Less than an hour to go!!
Here's the next chapter, and it's nice and long, too :) Hope you enjoy!
"Okay, so it took a little longer than I thought," she conceded irritably, scowling at him. "But you were the one who said first that we'd be all wrapped up and home well before the weekend."
He shrugged, "But you're the one who continued to back up that statement saying over and over how they should have been able to handle it easily on their own... how they should never have wasted our time with how easy it was to get the information..."
"Well they should have been able to do far more than they did," she argued defensively.
"Keep telling yourself that, Bones."
She glared icily. "You started it," she muttered as she turned her head to look out at the gloomy sky. It looked very much like it might start raining again. They were lucky it wasn't doing so right at that moment, in fact, given how consistent the miserable weather had been for the entire duration of their case.
He chuckled, clearly trying to lighten the mood, but she didn't reciprocate, instead continuing to stare at the passing scenery, sighing softly. Usually their banter was enjoyable, was something she looked forward to, even, but today... she just didn't feel in the mood. Mostly because she felt incompetent from how she'd missed the most important detail for days and that had been the reason it had been so held up, but partly because of the weather and because they were going home and she knew that her two friends were not going to be there, waiting for them.
"You okay?" Booth asked, the humor in his tone fading to slightly curious concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She didn't elaborate, and she knew he didn't believe her.
"You aren't regretting our plans for the weekend, are you?"
"No, of course not," she quickly reassured him. "I've been looking forward to that. I just... you're right, it was my fault we spent all week working on something that should have been much faster."
"Hey, whoa! I never said it was your fault, Bones. I was just teasing that you contradicted yourself with saying it would be quick and then we spend much longer than we'd thought. It wasn't your fault the case took a while."
"Booth," she said firmly, "Both victims had injuries separate from the ones which were the causes of death. I should have been able to match the damage between them to see that the first had actually been the one who inflicted the injuries upon the second, rather than it all being the work of a third person. I should have seen that the stabbing entries were different on the pitchfork not because they were facing different directions or because the force was different, or because of any other theories I might have employed... but because they were different people altogether. I should have seen it..."
"Everyone makes mistakes, Bones. No one's perfect, no matter how much we might try. Although... you're pretty perfect in my eyes."
His attempt at flattery didn't go unnoticed; she gave him a weak smile to show she appreciated it, but didn't feel reassured much by his other words.
"That's not all, is it?" Booth probed, seeing through her so easily that she felt like she'd need a brick wall of separation just to keep her thoughts safe. And even that might not help.
"No," she admitted, sighing in defeat. "I wish... I wish Ange and Hodgins were back. And at the same time I feel horrible for wanting them back among all our death and skeletons instead of enjoying themselves together somewhere that's relaxing and happy."
"There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, with wanting your friends back. Heck, I want them back, too. And you can bet that they'd actually be rather flattered if we told them we sat around thinking about them constantly while they were gone. I'd never be able to claim I dislike squints again."
"You already stopped claiming that quite a while ago, Booth."
He laughed, "Yeah, I know. But still, we can remember way back when, now can't we?"
"I remember you convincing Zach that you completely ignoring his existence was some form of male-bonding exercise."
"That worked for quite some time, as I recall."
She laughed, and then sighed again and stared back out the window. "I miss Zach, too."
"I'll admit I do miss the guy a lot," Booth said, and she could see from the corner of her eye that he was attempting to watch her subtly while also paying attention to the road. "Do you want to go visit him?" he asked suddenly, and her head snapped around to look at him, her eyebrows shooting up to her hairline. "We could... you know, just stop by there on the way back. If... you know, if you wanted to..." he trailed off uncertainly, but she quickly nodded.
"Yes," she said, and then with more conviction, "Yes, I'd like that." A slight smile tilted up the corner of her mouth, and she turned to stare out the window again, feeling slightly better than she had a moment ago.
The silence was not tense for the rest of the ride... just companionable and calm. Neither of them had anything to say, but it didn't concern her. They'd probably have plenty to talk about later, anyways.
