Thank you all for your lovely reviews and alerts and of course, your patience. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
I hope you all will check out my new book Double Trouble, the sequel to Becky's Last Chance. If you have already I'd love it if you could leave me some reviews on Amazon Kindle and Blushing Books. Thanks :)
Chapter 25
"I was wondering." Booth said as he drove through the quiet streets towards their home. The boys were both snoring quietly from the back seat. That in itself was an unusual occurrence, as strange as the whole day had been.
"Yes Booth?" she asked.
"I saw the twinkle in your eye back there tonight Bones. I think you might have been enjoying my embarrassment a little more than was necessary don't you?"
"Oh? You were embarrassed?" she asked with a slightly crooked smile. "What about?"
"You know what about." he said with a grin. "You were enjoying the fact that Ang was mad at me because she thought I'd hurt you."
"Oooh." she said with a smile. "I don't know what you mean."
"Yes you do Bones." he said. She was soo full of it today. "I just saw it again."
"Saw what Booth?"
"The twinkle." That look in your eye that tells me you have a lot more of a clue at what's going on around you than you like to let on, he thought.
"I don't know what you mean Booth. And a twinkle would probably have a physical cause, perhaps moisture or something. AND, it isn't possible for me to see a supposed twinkle in my eye myself unless I had a mirror which I don't. Except for the rear mirror." She said pointing to the mirror attached to the car's windscreen. "But you've forbidden me from using that."
"Now forbid is a BIG word Bones, which you have used on more than one occasion tonight."
BONESBONESBONESBONESBONES
"You told me that I was NEVER to turn the mirror around again while you were driving." She had been trying to fix her makeup on the way to some FBI dinner when they'd been running late from a crime scene. It wasn't her fault someone had almost cut them off and Booth hadn't seen them coming.
"I needed the mirror to see the cars behind us Bones, more than you needed it to check your make up or your hair AND I never forbid you."
"You said NEVER Booth. The definition of forbid is to command someone to not do something. When you tell someone to never do something again you ARE FORBIDDING them form doing said thing." Bones had to try extra hard to stop a giant smile from creeping onto her face. She loved playing with Booth. His brow furrows and she could almost see his temperature rising. She'd just bet that if she placed her hand on his heart she would feel it thumping.
"Uh huh. I put it to you Bones that you were amused back at Jack and Angela's and you STILL are!" he said emphatically.
"At what Booth?" she asked innocently.
Booth narrowed his eyes. "Ok Temperance whatever you say." he said with his own grin, knowing it would get under her skin.
Bones amusement flickered a little. Had she gone too far? Was he really upset with her? "Don't call me that Booth." she said.
"Sorry?" Booth answered. Now it was HIS turn to play innocent. "Call you what?"
"Temperance." she said.
"But it's your name." he said.
"I know but I like it when you call me Bones." It was his name for her and it symbolised everything about them. She didn't want to go back to the beginning. She liked where they were now.
"That's not what you used to say. You used to say 'don't call me that!'." he mimicked.
Bones smiled, realising he wasn't serious. "You're teasing me." she said.
Booth took her hand. "Yes Bones I'm teasing you and I KNOW when you're teasing me...so knock it off."
"Are you forbidding me?" She couldn't resist a final dig.
"I might, if you keep it up."
Bones chuckled and tried to ignore the fact that heat was creeping up her neck and flooding her face, and it wasn't from embarrassment. There was something about Booth and that tone he used that really got to her.
"What?"
"Nothing. You really are funny when you're being all bossy."
"I'm not bossy." he said.
"Yes you are but I understand."
"You understand what Bones?"
"That you...are... the alpha male. You're that person, our person. The one that's always there for us. We can depend on you. I can depend on you. So I accept that your are the alpha male."
"Wow, thanks Bones."
"You're welcome." she said.
"We've come along way Bones." he said, staring out the window and reflecting on the past.
"From Angela's?"
"We've evolved, our relationship has evolved."
"Yes it has. A little." Bones said.
"A lot." Booth said.
"Remember when you tricked me at the airport when I was coming back for Guatamala?"
"I wouldn't say I tricked you Bones."
"You had me arrested and held by Homeland Security so that they would turn me over to you."
"Geez, I picked you up at the airport Bones and as I recall, you hated being called Bones back then." he said. "See evolvement."
"Yes that's true." she conceded. "But you did so to make me work with you on the cases."
"That's also true Bones. THAT's how we ended up together."
"Maybe."
"Maybe?" he said with a giant grin. "So are you saying now that we were meant to be together? Do you believe in fate now?"
"I believe that we're happy being together."
"We are Bones." he said contentedly. Booth's eyes flicked over to the glove compartment. Could it be? He'd been waiting a long time. He'd been so close at different times and then the moment had passed or been shot down by one of Bones' attacks of the Brennan variety of reasoning. His biggest fear was that if he chose the wrong moment, his chance would be lost forever. A little testing of the waters possibly?
"You used to say that didn't believe in marriage Bones." He said matter of factly.
"I did." she said without giving too much away.
It was like pulling teeth sometimes, Booth thought. "You used to say, that no one could guarantee how they are likely to feel about someone for life." he said. "Do you still feel the same way? Do you still think we're not a monogamous species Bones?"
"Do you still think that love is transcendent and eternal?" she asked.
"Of course!" he answered with absolute sincerity. "Do you? And you didn't answer my last question."
Bones sighed. They'd had this discussion so many times but she had to think to make sure that she got her wording right. "I believe that there are no words to explain the way I feel about you. The depth of feeling that I have for you is more than anything I have ever felt for anyone."
"That's what love is Bones."
"Then... I suppose that I must love you." she said. "I don't think this feeling will EVER go away Booth, because it only gets stronger every day. I don't ever think about being with another man. I only want you."
Booth could hardly see the road for the tears that ran down his cheeks. He swerved the car to the side of the road and stopped. He jumped out and ran around to Bones side and flung open her door and then the glove compartment.
"What're you doing Booth?" Bones asked with a chuckle.
"Seizing the day Bones!" he said happily as he found what he'd been looking for. He grasped the small velvet box and dropped to one knee by the side of the road. "Bones. Will you marry me?" he asked.
Bones looked into those brown eyes, the kindest and most sincere eyes she had ever seen in her life and she smiled.
"Yes." she said. "I will marry you Seeley Booth."
TBC