Jacob's Ladder Part One

by lebxeb

B&B make honest headway in their relationship, but is everything as it seems? A fluff strewn sexy two part drama/season ender. Pure indulgence on my part & the last from me for a while. A pitcher of Long Island ice tea to slurp with this might be good.

Disclaimer: They're not mine. No infringement intended. Fox owns the rights to these characters.

Summary: B&B make honest headway in their relationship, but is everything as it seems? A fluff-strewn sexy case/thriller intended to be a two part season ender. Most important characters make an appearance. Pure indulgence on my part, please forgive, and the last from me for a while. Part two to be posted in a few days.

Rating: M/NC17 - (Heavy in parts. You're warned.)

Thanks: Goes to Kam, my sainted beta, and all those that continue to read my scribblings and comment on them. Bless you all.

Jacob's Ladder

Rung 1

Bones didn't think it was such a good idea now to have agreed to let her partner give her a hand to remodel her main bathroom. There were several reasons for this, some ordinary practical reasons, others were more intimate and personal.

It was a crisp, cool Saturday midday, in very late March, and her apartment was thundering to the sounds of echoing hammer blows. Floating grout dust was suspended in the sun shafts and glittered like diamond fragments, which were gently settling on every surface throughout her chic apartment. It reminded her of how much cleaning up there was to do after he'd finished his demolition job. She was not relishing the prospect of cleaning it all up as the dust layers got thicker and thicker, and the cacophony went on relentlessly.

She could hear him whistling cheerily throughout his noisy task, as she tipped off the lid from a cool brown bottle of Tiger beer for him in the kitchen. 'Wooo-man, take-me-in ya arms, rooock m' baay-bee...' he sang tunelessly.

The happy repetitive melody he whistled was entwined with his solid macho grunts and the satisfying crashing of old tiles to her bathroom floor. All of which grated on her now like nails scrapping down a dry chalkboard. He'd been working flat out for three hours already and she felt not only could he do with a break, but she most certainly could.

Booth had seen the exorbitant contractor estimates she'd been mulling over last week. He was astonished that she was contemplating spending so much; when all she needed for most of it was a strong pair of biceps. He'd suggested she allow him to do most of the donkey work for her, convincing her that it would be cost efficient and less intrusive to have a friend help her out. She thought he seemed quite up for the physical challenge and extremely keen to offer his services to her, almost insisting. And she couldn't deny him much nowadays or resist the hopeful look in his eyes.

She found she adored having him here on the weekend though. She wallowed happily in the sound of his chirpy whistling too. She revelled in the masculine scent of grout dust and fresh Booth-y perspiration that permeated her trashed bathroom. And she most definitely responded to the sight of her personal chalk covered, glistening FBI Agent that sat on her bathroom floor with a hammer in his calloused hand. His toned biceps were so pumped, she knew she couldn't circumnavigate one with both palms as they looked so large and hard.

Walking into the thick cloud of parching dust and noise with a bottle of beer and plate of sandwiches, she had to suppress her groan of instant, almost debilitating, sexual arousal. He looked incredibly spicy and so lip licking-ly edible; she nearly didn't resist the impulse to lick off the trickle of sweat that was making its way down from his brow, to his unshaven jaw. He wore a hot white armless t-shirt which was now grubby, as was his rugged moist face and throat. The tatty paint-splattered ripped jeans he wore, were hung low on his narrow hips and revealed tantalising glimpses of forbidden flesh and ripped muscles. One tear on the knee, treated her to a delightful glimpse of his furry muscular thigh. The other was the beginning of the crack of his tight buttocks leading her eyes and mind somewhere definitely off limits. All of which tested her resolve not to cross the boundaries he'd set between them since he ended his relationship with, She Who Must Not Be Named.

Snapping her eyes and mind back to his, he lit up when he saw a beer and food in her hands, and matched his roguish smile. 'Refreshments?' she offered as casually as she could, flushing slightly, because she hoped he didn't catch where she'd been looking.

He jumped up to his feet athletically, clad in steel toe-capped boots, and hitched up his baggy jeans and tool belt in one move. 'Brilliant, yeah. I'm gasping,' he gushed, and grabbed one of the bottles she held. He drank down the first three gulps so loudly she could hear the malty liquid trickle down his throat, and see his sweaty Adam's Apple bob seductively.

'Wow, Booth, you've done so much already,' she complimented sincerely, distracting herself by looking around the two tile-less walls and debris covered floor. 'I'm very impressed with your work rate and no-nonsense approach.'

Booth wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and swallowed the last swig from the bottle. 'Yeah, well, this is the easy part, the messy part. It's best to get it over quickly. I should have this lot off by the afternoon and have the bath out. I'll dump all this stuff in the bath and take it down in the service elevator tonight. Then tomorrow I can start on the plinth for the new bath and plumbing tomorrow.' Booth gave her a humble and charming smile as he finished explaining his plan of action. She sat up on her sink counter, sipping her beer from the bottle, and nodded.

'There's no rush, Booth, honestly. I said you can take your time, I do have my en suite. You're saving me so much by offering to do this, I can't thank you enough.'

He flapped his hand, dismissing her gratefulness readily, taking a large bite from his sandwich. 'Don't mention it. I'm glad to help out.' He chewed hungrily. 'That's what friends are for, right?'

She felt her heart sink when he confirmed again that they were friends because she still wanted them to be so much more than that. By having him here, doing these things for her, his gallant offer, felt to her that there was more to them than that however. It felt very couple-ish to her but she knew she was obviously mistaken. So she resolved to accept that he was just doing a friend a favour and there was nothing more behind it than that.

'Right,' she agreed firmly, and nodded, then watched herself fingering the wet bottle label as they fell silent for a while, and he ate his lunch.

Then he sat next to her dangling his legs with her, with the plate of sandwiches between them. He looked at her delicate fingers pealing off the label with her head bowed, as he continued to eat his salt beef sandwich more slowly now.

Booth felt his heart wrench painfully for her, he knew she was still struggling to disguise her deepening feelings for him. It seemed to be getting harder not easier for her, he mused. As every time he said something, anything remotely referring to their partnership and its importance, she had a devil of a job hiding her sorrow from him. He couldn't help her with that, not yet at least, but did hurt for her nonetheless. He wasn't sure if he was ready to take that love route again. He still felt sore and battered and didn't feel he could trust his fragile heart to her, even though she clearly still had romantic feelings for him. She couldn't give him what he needed or wanted from life, that much she'd made crystal clear. He still loved her and he honestly didn't think he'd ever stopped loving her. But he was terrified that it wouldn't be long before she moved on, cut her losses, and he was lost to her forever. He felt as if he was wedged between a rock and a hard place with nowhere left to go but upwards.

Booth needed to reassure her again of his commitment to her though; that he wasn't going to abandon her like so many in her past had done before. He wanted to make her feel important to him in some way without the overtly romantic connotation. So he said quietly, empathetically, 'Our strong friendship and professional partnership is crucial to my happiness, Bones. Please don't forget that. I...'

Interrupting him by nodding, but still staring at her beer bottle label, she said rather succinctly, protectively. 'I realise that and thank you, Booth. I understand that completely.' Then she missed a beat, looking slowly up into his soulful eyes, then added to reassure him of her commitment to them as partners and friends, 'You will always have me as your friend too.' With that she slipped off the sink top, and left her half drunk beer for him, walking out of the mist of dust. Booth watched it swirl in parting and follow her out in her silent wake. He dropped his eyes to her bottle, and picked it up. He drank the rest, feeling he shouldn't have said anything at all, as he saw her tears boiling on her lids as she left.

Bones felt her lids teeter with saline as she made her way back to the kitchen. He'd done it again; confirmed he needed her yes, but that he wasn't ready or might never be ready again to love her. And why would he? she asked herself. She'd pushed him away and he'd moved on, asked for his freedom which she'd given and supported, even when he came back with a new love. She'd even tried to move on and disperse her feelings for him, but the more she tried to compartmentalise them, they grew more powerful and leaked into her every waking thought. She was frightened more by the thought of him never loving her again than by losing her feelings for him, those she considered permanent now. She was feeling so emotionally low and physically restrained by her feelings, it seemed the only logical way for her to go, was up.

Rung 2

Jacob Broadsky negotiated the last few steps of the fire escape ladder of the apartment block directly opposite Dr Brennan's apartment, just like he'd done every night for the last two weeks. He carried his sniper rifle slung over his shoulder in its case, and took up his regulation prone surveillance position. Taking out his binoculars from his kit, he scanned her apartment windows on the third floor. He could see the doctor busying herself in her kitchen, and bit back the chill that curled around his spine as the cool air swirled strongly up on the roof. Broadsky knew he would have to take the temperature and wind direction into account tonight, and began his meticulous calculations.

He was pleased at the information he'd gathered on his next target over the last two weeks from this position. Events had escalated recently and he'd realised the one way he could get his nemesis off his back was to take out either him, or his enigmatic partner as an incentive to allow him to continue with his just purpose unhindered.

Broadsky had a clear line to both of them while they talked unsuspectingly that they were in his sights in the kitchen. He felt his heart rate increase with measured excitement and his temperature rise, so took a calming breath, and forced his heart to slow. That being a trick he'd taught his subordinate and good friend many years ago. A cold calculating nerveless hand was needed now and the total lack of human empathy. So he unzipped his black leather, well-used gun case respectfully, and assembled the tool of his chosen profession. He hoped his other scheme would pay off soon too. He just needed the last piece of the puzzle to snap into place; half of which he'd already completed. Then all the lights would turn from amber to green.

Rung 3

Bones' Apartment.

'So are you gonna be able to manage or should I call your Super to help?' Booth enquired, standing with his sweaty scratched hands on his dusty hips. Bones grinned, and wiped her hands on a tea towel, turning around from her stove, after turning off the gas under her saucepan.

'I'll assist you, of course, but if it's too heavy then we can call him. I'm sure Frank won't mind.' She stifled her chuckles at his ghost-like complexion and hair and the smears of sweaty dust which covered his filthy face. She thought it made him look completely adorable, akin to a messy schoolboy returning from a fun day in an adventure playground.

'Cool.' Booth gestured with his head to lead her back into the bathroom to carry the tub filled with the debris from his day's work.

'Wait a moment, Booth. I'll just lock open the service elevator doors.' Booth dropped a hip, and smiled, realising that was a sensible idea.

Roof Top

Broadsky watched them struggling with their heavy load through the apartment in his sights, and smiled. He waited a few minutes before he pulled out his cell phone from his black leather jacket pocket. Then he slowly tapped in an eleven digit number. The screen lit up his face with its green luminosity, and his thumb hovered over the call button. With a smug sneer slithering across his thin lips, he waited patiently for the precise moment to arrive.

Service Elevator

Bones was just as sweaty as Booth now, and panting as they manoeuvred the heavy laden bath into the service elevator. 'Heavy... Heavier than I thought. You ok?' he asked, apologising for their unforeseen excessive exertions. Bones nodded, catching her breath, as she pushed the button to unlock the doors and for the elevator to descend to the basement. The doors hissed shut as she sat on the rim of the old bath, and panted softly with her hands on her knees.

'Yes, fine. Phew. Better exercise than a run. My cardiovascular workout for today is complete.' She looked to Booth who was leaning up against the elevator wall, dripping with perspiration, and leaving a steam shadow on the cool metal elevator wall behind him. 'Are you ok?' she asked, concerned to see him looking a little pale.

'Yeah, think so. I felt my back a bit on that last bit,' he confessed half heartily, not wanting to make a big deal of it in front of her, as he rubbed the small of his back gingerly.

She said admiringly, 'I'm not surprised, you did take most of the weight, Booth.' Just as she finished her sentence there was a muffled bang above their heads, they looked up, then the elevator dropped suddenly. They left the ground for a few terrifying seconds, startled. They gripped what they could in a primal reflex action to save themselves, as they plummeted downwards. Then they heard the emergency brakes screech and snap into action, slowing them down in the shaft. Eventually they came to a slow jerky stop with their stomach in their throats. The lights flickered out, throwing them into complete and utter darkness and their shoes made contact with the elevator floor again. The elevator jumped and settled as the tub jumped too. The broken tiles inside it had unsettled and sent up a plume of dust which choked the air around them. It contaminated their nostrils and throats, making it hard to breath.

It took a few moments for them to realise what had happened so unexpectedly. Booth looked in her direction, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the oppressive darkness. 'You ok?' he asked.

'Yes. You?' Bones could hear the anxiety and shock in his tone as it mirrored hers.

'Yeah.' Irrationally he felt as if he should tread lightly because it might fall further and didn't want to strain the clinging hold they had on the elevator shaft walls. 'Do you think it was too heavy?' he asked nervously, still scared to move too quickly.

'Possibly. But these elevators have maximum load sensors. It wouldn't have moved if it was too heavy. What was that bang I heard just before we dropped though?'

'No idea. I thought it was the cables snapping,' he ventured.

'I don't think so. This doesn't have cables. It's a pneumatic elevator. It's controlled by compressed gas.'

'How do you know these things?' he asked incredulously, feeling around the wall towards the control panel to ring for assistance. He met her hand there, as they realised they were thinking the same thing. She let him take over, as she had other things she needed to take control of all of a sudden.

'It's a curse of having an eidetic memory,' she explained. 'I remember most things with perfect recall. Things I'm told, read or see. Sorry...'

'Don't apologise. I was just...' Booth paused when the elevator settled down a few more inches, and groaned under the strain of the load it was holding up. They went silent, holding their breaths, and both idiotically looked up into the darkness, nervously hoping the emergency brakes weren't going to fail too.

Bones swallowed down her anxiousness. 'What I don't understand is why the security light hasn't come on. There should be a small yellow light,' she asked rhetorically, feeling her claustrophobia begin to make her brow moisten all over again and churn her stomach. 'It wasn't a power cut because the elevator would just take us down to the lobby automatically. It's a safety mechanism brought in, in the Seventies.'

'Again, you amaze me sometimes,' Booth said ordinarily, unknowing of her mounting unease. 'Does this elevator have an emergency phone? I can't seem to find it,' he asked, fumbling around in the pitch black.

'Yes. It should be under the control panel. Can you see it, feel it?' she asked, while feeling her lungs constrict under the pressure of her mounting panic.

Bones noted clinically that; her breath began to get shallow, and sensing the onset of hypoxia in her muscles, thought she was close to hyperventilating. Her palms sweated profusely and her pupils dilated to the extreme, in a futile effort to absorb more light. While her elevated adrenalin level made her want to run and not stop, knowing she had nowhere to run to was crippling. Knowing and understanding what was happening to her was no comfort now.

'Yes. Yeah I got it. Hold on.' Booth flipped open the silver door, and picked up the phone. There was no tone or buttons to push for help. 'It's dead, no tone, nothing.'

Then Bones asked shakily another rhetorical question, 'Why aren't there any alarms sounding? There should be an audible alarm...'

Booth fingered the panel, and pushed each button one at time with no response from the elevator. 'Hello, hello, we're stuck in the service elevator, anybody there?' he asked into the dead phone's mouthpiece, hoping someone would answer him nonetheless.

'Have you got your cell on you?' Bones asked hopefully, wiping her brow of cold sweat, noting her voice sounded audibly strained. Booth caught her raised tones, made curious by them, and so asked again, 'No I haven't... Bones, are you sure you're ok?'

'Yes, yes fine,' she lied fairly convincingly, as she walked blindly to the back of the elevator, and stood with her back up against the right angle of it. 'I just don't understand why there's no lights and what was that bang, and now the phone isn't working...?' she rambled her questions again, getting increasingly concerned and confused, and agitatedly palmed the featureless confining walls behind her.

'Look, don't worry. We'll shout, somebody is bound to hear us.' So Booth began to shout at the crack in the doors for assistance, and banged it with his fists to attract attention to their predicament. 'Maybe the Super's out,' he offered, after a little time shouting for help so loudly it stung Bones' eardrums, which she'd grimaced through.

Their eyes began to adjust now but showing each other as darker apparitions within the restricting cold space. Bones could now pick him and the bath out, and smell his perspiration turn a tad pungent as he tried to prise the doors apart with his fingertips. 'That won't work,' she informed flatly, as he grunted unsuccessfully to move them.

Booth huffed, annoyed at her for being so negative, and snapped back, 'Why? It might work.' Then he added sarcastically, 'Or do you know another interesting fact to put the downer on my attempts to free us?'

Bones snapped, losing her icing, 'Sorry, Ok. It's not relevant! Forget I said anything. Just do what you want...'

A crushing awkward silence fell between them after that irritated nervous exchange. Bones took a deep quiet breath, feeling her chest tighten further, and the walls close in on her. She bent her knees, and squatted down in the corner, palming her chilled face. She hoped by making herself smaller the space would get bigger, and make her feel less trapped.

Booth looked over in her direction, silently questioning her odd reactions, then the proverbial penny dropped. He instantly walked towards her in full of remorse mode for being so abrupt with her. But as he did, Bones sensed him nearing, and raised a trembling halting palm. She said weakly but firmly, 'Don't... Don't come near me...' Booth stopped in his stride, feeling utterly rebuffed and unneeded, but forgave her instantly as this wasn't about his hurt feelings but her predicament.

Then he asked sympathetically, wanting to do anything to help her, 'What do you need?' He heard her attempt to take a deep breath, and blow it out slowly.

'Space,' she answered, her eyes burned on hearing the tenderness in his tone. She rolled her trembling hands around one another.

'Kay. Got it. Space I can do...' Booth backed off instantly and slowly, then went silent again.

Then after a few moments more Bones sat heavily on the floor, and rocked her head back, then closed her eyes. She attempted to take herself to her place of quiet refuge in her mind. Taking herself out of the elevator to somewhere bright, wide and fresh, meditating her way there.

Booth found his eyes burning too, now understanding this situation must be extremely tormenting for her. Being locked in a cramped dark car trunk for hours as a young girl had left an indelible scar on her obviously, much like his own emotional scars. Usually he knew she could control her claustrophobia with the power of her mind, and had done before successfully. So he knew he should do what he could to facilitate that calm environment for her. The other overwhelming thought he had was to free them. So he jumped up onto the broken tiles in the bathtub, and tried to reach the ceiling for a hatch. He jumped up and down to try and reach the ceiling but never reached it.

The noise of his movements broke her almost trance, and she looked up to the spectre of him. 'There isn't one in this type of elevator... Because, it's not classed as a passenger elevator. So there's no escape that way,' she explained haltingly, airless, instinctually knowing what he was searching for.

'Crap!' This is insane. Who the hell makes these damn rules?' He jumped out of the tub, and smacked the wall with frustration. The thin sheet metal wall rattled with his heavy blow. Then he added a little more calmly, 'Don't answer that,' as he slumped defeated to the floor opposite her on the other side of the tub. He rubbed his upper arms with his palms, feeling the chill of the unheated space start to cool his nervous sweat.

'What time is it?' she asked suddenly, softly.

Booth guessed, 'Eight-ish, why?'

'Mrs Dixon, she's the Super's wife on the floor above me. She goes out to a Bingo club every Saturday night. I heard her go out earlier. She'll be back around nine thirty. She uses the elevator next to this one. When she comes back we can shout for help then. Unless we hear anybody else before then.'

'Ok, that gives us an hour or so. What do you wanna talk about?'

'You want to talk?' she asked, surprised by his suggestion.

'Yeah, why not? Let's talk anything, vacations, cases, anything,' he said casually, trying to take her mind off her phobia and their predicament for a while. If he was honest, he wanted to talk, as he didn't much like being trapped like this either, and needed the distraction too.

Bones thought about what instantly sprang to mind, then began carefully, 'There's one thing I'd like to talk about, but I don't think we should.'

'Oh? I'm intrigued. What is it, whether God's a zombie or not?' Booth questions humorously, having no inclination as to what was coming next from her.

'No, not God. Hannah...' Booth felt his breath catch, and he dropped his chin to his chest, and gripped his fists into tight bunches. That was the last thing he expected to come out of her mouth at this point. Now he felt claustrophobic.

His silence she took as his reluctance to broach the subject, so said even more gently, 'I thought so... Not a good opener obviously. Forget I asked.' Bones dropped her head back to the wall again, and tried to refocus her mind on her meditation.

Booth asked eventually after a few awkward moments, 'What do you want to know?' Bones took a surprised half breath, and looked over to his almost figure through the gloom.

Rung 4

Broadsky walked up the apartment block back stairs, and strolled casually inside her open door. He looked around, as he stepped over the threshold to smell the pot roast the doctor had been cooking. He walked over to it, and lifted the lid. He sniffed the aromatic steam as it billowed around his face. He looked around for a plate, and took one down from the rack, then spooned some onto it. Replacing the lid, he passed the cutlery pot, and pinched out a fork, then scooped up a mouthful. Continuing to eat the tasty dish, he explored her elegant apartment.

'Humm. Good cook too...' he said to the ether. He looked over her extensive book cases, and tilted his head to read the spines of some of them. He fingered out one, then changed his mind, setting it back in place. His eyes browsed her lightly dusted artefacts and ornaments but didn't give them much consideration or time.

Making his way to her music collection, he pushed open the CD button, and read what was in there. He smiled, and closed it again, then pushed on and then play. The heavy electric guitar solo piped through the apartment and Foreigner's, As Cold As Ice, came over the speakers.

Broadsky scooped up some more hot pot into his mouth, and nodded slowly in time with the beat as he took a look in the demolished main bathroom. Taking out a laser measure from his pocket, he pointed the red beam it produced at the window, while he held it on the opposite mirror, which gave him the exact dimensions of the bathroom. He took a mental note of the measurement, and put it back in his pocket nonchalantly.

'Nice job, Seeley, my boy. You have been busy today...' Leaving that dusty room, he opened her bedroom door, and walked over the plush carpet. He was impressed with the large comfortable room, and her almost obsessive tidiness. He sat on the edge of her bed, and pulled open a drawer of her nightstand, and peered inside. He raised a brow when he saw her diary. He took it out, and rolled back on the covers, crossing his ankles to read it. 'Interesting reading, Dr Brennan... Not! What a load of inane drivel, Woman. You so need to get laid, or a life. Might be a little too late for the latter though...'

Jacob flung it back in the drawer with distain, and finished off his plate of food. Once done, he licked the plate clean with wide sweeping tongue laps, and sucked the fork clean too. He smacked his lips together, as he got off the bed, then straightened out the covers carefully.

Walking back out into the kitchen, he replaced the plate and fork in their rightful previous positions. He took one last look around, but then grabbed a crunchy green apple from the fruit bowl on the kitchen island. He rubbed it on his sweater to shine it, then walked casually back down the stairs. He stopped when he got the lobby, and put his ear to the service elevator doors to listen to the conversation within, and smiled smugly.

Rung 5

Service Elevator

'Are you sure? Bones asked for clarification, and saw him nod slightly. 'Ok. I was curious, confused about some things after your break up with her. You clearly loved her and so proposed marriage. You wanted a family with her and your forty years or so, and yet she didn't want to enter into the kind of officialdom with you. She'd said that repeatedly. So why would you ask her something she couldn't give you at that moment? It didn't mean she didn't love you or you couldn't find some common ground. I find that completely irrational of you. And then she told me that you dispatched her when she came back to you on the bridge to tell you she still loved you and was prepared to wait for you. I mean, why Booth, if you loved her, couldn't you've worked something out between you?'

Booth queried, stunned by what she had just implied, 'She told you what happened, all of it?'

Bones told him ordinarily, 'Yes, she did. She told me the following day, in the morning.'

'What, wait, in the morning? You mean she stayed here, with you?'

