Weathering the Storm
Author's Note: Disclaimer: I do not own Bones nor do I profit from any writing about the Bones characters. Just having fun!
From Chapter 1:
"Hang on," Booth said tensely. With both hands on the wheel he held the car steady while he braked hard. They slid to a muddy halt. Caught in the gleam of the bright headlights a swollen torrent that had once been a creek rushed across the road just in front of their car. Booth shuddered at the close call.
Chapter Two: A Dark and Stormy Night
He fumbled for a flashlight in the glove compartment. Testing it and finding it still worked, he then turned to Brennan, who was clinging to the dashboard with white fingers staring at the rushing creek just in front of their car. Booth watched her eyes widen as she realized the significance of what she was seeing.
"Not again," she whispered. "What do we do?"
Her eyes were luminous with alarm. That overwhelming need to take care of her, that secret, irresistible feeling she would clock him for if she knew how often he acted on it, swept over him. He paused for a second, taking in her bloodless face and trembling hands.
"Hey… are you alright?"
Booth was still recovering from the fright himself, but he leaned over Bones to make sure she hadn't hurt herself again. Satisfied that she was fine, he gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze and ran his hand down her arm. Then he pulled his black overcoat up close to his chin and grabbed the door handle.
"Sit tight, Bones. I'm going to go see how far across it is."
He jumped out and walked around the hood in front of the car. Bones could see him standing in the pouring rain and leaning into the wind, pointing the flashlight across the flooded road. He walked a few steps in either direction, swinging the beam all around. Within a few minutes he was back beside her, out of breath and soaked to the skin. She leaned over the back of her seat and felt around on the floor behind them.
"I thought I saw a towel back here somewhere."
"Yeah, there is one back there somewhere," Booth agreed. "It's Parker's."
"Here," she retrieved a bright orange and yellow striped over-sized bath towel. Booth gratefully wiped off his face and scrubbed the excess water out of his hair.
"It's getting cold out there," Booth said. "I think that water is rising fast, too." He sat shivering, having wiped off as much rain water as he could but unable to adequately dry his drenched clothing. His teeth began to chatter.
"We are not h-having a g-good night," he gasped.
"Come here, Booth," Brennan offered, extending her arms in invitation. Booth borrowed into her warm embrace with a relieved groan. She rubbed his back vigorously while he hugged her against his body.
"Oh, you're really wet," she commented. "And cold." He held on greedily, afraid she might decide to release him. He was grateful that she didn't.
"If we went across right now, before it gets any higher, we could probably get through," he said, closing his eyes and soaking up the feel of her hands warming his back. "It doesn't look to be more than three feet across. There is a road under there—so it can't be all that deep, can it?"
"I don't know," she said cautiously. "It's inadvisable to proceed into flood waters of unknown depth."
He pulled away. "You're right," he conceded. "Okay, we'll turn around. Dammit."
With a frustrated jab at the accelerator, Booth backed the car up until he could safely execute a u-turn on the muddy road. Their spirits sank lower as they retraced their steps. Bones, noticing that Booth still looked cold, turned up the heater to full blast once more. The SUV bumped along, hitting huge puddles and pot holes that seemed to have formed since they'd passed by not half an hour earlier. The road was fast becoming impassable.
"How's our gas?" Bones asked. She was back beside him, hanging on his arm even as he drove. Gone was his intrepid partner, and in her place sat a frightened girl with a purple lump on the side of her head. He rarely, if ever, saw her so undone.
"About half. Hey, Bones; don't start worrying about everything. We'll figure this out. We'll get out of this, I promise."
Slowly Booth became aware that the road was looking less and less like dry ground and more like a muddy gutter awash with rainwater. And the water seemed to be getting deeper and faster. A jittery alarm went off in his head, making his stomach clench. He instinctively sensed imminent danger.
"Bones. Look for a side road, or a trail, anything wide enough for the car that goes uphill. This road is flash flooding."
After a few anxious moments of silent searching, she pointed to an overgrown trail leading through the trees off to the left.
"There, Booth."
The SUV barely fit through the underbrush on either side but at this point he didn't have much of a choice. Gunning the engine, he fought with the bucking steering wheel as the car skidded for traction up the incline. After a lot of violent maneuvering he managed to remove them to a point several feet above the flooding road. The trail didn't end there, but this appeared to be the highest point. Booth stopped to catch his breath and think. After a minute he reached out to Bones and grabbed her hand.
"This isn't good. It looks like we'll have to stay put for the rest of the night, at least. I need to turn off the car. We can't afford to burn up all our gas. It doesn't make sense to keep going in the dark through this storm and this is a good place to wait it out."
"I don't see an alternative," Bones agreed reluctantly. Her voice shook. "But it's around eight hours until the sun comes up. If the car engine is off, it will get cold in here."
