A/N: Whoop whoop, we're in the twenties. =] Thank you to everyone who's been reviewing and to everyone who added to their favorites/alerts. It still makes me just as happy as it did when I first started writing.
Chapter Twenty-One:
"I'm So Far Beyond Okay"
Brennan was standing in the lab, but something was different about it. When she looked around, it wasn't buzzing with the noises of people speaking around her, and it wasn't bright and crowded. It was completely empty, only the bones of a murder victim laying on the table in front of her, clean and set in their places. She looked out the window to see it was dark outside.
"Cam?" She asked, her voice echoing through the empty lab, "Angela? Zack? Hodgins?"
She glanced down at the bones in front of her again, a puzzled look washing over her face when she saw how poorly it was assembled. The right tibia was where the left was supposed to be, and vice versa, along with other amateur mistakes.
"Who the hell put this body together?" She called out, her voice bouncing off the walls of the empty and eerily quiet lab, "it's done very poorly."
Brennan shook her head as she just put each bone in a box, which was very conveniently sitting next to her, and started over, knowing she could do this the correct way. Before long, she was lost in her work, effortlessly putting each bone in it's correct place after examining them. When she went to set the fibula down in it's place, she felt something ice cold press against her cheek, causing her to jump and drop the bone to the floor.
"What the," she touched her cheek, confused when nothing was there, but she could still feel the cold sensation, "you guys, this isn't funny. I'm trying to work."
She knew the team must have been playing some sort of prank on her, as she bent down and picked up the bone, ignoring the cold sensation on her cheek that just wasn't going away. It was only a few minutes later when a faint sound filled the lab, sounding as if it were underwater.
"Hello?" She asked, glancing around her, after she set an arm bone down, "Stop trying to distract me. This is a murder victim. He deserves some respect."
Instead of the sound stopping, it only grew louder, and more obnoxious, as Brennan scratched in irritation at the cold spot on her cheek to try and warm it up, while simultaneously trying to drown out the loud, obnoxious, buzzing sound that was filling the lab.
The chill of the lab turned to the warmth of bed sheets and the warm, living, body next to her, and the buzzing sound became more clear, and ten times more annoying. When her mind was back in reality, she found herself snuggled closely against Booth's warm body, her head resting on his chest, and his cold, metal, cross pressed against her cheek. All the confusion of the dream was gone, when she noticed the reality of what was going on.
"Mmm," Brennan groaned in irritation, feeling Booth shift slightly from under her, but not enough that she wasn't close to him anymore, "turn it off."
She gently pushed his necklace to the side as she buried her face back in his chest, feeling the occasional shift of his body, the obnoxious buzzing of the alarm clock not stopping.
"Booth," she complained, her words muffled by his skin, "turn it off."
"I'm trying," he chuckled softly, his voice making it clear to her that he woke up from the alarm clock as well, and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep.
Booth reached around on the night stand for a minute before his hand found the alarm clock and turned it off, causing the room to grow silent once again. Brennan shifted positions so she could peek up at him from where her head was resting, a small smile on her lips.
"What are you grinning at, bed head?" Booth smiled back down at her as he ran his fingers through her lightly tangled hair.
"You," she giggled, reaching up to brush her hand against his neck.
Crap, she thought, mentally scolding herself, Booth would be livid if he knew I was dreaming about dead bodies the night we finally made love.
Brennan scooted up slightly so her head was closer to the top of his chest, as she tilted it upwards to look into his eyes innocently.
"Are you okay, Bones?" He asked softly, his fingers tracing gently over her spine, his fingers feeling cool against the warm skin of her back.
Brennan's eyes lit up a little, knowing he was referring to the night prior with his question on how she was. Her eyes had a passionate fire behind them as she looked at him, grateful that he was so considerate of her. She knew he was asking because she had been so nervous the night before.
"I'm so far beyond okay," she promised, nuzzling gently back into his chest.
"Good," he whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to her hair.
"It felt like our first time," she admitted, looking up at him again as she ran her fingers absent mindedly over his torso, "it felt like my first time. I never knew sex could be that," she searched for the appropriate word, "soft."
"Soft?" He asked.
Brennan nodded.
"Gentle. Usually it's a lot of grabbing and pulling and scratching, but that, it was just, gentle. No urgency. No lust. Just, love. I've never felt so safe during intercourse."
"So I'm taking it you're convinced?" Booth had a small smirk on his face now.
"Relish this moment where you proved me wrong, because it's the last time it will ever happen. Love making is much, much, better than sex. Although, if my first love making experience had been with someone else, it may not have been as satisfying."
"You can't just let me have my moment, can you?"
"Nope. I'm the intelligent one, you're the social one. That's how it's going to stay."
