A/N : Sorry people, I am one day left. But I've got excuses! The thing is, me and my boyfriend are looking for a new place so it takes time and we have to go visit houses, plus we're both busy at work. Well, I know my life is fascinating but my little finger tells me Brennan and Booth's life is more. Good reading!

Chapter 3 – Zone of truth

Monday, January 6th

Angela Montenegro brought the cup of coffee to her lips thoughtfully and took a few sips of the hot liquid. For once, she was excited to go back to work. Today was going to be an interesting day: Brennan was back from Peru. Not that Angela was exactly eager to hear the tale of her friend's adventures with corpses and skeletons in South America, but she was strongly determined to figure out what exactly was going on with her favorite non-couple. This was some sort of obsession she had and it never left her alone: Finding out what other people didn't notice, especially when it was about love, especially when it concerned denied feelings, and especially when the people involved were her best friend and her partner. She still couldn't believe that she had advised Brennan to leave with Sully a year ago. A great guy who she knew truly loved her, but who, she knew it now, wasn't the right guy for her. Anyway, the event had allowed Angela to discover what should have always been obvious: Doctor Temperance Brennan and Agent Seeley Booth were meant to be together. And clearly, something had happened between December, 22nd and December, 24th. She could feel it, she had seen it, and she would prove it.

A kiss in her neck startled her back from her thoughts.

"Good morning, my exotic princess!"

"I heard you say that to an insect, Jack," she grumbled reproachfully, turning slightly in her chair to face her boyfriend.

"O-kay… My princess is grumpy this morning. Well, in my defense, I'm sure I didn't say it with this sensual loving tone," Hodgins teased.

She thought for a moment, trying to remember the scene, before she gave him a threatening smirk. "I'm not so sure, actually."

"Aw… How can I make you forgive me?"

He lifted the smooth, dark hair to gain access to the back of her neck and planted a lingering kiss on her soft skin.

"Jack, it's eight thirty!"

"Yeah, you're right. Cleopatra's bed is still there… Let's say, quarter to one?"

"I'm sorry, I promised to have dinner with Brenn," she said with a look of apology. "But you'll have plenty of time to make up for this tonight," she added with a naughty smile.

She finished her coffee while her fiancé took a seat next to her.

"You seem thoughtful, honey. Is everything all right?"

"You're gonna laugh at me."

"What? I would never dare to."

"Yeah, like you wouldn't," she said disbelievingly.

The begging look he shot her made her decide to give up. "Okay, then. I think that something's going on between Brennan and Booth. Actually, I'd stake my life on it."

Hodgins couldn't help an amused, slightly mocking smile. "You've been saying that for over a year, darling."

"I'm talking about something else."

He let out a chuckle. "You think they slept together?"

She screwed up her eyes. "Uhm… No, not yet. It's not about that kind of thing."

"Then, what?"

"I don't know. But I'll figure this out, believe me."

"Oh, I believe you."

"You can laugh at me, Jack, but you won't laugh anymore when you understand how right I am. Remember the stake?"

"Right. The stake."

He bit his lower lip, trying to keep himself from laughing and to compose himself a more serious look, but he failed. Angela rose, put her coffee cup in the sink before eyeing Hodgins scornfully.

"You may wanna prepare yourself, honey."

When she exchanged her lab coat for her classy wool coat to leave and have lunch with her best friend today, Temperance Brennan didn't anticipate that she'd be submitted to an interrogatory. But when Angela sat in front of her, her elbows on the table, staring at her with this curious smile, she began to think that she was missing something.

"So… What happened?"

Surprised about her friend's sudden interest for her work, she felt glad and prepared herself to explain the details of her research in Peru.

"Well, nothing really. I just dug up…"

"Not this, sweetie."

"Then what?"

"I'm talking about you and Booth."

"I don't see what you mean."

"I mean that obviously something happened between you two."

"I don't understand, what are you talking about?"

"Well, you tell me."

Brennan pursed her lips and shook her head. "I really don't see what you could possibly be alluding to."

"You're lying."

"What? No!"

"You've got this tic when you're lying."

"But I'm not!"