"Yeah I know. I think I have an emergency blanket in the back somewhere. Hang on while I get these seats stowed away…"
Leaving the engine running for now, Booth wriggled into the back seat and worked on the latches on the seat backs. Soon he had them folded into the floor of the car, creating a flat area where they could lie down. Crawling further back, he rummaged around in one of the side pockets until he triumphantly yanked out a Mylar sheet.
"Here it is," he held it up. "Now bring back your coat, scarf and gloves because we're going to need every piece of clothing we've got with us."
Bones did as he asked and then climbed into the back. She positioned herself so the front passenger seat was her back rest. Booth tossed her the Mylar square.
"Unfold it while I turn off the car." Booth had left the heat turned on to full blast while he'd rearranged the seats in an effort to start out with the car as warm as possible.
"This is not a blanket," she pronounced. But she did as Booth said and opened the thin material up to its full size.
Although she had done everything to prepare for their night's stay in the back of the SUV, Bones cried out softly when Booth clicked off the ignition and plunged them into complete darkness. The only light was the green fluorescent glow of Booth's watch. The wind and rain sounded even more menacing in the black of the night.
"Don't be afraid, Bones." Booth slid over the front seat to join her in the back. He had to feel around but it only took him a second to find her in the dark.
"Sure," she said shakily, and not at all convincingly.
"Hey, why don't you tell me about those ancient bones I dragged you away from this morning? Who was the old guy?"
He could feel her trembling. Swinging his arm over her shoulders he pulled her securely against his body. They leaned against the backs of the front seats. Her head found its way onto his shoulder. She was breathing in fast gulps, revealing her terror to Booth without words. He couldn't help running a hand up and down her arm and leaning his chin on the top of her head. She smelled like rain and something flowery. In spite of their circumstances, Booth breathed deeply and smiled in the dark.
"I've been afraid of the dark since I was a toddler," she confessed, ignoring his kindly attempt to divert her attention. "I can remember my Mom checking under my bed and inside my closet every night before bed, with a flashlight. Dad would sing to me. But I still had nightmares almost every night. Later, when I was a teenager, I would get so frustrated with myself. I wanted so badly to outgrow my fear, the way most people eventually do. But I never have." She sounded embarrassed.
"Are you afraid right now?"
"Not as much as I thought I would be."
She snuggled closer and he welcomed her with a tighter embrace. It took them a few awkward moments to get the emergency blanket tucked tightly around them both, but in spite of its flimsy appearance, they immediately felt warmer as soon as it was in place.
"Not bad," Booth commented proudly. "It's not a feather comforter, but it's warm enough."
"It makes a weird crackling noise," Bones said. She wiggled her legs and then her arms to illustrate.
"You're warm enough, aren't you? Now, where were we? Tell me more about your dark-o-phobia."
She chuckled and then continued to talk. "When I went into the foster care system, my foster father locked me in a closet when I misbehaved. I tried so hard to be good, but I could never please him. He was determined to teach me a lesson, but I never figured out what the lesson was. I still have nightmares about that dark closet."
She shuddered. Rubbing her shoulders Booth bent and pressed a soft kiss on her temple. She stiffened and made a sharp sound.
"Is your head still sore?"
"Yeah. It still hurts."
"Sorry."
He surprised her by kissing her forehead again, this time with infinite care and gentleness. Something was happening between them, something she hadn't foreseen and wasn't quite sure what to do with. Ignorant of her shocked reaction, Booth kept talking just above a whisper. She closed her eyes. His voice—its timbre, its tone—was soothingly familiar. It occurred to her that just the sound of it was quickly diminishing the power of the darkness. His strong arms anchored her. Although she would never have chosen to be stuck in a situation like this, being here with Booth made it bearable.
"You had some rough times growing up. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Childhood should be happy and full of wonder."
"That's what you try to give Parker, isn't it?"
"I try. I don't ever want him to experience what I did." Booth shifted uncomfortably. He hadn't intended to say that. He dreaded the fact that Bones probably wouldn't let it slide. After all, here they were, stuck for the night in the back of his car in the middle of the woods. It wasn't like she had anything better to think about.
"What, Booth? You've never told me about your childhood. What experiences are you referring to?"
"Just—bad stuff. My Dad drank. And when I was twelve he left us—me and Jared."
"And Pops raised you after that; I remember. Booth, tell me about it. What happened with your Dad?"
"Things that no kid of mine will ever have to go through."
His head lifted from hers and she felt him tense up. The moment, the window of vulnerability, seemed to be closing up again. This always happened whenever she got too close to his dark places. Sadness washed over her.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell me. Booth, if you ever want to talk about it some day, I'm here, you got it?"
