Fan Fiction Archive: http://thepinkllama. This is a rewrite of my first chapter. I tried out a new style of writing and I didn't really like it so I'm rewriting in my usual style. Basically, same story just written better (hopefully) I would like to say a BIG thank you to greenovalfruit for your kind but honest review. It really helped that you pinpointed the problem areas so I could fix them. Thank you!
"Bones"
Brennan looked up from her paperwork and couldn't deny the fact that her night had brightened considerably. Booth leaned in the doorway of her office and grinned at her. There was something off about him, like somebody had replaced his hundred watt personality with a fifty watt one, but because she was no good with people she didn't pry.
"We have a case?" She asked.
"Yeah, a construction sight, they said we should wait until daylight for safety reasons but I figured you'd get all cranky if I let them compromise any more evidence." Booth smiled proudly and she was almost certain his chest puffed out a fraction of an inch.
"Thank you."
Together they strode out of the Jeffersonian, matching each other step for step.
The car, usually filled with the sound of their bickering, was silent. Brennan couldn't tear her eyes away from her partner's profile. There was a weary sadness in his face that made her chest squeeze. She mustered up her courage,
"Is something wrong Booth?"
His jaw clenched and he looked right at her, his gaze dark with feeling. Not for the first time in her life Brennan felt herself able to understand exactly what he felt.
He was silent until they reached the crime scene. It wasn't often that Booth let Brennan glimpse the dark soul beneath his happy-go-lucky veneer.
"Rebecca wants sole custody of Parker."
"What? Why? I thought you two got along."
Booth glanced at the officers approaching his car.
"We'll talk later."
Brennan watched a defeated man step out of the car. His shoulders drooped and slower careful movements replaced his usually bouncy ones.
Brennan peered over the small pile of remains on the unfinished floor. They represented only a tiny piece of the whole person, the rest of said person was strewn haphazardly around the room.
"When were these remains found?"
A portly construction worker scratches his belly.
"'Bout an hour ago and they weren't here yesterday, I would know, I built that wall." The worker pointed to the wall where an ulna and a radius were hanging precariously from the electrical wiring.
Brennan stood and brushed sawdust from her jumpsuit. She glanced at Booth who was wrinkling his nose at a human hand hanging by a piece of twine from the beginnings of a ceiling.
"This is weird." Brennan nodded and stared at the scene before her. The body had been ripped limb from limb and strewn without any specific pattern all over the room. She kept on staring even as the construction worker finally left to get a cup of coffee.
Booth was trying to figure out why the hell a body would be spread all over a construction zone when Brennan disappeared with a crack and a puff of sawdust.
It happened in slow motion, there was a loud crack and her mouth formed an oval and then she was gone. It felt like hours as he stood staring dumbly at the spot where she was, though in reality mere seconds had passed. Then her name tore from his throat and he was running to the hole and yelling her name and she answered with a definite tone of annoyance (damn her).
"I'm fine Booth." He saw her tangled in the safety netting, swinging precariously at least eight feet from the floor below, attempting to untangle herself, and nearly had a coronary.
"Stay put dammit! I'm coming down."
He'd never moved so fast in his life and before he knew it he was practically running towards her on a shaky piece of scaffolding. She was hanging about three feet away from him and completely immobile, like a dragonfly caught in a garish orange web. Booth tugged the netting towards him and clutched her desperately in his arms. The wood that was holding her up snapped and they both hit the ground with a grunt. Booth tugged her loose from the netting and crushed her in his arms.
"Ow Booth!" Her words were tough but she was clinging onto him just as hard.
Booth pulled her up with him and grabbed her shoulders.
"You're going to get in the car and after I'm done yelling at the Construction Company I'm taking you home."
Nothing put her back up as quickly as that demanding tone of his.
"No! My bones-"
"Shut up."
Brennan stepped back in shock at his tone, but she recovered quickly enough. She was just about to give him a piece of her mind when he grabbed her by the waist and dragged her out of the building towards the construction worker who was apologizing profusely. The distant sound of sirens told him that somebody must have called 911. His tightly controlled temper exploded and he popped the guy in the jaw. Officers rushed to the worker's side and despite Brennan's protests he practically threw her into the passenger seat. Booth realized that he was quickly losing control of his temper and he stalked off.
The steady slap of footsteps behind him assured him that cooling off wasn't about to happen anytime soon.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
Booth whipped around so fast that Brennan nearly slipped on the gravel in an attempt to stop.
"I can't be babysitting you all the time; you need to watch what you're doing!" He yelled, even though they both knew it couldn't have been prevented.
Her eyes took on a fiery glow
"You bastard!"
He caught her fist before she could strike him and tugged her close enough so that she could feel his breath on her ear.