As they neared DC he took a road they didn't usually travel on, and she recognized the route after a few minutes when they connected to another road and headed in the direction of the facility where Zach was now living.
It was only after they'd stepped out of the vehicle and made their way towards the door that she realized that Zach might well be the only person in her life who had no idea what had happened to her, past or present. She wondered for a moment whether or not to tell him about what he'd missed, what had transpired over the past few months, but she decided not to as the cold air conditioning engulfed them.
"I'd rather we not bring up... you know," she muttered to Booth as they headed for the main desk. He nodded quickly, as though this had been his plan from the start, and then he offered her a reassuring smile.
"We were wondering if we could arrange a meeting with a Zachary Addy?" Booth asked, flashing a smile at the woman on the other side of the glass that shielded her from the small lobby room.
She simply nodded, apparently unaffected by his charm. He looked slightly put-out by this, and she found herself smirking in amusement.
"You don't have an appointment," the woman stated, scowling in annoyance.
"I'm aware of that," Booth said tersely. "But we'd like to see Mr. Addy."
"I'm sorry, sir, but unless you have prearranged a meeting time and gotten it approved with..." she trailed off as he flipped open his badge and showed it to her. "Oh. Um..." she shuffled through some papers. "Here," she said, grabbing two visitor passes from an untidy drawer and shoving them through the opening at the base of the glass. "I'll just... get it arranged."
He nodded, and then turned to direct his smile at her instead. She shook her head at him, unable to keep her amusement from shining in her eyes. He was so sure he could get away with anything, convince people to do what he wanted, and when they actually did... well it only inflated his ego more and more. If she wasn't around to deflate him regularly, she was pretty sure he'd float away. Metaphorically, of course.
The receptionist lady was now on the phone, snapping her gum as she stared at the ceiling and waited for someone to pick up.
"Yeah, Gary, listen, we've got some visitors here for a mister... Addy. Yeah, just any visiting room will do... uh huh. I'll send them in to wait for him. Right." She hung up and smiled at them almost falsely. "Right down that hall, first door on the right," she informed them with an air of over-friendliness.
Booth nodded his thanks, but she made no move to do the same as she followed him. She found that she disliked the woman, and for really no reason in particular. Normally that would concern her, but she decided to just let it go as a normal human response to some sort of tone in the woman's voice, and then stepped into the room to which Booth was holding the door open to.
He followed her in, and they took seats in the uncomfortable seats, which, although cushioned, were still stiff. It was similar to the room she'd been in when visiting him before, and she suddenly felt guilty for having not come nearly as much as she should have. Had Zach had any visitors at all for the past months? Or was he constantly alone here with nothing to keep his genius mind occupied?
The sound of a door opening distracted her, and she lifted her head up and locked eyes with a floppy haired Zach, who's expression was conveying great surprise.
"Dr. Brennan," he said as a way of greeting, eyes wide, and she almost winced at the sound of his voice, the guilt cutting deeper as she realized she'd very nearly forgotten what it sounded like due to how she never even spared a thought for him, and always avoided memories that specifically contained him because they only reminded her of what he'd done and how he was no longer with them.
"Zach," she said simply, but her voice echoed with the emotion that his had lacked almost entirely. She stood up quickly and went towards him, her arms wrapping around his skinny frame in an embrace.
"What brings you here?" the young man asked, confused and apparently slightly dazed by her emotional greeting. They sat down, and she struggled with how to explain why she'd made no contact with him for such a long time.
"Bones wanted to see you, and I have to admit I sorta did too," Booth said from next to her, smiling. "So how you been doing?"
Zach was quite obviously taken aback by this question, aimed at him by Booth, and he looked to her the way he'd done so many times for approval, for clarification, for answers... she missed that more than she'd realized.
She nodded slightly, resting a hand on the table a short distance from his, attempting to show him she cared without overwhelming him socially.
"Most of the other patients are far below my intellectual levels," Zach said, phrasing it almost like a question, as though he wasn't sure if this was what they were looking for as an answer.
