A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews guys! They mean a lot. After this chapter I'll be waiting for a few more then I'll update again. Just a warning that this story is only HALFWAY done. The case is no where near solved and in the next few chapters things are going to get.. Deadly. Stay tuned!
But for now: Here's some 'fluff' and angst.))
15CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The day had been filled for everyone involved. Booth spent most of his time speaking to the former Mrs. Reynolds and relaying all of the information to Bones who was stationed by the window for most of the interview. After which the anthropologist would relay the words to the team and so on. A never ending chain of busy work which eventually resulted in them sending a team to the woman's house and turning everything upside down so they got some sort of trace from her ex husband which eventually would come from a kitchen knife that he had cut himself on months prior while making dinner for his wife. A discovery to which smart mouthed Hogdins would declare: "King of the Lab" as he was the one who discovered it, beating a stunned Mister Nigel Murray who had absolutely no idea what it even meant.
Everyone else filled out their respective positions. Angela actually got to go in the television air waves with the picture of the suspect (though Lance Sweets warned them that it might not be the best idea given the suspect's pattern), Hodgins had actually taken Krys into his famous section of the lab where she'd watch himself and Vincent conduct their experiments, and Cam attempted to oversee it all. By the end of the day one thing was cemented, and that was that they had a name to the term 'suspect' which was now being said over the news and radio every five minutes: Harold Reynolds.
That meant that the squints had all done their job, now it was up to the FBI and cops to bring them in. Luckily for Booth he was granted the night off having been leading the investigation that later led to the name, so when it was announced by one of the squints that everyone was going to the diner, he wasn't about to be left behind. In fact, he went home and picked up Parker (he felt guilty, though it wasn't his fault, for having been so swamped during the weekend and wanted to make it up to him on their last night together).
"Chocolate milkshakes are my favorite." Parker announced loudly over the commotion of the diner before leaning forward and taking a loud slurping sip of his milkshake. He was horribly content to be sitting at the booth, right next to his father and across from the ridiculously silly (in his mind) Doctor Bones.
On the other side of Parker was the cool bug guy (Jack Hodgins) and on either side of Bones all crammed together were Doctor Sweets, Angela, and the man who had played the princess during his game the other day (Vincent). Cam, who Parker knew well (he had been told before that his dad and her had dated), sat on the open end of the table where she had pulled up a chair. Other people the boy recognized from the lab also mingled about at their respective tables in a rare moment of celebration.
"Just like your dad, hm?" Cam offered with a smile, though she wasn't a huge fan of kids, she actually favored Booth's kid. He wasn't so harsh on the ears and it wasn't like she had to deal with him if she didn't want to.
"He's a chip off the block." Seeley Booth smiled proudly, he always did when talking about his son, the person he loved more than anyone else in the world. Lifting his large hand he ruffled Parker's hair causing the boy to giggle and push his dad's hand away. It seemed he was already at that stage where he could easily be embarrassed by his parents. That age always got younger and younger.
"Isn't the phrase ole block?" Temperance questioned, her eyes peering up from behind her vanilla milkshake.
"It would be if I was old, Bones. And I'm not." Booth corrected her, his hand resting on his son's shoulder giving him a little shake.
"Older than me!" Parker piped up only to be assaulted with tickling by his father and the whole table couldn't help but smile, even Temperance. Seeing Seeley Booth in the company of Parker was like watching a whole different man. He was like a big teddy bear. He was a dad.
In the midst of the tickling war Hodgins looked up as the door jingled, spotting a familiar figure in the crowd. "Look who it is." He commented under his breath, but it was enough for Angela and Temperance to crane their necks to see who it was. "Hey, Robin!" The scruffy man called out, waving his hand so she could see it.
"Robin?" Angela repeated in confusion, turning her head to look at Jack who just gave a little, almost boyish, shrug.
"Doctor Hodgins and Mister Nigel Murray kept Miss Robin occupied today." Cam filled them all in. Parker was already moving to sit up on his knees in the booth seat.
