14.
Waking in Booth's king-sized bed the next morning was heaven—right until Parker jumped onto the bed, bouncing up and down.
"Out of bed, sleepyheads!"
I sat bolt upright, fumbling for the baseball bat I kept next to my own bed, before I realized who it was. I sat there, dumb with sleep, as Booth grabbled Parker and lifted him up into the air.
"Hey, herd of elephants! Try not to stomp Bones, OK?"
Parker smiled and sat down. "I made you cereal! Come get it!" Then, looking over at me, sitting up and stark naked, the covers fallen to my waist when I'd bolted upright, he said, "Mommy's breasts are smaller than Dr. Bones', and she has pretty skin." I put my head in my hands. "Daddy, you should tell Dr. Bones not to be embarrassed. We're supposed to love our bodies!"
"Parks, yeah, but, um, Dr. Bones grew up in a different family, okay? Go pour us some juice, will ya?"
Parker nodded, sat up, bounced one more time on the bed, and jumped off, running down the hall.
"I'm calling him Tigger from now on," I grumbled. "But at least my breasts are bigger than Rebecca's."
"Heart, too," he replied, pulling on some sweatpants lying on the floor. He swatted me on the rump as I rummaged in the drawers for some clothes, and ambled down the hall.
After we finished our bowls of way-too-sweet Captain Crunch cereal—which featured a cartoon pirate whose demeanor was far too jolly compared to what was known about pirates' dispositions in the days when they regularly sailed the seas—we got ready and dropped Parker at school. Parking at the Jeffersonian, we headed inside with the doughnuts and coffee we'd bought, and dropped some at the front security desk, eliciting some surprised smiles. I filed away their reactions and decided I'd bring in bagels when I came back to work.
It was still early when we reached the lab with the rest of the treats, and everyone was up in the lounge, still working on their first morning cups of coffee. "Dr. B!" called out Hodgins, as we made our way upstairs. Angela, Cam, Jack, and Sweets were sitting around the table.
Sweets looked a bit uncomfortable, but said, "Dr. Brennan, I heard you were coming in today, and…" I smiled at him.
"I'm glad you're here." Booth finished laying out the doughnuts in the middle of the table, and stood behind me as I sat in the empty chair at the head of the table, putting his hand on my shoulder.
Taking a breath, I started. "Okay, lots of things to discuss. First, as you could tell, we're, um, getting married." Angela squealed all over again. "Probably soon." I paused, then added, "Very soon." Their faces fell as a one, except Cam, who already had known the probable diagnosis. "The mass they found is actually cancer, and I have to start chemotherapy soon, because it has spread to some of my lymph nodes." I inhaled again, Booth's hand squeezing my shoulder. "So, since I am too vain to get married without my hair or some other disfiguring side effect, I hope none of you have anything planned for the end of the month." Their eyes were watering to a one, and Angela had tears streaming down her face.
Jack, eyes moist, cleared his throat. "They can always reschedule my Nobel acceptance speech." It worked—we all laughed, and the air cleared a bit. Cam and I then took turns filling them in on my planned schedule, the possibility of Clark Edison coming on board, what was happening with grad students.
"What about your teaching schedule?" asked Sweets.
"It's a one day a week seminar, so I'm going to try to teach as long as I can. There aren't exactly many mass grave specialists kicking around D.C."
We talked a few more minutes, then everyone except Booth and Angela left. Booth planted a kiss on my forehead, asking "Back in three hours?" I nodded, then turned back to Angela. Tugging her hand, we went over to the sofa and sat down. She threw her arms around me, sobbing, and I tried to soothe her as I cried a bit.
"Bren. I'm so happy and yet so heartbroken."
"I'm happy. And heart-whole. No matter how long, no matter how what. But Booth keeps telling me I'll make it, and he's very cranky when I don't do what he tells me."
She smiled, and squeezed my hands. "At least denial is just another river in Egypt."
