Starting Point
Disclaimer: No, they're not mine. I'm just borrowing them for a little while. I'll return them as soon as I'm done - not exactly as I found them, cause let's face it the reason I borrowed them in the first place was to change them, wasn't it? But, hopefully, they'll be happier and more fulfilled by the time I'm through!
A/N: Well, here it is; the promise prequel to Breaking Point. I'm sorry it's been a while, but I had to finish Men From the Gate first. But now it's done, so I can concentrate on this for the time being. I'm not planning on this being more than five chapters. So, hopefully, I'll have it finish by middle of next week. No promises, but I have started on the second chapter already and I plan to finish it today and I have the rest of the story all planned out, so . . . Well, as always I want to thank Puppet for her help betaing and brainstorming and encouragement. And thanks to Red for her input into this chapter. You guys seriously help me write better stories; thank you!! Please, please, let me know what you think. And now enjoy!!!
Chapter 1
Dr. Temperance Brennan shifted in her seat and looked out the window. Clouds, clouds and more clouds with sporadic views of blue sky - the view hadn't changed since the last time she'd looked. Not that she had really expected it to; there was only so much you could see from 30,000 feet in the air. She shifted again and wished she'd insisted on an aisle seat. These airplane seats were too cramped for someone her height to be comfortable for more than an hour; but at least on the aisle, she would have had some room to stretch her legs.
She sighed and looked at her watch; one and a half hours until they landed in DC. She could hardly wait. Twelve days; she'd been gone for twelve days but it felt more like three months. She missed her home, her lab, her friends; she just missed her normal life and couldn't wait to get back to it.
When had going to another country to study recently found 1500 year old skeletons of a mysterious culture become such a hardship and stopped being an adventure she looked forward to? When had she become so attached to one city and the friends in it that a few days away was enough for her to be homesick for them? She hadn't been homesick in fifteen years. When had she begun to think of DC, her apartment, and the lab as 'home' and not just the places where she slept and worked? When had her co-workers stopped being her co-workers and become her friends and family?
With a quiet snort and a roll of her eyes, she answered herself; they weren't tough questions after all. It all began with Booth. Well, Angela bullied her way in first, but it hadn't been until Booth that she'd allowed herself, not only to befriend but to depend on others. Unlike Angela, he hadn't bullied his way in; instead, he'd gained her trust by always being there when she needed him.
Like a steady trickle of water that eventually wears down the mightiest of boulders, his constant presence, unwavering support and unshakable loyalty slowly broke down the walls she had built around herself after her parents' disappearance. Eventually and almost without her realizing it, he'd won her friendship, loyalty and trust.
Before she knew it, he had become an integral part of her new family. The family she'd chosen and the one she knew she could count on. And though part of her was still afraid of being abandoned, most of her knew that if Booth had anything to say about it, she'd never be alone again.
And when her dad and brother came back into her life, it was because of him that she had given them a chance. It had been Booth that had pushed her, subtly, because he knew better than to push too hard, to give them and herself the opportunity to be a family again. Because of that, she had just spent Christmas with her family for the first time in fifteen years.
And even though she'd had to postpone her trip to Peru for a few days to be able to be with them that evening, she didn't regret it. Because even if they had celebrated it in a trailer belonging to the jail, they'd been together and it had been the happiest holidays she'd spent since her childhood.
Two weeks and a very interesting trip later, here she was not wishing she had more days to study the Moche skeletons but instead feeling desperate to be home. With a start, she realized that twelve days was about the longest she'd been away since the first few months of her partnership with Booth. It seemed that in the three years since their partnership had begun, Booth had infiltrated every area of her life and had somehow even caused her to alter her goals and priorities.
She was always amazed when she realized just how much her life had changed in the last three years. And nothing had changed more than her relationship with her partner. Against all logic and reason, Booth had become her best friend. She and Angela were still close, but it was Booth that she went to when she had a problem; and it was to Booth that she confided everything. Even things she hadn't ever though she'd share with anyone else.
Brennan laid her head back and closed her eyes; she really didn't want to think about Booth and their relationship, about why it was him she'd missed the most, and why it was him that had kept her apprised of everything going on back home. Or about the fact that he'd become the yardstick by which she measured every new person she met, and how whenever she had to make a decision, part of her brain would automatically think 'what would Booth do/think?' even when another part always scoffed at the idea of putting so much weight on someone else's opinions.
