CANDY-COATED BOOTH
It was the fifth week of no new cases for Brennan and Booth. Five weeks was more than enough time for Temperance Brennan to clean up her desk, finish the last remnants of paperwork related to FBI projects, answer all correspondence, as well as re-organize the lab, and even clean her apartment. In that same five weeks she had worked extensively in LIMBO, coordinating assignments for the interns as well as identifying many remains herself. And while the progress the group made was very rewarding and worthwhile, Brennan was ready for a something else.
To add to the monotony of the time, Booth was stuck in training at Quantico for the past three days, and had another two days before he would be back in DC. Brennan knew she should use this time for something other than moping around, but she couldn't seem to muster much enthusiasm for anything at the present time.
Temperance Brennan was originally hired by the Jeffersonian Institute to identify remains in the LIMBO storage area, and she could work there exclusively for many years to come and still not be finished. Right now, however, she was feeling a little bored with that particular project. She had been so accustomed to the challenges, and yes even the excitement, of working in the field with Booth and the FBI team, that now you could say she was 'under enthused' to be starting the 5th week in LIMBO. Of course, she would NEVER admit that to anyone, including Angela Montenegro.
At the very thought about the Jeffersonian's most talented artist, she appeared in the doorway of the anthropologist's office. Angela, it seemed, was just as bored as her friend. Ange had done the same clean-up to her office, home, car, and studio. She had been walking around the Lab and its offices for the past several days trying to find things to do to keep her busy. Yes, she had paintings she could do, just as Brennan had her latest book she could work on; but eventually they both tired of these pursuits and were looking for a little action of some kind.
"Bren, Sweetie, do you have anything I can help you with?" Angela pleaded to her friend, before plopping down on the couch in Brennan's office.
At the sound of her voice, Brennan had picked her head up from looking through her middle desk drawer. She had been looking for a piece of candy, but it seemed she had already cleaned out her stash of butterscotch pieces. "What, Ange?" Brennan asked. She hadn't been paying close attention to what her friend had said as she'd made her way through the office.
"Sweetie, I'm bored... hey, what were you looking for there?"
"Sometimes when I'm bored I eat candy. I know I don't need the sugar, but today I just seem to have a taste for something sweet."
"Ooh, Bren, don't go there. Now you have me wanting something rich… and dark… and, oooh, chocolatey." Angela was perking up at the thought of getting her hands on some chocolate! She let her mind wander for a bit, and then spoke up. "Bren, have you ever made home-made chocolates?
Brennan wasn't quite sure what she meant, and the look on her face confirmed to Angela that she needed to explain herself. "You know, melt the chocolate, pour it into molds, decorate it? I haven't done that in years – it's a lot of fun actually."
"That is not an activity I have ever taken part of Ange. Why not just buy the chocolate as a finished product?"
"Because… it would be something fun to do. I'm tired of cleaning and organizing, and I want to do something fun and different. Come on Bren, do it with me!" The pleading, sad puppy-dog look to her eyes telling Brennan that there really was no way out of it. Angela was really starting to get excited at the idea of making chocolates, getting herself all worked up over it.
In truth, Brennan wasn't opposed to it so much as it was not an activity she'd ever thought about doing before. "Well, there's a first time for everything – especially when Angela is involved in it" Brennan thought to herself.
Forty-five minutes later the two friends were at a local crafts shop, perusing the chocolate decorating isles. Brennan was amazed at the volume of molds, decorations, flavorings, and chocolates to choose from. It had never dawned on her that people did this kind of activity, but she could see the enjoyment in Angela's eyes as her friend looked over the inventory on the shelves.
"Ooh, Sweetie – look at this!" As Brennan turned to see what had captured her friend's attention, she saw Ange hold up a clear plastic mold of a badge in her hand. "We could make Booth a chocolate badge!"
