Love you guys for the feedback. The next update will probably take a little longer than usual. I have graduation and my birthday just around the corner!
For those of you who wanted some B&B, this chapter is for you ;) There will be more in the future because I can't help it. Plus, this flashback is pretty short, but it gets the point across. Enjoy!
The hour hand of the clock was centimeters from striking the 11. Booth, Brennan, and Russ settled in the living room for some well deserved adult time. After ice cream sundaes, the children changed into their sleep clothes and settled on the floor in Hayley and Emma's shared bedroom which was covered with fuzzy blankets and fluffy pillows. Brennan questioned why they wouldn't sleep on the beds. Emma explained to her that when you have a sleepover you have to sleep on the floor; those were the rules. The children lay down and began to watch a new movie Amy had bought her daughters before her trip. Only fifteen minutes into the film, all three were asleep. The adults took the next hour to clean the mess left behind the tiny tornadoes. Booth and Brennan also took a part of that time to unpack their overnight bags and change clothes.
Russ took a long sip from his almost empty beer bottle and fell back against the couch. "You know what's funny? When you handle two kids all the time, you assume that one more can't be that much of a difference."
Booth let out a hearty chuckle. "You know what they say about assuming things."
Brennan, who was seated on the loveseat next to Booth, looked curiously at him. "No."
Both men laughed. "When you assume things you make an ass out of you and me. It's just a play on the word, Bones."
"Oh." When she rested back against the cushions, Booth felt her shift slightly so her side would press against his. He expertly hid his delight. "That's clever." She yawned when she spoke.
"Tired?"
"Yes, today felt very long." She answered.
"The guest rooms all made up for you guys." Russ said. "Sleep does sound pretty damn good right now. I'm going to hit the hay." He stood up and stretched. "See you when the wild ones wake up." He offered one more goodnight to sister before walking down the hall to his bedroom.
Booth stretched, causing Brennan to slightly frown when he broke their body contact. He smiled warmly when she yawned again. "You better get to bed before I have to carry you in there."
"It wouldn't be difficult for you to carry me. I weigh substantially less than what you can bench press."
"I might hurt my back."
"I'd fix it later." She retorted with a smirk.
Booth knew that she thought she won that argument, but two could play at this game. "Fine, have it your way." Before Brennan could protest, he scooped her into his arms fireman style and headed towards the guest room.
"Seeley Booth, put me down right now!" She tried to wiggle out of his arms. He just held her tighter.
"You're so bossy when you're tired, pretty indecisive too. One second you want me to carry you and the next you don't. You're sending mixed signals, Bones." He teased and slowed his steps, wanting to make this last as long as possible.
They crossed the threshold into the room and she continued to bicker, "I never said I wanted you to carry me. I only stated that you could."
"Oh, my mistake. I'd put you down but, look…" He gently laid her down on the mattress. "…you're already here."
Brennan closed her eyes and nuzzled her head into the pillow, mumbling, "Such an alpha male."
Booth snorted in amusement. She was too adorable when she was exhausted like this. "Goodnight Bones." He started towards the door when her voice stopped him.
"Where are you going?"
"The couch." He answered.
She gathered what energy she could to lift her head. "Why?"
"Bones, I'm not going to sleep in the same bed as you. We're in your brother's house." His prudish, good Catholic boy beliefs reared their ugly head.
Brennan groaned. "Booth, my brother knows we're not sexually involved with each other." She never lost her bluntness even when she had been awake for almost 20 hours. "Besides, we've shared a bed before and everything was fine."
Booth rolled his eyes. Everything was fine for her. She wasn't the one who woke up in a Vegas hotel room with a gorgeous woman wrapped around him like he was a body pillow. "That was because we were on a case. This is different."
Brennan had enough. She leaned up on her elbows. "Yes, this is different. This is me telling you to get into this bed for a proper night's sleep before I have to hurt you."
