A/N: Hello, readers! I'm assuming some of you are still alive and kicking out there. I know there have been no updates for... entirely too long. Old Boothaddict is crazy busy saving the world, and I've had a lot of things to deal with - complications with health, school, and life in general - but I'm back now, and the good news is I'll be updating atleast one of my multi-chapters atleast once before the week is out. I can't decide on whether it should be Don't Call It Bones, or Purak, or Not Seventeen Again, so if you have any opinions or preferences on that front, let me know!

I'd written this one-shot several months ago, possibly even over a year ago, and it just happened that I guessed at B&B's second kid being named Hank. There's a lot going on in this one, and it probably could have used an edit and a little snipping here and there, but it's just been sitting on the computer for so long, I thought I'd share it. I look forward to any and all feedback =)We're back, baby!

The Addition to the Family

'Booth', came the clear, decisive voice from behind him, as he stood in line for popcorn at the movie theatre. 'I want to sit over there.'

She tossed long hair over an ivory shoulder, and pointed, waiting expectantly. Fully aware he could deny her nothing,. The little minx.

'OK, sweetheart', Booth replied, with a sigh. 'I'll be right behind you.'

Booth looked down at her where she stood behind him. She flashed him a smile. His heart clenched.

'Booth?'

'Yes?'

'I want another one of these', she held out a half-eaten pack of rainbow-coloured candy. He opened his mouth to respond, looking at the long line ahead of them he'd just gotten out of. 'Please.'

He shut it. 'OK.'

'Uncle Booth?'

'Yes, darling?'

Harriet was going through a phase where she called most adults by their names so as to feel more grown up. It was adorable. She kept slipping up, though, and 'Uncle Booth' escaped out of habit.

'Dinosaurs weren't purple', she pointed at the poster behind them, and frowned. 'Dinosaurs weren't purple, so why is this one?'

Dinosaurs also couldn't talk, but that didn't seem to bother her. 'I saw it in the books.'

And this was perhaps the most Bones-like thing about her.

'It's, uh, it's just a cartoon.' He replied absently. 'Careful now- here take my hand. Don't push, Ari. Let these people go through.'

She had waited to see this movie for weeks. It was a long story, how he'd ended up here at the end of a long day, Booth thought, grabbing her hand gently in his much larger one before she could dart off in another direction.

It was one of those odd familial things that Harriet, Russ and Amy's first daughter together, looked a lot like Bones. Max had been the first to notice it, when he pointed out that Booth – who was great with kids, and a generally popular uncle with Michael-Vincent, Lance, and Amy's other kids – had a particular susceptibility to Harriet. In that she could almost always get him to do anything she wanted. She was a bit of a brat, really, but she had him wrapped around her [very little] little finger. As it happened, after Max - having shrewdly deduced the reasoning for it one afternoon upon walking into a room and seeing the two together so that it suddenly became clear to him - voiced his opinion on the matter, everyone else had to agree on it. Harriet looked an awful lot like her Aunt Temperance. Russ remembered that she even used to have hair uncannily like her when his sister had been that age. Silky, wavy brown tresses, the sparkle of defiant intelligence in her light eyes as she stuck that little nose into the air, her thin, upright little figure under those cute little frocks. And then suddenly there was no denying it.

She was visiting with them, as she often did, while Russ and Amy took a much-needed vacation for just the two f them. Amy's girls were off at college and school. Both of their own kids were out - Hank, Christine were at a day summer camp, Parker someplace else with friends, and Ari was too young to go with any of her cousins. Brennan was swamped with work, having been asked to deliver a guest lecture at a summit meet featuring a panel of renowned scientists, deliver a copy of her next book before deadline, and help The Jeffersonian pick a new intern for rotation since the last one had completed their PhD. Harriet breezed through the house, turning it upside down and rightside up, and it was becoming very clear she would have to be the focus of all attention for the day, including her aunt's. Brennan was getting increasingly agitated, and her husband was getting increasingly worried looking at her. So Booth had volunteered to take her to the movie.

'Are you sure?' His wife had asked.

'Yeah, ofcourse, Bones. It's fine. We'll be back in a couple hours. Relax, OK? Good luck with your work. Love you.'

'Booth...'

'I've bee wanting to see that orange dodo movie, anyway.'

'They're dinosaurs, Booth', she replied. 'And they're purple.' And she knew he was doing it just for her sake, and he knew that she knew, so he grinned at her, and she flashed him a slightly grateful, and still slightly stressed smile.

'Yeah, that'. He reached out and smoothed the furrow between her brows, stnading close enough that her breathing had automatically picked up and risen as the distance between them decreased. 'Relax, baby.'