"Oh?" Angela inclined her head, for some reason filled with interest. Since the breakup she had to adjust to the fact that she wasn't filled in about all aspects of Jack's life. She didn't enjoy it.
"Yeah." Hodgins nodded, shifting a bit in his seat he took a bite of his grilled cheese. "Cam let us show her the blue goo experiment." Both Vincent and Hodgins smirked, but then Jack directed his eyes to the table, clearly trying not to erupt with laughter, and the reason was soon very evident.
"Hey." Krys sighed, now standing by the table of the Jeffersonian employees, in the masses of other squints who she didn't even know as they passed plates of food around. A bit of blue liquid stuck to her face and her shirt also seemed stained with the liquid. Agent Booth glared at Hodgins out of the corner of his eye, but Jack seemed unafraid. If anything he was still trying not to laugh.
"What happened to you?" Parker laughed, milkshake nearly coming out of his nose which, lucky for Hodgins, distracted his father as he lifted a napkin to clean the mess.
"Blue goo." Krys murmured, pulling at her sleeve.
"Blue goo." Hodgins chuckled, now staring very hard at his grilled cheese.
"Blue goo." Bones nodded matter of factly, looking up to her partner before back to Krys.
"Alright. New rule." Agent Booth announced, waving a straw at the table of squints. "No more blue goo anything, and especially not to anyone on my team." He warned and then tucked a napkin around his neck before he began to eat his massive cheeseburger.
Just then Krys' cell phone at her side began to ring. Some Beatles tune and the girl brought the phone out of her pocket. Checking the screen on her phone quickly she then looked to the group with a bit of a smile. "On that note..." And leaving them hanging she weaved through the various bodies and opened the door, making her way outside to answer it.
Lance Sweets turned his attention from the door to Jack. "You know, psychologically speaking something could be said about your need to embarrass and harass the new people who come in to the- Ow!" Sweets cringed and moved his hand to grasp his leg under the booth table. His eyes darted back and forth before he announced accusingly: "Someone is kicking me!" He cried out. "Ow!" Yet another kick, this one to his shin and with a panicked look he glanced about looking for suspects.
"Parker, stop kicking Sweets." Booth said without even looking up, taking another bite of his burger and Parker followed suit.
There was another quiet and then: "Hey!" Sweets cried out as he was kicked again, his gaze landing right on the little boy. "Parker.."
"It wasn't Parker." Jack Hodgins commented with a calm smirk, taking a bite of his grilled cheese before calmly taking a sip of his cold water.
Vince meanwhile was sliding out of the booth to go and get another drink when he nearly tripped right over Jack's outstretched leg, which was clearly done on purpose. Angela gave her ex a warning glare while Vincent looked like a hurt puppy before walking toward the diner bar counter top. Lance, feeling the need to speak up, and was growing quite tired of leaving Vincent out to dry, would also excuse himself to follow. Sliding in between the man and another woman who he didn't recognize.
"You have got to start sticking up for yourself Vince, or you'll never last." Lance told him, leaning over the bar top.
"Did you know that cyber bullying was recently added to American law as illegal." Vincent commented, taking a sip of his coke and lemon.
"That's another thing Vince." Lance sighed, turning his head to face the intern of the week. "Every time you get afraid or nervous you throw out one of your facts." Lance was another one of those who just didn't enjoy Nigel-Murray's facts as much as Angela did. Vincent noticably stared down at the counter top and his twiddling fingers. "You're covering up for what you lack in social atmospheres, but really you have nothing to worry about because everyone here, if you haven't noticed, doesn't have the best social approach. That's why I'm hired full time." Lance sighed. "You just need to adjust."
Another quiet. A blonde bumped into Sweets and he nodded an apology before slipping beside the young man who was the closest one to his own age. Lance could relate, he had been in his place before. In a way, he still was.
It was then that Vincent looked up, an expression of perplexedness on his mug. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure. Go ahead." Sweets nodded, putting on his metaphorical psychologist pants at the mere question.
