Awww, sweeties, thank you all so much. So glad you liked the fluffy chapter from before. THANK YOU!!!

Coming home…

Chapter 16:

I heard Booth rummage around in my kitchen and sighed in contentment. He was back, we were all safe… and he was preparing something to eat for me. So, everything important was taken care of.

I tugged the hem of my shirt back down, giving my pregnant belly a swift, gentle caress. We were a family now… sure, there were still a lot of things to talk about, many aspects of this change in our lives we would have to discuss, but I was so glad he had come back home everything else seemed … unimportant, pale and rather distant. During the past months the pregnancy had made me change, had changed my perspective considerably. I didn't have to live for work anymore. I had something else now: Booth and our child.

My cell phone started ringing and I reached for it … just as I had thought it was Angela calling, presumably to get details on Booth's reaction.

"Brennan." I answered.

"Sweetie, how are you? Everything good between Booth and you?" Angela asked, concern in her voice.

"Yes. Everything is… perfect." I answered and took in a deep breath, not sure how to sum up how I felt.

"Oh, oh, I'm so happy. I knew he didn't just run out again, so I thought everything had to be okay… but when you didn't call at all I got worried." Angela rambled.

"I fell asleep… Hold on, why do you know he didn't leave?" I frowned at her words.

"Your Dad was waiting in the car for about half an hour after Booth went up. Just to make sure. If he had left, your Dad would have come to take care of you." Angela explained calmly. My breath hitched for a moment upon hearing her words. So caring, so thoughtful of her and my father….

"Thank you for thinking of that." I said, my voice thick with emotion. "Thank you for everything, Ange. I don't know if I thanked you enough this past months. You and my father really helped me a lot."

"Bren… I told you, you're like a sister to me. Don't sweat it." Angela gave back. "So how did Booth take it?"

"Ah… at first he was shocked." I decided not to tell her about how Booth had suspected for a moment it could be another man's child. It had been the shock talking, of course. "But now he's happy. He's been reading the journal while I was asleep. He… " My throat constricted once again as I remembered how he had kissed my stomach, how we had cried together. I choked. "…I'm so glad he's here now, Angela, I can't even describe it."

"I'm happy for you, Sweetie. I really am. Though I have to admit I'll miss it a little to be going to your appointments with you." She said with an audible smile in her voice. "So, where is your stud? Can I talk to him too? I've been dying to congratulate him."

"He's in the kitchen…." I started to explain, but even as I looked up, Booth appeared in the doorway, balancing a tray. "No, he's back now. With food." I heard Angela chuckle as I watched how Booth set the tray on the bed and gave me a questioning look. "Angela wants to talk to you." A smile curved his lips as took the phone out of my hand. "Hey Angela."

I reached for the plate with lasagne, but didn't start eating yet… Instead I watched him talking on the phone. Watched as he suddenly laughed out loud and grinned goofily. "Thank you." He said into the phone and then he added. "I'll do that, believe me…" He listened for another moment, then he nodded. "Yeah. You too. Bye Angela."

Then Booth ended the call and looked at me. "Why are you not eating?"

"What did she say?" I asked curiously. He grinned cockily. "She congratulated me on being such a stud." I rolled my eyes." Told me to take care of you or she'll make my life miserable… the usual things." He said in a deliberately bored voice.

"She threatened you?" I arched an eyebrow at him. Somehow I could not see Booth intimidated by that, but still. After yelling at Cullen so often, it seemed Angela had developed a taste for threatening federal agents. A dangerous hobby.

"Baby, she loves you. She's worried about you. But there's no need to be worried, because I fully intend to take care of you, to be there for you and the baby. If you let me." He planted a quick kiss on my lips. "Now eat, your stomach is growling."

I wolfed down my lasagne in record time, since I had indeed been pretty hungry. When I was finished, he wordlessly took the plate away and put the tray on the nightstand. "Temperance..." He addressed me seriously, sitting on the edge of my bed, and I looked up at him. "Can I stay with you?" He blurted and I frowned a little in confusion. "Sure. I thought you'd do that anyway." I gave back.

"No… I mean… God, this is awkward." He hesitated and I studied his face, the doubt, the insecurity in his eyes. It had been half a year, but somehow I could still read him pretty well. The past months had not changed the bond between us, maybe even intensified it. I might be horrible at reading other people, but he… he mattered most to me and somehow I guessed what this was about.

"Do you want to move in with me?" I asked, the same moment he said. "I don't want us to live separately." We stared at each other, amazed at how much we had been thinking in sync, then he smiled tentatively. "I would love to move in with you. Your apartment is bigger than mine and I want to be with you and… our baby. A family should be together."

"Yes. Yes it should." I whispered. He leant forward to press a kiss to my lips. "I don't want to miss out on anything else from now on." He gently cupped my face with his hands. "I want to know how it is to live with you. With your moods and your cravings… and everything." I kissed him back, trying to show him how much I wanted him to do exactly that… but something intruded on this wonderful moment and I bit back a curse.

