THE THINGS THAT MATTER
Booth and Brennan get snowed in at a motel, and talk about their latest case leads to a discussion about religion, family and love. Twoshot. BB, of course!
Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Bones. Happy now?
"Turn off, Booth, there's too much of it." Brennan said shakily, shivering from the front seat of the car. They were trying to get home after an arrest they had made in Colorado when the snowstorm had hit. Now the temperature was dropping quickly in the SUV and the snow on the road was getting deeper and deeper.
"We're nearly on the highway, Bones. It'll be clear up there."
She rolled her eyes. "I am not going to be the one shovelling snow to get us out of the car, Booth. Just turn into the motel."
"The highway-"
"Is nearly twenty minutes away." Brennan said, and looked at him with distaste. "Seriously, Booth, we arrested the killer. The case is closed. What does one night in a motel matter?"
He sighed. "All right." He said, and turned into the cheap looking motel with the flashing signs. Brennan smiled, satisfied, and pulled her coat tighter around her and grabbed her bag, ready to make a dash for the door. Booth stopped the engine and grabbed his bag.
"Ready?" he asked. Brennan smiled. They opened their car doors simultaneously and ran for it to the door of the motel. Booth zapped the car lock as he ran, half wading through the shin deep snow, towards the door of the motel, red paint peeling and a dent in the bottom. Brennan looked at it with distaste, but Booth bit down any comments he could have made and opened the door.
A highly irritating bell announced their arrival, and a girl sat on the desk chewing on gum looked up boredly.
"Good evening and welcome to the Sunshine Motel. How may I help you?"
"We'd like to book two rooms for the night, please." Booth said, looking around him warily.
"Two rooms?" the girl raised her eyebrows, looking between Booth and Brennan. "Did you have a fight or something?"
Booth looked at her strangely and then at the same moment both of them understood. Brennan flushed.
"Oh, we're not… Booth and I aren't…"
Booth gave a deep sigh. "We're not together… we're just partners." He finished.
The girl nodded with a look of disbelief. Then she continued typing on her computer which looked like it had been brought out of the Stone Age.
"Sorry, we only have one room left." She said, smiling as if she were pleased at that.
Brennan looked at Booth. Booth looked at Brennan, raising his eyebrows. "This place is that popular?" he asked, and the girl just gave him a distasteful look. "Do you want it or not?" she said, champing on her gum in the most annoying way. Booth looked wistfully out of the window, towards the SUV.
"We'll take it." Brennan said firmly, and took the key.
"Down the hall, third on the left." The girl said, and went back to her computer as they walked down the corridor with their bags. Brennan fumbled with the keys in the lock and then opened the door.
Thankfully, the room was clean. It had one large double bed in the middle of the room, a fraying couch, a little cupboard and an adjoining toilet and shower room. There was a big window but the snow had already obscured the view outside. Booth looked at the bed, dismayed. He didn't have very much faith in his self control if he was forced to share a bed with Bones.
"You all right, Booth?" she asked, from where she had sunk into the pillows of the bed.
"Yeah." He said vaguely. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Do you want to shower first?" she asked. He was still thinking hard.
"What? Sorry." He snapped out of it.
"Do you want to shower first?"
"No. You can." He said, and put his bag down on the other side of the bed.
"Right." She said, and poked her head round the bathroom door. "They've got towels. See you in a minute."
"See you." He lay back on the bed, half closing his eyes. For a few minutes he was still, listening to the sound of the shower next door and then a slight tune that he figured was Brennan singing. He smiled unwittingly. Then his cell phone went off.
"Booth."
"Daddy, it's me."
"Hey, bub. Are you ok?"
"Yep. When are you coming?"
Shit. "Can I speak to Mommy for a moment, Parker?"
"Sure."
He heard his son pass the phone to Rebecca. "Seeley."
"Rebecca. Look, I'm so sorry. I'm in Colorado. We made an arrest and then it started to snow. We're stuck in a motel."
He heard a dramatic sigh. "Parker's going to be so disappointed."
"I know. I'm sorry, Rebecca."
She sighed again. "I'll pass you back over."
"Can't you come, Daddy?" came his son's voice. Booth sighed. He hated this.
"I'm so sorry, bub. But here's the deal – I'll come and get you next weekend and we'll go to the funfair. OK?"
"Can Dr Bones come too?"
Booth smiled. "I don't know. I'll ask her. She's here at the moment; she's just in the shower. I'll ask her in a bit, ok?"
"Where are you, Daddy?"
"I'm in a place called Colorado, bub. There's snow everywhere and so I can't drive home."
"Did you and Dr Bones make a snowman?"
Booth chuckled. "No. It's too cold for that. We don't have our hats and scarves with us."
"Oh." Parker said. "Well, I've got to go now, Daddy. Night night."
"Bye bye, bub."
He listened to the dialling tone for a few seconds before he put the phone down, sighing.
