Chapter 2 I never thought I’d be doing this when I thought about having kids
That Monday Brennan sucked in a breath and called the speech therapist and found out they didn’t have an appointment until after Michael’s birthday. Brennan had better luck with the school, Michael couldn’t start until they came back from summer break, but Booth and Brennan could come in for a tour and consultation on Wednesday.
Wednesday after they had lunch at the diner Booth and Brennan drove to the school, The New Horizons School. Booth parked in the parking lot facing the playground, “They have swings Michael will love that.”
“Yeah, I never thought I’d be doing this when I thought about having kids.”
“Doing what? You weren’t going to send our kids to preschool?”
“Not like this, I never pictured a baby being so early, not talking, and sending him to special schools or special class. Speech therapy, IEP’s evaluations…”Brennan’s voice cracked a little.
Booth cupped Brennan’s chin, “Bones, just relax we don’t know what Michael’s future will be like, all we know is what’s right now. We just need to take it one day at a time we’re gonna get through this.”
“I don’t know why this is so hard for me, it’s not like what’s wrong with Michael is life threatening.”
“It’s hard because you’re his mom and he’s hurting and you can’t make it better right now.”
“Yeah, I know it’s still hard.”
“It’s hard for me too.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I’m his dad and I should be able to fix this and I can’t do it. It kind of makes me mad. Sometimes when he wants something and we don’t know what he wants or it’s taking too long, the look of pure frustration in his eyes breaks my heart.”Brennan squeezed his hand and took a breath and nodded to Booth, he smiled slightly. Over the years he’d learned that the nod meant Brennan was going to wait for him to open her door and help her inside.
An hour and a half later they were back in SUV, the meeting went well and Brennan was impressed with the program and the services they had in pace to help Michael, but something was nagging at her. Brennan said out loud; “let’s go to Sid’s, Michael loves to look at the fish tank.”
“You sure Bones? Tonight’s veggie meatloaf night.” Even though it didn’t have meat in it Booth still loved the meatloaf and mashed potatoes gravy, carrots or peas and sometimes rolls.
Brennan smiled at Booth, “tomorrow, I’ve got a lot of thinking to do tonight…”
“About Michael?”
“Yes. I have my reservations about sending him to that school.”
“We’ve got other schools to check out…”
“That are at least 45 minutes away, I’m not sending our three year old 45 minutes away from us. We’ll talk about it after I figure it all out, please Booth I need to do this.”
“Okay.” Booth kissed her cheek. “Am I getting him from your dad or are you?”
“Can you? Dad’ll want to talk and I-“
“I got it.” Booth smiled and Brennan returned it. Fifteen minutes later Max let Booth in his apartment and Michael dropped the truck in his hand and went to Booth, while looking for Brennan. “Mommy is waiting in the car. Tell grandpa goodbye and give him a hug, while I get your stuff and we’ll go.”
Michael complied and five minutes later they were on the way.
Sid met them at the door and led them to a table across from the fish tank and returned a few minutes later with their food, Thai peanut noodles for Brennan, spicy shrimp for Booth and chicken nuggets cut in half for Michael. Everyone had a pleasant dinner, something that didn’t happen that often. After the quiet dinner Brennan decided to try taking Michael to the store to get a few things, something she didn’t do often because the store sometimes over stimulated him and a meltdown ensued. Michael did well at the store if you overlooked the squashed loaf of bread he dropped twice and squeezed before not carefully dropping into Brennan’s cart. By the time they got home Michael was sound asleep, Brennan changed him into pajamas and put him to bed before settling down in office with her laptop and working out a plan to help her son find his words.