Not a strand of her hair was out of place, but he felt the need to tuck it behind her ear as they sat at the round table. She leaned back to look at him, blue eyes glittering playfully as she smiled and swatted his hand before returning her full attention back to the lecture. The words must have some meaning to her, but they soared through his mind like the buzzing of a bee some ten feet away: clearly occurring, but not directly related to his train of thought.
The lecture hall was crowded, and their table was no exception. Some specialist squint had pulled up an extra chair, and the rest of the listeners had accommodated his presence by squeezing together. Their shoulders were pressed tightly together, but it was not uncomfortable. She leaned against him with ease, as oblivious to the contact as one was to the air around them.
But their proximity did register with the man. In fact, it was all he could think about. The top of her head just reached his nose in their current position, and the scent was overwhelming. He inhaled deeply, letting the smell of her delicious strawberry shampoo fill his nostrils. It had been a long case, and he figured he deserved some kind of reward for solving it without strangling someone.
"Are you okay?" She whispered, her breath tickling his lips as he craned her neck to look upwards. "You haven't been paying the slightest bit of attention and you're breathing quite heavily."
He rolled his eyes in response."Come on, you know this isn't really my scene." He gestured to the surrounding symposium of scientists.
"If you are uncomfortable with your IQ being lower than the majority of the other occupants of this room, you did not have to come, Booth." She muttered. "But I would appreciate it if you did not distract me from Doctor Alaband's report."
Biting back a reply, he muttered an apology and faced front, not eager to fight with her today. Not today, after he had spent the whole night before tossing in bed. After a week as grueling as the one he had had, sleep should have been easy, but he had found himself repeatedly flipping his pillow trying to find comfort that had never arrived. He had lain awake all night, searching for answers and trying to make a decision. So it was not surprising that now, his arm on the back of her chair, he felt his eyelids droop.
He woke to hundreds of chairs scraping against the floor as the lecture hall emptied. He glanced at her sheepishly, hoping she had not noticed his slumber, but found to his annoyance that she was in deep conversation with the latecomer to their table. He leaned over and forced himself to listen.
"…found his observations on the composition of the specimen's remains to be absolutely fascinating. I do believe-"
"Hey, Bones, class is over. Whatdya say we go grab a bite to eat at the dinner, then maybe play a little hooky for the rest of the afternoon?"
"Booth, you know there's a second lecture this afternoon and I'm terrible at ice skating. Besides, Jeffery and I were planning on discussing the results of the study over lunch."
"Terrible at ice…. Hooky, Bones, not hockey. Besides, I thought we had plants to get lunch at the dinner." he trailed off pathetically, looking around. "Who am I supposed to eat with?"
"I… I don't know what that means, Booth, but I'm sure you can find someone. There's a group that's going to the café across the street, you can join them."
"Fine, Bones, I'll see you later." He threw the man, Jeffery, a glare and turned, stomping heavily towards the exit.
He hadn't even wanted to go to the dumb geek club meeting, but his son was staying with him for the next few days and his time with her would have been limited. And now he spends all morning listening to some old geezer drone on and on about some centuries old skeleton from the tropics just so he would be able to grab a bite to eat with her afterwards, only to have her pick up some nerd right next to him to satisfy her "biological urges"? One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to sit around and watch.
He was almost at the door when she caught up with him and grabbed his elbow.
"Booth, I-"
"What happened to Jeffery," he interrupted, spitting out the name. "I thought you were going to talk about the Mayan over Italian?"
"The skeleton was from Itacueretba, Booth, not the Yukatan. Besides, I'd rather eat with you." She flashed him a weak smile, and his anger melted.
"Sure Bones, lead the way." He placed a hand on the small of her back and resisted the urge to turn and stick his tongue out at Jeffery as he ushered her out of the lecture hall.
---
"Booth, are you sure you're all right?" She questioned gently, bringing him out of his reverie as he blinked to clear his vision. They were sitting in the dinner, finishing their meals.
"Course, Bones, why wouldn't I be?" He spoke through a mouthful of burger.
"You were just staring into space. Not to mention you fell asleep during the lecture."
"I just… I just didn't sleep well last night, Bones. Nothing to worry about. I'll be right as rain tomorrow."
"Rain can't possibly be right, Booth, that makes no sense. Are you sure that it's not-"
"Bones, I'm fine. There's no need to worry."
"I really would feel much better if you went to see a doctor."
"Don't be ridiculous, Bones. There's no need. I'm fine."
"I just think you ought to check."
"They said I'm tumor-free, Bones. No more cancer, no more doctors. There's no need."
"Then why aren't you able to focus on anything? The lecture I can understand as being too scientific, but even our most recent case. It was fairly simple, but I sensed multiple times that you were distracted."
He rolled his eyes. "Why don't you let me do the sensing from now on, Bones. You know it's never easy to work with a victim who was murdered by someone she loved. Men shouldn't do that to their wives."
"Nobody should do that to anybody, Booth, it has nothing to do with the relationship with the killer."
"It's different with love involved."
"Love's simply a chemical reaction derived from attraction. It's the same as the hormones that would have been released in his brain as he stabbed her – it's a simple reaction to stimuli."
"No it's not, Bones. Don't you ever compare true love to a sadistic urge to kill, got it? It's different."
"Booth, I really think…"
"I'm fine, okay? Now, hurry up and finish eating. You don't want to be late." He threw a wad of bills down and pushed back from the table.
Back in the car a moment later, he almost missed her whisper. "I'm sorry."
A heavy sigh. "Its fine, Bones. Don't worry about it. I overreacted" She nodded, biting her lip.
He ran a hand through his hair. It was clear that she was stills searching for answers, trying to understand his behavior. How could he make her understand that it wasn't his recent surgery that was changing his demeanor? That he had only attended the dumb lecture to spend time with her? That it broke his heart to watch her chat up some other guy? That he wanted to be the one to show her true love, explain to her that not every man would leave her? That there was a difference between love and whatever had been in the household of their most recent case? That it wasn't the case that had been distracting, but her? That he hadn't been able to focus because of her presence next to him, and ever since waking from his post-surgery coma, he'd been overwhelmed with thoughts of her?
He placed his hand on the center console of the car and wiggled his fingers. She looked at him before placing her hand delicately on his and entwining their fingers. And he knew their dispute was forgotten, but not settled. And he swore to himself that he would figure out a way, soon, to explain his newly developed feelings to her, Sweets and Gordon-Gorden be damned. She deserved that; she deserved the truth. She deserved everything under the sun. And he vowed to give it to her.
Because for Seeley Booth, the truth was only the beginning.