Disclaimer: I won the lottery the other day and with that money, I bought Bones, so yes I own them. Who am I kidding here?
A/N: Alright Chapter 7. I just wanted to thank all of you who have been with me since the beginning and the ones that just joined the ship. I hope you stay with us till the end This chapter happens about three weeks after chapter 6, so Parker and Brennan are pretty settled in to their new home and life in general. Brennan is back at work and Parker is back at school. All of the squints should generally make an appearance. In a few chapters it'll be Halloween and you'll see all of them there :)
Anyways shall we begin?
Breathlessly, Brennan walked into Parker's room at seven in the morning. In the past three weeks she learned that Parker was not a morning person and he moved quite slowly in the morning. To make sure that she was not late for work and that he was not late school, she woke him early. She wakes up even earlier, to get dressed for work and then together they eat breakfast. For him it was a sausage and pepper omelet and for her it was a vegetable omelet.
"Parker, wake up. It's time for breakfast."
She sits on the edge of his bed and kisses his forehead. She is patient and waits for him to wake himself up. She looks at the outfit they picked out last night for him to wear today. It's picture day and he thought that it was no big deal, since Rebecca never bought the pictures that were taken. She, on the other hand, wanted them. She wanted one for her wallet and one for the wall and one to give to each of her family members at the Jeffersonian. He lets out a groan, telling her that he is finally awake.
"Come along, your omelet is going to get colder the longer you waste your time up here."
She gets up from her spot on the edge of the bed and watches as he slips out from under his covers, his baseball pajamas coming into view. She smiles as he grabs her hand and they travel down the stairs together. She lifts him up so that he can sit at the island in front of him. She, then, slides the plate in front of him along with his orange juice. She goes to the cabinet and gets their vitamins.
Hers aren't actually vitamins, but a fertility drug to help with the artificial insemination she is getting today, it makes her body more ready for the treatment. She removes Parker's vitamins and then smiles as the last pill spills onto her hand. She takes it with her orange juice and then sits down next to her son.
"Mommy, are you getting that thingy done today?"
She turns toward him as he squirts more ketchup on to his plate. She had told him the general information about what was going to happen today. She told him that before his father had passed away he had donated a very important part of making a child to her and she was going to use this to give him a sibling. He seemed to be okay with it and continued to ask questions throughout the past three weeks about it. She was never too descriptive, remembering what Booth said to her about the fact that six year olds never needed a lot of detail to be satisfied.
"Yes, I am. But I will still be there to pick you up at three today and I will still take you to soccer practice afterwards."
His big brown eyes look at her as he shoves the last piece of omelet in his mouth. He seems to doubt her even though the bond they had seemed to grow stronger in the past month or so. She smiles at him, hoping that it would make her words seem more true.
"Promise..?"
"Yes, I promise Parker. Now go get changed, please."
"Do you want me to get the paper for you, mommy?"
She smiles at his want and desire to help her out.
"If you would like to, but please do it in haste."
"No problem mommy!"
He runs out of the room, faster than when he had on the casts. He was so happy to get out of those things last week and she was happy that she didn't have to have a constant reminder that someone hit and abused her little boy. She smiled as she finished her own omelet and collected their plates to put into the sink to be washed later most likely after dinner. She ran upstairs to the bathroom to finish up her makeup, knowing that the newspaper was always thrown inside the fence so Parker was safe.
That didn't mean her heart didn't stop when she heard him screaming her name from outside.
"Mommy!"
He kept repeating her name over and over again. Thankfully, she was fully dressed so she ran down the steps and out the door to see him there holding a brown puppy, but she could see that the mutt was actually a golden color under all of the mud. She wanted to reprimand him for scaring her, but she knew he did not try to cause harm from it.
"Can we keep her, mommy? Please, oh please. She's like me, mommy. She doesn't have any parents anymore and she needs me to be like you. Please can we keep her?"
She massaged her temples slowly, feeling the migraine coming on. She could not deal with this today of all days. She had to still get Parker to school, she had to check in at work, and then she had to go to the fertility doctor to get her procedure done. No where in there can she take care of a puppy and they have not had time to hire help for the house. She looks at her son, though, and listens as he makes the comparison between him and the dog.
"For now? Yes, give her to me. You need to get ready now, Parker. I will bathe her quickly and then will try and convince Dr. Saroyan to watch her while I go about my day. Go on, baby, I've got her."
