A/N: A fun one-shot challenge after a conversation with GreyIsTheCatsPajamas on Twitter that involves Booth and Brennan in handcuffs and against a wall, all in a minimum of 1000 words. And a nice, fluffy break from my other current story, 'The Battle in the Booth.' This takes place in the middle of season 7, when I feel the effects of Hurricane Hannah will finally cease. Enjoy.
The Partners in the Problem
"You know, this is all your fault."
"My fault! I was not the one who trusted the rest of the squint squad when they wanted to re-enact the crime."
"Booth, you are the only one in this lab who owns a pair of handcuffs! If you had not given them to Dr. Hodgins to use in the re-enactment then we would not be in this situation so logically, it is your fault."
"That was how the victims were found, Bones! Handcuffed to a pipe against the back wall of a basement. I was against this from the very start but someone wanted to see exactly how the muscle tendons would stretch in this position."
"Someone? Booth, you know I was the one who wanted to test the muscle position. Is your memory okay? Are you having hallucinations again? What about headaches?"
"I have a headache right now," Booth mumbled, not quite believing him and Bones were in this position. They were in the basement storage of the Jeffersonian, handcuffed together to a pipe that was about six inches away from the back wall; his right wrist to Bones' left one. The only good thing about this situation was it gave him an excuse to shoot Hodgins when he got out of here, something he had been meaning to do for seven years now.
Brennan worriedly bit her lip and put her non-handcuffed hand on his forehead. "Do you have a fever? Booth if you are having headaches, you should go to your neurologist right away," she told him, gently caressing his face as she felt for a temperature.
He paused for a moment, not wanting her to stop touching him but also didn't want to worry her any further. "No, Bones, I don't have a fever and I have not been having headaches. I just meant that I have a headache right now because of the situation the stupid squints left us in."
She took her hand away and looked down at her lap. From where they were sitting against the back wall of the basement of the lab, they couldn't even see the door out of here, all the boxes and such from the various exhibits building a wall around them. Even though she told Booth it was his fault that they were stuck here, she had the sneaking suspicion it was actually Angela's fault. After she had called her friend panicked early Saturday morning, she couldn't blame her for locking her down here with Booth. Brennan thought she could both strangle and hug her best friend right now for putting her in this position.
"Are you really that upset to be stuck here with me, Booth? Were you that disappointed in what happened on Friday night?" she asked him in a small voice, scared to be saying her worst fear out loud.
Booth went to rub his right hand through his hair but after accidently tugging Bones' hand against the metal pipe, he sighed and mentally cursed the squints again. This was so not a conversation he wanted to have in the Jeffersonian. But as he looked over at his girlfriend and saw the crease between her eyes and the way she was avoiding looking at him, he knew he couldn't put it off any longer. Taking his left hand, he gently put his hand on her cheek and turned her head to face him. He took a deep breath before starting, knowing he would have to carefully navigate this conversation.
"Bones, I could never, ever regret anything we do together. I'll be the first to admit that I was a little disappointed after Friday night but not because our first time together didn't meet our expectations but more because I didn't want you to think any of it was your fault. I mean, come on, Bones, after eight years of sexual tension, I think we were both too nervous for it to be anything but awkward."
"So that wasn't making love? Because, to be honest, it did not live up to what you described after the pony play case," she said factually. During their weekend apart, this was the question rolling around in her mind. She was concerned that if that was what Booth considered "making love" she was going to sexually frustrated for a very long time.
He leaned forward so close that their noses were almost touching. "That wasn't even close," he reassured her, smiling with her when she flashed her amazing smile at him. He could feel the relief rolling off of her in waves. He gave her a quick kiss before dropping the hand currently on her check to her hip, glaring at the pipe that currently separated them from getting closer together and at the handcuffs that was preventing him from putting his arm around her shoulder to pull her close.
That small peck did not satisfy Brennan, though, who now convinced that their first time together was merely a statistical anomaly, an outlier if you will, wanted some more. Heedless of the handcuffs connecting them, she put her hands on both sides of his face and pulled him to her, immediately forcing his mouth open and licking the roof of his mouth. She swallowed his grunt of surprise and helped him angle his face away from the pipe as they deepened the kiss.
"Bones-" he tried to say but his lips were suddenly busy doing other things. Losing himself in the kiss for several more minutes and intertwining their handcuffed hands together, he waited for the inevitable lack of oxygen break to make his move.
"Bones, we shouldn't do this right here. Technically, we're still at work," he told her but his roaming hand told another story.
Brennan cupped her hand around the back of his head; lightly scraping her nails through his hair, knowing that he really enjoyed it when she did that. "Booth, nobody else is down here. Do you not want to have sex with me?"
He groaned, her fingers moving through his hair and her statement making his body very amenable to the idea. But one huge problem still stood in their way. "Bones, in case you forgot, we are still very much handcuffed together against the wall."
Brennan flashed him an evil smile and quickly pushed his back against the wall, straddling his lap and pulling his arm attached to the handcuffed wrist around the pipe so his elbow was bent around it. "Booth, have I ever told you that all that karate and yoga I do has made me very flexible?"
Booth gaped at her statement before recovering and giving her a lecherous grin. "Ya know, Bones, I don't think you've told me but I've always remembered things better when I have a visual as well," he told her, moving his head up to capture her lips again, happily letting his girlfriend show him her skills.
"Well, babe, should we go unlock them now?" Hodgins asked his wife as he lounged on the couch in her office. He got distracted by the Rubik cube he was playing with for a moment before he realized she had not answered yet. "Ange?"
Angela looked at her husband from behind her computer screen. "Now would definitely not be the time to go down there, Jack. Trust me," she said, quickly closing the incriminating window on her computer.
"What did you do?" he asked, quickly becoming suspicious of his sneaky and brilliant wife.
"I may or may not have tapped into the security camera from the basement and pulled it up onto my computer. Let the lovebirds be, Jack. We should get some work done so that Booth and Brennan are not as angry as us when they are done."
"Pft, fine, party pooper," he grumbled as he left her office for his own.
Angela laughed at his expression and glanced at the handcuff keys he left on the corner of her desk. With the success of her plan, this may be the way she always had them solve problems.