A/N: Here's a fun, fluffy little thing for this week's challenge. It's set season 8/9. Hope you like it!
Oh! and for my 'Merica peeps: Happy 4th!
"This might burn a little."
"Ah! God, Bones! A little warning would have been nice!"
"Sorry, but this should teach you not to work in the yard barefoot," Brennan says, cleaning out the cut on Booth's foot.
"Well, who the hell else is gonna finish that treehouse? And it's too hot for shoes."
"You could always pay someone to finish it for you."
"Why would I do that when I can do it just fine on my own?"
"You make a valid point. Now, hold still," she spreads cream over the cut and covers it with the only band-aid they had: Minion printed that Christine had received from her cousin Michael for her birthday. "There: all done."
"Thanks, Bones," Booth says, kissing her. He stands and limps the few steps out of the bathroom, pausing in the doorway. "It's quiet."
His statement makes Brennan stop and listen as well. "Too quiet."
The adults rush out of the bathroom and back into the living room where they had left Christine playing so good with her toys while her parents got some housework done. But the room was empty, the only sign a little girl had been there was the tea set and a few baby dolls lying on the rug.
"Christine?" Brennan calls, looking in all the usual places she could be hidden.
"Christine?" Booth asks, moving in the opposite direction to the kitchen. He rounds the counter and stops. "Bones, I found her!" he stage-whispers, getting his girlfriend's attention and motioning her over.
"Where?" Brennan asks, getting closer. Booth points and Brennan smiles.
Christine stands in front of the open pantry, where her mom had been not five minutes prior cleaning it out, a jar of peanut butter almost as big as she is in her hands. She's dipping her fingers in and pulls out globs of the stuff, which promptly goes into her mouth. And everywhere else she can reach. The counter behind her. The cabinets. The floor. Her hair. Her neck. Her arms. Her dress. There's even some on the tops of her feet, which her parents don't even want to know how it got there.
"Alright, that's enough," Booth says, grabbing the jar out of her hands, to which Christine yells and starts crying at. "No, don't start on that," Booth says, picking her up and sitting her on the counter. "You know you're not supposed to be in there without mommy or me." Christine's cries slow to hiccups and she nods, knowing she did wrong and is in trouble. "Now, say sorry to mommy for eating her peanut butter."
"Sorry, mommy," Christine says, tears still in her eyes.
"It's alright, sweetheart," Brennan smiles softly, smoothing out her hair.
"Good. Now, let's go take a bath before Grandpa gets here, huh?" Booth says, scooping her up again and turning for the stairs.
A few hours later, when Max arrives to watch Christine while her parents have Date Night, off his questioning look at his freshly bathed granddaughter, Booth shrugs and explains the events of that afternoon.
"And that's why the Monkey was covered in peanut butter."