Chapter 2! Please disregard any time periods I might have mentioned in the first chapter. A long time has passed and Booth is old and that's all that matters. Enjoy!

Chapter Two

Booth did not think he would sleep very well that night. By the time the FBI's crime scene technicians had finally made it to the clearing, after getting lost twice of course, it was past dinnertime and Booth had left to eat at the diner. While he ate his pie, wishing the waitress would stop giving him disapproving looks and just hit him over the head with the pie plate and be done with it already, he got a call from Shaw telling him CSU was finished and the two of them would start investigating tomorrow morning.

A sense of pride came over him whenever he received an order from his partner. He had taken this agent at the start of her career with the FBI and transformed that nervous young follower into a confident leader. He himself was nearing the end of extended burnout and Shaw was ready in his eyes to take his place. It felt good to know that he was leaving his job in capable hands.

Speaking of capable hands, Booth thought that he really ought to call Bones and see how she was doing. It would also put his mind at ease, because the words perfect and murder kept bouncing around his head at it was starting to make him crazy. If Bones was okay, he would know that he just had to contend with a wacko's crazy murder and not Bones' crazy murder.

He had been with the Bureau long enough to know that he shouldn't assume a murder took place in that clearing since there was no evidence of that happening. But at the same time he also knew that if someone was indeed murdered there, which his large gut was telling him was true, they were wasting valuable time assuming it was just a circle. He did trust Shaw's judgment, though, and thought it might be time to let her make her own mistakes. Hopefully this mistake wouldn't cost someone their life.

Booth had finished his slice of pie while contemplating the circle and stood up to leave after leaving a healthy tip with the bill to thank the waitress for not hitting him with any pie plates just yet. He thought it might be a good time to start some exercise even if he didn't give up his pie, so he decided to walk back to his apartment rather than take a cab. Before he made it off the block the diner was on, his phone started to ring and Parker's picture popped up on the screen.

"Hey Park," he answered.

"Hi Dad," he said quickly. "Look, I have a problem."

"Don't even tell me you're not graduating on time," Booth told him, readying himself to pummel his son. How many times had he told him that his education always comes first? He only had a couple of weeks left before he would be graduating from Boston University.

"No, it's not that. Um, I sort of have something to tell you." Booth heard the hesitation in his son's voice that this something was a bad something.

"Did you get Nora pregnant?" The line crackled. "Parker? Did you?" More silence. "Jesus, Parker, answer me."

"It was an accident," he said finally. Booth's pie-filled stomach sank into the sidewalk and then he stepped on it.

"Shit. Parker..." He had so much to say and not the heart to say it. "Is Nora okay?"

"She's a little scared," Parker replied. "Dad, I don't know what to do."

"And I can't tell you what you should do," Booth told him honestly.

"But you've been through this," he begged.

"It depends on the people, kid. If Nora was like your mother, I'd say you better get ready to share for the rest of your life. Speaking of sharing and your mother, did you tell her yet?" Booth turned a corner and sidestepped a homeless man. He could see the top of his apartment building a few blocks away.

"She's gonna be so disappointed," Parker mumbled and Booth could barely make out what he said.

"Yeah, she probably will," Booth agreed. "But she doesn't have to be. If you're responsible about this, which I hope you will be, then I should be telling you congratulations."

"I think I should ask her to marry me," Parker said.

"Whoa, let's not go making any irrational decisions here," Booth protested. "Responsible does not equal marriage."

"I was already going to ask her to marry me. I bought the ring a few weeks ago."

"Oh," Booth said, hiding his disappointment that he had not talked to his son about this or helped him plan. "Well in that case..." He entered his apartment building and climbed the stairs to the third floor.

"You don't think she'll think I'm only asking her because I got her pregnant, do you?" Parker asked worriedly.

"The only way you'll know is if you ask her," Booth said. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, turning the lights on while he kicked his shoes off and loosened his tie with one hand. "But listen, Parker, marriage is a big step. You're asking Nora to spend the rest of her life with you. You have to think of her more than you when you decide this."

"I know," Parker said. "Oh, she's home now. I gotta go."

"Alright, let me know how everything goes," Booth said and then he hung up and sighed heavily. He removed his jacket and went to lie down on the couch to wonder where he went wrong to have his son getting his girlfriend pregnant. Sure, Parker was twenty-one years old and about to graduate college, but Booth had stressed the importance of marriage before kids until he was blue in the face. Booth hoped that he would at least have better luck than his own with proposing.

He stared at the ceiling for a while and then closed his eyes so he didn't have to stare at cobwebs anymore. His phone rang again and he brought it to his ear without opening his eyes.

"Booth."

"I know I said we would wait until tomorrow morning to start the investigation," Shaw began, "but CSU found traces of human skin in the substance under the leaves around the circle. They can't get DNA from any of it, but the leaves and soil say a fire was burning there within the last five hours. If we're lucky, the suspect could still be in the area." Booth sat up and went searching for his keys.

"I'll be there in a few minutes."

Good, he thought, something productive to do.