Disclaimer: I don't own Bones

Chapter 14

Cor ad cor loquitur - Heart speaks to heart

It was 3:23 according to the flashing neon light of the alarm clock currently sat on Temperance Brennan's bedside table... but she was wide awake. She'd managed a few hours sleep but an early night combined with her unease over her fight with Booth had woken her and kept her awake for almost two hours now. She finally gave up and sat up in bed, pushing herself back and leaning against her pillows. She was confused. That was the only word for it. She was confused about how she felt and why. Why did hit bother her so much that they'd fought? Sure they were friends but primarily they were work colleagues. If she'd fallen out with Hodgins or Zach or maybe even Angela it wouldn't bother her like this so why was Booth different?

He had started the argument and yet she felt responsible. Maybe if she'd worked harder, maybe if she'd just looked at the body again, maybe if she'd identified they correctly to start with...maybe...maybe. Maybe then Booth wouldn't have been so pig-headed and it would be him laid in her warm bed instead of her and she'd be the one spending a night on her sofa...

Booth gave up. At this rate he was never getting to sleep. He flung of the blanket that had been half heartedly covering him and tuned to sit squarely on the couch. He knew it was his fault he couldn't sleep. He'd shouted at her and now he was paying the price. He knew he'd been in the wrong for demanding she take another look at Freya Wilson's body. That was her part of the job, it wasn't his place to correct her on things he knew absolutely nothing about. He had complete faith in her to do her job correctly so why had he attacked her like he had?

He knew perfectly well why. He'd had a bad day and she was an easy target. As poor an excuse as it was, it was the truth. The real question was why hadn't he, apologized once he'd realized his mistakes and probably more importantly why, when it had hurt his heart to hear her sobbing, had he not rushed to comfort her?

The situation was ridiculous, stupid even and she hated being stupid. She pushed her legs out of bed and ignored the rush of cold air that seemed to descend on her bare feet before she slipped on her slippers. She pushed last minute hesitations aside and opened her bedroom door, wondering only briefly whether he would even be awake.

He heard her before he saw her, or more precisely her heard her door. The gentle click of the lock and the quiet squeak as the door moved swiftly across its hinges. He didn't turn, he daren't turn but he felt her eyes staring into him and wondered what he could say that would make the situation better.

She stopped suddenly, catching her breath as she saw him hunched over on the sofa, his head in his hands, pale moonlight skimming across his naked back. She shook her head and padded across the room before settling next to him on he sofa, careful not to touch him. He still didn't look at her.

He stared through his fingers at the cream carpet and glanced over to where her feet sat covered in pink slippers adorned in some kind of penguin motif. He smiled slightly and finally sat up, looking straight at her, her oceanic eyes boring into him until he thought he would drown as the sight, sound and scent of her pooled around him. Then she said the two words he was least expecting to hear.

'I'm sorry.'

He was the one in the wrong, why was she apologizing? She tried to never say sorry, why was she offering the words so freely in this instance?

'Why are you sorry? It was me that shouted at you.'

'Yeah but I must have done something...something to make you shout so I'm sorry.'

That's when he saw her, really saw her. He looked at her whole face and drank her in. She looked so vulnerable, so insecure that he was almost afraid. She was never one for acting like this, never one to show this side of her nature.

'Oh God Temperance I'm the one that should be saying sorry. I shouldn't't have shouted, I was being an idiot. I know four days isn't enough, we'll probably be weeks on the stupid case but I was irritated, yesterday I felt so useless so powerless that I just...'

'You needed to let it out and I was he one closest at the time.'

'Exactly, it wasn't personal, I'm not mad at you in fact I couldn't't be more grateful. You've done so much already for this case and you were right I did agree with you that it was Tiffany. When you showed me the pictures I was so sure it was her and I was angry with myself when I was wrong. Believe me Temperance I was never angry at you, not really.'

She counted. Twice. Twice he had used her real name in the last five minutes and both times it had had the same effect. Her knees had gone week making her glad she was sitting down and a wave of heat had passed through her body from top to bottom. These feelings weren't as confusing as they could have been, she'd had them before but never like this and never with Seeley.

'It's late.'

'Yeah we should probably get some sleep.'

He stood up and walked to the window, obviously ignoring his own advice. She stood too, attempting to move towards her bedroom but pausing as she stepped past the coffee table.

'I'm glad I said sorry Booth even if you didn't need to hear it.'

It was the simplest of statements but her voice said so much more and Booth couldn't't let the opportunity slip away from him. He turned quickly coming to stand in front of her.

'Temperance, just tell me one thing. Why are you still awake?'

He thought he knew the answer and believed it to be the same reason he was awake but he needed to hear it, needed to feel the words drop from her lips. She looked stunned and stumbled over her words before finally looking up at him, her piercing blue eyes burrowing into the very depths of his soul.

'Because...because...because I couldn't't sleep thinking we weren't OK. I couldn't't sleep thinking you had a bad opinion of me or were mad at me and I didn't't care who started it I wanted to end it. I wanted to stop feeling bad because I'd shouted at you. I wanted it to go away.'

'What, what did you want to go away?'

Her next answer was a whisper.

'The hurt and the regret. Regret that if that was the last time we ever spoke it would have ended badly and that there would have been so many things left unsaid, so much we havent talked about.'

'Like what? What's left unsaid? What don't we talk about?'

She looked up at him and knew he felt it too, knew what he wanted her to say. The air was thick with the weight of unspoken words, both waiting for the other to say it. In the end she was the one that caved.

'The things we never talk about, the things we avoid. This 'thing' we've been avoiding for the last six months. Us, Seeley, that's what we don't talk about. We never talk about us or the way we feel, the way we're more than just friends. We just go on day by day and pretend it isn't't there, just waiting until one of us is brave enough to say something.'

He was in shock. He wanted this from her but when he imagined this moment it was always him saying the words currently coming from her mouth, him convincing her. Her eyes were wet with tears but still focused on him. If she looked away now she was scared she'd never look back. She was scared she'd already gone too far and ruined everything. When she spoke again her voice was barely audible.

'We never talk about what it could be like and I'm so scared of what we could lose but then I look at you, and I remember all we've been through together and that reminds me of all we could gain. I know I'm not perfect Seeley, I don't exactly have the best track record with men but this is different this is...'

She couldn't't speak anymore but it wasn't't because she had nothing else to say it was because Seeley Booths lips were now placed firmly over hers. The shock she first felt quickly faded and she surrendered to the kiss, looping her arms around his neck and stumbling back until they were both haphazardly sprawled across the sofa. She was crying still but she didn't't know why and both partners ignored both her tears and the gentle patter of rain on the window as the kiss came to their natural conclusion and they parted, both settling down in each others arms. Tomorrow would be the time for questioning whether their new development was a good one but for now for one Temperance Brennan and her FBI partner Seeley Booth it was just another long night curled together asleep on the couch.