Disclaimer: I don't own them, I didn't create them, and I don't profit from them, but I am certainly glad that Hart Hanson dreamed them up and I can take them out and play with them from time to time.
Author's Note: I've been struck with a nasty case of writer's block and "moving your house" syndrome, but hopefully that's over now. Thanks to forensicmama for a nice little prompt that is embedded somewhere in the midst of this.
"Whoa, Sully, I thought you'd sailed off to Never Never Land." Booth was a little shocked at the man that had just walked right into his office. He hoped it didn't show just how surprised he was as he recovered from leaning a little too far back in his chair.
"Hey, Booth." Tim Sullivan had a wide smile on his tanned face as he shook Booth's hand. "Good to see you, man." He thought that a stop by to see his former colleague was a good way to ease back into the DC scene, especially since he had accepted an opportunity to rejoin the Bureau.
"You here for a visit?" Why he felt a bit unnerved by the sudden appearance of a man Bones had nearly sailed off into the sunset with, was a complete mystery. Surely it had nothing to do with the fact that Bones had asked him to help her have a child before he'd found out he had a brain tumor and realized he was in love with her. With Sully back, maybe she'd rather get back with him and do it all the old fashioned way.
"Nope. Time to get back in the real world for a while." Of course that meant he was going to be sitting behind a desk for a while until he was certified to go out in the field as an agent again.
Booth swallowed hard. "Oh?" Clearly since Sully was wearing a suit and he wasn't sporting a visitor's badge, he was probably back for good. He wondered if Bones knew he was back - he hoped she didn't. He felt a faint glimmer of hope slipping through his fingers at the thought.
"How's Tempe?" Sully seemed a little reserved at the question. He'd had a little trepidation about coming back after the way things had ended between them.
"Bones is good." He wasn't volunteering any more information than that as he gave Sully a once over.
"Good." Booth certainly wasn't making this easy on him and he wondered not for the first or even fortieth time if that was the reason really that Tempe hadn't gone with him.
A flash of something caused a smirk to flit across Booth's face and that hope he'd felt slipping away started to bolster itself up all over again. "What's that on your hand there, Sully? Did you get yourself hitched." This was his lucky day.
A chuckle escaped as he held up his hand to show the gold band. "Guilty as charged. I met Lila in Barbados and the rest they say is history. Except now we're expecting twins and life on a sailboat isn't all that conducive to morning sickness and no health insurance." He was thankful that he'd just gone on inactive status and hadn't actually quit the Bureau, it made getting a job back a whole lot easier.
"Family guy, huh?" Booth was liking this more and more. In fact, he was feeling inspired to maybe even throw Sully a welcome home party himself.
"Soon enough." He seemed a little nervous. "So I was wondering...do you think that Tempe would want to have dinner with Lila and I? Lila is a big fan of her books and when she found out that we used to see each other..."
"Tell you what, I'll ask Bones myself. Maybe the four of us can have dinner." Booth looked smug - if Sully's wife wanted an autograph, he was going to find a way to make that happen.
Sully had a look of realization. "Oh, you finally did it man, you finally woke up and realized that you wanted her yourself." He chuckled at the irony of it all. Of course Booth wanted her - that had been obvious to half the world before he'd left.
"It's not like that." Of course he wanted it to be like that, convincing Bones of that was another story entirely.
"Don't tell me that you're still feeding everyone that line of crap about being just partners." He couldn't be serious - it had been over two years, just how long did it take this guy to make his move?
"That sort of went out the window when Bones asked me to help her have a baby." Of course that was just the tip of the complicated iceberg.
"Tempe? Baby?" Sully couldn't have been more shocked.
"So clearly there are a few things we all need to catch up on." Booth had a sudden urge to head right over to the Jeffersonian and have a little chat with Bones himself. First he'd have to usher Sully out of his office. "I'll talk to Bones and we'll set something up."
"Sounds good." Sully jerked his thumb back towards the door. "I've got to go attend some refresher training - don't want to be late on my first day back, but we'll do that dinner soon." Any question about why Tempe hadn't gone sailing off with him was crystal clear to him right now. Booth was one lucky bastard if he'd ever get his act together and make his move.