"Ange, that is just a generic badge – it doesn't say FBI on it"
"But look at these" Ange pointed to small 'chocolate paint' tubes in another bin that seemed to come in a rainbow of colors. "We can write FBI on the badge after the chocolate hardens."
Brennan had come along with Angela because, at the time she saw no other way out; but now even the oft-reserved anthropologist was getting into the fun of the adventure. "Yes, they have a gold-colored chocolate paint!"
As they looked through the bins, Angela found a set of molds for a male figurine. "Brennan, look – here's Booth!" she said with way too much glee in her voice.
After another twenty minutes of shopping, the two women left the store with a variety of chocolates – white, dark, milk chocolates, along with molds, food dye, 'paint' brushes, and several other items they thought they might need. The woman at the counter had given them a copy of the chocolate mold instructions, and they were off.
A short while later the two women were back at Angela's apartment ready to create. They had taken the afternoon off of work, and so even though it was mid-afternoon, a bottle of wine had already been opened and glasses poured. After all, they reasoned, red wine and chocolate go well together!
Brennan sat on a bar stool at the kitchen counter reading the instructions. Angela tried to tell her that she knew what she was doing; but Brennan being Brennan, Ange knew she wouldn't talk her friend out of reading the pamphlet from front to back before they could proceed. This gave the artist time to pick out some music and relax the two even more.
After topping off both of their glasses of wine, Angela took the instructions out of Brennan's grasp and handed her a now-full glass of wine. "What kind of chocolate do you want to start with Sweetie? I think we should use this mold first, to get a little practice." She held up the police badge mold –it was a fairly simple mold so it would be good to start with. They prepped the mold with so that the confection would release easily once cooled, and then began melting dark chocolate in a double boiler.
Their first attempt was a great success. The chocolate badges came out of the mold easily and completely. They set the items aside to cool more before decorating. Encouraged by their success with the badge, they next decided to pour the 'booth' mold, as Angela called it. Brennan just rolled her eyes at that description, knowing better than to comment on it, and handed the mold over to her friend. Soon it was prepped, and chocolate was melting in the pot. Angela had melted some dark chocolate in a small pot, and when ready, she took the food paint brush and painted the dark brown goodness on the top of the head of the male mold. After all, she reasoned to herself, if she was going to create a chocolate Booth, she needed the hair a smoldering dark brown.
Once the hair was completed, the white chocolate was next. They filled the half mold and set this to cool. While waiting for the chocolate Booths to cool, as Angela called them they began to paint the badges. Brennan took a tube of gold coloring and did her best to spell out FBI across the front of the shield. It was trickier than she'd anticipated, to get the lettering even across the chocolate piece, but eventually she finished one. Ange wrote "Squint" on one, "World's Greatest Lover" on another (that one was for Jack, she told Brennan), and "Cam" on the third. She reasoned that they would be sharing the candy at work the next day, and since Cam was an ex-cop, she would appreciate having her own badge.
When the badges were completed, the friends turned their attention to the 'chocolate Booths' and began to decorate them. Ange took great measures to paint a tie, suite and pants on her booth. Brennan watched what the artist was doing, and the more she watched, the more she got into it herself. Brennan began painting crazy socks on her booth mold, along with an attempt at a cocky belt buckle. For all her patience at putting bone fragments back together, she was not as artistic as Angela when it came to creative decorating. Still, Ange was impressed with her friend's attempt at the belt buckle and socks. "Sweetie, anyone who knows Booth would know what that is" she said as she pointed her paint brush at the mid-section of the chocolate booth.
Eventually they ran out of chocolate, out of wine, and decided they had had enough fun for one day. Brennan slung her purse over her shoulder, gave her BFF a hug and a kiss, and was out the door.
The next day Brennan was at her desk when Angela walked in with a box under one arm. The scientist looked at it, confused. "Is that a box of donuts Ange? "
"No Sweetie, this is our work from yesterday – the chocolates. I brought them in to share. We never tasted our work yesterday – and besides, I don't need all this chocolate sitting around my house without any help at eating it." And with that, Ange set the box down on the corner of Brennan's desk and opened it up.