Coming downstairs, I went to my office and made some calls. Clark Edison accepted my consultant proposal immediately, and even broached the idea of a full-time position once he'd wrapped up some other projects. I then called the faculty dean at the University; he agreed that for the time being, I should continue teaching the seminar. I then turned to some of the reports that had been sitting on my desk, and signed off on the ones from Limbo. I put some others in a bag, figuring I could courier them back if necessary. Sorting through my computer, I answered some emails, changed the response to an out of office message, and emailed myself some of the notes and chapter fragments I'd written at work for the current Kathy & Andy.
I was interrupted most of the morning, as the gossip made its way through the building and people stopped by the awkwardly wish me well and back to work soon. Booth appeared in my office five minutes before my three hours was up. "Bones, let's go."
Shutting down my computer, I motioned to the bag on the floor. "That needs to go in the car."
"Bones! That's work!"
"Those are ours, and there are only four of them. We can finish them in a few hours. I just need to stop in to see Cam on the way out." He followed me to Cam's office and waited as I told her about Clark. We agreed she would solicit some graduate student resumes, and email them to me.
"Call me after you see Delia?"
"Will do."
- - -
Getting back into the car, which he'd parked a ways off from the entrance, winded me a bit. Booth, noticing, slipped my arm through his and slowed his pace a bit, his face set. Once we were on our way again, I asked him what he'd done in the intervening time.
"Went over to the Hoover, had a department meeting, signed some paperwork, usual catch-up stuff. I also got lots of ragging from the other agents about our getting together, finally. They don't know about the ... cancer yet, they just think you had a bad migraine."
"Will you tell them?"
"I'll have to. I won't be able to explain why I may be out so much, otherwise. I just don't like everyone knowing our business." He sighed, his eyes still on the road.
"It's alright. And I don't want you to get behind at work, lose time on a career track..."
"Bones," he interrupted me, "first, thanks to you and the Squint Squad, I have closed more cases in the last six months than anyone else in the building combined. Second, I could give a damn about my career track right now." His voice cracked; he was still resolutely not looking at me. I reached over, laid my hand on his arm in what had become a familiar gesture during our partnership. "Hey, you have to follow your own orders and not get mopey, yet. We can swoon and tear our hair out after we meet with Dr. Thornton. Right now, though, we have a wedding to plan."
"Where do you want to get married? The gardens at the Jeffersonian? The Natural History Museum? Somewhere equally squinty that I haven't thought of?"
Looking at my lap, I said, "I thought we'd get married in your church, if we can." He looked over, surprised, shocked even.
"But Bones, you don't believe in God, why would you be willing to get married in a church?" I squeezed his arm again, leaned over to kiss his cheek.
"Let's just say that things I used to be adamant about don't seem as important any longer as being as happy as possible in the time we have. And, it will make you happy, which I want. Very much."
"Well, it will make my parents happy, that's for sure." I smiled. I'd still never met his family, although I assumed that they at least knew I was his partner, and that I'd dedicated my last two books to him.
"I'd like to meet them before the wedding, I think." Booth shot me a glance. "Well, yeah, here's the thing, Bones. When you were in the hospital, like I said, the story was all over the news, and my mother called me that first night to see what was going on. I, uh, had talked about you before, and so she was worried. I told her what was going on and she told me in no uncertain terms that if I didn't tell you how I felt and propose to you, that she'd disown me. She's the only person I'm more afraid of than you."
I laughed-- if he was afraid of her, I thought, then I would probably like her very much. "Well, I'm glad that part of it is out of the way. How do you think they will react to my felonious family?" He snorted.
"They think it's all very romantic, and Marvin Beckett was actually a hero of theirs, so they are actually looking forward to meeting your Dad."
"You Booths have some twisted values," I said. "I'm glad."
- - -
We spent a few hours at my apartment, putting several weeks' worth of clothes into bags, and collecting some of my music and personal items. I collected Jasper and Brainy from the bedside, picked out a few of my favorite jewelry pieces for wearing if we went out, and gathered up some more notes I'd put together for the current Kathy & Andy. I changed the message on my machine, directing them to call the Jeffersonian with any inquiries, and then filled out the mail forwarding card we'd picked up along the way. Stopping off at my elderly superintendent's office while Booth loaded the car, I let him know where I could be reached. He'd heard I'd been sick on the news, and said he was glad to see me on my feet, and was I travelling again so soon?
