OMG it's the apocalypse! - I updated in one day!!!(sorry if i burst your bubble ktlyn.) it's just a filler chapter but it's full of BB fluff just like you asked! btw I think I deserve lots and lots of reviews for updating so soon. hint hint. I hope you all like it!

Disclaimer: Nope, Jasper the pig hasn't grown wings and flown yet.

Chapter 7:Thai Food and Handcuffs

The tiny girl sat cross-legged on the grass, in her pink and white sundress, staring intently at the bumble bee zig-zagging amongst the white daisies and clipped blades of grass. Abandoning its fruitless search, the curious bee made its bumbling way over to the equally curious girl. It hummed around her, bobbing up and down, almost alighting on her several times, before moving away with the listlessness the warm, late-summer sun seemed to demand.

The mousy-haired girl watched it disappear, then looked back to the grass in front of her, the bee already forgotten. Her focus was on a point just out of reach of her child's arms. She leaned forward onto her knees, her hands splayed in the grass. Reaching out, she plucked something from the greenery then dropped back into her previous position. She held her prize carefully, and close to her face: a tiny pink-tinged daisy. The girl tilted her head from side to side in curiosity. A voice called from far off. The small girl raised her head and twisted her body around to look behind her. The voice called again and she stood up quickly and ran off towards it, her pink and white dress flapping behind her.

The pink-tinged daisy was left behind among the blades of grass.

Minutes after the girl had gone, the garden remained still, but it wasn't empty.

If anyone had looked they would have seen a person step forward onto the grass area. They would have seen a man bend down and pick something up, holding it between thumb and fore-finger, then raise it to his face. And before he turned and walked away, they would have seen him lift his head and gaze in the direction the young girl had disappeared in.

But no one was looking. And so no one else had seen the curious little girl with the pink and white dress, watching the wandering bumble bee. And no one saw the man walking away, with a pink-tinged daisy between his fingers.


Temperance was sitting at her desk when Angela walked through the door of her office.

"Hey Sweetie. Almost finished?" She asked hopefully.

Brennan looked up at her friend, taking a while to register that she had asked her a question. "What? Oh, no I've still got heaps to do Ange. I'll be here for a while yet."

Angela gave her a pained look. " Oh come on Bren. It's 8.00. Everyone else has gone home. Most left hours ago. I'm about to leave too, and I'm really late tonight."

"No Angela." Brennan sighed. "I have to get this work done. It doesn't finish itself you know."

"Oh, I know honey, but you can't keep working like this every night, it's not good for you. You do need to sleep sometime."

"Ange I'm not going to go to bed at 8.00 anyway."

"But you don't have to work every second that your not asleep." Angela rationalised.

Brennan sighed. "Ange I don't. Stop exaggerating."

Angela placed her hands on her hips. "I'm sorry Bren, but you are not staying at work. You are going to go home and relax, or you can come and get some dinner with me. I bet you haven't eaten yet."

"Ange…" She was about to object but Angela cut her off.

"Nope, you're not talking your way out of this one. You are leaving and if you don't…" her eyes lit up suddenly. "If you don't, I'll call Booth!"

"What?"

Angela pulled out her phone. "I'm dialing…"

Angela no!" Angela was bad enough, but she didn't want to see Booth's reaction if Angela told him she thought she was working too hard again. Temperance tried to snatch Angela's phone away, but Angela was one step ahead of her. She turned and held it away from Brennan.

"Are you going to leave?" Angela asked, and for once she was desperately hoping Temperance would refuse.

"Ange, I can't…"

"Okay, your choice!" Angela hit the talk button and waited as the phone rang.

"Angela you can't call him! He's probably busy. He won't be happy if you interrupt something just for…"

"Hey Booth, it's Angela." She said over the top of her friend.


Booth was sitting in a bar with a few other FBI agents (who weren't really his friends, but were close enough to drink with) when his phone rang. He excused himself and moved away where there were less people and a bit less noise.

"Booth." He answered.

""Hey Booth, it's Angela."

"Angela? What's up?" why on earth is she calling me. "Is Bones alright?"

On the other end of the line, Angela grinned, while Temperance just stood in front of her looking utterly dismayed; it was too late to stop her traitorous friend now.

"Well, yes and no." Oh she was going to have fun with this!

"Angela what are you talking about?"

"Well you see, Bren is refusing to leave work at this late hour. And she hasn't eaten any dinner. I've asked her to leave nicely, and then I had to threaten her. But when that didn't work I decided I would have to follow through on my threat. So I called you."

"Your threat was that you'd call me?" he asked, slightly incredulous. Then he laughed. "Nice one Angela." He had to admit he was probably the one person Bones wouldn't want Angela to call if she needed back up.

"So can you help me out?" Angela asked mischievously.

"No problem Ange." Booth made his way back to the bar to grab his coat. "I'll be there in ten."

