CHAPTER 9
"It's snowing!" Angela belted as she strode into Brennan's office around 1 o'clock that afternoon.
Brennan looked up from her computer.
"Really? I didn't think it was cold enough to snow," Brennan replied.
"It's dropped like 10 degrees in the past hour. There's a blizzard brewing," Angela said as she leaned against Brennan's desk. "It's absolutely gorgeous outside. It's like THE perfect snow. So romantic," Angela continued to rant as she beamed.
Brennan wrinkled her brow.
"Why are you so…cheery?" she inquired of her best friend.
"What? A girl can't be joyful just because?" Angela asked, the goofy grin still plastered to her face.
Brennan continued to gaze at her, her curiosity peaked.
"Alright, fine. Hodgins and I just did it on Cleopatra's bed. I'm high as a kite," Angela spit out as she radiated warmth and sensuality.
"You know those are priceless artifacts-"
"Oh, spare me your speech. You want to go get a bite to eat?" Angela asked.
Brennan held up an organic granola bar.
"That does not count as food. Let's go to the diner, come on," Angela said as she vacated her spot against Brennan's desk and moved to get Brennan up and out of her chair.
"Ang, I'm not hungry. And if you think that I am going to give you any more details about being naked with Booth, you're wrong," Brennan replied. "And I have already told you that I haven't 'felt' anything," she added when Angela opened her mouth to protest.
Angela's smile turned to a frown and she pursed her lips.
"You are a piece of work…do you know that? Of course, I wouldn't love you if you weren't. Will you just go with me to eat? I want to have girl time with my best friend," Angela said, sincerely.
Brennan eyed her, looking for any hint of a hidden agenda. She didn't see one.
"Fine. But only if you promise to not talk about Booth," Brennan replied, her eyes piercing.
"Yes, yes. I promise," Angela said as she rolled her eyes and took hold of Brennan's arm, lifting her out of her chair. "Grab your coat, it's-"
"It is a winter wonderland out there!" Booth exclaimed as he strutted into Brennan's office, brushing his gloved hands together.
Angela's face lit up as she had not seen the two partners together since the hypothermic incident. Her day was just getting better and better.
"Hey, Booth. We were just heading out to get some lunch. Care to join us?" Angela asked, her eyes wide with mischief.
"I thought you wanted to have girl time," Brennan inquired, a whine in her voice as she attempted to edge Booth out of the equation while also wanting girl time herself.
"Is anyone going to ask why I'm here?" Booth asked.
"Do we have a case?" Brennan asked, her interest suddenly rising.
"Nope. Just thought I'd see if you wanted to get lunch," Booth replied, a glowing smile playing across his face.
"Sounds great. We'll do girl time later, Bren. So, the diner then?" Angela butted in, beaming and batting her eyelashes.
"Yeah, that's fine," Brennan gave in. Both of them seemed so…giddy and she didn't quite know what to make of it.
"You can see how gorgeous the snow is. It's like THE perfect snow," Booth exclaimed as he helped Brennan with her coat.
"That's exactly what Angela said. It's just snow, you know. It's happened before and guess what? It will happen again," Brennan said slowly, a sarcastic smile on her face.
"You sure know how to ruin a moment, you know that?" Booth informed her as he brushed past her and out of the office, closely behind Angela.
Brennan wrinkled her brow again. "I…do not," was all she could whine before she picked up the pace and fastwalked to catch up with them.
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"How did you fall? Did you just slip?" Angela asked, her ears pricked to hear the answer.
"I was running and didn't think about it being slippery. It was snowy, so I shoulda thought that there would be ice," Booth replied as he took a sip of his coffee.
"And where were you when he fell?" Angela asked as she turned her head to Brennan.
Brennan glanced at Booth quickly before looking back at Angela.
"I was probably 10 yards from him. It was really dark and I didn't see him…fall," she replied, her eyes darting away from both of theirs as she raised her own coffee mug to her mouth.
"Freaky. And you really don't remember anything?" Angela asked, a small smile hiding beneath her concerned face.
Brennan glanced immediately over at Booth.
His eyes darted between Brennan and his coffee mug. It took him a few seconds to answer.
"Uh…no, not really," he replied, taking another sip.
"How is that possible? I mean, you guys were there for over 5 hours and you can't remember a single thing about the entire night?" Angela inquired, taking her time in speaking the words "single" and "entire."
