Life in the Booth household had become less frenetic lately. Brennan's bouts of hormonal turmoil were becoming less frequent, just as her doctor had told her they would. Her mood swings had settled to a minimum, and she was much calmer these days. She still had moments when Booth wanted to duck for cover, but happily, they were less volatile and lasted for much shorter periods of time. Booth had gone back to work, however she had not gone back to work after her two week break as originally planned. Well, actually that's not quite true. She had tried.
Her first day back at work was if nothing else, reminiscent of a bad Tarantino movie. There was blood. Lots of it. Literally.
Clark and Wendell had been preparing a body that had been discovered, buried near a children's playground at a local school, for Cam to do the autopsy. They were not expecting Brennan to walk into the lab, or rather, waddle. At seven months gestation, she was considerably larger than she was while carrying Christine. Her feet were heavily swollen, and she had only left home twenty minutes earlier.
She wasn't even going to tell Booth that she had to push the driver's seat all the way back to fit behind the wheel and that her toes only just reached the gas pedal. She had greeted them as she normally would, cordially but curtly. She asked where Cam was, and they had started to tell her, when she noticed the body and decided to take a look. It was, after all going to be her first day back on the job. She wanted to take note of the victim prior to Cam doing the autopsy and them eventually preparing the bones for her.
Both Wendell and Clark were surprised to see her, and told her that they had not been advised that she was returning. Clark kept his eyes averted from Brennan, remembering his fascination for her breast size the last time she was pregnant. She pushed in-between them to see, but her foot connected with a pedal under the bench which opened the chute that released the contents of the tray beneath the body. Unfortunately, Clark had not yet put the buckets in place and all the body fluids gushed from the tray across the floor of the lab. Both Clark and Wendell stood frozen for a moment before they both reacted, but they were unable to. It was dark, sticky, and, unfortunately for Clark extremely slippery. He collided with Wendell as they both dove for the pedal to close the chute and lost his balance. He hit the floor with a sickeningly wet thud, sliding sideways away from where Brennan and Wendell stood.
Wendell managed to close the chute, albeit too late. He stood back, slightly behind Brennan, looking at Clark who was struggling to get up off the floor, his hands and feet sliding awkwardly as though he was playing some weird game of twister. Brennan was still in shock at her mishap and was staring at the pedal she had unwittingly stepped on. Wendell finally lost his composure and burst out laughing. Guffawing was probably a better description. He was doubled over, holding his stomach and to make it worse, pointing at Clark.
Clark, needless to say was unimpressed. He managed to crawl out of the pool of blood, sat up and removed his shoes and socks, throwing them at a nearby rubbish bin, then using a secured bench, haul himself up off the floor. His clothing was soaked, dark red and pungent. Brennan suddenly realising what had happened, had watched Clark crawling across the lab floor when she burst out laughing, encouraged by Wesley's now high pitched giggling.
Cam walked in at that moment. To say she was not happy was an understatement. Evidence had been lost. The lab was a mess. Clark was a combination of fuming and embarrassment, while Brennan and Wendell were acting like two school children. Brennan apologised profusely, both for her reaction, and for the mess, taking total blame for the mishap, before she backed into another bench with some jars of samples, sending them toppling to the floor, which had sent Wendell off on another bout of girly giggling. Cam had dismissed Clark to go get cleaned up and ordered Wes to clean up the lab. His laughter immediately disappearing when he realised he was going to have to do all the work. And of course that made Clark quite happy and he was laughing as he exited the lab.
Brennan had followed Cam to her office to discuss her coming back to work when it had suddenly occurred to her that just maybe, she was way too heavy and cumbersome. Her hands, swollen, were no longer agile, and she would not have been able to handle the equipment or the fine fragments of bone that her job entailed.
Cam pointed out those very facts to her, along with the occupational health and safety issues. She was disappointed at first, and there were tears, that made Cam uncomfortable. They stopped as quickly as they had started and Brennan admitted to her that this pregnancy was having much more impact on her physically and emotionally than she had expected. Cam had been both sympathetic and relieved. And so she and Cam decided mutually that she would be starting her maternity leave immediately. Cam was more than amenable, keen to get her out of the lab without causing any more mishaps, and told her that it was for the best and to keep in touch. They made arrangements to go out to lunch before the babies arrived. And so she had gotten back in the car, driven for the last time, and accepted that being at home was clearly was the best place for her to be.
