This was shaping up to be the worst day she had ever had.
Most mornings, Temperance woke up to the sound of her alarm clock, ringing shrilly in her ear, rudely wrenching her from her dreams and thrusting her into reality. But this morning, however, she was awoken by a different kind of ringing – the horrible electronic ring of her cell phone, one of the sorriest excuses for music she had ever heard. It was the kind of noise that made her want to clamp pillows to her ears, and even though she had the opportunity to do so while she was still lying in the middle of her bed, legs tangled in the sheets, she knew that no one would be ringing so early in the morning if it wasn't important. Reluctantly, she rolled over, picked up the phone, and held it in front of her face until her eyes could focus on the called ID. Angela. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she groaned.
"Brennan." she answered in her standard way, except with a voice fogged with drowsiness.
"Sweetie, it's me, where are you?"
"At home, where else?"
"Well we were just wondering if you were going to be joining us any time soon?"
"At eight-thirty, as usual. What's the big rush to get me there?"
"It's eleven o'clock."
"What?!" She rolled over onto her stomach and grabbed at the alarm clock on her side-table, trying to get her eyes to focus on the illuminated digits. Angela was right – she had overslept by three hours. Because of her very tight routine that she kept before she went to bed (remove make-up, brush teeth, set out clothes for the next morning, set alarm clock), she found it quite hard to believe that she had overslept.
"Booth's wearing a hole in the carpet in your office. I had no idea he could be so impatient."
A plethora of expletives were uttered as Temperance hauled herself out of her bed, and ran to the closet to find some clothes. She was due in court that afternoon, and still had to go over her notes and prepare some evidence before she took the stand. The last thing she needed was to be late.
Hanging up the phone and throwing it on the bed, she hurriedly pulled a pair of slacks over her legs. As her feet got caught and she tried to ram them up harder, she heard a loud ripping sound a looked down to see that they had split right down the seam. More cuss-words, more yelling, more rummaging in the closet. She grabbed a pair of jeans and the cleanest shirt she could find, and ran into the bathroom with them, emerging minutes later wearing them, but with a toothpaste stain down her front. 'No one will see it when I've got my lab coat on,' she thought, barely reassuring herself, but realising that she didn't have much choice as there was no time to change. Socks were pulled from a drawer, followed by shoes from the rack by the door, and Tornado Temperance left her apartment, almost shutting the door behind her before she remembered that she hadn't picked up her bag.
In the elevator down to the parking garage, she fumbled for her keys, panicking that she'd left them upstairs until her hand settled on them in the corner of her bag.
The doors opened, and as she walked towards her car she noticed the dim orange glow around the front half of it, glaring in the dark of the underground garage – she had left her lights on. Before she even attempted to start her car, she knew the battery would be dangerously close to being flat, leaving her with no way to get to work, let alone get back, when she was already late. Taking her phone out of her bag to call for a cab, she saw that she had no service, and muttered more profanity.
She walked out of her apartment building in the hope of picking up signal, and as soon as the door shut behind her the heavens opened, drenching her to the skin within the time it took her to unlock the door again and take shelter in the lobby. If she believed in God she would be cursing him pretty heavily right now.
She didn't have time to go back upstairs to change, but her clothes would dry out eventually. Now she just needed a way to get to work. If Booth was so desperate to go over the case and get to the courthouse then he probably wouldn't mind coming over to pick her up. It wasn't in her nature to ask for anyone's assistance, but under the circumstances she was willing to admit defeat and call him. Now that she finally had a signal on her phone, she dialled his number and waited for him to answer and begin his interrogation on her whereabouts.
However, she was pleasantly surprised when he sounded genuinely concerned. He told her that Angela had explained about her oversleeping, and he asked if she was sick. Once he was satisfied that there was no reason for her lateness other than the fact that she had forgotten to set her alarm clock, he offered to come pick her up. She hadn't even had to ask.
She sat in one of the brown leather chairs in the lobby and waited for him to arrive. Her view of the street was slightly obscured by one of the many potted plants that was dotted about, but she saw his black SUV pull in to one of the parking spaces that had 'reserved for visitors only' painted on them in white paint. She was strangely relieved to see him. The rain had stopped a little, but a few droplets fell and landed on her already damp hair as she went out to meet him.
"Your knight in shining armour had arrived, m'lady... Did you take a bath in your clothes?"
"Very funny," she said, scowling at him as she climbed in to his car and settled herself in the passenger seat. "I'm not in the mood to listen to you making fun of me."
"I got you coffee." He gestured to the back seat where two Starbucks cups sat in their Styrofoam holder. "Forgive me?" As she reached over to grab one of them, she remembered that she hadn't started her day with her favourite caffeinated beverage, one of the necessities for a successful day.
"You've redeemed yourself."
The two of them sat in a comfortable silence until they stopped at a red light. Booth turned to look at her, and asked: "So, how does it feel?"
"How does what feel?"
"To know that you've relinquished control for once. That life threw you a curve ball. I think you've coped surprisingly well – you don't seem to have ripped your hair out, at least."
"I'm not always in control, Booth. I'll have you know that I can live on the edge."
"And here I was thinking you planned every minute of the day. Your date-book that seems to be permanently attached to your hand."
"I know how to be reckless!"
"No, you don't. But there's still time for you to learn. Let Uncle Booth teach you."
"I don't know that I like the sound of that."
"I thought you said you 'lived on the edge'?" he said, turning away from her and putting his foot down as the light changed to green. "If that were true, then you wouldn't have a problem with me being in control and showing you how to have some fun. Watch and learn, Grasshopper."
"I don't know what that means..."
"Look, Bones, when we're done in court, we'll go get some beers and then see about getting you a tattoo. Or we could go skydiving. How does that sound?"
"Pretty irresponsible."
"Exactly."