A/N

Hello there, long time no see!

I know, I know, it's been forever since I posted anything.

I have fired my Muse because she apparently decided the way she wanted to work was to simply not show up when expected… No employer tolerates that, least of all me. So, she's ancient history.

I found this new Muse on the side of the road, looking a little worse for wear, and decided I'd give her a try - clean her up a little, give her some walking shoes and access to my questionable typing and grammatical skills and I figured we'd see what she can do…

When I was reading the latest installment of "Need", by dgschneider (which, by the way, if you're not reading it, you SHOULD be!), I felt a little spark at something she wrote. It was dancing around my head for the past few days and while I was attending a music festival yesterday, this tale started weaving itself like a tiny little tapestry.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bones or its characters - just this story.

"Brennan…." she groggily mumbled into her cell as she tried to untangle the bed sheets from her legs.

"I'm sorry I woke you, Bones…. I just…" His voice faded off into silence.

Instantly alert, Brennan shoved the blankets down with force. "Booth, are you alright? Where are you?"

"I'm OK, Bones… I just…. I needed to hear your voice." He sounded small, insecure, scared.

Swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, the scientist slipped into her moccasins without a second thought, and walked from her darkened bedroom, noting absently that the blaring green numbers on her alarm read 1:57.

"You had a nightmare." It was a statement, not a question. This was not something new, but it was something that hadn't happened for a long time. When the partners first started working together, becoming close friends in the process, it was not unusual for them to phone one another in the middle of the night after a particularly disturbing nightmare or following a hard-to-process case. Since their respective returns from the opposite ends of the earth, however, those calls were few and far between. Brennan did not feel right calling Booth, knowing he was living with Hannah and, she assumed that Booth didn't need to call her for the same reason - he had someone there for him when he awoke in a sheen of cold sweat, feeling his heart pounding while he tried to catch his breath.

But that started to change over the past several months - Booth was finally on his own, and the pair was slowly finding their way back towards each other. They were regaining what Booth called 'their mojo' and their solve rate started climbing once again. He spent more evenings at her place, just like before, showing up with take-out food and DVDs of movies she hadn't seen. For her part, Brennan had been also spending more time over at Booth's apartment trying to absorb the finer points of NHL hockey and its seemingly hostage-like-hold it had on her partner whenever the season rolled around.

Listening to his heavy breaths slowing, Brennan imagined Booth sitting with his forehead resting in his hand as he leaned forward in a seated position.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She was walking through her house in the dark. She went straight to the refrigerator and pulled something out, placing it into a canvas bag that she had sitting on her island.

"No…. I just…. I'm sorry, Bones. It's late, I shouldn't have called. I didn't even look at the clock before I dialed…. Sorry I woke you." His voice was gruff, parched from the strain of his nightmarish visions.

He needed a drink.

Pulling himself out of bed, Booth winced when his bare feet hit the cool wood floor, but he continued on his way, padding out to the bar and fisting his decanter in one hand while continuing to cradle the phone to his ear, listening to her muted movements on the other end, wondering what she was doing.

"I had a dream," she blurted out when she recognized his reluctance to speak of what he saw in his sleep. It was not unusual for Booth to take a little coaxing before he would tell her about his nightmares, she had learned that long ago. While Dr. Temperance Brennan was not an accomplished 'people-reader', she was fairly fluent in 'Booth-radar', and much to her surprise, she could often hear or see him calm whenever he was upset about something and she shared a story with him. In hind sight, she realized it stemmed from a bit of advice she had received from both Booth and Angela during an early case they'd worked. Both of her best friends had told her that sometimes you just need to offer up a little bit of yourself. Booth also used to tell her that partners share things... it helps build trust. It was no secret that the genius openly praised herself at being the 'smarter' partner, but she always took into account and words of advice that Booth offered, because he was clearly the better 'people-person', and she trusted him in the absolute sense. Brennan never considered herself to be very good at saying the right thing, but she always said what was on her mind, and Booth tended to appreciate that. In the background, behind his carefully guarded and limited conversation, Brennan could just make out the unmistakable, though gentle clink of the lip of the decanter meeting the edge of Booth's tumbler as he poured what she knew would be the rich amber liquid he drank when he just needed a quick unwind.