And she most definitely did not want to think about the very interesting dreams, where she'd relived again and again, the kiss they shared under the mistletoe; or how most had evolved so that kissing was not the only thing they shared. No, better not think about any of that.
She looked down to her bag and frowned. There was nothing there to help with keeping her mind off Booth as she'd already finished the books in her carry-on. She really should have listened to Booth and packed a few more. Ugh, she couldn't even go five seconds without thinking about him. But then she remembered her Ipod and with an 'aha!' she leaned forward to get it out, ignoring the sideways looks of the people seated around her.
Brennan had asked Elena, her Peruvian assistant, to download some of the latest hits. She always tried to bring back local music from the places she had visited; in her opinion, it was one of the best ways to understand a culture and practice the language. She especially liked Latin music because it was so varied and the language so rich. Unfortunately, with her busy schedule, she didn't have much time to listen to the new stuff; this trip had been the perfect opportunity to add to her collection.
She put in the earphones and after relaxing back into her seat, she turned on her Ipod and listened to it until the overhead signed flashed, indicating it was time to turn off all electronic devices. As she put it away, she couldn't help but think back on a particular song and how it much she related to it. The commotion preceding the landing and the landing itself drove the thought out of her head however.
Forty minutes later, she was finally walking down the corridor leading from the arrival gates and towards the luggage claim area. She started to look for Booth as soon as she passed the metal detectors and left the "Traveler's Only" restricted area. His height made him easy to spot and she soon found him lounging against a wall. She took advantage of the fact that he hadn't yet seen her, to study him unobserved. There was no denying the fact that he was a handsome man, but he was even better looking than she remembered.
Her chance to observe did not last long, however, as Booth used the special Bones radar he seemed to have and spotted her within moments. She saw his face turn towards her, his eyes widen when they met hers, and his mouth stretched into one of the widest smiles she'd ever seen on his face, when he recognized her. She didn't even realize that she was wearing a matching grin.
"Bones!" he called out, and started forward to meet her. She also hurried forward and they were soon face to face. Without hesitation, he reached out, pulled her into a tight hug and said, "I'm glad you're back. I missed you."
"I missed you, too," she breathed, as she returned the hug with equal strength. She had known she missed him, but she didn't how much, until she felt his arms around her once more.
A few moments later, they pulled back and grinned happily at each other. Neither could quite believe how relieved they were to be back in the other's company. And strangely enough, neither was particularly bothered by the strength of the feeling. After giving her another, smaller, hug, Booth reached down and took her carry on before putting his arm around her shoulders and leading her towards the luggage carrousel. Brennan was so happy to be back, that she didn't even protest the alpha male move.
"So, how was the flight?" he asked, as they came to stop by the carrousel to wait for her bag.
"Pretty good," she answered with a shrug. "There was a bit of turbulence about an hour into it but, other than that, it was pretty normal."
"Good," he said with a nod. "There's nothing worse than an eventful flight. Anything eventful in an airplane is usually bad news."
"How's everything here?" she asked, after nodding at his comment, "anything new?"
"No, not since last night," Booth answered with a grin. "Relax, Bones. The kids behaved themselves and the lab is still in one piece. Though, Hodgins and Zack did try their best to blow it up. They tried to do this experiment last week . . ." He shook his head, but was grinning in recollection. "Well, let's just say that it was a good thing that Angela was there to stop them."
"What experiment?" She asked almost before he finished speaking. "And how come you didn't say anything about it in your phone calls?"
"I'm not sure what experiment it was; just that it would have had quite a result. As to why I didn't tell you," he said with a shrug, "I didn't see the point. There was no harm done. Heck, they didn't even get to finish it."
"Still," she grumbled. "You were supposed to keep me abreast of everything that happened at the lab. Is there anything else you didn't see the point in telling me?"
"Nope," he answered after a moment's thought. "That's about it."
"What about cases?" She asked, after a few moments of comfortable silence. "Are there any new ones?"
"Nope, not since last night," he repeated. "We finished the last case; I just dropped off our notes over at Justice."
"Good," Brennan said, in a neutral tone, Booth, however, knew her well enough and noticed the wistful note in it.