'Yes. She had no where to go, Booth. I am her friend so I put her up for a few nights till she found somewhere else to go.'

Booth felt his guilt resurface, and dropped his head again, saying softly, 'I didn't know that. That was very good of you, Bones.'

'Thank you, but I didn't see it as a heroic deed more like the only thing I could do for a traumatized friend that needed to talk. You'd pretty much thrown her out on the street that night. She was more concerned about you than herself actually. That was why she called me and told me what had happened. It was her that asked me to go to you; knowing how much you would need a friend, and you did, didn't you?' She didn't wait for his answer, although she saw him nod to agree. She continued, 'However, it concerned me that you could do such a thing to someone you claim to love so deeply; it seemed so out of character of you. I know you were deeply hurt at being rejected again and said as much to me in the bar later. I understand you couldn't seen any point in the relationship continuing if you both had different objectives in life, but even so, I thought you were a little harsh with her...'

'You don't understand.'

'I know, that's what I can't work out. Your love for people seems so fleeting and dependant on your belief system. If people, women, don't want what you're offering you discard them out of hand, it appears. I find that quite disturbing.'

Booth felt the hairs on the back of his neck bristle, and yet he knew Bones was right, he had been harsh so he tried to explain, 'Bones. Listen to me, really listen to me. I loved her and I wanted a family. I wanted to be married, have the dream, you know? But I realised that there was no future in us. She couldn't or didn't want to compromise her principles for me, and yes, I was stubborn too. I still want those things. But there was something... some-one else in this mess with us that complicated everything in my eyes.'

Bones asked innocently, 'Who?'

'You...' Booth explained, sounding a little exasperated. 'You told me you loved me, remember? Hannah knew it, we all knew it. It was very awkward all round.'

Bones riled at his words, but defended evenly, sensing he was suggesting she was the cause for their break up, 'You're blaming me for your break up with Hannah, is that it?'

'God, no!' he refuted strongly, trying to clarify. Then he calmed by taking a deep breath of gritty cool stale air. 'That sounded bad. I didn't mean that how it sounded...' Bones shifted in her position slightly, still anxious and confused. Booth went on, as he crept carefully towards her around the tub on his hands and knees, 'I told you I loved her, and she wasn't second best to you. I believed that completely until... I dropped you home that night. It was then that the full force of your words hit me, Bones.' Booth sat cross legged in front of her, trying to read her monochrome expression through the near pitch black. He couldn't read it properly or rightly.

It was as if the darkness was taking away all traces of extra emotion and just leaving them with words with no added layers of body language to interpret or confuse. And those words had to be specific and clear they both realised; to leave no doubts or misunderstandings between them. The domineering darkness was stripping them bare till all that was left was the truth.

Booth explained quietly with, 'I watched you stand back and give me up to her without a word.' He reached for her hand tentatively, and felt it trembling in his as he took it. She in turn curled hers around his palm slowly, just as meekly. 'You concealed your heartbreak from most, but not from me,' he told her softly, stroking the inside of her soft palm with his delicate circling thumb. 'You loved me that much to let me go, Bones. That was mind blowing and something I never expected you to do. You honestly just wanted me to be happy and have what I thought I wanted. It was, is humbling, Bones.'

Holding his large gritty hand in hers, and feeling his sensitive touch, thrilled her just as much his gentle admiring words that whispered over her skin. Bones explained her reasons for acting that way, but didn't back peddle or refute his acceptance that she did indeed loved him and had done for some considerable time, 'That's partly true. However, I was only doing what you'd done for a few years.' Booth squeezed her hand a little tighter for that, hearing that she understood what heartache he'd endured because of her. 'I knew I had no rights over you and had to accept that I'd missed my chance to be with you. So there wasn't much else for me to do but support you, was there?'

Booth sighed heavily, then shuffled to sit next to her as close as he could with his back up against the icy metal wall. The bare flesh of their shoulders touched, sending comforting sensations to their healing open hearts. Neither let go of their tender grip of one another's single hand though. It was an innocent touch but felt extremely intimate to them both, nonetheless.

Booth's heart opened even wider, knowing he had to be completely honest with her now. So he openly confessed his mistake, and apologised for it in one trembling sentence, 'I'd walked away too soon from you, I realise that now, Bones... I know I scared you off with my ridiculous timeline and forcing it between us, I get that... And I'm not sure if I sub-consciously or deliberately forced the issue with Hannah to be free again, but I'm over it now, completely.'

Bones held her breath, not sure if she understood what he was implying now. Was he saying he was ready to begin again? Did he still hold those romantic thoughts for her? Did he mean their's was a future for them, if she asked him the right way? She didn't want to scare him off either, not now that they were clearing the air between them, and she was beginning to understand her role in his life. Was she always to be his close friend, his professional partner or was she to be more at some stage, or nothing more? Those questions were black and white, yes and no answers, and she needed that clarity, even if she didn't get the answers she wanted.

Bones was courageous again, almost whispering her question as she looked into his coal chipped eyes at close quarters, 'So, I have another question on that new evidence.'

'Ok. What's the question?' he asked just as softly, with a smattering of a smile on his lips, and a quickening pulse rate. He pretty much knew what was coming next from her but needed to hear it to be sure.

Bones took a deep breath, then asked it, 'Do you have any residual romantic feelings towards me or not? If you don't, or are not willing to act on them anytime in the future, then I need to know now, Booth. You can be honest, brutally if need be. I think I deserve that much from you.'

Booth didn't hesitate, and told her, 'I've always had those strong feelings for you, Bones. Constantly, night and day, with or without her in my life. You are my one, my diamond criterion.'

She couldn't help the blossoming flush that hit her cheeks, or the rampant joy his sweet statement gave her. Her heartbeat increased tenfold and was felt in his tenderly caressing hand. 'That sounded very romantic and sincere,' she said bashfully, as he edged his face a little closer to hers so she could almost taste him on her tongue.

Booth re-affirmed, 'Good, it was meant to sound romantic and was sincere.'

'Right. That gives me a very pleasant sensation to know how you feel about me. So, Booth, we both have these deep feelings for one another but neither of us is allowed to act on them, is that still the case?'

Booth sighed, knowing this was the real and only question either of them needed to answer truthfully, so he was nervous about asking it. He asked carefully, with his vitals on pause, 'For me, that depends on one thing... I have a question for you and be brutally honest because I need to know too.' Bones nodded seriously, and held her breath, already knowing what he was going to ask her though.

'Go on,' she managed to vocalise, feeling her lungs burning for oxygen, not a symptom of claustrophobia this time but with unbridled euphoria.

Booth's caress of her hand stopped, as he asked what he needed to hear from her, 'If we were to start dating... would there be a future in your eyes for us, knowing what I want from our relationship?' Booth felt his lungs empty on his question, and found it difficult to refill them again before she replied.

Bones grinned the tiniest amount, knowing he couldn't possibly see it. 'That is the question, isn't it?' she said cryptically, feeling her heart race, and her stomach stop churning instantly. She had the answers she sought and they had, for the first time, admitted they were both romantically fully aware of one another's deepest feelings. These feelings, that she'd struggled with, were replicated now in him, either again or vigorously renewed. Either way, they loved each other and had confirmed it.

Booth countered just as cryptically, sneakily, 'Yeah, that is the question.' He smiled the tiniest amount, knowing damn well she couldn't see it, but he kept it out of his tone too.

All at once, before either one answered the question, Bones heard the sound of elevator doors opening a floor below in the neighbouring shaft. She jumped to her feet, and ran to the doors, and began banging on them furiously. Booth was a nano second behind her, making as much noise as she was against the elevator doors.

'Mrs Dixon! Mrs Dixon! The service elevator! Elevator! Stuck in the elevator! It's Tempe Brennan!' she hollered frantically. Booth ran to the side nearest the passenger elevator, and placed his ear to the wall to hear if Mrs Dixon called back. He heard nothing to suggest the dear old lady did, and his heart sank all over again.

Rung 6

It was another hour later when several burly firemen finally prised open the service elevator doors. The relieved partners peered out through the gap into the busy lobby. However their rescue wasn't because of Mrs Dixon alerting them to the trapped couple but for a whole other devastating reason. That reason was shortly to mar their jubilant, yet tempered exhilaration after their frank discussion.

Bones slipped out of the two foot gap onto the solid lobby floor, and was helped to her feet as Booth slipped out too moments behind her.

'Thanks so much, we didn't think Mrs Dixon heard us,' Bones thanked her rescuers, taking a deep cleansing breath of fresh air, enjoying the feeling of the wide space she so craved and needed.

'Doctor Brennan and Special Agent Booth, I presume?' one officer said solemnly, less enthusiastically than they expected him to be in the circumstances.

'Yes. What going on?' Bones asked, seeing the blue flashing lights, and a paramedic team waiting in the lobby along with the majority of her elite neighbours from the block. They all hushed, and or talked quietly amongst themselves, milling about by the entrance doors.

'There's been a death in the building. Mr Dixon, the building Super, I'm afraid.' Bones felt her skin chill further, her stomach drop away, and tears manifest. She bit her lip, and looked to Booth. The officer went on, 'Mrs Dixon came home from bingo to find her husband shot, bound and gagged in a chair. The apartment was ransacked and several items stolen; jewellery, cash and alike. We think Mr Dixon caught them and put up a struggle. Mrs Dixon called the police and paramedics. Then when we tried to get the stretcher up, it wouldn't fit in the passenger elevator so we tried the service one. It was then we found you stuck in it.' Booth lost colour rapidly, and dropped his eyes to the marble polished floor. Bones looked over his countenance carefully, suspicious of his reaction to the news, as he'd never met her super.

'Booth, what is it, what are you thinking?' she asked, seeing him anxiously searching the floor as his mind churned.

'Hang on, Bones. Just give me sec, could you?' Booth walked off in the direction of policeman directing operations, and spoke quietly to him alone. Bones watched the officer nodding at his words, and flick his eyes over to her. Then they both turned their backs to her, and carried on talking. A few moments later the officer was on his radio and Booth was striding over to her with a forced smile on his lips.

'I've asked him to check the service elevator for tampering. It's just a thought, a silly hunch after what you said about its safety measures and stuff not working right. It should be checked and the others too.'

'Good idea, Booth. That's makes sense. Most of my neighbours are either well known in the public eye, politicians or assumed to be fairly wealthy.' He nodded to agree, hitching up his jeans. Then Bones asked the officer, concerned for her neighbour, 'Where's Mrs Dixon now?'

'She's still upstairs. They're bringing down Mr Dixon in a chair soon. And Mrs Dixon is being taken to her daughter's across town tonight.'

'Thank you,' she said as he walked off. Then Bones turned to Booth who was looking at her with concern.

'You ok now?' She knew he was referring to her claustrophobia and the shock that there'd been a murder of her friend.

'Yes, Booth. I'm fine. I'd like to give her my condolences before we go back up. Do you mind waiting?'

'No, no course not, Bones.' With that, a visibly distraught Mrs Dixon came down the stairwell, assisted by her equally distraught daughter and husband on either side of her.

Bones was the first to offer her soft heartfelt condolences. 'Elsa, I'm so sorry about Frank. He was a dear, dear man and this is a tragedy. If there's anything my partner or I can do, please don't hesitate to contact us.'

'Oh. Thank you, my dear, thank you,' Mrs Dixon said as sweetly as she could muster but her words lacked her usual sparkle and easy affection understandably. Bones didn't think she would ever see her again in her building as she was virtually carried out of the double doors into a waiting cab through the throngs of people. How could anyone return to a place where the love of their lives had lived and worked, and held such a painful memory? she pondered.

Rung 7

'Do you mind, Bones? I'm gonna go up and have a talk with the forensic team. Just to check if they need any help,' Booth asked, as they walked up the stairwell towards her apartment.

'Sure, yes. Go on.' With that Booth carried on up the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time and Bones walked through the doors en route to her apartment. The door was still wide open, although she'd forgotten that they'd left it open with everything that had happened. Bones immediately thought about Mr Dixon's murder and its motive. If it was robbery then she suspected that, with her door left wide open, they may have come into hers first. So she stopped before she entered, and peered around to the couches and book case, half expecting them to show signs of tampering. Her apartment was on the way up towards Mr Dixon's above, and if they used the stairs they could have easily seen that her door was open.

Seeing nothing untoward so far, she crossed the threshold, and walked into the kitchen. Her eyes immediately shot towards the fruit bowl of their own accord. She wrinkled her brow, confused by what she saw for a moment. Then shook the ridiculous thought out of her head, dismissing it as an aberration of her fuddled mind.

Bones walked straight into her bedroom, seeing nothing else out of place, and thanked her luck that she hadn't been targeted by these robbers this time. She knew it could quite easily have been her that could've been their target. She was famous, wealthy and put bad people behind bars after all; so it seemed a logical, even inevitable step for her to be singled out. Hence her relative surprise that she wasn't this time, especially as her door had been left open.

Entering her en suite to shower, she felt grimy, and covered in dried nervous sweat, and desperately wanted to wash away the traumatic experience from her body.

Ten minutes later she was fully refreshed and clean, and changed into her lounging pants and matching top. As she pushed on her slippers, she heard Booth call out to her. She smiled, cheered by his return, and walked out to greet him. 'Yep, I'm here. I just had to shower...' she trailed off seeing his pale face, and awkward body language. He closed the apartment door carefully, and put on the chain just as carefully, securing them inside. 'Booth? What's up? You look pensive.'

Booth didn't make eye contact with her as she neared, and he sat down on a kitchen stool. 'Bones, is anything out of place in here?'

Bones went to her fridge, and took out two beers, and went to the drawer to retrieve the bottle opener. 'No. I had the same thought when I came in. Nothing is disturbed. I was just thinking how lucky I was not to be targeted by these intruders. We left the door wide open.' She handed him one of the opened beers, and sat opposite him. He gulped down a few gluggs, and smacked his lips together, clearly needing it as much as she did, and nodded to acknowledge her thoughts.

Eventually he lifted his eyes to hers across the table, and asked, 'I'm too tired to go home tonight, Bones, and it's late now. Is it ok if I crash on your couch tonight?'

'Sure, except you're not sleeping on the couch. I have a guest room, remember?'

'Cool. Thanks, that'll be great. I've gotta come back tomorrow to finish off the preparations anyway. I can get an early start on it.' Bones nodded, after giving him a sweet smile which he gave back nervously.

The nervous smiles they exchanged were filled with layers of emotion and other thoughts which both could read easily now. With the light thrown onto them, they both were clearly thinking each other's thoughts. Bones was debating whether to take the terrifying leap and ask him to join her in her bed tonight but something extraordinary stopped her from asking. If this was anyone else she wouldn't have hesitated, but it was their pace, the pace they'd set themselves in the elevator conversation. She understood she needed to go slow with him, unlike she'd ever done before. They had only just come to know each other's feelings and made huge progress for today, she reasoned sensibly. Besides, she mused, she was enjoying the slow positive development of this romantic relationship and didn't want to rush the delicious tease and anticipation of possibly more to come.

'Is it ok if I take a shower? I'm a little high,' he said, sniffing his arm pit cutely, giving her a wonky smile after.

Bones shot back, straight faced, 'I wish you would. You're positively humming, Booth. Flies will begin to settle on you soon.' Getting off the stool, she walked casually to the stove, and put the pot roast back on the heat. She was delighted that her humorous comment was received with a shocked expression.

Suddenly Booth was off his chair too, and tickled her ribs in reprimand from behind. She squealed loudly, and jumped aside, snatching a glance at him as he sniggered on his way to her en suite, slugging beer from his bottle.

She called after him, 'Use whatever you want. There's deodorant in the cupboard under the sinks!'

'I'll find it!' he shouted back. Bones grinned, happy that he felt comfortable in her home to help himself.

She took off the lid from the pot, and her brow wrinkled again. There didn't seem as much in there as she'd originally thought. But she shook that away, thinking logically that the rich gravy and the long time standing had reduced its quantity. There was still plenty to satisfy his colossal appetite, so no harm was done. She laid up the table for two, and brought down two plates from the rack in preparation. As she placed one of the plates on the table mat, she noticed a thin line of brown food smear and wiped it with her thumb. She thought it odd, and placed it in the dishwasher, thinking the machine had missed the smear the first time.

Rung 8

Broadsky watched Bones through his binoculars, seeing her flitter around like a colourful butterfly in her kitchen through the well lit windows and apartment. He'd already seen the paramedics cart off the unfortunate, but feisty Mr Dixon, and take him to the mortuary. Probably, he mused, to the coroners offices for an autopsy in the morning. He knew that was inevitable in such cases but also knew he had nothing to fear. The silenced Glock 19 and bullets he'd used were untraceable and as common a muck in the seedy gangland of Washington DC's suburbs, which fitted the crude crime scene.

His fingers felt numb and stiff now, which wasn't conducive to pulling a hair-trigger. His marrow was so chilled, he decided tonight wasn't the right night and his patience was never in question. There were still too many uniforms swarming around anyway, he reasoned.

He spoke to her quietly, taking his last look of the day, 'Sleep well, Dr Brennan. I'll see you again tomorrow. Enjoyed the pot roast, it is really good. I'm sure Seeley will love it.' Dismantling his rifle, he zipped it back into its case, then headed back down the fire escape towards his car, parked three blocks away.

As he got into his rusting red car, and started the cold old Ford Mondeo engine, he assessed his successes today. He was most pleased with his diversion tactics with the elevator the most. His timing in sending the remote signal to the small explosive by the cell phone satisfied him immensely, and gave him a warm glow now. It was just an added bonus that they were so distracted that they left the apartment door open, so he didn't have the inconvenience of having to break in. He pondered too, that it was unfortunate for him to have to dispatch Mr Dixon but there was no other easy way to get access to the shaft and the necessary security protocols. Mr Dixon had gotten in the way of his plans when he found him skulking around the stairwell for the elevator shaft entrance, he recalled the moment. Broadsky found it annoying that he'd been so unco-operative when he asked for the security key to disable the elevator's safety protocols. But once the old man had seen his face his fate was sealed. He had to change his plans and think on his feet. So he'd expertly staged a robbery and Dixon's inevitable death, once he found the security box key. The few useless items he'd stolen, he would dispose of in a few days, possibly in the Potomac along with the Glock and remaining ammunition he'd still had with him.

However, what gave him the real buzz he craved was that he now had the exact distance to target and angles required, enabling him to make the perfect shot. And perfection was what he strived for. That was the ultimate professional sniper's goal; one masterful shot from a safe unseen distance. He'd made longer and more difficult shots, but this one coming was to be, for him at least, the most satisfying because it was personal. All the others he'd made were to benefit of his Army colleagues or ultimately for the protection of US citizens at home or abroad. This one, or possibly two shots, were just for him, and would make the rest of his targets much easier to take. He knew that, once done, he wouldn't have to keep looking over his shoulder before he pulled the trigger or after it with the rabid partners off his tail.

'Yes,' Broadsky said, turning right through the deserted back streets of DC. 'Today was a very successful and pleasing day.'

Rung 9

Bones started to laugh softly when she saw Booth padding barefoot towards her, and he give her a stylish pirouette with an adorable smile on his face. He was wrapped in one of silk kimono and looked positively effeminate.

'Does my bum look big in his?' he asked cheekily, peering over his back to his butt.

Bones understood the gender role reversal and cultural reference he was implying, and laughed at his charming wit. She willingly retorted the natural male response to such a question and ran with it, 'Haa. Absolutely not! You look gor-geous, a feast for the eyes, and decidedly, pretty.'

'Great. That's exactly what I was aiming for, pretty.' Bones snorted her next laugh, while dishing up two meals. Booth settled at the table, and adjusted the silk to cover his groin, then opened the wine, and poured them each a healthy glassful. 'Is dinner ready? I could eat for a week.'

'Yes, just coming. Did you find everything you needed?' she threw over her shoulder hospitably.

Booth took a generous sip of the exorbitantly expensive but equally delicious, Châteaux Neuf du Pape she'd picked out to complement their meal, and swallowed the smooth wine. 'Yep. I used your girly deodorant, clouds of scented talc on my delicate bits.' Bones chuckled again at that image he'd created in her mind. 'And the whole can of that crazy shower foam, which smells awesome by the way, and makes my skin feel heavenly moisturised.' Bones was grinning madly through her tasks as he went on, 'I gotta get me some of that. What else... Oh. Yeah, I used your toothbrush too.' Booth amused himself by making her laugh, while he waited patiently to be fed. He watched her every move, and adored the groin tightening laughter she oozed.

As she placed his piled plate in front of him, two things happened. One, his eyes lit up at the feast she'd delivered, and second, he flashed her what he was wearing under her kimono, saying secretively, admiringly, 'They're so soft, Bones. I feel so sexy.'

Bones belly laughed, seeing he'd found her stash of French knickers and chosen one of her black satin pairs to wear. She flumped down beside him, and shook her head disbelievingly at his gall, but still laughing.

He lifted his glass of wine, and held it towards her with a disarming smile, piercing her eyes with his. 'Cheers, Bones.' Bones picked up her glass, and clinked his, saying cheers back. They held each others gazes and wispy smiles for a few moments. Then he broke in first to sip the ruby wine, and begin to eat. 'This looks and smells great... What is it?'

'Ha!' Bones smacked his bicep playfully, seeing him grin mischievously. 'Beef pot roast.'

Booth wolfed down his mouthful, looking incredulously at her plate. 'You're veggie, what you doing eating beef?'

'I'm not. I just enjoy the taste of the gravy and vegetables cooked in it. See? No meat, just vegetables.' She gestured to her plate with her knife so he could examine it if he so wished.

'Wow. I'd didn't know that about you. Cool.' He shovelled in another huge forkful, and groaned with delight. Bones placed a bread roll on his side plate, then took one for herself, and began buttering it. 'So are you ok now? I'm mean over the...' he trailed off when she smiled slightly, and nodded to relax him.

'Yes thanks, Booth. I have mechanisms to deal with those types of situations. It was the darkness that threw me a little, that's all,' she explained casually why she'd reacted like she did.

Booth enquired, 'Mechanisms?' She was nodding again, and tearing off a bite from her roll. Her eyes flicked to his for a moment, checking he wasn't going to make fun of her. It seemed a reasonable question and his expression suggested he was interested to know, so she explained.

'I meditate, or at least I try to when I feel trapped or restrained in some way; either emotionally or physically. I have a safe place I go to.'

Booth scrutinised her features in silence for a few moments, pondering on her understated but revealing explanation, then asked, 'Where?'

'Where, what? What do you mean? Oh. Where do I go?' Booth nodded, swallowing his mouthful, and took a sip of the excellent warm wine, staring into her, intrigued. She looked down to her plate, and loaded her fork slowly and precisely. Booth noted she had a tiny smile on her lips but was reluctant to tell him.

'Hey, come on, Bones.' He tapped her forearm gently with his index finger, which she looked to. 'Don't be shy. Where do you go? I won't laugh,' he encouraged her to open up to him. She looked into his warm hazel eyes, and took a breath.