"Oh yeah?" Booth was grateful for the interception, but then felt his forehead crease in worry. "What about? Was it a bad dream? Bones, you should have called me." Immediately, he felt his protective nature for his partner erupt, despite the fact that he called her, Booth was concerned now that she'd had a bad sleep as well.

"No, no, Booth. It wasn't a bad dream. It was just a dream…" She pulled on a sweatshirt, one sleeve at a time, then quickly maneuvered the cell away from her ear so she could pull the hoodie over her head. "You and I were at Founding Fathers, only it wasn't the Founding Fathers that we know… You know how, when you dream, you can be in places that you recognize, but they don't look anything like the real places?"

"Uh-huh," he responded. He sank into the sofa, listening to her deep alto timbre and letting her voice wash him in a sea of calm as he swirled the thick liquid in his glass, coating the inside with a quickly disappearing layer.

"It was like that… I know we were having a drink there, but it looked different." She threw her bag over her shoulder and moved to the front door, still moving in the dark - quietly, smoothly, without hesitation of what she was doing. "I think we were celebrating the end of a case, because you asked me where the Squints were, and why they weren't there yet."

Booth let his head fall back against the cool leather of the couch, resting his glass against his boxer-clad thigh. "They always come out to celebrate at the end of a case with us. It's our thing, Bones," he conversed with her, as if it would change the outcome of the dream she was recounting.

"Yes, I know that, Booth, but in my dream, they weren't there. It was just us. " She slid into her car and pulled the door closed quietly. "But we only missed them for a little while… we started talking about things...nothing important, just stuff. I asked you about Parker, and-"

"OH God! Sorry to interrupt, but you didn't forget about Parker's match, did you? He asked me to remind you and dammit, I forgot…" Booth gritted his teeth in aggravation that he forgot to confirm with his partner that she would be there… Parker had invited Brennan to come to his final Saturday game. She agreed at the time and suggested that maybe afterwards, the three of them could reconvene at the diner. But that conversation had been weeks ago and his final Fall Soccer Scrimmage was scheduled for later that day.

Smiling as she pulled onto the completely vacant street, she assured him. "No, of course not, Booth. Parker wrote it on my calendar in bright blue marker the last time he was in my office, so how could I forget?" She chuckled at the memory of the boy who looked so much like his father, and the enthusiasm he displayed when she agreed to meet them in the sports park that day.

Relaxing once again at the sound of her promising words and at the knowledge that his partner seemed to enjoy spending time with him and his son, Booth took a slow drink from his glass, letting the warm liquor burn his throat in a welcome and familiar feeling. "Thanks, Bones," he breathed into the phone in appreciation. "It means a lot to him… and to me."

Before the partners had run from each other, it was not unusual for the Anthropologist to meet the Booth boys at the Arlington Sports Complex to see the young boy play in whatever sport was in season. But since their strained return, she hadn't been with them for a while, and Booth found himself grateful on a deeply emotional level that she had agreed to attend.

"You don't need to thank me, Booth. I find that I miss seeing him play. And..." she hesitated for only a split moment. "And I miss being with both of you - together…" She smiled at the almost-overwhelming warmth she experienced spreading through her chest, but quickly added a disclaimer. "But I don't want to intrude on your time with Parker, and I don't want to monopolize your day, so I'll just-"

He cut her off, not wanting her to set any time limits on their visit. "You're not intruding, Bones. We love spending time with you… You know how much Parker looks up to you." He could almost hear the shy smile spread across her perfectly shaped lips and Booth imagined the slow blush that had crept up her cheeks at the compliment. "We'll just see how the day goes, huh?"

"OK," her voice was hushed and the gratitude for his willingness to share time with her was evident.

