This popped into my head at 5:25 in the morning. I was sleep-deprived. Fluff happens in my sleep-deprived states.
I can't kill Daisy Wick, even fictionally. But Happy Birthday to the wondrous Laffers. And America, too.
"Booth! I don't find this humorous."
"I need another word for 'proportionately,'" he said, while straddling Brennan over the covers in bed, holding the newspaper in one hand and pen in the other.
"I'm trying to sleep…"
"It's seven letters."
"Is Christine awake yet?" she asked, trying to buck him off of her.
"I fed her already and she went right back to sleep," he responded, barely jolted by her attempts to move him.
"Sleep. That sounds lovely," she murmured, giving up moving him and curling back into her pillow.
"'A' is the fourth letter…"
"I'm too tired to think."
"Is something the great Doctor Temperance Brennan has never, ever said and meant."
"I've had no coffee."
"It's on the nightstand, right next to you."
She remained silent and unmoving.
"Bones!" he said, while bouncing vigorously on the bed, jolting her.
"Equally," she shouted grumpily.
"What… oh!" he said, counting spaces. "Oh. I meant 'A' is the fifth letter," he responded apologetically, causing her to moan.
He waited a moment for her response, but she remained silent.
"Bones!" he yelled with a playful jab to her stomach.
"What?" she said, popping up on her elbows to glare at him.
"Hi," he said sweetly. "Another word for proportionately, seven letters."
She glared at him while he smiled at her, and finally caved. "Pro rata."
He looked at her skeptically. "That doesn't sound like a word."
"That's because it's two words," she grumbled, sitting up enough to grab the coffee from the nightstand and take a sip.
He scoffed, but counted it out. "Hey, it fits! Now… That means 32 across is a six-letter word, with an 'R' as the second letter, for a word that means 'esoteric.'"
"Like this game… 'arcane.'"
"Ah, it fits! See Bones, isn't this fun," he laughed, bouncing up and down on her a little.
"I've learned over time that you sometimes have odd definitions of fun."
"This is the life, Bones. A Sunday morning in bed, doing the Post's crossword puzzle."
"Wouldn't you find it more fulfilling if you were, say, in the living room, completing the crossword puzzle. Quietly."
"Noooo… Bones. This is the quintessential couple's activity. I can't do it without you," he said, matter-of-factually, abandoning his position of straddling her to curl up beside her.
"You can't do it without me because it's a couple's activity or because…" she paused as she looked at the paper in his hands. "…or because you don't know a four-letter word for Oaxaca water?"
"Four across, hip-hop mogul married to Beyonce?"
"Who's Beyonce?"
"Exactly. We need each other to complete this crossword puzzle. This is why it's a 'couple's activity.'"
Brennan rolled her eyes but unsuccessfully hid her smirk as she adjusted and settled against Booth.
"It's 'agua' by the way."
"What is?"
"The four-letter word for Oaxaca water. Oaxaca is a southern federal republic of Mexico. I did some of my graduate work in the Capital City of Oaxaca de Juarez, and while we were there, we took a weekend trip to the Hierve el Agua, an area with 'petrified' waterfalls, where water with extremely high mineral content falls over the side of cliffs, forming stone waterfall-like structures. The name means 'boil the water' but the water is not hot; rather it pushes up from the ground in places which looks like water boiling."
Booth smirked while listening to her speak, even taking her cup of coffee from her and stealing a sip while she continued talking of boiling waterfalls.
He handed the cup back to her after she stopped speaking and moved on to the next clue silently.
"Do you still find this to be a good couple's activity, even if I bore you with facts?"
"Psht… you don't bore me, Bones. Not possible. It's early on a Sunday morning and I just learned about a boiling waterfall in Mexico. How many people can say that?"
She shook her head and smiled at his sweet response. "You're shameless."
"Which is also a series starring William H. Macy on Showtime! This is going so well," he said enthusiastically, filling in the word "Shamless" at 24 down.
They both filled in a couple of blank words before Brennan laughed.
"What?"
"It's… 44, seven letters across," she said, still chuckling.
"The Queen's Consort…" Booth said, rolling over the clue's words in thought.
Brennan leaned over and placed a quick kiss on his lips, before tapping the crossword puzzle with her finger.
"Partner."
Collective AWWWWW. :)
Seriously, ignore me now. I don't know what angst-less disease I got bit by.