At her obstetrics appointment the next day, her doctor had also agreed that she had made a very wise decision. Her blood pressure was good, and her fluid retention, while still not great, was better than it had been two weeks earlier, while she was working, standing on her feet for most of the day. She had some sugar readings that he was not particularly surprised by, but basically told her that if she kept on doing what she was doing, she would delivery two healthy bouncing baby boys in less than ten weeks. He had also prepared her for the possibility that she may go into early labour because of the size of the babies, and to be organised and ready to go straight to hospital should that occur.
Brennan's early pregnancy home birth plans had been quickly put to rest once she had mentioned them to her doctor. Twin births held their own set of complications and he had told Brennan that she would find it hard finding anyone who would agree to take on a home multiple birth. Brennan of course had fussed and argued, but then after doing a mountain of research had realised that her doctor might actually be right, so had reluctantly agreed that hospital was going to be the way to go and booked a birthing suite.
Booth had been completely oblivious to all of this as she had not told him of her original plan to give birth to their children in the middle of their living room in a portable blow up pool. It was also highly likely that Booth would never survive that experience.
Angela had finally brought Christine home. She had spent three weeks of the summer holidays with Angela, Jack and Michael. The two children had had a wonderful time together. Angela had told Brennan that Christine was welcome any time. Michael and her were the best of friends. He was six months older than Christine, but funnily enough she was bigger than he was. Something that Christine loved to point out to him. She was tall and strong of limb, resembling her father. Michael was more, shall we say, petite. While his mother was a tall woman, he had not inherited her genes, more favouring his father, and was clearly at this stage not heading towards a career as an NBA basketballer.
Michael had, however, inherited his father's sense of humour, and natural curiosity in the world around him. He was always finding slimy, crawly, multi-legged creatures in the garden and would bring them inside and he and his father would pore over them together. Angela had put her foot down after finding a container of maggots in the kitchen fridge one day right next to a rice salad she had prepared. She had banished them to the shed at the bottom of the garden and thrown the rice away, unable to face eating it.
Angela, when told of Brennan's news had been very excited for her friend, although a little jealous. She and Jack had been trying for three years to conceive another child. It was hard news to swallow. She had conceived twice, but had miscarriages at around eleven weeks both times. Brennan found it hard to talk about with her. She hadn't had any trouble falling pregnant. In fact, both times, she hadn't even been trying, truth be told. She didn't want to sound flippant or insensitive, which she was well aware she could do if she started using medical reasoning. Instead she remembered that a strong arm around a shoulder, a kind word and an open ear were what most people needed when struggling. Booth had taught her that.
Booth had taught her many things.
She and Christine had stood and waved goodbye to Angela. Brennan had hugged her daughter tightly and kissed her face over and over, telling her how much she had missed her, much to Christine's surprise and disgust. Kissing was for babies. Not six and a half year old girls. Brennan had missed this little girl with her smart mouth and her energetic personality. She was most definitely her father's daughter. And she loved her and Booth both so much.
Christine had been a little bit upset when her mother had shown her the nursery with all its boxes and parcels still unopened. She had explained to Christine that they just had to get these things because the babies might come earlier than they expected. Christine had brightened when she heard that she might get her baby brothers a bit earlier than originally expected. Brennan then took Christine to her room to unpack and the first thing the little girl saw was the Tinkerbell lamp sitting on her bedside table. Her eyes were wide as she turned around and looked at her mother. She recognised it from the brochure they had been looking at before she had gone to Angela's. Brennan smiled widely as Christine had wrapped her arms around her stomach and hugged her.
She left Christine playing in her room with the other present from her father. A Tinkerbell doll and dressup set. Booth was most definitely a soft touch when it came to his daughter. Once Booth got home from work, they would have dinner and no doubt Christine would have them in stitches regaling them with tales of her and Michael's adventures. She had Booth's knack for story telling, more correctly exaggerating the truth.
She slowly came down the stairs and walked into the living room. Brennan sat on the couch and looked around her, her hands absently stroking her belly. She was a lucky woman. She understood now why women in love, and with families, always that that sort of glow about them. She was fairly certain she had that glow now. She closed her eyes and smiled.