Title: A Time to Grow
Author: Megan Faye
Rated: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own Bones.
NOTE: I know, I know. So close, and so far away.
I fixed the mistakes, changed out the double chapter for the corrected one, and added more to this, so it makes more sense. I wrote this very late last night. The second ppart of the story will fill in more blanks, when i start it. Thanks for reading.
"I'm sorry, but we have no location for Parker Booth."
"I know my son is somewhere in the city. Please, just let me out for the day. I'm speaking clearly, I remembered my name. I know I am supposed to meet someone at the reflecting pool today. She'll know how to find my son."
"All right. I'd like to keep you another three or four days; you just started speaking 10 hours ago."
"I know. I know. But I need to see Bones. She can help me find Parker." The doctor handed him his uniform. Booth quickly dressed and pulled on his boots. He'd be there before Brennan, and have coffee. If anyone knew where Parker was, it would be her.
Joe decided it was time for breakfast at 6:40 am on May 10th. He was 6 weeks old, and had a good idea of how things worked. He cried and someone came running. Today, however, this Mommy person was already awake, and lifted him up before he could really get loud. In his 6-week-old brain, he figured that yes, this was the life.
"Parker," Brennan called into the hall, the baby still attached to her breast. "Shower please. We're leaving in 20 minutes." No answer. "Parker?"
"In here," he called from the dining room. "Couldn't sleep. I already showered, dressed, and finishing breakfast.
"Wonderful," she said. Parker knew how important today was to Brennan.
"Your breakfast is on the table, too," he called. "Bagel, cream cheese, pesto sauce."
"Thanks, I'll be in shortly."
Brennan went over the last year in her life, and how drasically it had changed. Her apartment was her home, and with that, her boys were her family. She loved waking up to Parker playing the piano in the living room, or to Joseph fussing to have her attention. She'd given up on finding Booth alive when another piece of his dog tag landed in the lab with another unidentified soldier. Basically, someone had stepped on an old-fashioned land mine, and blown into, basically, dust. That is the only way his tags could have gotten in the condition they were in.
She and Parker had a long talk about today. They were going to take Joseph there, to enjoy the sunshine, and Parker could have his first coffee.
It would be a day where they sat on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial, sipping Latte, and remembering Booth.
"Let's go," Brennan said, picking up her bagel. She let Parker push the stroller while she ate on the way to the car. "Parker?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm sorry about your parents."
"Thanks."
Joseph rested in the stroller while his mom and brother chatted and laughed. He was content to listen to them while he studied the thumb he was currently trying to figure out.
"What is your favorite memory of your dad?" Brennan asked. Parker squinted and thought back.
"We played football in the park a lot, and that was fun, but its hard to pick one memory."
"I know what you mean."
"Yours?"
"We had a lot of interesting cases. One that stuck with me was Andy. He was a baby in a tree. His mother had been run off the road, and his car seat had flown out into a tree, and he didn't have a scratch on him. Once the case was solved, Booth and I were talking, and I had one of the pacifiers in my hand. I shoved it in his mouth to shut him up. He started sucking on it." Parker laughed and looked out.
"Dad was the coolest."
"I think so."
"If I could tell him one more thing, it would be that I want to be like him. Not an FBI agent," Parker clarified. "I want to be the kind of man he was. He always put me first, and made sure we were safe. Dad was-" Parker stopped.
"What?"
"Dad," he said, standing up. Brennan looked, and sure enough, Seeley Booth was walking toward them, in uniform, smiling. Parker ran toward his father, and almost knocked him over.
"Hey, easy there, Parker," he said, sitting on the steps so his son wouldn't make them both fall. The boy was crying into his father's arms. "Son, what's wrong."
"Booth?" Brennan asked, breathless. "You're alive." She hugged him, over Parker, crying. Booth was completely clueless as to why, so he just held them. "If I wasn't so happy to see you, I'd punch you again." Joseph became annoyed with being not held and fussed from his stroller. Brennan immedietly lifted him and started to calm him down.
"You have a baby?"
"Yeah," Parker said, sniffling. "When they told us you died, she used your donation and had a baby." Booth lifted the newborn out of Brennan's hands.
"He looks just like Parker," Booth said, holding the hands. "Bones, he's beautiful. What do you mean died?"
"Dad, they told us you died in Iraq."
"I wasn't in Iraq. I was in Afghanistan. We were attacked, and I was hurt pretty bad. I only got out of the hospital this morning. Where is Rebecca?" Parker's eyes shot down.
"She died almost a year ago in a car wreck." Booth looped a free arm around his son.
"Can we continue this back at home? I think Joseph needs a diaper and lunch."
