Wyatt and Max sat in their highchairs, wearing matching overalls and sweaters, and waving two blue plastic spoons around. One with Mickey Mouse and one with Donald Duck on the handles. Parker had brought them back from Disneyland for them for their first birthday.

The party was actually being held six weeks after their birthday. Parker hadn't quite finished his semester at college at the time of their birthday, and Booth and Brennan had agreed that they really wanted their entire family together for this celebration, and that meant waiting for big brother Parker.

Parker had picked up Pops and brought him to their house for the afternoon's festivities. Max had come for the weekend and Angela and Jack were there with their children, along with other friends and work colleagues. Angela was looking wonderful. Her pregnancy was progressing nicely and she and Jack were thrilled to finally be new parents again after several years of failed attempts to fall pregnant and a couple of miscarriages. Her baby was due in about two months and she was absolutely glowing. Despite her swollen ankles and hands, and a bladder that made her pee every thirty five minutes, and an uncontrollable craving for peanut butter on Oreos with onion jam. The latter actually turning Jack's stomach every time she asked him for a plate of it.

Pops was sitting next to the twins, laughing at their high pitched baby chatter which he translated into a story about a banana loving gorilla who lived in a mobile home and played poker with his neighbour who was a polar bear. Christine was in hysterics laughing so loud that Booth had to tell Pops off for getting her so wound up that she knocked over her glass of lemonade and soaked the front of her new party dress, making her then burst into tears, which of course made the twins cry too.

Brennan shook her head and took her upstairs to clean her up. She bent down to buckle Christine's new sandals when she felt a wave of nausea wash over her.

"Oh. Oh dear" she stood up and stumbled slightly.

"What's wrong Mommy?" Christine asked, worry in her voice.

Brennan smiled and sat on the bed "Nothing baby. I just bent down and then stood up too quick. It made my head go a bit whizzy. I feel much better now baby" she reassured her daughter who grinned and skipped out of the room to go and show everyone her other new dress.

They had gone shopping recently and couldn't decide between the two, and Booth, of course insisted on buying her both, because, as he said, "a pretty girl should have as many pretty dresses as she wants", which of course Christine took literally.

Brennan had tried to explain to both Booth that just because Christine wanted both, didn't mean she needed both. Booth had snorted and told her that that was a ridiculous statement because she had only just last week, bought two ancient Indonesian maiden statues for the garden, because as she had put it, "They're both so beautiful, and the subtle differences in the positioning of the maiden's hands just make it impossible for me to decide". Brennan had clamped her mouth closed and followed Booth to the checkout and stood glaring at him as he paid for the two dresses and asked the assistant to throw in four pairs of socks with frilly lacy tops on them because they were pretty and the subtle differences in the lace made it impossible for him to choose just one.

Brennan wiped the perspiration from her brow and took a few deep breaths. The nausea eased and she stood up gingerly. Feeling no other effects, she walked to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. What's wrong with you? Her face blanched for a moment Oh, I hope it's not connected to my brain injury? What if, No. You're overreacting Temperance. Stop it. Right now. She leaned in and glared at herself "You're perfectly fine and you just got dizzy from bending down and then standing up too quickly" she said out loud.

She stepped away from the mirror and felt a wave of nausea hit her again. She turned and vomited in the toilet. She pulled a towel from the rail and wiped her face. "Great. Just what I need in the middle of a party" She sat down on the toilet, reaching behind her and flushing it, wiping her face. She leaned her elbows on her knees and rested her face in the towel. Just relax and breathe. Booth told you to slow down and not overdo it, but of course, you had to make it the best first birthday party ever. She reached over and pulled out the top drawer looking for some paracetamol for her headache. Finding none in the top drawer she checked the next two.