'It's a place I visited years ago in Tibet. A small but important Buddhist monastery actually.' Booth cocked his head slightly, surprised it would be somewhere spiritual. 'It was set high on a jagged mountain, deafeningly quiet, warm and breath snatching-ly beautiful...' She looked into his eyes, and smiled delicately, as she went on, clearly going there for him now, 'I could see forever, a vastness all around me, above to the stratosphere, below to the lush valley floors, just everywhere. My knees weakened with its calmness and majesty. I sat down on the earth and absorbed it for hours, every miniscule detail. I'd never felt such a sense of peace or safety. It left a lasting impression on me and I can recall that landscape in flawless detail.' He noted she blushed a little when adding, 'I recall how I felt with the sun on my skin, how fresh the warm air was filling my lungs. How close I was to something unknowable...' Booth smiled back, and nodded, understanding what she was trying not to explain. 'So when I feel claustrophobia set in, I close my eyes, breath deeply, and go back. I sit down and imagine I'm there, repeating the image and sensations in my mind over and over in a mental chant, till I am there.' They both sunk deep into each other's eyes for several seconds, exchanging the new emotions they were licensed to share now.

Booth punched a piece of succulent meat with his fork, and held it just short of his lips, as he said lightly, 'I have a similar place, not for claustrophobia per se but when I feel I'm losing my grip on things or I'm confused, troubled or when I just need to be happy.'

'Really? Where do you go, metaphorically?' Bones asked casually, just as intrigued as he'd been though, forking up some food, and placing it in her mouth, then began to chew.

Booth said simply, 'I go into your eyes.' Bones stopped chewing immediately, and snapped those eyes to his, feeling them start to well. Booth grinned a little sheepishly, and tilted his head in a gesture for her to forgive him for being so honest, so suddenly and unexpectedly. Booth saw her moved tears brimming, so smiled as he stroked his index finger along her forearm softly. 'That was very romantic and sincere, wasn't it?' he questioned softly, feeling his heart pounding, and hearing his voice waver as he'd said it. He desperately hoped she thought so, because it was intended to be.

Bones swallowed, and nodded extremely slowly. She licked her lips with a short sweep of her pink tongue, then confirmed, 'Yes, very...'

'Too much?' he asked, quirking his lips at her. But to his delight she smiled even wider, and shook her head just as slowly as the last time. 'Cool... This is great, us sharing stuff, isn't it?' he asked her brightly now, whilst diving back in to his meal with gusto.

Booth had changed from his overtly romantic, knee trembling phase back to happy go lucky phase in the blink of an eye. So Bones followed his meandering lead. She felt extremely safe and exhilarated again, not for the first time today either, she noted, which was something she could easily get very used to.

'Yes. This is new for us and exciting. I'm enjoying our journey immensely.'

'Me too, Bones.' He grinned again handsomely, then added, 'Got any more?'

'Help yourself. It's in the pan on the stove.' She looked briefly over her shoulder in its direction, charmed that he was enjoying it so much.

'Do you want some more?' he asked, as he left the table with his plate, and sashayed over to the stove, leaving a fragrant wake for her to inhale self-indulgently.

'No thanks. This is plenty for me. You finish it.'

'Thanks, I will.' She looked over her shoulder to him plonking more on his plate, and smiled. He looked ridiculous in her kimono but utterly adorable with his furry legs sticking out the bottom. 'What time is it?'

'A little after twelve, why?'

'I was just wondering if they got a team into the elevator tonight or if they're gonna leave it till the morning.'

'I expect they'll leave it till the morning now... Do you think it was drug related?' Bones asked reflectively, sadly, as he sat down again.

'More than likely, Bones. They probably wanted the cash and jewellery to sell or pawn. Mr Dixon was just in the way or caught them in the act, I expect.'

Bones grit her jaw in an attempt to repress her anger, as she aired her thoughts, 'It's so unfair. Frank was due to retire next month. He should have a few years ago but loved the job so much he refused to. And Mrs Dixon was my cleaner. In fact she cleaned most of the apartments to top up her pension. They were such a wonderful sweet couple. Everybody adored them in this building.'

Booth could hear the raw emotion in her voice as she spoke and the sense of the injustice of it. Then he sighed, recalling what he'd seen when he went to speak to the forensic team, 'Oh. Jesus. Poor woman,' he said, dropping his eyes to his plate. 'How does anybody get over what she witnessed, I can't imagine.'

Bones asked, needing to know, 'What was there to witness?'

'Well, it's not really dinner conversation but I know you have a strong stomach.' Bones nodded solemnly. Booth carried on, 'He was tied to a kitchen chair and shot through the temple,' Booth gestured the trajectory on his own head. 'At close range. His grey matter was all over the work tops and she walked in to see that. The apartment was trashed too, well, the kitchen and lounge area anyway. They, or the perp didn't touch anything in the bedrooms.'

Bones snagged her head back, and frowned, obviously confused. 'Really? Why not? Most people keep their valuables in the safes.'

Surprised, Booth clarified, 'You have safes?'

Bones nodded, sipping her wine. 'Yes. All of the apartments do. Mine's under the floor of the fitted wardrobes. I know Elsa had many pieces of beautiful jewellery; family heirlooms mostly. She would never leave them out. What was taken then?'

'I'm not sure, but the officer said, she said, she noticed a few pieces of costume jewellery from her dressing table were gone and Mr Dixon's wallet cash, about sixty dollars she reckoned.'

'So they shot him for a few worthless pieces of jewellery and a little cash? That doesn't make any sense to me.' Bones shook her head, as she gulped her wine, needing the numbing effects it gave.

'Maybe they tied him up to get him to give them the safe combination and when he didn't, they grabbed what they could, thinking it was worth something.'

Again Booth saw her shake her head and her brow furrow deeper. 'Booth? It's not a combination lock. The safes are opened with key card and PIN number. I happen to know that Frank always kept his card on him; in his wallet with the PIN with the rest of his PIN numbers. He had a terrible memory for numbers. I'd warned him repeatedly about keeping them together... Were his other bank cards stolen too?'

'I don't know. I'll ask in the morning. They can check if his accounts have been emptied.'

'Yes, would you check?' I'd like to know, help her if we can, even if it's in some small way to catch the bastard.' Booth raised a slow brow at her mild expletive, watching as she drained her glass, then topped his up finally her own.

Booth could tell the tragic incident was hitting her hard, harder than she was willing to admit. 'Hey, they'll get 'em, Bones,' he tried to reassure, seeing how angry she was but trying to disguise it. 'We'll keep at them till they do.'

Bones looked at his empty upturned palm he offered her, flat on the linen tablecloth, it brought a subtle smile to her lips. She didn't hesitate, and slipped hers into it. Booth curled his fingers around hers, and gave it a squeeze, as they looked back into each other. 'Thanks, Booth.' He brought the warm cluster to his lips, and wetly kissed the soft top of her hand twice in the same spot. She was surprised by his delicate affectionate kisses and the severe internal reaction they evoked in her. Then to her deeper surprise and intentionally lifting her spirits, Booth leaned in slowly to her cheek till she could feel his warm breaths trickle into her ear. It sent shivers up her spine and pulsing sensations elsewhere. She leant into his breaths and face softly, till they were cheek to cheek. She closed her eyes to his gentle touch, expecting him to either kiss her or say something else to reassure her again. She waited with bated breath as he whispered seductively, 'You gonna eat that?'

Bones grinned, then chuckled, opening her eyes to look into his, which were flaring excitedly. 'No, you can have it.' He let go her hand, and dragged her plate in front of him fast, and used her fork to devour the rest of her meal. As he filled his face with yet more pot roast and potatoes; he grinned cheekily at her, pleased with himself for making her smile again, and defusing her anger so cleverly.

'I suspect you have a tape worm, Booth.' She finished off her bread roll, watching him closely, astonished by his stomach's capacity to hold so much food.

'Oooh. Bones! Don't put me off. It's too good to waste. I can't remember when I had such a great home cooked meal. Hannah and me rarely ate anything but take out or restaurant food. And my cooking is very ropy and she never cooked!'

Bones said softly, loosing a little brightness, hearing him mention her during this intimate moment between them, 'Oh. Really?' She got up from the table abruptly, and walked into the kitchen to put the dirty pan, and his cleared plate in the dishwasher. Booth then realised his horrific error, and his heart skipped a beat.

'Oh. Bones. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to...'

She interrupted him with a shake of her head, and quivering smile. She spun to face him, saying reasonably, 'Don't apologise. Hannah was a huge part of your life for a long time, Booth. It's inevitable you will compare her to me or other women you've lived with. I understand that you'll talk about your relationships, especially with Hannah being so fresh in your mind.' Every time Bones said her name, Booth felt a little bit smaller and hurt for his partner more, knowing how painful it was for her.

'I can't expect you not to talk about Hannah, or Rebecca even. That would be totally irrational of me. I have to adjust and be reasonable, that's all.' Booth was standing close to her now, towering over her, staring into her eyes, not believing her logical rational expectations.

'That's crap,' he challenged bluntly. 'All you just said is total crap.' Bones felt her pupils dilate with surprise. 'I made a stupid mistake and I'm sorry, very sorry. I spoke out of turn and you have every right to be hurt and pissed at me for mentioning her... Hit me.'

Bones' mouth dropped open in shock and confusion. 'What?'

'Hit me, hard. Smack me around the head, punch my guts, go on. Stamp on my foot, anything to make yourself feel better.' Booth followed her back to the table as she began to clear it. Booth helped out, following her back to the dishwasher as she loaded it by taking the plates out of his hands.

'I don't need to hit you, Booth,' she said sensibly, but trying to keep the smile off her face, that in itself was a formidable challenge.

'Yeah you do. Go on.' He stuck his chin out to her, and grit his jaw prepared for her blow. 'I'm waiting, go on, a left hook is your best shot. I can take it and deserve it for being so insensitive.'

Bones closed the dishwasher door, and planted her hands on her satin covered hips, saying, 'Let me get this straight, I have to hit you to make myself feel better when actually, you need to feel the pain to feel better for making a, so called, mistake?'

'Yes, that's about the long and short of it. It's my deserved penance,' he confirmed, searching her mellow eyes and enigmatic smile.

'You Catholics are peculiar creatures,' she said, walking over to her couches, Booth following a pace behind, unable to stop himself from checking out her ass bobbing under the smooth satin. 'This sack cloths and ashes routine won't work with me, Booth.'

She stilled before she sat down as he stood in front of her, again trying to force her into some form of retaliation with, 'Eye for an eye, Bones...'

Aghast, she countered, sitting down with a flump, instantly lifting her legs up to stretch out along the sumptuous couch, 'What happened to turn the other cheek? Passive resistance?'

With his eyes never leaving hers, Booth instantly laid next to her, so they were face to face, and almost flush against one another, he propped his head up on his palm, reflecting her. 'Not tonight, you ain't getting around me by quoting scripture at me, yooou sex-y atheist vamp...' he drooled wittily, flashing his eyes at her, then repeated a heartbeat later, 'Hit me.'

Bones felt her whole body tingle as his body heat seeped into hers, and she had the enduring luxury to see deep into his passionate eyes, a few centimetres away. 'I'd much rather kiss you,' she ventured, surprised by her hopeful bravado.

Booth didn't blink, and bantered immediately, 'Nope. Not gonna happen. Not an option. Hit me, Bones. Pop one on me, just here.' Again he jutted his chin out for her, and pointed to the spot on his stubbly jaw. 'Believe me you'll feel better, it will be cathartic,' he explained, loving the realisation and blood surge that knowing she wanted to kiss him gave.

'Haa!' Bones rolled back a little with her amusement, and laughter at this absurd situation. But she adored how silly it was, and understood what he was attempting to do.

'Don't laugh!' he chastised, grinning though, although he was trying to be serious. 'Get pissed off and reprimand me for talking about her to you. Tell me I'm an insensitive jerk and smack me, Bones, I insist.'

Bones sighed, with her heart so full it jumped happily under her sternum. 'I can't,' she confessed soulfully. 'You look too pretty and smell fantastic. I have no anger towards you just... just affection right now.' She placed her warm palm over his heart, and barely caressed, careful not to be too obvious about her acute need to touch him.

Booth mirrored her affectionate body language by slipping his leg over hers, which seemed to draw them closer, and cooed hopefully, 'Aww. Really, you seriously think I look pretty?'

As he was keeping the conversation light, she continued to match it, joking effortlessly with him. 'Haa. Yes, I can't hit a fledgling girl. It wouldn't be right.'

'Oh. Dear.' He pouted. 'You can't kiss a fledgling girl, can you?' he asked rhetorically, then he looked up to the ceiling, cogitating and adding, 'All-though... Katie Perry did.'

Bones queried, nonplussed, 'Who's Katie Perry?'

'She kissed a girl and liked it apparently. Never mind,' he dismissed that with an aimless wave of his hand between them. 'But we digress.' Booth looked back eagerly into her glowing face, and bewitching smile. 'I know, you tell me something then, about that reprobate Sully. Something that will hurt my feelings.' Then Booth placed his hand on her hip, making it feel as ordinary as possible, and not presumptuous. It did feel perfectly ordinary to Bones and in no way presumptuous but completely heart stopping nonetheless.

'Then you'll want to hit me! That's definitely not going to solve this dilemma.'

Booth ignored her reasoned argument, pushing her with, 'Tell me something dirty,' He narrowed his eyes, and scowled. 'A secret about something sexual that will really hurt me or freak me out, possibly dent my ego. Yeah, that will be a great.'

Bones rattled off suddenly, 'Sully was perfect for me; understanding, empathetic and wanted to spend his life with me...' Booth lost his smile somewhat. He hadn't realised what he'd done with that request; he never expected her to divulge anything. How wrong was he? he mused.

Bones continued, 'He was a great sexual partner with a penis which was nine point two inches long when fully erect.' Booth's smile was long gone now and he replaced with a little annoyed grimace. Although she saw his hurt expression, she didn't let up. 'He was highly intelligent, vibrant, athletic and very handsome.'

Booth riled instantly, 'Oh. Really? Then why didn't you run off to the Caribbean with him then?'

Bones leaned into his face a little, and in one slipping move traced her hand from over his heart to the small of his back, taking her time to reply quietly, 'Because I didn't love him and he wasn't you...' She felt Booth relax into the couch, and saw his eyes soften at her romantic explanation, as she caressed his aching back to mend him.

It hit her hard now that his emotional issues had always been resolved with anger or violence, especially with his father. So she could understand why he acted like he did sometimes. The sins of the fathers were recycled in the following generation and had clearly tainted his psyche, and behaviour patterns. She hoped he could see that her reasonable way was more tender and logical; not to mention healthier in the long run.

Booth understood the issue was resolved without the physical violence he needed to feel better for hurting her. They'd both hurt each other and resolved it with statements of love, tenderness and understanding.

Booth returned to gentle humour as he said self-deprecatingly, 'I don't have a nine point two inch dick when fully erect. I thought you should know that straight off, so you won't be disappointed.' Bones bit her bottom lip to stop from laughing, and nodded, trying to stay serious. 'My IQ is a little suspect too. I'm kinda handsome in a covert way, I suppose.' Again Bones nodded to agree. He added, 'I can be vibrant when I put my mind to it,' sounding as if he was trying to convince himself as well as her. 'I'm a little too old to be truly athletic anymore. I can run a bit but pant quite a bit when I do. Not much going for me really.'

'All true. However none of those glaring faults and imperfections matter to me...' Booth's smile returned with the blink of her bright eyes. 'Do you still want me to hit you?' she asked, looking to his plump curving lips, aching to kiss them.

He checked, 'Do you want to hit me?' Bones shook her head, and slowly lifted her eyes from his lips to his eyes so he could see and know exactly where she was hoping these exchanges were leading.

'No. Do you want to hit me?' Booth shook his head, feeling his groin tightening at the prospect of granting her wish finally, as it was his sole wish too.

'God, no. I wanna kiss you,' he said fetchingly, flushing from moisturized brow to talc dusted toe.

Bones retorted instantly, sensuously, 'Permission granted.' Booth peered into her eyes, seeing them flick to his lips and back up quickly, as he carefully closed the few inches between them. He thought her lips looked the colour of ripe moist cherries and couldn't wait to feel them against his. He mused they were bound to be impossibly soft as they looked, and as warm and yielding as a summer's day. And he couldn't begin to contemplate how sublime it would be to sink in beyond them and taste her properly again after so long.

Bones could feel the added heat of his engorging groin against her quivering womb, and adjusted herself slightly against that magnetizing warmth. She felt her lips part as she drew in his scent and the air she needed now. Seeing his dark beard shadow around his lips, she pined to know what sensations his stubble would set free when it rasped over her lips and skin. She was so engrossed in his burning eyes that she only just registered that his large palm had slipped surreptitiously over a buttock, and was easing her closer into him. Bones couldn't think what might happen beyond this kiss, if she did, she thought she might combust. But what she did understand was that this kiss was to be their first one in love with each other. Consequently it was a hugely important moment between them.

All at once their was barely anything between those sets of yearning lips when her apartment door rattled loudly to someone banging on it. Booth jumped back from her mouth as did Bones as if they had been caught doing something illegal or forbidden. She snapped her eyes to his, and saw them pale as the luscious tension sapped away.

The door bell rang this time and more banging accompanied it. Booth groaned long and low, then rolled away fully from her, and deliberately tipped off the couch onto the floor with a thud. She could see he was completely pissed off and frustrated just like her. Bones grinned however, charmed by his reaction to being so rudely interrupted. She rolled off the couch, and stepped over him, heading towards the door.

Rung 10

Bones looked though the peep hole in her door, and unhooked her chain, then unlatched the locks. As she opened the door, a dusty police detective called Bray apologised to her. 'Dr Brennan, I'm sorry to disturb you so late but I saw the light on under your door. Is Agent Booth still here?'

Booth popped his head up from the floor, and waved at him. Bray smiled at him, saying, 'You wanted to know about the elevator shaft. We have some information I thought couldn't wait.' Booth stood up instantly, and wrapped the kimono around himself tighter, obviously embarrassed now to his flowery dress code.

Bones saw the officer's expression of surprise at seeing Booth dressed like a woman, and diffused Booth's embarrassment with an ordinary, 'Come in, Detective Bray. Coffee?'

Bray looked back to her, and brightened, clearly delighted by her offer. He stepped over her threshold, and thanked her kindly. Bones gestured for him to take a seat at her kitchen island, which he did and Booth joined him. While Bones prepared them all coffee, Booth asked, 'What information?'

'Well, we did as you asked and checked the elevators. The two passenger ones have been given the all clear. We found nothing wrong with them at all. But...'

'Go on...' Bones urged, leaning over the counter next to Booth, listening intently to the officer.

'It had been tampered with. At the top of the shafts, which are accessed from the roof, is the locked breaker box. In it, is the electrics and circuit boards for the security protocols and service area for all three elevators. Certain areas of this box had been isolated by a small measured explosive device. Most of which disintegrated when detonated. But the evidence is clear. My tech says whoever did it knew what to destroy and what to leave alone to produce the effects you experienced. He said it was a precision delicate job. They would have known not to blow the whole box of tricks as the emergency brakes could have failed completely, as would the other elevators and you could have crashed all the way to the basement.'

Bones took a deep breath, stood straight, and looked into Booth. 'I presume then that whoever did this, was not a drug laden lout or would have had the intelligence to pull off such a feat?'

Booth conceded her point with a tiny nod, his face draining of colour. Bones poured them all a coffee, and passed the mugs around. 'My overriding question is why?' Bones continued, 'Why sabotage the service lift, which is rarely used, when the other two are used constantly?'

'Precisely. But it could have been a mistake...'

'How a mistake? I don't follow,' she queried Booth's logic.

'Well, they may have assumed they were sabotaging a passenger lift but made a mistake; picked the wrong breakers.'

'I see. It just seems strange and too much of a coincidence that Mr Dixon was murdered and robbed on the same day as we get trapped in a sabotaged elevator.'

Booth asked her, 'Do you know who else lives in these apartments?'

'Some of them. Why?'

'I think we need to check out who else lives in these apartments and see if any of them have been threatened or may have jobs which bring them into conflict with the disgruntled public. Politicians, company CO's, that kind of thing.'

'Yes, agreed. One thing is certain we also need to look into this so called random drug induced robbery more closely.' Booth nodded, whist sipping his coffee, staring at her over the rim of the mug.

'Is there anything else you can tell us?' Booth addressed his question to Bray who was slurping his steaming rich coffee. He shook his head, swallowing.

'Not at the moment. Needless to say the service elevator is off limits for now. Once my techs have written up the report we'll fax it over to you ASAP at the Hoover.'

Then Bones added, 'Booth, is it possible we could have Cam do the autopsy on Mr Dixon rather than the coroner? It might take too long whereas Cam can start it in the morning or Monday at the latest.'

'Makes sense to me. I'll put a call in to the coroner in the morning and have his remains sent to the Jeffersonian.'

Bones smiled sweetly at him, saying gratefully, knowing it was a personal favour she was asking, and it wasn't really within her jurisdiction to ask for, 'Thanks, Booth.'

Bray drained his mug, and wiped his mouth with back of his hand. 'Ok, I better get home, it's really late. I just wanted to fill you in on developments. And thanks for the great coffee, Dr Brennan. I'll get that report to you as soon as, Agent Booth.' He stood, and headed towards the door. Bones followed him, and opened it.

Booth said, 'Thanks for getting back to us so soon, appreciated.' Detective Bray nodded, and left.

Bones locked her door back up securely, precisely, checking each lock individually a second time, obviously thoughtful. Booth sighed softly, slumping into the chair a little. He was deeply concerned for her obvious anxiousness and needed to reassure her. But before he could, she spoke turning slowly, and walked back towards her sink, 'I feel very uneasy about these events, Booth,' she confessed, as she rinsed out the coffee mugs under the tap.

'That's completely understandable, Bones.' He took the mugs from the drainer, and put them in the dishwasher for her. 'You've had two major shocks and having a friend murdered in your building, and another traumatized is bound to have an effect. You'll feel better in the morning, trust me... We should get to bed.' Bones nodded, looking at her feet for a moment, then she lifted her head, and looked into his sympathetic eyes.

'I need a hug,' she said softly. Booth grinned, and nodded, delighted she had the courage to ask for what she needed from him now. He stepped towards her immediately, and surrounded her with his strong warm arms. He felt her melt into his body, and breathe out relieved, softly into his neck. She mumbled against his skin, 'Thanks.' Booth held her a little tighter, and rubbed his cheek in her hair, skimming her back with his gentle palms.

On the way to her spare room Bones caught sight of the glow of her music system's power button. She snagged her head back, and pushed it off, as she walked on almost without breaking stride. Booth asked from behind her, 'Did you leave it on?'

She chirped, 'Must have.' She opened the door to his bedroom for the night, and stood aside to let him enter before her. She flicked on the light, and looked around the room. 'There you go. There's more blankets and pillows in the wardrobe if you need them.'

'Wow, awesome,' he verbalised his admiration for the bedroom's classic comforts and stylish design. 'I'm gonna sleep like a log on this.' He walked straight to the luxury bed, and sat down with a heavy flump, then picked up a photo frame on the nightstand to examine the picture it held. He sniggered when he saw it was of her on a dig somewhere hot and steamy. She looked so cute in her baggy khakis shorts and wide brimmed floppy hat tied to her head, and secured under her chin, he thought. She was surrounded by dark skinned, almost naked men and women who were half her size. Bones chuckled too when he turned it around to show her.

'Yes, ok, the hat was a bad idea but practical in the circumstances.' She took it from his hand, and snorted again at the fashion faux par. 'I was so young in this, twenty maybe,' she explained, with a sweet smile trickling over her face, as she remembered the expedition fondly, briefly. She replaced the frame on the night stand, as she said, 'Ok, we should get to sleep.'

'Yes, we should,' he confirmed. 'I'll see you in the morning.' Bones looked over his nervous expression, deciding whether to ask what she knew she shouldn't. Booth stood up again, and changed his weight slightly on the soles of his bare feet.

