A/N: Hey guys, I'm still a little nervous about writing Jake, Elliot and Gracie as I really want to get their characters and personalities right but I'm not sure I can do them just yet but I'll try for this chapter. This fic will follow their vacation in Aus and NZ but it probably won't be just the trip and will pick up when they get home with a case and drama etc.
I made the decision to send them Down Under as I'm a Kiwi girl and also half Australian so I know those countries and knew I could write them there. They'll start off in Brisbane/ Surfers Paradise- The Gold Coast and do the beach and theme parks just to unwind and enjoy the holiday. They'll then go onto Sydney, then Melbourne and onto Perth before they head over to Auckland NZ , they'll then do the drive down to Taupo to spend Christmas by the lake (it's an awesome place to spend Christmas) and then down to the Capital...Wellington, which is my home. If there are any places you want me to write them visiting or things you want them to do let me know =)
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Keeping a big group of energetic children entertained at the airport was not the easiest task in the world. They had already checked their luggage and gone through customs and were now playing the waiting game until they were called to board, which wouldn't be for at least another hour. As the strollers had been checked with the rest of their things it meant that they usually contained toddlers were able to run free amongst the travellers.
Booth was sitting next to his wife, his one year old son sitting happily in his lap. Bones was yet again nursing baby Harry, who was a Booth boy after all and seemed to be always eating. Bones was talking to Angela happily while she fed her baby; the two were discussing their children and talking about the things they had planned to enjoy while they were away.
Buster was on the floor in front of his Dad, happily playing his favourite dinosaur game on his tablet, he loved the touch screen. Sarah was sitting on Isobel's lap as the older woman happily read to her and the older Hodgins twins from the small library they seemed to be carrying with them. Gracie was sitting near the boys as she liked to keep Elliot close by whenever she had to interact with other people for too long but she was playing some game with her cousins Emma and Hayley.
The boys; Jake, Elliot, Parker and Shaun had moved to sit over by the big window that over-looked the flight strip. They were all playing games on their various different phones and portable gaming devices and thankfully getting along and chatting happily as they did so, it seemed Jake and Shaun were once again getting along- which was good news for everyone in some ways and bad news in other ways. Shaun and Jake getting along often meant mischief and with Elliot added in it was bound to get interesting and probably not in an overly good way.
Breeze wiggled around on her Daddy's lap before demanding "Down Daddy!" in her cute little voice. Jack smiled indulgently at his little girl as he placed her on her feet. Things were definitely more interesting now that both sets of twins were walking as it often meant their parents were left wrangling kids who were going in four different directions.
"Don't go anywhere Bree" he warned her gently, the toddler cocked her head to the side as if considering what he'd said very seriously before pointing over to her twin sister "Willy!" she said and began to trot off toward her twin. Hodgins looked up and caught his wife's eye to check she was okay with both girls. The beautiful pregnant woman nodded and smiled back at him, she may be pregnant but she could handle both little girls.
"Daddy I needa pee" Nate whined at his Dad who was still holding the now sleeping Jay. "Hung on Buster, I'll take you in just a minute" Booth said. Buster was bouncing from foot to foot in his usual 'I-need-to-pee' dance. He was about to place the slumbering baby onto the seat next to his wife when his eldest son appeared in front of him.
"I'll take him Dad" Jake said and took his little brother's hand "come on Buster let's go before you pee yourself" the teen began to lead his four year old brother away. Booth smiled and called after his son "thanks Jake". He shifted slightly to find a more comfortable position to sit while holding the deadweight that was his second youngest, So far so good.
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Those of them with young children were able to board the plane first, they had opted to have all of them fly coach instead of having all their rowdy children up in first class. The plane was a nice and wide one, with three rows of seats across, the middle row had four seats and the ones on either side had three.
Gracie was sitting in the window seat of the first row, next to her was Hayley and Gordon was on the outside. Bones sat in the seat just across the gap from him; it had one of those fold away cots that attached to the wall that Harry or Jay could sleep in while they were flying. Both babies were riding on one of their parents knees for the flight. Sarah sat next to her Mother and Booth was on the other side of her and Nate took the last seat. Parker, Jake and Elliot were just across from them.
