Disclaimer: Sigh, nope not mine. Maybe now...no.

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Booth marched into the Jeffersonian. It was late evening and he was on a mission to bring his partner out for something to eat. Brennan spent the majority of her day thinking wonderful, complex thoughts and the mundane, ordinary things like three square meals a day often fell by the wayside.

He gave a cursory glance around the lab. Nope, no Brennan. No one else either. Sensible squints had probably gone home. His partner, however, was another matter entirely. He set his sights on her office.

Squaring his shoulders, he pushed open the door. As he glanced around the room, his argument died on his lips.

The lamp on her desk cast a soft glow around the room. Surprisingly, Brennan wasn't making use of the lamp while she frowned at something on her computer. No, instead, his partner was curled up on her couch, fast asleep.

Her wavy hair tumbled about her face, some of the ends of it resting over the furniture's edge. Her dark eyelashes contrasted perfectly against her porcelain skin. She had drawn her legs up close to her body and one arm lay across her knees. The other arm however…the other arm made Booth smile widely.

Brennan's left arm was up against her face, her thumb firmly placed in her mouth. As Booth watched, the gentle movements of her cheeks, which threw her cheekbones into even sharper relief, let him know that his partner was, indeed, sucking her thumb.

Chuckling softly to himself, Booth watched her a moment more, then began to back quietly out of the room. He couldn't take his eyes from her peaceful face and, so, didn't look where he was going. Unfortunately, his foot hit off the doorframe with a loud clunk.

Brennan shot up, eyes wide and arms flailing. After a moment, she recovered her bearings and gave her partner a steely glare.

Booth shuffled sheepishly. "Sorry, Bones."

Shaking her head slightly, Brennan stood up and stretched.

"It's fine, Booth. What do you want?"

Choosing, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, to ignore her rather blunt manner, he flashed her a grin.

"I want to take you out for some dinner."

To his astonishment, she cast a quick look around her office and then nodded slowly in agreement.

"Sure. I think I'm done here anyway."

Recovering quickly, Booth's grin grew even wider and he attempted to steer her towards the door. She flapped him away while she gathered up some papers off her desk. Several attempts and a stinging forearm later, he was pushing her out into the lab.

"You didn't have to slap so hard, you know." His voice was full of hurt and accusation as he tenderly rubbed the injured spot.

She rolled her eyes and quickened her pace slightly.

He jogged after her, placed his hands on her shoulders and forced her to slow to a walk.

"Easy, Bones. Long day. Not in the mood to go racing around after you."

He shot a quick, sly glance at her.

"So…are you going to tell me about your little secret?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

He smiled delightedly, nodding to himself in a very satisfied way.

"Mmhmm, I think you do. When I came into the room, you were sucking your thumb. Any comments?"

A light flush spread across Brennan's cheek.

"Oh. Well, I was…you saw that?"

"So you admit it?"

"You can stop skipping about, Booth. It's a calming movement. It's completely reflexive. It's been proven that young babies and children find it very soothing. And I have to say, I agree."

"You agree?"

"Yes. I find sucking on it very relaxing."

Booth nearly injured himself trying not to laugh.

"You're gonna have to be very careful with what you say here, Bones."

She looked very confused.

"What? I'm simply saying that by sucking on it, it can help to relieve my stress and so help me get to sleep. It's not weird or anything. It's extremely useful. I couldn't do it all the time, though. That would be exhausting."

Booth couldn't stop a quick burst of laughter.

She looked accusingly at him.

"Laugh all you want, but I'm telling you, it works. You should try it sometime."

"Eh, no, I don't think I'll be doing that, Bones. But…"

He lifted up the hand that wasn't clutching papers and measured it against his own.

"If you ever want to try something bigger, you can suck on mine. I'm sure it would be just as…ah…soothing. Perhaps even more so."

At his dissolution into giggles, Brennan's brow furrowed and she stopped, looking at him suspiciously.

"Wait, what?"

His laughter increased, making it difficult for him to get his next words out.

"I think it's a great idea. You will be nice and relaxed and I, well I'll be helping you, so we'll all be very happy. Just to warn you, though, it might take you a while to get your mouth around it."

He nodded pityingly at her, desperately trying to keep his giggles under wraps.

"It'll be a fair bit larger than what you're used to, I can tell you that. You poor thing, look at what you've had to make do with. It'll probably take a lot of practice. I'm sure if you keep trying though…"

At this point he couldn't go on, his overpowering laughter making speech completely impossible.

"What are you talking about?"

He raised his eyebrows, all innocence. Looking at her in a very significant way, he slowly moved his hands apart, palms facing inward, stopping them quite a distance apart, as though measuring something rather long. He cleared his throat, never allowing his gaze to waver from her own, and then moved his fingers in against their respective palms so that only his thumbs remained sticking out. He gave them a quick, playful wiggle.

"My thumb, Bones. Thumbs. Isn't that what we were talking about?"

Her frown deepened.

Suddenly I'm not so sure