Don't get used to it ;) This chapter just spilled out of my mind and onto the keyboard.
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CHAPTER 10
We would need something else to go on, or the person Margaret Stoker loved would die.
I worked all evening. When I arrived at work after my little crisis I hadn't eaten lunch, but I'd decided to have a decent dinner at least. Now hunger was the last thing on my mind.
I tried to picture the weapon that could have done this kind of damage. Blunt but rounded, with more force on one side… wood…
A tree branch was out of the question. There weren't large splinters; Hodgins had found minute traces… so polished wood, or perhaps…?
And suddenly I knew. It was, frankly, quite embarassing that I hadn't realised it before.
The handle of a kitchen knife made of wood.
We'd have to run a few scenarios with Angela, because the force enough to cause that many fractures and actually kill was oddly strong, but it fit perfectly with the approximate shape and pattern of microfractures.
So it was the same killer. Unless this was yet another coincidence and this woman who looked like a victim and fit the profile was killed by a knife like the other three…
It was the same killer.
Kevin Stoker couldn't have done it.
My phone rang, making me jump. I quickly snapped my golves off and took it.
"Brennan."
"You forgot to check your caller ID, I bet. That's why you picked up, isn't it, Bones? You didn't know it was me."
I froze. His familiar voice sounded tense.
"You're right." Lying to him was never an option. "What is it, Booth?"
He chuckled. "That's my Bones. Always direct and to the point."
"What is it? I've just discovered something important, I need to get back to work."
"What?"
"Kevin Stoker didn't kill Jeannie Whitmore. She was killed by the same person that killed Lily Sanders, Sandra Llevot and Helen Evans."
"The same person?"
"Well, a knife was used… unless this is also a coincidence…"
"Same weapon doesn't mean same person, Bones. Someone could have got hold of the knife and used it to try and get Kevin Stoker another trial."
"Oh."
"But it's a good clue. Sorry I distracted you, I'll call later."
"It's okay, just tell me now…"
"No. Later. Keep working. Bye, Bones."
I hung up and told an intern walking past me to get Hodgins. Then I went to get Angela, we needed to run a simulation through the Angelator.
*
"Hey Dr B, I heard you wanted to talk to me?"
I paused at the door to Angela's office. She didn't even look up, bent over her computer as she was.
"Yes, Hodgins, stop trying to find what uses the treated wood has. Narrow the search to knife handles."
"Knife handles?"
"Yes, find me the knife with a handle made of that kind of wood."
"Usually the alleged 'wood' is a synthetic…"
"Find me one that isn't."
I opened the door to Angela's office and went inside.
"Angela."
She looked up, as if waking.
"Sweetie… are you ready to talk?"
"What..? No, it's not that. I need help with the case."
"Of course you do."
"What's wrong, Angela?"
"Let's go. I'll tell you about it when I know you'll actually listen."
I felt hurt by this comment, but realised my mind was too focused on the case right now (and on decidedly not thinking of Booth).
So what she said made sense.
*
"I concur. This is certainly possible, as long as it was one blow."
"Definitely. He could do it in one strong motion."
We both looked up at the sequence between us, of Jeanie tripping an falling to the floor. And then dark figure behind her lifting a knife by the blade. From his height the man brought the knife down, and with the momentum of his whole body weight he was able to fracture the skull the way it was.
"He'd have scars on his hands, right?"
"Not necessarily, Ange. If he wore leather gloves, the knife might not have cut him."
My phone rang again. I picked it up still looking at Angela… her neck ligaments looked tense, something must be wrong.
"Brennan."
"I'm outside the Jeffersonian. Come talk to me for a moment."
"What?"
"Bones, we need to talk. Just talk, to clear the air and make a decision."
One night… the words sang to me.
No, Temperance.
NO.
"Can't we just talk on the phone? I'm in the middle of Jeanie Whitmore's murder scenario, you know."
"She's not going anywhere, Bones." For the first time his voice softened with the respect for the deceased. "This is important."
I hesitated.
"It's about work." He said finally, sensing the reason behind my reluctance.
"Fine, give me five minues."
