Sorry for the wait, I got distracted again. Summer has left me totally free of responsibility, and as a result I sit in front of my television all day long and watch tv shows on Netflix. As a result, I've rather missed writing, and I'm eager to get back to this story. :)
"Coffee?" Angela asked, holding a steaming cup towards her. She smiled gratefully and reached out to carefully take it from her friend. Her laptop was warm on her lap, and her legs were starting to get cramped in their position curled up to the side. She sipped the warm beverage, sighing in appreciation before she set it down on the table beside her chair and shifted her laptop to the arm of the chair, standing up to stretch.
"What time is it?" she questioned, more out of realization that she had no idea than out of any real expectancy for her friend to answer her. Her eyes had shifted to the clock the moment the words escaped her lips, and she saw that it was past midnight.
Hodgins had gone off to bed ages ago, and while Booth had stayed up much later, he, too, had gone off when it became obvious that she wasn't going to be coming along to their guest room any time soon.
"Late, sweetie. Are you sure you don't want to... you know, sleep?"
She shook her head. "Can't, Ange. For one, I'm far too awake to go to sleep... and then you just brought me a cup of pretty much pure caffeine. Clearly you can't be that concerned."
Ange laughed. "Alright, I'll admit it's nice to have someone to sit up with. And this," she held up her own coffee mug, "Is my guilty pleasure. I'll admit, I've been having trouble staying away from it... too much caffeine isn't good for junior. I look forward to my one cup a day, but let me tell you, I'm eager to get back to my old routine."
Brennan just nodded thoughtfully, and Angela narrowed her eyes, clearly about to ask something. She cut her off before she could start, though. "What about you? You aren't tired?"
"Not at all, actually. I've been doing a lot of reading..." she gestured to a stack of baby related books that covered a desk in the corner, and Brennan felt a tightening in her chest. Should she be reading, too? She knew next to nothing about having a child, and she hadn't done nearly enough research into what she should be expecting. She knew all of the basics, and the anatomy aspects, but on the personal stuff, the emotional stuff... she was way out of her depth. Perhaps she should ask Angela if she could borrow some of those...
Her friend seemed to be reading her face, and she quickly fixed her expression and reached for the coffee again, taking a much-too-eager sip of it and burning her tongue. Hissing in pain, she shot Ange another look to see that the suspicious look had faded away to one of amusement.
"Sure you aren't too out of it?"
"Positive," she said, tenderly touching the tip of her tongue. "Besides, I need to get this manuscript finished... the deadline is getting closer than I'm comfortable with. I've never taken this much time to get a book finished and on my editor's desk before."
"You haven't asked for a lot of my help this time."
"Sorry, I've been... able to handle it on my own for this one."
Angela chuckled knowingly. "I can't imagine why. So things are going well, then?"
"Perfectly."
"Told you so."
She laughed. "Yes, you did."
A moment of silence passed, and Ange sighed. "Alright, Bren, you talk like everything is perfect, but I can tell something is bothering you. What is it?"
A lot of things.
"This case."
"I could have told you that. Come on, sweetie. Talk to me about it."
She bowed her head, and gently set the cup back down on the table. "Booth. He's just... you know, being himself. He feels like he needs to protect me from everything, and now... I just don't know what to do anymore. He promised nothing would happen to us, but... he's the one I'm worried about." Her eyes locked on her friend's with a fiery determination raging in them. "You know what happened the last time I lost him."
Angela nodded, her eyes filling with a sorrow that clearly conveyed the many memories of long nights and helpless breakdowns. She broke the connection, unable to face remembering it all.
"I can't go through that again. Especially not now." Hesitantly her eyes looked up again, and saw at once that Angela, somehow, already knew. It was written all over her face. "I'm pregnant, Ange."
"Finally!" Ange cried, beaming and immediately standing up. She awkwardly pulled her friend into a hug, laughing. "I've suspected it for a while; I'm just glad you two finally woke up to it... I knew you'd probably never believe me if I told you myself, of course, and I just-"
"You knew before we did?"
"I suspected," she said, waving her hand as if to say that it didn't matter anyways. "And then you're missing work and throwing up... Besides that, though, I've always had great intuition."
"Booth wasn't expecting me to tell anyone, and I know he hasn't yet... so I'd prefer if you kept this to yourself. If that's even possible, of course."
