Chapter 4: The Remains to be Seen
Temperance Brennan awoke from a deep comfortable sleep to the sound of a voice in her apartment. Her eyes flew open, her heart pounding in her chest. Then the memories from the night before gained consciousness. She sat up in the bed and fussed at her hair, waiting for the talking to stop in the other room. She glanced down at the nightstand and saw the open drawer containing the unused condom. She felt a slight pang of anxiety, but slammed the drawer shut resolutely. Deciding Booth wasn't hurrying back in, she slipped out of bed and wandered over to the dresser to pick out some clothes. She was trying to decide between a blue or grey blouse when strong arms crept around her waist and a pair of lips started to kiss around the back of her neck.
"I hope that's you Booth"
"No" kiss "it's" kiss "the strangest" kiss "murderer" kiss "ever…"
She grinned and turned to face him, holding up the blouses.
"Blue or grey?"
"Don't bother with a blouse. T-shirt and jeans, I'm afraid we've got work."
She pulled away from his embrace, trying to ignore his hurt-puppy look as she did so.
"Is that what you were talking about?"
"Yeah. My phone rang, I didn't want to disturb you, but as it was a call for both of us anyway…"
"No problem. Best get dressed then I suppose, I'll wait for them to call me before heading over."
"No need, I told them I'd give you the details."
"Booth! It's" she checked her clock "It's 5am! What are they going to say?!"
"Tempe, I told them I was going to pick you up. We kinda didn't discuss the 'now what' side of this deal, so I thought best keep quiet until we did. And what's all this 'Booth' business? It was oh-god-Seeley last night…" He threw her a winning smile that couldn't help but return.
She dug some jeans and a tee out of a drawer and threw them on the bed so she could remove her slept-in stockings. Her subdued mood didn't go unnoticed. Booth sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to stroke her arm.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I think I'm just getting myself into 'Death Mode'. And trying to work out the 'now what' part you talked about. Booth – Seeley – would you mind if we did keep this quiet for now? All of it, the baby, the sex…"
"You left out 'amazing'"
"Alright, the amazing baby…" She threw him glance, which he returned with an amused shake of the head. "I just think it would be nice to keep it as a secret, for the moment. How long that'll last when you bump into Angela wearing yesterday's clothes and," she plucked something from his hair "koa mook gai in your hair, I have no idea."
She presented the grain of rice for his inspection before placing it on the nightstand and returning to her garter belt. He ruffled his hair to knock out any extra stray Thai and sighed.
"I agree about secrecy, and about Angela. Cam's probably a worry too, she and Ange have some sort of sixth sense about this sort of thing. Sex-dar." He paused, waiting for his partner to pontificate on the lack of such a thing. Seeing the interruption wasn't going to come, he continued: "So, what, we're back to good ol' Booth 'n' Bones?"
"I think that would be wise. One 'Seeley' from me and our cover's blown."
Temperance zipped up her jeans and pulled on a t-shirt, sure Booth had noticed her lack of underwear. She pulled her hair up into a casual knot to keep it out of the way and grabbed a jacket from the closet. She was about to head out of the bedroom when Booth grabbed her wrist.
"Tempe."
"What?"
"What about us?"
"What 'what about us?'"
"Forget all the what-about-work stuff, where do we go from here?"
A puzzled, concentrated look crossed her face, the same sort of look she got when willing a skeletal fracture to yield up more information.
"I think we make it up as we go along, just like everyone else."
Seeley grinned, appreciating a nod to being a normal person. "One more question."
"Yes?"
"Seriously, you, in stockings. I'd never have seen that coming."
"Technically that's not a question."
Booth sighed and shook his head. His Bones was back, logic in hand. "Never mind Bones, let's go and check out these remains. You can explain your choice of undergarments later. You can also explain your current lack thereof."
"What, that needs an explanation?"
Laughing, they both headed out the door, Booth giving her rear a playful slap. She gave a girlish scream but kept laughing. Things had changed so much since yesterday, and for the first time in years she, Dr Temperance Brennan PhD, felt happy.
A/N: Little bit of filler to keep things ticking over til chapter 5, and to get this conversation from buzzing round my head. I have two possible directions to take this story in and I'm fighting with myself over which one to choose... R&R please :)
Just another disclaimer: don't own them, never have, never will, (more's the pity) but I do love them dearly and promise to put them back in the original packaging when I'm through playing.