"I will not lose you."
Brennan's body sagged as understanding entered and adrenaline finally left. Booth pulled her into a fierce hug "Thank you Booth."
His heart thundered against her palm and Booth finally released her.
"You scared the shit out of me when you disappeared through the hole like that." He pastes on a smile and notes her relief.
"Go get yourself checked out." Brennan doesn't even think of protesting, she merely complied with his demand and allowed herself to be poked and prodded by the paramedic and then ushered into the SUV and finally taken home. She refused to admit that for a moment there she was scared Booth wouldn't get to her in time and she would plummet to her death. Though that had been a bit overdramatic, after all it was only about eight feet or so to the ground. Thank goodness the floor hadn't given way like the previous one had, or she would have gotten a lot more than a couple of bruises.
Booth stared at the brandy in his cup. He was sitting in a dark room at two in the morning trying to get drunk but failing miserably. He wanted… Something, but that something sure as hell didn't include getting drunk at two in the morning. He tugged his shirt off and collapsed on his couch with a weariness that had nothing to do with the time but everything to do with his broken heart.
It was three in the morning on a freezing winter night and Brennan was pacing outside of Booth's apartment. There was no reason for her to be outside his apartment at three in the morning. But she remembered the times he spent hours with her, just being there for her to draw comfort from. She never asked for it and she knew that he would do the same. So once again she mustered up the courage and went to his door. Brennan gave the door two sharp raps and was satisfied to hear the shuffling of feet and a few muffled oaths. The door whipped open and revealed a shirtless ruffled Booth. Make that an angry shirtless ruffled Booth. His greeting was growled and he simply stumbled back to the couch and flopped facedown onto it.
Brennan let herself in and noticed the mostly full bottle of brandy next to an empty glass. She flicked on the lights and sat down beside him despite his mutinous protests.
"What the hell do you want Bones?"
"I've come to talk about your problems.
Booth wasn't quite sure he wanted to believe the words that have just come out of his partner's mouth. He opened one eye to glare at her. She was sitting primly on the edge of his couch. Only Bones would come to your door at three in the morning and think she was being a good partner.
"With all due respect Bones, go to hell. " The words lacked venom and were muffled by the cushions on the couch. He felt her get up and suddenly he could smell the subtle scent of her shampoo. He opened his eyes and stared straight into her pretty blue ones.
"Bones go away."
She shoved him and he grudgingly rolled over.
"No, I want to help you."
Booth had a limited source of patience, especially at three in the morning.
"You want to help me? "
"Yes" her face was lined with concern for him and he couldn't help being touched.
"Then kindly shut the hell up." Booth growled and tugged her onto the couch with him, effectively silencing her with one hand and pinning her to him with the other. She wriggled a little but after only a few seconds she huffed out a breath and relaxed against him. The couch was hardly big enough for the both of them and the lights were still burning brightly. Booth opened his eyes and grabbed for the light control and after turning the fan on and off twice he finally managed to switch off the lights. Moonlight streams from his window onto the two of them. Booth realized he can't sleep with her body molded to his, so he talks.
"I don't want to lose my boy." Dammit, he hadn't meant for his voice to crack like that.
She lifted her head and sat up, nearly bumping him off the couch.
"You won't lose him Booth."
Booth rolled his eyes at her.
"You've never fought a child custody case Bones, how would you know? They'll give Rebecca what she wants because she's the one with a safer job. Besides, she's engaged to that boyfriend of hers, Steve, they want to start a new family and I'm not invited."Brennan frowned
"You never told me Rebecca got engaged."
"Because it doesn't concern you."
"You're always probing into my personal life!" She felt a small twinge of hurt, but doesn't dwell on it.
He sighed and puts his hands behind his head and stared up at her.
"I'm going to lose one of the most important people in my life and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. It pisses me off."
She noticed his eyes darkening with anger and squeezes his knee.
"It's not right, nobody should be able to do that to you, you're his father! He is half yours!" Her voice is filled with righteous anger and a slow smile spreads across his face.
"Bones, sometimes you know just what to say."
She's confused, because she never knows just what to say.
"But I-"
Booth tugs her back onto his chest and closes his eyes. He was already half asleep.
"Shhh…"
He smells of soap and man and no smell has made her feel quite so comforted. His naked chest is warm against her cheek and she can feel her eyelids getting heavier. Sleep steals over her quickly.
A/N: Well, I left kind of a lot of things up in the air with the end of this chapter but only because so many ideas were assaulting me at once. Expect UST, Brennan to do something about the Parker situation, and the continuation of the case. Reading Educates Volatile Inebriated Earls Weekly. Yeah, it's a subliminal message.