You guys are amazing! Thanks for all the reviews/alerts/favorites. Sorry, this update took a while. I had a busy weekend and I got fake nails which make typing a challenge. This chapter gives you an idea of how the arrangement between Booth and Brennan works. I'll start with the drama next chapter. Enjoy!

"Bones! Look at me!" Parker shouted, running into her office. Brennan's head snapped upward, forgetting about the test results in front of her. In a split second, the boy was at her side, with a beaming smile. When Brennan turned her chair to get a better view of him, she caught sight of his face covered in streaks of blue and red paint. "Ain't it cool?" He asked, obviously ecstatic about his appearance.

"Isn't it cool not ain't it cool." Brennan corrected as she squinted and put two fingers under his chin, looking carefully at the colors. "Is that permanent?"

"Yup! I'm gunna look like this forever!"

Before Brennan could muster a reply, the growing sound of high heeled boots directed her attention from the five year old and to her best friend who rushed through the doorway. "He's kidding." Angela told her, catching her breath. She knew the child would do something sneaky.

Parker started to giggle. "Gotcha Bones!" He laughed. Brennan smiled. He had become very fond of practical jokes in the last couple weeks. "You should have seen your face!"

"What did I say little man? No jokes that get me in trouble." The artist approached them and rubbed her hand over Parker's hair, ruffling up the curls. "It'll come off after a bath."

The child's nose scrunched up with disappointment. "It's okay, Ange." Brennan told her. "It's not me you'd have to answer to."

Angela rolled her brown eyes. "Sure, sweetie." The woman had no idea why her best friend couldn't just talk about how she'd become so involved in Parker's life. She knew that Booth purposely avoided the subject around everyone. The slightest mention of Rebecca made him blow his top. She knew it was too sensitive of a topic of Parker to discuss. The one time she'd been present for one of his breakdowns, her heart practically broke into a million pieces. She just didn't know why Brennan put on this mask of denial when it came to her new role. She still appeared to think of herself as some kind of long term babysitter. Angela knew better. Brennan was so much more than that. "Anyway, I just wanted to return Junior. I have to start that reconstruction. Did you finish going over those tests or should I drop him with Hodgins?"

"I'm almost done. He can stay with me. Thanks, Ange."

"My pleasure." Her friend told her. "Thanks for being my canvas, handsome." Angela held out her fist to Parker who in turn bumped his knuckles against hers.

A silent moment passed. "Hey, what do you say?" Brennan maternally reprimanded when she didn't hear any words of gratitude from Parker.

"Thanks for painting my face, Angie." He said to her with his inherited charm smile playing his lips.

Angela just smiled and nodded her head. Her best friend ladies and gentlemen: the most oblivious genius you'll ever meet.

Parker climbed onto Brenna's lap. "Whatcha doin'?" He looked down at the papers in front of them trying to recognize something. Bones let him help her sometimes when they looked at pictures of skeletons. She only let him look at the clean ones from limbo. He had gotten good at naming the parts. Parker didn't see any pictures like that this time though. There were just numbers and funny combinations of letters.

"I'm analyzing test results. It's not very fun, but I'll be done in a few minutes." She reached for the bottom drawer of her desk and pulled out a coloring book. "Why don't you work on another one of your masterpieces until then?" Parker grinned and pulled open the top drawer where he kept his crayons.

Across the lab, Angela was stepping onto the forensic platform to gather information for her facial reconstruction. Hodgins gave her the files she needed, but before he let go of his grip on them, he motioned towards Brennan's office. "Look at that."

Angela turned to see Parker seated on her friend's lap, contently coloring, while she filled out the evidence forms. They weren't talking, just sitting, completely comforted by one another. "She loves that boy so much."

Hodgins, who was still full of pride from Parker telling him he got an A and a gold star sticker for his project, agreed. "Booth's lucky."

Booth pulled at the knot of his tie, loosening the material from around his neck. It was barely 5:30 in the evening and he was already wiped. The worst part was that his work day wasn't even done. He took his time walking through the lab, stopping to greet all of his squints before making his way to Brennan's office.

The weight of his job floated away the instant he saw his son sitting quietly in his partner's lap with her arm securely around his waist. He leaned on one elbow to keep himself upright against the desk. His other hand was clutching a green crayon, scribbling fiercely back and forth across a piece of paper. Booth stepped with sniper trained silence towards the doorway to Brennan's office. He leaned against the entry way and stared. He noticed the beginnings of a smile form on her lips.

She knew he was there; she could feel his presence from distances far longer than the space between the door and desk. Booth smirked. He knew she felt him there, but she didn't speak a word to deter his adoring eyes. Their unspoken agreement wasn't broken until Parker's brown orbs floated upward and spotted his father. "Daddy!" He greeted happily, staying put in Bones' lap.

In earlier months, he'd spring into Booth's arms the second he arrived.

"Hey buddy." The father moved farther into the office, settling in the black chair across from them. His brows dipped together. "What's all over your face?"

"It's not permanent." Brennan immediately answered before Parker could try to pull the same joke over on his dad as he did her.

"Angie did it. Isn't it cool?" Parker asked, remembering the grammar lesson earlier. He smiled when he felt Bones' grip on him tighten.

"Very cool, bub." Before he could ask about his son's day, he let out a strangled yawn.

"Long day?" Brennan inquired, though she already knew the answer from the way he had loosened his tie.

"And it's still going. I had to come by to get the identify from Angela. I still have to go interview a few people and get a profiler on our M-U-R-D-E-R-E-R." Booth smirked, when he saw the wheels turning in Parker's head. He knew his son would try to figure out the word, but 8 letter words were too much for the five year old.

"You know soon we're not going to be able to do that. Parker's vocabulary skills are getting better every day." Brennan told him, knowing firsthand how smart he was. The nights that she was in charge of reading him a bedtime story, she always insisted that he'd help her with half the words on the pages. They all came easily to him.

