A/N: Here is week two! The prompt was 'I'm not scared of anything'. I figured since my last chapter was Hodgela centric, I thought I'd level the field and give you nerds something with the Booth family.
Enjoy!
The day of the annual First Grade field trip had arrived, and Christine Booth was very excited.
"And we're gonna get to see the penguins and the hippos. Oh! And, Mommy! Chloe went with her class last week and she said they have this thing at the lion exhibit where you stand under this thing and it looks like you're actually out there with the lions! Oh, Mommy, can I do that? Please?"
Brennan chuckles as her daughter happily wiggles in front of her. She holds Christine steady with a hand and takes another section of her hair with the other. "We'll see, sweetheart. Now hold still or your braids won't be even."
"Sorry. I'm just so excited!"
"I know you are," Brennan smiles. She finishes braiding the rest of her daughter's hair and then places the hairbrush on top of Christine's dresser. "There: all done. Finish getting dressed and then come have some breakfast, okay?"
"Okay," Christine answers, plopping down on her bed to put on socks and shoes.
Brennan pauses in the doorway, making sure Christine is trying her shoes correctly, and sure that she is, she leaves the room and heads for the kitchen.
"Mama!" Hank cheers from his high chair, waving his fork around.
"Hey, buddy," Brennan says, going to him. She takes the fork from his hand a spears another bite before handing it back.
"And a high energy breakfast for my first explorer," Booth grins at her, setting at a plate of the same eggs, toast, and sausage he made for the rest of them in front of Brennan as she sits at the bar in front of him.
"Booth! That isn't-"
"No. It's that tofu stuff you like," he answers, knowing her question.
"Well thank you," Brennan says, digging into her breakfast.
"Gotta get energy for your big trip today. Oh, I am so jealous of you, Bones! You know they just redid their monkey exhibit, right? I'm so mad you get to see it first."
"Well, if you would rather go instead. I'm sure I could jump back into our current case."
"No, no, no! You're not weaseling your way out of this one. You promised Christine you would go, you can't back out. You said you would spend the day with her and not with work. The Squints back at the lab can handle it for a day."
Just then, Christine rushes in, a wide smile on her face.
"Hey, Monkey! Come eat. I was just telling Mommy that you both have to get some good energy for your trip today," Booth says to his daughter.
"Daddy? Can't you and Hank come too?" Christine asks, sullen, digging into her food.
"No, I have to go to work and you brother would just be bored the whole time. Besides, you don't wanna have your little brother there embarrassing you in front of you friends, right?"
"Yeah. I'm just sad you're gonna miss it!"
"I know you are. I'll tell you what: when you come home tonight, you can tell me all about it, okay? And then we'll go as a whole family really soon."
"Okay," Christine says, perking back up. "Mommy, you have you pack us lunch, remember?"
"I know. I was just about to do that," Brennan nods, standing. She puts her plate in the sink and goes to the refrigerator. She's surprised to find two packed lunchboxes, Christine's monkey one she usually takes to school, and a blue one Brennan has had longer than she can remember, staring at her when she opens the door. "Booth? Did you do this?" She asks, wiping around to her husband. Booth smirks, nodding.
"Just call me 'Super Dad'," he gloats.
"What did you make?" Brennan asks, setting both out on the counter and starting to open one.
"Not-uh!" Booth shouts, slapping her hand away. "Don't look yet, It's a surprise. And I think you are going to like it," he says, pointing to his daughter who smiles and bounces in her seat.
Brennan eyes her husband for a minute, not sure whether to trust him.
"Come on, Bones! That's the fun part about field trips: eating a special lunch."
"Fine,": she resolves, handing Christine her bag. "Go put this into your backpack, please."
Fifteen minutes later, everyone in the Booth family was ready to go for the day.
"Bye, Daddy! Bye, Hank!" Christine cheers, hugging her dad and brother.
"Bye, Monkey. Have fun," Booth tells her, watching as she rushes to her mom's car and climbs into her seat. "Bye, mommy," Booth smiles to Brennan, stealing a kiss.
"Bye, baby," Brennan says, going first for her son, who reaches out for her and starts to whine, and then her husband, getting another kiss from him. "Love you."
"Love you too." One more kiss and then Booth heads for his truck and buckles Hank into his car seat before getting in himself. Both cars back out of the driveway at the same time, the boys going one way, and the girls in another.