She rummaged around in the bottom drawer, pulling out a blue box. She rattled it and stared at it, then put it back in the drawer. Not finding any pain killers she stood up gingerly and stood for a moment. She felt fine. Perhaps all I needed was to be sick? she thought. She opened up the mirrored cabinet and found what she was looking for. She popped two white capsules from their plastic bubbles and popped them into her mouth. Leaning over the sink, she cupped her hand under the cool water and washed them down. Staring at herself in the mirror, she cleaned up under her eyes with the corner of the towel and shook her head. Drama Queen she grinned at herself. She decided she needed to use the toilet so sat back down and stared at the floor thoughtfully.

Booth looked up as she came back into the room "Where'd you get to?" he asked, his forehead creased with worry. He stood up and approached her "Are you alright? You look a little pale" he said quietly so nobody else could hear. She shook her head "I'm fine. I was doing up Christine's sandals and stood up too fast and got a bit light headed." she said.

Booth gave her his interrogation look "But you were gone for ages" he said.

Brennan rolled her eyes "I was gone for fifteen minutes tops including the time it took to dress Christine and use the lavatory. I am fine Booth. Really." she nodded at him, her hand resting on his arm. He leaned in and stared into her eyes, then kissed her cheek and smiled "Good. OK!" he declared loudly, turning and rubbing his hands together. "Cake time!"

Brennan followed Booth into the kitchen and grabbed the stack of dessert plates and a handful of spoons and walked back into the room where their family and friends were waiting. Booth followed carrying a large wooden board, covered in blue paper. On it were two pale blue iced cakes. One was a capital M and the other a capital W. On the edges of each cake were evenly spaced, perfectly formed spheres of white chocolate and the words Happy Birthday To Max and Wyatt was piped on the board in bright yellow icing, with a giant number one candle, a tiny flame flickering at it's top.

"Make room!" Grumpy Hank yelled, shooing people out of Booth's pathway. "Do you want him to drop it? Move!" he added, living up to his name. Parker stepped towards Booth "Need a hand?" he asked noting his father's red face. The cake and the board was slightly heavier than Booth had realised and he was starting to puff as he carried it through the room to the table in the centre that was waiting for him. Booth gritted his teeth, "Nope" and took the last couple of steps and put the cake down on the table. He stood up and wiped his brow with his sleeve. "That was just a bit heavier than I thought it would be" he acknowledged to Parker, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Right everyone?" he called everyone's attention as he picked Max up out of his highchair. Brennan gathered up Wyatt and they stood side by side behind the table with their sons, facing the group that had come to celebrate their son's first birthday.

Booth cleared his throat. "OK first of all, thankyou for coming. We know it's a bit late, but things have been busy and we wanted to make sure that as many of our family was here for this day as could be" he said gesturing towards Hank, Max and Parker.

"Grandy Marianne couldn't come because she is getting her face flattened" Christine announced loudly making Booth cringe. He rolled his eyes. Everyone laughed. It was common knowledge that Booth's mother was extremely vain and spent a lot of time having facelifts, botox, and a variety of nips and tucks in an effort to appear younger than she actually was. "Thankyou Christine for that news update on your grandmother" he said, then looked up and smiled and shrugged. "Well, its the truth, we all know what my mother is like and we'll leave it at that."

Brennan was jigging Wyatt up and down as he was getting restless and kept leaning down to try to grab the candle's flickering flame. She smiled and looked around the room, "We appreciate everyone making the effort to be here with us for this day. Of course in some ancient cultures, birthday celebrations began as a form of protection. It was a common belief that evil spirits were more dangerous to a person when he or she experienced a change in their daily life, such as turning a year older. To protect them from harm, friends and family would gather around the birthday person and bring good cheers, thoughts and wishes. Giving gifts brought even more good cheer to ward off the evil spirits. Noisemakers are thought to be used at parties as a way of scaring away the evil spirits, although personally I find them irritating, which is why we don't have any here. The birthday history custom of lighting candles originated with people believing that the gods lived in the sky and by lighting candles and torches they were sending a signal or prayer to the gods so they could be answered. When you blow out the candles and make a wish this is another way of sending a signal and a message. So I think we are going to do that now, right Booth?" she finished off looking at Booth who had a sort of stunned expression on his face.

