I'M BACK!
This is a short one... I know I said that Twenty Dollars was going to be short too, but this time I mean it! I should be posting sporadically throughout the night and hopefully have the whole thing up by at least tomorrow afternoon.
Besides, I have another story idea in the works that I don't want to put off for too long.
Let me know what you think.
She sighed, glancing over at her alarm clock and waiting for the numbers to change so that the alarm would go off. She was relaxed; more so than she had been in the past few days. She closed her eyes, willing for the moment of sadness to pass when her alarm blared at full volume a static sounding radio station that she hadn't had the time or care to change since she moved the alarm clock to her side of the bed.
She sat up and slapped the top of the alarm clock and the sound immediately ceased. She ran her hands through her hair and sighed again. She reluctantly got out of bed and trudged her way to the bathroom for her ritual morning shower.
After getting dressed and applying her makeup meticulously, she walked into the kitchen and was greeted by him. He was clad in his usual suit for work and sat at the kitchen table with a newspaper, a cup of coffee in front of him and one cup sitting out intended for her. She eyed the cup warily and ignored it, getting a new cup of her own and pouring what was left in the pot for herself.
"Good morning." He said cheerfully.
She turned for a moment and stared at him and he reciprocated it. Her face was stone cold as she studied him. Realizing that this was probably not good for her, she gulped down the rest of the hot coffee, burning her tounge in the process, but sucked up the pain and grabbed her coat and shrugging it on. He stood quickly and grabbed his coat from the end of the couch where his stuffed over night bag and a folded blanket and pillow sat at the end of her couch.
She grunted as she went to reach for the door handle and he jumped in to open it for her first. She briskly walked through the door and looked back to see him locking her front door with the key she had mistakenly given him a few months back and turned, jetting for the elevator in hopes that she could make it there before him, leaving him to either run down the stairs or wait for it to come back up.
She called the elevator and sighed when she realized that he had caught up to her in time to catch the ride down with her. They stood next to one another not saying anything. She could feel his eyes on him but she refused to acknowledge his presence the same way that she had been doing so the last week. He sighed heavily, willing her to speak to him, but no such luck.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened for them. They stepped inside and she pressed the button for the basement floor/garage and stepped back, accidentally bumping into him. He put his hand behind her back, steadying her from falling over, "Oops, sorry, Bones." He said quickly apologizing for being in her way. She merely glanced over her shoulder and scowled at him.
He chuckled slightly under his breath and smiled at her. She was stubborn alright, and that was one of the things that he loved so much about her. He was a patient man however, despite most circumstances, he could wait for her forever and he knew it, but more than anything, he was stubborn too, just as stubborn as she was and he wasn't going to give up on her so easily. She just had to see it for herself.
When the reached the garage level they stepped out of the elevator and he followed her to her car and watched her get in. He waved as she pulled out of her spot but she merely scowled at him and after she began to drive away, he jumped into the SUV and pulled out of his spot.
Ten minutes later, she had made it into the medico-legal lab and sighed in relief when there was no evidence of Seeley Booth anywhere in sight. Angela waved good morning to her as she passed by and Temperance smiled and made her way to her office, unlocking her door and setting her things down before moving behind her desk and switching on her computer and taking a moment to check her email. She reached over on her desk and picked up her coffee and took a sip.
She stopped the cup at her lips and looked at it. She turned around and there he was with a matching coffee cup and a paper bag dangling in front of her face, "UH! You have got to be kidding me!" she yelled.
He dropped the bag on her desk and leaned toward her, "Those are the first words you have spoken to me all week." He said smiling victoriously.
"You need to stop following me around like a lost puppy-dog, Booth. You're bordering on stalking at this point." She fumed.
Booth rolled his eyes, "I don't know too many stalkies who let their stalkers sleep on their couch to stalk them, Bones. And besides, metaphorically, I am a lost puppy-dog, waiting for my master to figure out what she wants." He said, strolling over to her couch and plopping down on it and kicking his feet up on her coffee table.
"I don't want anything Booth. We've been over this already." She said firmly.
"You're lying, Bones." He scoffed, not looking at her, "I used to be a degenerate gambler, remember? You have a tell." He said winking at her.
"Not degenerate." She whispered under her breath and turning back to the computer. Whatever was in the bag that he had brought smelled delicious. The scent was wafting through the thin paper and tantalizing her senses. She peered at the bag through the corner of her eye and then looked back at the computer screen.
"It won't be symbolic of you conceding if you eat it." He said to her, taking another sip of his coffee.
She smiled and pulled the bag off of her desk and placing it in her lap. She opened the bag and pulled out a powdered jelly donut, "Jelly." She said curiously, "How did you-." She said and sighed, "Never mind."
Booth laughed, "I know you a lot better than you think I do. Daffodils and Daisies, ya know?"
She rolled her eyes and bit into the heaven that was the jelly donut that he had bought for her. She took no time in devouring the donut and putting her computer to sleep mode before standing up and shrugging on her lab coat. She took ten steps outside her office and turned. There he was again, following her, "Don't you have to go to work?" she asked angrily.
Booth shook his head, "Told Cullen I would be here, working on paperwork with you all day." He smiled.
She grumbled noticeably and turned abruptly on her heels and made her way into limbo to pick up a set of remains that needed to be identified. She grabbed a box quickly and hurried to the platform where she hoped that if she walked quickly enough he might fall behind and loose him in the maze of hallways, but when she reached the stairs for the platform, the beeping of the card reader alerted her that she had neither lost him, nor had she effectively squashed his hopes of chivalry for her. She stomped up the steps of the platform and began laying out the bones anatomically and Booth took a seat in front of one of the computers and watched her.