So my Secret Santa person is luvthembones! *squees* I hope this meets your expectations. This was the prompt that I chose *bites nails nervously*:
Characters I wish for: Bones, Booth, Hank
Please include: fun or silly family celebration, perhaps a tradition of his grandmother's that Hank told Brennan about which she will surprise Booth with?
Please exclude: Tragedy
Maximum rating: from NC-17
So here we go….
Note: Not necessarily canon.
The Firsts of a Winter Season
Booth was busy chopping vegetables in his kitchen while the five o'clock news echoed through his apartment. Hank was sitting in Booth's old recliner chair trying to get an update on the weather.
"…around ten o'clock tonight expect to see the first snow flurries of the season. It'll start of as just flurries but within an hour or less it will turn heavy and really begin to stick to the pavement and roadways…."
"I bet ya every damn grocery store in the county ran outta milk and bread for the next two days." Hank said as he stood up from the chair and began walking towards Booth in the kitchen.
"I hear ya, Pop. You'd think people who live in DC would be used to this type of weather by now."
"Yeah well you know how it is. These weather people like to hype everything up, scare people into thinking it's the storm of the century so that they'll go out and buy every gallon of water and flashlight they come across. And whatever extra money those grocery stores make they just split it up between them."
Booth just laughed at his grandfathers ranting and rambling as he put his knife down on the cutting board, wiped his hands on a dish towel and went into the living room. He turned the base board heating in his living room up a little higher and rubbed his hands together briskly, blew in them, and then rubbed them together some more. The days were short and the nights were long and cold. And on this night, it was very windy. The wind howled as if nature itself was warning man and animal of the impending storm that loomed at their heels. He went back into the kitchen and started taking out more ingredients he needed to make his special spaghetti sauce he promised Pops that he would make. He opened the refrigerator and began shuffling around in one of the crispers.
Outside, Brennan carefully made her way across the street, her hands stuffed into the pockets of her black pea coat and her chin and cheeks nestled into her scarf. She didn't like how things ended between them that afternoon during lunch. Booth told her that he wasn't upset but his eyes didn't change. They didn't go back to being easy, light, and carefree afterwards. She wasn't the greatest at reading people, no, but she knew Booth and she knew something still wasn't right. She struck something in him. Something that shouldn't have been struck. Something that when struck could shut Booth down completely.
"So my grandfather is coming over tonight. I'm making spaghetti. Wanna join us?" He said with a half smile.
For a moment she was transfixed. Even considered cancelling her dinner date with her editor that she absolutely knew that she had to attend…all because of that little smirk he loved to deliver at the end of an invitation, or plea, or whatever…. "I'm sorry, Booth. I can't tonight."
He tried to camouflage his disappointment with indifference. He shrugged his shoulders. "It's ok, maybe next time Bones."
She knew that Booth and his grandfather, Hank, were very close. And she wondered how out of place she would feel in such an intimate setting. Being with Booth and his family, even if it was just one member of his family, felt a little less partner like and little more couple like to her. Then again, it was just his grandfather, who she had already met. It wasn't like he was asking her over to have dinner with his parents who she had never met. She wondered how his parents were. Their character, how they looked. If they would think she was weird. Booth had mentioned his mom on occasion but now that she thought about it…never ever mentioned his father.
"Something on your mind?" Booth asked he when he noticed the perplexed look on her face, furrowed eyebrows', scrunched nose. She was definitely chewing on a thought.
She straightened her face at the sound of his voice, "Yes, Booth, there is actually."
Booth stuffed the last piece of butter bread into his mouth and waited for her to continue.
"Why don't you even talk about your father?"
Finally at Booth's apartment door. She knocked, hard, three times and then took a step back. She heard some shuffling and noise coming from inside but after a minute when no one had come to the door she prepared herself to knock again. Just as she was about to, though, the door swung open. There stood Booth. He was dressed in a casual pair of jeans. A black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and three buttons unbuttoned under his neck. No shoes, just white socks with grey on the toes and a dish towel thrown over his shoulder. He looked surprised and she felt foolish right away. And she certainly felt over dressed in her pencil skirt, blouse and boots.
"Bones."
She could feel the warmth of his apartment surround her in the cold hallway. The smell of food teased her nose and she regretted not accepting his offer when he invited her initially.
"Bones….hey." He said again, surprised, confused….happy?
"Booth. I'm so sorry to just drop by like this. I don't usually arrive at people's homes unannounced and come to think of it I should have called you first I'm really not sure – "
"Bones, hush….come in." He gestured with a nod for her to step inside as he pulled the door open wider. She just stood there for a minute not moving. Not sure about what she was even doing there really? What was she trying to prove? Something, obviously.
"You do want to come in, right? I mean you're here to stay?" He glanced behind him quickly and then back to Brennan. "We don't have a case do we? I didn't get a call."