"Uh. Yeah, sure. Thank you for that history of birthdays Bones." he said, looking around the room at the slightly confused faces of their guests. "We better blow out the candle before it becomes a puddle." he said holding Max lower to the cake, but not so close that he could grab it. "Ready?" he said to Wyatt who Brennan was holding close to Max. "One, Two, Three! Happy Birthday!" he said and then both he and Brennan blew out the flame on the candle together.

The room was filled with the tune of Happy Birthday being sung to two special little boys, who stared at first at the group of people singing then down at the cake, then back at the people. Wyatt started clapping his chubby hands together and singing along, while Max burst into tears, not quite sure about the noise. "Oh Max" Booth cuddled his son into his shoulder and grinned while joining in with the song "Happy Birthday dear Wyatt and Maxie" he sang Max's name into his cheek, kissing his face.

Max turned his head and smiled his toothy grin at his father and grabbed his nose as Booth finished the song nasally.

Hip Hip Hooray! There was cheering and clapping and laughing as Max tried to remove Booth's nose completely from his face. "Hey buddy!" he said as he uncurled his sons fingers from his face. "Quite a grip you got there!" he said as he kissed his sons fingers and grinned at everyone.

"Eat up people. I'm not putting this away tonight!" he announced. Brennan frowned "Booth! We can't waste it!" she said. Booth shrugged, "Honey have you seen the refrigerator? It's not gonna fit. So it either gets eaten right now, we give everyone some to take home, or it's getting thrown out tonight" Booth replied. Brennan chewed on her bottom lip and disappeared, coming back from the kitchen with some paper plates and a roll of clingwrap. "Everyone, please don't forget to take some cake home with you" she announced as she started cutting portions and wrapping them and placing them on the table.

It was around ten o'clock when Booth bent down and kissed the tousled heads of Max and then Wyatt, whispering "Happy Birthday little men. Daddy loves you so much. Goodnight" then tiptoed out of the room. Not that the boys would have woken up. They were exhausted from all the fun of the day. After the cake, Brennan and he had sat them down in the middle of the room and everyone gathered around as they handed the boys their gifts to let them open them themselves. An hour and a half later, the boys were surrounded by so many toys and new clothes that Brennan actually felt embarrassed by the generosity of all their family and friends.

Booth was excited by all the boy toys. He loved the big chunky baby remote trucks that they had got from Angela and Jack and couldn't wait to fire them up tomorrow. Brennan loved all the new clothes that they had received. They had grown so much recently she had made a list of things they needed, but was going to be able to cross most of them off of it. What she didn't know was Booth had been getting calls about what to buy them and he had simply read the list to them. But she didn't need to know that, he had decided.

He closed the door to the nursery, popped his head into Christine's room. She was asleep, one arm above her head and the other hanging out the side of her bed. He tiptoed in and gently lifted her arm and placed it across her chest. "Night Princess" he whispered, dropping a gentle kiss onto her forehead. She snuffled slightly and he stood up and backed away from the bed. She settled and he smiled. He could see why people said she was the image of him, but he always thought that when she was sleeping, she looked like her mother, gentle and sweet. He closed his eyes and crossed himself "Thank you Lord for giving me everything I ever wanted" he whispered.

He opened the bedroom door and stepped in, flicking off the main light. Brennan was already in bed, lying with the pile of birthday cards on her lap reading them in the light of the bedside lamps. She looked up and smiled at him "These really are lovely. People wrote the nicest things to the boys. I think I am going to preserve these in a sort of large book" Booth smiled as he stepped out of his jeans and pulled his T-shirt over his head and climbed into the bed next to her. "Scrapbook" he said as he plumped his pillow up behind his back and picked up a card to read.