Trying not to load her words with anything other than hospitality, she offered gently, 'If you require anything, I'm just next door.'

Booth grinned, sensing how awkward she felt too. It seemed the huge bed was screaming at them to fill it with themselves and make good use of it. 'Yeah I know, Bones. Night, night.' Booth lent in, and pecked her cheek softly, then grinned falsely hard at her as if he was in pain. He was hoping she would leave very soon before he changed his mind and succumbed to the bed's incessant screams. He wanted to toss her on it and bury himself inside her for all eternity.

Bones nodded, and spun, walking back to the door. She grabbed the handle, and began to close it behind her, feeling a little disappointed at the friendly peck she received. She froze, when he said softly behind her, 'I think our first date was awesome, despite the death...' Bones grinned to herself, without turning, and closed the door gently behind her.

So, it was as she suspected since their elevator conversation, they were dating now, she surmised from his parting comment. More pertinent, she was aware he had expectations and was willing to risk his heart again. The question was now, were both of them expecting the same things from their relationship?

Rung 11

Sunday 06.32 Guest Room

Booth woke early like he always did when he something was niggling at the back of his mind. He stretched his back out, and yawned, squirming on the smooth designer sheet. He checked the time, and flung the covers off him. Sitting on the edge of the bed, and rubbed his face with palms. He remembered that he'd left his clothes in a neat pile in her en suite with his cell phone. Needing all of that, he wrapped the kimono around him again, and made his way out of the bedroom towards hers.

He eased the handle down, and pushed the door open. Unsurprisingly he found Bones still fast asleep in her huge bed. The air was filled with her too and his lungs filled rapaciously in response to it. But what stopped him and his heart in his tracks, was she was laying naked on her stomach. Her hands were tucked under her pillow either side of her head and tossed auburn hair was hiding her face. One shapely smooth leg was casually bent at her knee, and the covers pushed down to just cover her feet. It was definitely the most erotic sight he'd ever seen and especially his exquisite partner in. Her flawless skin screamed; touch me, while her buttocks cried out just as loudly to be kissed. The cute sprig of hair between her legs barely shielded her garden. It teased his eyes not to stare or dare to imagine what delights could be discovered there. Her elegant long spine drew his eyes up it to her nape. And he just knew the tip of his tongue would fit perfectly in that seductive long contour.

Booth finally managed to drag his hungry eyes away from her provocative vision. Then he tip-toed towards her bathroom, while trying to shake off his earnest erection that was peering hopefully out of the kimono at its belt knot.

Closing the bathroom door quietly, he looked in the mirror at himself. He mouthed excitedly, 'Ho-ly fuck,' and sniggered mischievously at his reflection. Moving on from his naught Sunday treat, he urinated, washed his hands, and cleaned his teeth with her toothbrush. Then he dressed quickly, going commando. He put the toilet seat down before he flushed, hoping the cistern refilling wouldn't wake her. He waited till all was quiet again, then opened the door to leave.

Tiptoeing back across the soft carpet towards the door again, he eased the handle down, and pushed it open. Just as he was about to step out she said, all throaty and sexily muffled in her pillow, 'Coffee, milk... two sugars, please.' Booth dropped his shoulders, not feeling so smug now at his apparent silent escape.

'Okay.' He knew she was trying not laugh because he sounded so pathetic and foolish. Booth closed the door behind him carefully and silently, totally busted.

Bones grinned, and fluttered her eyes open. Tossing her hair back over her shoulder, she looked towards her closed bedroom door.

Booth tapped her bedroom door this time, and waited to be invited in. 'Yep!' she called sweetly. Booth opened the door, while balancing his breakfast tray on one hand, feeling as nervous as he could ever recall. She was sitting up against her headboard, still naked but tucked modestly under the sheets now. Booth noted a delightful light blush to her cheeks as they made first eye contact of the day.

'Morning, Bones... again,' he greeted softly, placing the tray on her lap. He hoped she liked what he'd prepared her in apology for his intrusion earlier.

'Ooo. Wonderful, breakfast in bed such a treat. What is it?' Booth chuckled, and sat beside her.

'You know now I'm a ropy cook but I can do scrambled eggs on toast.'

'Yes, clearly you can. Thank you. This looks very tasty and surprising light in consistency.'

'Arh. Well, my Mom taught me what to do. You have to take the eggs off the heat before they dry out and serve immediately or they go all rubbery.' Bones smiled, charmed by his cooking tip and bashfulness. He went on a little more quietly as she tucked in, 'Sorry about earlier. I should have knocked but I didn't want to wake you,' he said, looking to the plate of eggs she was eating happily. He picked up his coffee mug, and took a sip.

'Don't be. I wasn't embarrassed. I was so exhausted and didn't have the energy to move. You were correct, yesterday took a lot more out of me than I realised.'

'It was early, still is actually.' Booth got up, and walked to her windows, and drew the blinds up. She watched him do his task slowly, and stare out of the window at the crisp bright morning, sipping his coffee bathed in sunlight. 'I've arranged for Mr Dixon's remains to be transferred to the Jeffersonian.' Booth absently watched another early riser taking shots from his tripod of the stunning sunrise over the park below that her window viewed. 'I've left a message with Cam too, just giving her the heads up. They don't think the body will be released till Monday now.' He finally turned around, and perched on the window ledge, going on with, 'That's the best we can hope for anyway. So today is free for me to get on with the plinth for your new bath.'

Bones took a sip of her sweetened coffee, and rested her head back on the headboard having finished her breakfast plate. 'Something's on your mind, I recognise the signs,' she stated gently, turning her head to look over to him. She saw him drop his eyes from hers, and walk over to one of her alcoves, and finger a strange looking artefact displayed artfully within it. 'Booth, what are you thinking?'

'I'm thinking... what is this, a vase?' he asked, not willing to answer her question yet, avoiding it completely.

She sighed, then educated, 'It's an early Egyptian canopic jar with the head of Duamutef that represents the east and is protected by the goddess Neith. It dates to around 1353 BC.' Booth lifted the lid carefully, and peered inside it on tip toes.

'What did it hold?'

'You'd appreciate it actually, the stomach of the mummified person.' Booth laughed, replacing the lid carefully, and walked back to her. He sat down beside her with his back to her. Bones instinctually placed her hand on his back, then ran it up to his neck, and caressed him in a hugely intimate and tender gesture. He sighed at her delicate touch, and closed his eyes, as he rolled back onto her chest. With his head just under her chin, she tilted her head onto the top of his head, while tickling softly at his nape. 'Please tell me what's bothering you, Booth.'

He relented, 'I don't think Mr Dixon was shot for his money or jewellery to feed a habit. The apartment was staged, I'm sure of that now. Anybody looking for a quick buck wouldn't have gone up four flights to rob someone who was on a pension. That's one hell of a risk. There's plenty of apartment blocks around here which are easier to get into, yours for example was wide open. Why didn't they just ransack here? What's bugging me is why he was shot and the apartment was almost untouched. Then there was the elevator thing, what was all that about? No one would've died or even got injured; so why not blow the lot if they wanted to kill someone in the block? It doesn't make sense.'

Booth fell silent as they wrestled with the questions they couldn't answer yet. Bones continued to caress him until he tilted his head up to look into her. She smiled a little, scanning his deep eyes, lips and darling expression. Then she confessed, 'I wanted you to slip in bed with me last night. I wanted to find you beside me this morning... so I could do this to you when we woke.'

Booth suddenly started to tremble as she placed those sensuous cherry red lips against his tentatively for a few seconds, placing her mug on the nightstand. Then she gently nudged his lips apart with the softest slip of her silky hot tongue, while her palm caressed his jaw. The sensation it elicited shot straight to his groin and like a tracer bullet firing, he was granite hard again, and bursting his stud flied Levis. She brushed that delicate tongue against his, and went gently right. Booth went left, and slid his around hers in a glorious rolling circle, and felt her hand drizzle down his throat to rest over his heart. He could feel her shortening breaths cascade over his cheek which heightened his desire, especially when her hand went ever lower, and slipped back up under his vest shirt.

Bones slowed, then lavished his upper palate with soft slow laps which again ignited his endocrine system into full-on alertness. Then knowing he was about to overload, and gasp free, she switched back to caressing his tongue again with hers. She changed her mouth's angle against his, and reversed the direction of her tongue, and gently squeezed his twitching pectoral. This confused him for moment before he regrouped, caught her specialist languid technique, and matched it. She whimpered into his mouth now, unable to stop her own mounting desire from overrunning her, feeling him respond to her flesh on his. Every nerve fibre pinged in a chant of their own and hormones rampaged, drenching her between her legs, and tweaking her nipples into tight ruby peaks.

Booth couldn't stop himself from going deeper inside her. He was drawn in on her smooth taste and yielding softness, while he simultaneously ran his fingers through her tousled hair. Bones caressed his muscular abdomen, and she pulled him a little closer into her aching breasts to stimulate them further.

Booth could feel her nipples punch through the sheet over them into his taut torso. He twitched against her to feel them more firmly, it was then, with the added sensation, Bones gasped open mouthed, and paused her tongue. Then she was back into deep action, pulling him nearly over her completely. The breakfast tray and plates slipped to the duvet and clattered but neither party cared about the mess they'd made. Booth rumbled deeply, rubbing his erection against her hip in a slow circular roll. Bones gripped his back, and clenched her buttocks which lifted her pelvis towards his sexual heat. It was a subtle controlled movement but had a huge effect on both of them. They both gasped again, and stared into one another, blinking, they tried to decide which one should make the first move to take this further. The kiss had started out as a loving one then got lovingly passionate now it had set them alight to make love. There was only one way to go from here. Booth was the one who aired their thoughts first.

Wild eyed, he asked breathlessly, 'Do you...?'

Interrupting him, wet lipped, she panted her affirming answer, 'Yes...'

'Thank God. It will be over in a flash and a grunt though. I hope you won't hold that against me.'

'Never.' She grinned, delighted by his humour, ripping off his stale t-shirt, and flinging it. Just as he was fumbling hurriedly with his fly studs his cell rang in his back pocket. He stilled, and looked at her. She shook her head for him not to answer it, and began to help him pop him free just as quickly. She got a tantalizing glimpse of what awaited her and promised so much under the thick material. Then the ringing doubled suddenly, crashing in on them, as her home phone on the night stand resounded too. She stilled now, and looked into his dimming eyes.

Bones grabbed her phone. 'Yes, what?' she snapped at the unknown caller.

'Whell, that's a pleasant way to greet your best friend,' Ange scolded sweetly.

'Oh. Ange, sorry. It's just... Nothing, nothing. What did you want?'

'What's that ringing?' Ange asked, hearing a cell ringing in the background. Booth rolled, and pulled out his cell to answer it.

'Hey, Cam. Thanks for getting back to me...'

'Is Booth with you?'

'Yes. He's kindly helping me remodel my bathroom.' Bones snapped her eyes to Booth as he sat up but kept looking into her eyes. They could see the grave disappointment in each other at being interrupted again.

'He's there early... or did he stay the night?' Ange asked suggestively, not realising what was coming next. The long hollow pause gave her the answer. 'Oh. My. God. Really? Did I interrupt the naked pretzel samba?'

'I don't know what that means, Ange. Why are you calling at seven fifteen on a Sunday morning?'

Booth spoke quietly on his cell to Cam, holding Bones' free hand. They entwined fingers, and squeezed in a gesture of acceptance of the situation.

'Cam left me a message saying there'd been some trouble at your place last night. I was just checking in with you, that's all. I wanted to make sure you're ok.'

'I see. Thank you. Yes, I'm fine, we're fine. Do you recall my building Super?'

'Yes, course, Frank. Elsa Dixon was your cleaner too, wasn't she?'

'Umm. Well, Frank was shot and robbed yesterday while Booth and I were trapped in the service elevator.'

Aghast, Ange said, 'Jesus, Sweetie! That's more than a little trouble.' Booth was already off his cell, and kissing her hand sweetly while she continued her conversation with her best friend. She watched him kiss her hand, deeply touched by his casual affection.

'Yes, it is curious. Booth rang Cam to let her know that tomorrow Mr Dixon's remains will be brought to the Jeffersonian for her to autopsy.'

'Ok. As long as you're ok. I'll leave you two to it then and I'll see you in the morning. Call if you need anything.'

'I will. Thanks for calling, Ange. And I'm sorry I snapped at you.'

'Don't mention it. Details tomorrow. Bye, Sweetie.' Bones replaced the receiver on its cradle, and looked back to him. His groin had settled back to its normal position and she reluctantly knew their moment had passed.

Rung 12

Roof top

Broadsky scanned his target windows, waiting patiently for the occupants to surface. He'd come up early to get settled and watched the day break over DC. He thought a few more hours observation wouldn't hurt as he didn't have much else to do today. He would come back tonight just to wile away a few hours, but if the opportunity was clear tonight, he'd take it, he mused.

The sky was cobalt blue and the rising sun reflected off the windows frames opposite, making him squint to see though them clearly. He knew the best time to get his shot off was when the sun was long past its apex and starting to set. Which he calculated was between 1700 and 1800hrs. The sun clung to the sky a little longer each day and stretched out his optimum window a little bit everyday.

A broad figure crossed the lens of his scope and he refocused his sights, feeling the addictive adrenalin surge in his blood stream.

'Arrh. Finally. Good morning, Seeley, my old friend. I was wondering when you were going to show your face. Did you enjoy the pot roast? Bet you did. What you doing now, eh? Oooh. I wish you'd stay still, you're not making this easy for me. But then again, where would the challenge be in that?' He watched Booth chose his tool and begin to start work again.

'Isn't it a beautiful day? Did you see that tangerine sunrise, Seeley? I did, spectacular it was. I find it incredible that so many people miss sights like that when they have no idea their time is limited. I wonder how many more sunrises you'll miss. The real question is, would you watch every one if you knew I had you in my crosshairs? Or don't you care about sunrises or sets... or just hers?'

Broadsky readjusted his body a little against the ground mat he was laying along, as he did, he froze. He heard clanking foot steps approaching on the fire escape behind him. He jumped up, and grabbed his rifle, mat and backpack, then ran to duck down behind a silver aluminium air-con ventilation shaft. Something was missing from his accoutrements, he realised, and looked back to where he'd been laying. He'd forgotten his binoculars as they were just under the two foot high ledge in shadow and thought they may not be spotted. Even if they were, as long as he wasn't discovered, it wouldn't make anybody too suspicious.

The sound of someone groaning as they hauled themselves over the ledge onto the flat roof, shallowed Broadsky's breathing. The young athletic man in tight stonewashed denim and navy high roll necked sweater had his back to him, and lit up a fat joint as soon as he was on the roof. The twenty-something sat down on the ledge overlooking the park, and smoked his joint with some noisy relish, not noticing the binoculars.

Broadsky could smell the overly sweet scent of his expensive hash in his nostrils as the smoke blew past him. He mused he must be one of the residents of the apartments below and came up here regularly to indulge his habit in peace, and take in the view. Broadsky couldn't blame him, it was a lovely view into downtown DC; with its monuments in silhouette in the distance. A few minutes more, Broadsky judged, and the man would be gone and he could get on with his surveillance.

Balls of ash rolled past Broadsky and disintegrated as they hit the ledge forming tiny grey clouds that blew off the building and away. As he waited in silence and calm for the man to finish his joint, he looked up to the cobalt sky, admiring its height, and revelling in the feeling of space above him.

Broadsky heard the man stand up, and the shuffling of his feet. Then all at once the man was next to him with his dick out, ready to urinate up the side of the air conditioning vent. The handsome man's mouth dropped open, obviously stunned to realise he was not alone. He then looked down to Broadsky's evil looking long range rifle, and faded to grey.

'Fffuck, Jesus!' he shouted in panic, and ran towards the fire escape with his dick still out of his zipper. Broadsky ran around the vent, and cut him off. He snapped his hand over his mouth, and grabbed his arm into painful lock behind his back. Broadsky dragged him away from the ladders. The man whimpered under his palm, and struggled violently against him.

'Oh. This is so inconvenient,' Broadsky droned flatly, restraining him effortlessly. 'You've seen my face and weapon of choice. You must understand I can't let you go, don't you?'

The youth shook his head, and his watering eyes flared, as they begged him to let him go. Broadsky pulled his arm up his back to subdue him further as he screamed like a garrotted gull under his rough palm.

Edging him towards the west side of the building, Broadsky said evenly, 'It won't hurt, don't worry yourself. The worst bit is the fall, I imagine.' The petrified man started to sob under his palm, and twist manically against Broadsky. He tried to lean back, and topple them away from the ledge in a last futile attempt to free himself.

Broadsky whispered airily in his ear as he quivered against him, 'Did you see the sunrise this morning? It was beautiful...' Then Broadsky kneed the back of his trembling leg, and pushed forwards violently hard and fast. The young man buckled, then toppled over the ledge, and fell like a stone to the sidewalk below; rolling and twirling in his screaming drop. Broadsky watched his wide eyes stare back up at him in the last instant before he hit the sidewalk, weighed down by his anvil eyes.

His skull exploded on impact and spattered the grey slabs like a supernova, while his arms and legs cracked into a macabre swastika logo. Broadsky tilted his head, staring at the strange image for a few moments without a flicker of remorse in his chilled eyes. 'Look east to life and the rebirth of the sun, west to death and the dying of the sun; that's what the ancient Egyptians believed.'

Broadsky turned, packed his gun away carefully, and picked up his binoculars, then climbed down the fire escape and away to his car. As he reached solid ground in the back alley, he could hear the piercing whine of sirens in the distance.

Rung 13

Bones' Apartment

Booth was making so much noise in her bathroom now she couldn't hear when the kettle clicked off after it boiled, and she was standing right next to it. She had a stupid smile on her face because she found she loved the racket he was making. Even the clouds of choking dust that billowed out of the bathroom seemed beautiful to her now. There was something so animalistic and primal about a practical man about the house and completely comforting to her. More so because it was her sweaty loud man, about her house.

Earlier she'd had the overwhelming impulse to join in with his crashing and banging about, and felt it her duty to at least ask if he needed her assistance. So as she dressed after her lazy shower, she put on the baggy tattered shorts he'd laughed out loud about last night in the old photo, and even managed to rummage out the floppy hat and scarf too. All of which adorned her now.

She poured him a mug of her favourite coffee, and walked towards the bathroom still with that silly smile plastered over her face. As she peered around the doorframe, her stomach leaped in anticipation, hopeful that her eclectic outfit would amuse him. He was concentrating so hard on hammering an old copper water pipe that he didn't hear her enter.

The mirror to her right, which backed the double sinks, was milky white with clinging dust, and the remnants of the bathroom were in a worse state now than last night. And she thought it couldn't get any worse than last night. The thought did cross her mind again that maybe she should've declined his generous offer and gone with the professionals now. But she tossed that thought out of her head instantly with, 'Coffee?' she yelled over the ear splitting blare.

Booth snapped his head around mid strike and flattened the tip of his thumb. Bones winced for him instantly as he leapt up, dropped the hammer with a clatter, and started Irish dancing in a circle, cradling his thumb between his thighs. Unrepeatable cuss words she'd never heard before filled her ears and turned the thick air cerulean blue.

Bones gingerly placed the coffee mug on the gritty surface next to the sinks, and waited for him to calm, it took a while. Once he stopped doing his Michael Flatly impression, he stilled, and looked at her with the saddest puppy eyes she'd ever seen. Her heart went out to him, so did her throaty loud laugh. Stepping over today's new rubble, she gave him a giggling pout, and took his hand to look at his thumb. He let her look it over to assess the damage. He whimpered cutely like an injured puppy until she pushed the nail to see if would dislodge. Then he squealed like a girl, dragging his hand away.

'Waah. Jesus H Christ, Bones!' he scolded.

'Haa! Sorry, sorry. It's not going to drop off,' she placated, grinning hard at him with hands on hips, proudly sporting her get up. Booth's pout turned to a smile as he looked her over and her ridiculous outfit, which he knew she'd put on just for him.

'Ba-Haa!' he bellowed riotously, suddenly, creasing over as she joined in too. 'Brilliant, so funny,' he complimented her ability to make fun of herself so charmingly.

'I think I look very dapper.' She pulled down the scarf over her face which served as a mask to strain out the dust in the air. 'And practical too, in the circumstances. I've come to help. What can I do beside kiss your thumb better?'

'Sod kissing my thumb, kiss me,' he commanded, overrun with happy hormones again and numbing endorphins. He slipped a hand around her waist, with the other, he lifted the veil-like scarf. Bones smooched his lips as she hummed through it loudly, then sucked off him with an adorable mmumwha sound.

'There, all better,' she cooed pleasantly. Booth shook his head seriously, and pulled her firmly flush against him, glaring into her eyes. 'Would you like another?' she asked innocently, thrilling at the feral look in his eyes her kiss had expedited.

'One like earlier,' he confirmed, looking greedily to her lips, then back up into her eyes.

Bones grinned, and said, 'Oh. One of my special ones... Ok.' She planted her palms on his tight hot shoulders, and pushed him back till his back hit the rough tile-less wall, and delved into him without ceremony. He snapped his arms around her, and held on for his life as she went feral too.

Her tongue began dancing jubilantly around his; flicking, lapping this way then that, and caressing everything in its path in a wet salacious slide. Her tender, yet sensuous kiss, weakened his knees, but spurred his hands into manic, long repressed, roving. Bones broke the kiss, asking airless on his glistening lips, 'More?'

He confirmed, 'More...' This time Booth spun her around, and pushed her up to the wall, and devoured her, becoming the emcee now. Bones' tongue went suddenly limp as she let him explore her mouth, completely surrendering to his passion for her. She hooked a leg around his, and pulled him closer to her with it. Then she felt his hands on her buttocks, and was lifted up, she locked her ankles around his hips, as he ground his erection into her, which pushed out wanton moan from her. 'Jesus, Bones,' he suddenly gasped, as they both felt radiating heat pooling between their legs.

'Yes, I know. We're fairly adept at kissing,' she said seriously, but flaring her eyes naughtily. Booth laughed, and peppered her lips and cheek, as she continued, 'But this bathroom will never be completed if we carry on like this.'

'Umm,' he agreed half-heartedly, nuzzling into her neck, as she re-closed her eyes to his moist kisses trickling up her neck to her ear. 'We should really get on,' he conceded, licking into her ear, making her stiffen against him with her keen arousal.

'Yes, we, should,' she confirmed, kissing his lips between each word. 'I need to get some more milk and a paper.' Booth jarred his head back slightly, looking confused.

'I thought you were going to help me?'

She grinned, charmed by his pout. 'I will. When I get back. I'll be ten minutes,' she explained in staccato, stroking down his face softly, leaving one last kiss on his lips, then dropping her feet to the floor.

Booth warned her seriously, 'Don't go out like that.' Bones sniggered, and walked out of the bathroom, ignoring his warning. 'Seriously! Don't, Bones, you look...'

'Extremely alluring, I know!' She grabbed some cash and her keys, throwing a cheery smile at him watching her leave over her shoulder, as she slammed the apartment door.

Booth ducked back into the bathroom, adjusted his waning erection in his jeans, and got on with his jobs with renewed vigour, while grinning manically.

As Bones went down to the lobby in the passenger elevator, she felt proud that she felt no anxiousness. She'd rationalised the situation yesterday, and knew they were perfectly safe. So she felt no twinges of anxiety in using it.

