So, sorry about the delay, I got called with an interview for a company I knew nothing about so I spent a few days studying up on it, and then I went to bed early so I could be well rested for the crack-of-dawn interview. I had meant to spend today working on this story but got roped into going to help someone do errands that I thought would never end. Anyway, hopefully we're back on track and I'll update like before.
Don't own them!
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Sleep. Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is a heightened anabolic state, accentuating the growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems. It is observed in all mammals, birds, many reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
But apparently it was not meant for Temperance Brennan. Booth had kissed her, sure he'd done that on a few occasions before, but not after telling her that he had to move on, and then fly to the other half of the world only to return home with someone else. Seeley Joseph Booth had kissed her Temperance Brennan and now some hours later she could not fall asleep.
She had thought she missed her chance when she had turned him down that night. When she went to Maluku she had thought she could work through her thoughts. She went because she felt almost suffocated by all the murders, they caught so many murderers but it never ended, she hadn't lied when she said she was tired of the murders and the victims. But she couldn't lie that a part of her had also gone to get away from Booth so she could sort out her feelings with him as well. She thought that by going she could manage to fully compartmentalize them, but her feelings grew until the little non-literal box in her mind shattered. She had come home with hopes that Booth hadn't fully moved on and was heartbroken to learn that he'd brought home a reporter named Hannah. And when they worked on that case about the cardiac surgeon, Lauren Eames it confirmed what she had decided in Indonesia that she didn't want to live alone afraid to try.
But she never expected to get another chance, not with Booth and yet here she was laying in bed hours after a kiss that wasn't especially passionate, but spoke volumes. It spoke of a future, and with a smile on her face Brennan fell asleep.
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Well she didn't slap him so Booth was going to take that as a positive sign, she hadn't exactly kissed him back either, but he'd sprung the kiss on her and it was over before she probably processed what was happening…at least that was what he was going to tell himself.
The day had been perfect, fun, and romantic, he couldn't not act on his feelings; had to at least see if there was a chance for them, he wasn't going to give up on them this time, he was in for the long haul. He fell asleep quickly.
Some odd hours later he as awoken by a terrible shrieking sound, groggily he realized that his phone had been set to go off at 3:21AM, turning the alarm off he frowned knowing that he had not set the alarm, he thought back and realized that the only other person who would have had access to his phone was Brennan, and that was when they were getting ready to go kayaking. He had handed over his belongings to store in joint locker that held their belongings so they wouldn't get ruined or lost if something happened while they were on the water. She must have set it when he was changing and she was placing their belongings in the locker, by why?
Exactly nine minutes later he was pretty sure he had the answer to that question, as not only did his phone go off, but a loud alarm came from under his bed. Turning off the new alarm popup on his phone he hopped out of bed, and on his hands and knees peered under the bed only to discover that the source of the noise was not one alarm clock, it was about twenty alarm clocks.
Since Bones had been with him the whole day that left Christopher, this must be their payback for telling Marcus about the syrup thing. He had to admit, as he turned off all the alarms one at a time, he'd gotten off easy by the sound of their stories.
After the last alarm was turned off Booth climbed into bed yawning and it wasn't long before he was back in the land of dreams. Of course twenty minutes after the terrible wakeup call he was awoken yet again only to discover that there were five alarms in the canopy above his bed. He groaned turning them off and getting back into bed. With a glare at his door, as if it was the culprit he closed his eyes, but fifteen minutes later alarms starting sounding and he was out of bed yet again. He found one under each of his bed side tables, and heard an alarm in his closet. Turned out there were eight alarms in his closet. Turning them all off didn't stop the noise though.
With a scowl he abruptly turned on his heel and left his room not worrying about social cues he opened the door to Brennan's room and strode purposely to the bed, "Bones." He said.
"lkhlkf?" was the reply from the lump in the middle of the bed.
Booth jumped onto the bed and gave his partner a good shake, "Wake up Bones."
Brennan made a sound of protest pulling away from him and opening her eyes to glare at him, "What?"
"There are about a million alarms going off in my room, and you're going to help me find and turn them all off." He said with a glare, "Come on Bones, the sooner you help the sooner you can go back to sleep."
Bones yawned, "I didn't put them in there."
Booth shrugged, "I know, you were with me most of the day, but I'm willing to bet that you were late to breakfast because you and Christopher were plotting your little prank. Then while we were doing our thing in the morning Christopher was not meeting up with some friend he was out buying every alarm clock in the United States. When we left for the carriage ride, I'm willing to bet he placed them all over my room. I bet he even got my kid involved. I'm surprised that noise hasn't woken everyone, but since I can't hear it from in your room, I'm guessing the rooms are soundproof, or close to it." Brennan nodded in confirmation, "Come on." He said taking her hand and pulling her from the cocoon of her covers.
