A Boy From Philly
Part XXI
Booth knocked on Anne's hospital room door lightly. Nobody answered. He shook his head and turned the handle. Inside, the bed was made and everything was ready for a new patient to occupy it.
"Huh. She must've already checked out," he muttered.
"She's probably in your father's room."
"Yeah. Let's go upstairs."
They walked to the elevator and both reached for the button. Booth let Brennan press it in. They stood silently, waiting. The elevator doors opened and a few people came off and Brennan and booth entered. The doors slid closed and the elevator began to rise.
Booth finally turned and addressed the unspoken tension that had existed since they got into the SUV. "Look, Bones--" The elevator lights flickered. He paused, then continued. "About what happened--" The lights flickered, then shut off completely. The elevator stalled and the emergency backup lights lit up the elevator in a subdued glow. "What just happened?"
"I think the power just went out."
Booth shook his head and reached for the emergency phone. "Hospitals have backup power, Bones. This is mechanical." The phone rang a few times before it picked up.
"Security," was the answer.
"The elevator between the first and second floors is stalled." Booth held the phone to his head and looked over at Brennan whose arms were crossed and was leaning against the back of the elevator with her eyes gazing at the ceiling.
"OK. We'll get right on that." The man spoke as if he had food in his mouth.
"How long will that take?"
A sound of sipping. "Ah. Couple hours."
"And you can't speed that up?"
"Last time this happened they had to climb into the shaft and tinker with the mechanics of the thing."
"What if there was someone having a heart attack in here?"
"Is there?" He didn't sound worried in the least.
"No--"
"Two hours."
Booth shook his head in disbelief and hung the phone on its hook. "Looks like we'll be here for a while, Bones."
She tightened her bottom lip in acknowledgment, then slid to her bottom.
Booth walked over and sat down beside her. "What's going on, Bones?"
She was silent again. Booth could tell she was mulling something over in her mind. Then she turned toward him abruptly. "Do you mind if I address a few concerns?"
"Sure."
"What you said to me--"
"About love?" Booth began to feel worried.
Brennan smiled. "I wasn't going to say anything about that." The smile faded. "I think that... after what happened this morning--"
"Making love," Booth supplied. The words brought back heated memories.
"Yeah. Um... After we made love... You have the right to know something about me. Logically speaking, if we're going to become... intimate... then you ought to be forewarned. I'm a terrible girlfriend." The words were spoken so seriously that Booth almost began to laugh.
"Bones--"
"I'm being totally honest, Booth. The longest relationship I've ever had was with Sully. And you can see how that turned out."
"Bones, that wasn't your fault."
"I know that. I know that he sailed away, but he sailed away and I let him. And metaphorically speaking, I let every man before Sully and every man after Sully sail away." She shook her head. "I'm a saboteur. I tend to sabotage the relationships I'm in no matter how good or bad they are."
Booth didn't say anything at first. Then he spoke, "I think... that if Sully had stayed in DC then things would've been different, Bones. You might even have a couple of little Sullys running around by now. I'm glad he sailed away."
"There's more, Booth. Every relationship I've been involved with was doomed from the start. With Michael, he was my professor and the thing that made us hot for one another--competition--was the very thing that brought it to an end. Both times. And with David, I dated him even though I didn't know anything about him. And the next thing I knew, he was trying to get me to shave my head. Don't laugh, Booth. This is serious!"
Booth smothered the grin. "Sorry, Bones. Go on."
"When I was sixteen I dated a man named Eric. He was twenty-three and my foster mother's son-- There was the man who killed his brother, a married man who I dated in my twenties, and of course you know about Jason and Mark. I didn't want anything serious and of course the duel relationship went against societal norms and I never once felt special or... safe. And with Sully--I let him sail away because I didn't want--I knew I would miss you. And I was afraid of how serious it would become if I went with him. And now, with you-- We're partners. We're colleagues. It's against FBI rules and regulations for us to be in a relationship and yet we persist. What if that's the thing that triggers the surge of endorphins and seratonin that makes us want to tear each other's clothes off? Don't interrupt me. I'm afraid that when the fog settles, when we're back in DC and we have to face Cullen and Cam and real life, that we won't want each other and we'll be left sans partnership and sans friendship and sans relationship. I care for you deeply, Booth and I don't want to hurt you, but I'm afraid that it's an inevitabil--"
He kissed her, cutting off the speech she had so carefully prepared. It was a kiss full of bitter-sweet passion. When it broke, Booth held her face in his hand and looked into her eyes. "Would it calm your fears if I told you that I'm in love with you? I know it's a little early in a relationship to say that, and maybe it's a little cliche, but it's been five years, Bones. I've had five years to reach that conclusion. I'm committed to this. To us. I'll figure out how we can remain partners. Cam won't care--She's already asked me two or three times if we were together. Angela's blurted it a few times herself. I'm sure that once we get back, they'll shrug and say that it's about time. Bones... Everything is going to be OK. And I've got something the other guys don't have--"
"What?"
"Experience."
"Sexual experience? I don't see--"
"Bones, I mean with you. We've already been together for four years. I know what makes you tick. Sex and being able to tell you that I love you? That's just the icing on the cake. We're in this together, Bones. We always have been and always will be. We're partners."
Brennan nodded slowly, "Yes. We're partners."
Booth smiled and leaned back against the walls of the elevator again. "You know what, Bones? I can't wait for this vacation to end. Get back to a little bit of normalcy."
She turned her head and smiled at him."Where's a dead body when you need one?"
"Don't say that, Bones, you'll jinx us."
Brennan's grin turned playful. "If you're relying on superstition to avoid dead bodies, you shouldn't have gone to a hospital."
He wrapped his arm around her and squeezed her a little closer to him. "That's my girl." And then he kissed her forehead.
Thank you for all of the great responses!
I've written a couple of one-shots. They're on my profile. One is called "Toe-Curling" and the other is called "I'd Tap That"... they should make you smile. :D