When the doors slid open, she wasn't surprised to find the lobby abnormally busy with people, either in uniform or overalls. The ones in dark grey overalls were attending to the stuck service elevator. As far as she could see they'd had little luck moving it to the basement. The doors were still clamped open, and the narrow gap Booth and her had crawled out of, was still visible, as was her old bath. The normally highly polished marble floor was dulled by a thin covering of her bathroom tile dust and felt herself blush at the mess they'd left.

Two of the Otis service engineers turned to see who came out of the elevator next to the one they were working on, and smiled at her pleasantly. 'Morning,' she said to them brightly, noting their wry smiles. It was then that she realised, they too were amused by her eccentric outfit. She wanted to say snootily in defence, I'm an artist, but decided against it.

Bones took no notice of their stifled snorts, and went out into the bright, but chilled, morning though the double glass doors, and turned right. It was then that she realised the brilliant sun had deceived her. Although it was spring, it was extremely cold still, and goose bumps erupted up her thighs under her baggy khakis shorts, and over her bare forearms instantly. So she began to jog down the sidewalk towards her local parade of stores, hoping to raise her temperature and fight off the frosty air.

As she turned the corner of her block, she looked left preparing to cross the street to see if it was clear of traffic. Just then the blue flashing lights of an ambulance and two patrol cars caught her eye. Made curious, she jogged in their direction instead, seeing a small gathering of people standing in a crescent shape around the vehicles and sidewalk. They all had solemn expressions, and whispered amongst one another.

One policeman was pushing back the on-lookers as she neared, and asked him politely, quietly, 'I'm with the FBI and live in the building opposite this one. Can you tell me what's happened?' The policemen looked her over once, clearly deciding whether to accept her dubious statement. Bones set her expression to deadly serious, and tilted her chin up in a defiant challenging gesture for him to accept her white lie, despite her wacky fashion statement.

He checked again, 'Oh. Right. FBI, you say?' Bones nodded to confirm. 'We think we got a jumper,' he said flatly, pointing up to the buildings roof. Bones looked up too, then watched as the young man's body being zipped inside a body bag and stretcher-ed into the back of the ambulance. The policemen went on, 'Or he fell off accidentally taking a leak. They found a joint stub up there and he had his fly undone. Stoned obviously. Lucky he didn't take anybody else with him when he hit the deck...'

Bones nodded in understanding and agreement with the seasoned portly officer, saying, 'Thank you.' Then, like the rest of the small curious crowd who were dispersing as there was nothing else to see, she turned away too.

She stalled on the curb as a battered red Mondeo drove past slowly, noting the driver rubbernecking at the incident. She crossed the road behind it, heading towards the stores on the far side of the street. As she pushed open the door to her local upmarket grocers, she idly thought the beaten up old car seemed oddly out of place around these high-class streets. Then she dismissed that thought, as she picked up a copy of the Washington Post, recalling she'd seen it locally in the last few weeks, so it wasn't really so odd after all.

Rung 14

Bones pulled out the key of her apartment door lock, as she crossed the threshold, and knew instantly something devastating had happened while she'd been away. Her stomach flipped at the frantic atmosphere and it put her on high alert. Firstly she could hear the clattering of pots and pans being tossed, filling the air in the kitchen with noise. She saw several of them rolling and spinning across the stone floor, intertwined with, 'Where are you! Where the ffff. Quick, find it you jerk!' All that was mixed in with her kitchen cupboard doors being manically opened then slammed shut. Then something else caught her eye to the far left. There was a huge arc of water spraying loudly out of her master bathroom door. It had obviously been doing that for sometime as the puddle on the floor was vast, and growing larger and deeper all the time. Bones' shoulders sagged, then she slammed the apartment door behind her to get his attention.

Suddenly Booth leapt up from behind the kitchen island, hearing her come back, and stood rigid. He looked completely demonic and panic-stricken to her, and a diabolical cerise pink. His face was contorted into agony and manic frustration, while his clothing was drenched just like his dripping face and hair. 'Where's the bloody stop cock, quick, Bones? Quiiick!' he virtually screamed at her, feeling completely impotent.

Bones dropped opened her mouth to speak, then decided now wasn't the time. She walked briskly to the kitchen, stepping over the discarded saucepans, and opened a cupboard he'd missed in his frantic search. She reached into it, and shut off the stop cock, as she looked over her shoulder. They both watched the high arc of water from the bathroom droop like a fading erection, just like him.

Bones stood up, and looked into his relaxing body, and watched as his eyes lost their panic status. 'I... I...' he stammered, trying to explain but not knowing what to say.

'You what?' she said, sounding mildly sarcastic to Booth. She was trying desperately to hold back her laughter, as she walked towards her bathroom.

'I lost control of the situation, a little...' Bones glanced to him over her shoulder, he instantly dropped his eyes from her, and followed her like a naughty puppy.

She waded through the puddle on her very expensive cherry veneered floor, and looked inside the former bathroom. For his sake, she gagged her gasp of horror in her throat at the shambles that assaulted her.

The pipe he'd been hammering earlier was half snapped off and dangled by a thin piece of fatigued copper. The water that had dowsed every surface mixed with the grout dust and rubble on the floor, was now solidifying into a cement-like blanket across everything. The large, wall-length, mirror had a crack right across it but was now washed perfectly clean.

Seeing her aghast expression, Booth leapt past her, clambering over the sopping rubble. He squelched in his jeans, and went straight to the broken pipe to explain, 'I accidentally hit off the isolation cock, here. I was a tad exuberant with my hammer, I expect.' He pointed to it as if he needed to point out exactly what had transpired and caused the soggy disaster. Bones could easily work out exactly what had transpired from the evidence though. 'Then the water started gushing out like a main breaking. I tried to stop it with my hands, that didn't work.' He acted out each stage of his attempted salvage cutely for her. 'So then, I tried plugging the leak with towels but...' Bones was covering her teeth with her lips to stop herself from laughing, as she nodded, looking around anywhere but to him. There were at least five of her best bath towels now dripping wet and filthy dirty strewn all over the catastrophic bathroom. 'But then I thought there must be another stop cock somewhere,' he said rather proudly. Then sadly, apologetically, 'That's when I trashed the kitchen to find it...' Booth looked to where her eyes were looking, and felt appalling for trashing her bathroom and now the wooden floor too. He grimaced, and looked back to her sheepishly.

'Booth?' She looked into his eyes and his wet face, seeing his jeans were hanging off his buttocks with the wet weight of them.

Booth prepared himself for the barrage of abuse and his punishment, even his rightful banishment. 'Yes, Bones,' he said, loading the two words with resignation.

She instructed firmly but in a even tone, 'Come here.' He walked slowly to her, rolling his ankle over on a bunched squishy towel, and stumbled en route. He stood directly in front of her, lowering his eyes and head slightly, but still looking into her from under his lashes. She lifted her hand towards his face. Booth thought she was going to strike him, and instinctually jerked his head slightly away from her palm. Bones stilled for a second, then carefully slid it over his water beaded face to wipe off the water tenderly, then pulled him carefully towards her by the back of his head.

The fact that he slightly recoiled from her palm broke her heart, knowing what he'd been expecting and that almost brought tears to her eyes. She hugged him to her, and settled her face in the crook of his neck. Then she felt blindly for his hands, placing them around her for him to hug her back. Which he did, and gave her the subtlest of squeezes. 'Harder,' she instructed sweetly, demonstrating what she wanted with her own arms, more importantly what he needed. She felt him melt into her forgiving embrace and nuzzled into her deeper, while sighing softly. They held one another tenderly for a wonderful long minute filled with deep affection and mutual comfort.

Booth felt her trembling in his arms after a while, and grew concerned, realising she was understandably crying over her ruined home, so whispered, 'I'm so sorry, Bones. I...' He looked confused into her as she threw her head back, and laughed hard into the air around them. To his immense relief she was actually laughing solidly, and seemed completely unconcerned by the calamity to befall them. With her laughter filling his ears and the bathroom, it filled him too. They began to laugh with each other, till they were in hysterics with tears rippling down their cheeks.

Bones picked up the towels into a huge dripping bundle, and carried them out to the kitchen. She shoved the lot in the washing machine, chuckling all the way there. Booth followed her out, and through his snorting laughter, he began to put away the pans in the cupboards neatly, while wiping his eyes of his tears.

'I haven't laughed so much in such a long time. I find I'm enjoying the serotonin surge very much,' she explained sexily, flaring her eyes at him, as she grabbed her mop and bucket, and began soaking up the puddle on her floor.

Watching her mop, while he tidied, Booth realised he'd never been so happy as he was in this instant in time and space. He felt a narcotic high course his veins and vast suddenly; carefree, weightless from his emotional scars and entirely understood by her. The unprecedented euphoria he was experiencing was food for his soul and it was her that had fed it so simply; just by holding and kissing him, he realised. She'd shown him the beauty of true forgiveness, when given in love. They'd laughed with abandon; jubilant in their new romantic relationship too.

He'd loved before, and been loved by others but this was unlike anything gone before, because he was loved by her. Loved by this kooky, striking, terrifyingly clever woman, who'd been ravaged by the shameful scars of others wrongdoings. She wasn't a perfect being, far from it. In truth, he pondered, he wouldn't want her to be. He adored her eccentricities, ineptitudes, and vulnerabilities just as much as her virtues. But right now his compulsion was to share this remarkable feeling with her and feed her soul too.

As she was squeezing out the mop Booth snuck up behind her, and slipped his arms around her waist, then spun her around in his arms. He picked her up off the floor in his delirium and joy. She whooped at the sudden elevation, and chuckled, dropping the mop, looping her arms around his neck. He looked lovingly into her eyes, feasting on her surprised expression.

He looked, to her, feral again, so she questioned seductively his amorous romantic expression, hoping it meant, 'Sex?'

Booth shook his head, and kissed her bluntly on the lips hard, then snapped away to say, 'Something better.'

She refuted his statement vehemently, 'There's nothing better than sex with me, Booth.'

'Haa. I don't doubt it.' She grinned, and kissed him as a thank you for accepting her word so gallantly. Then he asked excitedly, she thought nervously too, 'I wanna take you somewhere, show you something. Will you come with me?'

'What now?' she asked incredulously. He nodded fast, and placed her gently on the floor again.

'Go get changed, and wrap up warm.' He turned her, and pointed her in the direction of her bedroom. 'Go on.' He gave her a little push. She laughed, but did as instructed.

Booth put on the jeans and jumper he'd arrived in yesterday, screwing up his wet clothes, and shoved them in his holdall. Then sat on her counter worktop, waiting for her to come back out, twitching was excitement. He didn't have to wait long.

She came out trussed up like a succulent Christmas turkey, and looked to him, spectacular and definitely edible. The rich dark jeans she wore hugged her hips and thighs with glee. The two sweaters she wore looked like cashmere to him. The under one was a crew neck, with a thicker v-necked one over the top, which were in two complimenting colours that matched her sparkling blue eyes. Over those she wore a short chocolate puffer jacket, which she was zipping up as she trotted out in her walking sneakers.

Booth slipped off the work top, and grabbed his bag and keys. 'Great, you look great, and warm. Perfect,' he understated his compliments.

'Thank you. Where we going?' She picked up her keys, and tucked away those and her purse.

'Patience...' he said cryptically, holding the door open for her to exit first.

Rung 15

Mondeo

Broadsky watched the FBI SUV pull out of the underground parking of the doctors building, and turn left. He'd seen the figures of Booth and the ridiculously nicknamed, Bones, smiling as they sped off down the street. Jacob depressed his clutch, and turned the key of his clapped out car to start it. It rattled to life and billowed blue smoke from the labouring carburettor behind him. He pushed the gear lever into first, and edged out of the side road, then joined the thin traffic behind them, staying six vehicles back.

The partners eventually headed onto the I-64, and sped up. Broadsky flicked on the cranky radio, and put his boot down too. He settled more comfortably in the seat, and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the tune that was playing. He glanced to his gas gauge, and saw it was hovering over the empty, and sighed forlornly. He'd been looking forward to following them on this bright day, which seemed a perfect day for a long drive. He thought he'd follow them till the next intersection, then knew he would have to turn off for gas. He couldn't chance a breakdown on a highway littered with nosey police patrol cars and invasive all-seeing cameras.

SUV

Bones looked absorbed out of the window to her side, still smiling from this morning's memories. She saw the urban sprawl thin, and replaced by countryside on either side. The trees got bigger and denser as the sun hung high above them like a lemon drop in the sky. 'I'd forgotten that in just a few minutes drive out of the city, how quickly you can get into the green belt,' she ruminated. She heard him hum to agree but didn't look around to him, as she was content to stare at the lush rebirth sprout from the boughs that flashed by them.

'We're coming off here,' Booth explained, and began to change lanes to the nearside. Just as he did Bones caught a plume of blue exhaust fumes from behind a red car a few behind them in the lane they had just exited. She glared at the car harder in the wing mirror, recognising it as the one she'd seen this morning. 'Ten more minutes,' Booth added, driving down the slip road. His comment drew her attention back to him, and his charming slither of a smile. 'There's a diner down here in a few miles; shall we stop for something?' he asked hopefully. Bones smiled wider at his need to eat again, as he indicated to go right under the interstate.

'Sure,' she agreed happily.

Mondeo

Broadsky was delighted that they turned off, and gambled that his gas tank held enough to follow them a little further. The gas stations along this stretch of road were plentiful and he knew of a good diner close by where he could get something to eat.

He kept a greater distance between them now as the traffic was very light and didn't give him much cover.

Eventually he saw them indicate into the diner he was heading for, and took his boot off the gas pedal to slow right down, giving them time to park up. By the time he came to the turning he saw the doctor getting out of the passenger side, and looking vaguely in his direction. So he sailed slowly by, but pulled up out of sight, beyond the diner. He gave them ten minutes to get settled, then turned around, and drove straight into the gas station, and filled up his tank. He knew he couldn't risk eating in the diner now, so grabbed a few sandwiches and drinks when he paid for the tank of gas.

Broadsky pulled up behind a particularly large haulage truck out of sight of them, and turned off his engine. He began on his cheese and pickle sandwiches, and waited patiently with his Glock 19 on his lap.

'Dutch?' Bones asked, pulling the cheque plate towards her to see what she needed to put down to split the bill. Booth snatched it back, shocking her, and shook his head.

'No way, Jose!' he insisted. 'Not after wrecking your apartment; which I shall put right if it's the last thing I do, believe me!' Booth fingered out cash from his wallet, and shoved it under the plate to cover the lunch plus a healthy tip.

'Booth, we always go halves,' she reminded, a little put out by his insistence. 'And you don't have to put it right. It was just a little unfortunate you didn't bring that book with you...' she said, with a wry smile flirting with her lips that curled around her coffee cup to drain it.

Booth got up, and furrowed his brow, not understanding what she meant. 'What book?' he queried, opening the door for her to leave through it ahead of him.

She walked towards the SUV, saying cheekily, 'Plumbing for dummies...' She heard Booth gasp in horror and shock behind her, so she braced herself. She was right to. Booth grabbed her waist, and tickled her ribs. She creased up laughing, attempting to stop his hands from their assault on her giggle muscles.

'You calling me a dummy?' he accused, not letting go of her, as they wrestled each other in a zig-zag, twirling path back towards the car.

'Plumbing dummy. Haa. Plumbing dummy,' she clarified but that didn't placate him. 'Not an all round dummy, obviously.'

'One little tsunami and I'm a dummy all of a sudden! I thought you liked me?' He bodily edged her up against the hood, and held her fast to it. Looping her laced fingers around the back of his neck, clearly not intimidated, Bones peered into his eyes. Then she slowly lost her laughter, exchanging it for the romantic moment that was required now.

She shook her head, millimetres off his lips with hers. Then so close that he felt it on them, she whispered laconically, 'I don't just like you, Booth...'

Booth smiled slowly wider at her, understanding she meant another word beginning with the letter L. He teased her lips with his, as if he was going to kiss her at first, changed his angle, and teased again, sharing her breaths. Looking back into her eyes, he then kissed her lips softly, feeling her ache for him. He pecked innocently a few more times till they were kissing deeply and slowly again, and exchanged their declared love.

Mondeo

Broadsky slowly wound down his squeaky window, swallowed his last gulp of soda excitedly, then tossed the can in the passenger foot well. Seizing his unexpected chance, he aimed the Glock in their direction. He rested it on his elbow on the door frame to steady it. He made his target choice, aiming for the left temple, and squeezed the trigger very slowly.

Booth broke their luscious kiss, resting his brow on hers. 'You do things to me,' he mumbled, over run with joy, gently rubbing his brow on hers. 'I swear, things I can't explain.'

Bones laughed softly, saying, 'Yes I understand, and can feel those things.' She cocked her brow at him, pushing her pelvis into his erection slightly to accentuate her point.

'Don't make fun, Bones. I'm serious.' He moped a little, understanding too much romanticism turned her off and made her uncomfortable, so reigned himself in.

(( A huge emerald MACK truck rumbled between him and his target and stopped by the exit. It billowed exhaust fumes from its periscope chrome pipes, preparing to turn out. Broadsky had lost his shot and opportunity. He snatched his finger off the trigger, and put the Glock back to his lap with a groan of frustration. ))

'As a heart attack?' she asked softly, deadly serious too, now. His eyes darted to hers, and searched them. He knew she was asking and telling him she understood what he was trying to say. They'd a conversation a while ago when he came back from Afghanistan where he told her he was in love with Hannah. She'd asked if it was a serious relationship and he'd replied with what she'd just asked.

Booth belittled that old relationship now, by saying passionately, 'You and me, we're deeper, stronger and greater than any flimsy heart attack.'

Bones smiled hard at him, plainly agreeing. 'I've been thinking the same.' She pecked his lips again, and eased him backwards with her palms on his shoulders. Booth opened the car door for her and she slipped in.

Booth ran around to his side, and jumped in, grinning madly now, delighted she'd thought they were survivable too, driving off.

Mondeo

Broadsky watched them drive back out onto the road, and turned his car key. Nothing happened but a clattering clunk. 'Shit!' He tried again, nothing stirred but another disheartening whirring nothingness. Losing his cool, he raged, 'Fucking use-lessheap, of, shit!' He thumped the steering wheel with his fist, and tried yet again to start the aging wreck. Getting no reaction from it, he leapt from the car, livid, and slammed the door so hard the window shattered instantly. He booted the side door panel as tempered glass crumbled to the asphalt. For once he'd lost his ice chipped eyes as they turned molten with fury now.

He loathed being thwarted especially when he nearly got his shot off. His disappointment was compounded by his car not starting too, and knowing his planned shot from the rooftop was no longer viable either. He'd missed out on his long imagined relieving climax; the final satisfying orgasm of all his meticulous planning.

Jacob seethed around in a circle, kicking up the ground with his boot in frustration, till he heard, 'Need a hand, Mate?' from the returning truck driver he was parked next to.

Rung 16

Booth stopped the car just shy of a silver rusting six bar gate that had a new lock and chain on it. There was a sign on the top bar of the gate which read, Private Property. No entry. Trespassers will be prosecuted.

Booth jumped out of the car, and went to the heavy chain, then fumbled in his leather jacket pocket for the key. Unlocking it, he pushed the gate back to leave it open. When he returned to the car, he drove through the gate and up the bumpy leaf-lined track, which was walled by tall birch, budding elm and evergreen pine. 'Where are we, Booth?' she asked, looking into the side of his face as he tried not to smile. He shook his head slightly, determined not to tell her yet. He drove on till he came to a clearing, and turned off the engine.

'Come on, let's walk...' he urged her, getting out of the car, then locked it. He waited for her to join him, then held his hand out for her to take. She slipped her hand inside his, with a seemingly casual smile. But his simple gesture didn't feel casual at all. He gave it a gentle squeeze, and started to walk up the track as it wound around through the thick murmuring woodland.

'That sign back there said private, Booth. It won't look good on your record if we get caught trespassing.'

Booth grinned surreptitiously at her worried comment. 'We won't,' he calmed softly.

They edged a babbling creek which glistened and shone in the dappled sunlight to their right. It made the moist air feel fresh and pure, while the water leapt as it bounced over fallen rotting branches and small grey boulders within it. The low sunlight streamed through the wispy branches to the leaf litter as they kicked up the crispy leaves with their boots. They could hear fledglings chirping merrily in the trees around them as they wandered on.

All of a sudden they saw a flash of ruddy brown fur, and stilled. Booth pointed out a fallow deer ahead of them to her. It briefly turned its aristocratic head towards them, Bones nodded excitedly, seeing it. Sniffing their scent, it leapt off through the trees at a rate of knots, cracking twigs as it disappeared into the thick scrub. They exchanged enamoured smiles, and continued on, this time arm in arm.

Bones squeezed his arm to her flank tightly, saying, 'This was a lovely idea, Booth.' He looked into her glowing fresh face, and pecked her cheek, thrilled she was enjoying their impromptu afternoon walk.

'It isn't weird either...' She looked into him, knowing what he was implying, but let him continue, 'I mean, you and me, together, a couple, it's, we're...' He looked to her with hope, wanting her to confirm his feelings. 'You know what I'm talking about, right?'

She confirmed with a softly spoken reply, 'Yes, I understand.' She smiled wider, feeling her grip tighten on his arm instinctively. 'We're very natural together. Organic.' Booth hummed, nodding, as thrills spiralled up his spine because she understood perfectly and recognised exactly what he had.

'Organic, I like the sound of that,' he added sweetly. With a prepossessing smile, she kissed his cheek this time. He went on, emboldened, 'I haven't told anybody about this, you're the first...' he trailed off, looking a little flushed, she thought, as he led her left, then up a very steep bank towards a hillcrest.

'Told anybody what?' she enquired, intrigued, panting slightly as they reached the summit. He led her out of the forest onto a grass bank devoid of trees. It looked to her as if they'd recently been felled and were chopped up; as there was a pile of timbre to her right. She stilled instantly, and gawped awestruck at the stunning view over the edge of the crest. It instantly reminded her a little of her safe place, and she gasped in an astounded breath.

The vista was as wide as 210 degrees from east on their left to the copper sun setting on the right, she calculated. She could see the undulating forest ripple tranquilly away over the hills that cascaded toward the slate grey rugged mountains in the far distance. As far as her eyes could see was lush-ing spring growth sprouting from the forest; which was thrown into contrast with shadows cast by the waning sun. It was quiet, still and mesmerising. While above their heads, angels on horseback cantered across the rich sky to finish off the unexpected magnum opus.

Booth watched her reaction to the spectacularly huge view, and was delighted by it. He saw her pupils dilate, and her softening smile trickle across her lips. 'Oooh, Booth,' she sighed softly. 'It's beautiful. I had no idea this was here, so close to the city.'

He nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. 'I didn't wanna say, tell anyone about it until...' he paused to take a different tack and explain, 'Then you told me about your sanctuary in Tibet. I wanted you to see it. I thought you might appreciate it.' She nodded hard and fast, deeply moved by his thoughtfulness and wanting to share this secret place with her.

He unhooked his arm from hers, and stepped away, turned, and walked backwards to the precipice a little, staring at her intently. He threw his arms out either side of him, saying sweetly, 'I thought this is where I'd put the veranda.' Bones lost her enamoured smile, and looked directly into him now, having to drag her eyes from the view. 'You know, one that overlooks this view. A really wide veranda. It's not gonna be too big-a-cabin for these parts though... I thought a couple of bedrooms, just one bathroom. I didn't wanna go too crazy,' he explained humbly, shyly. Bones could only nod in recognition of his statement, loving his humility. Her mind was still reeling as he went on, pointing to the staked out ground. 'I've already cleared the big trees and got the floor plan staked out, can you see?' he asked excitedly, flitting around the patch he'd obviously cleared. She nodded again, looking to the stakes she'd missed because she was so taken by the view, and still was.