I'd been mulling over how open to be about what I would be going through, and had decided that there was no use in being closed off about it. After all, it hadn't done me much good, the protecting my privacy thing. So I told him about the cancer, and how I'd be staying with Booth, and how we were getting married. He looked a little shocked, said he was sorry about the cancer, but reflected that modern medicine did miracles, and that he was glad that my 'late night visitor' had finally worked the courage up. Booth had appeared in the doorway, embarrassed, rubbing his neck, and I made him blush further as I said, "Actually, I made the first move." He wheezed with laughter, and congratulated us.
After I took my afternoon injection, placing the sharp in the small hazmat box they had given me at the hospital, we spent time finding room for my things at his place, setting up one of the armchairs in his living room as a mini-office for me, and otherwise unpacking. Around 6:30, the phone rang and Jack and Angela asked if they could bring over some dinner. They arrived shortly afterward, bearing pizza, tiramisu, and a bottle of wine, and we sprawled on the sofas with the food on the coffee table, laughing and trading stories. "I'm glad you called," I said. "We haven't socialized outside the lab much," I said aloud, thinking internally, since you and Jack got together. But she was my friend, and though I'd been lonely, I was happy for her.
"Bren, sweetie, I realized I'd been neglecting you, and anyway, neither Jack nor I have any couple friends besides you two who are even sappier than us. You're the only ones who will put up with us for more than an hour."
Booth laughed, adding "that's all well and good, but you'd still better keep the sordid details to yourself. I'm a good Catholic boy."
Ange leered, said "I bet you're a good something," and leaned back into Jack, stroking his leg.
"Booth, man, if I didn't have sex with her at least twice a day, I'd be jealous."
"Again with the too much information! Don't make me spoil a nice night by shooting you." We all laughed, and finished off the tiramisu and the wine. After some more talking, and making sure they were sober enough to drive, Jack and Angela helped us clean up and left.
"That was nice," I said, rinsing out the wine glasses in the kitchen.
"Your friends love you," he said, putting the leftovers in the fridge.
"They're your friends, and they love you, too," I said, walking over to wrap my arms around him.
"Maybe. Though I don't quite like the way Jack looks at me sometimes. He's a randy bastard..." he joked, turning to kiss me.
The kiss deepened, and soon we were fumbling with another like teenagers. Laughing, I broke the kiss and said "you'd think we'd never done this before."
He smiled so sweetly, and in a low voice said, "I might as well not have." Tears sprang to my eyes, and I realized it was true. I was more nervous with him than I'd ever been, even my first time, because there was so much to lose.
I brought my hand up to his cheek, and saw it was shaking. "I love you," I said, reaching up to kiss him again. While my hands were occupied with running themselves through his hair, he was busy stroking my sides, my back, my belly. Suddenly he grabbed me by the waist, and pulled me up into his arms.
"Booth!" I cried, delighted, but a little startled.
"Parker's not here," he murmured, striding down the hall to his bedroom. He dropped me, lightly, on the bed, and pulled off his shirt. Kneeling, I removed my own, loosing my bra as well. "Let me," he said. Pushing me backward onto the bed, he slid the skirt I'd been wearing off, then groaned. "Thigh high stockings, Bones?"
"I don't like pantyhose," I said, crossing my legs. "But sometimes you want to look nice."
"You look nice," he said, his eyes darkening as he knelt in front of me. "But you'll never be able to wear them again, now that I know what you're wearing underneath those skirts. Nope, only granny panties and dark tights for you from now on. Can't have anyone else catching a glimpse of these," he pulled one of my legs up onto his shoulder, and nuzzled my inner thigh, "or I will have to shoot them." He continued nuzzling, switching to the opposite leg.