To Brennan's surprise, Angela had done some more creative painting after she'd left the night before. Ange had taken her smallest brushes and painted faces on the Booths', and played around with more of the chocolate badges as well. There was now a badge labeled King of the Lab, as well as Queen of the Lab, #1 Intern, and a variety of other labels. She had decorated chocolate pieces so there was at least one for each of the interns, as well as some of the other office personnel, and guards.
When Brennan looked to the far side of the box, she found that Angela had enhanced some of the Booth figures, in addition to putting faces on them. One in particular, caught Brennan's eye. "Oh Sweetie, that one is your" Ange gushed. She leaned over the desk to get a closer look at her handiwork, and smiled. "I must say, I did a good job with that one. Mind you, I have no first-hand knowledge; I just used my imagination."
Brennan glanced up at her friend, and then went back to studying the candy piece much like she examines bones on the platform. A grin covered her face and Ange could swear that Brennan even blushed a little, but that was ok because the artist knew that Bren was thinking about her partner.
The candy piece had a gun painted on the hip, and Angela had done a little sculpting on the torso to give him more defined pecs and a six-pack. She also endowed the groin area, and the whole piece was painted to look as if the figure was only wearing boxers. The two women discussed Angela's work for a bit more, but soon other staff arrived, and they put the candy piece back in the box.
Around 9:30 break time, Ange and Brennan walked upstairs to the break room, candy box in hand. Angela opened the box and offered pieces of chocolate to the staff. She gave Cam her personalized badge, and then let the interns pick and choose what they would want. In addition to the chocolate badges, Ange had made a tray of chocolate people, decorated in blue lab coats, to represent the Squints. Of course, the candy booths were left behind in Brennan's office! They had decided the staff didn't get to pick from those pieces!
Daisy jumped up and grabbed the "queen of the lab" badge – as if anyone else would want that one, Wendell and Vincent looked at each other and rolled their eyes, but said nothing. Eventually everyone had a piece of chocolate, and with their coffee, they had an enjoyable break time. Soon enough the break was over and everyone headed back to whatever they were working on – including Brennan.
At 4:30 Brennan was once again in her office, at the computer. Angela breezed in and took a seat in the middle of the couch, adding great flair to her moves in an attempt to gain Brennan's attention. Ange knew from past experience that her BFF could get so focused on things that the world could practically fall down before she would notice. Today was no exception. Looking for something to do to pass the time, Ange opened up the box of chocolates. She grabbed a white chocolate booth and waved it around in the air as she began to talk.
"Bren, have you tried one of these yet?" At that Angela took a small bite from the feet of the candy piece. This one didn't have stripy socks painted on it so she felt it was safe to eat this piece of candy. At the lack of response from the desk, the artist nibbled some more of the chocolate piece. She was up to the waist area on the chocolate booth when Brennan looked up.
"Ange! Stop that!" Angela looked startled at her friend, not understanding what was going on. After a few seconds, she looked down at the piece of chocolate and realized she'd been sucking on the length of chocolate and it probably didn't look good in Brennan's eyes!
"Oops, sorry Sweetie. I guess I got a little carried away there. I should just go back to my office now" and with that the artist pulled herself off the couch to head out the door. She stopped at the box of chocolates and picked out another figurine. This one had a blue lab coat on and somehow it had curly milk chocolate colored hair. "Come on, Bug man, you're coming with me" she said. Angela then turned and headed out the door.
Brennan looked back at her computer screen for a few seconds, trying to re-focus on the email she had been reading. It was no use – she could smell the chocolate in the box a mere ten feet away from her. It was calling to her and she couldn't focus. She got up and looked through the box of candy. The FBI badge was still there – Brennan was glad for that because it reminded her of Booth, and that made her smile. She was alone in her office, and so she didn't censor her actions – there was no one there to see it and so she gave herself an indulgence and smiled at the thought of her partner.