"That's not a shock," his former mentor said, smiling gently as she recalled all the times that he'd surpassed even her in the speed of his understanding and ability to calculate immense problems before most had even figured out the question itself. "No one's more brilliant than you are, after all."
A rare smile was her reward for the compliment, and she was sure that this expression from him was even more of a nonexistence in this location than it had been among the team back at the lab. But it still pleased her, to have the ability to instill pleasure in the younger anthropologist, and make him just as proud of his work as she was of it...
As she had been of it, she reminded herself sadly.
"I'm sorry I haven't been to see you," she said, hoping he would be able to pick up on the sincerity in her tone.
"You have cases to work, Dr. Brennan. It's perfectly understandable that the priority would remain to stay objective about the tasks that needed completion rather than focusing on a divergent path that is no longer within the relevancy range."
"I still should have come more," she said, staring levelly at him, trying to convey understanding to her mathematically and rationally minded friend and former student. He didn't respond this time with any defense of her, but rather took up a similar line of conversing that was probably meant to console her in only a way which Zach would see it.
"Hodgins has been by a few times, but not much more than you. He and Angela have gotten back together... I'm glad of that."
"They just got married," she asserted with a nod, and Zach's eyes widened in surprise. Apparently his friends hadn't visited often enough for him to have known about those more recent events.
"Angela also mentioned about..." he trailed off, eyes flicking from Booth to her, and she smiled softly, amused. She felt the familiar way she always had around Zach... as the teacher seeing their student grow older, surpassing them in some areas but yet remaining behind in others and always staying there. Zach might be as intelligent as her, and more so in some aspects, but he would forever be behind in comprehending conversation and proper ways to ask questions. He didn't have someone like Booth following him around and educating him the way she'd had for all these years.
"Yes, Booth and I are dating," she answered the unspoken question. The words still sounded weird, no matter how she said them or how often. She wondered briefly if they always would.
Zach seemed uncomfortable with this line of conversation, clearly not knowing how to address this development, so she changed the subject to save him from having to say some sort of awkward congratulations.
"Has Sweets been by at all?"
"I have a different psychologist, one who works here," he explained, "Dr. Sweets stopped coming by not long after I used his access card to escape."
So that had been the last bit of interesting involvement with the outside world he'd had... she winced internally, feeling more and more upset with herself for having avoided coming here for so long. Zach wasn't meant to be in a place like this... he wasn't crazy, and this was more likely to make him crazy than anything else.
"I'll see if I can arrange with Caroline for some help from you from time to time," she offered, knowing that it must be the one thing he wanted. "I'm sure either she or Booth will be able to pull some strings and let you provide insight for us." Her eyes flicked to Booth for a second, and she saw him nod in agreement with what she'd said.
The door behind them opened, and a guard was revealed standing there. "Visiting time has ended," he said stiffly, and she turned back to Zach apologetically as they stood up. He stood as well, but remained in the same location right in front of his chair. She hesitated for a second as Booth placed his hand on her back to guide her towards the door, and then she pulled away and warmly wrapped her arms around the lost member of their team.
"We all miss you, Zach," she whispered. She blinked her eyes as she stepped away again, determined not to get emotional in here. It was a bit of a challenge with all the memories and the sorrow of loss that this had all brought back up, but the way Booth was carefully looking away from her let her know that he'd already either suspected or was aware of her reactions to this. He stepped around her and stuck his hand out and shook Zach's firmly before clapping an open hand on his shoulder. Then he turned to her, taking her hand in his and squeezing it reassuringly as they made their way out past the guard.
"Thanks, Booth," she said softly as he turned off the engine.
"For what?" he asked as he gathered her stuff, leaning over the backseat to get it all for her. She opened her mouth to protest, but then thought better of it and just let him continue. She instead answered his question.
"For offering to come visit Zach with me."
"Hey, no problem, Bones," he responded lightly, smiling so that his brown eyes sparkled just enough to get her off track staring at him. Self-consciously she looked away as he turned to climb out, and she hurriedly did so on her side as well, heading around the front of the SUV and insisting on taking her bag away from him to carry by herself. He had enough with his own bag, anyways.