"I'm just glad we only got one case while you were gone, and that it was a relatively easy one." He commented nonchalantly. "Not only did I have time to finally catch up on my paperwork, I was also spared the necessity of working too closely with Zack. Thank you, God," he added fervently.
"Oh, come on," Brennan said, in rebuke, as she turned her head to look for her bag and hide her smile. "Zack's not that bad. He's actually a pretty good forensic anthropologist. I mean, I did train him myself," she finished, with a smirk.
"It's not his professional skills I have a problem with, Bones; it's his social skills." Booth said, as he moved to help an older woman retrieve her suitcase. Brennan smiled at this display of chivalry and waited until the woman said 'thanks' before continuing.
"But that shouldn't be a problem." Brennan said, as she was jostled into Booth by a couple of young men. Booth frowned and Brennan knew that if she didn't distract him, he'd go and offer them a lesson in manners. "You taught me how to be more sociable. You should do the same with him."
"See, that's my point," Booth said, pointing at her. "I've already trained my squint; why should I train another? It's not that easy, you know."
"Hey!" Brennan protested and slapped his arm, as Booth laughed and tried to evade her. "I am not a pet to be trained! And why do you say it wasn't easy?" She asked, indignantly.
"Bones, Bones," Booth said, and still laughing, threw an arm around her shoulders. "She's my partner, you know. I'm very happy with her and I have no interest in breaking in a new one. And I'm really glad she's back."
Brennan smiled, and with a sigh, let her head fall on his shoulder. The feeling of contentment she felt in his arms was what she had missed the most; and since she was quite comfortable, she decided to stay there until her suitcase arrived. At first, Booth was surprised at how she cuddled closer, instead of pulling away, but he then smiled and gave her shoulder a slight squeeze. As was usually the case with airlines, the first bags to be checked in are the last to be unloaded, so they waited about ten minutes before they were able to leave.
"So," Booth said, as they waited to cross the street to get to the parking lot. "You had fun playing with your mummies?"
"Booth," Brennan said, as she watched him struggle to pull her suitcase and carry-on; by now, she knew better than to tell him she could carry her own bags. That would just lead to an argument she'd end up losing anyway. "I went to Peru; not Brazil," she added, thinking of Caroline's insistence on mixing the two countries up; just because they were both located south of the equator, did not mean they were interchangeable – they didn't even speak the same language! "Not Egypt, not Africa, Peru! As in South America, to study 1500 year old skeletons, not mummies! I . . ."
"I know, Bones," Booth interrupted her before she really started on the lecture. "I know where you went and I know where Peru is located. But I also know that they found an Incan mummy there a few years ago."
"If you . . ." whatever she'd started to say slipped her mind at his mention of the Incas. "You know about the Incan mummy?" She asked, incredulously.
"Yes, Bones," Booth answered, slowly, and with a small smile; he loved surprising her with the depth of his knowledge. "I know about the Incan mummy and the Incan culture. They're one of the greatest Pre-Colombian civilizations and have left one of the most iconic symbols of Pre-Spanish architecture."
" Machu Picchu," Brennan nodded.
"Yes," Booth answered. "It was voted one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, you know."
"Yes, I'd heard that," Brennan said.
"I imagine you've been there?" Booth asked.
"Yes, a couple of times," she answered, with a far away look. "It was the most spectacular sight. Have you been there?"
"No," he answered, with a wistful sigh, "though, I would love to go one day."
"It'd be a wonderful experience," Brennan agreed. "Would you take Parker with you? You know, you really shouldn't have agreed with him when he said Peru was in Africa. Those kinds of misconceptions can very . . ."
"Bones," Booth interrupted her, yet again. "That just wasn't the right time for a geography lesson, ok?"
"Ok," Brennan agreed reluctantly. "So did you correct his mistake afterwards?"
"Not exactly, look," he added, when he saw that she had opened her mouth to continue the lecture. "You can explain it all to him the next time you see him, ok? And if you get my six year old to sit still for a geography lesson, you're a better teacher than the ones at school," he added under his breath.
Brennan heard him, but chose to ignore the muttered comment, and answered the first part. "I'd love to. He seems like a very smart little boy."
"He is," Booth agreed proudly. "So," he said, after a few moments' pause. "How was the trip to Peru?"