"No no… there is no case, Booth. Yes, I'm here to stay. For dinner."
The pair finally entered the living room where Hank was sitting. Brennan stood behind him removing her coat and scarf. "Pops. Bones here is going to join us for dinner tonight."
"Well well," Hank stood up and slowly made his way towards Brennan. She passed her coat and scarf to Booth and he stepped away for a second to hang them up in the closet across the room.
"The ever beautiful Doctor Temperance Brennan. Nice to see you again."
"Thank you Hank, you also."
"Hey shrimp, why didn't you tell me we were having company, I would have put something a little nicer than this old beat up sweater for this lovely gal."
Booth returned from hanging Brennan's coat.
"Pops you're fine." Booth sighed.
"No, it isn't Booth's fault. Booth actually wasn't expecting me either. I just came by unannounced," She looked over at Booth. "Booth wasn't expecting me." Booth saw the apology written all over her face.
She still felt a little foolish for just dropping by. Especially when she had already told Booth that she had an important meeting with her editor that she couldn't miss – one that she in fact a cancelled to be there.
"Not expecting but still hoping."
Brennan felt the flush in her cheeks at his words. It was a good thing that her face was probably still a little red since coming in from the cold. She assumed Booth wouldn't notice.
"Ok so…wine?"
"Yes, please."
Booth moved back into the kitchen and Hank and Brennan settled into the living room.
After one or two glasses later things seemed a lot more easy going and Brennan felt nearly completely relaxed at that point. Brennan was still keeping Hank company in the living room while Booth spent most of his time in the kitchen stirring the sauce. Booth would come out periodically and jump into whatever conversation was being had and then make his way back into the kitchen.
This time, Brennan came to Booth. He was standing in front of the stove, slowly stirring the wooden stick around the sides of the pot. And how his kitchen was set up, Booth was able to face Brennan while standing at the stove, his back wasn't turned towards her.
She leaned over the little kitchen island, elbows propped up on the faux granite. "You're really obsessing over that sauce, Booth."
Booth let out a snicker. "I know I know. Pops tells me I'm worse than Henry Hill." Then he changed his voice and he suddenly had an Italian accent, "Tell Michael not to let the sauce stick…keep stirring it!" Booth laughed to himself.
Brennan was thoroughly confused."Wait, what? Who's Michael?"
He was still chuckling. "Nothing Bones… no one." Brennan didn't push. "You see Bones, the sauce is what makes the dish. In any pasta dish. It's all about the sauce. Sauce is very important to us Italians, you know." He winked at her.
"Well I can certainly appreciate that. It smells very good."
Booth continued to stir and for a moment Brennan's eyes left his face and drifted down towards his hand that was moving the stick around the pot. The muscles in his forearm moved and twitched under his dark skin with each deliberate rotation of his wrist.
When she looked up at his face he was already looking at her. She didn't feel embarrassed.
"You want a taste?"
"Sure."
Booth smiled easily as he stirred the stick around once more and gathered up a small amount into the dip of the spoon. He lifted it to his mouth and blew gently cooling it off for her. She wanted to say something about being able to cool her own food but nothing came out of her mouth. She just watched as he kept making an o shape with his lips and blowing air gently over the sauce that sat on the spoon.
"You ready?"
"Yes." She sat up from her position of leaning over the counter. Just as she started to question whether or not he wanted her to take the spoon from him he was moving it towards her mouth. The spoon hung in the air between them and it was just at the entrance of her mouth now. Booth raised his eyebrows in question and she opened her mouth for him. He moved the spoon forward just slightly and Brennan closed her mouth over the tip of it and pulled back, cleaning every bit of sauce off. A few seconds of silence and then she smacked her lips once, twice.
Booth's hand still hung midair with the spoon.
"Oh, Booth that is insanely delicious." She licked the corner of her mouth where a little of the sauce had been.
"Yeah?" Booth asked.
"Yes. You are an amazing cook I must say."
Booth smiled at her as he returned the spoon to the pot and continued stirring. "Thanks Bones."
After they had finished eating they all sat at the table in the kitchen and chatted with empty plates and full bellies in front of them. "Thanks again for dinner Shrimp."
"No problem, Pops, you know you're welcome anytime. I love cooking for you." Booth began to stand up and collect dishes. Brennan stood up then too. "Let me get this, Booth, you've done enough standing for the night."
"Are you joking, Bones? You're my guest. Sit down." He grabbed for her plate. "I'm not a guest, Booth. I'm your friend who eats with you all the time. She grabbed Hanks plate." Booth wanted to argue but he knew what it was like to be on the opposing side of a determined Dr. Brennan.
"How about we wash the dishes together, it'll be fun. And whoever has less water all over them at the end can be the one to pick what we're having for dessert."
