How Far Did You Get Last Night?

A 'Bones' Fanfic

Disclaimer: 'Bones' is the copy-righted work of its writers, producers and Fox. Seeing as I am none of those, I do not own 'Bones'. No copy-right infringement intended.

A/N: Okay. So I haven't posted anything in a while, and this one might not make a whole lot of sense, but I like it. It's most likely going to be a three-shot, so I hope you enjoy the start! Here we go again people!

Chapter One: A Particularly Stressful Case

They had been working on a particularly stressful case.

A cop in the DC area was missing and his partner was insisting he was dead. No one could find a body, and Brennan was extremely perplexed as to why she was involved in the case, as there were no skeletal remains for her to examine.

Booth, getting tired of answering the same question from all the squints at the Jeffersonian, had dragged Brennan out to his office, where they now sat going over the files.

"Alright so Rick Loreney was last seen leaving his precinct station at 9 o'clock, Friday evening. He drove his red Camry in the direction of his apartment, and his partner reported him missing when he didn't show up for work on Monday morning." Booth sighed. "That's two days we can't account for his whereabouts."

"We knew that already, Booth." Brennan replied. "Why are we in your office anyways? Mine is far more comfortable than yours."

Booth looked at her, blinked, and asked the question that he already knew the answer to. "And why do you feel that way, Bones?"

"Well," she said as she got up and walked towards the back of his desk, where he was sitting. "First of all, my office is far larger than yours, probably because the Jeffersonian is more accommodating towards me than the FBI is towards you, because I have an indispensable skill. I also have far more comfortable furniture and larger desktop workspaces than you do." She turned and looked at him. "Why haven't you told me about these medals back here? You obviously earned them for doing something courageous and noble."

He tilted his head back and sighed. "There's nothing noble about killing people, Bones."

She was quiet. She didn't expect this response. She leaned on the back of his chair, with her fingers coming to rest mere inches from the top of his shoulders. "I'm sorry I asked, Booth."

"It's alright, Bones. Y'know if I don't want to talk about them, I probably shouldn't have them up there, should I?"

"I suppose not." She took a deep breath. "Booth, can I ask you something else?"

"Sure, Bones, what's up?"

"Alright, I know this was a long time ago, but after everything that happened with Zach, I just didn't want to question it. And now I really want to know…. Did you really not tell me you weren't dead for national security? I mean I know that Sweets was supposed to tell me because I was on your list, but was that the true reason?"

He looked at her. He looked at her clear blue eyes that were on the verge of tears that were staring down at him. He very carefully spun his chair around and took her hands in his. "No, Bones. That's just what I said, because I wasn't ready to explain."

"Explain what?" she asked. "I want to know, Booth."

He took a deep breath and looked up at her. "I thought you knew. But if I knew that you didn't know, I wouldn't have told you. Because if you knew, then the guy found out you knew he could use it against us. He could hurt you, Bones. And I couldn't let that happen."

"But you did hurt me. You hurt me when you left."

He saw the hurt in her eyes. He could almost see her mind moving his name into the column of people who had left her.

Her lovers, her brother before them. Her parents before her brother.

"Temperance." He whispered her name as he very slowly stood up, keeping his hands in hers, and gently placed his forehead against hers. "There is nothing that I can say to validate what I did. National Security – I still hurt you. To catch that guy – I still hurt you. There is no excuse. The only thing that I can do is ask for your forgiveness, and promise that I will never leave you again."

She looked up at his eyes, still maintaining the contact of their foreheads, and whispered, in a completely out of character manner, "Please don't leave me. Not ever, not tonight. I want to wake up in your arms, because that's where I feel safe."

What he did next would later be explained in many ways. Some would say that it was Booth's romantic side, others would simply say, "It's about damn time.". The truth of the matter was that the woman in front of Booth made him weak. But she made him weak in a way that made him feel like the luckiest man in the world.

He closed his eyes and whispered, "Never, Bones. I won't ever leave you. I love you." He very gently placed a kiss on her lips. The tenderness was overwhelming. Her arms came around his neck and his came to rest on her waist, pulling each other close to each other.

Then the realization hit them that they were still in the FBI building.

"Bones," he said, until she kissed him again, knocking all the sense out of his mind. "Bones. We need to - " he was again cut off. "We need to go… somewhere."

"What? Why?"

"Because, Bones, we are currently making out in the FBI building."

"Oh." She said rather abruptly. "Alright. Well, your apartment is closer, so…."

"Okay, let me get my keys; you get your coat. Then, were outta here."

The two partners moved about Booth's office in a synchronized manner, never getting in the other's way until Booth tried to open the door. Brennan stopped him by placing her hand on his chest, right above his heart.

"What you said, before, I just wanted to let you know something. I love you, too. And I can't explain it, because 'love' as it is romanticized does not exist, it is a combination of hormones and endorphins released from the brain. But I feel the love that is romanticized in our world, and I feel it for you. I feel it so much that, whatever you think I expect of you tonight, you're wrong. I will be perfectly content, in fact probably more content than I've been in a long time, if all that happens is you kiss me good night, and I fall asleep in your arms… I just, I just can't be alone anymore. I can't keep telling myself that I just don't belong with anyone, because it's not true! I belong with you, and I can't keep lying to myself." She finished her little speech by letting out the breath that she didn't know she was holding. Then she outstretched her neck, and was about to kiss him, when he stopped her by placing two fingers on her lips.

"Bones," he whispered. "You had me at 'I love you'." Then, he removed his fingers and closed the distance between them himself. "Now, let's go, Bones, because I'm sure the security tapes in this building will be on eBay if we continue this any further."

"There are security tapes in this building? In your office?" She asked as he held open the door for her.

"Yeah, Bones. This is the FBI, after all. Security is kind of our thing."

"And what's eBay? Some sort of video destruction site, I hope?"

"One day, I will show you the wonders of eBay. I promise. But, not today. I bet you'd love it. I'm sure that they've got some old Anthropology journals, and textbooks on there."

"Alright," Brennan said, as she opened the car door. "But why would they have Anthropology journals at a video destruction site?"

Booth sighed as he got in the car, and then looked exasperatedly at his partner. "Bones, eBay has nothing to do with video destruction. I promise you."

She looked at him. And then she laughed. He didn't know why she was laughing, but he joined in anyways.

A/N 2: Thanks for reading! The next chapter is still in the writing stages, so it'll be a little while before it's posted. But it shouldn't be too long! (And I promise, the title of this will make total and complete sense by the end!)

Anyways, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you all a little bit about EarthHour. EarthHour is something that some awesome crazy people came up with, where everyone in the world, no matter their time zone, turns off their lights for an hour, on the same day. This year its March 28, at 8:30 PM. More than 80 countries have already pledged to participate, so now it is up to us people to actually do it. Vote EARTH! PLEASE visit earthhour(dot)org for more information!