"It's a little like when you assured everyone that you chose not to sail away with Sully because you were not ready to leave things behind, you know. Or when you said that you didn't freak out when we left you with him at the altar. See what I mean? I told you we'd talk about it again. That's today. And believe me, I'm going to figure out wh—"

"It was totally sexless," she surrendered.

"What?" Angela's eyes grew wide. "What was sexless?"

"The kiss. It was just a favour I asked him as—"

"You two kissed?!" Angela almost squealed. Some people at the closest tables turned their heads, causing Brennan to grow uncomfortable.

"We weren't even alone, Caroline was—"

"Caroline saw you two kiss and I didn't?" she said indignantly.

"It was a deal I had with her. I had to kiss Booth under the mistletoe and in exchange, she made sure I'd have a trailer to create Christmas for my family."

"So you kissed him—"

"On the lips. Under the mistletoe. It was totally sexless."

Obviously, Angela had a hard time preventing herself from bursting out laughing. "Yeah, right. Was there tongue?"

It was Brennan's turn to squeal—indignantly, this time. "Angela!"

"Okay, no. Definitely not. So was it just a peck, or—"

"Five steamboats. That was the deal."

"I don't know what that means but it seems long enough."

"It was like kissing my brother," Brennan said very fast before scolding herself silently. Dammit. Angela would never buy that. If she could just stop saying stupid things.

"Your brother, uh?" Angela smiled mischievously. "Where was it?"

"In my office," Brennan answered with a guilty tone.

"You and Booth kissed in your office and I didn't know about it! Who else knows?"

"Sweets."

"What? I can't believe he knows and I don't."

"He's bound by professional secrecy."

"My lips are sealed, sweetie. My lips are sealed." Angela leaned across the table to get closer to her friend. "So, how was it to kiss Booth, really?"

Brennan sighed as a response, deciding not to say anything. But unfortunately, Angela decided not to let go, either.

"Remember sweetie: Zone of truth."

"Angela—I'm not in therapy right now, and you're not my therapist."

"I'm your best friend. Doesn't it count?" she said with begging eyes.

The furious glare she obtained from the forensic anthropologist reduced Angela to silence. But even if reading minds wasn't her strong suit, Brennan knew her friend well enough to figure out what made her eyes glow: The don't-you-ever-think-that-I-will-leave-you-alone look.

Booth huffed and put back in the drawer the file he had just finished dealing with. Paperwork. Oh how he hated this part of his job. Even visiting the squints at the Jeffersonian was more entertaining. What he liked was all that had to be done out of his office, actually. Field work. Field work with Bones. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and opened it. He displayed his list of contacts; the first name on the list was hers. Not her name, really, but the nickname he had given her. It was meant to be scornful, in the beginning. Now it had become a pet name, and a part of him liked to know he was the only one calling her this. She had hated it, in the beginning. Now she didn't protest anymore. Either had she got used to it, or she liked it.

His thumb hovered above the dial key before he closed the device. He had been doing that since the day before, wanting to call her and finally deciding that it would be better to try later. She had to be sleeping, or under the shower; she had to have things to do at home, or to be busy at work. It seemed to never be the right moment.

He hadn't had news from her since Christmas Eve. Not that he was worried, or that he was eager to hear what her trip to Peru had been like—who else really cared about digging up rotten bones besides Zach, anyway?—, but he was truly dying to talk to her. It was stupid, and it was annoying, but he somehow needed to hear her voice.

Dammit.

Once more, he took the phone in his hands, opened it, but this time he actually dialled her number. He did it very fast, as if trying to stop himself from thinking.

First beep. What was he going to tell her, anyway? A wave of stress washed through him. Jeez, he had nothing to say except, "Hi, how're you, how was your trip?" She'd answer that it went really great, that she studied some very interesting—boring—remains. She would try to explain him the result of her studies and he wouldn't get half of it. But it wouldn't really matter.

And then the unavoidable question would come: "So, do we have a case?"

Second beep. Was he even supposed to call her when it wasn't about work? He had been wondering since the past two years. What were the rules? Were there even rules?

Well, fuck the rules.