"Fascinating," was her enthusiastic response. "The Moche skeletons are even older than the Incan mummy, you know?" She paused, as a hurried mother lost the battle with her kid and he ran in front of them.
"The Moche is one of the more obscured of the Pre-Incan civilizations and Peru had quite a few of them scattered throughout its territory. The site where the skeletons were found, El Brujo, is to the north of the country, close to one of the country's biggest cities: Trujillo. It's their summer, and close to the equator, so it was very hot," she added with a shrug, "tiring and somewhat uncomfortable, but also interesting, rewarding and absorbing."
"Only you, Bones," Booth said, with a small smile, shaking his head. "Say, you still have vacation time left, don't you?" He asked to be sure, though he was pretty confident of the answer.
"Yes," she said, as she gave him a sideways glance, wondering what he was getting at. "I should still have at least two weeks left."
"Good," he said, with a nod, and a grin, as they came to a stop by his SUV. "Then you can come with us on our vacation," he announced decisively, as he opened the trunk and put her bags in.
"What?" she asked, as he closed the trunk. "What are you talking about? Who's us? When are you going on vacation? Where are you going? Wait," she said, as she waved her hand, as if to dispel what she'd just said. "It doesn't matter; I can't go on vacation; I have a lot of work to do, bodies in limbo to identify, corrections to my latest books . . ."
"'Us' as in Parker and me," Booth said, interrupting her list of reasons why she couldn't go on vacation. "We're going in June and we don't know where we're going yet. And yes, you can go on vacation. You have until June to get done whatever you need to do. And if I'm not mistaken, it's been more than a year since you took a vacation. You're due for some time off. And you're coming with us." He said, in that tone she'd learned meant the matter was settled and there was no use arguing.
"How come this is the first I'm hearing about a vacation?" she asked, as they climbed into the truck.
"I didn't know it was going to happen until last week, myself. Rebecca was planning on taking on a trip herself but it fell through so now I can take him," he explained, as he started the SUV.
"How long are you going?" she asked, as Booth backed out of the parking space.
"We're going for two weeks," he said simply, as he stopped to pay the parking fee.
"Two weeks!!" she exclaimed, sounding as scandalized as if he'd just cursed her.
"Yes, Bones, two weeks," Booth answered patiently. "It's not a crime to take two weeks off, you know. And you just said you should have at least two week's worth of vacation time. Besides, this will be Parker's last summer vacation before he starts first grade and I want to make it memorable." He paused, as he checked to make sure the way was clear before joining the traffic on I-495.
"He's really excited," he told her, with a grin. "He can't decide between the mountains or the beach. Though what he's really pulling for is Disney World."
"Booth," Brennan said, and only someone who really knew her, would have detected the trace of anxiety in her voice. Booth was one of the few that really knew her. "This sounds like a special time between you and Parker; and I wouldn't want to intrude."
"You wont be intruding, Bones," Booth said, patiently. He'd known she was going to bring this up. "I wouldn't be asking you to come with us, if I thought you'd be intruding."
"But what about Parker?" she asked; she was not really worried about her partner but, rather about his son and whether he'd think she was taking over the time he had to spend with his dad.
"No way," was Booth's prompt answer. "He's really excited about you going with us."
"Really?" Brennan asked, skeptically.
"Really," Booth answered firmly. "He really likes you, Bones. And he's already thought of all the advantages of you coming along."
"Like what?" she asked, surprised that there could be any advantages to having her go with them.
"Like getting an answer to every conceivably scientific question he can come up with and most of the non-scientific questions too," he told her and she smiled. "Like having another person he could convince to back him up when he wants ice cream, popcorn or just one more story or one more ride, or having another person to carry him, if he gets tired. And, this might be the best one, having another person to gang up against his dear old dad."
"He thought of all that?" Brennan asked, not sure she believed a six year old could come up with all that by himself.
"Yep," Booth said with a grin. "Trust me Bones he wants you to come along. He didn't even argue when I told him that we couldn't decide where we were going until you came back because it'd be your vacation too."
"Ummm," she said, as she shifted in her seat. A small, comfortable silence fell between the partners.
Booth knew Brennan enough to know that she would need to think before agreeing to the vacation. Not that he had any doubts that she would accept; they'd been spending more and more of their off time together and in the last few weeks before she'd left that had even included the weekends he had Parker. Still, she needed time to process and think about the fact that she would be spending two weeks, not only with her partner, but also with her partner's son.
