The couple was seated in a high school classroom located well outside the city limits. The room was full of people of various ages though many of them appeared to be younger couples. A significant number of the women in the room were obviously pregnant, Booth noticed immediately. He might have worried about someone figuring out Bones was too, except for how far away from home they were. The chances of running into anyone they knew here was pretty slim.
Though, at one point he'd considered the idea of the two of them being a couple just as slim, so anything was possible.
All of the desks were replaced with comfortable chairs, over half of which were occupied. Standing at the front of the room,a dry erase board behind them, were two young women. Booth couldn't help but shudder at the memories of high school the whole scene evoked.
In a chair next to him, Brennan looked positively gleeful. "I loved high school," she enthused. She paused and tilted her head, thinking about what she'd just said. "Well, some of it. I love to learn." Another pause, as memories rushed back in. "Maybe I didn't love high school."
"Loved to learn from the creepy custodian," Booth offered under his breath. One of these days, he was running a background check on that guy. No way he didn't have a rap sheet. Booth flashed a smile toward a young woman openly staring at him before turning back to his partner. It was clear she thought she recognized him and Booth didn't want to deal with the endless questions. "I'm waiting for you to remind me why you made me come to the location of several of my nightmares," he commented, focusing on Brennan.
She ignored his sarcasm. "You don't have nightmares about high school. You have nightmares about the bleachers outside the high school." Biting back a smile at his horrified look, she explained. "We are here to learn basic sign language. Which I told you yesterday."
"Okay, I remember you told me yesterday. But why are we learning basic sign language so far from home? I'm sure someone in the Jeffersonian could have taught us during the daytime hours." He assumed this had something to do with the case they'd solved involving the missing child. Booth's eyes traveled around the room and back to hers. "And why?" he asked, lowering his voice, "are most of the women pregnant?"
Brennan opened her mouth to answer when one of the women at the front of the room clapped her hands together, then laughed. "Sorry," she apologized, as everyone in the room quieted and turned toward her. "Sometimes I forget that I'm not always teaching little ones. Welcome to sign language for babies. I'm Candice and this lovely woman next to me is Jennifer. We are going to lead you through some basic signs tonight. There is no better day to learn information like this than on Helen Keller Day."
Barely fighting the urge to roll his eyes, of course, Bones would sign them up for this on Helen Keller Day, he leaned toward his partner. "Sign language for babies?"
"Baby sign language has many developmental advantages," Brennan explained as the women teaching the class turned to write several things on the board behind them. "Children speak earlier, have a larger vocabulary and go on to achieve better grades in school. It also helps reduce frustration, for both the child and the parents, as needs can be expressed before the child can speak."
She sounded like a textbook and he loved her for it. "Okay," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Sounds good to me." If it was important for their child, then he was all in.
"Really?" she asked. He'd given in way too easily.
"Yes, really. Now pay attention," he teased, elbowing her gently.
Candice brought the attention back to the front of the room. "We are going to start with the signs your child will use most frequently. All of these may not apply to your family and that's okay," she reassured them. "There will be time at the end of the class for you to ask questions or get assistance on specific signs for you."
Several of the participants nodded in agreement, looking relieved at the announcement. If anyone understood creating your own families it was Booth and his partner.
"Okay," Jennifer continued. "We are going to start with mom and dad." Slowly she demonstrated the sign for each, giving the group time to practice. "Okay, keep signing with the person you brought with you tonight and we will walk around the room to provide any corrections needed."
Turning toward Brennan, he wasn't surprised to see the look of intense concentration on her face. It didn't matter if it was two signs or two hundred, she would take it as seriously as she did any case they worked on.
They were having a baby, Booth marveled for the millionth time. His mind wandered while he mimicked the signs the instructors had made. Would the baby have blue eyes like Brennan or would she have brown eyes like him? A scientist or an athlete or maybe the perfect combination of both of them.
In the end, it didn't really matter to him. Whatever their child turned out to be, he or she would be perfect. Distracted, he didn't notice Brennan was watching him and when he finally focused on her curious expression, he flashed a smile. Nothing to worry about. Just happy, the look said.
