Thanks so much to all my reviewers. This is my longest chapter yet and I hope you enjoy it! I upped the rating, but just a little. Let me know what you think at the end.

No Exception

Chapter Nine

The blonde woman at the front desk of the Best Western motel pushed her glasses high up on her nose. She quietly cleared her throat, but the pair in front of her appeared not to hear. They were engaged in a hushed conversation that the woman recognized as an argument only by the blunt hand motions coming from both people.

At last they seemed to reach an agreement and the brunette woman stepped forward. "We'd like a double room," she said, smiling and placed a credit card on the counter.

The man joined her and spoke through gritted teeth into her ear. "I still don't see how this is going to work."

The woman signed the receipt with a flourish. She turned to face the man. "It'll be fine, Booth. For once in your life, just trust me."

The blonde read the signature. Temperance Brennan, gosh that sounded familiar. Something in her brain clicked. "Hey, you're that author. We've got your book next to the breakfast bar."

Brennan smiled again. "That's great. Can we have our keys now?"

The blonde looked slightly put off by Brennan's abruptness, and she quickly handed over two key-cards. "The stairs and elevator are to your left." She watched them walk back out the door without another word. "Celebrities," she mumbled.

Back at the car, Booth began unloading their luggage from the back. "You could've been nicer, Bones."

"It's been a long day and I'm tired. I plan on going to our room and getting a lot of sleep while you make all the arrangements for this wedding we're having." She grabbed her maroon suitcase and went back to the building.

"You know, it's times like these that don't make me wonder why she's never married before," he said under his breath as he followed her retreating back with his eyes.

The hotel room was small; there was barely room for a night table between the two queen-sized beds. Brennan had thrown her suitcase on the one closest to window and was now propped up on some pillows, reading a forensics journal.

Booth shoved his luggage into the corner and looked at her. "Why are you working now? I thought we could go out to dinner or something. You know, have the full Idaho experience."

"This isn't work; it's pleasure. It is very thrilling to see what other scientists think about means of interpreting evidence."

"Yeah, I bet. So, listen, you want to explain to me again why we got a double room? We got a single in Vegas, and we weren't even dating then." He sat on the edge of his bed and folded his hands in his lap.

"This isn't a vacation, Booth. We came here to get a job done and I don't want personal stuff to get in the way."

"You do realize that our 'job' is personal, right?" He leaned forward and pulled the magazine from her hands.

"That's not the point. We have to stay focused."

"We talked to Jared. It's his turn to decide. Right now I don't want to think about him or Katie or even Dani. I just want to focus on you." He hopped over to her bed and pushed her suitcase onto the floor.

"You think you can get people to do whatever you want," she said softly.

"That's why they gave me the badge, ma'am," he replied, grinning. He took her lips with his own and his goal was met. All thoughts of his family were driven from his mind by the fire in their hearts and the fever in their hands.


Three hours later Brennan was deep into the forensics journal and Booth was pacing the floor of the hotel room. They had finished off the sandwiches he ordered from the room service menu and now all that was left to do was to get the wedding plans in order. At this point, Booth knew that a wedding was the only way to draw Jared to D.C., but he still wished things could've been less complicated. Getting at least four other people to lie about something that big would be difficult.

"You're going to ruin the carpeting," Brennan said, looking up from an article on skeleton reconstruction she found particularly interesting.

"I've been thinking, Bones, and you're probably not going to like it."

She put down the magazine and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Is something wrong?"

"Not technically. You know that story that parents tell kids about lying? How you say one lie and then have to tell another to cover the first one and then another to cover that one and so on? We've kind of put ourselves into that situation, haven't we?"

"I suppose so, but we're smart enough to keep our stories straight, don't you think?"

"Oh, I trust the two of us, most definitely," he said. "But here's the thing: the more people we drag into this, the likelier it is that the story will come unraveled before we're ready."

"That makes sense," she agreed. "The less people that know a secret, the lower the chances are for something to go wrong."

Booth rubbed his hands together. "Exactly. I'm glad we're on the same page."

"What page is that?" she asked, wrinkling her brows in confusion.

"We're going to have a real wedding, Bones. At least, that's what we're going to tell everyone."

"Excuse me?" She liked this plan less as the night wore on.

"You didn't tell anybody why we came to Boise, did you?"

"No. I told Angela that it had something to do with my mother and that you were coming with me. She probably passed that on to anyone who asked." She stood and walked over to his side.