Her eyes were dancing playfully and Booth had noticed. While Brennan continued to stare at her coffee mug, Booth looked to Angela and then opened his mouth to speak.
"I do remember something…" he said, his voice trailing off as he waited for Brennan's reaction.
Her eyes steeled and she looked to him.
"Really? Wh-what might that be?" she asked, attempting normalcy and failing.
"Well, I kinda remember feeling something really soft. You know, like against my skin. I remember it smelling really good, but I-I don't really know WHAT it was…or wh-"
"Blanket," Brennan replied quickly. "I…wrapped you in a-a blanket. It probably smelled like the pine from the cabin," she continued as she rubbed her lips together, tucking her top lip under her bottom.
"No…it wasn't pine. It was more of a fruity smell," he replied, furrowing his brow as he pretended to think really hard.
"Had to have been the blanket," Brennan said, nodding her head as if it would convince Booth.
Angela watched the interaction between the two of them and she mustered everything she could to keep from smiling giddily. This was priceless.
"Do you remember anything else?" Angela prodded.
"He already said that he didn't," Brennan cut in.
"I believe she was talking to me," Booth said to Brennan. "Yeah, yeah. I kinda remember…talking. I was…yeah, I was talking. Something about…I can't quite…nope, I lost it," he continued. Then he suddenly realized something. "Hey, wait a second. Did you slap me?" Booth asked Brennan, his brow deeply wrinkled and this time, he was completely serious.
Brennan's eyes grew wide.
"I-I had to. You needed to get up and get dry, so…I slapped you," Brennan replied, sighing as she looked for his reaction.
"Thanks," he replied.
"You're welcome," she replied, nodding.
"So…that's it? Nothing else?" Angela continued, hoping to get at least one more little moment between the two of them.
Booth's demeanor changed and suddenly, he no longer wanted to mess with her. He had truly not remembered the slapping as it had happened right after the initial trauma. Now he remembered how he had felt…that everything was slipping away and then she had slapped him and quite literally knocked the sense back into him. Angela had said that she needed a smack upside the head and he had needed it then because he had been ready to give up. But she saved him. And that fact came back to his mind and he was eternally grateful all over again.
"No. That's it," he replied, looking to Angela and then back to Brennan.
Angela noticed the change and she decided not to push it. Whatever this thing was between them…it was fragile. It had to be handled delicately, now she finally understood. And she had no doubt that Booth knew how to be delicate.
"Well, I need to get back to work. Hodgins has some…stuff for me…Gormagon. Anyway, I'll see you two later," Angela sputtered as she hurried out of the diner.
"Sorry if I intruded on your 'girl time,'" Booth said, making air quotes.
Brennan smiled softly. "It's okay, Booth. You're not intruding," she replied, gazing at him.
He looked into her eyes for a good 8 seconds and he saw what he had seen after they had kissed under the mistletoe…and he wanted to see it again and again. It was a look of contentment that she had and the simple fact that she was content made him happy.
"So, guess I better get back to the bureau…see if there's anything going on that's…interesting," Booth said as he pulled his wallet out.
Brennan placed a hand over his. "My treat. You got dinner last night," Brennan said as she reached for her own wallet.
Booth paused. "Okay, fine. You win," he replied.
Brennan left the money and the two of them made their way out into the snowstorm. It had picked up over the 45 minutes they had been in the diner and about 4 inches had accumulated on the streets with huge snowflakes falling rapidly.
Brennan crossed her arms and snuggled into her scarf as Booth shoved his hands into his pockets.
"It's getting bad," Brennan observed as the wind kicked up.
"Yeah," Booth replied.
They reached the Jeffersonian and Booth turned to Brennan.
"Well, I'll talk to you later then," Booth said as he turned to head to the parking garage.
"Yeah, okay," she replied as she shook the snow from her scarf.
She made her way to her office and turned back to watch Booth disappear in the elevator. Something soft and fruity she thought and she was pretty sure that it was her skin and her peaberry shampoo he had been remembering. As long as he didn't know, it was fine.
She reached her office and dropped to her chair with a thunk. She just sat and pondered what she could do. With no case to work on, she thought she might head back to limbo. As she got up to leave the office, Booth came striding in.
"Do you have jumper cables? My car's dead," he said.
"Uh, yeah…in my car. I'll give you a jump," she replied, heading back out of the office.
Booth smiled as he followed closely behind her.