Because he was sure she'd eventually agree, he didn't feel the need to keep pushing her. And though he didn't mind the silence at all, he reached forward to turn on the radio. He didn't really want to dwell too much on the vacation and end up creating expectations that could end up being counter-productive. He was soon humming along with the radio and tapping the steering wheel in rhythm with the song.
Brennan smiled when he turned on the radio and started humming along. Most people would be offended at what they would consider being ignored; but she knew that he was only giving her the space he knew she needed. It still surprised her every time she realized just how well he knew her, how well he 'got' her – more than anyone else ever had, including Angela. And what was even more amazing, was how that knowledge didn't make her panic, didn't make her want to run fast and far; instead, it was comforting.
It was comforting to know there was someone in the world that knew her better than she knew herself, who always knew where she was, and what was going on in her life. And that was why she was going to go on vacation with him and Parker; why she had known she'd be going as soon as he mentioned it, even if she needed time to fully assimilate to the idea. As she observed the traffic go by, she lost herself in imagining what a vacation with two Booth men would be like and discovered that her fertile imagination wasn't quite fertile enough to provide an adequate picture of what it would be like.
When she became aware of her surroundings again, she realized that more than ten minutes had gone by. If she'd been with anyone else, she'd have been surprised at how easy it had been to let the silence grow. In her experience, silences were rarely comfortable. They were usually filled with possibilities, too fraught with expectations, too packed with the things we don't want or don't know how to say. That was why she rarely let silences linger and usually filled them with trivial information or quaint anthropological comparisons, always hiding what she was really thinking or feeling behind her academic persona.
But it was different with Booth (everything was different with Booth). She had found out that she was as comfortable being silent with him as she was bickering with him or telling him things she'd never shared before. Of all the things he'd taught her, the fact that they could be together without having to speak, and just be who they were when they were alone, without the masks they wore around people, without any pressure or expectation was perhaps the most surprising and most liberating.
Not since she was fifteen had she felt safe enough, secure enough, with someone else to allow herself the luxury of being comforted only with his presence; not needing anything else but feeling him next to her to not be lonely. It had taken her awhile to understand that just like you could be lonely in the middle of a group of people, you could also have someone keep you company when you were alone. That's what Booth did for her, that's what she hoped they did for each other: they kept each other company, even when they were alone; whether it be alone with their thoughts or physically alone, they had only to reach or call out and the other one would be there.
It hadn't been easy, but she had finally come to believe that he would always be no further than a phone call away. And it was that certainty in his continued presence that had allowed her to start letting go of the past, that had helped heal the wounds her parents' disappearance had left. It was because of him and the close and unique relationship they had, that she had been able to rid herself of the ghosts of her past and had stopped letting the disappointments and hurts of the past dictate how she lived her present or poison her future. It was because of him, and what he gave her, that she had begun to conquer her fears and no longer allowed those fears to rule her life.
And that thought brought her full circle, as she realized that because she had stopped letting fears rule how she lived, she was now planning to take a vacation with the man who was not quite her lover, but was so much more than just a partner, or friend, and with his six year old son.
"What did you mean when you said the mountains?" She asked, breaking the silence and resuming the conversation, as if no time had passed.
"Well, an Army buddy of mine has a cabin in western Virginia. I've been up a couple of times and it's very nice. Secluded, right by a lake, it's ideal to get away from it all. There's not television or phone and the electricity is on a generator, so it's just enough to have lights at night."
"No phone?" she asked, surprised. "How do you keep in touch with the people back home?"
"You don't," was Booth's easy answer. "That's the whole point of the cabin – you really go away and disconnect from everyday life." He turned and gave her a glance, "There'll be no laptop, no satellite connection and no phone calls; in other words, no work."
"No work?" she repeated blankly.
"Nope," he affirmed cheerfully. "No work. Don't worry," he added, when he saw her dumbfounded look, "the world will continue on without you. And you'll survive, believe me."
"But, but," Brennan stammered but he just shook his head and chuckled and she ended up crossing her arms and staring out the windshield. He was impossible to reason with when he got like that and she knew it; it looked like she was going on a two weeks vacation after all.