The case had taken them out of town, and now, holed up in a ratty hotel room just south of nowhere, they sat on the bed in her hotel room, reviewing the case file.
Booth was sprawled out, head on a pillow, carefully reading her initial findings while Brennan reviewed his interview notes, her back straight, sitting neatly cross-legged beside him. The day had been uncharacteristically long, even for them, and their exhaustion had created a lazy disregard for a proximity they normally avoided.
"Bones, where's the uhh...calcaneus again?" he asked, squinting slightly to read her scribbled notes.
She looked up, clearly dismayed. "Booth, that's the third bone in this report you've needed my help to identify. I'm rather disappointed that you haven't paid a bit more attention to my work these last few years."
"Awww, Bones. You know it's hard to remember all those names. It's all Greek to me," he said teasingly.
"Actually, the etymology of bones is varied. Not only Greek, but also Latin, even Middle English, are the roots of the names we use today," was her matter-of-fact reply, missing his slight eye roll at her missing his joke.
"Come on, I know most of them. And I definitely know all the important ones," he retorted, arms crossing.
"And how exactly might one create a ranking system of importance for human bones? Explain to me your evaluation system," she challenged, easing so comfortably into her tone of friendly conflict.
"The big ones. I know all the big ones: femur, scapula, ribs, elbow...," he trailed off, glad she could never tell when he was obviously baiting her.
Moving to her knees in frustration, hands on hips, she scoffed, "elbow? There is no elbow bone. The elbow region is composed of three bones, the humerus--"
"--the radius and the ulna," he interrupted, quite proud of himself. "See, Bones? Like I said, I know most of them."
Her eyes flashed, pleased with his answer, but determined not to show it. "I bet you can't identify half the bones in the human body," she challenged, arms crossing her chest, a mirror image of his stance.
"What are the conditions of this wager?" he asked.
"I don't know what that--"
"--a bet involves stakes. Consequences for winning or losing. Therein lies the excitement," he stated.
"Booth, seeing as you are a former gambling addict, it may be irresponsible for me to condone this sort of behavior," she countered with a slight eyebrow raise.
"First of all, there are no former addicts, just recovering addicts. Second of all, I believe a friendly wager not involving a cash prize has little chance of sending me into a downward spiral," he said, grinning.
"Okay. Well...if I win this 'friendly wager,' I get to drive. For a month," she offered.
"Interesting. If I win, you have to hire a new intern. A permanent one. Within a week," he suggested, sitting up from his reclined position to face her fully.
She weighed the options internally for a moment. Clearly, this was a test to see how much she enjoyed driving.
"I accept your terms. Please begin," she decided, moving off the bed and around to his side to stand beside him.
"Well," he began, looking up at her, "we've already covered humerus, radius and ulna, so I'm already at 6...only 97 left." A cocky grin graced his face, the one he normally reserved for closing in on victory.
"Hold on, the wager is to identify bones, not name. You must locate them in the skeletal structure," she said smugly. "Incidentally, don't assume I don't consider it cheating that you are using some bones that I already named," she added.
"I don't believe you stipulated any rules against using those bones. And do you normally keep a skeleton in your carry on or check it? Because I don't see how I'm supposed to identify bones without a body," he said. "Now where was I..."
"I have a body," she said bluntly.
Clearly not a fact he had missed. And what a body it was.
"You want me to identify your bones, Bones?" he said, aiming for a tone of incredulity, but hitting something a little more dark and dangerous than he would like.
She stood, arms out and perpendicular to her body. "Ninety-seven to go, Booth."