"Don't worry, I'll let you both share the amazing news with the rest of the world whenever you're ready. I'm just so happy for you, though! How long?"
"I'm due on August 14th."
"Boy or girl?"
"We're finding out on Friday. What about you, though? Still sticking with the mystery?"
"That's the plan."
"Booth keeps bugging me about names, but I haven't really looked yet. I have plenty of time, though... what about the two of you? Have you and Hodgins come up with any promising ones yet?"
"Well, I'm nearly positive it's a boy, so we've been mostly focusing on that possibility. Jack likes Quinn, but I'm favoring Gregory or—Hodgins' favorite—Phoenix."
She laughed. "I'm going to assume that was sarcastic."
Angela grinned, "Yeah, but I'm not giving up hope. It's a rather distinguished name, don't you think?"
"Take it from someone that has a somewhat unique name... it's not as fun as you might think."
"I'll keep that in mind. Recently I've been getting rather attached to Napoleon, though. Hodgins likes it better than Phoenix, but I still don't think he's going to go along with it in the long run."
"I can't say I blame him, to be honest."
"What would you suggest, then?"
"Ange, I don't want to give you ideas; it should be something you come up with on your own."
Her friend waved her off, "You and Booth are going to be the little guy's godparents. Plus, I'm asking for your opinion."
She thought for a moment. "How about... Nicholas? Or Cody?"
"Cody has promise," she said with a nod. "Short and sweet, strong sounding... I'll run it by Jack and see what he thinks."
"Ange, if the other options are Phoenix and Napoleon, he might agree with just about anything."
Her friend laughed again. "Very valid point. Has anything come to you, yet? What do you think it is, first off?"
"Booth's leaning towards girl, but I have to say I think it's a boy. As for names, I haven't the slightest clue." Her eyes strayed towards the literature collection across the room, and Angela followed her gaze.
"That would be perfect. Two little boys running around the Jeffersonian... oh, I can just see Cam now, having a fit but not having the heart to yell at them... I bet they'll be great friends. But besides that, how are you feeling about this whole thing? I mean, I know you told me that you wanted a child, that you'd been thinking about it, but how do you feel now, when it's actually going to happen?"
"It's... a bit overwhelming. You know that I'm not exceptionally skilled at dealing with babies or children to begin with, and I guess..." she hesitated slightly, her mind spinning with a million different emotions. "I guess it just really has yet to fully hit me. I understand, on some level, that it is going to happen. According to my doctor I should begin to gain weight very soon, so maybe at that point it will start to be more... real."
"It's because you just learned about it what... a couple days ago? I'm not surprised it hasn't sunk in yet. But hey, you've got plenty of time on your hands to figure everything else out. And those?" she nodded towards the books that Brennan had been eyeing. "Help yourself to anything you want."
Brennan gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you, Ange. Really. I actually find that... I'm really glad we're both going through this at the same time. It's nice to have... someone to talk to that isn't freaked out about it as much as I am."
"So Booth's freaked out, huh? I bet he's excited, too, though, isn't he?"
"Of course. We are... both very excited. I'm actually not sure if it's fully hit him yet, either, though. And this whole case is making him focus more on my safety then on his feelings about our child."
"Well, this whole case has me pretty worried about you, too, sweetie."
She sighed. "Yeah, I know. Ange, I just wish that it wouldn't always come back to him again. It feels like I can... never get away from it, no matter what I do, anymore. I was doing fine up until Lilia showed up dead, and then... everything just fell apart."
"Booth loves you, though, and you're going to have a beautiful little family with him."
She could only manage a small smile at the thought. "I wish it were that simple. We both know that I... don't know that much about families."
"Sweetie, you grew up in a happy house, with a cool older brother and loving parents. You've told me all about it."
"But it didn't end well, Ange. And I just... I don't know how to be a good mother. What if I... what if I hurt them?"
"We aren't our parents, Bren. Booth isn't his dad, Jack wanted nothing to do with his parents, I'm certainly nothing like mine, and you... you aren't going to leave your family behind. You're going to love Booth, and that little child of yours, for the rest of your life."
She smiled gratefully. "A part of me knows that's true, but... irrationally, the fear is still present. Of course, fear is always irrational, and it... seems to be following me around a great deal lately."
"Understandably, if you ask me. Seriously, Brennan, I'm pretty freaked out myself. And, oh God, no wonder Booth is so on edge! I don't even want to imagine how Hodgins would be handling it..."
