Here I am again… I'm very excited about this fic! It's been a while since I wrote a multi-chapter and now I think I finally found something that makes me want to write!
I hope you'll like it.
Oh, and now you can also find me at imanexcellentdriver. tumblr. com
Thanks a million to my incredible beta biba79, who helped me to come up with the plot and the name of the story!
Where the Story Ends – The Fray
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"But this is where the story ends
Or have we just begun?"
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"Are you sure you don't want any help?" Brennan asked warily from the door, her hand resting on the top of her very pregnant belly.
"Yeah, Bones, I'm doing just fine." Her partner answered, refusing to tear his eyes away from his work. This shouldn't be this hard.
"You don't seem to be doing that fine." She arched her eyebrows. "You've been trying to assemble that crib for the past two hours and it looks like it didn't have any improvement since the last time I came here to check."
"Maybe it would be set up already if you let me buy an actual crib instead of this spaceship." Booth groaned from the floor, the two parts he was trying to put together falling apart. Again.
"It was the best they had. The salesman said it was the top one on the market."
"Of course he did, the man works for commission, Bones."
She ignored him and stepped into the room, stopping right next to him. The nursery was almost all set, quite an accomplishment since they bought their new house less than a month ago. After a lot of discussion about where they'd live, they decided that they should buy a new house together. A large house where Parker would have the pool he wanted so much, the baby would have a huge backyard to play, Booth would have the barbecue grill he dreamed about and Brennan would have a great office where she could keep all her deathtrap artifacts, not having to worry about the baby getting hurt. They didn't think they'd find the perfect house so fast, but seemed that after they took so long to actually get together, the universe decided to give them a break. "Why aren't you looking at the manufacture's directions?"
"Because they aren't any help." He tried to bind the two parts together again and threw his arms up in victory when it finally worked. "Aha! Look at that."
"I can help looking at the manual, I'm quite adept at setting things up." She sat on the white rocking chair placed near the window and regarded the many nails and tools on the floor. "You should try assembling the bigger parts first."
Like he didn't try that before…
"You see that crooked nail?" She pointed at one weird looking nail.
"Yeah, I have to throw that one away."
"No, it's not defective, it's the one which binds the laterals together."
Booth tried and surprisingly, they held still. "It worked! How did you know that?"
"It's on the manual, you'd know that too if you weren't so stubborn and read it before trying to do it all by yourself."
"Fine, maybe you can help me reading that thing."
"I'm very good with the screwdriver." She tried, putting a megawatt smile on her face.
"Don't even try, Bones. We've been through that before. You sit there and grows our baby," He pointed at her. "I do the hard work."
"I don't think that's fair."
"Me neither, but that's how it is." He didn't want to start another bickering session, so, he decided to change the subject. "So, did Cam talk to you about your maternity leave?"
"Yes." Brennan tightened her lips and Booth knew whatever Cam told her, it didn't please her. "She wants me to go on my maternity leave in two weeks, even though my due date is in almost four weeks from today."
"She doesn't want you giving birth at the lab, Bones, and honestly, neither do I."
"A woman can go for more than 24 hours of labor before the child is born, I see no reason to stop working. Even if I do go into labor inside the lab, it doesn't mean I have to give birth there!" That annoyed her more than anything. She didn't want to stop working until it was absolutely necessary.
What would she do at home for two weeks? She'd finished the latest Kathy Reichs book a couple of months ago and she didn't intend to start writing the next one anytime soon. The new house was almost all settled – and it wasn't like Booth would let her do any work on it anyway – and they've already bought all the baby things.
"I'm perfectly healthy, Booth, I don't want to be home when I don't need to." She mumbled. "You should talk to her."
"Me?"
"Yes, you're friends and maybe she'll listen to you."
Booth was more on Cam's side on this than Brennan's, he didn't like the fact that she still worked so much so far along in her pregnancy, but he knew better than disagreeing with his partner right now. With her hormones going crazy, a stuck at home Bones would be even grouchier than hard-working Bones. And, besides, he doubt very much she'd stay at home if Cam prohibited her to go to the lab. At least he knew that as long as she stayed at the Jeffersonian, she was safe.
"Okay, I'll see what I can do."
Her smile was so genuine that he wanted to stand up and drop all the crib parts and kiss her until they were both out of breathe. And he would do exactly that if he weren't finally making some progress with that space crib.
"Thank you, Booth."
B&B&B
"Okay, Bones, I'll give it to you, it looks pretty awesome now that it's all set."
The white expensive-looking crib fitted perfectly with the rest of the nursery. They'd chosen pale pink for the walls, even though Brennan wasn't that fond of the idea at first. Booth and Angela convinced it was classic and soothing and now she was glad she agreed with it. Angela painted little fairies on the top of one of the walls and they looked like they were flying from one wall to the other. That was another thing that she had to be convinced about. "We all need a little magic in our lives, Bones, even if it's only something we believe in when we are little". That ended up being the theme of the nursery. Magic. There were stars on the ceiling and flowers and little fairies everywhere in the decoration. Everything was soft and feminine and she had to admit she loved the way it looked.