"Oh. This is from Mom" he said, pressing his lips together. It was no secret that although Booth and his mother had reconciled about five years ago, they were not exactly close. She was self serving and selfish and vain and the fact that she had not made the effort to come to her only grandson's first birthday party, rather, choosing to go to some quack in Florida to have another bout of Botox or something, was hurtful to him.

Get this, "Wishing the best two grandsons in the world a wonderful first birthday. Wish I could be there to celebrate with you, and missing you bunches. All my love, Grandy Marianne." he read the card with an overpronounced voice, mimicking his mother. "The best two grandsons. What does that make Parker? Chopped liver? Come on!" he said screwing the card up in his hand. "Booth" Brennan said softly. She knew how much Marianne hurt Booth with her selfish actions, but at least she had thought of them and sent a gift.

"It just bugs me you know? She's all Oh I'm the best grandy in the world! Grandy" he huffed "Just because she thinks she is too young to be called Grandma, and thinks this Grandy crap sounds all posh or something. She makes my blood boil Bones. I know she's my Mom and I know I'm supposed to love her, but." he hesitated and threw the crumpled card across the room and looked at Brennan, shaking his head "sometimes I just don't know that I do. I more. Tolerate her." he said, looking down at his hands, fingers interlaced, resting on the quilt.

Brennan pressed her lips together thoughtfully. He was upset, she knew that. She sighed "Sometimes Booth, we just have to accept the people in our lives for who they are, and be grateful that they are there." she said. Booth turned his head and stared at her "That sounds like something I would say" he smiled. "It is. You told me that a long time ago when Dad first came back into my life. I think you're right. She's not perfect. We all know that, but she is your mother. And you cannot change that. I wish mine was still here." she trailed off.

Booth felt a tug in his chest. He reached over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders pulling her to him as they looked at another few cards together. Suddenly she pulled away and reached into the bedside cabinet drawer and then leaned back into him, snuggling close to him. She sighed and then handed him something.

Booth stared at the item in his hand. He wasn't quite sure at first what he was looking at. She was curled into his body, breathing softly, her hair tickling his cheek. Suddenly, he realised what she had handed him. He held it up in front of them and said "You're kidding! This is real?" he said excitedly. Brennan took a deep breath and nodded.

"Apparently our romantic night together was more than successful." she said wrapping an arm around his chest. "Are you OK?" she asked. Booth had slumped back into his pillow and was sitting silently. He jumped forwards and rolled towards her grabbing her and kissing her hard over and over, her mouth, her cheeks her eyes. "Bones I'm more than alright. Shocked. Stunned. Sure. A little bit scared. Of course. But boy am I alright!" he practically yelled.

"Shhh, you'll wake the twins!" she shushed him, placing a hand over his mouth. Her eyes were sparkling, her smile was wide. Booth let her go and he threw himself back into his pillow again, sitting staring at the two pink lines.

"We're gonna have another baby Bones! When did you find out?" he asked.

Brennan wriggled herself close to him and closed her eyes. "After I changed Christine's clothes, I was in the bathroom and I found the test. I really didn't think anything was happening, but I thought, I'll just do it and put it in the drawer" she said. "I couldn't believe it Booth" she said snuggling closer to him.

And this time, nothing is going to go wrong. I know it. And I know that Booth will pray to his God and make sure that nothing bad will happen either. We're going to have a big, loud, happy, busy household her eyes flew open. A big household.

"Booth?" she said.

"hmmm?" he murmured, lost in his daydream about another baby in the house. She sat up straight suddenly, her hand over her mouth.

"What if we have another set of twins? We're gonna need a bigger house". she said.

A/N I think I'm going to leave this one here. Obviously it could go on and on, but I don't think it needs to. I hope you have enjoyed my little AU story. And wouldn't it be amazing if Booth & Brennan actually did have another child in the show. Fingers crossed for that!

Thanks for reading!