A/N– What do I think would have happened if this fan fiction didn't? We are talking post Judas on a Pole, right? I honestly think he just would have been spending a night alone. Booth seems like a family man to me, and I can't see him putting anything before his family, even a time with Brennan, which he was spending by agreeing to go into the diner. With that said, on with the story!
Temperance could barely make out the glowing green numbers of Booth's DVD player. 6:17. Damn. She usually tried to wake up by 6. Usually, she had an alarm. Usually she woke up in her own bed, alone. Something told her that this morning was not going to pass as the others usually did.
She was only vaguely aware of the sleeping form under her head. Slowly she sat up, rubbing her eyes and suppressing a yawn. She was trying not to wake Booth for the time being. He looked so calm asleep in his half-sitting, half-laying position on his couch-bed. The eyes that were normally so intense were closed to the world. All traces of thought were gone from the agent's brow. Brennan smiled to herself as she grabbed her overnight bag and headed to the bathroom.
Booth was awake the second the weight of her head left his chest. For reasons he couldn't place, he remained still as she struggled to gain consciousness. He had been aware of her lingering a moment and studying his form before leaving the room. He grunted as he got up from the bed. His back ached. The position in which he had been sleeping was far from comfortable, but the feeling of holding Temperance as she relaxed and drifted into sleep made the pain bearable.
"Good. You're up." Brennan stated from the entrance to the living room.
"Yeah. I'm up," he said, standing quickly. He felt extremely aware of the fact that she looked near ready to leave, and he was still in his night wear.
"Good," she continued, "I, uh, just realized that you drove last night and I need a ride to work."
"Right, I shower quickly. You can help yourself to breakfast."
"Okay. I might do that." Might. Booth suddenly remembered his hand wrapped around her torso as she slept. She had felt thin to him. Thin to the point that he could feel her individual ribs. He hoped she would eat breakfast.
Fifteen minutes later Booth found his partner sitting on the newly folded couch watching the news.
"Ready?" he interrupted the girl analyzing weather patterns on screen.
"Yeah, I'm ready," she responded, grabbing her bag. "It's been a long time since I could actually watch the news. I guess I was just missing the graphic interruption to my news. But let's go. I don't want to be late."
"Bones, it's not quite 7 o'clock yet. You work too much anyway. We just finished this case. What do you have to do right now?" He grabbed his keys to his FBI- issued SUV. And they continued their conversation on the way.
"What do I have to do right now?" she repeated his question. "Well, every time we finish a case, I'm handed a mountain of paperwork. After that, there's the job I was actually hired to do." For the first time that morning, Booth realized how hoarse and harsh her voice sounded. He dismissed it, remembering how she had screamed the previous night.
When the pair reached the Jeffersonian, Brennan dropped her bag in her car before heading into the lab, closely followed by Booth. She loved having him around, but part of her wished that they could have parted ways in the parking garage.
"Good morning, Camille," Booth greeted from behind Brennan. She had been so ;ost in thought that she hadn't noticed her superior walking down the corridor.
"Good morning Seeley, Doctor Brennan." She nodded her head to each respectively. Her gaze stayed on the pair for a moment. And then Camille was gone.
Cam continued walking until she was inside her office. She sighed heavily as she opened the folder she had been carrying. Her thoughts quickly began to fade rom John Doe 4821964, and landed on Seeley Booth. She mentally scolded herself. The only way to pull through this would be to detatch completely. She told herself that it was stupid to dwell on something that she couldn't change. With another sigh, she returned her attention to the John Doe file.
- - - -
The moment Booth left Brennan's office, Angela appeared in the large door frame.
"Honey, do tell!" she commanded her friend.
Looking up from her papers, the anthropologist met her friend's gaze.
"What, exactly, and I supposed to be telling you?"
"Don't give me that! I saw you and Booth kiss at the diner. You two left together last night and came in together this morning. Give me the juicy detail in the middle. Come on!"
"I'm sorry, Angela. There's really not much to tell you."
"Sweetie, what's wrong with your voice?
"My voice? Oh. I did a bit of screaming last night. Booth said my screams were terrible. It's nothing really."
"Ooh. Well, were you in his bed when you were screaming?" Angela smiled mischievously.
"No. I was on the sofa-bed. And fully asleep. I had one hell of a bad dream. It doesn't matter what you're thinking right now; Booth and I did not have sex," she concluded honestly.
"That's too bad. I thought maybe you would have."
"Well, we didn't. Can I get back to these papers? I need to finish these before I can start on the skeletal remains that are on their way up from Limbo."
Sure, sweetie. Better luck next time." The artist left with a meaning ful smile.
After hours of filling out papers, dating, and signing, Brennan was standing over a skeleton. In her freshly gloved hands she held what little paperwork existed on John Doe 9862103. Leaning closer to the skeleton, she found the file's first inaccuracy. John Does 9862103 was actually a Jane Doe. As she moved to correct that on paper, she felt suddenly shaky all over. She wrote "female" in large letters on the top of the file. The writing looked very different from her own. Her mental processes seemed to be slowing down. She removed her gloves and left the platform. Inside her office she collapsed onto the small couch.
Booth knocked lightly on the door frame before entering. Moments earlier he had seen her enter the office.
"Bones, we have a case." He walked over to the couch where she was sitting. She was slouched over.
