Chapter 11: 'She looked beautiful in the snow.'

Reluctant to venture far, partially because they needed to be on call and partly because the temperature was rapidly plummeting, they sat in the hotel café. Booth had told Trickett and Fryer to take the rest of the day off and he hoped they would stay away, if nothing else then out of fear of Brennan. He smiled slightly at that thought.

"What?" Booth looked up from his coffee to meet Brennan's quizzical gaze. "What's so funny?"

He straightened his face, "What? Oh, nothing." She eyed him suspiciously for a minute before apparently letting it slide.

"I wonder why people are naïve enough to believe that this coffee is Moroccan when the taste and colour clearly indicates it's a simple American filter." Her mouth upturned at the taste.

Booth looked at her with mock interest, wide-eyed and open mouthed, "I was just thinking that."

"Really?"

The look on her face was so cute he almost didn't bother but after an instant of hesitation, he sunk back into his seat and lost the exaggerated expression. "No."

She looked away, it wasn't the first time Booth had played that trick on her. They stayed quiet for a few seconds, Booth was about to break the silence when Brennan spoke, "You were right about the snow." She jerked her head towards the window; the snow was pouring down now. They'd been sat in the café for an hour, meanwhile nursing two coffees each, and almost two inches of the white powder had settled on top of their SUV which was just about still in sight. The visibility was terrible but the scene was a pleasant one.

Booth stood up and paused, "C'mon. Let's go." He smiled and strode out of the café, with Brennan just a few feet behind him.

He went straight to the SUV, opening the trunk and sitting on the edge, using it as a sheltered seat. Brennan joined him ten seconds later and they sat in silence for a short time. "I love that."

"What?" Brennan turned, looking confused.

He met her gaze and smiled softly. "That." He paused to demonstrate his point and Brennan's brow creased in confusion. "The quiet." It had been something he'd loved since he was a child. It had come from his grandfather. Pops, Jared, and Booth had spent hours in the snow together. Some of it was spent running around aimlessly chucking snowballs at each other, but a large portion of it was spent just sitting. The snow made everything quieter. All the animals had gone into hibernation or found a warmer place to hide, most people stayed inside to keep out of the cold so the streets were near empty, and barely anyone bothered to attempt to drive anywhere if it was bad, and even if they did chance it, the snow muffled the sound of the tyres enough that it didn't interrupt the tranquillity.

She looked beautiful in the snow. Booth held his hands together to restrain himself from reaching out and touching her. The cold made her skin look even fairer than usual, a slight red tinge coloured the end of her nose and ears, and small snowflakes had settled in her hair on the walk over. The low temperatures seemed to highlight the colour of her eyes and they now shone an even brighter shade of electric blue. She still wore his spare clothes, with her hands bundled up inside, but she looked effortlessly gorgeous.

They stared at each other for an extended period, with Brennan making similar observations to Booth. She noticed how the cold made his skin look soft, and that the hand he had run over his head as he'd sat down had melted the snow into his hair, leaving it damp. There was a faint shadow of stubble that had appeared over the course of the day. It was barely there but somehow managed to make him look sexier. She had always thought it a crime to let anything mask his defined jaw, but this moment made it infinitely harder to choose a preference.

It was Brennan who broke the moment. With another smile that Booth readily returned, she shifted a little closer to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. She waited as he inevitably shifted, unscrunching his hands so that he could curl his arm around her, holding her close to him.

Booth's phone rang a minute later, and Brennan sat up so that he could reach into his pocket, though his free hand didn't move from her. "Booth." Brennan stayed quiet for the duration, knowing better than to try and make sense of the one half of the conversation she could hear, but having a go all the same. She looked at her watch, half four.

Booth flipped the phone shut, "Okay. Hodgins and the others have taken a look at the car." He looked defiant, like they'd found what they were hoping for. "They'll need to wait for the body and take a look at the sheet before they can be certain that the fibres and stuff match up, but so far, here's what we've got. The trunk had sand from two beaches," he shrugged his shoulder and made a funny face. That part meant nothing, "There were traces of human detreetum-" He said the sentence with a confident tone despite having no idea of what he was talking about.

She interrupted, "Human detritus?"

"Human detritus, that's what I said. Anyway, mostly exfoliated skin and the parasites that feed on it. Hodgins also got some fibres that he said were cream, and similar to a bed sheet in material. He thinks it's probably a match for the sheet the body was wrapped in. He's also got a lot of dirt samples. He says that he found about nine different soils," he grinned and leaned in again, "one of which is predominantly found in the area surrounding the Allegheny River, and the other found in the cemetery."

Brennan let herself smile now, their case was coming together. "Okay. So, if they match, then we can confirm that Seddon had the shroud, the body, and the dirt from both burial sites in the back of his girlfriends car." Booth nodded. "Is that enough?"

His smiled faded a little, but the confidence remained, "Probably not, but if Whitton and the girlfriend are willing to testify, then we should get 'im."

"So what do we do tonight Booth?"

He shrugged, "We could go out to dinner?"

She nodded. Normally, she'd have protested, giving the excuse of work, but truthfully, she didn't have much to do. "Okay." She looked around them, "But we shouldn't go too far." The snow was piling up by the minute now.

He pursed his lips for a few seconds, "How aboutttt" he drew out the word giving him some extra time to think, "how about we just do what we do back home. We'll go out, get some takeaway, have an early night?"

She smirked, "Sounds good."

They sat there for another half hour. Brennan leant into Booth again, and he let his head fall so that it rested on top of hers. They both noticed when Trickett and Fryer arrived back at the hotel. They both ignored them and managed to keep relatively warm, moving a little further into the SUV to avoid the breeze. Booth had been right about the FBI clothing, it was warm, and they were sharing body heat.

"We should go inside. Do you wanna shower before we head out to look for food?"

She straightened herself out, "Yes. Let's go."

A/N: I have to admit, this chapter is my favourite so far. Thanks to all the ppl who reviewed the last chapter, there were a lot more of you which is great

Unless I significantly alter the length of the next chapter, the next update will be two chappies. See you in a couple of days!

Please review, I'd love to hear if you guys think they're staying in character (or not).