"Still the same pain in the ass Bones I've always known," Booth poked her side, causing her to twitch and slap him playfully in the chest, "glad to know that sharing my expertise with you hasn't turned you into some mushy-gushy hopeless romantic."
"Mushy-gushy?" She questioned his choice in words, "How old are you?"
"Depends on who's asking," he had a cocky smirk on his face.
"You're horrible," she shook her head, but couldn't help but smile.
"Am I going to have to get the handcuffs? Because I will."
"Are you trying to roleplay with me, Mr. Booth? Because correct me if I'm wrong, but I clearly remember you saying that roleplaying is equivalent to crappy sex."
"It's not roleplaying when you really are an FBI agent," he had the same cocky smirk he had a couple minutes prior, plastered onto his face.
Brennan's smile faded at the mention of work, as her fingers ran up and down his chest.
"I don't want to go to work," she complained.
"Neither do I," he agreed, "but what we do is important."
"I know," Brennan whispered, pressing her palm flat against his chest, "but it's nice to be laying here in bed with someone who's actually alive, as opposed to going to work and seeing the horrible things that people do to other people. These people who are murdered, they're human beings, just like me and you. They lay in bed with the person they love, just like this, leave the house, and never return. I can't imagine what that's like. One minute you're here living, breathing, and the next minute, you're not."
"But that's why our jobs are so important, Bones. Because we catch the people who kill other human beings and give the victims justice."
"Justice is barely meaningful once your life has already been taken. I wish we could just stop murders from happening in the first place. The life of someone innocent was already taken. Putting their murderer behind bars isn't going to give them the life they should have been living back. And it's not fair, that these monsters get to continue living, even if it is in jail."
"We do stop murders. We save the person's next victim. Doesn't that count for anything?"
Brennan shook her head as she scooted up to nuzzle gently into his neck.
"Murders are never going to stop, Booth," she whispered, "no matter what we do."
"I know, Bones," he whispered back, running his fingers comfortingly through her hair, "but we try, and that's all we can do."
Brennan sighed, comforted by his scent and the warm skin of his neck that was pressed up against her cheek, as she trailed her fingers over his chest, barely grazing his skin with the tips of her fingers when she did so.
"Don't you ever leave me, Seeley Booth," she whispered, the desperation in her voice apparent, as she buried her face back in his neck, "promise you'll never leave me."
"I couldn't," he said, honestly, "not even if I wanted to."
Brennan looked up at him, before touching the side of his face gently and guiding his lips down to hers, feeling her heart rate increase the moment their lips connected. There was nothing rushed in their kiss, as Booth tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, and Brennan caressed the side of his face gently with the tips of her fingers. For once, she wasn't thinking, just letting herself get carried away in the kiss, until that dreaded noise filled her ears. The sound of Booth's cell phone. Brennan leaned forward when he started to pull away, keeping their lips touching for as long as she could before he was completely pulled back, looking at her apologetically.
"Booth," he answered his phone, trying his best to contain himself when Brennan pressed a wet, open-mouthed, kiss to his chest, slowly making her way down to his stomach.
I can't imagine this ending well, he thought, as he tried his best to focus on the voice on the other end of the phone, but was putting more of his focus on Brennan and holding back his groans, God, she's going to be the death of me.
Brennan could feel his heart pounding when she kissed the center of his chest, taking a minute to just breathe teasingly on the wet mark. Booth pressed the phone to his shoulder to make sure the groan that escaped his lips wasn't audible to the man on the other line.
"God, Bones," he breathed, before pressing the phone back to his ear, "Yeah, yeah, I'm still here."
Brennan blushed and pulled the covers over her head as she kissed softly over his rib cage, able to feel his breathing speed up when she did. By the time he hung up the phone, her lips were at his naval, still kissing when she heard the phone flip shut.
"Bones," Booth said, in a hoarse voice, trying to grab her attention.
"I'm busy," she breathed against his skin.
Focus, Booth, focus, he mentally reminded himself, when he felt himself start to lose his train of thought, Case. Work. Murder. Oh, God, that feels good.
"Bones, we have a case," he managed, causing her to stop.
Brennan's kisses to his toned stomach came to a screeching halt when the last five words she wanted to hear at that moment left his mouth. She scooted back up, popping her head back out from under the covers as she looked at him, able to see the blush that remained on his cheeks.
"You're serious," she muttered, when she studied the look on his face.
"Sorry," Booth tried, flashing her a half a smile.
Damn, he thought to himself, now I need a cold shower.
Brennan groaned in frustration as she rolled away from his body for the first time that morning, onto her back on the other side of the bed, as she covered her face with her hands. The sudden disconnection from his warm skin made the room feel cold to her, even under the covers.
"Come on, chin up, Bones," he chuckled, as he got out of bed and threw on something quickly just so he could go get her bag for her before he actually started to get ready for work, "you should be happy. You get to do your favorite thing in the world. Play with dead things."
