. Then I can have one just like Johnny. Please daddy, buy one of those for me, please?" The boy tried, really hard, to melt his father's heart and to have another toy.
Her partner waited a long time before replying, he looked at the little boy in distress and tried his best not to give in to his little boy's pleas and be an understanding father as well as a good tutor.
"Parker, you have many toys. Mom and Dad are always offering you a lot of them. You have wonderful cars to play with, and you're just being greedy in wanting to have another one just because your friend had a new one." In his soothing tone of voice, the father tried to teach a valuable lesson to his son.
"Booth, you're calling him greedy? He's hardly old enough to understand all the perspectives of what being greedy means." Her brow furrowed in annoyance at her partner's behavior.
"I didn't call him greedy as an offence, I'm just saying that he's having a greedy action and that's wrong, it's a sin." He accentuated the last word in her direction, landing a little bit more across the table, trying to explain his reasoning.
"Greed is not bad at all. As an anthropologist I understand that greed has been a major motive of evolution in the human species. The human race has all the skills to achieve their main goals of survival, and that would be enough if we wanted to be living in the caves, but by being insatiable, by wanting a lot more than we could have, it brought us to what we are now."
"What? Greedy beings that are capable of stepping over their basic beliefs, capable of doing the most insane things just to achieve their goals?" His voice came low and sharp.
They had leaned towards each other in the table. Both in their sides almost in the edge of the seats, faces flushed with anger and the feeling of excitement, frustration and adrenaline mixing in their veins, accelerating their argument.
"No. We're superior to that; we can see greed as a tool to accomplish victory."
"It's wrong, Bones, so wrong. Greed will only lead to great heights and then make you hit the floor with nothing but shame and loath for oneself." And in a flash those were the feelings she saw in his eyes as the anger was replaced with guilt.
"You seem to know a lot about greed, Booth." She said in a harsh whisper.
He closed his eyes, hurt by her words. Deep inside he knew that she couldn't begin to understand how much of greed he really knew. Taking deep breaths and calming his senses he finally felt all the anger leave his body, replacing it with calm and the urge to make her understand his past.
"Parker, why won't you get cleaned so we can go?"
Dark brown and sparkling blue eyes watched the young boy leave his father's lap and head towards the bathroom.
Slowly, he turned towards his partner and she finally saw all the hurt that wrinkled his face, and right then he seemed much older and tired than before.
She bit her lip nervously, realizing that maybe her words had been a little harsh, and once again hurt her partner's feelings. It pained her, to be unable to express her emotions as well as him, and more often than not, hurting the ones she loved by a simple attempt.
"Temperance…" Their eyes met across the table. – "I'm a former gambler. Back in those years I thought greed was the best thing I could feel. I had money, so much of it, but there's no such thing as enough money, I wanted more. To feel the chips and cards underneath my fingers, to smell the scent of cigars, whiskey and victory. I had it all and yet, needed so much more. While I was being greedy I saw everyone around me leaving, my parent's disappointment, and my true friend's unable to help me. And then I fell… from such a great high that the money had taken me, I lost it all. But that didn't matter, because I would go there the next night and try my luck once again. It was an endless wheel, always spinning under the Lady Luck."
She was silent, listening to every word that hurt him so deeply, and felt her heart ache along side with the one of the man that looked at her with a hint of tears in his eyes. She felt her own moisten with unshed sadness.
"When it was all over, I finally saw that I had lost much more than money, I had lost my dignity and respect from others. I'm a horrible man because of it." He shook his head looking down in shame.
She reached her hand and placed it on the side of his face, bringing him up to face her and the beautiful smile she was now wearing, full of pride and resolution.
"You're not a bad person, Booth. What you've gone through in the past made you what you are today. It made you able to teach a valuable lesson to your son." Her thumb absently caressed his cheek in a soothing manner and he leaned his head into the warmth of her truth.
"I've learned a great lesson back in those days. As much as we love something, sometimes we have to let it go."
His eyes were now looking at her deeply, the truth in his words escaping his lips and hitting her senses with such a force that her hand trembled in his face. He felt that and his hand came up to cover hers.
"Is that why you told me to go with Sully?" The question was only a whisper, and in her mind the possible answer he could give made her restless. She wanted to know, more than anything, how much he loved his processions.
"Yes. Yes, Bones. That's why I told you to go. As much as I wanted you to stay with me I knew that going would make you happier, and your happiness is worth much more than my greed."
Only an intake of breath, swallowing all her reason, all her logic and she moved forward, her lips delicately placed upon his. There was a moment where everything stopped around them, and the only sounds were their blended breaths. Closing his eyes he let himself go in the almost imperceptible movement of her rosy lips, kissing away his worries, reassuring his wounded heart that she found him worth of her compassion and so much more.
The running steps of a child caught their attention and with wide smiles both grew apart, each savoring the lingering sensations of the other's lips against their own.
"I'm ready daddy!" The boy exclaimed.
The partners got up from their seats and made their way around tables, chairs and women with fresh baked apple pies in their hands, and it all seemed so common and familiar to them as she inhaled the morning's air outside, taking an exciting boy by the hand and feeling her partner's palm slice down her shoulders and settle in her lower back.
And without a greedy gamble, he was the luckiest man alive.
And I have so many ideas for Lust... 'Moni laughs maliciously'
Feedback my loved reviewers, it will bring lust for everyone.