Disclaimer: once again, nothing you recognize is mine!
AN: First of all, I'd like to thank the people who reviewed and all the people who added my story to favorites of put it on alert, I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter as well. Also, I rewatched the episode and noticed that Booth says that Parker is eleven, for the sake of my story he's nine for now, turning ten later on, I hope this is not too big of a problem for you guys! Just so you know, it's the beginning of June now, Parker will be out of school in two weeks and little Michael will turn one at the end of the June, there is an eight month difference between him and Christine. And on we go with the rest of the weekend...
Life couldn't get any better than this! At least this was what Seeley Booth was thinking while bathing his three months old daughter. His son and girlfriend were downstairs preparing breakfast, it was a Saturday morning and the weekend was ahead of them. He looked at his daughter splashing around in the tub, Christine was a happy baby and she always had a lot of fun while she took her bath, her dad had jokingly started to call her his little dolphin. After she had played for a good ten minutes Booth started to wash her gently with baby soap and he then proceeded to wash her hair, paying attention to the sensitive baby's eyes. When he was done, he got her out of the tub and enveloped her in a fluffy pink towel. Father and daughter went to the little girl's room where he dressed her up with a light purple t-shirt that read FBI baby and a pair of denim overalls, since the day was pretty warm. When Booth and Christine got downstairs they found Parker busy making pancakes, the regular kind, the chocolate chip ones and the blueberry kind. The table was already set, with an orange juice pitcher in the middle, along with a fruit salad in a bowl, the bacon was cooking on the stove and Brennan was making eggs.
"Wow! It smells great in here!" exclaimed Booth entering the kitchen.
"Look dad, Bones helped me to make the mix and she let me put the chocolate chips and the blueberry in it!"
"That's amazing Bub! I can't wait to try them!" he grinned at him and the boy smiled proudly, got close to his dad and gave a kiss on the top of Christine's head.
Brennan smiled at the scene while she flipped the bacon "We decided not to make French toast, we're saving it for another time, I hope that's okay with you!"
"That's perfect Bones!" he got close and gave her a peck on the lips.
"Booth can you help Parker with the pancakes? The eggs and bacon are almost ready!"
He nodded, placed Christine in her carrier and went to help his son.
Ten minutes later the three of them were sitting at the table, putting food in their plates.
"Wow Bub! These pancakes of yours are really amazing!" complimented Booth, while eating a plain one with maple syrup on it.
"Thanks dad! It's because of Bones' help, we made the batter from scratch!"
"You were a fantastic helper Parker, I bet you'll be able to make them by yourself next time!"
"And once Chris is old enough we can make you breakfast by ourselves!" he grinned.
Brennan smiled back, happy that he was looking forward to do stuff with his sister.
Chris babbled happily in her carrier while the three of them kept eating breakfast and once they were full, Brennan put the rest of the fruit salad and of the orange juice in the fridge and Parker started clearing up the table, while Booth loaded the dishwasher.
"What do you want to do for the rest of the morning?" asked Brennan after having picked up Christine from her carrier, she looked at the clock and saw it was already 10:24 a.m.
"When are the men from the DIY store coming to put the barbecue in the porch?" Booth answered to her question with a question from his own.
"They'll be here at 2 p.m." she answered while tracing circles on Christine's back.
"We've got to go grocery shopping, Bones" he answered, opening the fridge and showing her the emptiness of it.
"Good idea, I'll start writing down what we need... why don't you go brush your teeth and get dressed Parker? Then you can help me with the list!"
"Cool!" he smiled and ran off to the second floor.
Brennan sat with Christine on her lap and she smelled the baby's hair "Did you have a good bath with daddy?" she asked her.
Christine looked intently at her mom and then she gently grabbed a fistful of her hair.
"Oww Christine, don't grab mommy's hair!" she exclaimed while smiling and getting her hair out of her daughter's grip.
"We had lots of fun while bathing, didn't we Chrissie?" asked Booth coming over to the pair.
"She really seems to enjoy bath time..."
"Maybe we should take her swimming" proposed Booth.
"That would be a good idea, swimming is, after all, one of the most beneficial sports..." agreed her "but we have to wait until she's at least four months old, since, at that time, her immune system will have finished developing, and the possibility for colds and infections like otitis to occur will significantly reduce" she continued.
"Of course! You know Parker is going to do a sport camp in the first three weeks of vacation and he will also take swim classes, we could see if they have parent-child swim lessons..."
"Yes, I would like that very much, we'd have to find a class in the weekend I suppose..."