Booth noticed the dazzled look on her face and bumped her lightly with his shoulder. "Hey, what are you thinking?"
She turned her head to look at him and smiled. "That I can't wait to finally hold her and have her here with us."
"Well, we still have to wait a little more for that, but she'll be here very soon." He cupped her swelled stomach and felt his daughter kicking. Sometimes he still couldn't believe it was real, he and Bones finally on a serious relationship, living together and waiting for their baby to come. Sometimes everything seemed so perfect that he was afraid suddenly all of it would fall apart.
He pushed those thoughts away.
"You know, Bones, we really have to choose a name for her." He took her hand and pulled her to sit next to him on the comfortable couch on the other side of the room.
"It's so difficult." She sighed. Brennan knew he was right, but she wanted her child to like her name. "I don't want her to be like us, being called only by her last name. You hate your name and everyone knows Temperance is awful."
"Your name is not awful and I don't hate my name."
"Anyone who knows you knows you don't like being called Seeley." She pointed out.
It was true. But it wasn't because he didn't like his name, it was just because he liked being Booth more than he liked being Seeley. Seeley was the little boy who was abused by his father. Seeley was the jock who laughed at other's misery in high school. Seeley was the guy who dated blonde women and had meaningless sex. But Booth… Booth was the brave FBI Agent. Booth was the man who went to war and did things that later would haunt him for the sake of his country, but most of all, Booth was Bones' partner. In every meaning of that word.
"I'm sure she'll love her name, Bones, no matter what we choose." He assured her. "Did you make that list of names we talked about the other day?"
"Yes." She reached for her pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper. "It's not very long, as you can see."
"Well, it figures. We decided we wouldn't name her after any deceased relative-"
"Or living one."
"Or living one." He nodded and added: "No biblical names, no ex-girlfriends' names."
"Which ruled out many names." She reminded him.
"It wasn't that many!" He defended himself. "And you made me list everyone of my girlfriends since high school. That shouldn't count."
"Of course it counts." She continued the list of no-no names. "No tribal names, no ancient remains name, which I find completely illogical…"
"Seriously, Bones? That again? I don't want my beautiful little girl named after a decomposed body. Is that too much to ask?"
"Those decomposed bodies are the reason why we know so much about our ancestry." She said serious. "And there's nothing wrong with the name Lucy."
"We both know that would not be your name choice if I let you give her some anthropological meaningful name, Bones. You'd chose something horrible that would get her teased at school so don't even go there."
Brennan felt a little offended with that. He was right, she didn't like the name Lucy, but she would never name her daughter something that would make her get teased at school.
Booth stretched his neck to take another look at the list she was holding. "Those are the only ones left?"
"They are pretty much all the names that fit with our rules." She looked down at the list. "Although, I'm not calling her Penelope, so, you can take that one out."
"Or Sophia."
"Why not Sophia? It's beautiful and it means wisdom."
"Everybody is calling their babies Sophia nowadays. There are at least three guys at the FBI who'd had babies in the past two years that have named their daughter Sophia."
"That leaves us with Molly, Alexa, Lily, Aurora, Charlotte and Louise."
"Well, at least we're going somewhere." Booth noticed Brennan was leaning her head on the top of the couch and her eyelids were closing slowly. "Hey, what do you say we get something to eat and then go to bed? The whole assembling the crib thing exhausted me. We still have a little time to decide her name."
He wasn't really that tired, but he couldn't say that it was because she was the one who looked exhausted. Brennan would never admit the pregnancy worn her out more than usual.
"Oh." She lifted her head. "I could eat."
They ate the homemade soup Brennan prepared while he was working with the crib. They were trying to avoid takeout food as much as they could now that she was pregnant. No matter how healthy they might look, homemade food was always better. And to be honest, Booth didn't mind Brennan cooking. At all.
They picked up a movie to watch, but she was out on deep slumber before the intro song was over. Booth smiled and dropped a kiss on her forehead before turning off the TV and joining her.
That crib did tire him out after all.
B&B&B
Booth drove her to the Jeffersonian the next morning. She told him it was completely unnecessary, but he wouldn't listen. He didn't like the idea of her driving while almost nine-months pregnant. Since she enjoyed his company very much and driving did start to get a little uncomfortable lately, she complied.
"Are we going to interview any suspects on the Mills case today?" She asked him. They were working on the case of a woman who was found dead near a road outside of DC. They identified her as Jennifer Mills, a 32 year-old saleswoman, single mother of a 6-year old boy who lived near the place the body was found. The woman lived a quiet life and they still had no idea what lead her to death, only that she was murdered with a bullet on her chest.