In three I was outside. Booth stood with his back to me, staring proudly at the sunset, as though he was defying the light itself.
"Booth, hi."
"Hey." He took a deep breath. "We need to get this over with. No more slips, we're adults, I can't handle any more lapses. No more."
"Okay. I agree."
"Great."
"Fine."
"Yeah."
We stared at each other for a moment, and maybe I imagined the way his eyes flickered. Was he remembering every lapse like I was?
"You said this was about work, Booth?"
"Yes. Jeanie, Helen, Sandra, Lily… Margaret. They deserve our hundred percent. One hundred, not ninety nine. That's why no more… uh, lack of discipline on my part. I can control myself. What I can't do is live with another almost. I'm sorry that I've been kind of a jerk with this but that all ends now. I will control myself."
I nodded, fighting the lump in my throat.
"I suppose we should just admit that we are attracted to each other, which is perfectly normal, and that it doesn't mean we need to be…" skip that word, Temperance! "… it just means we're friends and colleagues."
"Yeah."
"Partners."
"Yes. I'm very attracted to you. It's distracting when I let myself…" he skipped a word too. "… but the fact that you're so beautiful, it's got to me before, the pie…" he shuddered. "And in the car, with the sound of your breath so loud and I felt like I could just reach out and kiss you… has it ever happened to you, when you concentrate on one thing and suddenly it seems like the loudest noise? A bubble popping sounds like thunder. Like that."
I nodded, unable to speak normally just yet. I hated the way he misinterpreted me. I hadn't meant he should tell me how attracted to me he was. That only made it harder!
Great. Fantastic with the word choice today, Tempe.
Superb.
"Just try and be yourself, and I'll hold my end of the deal. I have to admit that now we can talk about it I feel a bit better." He didn't sound like he felt better. Didn't look like it either. "I've been… feeling this for a while, truth be told. But look, Bones, you're right, we're friends, and I'm glad we'll stay that way."
He spoke like overcoming our fatal electric field was easy. I did too, actually. Like we could simply look away and it would go. But electromagnetic forces can work for centuries.
Just look at how long gravity's been around.
"Bones?"
"Yes. I competely agree."
We shared another one of the true smiles which had become very rare between us.
Oh, how very adult we felt then. So confident, so mature… so responsible. We were doing the right thing, and we were going to succeed because it was right. We were brave and powerful and we were united again (although only in the narrow, separate way).
"Bones…" the smile stayed in place, but it was a different kind of smile. "I wanted to ask you… I value you as a friend. I admire you, your talents, your smarts. But could I ask you something?"
"That depends, Booth."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Could we have a last kiss? Like… goodbye?" his tone was strange. Not solemn, on the contrary, kind of playful, but also with a hint of doubt.
I nodded gravely, considering this. He blocked the sun with his tall build, and the red light shining around him was almost holy. The colours of the sky painted my feelings, splattered in red, purple, orange and blue.
He was asking a lot of me, even though he didn't know. Of course I would let him because I was helplessly lost and addicted to his taste, by now. But it cost me. This last one cost me something.
He moved toward me and surrounded my waist with his arms. For a moment it felt like one of our hugs, and then he tilted his head to mine and our lips touched.
The contact was feather-light. Soft, innocent, like a goodbye.
During the ten seconds it lasted he stole something. I can't describe what it was: not a part of me, because I would never be split by anything. I was always a whole, but he didn't steal me entirely either. So what was it that had been there before he kissed me and wasn't there anymore after?
My hands rested on his chest, his around my waist and still our lips barely grazed. It wasn't so much about the kiss, it was about the closeness and the contact and that indescribable something being stolen from me as the cruel coutdown kept ticking…
Three, two, one…
End.
He took a step back as did I, and we blinked. The light had gone from the world now that we were apart. How perfect.
The sun had set.
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It begins with an R.
After that, an E.
As long as you like it
Please, tell me!
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After the E, a V.
After the V, an I
Because Booth is good
at "seduction by pie"
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Another E is here
'Cause I love that letter
Tomorrow is Thursday
What could be better?
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And finally, W
Because we all love bones
Tomorrow is Thursday
And we want Booth clones!