"I know how you hate paperwork," I sighed, not completely in control of my voice. He didn't respond, verbally, just started unrolling my stockings, following them with slow, firm, kisses and bites, as he worked his way down each leg. I realized I was doomed. If I was this aquiver and I still had my underwear on... I'd better do something to even things out a little. I rose up, started for his belt buckle. Chuckling, he put one arm out and pushed me back into the bed, holding me down while he undid his pants and stepped out of them and his wait, chili pepper print boxer shorts?
"Stay put," he ordered, holding me to the bed as he kicked free of the rest of the clothes, and balanced, one leg at a time, to pull off his chili pepper socks.
"Chili peppers?" I asked.
"Yeah, because I'm hot. Hot for you!" Grinning, he climbed onto the bed, looming over me, face to face. He kissed me, his tongue darting in and out of my mouth in a way that made me hope he'd echo below what he was doing above. I kissed him back, running my hands along his shoulders and back, enjoying the feel of his firm muscles.
"So... well... structured," I panted, between kisses. I started to reach down with my hand, when he swatted it away.
"No. Me first. I'm selfish that way. And you know I always do what I want anyway." Murmuring in my ear, his tongue traced the shape of my earlobe. I shuddered. He made his way down my neck to my clavicle, kissing and nibbling along its length. "Clavicle," he murmured, working his way over to the middle of my chest. He bit and licked his way between my breasts, whispering, "sternum" between strokes of his tongue. My God. There were 206 bones in the body. If he named every one of them the way he was doing right now, I was never going to walk straight again. He turned his attention to my breasts, sucking one nipple and teasing me with his teeth as he kneaded the other one, pausing to look up with a grin and say, "pectoralis major." I quivered, as a throb began to pulse in my center, moving to fill me. "And you thought I wasn't paying attention," he said.
Licking my lips, I managed to get out, "clearly, I was wrong," just as he nipped and licked his way down to "floating rib," swirled and sucked at my "iliac crest," and then descended down my leg, naming the "adductor muscles" of my inner thigh, the "patella," and placing a kiss or a bite at each place he named. Massaging the sole of my foot, he then proceeded to suck every damned "phalange" on both of my feet. I was shuddering all over now, thrashing on the bed, reduced to sighs and whimpers and the occasional, pleading, "Seeley," as heat and wetness and an ache stronger than I'd ever felt before built in me. I was half orgasming with just his mouth on my skin.
As he made his way up my other leg, his hand kneaded, tickled, stroked my other thigh, gradually teasing along the edge of my panties and then rubbing the lace with firm friction across my mound and between my lips, slowly but deeply. "You're killing me," I moaned. He moved his other hand to the other side of my panty line, teasing, stroking, until I was groaning, bucking my hips, and grasping at his hair, as he knelt between my legs. I heard a ripping sound, and then my underwear was gone. "Booth," I gasped.
"I have an underwear investment fund," he whispered, his breath hot against my folds, "I'll buy you a replacement for every pair I tear off of you." The thought of a repeat performance nearly drove me over the edge, and the heat between my legs, the painful-sweet tension there, only increased. I had never wanted, no, needed, this much before. And then his lips were on me, and I lost all thought. He tasted me, licking me like an ice cream cone, occasionally digging his tongue in to my center. I didn't want him to ever stop, and at the same time I needed him inside me, but I couldn't do anything but make this whining sound I'd never heard myself make before. He increased his pace, nibbling at my clitoris as his tongue continued to probe and tease me.
I shattered, bursting into uncountable points of light like a firework, fire rolling through my body in waves, my limbs tingling and numb as all sensation coiled at my core, where he was still kissing, lapping, nipping. Before I could even notice that he had stopped, he had sheathed himself in me, kneeling on the bed and pulling my legs up to hold them alongside his hips. The shock of him entering me, filling me, stretching me physically the way he'd made my soul grow, made my eyes snap open. "Ah!" was all I could get out.