"I guess I should let you go, Bones… I'm sorry I woke you up…" He didn't want to disconnect the call, but knew he should. It wasn't fair that he called her at 2am and kept her up simply because he had a nightmare. Especially if she was going to be over at the soccer field in less than 7 hours.

"But you didn't let me finish telling you about my dream, Booth…" She was searching for an excuse for him to let her keep talking… She needed to see him, needed to make sure he was OK. He was quite obviously shaken when he called her, and though he seemed to be better now, she wasn't willing to hang up just yet.

"Oh, um, there's more?" He grinned and settled back against the corner of the couch further, happy to simply listen to her voice. Happy that she wanted to talk to him.

"Of course," she said as she caught herself rolling her eyes. She mused momentarily, that she never rolled her eyes before she and Booth partnered, it was his fault that she started to make such a childish gesture.

Chuckling at her tone, Booth downed the rest of his drink and placed his glass on the coffee table. "Alrighty, then, do tell…"

"Well, I asked you about Parker and after we discussed his school and his grades, I told you about the conversation I had with my Editor and the Publishing House about my latest book. Booth, they're not happy with the ending I wrote, so I had to turn-out another one…"

"Crank-out, Bones, you had to crank-out another one, not turn-out. Is that your dream-world or are you talking about the real world now?" Booth was tired, feeling the calming effects of his partner's voice and soothing demeanor, he wasn't sure he was keeping up with her story.

"Well, it was in my dream, but it was from my real life… My editor really HATED what I did with the book… so did the Publisher. They refused to print it, because they said I was sabotaging any possible future endeavors..."

Feeling defensive for his partner, he sat up straight. "What the hell, Bones? This is your book, you should be able to write whatever the hell you want! Who do they think they are, telling you to re-write?!"

"They are the people publishing it, Booth," she responded logically, "and they are the people who pay my advances. They said that by killing Andy Lister, I-"

"Whoa, whoa, wait…. What? You killed off Andy? You can't do that! You can't kill me! I want to be in your future books, too!" He was standing up now, she had gotten his attention, even if she didn't want it.

"Booth…. you are not Andy… Andy is a fictional character... I don't know how many times I have to tell you this… But it's interesting, because this is exactly how you reacted in my dream, too…"

"Of course this is how I'm going to react, Bones! I mean, c'mon, you're killing off my character… That's tough to take, Bones…How can you kill off Andy? He and Kathy are finally getting closer to getting together. They're overcoming their differences… they're almost on the same page…"

"Booth, they are often featured on the same pages; most of their interactions are together, so naturally they're on the same page," she interrupted his rant, even though she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Metaphorically, Bones… the metaphorical page…" He huffed in exasperation but then heard a small chuckle on the other end, followed by a muffled bell. "You knew exactly what I meant, Temperance Brennan," he playfully chided while trying to make out the other noises in the background of her end of the call. "Are you watching TV, Bones? What's that noise?"

"No, I'm not watching TV yet, Booth."

He started to sit back again into the warm hole he'd made for himself on the couch when a knock at his door echoed through the otherwise silent apartment.

"What the hell?" Booth eyed the short hallway of his foyer.

"Booth?" Her voice was soft coming thru the phone.

"Uh, yeah, hang on, Bones. Somebody's knocking at my door at friggin' 2:15 in the morning…" He growled and pulled himself off the sofa and leant into the foyer. "Yeah? Who is it!?" He was only wearing the striped boxers that he'd pulled on to cover his nakedness when he decided to get a drink and rolled out of bed.

"Why don't you check, Booth?" She asked with a smile.

"Because, Bones," he grumbled into the phone, "it's fuckin' 2 in the morning… Who the hell is out banging on peoples' doors at this hour? Nothing good comes from strangers knocking on apartment doors at 2:15..."

Another knock. A little louder this time.