"What time is Parker arriving at?" she asked as they headed into the building and started the walk up the stairs.
Booth glanced at his watch. "Around five... we've still got a few hours."
She nodded and then stood aside as he fumbled with his keys. She rolled her eyes and snatched them from him, nearly making him drop his bag in the process as she turned and easily found the right one. A moment later she had the door standing open and they both dumped their loads on the floor and looked around the apartment.
"Ugh, I need to clean," she said, wrinkling her nose.
He laughed, "Looks fine to me."
"Yes, well you're a man. I see dust everywhere in here, and the carpet could probably use a good vacuum..."
"That's nice, Bones; what exactly would you have said if I told you were being a typical woman by finding the need to clean?"
"I would have found that offensive," she said with a shrug as she walked to the closet and rummaged through it for the duster.
She was pretty sure he rolled his eyes, but she didn't comment, just smirked to herself over how easy it was to get a reaction out of him. Then she proceeded to attack every exposed surface in the room. A coughing fit from Booth ensued, and he very quickly vanished into the kitchen. She could hear him going through the cabinets, and assumed he was looking for good ideas for what to have for supper with Parker.
"Any luck?" she called around the corner as she plugged in the vacuum.
"We have like... nothing," he responded. With a sigh she leaned the heavy machine against the wall and went to go see exactly what 'nothing' meant. It could be a variety of things, since Booth wasn't one to count her 'overly healthy' products as actual food.
A moment later she was frowning, though, as she was forced to agree almost entirely with Booth's assessment. The kitchen did appear to be pretty lacking in most of their usual supplies. They'd have to head out for a grocery run sometime this weekend, most likely.
"Pizza?" Booth asked, a hopeful edge to his tone.
She shook her head in amusement, but ended up agreeing to that plan. At least they wouldn't be required to do any cooking tonight.
With nothing to do, he settled for digging through her apartment in search of things that might interest an eight year old, while the roaring of the vacuum filled the silence and made communication challenging, to say the least.
"Why on earth do you have one of those?" Booth half-shouted. She just barely managed to make out the question over the noise.
"So I can clean, maybe?" she shouted back.
"What?"
"So I can clean my apartment!"
"I can't hear you!"
With a whirring sound the vacuum shut off and the fan noise slowed to a stop.
"I have a vacuum for the obvious reason of the necessity to vacuum the carpeting that I have."
"Why don't you just have one of those, you know, Swiffer things?"
"I don't know what that means."
He chuckled. "They sell them like... everywhere. It's like a mini vacuum, Bones, that doesn't have a cord. Most of all, it's quiet."
"And what if I like this one?"
He rolled his eyes, "Only you," he said, throwing his hands up in the air. "Only you, Bones."
"Only me what?" she asked, now feeling that old sense that the rest of the world understood what was happening and she was left behind, isolated by her cluelessness and her inability to change it.
"You know, it's just that it's a response that I could only ever expect from you," he said, grinning. He pulled her down on the couch next to him, stretching his legs onto the coffee table and throwing an arm around her shoulders as he pulled her closer up against him. "I don't know what I'd do without you, you know," he added, his eyes sparkling as he kissed her gently. She pulled away slightly, and he tilted his head to one side, reading her face in a matter of seconds. "Hey, I wasn't trying to be mean, Bones. You're unique; I love that. And you know I'd never have it any other way."
She nodded, still not really sure how they'd gone from vacuums to this. She'd lost him at 'Swiffer.'
"You're still confused," he stated. She sighed and nodded.
"Okay," he thought for a second, "Right, listen, you said, in this whole 'I like it may way' attitude sorta way, that you would rather have that large noisy vacuum that you have to lug around on a cord instead of a simple and quiet one. And you said it just because I suggested the other one was better than the one you have. Am I right?" She nodded, scowling her admittance to this fact. "So I said that only you would say that, and I think I'm right on that point too. See? Now, can I kiss you?"