"Wonderful! We'll see you soon then!" Angela replied, then she hung up.

Booth put his phone back in his pocket and raised his hand to the other Agents. "I'm off guys."

One of them smirked at him. "What, the Missus need you at home?" Booth gave a false smile, chucked some cash on the counter to pay for his beer and left. Yeah ok, so they really didn't know him at all.

By the time Angela hung up the phone Brennan was standing in front of her with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open.

"I can't believe you just told on me. And to Booth! You are so dead."

Angela put on a face of mock seriousness. "Oh but Booth will be here soon, you see. So you can't kill me. Because then he'd have to arrest you. I'm pretty sure killing your friend because she told on you is still a crime."

Temperance just groaned and looked up at the ceiling, covering her face with her hands. What was it about her and attracting the most insufferable friends in the country. If it were up to Angela and Booth she would never have a moment's peace again. She looked back at Angela, who was unsuccessfully trying to hide her grin.

"You know that was incredibly rude of you. What if he was busy?" She scolded.

Angela shrugged innocently. "I didn't hear him complaining."

Temperance glared at her then turned and went back to her desk. If they were going to try and drag her away, she wasn't going to make it easy. Angela just rolled her eyes and sat down silently on her couch to wait for Booth.

He arrived ten minutes later, just like he'd said he would. Brennan heard his footsteps long before he got to her door, but when he reached it she ignored him, pretending to be too absorbed in her work to notice him. Angela smiled sweetly at him when he entered the room. "Hi Booth."

"Hey Ange." He replied. Temperance was still ignoring them. Angela gave Booth a 'see what I mean' look, and Booth turned to face his partner.

"Bones, back away from the computer or I'll have to use force." He said threateningly, not that she was intimidated. She sighed heavily and lifted her face, giving Booth a full blown glare. He countered it with his best charm smile.

"Booth, as if you could force me to do anything." She said scornfully.

He tried to act hurt, but unfortunately she was pretty much right. "Oh come on Bones, give me a little credit." She continued to glare. "Look, I brought Thai food!" he said optimistically. "I bet you're hungry. You will have sat here all night practically inhaling caffeine and not eating a thing, am I right?"

She rolled her eyes at his typical male belief that the remedy to everything was food. But her determination to bore a hole through him with her eyes failed miserably when his childish grin forced a smile onto her own face.

"Alright fine." She surrendered. "I won't work anymore tonight." She switched off her computer and walked around her desk, while Booth sat down on the couch next to a grinning Angela. "But you know, you two really should stop threatening me, or one day I might actually kick your asses."

Booth put on a worried face. "Yeah, you're probably right. From now on Angela, we'll just have to resort to blackmail and three on one ambushes."

"Three on one?" Angela asked.

"Yeah well I was gonna say four on one, but I don't think Zach would be much help in the ambush department."

"Hah, yeah, good point." Angela laughed. Temperance stood in front of them with her hands on her hips, her glare reinstated.

"Are you two quite finished?"

Booth laughed. "Yeah alright. I think we're done now. Sit down and stop glaring."

Brennan turned to grab a chair but Angela stopped her. "Actually Bren you can sit here, I just remembered, I've scheduled myself to clean up my apartment tonight."

"But you never clean your apartment." Brennan said, confused.

"Exactly. It's about time I started, isn't it?" Angela explained, standing up from the couch. Brennan shrugged, but Booth eyed her as she walked towards the door. Yeah, real subtle Angela, he thought. She turned at the door. "Night guys. Have fun. And Booth, don't let her near her desk." She warned.

Booth mock saluted her. "I'll handcuff her to the table if she tries."

"I don't doubt it." Angela grinned. She walked out the door just as Brennan gave Booth a whack on the arm, and she heard an indignant "hey!" as she made her way quickly across the floor towards the doors and her home, which she would most definitely not be cleaning.

Booth pulled the two food cartons out of the bag and held them up in front of him. "So do you want Beef or Chicken?" he asked Brennan, who was now sitting next to him on the couch.

"Want to go halves?" she suggested.

"Good idea. Which one do you want to start with then?"

"I don't mind." She chose a box at random. "This one." Suddenly realising how hungry she was (Damn him for being right!) she took Booths words about inhaling things to heart and quickly demolished her share of the beef and noodles. (yes, it turned out she had picked the beef. Not that she really noticed. Or cared.)

They swapped cartons and slowed down their eating, allowing room for conversation between bites. "So what are you working on that's so important anyway?" Booth asked her.

"Booth, all my work is important." She scolded. "But tonight I was trying to finish a report on the remains of a civil war soldier. They were quite easy to evaluate actually. The fact that they were very well preserved left little room for the inferior use of guesswork, which is used surprisingly often." She looked at him pointedly. "Not unlike you using your 'gut' to solve cases." She jabbed an accusing finger in his direction. Booth bridled at this and raised his hands defensively in front of himself.