'I'm putting the drive over there.' He pointed, then trotted over to the area he meant, gesturing the line of it up the hill. Her eyes and head followed him and his excited smile. 'The track ends at the bottom of the hill; so it will be easy access in and out. There's fresh spring water but no electricity up here; and it would cost too much to have it installed anyway. But a generator would easily do, or maybe even a couple of solar panels for the lights and heating the water as it's south facing.' Bones was so gob smacked she didn't know what to say. He went on getting more and more excited about his plans. He came back to her, and stood to her side, looking down at the ground, he motioned around him with his hands, saying, 'Here, just here, I want the master bedroom with huge double sliding doors to a balcony, to let in the light and so I can see the sky and mountains when I wake up,' he explained wistfully his captivating dream. 'The plot is ten acres, so neighbours wouldn't be a problem. And I've timed it, it's about forty minutes to the Hoover. That's about the same as I do now from my apartment crawling through the rush hour traffic.' Bones nodded, trying to stop her bottom jaw hitting the leaf mulch below. 'What do you think, do you like it or am I delusional?' he asked, hoping she wasn't going to laugh at his grand scheme.

'How, I mean, when did... Booth, I don't understand, how could you afford this?' Booth grinned, and pulled her hand to sit down on the ground with him. She felt a little weak-kneed anyway, and didn't resist his gentle tug. He crossed his legs, and took her hands in his.

Taking a calming breath, he said, 'Broadsky. Broadsky brought it legally in my name... It's legally mine as of a month ago when the courts validated it and double checked the authenticity of the land purchase. It is mine, for real now.' Bones' brows rose into her hairline. Booth continued, 'It's ten acres of prime hunting land. So I thought it too good an opportunity to give up or ignore. I could never afford this much land to build on. I'll probably never build the cabin how I want it, but I've made a start and I can dream. I can do bits and pieces when I have enough spare cash. I can do much of it myself, and I've got friends in the trade that can help me out with the build and technical stuff. But in the mean time, it's a great camping and hunting area to bring Parker at weekends. We camped up here a couple of weekends ago. I didn't tell him it was my land, just that a friend gave us permission to come up here...' Bones grinned with him. 'He had a blast, Bones. You should have seen his face...'

'Much like yours now, I expect.' Booth huffed a brief coy chuckle, nodding, and dropped his eyes to their entwined hands. She tenderly palmed his glowing face with one palm, and leant in to kiss his lips softly, wanting to be touched by his obvious joy and excitement.

Bones saw the muscles in his cheek flicker as he said softly and slowly, 'When you need to... if you need space, and height, and vastness, or to feel safe, you can come up here, anytime, with or without me...' Bones swallowed the cotton wool that had suddenly filled her throat, realising he was offering her his dream too, and all he owned with her. Taking a deep breath to gird his loins, Booth said nervously rehearsed, 'I don't want you to run off to Tibet, Maluku or somewhere else to feel in control physically or emotionally. I want you to stay here and never go away again... Cos I've noticed, Bones, bad things happen when we're not together to keep each other safe.'

Bones felt her throat close down completely now, and her eyes burst with love infused tears. The ache under her breast plate throbbed viciously snatching her breath away. She took a deep calming breath to replace the one dragged from her, and blew it out slowly through pursed lips into his face. All the while her eyes penetrated his. That was as close to a proposal as she'd ever gotten or was ever going to get from him. Because she understood he knew that was all he could offer, without her running off scared again. She had an overwhelming urge to physically express her deep emotions for him and his loving offer.

Bones asked him after a few moments of gathering herself, 'This is where you want your bedroom, right here?' Booth nodded the tiniest amount. She looked around the ground slowly, and then back into him. 'Where would you put your bed?' He pointed to the ground they were sat on. She nodded, and bit her lip nervously. 'I see. Right here, where we're sitting?' He nodded again. 'So... It might be pleasant to, do you think? Umm. Maybe we should... It would be appropriate to...' Booth was kissing her to stop her unusually disjointed sentence, as he already knew what she wanted to ask but was plainly struggling to express.

He broke the wet kiss to nuzzle into her ear, and whisper seductively, 'Bones, Temperance, I have a request...'

Bones feared his request might be something marginally perverted or involving woodland creatures for a brief moment. Then she dismissed that as the absurd musing of a rampant mind and lust-filled body. At this moment, she mused, she would have agreed to any demand he might make of her. 'Oh. Ok. What is it?' she heard herself say, as she nibbled his ear lobe, then bit soft kisses along his jaw towards his parting lips, knowing they were finally going make love.

He said as mildly as he could, 'Abstinence...'

When the cruel word registered it drained away her smile, kisses and facial flush when she looked into his apologising eyes. Bones collapsed flat to the cold earth behind her, and covered her face with her crossed arms in her anguish. She muttered sorrow-filled from under them, 'Don't do this to me, Booth.'

'I have my reasons,' he said caringly, empathetically, seeing her so obviously distraught, caressing her jean clad leg gingerly.

Bones grit her jaw, saying, 'I'm sure you do.' To his surprise she jumped up, and strode off back towards the forest without looking back.

Seeing her run, Booth jarred his head forwards, and grunted, 'Shit.' He leapt up too, and trotted off in the direction of her escape, calling after her, 'Bones, wait, you didn't let me explain! Wait up!'

Bones huffed, and ducked under a low bough, not stopping. 'Cath-O-lics!' she shouted in disgust. Changing her mind just a fast, she stopped in her tracks, then stormed back towards him, looking as though she was going to knock his lights out. Booth braced again, stilling instantly, watching as her icy veneer melted off with her boiling rage.

'You're such a hypocrite!' she roared at him. 'And a damn poor follower of your so called, faith's archaic rules too.' Booth shook his head, trying to butt in but getting another line of her vitriol. 'Abstinence, my foot! You were keen enough this morning.' She prodded his chest with a darting accusing finger 'You were prepared to have sex then, weren't you? What's altered since then, eh?'

Booth nodded to agree, and tried to offer an explanation but she was having none of it yet. She wanted to rant and rave and did exactly that, shouting out her broiling sexual frustration. 'You bring me up here and show me your dreams and share something so precious and beautiful with me, something we can both share in. Then you throw a ridiculous word between us like I'm supposed to accept it? I just wanted to be with you, Booth. Feel us together, to take our journey forwards another step but that was clearly too much to hope for and too soon for you. I was fool to expect...'

He interrupted, 'Bones, you don't understand, please let me...'

Not waiting for him to explain, she turned tail, and began to walk away again. Pissed off now, he grabbed her arm to stop her from running. She spun, and dropped her voice till it sounded ominously deep and intentionally hurtful, 'I apologise, I should've realised, there aren't any fig trees in these woods, that's what you like, isn't it? No fig trees, no sex...' Her deep seated hurt leaked through the words too. Booth grit his jaw, incensed that she thought so little of him, or thought that was why he wouldn't put out for her. He shoved her back to the nearest tree trunk, she stumbled backwards, and hit it with a startled jolt.

'It has nothing to do with my faith, its rules or not wanting to make love to you, Bones,' he growled in her face. 'If I break the rules of my faith that's between me and my maker.'

'Let me guess then.' Adding sarcastically, she sneered, 'You respect me too much and don't want to spoil me or feel it wouldn't be morally right in our circumstances? Those are absurd notions! I'm way past being so innocent, Booth. To be frank, I've done things in the bedroom that would make your hair curl and a prostitute blush, believe me. And I'm not abstaining till our wedding night, if you think that, then you are delusional!'

Booth wanted to hit her, and kiss her, and screw her into panting silence against the tree behind her. But he did none of that, instead going with his own rant, 'One! I'm waiting on important test results, and two! I've not got any condoms on me! That's why I wanted us to abstain from full penetrative sex. I was trying to warn you that we could only do other stuff.'

Bones fell silent, and sank a little against the tree, searching his wild eyes. The words, test results had almost felled her to the ground with blind panic and terror. She instantly thought his tumour had reoccurred, and found she couldn't breath. Booth calmed slightly, as he carried on, 'I knew and could see how much you wanted to make love. I knew if we started it would be harder to stop at the crucial moment. And I couldn't take that risk with you, or disappoint you.'

Booth could see the trauma in her eyes, and stepped a little closer to her body to hopefully calm her further. He was certain she hadn't heard anything past his words, test results though.

'Waa, what test results?' she asked quietly now, unsteadily, as he pecked her cheek carefully. He smiled a little, knowing she couldn't see it but she may have felt it against her soft cheek, he thought.

'It's not what you're thinking,' he cooed sexily in her ear, with a nervous anticipatory smile to accompany it. Booth placed soft moist kisses along her jaw then down to her throat, while his hand edged down over her jacket to the stud of her jean waistband. He was sure she was so distracted with worry she hadn't sensed what he was carefully undoing.

'Tut. Booth, just tell me before I asphyxiate.'

'Friday, I'll have the result on Friday, this week,' he explained, whilst popping the button open, and fingered the zip down on her jeans very slowly. 'After the other woman and I finished, I got tested just to make certain I was clear and safe. It's a criteria of my medical insurance too. I wasn't expecting us to get to this stage so fast or even get together, if I'm honest. I thought I'd missed my chance with you too.' Bones furrowed her brow, and looked into his smitten expression. He slipped his hand inside her open jeans like he was handling an explosive device, extremely carefully. 'I've always preferred birch trees to have sex against anyway. The bark is smoother 'n' less painful on the skin,' he explained sensibly, sultrily, then added bluntly, 'I refuse put you in any danger even if you storm off, scream and shout irrationally, throw figs to hurt me, or belittle my religion.' He felt the hot damp cotton of her panties crotch, and manoeuvred it aside gently, then rested his trembling fingers on her slick garden. 'I have to say though, seeing you lose your ice cool exterior for once and showing me your molten interior, is the sexiest thing I've ever witnessed.' Booth's gentle curving lips brushed hers as he spoke, and his eyes pinned her to the trunk.

Bones swallowed, processing all he'd said, feeling herself relax. It was then that she realised what was happening lower down. 'You've got your fingers on my labia,' she said suddenly.

'Yes, I have,' he replied, trying not to laugh at her surprised expression. 'Have you ever been pleasured by a Catholic to your knowledge?' Bones started to tremble, while trying not to cry out with exhilaration and look a complete fool, which she knew she'd already done to some extent. She shook her head finally to answer his question. He smiled charmingly back.

'You see, Bones,' he said matter of fact-ly, 'That no sex rule has always been hotly debated in my faith. Some say absolutely no sex of any kind, ie. Foreplay is a definite no, no.' While he spoke, he gently caressed her intimate lips and engorging bud with her pooling juice. She twitched, and wriggled slowly against the trunk, while peering in his eyes, knowing she was flushing the colour of the sunset over his left shoulder. 'While others believe that as long as there's no cock insertion into the moist, hot, soft pussy, then no rules have been broken.' On the word, insertion, Booth pushed two fingers inside her forcefully till he felt the tickle of her soft fuzz on his middle palm. Bones gasped in a breath through her snapped open mouth. Booth observed her reaction intently, keenly. She was already drenched and he felt the clamour of her inner being draw his bold invasion deeper.

'I understand the da, da-debate. W, what's your point?' Booth had to smile at her attempt to stay composed and ask a regular question in the circumstances.

'My point is, bad Catholics, like me, learn quickly how to give maximum pleasure without breaking the Cardinal rule. Consequently I'm fucking awesome at foreplay.' Booth immediately curled his fingers back towards himself precisely, and began a steady in-out rhythm she closed her eyes too, and banged her head back on the tree, harr-ing into the air above him. 'When I'm done, you'll feel like we've made love several times over...' Bones looked back into him slowly, and gave him a weak trembling smile. Then he asked tenderly, 'D'you want evidence, Temperance?'

Caught again unawares at how hot her name sounded oozing from his plump lips, she nodded to confirm. She rolled her hips subtly, moving in rhythm with his deep thick fingers that knew just where to touch. She found she could rub her aching clit against the heel of his thumb in the tight space. As she did gracefully, Booth made sure that heel made good contact and gave her exactly the friction she needed. 'Feels so good, doesn't it? he asked, she bobbed her head to confirm, then kissed him breathlessly.

His smile grew as she did give herself over to him without any reservations now. Her brink approached exceedingly fast under his astounding calloused hand. She saw him read all her arousal markers and pleasured her according to her reactions. As she moved faster so did he, if she kissed him, he mirrored either her desire or tenderness. For every action there was an equal and opposite reaction. All of which culminated in her dragging her tongue from his as she forcefully locked her eyes on his.

His warm body grew hotter as she writhed on his thrusting digits. He ignored the tight agony in his jeans as she gulped down her yelp of feral release which froze her body and eyes for an instant of ripping intensity. When the cascading chain reaction muted her moans, she gripped both of his biceps with her fingers as if she was going to shake him to join her in ecstasy. But he realised it was for her own stability and security, not physically, but emotionally. Booth understood he made her feel safe; so it made sense for her to grip him this tight through something naturally designed to give the sense of insecurity. She was tethering herself to him, her safety net.

Seeing her lose herself in the bliss and focus on him slightly, he felt his eyes blur too at the beauty of it. 'Booth, Aww. Booth,' she whispered preciously, trying to convey how moved she was. She jerked repeatedly, gripping his muscles tighter with each sweet wave he drew from her. Finally her eyes fluttered shut, and she rested her brow on his face, while her panted breaths mingled with his.

Noting her knees weaken, she felt him withdraw his fingers gently. She heard rustling, and then him untying her sneaker lace. She drowsily batted her eyes open, and looked down. He was lifting her leg to take off her shoe. She complied in silence, placing a grateful and stabilising hand on his head. Then he looked up from his knees into her, and began to pull her jeans down to her knees. 'Oh. God,' she muttered, knowing this erotic encounter was not over yet. She could feel his condensing breaths on her thighs as they quivered. Then he took off the jeans completely.

Bones gripped the trunk behind her, seeing the menacing egotistical glint in his eyes as daylight began to fade. 'We won't be needing, these,' he said throatily, ripping her drenched panties off her hips with a savage wrench. Bones jerked again, quivering uncontrollably as her pussy pulsed and leaked down the inside of her thigh. Booth ran his rough palms up the backs of her legs to her buttocks, kneeling before her natural hearth, and ordered her, 'Sit on my face.' Bones eyes widened slightly, obviously confused as to how, when she was clinging to a birch tree, and scared to move without collapsing in a ungainly heap.

Booth saw the dilemma in her eyes, so instructed gently, 'Like this.' Lifting one of her legs over his shoulder, he shuffled a little closer, and lifted the other to do the same, taking her weight on his back and wide shoulders. Bones gasped as she sunk down but pushed her back into the warm smooth bark, and hooked her feet around his back. He was already gripping her buttocks, and she could feel his hot excited breaths on her throbbing clit. She didn't feel safe now, in fact, she felt very precariously positioned but when he buried his mouth in her wet flesh, she didn't give a damn. She gripped his body hard with her feet and thighs, and clung on to low tree branches above her head for the trip of a lifetime. She was half suspended and half seated on his hot mouth, thinking she should yodel like Tarzan's Jane, as she felt very ape-like.

The tongue she'd so delicately caressed and took care with when she kissed him, suddenly lanced rigid and penetrated her rapidly and repeatedly. 'Booth... Oh. God!' she exclaimed, as he grunted on each thrust he forced into her. He re-adjusted himself to kneel up fully, consequently pushing her up the trunk higher, and slipped his thumb just into her tight ring, and rubbed. Bones lost all decorum herself as he went wild too. 'Yes!' she yelped. Her cry scared birds from their roosts to squawk and flitter away to safe havens elsewhere. Then she felt the added blinding torture of his other hand joining in too. Two fingers managed to shimmy repeatedly over her bud and make her whimper through clamped lips. Her arms ached while her fists tightened, and her long limbs gripped his flanks, riding her bucking stallion.

His inflamed animalistic grunts and sensuous slurps added to her list of erotic, even lurid details of their first explosive sexual encounter. She was blown away by his clawing passion, skill and complete lack of inhibitions. Everything he did was searing hot and made her steam as he brought her to the boil again so expertly. She couldn't help herself from clenching her pussy on his tongue on each savage thrust of it, because it felt so atrociously good. As she gasped repeatedly in quick succession nearing the climax, so he pulled her closer and he shot up her with his tongue as far as he could go. Bones worried for his ability to breath too for a moment but other things were taking precedence now. She could have signed an affidavit to swear he was grunting the word, yes, yes, in triumph and encouragement as she catapulted skywards. Gripping his tongue during her insatiable cramping spasms, she hallowed his name throughout her wild flight.

It was his delight in her reaching another climax and feeling her coming on his tongue that so excited him, she realised. Maybe it was an ego thing for him, a fantasy realised or a macho thing, she mused. Either way, she adored his overt and lusty enjoyment because it definitely trebled hers. His lofty claim was now proven beyond any doubt; he was fucking awesome at foreplay.

When Bones dared and managed to open her eyes again, she saw stars, and was confused for a moment. She was seeing actual stars, not metaphorical ones, and laughed breathlessly. As she relaxed, she saw, and felt him slowly nuzzling her quivering garden with his eyes closed. All at once they lost grip and balance; she toppled forwards over his head, and landed ungainly in the damp leaves with a thud. 'Warh! Haa...'

Booth had rolled back too, and was laughing at the unsightly inelegant position they landed up in. Bones crawled forwards on her hands and knees, still giggling. Then she felt his palms on her hips, holding her firm.

'Come back here, Bones. I'm not done with you yet.' Bones laughed harder, and looked around to him incredulously. He had the most adorable smile on his face and was covered with her, and wore her star-lit elixir proudly like a medal of merit. He started kissing her buttocks, then sucking the voluptuous flesh, leaving mischievous hickey's all over them. She tried to bat him off her like a wasp but with little effect, giggling. He hummed, and mumbled his sexy lecherous sighs, all the while refusing to cease his assault.

Eventually they tumbled to an entwined heap on the cold ground on the spot where his bed was going to be, and kissed each other deliriously happy.

As her buttocks throbbed and her inners pulsated still, just starting to relax after their busy workout for the last half an hour, she sighed contentedly. Cuddling into him, she looked up to the glittering stars. 'I've changed my opinion of Catholics now,' she muttered conciliatorily. 'I adore their quirky belief systems, especially if I keep reaping those kinds of benefits.'

'Haa...' Booth chuckled softly, holding her a little tighter, then asked, 'I did ok then?'

Bones shot up onto her elbow to look at him clearly, with her jaw hanging. She thought it was an insane question at this juncture. Then he grinned cheekily, slowly. She saw he knew he'd done remarkably well and was just messing around. She rolled over him, and sat on his groin while lacing her fingers with his. Leaning down to kiss his lips, she whispered emotionally, 'I don't just like you, Seeley...'

Booth said just as emotionally, with tears of joy pricking his corneas, 'I don't just like you too, Temperance.' They both fell into a lazy long kiss, and when they broke it, they cuddled to watch the constellations flicker over their heads, just as silently struck by them.

Rung 17

Bones walked into her apartment with a sprightly step at eight o'clock, and secured the door, with a huge smile on her face. Then when she saw the state of her trashed filthy apartment, she gradually lost that smile. She made for her damp bathroom with every intention to clean it up. She flicked on the spot lights, and to her surprise they flickered ominously then blew, all three bulbs. She jumped at the loud crackle and dieing fizz, then sagged despondently, sulking for a few moments. But when she recalled how it got into this state and who had done it, she couldn't help but smile again. The warm fuzzy feeling she'd been relishing all weekend returned with wondrous ease and filled her cheek capillaries with heat.

Bones started on her chores immediately. Her kitchen was first in the queue, so she put away the rest of the displaced cooking pots. She managed to isolate the broken pipe in her ruined bathroom so she wasn't completely without water in her apartment. She did that by reading her apartment schematics and doing as simply instructed. Bones didn't think she should explain to Booth how simple it was as she might dent his ego more than it was already. After that was done she checked the dishwasher was full enough to start. It wasn't, so she left it but gave the contents a rinse cycle instead. She switched on her stereo, and pushed play, while mopping up the floor of the remaining grey puddle, and dried it thoroughly. She decided it was wise to just close the door on the bathroom though, there being too much to do in it for tonight.

Eventually she sat down to catch the headlines at nine on the TV. As she sipped her coffee, the dust that permeated the apartment air and covered every surface made her feel unclean and made her sneeze. Stretching out on her couch, her mind drifted back over her eventful weekend. Most of the thoughts and images made her smile, some made her laugh out loud, while others made her brow wrinkle with confusion. Then finally she settled on two specific negative thoughts, then looked sadly to her empty coffee mug.

Making her mind up, she walked into her bedroom at pace to shower.

Booth's Apartment

Booth flicked off his apartment lights, and walked slowly and carefully through his lounge, with a grimace on his face. He eased back his covers on his bed, and laid down on his side with a stilted groan. He fumbled blindly for the covers, till he caught the edge of them, then pulled them over him gently. He sighed, and closed his eyes, praying for respite.

He watched the minutes tick by one by one in the glowing face of his alarm clock, and yet still he couldn't sleep. His mind was rife with nagging thoughts and images and his senses were still full of her. It was like she clung to him even though he'd had a long bath when he got home. Then he realised he was pining for her, and felt cold suddenly and very alone. He didn't much like the sensation at all, but tried to alleviate his gloom by reminding himself he would see her tomorrow. That being in exactly nine hours, he mentally reassured himself, looking at the glowing clock as it flashed 23.23.

Booth started a little when he heard a key in his apartment door and it open. He grinned to himself but didn't move, feeling his heart palpitate riotously. He strained to hear the chain being put on and the sound of soft shoe-less feet walking up his corridor towards his bedroom. Those small soft footfalls diverted into the bathroom, where he heard the brushing of pearly teeth and then the toilet flush. A few minutes later the air in his bedroom was gently displaced and he heard a wardrobe door being opened and things deposited inside it. There was more rustling of clothes being removed then a strong addictive scent he craved.

He felt the mattress depress as she climbed in carefully, and spooned him delicately, slipping her slim warm hand around him to rest over his heart. He felt himself relax as her body heat seeped deliciously into his back. He entwined his fingers with hers over his heart, and she squeezed it gently. Booth closed his eyes, but felt this groin ignite yet again and lurch to attention instantly, feeling her soft naked body melt to his.

Booth felt her soft measured breathing in his nape as she whispered softly, normally, as if she did this every night, 'I forgot to tell you. When I went out to the store there'd been a death across the street.' Booth's eyes shot open suddenly, and his heart stalled. 'One of the residents was smoking cannabis on the roof and had fallen off it while he was urinating. They found him with his penis still out of his fly. Tragic...'

'Yeah, there's a lesson right there,' he said softly, nuzzling the pillow slowly, re-closing his eyes.

There was a few minutes of quiet mutual contemplation before she whispered again, 'Another strange thing I've been thinking about happened today too. After I'd spoken to the officer, I crossed the street and a car past by me. One I've seen around lately. It seemed so out of place and bizarrely I saw it again on the I-64 when we went to your homestead. Twice, in fact. If I was the paranoid type, I'd think it was following me.' Booth's eyes shot open in the dark to stare into his clock again but he didn't see the time.

'Booth?'

'Humm.'

'I've not come over to make love, I just wanted to sleep with you. I felt so lonely there without you, and my apartment was so dusty it made me sneeze a little.' Booth squeezed her hand gently, and grinned a little harder. He was delighted his absence was having the same effects on her.

