thank you for reading this! and thank you cathmarchr, for your infinite patience. i ardently admire and love you.
The look on Peter's face was without price - he seemed guilty, scared, and indignant, all at once. She'd seen him look embarrassed the two or three times he'd walked in when she had a male guest over at the apartment, and this look was similar to those times, but she'd never seen the fear before. It was almost irrational how much she was enjoying his dilated pupils and hard breath, but she had repeatedly asked him to warn her when he was coming at night in case she was entertaining another man. Perhaps this time he would learn to heed her.
Booth was standing by the doorway, managing to look nonchalant despite his rapt attention and pointed gun. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows, the sinewy veins and stark musculature of his arms visible as he stood there; Brennan noticed that he was approximately five centimeters taller than Peter. She had only seen Booth like this, like a guardian, the few times in the field that her life had been endangered, and it thrilled her on some primal level. She understood it to be a female's attention drawn to an alpha male's role as both aggressor and protector.
Traditionally, Brennan was not attracted to blatant displays of force. Oh, yes, she definitely took note of a man's physical and mental attributes in order to subconsciously assign him a societal role in the community at large as any good anthropologist would do. But usually, Brennan only took notice of the individual when the male was filed into the upper echelons of human society - those of the intelligentsia, perhaps - the scientists, the healers, the theorists.
Booth was none of these.
Upon their initial meeting, she had automatically filed him into the "warrior" category. It had seemed right, especially when she learned of his background in the military. However, as she began to spend more time with him, she became puzzled (and therefore intrigued) by his defying her usual categorical structure. Despite his insistence on being her "gun," he was more of a peacekeeper than anything. As their shared time passed, she began to lean more toward prescribing him leader status, but it was an earned leadership rather than a prescribed leadership. He assumed the role naturally and seamlessly, and she soon learned that he was a man who earned respect rather than demanded it. Like any true leader would.
As a leader herself, she felt that they were well-suited as partners.
"Peter, this is Agent Booth, my partner," she said, smiling as Booth lowered the gun and holstered it. He then put his hand out and Peter warily shook it, his eyes flickering toward the now-hidden weapon. She thought there was a white-knuckled moment, a "stand-off," and she rolled her eyes at the predictable alpha male posturing.
"We didn't get a chance to meet that day at the lab," Booth said when Peter took a step back. The three of them stood there, staring at each other.
"Right. It's good to meet you, Agent Booth. Tempe seems to be in capable hands, so I'll just be going…"
"Was there something you needed, Peter?" she asked, amused because she could imagine why he stopped by. It wouldn't be the first (and most likely not the last) time.
"Um, it can wait. I'll see you later. And I'll knock next time," Peter said, and as suddenly as he had entered, he was out the door. Brennan smiled as Booth locked the deadbolt.
"So that's your baby daddy, huh? Do you just let him pop in whenever like that?" Booth strode over to the couch and reached for a file folder. She followed suit and sat cross-legged next to him.
"He's Parker's father, if that's what 'baby daddy' means. Angela uses that term all the time, and I find the poor grammar a bit appalling, but I suppose therein lies the appeal. Peter has access to my apartment for convenience. I assume he came here looking for sex again. I've been busy with our caseload lately, he isn't used to it." She smiled when Booth sputtered, spilling the water he had been drinking from a bottle.
"Geez, Bones," he said, swiping at the front of his shirt. "I can't believe you have such a cavalier attitude about… you know. I mean, if you guys are still sleeping together but you're not together…?"
"This arrangement suits me fine. No, we're not together. We tried that. It did not work. He's much too traditional. He actually suggested I cut back on my work when Parker was still an infant, as though a working woman is an untenable proposition. I cannot consider having a serious relationship with a person who thinks like that."
"Well, you guys have a kid together. It doesn't get more serious than that."
"I don't see how raising a child means we have to have a relationship together."
"You wouldn't, would you."
"You sound like him."
"Well, I just - look. Can we drop it? We've got work to do."
"I never picked it up. Let's get to your bureaucratic busy work, then."
After Booth left, she felt irritated. Who was he to question how she chose to live her life? Wasn't she doing well? Wasn't her son healthy, intelligent, and happy? Wasn't she? This agent was a difficult person. He was an anomaly to her, challenging her world and worse, making her question it. Just when she was finding admirable things about him, he went and made her reflect on choices she'd reconciled with years ago.
The next few weeks followed by setting a pattern - FBI field work by day, paperwork by night. She began to see Peter less and less. She was not certain if her work was keeping her too busy to have contact or if he was avoiding the apartment because he assumed Booth would be there.
As far as Booth went, she began to integrate him into her life, or rather, he insinuated himself in it. It hit her one day that most of her waking hours were spent in the FBI man's presence, and she often thought about him when he wasn't there.
He really was an intriguing person. Infuriating at times, but intriguing. He lived by a rigid set of standards that clashed with most of what she understood to be true. And yet… she couldn't help but like him. Nearly every day they had some sort of ideological disagreement - Angela began to refer to it as "the hot verbal foreplay deathmatch of the century" - but as easily as Booth chastised her for her blunt observations, he also eased her interactions with people, and while she didn't say so, she appreciated it. Somewhere in the middle of solving horrible crimes and having enjoyable disagreements about love, sex, and religion, he had become a friend.