"Of course, I think most of the parent-child classes are over the weekend, since they know that most parents work"
"That sound good, I'm sure Christine would enjoy herself very much" she agreed.
"How about you go upstairs to get changed while Chris and I wait for you and Parker here?"
She nodded, gave both of them a kiss and went upstairs to get changed.
Twenty minutes later she got downstairs, wearing a pair of jeans, a purple shirt and a pair of sneakers. She found the three of them sitting at the table, already working on the list.
"Add the tomatoes as well Bub!" Booth was talking with Parker.
Brennan got close and took a look at the piece of paper sitting in front of the nine year old, it read milk, eggs, yogurt, cheese, bread, cereal, potatoes, lettuce, carrots, zucchini, eggplants, onions, tomatoes.
"We were about to start with fruit, Bones!" Parker exclaimed turning around.
"We're not done with the veggies yet Bub!" reminded Booth as his son groaned.
"Add spinaches, asparaguses, corn and soybeans, please Parker" said Brennan sitting next to the boy, he happily obliged and then looked expectantly at her to go on.
"Okay, fruit... what would you like Parker?" she asked.
"Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, apricots, peaches... what do you guys want?" asked Parker scribbling down on the piece of paper.
"Apples and kiwis" piped in Booth, holding Christine on his lap.
"Mangos and papayas... oh, add avocados as well please! And then we'll see what else they have..." said Brennan.
"Okay, I wrote down everything... what else do we need?" asked the boy.
"Meat" said Booth and Parker dutifully wrote that down.
"You already wrote down cheese, right?" the boy nodded "Then write down tofu please"
"Do we need shampoo?" asked Booth.
"Well, mine is almost full, but I think yours is about to finish and we need to replace our toothbrushes" Parker wrote both items down.
"Do we need anything else?" asked Booth.
"Yeah, we need dishwasher detergent and some sponges" answered Brennan.
"Anything else?" asked Booth again.
"Ice cream" answered Parker.
The two adults smiled and him "Definitely! And since Ange and Hodgins are coming over for lunch with Michael tomorrow we'll need dessert as well!" said Brennan and then added "You know what? If you help me we could bake cookies Parker!"
The boy nodded enthusiastically and wrote down cookies supplies on the list.
"What will we have for lunch tomorrow?" he asked then.
"Your father wants to try the barbecue they'll deliver today and I'll make a vegetarian lasagna, how does it sound?"
"Just perfect!" he exclaimed.
"Okay, I think we can go now" said Booth stepping up and making sure that Christine was safely strapped into her carrier.
Brennan took her purse, Parker pocketed the list and the foursome made it out of the house and into Booth's SUV.
Once they arrived at the supermarket they decided to split "I'll go to the organic greengrocer store and I'll meet you in the supermarket, all right?" said Brennan.
"That's cool, I'll take Chrissie with us so that you don't have to carry her" answered Booth getting a hold of his daughter's carrier.
Brennan smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek "See you in half an hour or so!" she said ruffling Parker's hair.
The two Booth boys and Christine went to get a cart and got inside the supermarket to start shopping.
Once the family was done shopping, they decided to have a quick bite at the diner in order to make it back home before 2 p.m.
By 5 o' clock the brand new barbecue Booth had been dreaming about was ready to be used and he was very much looking forward to the following day's barbecue.
"Hey Booth, do you have any preferences for dinner?" Brennan was poking her head out on the porch.
"Nah, everything you cook amazes me babe!" he answered, letting the moniker slip, she pretended to be mad for a couple of seconds, then she smiled "Do not call me babe!" she scolded him.
"You secretly love it!" he playfully retorted.
"Whatever you say…" she smirked "I'm serious though, is there something you'd like to eat tonight?"
"Nope, go ask Parker if there is something he would like… I'm sure I know what his answer will be!" he grinned, already thinking about her Mac 'n cheese.
Brennan went back inside, Parker was doing homework in lounge while Christine was taking a nap in her playpen.
"Hey Parker… is there something you'd like to have for dinner tonight?" she asked after checking that Christine was still asleep.
"Yeah, your Mac 'n cheese would be awesome!" he answered quickly, looking up from his math homework.
She smiled "All right then, I'll start preparing them in a little while… do you need any help with homework?" she asked sitting down.
"Not with my math stuff, I do need to ask you a question about science though… can you wait until I'm done with this?"
"Of course I can, I'll go wash the vegetables for the salad and I'll be back, all right?"
He nodded and went back to finish his math papers, he had a science test on Monday and wanted to make sure he was up to date with the rest of his class, having been in England for four months he was afraid he had fallen a little behind.