Turning back to the chocolates, she picked out the 'barely dressed' booth that Angela had created. She carried the piece back to her desk, sat down, and began looking over the confectionery character in her hand. "You look good enough to eat, do you know that Booth?" she said quietly, and to no one in particular. Of course, at verbalizing these thoughts, Brennan's head picked up and she scanned the room to make sure no one had heard her words. She shook her head at her silliness, and went back to the work she had been doing.
Brennan was wading through a number of requests for her assistance. She got this type of email at least a few times a week, and while it was monotonous, Brennan felt it important to respond directly to each one. She knew what it was like to be kept waiting, and so she tried to not let emails and other requests sit too long before she responded to them – even a no was better than being left to wonder, she rationalized.
Absentmindedly, she picked up the piece of chocolate and began to nibble at it. She started at the feet and was working her way up the candy piece, when she suddenly stopped. She looked at the chocolate and realized that she had eaten the piece up to the top of its legs. She was now staring at the torso of a piece of chocolate that Angela had designed to look like FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth. Brennan had her hand on the hip of the figurine, and even though no one else was in the room, Brennan blushed at the site before her. She was literally eating her partner, and it made her cheeks redden at the innuendo.
After staring at it for a few seconds, Brennan seemed to get her courage up. She held the remaining piece of chocolate by the head, and licked and sucked at the chocolate candy. She licked the candy paint that made up the boxers on the figure, until they were off. She was about to lick the piece in a very naughty manner, when her conscious got the better of her and instead she bit off a good chunk of chocolate and ate it. Soon all that was left was the head and chest of the candy piece. She looked at it wistfully, wishing she was looking at the face of her partner instead of a piece of candy. She missed him and the time they spent together. She knew it was only a few days, but still, he had become such a big part of her life that she missed him when he wasn't around.
After a moment Brennan shook herself out of her reverie and ate the last bit of chocolate and got back to her work. Another half hour later and she was so immersed in her work that she didn't notice a figure leaning against the door to her office. He watched her work, drinking in the sight before him. She was so beautiful, so intelligent, so caring… Booth could feel his heart fill with the love he knew he held for her.
As if on cue, Brennan lifted her head and looked at him. To prove just how in tuned they were with each other, both broke into big smiles as they looked into each others' eyes. Booth made his way over to her desk but stopped short as he came to the box of candy pieces. He looked down and saw the badge, and then picked up the chocolate booth that Brennan had painted the day before. He looked over the socks and belt buckle and his face burst into a wide grin. "Bones, is this me?" he asked. He held up the figure and chuckled at it. "Did you miss me while I was gone?"
Brennan blushed at the suggestion, but didn't answer. There was no need, as it was obvious that he had been on her mind while he was out of town. "What are you doing back a day early, Booth?" she tried to change the subject, but he wouldn't let her.
"Bones, you didn't answer my question… did you miss me? I think you must have, to be dressing me up like this."
"It was more like undressing you Booth" she thought about the last piece of candy she'd enjoyed. Brennan was about to speak when Angela walked into the office. She looked at the piece Booth was holding in his hand, at the remaining pieces of chocolate in the box, and told Booth "You should have seen the one she already ate!" With that, she nodded to Brennan, telling her without words, that she knew which one was missing. She gave her friend a saucy wink, turned and as she was walking out the door, said "Enjoy your evening, Sweetie. You too, Booth" and with that she was gone.
Booth turned to Bones with a questioning look on his face and wasn't disappointed when he saw a slight blush to her cheeks. "Come on Bones, let's go get something to eat. I'm sure you missed lunch, and I'm starving! And on the way, you can tell me all about this chocolate here" he waved at it as she pushed the chair away from her desk. Brennan got up, and he helped her out the door with his hand on the usual spot on her back. She was glad her partner was back. The real thing was much better than even a lustful piece of chocolate!