He grinned at me, wolfishly. "I believe you ordered something mind-blowing, correct?" I could only cry out again as he withdrew and entered me again, sheathing himself fully. He lowered himself toward me, slipping an arm under me as he pushed my legs up and over his shoulders. I was boneless, molded by his hands. He entered and withdrew, slowly, so slowly, and I felt myself clench around him, my legs quivering with the effort, mindless sighs falling from my lips. After what seemed like hours, he started to increase the pace, letting my legs fall to the bed and lowering himself further, his chest inches from mine, my breasts brushing against his chest. My nipples rubbed against him, and the friction was almost unbearable. He seemed to know, and bent to suck one, then the other, tugging so hard I orgasmed again, falling off the world. He kept moving within me, slowing, as I cried out his name, slipping his other arm beneath me as I wrapped my arms around him, holding on for dear life. Just as I could breathe again, though, he started to speed the pace, moving his hand to my neck to bring his mouth next to my ear. "Everything," he panted, "mine," he gasped, as I started clenching around him, "forever," he groaned, as he reached between us and flicked me, and I screamed, losing control yet again. He lost his own control, then, pumping into me and crying out "Temperance, Bones!" as I sobbed, "I love you, I love you, I love you," over and over.
I was shuddering, hyperventilating with the overwhelming sensations coursing through me. I had never felt so loved, and it was too much to happen all at once, knowing there might be all too short a time left to have finally found this. Bending down, still inside me, he smoothed my sweaty hair away from my face. "Shh, baby, breathe," he whispered, running his hand down my stomach and rubbing it up and down as I tried to calm my breathing. "Shh." He kissed my forehead, my nose, my chin, clasping me to him as I cried, letting go of a lifetime's worth of loneliness all at once. He kissed my tears, rubbed circles on my back, kept murmuring "I love you," as I finally managed to catch my breath, and allowed his warmth to seep into me. "You're never alone, I'm here, I love you, you're mine, baby," he whispered in my ear as he continued to rub my back.
Taking a deep breath, my eyes still shut against the overwhelming love I knew I would see in his eyes, my voice cracking, I managed to get out, "Too much... waited too long, so much." Tears continued to leak out of my eyes, and he brushed each one away, smoothing my hair again and urging me to breathe some more.
"Shh, Temperance, breathe, it's alright." Letting his weight down entirely, he pulled me flush against him, legs and chest, one arm under my neck and head, the other tracing long, firm strokes down my side. Finally warm, I drew a shuddering breath and opened my eyes. "Love, I'll always be with you. You know that, don't you?" His eyes were shining, and I realized I'd seen that look on his face before, but never fully recognized what it really meant. I nodded, still speechless.
He leaned in again, placing kisses all over my face, as I just clung to him, limp, unable to move. Smoothing a hand through my hair, he held me to him with his hand at the small of my back, as he gently kissed my neck, my clavicles, my upper chest. My breathing, which had just begun to resemble something normal again, hitched in me as I felt him growing inside me again. I moaned, and he swelled again, almost filling me though it had only been minutes since he'd come, pumping what felt like gallons of his life into me. "Seeley, I can't..." I began, as he rolled me onto my side and withdrew from me. But even as I was protesting that I couldn't go on, I cried out when he left me. He briefly hovered over me, then was behind me, one arm sliding beneath me and clasping me to him at my waist. As he lowered his head to kiss and suck at my shoulder, he lifted my top leg and slipped into me from behind, using his hand to pull my bottom leg slightly under me, my hips tilted slightly toward the bed. He bit my shoulder then, and I cried out as he sheathed himself within me again, pulling me against him harder than I'd expected. With him behind me, holding me so closely I thought I would melt into his chest, I felt myself start to coil again, heat pooling in the center of me with a fire I was beginning to think I would never be able to put out. As he continued to draw us together, using his hand on my hip to pull me back to him each time he withdrew, he licked up the side of my neck, nipped my earlobe, and growled, "Forever, Temperance, forever," moving us together until I lost all sense of who I was anymore.
