Chapter 9: Capricorn

Booth awoke to Bones staring at him. "Huh? Is something wrong?"

Bones smiled at him. "Just... thinking. Imagining."

"Imagining what?"

"You."

"You really don't need to imagine. I'm right here."

"No. I'm imagining you with a beard."

Booth instinctively raised a hand to his face. "A beard? No. Nuh-uh. Never."

Bones frowned. "Why not?"

Booth was still a bit dopey from just waking up. "Um... FBI regs. Grooming and personal standards. Beards aren't allowed."

"Yes, they are. I checked. As long as they're neat."

"Um... they itch."

"According to Hodgins, only at first. And it will be uncomfortable for me, at first, but I am willing to put up with that until it fully grows in."

"I... I don't like them."

"You've never had one. I've seen photos of you from puberty, and you never had any facial hair."

"I... I'm not going to win this one, are you?"

Bones smiled. "Nope. Not this one. I want to see you with a beard."

"Can we compromise? How about a goatee?"

Bones considered. "I would view that as an acceptable compromise – at least, for now."

Booth eased out of bed and headed for the bathroom.

"And no shaving!"

BB BB BB BB BB

Sunday morning, Brennan awoke to a most unpleasant sensation – a rough scraping along her tender inner thighs. She snapped awake and pulled back the covers.

Between her legs was Seeley Booth, smiling as he brushed his bristly cheeks along her legs.

"Seeley Joseph Booth, just what the hell do you think you're doing?"

He climbed up and beside her, still smiling. "Showing you how wrong you were."

"You'd better start explaining."

He settled back on the pillow. "You said that I'd never tried growing a beard, because you'd seen pictures of me dating back to my childhood, and I was clean-shaven in all of them."

"That's right. Your grandfather has been extremely generous with his collection."

"Did it ever occur to you that no such pictures didn't exist because the times I did, it went so badly that I got rid of it before any photos could be taken?"

Bones opened her mouth, but stopped. It hadn't occurred to her.

"You see, Bones, I tried growing a beard several times. But I have these annoying bald spots right here," touching the edges of his mouth, "and the mustache never connects. I could go for the full Fu Manchu, but that looks stupid. Plus, if you look closely, it's coming in gray. Almost white. It's been that way since my mid-twenties. The rest of my hair is still dark, but that one spot – gray."

Bones finally found her words. "I... that possibility did not occur to me." She glared at him. "But you could have told me that. You could have refused."

Booth snorted. "And you would have accepted that?" Bones had the good grace to not argue. "No, you had your mind made up. I knew the only way Dr. Temperance Brennan would accept that I should not grow a beard was to show her – literally, in black and white – that it was a bad idea."

Bones threw up her hands. "Fine, you win. Now go and shave."