Discovery

Chapter 31

By the time Willow left the aged persons' home alongside Booth and Parker, her sides were aching from giggling so much. Pops, as she'd taken to calling her father's grandfather, was one of the funniest guys she'd ever met. He'd been full of stories about her father as a little boy and they'd been very amusing. Booth had looked horrified as Pops had told story after story to Parker and Willow, his own cheeks blushing as his two children giggled at his expense. Booth could live with the embarrassment, however, considering the looks of happiness on the faces of his offspring.

Booth had also seen the way Pops had looked at Willow. The older man had caught Booth's eye early on in the visit and beamed, telling Seeley all he needed to know... That Pops approved of Willow and that he was thankful that she existed... even though it did mean that Seeley had gotten his girlfriend pregnant at eighteen. Had he found out at the time, Seeley was sure that he would have been told to marry Carmen (not that he would have objected to it) and to take responsibility (not that he wouldn't have) or face a serious scolding from his grandfather. He was just grateful that Pops had never approved of using corporal punishment on him and Jared.

Glancing across at Willow's smiling face and seeing Parker's reflection in the rear vision mirror, Seeley was convinced that his children had enjoyed themselves. He was sure Pops had as well. He always loved it when Parker came to visit him and he'd definitely liked meeting his great-granddaughter for the first time.

Parker chattered away as Booth drove towards Rebecca's house. Willow was sad that her little brother was leaving but she reasoned that she was going to see him again on Christmas day and then he'd be staying for a week. She didn't know if Booth had plans for that week but she was sure that it was going to be enjoyable.

As she let the sound of Parker's voice wash over her, she wondered what the other Scoobies were doing. She felt guilt well up within her for not having spoken to them in so long and resolved to call them that night. She hoped that it had been quiet or at least nothing overly dangerous that Buffy had faced. She knew that Buffy was a skilled Slayer but there was a good reason that Slayers tended to be short lived. Buffy would most probably never have the opportunity to meet her great-grandchildren. It was sad and Willow knew that ever since confronting the Master Buffy had been forced to deal with her own mortality, but Buffy seemed to have begun to accept her destiny and Willow could only marvel at the courage that her friend had. If Willow had been forced to deal with becoming a Slayer and living through what Buffy had experienced in the year since being called, she was sure that she'd be a quivering mess, wanting to hide from the cruel world in her room and refusing to even get out of bed.

Willow was drawn from her musing when she felt Booth nudge her arm gently. She jumped, startled, before realizing that they had arrived at Rebecca's house. She undid her seat belt and opened the car door, slipping from the car, while Parker and Booth gathered up Parker's bag of belongings. Willow waited before the three walked up to the house together. Parker rang the doorbell. Rebecca soon answered the door, a festive apron on over her clothes.

"Hey, Parker," she greeted with a wide smile. Parker hugged his mother.

"Hi, Mom."

"Did you have a good weekend with your dad?" Rebecca asked.

Parker nodded rapidly. "Yep, we went and picked out a Christmas tree and we played in the park and Uncle Jared came over for dinner and we went and saw Pops and I played with Willow a lot," Parker babbled. Rebecca laughed.

"Why don't you go and put your bags away while I talk to your dad, okay?'

"Okay, Mom." Parker beamed before he ran into the house. Willow caught her father's eye and, catching the slight inclination of his head, followed her brother into the house, leaving the two adults along in the doorway.