Brennan followed tiredly behind him, allowing him to pull her into his bedroom coming fully awake almost immediately after stepping into his room and closing the door. The sound was deafening, alarms blared from unknown locations. It would have been funny if it hadn't been the cause of her being awake so short after she finally found herself drifting off. "I'll look on this half of the room, you look on that half." And with that the partners split up. Brennan found small travel alarms under each couch cushion and two behind the TV. Laying on the frames of most of the pictures were wrist watches beeping, there were alarms in the shoes that Booth hadn't wore that day. His suitcase, all drawers, chairs. Alarms were everywhere; by the time the partners had finally gotten all the alarms to stop it had been an hour and 89 alarms later.
"I would say this prank backfired." Brennan said not knowing what else to say.
"I think it worked pretty well, I feel like I've been punished, and my dreams were interrupted." Booth said with a shake of his head, he'd been having a good dream too, one that involved his partner but minus the alarms.
"I was not to be…punished…also." Brennan gestured to the pile of alarms Booth was seriously considering setting and putting them in Christopher's room, he wouldn't even hide them, it'd be a pain just to have to turn them all off. "You were just meant to turn them all off, but no, you had to come and wake me up."
Booth looked at his annoyed partner, her hands on her hips glaring at him, and he burst out laughing, "I'm sorry." He said.
She smiled, "I'm also sorry. I probably wouldn't have apologized in the morning, but having to help with the alarms…I'm feeling sympathy to your loss of sleep." She looked around the room before meeting his glaze, suddenly feeling awkward she moved towards the door, "I should go back to my room, I doubt we missed any alarms. Goodnight Booth." And then she was gone.
"Night." He said to the empty room before climbing back in bed making a silent promise to not get on Christopher and Bones' bad side again.
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When Booth awoke next the sun was coming into his room, he went about his morning business before opening the door and stepping out, and only instead of stepping out into the hallway he was hit face first with a hard substance. Staggering back he looked at the doorway in confusion moving cautiously to the door he held out a hand and realized that he'd been Saran plastic wrapped into his room, from top to bottom the plastic was pulled tight so that it wasn't noticeable.
Booth glared at the room across the hall before pulling the plastic down and tossing it into the garbage bin next to the bed. He made his way down the stairs and to the breakfast room finding his two pranksters, Chloe and Marcus already sitting at the table. "Morning." He said cheerfully, moving to fill his plate and taking a seat next to Brennan.
"Sleep well?" Christopher asked innocently.
"Oh, I had an alarmingly good night's rest." He replied taking a long pull of his coffee, "How did you sleep Christopher?"
The other man shrugged, "I slept like a baby, and it's so quiet around here that I couldn't imagine finding it hard to sleep."
Brennan looked between them and frowned, "Well I had a terrible night's sleep, first I couldn't fall asleep because…" She blushed, "Well I couldn't." And Booth's face broke out into a grin as he realized what must have kept her up, "And then, I was rudely awoken later in the night because of some…noise." She said, glaring at Christopher.
"I feel like I'm missing something." Marcus said looking from his son to one of the girls he considered his daughter. "What happened last night?"
"Nothing." Three people in the room said together.
"I believe the answer to that question." Avery said stepping into the room and filling a cup with tea, "Would have something to do with the bill invoice I received on 89 different types of alarm clocks."
Booth cringed watching Christopher and Brennan turn matching stares onto the standoffish member of the family. Avery was nonplused though as he took a seat at the table and grabbed a strawberry off Chloe's plate, "Then again, maybe someone has an appointment that they really wanted to make sure they awoke for."
Marcus looked at everyone's face his eyes narrowing, "Christopher did you put alarms in Tempe's room?" drawing the conclusion that that must be why she awoke during the night.
"What? No!" he said sputtering, "I did no such thing."
"He didn't." Brennan said, "There were no alarms in my room last night."
Marcus looked between the two who were trying their bests not to make eye contact, "Alright, since no one seems to be saying anything, I'm going to give you the benefit of doubt. However, if I find out that something is going on like the '87 burial act and you're all going to be wishing that standing in a corner was still an acceptable punishment for you." He made sure to make contact with each of his 'kids' and Booth could feel the heat coming from the stare even though he wasn't a recipient, "Just remember that there are a LOT of windows to this house and they all need cleaning."
"So, what are the plans today?" Brennan asked after a moment of silence, "Or shall we be breaking off into little groups again today?"
"I was thinking that since you've experienced Maine by seeing it on a the water, and going through parts of it on a carriage ride, that we could see it today while going on a family bike ride." Marcus said, "Let's make a day of it in Acadia National Park."
"I think that sounds like fun." Brennan said, turning to meet Booth's glaze and they shared one of their wordless conversations, "We're in. We won't be biking all day though right? I imagine all five kids will be pouting if we attempt it."
"No not all day, just part of the day." Marcus said, "I thought we'd break it up, bike a little and maybe stop in the gift shops, eat in the park, there is some climbing, and we could cool off with a swim and the kids can play in tide pools."