Third beep. She had been the first one to break those rules, when she had decided that it was best obeying Caroline's will instead of letting him talk to her. But he had been the one hugging her when she was scared, the one talking about how two people become one when they make love, the one telling her that she was even better than Smurfette.

It was all Caroline's fault, anyway.

Answering machine. "This is Doctor Temperance Brennan, I'm not—"

He hung up before the message ended; in some sense, he had been able to hear her voice, true, but he had nothing to say to a stupid answering machine. Pissed, he dug the phone deep in the pocket of his jacket and ran his hand through his short hair with frustration. When he didn't know what to do with his hands anymore, he started tapping the wood of his desk nervously.

With a sigh, he raised his gaze to the door, suddenly aware that he was not alone. And there she was, like a magic apparition, standing in the doorframe with some paper in her hand. Time seemed to stop, and his heart, too. Curiously, it had been doing that the few times he had seen her since it had happened. And then his heart started beating again, only this time it pounded too fast and too hard inside his chest. It seemed that he'd be incapable of speaking at all. What was he, a fourteen-year-old virgin?

"Hey Bones!" he finally managed to greet her properly, having no idea as to how many seconds or minutes had passed since he had raised his gaze to her.

"Hey." She moved closer, a smile stretched across her lips.

"So—How was Peru?" was all he came up with to start the conversation. It was her in his office, after all.

"Very interesting," she said simply. It surprised him. She was more talkative about her work, usually. "How was Christmas with Parker?"

"Magical," he grinned. "What is it that you've got here?" he asked, pointing to the tickets.

"Well, I just thought I'd drop by here and give you my Christmas present for you," she explained with a shy smile that made her look so much more gorgeous.

She placed the tickets down on the desk right in front of him. He took them and read what was on them, then jumped to his feet with excitement. "The Yankees versus The Red Sox? Oh my God, it's—How did you know? I mean, the tickets were sold out in less than a day, and it's impossible to find any! And these are the best seats! Bones, how did you get these?"

"Well, let's say I've got connections," she said with a mysterious smile.

"Wow, that's wonderful!" During a moment, he wondered if she expected him to invite her, before deciding that he knew her well enough to figure out that she didn't exactly enjoy watching baseball matches. "Parker's gonna be so happy. I don't know what to say. Thank you so much!"

He considered walking around the desk and taking her in his arms, but he didn't. They were in his office, at the FBI building. How inappropriate.

"No, thank you. You know, I—I think it's been the best Christmas of my life."

Her smile had turned to a different one. It was grateful, and a little sad. Booth understood that he was observing now what he had thought he could distinguish from a distance when he had brought her the Christmas tree: Tears in her eyes. Not the tears of fear or dread that he had already been able to observe some rare times. But tears of happiness; A happiness of which he was the cause. For an instant, there was nothing left of the strong, independent woman. The one who said she wasn't that kind of person to belong to a family; the one who still hesitated about her father. At least, he had made her understand, and he was proud of that.

"You're very welcome. Actually, it was kinda fun to do that. Parker was really excited."

But not as much as he had been. He had felt as if he was his son's age, then.

"Yeah, the girls were thrilled, too. Russ and Amy were so happy, and my father—" She shook her head and never finished her sentence. "It's all thanks to you, so, thank you."

He couldn't help thinking that in some sense she had had the trailer thanks to him, too. Her joy was definitely worth all his efforts, if letting her kiss him under the mistletoe could actually be called an effort.

"I'm glad you liked it," he smiled, and averted his eyes when he realised that an uncomfortable silence had settled between them.

Awkward…

Of course, that was to be expected.

"So, you hungry?"

That's my girl.

He applauded her silently for being the one to fix the situation, for once. In truth, he wasn't exactly hungry, but it didn't matter. He had barely paid attention to the taste of his hamburgers when they had been eating together, lately.

"Sure!"

He grabbed his coat and followed her through the corridor with enthusiasm. If he didn't enjoy the taste of meat as much as before, he might as well follow her advice and consider becoming a vegetarian.

A/N : Any comments are welcome, and reviews always make me happy. Hopefully chapter 4 will be ready for next Friday but I can only promise I'll do my best!