Chapter 4

Booth stopped moving mid-pace when he heard her heels approaching the office. He stood side on to the door, watching it for when she came in. What would she say? He couldn't even think about it, he was so focused on that damn door.

He heard her steps pause just outside and he could almost see her preparing herself out there, but for what? This was pure torture, he just wanted it to be over so he could go and hide from the world in his apartment, and yet at the same time he didn't. Either way he was starting to seriously doubt following Cam's advice.

He saw her come slowly around the barrier between them, closing it and standing with her hands and back pressed against it, staring at him.

"Um, Zach just needed me to sign off on the remains we were working on this morning." She said unnecessarily.

He watched for even the slightest sign of what she was thinking, but he couldn't for the life of him decipher her expression. With his nerves through the roof and his heart in his shoes, he took a tentative step towards her.

"Temperance." He whispered. There was a pause, as if the very air around them had solidified, and then she took a step away from the door. A step towards him. He thought she looked…wary, and uncertain, but there was something else in her eyes as well. He had no idea what he should be thinking anymore. He had given up.

She was just close enough that he could have reached out and touched her, but he didn't. He didn't…she did. If he hadn't been frozen to the spot, he might have stepped back in surprise when she reached out to him. She touched his shoulder lightly and then quickly dropped her hand again, her eyes falling to the floor with it. But the action had given Booth a spark of hope and he took another step closer.

This made her look back up at him, and he was struck by the bright blue of her eyes this close up. Suddenly feeling daring, Booth reached up and touched her cheek with his thumb. She didn't pull away.

"Temperance." He said again. "Just to make sure you believe me, I'm going to say it again." She still hadn't broken eye contact with him. "I love you."

And then she smiled. She smiled, she smiled, she smiled! His brain was doing a private happy dance in his head. He smiled broadly back at her, hoping to God she was smiling for the reasons he thought she was.

"Booth." Temperance said, unable to stop the smile that had spread across her face. He really did mean it! "I…" she didn't even know what she was going to say. She bit her lip and looked down, Booth's hand still on her cheek. She was never good at this words thing. Not when it came to expressing emotions anyway.

As she thought this, she had an idea. If words were too difficult, maybe she could tell him another way. It was like that phrase she had heard Angela use once…what was it? Actions speak louder than words.

She grinned and looked back up at Booth. He smiled too (it seemed it was infectious) but looked a bit confused, he was still unsure of her.

Well, she planned on dispersing any confusion personally.

Before he knew what she was doing, she had put both hands behind his neck ad pulled his lips down to meet hers.

For a moment he was clearly too shocked to react, but only for a moment. With the hand not on her cheek he quickly grabbed her waist, pulling her in closer to him. His lips, like hers, were still curved into a smile as they kissed.

She suddenly felt a ridiculous sense of happiness rush through her, and she couldn't stop herself, for some equally ridiculous reason, from laughing. She pulled away slightly and removed one of her hands from him to cover her mouth.

Looking up, she saw Booth grinning at her and, against all reason and logic, she thought that right then he looked like he didn't have a care in the world. Still laughing, she buried her face in his shoulder.

Booth wrapped both arms around her waist and held her as tight as possible, smiling into her hair. Right now he was the happiest man on the planet.

As much as she was enjoying this new experience, Temperance had a sudden thought, and felt in the mood to address it immediately. She removed her head from Booth's shoulder and looked up at him.

"Um, would you mind waiting here a moment? I just have something I need to do very quickly."

He looked at her with fake distress. "You're going to leave me here alone again? Do you know what the suspense did to me the last time?" he was only half joking.

She gave him her own distressed look. "Oh I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, sounding genuinely worried about it. "I just thought that, seeing as I am at work, that well I…I really ought to help Zack if he asked me to."

He smiled affectionately at her. Of course that's all she had been thinking! He should have known. Ah, the benefits of hindsight! "Of course you couldn't ignore him. Don't worry, really. Speaking of work though, I should be getting back soon, so be quick with whatever it is you have to do, hey?"

"I promise I'll only be a second." She reassured him, visibly still worried. He couldn't help but find her concern insanely cute.

