Can't Do A Thing – Chapter Two
In all honestly, he hadn't regarded Brennan as vein-poppingly annoying since their very first cases together. Not since he had complete sanity and authority. Had being the key word.
This spat took the cake. It was the motherlode of all spats. It was Royal Spat. Spat-tastic!
Hell, she'd been so frustrating. He knew it was rude to interrupt yet another one of her dates, and he did feel bad for it, but when Zach turned up at the crime scene calmly and rationally explaining that Doctor Brennan had offered him this recovery – ergo – the case, that was the last straw. She'd really pissed him off.
Executive decision. Right after he was done with the necessary here, he would march right up to her apartment and they were going to sort this mess out. Talk it out like mature adults, just as partners were supposed to do. No way did he want Sweets to get his gossip hungry mitts on this and have him twist and turn it around to come up with some far fetched story. Maybe try weasel another reason how one might interpret their 'involved arguments slash creative differences slash heated discussions' into yet another method of 'subtle seduction'. Or whatever the hell the kid had called it.
It didn't even make sense in his own head. Besides, if he wanted to seduce Bones, she'd know about it. Nothing would be subtle about it.
Good. Decision made. Whatever was bugging her was going to come out into the open tonight, and he wasn't leaving until she coughed up the goodies.
On the other side of town, Brennan was getting ready for her dinner with Daniel. Stepping into the shower she began her usual routine. Exfoliate, hair, legs, moisturising body scrub, blah, blah blah. It all felt like second nature.
Half an hour later, clean and fresh faced, Brennan stepped out of the shower. Wrapping a fresh crisp towel around her damp body, hair and make up done, she began making her way back through to the bedroom. Until a hard knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.
Damn interruptions. "Who is it?"
The voice was muffled by the heavy wooden door, but she could tell exactly who it was.
"It's me, Bones."
"Damn it Booth, didn't I tell you to go away?"
Once again his gruff voice came from the other side of the door.
"Open up. I want to talk to you." Followed by harder beating on her door from his clenched fist.
Leaning against the hallway wall, she sighed, she was standing her ground on this one.
"No."
"Please, just open the door."
"Forget it Booth! I have a date to get ready for."
A loud, frustrated groan emitted through the tough silence between them. She smiled to no one in particular. Take that you smug bastard.
Satisfied with the silence, she turned on her heels and retreated back to the bedroom, it was getting a little chilly standing in her living room dressed in nothing but a towel.
Halfway there, she froze. No. No way would he do that. Okay, so maybe he would.
"Don't you dare think about coming in here Booth!"
He made a show of jamming his key into the keyhole, maybe a little bit more forceful than necessary. Oh yes, he was coming in, Temperance Brennan, be it known.
"You could always open the door for me, then I wouldn't have to." One way, or another, as the old song went.
A few second of silence later he heard the slip lock slide and the dead bolt catch open, door swinging wide to reveal a very pissed off woman. So much for standing your ground, Tempe.
"What the Hell is your problem?
Yes, a very, very, very pissed off woman. Clad in nothing but possibly the sexiest deep blue towel he'd ever seen.
"My problem! My problem? Well," Focus man! "My problem is you. Blowing off this case and leaving me with Zach, which by the way, not a very nice thing to do, Bones."
"Oh you wanna talk about nice? Nice is you disturbing my personal life every night to a fault for the last two weeks! Nice is you offending your co-worker and personal friend just because he's smarter than you and because you obviously had no one else close to pick on for petty bullshit reasons. Nice is you being a jackass and not knowing when to leave well enough alone. Yeah, you're real nice too Booth."
"Bones, come on. I already apologised about the whole date thing. Sincerely. Several times."
"And what about Zach? I simply asked if Zach could do this one recovery for me, and how do you react?"
"C'mon, Temperance."
"Shut up Booth, don't you dare 'Temperance' me. You reacted like a spoilt toddler whose Mommy just took away your favourite toy. Juvenile and pathetic Booth. I am not a piece of meat you can just take for your own personal gain whenever you feel fit. You. Don't. Own. Me."
"A piece of meat? Bones, seriously, these loser guys you keep seeing. What do you think they see you as? You're nothing to them. They don't care for who you really are. They don't give a flying fuck about the real you keep hidden in that hard ass shell somewhere. You're just status and sex to them. Just another notch on their bedposts."
"Who I sleep with is none of your God Damn business! For the record, I have never said I wanted anything more than sex from those 'losers'. You're not the only person on the planet with needs."
"Yeah yeah, all your biological urges and anthropological inevitabilities. You deserve something better than that, Temperance. You deserve someone who isn't going to take that big heart of yours for granted. You deserve someone true to love you."
Her voice softened noticeably.
"Yeah, well I'm getting sick of waiting around for you to man it up, Seeley. I'm done with spending my nights alone waiting for you to stop being such a pussy. We're running out of time and I'm not sure how much more waiting I can take."
Defeated, she shook her head. "Just, God, I don't know. Just close the door on your way out."
Seconds later, she was gone.