Remember "The Man in the Bear", the first dance they ever shared? This is a story about Booth and Brennan and dancing. Let's pretend "The Diamond in the Rough" is set roughly in season five. Booth and Brennan are just partners and many unspoken things are still lingering in the air.

I began this story when "Diamond in the Rough" aired, but never finished it. That's about to change.

THIS DANCE OF THEIRS

I. The Flaw in the Dance

For the love of God, she couldn't dance.

It wasn't that she wasn't graceful – because she was. It wasn't that she couldn't move her hips – because she could. What she wasn't was pliant and she had a tendency to lead that was quite annoying. One hand trying to steer him; one step backwards that was rather an action than a reaction to his move. She was stubborn, refused to follow the rhythm, somehow trying to dictate it.

Maybe, if he hadn't been a dance teacher, Booth wouldn't have noticed, would have finished this dance with nothing but the odd sensation that something hadn't quite fit. But as a pro, he saw the flaws; saw them and noticed that it was her.

Ladies and gentlemen, the mighty Temperance Brennan had flaws.

He thought about it later, alone in his FBI issued motel room, the old mattress creaking under his weight. Balancing a beer bottle on his abs, he pictured his partner in her fancy hotel. What was she doing right now? Having a glass of wine on her terrace? Taking a bubble bath to wash off the day?

Booth rubbed his face with one palm, feeling the stubble of the late hour. One sigh later, he took a quick gulp out of his bottle to distract his line of thoughts. Thinking about her naked body lolling in a bath tub did not help. Not at all.

She was beautiful, his partner, oh yes she was. He didn't need the gazes of other men lingering on her to notice that. She was also challenging, infuriating at times, and every now and then, he thought about the old days, when it had only been a man and his gun. Easy and straightforward cop work.

She wasn't easy.

But already, just a few weeks into this partnership, he could feel the changes. Good changes; exciting changes. Harbingers of the age-old bond of faith and trust people could form. Attraction as well. He caught himself leaning in just a tad too close every once in a while, and when they had been dancing earlier tonight, her sweet and feminine scent had invaded his senses. Other women would have melted in his arms, in the soft flow of beer and music. She, however, did not give in. Never.

And, as he raised the bottle to his lips anew, Seeley Booth wondered how having her naked underneath his body would be. After all... making love... it was a dance as well. It was a rhythm, was surrendering, was moving together as one. Would she surrender? Could she?

He didn't find out, not that night in the Northern woods of Washington State. Wouldn't find out for many years.

Later, much later, Booth learned that she could lose herself in music, could let go. He was there when she rocked to "Hot Blooded", was there when she danced around on a stage, singing loud and clear that girls just wanna have fun. Was there until the bullet set his chest ablaze, until everything faded away.

Having fun, jumping around to music, she could do that. But dancing, real dancing, was about control, about giving it up and surrendering to something bigger.

He did never forget their first dance in that dusky old bar somewhere in the Northern woods, and the question lingered, popping into his brain during lunch at the Royal Diner, during Thai take-out at night and moments in between.

Would she surrender?

Could she?

To be continued...

Throwing it way back to the good old days, when we were still writing "How they got together" stories. Interested?