Very nice. A great extension of story HH began.

Ah man...every now and then I think I've wrapped my head around your awesomeness, and then BAM! You leave me in awe again...and terrified to write anything! LOL

I love this entire OS...there's been many attempts at addressing Booth's dad by writers, and some of them are are even great...but this puts them all to shame.

So freakin' awesome...and I adore this line. I mean, I love it all but this one line is just so on the money.

"You need them to be who they are because otherwise it makes it difficult for you to remember who you are."

Just...yeah. Bravo my friend. Bravo.

Bet you thought I disappeared. I'm back. :) LOVED this one. You just have the mad skills! Hope you're well. Miss chatting with you!

Such a sweet story! I love the competitive interaction when building the toy. That will definitely happen :)

Are you going to continue it or leave it a OS? Either way, it's really good.

Great story, thanks for writing!

I love your style of writing so. It's at moments, when you're just chugging along in the reading and you do something like:

"Her competitive streak concerns him. It really does."

...that make me laugh so hard I throw the phone I was reading it on. And continue to laugh as I walk to pick it up and keep reading.

You write a subtle humor that smacks your ass when you least expect it. -You can use that on the back of your first book jacket, if you'd like. Totally cool with that. :)

You write with real insight into the characters. Fab story.

Your writing speaks to me - I feel like I'm a kid back when my parents used to tell all these elaborate stories to get us to go to sleep because they draw me in in a very similar manner, they make me feel safe and they just fit that same way. Maybe it's the lighter tone to this piece or the familial theme that was a big part of it, but this was something that really came through for me as I read.

Your insight into these characters throughout the episode is spot on. I loved Brennan while at the post office especially and the manner in which you were able to reflect upon Booth and Cam's relationship. I wish that had been explored a little further in the ep but you gave it that recognition I needed.

I also completely agree and love that Booth has these moments just realising again that Brennan is actually pregnant. The way you folded them in there made me grin like a fool every time.

""My dad's dead," he says. He's not sure why. He thinks maybe he just needs to speak the words aloud in order to adjust to their reality. Or maybe he just wants to test his own reaction to them. Or maybe it's both.

Brennan rests the teething ring in her hands on the table. "Yes.""

This moment just leapt out at me, off the page and into my real life. I don't know if this is really review fare, but today's the one year anniversary of my Granddad's death and I kind of had to have this little moment where I acknowledged it out loud that way. To see it here in the same manner was absolutely perfect and particularly poignant. You take the details of life and make them special.

Brennan's response about her mom is exactly what I was hanging on for her to say in the episode, I so so hoped that they'd put it out there, and though Show didn't, you did perfectly without me even having to ask. This is why you are the Queen.

Just, all of this, a million times.

Another beautiful story. I heart you.

What a pleasant surprise to get a new fic from you!

Beautifully written, as always. You have such insight into the characters, it takes my breath away when you write things like:

It's an attempt to instil a sense of normalcy amidst an abnormal and unnerving situation; sometimes when you're doing something for the person you love, you're doing it for you, too. You need them to be who they are because otherwise it makes it difficult for you to remember who you are. And that kind of uncertainty caries a powerful weight.

And humour:

Booth laughs as she reaches for the screwdriver and launches an aggressive attack on the offending screws, but she's incredibly smart and her memory is damn near perfect; she disassembles and correctly reassembles her parts quickly, leaving Booth scrambling to get ahead once he realises she could very well take the lead.

At some point in the next ten minutes, Brennan 'accidentally' misplaces the English instructions and smugly follows the sheets written in Italian, leaving Booth to make wild guesses based on the diagrams alone. Five minutes after that, Booth nudges the second screwdriver just beyond Brennan's reach, forcing her to waste precious time shifting and wiggling her very pregnant body awkwardly across the floor in order to reclaim it.

"That was mean."

"You started it."

"I didn't lose them on purpose, Booth!"

"Then get rid of yours, too. We'll be even."

"Well there's no sense in us both operating without directions."

Mixed with sweetness:

Booth thinks that the most surprising thing is that they make it this far before Brennan's version of therapy turns into a competition. But he is most certainly not thinking about his father, and that's probably the important part.

SO GOOD!

A most excellent tag.

I really like this take on how Brennan helps Booth. Great job!

Loved it. Kudos XX

A lovely, perfect story. Angela (of course) turns out to be 100% right. No one but Brennan would think of putting together a toy as a way for Booth to come to terms with his father's death. But it turns out to be exactly what he needs. And your description of the competition and the resolution of it shows exactly why they are so good for each other.

Very cute story! I enjoyed it a lot. :)