She answered by pressing her lips to his first. Sometimes conversations with Booth ended in the strangest places or on the most different topics... but somehow he always managed to twist them around to an explanation of how much he loved her. She had to admit, only to herself, that she did rather enjoy that.
They separated for air, his forehead rested against hers and a satisfied smile on his lips and on hers as well.
"Well, come on," he said, standing abruptly and pulling her to her feet as well. "You finish up with your... vacuuming, and I'll go organize the guest bedroom. Then I'll run over to my old apartment, or should I say, my storage unit, and get some of Parker's stuff that's over there. That'll leave us plenty of time to order the pizza and relax with some tv for a while before Parker gets here."
"Pepperoni!" the energetic voice shouted loudly. Small brown eyes, exact duplicates of his father's, shone eagerly as the pizza slice was placed in front of him.
She laughed softly at his excitement as she got herself a slice from the opposite half of the pizza and sat down in between the two Booths.
"How come you have veggies on yours?" Parker asked, wrinkling his nose up as he peered over at her dish.
"Bones is a vegetarian, Park," Booth explained for her. "You know what that means, don't you?"
"We learned about that at school!" Parker exclaimed. "My teacher, she, she's a, a... vege-tabla-rian, too."
"Vegetarian," she pronounced slowly for him.
"Vege-tarian," he repeated at an exaggerated pace. Then he grinned and shoved the pizza into his mouth, digging into the greasy pepperoni.
"He just started school last week," Booth told her. "They've already started in with new vocab words like you wouldn't... okay, well, maybe you would believe... but I'm pretty sure we never had anything at that level when I was in second grade."
"I had early higher-level reading experience when I was in grade school," she remembered thoughtfully. "Is there a higher education level system set up at his school."
Booth frowned, "I'd have to ask Rebecca," he admitted, and he didn't look very happy about not knowing the detail on his own. She changed the subject to pull it away from how he was frustrated about not being involved as much as he'd like in his son's life.
"So, Parker, are you doing any sports?"
"Oh, yeah! Dad's teaching me some football moves he used to do! Aren't you, dad?"
"You bet, bud. You're gunna show Bones later this weekend, aren't you?"
"Can I?" his eyes lit up.
"Of course. Bones said earlier she'd love to see you play."
They ate for a while in silence, Parker devouring the pizza slice faster than even Booth did his. When it had been eaten down until only the crust remained, the boy grabbed a napkin and messily wiped at the sauce around his mouth before he spoke again.
"Mom said you were living here now," he said rather bluntly to his father, who almost choked on his latest bite of pizza. "Are you?"
"Yes, he is," she saved him from having to answer by speaking up while he took a hasty drink of water.
"Right... I was going to talk to you about this later." He glanced at her, and she realized that he'd intended to tell Parker without her there. Probably in case Parker disliked the idea of his father dating, even though Booth had seemed pretty confident before about his son probably thinking it would be awesome. "Parker, Bones is my... girlfriend. So I live here... sort of like how Mark lives at home with you and mom."
Parker scrunched his face up and looked back and forth between them. For a moment she was concerned that he was going to complain or say something that Booth might not like... but instead he asked, "You aren't gunna like... kiss, are you?"
Booth laughed, "No, Parker, no cooties around you, don't worry."
Instantly the boy's face smoothed out, and he smiled contently. "Can I have more pizza, please?"
She laughed, and took his plate to go get him another slice. As she cut it, she heard Booth ask. "You're okay with that, right, bud?"
Parker leaned exaggeratedly forward, and she paused where she was, watching out of the corner of her eye. "Dad, you lied," he said in an attempted whisper that was still rather loud. "You said you didn't like like her."
"Sometimes people don't like to admit things like that," he replied in an equally not quiet whisper. "Like Bones... she wouldn't admit she like liked me either."
He giggled and sat back in his seat, thanking her as she handed him the plate with the new slice of pepperoni pizza on it. As she sat back down in her own chair, Booth reached over and slid his hand on top of hers, smiling warmly at her. She laughed slightly and smiled back.
