Rating: PG
Pairing: BB
Author's Note: There is one small part from episode 1x06 The Man In The Wall, can you find it? Lol. This chapter pounced on me while I was neck deep in computer courses and trying to figure out how to write articles on Realism and the Salem Witch Trials. I neglected my Spanish work for you all in order to get it out today so you better make my day and review or else I won't be so caring next time. On a side note, I don't know how fast the chapters will come from now on because I've missed school for almost a week from an illness and you just thought I was a good author who updates a lot. Hah! so the make-up work may hinder my posting abilities for a bit. Wow, that's a long author's note.
Dedication: To Starr, for her lovely visual images and To Ems for her laughter.
Brennan yawned widely as she entered the Jeffersonian early Monday morning. She was, as usual, the first one to arrive for work, and she decided to use the quiet time for her own benefit. She stretched as she entered her office, dropping her bag by her desk and draping her jacket over her chair. She wished she had stopped for coffee now.
It felt strange to be back at work, the whole weekend felt so surreal as she sat in her office, looking out the door at the pristine lab. It almost seemed like a fantasy or a very good dream but she knew it hadn't been. Mostly because she hadn't slept well the night before. She groaned, leaning back in her desk chair and turning the computer on.
Until a few nights ago she had enjoyed going home to her apartment after a case, had enjoyed pouring herself a nice glass of wine and turning her CD player on low to either jazz or classical, or even to her Tibetan Throat Singers, no matter what Booth said about them, and simply lay in her bed in comfortable clothes with a good book or her laptop. It had helped her relax and unwind but now all she could think was that it wasn't his bed or he wasn't there with her.
She groaned in frustration, hurling a pen across the room so that it hit into a bookcase with a satisfying thwack! It was all his fault, she decided firmly. The fact that when he had dropped her off at her own apartment last night and declined to stay, okay really she was the one who told him to go home, was the whole reason she hadn't been able to sleep and she didn't like it. She shouldn't get so used to something so quickly. After all, what exactly did they have now? They were still partners, he had reassured her of that, and they were still friends, she had reassured him of that. They were just...more...now and she hated that she couldn't classify it. She also hated that she had changed into the shirt she had "borrowed" from him and curled up in bed, enjoying that it still smelled like him.
"Hey Sweetie, long weekend?"
She jumped at her friend's voice and looked over at her in surprise. "Angela? What are you doing here so early?"
"I knew you would ignore me as soon as the guys arrived so, me being the completely self-sacrificing friend that I am, got up an extra hour early just to talk to you." She paused, watching the anthropologist. "And Sweetie? We are definitely going to talk."
Brennan groaned, really wishing for that coffee now, and stood, pacing her office. How could she feel tired but still have so much energy to burn? "Now is really not a good time," she groaned, fighting the urge to leave the Institute and go jogging.
"Sweetie, you're wound tighter than..." she trailed off at Brennan's confused look. "You know what? Forget that analogy. What happened this weekend?"
"Angela, do I ever ask you about your weekends?"
"No..." she replied slowly. "But that's because I tell you willingly as soon as I get back. I have to poke and prod for hours to get anything out of you. Come on Bren? Make my life a bit easier for once?"
Brennan shook her head. "Nothing happened Ange. You're just assuming things again." She forced herself to stop pacing, instead going over to her bookcase and grabbing the brightly colored Rubik's cube off of one of the shelves and taking a seat at her desk once more, working the cube in her hand.
"I know that's not true and you not telling me things makes me jump to conclusions." She eyed her friend carefully. She seemed absorbed in the cube in her hands but she knew that wasn't completely true, that there was something going on in Temperance Brennan's life that she hadn't told anyone yet. "What did you do then? Did you work all weekend?" She felt sure about this question, knowing that if Brennan lied she'd be able to catch her since she had stopped by the Jeffersonian once or twice.
"No, I relaxed for your information."
"With Booth?"
"Booth was...around," she said with a small smile.
"Temperance Brennan you're killing me by not telling me!"
"Angela, I highly doubt that you would die from not receiving every detail of my life," she replied, looking at her with a smile. "Booth was there, yes, but nothing like what your thinking happened."
"Then what did happen? I know he hung up your phone on me."
Angela stared as Brennan glanced down once more at the cube before glancing at her friend again, a smile brightening her features though her eyes seemed to dance with something. "We...we ate ice cream sundaes."
"Bones!"
"She's in her office and if you're bringing her more coffee I want to know where my promised cup is," Hodgins called from the platform. He glanced up from the microscope, eyeing the agent suspiciously.
"It's right here," Booth replied, holding up a tray with three coffees on it. "I got one for each of you Squints."
"They get theirs for free while I had to work for mine?" Hodgins demanded as he descended the platform's stairs to collect the coffees.
"Just shut-up and enjoy it, okay?" Booth grumbled. He took the remaining two coffees and headed for Brennan's office, grumbling about ungrateful entomologists. He smiled as he entered Brennan's office, spying her laying on her couch, an arm flung over her eyes. "Brought you some coffee," he said softly as he approached.