He runs inside the house after handing the puppy off to his mother. She looks at the dog, with the brown eyes and golden eyelashes. Her mouth is open and her little tongue is long and hanging out of her mouth. She holds the puppy away from herself since she has her work clothes on. She gets inside the house and goes to the largest and deepest sink possible. She grabs an old lab coat and puts it on backwards so that her clothing won't get dirty. As she washes the puppy, her suspicions are confirmed that the dog is in reality a golden color with brown paws.
Parker's feet pound down the stairs with his book bag following closely behind him. He leaves the bag at the door and runs into the mud room which connects to the garage which is where his mom is at the current time with their new dog. She looks at her son and notices he's brought towels along with him. She smiles at him, realizing she hadn't even thought about drying the puppy afterwards.
"Thank you, Parker! I had not even thought about towels. Please go check what time it is."
"Okay mommy."
He runs out of the room. She wraps the towel around the small dog, she imagines the dog can only be around nine weeks old and it was not fed well in its time with the previous owner. Slowly, she rubs the towel all around the dog, making sure to get every wet spot on the dog. She grabs a bag with a hard bottom and more towels. First she stuffs the towels into the bag and then she puts the puppy in it. The dog seems content to just lay there so she grabs the bag and walks into the kitchen.
"Mommy, it's seven fifty."
"Okay, we need to go. Here take the keys to unlock the car while I grab the remainder of my bags."
He nods, grabs his backpack, and then runs to the garage. She grabs her purse and briefcase before walking quickly to the car. He is already belted in and waiting for he. She puts the now sleeping dog on the passenger side seat. They make it to Parker's school in plenty of time and she even walks him to the door.
"I will see you at regular time, then we will take you to soccer practice and I will take the dog to the vet, sound good?"
"Yes, it does, mommy. I love you."
"I love you too. Be a good boy today."
"I will be, mommy."
She kisses the top of his head before watching him as he walks into the school building. She lingers a second, before realizing she needs to get to work quickly. Angela is coming with her to the appointment, for 'moral support' so maybe Hodgins can watch the dog. She pulls into her parking spot and grabs all of her bags. The Jeffersonian is silent as she walks in, but she sees Mr. Nigel-Murray on the platform identifying a post-World War 1 body. All of them know what today is, so maybe that is why they have yet to approach her. She makes her way into Angela's office and finds her and Hodgins kissing. She clears her throat and they break apart.
"Sorry, Dr. B. I'll let you two do whatever you're going to do."
"Wait, Hodgins, I have a favor to ask of you."
He spots and turns around, waiting for an explanation. She puts the bag that contains the puppy on Angela's desk and shows the two what is in the bag. Angela lets out a squeal in pure delight which causes the puppy to jump in fear. She gently picks up the dog and cuddles it close to her body.
"What's his-her name?"
"I don't know, I presume Parker will pick it when he comes home today."
"So Dr. B, did you just decide to go out and buy a dog?"
"Certainly not, Dr. Hodgins. Parker found her today outside of our gate, obviously she is small enough to fit through the gate and once he got a hold of her he begged to keep her. What was I supposed to say? 'No, now go throw her back out on the street'. I couldn't do that to him. I find it increasingly hard to say no to my son."
"It's okay, Sweetie, but you realize this is going to be a lot. A six year old, a baby on the way, and a puppy. Can you handle this?"
"Well I will be getting a cook that will prepare meals and maybe a housekeeper, so once they are hired it should be fairly easy. Now, Dr. Hodgins, I was wondering if maybe you could watch her until we return from my appointment. The appointment should only last around two hours, including traffic and the time it takes to actually wait."
"Yeah, I'll do it. Give her here, Angie. Do you have food? She looks like she's starving, don't worry I'll have my people bring over some puppy food for her. She's in good hands Dr. B. I'll take excellent care of her."
"Thank you, Dr. Hodgins."
Hodgins nods and walks out of the room. Cam enters the room moments later and smiles at her friends and employees.
"Mr. Nigel-Murray told me you were here, but I didn't see you. Pretty much you don't have any work today, unless you haven't finished some paper work. So why don't you just go home after the procedure."
"Dr. Saroyan, this procedure is not intensive, it's not like I am experiencing major surgery. Besides I need to store up vacation time for when the baby is born. So if it's okay with you I would rather just come back here and work in Limbo until it's time to pick up Parker from school."
"That is fine, Dr. Brennan. Good luck and we'll see you later."