'What I'm trying to say is, when you dropped me home, I felt very uncomfortable because I didn't offer you any sexual relief. I see that was extremely selfish of me. I'm normally not like that but I was so... so.' She didn't finish as he squeezed her hand again, she knew, he knew what she was trying to say. Then she continued more tenderly and carefully, 'I can sense now, that you're physically aroused. I'll understand if you don't want to be intimate with me, as we're still dating; and you have your dubious belief system to consider. But if you'd enjoy it, or aren't too tired, I'd very much like to give you that relief now. Safely obviously.' Booth felt his eyes fill at her gentle considerate offer, which he desperately wanted to take her up on. He couldn't believe his bad luck though, and sighed forlornly.

'Bones, I would love for you to give me relief but...'

She interrupted, saving him the embarrassment and guilt of rejecting her, 'It's ok. I understand, don't worry. I'll wait till you're ready,' she said, without a hint of rejection in her tone, although Booth knew she was covering up that exact emotion expertly. She kissed the back of his neck, and closed her eyes, prepared to just sleep with him.

Booth explained, 'You don't understand. This isn't abstinence, it's agony...' Bones' brow wrinkled, and her head popped up off the pillow. He tried to look at her but couldn't. 'It's my back, I've put it out. My raging hard on will have to wait, as I can't move.'

'Oooh. Booth, why didn't you say something earlier?' she gently chastised. 'You insisted I sit on your mouth too. Aww. You poor thing. What medications have you taken?'

'Nothing, I've got nothing. It wasn't your fault. I think you were the pussy that broke the Booth-y back though. We did get a little monkey-funky.'

Bones chuckled as she got out of the bed, and walked around it to kneel down in front of him, then switched on his bedside lamp. He went on, 'Remember I said it tweaked when we carried the bath to the elevator. And when you were out getting the paper, I was running around like a headless chicken trying to build an arc. That didn't help.' Bones stroked down his darling face, and pecked his lips compassionately. Booth groaned frustratingly, seeing her wholesome breasts for the first time, feeling his cock bounce excitedly but its leap tweaked his back painfully. Bones caught his sorrowful expression and what his eyes were pining for. She looked to her own breasts briefly, and smiled affectionately, understanding the reason for his groan now and sad expression.

'Right. Do you trust me?' He nodded. 'Good, then leave this to me and you'll be supple again by the morning. But you have to do exactly as I tell you. Do you agree?' Again he nodded, willing to do anything to feel better. 'Ok.' Bones walked briskly out of the bedroom, and went straight into the bathroom to retrieve her wash bag. Booth grimaced though, when he saw her gorgeous ass, her right buttock specifically, which was covered with red blotches where he sucked a crazy smilie face on it earlier. He wanted to laugh but knew it would be agony, so he tried to relax, and suppress his amusement.

Bones was back with a glass of milk and tablets, and instructing him to take four of them. He didn't ask what they were or question the quantity of the dose either. She popped them in between his lips, then dribbled milk into this mouth to help him swallow them. 'Let's give them ten minutes to work while I apply a heat pad.'

'I don't have one,' he said sadly. Bones grinned, and pecked his lips.

'No, but I shall improvise.' She flared her eyes at him, ego filled, clearly up for the challenge. She was off again and was gone some time, obviously relishing playing nursemaid to him.

An hour later he was on his back; out of pain, having been heat padded, drugged to numb drunk, and manipulated expertly by his personal naked chiropractor with the magic fingers. Then she'd snapped his herniated disc back into place and he was grinning like a enamoured puppy at her, as she knelt demurely between his legs.

'Now, what are we going to do with this?' she asked rhetorically, with a devilish grin on her lips, admiring his bouncing tall erection, which stood proudly like a sequoia and had refused to deflate. 'You can't sleep with this rod-like protuberance.'

Booth giggled, sounding inebriated to her, then he whispered secretively, 'Touch it, go on, it won't bite ya. I know ya wanna.'

'Haa... I don't recall ever seeing such a handsome penis before or as long standing as this, you've obviously been blessed,' she said admiringly, looking absolutely fascinated by it. Bones pointed out her index finger, then gently and slowly stroked from under his throbbing scrotum between his testes and up the underside of his shaft to its tip. Booth growled at her, pumped his hips high, not feeling his back at all, and gripped the sheets either side of him in his fists. It was a violent reaction to minimal stimuli but not surprising considering his level of arousal, she noted.

'Again,' he begged. Bones knew he was going to blow without much help from her. She could see the tension in his stomach muscles, around his navel and in his thighs. All signs of the inevitability of it just screamed at her.

Booth watched her blow over his cock softly like she was chilling soup before it was to be drunk. She was casual and calm as if she'd done this with him a million times before. But the silky warm gust had the opposite effect on him, raising his mercury. He thought he was going to have an embarrassing immaculate orgasm without being touched, if she continued like this.

His eyes widened further as she palmed her pussy to wet it on her own arousal, then smeared that wetness between her breasts. Booth knew what she was about to do and nearly erupted right then at the anticipation.

Her question dripped like warm honey from her lips, 'Ready?' She stared deeply into his eyes, adjusting her position slightly closer to him. He didn't have time to nod as she palmed him between her breast, then clamped her arms to trap her breasts, and cradled him in her substantial wet cleavage.

He viscerally thrust once through the slick warm fleshy cradle, crooning, 'Bbb-hooones, arh!' as he shot his load in several violent hot streams up her luxuriant cleavage and throat. His legs beside her thrashed, as she rubbed his glands between her breasts with gentle rocking movements. She calmly closed her eyes, and rejoiced in his orgasmic cries. 'Temperance, Bones, oooh. My love,' he deified, and surrendered to the extreme release of ecstasy, which contorted his body and blew bulbs in his head. He couldn't take his eyes off the illicit vision of his pearly seed splattering her skin, nor her rose-tipped full breasts bobbing. Her serene face slipped into a solid triumphant smile, and surprisingly he saw her waggle her brows at him.

Even more surprising was when she released him from that plump cradle, and curled her palm around the tip of his cock. She pushed hard on the underside of his crown with her thumb pad, like she was popping a champagne cork from a fizzy magnum. He continued to erupt, and felt his scrotum quake savagely with her other hand and fingers doing something extraordinary to it. Now those extra shots squirted and were aimed over his abdomen.

Bones watched those silver jets leap joyously into the air. 'Woo-pah, haha,' she drooled sexily, humorously, so sexily in fact, that he thought his head was going to explode too.

Wide eyed, he bayed, 'Good-God!' astonished by the extra emanations she teased from him. As he began to tumble back down from where her talented hands had thrown him, and settle, he had a curious sense of dislocation. He felt like he was floating on a hot rolling ocean, and heavenly omnipotent.

Cocky was finally in her inquisitive hands and she indulged them whimsically. Bones continued to gently eek out every last pleasure he could stand through her double handed massage, till his member began to finally wane. He heard whimpering sounds, and finally realised they were coming from him, and blushed. When he focused again she was hovering over his face, grinning hard. 'We're adept at foreplay too, don't you agree?' She didn't comment on his charming pink cheeks, but kissed them cutely instead. 'Lay still. I'll clean us up.' With that she was off the bed and in five minutes his torso was being washed down as were his meekly trembling soft bits. Then bed sheets were being draped over him, and warm cuddles and soft kisses peppered liberally over his back. 'Night, night...' he heard her say dreamily, as he fluttered his eyes closed, and finally slept.

Bones looked over his relaxed face with love in her fibrillating heart, then took a peek at the clock on his night stand. It read 01.34. Five hours was an hour more than she usually got most nights, she thought happily, and succumbed effortlessly to her extra hour of slumber.

Rung 18

Their first Monday as a couple.

Booth found it not only thrilling to have her snuffle awake in his arms but loved the fact that she was obviously a cuddler, just like him. He found that wasn't the only thing she enjoyed cradling. She'd slept with her gentle hand draped casually over his manly sated vitals and that he found utterly adorable too. He loved her kissing his chest good morning and how she did it so carefully and quietly so as not to wake him. He'd listened to her; shower, dress, have tea and toast, and potter around his apartment to ready herself for work, trying and failing, to keep the smitten smile off his face. Then when he heard his door close as she left, he leapt from his bed, to peer through the slats of his blind, and watch her jump in her car and drive off.

He stretched out his back as he yawned, it was only then he realised he felt no pain, and grinned even harder. 'Priceless, irreplaceable,' he complimented her in her absence, counting his lucky stars at his good fortune. He walked into his bathroom to find a new toothbrush and a small wash bag on top of his old record player, and a rather posh thick towel tucked neatly over the radiator. All of which filled him with glee. Suddenly he realised he hadn't felt this good for years.

On his slow crawl through the Monday morning rush hour, Booth grinned at every person he could in the lanes of traffic beside his vehicle. He hoped he was spreading his deep joy and infusing the bored commuters with just a little of his personal exhilaration. Some, he noted with delight, smiled back pleasantly, while others gave him odd tentative smiles, clearly thinking he was a bit of a weirdo. One particular guy grinned hard at him, and nodded slowly, as if he understood what kind of a weekend he must have had to look so happy. Booth smiled wider at him before the lights changed, and nodded fast, flaring his eyes to convey he was thinking along the right lines.

Booth positively pranced out of the elevator towards his office, acknowledging several of his team with his exuberant greeting, 'Morning, Agents!' Booth settled with a flump into his high backed chair, and flicked on his computer. 'Agent Dowson! In here, please,' he called out pleasantly. Dowson strode in quickly.

'Hi, Dowson. Close the door, could you? Good weekend?' Booth asked.

Dowson was surprised by his boss asking him that, and was a tad puzzled, but went with his excellent mood, and replied, 'Umm. Yes, in the circumstances... You?' and closed the door as asked.

'Yes, yes, brilliant thanks. Right, lots to do today. Take a load off, Dowson.' Booth gestured for him to sit opposite, then leant forward in his chair as Dowson sat. 'Relax. You're not in any trouble but I've reason to believe you may have been seen. Tell me how your surveillance went.' Agent Dowson twitched in his seat, then began to debrief his superior officer.

An hour later Booth's office was full of his underlings as he held court and gave them his instructions. Booth paced aimlessly around his office, while Dowson was still sat watching him thinking on his feet. 'Right. What I want you and Craven to do is this, first up, go and speak to the officer in charge of the suicide/cannabis incident. Ask if there was anything odd about it, if he has any other suspicions about the circumstances of his death. You know the kind of thing...' Dowson and Craven exchanged glances, and nodded. Booth carried on, 'I'll chase up the report on the service elevator and crime scene team for Mr Dixon's murder. Then I'll get the ok for the surveillance to be continued for another week,' he thought out loud. 'Oh! Trent, Philips, you two canvas the residents in the jumper's building. I wanna know if he was a regular dope user, suffered depression or had any enemies. Cover all the bases... Is Franks back from vacation yet?'

'Yeah, he came back this morning looking very tanned and relaxed,' Craven informed, sounding envious.

'Excellent.' Booth opened his office door, and shouted out hopefully, 'Agent Franks?' Franks popped his head out of the coffee room, and Booth waved him over. Franks came over with his steaming mug in his hand. 'Great tan,' Booth complimented, taking the mug from his hand, and sipped it. 'You did some time in the explosives division, didn't you?'

'Two years, why?' Franks eyed his coffee in his bosses hand longingly.

'I want you to take a look at something for me. I want your personal opinion on it. I wanna know if the small explosion had any military nuances.'

'Okay. What do the tech support say?'

'I haven't got their report yet but I trust your experience more. You've got a great eye for all things subtle, and... you make great coffee.' He threw a charming, forgive me, smile at him for nabbing his coffee. Franks huffed a chuckle, and so did his team.

'Ok, Guy's, you've got your tasks. We'll meet back here after lunch for a briefing. Saaay three? That should give you all enough time.' They all looked at their watches, and most nodded. Booth explained, 'I've got to get over to the Jeffersonian now, but if you have any vital information text me with it, don't call, ok?' Booth scanned all the eyes of his colleagues as they nodded, understanding the secrecy. 'Great, till three then.'

Booth held the door open as they all walked out of his office, he gave them each a smile, and a respectful nod as they left. Once they were all gone Booth sat back in his chair, and picked up the phone to place a call to Detective Bray.

'Detective Bray, please, Special Agent Booth, FBI,' Booth introduced himself, and sipped his hijacked coffee, waiting to be connected. 'Arh! Detective Bray, Agent Booth here. I was wondering if your report was forthcoming anytime soon?'

'You must have read my mind. I'm about to fax it now. But I can tell you the important bits, if you like?'

Booth sat back, urging, 'Great. Go on,' and sipped again.

'Right, well, Mr Dixon's wallet still contained his safe swipe card and pin number. We checked the safe, it showed no signs of tampering or attempted entry. The fingerprints on it were only of Mr and Mrs Dixon. In fact, all of this cash cards were still in situe.' Booth felt his heart sink to his knees, knowing what that implied. It wasn't a real robbery just staged to look that way, and his suspicions were correct. 'As to the explosive device; it was handmade with a remote detonator, which when activated, cut the specific circuit's wires. We found parts of the device on the roof of the service elevator. We couldn't find any fingerprints except those of Mr Dixon's on the service box on the roof or on the remains of the device. We also found the explosive to be made of Semtex. A predominately military plastic explosive but in a tiny, gettable quantity.'

Booth nodded, then asked, 'Ok. I understand. One more question, how was it detonated?'

'We can't be certain,' Bray obfuscated, not willing to jump to conclusions.

'Speculate for me. What's your gut telling you?'

'Personally I think, a simple cell call signal sent to the receiver but it had a limited reception range due to its size. I'd say no more than one square mile as the battery used was one of those, in ear, hearing aids. So whomever set it off had to be close by, I reckon.' Booth didn't feel any better for knowing that, but it did validate his theory. Bray went on, 'One other thing, as the service box lock on the roof wasn't broken or forced, we looked for the keys which Mr Dixon held the only set on the premises. We never found them. Do you want me to speculate again...'

'I do,' Booth confirmed solemnly.

'Mr Dixon was killed because he saw the offender or was caught trying to steal the keys from Mr Dixon's apartment. Then his murder was poorly covered up by the random, so-called robbery.'

Booth was nodding again as Bray gave his opinions, then confirmed, 'I agree. But the nagging question still stands unanswered. Why sabotage the elevator?'

'I've got a theory...'

'So have I... Diversionary tactics.'

'Exactly. You two were stuck for a good few hours in that elevator...'

'Umm. I get what you're implying but nothing was touched or taken according to Dr Brennan, but I'll ask her again later. I'm just going off to catch up with her now. Thank you so much for all your help and the quick turn around on this. You've been extremely helpful, Detective Bray.'

'No problem. Glad we could help. Bye.' Booth put the phone back in its cradle, and left the building. The smile he'd started out with this morning was long gone now and replaced with a furrowed brow.

Rung 19

The Jeffersonian medical forensic lab was positively sparkling with the steams of spring sunlight that were cascading down through the glass roof. However none of the employees bathed in that light noticed because they were sunk deep in their tasks. Hodgins was working on the projectile recovered from Mr Dixon's apartment and had countless other pieces of particulates to investigate from the crime scene. Likewise Cam was hunched over the remains of Mr Dixon, performing his autopsy. She was closely watched and assisted by, a surprisingly quiet fact-less, Mr Nigel Murray.

Bones was in her office typing up an unrelated report, and intermittently sipping cooling green tea from her china blue mug. She didn't notice or hear her partner lean on her door frame to watch her for a few moments before he made his presence known.

Thankfully she wasn't wearing her staid lab coat, so Booth could see the tantalizing crevice between her ample breasts under her shirt. Right then he couldn't stop his thoughts returning to last night's sensuous encounter and what she'd done for him. He coveted her; loving how her hair draped down over her soft cheeks while she tapped efficiently away on her keyboard. He jumped slightly when she said softly, 'Come in or stay out, either way, stop watching me, it's very distracting.' He grinned, enchanted, and walked the rest of the way in. She looked up to him as he perched on her desk beside her, and caressed her face with his eyes. She leant back in her chair, and her adulating eyes slowly wandered over him too. They permitted themselves a few brief moments of sultry recollection; then assigned their professional boundaries. Touching or kissing one another was not on their carte de jour, but talking and looking was perfectly acceptable, it was to prove.

'Thanks for the instruction manual you wrote.' Bones laughed at him for making fun of the substantial to do list she'd left him this morning. 'I did as you said, I took the pills you left after my porridge. And bathed not showered. My back feels great.'

'Good. I'm pleased.' She rocked forwards again, saving her report on the computer, saying accusingly but affectionately, 'You snore.'

'So do you,' he shot back, seeing her grin but not look at him. He didn't miss a beat, adding, 'How's the autopsy going?'

'Nothing we didn't expect to find, yet. We're waiting on Hodgins and fingerprint results. The database is checking as we speak.' Bones drained her tea mug, whilst trying not to stare at his groin under his slate suit pants. She felt herself blush slightly, as she recalled cradling that area for most of the night.

Booth clarified with, 'Fingerprints?' Then shot up off the table, and ran his hand around the back of his neck, processing as he rubbed.

'Yes. Hodgins lifted a suspected partial index off a piece of latex glove that was stuck under the duct tape Mr Dixon's hands were bound with.'

'Wow, that's brilliant!' he gushed, continually astounded by the Jeffersonian's extraordinary abilities to find something worthwhile.

'Don't get too excited, Booth. It's only a partial print. It might not be enough to get a match.' He nodded, understanding he should temper his enthusiasm accordingly.

He asked, calming slightly, unable to stop his eyes from dropping from hers to her soft cleavage. 'Any DNA?' Bones grinned the tiniest amount, seeing his eyes dropping, knowing exactly where his mind really was. She couldn't chastise him as she had just done a very similar thing. Remarkably, she mused, the two conversations continued independently of the other without any cross over. One with their hungry, memory laden eyes, the other with their mouths.

'Not so far. Hodgins is working on the bullet but Cam says it's nothing out of the ordinary, as we suspected.' The partners looked to the aforementioned Cam as she peered around the door frame of the office, clinging to it, saying, 'Hey, Booth.' He gave her a high chin nod as she addressed her colleague, 'All done. I can release the remains for burial now. Do you want me call Mrs Dixon's daughter?'

'I'll do it, Cam. And, thanks so much,' Bones said sincerely. Cam flapped her hand casually to bat away her thanks, as if she was happy to oblige her friend. 'Any progress on the fingerprint sample?'

Cam shook her head, saying, 'Maybe another couple of hours?' Bones nodded to accept the time frame, as Cam patted the door frame, then ducked back out of her office. Bones noted Booth looked at his wristwatch, and quirked his lips.

'Let's go to lunch at the Diner,' he said. 'I've got to get back to the Hoover for three and I need to pick your brains about something,' Booth urged her to agree with a handsome smile.

'Ok. Can we stop off at Mrs Dixon's daughter's first?'

'Sure, Bones.'

The Royal Diner was heaving with lunch goers and the staff were rushing around in the clamour. All the stools along the bar were taken and their usual table was in use too. Booth sagged his shoulders with disappointment. 'Come on, we'll ask if we can share their table, they've nearly finished anyway.' Bones walked over to their regulation table, and smiled prettily at its two occupants. Booth grimaced, not wanting to share with the diners, as he wanted to have a private conversation with his partner. 'Hey, hello, would you mind very much if my colleague and I shared your table?' The men shook their heads, and smiled hard at her. Booth noted one of the men, in luminous jackets, checked out her breasts as she slipped onto a chair nearest the window opposite them. She waved Booth closer, and patted the seat beside her. The two men turned, and saw Booth near.

'Hi, thanks,' Booth said, sounding a little offish with them. Bones silently queried his change of tone and his negative body language. But he ignored her, as he reached for the menu card, and browsed his choices. The two other occupants carried on their conversation about the construction job they were doing while finishing their food.

'What did you want to pick my brain about, Booth?' she asked, looking into his face. She saw his eyes flick to the men opposite, and shake his head slightly.

'Later,' he said quietly, just as the waitress came to them and placed the men's cheque in front of them, then asked Booth what he wanted. He gave her his order, then looked to Bones to do the same.

'Usual please, Sandy, thanks.' Sandy nodded, smiled, and wrote down their order, heading off again.

'You a regular here then?' the muscle bound workman asked, as he pulled out his share of the cheque from his wallet. Bones smiled sweetly at him. She didn't note Booth slowly bristle under his shirt, giving the burly, golden haired man an obvious scowl. Booth recognised the signs of an opening line before she did.

'Yes. As a matter of fact we are. I'm Dr Brennan,' she said, offering her hand for him to shake. He took it with a charming smile, and shook it very slowly, suggestively. Booth grit his jaw, seeing the exchange, and wanted to snatch their hands apart instantly.

The man responded flirtatiously, 'Richard. Do you have a first name, Dr Brennan or a phone number I can call you on?' His boldness tightened Booth's muscles to the point that Bones felt the shift in him instantly now.

'It's Temperance, Richard,' she told him pleasantly, then added, 'But I'm afraid giving you my phone number isn't an option. I have a Significant Other I'm extremely content with. But I thank you for your interest nonetheless.' Booth grinned smugly wide at the upstart now, changing his position on his chair.

'No problem. Just thought I'd ask. He's a lucky guy. Bye, Temperance.' The two men left them to it.

Bones picked up her delivered coffee, and took a dainty sip, while Booth grinned manically at her, full of pomposity. Eventually she looked to him, grinning slightly, but staring deep into his eyes. He edged a little closer to her with his beaming smile, and clarified quietly, 'Significant Other?'

'Yes. I think boyfriend is passé and a little adolescent sounding, don't you?' she oozed sultrily. Booth nodded, whilst slipping his hand over her thigh under the table, and caressed it. She felt an impish spark run her spine at his tender clandestine touch. She slipped her hand to his under the table now, and they entwined hands.

Although it was lunchtime and they were off the clock, they were still at work and both understood the need to be discreet about their romance in the professional environment. Booth knew she'd want to keep the two separate if they could, but it seemed impossible at this point in time. The reason they couldn't get too intimate, was as clear as crystal. It was in case their lust for one another flared, as neither one could resist the other now the last barricade between them had been breached.

Nonetheless, Booth whispered, 'Last night...' not needing to explain because he knew she could see all that he wanted to say in his enamoured expression. She nodded, biting her lip then, flicking her focus between his lips and pupils.

'I want to kiss you,' she confessed just as quietly, looking to his lips again then his eyes longingly. Just as he was about to respond verbally to her request, their meals arrived, jarring them apart suddenly. They laughed softly at their scared reactions to being interrupted, and settled back, and began to eat.

'What did you want to pick my brains about?' she asked, popping a slice of cucumber from her Caesar salad in her mouth, while he took an overly large bite from his succulent cheese burger. Mayonnaise squished out at the side of his mouth, and clung there.

Bones picked up her napkin, and casually wiped his face clean with it as he said, 'Thank you,' clearly charmed by her mopping him up again. Then he swallowed his mouthful, and swigged from his cola. 'On Saturday, after we got out of the elevator, did you notice anything out of place when you walked back in your apartment? I know I asked already but are you sure?' Bones brow furrowed, and she dropped her eyes to her salad. 'What?' he pushed, knowing something was troubling her. She shook her head slightly, then speared a cherry tomato with her fork.

'You'll think I'm crazy,' she stated, and popped the tomato into her mouth, chewing it.

'No, Bones. It's important. If there's anything...' he trailed off as she looked into his eyes; clearly something was not right.