"Great. Just give me a minute. I need to sit for a little bit."
"Are you okay?" Her skin was pale. He reached for her hand and found it to be cold and clammy.
"I'm fine. I just need a minute."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong."
"Then why are you sitting down?"
"It feels better than standing right now."
"Is that all?"
"Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. I just felt all shaky all of a sudden. I don't know why." Booth felt her tiny wrist twisting in his hand.
"When was the last time you ate?"
"Yesterday when you and I went to lunch."
"You and I went to lunch two days ago, and you didn't eat much. Stay here. I'll be right back."
"Mmhmm."
Booth quickly found his way to the lab's small break room and bought a soda from the machine. Walking as quickly as he could without shaking the soda, he made his way back to Brennan.
"Here," he said, thrusting the bottle into his partner's hands. "I have a hunch. Drink up." She hesitated and followed his instructions. They sat together in silence for a few minutes.
"I feel better. You're good. So tell me about this case we have." She stood and went for her coast as he stared at her for a moment.
"Take that soda with you I want you to finish it. The case is an interesting one. A girl was playing in the woods and she found a bag that smelled bad. It peaked her curiosity and she looked inside. She found a bag of heavily decomposed body parts. She screamed and told her aunt. The aunt called us."
Twenty minutes later the black SUV came to a stop outside of a heavily wooded area. Brennan and Booth climbed out and met the officer on the scene. Several of the surrounding trees held yellow crime scene tape. Snapping on some latex gloves, Brennan stepped forward. She indicated the bag and received and uncomfortable nod from the officer.
Booth hadn't been exaggerating when he had said the bones were badly decomposed. In was mostly bone with very few pieces of flesh still stuck to it. After examining the bag, she surveyed the surrounding area. Trees lined the entire area. Leaves from many falls carpeted the earth, and the whole scene was covered in a comfortable shade. Far in the distance there was a small clearing which held a small house. Fifty feet from where she sat, a small red loop was poking through the leaves. Silently she stood and moved to the spot where the loop was. Booth followed with questions blazing in his eyes.
Cautiously, Brennan peeled layers of leaf and dirt from around the mysterious loop. Eventually a garbage bag came into view. Glancing briefly at her partner, she opened the bag. The bag contained bones similar to the ones in the other bag.
"Booth," she broke the silence. "I think we have a real problem here."
"What is it?" he asked, nearly fearing the answer. In response, she pulled a bone from the bag.
"Do you know what this is?"
"It's a bone."
"Yes. It's a femur. Leg bone." She patted her thigh. "The other bag contained two femora."
"And that's a problem," he concluded.
"I'd say it's a problem."
The two sat in Booth's SUV still at the scene. Night was beginning to fall around them. The cadaver dog wouldn't be available until the morning, and a search team would be useless in the dark. They were waiting for the scene to be secured before leaving. Booth was trying to convince Brennan to let him cook her dinner.
"That's really not necessary. I can cook for myself. I'm not even hungry," she protested.
"Please. You haven't eaten in two and a half days. You early collapsed today. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't been there to save the day."
"Save the day? Do you fancy yourself some kind of hero? I could have gotten myself a soda."
"Did you even know what was wrong?"
"Hypoglycemia. I was going to get something. I just needed to sit down for a moment."
"Right. Just let me cook you dinner."
"I still have to secure the bones in the lab. I don't think anyone else will do it."
"Call Zach. He'll be able to do it."
"I know. But I got them out, so I should put them away. Really."
"If I wait for you will you let me cook?"
"No. I'm not hungry. I can provide for myself, you know."
"I know. You're very independent."
"Exactly. I'm going to get my own dinner and go to sleep in my own bed. Maybe I'll take a shower in my own bathroom. Who knows. It could end up being a wildly exciting night alone. I'll enjoy it. You might consider having some time to yourself."
"Fine. I'll drop you at the lab."
"Thank you."
They rode in silence back to the Jeffersonian, where Booth dropped Brennan at the door. Then he drove away, his mind filled with thoughts of her.
Brennan scooted up to the medico-legal lab to secure the remains she had been working on earlier. After they were secure, she grabbed her jacket and keys and headed home. Her Jeep wasn't as fun to drive as the car she received from her publisher was. Her silver baby was still deep in the bowels of the Jeffersonian. The technicians were examining ever inch of the car for clues on the gravedigger. She parked in the garage of her apartment complex and hurried to her apartment. Once inside, she shrugged off her jacket and kicked off her shoes. She had just gotten herself a drink when her doorbell rang. She looked through the peep hole before opening the door.
"What the hell?" She asked her partner.
"You said I couldn't cook you dinner, so I picked some up." He held out a box bearing the Wong Foo's logo.
"Booth."
"What? Have you already eaten?"
"Well, no. I just got home."
"Then there's no harm done, is there?"
"I guess not." She smiled and admitted him into her apartment. He could be so frustrating sometimes, but maybe that's what made her love him.
A/N– Haha? You like? Did you know that if you live in the US and have a good internet connection, you can watch the three latest episodes of Bones on Myspace? Well, you can.
I worked really hard on this chapter. I hope you like it. I hope you drop me a review. That would be sweet. Please give me a review. Please. I read each and every one of them and try to incorporate some suggestions into the story. Oh, is anyone else not receiving their mail? I didn't get any from last chapter. You can still review, though!