By 7:15 the family was sitting at the dinner table, enjoying Brennan's famous Mac 'n cheese along with Greek salad.
"This is so amazing!" said Parker, happily eating the salad as well.
"Did you ever tried feta cheese before?" asked Brennan, pleased that he was enjoying the vegetables as well.
"No, but I'm definitely adding this to my favorite foods list!" he smiled.
Once the plates were empty, Parker put the dishes in the sink and got the bowls, while Booth got up to get ice cream.
The three went crazy mixing sprinkles, nuts and different kinds of fudge on their ice creams.
When the bowls were empty as well, Booth went to load the dishwasher with Parker's help and Brennan went upstairs to start getting Christine ready for bed. After they were done in the kitchen, the two of them went in Chris' room and stood there for a while just looking at the baby drifting off to sleep "Sweet dreams sis…" mumbled Parker kissing her on her forehead, both adults did the same and then they left the room, leaving the nightlight on.
When they got out of Christine's room they had to decide what to do for the rest of the evening.
"Is there anything in particular you guys want to do tonight?" asked Booth.
"You know there is a really cool documentary about dolphins on Animal Planet" said Parker.
"That sounds very interesting and educational" answered Brennan.
"In my test on Monday we need to write about an animal we like and I thought I could talk about the dolphins, they're very cool!" continued the boy.
"Dolphins are my favorite animals!" answered Brennan smiling.
"I know!" exclaimed Parker "Wanna watch it with me?"
"Yes, I would very much like that! When will it start?"
"At nine o' clock!"
"Okay Bub, why don't you go take a shower and then we can all watch it together?" proposed his dad.
"Sounds good!" he grinned, went into his room and picked clean underwear, up a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and went into the bathroom.
"And how about you go take a long relaxing bath?" whispered Booth into Brennan's ear.
"I just promised Parker I'll watch the documentary with him and it's already past 8, I cannot take a long bath!" she reminded him.
"All right… how about we both jump in the shower and save water and time?"
She giggled and nodded while taking his hand and guiding him to the master bedroom.
By 11 p.m. the documentary was finished and the partners were saying goodnight to Parker "The documentary was very well done… did you enjoy it Parker?" asked Brennan.
"Yes! How about you?"
"I did as well!" she smiled.
"And I got lots of new info I can use for my test on Monday!" he exclaimed happily.
"That's great, Bub!" added his dad "Now off to bed, we need to go to church tomorrow morning… I'll wake you up a little before 8, all right?"
He nodded "That's cool! Night guys!" he hugged them both and went upstairs.
Booth checked that the door and windows were closed while Brennan turned the TV off, then they went upstairs and both went into Parker's room to give him a goodnight kiss. Next they opened Chris' room expecting the baby to be getting hungry, they were right. Brennan settled in the rocking chair and fed her, when she was done Booth insisted on changing her and they both gave her a kiss on the cheek and settled her in the crib once again.
Fifteen minutes later they were in their bed, exhausted, in each other arms.
"Sweet dreams Bones" whispered quietly Booth.
"Sweet dreams to you as well" she whispered back, kissing him sweetly on the lips, then they both drifted off to sleep.
Sunday morning found Brennan cooking lasagna in the kitchen, listening to music with Christine happily blabbing in her carrier. It was almost 10 o' clock and the boys would get back from church in half an hour or so with pastries from a nice little café they had discovered in their neighborhood. Angela, Hodgins and Michael would be arriving at one and they were set to speak with Becca when she came over to pick up Parker around dinner time. The phone ringed, just as Brennan was starting to make béchamel sauce from scratch.
"Hello?" she answered while turning the music down.
"Hi Temperance, it's Rebecca!"
"Oh… hi Rebecca! How are you?" she went to sit next to Chris at the table.
"I'm great, how about you? How is little Christine treating you guys? Does she sleep?"
"I'm good, tired, but extremely happy. Christine is actually a pretty good sleeper, she only wakes up when she's hungry… I assumed she inherited that trait from her father…"
"Parker was a very hungry baby as well" agreed Becca and then went on "Am I disturbing you? Cause I know that Seeley and Parks are at church now…"
"No, not at all… I was cooking vegetarian lasagna for lunch, did you want to talk to me about something?"
"Actually yes, I'd like to talk to all of you today and I was wondering if I could come over in the afternoon to do that…"
"Sure, we're having lunch with Ange, Hodgins and Michael… how about you come over around 3 and have dessert with us? Parker will help me to bake cookies when he comes back from church, he's very excited about that!"