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Christine's entire class was dressed nearly identically: sneakers and the red t-shirt with 'Ms. Susan's First Grade' written on it. The only difference between the kids was the bottoms they wore; some wore jeans, others had shorts, Christine, for example, paired her shirt with black polka dot leggings and her favorite sparkly, pink sneakers. Another thing that was the same about the twenty-two first graders was that none of them were paying attention to the morning announcements playing on the TV in the front of the room. They were all talking and moving around; too excited to sit still.
When the announcements end, Ms. Susan moves to the front of the room and gets her student's attention by clapping a rhythm and having the repeat it. Once they are listening, she gives their next instructions. "Alright, the bus will be here soon, so when I tell you, I want you all to line up at the door." She gives the signal and her class lines up as quietly as any group of kids excited to go on a trip can. The head out to the waiting school bus and pile on. A trio of girls make a beeline for the very back seats and refuse to let anyone else sit back sits at the window sharing the seat across from her mom with her best friend Emma, and their other friend, Hazel, the little blonde girl who was so interested and inquisitive during Brennan's presentation during Career Day.
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The drive to the zoo, though short, felt endless. Lots of talking and shouting, which gave Brennan the beginnings of a headache. Christine spent most of the drive talking and giggling with her friends, and at one point playing a hand-clapping game Emma had learned at Brownies. Brennan made awkward chit-chat with some of the other parents chaperoning the trip and managed to resist the urge to look text Angela for updates on the case.
"Look!" It's the zoo!"
"The Zoo!"
"We're here!"
Shouts rang through the bus as they pulled up to the front entrance of the zoo, and the adults struggled to keep the kids in their seats just a few moments longer. The driver stops right in front and smiles at the kids as they get off, jumping down the high step.
After collecting everyone, taking attendance one more time and splitting off into smaller groups, they were sent off to explore, their only instruction was to meet at the pavilion at one-thirty for lunch. Brennan leads her group, Christine, Hazel, Asher (a boy with brown hair and deep green eyes), Cody (a little black boy with glasses, who also answered a question during Career Day), and Emma.
"Mommy? How come we're not going to the elephants first?" Christine asks as they walk past the first exhibit.
"Because everyone goes there first and there will be a large crowd and hard to see. This way we'll see it later and be able to see better," Brennan explains.
"Oh, okay," Christine nods, taking Emma's hand and beginning to skip.
They spend some time with the American Bison, and even longer with the cheetahs. All the animals in the Asia area are a hit, especially the giant pandas, which turn out to be Cody's favorite animal.
"Mommy, look! The baby one is the same age as Hank!" Christine remarks, reading the information about the animals.
"I guess he is," Brennan laughs after reading the sign herself. "Come one, let's keep walking."
They go through the birdhouse and admire the pink flamingos and the vultures, which Brennan doesn't fail to tell her group that they are carrion and eat dead animals.
"That's gross," Asher says.
"No, it's not! Vultures eat the stuff the lions and cheetahs can't or don't eat," Christine says, trying to make it sound better for her friend.
They finally hit up the elephant area, and just like Brennan had said: the crowd was thinner and the little kids had no trouble getting right up to the fence to see the giant mammals. There was a zookeeper in the enclosure giving a talk and they stayed to listen a while. He gave all sorts of facts about elephants and gave them new toys to play with and treats to eat. Cody gets a coupon for a free ice cream fro answering a question, and Emma swears one of the elephants waved right at her.
"It was probably just a reflex. Come on, let's keep going," Brennan assures the girl, nudging them away from the elephants.
"No, it wasn't. He really did wave at me," Emma cries, stomping ahead of them. Christine follows, ready to make her friend feel better.
"Dr. Brennan? Are elephant bones like people bones?" Hazel asks, looking up at her.
"In a way, yes," Brennan start,s trying to explain it in a way the first grader will understand. "Elephant and human skeletons share similar structures like ribs and femurs, that's the large bone in your thigh, but they are also different."
"Oh," the girl replies. "It's cause we're mammals, right? And all mammals are kind the same and kinda different too."
"Yes, you could say that," Brennan nods. "Christine! Emma! Stay close, please!" she calls to the other girls, who stop and wait for them.
