The Stippled Bone

Chapter I

The halls of the Jeffersonian were silent and a single light flickered in the hallway leading up to the entrance to Tempe's office. The transitory luminescence revealed the reposed shadow of an exhausted Temperance Brennan cheek down on her desk with pen and bone in hand and the soft glow of the computer monitor casting ghostly shadows around her slumped body.

She fell asleep in the midst of cataloging bone number 548-32. It was the metacarpal bone of a young Caucasian male. This finger bone was just one bone in a pile of hundreds that came from a mass grave near Machu Piccu. Temperance worked through the night trying to make crude identifications of the remains which were sent to the Institute weeks earlier. She kept the bones in her office and worked on them when she found time. Things were slow and lately she found herself spending many sleepless nights working. The recurring dreams of Booth were taking their toll. She began to focus more and more on her box of bones. The bones were more than 600 years old so they were low priority for the Jeffersonian's elite forensic team who focused mainly on recent crimes and body identifications.

Booth walked up to the door of her office and hesitated. He was about to knock when he realized that she was sleeping. He stood in the doorway and quietly watched her as she slept. He thought about her so often now that he was sure his heart rate doubled whenever they were in the same room together. But now with her sleeping alone at her desk and completely unaware that he was next to her, he felt comforted and at ease with her.

He wanted, so many times, to tell her how he felt but the moment was never quite right. He swallowed hard and walked over to her. He sat down in the chair next to her and he was about to wake her when he noticed the manuscript of her new book in the tray on her desk. It was not the usual neat pile of paper that comprised her finished book drafts but looked tattered and worn as though it had been read and re-written a hundred times over.

Booth puzzled over the manuscript and looked at the sleeping beauty in front of him. He could smell her soft scent. It was a scent that was distinctly hers and he'd never smelled it anywhere else or on anyone else and it mystified him. He took it in and closed his eyes for a minute and wondered what it would be like to hold her. He picked up the manuscript and flipped through the pages and they flopped open, hard to a section in the middle where a small wallet sized picture of him fell out from between the pages.

Booth reached down and picked up the picture wondering where or when it was taken. Booth read the page. "she kissed him, apprehensively, at first then caught herself giving in to her deepest desire which was to be with him completely. She melted into the kiss and her lips trembled at the surrender. She was terrified and ecstatic. Her kiss deepened and when he pulled her closer and ran his fingers up the back of her neck and through her long hair, the sensation of his touch made her moan and she pulled away to catch her breath." Booth closed the manuscript and put it back in the tray. He wanted so badly to make this passage real. He felt vindicated after reading it. He was sure now that Bones felt the same way and he wanted to show her how he felt.

He wanted to show her what he was feeling now and what he'd been feeling for a long time. The passage made his blood boil with desire.

He quietly wheeled his chair so that he sat directly behind Bones. She stirred slightly. He rubbed the back of her neck and slowly raked his fingers through her hair and up along her scalp. She leaned her head back into his massage still half asleep as if entranced by his touch.

His hands lowered and wrapped around her neck until his fingers nestled in the triangular gullet of her throat. He moved his hands down to her shoulders and around to her shoulder blades where they rested there and his thumb applied soft pressure to the nape of her neck and middle of her back. She sighed, "Oh Booth." With this assertion, something stirred in him.

He brought both hands back up to her neck and leaned in pulling her hair to one side. "Bones." His voice was barely a whisper. She turned around. Her eyes were still closed and still entranced. She sat up in her chair and opened her mouth slightly. Her chest heaved up and down as her breathing became more rapid. She pulled herself towards Booth and whispered something too low to understand. Her eyes searched feverishly for something underneath her closed lids, they moved back and forth rapidly searching. Booth, unable to hold back, kissed her deeply and she melted into his kiss with equal fervor. Booth felt a rush of love and release.

He wanted this more than anything. When they broke from each other he could see that her eyes were still closed. His face was wet with warm tears that ran down the sides of her face. She was sobbing. His heart sank. He sensed that she was still sleeping, trapped in some urgent dream and whatever the dream was it was hurting her somehow. Giving herself to him, even this small part of herself, somehow both released her and tormented her in parallel. Booth hesitated at the thought, "Could she be sleeping still?" He felt disheartened at the thought. "Bones." He whispered her name and then again a little louder.

Her head was resting on his chest. She opened her eyes. "Booth?" He exhaled and looked downward now sure that she must have been sleeping. She was kissing him in her sleep or in a dream. She gathered herself together and abruptly turned away from him. She grabbed a cleanex and wiped her face. "I'm sorry Booth..Please..I was..I was..just taking a break." Booth got up and walked around to the front of her office and sat down on the couch in front of her desk. He needed to see her face. He needed to collect himself. His voice cracked, "no Bones..I'm sorry. I shouldn't have just."He couldn't finish." She interrupted, "Do we have a case Booth?"

Angela was standing by the door and witnessed everything. She knew that Tempe was having recurring nightmares but had long since stopped trying to get her to talk about them. They talked about everything but Tempe would never divulge what the dreams were about. Angela could only console her when she woke up screaming or sobbing uncontrollably.

Somehow she suspected that it had to be about Booth. How could she expect her friend to admit to her something she could not even admit to herself? Angela saw the disappointed look on Booth's face but could do or say nothing. She walked back to her lab passing Hodgins in the hallway. Hodgins asked, "Hey is Brennan in there?" "She is but I think you'd better give her a minute." He continued on and Angela stopped him with a hand to his chest. "She's with Booth." Hodgins looked at Angela and his brow furrowed. "Do you mean she's "with" him as in "with" Booth? Finally those two.." He didn't wait for Angela to answer but before he went any further with his assumptions Angela stopped him. "No not that kind of "with."

They're in there and I think they're having a private conversation so I didn't interrupt." Hodgins paused and replied, "a private conversation? I remember when we used to have a lot of "private conversations." Angela smacked Hodgins on the arm. "C'mon lover boy lets go have a private conversation with the residue found on this usb drive." Hodgins, successfully diverted, turned toward her. "I love it when you talk residue."

Booth sat on the sofa resting his forearms on his knees and clasped his hands together with fingers intertwined. He thought to himself, "I can't let this go. I'm not going to let this go." He looked up at Bones who was still collecting herself.

She pulled her hair back and began straightening the things on her desk in front of her in anticipation of the upcoming case. Booth didn't know how to approach the subject. He tapped his fingertips together and asked, "You were crying Bones. Why?" Bones still pulling herself together pulled her chair away from her desk and retorted, "What, no, Booth you misinterpreted my tears as an emotional response but I assure you it was merely an involuntary glandular release triggered by a sudden change in light intensity or some other stimuli. I was asleep that's all."

She stood up abruptly and tried to walk past but Booth caught her by the wrist and pulled her down onto the sofa next to him. He was not going to let this go the way he had so many times before.

"Bones you were asleep and asleep and you were sobbing in your sleep. Voluntary or not there is something wrong." Bones could feel herself beginning to shake and didn't want Booth to see her like this. Booth held on tighter to her hand. "Please. Do you trust me?" "Yes." She replied. Her voice weakened. "I do trust you." "Then talk to me."

She took a deep breath and without making eye contact she replied. "I have these..these..dreams Booth." He tightened his grip. "I..I..can't do this now Booth..not here..please." He put her hand to his chest near his heart. A gesture he hoped she would understand. "Later." She said pulling her hand away slowly and nodding her head. But she spent the remainder of the day avoiding the topic and avoiding physical contact with him.