"It's not funny," she mumbled, feeling honestly annoyed by the whole situation.
"My joke wasn't funny, or the fact that we were interrupted?" He asked.
"Both," Brennan assured him.
"Bones, quit being dramatic and get in the shower," he laughed softly at her.
Once he left the room, Brennan slipped out of bed and went into the bathroom, turning the water on in the shower and brushing her teeth while she let it warm up. She went to get into the shower, but instead, wrapped the towel around her and went back into his bedroom, sitting on the bed. When Booth came back inside with her bag, he gave her a curious look.
"What are you still doing in here? You're running up my water bill."
"I'm waiting for you," she gave him a small, seductive, smile.
"Bones," Booth chuckled, running his hands through his hair, "you're killing me."
Brennan stood up and made her way over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"I'm not getting in the shower until you agree to join me," she told him, still smiling, "and if you're so worried about your water bill, then this is a valid solution. We'd be conserving water and keeping your water bill down. It's a genius plan."
"Proposed by a genius," he reminded her, a small smile playing at his lips.
Brennan nodded in agreement and moved one of her arms from around his neck so she could take his hand, pulling him towards the bathroom. Without any further resistance, he went with her, figuring no harm could come in spending some quality time with his Bones.
(line break)
Brennan was running a towel through her hair as she sat back on his bed, the bra and panties she packed already on as she tried to dry her hair as quick as possible. Booth was brushing his teeth, a towel still wrapped around his waist as he joined her back in his bedroom, smiling at her as much as he could with the toothbrush in his mouth.
"Don't smile while you're brushing your teeth," Brennan laughed lightly, "you're going to dribble toothpaste all over your freshly washed chest."
"Then we'd just have to re-wash it," he suggested, his words muffled by the toothbrush.
"I don't think we have time for that," she rolled her eyes playfully as he disappeared back into the bathroom to spit the toothpaste out and rinse.
Brennan stood up and went to his dresser, looking through his collection of ties as he finished with mouthwash in the bathroom. When she found one she liked, she pulled it out and laid it on the bed. She smiled when he came back into the room, and picked up the tie again, holding it out to him.
"I picked out your tie," she informed him, "wear this one."
"Why? What did you do to it?" was his immediate reaction.
"Nothing," she promised, "I just like it."
"I'm going to trust that if I put this on it won't like, turn me into a squint or something."
Ignoring him, Brennan dug around in her bag for a few minutes before she pulled out her clothes and tossed them lazily onto the bed, seeing that he already had his boxers and his shirt on, even though it was still unbuttoned. She quicky grabbed the front of his shirt before he could, and started to button it up.
"So now you pick out my clothes and dress me, mom?" He laughed softly.
"I'm being affectionate," she informed him, running her hands over the front of his shirt once it was buttoned up, "and if I was your mother, last night would have been illegal. Would you like it if your mother touched you the way I did when-"
"Okay, Bones, that's enough," he held up his hand to stop her, not sure why she always had to cross that line between joking and gross, "you know, it's sad that when dead bodies don't kill the mood, you still find a way to kill it yourself."
"It was a simple question," she said, not seeing anything wrong with what she said.
"It's the mental image," he informed her, pulling his pants on once she was finished with his shirt "just, don't, Bones. The only person I want touching me the way you did, is you."
"Good," she flashed him a satisfied smile as she slipped her shirt over her shoulders, going to start on the buttons before he mirrored her actions, by stopping her and doing them up himself, caressing her waist softly when he finished.
Brennan quickly slid her skirt on as Booth tied his tie with ease, slipping his jacket on a few seconds afterwards while she threw her hair up into a ponytail.
"Come on, chop, chop, lets go," he hurried her, clapping his hands at her as she slid her heels on.
Brennan resisted rubbing her tired eyes, since she just put make up on, and covered her mouth instead so she could yawn, as she attempted to keep up with him while he walked hastily outside and to the car.
"Booth?" She asked, as she opened the passenger side door to his SUV.
"Mhm?" he responded, putting the key in the ignition as the car purred to life.
"Can we stop and get coffee on the way to the crime scene?"
"Sure, Bones. I don't think the dead guy will mind. And by the way, try not to glow so much when you get to the lab."
"Glow?" She questioned.
"Yeah, glow," he responded, "you have that kind of sexual afterglow."
"I don't know what that means."
"In simple terms, it's obvious that you had sex last night. And not just sex. Great sex."
"What are you Angela now? You only think you see a 'glow' because you're aware that I had great sex last night."
"It was pretty great, wasn't it?" Booth had a cocky smile back on his face as he drove
"Yes, it was," Brennan mumbled, before turning to watch the scenery pass by from her window.