Across the table, Parker's eyes flicked back and forth between them, and he promptly covered his eyes. They both laughed.
"What would you like to do tonight, kiddo?" Booth asked, and Parker immediately removed his hands from over his eyes, his face lighting up.
"Can we play Monopoly?" he asked eagerly. "And watch movies?"
"I suppose you'd like popcorn and ice cream, too, wouldn't you?" Booth teased. Parker's head bobbed up and down rapidly, his curls bouncing.
"I think that can be arranged," she said, addressing the boy. "Your father always seems to make sure we have ice cream in the house, even when there is nothing else in the cupboards. Although you'll have to teach me how to play Monopoly."
"You've never played before?" Parker asked in a horrified voice, like it was the most shocking thing he'd ever heard.
She laughed slightly. "No, never."
Parker's eyes went to his father, as though expecting to see him equally horrified by this bit of info. She turned her gaze to him as well, and saw that he was more amused than surprised.
"That's not shocking, Bones, compared to some things that you don't know that the rest of us do. Park, you just finish up that slice and we'll explain to her." He turned to her and said in an exaggerated whisper, cupping his hand around him mouth, "Watch out for him; he's a dangerous little business-man."
Parker giggled and then hurriedly bit of the last large chunk of pizza before declaring himself finished and getting off the chair.
She saw that Booth had been about to tell him to take care of his dish, but the boy beat him to it and snatched up the plate on his own, carrying it to the trash to scrape the crusts in before setting it on the counter.
"Let's play!" he said, dashing ahead of them into the living room. Booth stood up, chuckling, and pulled her to her feet as well. With the child out of the room, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly. Then, grinning, he took her hand and pulled her with him into the other room, where Parker was already setting out the game board.
"I wasn't aware we had this game here," she said with a slight frown as she sat down.
"We didn't. I picked it up when I was over at my old place; he loves it and I had already guessed that it would be a great lesson in culture for you."
She nodded and then leaned forward with interest as the small child's hands pulled out money and started passing it out to each of them.
"Is there a specific method to this?" she asked, seeing that they'd each gotten two of certain bills, six of the twenties, and five of the lower ones.
"No ones really sure why we start with this much. We just do," he said with a shrug. "Which piece do you want to be?"
"I'm the dog!" Parker claimed, rooting through a small section of the game box behind where the slots for money were and pulling out a little silver rendering of a Scottish terrier. "And dad's always the car," he added, the pieces rattling together again as he dug through once more and came out with another little silver object, this one an old-style automobile. He placed them both on the spot which was aptly named "Go." She frowned, vaguely remembering some of this.
"I think my dad used to play this with my brother," she said, more to herself then to either of them. "I always liked card games better though... and then my chemistry set and schoolwork kept me kind of busy."
"I like crazy eights," Parker commented. A moment later he held up a handful of the small playing pieces, having managed to separate them from the rest of the items in the box. "Pick one," he instructed.
She glanced at Booth, not really sure what she should pick or if there was a distinct reasoning behind it. He was grinning, though, and she turned back with a frown and analyzed each of the ones that were remaining for her to choose from. Finally she picked up one that was shaped like a cowboy boot.
"The shoe. Good pick," Parker said, dumping the remaining ones back in with the green and red jumble of plastic.
"Actually, it's more of a boot," she corrected, setting it down next to Booth's car. "And the size orientation between this is far from logical."
"They're all the same size, Bones. That's the idea. And... it's a shoe. It always has been. Just... leave it at that, okay? Childhood board games aren't meant to make scientific sense."
"Shoots and Ladders actually has an underlying message of loss through misbehaving and reward through charity and good actions," she responded logically. He stared at her for a moment and then laughed.
"Oh, Bones... just take the dice and roll, okay?"
She shrugged and took the little cubes from Parker, tossing them lightly onto the game board. Almost immediately they were snatched up by the boy, who tossed them down himself.
"My eleven beats out your eight!" he crowed.