'OK'

'OK'

'Back in a couple hours', he winked. 'Make the most of it.'

And he'd bundled up the little ball of energy efficiently, and led her out the door and into the car.

The carride to the theatre had been short, but full of conversation.

Harriet was very talkative. Her topic for the day seemed to be marriage.

'When you meet a nice boy… that is when you're 33 years old, and you meet a nice guy, then we'll have this talk.'

'Why 33?'

'I don't know'. Because it was ten years older than your aunt was? 'Just not before then'.

She paused contemplatively for a few moments. Finally,

'OK.'

'Then we'll have this talk again.'

'OK.'

'OK.'

'All boys are scum'.

'Yes', Booth unequivocally agreed, gleefully. 'All boys are scum.' He'd had less success getting Christine to repeat this philosophy in recent weeks, but he was still working on it. Then they got to the theatre.

They finally sat down in their seats, and she returned to the dinosaur question, the cute little furrow between her eyes.

'You look so much like your aunt when you do that', he murmured absently.

'Well I'd rather look like her than you'.

'Hey!' he replied, mildly insulted.

It had been so long since he'd been left alone with such a young child, he'd forgotten how amusing – and exasperating- and entertaining they could be.

'You're very handsome, Uncle Booth', she explained.

'Thank you', he interjected, still with a bemused smile.

'You're welcome', she added primly. 'Now I was saying, you're very handsome- for an old person- but-'

He frowned.

'But you're a man, and auntie Temperwance and mommy are girls, and I'd rather look like a girl, because I am a girl.'

Booth replied that that was fair.

'Parker looks like you, but he's a boy, so that's OK.' She paused. 'He's also very handsome. But don't tell him I said so. I don't like his hair. You can tell him that.'

'I gotta tell you, kiddo, I don't like his hair much either these days.' A cut was definitely in order. He wondered which in which century growing out your hair would stop being a rite of passage for young boys on the verge of becoming men.

After this, Booth explained that they weren't related by blood anyway, so there was little danger of her looking like him, and she could rest easy.

'Oh', was all he got for his troubles. Then she sat and alternately gaped and frowned at the screen as she watched the movie. He watched her for a bit, then went back to it.

Harriet was in a 'why' phase. 'Why are the characters not real if the trees are real? Why is the sky orange? Why is the lion not eating the human? Why is that one purple?' And a general questioning all things phase – a phase which the much more adult Brennan had never emerged from, so there was a good chance it'd last forever. 'Are they puppets- Arya had a puppet once. They don't look like puppets. They don't look real. How do they move? Is that a real bird? Can birds talk? Do all birds fly? Can I have more soda?'

After the first barrage of questions had ended, and she had been shushed and admonished for not whispering, she quieted down a bit to watch the movie. But the warning hadn't deterred her very much and he hadn't been very stern about it. During a lull in the movie, she leaned over and asked in a loud whisper,

'Are the birds going to get a divoss?'

'No, I don't think so.'

'They've been fighting.'

'Yeah, but that doesn't mean they don't love each other, OK? Now sh, you're disturbing the other people', replied Booth softly, passing her some more popcorn in an unsuccessful attempt to distract her. He was getting quite wrapped up in the movie now himself.

'Yes. You and Auntie Tempwance fight all the time', she pointed out smartly.

'Ye-No- Yeah, but that's different. I love your aunt.' Booth could see the middle-aged woman next to them hiding a smile. 'We bicker. We don't, you know, fight.'

'I don't know.'

'What?'

'I don't know. What's the difference?' so much like Brennan he could almost have suspected she was being deliberately obtuse sometimes – if she wasn't six. And so damn cute. 'I just asked you that, you know.'

'You know', was a habit that she'd picked up from him, as Brennan informed him. She was at that young, impressionable age where she'd imitate anything – or anyone – she liked.

'Well…' Booth rubbed the back of his neck. 'Your aunt and I, that's just how we talk. It's fighting, but it's not really fighting. We have differences of opinion-' and voice them constantly- 'that means', he added before she could ask 'that we don't always see things the same way. But we still love each other.'

'I know that.'

'OK. Good. That's good.'

'If you really fight and you move out, can I stay with you? And go to Auntie Tempwance's for dinners? And maybe, lunch?'

Booth looked down at her, alarmed.

'Why would you think I was going to move out?'

'I don't. But Gwanpa Maxh said that if you weren't careful moving those boxes in the garage Auntie Tempwance would throw you out of the house.'

She couldn't do 'x's. The sound hissed through her teeth, creating a slight 'h' cushioning sound at the end. The lady behind them was definitely stifling laughter now.