"No, no. I don't think so. Yesterday morning Sweets and I went to question her manager at Wal-Mart, the man couldn't believe someone could have done that to Jennifer. He told us she had a boyfriend, but the guy has been MIA for over two weeks."
"Do you think it could have been him?"
"Maybe, I don't know. All the man knew was that the guy's name was Cole and that he used to pick Jennifer up everyday at the end of her shift."
"The fracture on her ribs suggests it was a tall and strong male who attacked her minutes before she got shot. Cam found a piece of skin under her fingernail, said she'd get the DNA test results today."
"Call me when you get the results." He parked the car in front of the lab entrance and got out to help her. A few months ago, Brennan would have complained of useless displays of chivalry, but now she actually needed the help. "Here we go."
"This is a part of the pregnancy I'm certainly not going to miss." She mumbled.
"It will be over soon, Bones." He passed her bag to her. "Don't forget to eat, okay?"
"Aren't you coming over to have lunch?" They had lunch together almost every day, especially since she got pregnant. He wanted to make sure she was eating and not letting his baby starve.
"I don't think I'll be able to, Hacker's been on my ass to finish the paperwork on that drug dealer's case and since we don't have much on the Mills case until you squints finish running the tests, I should try to finish that." That was a lie. When he met Henry Banks yesterday, the man told him Cole didn't look like a nice guy and that he overheard Jen telling Morgan, her closest co-worker, that she had broken up with him. He didn't know much, he wasn't a busybody and tried his best to not get into other people's business, but he suspected Cole was abusive. After they left Wal-Mart, Booth sent a couple of cops to do a stake out in front of Jennifer's house and while Brennan was in the shower this morning, Agent Shaw called him to inform Cole was seen entering the house looking drunk and haven't left yet. He was planning on going there to have a nice little talk with the guy as soon as he dropped Brennan off at the lab and went to the Hoover to get the report on the case. He hated to lie to his partner, but he knew she would want to come along if he told her where he was going and the last thing he wanted at the moment was his very pregnant partner near a very likely abusive alcoholic.
"Okay. Call me if you get anything on this Cole guy." She said.
"I will." Liar.
"Have a nice day, baby." He leaned down to kiss her goodbye. When they pulled apart, he rested both his hand on her stomach and said softly: "And you, little one, behave. Try not to kick your mommy to hard on the ribs, okay? That hurts."
"As if…" Brennan chuckled and turned to leave, just when she remembered another thing. "Oh, and Booth? Don't forget to talk to Cam."
"I won't, Bones, I won't."
B&B&B
Cam brought her the DNA results one hour after Booth dropped her off at the Jeffersonian. The skin belonged to Cole Smith, who was on their database and had been on parole for the past four months. He was addicted to drugs and alcoholic and with the information they got from the database, he matched perfectly the description of the attacker who hit Jennifer just before shooting her.
"I'll call Booth." Brennan told Cam.
When Booth didn't answer his phone, she called his office at the FBI, only to be informed that Agent Booth had just left fifteen minutes ago to question a suspect. She didn't need to ask who that suspect was. She knew. And she was pretty sure Booth knew about it too that morning when she asked him what he'd do today.
He lied to her.
She was pissed. More than pissed, she was feeling betrayed. Didn't he think she could take care of herself?
And would he go alone to get Cole Smith?
She knew Sweets wouldn't go with him because she'd just talked with Daisy – not that he'd be much help anyway. And Agent Shaw was the one who talked to her on the phone.
"Dr. Saroyan, I need to borrow one of the Jeffersonian cars." She walked into her boss' office as fast as she could.
Cam raised one eyebrow. "May I ask you why would you need it?"
"Because Booth drove me here this morning and I don't have my car with me."
"I'm asking why do you need a car, Dr. Brennan."
"Booth went to get Cole Smith and I'm meeting him at Jennifer Mills' house." That wasn't exactly a lie.
"Why didn't he pick you up here?" It was very odd. Cam knew how protective Booth has been of Brennan lately.
"He was running late. Can I just get the car keys?" She reached out her hand, palms up.
"I…" Cam's eyes went from Brennan's face to her stomach. She shook her head. "… don't think that's a good idea."
"I'm perfectly capable of driving."
"Maybe I should go with you."
"No, you shouldn't." She was the one who worked with Booth when they needed to arrest a suspect, not Cam. "Keys?"
"Dr. Brennan…"
"Dr. Saroyan, we are wasting time. Booth is not picking up his phone and he doesn't know exactly who Cole Smith is. He might be in danger."
Cam knew it was useless to argue with Brennan. If she didn't give her the car keys, she'd find another way to get there, maybe something even more dangerous. Sighing heavily as someone who knew she'd lost a battle, she opened her drawer and fished one of the keys out of it.
"Please, be careful. Booth will kill me if something happens to you."
Brennan nodded and, ten seconds later, she was out of the door.
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Anyone with me?