Stalking down the length of the short hall, Booth lowered his voice. "Hang on a sec, Bones," he tried to peek through the peep-hole, but it was covered by a finger. "Dammit," he whispered harshly, his words muffled as he pressed his face against the door, trying to see through the hole. "Whoever it is covered up the fucking peep-hole," he said, as he prepared to call out a few obscenities from his side of the closed door.

But then he heard it.

A tiny giggle.

In stereo.

And he bent forward to peek out again, just in time to see the finger lowering to reveal the beautiful smiling face of his partner.

"Bones…"

"Open the door, Booth. The hallway is creepy at this hour of the morning…" She felt foolish saying such a 'girlie' thing, but it was the truth - the partially lit hallway of the apartment building stop the liquor store was creeping her out.

The agent swung the door open and stood there, slack jawed as he took in her appearance. She was wearing tight cotton leggings that stopped just below her knees and a much-too-big FBI sweatshirt which she had commandeered from his collection after they were caught in an unexpected downpour the previous week while on a case, and he chuckled absently seeing how it stopped mid-upper-thigh on her much-smaller frame. She had on well-worn leather moccasins without socks. Her hair was in braids, her face was free of all traces of makeup; her crystal clear eyes were laughing in time with her smile. It was clear to Booth that she had crawled out of bed when he called her and drove over to his apartment to be with him.

She was, in a word, beautiful.

Brennan took her time to study Booth as well. He was standing in front of her, holding the door open while dressed in just his boxers. The messy spikes of bed-tousled hair sticking out in all directions told her that while they'd been speaking, he had been unconsciously running his hand through his hair the way she had observed him doing for years whenever he was troubled. His chest and abdomen muscles were tight, and seemed to flex involuntarily when he opened the door and stared at her. He looked stunned to see her there and still held the phone up to his ear as he looked her up and down.

"Are you going to invite me in, Booth?" She smiled as she spoke into her cell.

"Yeah, of course, Bones," he answered in kind. "Sorry…"

She stepped into the entryway and turned to watch him lock the deadbolt once the door was closed again, blocking them from the outside world.

Meeting her face to face, Booth felt a smile trying to break free. "What are you doing here, Bones? It's really late…"

Still speaking into the phone, while standing in relative close proximity to him, Brennan felt a wave of giddiness wash over her, but contained it. "My partner had a bad dream and needed me… I felt like he needed me, anyway…" She let her words die down, suddenly uncertain if he really did need her.

He let the smile widen. "Thanks, Bones…" He shrugged then chuckled, "I guess we can hang up now, huh?"

"I suppose." She met his smile but made no move to lower her phone. "You called, so you hang up first."

"No, you hang up first." He grinned.

"That's not how the game is played, Booth. You dialed, so you have to end the call before I do…" She felt her cheeks grow warm and was certain they were turning pink. She didn't fully understand the feelings fluttering around in the pit of her stomach, but she knew she was enjoying being this close to her partner. She could smell his aftershave and the faint trace of his cologne, left-over from the workday, so she knew that he had come home late and likely went straight to bed without showering; their week had been pure hell, she couldn't have blamed him if that's what he did. She could see the laughing lines that had been carved into his handsomely chiseled face over the years. And she allowed herself just a fleeting moment to fantasize what it would be like to run her fingertips over the rough, pock-marked skin of his jawline, running her fingernails over the rough stubble of his facial hair...

Booth was, in a word, extraordinary.

"Yeah, ok. I can do that..." Booth said quietly as he lowered his phone with a soft laugh. He watched carefully as Brennan lowered her phone as well, and met her eyes with warm browns. "What are you doing here, Bones? I mean, really?"

Brennan reached into her bag and removed a container, holding it out to show her partner. "I was going to bring this to surprise you and Parks when I came for his game, but I thought," she shrugged, feeling suddenly shy. "I guess it's kind of crazy, really, it's too late for it now, but my immediate reaction when you called...was that...you needed...comforting…" She bit her lower lip, unsure about how to continue, feeling insecure in her hasty decision to come over at such an early hour, uninvited.