"I read a whole book by myself last night, daddy." He bragged.

"You're turning my son into a squint." Booth playfully glared at Brennan.

"He likes to read, don't you?" Brennan looked to the boy for reassurance. He nodded his little head. "See?"

"Alright, no teaming up on me." Reluctantly, he stood from his chair, eliciting two frowns from the two people in front of him. "I have to get back to the Hoover before Cullen has my a-" Booth stopped when Brennan raised an eyebrow at him, halting upcoming profanity. "Job." He quickly corrected. There had been a few slip ups and Parker repeated the words almost immediately. It took days to explain 'adult words' to him.

Brennan leaned towards Parker's ear. "Does my favorite assistant want to help me out with something?" He gave her an eager nod and dropped his crayon, ready to do something very important. She handed him a sheet of paper. To him, it looked like very important, grown up business. "Can you bring this to Dr. Jack?" To Hodgins, it'd look like old tests he'd already looked over ten times and had two copies of.

Parker took the paper, bounced off her lap, and ran toward the entomologist's work area. Booth laughed. "Works every time."

The ruse always gave the adults a few minutes to talk without little ears present. "Do you want me to take him tonight?"

"If you could, yeah. If I'm off before nine I'll swing by and bring him home with me, but if not just call me before he goes to sleep so I can tell him goodnight." In the beginning of this little arrangement, Booth constantly felt guilty when he needed Bones' help. She'd offer. He'd hesitate. She'd launch into a fifteen minute speech about how his pride wasn't important when it came to whatever was easiest for Parker. Accepting her assistance saved them both a headache.

"I couldn't get him to sleep otherwise." Brennan joked. The child had grown accustom to his father's goodnight phone calls when he worked late.

"I'll come over tomorrow morning. I might even make you some of that disgusting oatmeal you love so much before we take him to school." The FBI agent teased.

"Parker likes it." She threw back.

Booth pointed his finger at him. "You keep that fake food away from my son." He mocked an intimidating tone.

"It's good for him!"

Booth smiled when he hear the tone of her voice peak, which it normally did during one of their bicker sessions. "He's a growing boy. He needs the good stuff."

"Like that cereal that's nothing but marsh mellows you let him have in the morning?"

"Hey, I like that cereal."

"And I like my oatmeal."

They stared at each other, both too stubborn and too entertained to concede to the other. Luckily, Parker bounded into the office, breaking the stalemate. "Hey buddy, what do you like more? Oatmeal or sugar cereal?" His father asked, receiving an eye roll from his anthropologist.

Parker thought deeply about the question. He tapped his finger on his chin before answering, "Pancakes."

Brennan laughed, remembering the first morning she'd ever experienced with him.

SIX MONTHS EARLIER

Brennan felt Parker stirring beside her. She had brought him to her bed so he could continue to sleep after his father had dropped him off. For a moment she considered putting him in the guest room, but she concluded that waking up in a strange place would probably upset him. Parker stretched out his child sized limbs. Sleep was still visible in the corner of his eyes. Bed head had also taken his locks prisoner. He was so incredibly innocent; Brennan couldn't understand how anyone in their right mind would leave him.

Rebecca had turned down Booth's marriage proposal. A wonderful, kind, protective, handsome man wasn't good enough for her. She had taken off on possibly the sweetest little boy on the planet. Brennan wasn't one to jump to conclusions without a surplus of evidence. She didn't judge unless she had experience to base an opinion on, but in that moment, as Parker realized she was there and gave her a good morning smile, she concluded that Rebecca was the stupidest woman in the world.

"Hi, Dr. Bones." He greeted with his father's charm smile playing his lips. Who would have thought such a trait was inheritable?

Brennan returned the grin. "Good morning, Parker."

"Did I sleepwalk here?" He questioned, surprised by where he'd woken up.

"No." A laugh escaped her mouth, as she placed a bookmark in her novel and set it on the table. She couldn't have gone back to sleep if she tried, so catching up on her reading became the next best thing to do while she waited for him to awake. "Your dad brought you over early this morning."

"Where is he?" The boy asked, sitting up and moving to her lap. He rested his head on her shoulder and let out a small yawn.

Before the words 'he went to move your stuff into his apartment' popped out, she decided that this was one of those times when it was better to keep the truth hidden. "He had to work."

Parker made a disapproving noise. "But he said we were gunna spend the day together, just us."

"I know he did but something really important came up and he had to go help."

"Help catch a bad guy?" He verbalized in five year old lingo.

"Yes." Brennan would have normally protested all this lying, but she wasn't going to be responsible for telling Parker anything about the current situation without Booth present.

"Don't you help him catch bad guys?"

"Most of the time, but not always, like today." Before he could continue spouting off questions, she posed one of her own. "Would you like some breakfast?"

He raised his head and nodded. "Can I watch cartoons while you make it?"

"Actually, I don't have a TV."

His eyes practically bugged out of his head. "No TV? How do you watch cartoons?"

Brennan laughed. "I don't really watch cartoons."

"Not even SpongeBob?" He didn't believe her. Everyone liked SpongeBob.

She didn't know what that meant, but chose to play along. "Why don't you tell me all about SpongeBob while I make us some pancakes?"

"Can I help mix it?" His eyes lit up. Brennan knew his mind had just registered the situation as a chance to get dirty. Booth's voice echoed in her mind. "Five year olds make a lot of messes, Bones."

"Okay, but you have to be really careful." She didn't want to go through one outfit before the day even started.

Parker nodded and bounced off the bed. He waited for Brennan to scoot herself off the mattress before walking further into her apartment. Once she was at his side, he began spouting off, "SpongeBob is a yellow, square guy…"

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