Part 3: The poisoned king of...
He stopped dead in his tracks when he unlocked the door and heard laughter from inside the house. He wrinkled his forehead in confusion and quietly closed the heavy wooden door behind him. He put his brown leather bag down on the floor beside the door and threw his jacket over the banister of the stairs to his left. He didn't mind taking off his shoes and followed the giggles through the entry way and the dining room into the kitchen. When the door swung open and he could see inside the room, a smile broke out on his face and the wrinkles on his forehead vanished. He leaned against the doorframe, put his right hand on his hip and watched the chaos in front of him. Where his kitchen had formerly been was now something that looked similar to an exploded flour bag that had taken down almonds, cinnamon and chocolate with it. The five females responsible for the eruption were busy chattering away while they leaned over some grayish substance that was spread out over his kitchen counter.
"What are you doing?" he asked and made his presence known, four heads turning in his direction at the same time.
"Hey Dr. Hodgins," Michelle waved in his direction, her hands covered with the gooey substance that occupied his kitchen counter. His grin got wider at her still calling him Dr. Hodgins. The formal addressing had somehow become her nickname for him during the last months. "We're baking cookies," she let him know and waved her hands around at the ingredients that were scattered all over the kitchen.
"Looks more like something exploded in here. You sure there wasn't some kind of bomb involved?" he asked, pushed himself off the doorframe with his shoulder and walked into the room. Michelle's three friends looked at him curiously, knowing that they were in his house and his kitchen, although they had never met him before. He smiled friendly at them but his eyes had found already who he had been looking for. Leaning against the counter beside the girls was his girlfriend, dressed in jeans and one of his flannel shirts, a somewhat desperate look on her face.
"I told you that we would bake here today, didn't I?" she asked him apologetically and squeezed his hand secretly when he greeted her with a peck on the lips.
"Actually you're words were 'We'll use your kitchen tomorrow because the cookie cutters are at your place'," he said and couldn't help but look around his once- upon-a- time clean kitchen.
"Potato potatoe," she rolled her eyes at him, the hand hidden from the girls still comfortably resting in his. "But what are you already doing here?" she wanted to know.
"I was testing the substance we found in the basement of the handbag guy and obviously the vent in my lab is not working as it should. Turns out it was pyrethoids and I breathed in the fumes and now I have a splitting headache and decided to go home early," he told her. Opposed to her he hadn't had the day off.
"Oh," Cam said and looked worried. "We'll clean up and get out of your way then," she told him and out of the corner of his eye he saw Michelle's disappointed look.
"Nah, you stay here and bake and I'll go upstairs and lie down. The house is big enough after all," He replied and managed to wink at her. He pecked her lips again and waved at the girls before he walked out of the kitchen and made his way upstairs. He would have loved to stay and watch them, but his head didn't feel like company and chatter, and his bed sounded awfully tempting at the moment.
~*~
He had taken off his shoes and was unbuttoning his shirt when he heard the bedroom door open behind him and didn't need to turn around to know who it was. She walked up to him without a word and took over the task of unbuttoning his shirt when she stood in front of him.
"You ok? You have anything else beside a headache?" she asked and sounded worried and professional to equal parts.
"I'm just tired," he shrugged and let her pull the shirt off of him. When she dropped it he leaned into her. She wrapped her arms around him and held him in a tight embrace while he leaned his cheek against her shoulder and closed his eyes. That her hair smelled like cookies made him smile despite his pain.
"You know that fatigue is another symptom of pyrethoid poisoning, don't you?" she asked quietly, her warm breath tickling his ear.
"Mmmh," was his only reply before he pressed his lips to the side of her throat.
"No nausea, burning eyes, coughing?" she wanted to know and he just grunted in reply, lost in her touch. She let her hand wander up his neck, massaged his skull and wandered down again, while the other rubbed circles on his back. Her fingertips touched the skin of his shoulder from time to time whenever she reached the seam of the white wife-beater he wore, and he found himself waiting for these touches and the tingling they evoked.
"You're not falling asleep on me here, are you?" She asked after a while of holding and caressing him and he could hear the amusement in her voice.
"Nearly," he smiled and stood back up straight with a sigh. "I think I'll just lie down and sleep it off," he added, his arms still wrapped around her waist.
"I'll bring you something to drink and some Tylenol," she replied and pressed her lips against his forehead before she untangled from him and left the room. Wistfully he watched her leave and stared at the closed door for a moment before he snapped out of his daze. He stepped out of his jeans and went to the bathroom before he sank down on the bed and lay down. His brain clouded with chemicals and fatigue, he rolled over and expected her to be next to him, and then remembered the circumstances of him lying on this bed. He missed her, he realized, which was stupid because she was downstairs baking cookies. He was being ridiculous, he decided. Ridiculously hopelessly in love with this woman, he added in his mind and closed his eyes.
When she came back he was already half asleep but she made him sit up and take the Tylenol and drink some water.
"Stay," he requested sleepily and held her hand in his, when she wanted to get up from the edge of the bed.
"As much as I would like to lie down and nap with you, I can't. I have four teenagers down there who will most likely burn down the kitchen if I don't get back soon," she replied apologetically and cupped his face with her hand. He leaned into her touch and closed his eyes again without giving her other hand free.
"I doubt that it is safer with you down there," he muttered, knowing about her non-existent cooking skills. "And I don't care about the kitchen, don't need it. Don't need this whole house. It's too big for me alone anyway," he added somewhat dolefully.
