The Last Dance
*This was inspired by a dress I saw in a store window, and Hart's comments that "There must be dancing…"
Part 1
"Dear Dr. Brennan,
You are cordially invited to attend the annual Federal Bureau of Investigation Honors Recognition Banquet as our esteemed guest.
You will be the recipient of a special award for your services to the FBI over the past 5 years along with your partner Special Agent Seeley Booth. We sincerely hope that you are able to attend.
Date: Friday, November 27th, 2009
Time: 7 pm
Please note that this is a formal event.
R.S.V.P. to Sylvia Sharma at---------- by November 20th, 2009."
Temperance Brennan stared at the elegant stationary, reading through the text quickly for a second time.
Just then, her partner of five years, Seeley Booth, casually strolled into her office, noticing her standing at her desk reading something. Instantly he recognized the paper she was holding. He had received the same one earlier in the day.
Brennan glanced up as he walked in. "Booth, what is this all about? We've been invited to a banquet?" She knew from the look he was giving the paper that he knew what she was referring to.
He glanced at her with that charming half-smile of his. "Uh, yeah. It's an invitation to a banquet the FBI holds every year to honor their best agents for the work they do. I guess this year our work caught their attention and they're giving us an award for our outstanding collaborative work in homicide investigation."
She tilted her head to one side, musing slightly. "Have you ever been invited before?"
He glanced down and cleared his throat, trying to sound nonchalant. "Ahem…Yeah, you know, I've been invited a couple of times."
"Oh." She nodded slightly. She had never been invited before.
"It seems questionable that the FBI would spend so much money to have an event like this given the current economic climate." She puckered her lips and arched her eyebrows, waiting for his quick response. She wasn't disappointed.
Raising his one eyebrow as he leaned back in his chair, he responded, "Yeah well the FBI treats this shindig as a little pick-me-up for all the hard work we do. I figure a free meal ticket once a year isn't a huge price to pay when you consider all of the extra hours most agents have to put in to put their cases to bed. There's dinner, they announce the awards and a little dancing at the end. It's fun."
Brennan arched her eyebrows at him. She knew Booth hated these types of functions.
"Do you know of anyone else who will be going?"
Booth stood up trying to eventually move the conversation to the reason he came in the first place. This banquet thing was making him anxious for some reason and he wanted to change the subject before…well…before she had a chance to ask anything else about it. Like who he was going with, and why he didn't have a date, and why he wasn't asking her when really all he wanted to do was cross that damned line and…
"Well, Sweets will be there, and he'll probably bring Daisy, and you know Charlie from the office? He'll be there too…and Agent Perotta most likely…and I think Cam is going as well, since she's head of the Medico-Legal Lab." He looked up at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something else.
She surprised him by pausing for a minute, a thoughtful look on her face, then nodded slightly and turned her attention back to him.
"I don't recall…did you mention why you're here?" a slightly curious but amused look on her face.
"Nope Bones, but I'll fill you in on the way…we've got a case! Oh, and you might want to grab your gum boots, this one's a slimy one." He hurriedly turned to her, placing a gentle hand on her back to guide her out the door before she could ask anything else.
*****
2 weeks later…(a week before the banquet)
"You haven't gotten a dress yet?!" Angela exclaimed as she sat in Brennan's office sipping on her chamomile tea.
"Ange, I haven't exactly had much time…Booth and I have been unusually preoccupied with two cases this week. I just barely made the RSVP deadline." There had been many a late night examining remains, deciphering clues, pouring over paperwork and lingering over take-out on her couch in the last few weeks, but she hadn't minded. Though exhausting, it had been sort of fun in a way.
"Wait, you just RSVP'ed? That is so unlike you…you're usually on top of that kind of stuff." She looked curiously at her friend for a moment. "You weren't considering not going, were you?"
"What? No, of course not. I told you, I was busy." Brennan looked flustered. She was a terrible liar. She didn't want to admit that the reason why she hadn't responded sooner was because she had been hoping to respond for two attending, not one.
Curious but not wanting to push too many buttons at once, Angela backtracked and took a different tactic. She'd get back to the non-attendance business later.
"Okay, so let me guess…you need me to come shopping with you."
Here comes the condescending tone…
"Angela, you know I am perfectly capable of selecting a dress to wear for myself. I simply thought you would enjoy partaking in a shopping excursion with me, since you seem to love dressing me up, but if you're too busy I can go on my own."
To be honest with herself, Brennan had been shopping with Angela a few times in the last year and had found her tastes to be quite attractive. She had improved on her wardrobe immensely, and had adapted a more feminine flair because of it. She quite liked the changes actually and she liked spending time with her friend.
"No, I'm not too busy…you know I'm NEVER too busy to shop." Angela smiled a wide smile.
"Let me just go get my purse."
A woman on a mission, Angela knew she needed to do two things:
1) Find out why Brennan seemed so hesitant about this banquet, and
2) Find a dress that would make Brennan the hottest thing the FBI (and a certain FBI Special Agent) had ever seen.
*****