"Forever," I managed to whisper, my voice gone, and he moved the hand at my waist lower, to stroke and knead my clitoris as he continued to rock me onto him from behind. I cried out as I came again, even harder than before, and heard him cry out, wordlessly, as I slipped away.
- - -
I woke slowly, awareness creeping into me. Usually, I woke easily, my thoughts and awareness coming back in a flood, and I could rise from bed and start my day right away. Today was different. My limbs were languid, non responsive. My lips were full, tingling, and my head felt heavy. I could barely open my eyes, but when I did, I saw that it was still dark outside. I felt warmth at my back, and gradually became aware of Booth's arm beneath me, his other arm and a leg draped over me, his head in the crook of my neck.. His breathing was deep and even, moist and hot against my neck, and his body's warmth was like an oven, warming me from head to toe. Flashes of the night before flickered on my eyelids.
No one had ever made love to me before, I realized. He'd been right. By the time he was done, I didn't know where he ended and I began, and I didn't want to know. I felt complete, in a way I didn't know was possible. As I lay there, I realized that even if I died tomorrow, my whole life had been worth it, for just last night. I didn't know what I'd done to deserve someone like him, but maybe it was his God, and maybe He was making it up to me for all that had gone before. Who knew? But I knew, at last, that I was home, that I was safe, that I was awash in more love than I had ever imagined deserving.
- - -
I must have fallen back asleep. When next I woke, I felt whole, refreshed. I also felt his mouth pressing wet kisses on my lower back, where his hand so often came home to roost. Hearing my breathing change, he sucked at the base of my spine, whispering "sacrum, L4, L2," as he mapped his way up my back with his mouth. "I know you're awake," he whispered, his breath hot on my skin, as he proceeded to suck the length of an "intercostal muscle."
"Booth," I sighed, "I don't know if I can…" and then his hand came around to palm my breast, rubbing my nipple with his thumb. I lost my protest in a deep moan. "Scapula," he continued, tracing one of my shoulder blades in nipping bits, then pushing me from the side I'd been laying on to my stomach. One hand traced down my spine, reaching for my heat from behind, and slipping into me to test me. I was already wet. Dipping into me with his fingers, he continued his exploration of my back, circling my "rotator cuff" with his tongue, kissing my "trapezius," leaving a hickey on my "elbow," before returning again for nip each "cervical vertebrae."
"Seeley" fell from my throat as a moan, as his thumb stroked my aching, burning clitoris, still tender from his attentions the night before. With only the third firm pass of his thumb, I screamed, tightening around the fingers inside me. His hand withdrew from me, and I found myself pulled to my knees, his hands grasping my hips, as he entered me from behind.
"God, Bones," he groaned as he entered me, one arm bracing us on the bed, the other wrapped around my waist, withdrawing and pushing himself even deeper into me. "No, oh God, Seeley, yes," I babbled, as he continued to fill me over and over again, his measured pace never slacking even as his breathing quickened. Soon, I was crying out wordlessly with each withdrawal and return of his body from mine, tears streaming down my face as continuous shudders began to wrack me. The sweat between us suctioned us closer together, as he levered us closer to the bed, his chest sealing against my back.
"I love you," I whimpered, and he responded by speeding his thrusts, his own breath coming in harsh gasps, calling "Bones" as he filled me again and again. I screamed as another orgasm ripped through me, so forceful that it was painful, exquisite, every superlative in every dictionary ever written. As another spasm rocked me, "Ah, Seeley! Mine!" he finally let go inside me, pulsing and rippling with a rush of what felt like lava.
He rolled us to our sides, panting, and withdrew from me. Rolling onto his back, he pulled me to his side, arranging my head on his chest, and pulling my useless arm up to place my hand on his chest. His heart beat wildly under my hand, and he turned his head to pull my face towards him, kissing me so tenderly, so sweetly, that I could only gaze in wonder. I moved my hand slightly, and pressed it to my own heart.
"Yours," I croaked, my voice hoarse.
Pulling my hand back to place it over his own, he replied. "Yours."