Booth seized the two white objects and cast them, scowling as he only got a three. He passed them back to his son. "Okay, you get to go first," he conceded.
"Yes!" he cheered, punching a fist into the air as he grabbed the dice up and shook them for several seconds before letting them loose.
She watched closely as they each took their turns, and grasped the concept rapidly. It was fairly simple, really, with not many challenging rules. If you landed on an un-owned property, you could buy it. If you landed on someone else's and they saw it before the dice fell again, you had to pay them the amount on their card. It was no wonder a child could understand it. And enjoy it, she admitted it, finding herself getting rather engaged in the game as she completed a trade with Booth in which she gained Indiana and him Tennessee, quickly adding several houses to her full collection of red properties.
"You said you never played before," Parker complained as he passed her another fee for landing on one of her three railroads.
"I learn fast," she said as means of explanation.
"Because you're so smart?"
She smiled, "Yes, I suppose so."
Booth was chuckling, probably at her lack of modesty, but she didn't spare him a glance for it. After all, it was from Booth's influence that the boy probably came up with the reasoning to phrase his question in such a way.
When the bowl of popcorn they'd gotten themselves was dwindling down to almost nothing, Parker asked about the movie, and Booth complied by crawling the short few feet over to the cabinet underneath where the tv was mounted.
"We've got my entire DVD collection to choose from... so what will it be?"
That was yet another thing amid the mass of which had found its way into her apartment. Slowly, more and more of his things were taking up the empty spaces of her apartment, and she found that she didn't mind... that she actually enjoyed it. The presence of his own personal items all around made the place seem far more like it was both of theirs, rather than just hers with him living there. And she liked that a great deal... it was something she'd never had with anyone else she'd ever been with. But of course it was one among the many things that made her relationship with him so much more meaningful and different than any of the rest she'd experienced in her life.
"Finding Nemo!" Parker immediately decided. For once, she actually recognized the title, and she even knew that it was the one about the fish. But she had no idea about the rest of it.
"Okay, Nemo it is... and Bones, you have to promise not to correct all the scientific errors you see."
She laughed, "Why, are there a lot of them?"
"I wouldn't know; I don't focus on them. Just enjoy the storyline, and don't worry about the inaccuracies or whatever affecting the knowledge my son possesses."
"I promise," she said, teasingly crossing her heart with one finger. Parker finished arranging his latest acquisition of houses on the Virginia properties, and passed the dice off to his father just as the menu came up. She reached over and hit the enter button on the remote for him.
"Come on, six, come on, six..." he chanted under his breath as the cubes rattled together inside his hands.
"Saying it out loud doesn't help your chances, you know," she pointed out amusedly.
He scowled and let them fall onto the board. "Six!" he hooted, "Ha!"
She rolled her eyes as he slid the little car down onto Free Parking and collected the large sum of paper money from the center of the board. She and Parker groaned at the same time as he began to gleefully count his winnings out loud.
The sound of the movie in the background drew her attention away as she picked up the dice and juggled them back and forth. Two clown fish were talking with one another. They appeared to be a couple.
"I don't like the beginning," Parker said, frowning as he glanced towards the screen.
"Why not?" she asked, her eyes not leaving the colorful images on the screen.
"It's sad," he answered. She glanced at him and then back at the screen. A minute later, as Parker took his next turn, she realized what he meant.
"This is a children's movie?" She muttered to Booth as Parker absorbed himself in counting out how much money he had for more houses.
"Yeah, the opening shocked me a bit the first time, too..." he admitted. "I suppose it was necessary, though, for the storyline to follow the arch that it does. You're a writer; I remember when you killed Andy's sister. Unhappy, yes, but necessary. Isn't that what you answered when I asked why you would do something awful like that to such a great character like Andy?"
"Yes," she answered begrudgingly. She hadn't really enjoyed that particular part of the latest book, but it had been an important step in the relationship of Andy and Kathy. She'd needed it, even though she'd heard that her readers had been rather devastated. Cynthia Lister had been rather well-liked upon her introduction, being the one who had first tried to get the two of them together. She remembered Angela comparing herself to the character and also how she'd been rather upset upon learning that she'd been killed. That had taken quite a bit of explaining of the dynamic necessary for certain outcomes... something she wasn't entirely certain Ange had appreciated to the fullest, having still complained 'But she was like... me!.'
