Breaking Point by Luli posted 27/09/2007

BREAKING POINT..PART 2

“Here we are,” Booth said, as he turned off the ignition and turned to look at the two people in the car. “What do you think?”

“It looks beautiful,” Brennan answered, as she looked around the park through the car windows. “Very quiet, though.”

“Yes,” Booth agreed, as he leaned his arms on the steering wheel and looked out the windshield. “It’s pretty secluded; not a lot of people know about it. It’s part of what makes it such a great place.”

“I can see that,” Brennan nodded, as she released her seat belt and opened her door.

“Well, come on, buddy,” Booth said, as he turned his head to look at Parker. “Let’s go have some fun.”

“Yay!” Parker said, as he hurried to undo his seat belt and jump out of the car. He then turned around and pulled his backpack. Brennan shook her head as she saw him struggle with it and reached out to help him get it on. She knew that it was filled with two of his new books, his Gameboy advance, with at least four different games, a notepad and pens, a deck of cards, a portable DVD player and some movies. She didn’t know why he thought he’d use all of those things but had learned to let him be when it came to these type of decisions.

“There you go, Par,” she told him, as she ruffled his hair.

“Thanks, Dr. Bones,” he told her, as he shot her a grin over his shoulder, and then hurried to the back of the car, as Booth called out, “a little help here, Bones.”

“Coming,” she called back, with a grin and a roll of her eyes. When she got there, she took the blanket and the wicker picnic basket that Booth had insisted on buying for the occasion. Parker took the soccer ball, Frisbee and the fishing poles.

“Can you take the tackle box?” Booth asked, when he saw Parker trying to pick it up and he picked up the cooler filled with the drinks and the desserts.

“Sure,” she said, as she reached forward and picked it up.

“Well,” Booth said, as he slammed shut the SUV’s trunk door, “lead on, McDuff.”

Brennan looked at him with a confused face while Parker just ran ahead of them. “I’ll explain later,” Booth told her, in a low voice, as they followed the running boy to a patch of grass close to a beautiful tree.

“Is this ok?” Parker asked, as he skidded to a halt under the tree’s shadows.

“Yes,” Brennan said, as she too stopped and put down the picnic basket and the tackle box, “this is perfect.” She unfolded the blanket and spread it on the grass before setting the basket on one corner and the tackle box on another.

“So,” Booth said, as he clapped his hands and rubbed them together, as he looked at Brennan kneeling down on the blanket and at Parker putting his backpack down. “What shall we do first? Eat?”

“Eat?” Brennan asked, incredulous. “We just had breakfast!!” she protested.

“Just?” he asked her. “Bones, breakfast was two hours ago!!”

“Yes,” she agreed with wide eyes. “Two hours ago, you can’t be hungry again.”

“There’s nothing that says I can’t be hungry,” he argued. “And I’m not really hungry, but I could eat.”

“Of course you can eat,” Brennan said, with a nod. “You can always eat! But I think it might be better if we wait a bit before eating, don’t you think?”

“Oh, alright,” Booth gave in, with a slight frown. “We’ll eat later. Parker, you want to do some fishing?”

“I think I’d rather kick the ball around a bit, dad,” Parker said, as he started to play with the soccer ball.

“Ok, then soccer it is,” Booth agreed, sending the ball back to Parker before turning to look at Brennan. “You coming, Bones?”

“What?” She asked, as she looked up from where she was getting her book out of her bag; she hadn't even realized that though she didn’t have any games in her bag, Parker may well have gotten the idea of carrying a backpack from her. “You want me to play soccer?”

“Yes,” Booth said with a nod. “We’re here to spend the day together and have fun. So, come on,” he urged, as he did some fancy moves with the soccer ball.

“Yes, come on, DB,” Parker said, as he pulled her up.

“DB?” she asked him, as she allowed herself to be pulled.

“Yeah,” Parker told her with a grin. “It’s my new nickname for you, what do you think? You like it?”