She sighed and looked away, and Ange was quick to apologize.
"Right, you don't want to hear any more about how worried everyone is. Sorry. Here..." she stood, scooped a book off the table, and then plopped herself down right next to her friend on the couch, flipping it open to a random page. "This book is amazing. I got it from a friend of mine, and I look through it just about every day. Take a look." She pushed it over so it was half on her lap, and Brennan flipped a few pages, raising her eyebrow.
The book was thick, hardcover, and completely filled with the latest trends in baby fashion. It had everything from outfits to cribs, and it rated companies on scales of one to ten as well as pointing out helpful tips in the columns.
"I intend to buy everything completely based on this. If it were all up to me, I'd have everything already bought, and I'd be busy painting the baby room, but Jack thought it would be best to wait. I think that, while he trusts my intuition, he wants to be one hundred percent sure it's a boy before we go crazy with the blue, and the race cars and cowboys, and whatever else I might happen to find. Oh!" she gasped suddenly, her eyes widening and her expression instantly transforming into a total mask of excitement. "Bren, we are going shopping together! This is going to be... oh, this is going to be absolutely amazing."
To her surprise, the idea of going on a baby supply shopping expedition with Angela wasn't immediately terrifying. In fact... it actually sounded like a lot of... fun. Ange would make things easier, and she was sure to feel a lot better about her purchases if her friend was gushing over them throughout the trip.
"And... oh, we need a baby shower... we should have ours together, and it will be so great... Bren, can I tell you how glad I am that Booth got you knocked up?"
A laugh escaped her lips before she could stop it, and before she knew it she was totally lost. There was just something about Angela's planning that she just found hilarious. It might have also had something to do with just how tired she was, but she couldn't seem to get control of herself. The artist was having a similar problem, and it was only when someone cleared their throat that the two of them looked up and realized they were no longer alone.
"Having fun?" Booth asked with a raised eyebrow. A bleary eyed Hodgins stood slightly behind him, resting an arm on the doorframe and looking like he had no idea what was going on. In comparison, Booth looked like he hadn't gotten any sleep at all, and his eyes were sparkling with amusement as he took in the sight of her and Angela sprawled on the couch with tears of laughter in both of their eyes.
She nearly lost it to another fit of completely absurd giggles that really didn't fit her in any way. Sleep would probably be a really good idea, seeing as it was obvious that she was losing brain cells by the minute.
Booth chuckled, shaking his head. "Alright, it's bed time, girls. Bones, if I have to carry you to our room, I will."
She shook her head, disentangling herself from her friend and getting to her feet. "I'm... I'm fine," she managed, although she was having a hard time catching her breath.
"Right, sure," Booth muttered, rolling his eyes but still smiling with good humor. "Jack, you might want to see if any of your hard liquor is missing."
Angela was on her feet too, by now, and she punched him lightly in the arm. "Relax, G-man, we behaved ourselves. And anyways... we aren't that irresponsible." She winked at him, and he frowned and then turned to Brennan, tilting his head accusingly.
"In my defense, she already knew. Claims she knew before we even did, actually."
"Of course," he muttered.
"What are you all going on about?" Hodgins mumbled, staring blankly from one of them to the next, obviously not awake enough to remember anything they were saying in the morning.
"Nothing, Jack. Come on, let's get to bed. We've got work in the morning."
He gave a disheartened grumble, and then turned to shuffle out of the doorway.
Brennan and Angela shared one last knowing look, barely stifling fresh pointless laughter as though they were fifteen again, and then followed their men in opposite directions down the hallway to their rooms.
I know that not much happened, but it's a necessary chapter for Brennan to get the chance to be semi-normal for atleast a short while.
Now, the IMPORTANT stuff. I need all of your help :) I need NAMES. Boy and girl would be good... I'm not going to spoil what the gender is just yet.
Second, I am requesting another form of help. I am looking for good reading. I used to open my email box to find updates on stories all the time, but recently the stories I've been following have been starting to slow down or outright end. I want to hear from all of you about the amazing Bones stories you have either read or written yourselves. I'm dying for something well-written and angsty, and I will be forever grateful to anyone that sends me to something I haven't found. :)
Thank you all, as always, for all your reviews and alerts, and for being so patient with me and my sporadic updating.