She smiled, removing her arm and sat up slowly, reaching for the cup automatically. "Apples really do wake you up more," she murmured, taking a sip from the steaming liquid.
"Uh-huh. Well, coffee isn't as messy."
"Unless you spill it on yourself," she pointed out. He laughed, sitting next to her, dropping a file into her lap. "Another one?"
"Yeah. Bones found out in an old field by a couple of kids," he replied, leaning back.
"We should probably get going then, before they mess up my bones."
She stood up and he rolled his eyes, forcing himself to stand as well. He wouldn't admit that he hadn't slept well the previous night. The apartment had just felt too empty with both Parker and her gone and he couldn't figure out why it hadn't seemed that way before.
"Yeah Bones, lets go get your bones," he muttered as he helped her with her jacket.
She shot him a mock-glare, turning to face him. "Sure thing Sprinkles."
"Sprinkles?" They both jumped when they heard Angela's voice. "Did you just call him sprinkles?"
"No," Booth answered quickly. "She said she wanted sprinkles on her ice cream, right?" he said, looking at her. Brennan smiled innocently.
"Right." She grabbed her bag, hoisting it over a shoulder before smiling at Angela. "We have a case Ange so I'll see you later, okay?"
"Okay..." She watched them go, his hand on the small of her back as usual and couldn't help but feel like something had changed between them and Brennan wasn't telling her about it. "You guys sure are eating a lot of ice cream though!" she yelled after them.
Booth turned, grinning at her. "You have no idea."
"The first victim is male, approximately sixteen to twenty years and about six feet three inches," she said, staring at the body before her. "He has various fractures of varying degree on both the tibias and fibulas. The cause of death appears to be a bullet to the left temporal bone of the skull."
Her eyes swept over the body for any more determining factors before she turned her attention once more to the agent looming above her. He was watching her, like always, and she offered him a brief smile even as her eyes turned to the second victim, taking in the state of decomposition and position of the bones.
"The second victim is female, approximately sixteen to twenty years as well and is about five feet six inches. Her fibulas and tibias also appear fractured, as do both her radius and both carpals. The cause of death, again, appears to be a bullet to the left temporal bone of the skull."
She stood, dusting herself off and removing her gloves in one swift motion. Booth stepped aside slightly so only their shoulders and arms touched and she sighed, looking down at the two bodies. Thunder rumbled overhead and she sighed, turning to him.
"I've collected samples from both bodies for Hodgins to look at and I'll need your forensics team to send them over to the lab as soon as possible so I can have a look at them." He nodded slowly and she paused, tilting her head to study him. "Why did you get this case Booth? It seems like a homicide that the local police could take care of."
"Yeah well, the local police called us so we came," he replied with a shrug. "If we don't find anything we throw it back to them to take care of. Or we declare it a state matter and not a federal one."
"And the real reason?"
"They think it's the Senator's daughter," he replied, still staring at the remains.
"And if it is?"
"Then we get to investigate it. If it isn't? We give it back to the detective in charge and go away for a nice long vacation."
"Booth? Are you alright?"
He turned to her, giving her a tired smile and letting his hand settle on the small of her back as he turned, leading her away from the crime scene, back toward the SUV. "Yeah Bones, I'm alright," he replied.
"You don't seem to be," she replied, eyeing him carefully. They stopped at the passengers side, away from the bustle surrounding the two corpses and he smiled at her, turning to face her as he held the door open. "You can talk to me you know."
"I know Bones..."
"Was it the 'sprinkles' thing because I'm sorry if it really bothered you, I didn't know Angela was there and..."
He shook his head, resting his hands on her shoulders and leaning in, pressing his lips lightly against hers before pulling back. She stared at him for a moment, mouth open and eyes wide and he grinned at her startled look. "I'm fine Bones. Get in and lets get out of here, okay?"
He closed the door behind her, getting in on his side and starting it up, pulling out before any of the detectives could question them about the case. She was silent until they reached the main road leading back to the highway. Then she turned, staring at him openly before crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her eyes at him.
"I can't believe you did that! I thought we agreed that our personal relationship would not affect our work relationship," she exclaimed, glaring at him.
He glanced at her, sending her a meek and apologetic look that would have worked if he didn't break into a smile halfway through it. "Oh, come on Bones. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have but I couldn't resist. I would have kissed you at the lab but Angela showed up," he replied. "I was in withdrawal, you can't hold that against me, can you?"
"There was the parking lot."
"She followed us to the doors and watched us," he replied.
She groaned, letting her head fall against the window and he reached over, grabbing her hand and lacing their fingers together. "I can't believe her." She squeezed Booth's hand tightly as the storm that had been threatening to let loose all morning finally did, rumbling and dropping buckets of water. "Is this weather ever going to let up?" she asked.
"Weather report says we should have clear and sunny skies Wednesday onward." She groaned again and he laughed, taking the ramp and getting on the highway. "Oh come on, that's only two days away," he told her brightly.
