Title: The Pipe Will Hold
Author: Not An Infant
Rating: K
Summary: When you look at it from a "Brennan" type of view, fixing a pipe is a tedious job that should be left to the lifeless menials who do it for a living.
A/N: "The Bond in the Boot" was a great case alone, but the end scene was WAY too juicy to pass up without writing SOMETHING about it. Kind of like the sequel to "Eventually."
Disclaimer: Guess who I own NOW? WENDELL!!! I've made sure his scholarship lasts the whole season...and beyond!
THE PIPE WILL HOLD
When you look at it from a "Brennan" type of view, fixing a pipe is a tedious job that should be left to the lifeless menials who do it for a living. That's what the yellow book is for. When Sweets mentions the prospect of letting your partner teach it to you for his own mental help, you frown and eat a mouthful of egg. But later on, of course, you buy the "Plumbing For Dummies" book and lend it to your partner, because you give more of a damn about him than your sharp tongue would ever care to voice.
"You know, I'm glad that we don't have any secrets between us."
He says it while you're laying stomach down on the kitchen floor, when he's holding his hand over yours to put pressure on the pipe. You've noticed, since the appearance of Avalon Harmonia, how warm his hand is over her own. You remember how the girlfriend of the victim of your latest case assumed that you and him were together. You remember how much the back of your mind wished it was true.
"Even with the financial contradictions, I still feel close to you."
It sounds terribly foolish compared to his simple statement, bare honest and sweet. You try to find the words that are less professional towards someone you've known for four years and counting. You turn to look at him--and then you really look at him. Him and his tanned face, long and wizened, worn but smooth in skin, his stubble darkening the lower area around his mouth, illuminating the fullness of his pink lips.
"Because, you know,it doesn't really matter, all of those things...in the end."
You open your mouth to state that from a logical, objective point of view, those things actually do matter in order to maintain a stable lifestyle, especially in this economy. But then you lock eyes with him, and you are struck by the soft ended hammer of his dark, glittering eyes. Admiring his bone structure is a simple, choppy way to describe what you're doing with your vision. In the simplest, most romantic of words, he takes your breath away.
"Looking through your eyes, that's probably true."
Looking through his eyes, the world is beautifully colored and world is hopelessly hopeful and rough around the edges. Through his eyes, he sees something in you that you could never read until the very moment, now, when he takes his hand off of yours and instead wraps his long, large arm over your shoulders to turn on the pipe again. You're body is instantly warmed, and you let go of the pipe.
When the pipe leaks again, and the water sprays you both, you observe that the event is s symbolic way of showing what you fear will happen to your center should you ever choose to go that extra step.
"Ah! I'm covered in water! You're cleaning up this mess!"
Then again, you know that in pure symbolic terms, he has never taken his hand off the pipe you share, nor has either of you released the gentle pressure needed to hold it secure. As long as he doesn't, neither will you.
"I'll teach you to fix a pipe."
He can also teach you love.