Her worries were instantly abated when she found herself engulfed in the bone-crushing embrace of her Booth. One of his arms circled her shoulders and the other found itself around her waist as he pulled her close, burying his face into her neck without further thought.

"Thanks, Bones… You always know exactly what I need." He smiled when he felt her arms slowly circle his torso. Then he jumped in surprise when the cool plastic of her offering pressed against the bare skin of his lower back. "Wh-hoa…..!" He straightened up, backing away quickly and suddenly realized that he was standing in his foyer, hugging his partner while wearing nothing but his underwear. "Hey, Bones, look - I'm uh… Look, that was cold… I'll just..." he twitched his head in the direction of his room, "I'm gonna just go put somethin' on…" His trademark crooked smirk broke free. "I'd love some of your mac-n-cheese, Bones. I don't care if it's 2 o'clock in the morning."

She smiled at his admission and nodded in appreciation. "OK. Go get dressed and I'll put some in the microwave for you."

B/B/B/B

Rushing back down the hall from his bedroom, Booth hastily pulled on his old Flyers t-shirt and stopped short when he looked into his kitchen. Standing with her back to him, Brennan spooned a generous helping of mac-n-cheese onto a small plate and moved over to the microwave. He studied her movements, admiring her body from the close distance. She had removed the over-sized sweatshirt when he went to change, leaving her in just the curve-hugging gray capris he'd admired earlier and a pale green skimpy tank top; clearly her sleep clothes, and he felt his heart swell, along with a few other body parts, knowing how quickly she must have made the decision to come to his side when she felt that he needed her, though he never would've asked her to drive over at such an hour. He watched silently as she tilted her head in thought, staring at an empty bowl, obviously trying to decide if she was going to have some food with him or not.

Eager for her to stay, Booth rushed forward, sidling up beside her at the counter. "Eat with me, Bones. Please?" He raised an eyebrow in question, "I mean, there's enough here," he raised the tupperware bowl, "we can both have some and there'll still be some left for Parker..."

She smiled and turned to the brightly colored refrigerator and opened the door. "There is plenty for you and Parker, I made a double batch… I know how much you both enjoy macaroni and cheese…" She pointed in a two additional containers that she'd stacked onto the sparsely-filled shelf, right next to an unopened half-gallon of MooCow Chocolate Milk and a few loose bottles of Pedialyte.

Booth looked at her, letting his eyes skip over her pale features, admiring the shape of her face - both soft and sharp simultaneously. "Your mac-n-cheese, Bones...we enjoy your mac-n-cheese…" He took a hesitant step forward, closing into her space ever so slightly. "You were gunna surprise us tomorrow with that? Really?"

With a gentle nod, she felt her stomach flip at the look he was giving her. "Yes. I decided to make it when I came home from work tonight… I wanted to make enough for you to have leftovers, I know you have Parker for the weekend plus the first part of the week…" She felt like she could get lost in his darkened eyes, she felt her breaths grow shallow as he leaned a micro-fraction closer.

"Bones, you were at work until 10:00… You made a double batch of mac after you got home tonight?" He reached out and swept away a non-existent piece of hair from her cheek - any excuse to touch her...

"Yes," she whispered breathlessly, surprised at the pounding in her chest as her heart tried to break through her ribcage. The spot on her cheek where his fingertip just barely brushed felt like it was seared, leaving his mark on her. She fought against the desire to stretch up to her tip toes and press her lips to his.

"Stay for a while and eat with me, Bones." His molten chocolates pleaded with her, and she knew there was nothing she wouldn't do for him if he asked, so she simply nodded, as if in a trance.

"Alright." She took a deep breath and blinked, breaking her hypnotic state. "But only a little bit. I had a sampling after I took it out of the oven tonight, so I shouldn't each much." Brennan was certain she'd said the right thing, because she saw his face light up as he let out a small laugh of relief.

"Awesome. I have some wine in there," he nodded to the fridge, "laying on the bottom shelf."