Booth stopped in his tracks and looked at Brennan. He stepped closer to her. He was hesitant but he got closer to her. "Wait….what?" He looked over at Hank. "Pops did you…?"
"Your grandfather told me that when you were little - to make you and your brother do the dishes your mom would tell you that if you did the dishes, after everything was all clean, dried and put away she would determine who was the least wet and whoever that person was got to pick out dessert for the night. It made it fun and competitive."
Booth wasn't even in his kitchen anymore. He was eleven years old again. In his old house back in South Philly. His old kitchen with brown and beige linoleum floors. The floors that he and his brother would slide chairs against up to the kitchen sink so they could kneel on them while they did the dishes. They would start of ok but as time went on and the dishes became less and less they would start to splash each other, by accident, of course. Their mom would hear them giggling as she straightened up the rest of their home. Most of the time, Booth would just let Jared "win". He'd spill some water on his shirt while washing a large pot and feign being upset and Jared's eyes would go wide and he'd become giddy with excitement as he started to think about what he wanted for dessert.
"Booth?"
Brennan's voice snatched him from his thoughts and drug him back into reality, though the warm feeling that he felt at remembering that never left. It stayed buried deep within his gut and the warmth of it traveled up his chest and smothered his heart. It was a great feeling.
"Aw, Bones." He didn't even know what else to say. He was speechless.
Hank stood from the kitchen table. "Well you two better get to it… I'll be coming back in here shortly to see who's gonna be picking dessert tonight."
Brennan chuckled.
"Well you heard the man!" Booth said grabbing a wine glass from the table and making his way to the sink. Brennan followed with her hands full of dishes as well. At first, things were playful, light and full of jokes and even some splashing until Brennan got serious and stopped what she was doing. Booth was still on a high and didn't even notice at first until he handed her a dish to dry and she didn't take it.
"Hey, you ok?"
"Booth, I'm so sorry about today." Her blues eyes looked somber. Sad. "I didn't know… I didn't – I would have never asked that Booth if I knew what kind of pain it would cause you."
Booth swallowed hard and toweled the dish himself before placing it down on the counter. "I know Bones, its ok. You know sometimes it just catches me off guard. Sometimes talking about him bothers me and other times it's easy to discuss with the right person."
She understood.
"Hank told me some wonderful stories about you and your mother."
She watched as his face lit up again.
"Oh I bet. My mom,' he thought as he grabbed another dish and began scrubbing it, "my mom did everything she could for us. She was a wonderful mother."
Brennan felt the tightness in her chest begin to leave as the stress on Booth's face began to disappear.
"Lots of great memories with mom."
"It sounds as if she was a very smart woman as well." She said picking up her own towel and drying off the dish that Booth passed to her.
"Yeah?"
"Well she certainly didn't have any problems getting two adolescent boys to do dishes."
Booth laughed. "Yeah, she was quite cunning when she needed to be."
"Now I know where you get it from."
"Really?" Booth pretended to be offended. He splashed a bowl down into the sink and sent water flying in Brennan's direction. "Oh! I am so sorry. That was an accident. I promise."
Brennan couldn't keep herself from laughing as she dipped her hand into the sink and sent a splash in Booth's direction getting water all over his shirt.
"Sorry! Accident!"
"Accident, huh?" Booth playfully growled and grabbed her wrists with one hand as he kept his other hand in the water. Brennan was in hysterics. "Booth! No! No! That's cheating!"
Booth could barely speak over his own laughing. "What?! You're the one who just blatantly splashed me with water!" Brennan tried to wiggle out of his grasp. "Hank! Your grandson is cheating! Hank!"
Booth gasped and let her go. "Tattle-tail."
Brennan knew that term. She had learned it early from hearing her brother use it all the time when they were little. She rolled her eyes at him and lightly jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.
After the dishes were done and everything was cleaned up Hank decided that they both lost and that he would be the one to decide what they would have for dessert.
Booth wanted time to stop so that this, this scene, could never end. He wanted to feel this happy, this content, and this peaceful forever. All he needed was Parker in the picture and it would be completely perfect. All the people that he cared about the most in one room, enjoying each other. He looked at Brennan who was sitting on the other side of the couch Indian style, her feet tucked underneath her bottom. She was completely relaxed. And that made his heart flutter because he knew her. He knew what it took for her to feel completely relaxed.
He tried to hold off as long as possible but eventually he did look up at the clock that was hanging on the wall to the left of the TV.
"It's a quarter to ten, Bones." She met his eyes and he noticed how quickly a hint of sadness dispersed across her features. "I don't want you driving in the snow in that matchbox Prius of yours."