"Good, then we're in the clear. Look, all we have to do is pretend like I proposed to you while we were here. That way, everyone thinks the story is real and we don't have to worry about the Katie/Dani/Jared mess until it's absolutely necessary. We only have to trust ourselves on this one."

"What makes you think people will be convinced that I've decided to marry you? Angela knows how I feel about the archaic nature of marriage."

"I bet that Angela would believe that someone like me changed your mind."

"You're giving yourself too much credit," she said, resting her hands on her hips.

"Prove me wrong," he dared.

"I don't like this, Booth. I don't like it at all. Too much could go wrong."

"Like what? It's the perfect plan. I don't think you want to spill the beans, and I certainly don't plan on opening my mouth too soon."

"I don't know, how about the fact that I don't have a ring?" She held up her left hand to display her bare finger.

"We'll handle that tomorrow. First thing. Now we have to set the ball in motion. You need to call Angela."

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Because it doesn't make sense that I would call your best friend to inform her of our engagement."


"He did what?!" Angela shouted from D.C. She stood in the living room of Hogdins's house with a lavender-scented facial mask on.

"Proposed. We went to the Botanical Gardens and he did it." Brennan bit her lip and scribbled the words 'Botanical Gardens' on a notepad. She needed to remember all the details of the story and pass them along to Booth.

"Wow. What did you say?" She waved Hodgins away when he tried to listen in on the call. She didn't want to take a chance of missing something her friend said.

"Yes."

"Yes? You said yes?"

"Yes."

"You said yes. I can't believe you said yes. That is amazing. You're engaged. I never thought that I would ever hear those words, let alone say them."

"Neither did I," Brennan admitted.

"So, how big's the rock?" Angela asked, now sitting down. The excitement of her friend's news had caused her to go weak in the knees.

"What?"

"The ring. How big is the diamond?"

"Oh, well, I actually don't have a ring yet. I guess he just proposed on a whim and wasn't really prepared. He's going to get one tomorrow," she said.

Angela frowned. "Put Booth on the phone. I need to talk to him."

Brennan smiled sheepishly and looked at her partner. "Hey, Booth, Angela wants to talk to you."

He took the phone from her hand. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"She does not sound happy with you right now, and I might have a little something to do with that."

"What did you tell her?"

"That you didn't get me a ring." His eyes widened and she added, "What? It's the truth. The less lies we tell, the better."

Booth put the phone to his ear. "Hey, Ange, how's it going?"

She let into him quickly. "You propose to my best friend and you don't even get her a ring?"

He lowered the volume with a push of a button. "Well, see, I hadn't really planned on proposing, but we were," he paused and looked at the notepad that rested on Brennan's lap, "at the Botanical Gardens and it just kind of happened. You should know all about spontaneity."

"Fine, but she better have a good one when you come back. When's that going to be, anyway?" Angela asked after having calmed down a little. Hodgins poked his head in from an adjacent room.

"We're here for a couple more days. We've just got to check out a couple more loose ends. We'll definitely be back in time for the wedding."

"Are you trying to tell me that you already have a date set for the wedding?" She couldn't believe her ears. Booth may have been the type of guy to rush into things, but Brennan was generally very hesitant about life-altering changes. Something fish was going on…

"Yeah, uh, it's in two weeks. Spread the word, okay?" Booth wanted to get her off the phone before she interrogated him into giving up the truth. He wondered why she had never gone into the FBI with skills like that.

"Okay, sure. Tell Brennan I said congratulations."

Booth punched off the phone without saying goodbye. "You were right. I think Angela is a little suspicious."

"Well, why wouldn't she be? I told you; she's my best friend, so she's bound to be curious. Do you still think this is going to work?" She took the phone and put it on the nightstand and then held his hand.

"I think we can make it work," he responded, rubbing her fingers with his thumb. "You know, if we stop worrying about everything blowing up in our faces, we could actually have a lot of fun with this."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. The last time we were 'undercover' was in Vegas. I don't know about you, but aside from getting beat up, I enjoyed myself. We're very good at pretending to like each other. And now we don't even have to pretend."

"I didn't bring the black dress."

"There are stores around here, darling. Besides, I don't think you'll need it."


Please review. Booth-filled dreams to those who do. Take it from someone who dreams of Booth all the time; it's totally worth it.