Doctor Temperance Brennan was studying a human skull when Angela Montenegro entered the lab. "Hi Angela" Brennan said, not taking her gaze from the skull.
"Hey sweetie, I brought coffee" Angela said, producing two cardboard cups on a tray.
"Thanks, I'm almost done. How are you going with that facial reconstruction on the man from California?" Brennan asked, making a few notes in her journal about the skull.
"I'm done. Hodgins says he looks like a fish, but I disagree. Fishes don't have eyes and lips that big" Angela said, setting down the tray.
"And… done" Brennan announced, turning away to put the skull back on the shelf of bones. She turned back, removed her gloves and took a sip from her coffee. "Is booth back yet?"
Angela sighed. "Why don't you just call him and ask? He's been in California for three days by himself, and nothing to accompany him but a few thousand pages of paperwork."
"He's getting back today, calling him would be… irrational." Brennan said, taking another sip of her coffee as Angela stared at her.
"Don't get me wrong sweetie, I love you, but sometimes I wonder if you're a female or a robot."
"If I were a robot, there would be several holes in my life story. Starting with the fact that I have killed humans before, which is against one of the three laws of robotics, and also I don't always obey other humans, which breaks the second law." Angela raised her hand before Brennan could continue.
"I didn't mean it literally – just try to act a bit more like a human and less like a being of artificial intelligence" She patted Brennan's arm as she left the lab.
Brennan stood still for a moment, and thought about what Angela had said. She didn't act like a robot (or the generic one that Angela had described). She drained the last of her coffee and left the lab for the bin in her office, in which she could deposit her coffee cup.
When she reached her office, she found Agent Seeley Booth sitting at her desk. "Hey bones!" he said, standing up to sweep her into a hug.
"Booth!" Brennan said, a little too jubilantly. She hardened her demeanour. "How was your flight?" she asked in her normal tone with just an edge of happiness.
"Oh you know, terrible. They sat me next to a baby."
"But I thought all agents in the FBI got free first class seats"
"Well, I could have had a first class flight, but I would have had to wait another hour or two for a first class plane, and I just wanted to get back to… back home" Booth trailed off.
Brennan nodded, then turned to get a look at her computer. 'Were you on my computer just now?"
Booth nodded. "Now if you don't mind bones, I am going to go take a shower." He flashed a grin at her and left her office. She shook her head with a little smile. She glanced at her computer screen, then frowned and did a double take. Booth had changed her screen-saver to a picture of himself!
"Booth!" she yelled after him, and she heard him burst out with laughter.
She sighed and left the room towards Angela's office to see the facial reconstruction. She knocked on the door and let herself in. Angela was bent over her three dimensional representation tablet.
"Hey Ange, just came by for that reconstruction" She said. Angela whirled around.
"Sure sweetie, I'll just grab it up on screen for you." She began typing things on her tablet.
"You seemed surprised when I came in, is everything alright?" Brennan asked as Angela was working.
"Yeah, everything's… everything's fine. Hey, did you see that Booth's back from California?"
"Yeah, he was in my office. He's gone to take a shower." Angela glanced up at this mention. "What?" Brennan asked, confused.
"Nothing, Here's the face" Angela said as the image of a dead man popped up on screen.
"Thanks, could you e-mail that to my computer? I'm headed there now; I have to change my screen-saver." Angela gave her a questioning look.
"What's wrong with the one you have now? Standard blue backdrop not doing it for you anymore?"
"No, Booth was on my computer before I came in, and he changed it to an image of himself".
"Does he look hot?" Angela asked with a little smile.
"Angela, Booth and I are just partners, it would be inappropriate for me to comment about the arousing qualities of his photographs" Brennan said, a little flustered.
"Ah, so judging by that sentence, there were some arousing qualities in his photograph" Angela teased. Brennan left Angela's office and Angela chuckled as she went.
As Brennan neared her office, she began staring at the floor like she did when she was thinking. It wasn't long before she bumped into someone.
"Sorry," she mumbled, as she attempted to regain her footing. She over-balanced, and fell back, but the person she had just bumped into steadied her by grasping her upper arms.
"Bones, sorry about that, are you alright?" Brennan shook her head to clear it, and stared into the eyes of the person she was almost ready to scold. She instead saw Booth's deep brown eyes, now laced with concern.
"Yeah Booth, I'm fine, just wasn't looking where I was going." She had forgotten about the military speed of Booth's showers. He waited a moment before releasing his hold on her.
"How did you survive without me?" He asked, throwing her a teasing smile.
"It's good to have you back Booth, it really is." He swept her into another hug, and whispered.
"I brought you back a present". Brennan leaned back from their embrace.
"Booth you didn't have to do anything like that. But if it's the screen-saver on my computer I'd rather you didn't in the future" Booth laughed again, and presented her with a small box. Inside was a plastic stretch of sand, with a skeleton wearing a straw hat and lei lying on it.
"Thank you Booth, it's very cute" She turned to her office and placed it on her desk. She leaned back and noted that it was the solitary knick-knack inhabiting her workspace.
"And that's not the only present" Booth said from the doorway of her office. "We have another case."
"Details?" Brennan asked as she sorted through the files on her desk, rapidly growing fond of the little skeleton that accompanied them.
"They found a body in a swamp about an hour and half's drive from here."
"Excellent - something to do besides tedious paperwork about a man from California that undoubtedly over-dosed on methamphetamine."
"Great, I'll bring the car around – oh, and Bones?" Brennan looked up.
"Yes, what is it Booth?"
"Try not to hurt yourself while I'm gone" he flashed a cheeky grin, and left Brennan rolling her eyes.
It was good to have Booth back. And what was wrong with having missed him? They were partners, and had been for a long time. To fill in some time, she went over to her computer, planning to change the screen-saver back to normal. The picture contained Booth on New Year's Eve, at Wong Foo's, holding a tequila, with a paper party hat lopsidedly topping his head.
She didn't have the heart to change the picture. He looked too cute and innocent, apart from the fact that he was holding an alcoholic drink and was most likely inebriated at the time of this photograph. She would change it eventually, just not now. She had a case to get to.
She walked to the front of the building, where Booth was waiting in his FBI issued SUV.
"Ready to go Bones?" he called to her.
"Sure thing" She said with a smile as she got into the passenger seat.
"Put these on" Booth instructed, handing her a pair of sunglasses.
"Booth, it's over cast outside, We don't need sun glasses-'
"Come on Bones, for me?" Booth looked at her with those pleading eyes she just couldn't resist, so she sighed and put them on. He put on a pair of his own.
"Agent Seely Booth, And Doctor Temperance Brennan – out fighting crime and kicking ass once again" They turned to each other, and both gave a dramatic nod, and as they pulled out to the road, they couldn't help but laugh.