The Monopoly game finished in a victorious win for Parker around an hour later, him having wiped Booth out of the game after he'd twice landed on the boy's hotel on Pennsylvania, and then sending her into bankruptcy by way of North Carolina. He gloated for a short while before his interest went to ice cream, and when Booth returned with a bowl of it the characters on the screen were just leaving the EAC. True to her word, she refrained from correcting the inaccuracy of the scene out loud.
Parker situated himself in between the two of them on the couch, clutching his ice cream bowl in one hand and the spoon in the other. Booth somehow still managed to get his arm wrapped around her shoulders over the top of the boy's head, though.
When the end credits finally rolled, Parker was yawning and she was feeling rather tired herself.
"Come on, bud, let's get you tucked in for the night," Booth said, getting to his feet and pointing towards the guest bedroom.
"Awe, alright," he said, sighing. Another yawn spread his jaws apart, and, rubbing at his eyes, he led the way down the hall.
"You ready for bed, too, or did you want to stay up a bit later... get some drinks, maybe watch another movie?" he asked her, pausing in the entrance to the hallway.
"I'm tired," she answered, "And you look like you are, too. Plus, tomorrow will most likely be a long and eventful day. We'll need the sleep."
He smiled and nodded, "Alright, Bones, I'll just get him all set for the night and we'll get some shut-eye."
Once he'd vanished up the hall, she hesitated, and then picked up Parker's dish and quickly took care of it, tucking it into the dishwasher. With nothing else to do, she made her way to the bedroom, intending to get changed and then get her teeth brushed and anything else that needed to be done before she slept.
But she found herself pausing near the doorway to the guest room, where two voices drifted out through where it was partly open.
"Pancakes for breakfast, how's that sound?" Booth was saying.
"Yum!" was Parker's excited answer, and quickly following it, much more quietly, was, "...Dad?"
"Yeah, bud?"
"Do you love Bones?"
An obviously startled pause, then, "...Yeah, Park, I do."
"Mom says she loves Mark," Parker said, and even she could pick up on the distaste in the child's tone. "I like him... but mom asked what I'd say if he stayed with us. Like... get married."
A long pause. "What did you say to that?" Booth finally asked.
"I said it was okay... but I don't know," the boy answered uncertainly. "I like Bones better than Mark," he added suddenly. "She's really nice."
"Is Mark nice?" Booth asked. She didn't miss the way his voice tensed slightly on the question.
"Yeah," Parker answered, and she assumed he'd probably shrugged. "But he doesn't like to play games or anything fun. He works like... all the time. And he always reminds me about doing my homework and chores. Bones is way more fun. And she's smarter than him, too."
Booth chuckled, "Bones is smarter than a lot of people, Park."
There was another long pause.
"Are you going to marry Bones?"
She froze in place, her heart stopping for a second before it started to race.
"I don't know yet, Parker. That's not the kind of decision that people can make really quickly. But... I would like to, yes."
Her lips parted slightly in shock, even though his answer really shouldn't have surprised her, and then she stepped further away from the door, but not far enough that she couldn't hear Parker say, "I'd like that better than mom marrying Mark."
"Well, that's your mother's decision to make, bud. Now, get some sleep."
"Okay, dad. G'night."
"Goodnight, Parker."
She swiftly disappeared into the bedroom, shutting the door softly behind her as she rapidly changed into her nightwear.
Still not sure of exactly what to make of what she'd just heard, she was certain of one thing, and that was that she was not going to let him know that she'd listened in. So when he knocked softly and entered a short while later... he found her lying comfortably on her side with her eyes closed, breathing steadily in and out. Only after he'd climbed in beside her and gently pulled her up against him before he drifted off, did she allow her eyes to flicker open, and her thoughts to run rampant through her mind.