Vincent shifted. "I'm quite intelligent. Top honors in my class at Leeds. I'm moderately good looking by people's modern standards. I have an adorable accent not to mention the mop top look." Sweets' brow furrowed as Vincent went on. Apparently he was as socially inept as Temperance Brennan. "By all means I should be quite popular with the ladies, am I correct?"
"So this is about a girl." Wow. This totally wasn't what Lance was expecting. He wasn't sure if he should feel uneasy or relieved. He released the breath that he didn't know he had been holding and leaned forward, processing the thought before speaking. "I'm sure that you, in your own way, would be appealing to the opposite sex. Sure." He nodded, though he wasn't sure what exactly possessed him to say those words and not run away. Perhaps overwhelming guilt in letting the poor guy get kicked around so much. "Have you tried asking this girl out?"
"No. No. No." Vincent shook his head rather quickly, turning bright red he became increasingly nervous, shifting on his feet.
"Well you won't know until you ask." Lance offered, standing upright giving the young man a helpful smile. Still the boy didn't budge and Lance added in one last helpful tidbit. "You can't just let things pass you by Vince." He offered quietly, and the words seemed to take their affect. "Seize the day. Carpe Diem."
Vince remained quiet for a minute before swallowing, puffing out his chest he stood upright, though didn't look to Lance. "You're right." He nodded several times, adjusting his nerdy red tie before heading into the crowd.
Lance, feeling rather proud with his accomplishment (like a real psychiatrist) strode back to the table, sliding back into his place and in the midst of the conversation that the table was currently having and currently Bones and Booth were at 'odds', per usual. Why couldn't they just admit that they cared about one another already? Lance didn't know how many more ways he could possibly hint at it.
"Bones, you don't need to tell my kid what's in a hotdog." Booth went on, covering Parker's ears who was laughing and stuck out his tongue at Sweets causing the young psychologist to shake his head and chuckle. "He likes hotdogs and they're easy to make so I want him to keep on liking them."
"It's just a fact. He could learn it by reading the back of the package." Temperance shrugged her shoulders before pointing at the laughing child like a little sister might do. "And any ways he asked!"
The fight went on, meanwhile Angela leaned over toward Lance, giving him a nudge. "What did Vincent want?"
"Doctor/Patient confidentiality Angela." Sweets warned but with a kind smile before reaching for a french fry. She playfully fwapped his hand and now Cam was also in on it, leaning forward to hear.
"Oh come on. Did he want to tell you facts about diners?" Cam questioned with her brow playfully raised.
"Not that it's any of your business, but it was about a girl." Lance sighed, knowing better than to tease them any further with information that they couldn't know. They'd beat it out of him eventually.
"Oh?" Cam sat upright obviously surprised and yet horribly intrigued, much like Angela.
"Our Vincent has a crush?" Angela smiled, liking being in the know with the gossip.
"It's always about a girl." Jack Hodgins sighed, wiping his greasy hands with a napkin.
"Do you think anything will come of it?" Angela continued inquiring, by now the argument between Booth and Bones was dying down and they had taken to tossing ketchup packs at one another.
"I don't know. Vince strikes me as very passive." Lance went on, taking yet another bite, speaking with his mouth full. "I honestly don't think that anything will come of it."
"Care to wager twenty bucks?" Came Hodgins' voice. Everyone looked up and saw his face transfixed on the window leading to the outside. He seemed in awe, so everyone else's gaze followed suit.
There, on the sidewalk was nerdy Vincent Nigel Murray, his hands on a young woman's back, lips locked, eyes closed under a street light. And the two weren't showing any signs of breaking apart. The young man was holding her close, the breeze causing the young woman's brown hair to blow back but neither one seemed to mind as they shared a rather soft lip lock.
Agent Booth covered his son's eager eyes while he had far less luck with everyone else who was watching the event like it was the Super Bowl. Upon further inspection Lance nearly choked on his cheese stick. It was Krys! He felt his stomach do a little sickening flip as Vincent continued to gingerly kiss the data analyst.
Cam, her eyes wide, shook her head. "You go Vino Delectable."