Woohoo! Finally updated! Sorry, sorry, sorry for taking so long - I promise it was not intentional. My inspiration left me for a while (I think it went sailing) but it's back now! So here's the chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Breaking and Entering

Booth was up and moving about his apartment at the ridiculous hour of 6:30 that morning. Quickly downing his hot cup of coffee he grabbed his stuff and made his way out to his car. Driving over to her apartment, Booth almost laughed. Not so long ago nothing short of a dire emergency would have made him get up so early. Now he was up and driving voluntarily, and all because of a certain Forensic Anthropologist. Heck, she hadn't even asked him to do it! Man he was falling bad.

He groaned inwardly. He had to stop thinking like that. It was stupid and pointless, he was never going to tell her. He could already picture her reaction if he did - panic, run, then avoid him for the rest of his life. But before he could block it off another, more hopeful thought crossed his mind. What if she didn't panic? What if she gave him one of her wonderful smiles, and didn't run away and… but she wouldn't, she couldn't. And even on the small chance that she did feel the same, he wouldn't risk it. He'd learnt that when he had finally quit gambling: don't risk something you can't afford to lose. He couldn't risk losing his Bones. He could never tell her. Could he?

He shook his head to get rid of the self-destructive thoughts as he pulled up outside her apartment. He got out of the car and quickly made his way up to her place. When he reached the door he knocked, knowing she would answer it immediately, ready to go. But she didn't answer, so he knocked again. After a long minute of silence from the other side of the door Booth began to worry. "Bones!" He knocked harder in case she hadn't heard the first two times. "Bones are you in there?"

When there was still no answer he pulled out his set of keys. She had given it to him for emergencies after she had finally got sick of her door being broken down, either by him or the police, every time she was kidnapped or went missing. 'Typical Bones' he'd thought when she had given it to him, 'she gets kidnapped by a raving lunatic and all she worries about is her door being broken down.' Not that he was complaining now. Slipping the key into the lock, he turned it and cautiously opened the door. Booth stepped through the door with his gun now held ready down by his side and scanned her living room and kitchen. Everything seemed to be in place. But none of the lights were on and the kitchen was completely devoid of any morning dishes, not even an empty coffee cup. He moved towards the bathroom and nudged the half open door wide with his foot – also empty and supposedly in order. Lastly he made his way to the back of the apartment where her bedroom was. He reached out to the handle of the closed door. "Bones?" he whispered one last time. When no answer came he turned the handle and pushed the door open. Standing in the doorway, gun in hand, Booth let out a sigh. Lying in the bed, her face turned towards his side of the room, was Bones fast asleep and completely oblivious to the rather high-strung man with a gun in his hand standing in her doorway. He replaced his gun at his hip and looked at his Bones sleeping peacefully, with none of the usual worry or stress or caution evident in her features.

Seeing her so fast asleep he couldn't wake her up. She'd been so exhausted lately, she deserved a decent rest for once. Besides, she didn't officially have to be at work for another two hours, it was just her that wanted to be in this early. Booth took one last look at her calm face and backed out of the room, closing the door behind him. He knew she would probably be furious with him for letting her sleep in but he didn't mind. She needed some sleep. He walked into the living room, certain he could find something to amuse himself for an hour or so. He stood behind the couch and glared at the spot where the wonder that is a television should have been sitting. One day he swore he was just going to go out and buy her a TV. Booth removed his jacket and sat down on the couch. Spotting a magazine on the coffee table in front of him he picked it up, hoping for something to read. When he saw the cover properly he dropped it back on the table like a hot stone. 'Ugh, he'd almost read an anthropology magazine!' He slumped back into the couch and looked around him. There really was nothing to do in her apartment. No TV, no decent magazines, and he couldn't put on any music because it would wake her up. Giving the non-existent TV one last glare, Booth pulled out his phone and proceeded to play many continuous games of Snake.


Temperance woke up gradually, curling into her warm, comfortable bed. She eventually opened her eyes and went to get out of bed. When she was half way out of her bed she glanced at the clock on her bedside table. 8:18… wait, 8:18! "Oh my…!" She tried to scramble the rest of the way out of bed at lightning speed, caught her foot in the sheet and fell hard on the floor with a thud. "Dammit." She muttered to herself, disentangling her foot and getting up off the floor. She froze as she heard a voice call out suddenly from somewhere in her apartment.

"Bones?"

"Booth?" She asked, extremely confused. The voice was now just outside her door. "Bones, are you ok? What was that noise?" Yes it was Booth, but what was he doing in her apartment?