He was silent for so long she began to drift off to sleep, comfortable in his arms, but she woke up with a start when he spoke again, the sound vibrating under her cheek.
"I was named after him. Seeley Booth. Seeley the Second," he spit out bitterly. "He thought I was his property to do with whatever he pleased. Jared is named after Pops. It's Pops' middle name. Jared was only two years younger than me, but it felt like ten. I was left in charge of him when Dad went on his drinking binges. And when he came home, drunk, mean…"
Lifting her face in a futile effort to see his, Bones felt tears burn hot behind her eyelids. To most of the world, Booth was a tough, fist-swinging FBI agent, but Bones knew how tender, how bruised, he was inside. In a way, she felt as protective of him as he was of her. For all his bravado, he was easily hurt, something it had taken Bones a while to learn. She had hurt his feelings on several occasions without being aware of what she was doing, and she still felt awful about each and every incident.
"… It was me that caught it. I was his punching bag."
"Oh, Booth. But you kept him from hitting Jared?"
"I sure tried. Didn't always succeed."
"When did Pops move in with you and Jared?"
"When I was in seventh grade. I was thirteen."
"Thirteen? I was in ninth grade when I was thirteen…" Bones mused, doing the math. "I skipped the second grade, though."
"Well, I flunked the fifth grade. That was the year things got really bad at home. You know, at the time, and for a long time afterward, I thought I flunked because I was stupid. Now I know I was unable to concentrate in school before my Dad left. I got all A's and B's when Pops was my guardian."
Her arms instinctively tightened around him. "You weren't stupid. You were traumatized. You and I have seen it in some of the street kids we've encountered in our investigations. I guess I was traumatized those years I was in foster care, too, but I dealt with it differently—I just worked harder in school. Learning was my escape."
"Thanks, Bones," he said softly.
"For what?" She yawned. The long day of recovering remains and the storm afterward had taken their toll on Bones. She was exhausted.
"For listening, I guess. I haven't talked about this with anyone before; not really. Hey, you look awful. You should get some sleep."
"Gee, thanks, Booth. You look awful too. I know you can't really see me, anyway."
Booth chuckled. Together they slid down and made themselves as comfortable as they could manage on the floor of the car. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this close to her. Sure, there had been a few hugs. When he'd rescued her from the man at the clinic last month, he'd held her until the EMT's had arrived. But never like this. He'd dreamed about holding her hundreds of times, but his conviction that she didn't feel the same way about him kept him from acting on it. He wondered now how she felt about him. She certainly seemed to feel something for him. He couldn't imagine her cuddling like this with Hodgins or Wendell. The very thought made him jealous and he gathered her even closer. She responded with a half-hearted moan; she was already mostly asleep.
Sleep overtook them both quickly, in spite of the cold, the hard floor beneath them and the sound of rain pounding on the roof. Her head was cushioned on Booth's amply proportioned shoulder, his head on her hand; they were sandwiched together in a silver Mylar cocoon. Booth's last thought before he drifted away was how surprisingly content he was.
Sometime during the night, Booth awoke and realized that, other than the even sound of Bones' breathing, it was silent. The sound of pounding rain and howling wind was gone. Raising his head just far enough to see out the windows, he was amazed to see white flakes swirling furiously against the dark backdrop of the night. His nose was cold and so were his feet, which, still encased in his mud-encrusted shoes, had gotten soaked when he'd gotten out to check on the creek and were now two blocks of ice.
It didn't take Booth long to realize he wanted his feet warm in the worst way. Sitting up, he inadvertently dislodged Bones in his haste to pull off his wet shoes and socks. Ignoring her sleepy protests for the moment, he grabbed Parker's towel and swathed his feet.
"Ah," he breathed.
"What?"
"My feet. My feet were freezing."
"My feet are freezing, too," Bones complained.
Booth reached down, pulled off her sneakers and grabbed one sock-clad foot. It was indeed freezing.
"Here, we can share," he conceded generously. Opening up the big fluffy towel, he pulled her feet in next to his and re-wrapped it so their feet were together. Bones squeaked.
"Your feet are way colder than mine."
"Hey, you're the one who complained about her feet being cold. I'm just trying to help."
"Booth, look," Bones said, laughing. She pointed at the orange and yellow bundle at the end of their legs. "I have to admit, my feet are already getting warmer. But… that looks ridiculous."
A look of awareness sharpened on her face and she looked around.
"I can see. It's not as dark."
"It's snowing now. It's always a little brighter when it's snowing, even at night."
"It's snowing?" Alarmed, she fastened her gaze on the window. "What are we going to do now?"
To be continued…
THANKS to all you reviewers who made my day by letting me know you are reading. You are the best! Reviews are a writer's dessert. I love any and all comments/suggestions.
