"No, Booth, it isn't that simple. I can't just call her. What would I say? 'Hi Aunt Helen, I'm Tempe, the niece you've never met because your sister was a bank-robber who was trying to protect her family by pretending they didn't exist.'" She locked her door behind her, adjusting her coat over her essentially backless dress – the lining of the coat felt chilly against her bare skin.
"Well, I know how you favor the direct approach - you never know, it might work."
"Unlikely, Booth. And I'm not sure I'm ready to meet her anyway - her or the rest of the family I've never known." Russ had sent Brennan an email this morning from his new work with the names and addresses her father had supplied for her mother's side of the family. She only slightly regretted telling Booth of this recent encouragement by the Keenan/Brennan men to contact her aunt and cousins.
"Why not? You had a wonderful Christmas with the family you only recently reconnected with - a few months seems like a 'rational' amount of time to brace yourself for the next step. Plus, with Russ just getting back into the swing of his own life, this is a chance for you to help your family rebuild."
Brennan stopped talking for a few moments to consider this. Booth saw her introspective expression and carefully considered his next words, "I'm not trying to get you to do anything you'd be uncomfortable with. I just want to see you happy, and the events of this part year, while certainly dramatic and even upsetting at times, seem to have made you more content with your life outside of work than I've ever seen you."
"Are you saying that you think I wasn't content before?"
"No, Bones, I'm just saying that while you love your work more than anyone I know, I think maybe you have realized recently that you want more to your life than just professional success – which you also have more of than anyone I know."
Brennan let her lips curl slightly for a small smile at that, and she chose not to address his unspoken challenge. While she may not be the most socially-savvy person in the world, she knew him well enough to tell that he was expecting a retort to his implication that her personal life was less-than-fulfilling. "I'll think about it. Seriously." She looked at Booth out of the corner of her eye, watching him fiddling with what appeared to be an unruly cufflink.
"Thanks for coming to this with me, Booth. I know that you aren't really into the whole fundraising-dinner scene, but Cam told me in no uncertain terms that tonight was mandatory for me, and I didn't feel like going stag to a function where the guest speaker is a former lover of mine."
Booth couldn't suppress his unwitting grimace at the word 'lover'. A simple word, applied to someone she hadn't even seen in over a year and clearly had no lingering feelings for, but it made him. . . uncomfortable when he heard it coming from her mouth. "How do you even know that word?"
She took a moment to figure out what he was referring to. "Stag? Come on, Booth, I'm not that bad. I've gotten pretty adept at 'googling' pop culture references, and I only mix up about half of my idioms these days. Did you know that 'stag' in this context is an acronym standing for 'single tagging along girl'?"
Booth sighed, though not irritatedly. "Bones, your level of analysis over even the most banal subjects is astounding." He couldn't help but chuckle at how reliable her attentiveness was. She didn't do anything half-heartedly. Whether she was working, enjoying a hobby like diving - or martial arts, learning to be more socially aware, or even (and he stifled a laugh at the memory) dancing with him to Foreigner, she threw herself into everything she enjoyed.
"Banal? Looks who's asking about word choice?"
He turned his face to smile at her, a hint of teeth that still carried a few megawatts of charm. "Word-of-the-day toilet paper. Anyway, we were talking about the dinner tonight. So what is Michael going to be talking about again? Anything I might possibly be able to stay awake for?" He wasn't looking forward to seeing Bones' ex, though the fact that he was stuck on a lecture circuit through Northwestern and had never landed the job that he threw Brennan under the bus for gave Booth a warm, victorious feeling inside.
"He's giving a lecture on propensity of foramens in some of the Germanic regions; it relates to the new exhibit that the Jeffersonian is considering curating on genetic commonalities of bone abnormalities between different European regions." She heard Booth groan and she chuckled in response. "I know, but we're going to be at a table with Deputy Director Cullen and his wife, so at least there will be someone you know there."
"What?! You're just telling me this now?! And you think spending the evening sitting next to my boss and his wife is going to make a boring lecture better? Now I'll have to pretend to pay attention!" Booth sputtered and gawked at this newfound twist. "Plus, Cullen is going to want to know why I came with you – and why are they even going to be there?"
Brennan had something of a wicked grin in place as she attempted to answer his flurry of questions. "I only found out today, I didn't tell you earlier because I hadn't spoken to you since we made arrangements for you to pick me up, and I honestly didn't think it would bother you." While he had grinned mischievously himself when he agreed this morning to accompany her tonight (she would have taken Zach for the professional exposure, but astonishingly enough, he had a date with a very attractive young docent), he had grumbled the whole time about it being a fancy 'frou-frou' affair despite the fact that she knew without a doubt he enjoyed black tie events even more than she did.
"You know that Cullen's wife is high up on the board at American University's history department, and they are cooperating with the anthropology department to host the dinner – it makes sense for her to come. And as to why you're coming with me, you're my partner. Why shouldn't you? It isn't like it's a date or anything." As she said it, she felt her brows furrow slightly. It wasn't a date, was it? If Zach had come, it wouldn't have been a date. But she would have met Zach there; he wouldn't have picked her up. And Zach probably wouldn't have swallowed so visibly (or at least she wouldn't have been as aware of it) when he saw her in the black silk boat-neck dress with the plunging back. It seemed appropriate when she chose it earlier, but when she answered the door and Booth mouthed 'wow' under his breath, she thought maybe she had gone too far. She had asked him, though, and he said that it was a perfect choice and that he was just so used to seeing her in scoop neck shirts and chunky necklaces, the simple dress looked amazing. She had blushed at that, but that was just for the compliment, not because it was Booth saying it. She thought.
Alright, everybody, this was my first EVER fanfic. If you like it, please tell me. I'm a lousy reviewer of my own work, and if I don't get responses that people are interested, I won't submit any more out of fear that the quality is crappy. Just let me know! You review mine, I'll review yours!