Shaun, Isobel and Max sat behind the three boys while Angela, Jack and their girls sat in the four seats behind Booth and Brennan. Although Willow was sitting Abi's lap as she sat just across from Angela who's rapidly growing baby belly made it too hard for her to hold one of the twins on her lap during takeoff and landing. Abi's daughter Teeny was sitting in the seat between her young mother and older cousin Emma who had the window seat. Russ, Amy and baby Mattie we sitting behind them.
They had done their best to make sure that there was at least one adult close to the children at all times. It was going to be a long flight, flying for seventeen hours with so many children, especially so many little ones was certainly going to be a challenge but they were up for it. All the children were seated and given something non-electronic to occupy them for takeoff.
Nate and Sarah squealed excitedly as the plane began to rumble and slowly drive up the runway. Brennan looked over to check on Gracie who was excitedly talking to Hayley and Gordon as they took off. "We're flying Daddy" Nate said loudly as they made it into the air, Booth smiled and dropped a kiss on top of his little boy's head "yeah Buster we are" this was the first time Nathaniel was going to old enough to remember any of the flight, it was exciting to say the least.
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They'd been up in the air for three hours now and the kids were starting to get restless. A game of musical chairs seemed to be in progress as the children moved around. Sarah was now snuggled happily on Isobel's lap being read to again. Breeze had ended up being passed forward to Gordon whom she had become very fond of and was now snoozing on his lap.
Harry was sleeping in the little crib and Jay was lazily drinking a bottle from his place on Mommy's lap. Parker was now sitting next to Booth and happily challenging his Dad at a game of 'go fish'. Gracie had taken Parker's place next to Elliot and was happily chatting away to him about the trip. Jake had Buster sitting on his lap while they watched a movie about dinosaurs together on a portable DVD player.
Russ was pacing up and down the row with Matthew in his arms as it seemed to be the only way to keep the little guy calm. Angela had fallen asleep, what with her being pregnant and travelling, she was very tired as could be expected. Jack was trying to keep his older twins happy but Summer and Skye seemed to being in no mood to do anything except whine.
"I'm hungry Daddy" Summer whined "me too Daddy, I'm hungry too" Skye joined in and Jack sighed. He pushed the button to summon an attendant to order some juice and pretzels to keep his children happy until dinner time came round. Three hours down, only fourteen more to go.
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All the children were back in their seats and hour later as the in flight dinners were served. There was a choice of chicken nuggets or fish sticks and fries for the little ones and a choice of lasagne or spaghetti for the older children and adults. Bones was happily munching away on her vegetarian lasagne and holding a conversation with Gordon-Gordon about his last trip to Australia. The food wasn't bad and the company was pleasant.
There were still several hours to go until they made it to their destination and everyone was starting to get very tired. The younger children were grumpy and the older children uncomfortable and the adults were just plain stressed. It was proving to be a very long flight.
"Come on Princess, just one more bite and then you can go to sleep" Booth coaxed his youngest daughter, trying to get her to eat the rest of her chicken nuggets but Sarah was a fussy eater at the best of times and right now she was falling asleep as she chewed. Booth gave up as he noticed she'd already fallen asleep.
He rummaged through one of the carry-on bags and found the blankets they'd packed for Sarah, Nathaniel and Jay and covered each sleeping child, placing a goodnight kiss on each of their heads. He got up to stretch his legs and have a quick bathroom break, deciding to take the currently awake Harry from Bones; he was due a diaper change.
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They were fourteen hours into the flight when it seemed that all of the younger children decided to meltdown all at once. Their fellow passengers were giving them dirty looks. Buster and Sarah were both throwing very loud tantrums while Booth tried to get them to quit. Both Harry and Jay were crying very loudly as the flight just got to be too much for them.