'An apple,' she said, going pink, thinking he was going to laugh at her, but when he didn't, she explained, 'I dismissed it at the time, thinking I'd miscalculated, but I see patterns and minutia in everything. The pattern was wrong, the shape of the fruit in it when I got back in. I know that sounds ridiculous but I can't work it out. I knew I brought six apples and put them in the bowl on Friday night. It was a three, two, one pyramid. There's five left, did you have one?' Booth shook his head solemnly, feeling his pulse quicken.

Then to his horror she went on, 'That's not all...' She looked pensively towards him again. He nodded for her to continue, trying not to show her his growing panic. 'My stereo... I'm so careful about turning things off to save the planet and all that. That's been niggling at me all weekend,' Bones sighed, watching herself forking around her salad in the bowl, continuing with, 'Then there was the pot roast.' Bones looked to him again, as his cheek fluttered nervously. 'It was down a little, like someone had some of it. Then I found a plate in the rack when I was dishing us up our meal and it had a brown smear on it. I just thought it got missed in the wash cycle and rewashed it. Is it possible someone came in the open door and ate the food and played my music?'

'It's possible, Bones. We were in the elevator for quite sometime.' She nodded, going off her lunch suddenly, and slumped back to her chair back.

Booth grit his jaw, took her hand in his to get her attention, saying carefully, 'I think the elevator incident was a deliberate ploy to trap us. To keep us out of the way for a while, so someone could get into your apartment. I think Mr Dixon was an unfortunate casualty of that plan.' Bones nodded, obviously processing the information.

'Then logically, that implies we were being watched. So they knew exactly when to blow the safety protocols.' Booth nodded the tiniest amount. Then she said with a spark in her eye, 'I told you I thought I was being followed...' Booth dropped his eyes from hers, feeling his stomach wrench with guilt. Bones questioned him, touching his leg under the table for him to look up to her, 'Booth?'

Booth lifted his head slowly, holding her hand on his thigh, as he said painfully, 'I have a confession to make, Bones, and an apology to give you...'

Sandy appeared at the end of their table with a gentle smile adorning her fine features, she was about to speak to them but not wanting to interrupt their deep conversation. As she placed the cheque plate on the table in front of them, the partners both looked to her, snapped from their conversation. Just as Sandy opened her mouth to ask them something, the window beside Bones' arm imploded inwards with a deafening shattering like a boom of lightning. Everybody in the Diner instinctually ducked.

Sheet glass sprayed Bones and Booth and the neighbouring table like lethal ice crystals. Both horrified partners felt the displaced air of the bullet whistle past their faces in the same flash. They watched catatonic for an instant as Sandy was punched violently backwards against the diners sat on the stools at the counter, knocking one man off his perch. The bullet tore through Sandy's mid torso and went on into the coffee machine behind with a clunk, and she slid slowly down the counter to the floor. Booth blinked as warm blood sprayed his shocked face. His blink snapped him into sudden protective action, and he threw Bones to the ground out of her chair away from the window. The Diner's patrons were reacting too now.

Booth drew his gun, crouched over Bones, and clicked off the safety, as people ran screaming out of the Diner. Less able or slower patrons were tossed to the floor and trampled on in the panic to get out. Tables, chairs, food and crockery were sent crashing to the ground adding to the heart-stopping mêlée.

'Stay down!' Booth yelled at Bones over the cacophony and stampede to exit the Diner. Booth tried to stop her from crawling towards the unfortunate waitress whose eyes had never left hers, wanting to keep her close. Sandy was now slumped against the counter, sat on the floor with her palms facing up beside her, blinking. Bones tore Booth's restraining hand off her jacket so she could reach Sandy, and put pressure on her profusely bleeding wound.

'Sandy. Oh. God, Sandy,' Bones muttered distraught, pushing on her wound. With her other hand Bones snagged her phone out of her blood and glass sprayed jacket pocket, and hit 911. 'Towels!' she yelled to anybody that may be left in the Diner. She snatched a glance to Booth who was edging to the shattered window. He peaked tentatively out into the street, scanning the opposite building tops for the shooter. It was just as commotion filled out on the street now as car tires screeched, trying to avoid the stream of panicked diners as they hurtled across the intersection and away from harm.

'Paramedics. Gun shots fired. Female officer down,' Bones lied easily, but knew they would come quicker knowing a police officer was in mortal peril. 'Royal Diner on 33 and 3rd,' Bones told the dispatcher in a relative calm voice but the trembling tone gave away her deep shock, and equally deep outrage. 'Yes, stomach wound. My badge number?' Bones looked to Booth who nodded, not looking at her but giving her his permission, as he continued to scan the street and opposite buildings. '356492. Fast.' Bones saw a tea towel flutter over the high counter and settle on Sandy's legs. Bones slapped down her phone, it clattered to the floor and spun away. She grabbed the towel, and packed the wound with it as best she could as Sandy groaned in suffering.

'That was meant for one of us,' Bones said to Booth two metres away, daring him to challenge her fact. He nodded, not denying it, and looked back to her gravely.

'I know... How's she doing?' Bones quirked her brows, not letting the quivering terrified waitress see her worried expression.

'It's going to be ok, Sandy. The paramedic are on their way,' Bones tried to reassure her. But her heart shattered as Sandy looked into her eyes, and attempted a smile as tears fell from them.

Booth heard the wail of sirens approaching from two different directions. He scurried over to the two women. 'They're coming, Sandy. Can you hear them?' He smiled, trying to reassure her too, brushing her copper hair out of her eyes tenderly. Bones felt her chin start to wobble, and fought to hold her rage back. She was so incensed, she wanted to take Booth's gun and shoot something, anything, preferably the gunman. She thought if they caught him, she would happily go to jail for life just to have her revenge and Sandy's. However guilt also laced her sentiments which gnawed at her; because it was Sandy that lay dying when it should have been one of them.

The paramedic unit stopped right outside the broken window. As Booth was safely covered by the vehicle, he stood, and waved them in. They ran straight to Sandy and got to work. Bones stood too to let them do their job without hindrance.

Bones stumbled backwards, and felt for a chair to stabilize her. She righted one, and sat down on it heavily, staring at Sandy oozing life. She was lost in her own thoughts for sometime, until she saw two size twelve, highly polished loafers at her feet, and slowly looked up. Booth squatted down in front of her, and placed his hand on her shoulder, and squeezed it.

They searched each other's glistening eyes for a few moments, knowing Sandy's grave misfortune was their luck. They'd come so close to losing each other; the revelation shattered their normal composure under pressure and rewrote their protocols. At the same time, Booth dropped to his knees in front of her, and threw his arms around her, and she him. They clung on to each other, and rocked together with gut wrenching relief. Neither noticed that Sandy was already being rushed to the ambulance and they were alone in the silent chaos of the Royal Diner.

Their crushing embrace was short lived as they heard a familiar voice behind them. Bones batted open her eyes over Booth's shoulder, to see Sweets staring at them as he asked incredulously, 'What the hell happened here?'

'Not now, Sweets,' Booth said, dismissing him and his asinine question out of hand, as he pulled Bones off the chair, and led her out into the busy street. Booth covered her as he opened his bullet proof SUV, and set her safe inside it. Booth locked her inside, then he spoke to the police for several minutes. After he was done, he came to the driver's side, and got in, locking them inside together. He saw Bones staring out of the windshield not seeing the armed police, paramedics or the gathered agitated crowds. He took a deep breath, and slipped as close to her as he could.

'I need to know what you know,' she said gravely, then turned to look into his eyes. He sighed, and nodded just as gravely.

Rung 20

Broadsky unclipped the magazine from the handle of the Glock 19 and tossed the clip away as far as he could from his position on the deserted bridge. He watched the splash it created get swallowed up by the turbulence of the fast running, glittering water. Then he wiped the gun down precisely with his handkerchief, and tossed it too.

Getting back in his car, he drove off the bridge to the far side of the river bank, and went left away from the city. After several miles he turned off the road, and parked up in a small wooded clearing, frequented by dog-walkers. This afternoon it was empty. He got out, and walked through the trees. Once out of sight of the road, he dug a hole with his hands in the soft earth. He placed a few strings of worthless jewellery and a set of keys in the shallow pit. He covered them over with the displaced soil, then randomly put back the leaf mulch.

When he returned to his vehicle, he saw another car had pulled in. Two teenagers were exuberantly making out in it. He pretended to do up his fly as they looked over, startled to see him emerge from the trees. He didn't look in their direction, but got back in his car casually, and drove off into the glare of the low spring sun.

As Jacob was heading towards his temporary home for a needed bath and a change of clothes, he felt his cell vibrate in his pants pocket. He pulled it out, and looked at the caller ID. He smiled, and pushed accept. 'Well hellooo...' he cooed smugly. 'What can I possibly do for you, my old friend?' he asked arrogantly, checking the time on his wristwatch, to make sure he wasn't on long enough to be traced.

Rung 21

Bones saw Booth shut down his cell from across the room, and came back towards her, looking deeply distracted by the conversation. She was sat in one of his armchairs in his office, and had watched his every move from inside his office. She held an untouched cold coffee in her sticky blood strained palms, and could smell her own nervous sweat now drying on her skin, plus the added scent of drying blood around her.

As he came back into his office, he tried a comforting smile, as he closed the glass door behind him quietly. He sat next to her, noting her eyes never left his or his blood splattered face.

'I've arranged a meeting with my guys to explain what's been happening. So you'll hopefully understand why I did what I did.'

She asked, scared of the answer, 'What did you do?'

Booth sighed, and hung his head a little, when he lifted it again, he asked, 'Do you want to get cleaned up first?' She looked over herself absently, not knowing what to do.

'Does it matter what I look like for this, meeting?' Booth shook his head. She could see tears forming in his harrowed eyes as they flicked over her blood freckled face.

Booth noted her hands were caked in blood, and she had little nicks and cuts across her cheek and nose from the glass that had sprayed her. The cuffs of her dark fitted jacket were black blood stained too, and the white blouse she wore under it was splattered with a rash of Sandy's blood spots. He didn't care how dishevelled she looked and neither did she obviously, but all that chilled his soul nonetheless. 'I'm ok, Booth,' she said sympathetically, trying to sound stronger than she felt for him.

'They're all assembled in the conference room now.' Booth vaguely gestured with his head in the direction of the meeting. So Bones placed her coffee mug on the small table, and stood. He opened his office door for her to go first, and nearly placed his palm on the small of her back but thought better of it. She glanced to him, waiting for him to join her, and then they walked slowly towards the conference room. Halfway to it, and seeing all the agents sitting around the huge table in anticipation of her arrival, Bones stopped, halting him too by placing her hand on his forearm.

'Is this necessary, Booth? Why can't you just tell me?' He stepped in front of her, and looked into her.

'It will sound better once you have all the facts and you won't want to shoot me this way, believe me.' He grinned softly, hoping she wasn't going to shoot him anyway even once she had all the facts. 'Come on.' He tugged her hand gently, and went with him.

As Bones stepped inside the room all the men stood politely and nodded their subtle welcome, as she looked into each set of eyes. She spotted the screen at the far left of the room displaying a typed note. She didn't get a chance to read it before she felt Booth place his hand on the small of her back, and ease her to sit in the chair he'd turned for her to sit on. She did as gently instructed as all the Agents sat again, and Booth took his place beside her.

Booth began by pouring Bones a glass of water, while saying, 'Agent Dowson, could you please explain to Dr Brennan what we've been working on recently.' Agent Dowson stood, and walked purposely to the screen.

'Three weeks ago to the day, Special Agent Booth received, via mail to his home, a laser printed letter on A4 paper. The letter reads as follows; Dear Seeley. It is with great regret that I have to inform you of a crisis looming in your future. It has been brought to my attention that Dr Temperance Brennan of the Jeffersonian is the target of a professional assassination attempt. I have not been made aware of when or where this assassination will take place, suffice to say, it will be soon. I hope that you will take every precaution to see to it she is unharmed and the assassin captured before her life is taken. I'm sure I do not need to emphasize the gravity of this stark warning and you can forgive me for contacting you this way and not face to face. Kind regards and good luck...'

Booth had been staring at her face as she read the note while Dowson read it aloud, and saw her face drain of colour. Halfway through the reading of the polite but chilling letter, he'd taken her hand under the table. He held it softly but didn't feel any strength in her to hold it back, which scared him.

'W, why, huh,' Bones coughed with her scratchy throat, and started again, 'Excuse me,' she said politely, apologising for her cough. 'Why didn't you tell me about this threat to my life?' Dowson looked to Booth, who looked to her now.

Booth began carefully, 'That was my idea. We weren't sure it was a genuine threat to your life to begin with. The FBI receives many letters or calls like this about us, Bones, all the time. Disgruntled family members of people we've put away. Wackos who are obsessed with you and your novels, professional envy, that kind of thing.'

Those facts she wasn't aware of, and although it was reasonable to assume she'd made enemies in their line of work, it still stalled her breathing slightly. 'So what made you think this one was different from those threats?' Booth gestured to Dowson again to continue.

Dowson pointed out several words and phases on the note as he spoke, 'We had the letter analysed and evaluated by a psychologist. Here the author writes, Dear Seeley, that implies Agent Booth knows him or her. He is rarely called by his first name, only by intimate friends or close associates. Then it mentions a crisis looming and then the assassination. We believed that this is goading Agent Booth, a former sniper, to seek out the assassin. It suggests to us a challenge for Booth to capture him. And why use the word professional assassination? Again the author writes, suffice to say it will be soon. This suggest he knows when it will happen. How would he know it was soon unless he is privy to the time scale?' Bones nodded, and took a sip of water, thinking those were reasonable assumptions.

Dowson carried on with his explanation, 'The overly friendly and polite nature of the text is concerning too. It shows a total lack of real empathy and yet implies he is indeed concerned for your life. If the author was that concerned would he not deliver more details or give us a name? Then there's this, kind regard and good luck. Again cold, calculating challenging.'

Bones stated, 'You think this is from the assassin...'

Booth replied to her now, 'Yes. So once we decided that the threat was potentially real we began close protection of you without your knowledge. Twenty four hour visual protection at first...' Worryingly Booth saw Bones look away from him to her glass of water and her hand slip from his. 'Meanwhile my team searched for forensic clues on the letter. None were found as this letter was computer generated and photocopied and the facsimile was sent. The envelope held no trace evidence either. We background checked my friends, foes and close associates, yours as well. We had to check every option and avenue.' Bones nodded, and looked back to him.

'After two weeks though, we were stood down under orders from above as nothing was discovered or came to light and it was costing my department too much. So I took the decision to personally follow you out of hours, and stayed as close as I could.' Bones twitched in her seat knowing that fact. 'Then there was the elevator incident, that changed everything... After we got out I spoke to the officer in charge, do you recall?' Bones nodded.

'I got him to put a call into my team to restart the covert protection immediately. I know it's a shock and feels intrusive to know you've been watched so closely, but can you understand why after this afternoon? This assassin almost shot you.'

Bones filled her aching lungs, and said to him and the room, 'I understand completely and I want to thank you all for your protection of me and clearly this has been difficult and time consuming. Not to mention the drain on your department's limited resources...'

'I sense a but coming,' Booth said softly. Bones nodded.

'But, you didn't tell me even on Saturday when you suspected I was to be targeted. I have to be honest, I find that very patronising in the light of the circumstances.'

Booth defended his actions gently with, 'I didn't want you to feel trapped, Bones. Emotionally or physically...' Bones blushed immediately, made mad by him revealing such a personal weakness to the rest of the room. 'Which of course you would've felt if I told you what we'd done, what I'd insisted on.' His honesty still annoyed her, even though his heart was in the right place.

She couldn't help herself, and riled instantly, setting her jaw, scolding him through it, 'That's not your issue or judgment to make, it was mine. I'm insulted that you made that decision for me without my consent in the light of those events, and what I told you privately later.' She could see Booth's eyes cloud as the punch she'd delivered hit home in his eyes. 'This is typical of you, Booth, making decisions on my behalf, thinking you know what's best for me...' Booth hung his head slightly, ashamed but motioned across the table to another Agent with a file in front of him. The atmosphere in the room grew more dense and the men twitched in their seats, feeling awkward bystanders to the simmering words exchanged between the partners.

Then Agent Philips said, 'This is what we've discovered about the elevator incident, the robbery and death of Mr Dixon and the death yesterday of the young man across from your building.' That widened Bones' eyes, she hadn't thought that was related to her predicament, but by the look on the men's solemn faces, it may have. It was Bones' turn to shift uncomfortably in her seat.

'Go on,' she said, taking another sip of cool water, only then noting that with the condensation on the glass, her fingers left a unsightly bloody smear on it. She wasn't sure what to do about it as it looked so glaringly gory in such a sterile environment. The tension in her chest crushed it flat. Feeling enclosed and suffocated emotionally and physically, she felt like running out the door and away. She felt as if she needed air and space. There were too many people around her and all were staring at her. However she knew she had to stay and listen, and face this head on with as much force as she could muster. So she took a deep forced breath in through her nostrils to inflate her chest, and strengthen her resolve.

While she listened, seemingly calmly, to Agent Philips give her the forensic details of all three incidents, Booth handed her his handkerchief. He'd seen what had happened and her stiffen. He surreptitiously handed it to her under the desk. Bones took it, and wiped her hands of the blood and moisture they leaked, then scrunched it in her palm.

Bones could feel Booth's sorrow and guilt ooze from him, and knew he was hurting and in turmoil. She suspected he thought she wouldn't forgive him this invasion of her privacy, for lying to her, or his gross overprotection of her. Feeling she had to reassure him that although she was mad with him for all that, it didn't mean they couldn't get through this intact. It seemed, in the grand scheme of things, she was being a little irrational if she were truthful with herself. So she slipped her hand onto his thigh under the table, and squeezed his taut muscle. She noted him relax slightly at her gentle touch and look at her, while she continued to stare straight into Agent Philips.

Bones sipped the remains of her, now warm, water, and placed the glass on the coaster precisely, watching herself perform the task. All eyes were on her, she felt, as they waited for her to say anything or ask them questions.

She looked up to all the men around the table, and smiled sweetly at them in one long sweep of the room. 'Thank you. Now I have all the facts and understand what has been done on my behalf, I feel greatly comforted and appreciate all your efforts to keep me safe. However, we still don't know who has their sights set on me or for why. I'm not convinced that I was the target though, it could have been you, Booth. And if it was a professional sniper, would he have missed or made such an error to hit Sandy? Tell me, would you have risked the shot if others were potential innocent bystanders?' Booth thought for a moment, and then shook his head.

'If I thought there was a chance I'd miss and hit an innocent, I wouldn't take the shot. Most snipers wouldn't, they're more meticulous than that to eliminate mistakes. They plan and measure...' Bones snapped her head toward him, and pierced his eyes with hers with the revelation, which was instantly mirrored in his eyes.

Booth clarified aloud their mutual thoughts to the rest of the room but staring wide eyed into her, 'He was measuring your apartment. That's why he came inside ate the pot roast, apple and played your music. He was checking the trajectory and length to target.' Bones nodded fast, and twisted in her chair to be face on to him, feeling her exhilaration rise yet again.

'Yes!' she confirmed, with a sharp nod. 'My bathroom window is opposite the building where that young man supposedly fell off.' The rest of the occupants in the room faded away until the partners were the sole inhabitants, and reading each other thoughts.

Booth was nodding excitedly, flushing from the adrenalin surge that they were finally making some progress, then postulated, 'The sniper must have found him up there while he was smoking his joint. Possibly saw his weapon and the sniper had to kill him if he'd seen what he was doing.'

'Exactly, yes. But, Booth, who is he?' They were dragged from one another's eyes as the door of the conference room was swung wide by Agent Franks peering inside.

'Sorry to disturb,' Franks said, 'But I got a guy out here, he's a little peed off from being pushed around all day and waiting so long. I have explained we've been a little busy,' he said mildly sarcastically, flicking his eyes up to the ceiling. 'The local PD sent him over this morning. He's got something you need to see. Shall I put him in your office?'

Booth stood, and hitched up his pants. 'No, bring him in.'

The slim, tall, salt and pepper haired man in his fifties came in, looking a little flustered and ruddy. He held a green manila folder in his hand, and looked at all the men staring expectedly at him. Booth's brows crinkled, as he held his hand out for him to shake. 'Mr...?'

'Geran, Conor Geran. I've been waiting ages and pushed from pillar to post. I have a life and job you know! The police didn't know to make of it and sent me over here, where I've been ignored for most of the morning,' he ranted indignantly, ploughing on with, 'I'm certain they're very important and when I heard that poor young man had fallen off...'

Booth interrupted him with, 'Have we met before, you look very familiar?'

Geran huffed at the accusation as he interpreted it, 'I doubt it. I've only ever had one speeding ticket in my whole life! And...'

Booth interrupted him again, 'I apologise for you having to wait and being ignored, Mr Geran, but you have our full attention now, I assure you. Please, tell us what you think is important for us to see.' Geran relaxed getting his apology, and pulled out a chair, and sat heavily next to Bones. Booth noted, Geran wasn't at all fazed by a room full of FBI Agents, in fact he seemed to relish holding all their attention.

Geran opened the folder he'd brought with him, as he explained, 'I'm an amateur photographer. I was taken shots of the sunrise over the park yesterday morning.' He pulled out a wad of enlarged photographs, and spread them around the table in front of him. Booth stood over his shoulder to look at them.

'Excellent 'scapes and wonderful composition,' Bones said, impressed with the landscapes, but she felt Booth twitch impatiently beside her, obviously wanting the man to tell them what was so important.

'Thank you,' Geran said, flicking her a glance, clearly delighted she liked them. 'Anyway, I was using my Fuji GSW690 Mark III. It takes a 120mm film. Nice large negative. I like to blow up my shots, you see?' Bones nodded, looking over the photos. Geran waffled on, 'I took my shots, went home and developed the negs. I chose the best ones then scanned them into my Mac to Photoshop them. Remove the imperfections and...' Bones suddenly snatched one enlargement from Geran's hand.

Glibly, Geran confirmed, 'Yes, you see?' inflating with pride, on seeing Bones glaring hard at the picture. She brought it closer to her, and narrowed her eyes.

'Booth, look, top right.' She pointed to the area, her blood running cold. He strained to see, but missing what she was getting excited about. He shook his head. She pointed. 'There, on the roof of that building, that shape, the silhouette...'

Geran interjected, 'Yes, I thought it ruined the picture composition but didn't know what it was. So... I enlarged it again, then again...' Geran paused for effect then pulled out his another photograph focusing on the building top and the silhouette of a long rifle and a black head looking through the sight. Although it was in silhouette it was unmistakably a sniper.

'Je-sus,' Booth shot out, 'I remember now! I saw you, taking pictures on Sunday morning outside Dr Brennan's apartment.' Geran shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly.

'I have a licence. People get touchy if us amateurs take pictures of parks. They worry that we're child molesters or something disgusting like that,' he said flippantly.

'I can't see his features clearly,' Bones said, still peering at the image with Booth, who was desperately trying to see a clear face too.

Geran smirked, and said, 'It's amazing what one can produce with a computer program, large negatives and some skilled technical knowledge.' He pulled out his last enlargement from his folder, and placed it on the table in front of him. Arrogantly, he said, 'Voila! One clear face.'

Booth and Bones looked over Geran's head to each other, confirming together, 'Broadsky...'

Authors Notes: Reviews welcomed.

Part two will be posted soon under the imaginative title, Jacob's Ladder Part Two.