"That sounds good, I'll be there at 3…"
"Okay then, see you later…"
"Happy cooking!"
"Thank you, bye…"
"Bye Temperance!"
She put the cordless down and wondered briefly what could Rebecca want to talk about, she thought it probably had to do with summer vacation since she had told Booth that she would not take Parker anywhere this year, having stayed in England for so long she was longing to spend her weeks off in DC. Yeah, she probably wanted to ask them if they were planning to go anywhere with him. She went back to her sauce and managed to finish making it before Booth and Parker got back. When they entered the house they found her busy with the making of lasagna layers, she had mixed the béchamel sauce with spinaches, asparaguses, peas and grated parmesan cheese, the smell was simply amazing.
"Wow Bones! It smells great in here!" exclaimed Parker upon entering a box of pastries in his hands.
"I'm very glad to hear that!" she answered turning around "The coffee is ready Booth" she added.
They went to the table, set with glasses, cups and plates, orange juice in the middle of it. Both boys went to the sink to wash their hands in the kitchen and the three of them settled down at the table.
She was enjoying a blueberry muffin when she remembered about the call "Your mom called when you guys were in church" she suddenly said.
Parker put his cinnamon roll down and looked at Bones "What did she say?"
"She wants to come over in the afternoon to talk with all of us…"
"Did she say about what?" continued Parker.
"No, but I think it might have to do with summer plans… school is finishing in two weeks, right?" he nodded slowly, then smiled "You must be right" he finally said "Mom won't go anywhere on vacation this summer, maybe we could do something together, the four of us" he proposed.
Brennan smiled brightly and Booth ruffled his hair "We would love to go somewhere together, Bub! Let's talk with your mom today and then we can plan something… all right?"
All three of them smiled and Chrissie picked that moment to loudly say "Pah-pah!"
When they were done with breakfast Booth went upstairs to bathe and change Christine, while Parker and Brennan loaded the dishwasher and started to prepare the cookies.
By 12:30 the lasagna was in the oven cooking and the cookies were cooling down, they had done the chocolate chip kind and the oatmeal raisin ones. Christine had been fed and she was now napping in the playpen out on the porch with her dad, who was starting the barbecue.
Angela and Hodgins arrived a little before 1 o' clock, she was pushing Michael's stroller and he was holding a huge cheesecake and Michael's diaper bag.
"Hi guys!"
"Hi! Come on in!"
The group exchanged hugs, then Michael spotted Parker and yelled loudly "Ker? Ker?" the older boy came over "Hi Mickey, what's up?"
The eleven month old grinned and blabbed something unintelligible, so Parker grinned back and picked him up from his stroller. The two boys went outside on the porch were Chris was sleeping. Michael took a peek inside the playpen and looked expectantly at Parker "Wis?" he asked.
"That's right buddy… that is Chris! She's taking a nap now, so we gotta be extra quiet… can you do that Mickey?" Parker put his index finger to his mouth when he was done talking and the small boy nodded, a firm look on his little face.
When the adults got on the porch they were talking happily to each other, but they were interrupted by little Michael who hushed them, bringing his little finger to his mouth, like he had seen Parker do.
The four adults looked at them "I told him Chrissie was sleeping and that we have to be quiet" explained Parker blushing slightly.
"Aww, you don't have to excuse yourself baby Booth! The little angel deserves her rest!" exclaimed Angela, hugging the boy who was still holding her son, then she proceeded to take a look at the baby, Hodgins in tow.
Just then the oven ringed signaling that the lasagna was ready to be eaten.
"Take a seat guys, I'll go and take the lasagna out of the oven!" said Brennan going inside, she was back a couple of minutes later holding the pasta, a wonderful aroma filling the air.
"It smells great Bones!" exclaimed Parker, while the other adults nodded.
She smiled and set the serving plate in the middle of the table.
A little before 3 o' clock, just as the adults were chatting, Booth holding Christine who was finally awake, Michael was taking a nap in his stroller and Parker was nervously looking at the time, the doorbell rang. Brennan got up to answer to it, followed by the nervous Parker, Booth stayed back handing Christine to Angela "Thanks for agreeing to stay and watch her, guys!"
"Don't even mention it Studly! What are friends for? Go inside, sort whatever matter it is out and we'll be here, waiting for you and dessert!" she winked at him while Jack nodded and Booth got inside the house, hoping the talk was nothing serious.
Once they were sitting down in the living room Booth looked at his ex "How did it go in England Becks?" he asked.