In all the ways Booth had fantasized about Brennan demanding that he get into bed with her, this scenario hadn't crossed his mind. "You know Bones, threatening a man isn't the best way to get him in bed with you." He took a few steps closer to the bed.
Brennan smiled. "And yet you're still walking towards me." She threw back before pulling up the covers and sinking underneath.
Booth peeled off his shirt and crawled onto the queen sized mattress. He left a respectable amount of space between them. The exchanged another set of goodnights before falling silent. They lay facing each other. The clock on the end table told Booth that he spent ten minutes just staring at her before whispering, "Bones."
"Hmm." She murmured.
He reached over and lightly stroked her cheek with his hand. "Thanks for arranging this. Parker needed it."
Brennan turned her head and kissed his palm. "We all did."
Booth awoke the next morning to the sounds of little feet running down the hallway outside of the closed bedroom door. Being a light sleeper was one of the long term consequences of being a sniper. He stretched but his limbs hardly had any space to move. He was both surprised and unsurprised to find Parker snuggled between Brennan and himself. One of his tiny hands gripped her shirt. The other was busy keeping that damn thumb suctioned between his lips. Booth decided to ask Russ if he had helped either of the girls break that habit. His stomach grumbled, so he carefully scooted off the bed and headed towards the kitchen.
His movement down the hallway was halted when he heard Emma's curious voice ask, "Daddy is Aunt Tempe Parker's mommy?"
Booth's jaw went slack. He knew what Parker's relationship Bones looked like to strangers, but now her niece didn't even know where the line was drawn. "No, honey. You know that." Russ replied.
"I know she's not his real mommy the way mommy is my real mommy, but I mean is she his mommy like you're my daddy. You didn't help mommy make me but you take care of me so that's why you're my daddy."
It was then that Booth realized how similar their situations were. "We're different than Aunt Tempe and Parker, sweetheart. Me and mommy are a couple who love each other. When you love someone who has kids, you should take care of them like they're your own children."
"Don't Aunt Tempe and Booth love each other?" Emma was blinded by her innocence as to how serious her questions were.
"Good question, honey." Russ laughed off his answer. He knew they did, but he didn't think they knew it yet, so he was keeping his mouth shut.
Emma was silent for a few moments. Booth heard her slurp something; he guessed that it was milk or juice from breakfast. He almost started back towards the guest room before her voice caught him off guard once again. "Parker wants her to be his mommy."
His heart stopped. Booth automatically heard Brennan's voice in his head that if his heart stopped he'd be dead. It might not have literally stopped, but it certainly felt that way. "Oh yeah?" Russ asked her with peaked interest.
"Uh-huh. He told me and sissy last night. We were telling secrets before bed and he said he wants to call Aunt Tempe mommy but he doesn't think he's allowed." She spoke casually. "Don't you think he should be able to call her mommy?"
Russ didn't quite know what to think about that. He wanted Tempe to know the kind of love he shared with his girls, but the idea of his baby sister being someone's mommy did freak him out a little. "I don't think it's any of our business, nosey girl. Finish your cereal."
Booth walked silently back towards the bedroom. Emma's words replayed like a broken record in his head. Parker wants her to be his mommy. Parker wants her to be his mommy. Parker wants her to be his mommy.
He couldn't say that he never envisioned it. When the three of them were alone he'd be content to just watch Brennan and Parker interact for hours. She had become so maternal in the six months that she'd become a constant in his son's life. She'd remind him to brush his teeth. She'd let him help her cook dinner. She'd read him bedtime stories. She didn't act like a babysitter. Brennan has instinctively stepped into the role of surrogate mother to Parker. Booth had tried to ignore it and chalk it up to her being a helpful friend who just enjoyed being around the boy. To his knowledge, Parker had thought the same thing. Apparently he had been extremely mistaken.