"Oh god, now he reached the weepy stage," Cam quipped amused before she cooed exaggeratedly "Poor baby."
"Don't mock me, I've just been poisoned," he replied without opening his eyes and rubbed his cheek against her hand.
"You poisoned yourself," she pointed out and rolled her eyes although he couldn't see it.
"Doesn't matter. Stay," he requested again and made her sigh deeply.
"Ok, but just until you're asleep," she agreed and kicked off her slippers. "Scoot over." He moved a bit more to the middle of the bed and sighed in contentment when she lay down beside him and wrapped her arms around him. He buried his nose in her hair, concentrated on her fingers that played with his curls and nodded off.
~*~
When he woke up two hours later his headache had diminished to a dull throbbing and he felt much better. He rolled onto his back and listened, tried to make out sounds from downstairs when he found her missing from his bed. He hoped that Cam hadn't just left. That would be the last thing he needed on this crappy day.
He got up and walked to the door, then remembered that he should probably put some clothes on and turned around. He put on the jeans he had worn to the lab that day, but chose a more comfortable shirt and some of those expensive soft socks he owned.
He was halfway down the stairs when he heard noise coming from the kitchen. The chatter sounded less happy and more frustrated and he raised his eyebrows and walked a bit faster; his curiosity peeked now.
"But girls, if we put more flour into it it'll be just as hard again," Cam said as he stepped into the kitchen.
"But we can't cut the dough like that, it's too... gooey," Michelle disagreed, clearly frustrated.
"Ladies, what's going on here?" he asked loudly from the doorway and all five turned to look at him.
"It's not working! The cookies are either too hard or the dough is too wet," Michelle said in a whiny tone.
"The recipe seems incorrect," Cam shrugged, because she didn't want to admit that she could neither cook nor bake.
"With my dad they always worked," Michelle pouted and slumped against the counter, just as the other three girls were.
"Ok, let me see," he laughed and walked over to them. He took the notepad with the recipe from the counter and read through it, then looked at the dough in front of him.
"You're feeling better?" Cam asked him while he studied their oeuvre.
"Yes, thank you," he replied and smiled warmly at her before he turned his attention back to the recipe.
"Ok, uhm, is it possible that you used instant cocoa instead of real cocoa? Because that's the only explanation I can come up with at the moment that would explain this," he said and pointed to the goo.
"Isn't that the same thing?" Michelle shrugged and confirmed his suspicion.
"Oh god, please don't ask him that! He will give you the chemical review of both substances," Cam groaned and hung her head what made the girls smile.
"No, it is not the same thing," he told Michelle and then turned to Cam. "And thank you for your reassurance Dr. Saroyan," he told her with an amused twinkle in his eyes.
"What can we do now?" one of the girls asked.
"Michelle open that cupboard there, there must be real cocoa somewhere inside," he ordered before he gave other tasks to the other three girls. Cam just stood and watched in awe as he took over the baking operation and twenty minutes later they were able to put the first batch of perfectly star- shaped cookies into the oven. The cookies before had either melted in the heat or had become as hard as bricks. Both had smelled delicious, but neither had been eatable.
"Ok, what's up next?" he asked and Michelle handed him the next recipe. He studied it and nodded. When he looked up he grinned, because he knew that Cam was still watching his every move, just as she had done the last twenty minutes.
"Hey, lazy, why don't you grab those sprinkles and help?" he teased her. She rolled her eyes but then had to smile and did as he had told her. He made a point of brushing against her or subtly touching her whenever he had the opportunity to and another half hour later the second batch of cookies was in the oven and the first one was sitting on the counter to cool.
"Anyone else wants some coke?" he asked and took a large bottle out of the fridge when they all nodded. The teens took their glasses with them to the table that stood in the other corner of the kitchen and sat down, while he and Cam remained standing, leaned with their backs against the counter beside the fridge.
"Thanks for saving me," she grinned at him and sipped her coke.
"No problem," he shrugged and wrapped one arm around her shoulders.
"Next time she asks me to do anything like this I'll just say no in the first place," Cam chuckled and leaned more into him.
"That's probably wise," he agreed and grinned when she nudged him with her shoulder.
"Hey, what happened to the vent in your lab? I'll call the repair crew as soon as I'll be in tomorrow," she asked after a moment of companionable silence.
"The sensor seems broken," he shrugged a bit too innocently for her taste and she could smell that something stank to high heaven. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"And just how did this sensor break?" she asked and he knew he was busted.
"It might have something to do with the explosion earlier today," he admitted sheepishly.
"What explosion?" she asked but stopped him by holding up one hand when he opened his mouth to answer. "No, don't say it, I don't wanna know today. I'll deal with this and with you tomorrow," she decided.
"Just remember that I saved your cookies," he grinned and placed a kiss on her cheek.
"I will. From now on you're 'king of the cookies'. That 'king of the lab' thing just exploded with your vent sensor," she told him in a conspiratorial whisper and winked at him when he gaped at her.
"But I am... and what about… I nearly died today while doing my job," he tried to protest exaggeratedly, but she just laughed and kissed him, refused to talk about this any longer. She would so kick his ass tomorrow, he knew and decided with a sigh that he should try to get some more bonus points as long as he could.
"Next round of cookies, anyone?" he asked loudly and pulled her with him by her hand when he walked over to the teens.
End of part 3