"Ok, well go now and then come right back." He nudged her towards the door, and after saying brightly once more, "Just one second, I promise!" she was gone.

Temperance walked happily out of her office. With a bounce to her step, she made her way to the platform, where Cam was standing with Angela. As she approached both women turned to her, and Temperance stopped in front of Cam.

After a moment, Cam tilted her head to one side, scrutinising her to see if she was guessing correctly. Very slowly a smile started to grow on Temperance's lips and then, in a split second, she stepped forward and hugged Cam. Another second later, and without a single word, she broke away, turned, and walked off. She knew what Cam had done.

As Temperance walked away, a bewildered Angela turned towards Cam. "What on earth was all that about?" She gasped.

"That," replied Cam with a smile "was about me winning that bet."

Temperance re-entered her office where Booth was sitting, perched on the edge of her desk. Seeing her come in, he pushed himself casually away from it.

"All done with the disappearing now?" he asked jokingly.

"Booth! I wasn't disappearing, you knew I was going…but yes." Apparently the recent events had not affected her need to dispute his every word, which he was glad to see. It was just one of the many reasons why he loved her, no matter how frustrating.

"Well good, because now it's my turn. If I don't leave soon I'll be late for work, my lunch break's almost over."

"Hmm, you know you could always say you were doing work here. They wouldn't know." He raised his eyebrows at this uncharacteristic attitude towards work. "Then again," she added, her eyes suddenly deciding to wander the room "It's probably a good thing that you have to go back. I have a feeling we both need to sit down and let ourselves catch up on…well, everything."

Booth's heart skipped a beat at her words. Was she having second thoughts already? What if she had just been caught up in the moment before? What if she changed her mind once she had 'caught up'?

"Hey I have an idea." Booth said, moving forward to stand in front of her and instinctively reaching out to rest both hands on her arms. "How about I come back after work and we go get some dinner? I'm sure we'll both be caught up by then, don't you?"

His doubt decreased a bit when he saw her eyes light up.

"Alright." She said. "How about eight?" He gave her an exasperated look.

"You would still be here at eight?"

"What, I have work to do!" She was completely oblivious to the twenty different kinds of wrong he thought working that many hours a day was.

"And this from the woman who just suggested I pretend that I'm working so that I can spend more time with her." He shook his head mockingly.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, how about seven then?"

"Done!" He knew a good deal when he saw one, and he knew her too well to expect anything better.

She grinned up at him, clearly looking forward to it despite having to leave an hour early, and it was clear that her momentary doubt had now disappeared. He looked at her smiling face for a few moments, absorbing her obvious cheerfulness, and then he leaned down and caught her lips with his own.

It didn't take long for her arms to twine up around his neck again, holding him in place. His hand went to her waist; the other twisted itself into her hair. This kiss was deeper, longer – not nearly as tentative as the first.

When they pulled away it was not by much. "Temperance." Booth said quietly, their faces two inches away and their hands still on one another. She looked him straight in the eye.

He gave her an intense look. "Promise me you won't change your mind while you're 'catching up'." He said earnestly. Her cheeks flushed and for a while she seemed not to know what to say. He felt, heard and saw her take a deep breath.

"I promise I won't change my mind." She said with total sincerity.

He let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding, and took another one in that smelled wonderfully of her. "That's all I wanted to hear." He assured her, kissing the worried frown off her forehead.

"So, see you at seven then?" Booth said cheerfully, stepping away form his date and towards the door of her office.

"See you at seven."

They shared one last infectious smile, and then he was gone.

Booth walked, grinning, past Angela on his way out of the Jeffersonian. She yelled at him as he went by.

"Hey, what are you looking so ecstatic about?"

Momentarily turning and walking backwards he yelled back. "Go ask that gorgeous friend of yours!" Then he turned back around and walked out of the building.

This was just too many hints in one day for the ever-curious artist, and she immediately ran off to see said friend, with wide eyes and a single question on her mind.

Temperance dropped into her chair once Booth had left, a small smile still unnoticed on her face. After a minute replaying the feel of his lips on hers and his hand in her hair, her brain started to reboot itself.