'Yeah, well, he may be right about that', Booth shuddered. 'No man should ever get between Bones and her books.'

'Will you get a divoss?' her lower lip trembled.

'No. You don't ever have to worry about that, OK?

'But if you do…'

'We won't, baby, I promise.'

'OK.' The silence lasted a half second. 'If you got a divoss would you still be my uncle?'

'Ari…'

'But Maxh said, and you just said you might get thrown out of the house!'

'Sweetheart, that was a joke, OK? But I can see why it would be confusing for you. Your aunt is not- uh- she's not going to throw me out of our house. And I'll have a talk with your Grandpa Max.' Harriet nodded. 'You know how Bones loves her books right? Well - she may not admit it, but I know she loves me more', he winked. 'You should have seen her that time I dropped one of the boxes, though. She almost exploded', he made a soft, big whoosh sound that had her giggling, just as he'd intended.

'Josh's mommy threw Josh's Daddy out of the house, you know.'

Oh boy.

'Did Josh's daddy not love his mommy?'

Booth cringed, paused, then sighed.

'I don't know, sweetheart. Sometimes… sometimes people stop loving each other the way they used to. Sometimes they fight too much, and then their differences become irreconcilable. Know what that means?'

'No'.

He explained, as best he could.

'So it's a difference of opinion?'

'You can have differences of opinion and still love each other, but sometimes you grow apart, you become too different, and then it doesn't work anymore, you know? But I can almost guarantee you, even without knowing all the rest of it' he added seriously. 'That both, uh, Josh's mommy and daddy still love him.'

'Ir-reconcilable?'

'Irreconcilable.'

She loved learning new words, and he was hoping this one would distract her from a topic that seemed to be plaguing her, probably because of a combination of things she'd overheard lately, and top on that list being a classmate's parents' divorce in primary school.

'If you and Aunt Tempe get a divorss, will you still be my uncle?'

Again her lips quivered around the word, and his heartstrings quivered right along.

'That's not going to happen, so you don't need to worry about it.'

'But if it does?'

'It will never happen, I promise.'

Her lower lip trembled.

'But do you promise you'll always be my uncle?'

Booth sighed.

'Because Bones will always be your aunt – I promise. Always.'

She also had the ability, like Bones, to take him from frustrated to hopelessly charmed in the space of a heartbeat.

And the movie was finally drawing to a close, and they headed home after it was finished. Brennan was waiting for them, and Booth could tell from one careful look that she

'I'm exhausted', Booth set his keys down in the bowl on the mantle, absently lifting his wallet from the pocket of his cargo shorts to add with it. 'Her, not so much', he indicated Harriet, who had barely paused long enough to greet her aunt and was now bounding up the stairs.

'How much candy did you give her?' Brennan raised her eyebrows. A classic mom gesture that never failed to intimidate and amuse.

'Only one bar' he smiled at the knowing look his wife was giving him. God, how he loved her. 'I bought her the sugarless stuff first because I knew she'd ask for another. I learned from the best, Bones.'

She smiled up at him as he wrapped his arms around her.

'Yes, you did.'

'I love you.'

She smiled in slight surprise, having just seen him two hours ago, but echoed the sentiment anyway.

'No, really. I love coming home to you.' He leaned down and dropped a kiss on her lips.

She understood the meaning behind the words. It seemed almost unreal, even now, even with all the ugliness they had to deal with at work everyday, that life could be this good. This simple.

He looked down at her, a secret smirk playing about his lips.

'What?'

'Nothing.'

His hands framed her face as he looked down at her. He smirked again, that slightly boyish, ridiculously manly, oh-so sexy smirk, and Brennan actually squirmed in place.

'Make any progress?' He asked somewhat huskily, knowingly.

'Y-yes.' She cleared her throat and continued more strongly. 'I'm finished with-'

But he interrupted her.

'You're not done with your book, but you called your new preppy editor and told her the publishers could stuff it, but she'd have to stick with the original deadline if they want to extend your contract. The remains, of course, you identified first of all. You've finished your speech, but you've still got to write an opening joke. Don't worry, Bones, I won't help you with it. Not unless you ask very nicely.' And he had practically purred the last words in that silken voice, as she pouted. She didn't bother asking him how he knew. Booth had always known these things about her. Before she could ask, anyway, he pulled her impossibly closer, so close without their bodies actually touching.

'How's about-' he looked towards the staircase. 'How's about I go tuck in our little niece, and then, 'his hands slid lower onto her waist and his smile dropped as she gasped and his eyes darkened as hers widened, 'I'll tuck you in. I'll help you relax, Bones'.

