The Tooth Fairy Came

Booth was cooking breakfast while Brennan was preparing Christine's lunchbox for school. As she finished and zipped up the lunchbox Brennan spoke. "I'll get Christine up now. She should be dressed by the time breakfast is ready."

She had only taken two steps when Christine ran into the room waving a dollar bill. "Mommy, Daddy look what I found in my bed! Michael Vincent had said the Tooth Fairy would bring money when I lost my tooth, but when I didn't find any money the next morning I didn't believe him, but here it is."

Booth and Brennan exchanged a look then he spoke to Christine. "Of course the Tooth Fairy came Monkey, she just sometimes doesn't get the message of a lost tooth in time to drop off the money the same day, but she'll always make it eventually."

Christine smiled and replied. "I understand Daddy. Michael Vincent did say that sometimes he doesn't get his money on the first night. Aunt Angela told him kind of the same thing." She beamed a smile then.

Brennan made her way to Christine and asked. "Do you know what you want to do with the money?"

Tilting her head to the right side while looking up at her mother she considered before answering. "Well, Michael Vincent has lost a lot of teeth and gotten a dollar for each tooth. I think I'll save mine up until a have a lot of dollars; then I can buy something really good."

Booth gave an amused shake of his head as he observed the two. "Hey Princess; why don't you go get dressed now and put your money away so it doesn't get lost? When you get back here your breakfast will be waiting for you."

"Okay Daddy," Brennan took Christine's hand and they headed to her bedroom.

…

They returned to find that Booth had set out the plates of food ready for them to eat. Christine climbed up on her stool ready to begin eating when the sound of Hank's cries alerted them to the fact that the youngest Booth was now awake. Brennan put her hand on Christine's shoulder as she said. "Why don't you tell Daddy what you told me while I go and get your brother?" At Christine's nod Brennan walked away.

Christine rested her arms on the counter and looked her daddy in the eye. "Daddy, I know you and Mommy are really the Tooth Fairy." Then she waited for his reaction.

Booth felt a little light-headed and a lot of confused. "Wha..huh? Did your mommy tell you that?"

She shook her head. "No, I told her."

"But before you were talking about the Tooth Fairy bringing you money." Booth was wondering what the heck was going on.

Christine sat up straighter, nodded, and beamed. "Yes pretending is fun. I like playing like make believe is real."

"But then you told your mother that you know it's only make believe?" He asked for clarification.

Again she nodded. "Yes, Mommy says that accuracy is important, so I wanted to be accurate and tell her that I know who the Tooth Fairy really is."

Booth digested this; then asked. "So how did you figure that out?"

"Oh I talked about it with Michael Vincent. We both know that all the mommies and daddies pretend to be the Tooth Fairy. It's a big game of make believe."

Booth paused then squinting while thinking asked. "Did Michael Vincent tell his mommy and daddy that he knows the Tooth Fairy is just make believe, or is he still pretending?"

Christine sighed and tilting her head replied with a resigned expression on her face. "No, he didn't tell them. He said he wasn't going to say anything because when he told his mommy that he knew the Easter Bunny was just pretend she cried."

Booth was speechless for a moment, and was afraid to pursue this line of questioning any further because he really didn't want to find out that his little girl didn't believe in Santa Claus. He just asked. "So you're okay with us all pretending that the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are real? We'll all know the truth but keep on acting like they're real?"

Christine smiled agreement. "Yes please, that will be so much fun."

Booth breathed a sigh of relief. He really didn't want to admit how disappointed he'd be to have to forgo all those traditions.

They'd both just started eating their breakfast when Brennan entered with Hank. Upon seeing his father and sister Hank started happily chattering to them in a language only he understood. Brennan settled him into his highchair and asked how their conversation had gone.

He smiled. "It was good. Everything is good."

He sat back and watched as Brennan fed herself and Hank while Christine filled her in on the details of their conversation while also finishing off her own breakfast. He loved this life they'd built, and Christine really was a living blend of the two of them; way too smart and logical to buy into the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny, but with enough of him to want to pretend it's all real. Life is good.

A/N I had considered just ending it when Brennan and Christine head off to her room so if you'd prefer Christine didn't know the truth of the Tooth Fairy you can just pretend it ends there, but I also wanted to tell the story that came to me after seeing the episode and thinking of a conversation I'd had with my niece the weekend before. She lives over 2,,000 miles away so we don't get to see her or her daughters often and aren't really up to date on all the parenting decisions they make. Someone asked if the girls (ages 8 and 5) still believe in Santa Claus. She said they never did, they'd never really introduced the idea of Santa Claus but of course they'd heard of him. When the older daughter had asked about him she'd asked what she thought. Her daughter had the facts right….but she added that the 5 year old had decided she wanted to pretend that Santa was real, so between that conversation and the episode I just needed to tell this story.