It's late in the afternoon and Brennan's reading a story to a very sleepy Christine. Worrying and playing can be very exhausting for a child. Brennan closes the book after repeating the ending twice for her daughter and drapes a blanket over her.
Christine clutches her bunny and baby doll and smiles up at her mother. Her eyes flutter and then shut slowly.
Brennan leans over and leaves a kiss in her daughter's hair. "Sweet dreams, sweetheart. I love you," she whispers and walks over to Booth, who's sitting in the chair by Parker's bedside. She runs her fingers through his hair and sits on the armrest.
Booth angles his head so he's looking at her and furrows his brows. He notices that her eyes are unfocused, that the movement of her fingers through his hair is slow and absentminded, and that she hasn't said much to him since she returned from the park with Christine a little over a half hour ago. He comes to conclusion that she's distracted by something. He's not sure what it is—if it's Parker or if something happened at the park—so he clears his throat and nudges her. "Hey, everything okay, Bones?"
She's quick to return his gaze and nods. "Yes."
It's a simple-to-the-point answer, which is precisely why he doesn't buy it, not at all. "Did something happen at the park? You and Angela have a fight or somethi—?"
She shakes her head with determination. "No, nothing happened at the park. Angela and I are just as we've always been—perfectly fine."
The way she jumped on him before he even had a chance to finish his question, gives him even more proof that she's lying or at least not telling him the whole truth. He decides to bite again. "There's something on your mind. I can tell. What's wrong?"
"It's just Parker, Booth, that's all, nothing more, nothing less."
He squints, eyeing her with suspicion. "Just Parker, huh?"
"That's what I said."
"But that's not what you mean."
She's taken aback by his response, evident by the quick raise of an eyebrow. "Of course that's what I mean."
He swallows. "I buy that you're worried about Parker, I'll give you that, but you were worried about him before you left for the park and for the past month too, so he's not the only reason why you're acting weird."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Ever since you got back, you've been unusually quiet and you seem distracted. Something happened between when you left and now. I don't know what that is because you won't tell me, but I know there's something else bothering you besides Parker."
She looks away from him and nibbles on the inside of her lip until she draws a tiny amount of blood. She cringes when she feels the weight of his hand on her thigh, and then she turns her head towards him again. "You're right. There is something else, and that's all I'm saying."
He nods. "Are you okay?"
She nods. "Yes, Booth, I'm fine, I promise. It's nothing, really. It's just a simple conversation I had with Angela that I can't stop thinking about, that's all, honest. It's nothing too serious."
He sighs. "You don't think it's serious or it's really not serious?"
"Your two questions have the same meaning. You have just worded them slightly different."
"You'll tell me when you're ready?"
She nods, without uttering a single word.
He smiles and runs his thumb along the seam of her jeans. "Okay, I trust you, but can you at least pretend that this mystery conversation isn't bothering you? You're worrying me."
She tilts her head down and presses her lips against him with the lightest touch. She breaks the kiss and nods. "I'm fine, Booth."
"Yeah, okay, yeah, I believe you."
She pushes him, finding it hard not to smile at him. "Booth?" Her face suddenly goes serious, her lips now pursed into a line.
"Yeah, Bones?"
There's a long pause and then she swallows and asks, "Did you really threaten someone just so I could stay in the room with you and Parker?"
"Depends on how you feel about that," he says, somewhat jokingly.
"Just answer the question, Booth."
He sighs. "Yeah, I did. Are you mad? Is that why you're asking?"
She shakes her head. "Just confused, and I don't like that feeling. I didn't know. I thought Angela was crazy when she told me that. I needed to confirm it."
"It's true." He pauses. "I didn't have a choice. You're not family."
She blinks and lets out a soft gasp, her shoulders jerking backwards.
"You're family to me, Bones, to Parker too, but not in the eyes of the law. That's what I meant. The hospital has strict rules, but I wasn't about to let them tell me what family means. They weren't gonna let you in the room to see Parker, not as long as I needed you to be in here for, so I threatened a few people."
A small smile creeps onto her face.
"Is that what's bothering you? Me threatening some of the hospital staff?"
"That's part of it, yes." That's all she says on the matter. She looks into the hallway and watches the nurses and doctors busily scamper about with purpose, as she thinks about the conversation she shared with Angela in the park and the conversation she just had with Booth.
He rubs circles on her back and steals glances at her, looking back at his son intermittently. Parker's currently asleep, so Booth's mainly focused on his partner at the moment, his chest tightening as he watches her grow even more distant.
She pulls away from his simple, comforting touch, as her mind is bombarded with conflicting thoughts.
He sighs. "So Parker finally said something," he says, attempting to pull her back to him. It works.
One of her eyebrow twitches at the sound of his voice and then she turns her head. "What'd he say?"
"He said he missed his mom. He didn't say much else, but that's good, right? At least he said something."
She shrugs. "Perhaps."
"I really think things will get better once we get him home. He can finally start getting back on his feet and moving forward. I think that'll help a lot."
She nods. "Routine can be helpful," she adds.
"As long as you don't use routine as an excuse," he says, looking at her.
She pushes her lips together. "Why are you looking at me for?"
He laughs. "Don't play dumb, Bones."
She nods. "I admit that I have used work in place of expressing my feelings in the past, but that's only because I had no one in my life, I had no one that cared enough about me to listen. It's also easier, though now, I find it's almost nearly impossible for me to keep working when I'm experiencing high levels of personal stress."
He smiles. "I'm not gonna let Parker just fall into a routine and suppress whatever he's feelings. If he knows we're here for him, that we're here to listen and get him through this, maybe that'll make it easier for him to talk to us."
She nods. "I hear Chinese Food can be quite useful."
He laughs. "That sounds good right now, actually."
She smiles. "I am a little bit hungry." She pauses. "If you order, I can go pick it up."
He agrees and reaches for his phone.
"Are you going to be okay by yourself?"
"Yeah, yeah."
"Cam called me. She was concerned. She almost sounded angry with me that I left you alone."
He shakes his head. "I'm fine, Bones. It was good that you left for a couple hours. I wanted you to go. You needed to have some time for yourself."
She nods. "I can ask my father to pick up the takeout on his way here. He's going to pass right by the restaurant."
He smiles.
"I'm sure he won't mind."
"I'm really okay, though."
She nods. "You will be—when Parker is." She leans over and kisses him on the lips, her hand resting against his shoulder. She pulls back and smiles. "I'll go call my father and then I'll call in our order. The usual?"
He nods. "Yeah."
"I'm just going to step right outside the room to make the calls." She stands up and walks outside the room. She turns her head and waves at him, before taking her phone out of her pocket and dialing Max's number.
A somewhat peaceful silence engulfs the room as he's left alone for a few minutes with his two sleeping children. The peacefulness quickly fades away, however, when he starts to think about what's going to happen when Parker is released from the hospital, when reality sets in and the hard work really begins.
I hope you liked this chapter.
FYI: The next couple chapters are going to be focused on Parker's physical recovery :)