As soon as Sully was out of sight, Booth headed towards the door and right to his SUV, which he immediately steered in the direction of the Jeffersonian.
~*~*~*~*~
It seemed that Mr. Nigel-Murray was in the midst of one of his diatribes as Booth strode into the lab.
"Willow trees are a prime location for locating truffles, but little known fact - Europe is not the only place that truffles can be found. The states of Washington and Oregon are also known for a particular type of truffle." He paused to breathe as Cam and Hodgins exchanged an exasperated glance. "Dogs are used more than pigs to hunt for them, even though pigs have a far more vested interest in finding them."
"So what you're saying is that the organic matter could be native to Washington or Oregon?" Hodgins had finally gotten the intern's point and launched into his own excited diatribe.
Booth tuned them all out as he walked purposefully in the direction of Bones' office. He paused in the doorway and just looked at her for a long moment until she glanced up and he felt good and caught. He smiled.
She smiled back at him. "Do we have a case?" She'd been reviewing notes for a court case they had at the end of the week and she could use a little diversion.
"Nope." Of course now that he was there, he really didn't have a good excuse other than he wanted to see her.
Her brow furrowed. "Is everything okay?" He'd had a follow up doctor's appointment recently and everything seemed normal. She hoped that he hadn't started seeing hallucinations again.
"I had a visitor a little while ago." He sauntered over toward her desk and wrinkled his own brow at the worry that seemed to have sprung up on her face. "Sully is back."
Okay, that was far better than a reappearance of Stewie. "Oh." She hadn't really expected that he would come back, at least once he'd been gone well over the year he'd said he'd be gone. She tried to read Booth's face to see just how he might be feeling about that, but she really couldn't tell.
"He wants us to get together with him for dinner." Surely she'd want him there, and even if she didn't he was going to invite himself along. "All four of us."
She'd come around to the front of her desk by now and she leaned back against it as she regarded him. "Four? Why would there be four?" She counted three with her, Booth, and Sully. Why would there be a fourth person?
"He got married." Oh, how good that felt to tell her. The one man that he'd seen as a viable option to sweep Bones away from him was off the market and he was feeling very emboldened by it.
"Oh." She could see a mischievous glint in Booth's eyes. "Married." She wasn't at all surprised that Sully had gotten married; he was a good man and he deserved to be with someone that loved him as much as he loved her.
"And he's gonna be a father." Booth's grin was wider if that was possible. "Of twins."
"Are you feeling like you need to compete with him?" There was something about the way he said it that made her wonder if he was upset that she hadn't yet tried to use his sperm to become pregnant.
"Huh?" He looked momentarily confused. "I'm already a father, Bones." Surely she hadn't forgotten about Parker - she'd only had dinner with the two of them three nights ago, and Parker hadn't stopped talking about the best Mac and Cheese in the entire universe.
"I know, I mean, the fact that he's achieved a different social status in light of your perceived Catholic failures." She'd just said the wrong thing. She could see it in his eyes, but she wasn't sure how to take it back.
"I have a good life, Bones. I have a great kid and..." He couldn't bring himself to say it. There had been enough confusion when he'd woken up from his coma as to what Temperance Brennan was to him. He knew how he felt about her, but he wasn't sure she wanted to hear it.
"You've got me, Booth." She had gotten a glimpse, more than once, what it might be like to lose Booth and she just wasn't willing to let it happen if she had any control over it.
"I do. I do have you, Bones." He grinned at her. Maybe it was time to finally make his move, damn the consequences - full speed ahead. He was going to do it, he was just going to do and hope that she'd caught up to the reality that Angela had been preaching to her for years.
If she was surprised to feel his lips pressing against hers, she was even more surprised to find her arms drifting over his shoulders and her fingers slipping through the hair at the nape of his neck. Apparently, she wasn't as opposed to Booth's feelings as she had thought and if the mewling sounds that seemed to be coming from her own mouth were any indication, she just might be open to trying for that baby the old fashioned way.
The End