"That would be nice, it's so beautiful outside that that sounds prefect, and I bet Parker would love to play in the ocean." Booth said with a grin.
"Booth you're a degenerate gambler, you shouldn't be making bets." Temperance scolded turning a scowl in his direction.
"Turn of phrase, I wasn't really saying I was going to bet anyone." Booth said with a shake of his head, "I don't bet anymore."
"That's true." Avery said matter-of-factly, and Booth narrowed his eyes at him, "Oh, what? Like you didn't think I knew that out of all the millions of things I've been saying?"
Brennan turned a curious look at Booth, "You've been talking to Avery?" she frowned, "What's he been telling you?" she said with a slight glare pointed at the aloof man's direction.
Booth shrugged, "Just that he keeps a file on everyone you come into contact with. I got to say, we could use someone like Avery at the FBI, of course, I have a feeling that the FBI would like to talk to him as a person of interest."
"Most of the information is easy to get a hold of if you know who to ask. I know a lot of Whos." Avery shrugged casually, "Everything else, I have a team for that."
Brennan shook her head, "Are you kidding me? When did you get Booth alone?" She asked in outrage turning her attention to Booth, "He's just our Alpha Male here; you don't have to take anything he says seriously. We don't."
Booth rolled his shoulders, "Bones, its okay. It's nice to know that there is someone watching your back. I've got to say though, if there is someone following you around twenty-four seven, how did Taffet get you?"
Brennan frowned, but it was Marcus who answered, "Avery doesn't have us followed that often, he likes to keep on top of things. If Tempe switches grocery stores then it could be months before we make sure that they aren't hacking up baby elephants and putting them into their pies. It's the people she's in contact with every day that we have concern about. When you got teamed up as her partner there was a background check run on you."
"Most of the stuff Avery knew wouldn't have shown up on a background check." Booth retorted.
"That's because it wasn't a government background check, it was an Avery Mead Special." Christopher supplied, "It's better than a government check."
"You guys, you promised to play nice when I told you I was bringing someone." Brennan made sure to turn her glare on each member of the family.
"We were just putting the fear of God into him." Christopher huffed.
"Booth already has a fear of God." Brennan shook her head, "I don't-"
"Bones." Booth said placing an hand on her arm, "Don't worry about it, It was just an expression, I think in this case their use of 'God' was meant to be more like big brother." He paused, "Big brother referring to the government and how they are 'always watching'. They weren't really doing anything about my religious views." Brennan frowned and started to say something but Booth continued, "Besides, I'm okay with it. At first I wasn't, but I would expect nothing less of someone I expect to have you back, and Avery and the others are just trying to look out for your best interest."
Brennan sighed, "Okay." She said softly turning her attention back to the family, "But if you ever meet any of my other team members you let me know before you 'put the fear of God' into them." She said, "That way I know if I want to kill any of you or not."
The group slowly nodded in agreement, Booth stood, "I guess, I'll go get ready for today's activities. I better find my kid too and get him ready."
Booth made it out of the corridor and halfway to the kids' playroom when Brennan caught up with him, "I'm really sorry about Avery." She said, biting her lip.
"Bones don't worry about it." Booth tried to reassure her, "We talked the day you went to the store with Christopher, and I'm still here. I'm not going to leave because you're brother is trying to make sure I fly straight." When she opened her mouth he held up his hand, "Not being literal, I know I can't fly."
"As long as you're sure." She said after a moment, "I just don't want you to think Avery is after you personally. I know it's an invasion of your privacy, but I think he only looked into you the first year maybe the second, but it's not like he's following you around. He likes you, so he has no reason to bug you. You're privacy is yours."
Booth found that piece of information interesting, it appeared that she didn't know that Avery was still watching what he did, otherwise he wouldn't have known about the Hoover confession. He could have known about Hannah just because she was new to their group, but he seemed to know that they broke up because of Bones and not just because Hannah and him didn't mesh well. But he wouldn't out Avery on that front, it wasn't like he was using that information for his own personal gain, just to keep his family safe, and Booth wasn't going to get him in trouble with Bones for that.
"I'm sure I'm not going anywhere." He said taking a step closer to her, "You're stuck with me."
Brennan looked him over with a tilt of her head in that way she does when she stares at her bones and Booth saw when she decided on whatever she was thinking about. She gave him a slow smile, "Good." And with that she turned on her heel and headed off in the other direction leaving Booth to stare at her retreating form with a goofy smile on his face. When she was out of sight he snapped out of it and remembered why he was in that hallway anyway and went to get his son ready for the day's events.
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Short, sorry, but it's all I got tonight. I'll hopefully have another chapter up tomorrow, if not the next day. Promise not to go four days without an update this time. And yes Booth is going to have some words about the pranking that's being sent his way, I didn't just let that go. Reviews are loved, I love hearing my email ping with a new review! See ya next time!