Usually Booth took any excuse to drive. Driving was manly. Cars were manly. He had to show off his manly powers to Bones, but he didn't feel like being a showboat. He felt like being a hermit, or possibly a drunk hermit. Either one sounded pretty good to him, but nobody was letting it happen. He would have been cranky if it were anyone else in that moment, but with Bones it was familiar. He wasn't pressured into anything, or forced to act a different way then he was. He could just be Booth. He didn't have to be a leader or tactical planner, or guy with all the military experience, he could just for a little while let his guard down and trust somebody. He could actually feel relaxed, and he did, walking so close knit to her almost felt like home. That was exactly what he needed.
"Not all pie is cooked pie, Bones. Chocolate pie. They have chocolate pie that's uncooked, and they have lemon pie that isn't really fruit it's more like gelatin and not the bad kind they give you in hospitals. " He was avoiding an emotional subject, but he didn't want to talk about Lavender yet. Or all the problems they had. On the outside everything usually looked fine, but inward there were difficulties. Lavender blamed herself for her parents death and ran off to London leaving him behind, Booth had issues with change. None of it was an over night fix but he genuinely believed they would have been fine in the end.
The diner wasn't too far away from where they were, only a block or so. " Parker misses his mom. " The subject was changed. Booth didn't know how to explain to his kid that there was a chance he might not see her again. "I've got this feeling that something bad is going to happen, and I'm just going to end up here alone again. " Change. Not his favorite topic.