"Hey now, I'll have you know that my gut has solved quite a few cases over the years, not to mention saved your butt," he pointed his own accusatory finger at her, "once or twice."

"Booth, you saved my life those times because you are an excellent agent and have good detective skills. And those cases were most certainly not solved by your 'gut', but by solid science and expert scientists." She stated matter-of-factly.

Booth snorted and muttered "Ego, what?" under his breath. Although he noted her compliments and was secretly thrilled that she thought so highly of him.

Her brow creased in confusion. "Booth that doesn't make sense." He sighed but smiled affectionately at her.

"Never mind, Bones."

She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, then gave up and leaned back into the cushions. She attempted to stifle a yawn, but Booth noticed and stood up immediately.

"Come on Bones, time to go home, all that hard work's making you exhausted." He stretched his hand out to help her up. She thought for a moment about being stubborn and not taking it, but she was really too tired to resist. He pulled her up, perhaps holding on to her hand a bit longer than necessary, then let go and bent to gather up the remnants of their meal. He dumped it all in the bin while Brennan moved over to her desk to gather her things and turn off the lamp. When she was done she turned to Booth and tilted her head to one side.

"Aren't you going to handcuff me to the table?" she asked, her expression entirely serious. For a second Booth was confused and thought she'd gone completely nuts. Then a wide grin spread across her face and she laughed.

"Oh my god, was that supposed to be a joke?" he laughed disbelievingly. "Geez Bones for a second I thought you were serious!"

She just stood there beaming at him. "I know! You should have seen your face. Remember when you said to Angela that you would handcuff me to the table if I went near my desk?"

He laughed again and smiled proudly at her. She'd actually made a joke! He looked at her smiling. Damn she was gorgeous when she smiled. He made a vow to try and make her smile more often. He made himself stop staring. "Alright, come on. Let's go." He ushered her out of her office and led her out of the building to the car park. She yawned several times on the way out and Booth didn't say anything, but when they reached the car park he stopped her. "Bones let me give you a ride home. You shouldn't drive like that."

"Like what? I'm fine." She argued.

"You're not fine. You can't stop yawning. If you drive when you're this tired you're likely to fall asleep at the wheel and cause a ten car pile up. I'm not letting you drive, ok?"

She opened her mouth to argue again but before she uttered a sound Booth grabbed her by the hand and dragged her off in the other direction, towards his car. About halfway there she found her voice again. "Booth" she groaned. "I'm fine, honestly. And how am I supposed to get to work in the morning. I'll have to take a cab, or call Angela, only Angela doesn't come into work until later, so then I'll be even more behind on my work and…" Booth cut her off.

"Bones stop ranting. I'll come and pick you up tomorrow, ok?"

"But…"

"No buts. You don't get a choice." They had now reached his car. He let go of her hand, unlocked the car and opened the passenger door, then turned and looked at her expectantly.

"Oh alright." She mumbled, and scrambled into the car. Shutting the door after her, he moved around the car and got in. "See, that wasn't too difficult now, was it?" she didn't answer but scowled out the window. As Booth pulled out of the car park she leaned her head back against the head rest and closed her eyes, secretly glad that she no longer had to drive home.

Booth pulled up to her apartment building soon after. He looked over at her, she'd had her eyes closed the whole time, but he wasn't sure if she was sleeping or not. He was about to call to her when she opened her eyes on her own.

"We're here?" she asked, looking out the window.

"Yeah, have a good sleep?"

She glanced over at him and looked away again. "I wish." Well there was some baggage if ever he'd heard it.

"What's up?" he asked kindly.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I just haven't been sleeping well lately. It doesn't matter." She opened the car door and he followed her onto the pavement.

"Why can't you sleep, Bones?" they headed towards her building and walked inside.

"I don't know, I guess I just have too much on my mind. This case isn't helping much either, we're not really getting anywhere."

Booth nodded sympathetically as they went up the stairs. "I'm sure we will soon. We always do, right?" he gave her a smile and she returned it.

"You didn't have to walk me to my door you know."

"I don't mind, Bones." They reached her apartment and she turned to him.

"Thanks for the ride Booth." She said sincerely.

He smiled at her again. "No problem. So I'll pick you up at what, 7 tomorrow?"

"That would be great. Thanks." She turned and unlocked her door, stepping inside her apartment. "Goodnight Booth."

"Night Bones. Don't forget to lock your door." She rolled her eyes.

"Alright Booth. Goodnight." She gave him one last smile and shut the door. Booth waited to hear the lock click, then went back down the stairs and drove home. He'd need his rest if he was going to get up that early tomorrow!

Brennan went straight to bed, and although she didn't have a perfect night's sleep, it was definitely better than the previous few.


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