"Booth?" I asked, almost shyly. "Yeah?" He murmured, his eyes staring into mine.

"I need to use the bathroom." I whispered, somehow embarrassed. Way to ruin the moment, I thought. But I had no choice, the urge was there. It was my usual routine… shortly after having eaten I NEEDED to pee. Urgently. One of the many side effects of pregnancy… a perfectly normal development, but still… inconvenient.

He chuckled softly and helped me up. "I'm sorry." I mumbled. "But lately I need to use the bathroom quite often."

"No need to be embarrassed, Bones. Do you need me to help you?" He asked me and I actually blushed a little, felt the heat in my cheeks. "Ah, no, I can do that all on my own." I assured him.

"I meant on your way to the bathroom, not in there." He winked at me.

"Oh… I think I can manage." I said and rose to my feet slowly, then wobbled to the bathroom, knowing he was watching me. Moments later I closed the door behind me and made my way to the toilet, took care of what had needed to be taken care of.

Afterwards I just stood in front of the mirror for a moment, regarding my reflection. My face was blotchy and pale and my hair dishevelled. And still, Booth had given me a look of love. It was puzzling and still unfamiliar, somehow awkward, but he was the first man I trusted so completely it didn't really matter what I looked like. I loved him, more than I had ever thought possible.

I washed my face and gathered my hair into a neat ponytail, then opened the door to my bedroom again, where Booth was waiting for me. He was stretched out on my bed… our bed… his eyes fixed on me. "We're going to get used to this in no time, Bones. You know why?"

I gave him a questioning look, while I made my way back to the bed. "Because I love you. And you love me. And we're going to be a great family." He said with conviction. He opened his arms for me and I snuggled into his embrace. "So, you're going to give up your apartment?" I asked after a moment.

"Yeah. Well…I mean… I guess you have a nursery here. Oh…ah… do we have room for Parker, too? You know he sometimes stays with me… If… that is okay with you." Booth asked hesitantly, obviously unsure about my reaction.

I thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. I really like Parker, you know that. We can turn the guest room into a room for him and my office is going to be the nursery. We need to start on that soon… I haven't done anything yet, I wanted to wait for you."

"Really?" Booth asked and I nodded against his chest. "It seemed … relevant that we could do that together." I still hadn't figured out WHY I had insisted on waiting for him. It just had felt right.

"It means a lot to me, Bones. It does, believe me. God…. I don't want to go to sleep, I fear I'll wake up and all this was just a dream." He said, his voice shaky.

"It's not just a dream, Seeley. I'm so glad you're back. I'm glad we can pick out stuff for the nursery together and think of names and… I was so afraid you wouldn't come back until after the baby was born…." My voice trailed off.

"Names." He took in a deep breath. "Temperance…. you don't know the sex of the little one yet, right?"

"No." I answered. "If you want to know it, the next appointment is in two weeks."

"I don't need to know. I kind of like that it's a surprise." He murmured into my hair and I had to smile. "Me too. Angela insists that it's going to be a girl, claiming she has some ominous sixth sense for that." I smiled as I thought back at how she'd told me that. "I wouldn't count on her being right, though."

"I don't care if it's a boy or a girl… I just want it to be healthy. So… the next appointment is in two weeks…" Booth said slowly.

I nodded again. "Yes. Until then I'm on bed rest. The appointment is on Friday, one pm. My gynaecologist will be excited to finally meet you after all this time."

"So… you do want me to go with you." He whispered and I craned my neck to look up at him. "Of course. Did you think I'd ask you to move in with me and then not want you to come with me to an ultrasound?" I frowned a little, not quite grasping the base for his insecurity. Why would I want to shut him out now?

"No.. it's just…" He gave me a forced smile. "Rebecca never allowed me to go with her when she was pregnant with Parker… I'm… really looking forward to it. To see the baby moving on the ultrasound… listen to it's heartbeat." There was a tremor in his voice and I knew that it meant a lot to him.

"I'm not her. I want to raise this child with you, Seeley." I said and after a moment of silence I added in a low murmur. "I might even say yes to things she said no to." The words surprised even myself, but I didn't regret saying them, not really. I heard Booth suck in air audibly, but I simply continued talking. "There's a catalogue for baby stuff over there. Would you… you know… like to have a look together?"

Booth remained silent for a while, then he pressed a gentle kiss on top of my head and pulled back to reach for the catalogue. "I'd love to, Bones." He simply said. And I was not quite sure if he was only talking about looking at furniture for the nursery or if the statement hid some deeper meaning.

It didn't matter, because now we had time to think of all these things, of all these decisions that were to be made. Together. Finally.

Reviews would be AWESOME! Next chapter might be when they tell Parker, but I'm not sure yet.