"Uh, I'm fine. I just… just tripped." She took the four steps to the bedroom door and yanked it open. "Booth what on earth are you doing here?" Booth raised his eyes from the floor when Temperance swung her door open apparently not aware that she was still wearing pyjama shorts and a singlet top). He opened his mouth to say something and his eyes opened wide along with it. He had a very odd expression on his face, Temperance noticed. 'And why wasn't he talking?'.

"Um, uh I…" His odd expression disappeared suddenly and he regained coherent speech. "I was waiting for you. I'm taking you to work today, remember? Because your car is still at the Jeffersonian. Only when I got here you didn't answer so I thought something was wrong and I let myself in. Then I saw you were still asleep and I knew you could use the extra sleep so I left you…and besides, you don't have to be at work until 9." Booth visibly cringed, waiting for her to explode at him. For a long moment she stood silent and expressionless. Then she suddenly looked confused. Not angry. Confused.

"You mean you've waited here the whole time by yourself until I woke up?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah." Now Booth was confused. Where was all the yelling and the lecture on workload and responsibility?

"But...why? Why didn't you just wake me up?" she still didn't sound angry, just puzzled.

"Because I saw what you were like last night. And you told me yourself you hadn't been sleeping well and you always work so damn hard, I figured you deserved a little extra sleep for once. I didn't mind waiting."

Again there was a pause and Booth could see her mind quickly processing everything behind her sky-blue eyes. Then, unexpectedly, she gave him a smile.

"Thank you Booth." She said very sincerely.

He returned her smile and said with matching sincerity "No problem Bones. Any time."

Each stood watching the other smile back until finally Temperance broke the moment, looking down at the floor between them. The action also showed her that she was still in her pyjamas. She flushed and half-turned back into her dim bedroom.

"Uh, I'll just get changed then." She successfully avoided eye contact.

"Oh right. I'll wait in the…" he waved his hand vaguely behind him. If she had looked she would have seen his face had also taken on a slightly pink tinge. She nodded and closed the door.


Ten minutes later they were in Booth's car and driving to the lab, both holding a much needed cup of coffee courtesy of Booth and some polystyrene cups Temperance kept in a cupboard for just such an occasion. She was starting to feel awfully indebted to Booth. He was being so helpful and generous and just genuinely nice. She didn't know what to think of it, and in fact, if she had let the thought enter her mind, she would have admitted that it was a little scary. Every few minutes she would have a moment of panic thinking that she hadn't told him how grateful she was for what he had done for her lately, but then she reminded herself that she had already thanked him at least five times since last night. So at the risk of sounding repetitive she opted for just keeping her mouth shut, which Angela had informed her was a very good idea whenever she was on the verge of saying something stupid…or smart to a guy. She had never quite understood the latter part of that remark.

Booth pulled up in front of the entrance to the Jeffersonian. "I'll just drop you here. I've got to get to my office, try and put a dent in my pile of paperwork and sort out my notes before I update Cullen on the case later." She nodded and climbed out of the car. When she turned automatically to say thanks for the ride he grinned at her. "Also I don't really fancy being there when Angela sees you come in."

She gave him a bewildered look. "Angela? Why?"

He laughed. "Oh come on, Bones. You're walking into work at" he glanced at his watch then raised his eyebrow "five to nine in the morning. That's what, two hours later than usual? That alone will set her off formulating every possible scenario she can think of for you being late – none of which you'll appreciate, I'm sure – but can you imagine what your darling best friend will think when she finds out that I drove you home last night and dropped you off this morning? There's no way I'm walking right into that one!"

Temperance laughed with him, knowing exactly what ridiculous conclusion her 'darling' best friend would come to. "You're right, I don't even want to be there! If you came in with me now she'd probably have us sleeping together last night within seconds of us walking through the door." She said, grinning back. "At least if you don't come in, and I don't tell her you gave me a ride, she might just have me having sex with some random guy instead of you." Booth just barely managed to keep his carefree, joking face on at those words. Inside he was cringing at how she spoke so carelessly about the idea of them sleeping together and also how she had just mentioned her having sex with some other guy. He had just been using innuendo. Did she have to be so damn blunt?!

"Well good luck with that." He replied casually. "If your squints get any more information on the case give me a call. I'm going to need all the extra info I can get before I see Cullen."

"Sure." She scooped up her bag from the floor in front of the passenger seat, then paused for a second. "So I'll uh see you later?"

"Yup I'll see you." She flashed him another smile before closing the door and walking swiftly away.

Temperance replayed the conversation in her head as she walked and found herself silently mortified at what she'd said. She had been talking to Booth about having sex with random guys…and with him! She thanked the God she didn't believe in that Booth had laughed instead of being embarrassed.


I know not much is happening at the moment, but it should pick up speed very soon. lots more action coming up! And you know what makes that action come faster? lots of reviews!