“Well,” she said, as she looked at Booth, who just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, letting her know she was on her own. She frowned at him before she turned to Parker with a smile, “What does it mean? And what happened to Dr. Bones?” Almost against her will, she’d gotten used to it.

“Oh, I still use it,” Parker told her, as they followed Booth a few feet away from the blanket. “DB, it’s the initials of Doctor Bones, see. What do you think?” he asked again, with a grin. “I’d still be the only one that calls you that.”

“Yes,” she agreed, as she shared a bemused glance with Booth. “Yes, you’d still be the only one to call me that. Are you sure that’s what you’d like to call me?”

“Yes,” Parker answered with a nod and then added. “Well, sometimes. Sometimes, I’ll still call you Dr. Bones. I’m just thinking of new nicknames. Dr. Bones just sounds like it comes from a little kid, you know?”

“Well,” Brennan told him with a small smile, “I’ll love whatever you come up with because you came up with it.” When Parker ran after the ball Booth had just kicked, she turned to Booth with wide eyes. “Sounds like it comes from a little kid? Where did that come from?”

“Our little boy is growing up, Bones,” Booth told her, with a shrug and a small, sad smile, "faster than we’d like perhaps, but, that’s the way of things.”

“Growing up?” she repeated, as she turned to watch Parker run back with the soccer ball. “Yes,” she agreed, with a sad smile of her own, “he’s growing up.” And for a minute, the image of the 11 year old was lost, when the image of the five year old she’d known was superimposed on it. Her trip down memory lane was interrupted when she felt the soccer ball hit her legs.

With a shake of her head, she tried to dispel the memories and concentrate on the game. For the next forty minutes, she ran around after the soccer ball trying to catch it and score goals. Since Booth was bigger then both Brennan and Parker, it had been decided that it’d be them against Booth. They had designated two goal posts and the game had been heavily contested. Well, heavily contested by Booth and Parker, Brennan had no idea what she was doing except running around behind the ball like a headless chicken that had no idea where it was going. At the end, she and Parker won, because Brennan had no problem using, her no longer newly acquired, feminine wiles, while Parker used his puppy dog eyes just as well as his father used his charm smile. Booth had no defense against either of them.

After she and Parker had declared themselves the winners, she had begged off another round and had gone to sit, rest, and read while Booth and Parker decided to play with the Frisbee. But the reading had not gone really well because she kept getting distracted by the laughs of the two Booth men and she kept losing track of time watching them play with each other. She loved to see them have fun together and there really wasn't any sweeter sound to her ears than hearing them laugh.

A Frisbee knocking her book back made her look up in time to see both of her men drop down onto the blanket with identical grins.

“Yes?” she asked them, as she put the Frisbee and her book away, “was there something you wanted?”

“We’re hungry,” they both said in unison.

“You think it’s been long enough from breakfast now that we can eat?” Booth asked her, wearing his classic charm smile.

“Yes, Dr. Bones,” Parker agreed, with his own version of the charm smile. “Please, can we eat now, pretty please?”

“Yes, ok,” Brennan granted with a laugh. “There’s no reason for the charm smiles, guys. It’s time for lunch now.”

“Yay!!” both child and man cried, as they shared victorious grins and high fives and Brennan just shook her head, as she reached for the picnic basket and started to bring out the food.

Booth reached for the cooler and brought out drinks for everyone. He tossed Parker his drink and handed Brennan hers while he took the plate Brennan had filled for him. The next half hour was spent eating and talking about nothing and everything. In short, it was a regular family picnic – which they would have recognized, if they had ever had one of those before. They all had a great time and agreed that they should do it more often.

Two hours later, Booth dropped down next to Brennan and reached for a cold drink. Fishing could make one very thirsty when done under a hot sun. He turned to look at Brennan and opened his mouth to make a wise ass crack, when he noticed the look on her face.

“Penny for your thoughts,” he said instead, as he brought his drink to his lips.

“Huh?” Brennan said, as she brought her gaze to his face.

“It means . . .” he started to say but she interrupted him.