"Thank you, Dr. Saroyan."
When she looks back at Angela, she is already up and ready to go with her purse in her hand and everything. Brennan is surprised at how happy she is when all she is doing is taking her there and sitting in the waiting room. They interlock arms as they walk out of the Jeffersonian and to Angela's car.
"I find that a thirty percent chance of something seems a lot less when I am presented with it and it will openly affect me. I'm getting nervous, Angela, what if it doesn't work this first time? Parker already knows what is going on, if it doesn't work I'll just have to re-explain it."
"Sweetie, calm down, thirty percent is pretty good. Plus you're healthy and Booth was healthy, it'll all be okay. Parker barely grasps what's going on right now and that's okay he's only six. He will be happy that he's going to get a sibling and have you explained that the baby will share his DNA? That could be a teaching and bonding moment for you two. Tell him that if he brings it up again."
They pull into the parking lot and they walk into the sterile office. Angela hates doctor's offices, she always has so when Brennan signs in she awkwardly stands at the door waiting at any point to run away. But Brennan comes back, they take a seat. For a moment or two they sit in silence, the place is not crowded, in fact there is a couple in there sitting about ten feet from them and that is it. Angela can tell Brennan is still nervous by the way her leg is rocking back and forth.
"It's going to be okay, Bren."
Before Brennan can respond, her name is called by the doctor. Brennan looks at Angela with confusion and anxiety. So Angela gives her hand a reassuring squeeze before watching her disappear behind the cream colored, threatening door.
Behind the door, Brennan is still anxious. The doctor gives her a robe to change into, which she does in haste because she's already ready to be done with this. The doctor comes back in when she alerts him that she is changed. He shows her the catheter and two nurses come in with an ultrasound machine. She knows that this is used to release the sperm right where it will meet the egg. She feels like a robot as she places her feet in the stirrups and relaxes against the cold bed. The stirrups spread and the doctor inserts the catheter. She watches on screen as the sperm is deposited and as quickly as the procedure started it was over.
"Alright Dr. Brennan, we're going to lower the top half of your body so that your feet are above your heart. I'll ask you to stay like this for about thirty minutes. Would you like us to send someone in here with you?"
"No, I'm fine. Thank you, Dr. Abbott."
She felt the chair lower and soon she was in the room all by herself. Left with her thoughts on this child, a child that would have Booth's DNA. She would have Booth's only children, but he would never know this one and he would never get to see what Parker would become. Why hadn't she admitted how she felt about him? Why had she been selfish and afraid. "I'm the gambler, I know the odds. The odds are that I will never, ever hurt you. I believe in giving this a chance, giving us a chance. Please." In the lone, cold room the tears ran down her cheek.
"I want you to come in with me."
"Booth, no, no. I would be no help. I would only get in the surgeon's way. Neither of us want that, I just want you to come out of the surgery okay. That's all I want right now."
"Then come in there with me. You're smart, Bones, so smart. Smarter than I could ever hope to be, smarter than the doctor that's going to be cutting my head open and I would feel better if you were in there with me to tell the doctor off if he does something wrong."
"Booth, my judgment falters when it comes to you, I am not rational like I am with the bodies that end up on our autopsy tables.-"
"Well if you come with I won't end up on an autopsy table, come on Bones, pretty please."
"Fine, Booth, I will come with you."
The wheels creak as they go down the hallway. It's a bleach white, intimidating him. It smells like a hospital and he hates it. He continues to hold tight onto Bones' hand, praying that everything will be okay. They say it'll be easy to remove, but for whatever reason he doesn't believe them. They make it to the doors when he tells them to stop and give them a minute. She looks at him with curiosity playing on her beautiful eyes.
"Bones, if anything happens to me, I want you to use my stuff and have a kid. And if the day comes where I'm not around, look after Parker for me, Bones. He loves you."
"Booth, you're going to be fine. This surgeon is great and you know I don't say that about people unless they really are. You are going to be okay, Booth. Me and Parker and your squints, we all need you to be okay, we need you to come back to us, healthy and safe."
"Bones, I..I know that. Just know I love you."
"I love you too, Booth, in a atta-boy sort of way."
She watches as his head drops, she doesn't recognize it's disappointment playing on his facial structures, but anyone else could. But when he looks up at her, he gives a comforting smile in her direction and they give each other a squeeze of the hand. Tears glimmer in her eyes in fear.