"It was great, but it's actually pretty good to be back!" she smiled "I'm also sure Parker is thrilled to be back home… he was afraid he had fallen behind, even if he went to an American school in London!" she went on.
"I was also missing dad, Bones and my friends, plus I didn't see Chrissie until she was already three months old!" he answered.
"Of course, I know it was hard on you baby… but I hope you still liked England" she was a little unsure all of a sudden.
Parker nodded "I did like England mom, but I'm very glad to be back home!" he grinned.
"I'm happy that's settled" interrupted Booth, then, after stealing a glance at Brennan, he looked at Becca once again "So… what did you want to talk about?"
"Right…" she bit her bottom lip and looked at the three of them sitting on the couch together "I've seen how miserable Parker was when we were away from you Seeley… and I've also seen that, during the years, you've always been a great dad to him…"
He interrupted her "Of course! He's my boy, I love him…"
"I know that Seel…" she went on "I think I was a bit unfair to you over the years… well, I'd say a lot unfair actually" she snorted.
"What are you trying to say mom?" asked Parker confused.
"Parker, sweetie you love spending time here, right?" she asked him.
He stared at his mom, then turned to look at Bones and his dad who motioned him to answer the question "Yeah, I do…" he finally whispered "I love you mom and I love staying with you, but I feel like I haven't spent enough time with dad growing up…"
"That's what I was afraid of…" she answered, tears prickling her eyes "That's why I said I was unfair to you Seeley, but I wasn't only being unfair to you… I was being unfair to Parker and mother should never do that!" she concluded and took a deep breath.
"Actually Rebecca… it seems that both you and Parker got to this conclusion over these past few days" said Brennan.
The blonde was now the confused one and she raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah Becks, Parker asked us if he could be allowed to spend more time with us on Friday night and we wanted to speak with you about this, but it looks like you beat us to it!" grinned Booth.
She smiled back nervously "Parker, honey, do you want to say something?" she asked.
"I would really like to spend more time with dad, Bones and Chris… I'm her big brother and I wanna be here for the big stuff in her life" he answered.
"That sounds reasonable baby… I'm glad that you can talk to us about how you're feeling, so I was thinking that, if it's okay with you guys, Parker could come over in two Fridays when school finishes and he could spend the summer with you…" she wasn't sure they were going to be okay with it, but Brennan interrupted her by saying "That would be great! If it's okay with Parker we'll gladly have him for the summer!"
Parker looked disbelievingly at his mom, then he got up and proceeded to hug her tightly "You're the best mom!" he exclaimed.
Rebecca hugged him back, feeling tears escaping her eyes.
"You can spend time with him over the weekends Becks" said Booth a little while later, when the hug was over.
"Yes, that would be great…I'll be working a lot during summer and it doesn't seem fair that Parker stays alone all day" answered her.
"Are you okay with this Bub?" asked Booth turning to his son. The boy nodded enthusiastically "It's gonna be great dad!" he grinned.
"And it won't be a problem for you Temperance?" asked Rebecca.
"Of course not! I love Parker and having him around makes both me and Booth very happy, plus he hays he has an important job as a big brother now…"
"Yeah I do!" exclaimed.
"When summer is over I was thinking that we could arrange some new routine for Parker… we can all sit down and decide together, but I was thinking that we should split the time equally…" continued Becca.
"That would be amazing!" whispered Booth in a disbelieving tone, while Parker once again jumped into his mother's arms to hug her tight.
After a few moments of excited silence Brennan spoke again "How about we have some dessert now?" she proposed.
The others all nodded "Bones and I made cookies mom!" exclaimed Parker taking his mother's had and dragging her to the porch.
"I cannot believe this is happening…" murmured Booth.
"Why not?"
"You know… it's almost too good to be true…"
"Well, you better believe it! Rebecca seems pretty convinced that Parker needs to spend time with you and I can assure you that anthropologically speaking boys benefit from having a father figure present in their lives, especially during the adolescent years since…" he interrupted her with a passionate kiss "I love it when you go all squinty on me!" he grinned.
"It was very rude of you to interrupt!" she scolded him.
"I'm just anxious for dessert…" he gave her a patented charm smile.
They went to the kitchen and he got a hold of the massive cheesecake Hodgins and Angela had brought, while she took the cookies. Then they went outside to celebrate the beginning of a new chapter in their lives.
AN: Wow! Sorry it took a while, but I couldn't seem to write the chapter in the way I wanted to. It was a bit longer than I thought it would, but I just love them together and I couldn't stop the fluff! Happy Bones day to all the lucky Americans! Please review if you want, you'll make me a happy girl!