He nuzzled her neck, and her head dropped back. 'Booth...'

'I'll help you relax, and then when you're all nice... and relaxed...' he dropped a kiss against her skin and smiled as she gasped involuntarily. 'Then maybe you can work on your joke. Alone.'

She laughed.

'OK'

'OK?'

He smiled that full, Booth smile, that smile she had never seen directed at anyone else but her, by anyone not bearing the last name Booth. She loved that smile. And she loved her husband.

'I love you, Booth.'

'I love you too, Bones.'

He smiled down at her playfully.

Booth was pouting. Once more. Brennan bit her lip to keep from smiling.

'Booth…' she said indulgently, pre-emptively and somewhat admonishingly. 'I know you don't like it, but she's been with us two weeks already, Russ and Amy are done with their vacation, and it was time for her to go back to her parents.'

'Why?' Booth whined.

Brennan simply shook her head and refused to answer, knowing the tantrum was only just beginning. It had to be allowed to run its course.

'Couldn't we keep her just a little bit longer?' He wheedled. 'They have three; they're not going to notice if one goes missing.'

'As a father of three yourself, I'm sure you'll agree you would notice if, uh, one child went missing.'

'She looks just like you', he breathed, stepping forward suddenly and rubbing the little crease between her brows that appeared as she frowned. He looked completely enraptured and she wasn't able to breathe speak for a moment, and had she been thinking straight or at all she would have been amazed at her ability to string together a coherent sentence. When she did,it came out a bit shakily.

'While I still don't really see it, and Harriet is a six-year-old so her facial features aren't fully developed yet, I admit there is a certain resemblance, and there are certain… similarities in our manner of speech and bearing.'

'So many', he murmured absently, his gaze darting all over her face.

'I want another kid.'

'Booth…'

He placed one hand on either side of the wall behind her face which he had been cupping moments earlier.

'No. I want another kid.'

He had trapped her against a wall by this point.

'You're serious?' she breathed, and

'Yes', he said. 'God, yes.'

'But Booth…' she bit her lip.

'What, Bones? You're still plenty young enough to have a baby. We're taking it easy at work. We could both afford the time off, and –'

Brennan paused.

'Christine has already gotten so much older. And Parker is-'

'Old enough that he'll be happy for us and he can definitely babysit on date-night, and Hank and Christine would love a new baby brother – or sister – to play with.'

The last, she knew, was a reference to the time Parker had babysat Hank for them. He had been 14, just getting into girls, and he'd had a girl over with tacit permission. They were watching a movie when Booth and Brennan returned, only to find the baby alarm off – which Parker hadn't noticed – and Hank crying – which Parker also hadn't noticed, given that his baby brother was in the crib in his room and Parker had just manoeuvred his arm over his date, who had been peremptorily sent home to her parents. Frightened for their infant son and what could have happened, Booth had given him such a lecture and dressing down that Parker hadn't received in years and he was still shell-shocked when his father stormed upstairs. Brennan had lingered in the kitchen silently.

'I'm sorry he was hard on you.' She had said. 'But your father is right. That was really irresponsible, Parker. Anything could have happened. I hope you know that now.'

He replied that he did know. 'Msorry, Bones', and he'd looked very much the five-year-old that was the first kid she'd really fallen in love with and she'd just sighed and said 'come here' as he'd gratefully accepted the embrace. A slightly disturbed Booth, his temper uncontrolled, had been about to dismiss Parker to his room when she'd given him a death glare as if to say, no you go to your room, before he'd looked at her in disbelief and headed off. Brennan sighed. She'd gone upstairs and looked at her husband silently without saying a thing.

'What, are you going to make me apologise to him?' Booth asked, ire still not gone from his tone.

'No, but I do think you were far too harsh on him and you can't expect me to be the same way. Goodnight.' She'd replied, miffed. She had let him hold her when he slid down next to her with a sigh to go to sleep, though he hadn't said anything and propped up against the headboard and just fumed quietly until then.

'You're hoping it'll be a girl again, aren't you?' She asked, eyebrow raised, as he grinned at her foolishly.

'Or a boy', he shrugged honestly. 'It'd be nice to even out the number, but it doesn't matter to me.' Then- 'Is that a yes?'

Brennan licked her lips absently as she did sometimes when she was contemplating something, and his gaze dropped as he tried very hard – and unsuccessfully – not to moan.

'Yes.'

A/N: Well there you have it! It's hopelessly unedited, so please let me know if there are any glaring errors to correct. And don't forget to weigh in on which fic you'd like to see updated next - Purak, DCIB, NSA, or one of the others. Have a great day, wherever in the world you are. Sending lots of love and Booths to you all.