Title: Coffee and Comfort
Author: willowwood
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own Bones, I wish I did, but I don't.
Summary: Missing scene from "The Blonde in the Game". Angela continues to comfort Caroline Epps. (Hints of A/H)
Spoilers: 'The Blonde in the Game'
Authors Notes: It really does amaze me that when I have a rare weekend free to write as much as I want my donkey of a muse digs in its heels and won't budge. Yet when I'm back at work and even more annoyingly back at Uni, it decides to go running like a bull at a gate, leaving me in its dust. I've rewritten this a couple of times, and I'm still not quite sure about it.
Coffee and Comfort
As she had made her way back to the table where Caroline Epps was waiting for her, Angela had picked up two of the diners strongest coffees. Determining that short of a double Brandy, it was clearly, what the other woman needed.
Resuming her seat, she placed one of the cups in front of the frail looking brunette. Not surprised that when she looked up with a barely audible "Thank you" her eyes were filled with water, her cheeks marred from tears.
"I'm sorry" she began wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand
"You must think I'm such an idiot" her voice shook nervously.
"No, not at all" Angela replied with a sympathetic smile.
Caroline returned the expression but didn't make eye contact, clearly not believing the artist. Tentatively she added milk and sugar to her coffee, before lifting the hot liquid up to her lips. Both hands wrapped tightly around the cup, whether in pursuit of merely warmth or some strange form of comfort, Angela couldn't be entirely certain.
"The Dr that Agent Booth brought to the prison the other day…..Dr, Dr Brennan?" she questioned, Angela nodded in confirmation
"She thinks I'm crazy, but it's not like she's the first. My family said I must have been desperate, I just…." her voice wavered at what she was admitting. Angela took in an embarrassed breath, both at her own inability to think of what to say, and at her best friend's blunt-ness.
"Brens, not exactly the most intuitive person when it comes to love…" she encouraged, adding with a smile
"Even when it's right in front of her" she tried not to think about the anthropologist's obliviousness towards her FBI agent partner, as she watched the woman in front of her stare mindlessly out the window besides them
For along time the two of them stayed like that. An awkward silence hanging between them both. Angela not wanting to berate the other woman for allowing herself to fall in love with a crazed serial killer, and Caroline clearly not wanting or needing to be reminded about that very fact.
Then when the silence was almost at the point of being unbearable. Caroline reached forward, picking up the portraits that Angela had laid out across the table earlier. Slowly she began working her way through each of them, the faces of young, beautiful, blonde girls smiling up at her.
"I knew I wasn't what he really wanted," she suddenly whispered, her voice sounding hoarse "….deep down I guess I always did" she sniffed, swallowing against a lump in her throat, her gaze still trained out of the window.
"I just,….I used to think, that maybe if I loved him enough and did what he asked me to do then maybe…maybe he'd learn to love me back"
"We always do..." Angela agreed soberly as her words brought back memories of her own past relationships. The other woman gave her a small-unconvinced smile.
"….and you're not stupid" she continued
"It's just like I said. Guys can't hide what they like, and however much we kid ourselves, we can always tell whether or not, that when they look at us what they're seeing is really us, and not who they want us to be" Angela reached forward taking the other woman's hand in comfort.
"You're not the first woman whose loved a guy, who'll never really love her back, and I'm certain you won't be the last" she finished with a sympathetic smile, squeezing her hand gently. Caroline let out a nervous, but disbelieving laugh
"You really don't have to make things up to make me feel better, Miss Montenegro-"
"-Please call me Angela" she encouraged
"But I find it hard to believe that anybody would want you to be somebody that your not"
Angela smiled at the other woman's compliment before taking in a deep breath, her slightly harsh tone not going unmissed, as she gestured towards the sketches that Caroline was still holding.
"I draw portraits of dead people…" she began to explain "I take their skulls and use them to figure out what people looked like when they were alive…..it's not the type of art most people appreciate."
Caroline took another sip of her coffee as she contemplated what the attractive woman opposite her had just said, before a sheepish smile passed across her lips, suddenly felling like an idiot.
"I'm sorry…" she apologized once more, pushing loose strands of hair behind her ears
"I didn't intend to sound so judgemental", another tear trickled down her one cheek. Angela handed her a napkin from the holder at the top of the table, and again the woman opposite her whispered her thanks, before wiping her cheeks with it tentatively.
"You-" Angela began, but Caroline did not appear to have heard her as she continued.
"-It's just that I imagine, that you have your fare share of admirers, Angela" The artist nodded, realising that it was probably best to tell her the truth.
"I do" she began, before quickly continuing at Caroline's suddenly hurt expression.
"But it's still hard…I'm still looking for that one Mr Right. I mean we all have our brief encounters with the inevitable Mr Not-Quite-Right more often that we would like, and when Mr Right does come by, sometimes we even miss them" she swallowed as the memory of Kirk flashed through her mind
"…but there'll be others, we just have to be patient. It doesn't't mean that we should change who we are, or what we do. I love my job, I wouldn't change it just because some guy called me a freak, and you shouldn't change the way you look just because the guy your married to likes blondes." she took in a deep breath, as she considered what to say next.
"Nobody should come second best to the person they love. If we keep looking, eventually we'll find the right guy to accept us for who we are, and what we do. The one guy who wouldn't change us for the world" For the first time since she had returned to the table Caroline Epps looked her straight in the eyes, with a genuine smile.
"But it's nice isn't it" her voice was cautious as she asked
"To think that somebody likes you? Believing that at least for a little while, they're adoring you?….Even if you know it's not true" Angela smiled at the sound of her own words, returning the woman's hopeful expression.
Regrettably, she suddenly caught sight of the clock across the room and realised that the two of them had been talking for well over a couple of hours.
With an apologetic smile, she quickly shuffled the drawings into a pile and placed them back into the folder
"I'm sorry but I have to get back to work," Angela explained picking up the coffee she had not touched. Caroline nodded with a somewhat disappointed smile
"Thank you," she said,
"Your welcome" Angela replied, gently squeezing Caroline's shoulder as she tucked the folder beneath her arm, making her way towards the exit
Reaching the doorway, her cell phone suddenly shrilled from within her pocket. Pulling it out she glanced down at the caller ID, and with a quick glance back towards the other woman she realised that Caroline Epps had been right.
It was nice to have somebody adoring you, no matter how close or far away, they might be doing it from
Pressing receive and pulling the phone to her ear, she greeted the person on the other end of the line with an audible smile.
"Hi Hodgy"
The End
Well thanks for reading this, leave me a review and let me know what you think, I'd really appreciate the effort.