Brennan got up from the couch and walked over to one of the windows in the living room. She put her face up to the glass and squinted to see out into the dark. Tiny, flawlessly white snowflakes were trickling down through air like they never wanted to touch the ground. Booth came over and stood beside her.
He loved how the snow looked in the light of the street lamps. He loved how the first snowfall of the season seemed to quiet everyone and everything.
"It's almost magical isn't it?" He was almost expecting her to protest. Say something about magic not being this or that but she didn't. She was in as much awe as he was. So they just stood there together and enjoyed the moment.
"It's really beautiful." She muttered from beside him. "But I really should start heading home before it gets too bad."
"Yeah." They both turned to find Hank fast asleep on the recliner. Booth quietly made his way to the closet to retrieve Brennan's coat and scarf. She was standing by the front door when he returned. He helped her into her coat and laid her scarf around her neck for her.
"Thanks, Booth."She picked her bag up from the side table and hung it over her shoulder. "Thanks again for Dinner. And tell Hank I said good night too." She turned around and started for the door. He watched her as she turned the knob and watched her begin to bring the door back towards herself.
"Bones…. Bones… wait." He whispered, not wanting to wake Hank. She turned around without hesitation and she could feel his breath on her face and he struggled to catch it and she wondered what could possibly cause him to become so out of breath but the more she looked at him puzzled the more her own breath began to hitch. "What is it, Booth?"
He let out a nervous laugh. She smiled at him herself briefly before seriousness found them both once more. "Bones, I just….. Thanks."
"Why are you thanking me?" She asked genuinely a little confused.
Booth threw his back and in an exaggerated motion and let out a sigh, "Geez Bones, you really know how to make a man work for it."
She remained silent, intent on hearing him out.
"Thanks for coming here tonight. Hanging out with me and Pops. Lifting my spirits. Making me happy."
Booth watched as her face lit up. "It's my pleasure Booth. Those aren't things that you have to thank me for." He nodded an understanding nod and didn't want to push back. He wanted to thank her and he did and even if she didn't want to receive it and least she knew he was grateful.
"Ok, you better get going before it really starts snowing out there." He stepped around her and pulled the door open more.
Brennan tugged her purse strap closer to her neck. "Alright, I'll talk to you soon Booth."
He pulled the door open even more and let her step by him and into the hallway.
She could have just walked away. She probably should have just left it as it was, like she always argued with herself was the proper thing to do. The sensible thing. But tonight, was different. Whether it was the wine, that magical feeling that came with the first snow of the winter season, the coolness of the hallway that hit her almost harshly when she stepped out or Booth's presence directly behind her forcing her back to him… she turned around again and walked right up to him. Not logical. Not sensible.
"Booth…"
And he leaned in. He placed his lips right against hers, without hesitation. Her heart lepta and she wasn't sure… she couldn't comprehend…
But Booth. His mouth had enough confidence for both of them. His mouth was definitely sure. He gently parted his lips so that he could capture her bottom lip. He tugged, pulled it into his warm mouth and sucked on it before releasing it gently and pulling away from her slowly. Without thinking about it, her tongue came out of her mouth and traveled along her lips as if unconsciously savoring the taste of Booth that was still lingering there. "Mmmm", she moaned, not loud, though they both definitely heard it she was sure. When she finally opened her eyes and looked at Booth, his eyes were still closed. He had braced himself against the door frame. Both of his hands were planted firmly against each jam and he seemed to be holding his breath. He also seemed to be…..swaying? Or maybe it was her that was swaying…. She couldn't tell right now. She couldn't think right now. But it wasn't a bad thing. This was a good thing. She felt all good things.
"Good night Booth." And as she said that she lifted one hand and placed it right over his heart on his chest and she could feel the subtle thumping under her hand. Subtle but fast.
Booth opened his eyes at her touch. He let out a long breath, finally. He reached up to where her hand was and laid his own hand on top of hers.
"Hey! What are you two doing? Smoochin' or something?" Hank hollered from somewhere inside the apartment.
It took a few seconds, but after a few snorts and grunts they both erupted into a held back, quiet laughter. At some point Brennan pulled her hand away and Booth forced himself to let her. Once their laughing subsided Brennan took a step back. "I enjoyed tonight but I should really go."
"Ok, Bones. Drive safe."
She waved his drive safe off as she usually did but as she started to walk away she felt his hand grab her wrist and he turned her back around. "I'm serious Bones. Text me when you get home, ok?"
"I will Booth. I promise."
"Ok."
"Good night."
"Night, Bones."
So that was the first time I ever participated in Secret Santa! Oh and does anyone know the movie I was referencing with "Tell Michael not to let the sauce stick – keep stirring it." line? It's probably my all time favorite movies :-)anyway… I hope my first attempt at a secret santa fic wasn't a complete fail and that everyone, especially luvthembones got some enjoyment out of it. Happy Holidays!