Booth pushed open the door he had just left cracked. He stopped dead in his tracks and leaned against the frame. His gaze locked on the picture before him. Bones was asleep. She unconsciously cradled Parker in her arms. His son was beginning to wake. He lifted his head of messy blonde curls upward and looked at the woman who held him. He laid his head back down on her shoulder and closed his eyes with a blissful smile.
It was then that Booth realized that he had to make a decision. He could either let this fantasy go on and pray that it would eventually turn to reality, or he could redraw the line between them all before anyone got hurt again. As he pondered the quandary, he hoped that neither Bones nor Parker would resent him for his choice.
Around eight o'clock that night Booth, Russ, and Parker arrived back to the house. After breakfast, Booth asked Russ about the sports complex he saw back on the highway. Russ informed him that there were batting cages, a driving range, put-put golf, simulator arcade games, and a sports themed, bar and grill. Booth insisted on taking Parker "to get him away from the Barbies and glitter for a while," he had said. He asked Russ to tag along and make it a guys day. In reality, he seized the opportunity to conduct a little experiment. He needed to see how his son acted without Bones. He knew they needed her, but he had to see how much Parker simply wanted her around.
The little girls fought the idea at first. Brennan hadn't been excited either, but she thought it be wonderful to spend some quality time alone with her nieces. The children decided that if Parker got a boys day, then they had to have a girls day. They asked their aunt if they could go to the mall or the salon where their mommy went to get pretty at. Brennan wouldn't ever consider herself a girly girl, but Angela had forced her to spend several days in the past doing exactly what Emma and Hayley asked, so she knew she could handle it.
At the start of the day, Booth had purposefully left his cell in the car so Parker wouldn't be tempted to call Brennan. On the days the boy didn't see her he would always phone her and talk for at least five minutes about his day. That day however, the father didn't want any calls or text messages influencing his desire to be with her. He wanted to act based on what Parker truly wanted and letting Russ serve as the communicator between the two groups was the only way to figure out what that was.
Booth was hardly shocked though when Parker jumped into Brennan's arms the second they walked in the door. Several times during their outing he had brought her into the conversation and even went as far as asking his dad to bring her something from the gift shop so she wouldn't think they forgot about her. Booth took his jacket off. He listened to the girls recount their day to Russ. "Aunt Tempe bought us two new outfits and pretty sandals and sparkly hair clips, and look daddy, we got flowers painted on our nails!" Booth smiled when Emma spun in a circle showing off her new skirt. He knew that Brennan loved to spoil them since she hardly ever got to.
His attention quickly reverted back to Parker. He sat next to Brennan on the couch. He showed her his blue golf ball he almost got a hole in one with. He had accidentally stolen it because he claimed to not have seen the 'Please return ball after game sign'. Booth let it slide. He told her about beating Russ in air hockey. "Daddy helped, but only a little." He said.
"It sounds like you had a very enjoyable time."
Parker nodded. "Yeah, but it wasn't as fun since you weren't there."
Booth sighed and leaned against the wall. There was his answer. He felt stupid for even questioning it. He knew long before then how big of a mark Brennan had made on Parker.
FIVE MONTHS EARLIER
The black Toyota Sequoia zipped down the D.C. highway. Booth's attention peaked when he heard his son humming in his child seat. At first he thought nothing of it. He was just a five year old entertaining himself. Five minutes past and the volume of the humming increased. The father listened attentively when he realized he recognized the tune.
"Hey, bub, what are you humming?"
Without turning his eyes from the window, Parker replied. "The trying song."
"The trying song?" Booth inquired.
"Bones sings it to me. She said her daddy sung it to her when she was little like me. I like hearin' it at bedtime."
Booth felt his heart squeeze when he imagined his partner gentle voice lulling is son to sleep. "I know that song, buddy. I can sing it to you sometimes if you want."
Parker shook his head. "No thank you, daddy. I like it when Bones does it."
Were B&B cute? Did I stay in character? Is the family dynamic progressing too fast? Tell me! I appreciate and consider all your input!