The scientist knew that meant her partner intended to spoon out what he would deem to be her portion of their late night treat (which, from experience, she knew would inevitably be too much, resulting in enough left in her bowl that he'd finish it), while she poured the wine.

"Don't give me too much, Booth," she turned with a smile to the refrigerator once more, knowing full well that he would do what he always did. But if she didn't balk at least a little bit, it simply wouldn't feel right.

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled over his shoulder as he dumped a second heaping spoonful of the most amazing pasta dish in the world into his partner's bowl, then topped it off with a generous almost-heaping third scoop. "Whatever you don't finish, I will, Bones. Don't worry," he smiled, "I won't let it go to waste."

Brennan huffed in laughter and moved over to the small two-person bar-style table that was tucked against the wall of Booth's intimate kitchen. After their wine glasses were in place, she turned and collected silverware and napkins, momentarily noting the extreme domesticity of their current situation. She paused when she felt his eyes boring into the back of her head, and she turned to look at him.

He narrowed his eyes at her while waiting for the microwave to do its magic. "Why did you kill off Andy?"

She swallowed thickly, cursing herself for telling him about it in the first place. She knew, though, that he wouldn't let the subject rest until she fessed up. "Because," she began slowly, warily. "Kathy ruined her chances with Andy during an argument in the beginning of this book. She said horrible things to him… things that were... unforgivable…"

"No she didn't," his reply was immediate and certain, regardless of the fact he had not yet read the debate.

"Booth, you haven't read it! You don't know! No matter how creatively I write, he is not going to forgive her - he can't forgive her. She was awful to him…" She looked down at her hands and watched as she wrung her own fingers. "She turned him down. She hurt him terribly." She swallowed and bit her lip. "I don't know how to fix it, so I had him get shot in the last chapter."

"He forgives her, Bones. Plain and simple. You don't need to spin some whack-job tale to make your readers believe it. Everyone wants them together, they love each other." He nodded in affirmation, his voice was soft but firm, his message crystal clear if she would just let herself listen. "If she can forgive him for all the crap he put her through during that last book, he can certainly forgive her words - I mean, it was an argument, right? I'm sure they were just words, spoken in the heat of an emotional moment."

"Kathy is not emotional, Booth. She's logical." Brennan didn't understand the raw feeling that was tearing through her gut, through her chest, causing her heart rate to increase.

He moved over to stand in front of her and placed his hands on her biceps, waiting for her to raise her eyes to his. In the split moment before she met his gaze, he let the heat of her oh-so-soft skin travel through his calloused palms and up his arms. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before meeting her questioning blue/greens.

"Kathy is a warm, loving, beautiful person, Bones. And wonderfully emotional. And Andy knows that better than anyone."

"Do you really believe that, Booth?"

"I know it to be true, Bones. He's lucky to have her in his life." His tongue darted out to wet his lips nervously before continuing softly. "He's so lucky, Bones..."

She flushed at the revelation unveiled to her, feeling her knees grow weak, but stayed silent, unsure of how to proceed.

Booth smiled, a truly appreciative and genuine smile. "I'm so glad you're here, Bones."

The logical, rational and analytical scientist shrugged gently, tilting her head and feeling particularly whimsical and undeniably wanted. "It's where I belong, Booth. Where else would I be?"

Postscript A/N

So, there you have it.

I don't think it's any great secret that I love the time period when Booth & Brennan were trying to find their paths back to each other. This was just a little glimpse at our favorite duo doing just that. I haven't decided if I am going to leave this as a stand-alone One Shot or wrap it neatly with a bow after writing a second chapter - I guess that will sort of depend on the type of feedback I get.

For now, I am not marking it 'Complete', but I'm not making any promises, either. In all honesty, I need to get my head back in gear for my other 2 multi-chapter pieces, but I was hoping this little diversion would do the trick.

Please let me know what you thought, I'd love to hear from you.

peace & love my friends,

jazzyproz