"Parker is turning four this weekend," she announced one morning when he picked her up to go to the scene of a crime.
"Wow, already?"
"Yes. We're having a birthday party for him at my apartment. Will you come?" For some illogical reason, she was nervous about asking him. She knew that he was warming up to Parker and she thought that he would come, but the unpleasant possibility hung there - that he might say no. She didn't want him to say no.
"Yeah, of course I'll be there. He's a great kid, Bones."
"Yes. I know. You can… you can even bring Rebecca," she said, surprised at her own offer but sticking to it. She had to admit to herself that she was very curious about Booth's girlfriend. He never volunteered much information about her, and Brennan was keen to meet the woman that Booth chosen to "live in sin" with. ("How can you claim to be a Catholic and not prescribe to all tenets of the Catholic philosophy?") What was the woman like? All Brennan knew of her was that she wanted kids, worked for a prestigious law firm, and sent him text messages that made him frown or mutter under his breath. Was she tall? Blonde? Pretty? She was probably beautiful. Men like Booth dated beautiful women, she was certain of it.
"Yeah, that's… Uh, I'm sure Rebecca would love to come." He appeared uncomfortable, and she didn't know why. Did he think Rebecca wouldn't like to come?
"Only if she wants to."
"Nah, we'll be there." He smiled at her, though it didn't reach his eyes. They arrived at the scene and it was down to business from there.
XXXXX
The day of the party arrived, and Brennan was nervous. Angela had volunteered to help plan and set up, and Brennan discovered she was anxious for things to go well. She had never had a party for him before, usually opting to celebrate by taking him to the zoo or the Jeffersonian and having dinner with Peter's parents, neither of whom appeared to like her very much. Both were coming to the party, but there would be enough people there to keep them as far from her as possible.
"Aww, would you just look at these decorations?" Angela had been in charge of purchasing plates and cups, but Brennan hadn't seen the need to spend such outrageous amounts of money on environmentally unsound paper plates depicting the dinosaurs her son loved so much. Angela had put her hands on her hips and glared, insisting in a slightly chastising tone that they were necessary. "Hodgins is bringing the balloons by in an hour or so."
"Angela, this stuff is ridiculous. Parker doesn't need this, he-"
"Loves dinosaurs and is getting dinosaurs. We've been over this, Sweetie. Now would you just look at this cake? Oh my God, it's adorable." Her friend was flitting about the apartment, arranging and rearranging furniture to "make room," and Brennan was so amused that she allowed it, even though she didn't think it was necessary.
Peter arrived with Parker a short while later, and Brennan spent the time before the party started by chasing the boy around, preventing him from playing with the toy dinosaurs Angela had set up and avoiding Peter who seemed to be angling for a conversation. She was simply too anxious about having so many people over to deal with whatever it was he wanted to talk about.
The guest began to arrive - Parker's nanny Jennifer, Peter's parents and brother along with his kids, Zack and that Naomi person, Dr. Goodman and his family. Brennan found herself wondering when (if?) Booth would arrive.
Then he was there, smiling and carrying a large, brightly-wrapped box, with a woman in tow.
"Heya, Bones. Dr. Temperance Brennan, I'd like you to meet my, uh - Rebecca. Rebecca Stinson."
"Dr. Brennan, it's nice to finally meet you."
Brennan smiled while she regarded Booth's girlfriend. Yes, she had been right. The woman was attractive in that typical way. Slim, blonde, average height, symmetrical features. Excellent posture, well-dressed.
"Unca Seewey!" Parker nearly screamed his enthusiasm as he ran across the room to the door, throwing himself at an amused Agent Booth, who barely had time to hand Brennan the gift before being toppled over by her exuberant son.
"Happy birthday, Parks," he said, poking Parker in the umbilicus and grinning at his giggle. "I'd like you to meet my friend, Rebecca."
"Hello!" Parker said, putting his hand out, which a startled Rebecca took and shook awkwardly. "It's my birthday today!"
"I know," she replied, taking a step back and eyeing the two males, the shorter of whom had grabbed Booth's hand and was dragging him away, presumably in search of something he wanted to show him. The two women stood there, staring at one another. Brennan was suddenly at a loss for words, something that did not often happen.
"Thank you for inviting us," Rebecca finally said, shifting from left to right, her hands fidgeting with the straps of her purse. "All I've been hearing about for the last few months is how smart Parker and his mother are."
"Yes. His parents are both geniuses, so the odds that he would have a similar mental capacity were high." Brennan did not understand Rebecca's laughter or the look she gave when she stopped.
"Oh, you were - wow. Booth was right," she said, shifting her eyes to search the room. "I'm just going to go see what trouble they're getting into." Rebecca left Brennan standing there, puzzled at the interaction. She took a deep breath and turned to see that the party - her son's first real party - went off without a hitch.