"Sorry, Booth." He heard a voice and looked up. Brennan was standing in the doorway, dressed back in her jeans and sweater, wet hair hanging around her face, a sad look in her eyes. He was bowled over by the way she still managed to look sophisticatedly beautiful with soaking hair and no make up.
"Don't worry." He said, and slid the phone back into his bag.
"No." Brennan said, "You hate having to miss weekends with Parker. I'm sorry, Booth. I didn't realise. We didn't have to get dinner at the diner."
He smiled at her. "No, Bones. It was fine. I liked getting dinner with you."
She looked at him for a moment, and then walked into the room a bit further, rummaging in her bag for something.
"I'll…I'll just get in the shower then." Booth said, almost awkwardly, and she grunted yes whilst searching frantically for her hairbrush.
He walked away. When he turned his back, she followed him, almost subconsciously, with her eyes. Then the bathroom door shut and she ran the brush through her hair, thinking hard. The arrest that Booth had just made had been for a man who had killed his two stepdaughters and hidden them in his basement for two years, claiming that they had gone overboard in a sailing accident. She had found evidence on the bodies that the girls had been tortured and slowly starved to death over weeks. She had felt sick looking at the man who had done it, seeing the glint in his eye as he gave his final confession. Even Booth had gone pale. And she had cried quietly in the ladies' bathroom at the Colorado police station, something she wouldn't usually have done. But seeing the look on the mother's face when she had finally realised what the man she thought she loved had done to her only children; that was something even usually cold and distant Brennan could hardly deal with. She sighed, thinking about it again, and let a tear roll down her cheek.
"Bones?" Booth said, stepping into the room, his hair tousled and wet. "Are you ok?"
She looked up at him and nodded fiercely. "Sure." She said. "Just thinking about the case."
She'd surprised herself there. At what point had she and Booth gotten to the level where she would tell him what was upsetting her?
"It was terrible." He said simply, and then forced a smile, sitting down on the other side of the bed to her and looking at her, half dry hair messy and loose around her shoulders, eyes wide and skin white. To him she had never been so beautiful. He put a hand on her shoulder.
"You gave them back to their mother, Bones. You did everything you do."
It was such a simple comment, and she knew logically she could never give those two girls back to their mother, but it seemed to comfort her somehow. She smiled at him lightly and then realised that the white shirt he was wearing left little to the imagination when it came to muscle definition. His eyes followed hers as she looked him up and down, and then she flushed bright red, and brought her eyes quickly back to his face.
Too quickly. Their eyes locked and held together, both of them unable to move in the intensity of the moment. Booth's mouth dropped open a tiny bit, and Brennan's lips parted slightly, mirroring the action. Their eyes seemed connected in some deep, almost terrifying way, and neither of them could look away.
Brennan's phone rang. Spell broken.
She leant into her bag and pulled out her ringing cell phone.
"Brennan."
"Sweetie, it's Angela. Just got a call from the FBI saying you guys won't be coming back until tomorrow. What's going on?"
But before Brennan even had a chance to answer, Angela spoke again.
"Is this something you and Booth made up so you can rendezvous somewhere in the mountains? Because if it is, sweetie, I totally agree with it. But I want to be told all the juicy-"
Mortified that Booth might have heard any of that, Brennan got up quickly and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
"Angela, it's snowing and we can't drive in this weather. We're staying at a motel until we can get down the highway."
Angela squealed. "Are you sharing a room?"
Brennan rolled her eyes to herself and squinted at how she looked in the bathroom mirror.
"Yes."
The glare of the white light made her look pale and almost gaunt.
"Are you sharing a bed?"
Her hair was a mess and she looked really tired.
"Uh huh." She said absent-mindedly, combing her fingers through her matted hair.
"You what?" Angela whispered, and Brennan suddenly realised what she was doing. Temperance Brennan did not stare into mirrors wishing she looked better for a man who her relationship with was entirely platonic.
"There's only one bed. Look, Angela, please don't make something out of this that there isn't. I've had a bad day."
"Did you arrest someone for the Jackson case?"
"The step father." Brennan said, and a lump rose in her throat as she spoke about it. "Look, Ange, I'm gonna go to bed now. Hopefully we'll be back sometime tomorrow."
"Go snuggle up to your FBI hunk and feel better, sweetie."
Brennan smiled to herself at Angela's persistent attempt at match making, and then said goodbye to her friend. She took one last, disappointed look in the mirror and then walked back into the bedroom. Booth was laying the cushions out from the couch to make himself a bed on the floor.
"You don't have to do that." Brennan said.
"I'm not gonna let you sleep on the floor, Bones, don't even try it."
"You can…I can… if you want… we…" she trailed off, not able to put it into words. He straightened up and looked at her, smiling slightly.
"You sure?" he said, reading from her face what she was saying. She nodded slightly, and then blushed again. This blushing was getting very very annoying. She smiled slightly and then bent down to help him pick up the cushions.