[Disclaimer: Bones and all its characters are not mine. They are the property of Fox, and maybe others, but definitely and sadly not me.]
Her nose buried in paperwork, Brennan pushed on her office door with her back. It wasn't so much that it had been a long day – daylight saving excluded every day was the same length – but she could be pushed to admit that this one felt longer than a typical day. Carefully juggling her coffee and paperwork so one would not fall on the other, she turned toward her desk, but stopped short when she heard a gasp and a soft twhump. Startled, Brennan looked up to see Angela standing behind her desk, a sheepish look on her face and a skewed stack of roughly bound paper before her on the desk.
"Angela?" Brennan's brow furrowed. Had Angela been reading it?
The sheepish look on Angela's face, however, seemed to melt away into a strange lopsided and smug smirk. "So. I see you finished another manuscript? What have Andy and Kathy been up to?"
Stepping forward to put her coffee and paperwork on her desk, Brennan turned her back on Angela to hang her coat on the coat rack. "I'm not sure what you mean, Angela. The premise of the novels has not changed. You've read the other ones; you know what they're about." Facing Angela again with some confusion, she picked up her coffee and took a long drink.
"I do. I've also noticed that certain scenes have been heating up between Andy and Kathy recently. There wouldn't be any particular... reason for that?"
Brennan had enough time to register the mischievous twinkle in her best friend's eyes before she swiftly sat down in her chair and pulled her paperwork toward her, pretending to read it. "My editor advised me it would be good for sales." Brennan sincerely hoped that answer would satisfy Angela, even if it didn't satisfy herself. However, she should have known better.
"Bullshit." Angela slapped the manuscript down on the desk on top of her paperwork causing Brennan to start. She raised her eyes questioningly to Angela's, noticing the twinkle had become more pronounced. "See, I was just taking a peek when I noticed something." Picking the manuscript up, Angela began flipping through the pages until she found the one she was looking for and began reading aloud from it, her voice low and dramatic. "A soft moan escaped her lips as Booth's hands slid slowly up her sides, coming to rest with his thumbs just brushing the sides of her breasts."
Brennan stared at her. "What?"
Grinning broadly, Angela spun the manuscript around and pointed to the offending sentence. "Slip of the tongue, sweetie?"
Brennan could feel the heat rising up her neck and prayed it wouldn't reach her face, or at least that Angela wouldn't notice it, whatever the chances were of that. It was true: staring back at her from the printed page was Booth's name. Snapping the manuscript shut, she grabbed it from Angela's outstretched hands.
"Slip of the fingers, more accurately, but apparently so. I'll just... fix that." She turned to her computer screen and turned it on, willing it to turn on faster even though it would make no difference. She could sense Angela staring at her in glee, but she refused to look up at her friend knowing what she'd see there. It was just that: a slip. An accident. She spent so much time with Booth he was often in her mind. It shouldn't be surprising it would slip into her novel. She steadfastly ignored the little voice in her brain reminding her of exactly where her fantasy, no, inspiration for that particular scene had come from.
"Well, frankly, I'm just surprised it hasn't happened before."
"Ange, really, it was a mistake. It doesn't mean anything."
"Sure, sweetie. Whatever you say." Angela threw her one last smirk before she walked out of the room. As she left, Brennan looked up in time to see her friend's shoulders shaking with laughter.
Great, now she's going to be on me again about this. Brennan sighed to herself as the chapter in question's document finally opened. For a few seconds she stared at his name, the cursor hovering nearby, before she heavily exhaled and highlighted and deleted his name. Andy. Her male lead's name was Andy. In the novel, at least.
Hey everyone! Thanks for reading. I haven't written anything for years (seriously, since like 2003) and never anything for Bones, and then this randomly popped into my head this evening so I wrote it down. I'm feeling very very very rusty and hm, so I'd love to know what you think of my first foray into Bones fic!