"Just remember everything I ever taught you and you'll be okay even with out me."
In that moment, she knows that she can't live without him.
She rests her hand on her abdomen, most likely her child-their child- does not even exist yet and even if it did by some chance it could not hear her. The ears of the fetus do not develop for a while anyways. But that does not make her any less inclined to talk to it.
"Your daddy loved you so much."
Minutes pass and she finds the silence comforting. She likes being alone with all of her thoughts.
"Dr. Brennan, your thirty minutes are up, you can go home now. We'll call you in about three weeks to do a blood test."
"Thank you."
She slowly gets off the bed and dresses. She looks in the mirror by the door to see herself in shambles, pieces. She breaths in and out, hoping to calm herself. She grabs a paper towel and wipes away the mascara that has run and finally all her tears are gone. The redness and puffiness in her eyes is gone. She's pulled herself together again, just like she has to go almost every morning and every night.
She walks out and Angela is waiting for her with a comforting smile. She walks confidently, trying to not show the mess she was in just moments ago. They get into the car before speaking. Angela, as normal, is the first one of the two to speak.
"Are you okay, sweetie?"
"I am, Angela. I have to wait around three weeks to find out and I find that my patience is already growing thin."
Angela lets out a laugh as she keeps her concentration on the road.
"You will never change, Bren. When you want something you are so impatient and I love it. You sure you can handle all of this? It seems like a lot all at once."
"I have no doubt, besides it helps me to stay busy, it makes it feel like a major piece of my life is not missing. How are you and Hodgins?"
"We're great, awesome, fantastic. It's like we were never apart. I love him so much, Bren, and I think he loves me too."
"Well he would be very stupid to let you go, Ange, you are wonderful."
At three o'clock Parker and all of his classmates stand outside of the elementary school waiting for their parents to pick them up. His friends Zach and Carson stand with him along with Mary, supposedly the girl he will one day marry. Mary is just like his best friend, though, and she's not like everybody else. When he came back to school, she was the only one who didn't ask why he had healing bruises and about three or four casts. She made him feel slightly normal. When Tyler walks up to them, Parker prepares for a fight but it doesn't happen.
"Dude, Parker, your mom is standing over there."
Parker can not exactly see where he is pointing but it's away from all the parents and that does not surprise him. His mommy always says that if people had to take a test before becoming parents the population wouldn't be in the billions. He says bye to all of his friends and run off. In running he does not look up, instead he just runs to where Tyler pointed.
"Mommy!"
It's then he chooses to look up and terror fills his eyes, but all of his momentum is going forward and he can't stop until he's a foot away from her and she's grabbing him. He's pulling from her, but he's only six and not strong enough to fight much longer. Just as he's about to scream, her hand closes around his mouth. He's biting and clawing and trying to get out of her grasp, to run away anywhere. She brings his body to hers.
"Not who you were expecting, huh Parks? I'm the only parent you have left, though, bub."
His eyes grow wide, no one called him that except for his daddy, and the tears start. Her hand comes in contact with his cheek and it silences him as she shoves him into the back seat. Just as Rebecca begins to close the door, he hears her voice.
"Parker! Parker!"
She running as the door slams, but his mommy makes it to the car and he hears a defining bang as someone falls. He's too scared to move, so he doesn't. His mommy can take care of herself and she promised to always protect him. She doesn't lie, she's never lied to him before. The door opens and it's her. He scrambles out of the seat and into her awaiting arms.
"Mama! I thought she was going to take me away. Don't let her take me away."
"Shh, no one is going to take you away from me. I've got you. Now I have to get Mrs. Jones down here okay, I'm going to call her."
Somehow while holding the six year old and making sure Rebecca didn't wake up, she managed to get her phone from her pocket and dial the number she needed. She kept a firm grip on Parker as he silently cried into her shoulder. The woman greets her cheerfully from the other end of the phone.
"Hello Mrs. Jones. Look I came to pick Parker up from school today and he was no where to be found. His friends told me that a boy told him that his mom was here to pick him up, it happened to be Rebecca. She tried to take him, she was shoving him into the backseat of her car when I found him.-Well right now? She's unconscious, she tried to fight with me and I fought back.-You'll be here soon?-Alright thank you."
"Mrs. Jones will be here shortly and she's going to require a restraining order on Rebecca so that she can't come anywhere near you. I promised I'd protect you, baby, I don't lie."
