Three and a half weeks into Booth's paid leave
"Booth? Are you here?" Brennan opened the door to their apartment and looked around for him. He would be leaving again at the end of the week and she wanted to spend every waking moment with him, apart from the time she would be teaching her classes.
She walked around to the kitchen. "Booth?" she shouted again.
"Bren! Hush!" he whispered loudly, indicating he was on the phone. He stood in the kitchen, pacing. She looked him over and realized he had changed out of his civilian clothes and back into his combat uniform. The sight gave her a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Yes, sir. I'll see you in a few days…No, sir, I'm already in D.C… No, sir, my fian- my wife lives here…Yes, sir, she's a professor at Georgetown…we just got married, sir…No, sir, I will be in Quantico on Monday…Report at 0500? I'll be there, sir."
Booth hung up the phone and rubbed his hands over his face.
"Booth?" she said timidly.
Looking up at her, he held her eyes with his for a few lingering seconds and walked to the fridge. Booth looked in like he knew what he was looking for, but he really only had it open to avoid the awkward silence between he and his wife.
The fact that he was married still threw him off balance every time he thought about it. He fiddled with the slim gold band on his fourth finger and shut the refrigerator door. He knew he couldn't avoid what he had been talking about on the phone; he knew he would have to tell Bren.
"You're in your combat uniform," she said. She had meant it more as a question but it came from her mouth as a statement. She could feel the sinking feeling deepen.
"Yeah, while you were teaching your classes today, I had…business things I had to take care of."
She nodded slowly. "Can I ask what it was?"
"I went to visit some guys in my battalion at Walter Reed. James has a nasty infection in his arm from where he got shot. He's getting a medical discharge. He could lose the arm if they don't fix it soon. And Robert ended up dehydrated and they think Rudy might have Malaria even though each of us had enough bottles of bug repellent to coat a small city."
Brennan just nodded. "He should've been taking medicine. I was on a daily preventative pill. Didn't you take something?" she added with a bit of worry.
"I did. Obviously, Bren, I'm fine or I'd be right next to Rudy. But we had that daily pill too. He must've forgotten to take it."
"Oh." She didn't know what else to say. She wanted to ask about the phone call but she didn't want to pry.
"Oh?"
"Yes. Were you expecting something else?"
"Well…yeah actually. We, uh, we need to talk."
She hated gut feelings. They weren't really real. People could not really tell things through an odd notion in their stomachs. "About what?"
"That phone call you came in on."
"Okay, so talk. I'll listen." Brennan started moving around the tiny apartment, putting away clothes and other items that were seemingly out of place. Booth followed her, standing right behind her as she cleaned the apartment.
"You need to listen. I need you to take me seriously right now. I have to leave again."
"I understood what you said toward the conclusion of your phone call. You need to be at Quantico at five in the morning on Monday."
He sighed. Telling her where he was going was going to be harder than he thought.
"Yeah, but you need to stop. I need you to look at me. Please, Bren."
"I am excellent at multitasking. This place is a mess. You can continue to speak while I clean."
"Temperance," he said, knowing her unused first name would be enough to stop her in her tracks. And he was right. She looked scared however, like she did something wrong.
"What? I have to get this done. If you're not going to clean, then I have to. I have papers I need to grade. I have to help three other first time doctoral candidates on their research, I have my own research to conduct and I have you. I know you're leaving soon and splitting my time between work and you is very hard. I want to be here with you all day long but there are things I have to do."
"Bren, I have to go on another mission."
"I assumed as much."
"I'll be gone…a long time."
"How long?"
"A year."
She finally stopped and set down the dirty clothes. Feeling that gut feeling again and then realizing she was actually nauseous, she attempted to calmly walk to the bathroom to lose her lunch. He ran after her, thinking she was just pissed and didn't want to talk. But as soon as he heard her gagging, he backed off. Booth was not in the mood to see that and he waited by the kitchen table for her to come back. Brennan walked out of the bathroom, her face pale and ashen.
"I'm pregnant."
He had that kicked-in-the-gut feeling, like she dropped a bomb on him without any warning. He put his face in his hands and thought for a minute. He kept trying to say something but nothing came out.
"Babe, just because you puked doesn't mean you're pregnant."
She shook her head and went to her briefcase full of school papers. She pulled out a small baggy and tossed it to him. It contained a positive pregnancy test.
"I went to the university health clinic today. They had me pee on that and they did blood work. Blood doesn't lie, Seeley."
He just stared at the little pink plus sign. Booth knew immediately what this meant. His son or daughter would be three months old when he came home. He didn't know what to say. He was happy, deep down he was happy. But there was just a bit of resentment creeping up that he was having problems containing. Resentment for the Army for sending him away, resentment toward Bren who wouldn't miss out on the first three months and resentment toward himself for picking to go into the Army in the first place. He could have a cushy job playing pro football, making millions and he'd be with Brennan constantly, apart from his away games. But even then, she could come too. He was happy; he couldn't stop smiling but he was just so pissed at himself for doing this to everyone, including this baby.
"I..How did this happen?"
She looked at him like he was suddenly growing a third eye. "Uh, Booth, we had sex. Sex is normally used for reproduction but in our case, it was for a closer bonding experience and for pleasure. Apparently, we weren't as being preventative as we thought. And it probably didn't help that we engaged in coitus every change we had. There was that entire week right after we got married and then the last three weeks, every chance we got, we were naked and in bed. Or the shower. But…I'm not sure I like the idea of doing this…alone."
"Uh…uh, okay, well, we can figure this out. I don't like the idea of you being alone while you're pregnant either, but we'll figure something out. Maybe we can get Pops to come stay with you. Jared's out of the hospital now and he can take the bus to get to his physical therapy. Or even Angela! She's been trying to get that internship at the art museum, right? She'll get it. She's the best. She can stay with you while I'm gone. You don't have to be alone. I mean, obviously, I would give anything to be here with you. But I have to go to-ˮ
"Where?"
He wasn't allowed to say exactly but he could give her a general idea. "Eh…the Middle East."
"Oh. You know, I don't have to be alone the whole time I'm gone."
"Why's that?"
"Well, there's a dig scheduled to go on in Eastern Africa for mass grave victims. It would go well with my thesis and I could make a lot of headway for my next dissertation. If I can, getting the thesis done before the baby is born would help. I mean, who knows how much time I'll have once he comes and-ˮ
"Wait, he? Is it even possible to tell if it's a girl or a boy this early? And there is absolutely no way I am letting you go to Africa pregnant. It's dangerous. Way too dangerous. Any place that has mass graves is too dangerous."
She laughed. "The most common generalization for a fetus is to call the baby a male. I personally find it a bit sexist but it's better than calling the fetus an 'it'. And I'll be safe when I go. Seeley, there's no way you're going to be able to stop me. I'll take extreme precautions to make sure I'm healthy and safe while I'm away. Plus, I'm going to need something to distract me from not seeing you for so long."
"That's what the baby's for."
Booth gave her his most charming grin as she walked to him and sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder. "I hope it's a girl. A little girl that looks just like you who Pops, Jared and I can spoil rotten."
Brennan rolled her eyes and then looked around their extremely undersized apartment. There was no way there would be enough room for three of them.
"We need a bigger place."