"Yeah, I know." She sat up straighter, glancing at him and he looked back, raising an eyebrow in question. "Did you mean what you said earlier?"
"What? About the rain or the withdrawal?"
She rolled her eyes. "Neither. About the," she broke off and he glanced at her curiously. "About the vacation."
"The long one if this case isn't ours?" She nodded and he smiled. "Yeah Bones, I meant it. I think we could both use a vacation, especially after the Valdez case. When was the last time you had one?"
"Well, I did spend those two months in..."
"No Bones, I meant a real vacation, not one digging up dead bodies. One where you disappear for a week or three and lay on a beach somewhere far away with no laptops and no cell phones."
"A long time ago," she said finally.
"I figured. Well, I plan on taking you on one of those sometime."
"Angela has this thing, the six steps of a relationship, or something like that," she said slowly.
"Oh yeah? What are they?"
"Well, I think we kind of did them out of order." He glanced at her quickly, raising an eyebrow to encourage her to continue before turning his attention to the road once more. "There's spend the night, which we did, spend the weekend," a blush coated her cheeks, "which I did by accident. Exchanging keys is the third," she replied, ticking it off on her fingers, "but we did that first. Then there's a weekend getaway followed by an extended vacation followed by moving in." Her voice dropped a few octaves on the last two words and he laughed.
"I remember her telling me those," he replied, shaking his head. "You're right, we did do them a bit out of order, does it count if we weren't really in a relationship when we did them?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, they're Angela's rules."
"We'll have to ask her about it later then," he replied. He hesitated for a moment and tightened his grip on her hand. "You don't have to move in or anything, they are after all Angela's steps, not ours. And we don't have to take that vacation now..."
"Hey Booth?"
"Yeah?"
"I plan on taking you up on that offer so stop trying to change my mind."
"Bones?"
He stared at the woman on his doorstep in surprise, not unpleasant surprise, just surprise. He had dropped her off at the Jeffersonian earlier and had promised to swing by the Institute early tomorrow morning before heading off to do paperwork at his own office. He didn't remember making plans to see her tonight, not that he was complaining, because really, he wasn't.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well...you didn't answer your cell and I had some news so I was on my way home and I decided to stop by. I brought sustenance," she answered, holding up two bowls of ice cream from Dairy Queen. He laughed, opening the door wider and letting her in.
"You don't have to bribe me with food, or ice cream."
"Yeah, well, it seems to be a bit of a tradition, doesn't it?" She set the plastic bowls down on the table before turning back to face him, smiling and wrapping her arms around him tightly.
"Bones?"
"You can inform the detectives that the case is theirs. Angela did a face for the girl and it looks nothing like your missing Senator's daughter. We took a sample anyway and sent it for DNA testing, just to be sure, but we're almost positive that it isn't her."
"So the ice cream is for celebrating?"
"Yes, the ice cream is for celebrating."
She smiled up at him and he grinned back, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against him, kissing her thoroughly. She sighed softly as his tongue slipped between her lips, dueling briefly with hers before mapping out her mouth, learning every inch, every centimeter of it, something he hoped to do as often as he liked.
She broke the kiss first, giving him another smile and he was tempted to pull her close again for another kiss but she was pulling something out of her bag and he looked at her curiously. "Bones? What are you doing now?"
"Come on, can we sit down?" she asked.
"Yeah, sure." He grabbed the neglected ice cream and they made their way into the living room, taking their seats on the sofa and he set her bowl down on the coffee table while she fumbled with whatever it was in her hands. "What are you up to now?"
"Well, you're the one who mentioned wanting a vacation." He looked at her in surprise and she shrugged, setting down a stack of travel brochures in front of him before picking up her own ice cream, popping the lid off and taking a bite. "I stopped by a travel agency, it was next to Dairy Queen," she explained. "The woman there assured me that these were really good locations, highly frequented and..." she paused, glancing at him. "Why are you staring at me like that?"
"I just never expected...You really want to do this?"
She gave a shrug but the smile refused to leave her face as she leaned against him, reaching over to rifle through a few of the brochures. "Like you said, it doesn't have to be this week or next week, but you know, I told you I was going to take you up on that offer. I just thought we could begin looking now and..." she trailed off again as he turned, pressing his lips against hers softly. "What was that for?"
"Because, Temperance Brennan, you are by far the most amazing woman I have ever met."
She gave him a grin, resting her head on his shoulder, swirling her spoon around in her ice cream. She wanted to say something back, about how he was the most amazing man she had ever met or about how she really did want to go on that vacation with him but all she did was smile and say "good."
He laughed softly, reaching over and flipping open one of the brochures, this one to Tahiti, and wrapped an arm around her, holding her against him. "Stay?"
"I'm pretty sure that's step six," she replied quietly.
"Then just the night?"
"Angela will ask questions," she warned, turning the page of the brochure.
"Then we'll just tell her we fell asleep eating ice cream and planning a vacation."
"Works for me. Minus the planning a vacation. I don't want her squealing so early in the morning," she replied.
"Deal."