After several minutes of practice, the instructors interrupted and added another sign. Then another. Soon there were between five and ten, depending on the family, that each group was working on. The women continued to move around the room, correcting arm and finger placement when it was needed.
"Maybe," he suggested as they practiced, "we could get really good at this and use it to communicate in secret."
She paused and stared at him. "Why would we need to communicate in secret? We communicate very well at crime scenes. Being secretive about the investigation, I feel, would be detrimental to our solve rate."
Crime scenes he definitely agreed with. Their personal life? Well, that was something he was pretty sure they'd be working on until the day they died. "Of course, we do," he reassured her. "We are the best."
Her look brightened. "We are." "Have you noticed," she asked, leaning toward him, "that we are the only group the instructors haven't corrected?"
Snorting in amusement, Booth shook his head. Only she would turn this into some sort of competition. "I don't think we need to point that out," he said.
"True. We wouldn't want to hurt the other parent's feelings."
"No, we don't want to do that."
The hour passed. Impressed at how quickly time went and how much he'd learned, Booth guided the two of them back out to the SUV. "Thanks for including me, Bones."
"Why wouldn't I? You will also need to communicate with Baby Booth."
Laughing as he closed the door, Booth started the vehicle and put it into drive. "What if it's Baby Brennan?" he asked, glancing toward her.
"The baby will have your last name, Booth," she declared. "Just like Parker."
Keeping his foot on the brake, Booth turned and stared at her. "Just like that?" he asked. It wasn't a topic he'd dared to broach yet, sure she'd give him some explanation about how the baby having his last name was some sort of statement against the rights of women. Or how some random tribe on some island in the middle of the ocean only used the name of the mother.
"Yes, just like that." She met his gaze. "I would like our child to have your last name? Do you have a problem with that?"
Coming close to telling her not to be ridiculous, he took a deep breath. "Do you want to hyphenate it so he or she has both last names?"
She shook her head. "No. I have considered all the options and your last name is appropriate. Besides, our names do not work together. And most of the time children shorten it to one anyway. And…," she started before trailing off.
"And, what?" he asked when she didn't continue.
She drew a deep breath. "My name is fake. I'm sure my parents picked it off a headstone in a cemetery somewhere." Her voice was not bitter, only factual. "If I wanted to use my last name, I would suggest Keenan to be accurate."
"And you don't want to do that?"
"I am proud of my current name and what I've done with it. But it is still made up. Someday, our child will want to know our family history. Can you imagine if the baby does some sort of research? At least this way, if we want him or her to know that my parents were criminals, that my father was charged with murder, maybe we'll be able to tell them first. Prepare them for the questions that will come."
"But you're okay with our child having the name of Booth considering my notorious family history?" Unlike her, his voice didn't hide his disgust with what his ancestor had done.
"It's real. And so far back in the past that no one would ever know unless we acknowledged the connection. You and your grandfather have legacies to be proud of. I'm proud of both of you." Her gaze shifted out the front window and into a past only she could see. "I recall what it was like to be picked on. To not be the popular one. With your last name, maybe our child can avoid some of what I had to go through. Researching our names will give more than enough information. I don't want to add more."
"You're sure?" he asked, understanding her logic. He wasn't sure he agreed with everything she'd said, but this seemed important to her and Parker carried his name. Booth was sure he'd be overjoyed to know that his future sibling shared that with him.
He was sure that no matter what the two of them did, their history and their family's history wasn't something they could protect their future children from. But this seemed like a ridiculous thing to argue with her over when he was okay with what she was suggesting.
"I don't say anything-"
"You're not sure of," he finished for her. "Then to respond to a comment from many minutes ago, yes, I would like our child to have my last name." He took his foot off the brake and allowed the vehicle to roll toward the exit. "Late dinner?"
"I would prefer to pick something up," she answered. "I find that growing the fetus can be quite exhausting."
Baby Booth one moment, fetus the next. There were times she was very hard to keep up with.
And he loved every second of the chase.