“I know what it means, Booth” she told him “and I was just thinking about what you said earlier.”

“Ummm, what did I say?” he asked, as he stretched on his side and leaned on his left arm, as he followed her gaze to where Parker was back to playing with the ball.

“About Parker growing up,” she told him, as she leaned closer to him. “You’re right; he’s growing way too fast for my liking.”

“Yes, he is,” Booth agreed, as he brought his right hand up to play with her hair. “But that’s life. Kids grow up and parents have to let them.”

“Yes, well, that may be,” she told him “But I don’t like it.”

“No,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t like it, either.”

“You remember that trip we took up to your friend’s cabin,” she asked him a few minutes later, after they’d watched Parker play in silence. “About the time we got together.”

“Yes,” Booth said, with a grin, as he remembered that time. “It was a great two weeks.”

“Yes, they were,” she agreed with a sigh. “I was just remembering how much he’s grown since that time and thinking that maybe it’d be nice if we could go back there. We haven’t spent much time together and maybe a couple of weeks away would do us all good.”

Booth looked down at her with a huge grin and said, “That sounds like a great idea. I’ll call my buddy and set it up. When do you think you can get away?”

“Next week,” she told him.

“I’ll talk to Rebecca tomorrow, when I talk to her about Parker moving in with us. This is his summer vacation, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

“You still think she’ll be ok with him moving in with us?” she asked him, with a worried frown.

“I think so, yeah,” he told her, with a sigh. “She won’t be happy but I think she’ll agree it’s the best thing.”

“Maybe,” she told him, tentatively. “It might be a better idea if they went away together. I mean, if he’ll be moving in with us, it might be a good idea if they get to spend some time together.”

“I’m sure she’ll do that,” he told her, nodding his head. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t also.”

“Yes,” Brennan said, as she made herself more comfortable. “So, you think we can leave next week?”

“I don’t see why not,” Booth answered her. “We both have vacation time coming. We can look for houses tomorrow and during the week. If we don’t find anything we can still look when we come back.”

“That sounds good,” she agreed. After she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss, she settled back onto his chest and both turned to look at Parker and think about how life would be after they all finally started living as the family they were.

The End.

Until the Sequel: Turning Point, but before that look for the Prequel: Starting Point.

fanofbones

Posted 24/11/2007 09:50:20 PM

OK luli that was the perfect ending to the middle of the story....hehe kinda like George Lucas and out-of-order huh....
can't wait for the next one...

hugs
fab

luli27

Posted 25/11/2007 00:46:54 AM

I hadn't thought about it like that, Fab, but I guess you're right. Ha, being compared with George Lucas can only be a good thing - even if I refused the see the new Star Wars trilogy. Hahaha.
I really didn't intend this to be the middle of the story; hell, I didn't intend for this to be more than a couple of chapters!! It just got a life of its own and I'm just along for the ride now!!!

But, it's been a great ride and I hope it'll continue to be even better. Thank you for the review and I hope you'll like the next ones as much as this one.

CheeseBK

Posted 27/11/2007 09:14:22 AM

luli I know how it to get forced by your own story to write more than you planned.

loved the ending...... parker all growing up, aww

luli27

Posted 27/11/2007 07:29:02 PM

thank you CheeseBK! I'm so glad you liked the ending. Stay tuned, the prequel should be coming out soon. Can't say anything more than that cause I'm not sure when I'll be able to post it. Hopefully, it'll be around the holidays.

Bella Loony

Posted 29/11/2007 11:34:04 AM

Okay Luli,

I know that I already reviewed this on FF but I just re-read it and I am so excited for the sequel and the prequel!! You did beautifully. I loved Parker and Bones!! Can't wait sweetie!!

Bella

luli27

Posted 29/11/2007 07:48:59 PM

Thank you, loony!! I'm so glad you liked it as much the second time around. The prequel shouldn't be long in coming since I'm only two chapters from finishing Men!! yay!! So, as soon as that one is done, I'll really start on the prequel. So, stay tune, with any luck, it'll be out by the holidays!!