On the drive back to the apartment, Parker caught his dad up on the last year's events. His new school, being adopted, Joseph's creation and first 6 weeks.
Booth wondered how his tags ended up in Iraq. He promised to find out. Due to the head injury, a lot of things were still fuzzy. Maybe he had been in Iraq. He wasn't sure. But he would find out.
When they got to the apartment, Parker showed his dad his room, Joseph's room, and the piano he got as a birthday gift. Booth caught when Parker called Brennan 'Mom.'
"You play piano?"
"Yeah," Parker said, excitedly. He sat and played the piece he was working on. Booth was very impressed.
"That was great, son! What about sports? Any teams?"
"I can't play. I broke my leg in October, and have pins in it. I won't be able to play again."
"Whoa, how'd you break your leg?"
"Laser tag in the lab." Booth sighed and rubbed his head. He looked around the room.
"What is this?" Booth asked, pointing to a peg board. "What does it say?"
"That says Parker Brennan. Mom puts all of my teests up there with perfect scores. When I get ten in a row, I get a scanning electron microscope like Hodgins has. He said he'd give me coold bug and slime slides to study."
"Bones, why is my son a piano-playing squint?" Booth called.
"Because he was adopted by a Squint and spent a year with Squints," she called back. "And the piano playing was his idea. He's quite good."
"Dad, I was up all night. Would you be insulted if I took a nap?" Booth hugged his son. He could tell the kid was crashing. He was somewhere between amused and annoyed that his little guy was speaking like a Squint.
"Go ahead, Bub." Parker left the room just as Brennan came back from putting Joseph down. "Parker's tired."
"He didn't sleep a lot this week, and I don't think at all last night."
"You adopted my son." Brennan nodded, another fresh round of tears filling her eyes.
"I love him. He could have been taken away, and dumped back into foster care at the discretion of someone who is paid to do just that. He spent one night in the foster system, and it scarred him for life," she said. Booth hugged her close and let her finally let go and cry. "I missed you. I needed you and you were dead. They told us you were dead," she sobbed, hugging him closer, to convince herself that he was really there.
"I'm here now," he soothed, guiding her to the couch. "I'm sorry. I couldn't write. I had a head wound, and was in a coma for months, and catatonic for months after that. I just regained speech last night when something finally clicked. I was getting more and more words every day, but then it just clicked. I never forgot." Brennan stood and handed him the box.
"Read these."
"I can't."
"You need-"
"No, I really can't read; head trauma." Brennan pulled out the stack of letters.
"Dear Agent Booth," she read. "You and I never really understood one another, but you were a good man, with a good heart. I may be a psychologist, and you hate those, but you liked me. I hope that where ever you are, you know you are missed. Lance Sweets."
"Bones-"
"Dear Booth, You were one of my closest friends, and I never really told you. I'm sorry that I'll never get that chance. May your love live on through your children. Cam." Brennan pulled out the next one. "Booth, You ass, you weren't supposed to die. You were supposed to be here to clean up when I accidentally blew up the lab, and Brennan finally beheads me to feed me to Zach. You are missed, man. Hogdins." The next letter, Brennan was already crying. "Dear Booth, Its not the same here with you gone. It is so unfair that you aren't here to tell us to quit crying and celebrate your life. You were like a big brother to me, and I loved you as such. Angela."
"Stop."
"No!" she said, forcefully. "Dear Dad. I'm sorry I told you to go. If I could take it back, I would. I took away Temperance's best friend, and mine. I'm sorry. I love you, Dad. Parker." Booth swallowed hard. "Dear Booth, There is so much I've always wanted to say, and never been able. My biggest regret is not telling you how much I love you. Its funny, now that you aren't here to hear it, I can say it openly. I'm in-love with you. I hate that you aren't here. Love. Temperance." Booth brushed the tears from her cheeks. "Dear Daddy, I will never get to meet you, but Parker and Mom will tell me how wonderful you were, and how much you would have loved me. They know you, and they know you would have been the best daddy in the world. Love, Baby Brennan."
"I love you, too, Temperance," he whispered. Booth pulled her to his chest and held her there. "I'm sorry you went through so much. Thank you, for being here for Parker."
"I love him so much. He's as much my child as Joseph is."
"Where do we go from here?"
"I don't know. I'm not ready to let go of you, though," she said as her cell rang. "Damn." She flipped it open. "Brennan."
"I know you have another day, but we need you for one hour at the lab. I'm sorry. Really. Really sorry."
"Cam, it is a really bad time." Brennan rubbed her forehead and sighed. "ONE hour. No more."
I hope this made more sense. Thanks for reading! And thanks for telling me about the mistakes! I was half asleep when i wrote and posted the last few chapters...