AN: My first Bones fic! Please be kind!
Booth's cell phone ring cut through thick silence that stood between him and Cam as they sat in her living room eating take out from Wong Foos. The FBI agent had been oddly quiet since that morning when he had pulled Dr. Temperance Brennan out of the sand after being buried alive. Noting the name on the caller ID, he jumped off the couch, turning his back to Cam for some privacy and answered.
"Bones? What's up? Are you okay?" His voice was full of concern, body tense and ready for action. "No I'm not busy." Behind him, Cam rolled her eyes and took a gulp of her wine. "I know, I know, Bones. I'll be right over." He turned back to Cam while grabbing his coat and car keys. "I've got to go."
"Of course you do." The normally perceptive agent didn't stop to notice the defeat in her tone so she called out to him before he was out the door. "Seeley, if you leave, that's it for us." It wasn't a threat or ultimatum because she knew there was no chance that he would stay, not when she had called, but she wanted to end this now before she let herself be lulled into comfortable patterns again.
"Cam, let's not be hasty. Bones just went through something traumatic, Angela is with Hodgins, her brother is in North Carolina, and I'm her partner. I need to be there for her. It has nothing to do with us."
"Seeley, I've known you a long time and while you may deny whatever is going on between you and Brennan, I saw the fear you had for her life, how crazed you were running down that hill, how you looked at her when she came out alive and it means something. And while the take out food and casual sex is great, I want something that means something too. I deserve someone who is going to drop everything when I call."
He considered her for a moment before nodding his head. "You do. And I've got to go."
Brennan answered the door in her pajamas, a white ribbed tank top and blue striped cotton pants, and her eyes were red-rimmed and glassy. Booth took one look at her and his heart ached.
"Hey. Come on in." He followed her into the apartment, his Army and FBI trained eyes scanning the room. A half empty wine bottle sat on the counter and a half empty glass on red wine rested on the coffee table next to an forensic anthropology journal open to the first few pages. She obviously hadn't been able to concentrate. "I'm sorry I called you. I know you have other things to do. I just didn't know who else…" she trailed off.
"There's nowhere I'd rather be right now," he told her, chocolate eyes focused on her icy blue ones. Shivering under the intensity of his gaze, Brennan broke eye contact and turned toward the kitchen.
"Can I get you something to drink? Beer? Wine?"
"Beer would be fine." He tried not to flinch when she opened the refrigerator but he got his beer without incident and then, they settled on the couch. Booth took a pull of his beer while he contemplated his partner. She sat quietly, swirling her wine in the glass, her eyes cloudy and haunted. "So when you called," he started slowly, "you sounded upset." That was an understatement. Normally calm, rational Bones had sounded hysterical.
"I had drifted off to sleep and dreamt about being…being in the car. I overreacted. I'm sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about, Bones." He laid his warm hand over her smaller one and squeezed gently. Moved by his touch and overwhelmed by the emotions that had been building over the past twenty-four hours, she inhaled a long shuddering breath.
"I've just never been so scared." The words escaped in a sob and Booth immediately pulled her into his arms.
"I know, I know," he whispered against her hair as she cried into his chest. "I've never been so scared either." He meant it too. As an Army Ranger, he had been in many life threatening situations, but never before had his heart been filled with such cold dread as it had been as when he received the phone call from the Grave Digger saying Brennan and Hodgins had been taken, as it had been when he watched the clock tick down to zero. Never before had he experienced such relief as when he pulled her from beneath the sand and held her in his arms as she gasped for air.
He held her as she cried, rocking her gently and rubbing her back comfortingly. "I promise you we will catch the guy that did this to you and I will make him pay." Eventually, her tears subsided, but she remained in his embrace, enjoying the warmth of his body when only hours ago she had felt the cold fingers of death upon her. After sitting in comfortable silence for awhile, Booth finally spoke. "Ya know, Bones, this is why people have TVs. Distraction, taking your mind off things."
"I told you I like to read," she sniffled. Booth rolled his eyes with a smile and reached forward, snagging the anthropology journal off the coffee table.
"Fine then, Bones. We'll read." He began to read aloud at the page Brennan had left open although he didn't really understand the article. After about twenty minutes, he glanced down to find that Brennan had fallen asleep against him. He smirked. "Yeah, this stuff puts me to sleep too," he said softly before getting up, extremely careful not to disturb her. He scooped her up in a fireman's carry and brought her to her bedroom. Pulling back the covers with one hand, he laid her beneath them and then tucked them back around her.
Brushing a kiss against her forehead, he whispered, "Sleep well, Bones."
Please review!!!!!!! and maybe a second part if the reviews are good. Let me know what you think.