"I know, mommy, it was just so scary. I love you."
"I love you too, Parker."
Finally after what seemed like forever, Mrs. Jones appeared with police officers just as Rebecca woke up. Parker was still in Brennan's arms with no thought of letting go anytime soon. He was still frightened and when Rebecca woke up, Brennan moved further away from her so that Parker did not have to see his biological mother. Attempted kidnapping would be added to her list of crimes that a judge would see. Mrs. Jones finally approached her and Parker after Rebecca was taken away.
"I've filed for a restraining order that a judge will sign, I suggest you meet with Parker's teach so that she can keep a better eye on him when they are laving to go home."
"I scheduled a parent-teacher conference for tomorrow so I will alert her of the current situation. Do you still want to go to soccer practice, baby or do you just want to go home?"
"Soccer, mommy, we have a game this Friday and I'm the best player!"
Brennan smiled at the child in her arms and how his thoughts could quickly shift to something much better than what had gone on just mere minutes ago.
"I'm sure you are, baby. We need to get going. Can you say thank you to Mrs. Jones?"
"Thank you, Mrs. Jones."
"You're very welcome Parker. I'll let you two go, but Dr. Brennan I will be calling to schedule a home visit in a week or two."
"Okay, I'll check our schedule and make sure we're free. Thank you again."
Brennan puts Parker down and he grabs her hand as they walk away from the social worker. Mrs. Jones can only see what good Dr. Brennan has done to Parker. How he seems happier and more content than that scared little boy she met in the hospital bed. She lingers in her spot and watches as Brennan helps Parker into the back seat of the car. She couldn't help but notice how Brennan did not treat Parker as a foster son but instead as just a regular child who was hers.
Brennan did not feel comfortable leaving Parker at a thirty minute practice by himself, even though he would be surrounded by the coaching staff who knew his current situation. So instead, Brennan and the puppy sat and watched Parker. They had finished his homework when they got home for the Rebecca incident, so all they had to do was take the puppy(who still did not have a name) to the vet. In the practice they scrimmaged and Brennan had to look away every time one of the boys went toward him. However, even though he was smaller than the other boys, he was much faster and stronger. His father would've been proud. Finally thirty minutes are up and he comes running to his mom, he sits next to her on the bleachers and starts petting the dog.
"Did I do good, mommy?"
"You did fantastic, you are easily the best one on the team. You're going to do great of Friday. Thanks mommy! We need to take Molly to the vet right?"
"Is that what you have decided to name her? And yes we do need to get going."
They start walking to the car as Parker chats excitedly.
"Yeah, I was thinking about it in class today and well I just really, really liked it and she looks like a Molly."
They start to drive as her son holds Molly in the back seat.
"Are you being careful with her Parker? She's still a baby, so you have to be careful. She will probably get shots today and then she'll be very tired and want to sleep."
"I'm being careful. Are we almost at the vet's place?"
"We're here."
She pulls into a parking spot. She made an appointment when she got to work after the procedure so she knows a doctor is waiting on them to get there. She gets out of the car and opens the door for Parker. She takes the dog from her son, since they don't have a leash yet, and with the other hand she takes his hand.
Once inside they get in the office, Molly gets weighed and has a needle put in her leg more than once or twice. They buy food and toys at the vet's office. The bill is expensive, but Brennan thinks to herself that it is worth it for Parker to be happy. They also find out that Molly is a full Golden Retriever, which comes as a surprise to Brennan. They go home and eat before both of them sit on the floor of the living room with Molly. Parker grabs the remote and puts on a TV show he won't even watch because he's putting too much attention into Molly.
"Mommy, she's so clumsy."
"That's because she's just a puppy, Parker, and puppies are like small children when you first learned to walk you weren't good at it. But you got better and so will Molly. Come here, Molly!"
The dog comes running to her, stumbling momentarily, making both of her owners laugh.
"Do you think she knows her name mommy?"
"I don't know, why don't you try it? She came for me."
"Come here Molly!"
The dog runs from Brennan to Parker and he lays on his back. The dog attacks his face with kisses, making him squeal in delight. Watching and hearing him makes everything okay. She's glad that this house has become a home and it's thanks to Parker. There's a person that should be thanked as well and he can't be here.
Thank you Booth.
A/N: Finished! Please review guys! Seriously those things are like a writer's drug and without them we are nothing so please review or even favorite the story so that when it is updated you'll be notified! Thank you!