Note: It's a short one this week.
What if: Christine asked about the names Booth and Brennan call each other?
AU? No
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Brennan buckled Christine into her car seat and slid behind the wheel. As she pulled into the line of parents waiting to leave the parking lot, she asked, "How was school today, Christine?"
"Good", her daughter answered apathetically, staring out the window.
At the uncharacteristically brief answer, Brennan stretched a little to check out her child's reflection in the rear view mirror.
"Just good?", she asked.
"We talked about names. We all had to tell what our names are, and what our mom and dad's names are. And then", she continued, her voice getting louder in indignation, "Mrs. Schroeder said that I was wrong!"
"She didn't think you knew your name?", Brennan asked.
"No!" Another quick glance told her her daughter was no longer slumped over, but was sitting straight up, her small hands clenched into fists. "She said that your name wasn't Bones and Daddy's name wasn't Booth."
Brennan pulled to a stop in the driveway and opened the door for Christine to hop out, backpack in hand. As they walked into the house, Brennan explained, "Well, Christine, perhaps she was asking about our first names."
"She said", Christine said as she stomped into the house, a picture of the petulant teenager she would one day be, "that we were supposed to say the names that our parents called each other, but then she said I was wrong."
Brennan followed her daughter into the house, automatically stepping over the abandoned backpack and shoes in the middle of the hall. Christine was slumped on the couch, arms crossed defiantly in front of her. Brennan sat down on the other end of the couch and turned toward her daughter.
"What's your name, Christine?"
"Christine", her daughter scoffed.
"Your whole name."
"Christine Angela Booth."
"That's right", Brennan answered. "Your last name is Booth, just like your father and Parker."
"But you call Daddy Booth", Christine replied.
"Yes", Brennan said, searching for the right words. "Your father and I worked together long before we had you, and when we worked together, I called him Booth. That's his last name, not his first name. His first name is Seeley."
"Oh", Christine pouted, kicking her feet against the front of the couch.
"My name", Brennan continued, "Is Temperance Brennan. When we first met, your father decided to call me Bones, because I work with bones. It used to drive me crazy – I didn't think he was being respectful."
"Daddy is respectful."
Brennan smiled. "I used to think he was laughing at me, but now I like it when your father or Parker call me Bones. It makes me feel special."
"Can I call you Bones?", Christine asked.
"No", Brennan answered, leaning forward to hug her daughter. "You call me Mom, and that's even more special."
As her mother walked away, Christine's lips curved in a tiny smile.
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I first typed "parking lot" as "parking log". I don't know that that means.