Disclaimer: If I owned Bones, I would be writing for that, not this :)
A/N: Hey everyone. I'm back with the long-overdue sequel to "Marry Me." If you haven't read that one, you might want to, otherwise some of this story may or may not make sense (plus it's a good story if I do say so myself, so you'll enjoy it). This one is going to come a bit slower than the last one, with updates about once a week until about mid-May when my semester is up, then they should come faster. I've got it outlined for 12 chapters, but that's assuming I don't think of other stuff along the way. So, here it is! And as always, let me know what you think!
"How long are you gonna keep this up?" Angela Montenegro asked her best friend, walking into Temperance Brennan's office and sitting in the chair across from her desk.
Brennan looked up from the paperwork she was doing and glanced over at her six-month old son, Tyler, sleeping in his playpen. She then looked at Angela. "How long am I going to keep what up?" she asked. Brennan knew it could be just about anything. She seemed to have a habit of doing things that annoyed Angela and not having any idea she was doing it. Rather than guess, she had learned to just ask—it saved a lot of time and trouble for all parties involved.
"You know what I'm talking about," the artist scolded.
Brennan laughed, "Honestly Ange, I don't. Just tell me and maybe I can stop whatever I'm doing."
"Enough with the being engaged already!" Angela cried out, glaring at Brennan. Angela knew that if she didn't actually drag her best friend down the aisle, she and Booth would remain engaged for the rest of their lives. She and Hodgins had finally had their dream wedding, and now it was time to force her best friend into hers.
"It's been six months," Brennan responded with mild confusion. "I proposed only six months ago. I was under the impression that engagements typically lasted a year or longer?"
"Yes, they typically last a year or longer. Because people take that long to PLAN the wedding. You don't wait a year and THEN start planning. So it's time to start planning in…oh…now would be good!"
Brennan just stared at her best friend. She knew Angela was dying to plan her wedding to Booth—probably had been from the day the two had been partnered about over a decade earlier.
"Come on, Bren. You can't stay engaged forever, you know. At some point you're supposed to actually get married!" When Brennan still didn't say anything, Angela started to get suspicious. "You do actually intend to marry Booth, right? This isn't just some ploy to get him to forget about proposing is it?"
"Angela! How could you even think that?" Brennan was insulted. She may be a lot of things, but a manipulator was not one of those. Ok, maybe it was, but for criminals, not significant others. Ok, maybe her past significant others, but never Booth. Even if she wanted to, she'd never get away with it with him—he taught her everything she knew about manipulation and would just manipulate her right back. "I fully intend to marry Booth. I wouldn't have proposed otherwise. If you'll recall, he gave me an out. He told me he'd drop the marriage subject. I'm the one that brought it right back up. I will marry him."
"Just making sure. You just don't seem to be excited about planning the wedding, that's all," Angela responded calmly.
"That's because I'm not," she explained. "You're the one who loves the wedding planning stuff. Not me. If I could just wear a casual dress and get married in the courthouse in front of a justice of the peace, I would. But I know that neither you, nor Booth, would allow that. So I'm really not excited about it."
"Well, sweetie, you better get excited, because we're planning it, starting now. Whether you like it or not," Angela finished.
"Planning what?" Booth asked, coming into the office.
"Nothing," Brennan said.
"Your wedding," Angela responded at the same time.
Booth looked from his fiancée to Angela, and decided it was probably safest to believe Angela in this case. "Our wedding?" he asked Angela, since obviously nothing else was going to come to mind at this point.
"Yes, it's been six months since you two got engaged and it's high time you start planning the actual wedding. Otherwise it'll never actually happen," she explained to Booth.
"Yeah, I suppose that's true. I mean, it can't plan itself, right? Well, Angela, you and Bones have fun with that, but do it later. Right now we have a dead body washed up in the Tidal Basin. Let's go, Bones." With that, he turned around to leave the office, hoping that Bones would follow and Angela wouldn't try to drag him into the wedding planning. He should have known better.
"Don't think you're going to leave all this to us womenfolk, Seeley Booth," Angela yelled after him. "You're going to be just as involved as your future wife!" The artist then turned to Brennan and said, "I'll watch Ty, you go and do whatever it is you do with dead bodies before you bring them here. But, know this. I will be making sure that you plan this wedding." Angela watched Brennan rush out of the office after her fiancée without giving any acknowledgement that Ange had said anything at all.
As Booth and Brennan drove to the crime scene they were quiet, each lost in their own thoughts. Brennan finally broke the silence, "Save me."
Booth turned to her, shocked and confused. "From what?"
"Angela. This is going to be a nightmare. All I want is small and simple and with her involved it'll never be that," she said, her eyes pleading with his for him to do something. Anything.
"Sorry, Bones. I would save you from just about anything, but I'm not going to save you from this, for a few reasons. First, she's right. We do need to start planning this wedding, if we're going to go through with it. We are going through with it, correct?" When she nodded her agreement, he continued, "Second, you proposed to me. I was done with the marriage thing and you pushed it. Therefore you have nobody to blame but yourself." Before she could protest he kept talking, "Third, I will help you out with the planning. You know, help picking invitations and music and flowers and stuff. Oh and cake. I'll definitely help pick out the cake."
"This is going to be a nightmare," Brennan repeated, sullenly, turning to look out her window.
"Look at it this way, once we get through this, we'll never be bothered by her again. We'll already be together, married, parents. What more could she possibly ask us for?" he said, trying to cheer her up as they arrived at the scene.
"I don't know, but now you've jinxed us. She'll come up with something for sure," Brennan muttered as she got out of the SUV, and walked towards the crowd of people.
TBC...