Hazel keeps up a constant stream of questions all the way to the Amazon Rainforest area. The temperature is instantly twenty degrees hotter and humid. They did a lap around the room, running into another group from their class in the process, checking out all the creatures.
"Dr. Brennan! They have a snake!" Cody happily cheers. "Can we go see it?"
"Of course you may," Brennan smiles, following her kids to where a zookeeper was surrounded by a group of people. In her arms was a very large black and brown snake.
"-And these Boa's can grow up to six feet long. This one isn't fully grown yet, he's only about three and a half feet long," The keeper says. She rattles off more facts about the snake, then says "If you would like to touch him, form a line right here. And I ask that you only use two fingers when you do, okay? We don't want him to get too scared."
"Mommy, are you coming?" Christine asks, getting into line behind her classmates to touch the snake.
"No, I'm going to wait right here. You go, I'll watch," Brennan smiles, trying not to let on that she was kind of scared of the snake. Not that it could really hurt her, small children were petting it after all, but just the idea of it made her cringe.
The line moved and each person took their turn. Christine squealed during her turn, a wide smile on her face
"Mommy! You have to try it! They're not slimy at all; they're smooth." Christine says, coming back to her.
"Yeah, you have too! It's cool," Emma agrees.
"No, I'm fine."
"Mommy," Christine meet her with a fierce look. "You have to face your fears head on. You have to go up to the snake and tell it 'you're not scary' and touch it and then it won't be scary anymore."
Brennan looks at her daughter, whose advice came directly from her father's mouth. She lets out a breath and smiles. "Okay. I'll do it."
The kids cheer for her and are so proud of Brennan when she touches the snake; it really isn't so bad, good even. She laughs at their behavior and rushes them from the room.
"You did it, Mommy!" Christine shouts back outside. "I'm so proud of you!"
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At lunch, the class spread out along two picnic tables, adults at one end, kids on the other, and Brennan could instantly see the friendship and cliques that had formed. It amazed her that even at such a young age these kids had already formed a social hierarchy. Not much had changed since she was in school. The popular kids were still popular, and there was a group who didn't fit in anywhere.
"Mommy! It's pizza! Daddy packed us pizza!" Christine shouts to her, holding up her lunch.
"So it is," Brennan agrees, finding a similarly wrapped packed in her lunch bag. She watches her daughter talk and laugh with her friends, enjoying her special lunch and their amazing trip.
They all eat and enjoy themselves and eventually clean up to explore more.
There's a bit of time left after lunch and so Brennan and her group hit up the last few exhibits. The big cats are a hit, and Christine does get to crawl into the acrylic dome that makes it look at though she's right in the middle of the lion enclosure.
"Christine! Look at me!" Brennan call,s quickly snapping a photo when her daughter smiles.
The gorillas and orangutans are next and the boys have fun jumping around and pounding on their chests like the animals in front of them. And the kids laugh as the baby orangutan takes an interest in them and starting following them along the glass wall. They play with him and enjoy when he starts to mimic their movements.
Their last stop is the reptile house where there are more creatures to touch. All of the kids in Brennan's group touch and feel everything they can, including another snake and a bearded dragon. They somehow convince Brennan to touch the snake too, and once again cheer when she does.
"Not too fond of snakes?" the zookeeper asks.
"You could say that," Brennan nods.
"Glad you did it?"
"I am."
"Good. That's what this is all about."
And after a stop in the gift shop for a few treats, the group finds their class and gets ready to go home.
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"We're home!" Brennan calls into the house.
"Hey! I was starting to get worried about you two," Booth says, coming out of the living room to meet them at the door. "Hey, Monkey!" He says, hugging her. "Did you have fun?"
"It was the best day ever! We saw the monkeys and the tigers and I got to go inside the lion cage. Mommy, show Daddy the picture! And we got stuck in traffic and the bus broke down and we had to wait forever to get a new one. Oh! And, Daddy! Mommy touched a snake and she wasn't even scared!."
"Wow! You two had quite a day, didn't you?"
"It was quite fun," Brennan smiles.
"Well I'm glad," he says, kissing her. "Come on," he leads both girls into the living room and sits them down on the couch. "Did you say you went inside the lion cage and didn't get eaten?"
"Uh-huh!" Christine nods happily.
"Wow! Tell me about it."