Nate was lying on the ground between the rows with his little face had gone red as he continued to scream. The older boys were looking on in embarrassment at the scene their younger siblings were making. "Jeez Dad can't you get control of them?" Elliot remarked as his adoptive father failed miserably to calm his two screaming kids down.
"I don't want to hear it Elliot" Booth snapped at his older son, yeah they had a slight double standard going on there, both parents were comfortable with dishing out discipline to the older four children. It had taken Bones a while to get there and it had been Gracie who had finally pushed her over the edge to becoming a Mom who could be strict and kind of scary when she needed to be, because Booth had been uncomfortable about being that way with Gracie at first.
Booth kept his three older son's in line, he was strict and a total hard ass when he needed to be and he'd even gotten to the point he could be that way with Gracie but for some reason neither parent seemed to be able to step up to the plate and discipline Nathaniel or Sarah. The two little ones took full advantage of that, while the older kids felt rather hard done by. It was something they really needed to work on.
"Come on Buster, you need to stop screaming and sit up in your seat like a big boy for Daddy" Booth practically pleaded with the four year old, his stern Daddy voice was nowhere to be seen. Temperance was having better luck she had passed Jay off to Gordon for a cuddle and had began nursing Harry again, knowing that it would calm him down some. That was two Booth kids calmed down, two more to go.
"Sarah, Princess no more crying now okay?" Booth turned to his little girl instead, hoping that settling her down would be easier than her brother, but no such luck, Sarah continued to scream and was soon joined by Teeny and Breeze with Willow quickly following her sister's lead.
Angela made quick work of settling her girls, although she didn't nurse them regularly now that they were active toddlers she still breastfed the younger twins when they needed comfort and right now that was all she had going for her. She didn't care what anyone thought, she would wean the girls when they were good and ready.
Abi had grabbed a pacifier out of Teeny's bag and popped it into the little girl's mouth which of course did the trick. Buster's tantrum lasted for the next forty minutes until he finally wore himself out and fell asleep. Booth picked his son up off the floor and put the sleeping boy back in his seat. They were going to be landing soon.
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As the plane touched down the adults were very relieved, they could finally get their children off of the plane and away from the angry and judgmental looks they'd been getting from the other passengers. Although they couldn't relax just yet, they still needed to get all the luggage, go through customs, get the rental cars and make it to the hotel before they could put the children to bed and finally relax.
Booth called his children to attention and issued the orders "everyone is to stay close, no wondering off" he looked directly at Jake when he said that but eyeballed Elliot for good measure too. "if anyone needs the bathroom say so and we'll go before customs" no one had anything to say to that so he continued "I want all of you kids to behave yourselves, no fighting or arguing" and he still wasn't done "look I know we're all tired and cranky but we've got a few more things to do before bed."
"Right, everyone ready?" there was a collective mumbling of affirmation "good then let's go" Booth said and led the way out to the baggage claim. It took some time but they soon had all their bags, strollers and car-seats and were ready to go through customs.
Nearly three hours later they were finally settled in their hotel rooms. The children had been bathed and fed and were now tucked away in bed. They had left D.C at ten am on the Friday and had arrived in Brisbane, Australia at five pm on the Saturday. The parents had decided to get the children onto local time as quickly as they could so when they arrived at their hotel just before eight pm they made quick work of feeding, bathing and putting the kids to bed.
Booth collapsed onto the very welcoming looking bed where his wife was already waiting. He pulled Brennan into a tight hug and kissed her passionately on the lips "God it's good to finally be in bed, what a day huh?" he sighed.
"I'm sure it'll be worth it, the memories we'll make as a family" Bones said as she began to drift off to sleep in her husband's loving embrace. They both knew it was true, this was going to be one hell of a vacation, how could it not with their brood.
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A/N: Okay so not that much of the older kids, I swear I meant to but I'm still so scared of messing them up. The next chapter will most likely be all about family fun and fluff. But knowing Booth and Brennan's kids it won't be long until they start getting themselves into strife. Although I'm not sure yet what they'll get up to. Please review and tell me what you want to see happen...I love reader's input =)
Hope you all enjoyed!