She quickly began to comprehend the enormity of what had just happened. It wasn't even like they had just agreed to go on a date. No, they had gone way beyond that, to Booth confessing his love for her!

It was just like them to go to the extreme in everything though, she thought, even this. Especially this.

She suddenly had a whole new respect for the way Cam had orchestrated it all, giving her time to think over the situation before she actually had to face it, preparing her. She knew how she would have reacted if she hadn't had the chance to think about it all.

She was ashamed of it, but she knew what she would have done. She would have run away, away to somewhere where she could be alone to think over what had happened and how to deal with it.

Maybe she would have realised she had feelings for Booth eventually, but she still would have hurt him by running away from him, and by making him wait for her to slowly sort through everything. No, overall she was very grateful to Cam for what she had done. That is, if everything worked out between Booth and herself…

Temperance was glad that Angela chose that moment to storm into her office, effectively stopping her train of thought.

"Bren, sweetie, honey…why exactly do I feel like I am being kept out of some wonderfully scandalous and mind-blowing loop that involves you and a certain G-man?" She demanded on entry.

Temperance snorted at her friend's over-exaggerated entrance. She opened her mouth to reply but Angela held up a hand.

"Wait! Before you say anything I want you to know that Cam has been dropping some interesting hints all week about the two of you, and just now she all but told me outright that you and Booth were together, not to mention your odd behaviour just before which I will want an explanation for once we've cleared this up, and I just saw Booth leaving with the most idiotic grin I've ever seen on his face and when I asked what was up, do you know what he said?!"

Temperance shook her head, very entertained by this whole display.

"He said, 'go and ask that gooorgeous friend of yours'!"

She felt her cheeks grow hot, but she was pretty sure Angela hadn't noticed.

"So don't even think about lying to me because I won't believe you." She paused, finally, and Temperance thought she had finished, but she added one more thing. "And I can see you blushing about Booth calling you gorgeous, which I think is very cute of both of you, so now you need to tell me everything that has happened. Ok?" She smiled sweetly and Temperance rolled her eyes.

Standing up from her chair, she grabbed a folder off her desk and turned to address her impatient friend. "Ok then, you want to know everything that happened? The other day Cam encouraged me to think about how I would react if, hypothetically, Booth had told me that he, um, had feelings for me. Then today Booth came and said just that, and because I had already come to decision as a result of Cam's hypothetical situation, I had already thought of how I would react."

She paused for effect, wondering vaguely if Angela would pounce on her, as she looked about to do, if she didn't tell her the rest soon.

"And?!" Angela shrieked, waving her hands wildly for more information.

"And we kissed." She glanced up thoughtfully for a moment. "Twice."

Angela's mouth literally dropped open, and Temperance managed to keep a straight face as she walked past her, folder in hand, and out of the door. It took about three seconds before she heard the squeal from her office. Soon after Angela came running up behind her and launched herself at her, almost knocking her over.

"Oh honey this is so wonderful! I'm so happy for you. Are you happy? Oh my gosh, I told you it would happen eventually! I knew I was right about the pair of you." She squeezed her tightly. "Oh I'm just so happy for you!"

Her excitement was infectious, and Temperance couldn't help laughing. "Thanks Ange…and yes," she said truthfully "I am happy."

Angela came and stood in front of her and looked her over. "Oh honey, you and Booth are just perfect for one another."

Temperance paused. While she appreciated the comment, she couldn't help other concerns entering her head. "Ange, we haven't even been on a date yet. You really shouldn't say that. Something could still go wrong you know. Lots of things could still go wrong."

Angela's expression change from thrilled to caring and she took Temperance's free hand in her own. "Bren, there's no doubt you guys will argue, and you might have some problems, but I know you care enough about one another to sort them out, and you really will be great together. I really do mean it when I say you two are made for each other." She smiled warmly, and got a small smile in return.

"Besides, you two already bicker like an old married couple, so it won't be anything new!" Angela exclaimed brightly, eliciting the laugh she had been aiming for.

"Thanks Angela." She said, pushing away her worries. Either way, they weren't any use to her at the moment.

"Anytime." She replied, and hugged her once more. "Congratulations sweetie."

Please R&R!