A/N: Just a slight warning - there's a very light M rated scene at the end. I didn't change the story rating because it's not graphic like the other M rated stories on this site. I just wanted to mention it for those of you who aren't into that sort of a thing at all.
Disclaimer: Hart Hanson owns Bones, not me.
August 18, 1988
"Hey, what the hell are you doing here!?"
All three of them turned around to see an enraged Pops standing at the entrance of the living room, his face an alarming shade of magenta and his fists clenched his sides.
Edwin seemed to freeze at the sight of his father, and he gaped speechlessly, drunkenly, at Pops as though he wasn't sure if Pops was real or a hallucination. "Dad?" he uttered when Pops repeated his question once more.
"Get the hell away from them," Pops growled, storming forward quickly. He fisted the material of Edwin's shirt, yanking him backwards without any difficulty at all, dragging him away from Booth and Temperance.
Edwin staggered when Pops released his shirt, unsteady on his feet. "I wasn't hurting 'em," he tried to fib. Of course, the evidence of his assault was right in front of him. "I just need some cash."
Pops shook his head. "I'm not gonna encourage your sickness, Edwin," he scolded harshly. "And I'm not gonna let Lydia do that, either. You'd better get on out of here, son," he advised Edwin, his tone deceptively calm.
Edwin's demeanor seemed to change right before their very eyes. The arrogant, demanding exterior deteriorated until he just seemed haggard, defeated. He ran a hand through his dark hair roughly, making it stick out in all directions, and his face looked as though he'd aged ten years in the past few minutes.
When he spoke again, his voice broke in several different places. "Please…I just need…"
Pops shook his head, his anger diminishing just the slightest though he continued to glare at Edwin as he said, "Edwin, I need you to leave, alright? You can't do this here. I won't allow it."
"I never meant to hurt anyone," his voice was pleading as he repeated himself.
Temperance scowled. "That's not true at all," she blurted out unthinkingly. "He's lying!"
"Bones," Booth hissed. She had a tendency to have an unfiltered mouth - she rarely ever kept herself from speaking the truth, no matter how harsh it was and no matter how inappropriate it was.
Temperance shot him a brief, sideways glance. "Well, it's true," she defended herself. "He wouldn't stop hitting you. He meant to hurt you."
Booth winced.
He knew this, of course. He had long ago stopped giving his father excuses in his mind. That part was mostly his mother's doing when she was still around. Booth had pretty much started resenting those excuses years ago. He'd especially hated it that last night his mother had been in his life, when Edwin had thrown her down the stairs for daring to intercede when he had taken a belt to Booth's back for not ensuring Jared had cleaned up the dishes in time.
That didn't mean, however, that knowing his father had no qualms about hurting him made it easier somehow to accept the fact that he obviously meant so little to the older man.
Pops shot a look at the trembling girl, fear and fierce protectiveness the most prominent emotions in her vivid eyes while her lips were pulled into a scowl. She was still gripping the baseball bat tightly, as though she was prepared to give it another swing if Edwin took a step closer to her and Booth.
Shaking his head slightly at the idea of a scrawny fourteen year old girl defending her older boyfriend against a bigger and stronger man, Pops turned back to face Edwin.
"I'm in trouble, dad," Edwin was saying, pleading. "You could help me…Just lend me a couple hundred, dad. Come on…Have a little heart."
Booth was unable to help himself from snorting derisively. "Yeah, because you had so much heart to give to us," he commented sarcastically.
Edwin's almost coal black eyes flared dangerously. He lunged forward at the same time that Temperance's eyes widened, bat raised above her head and a scream of terror escaping her lips as she swung. The bat didn't connect with Edwin at all since Pops gripped his shoulder tightly and pulled him backwards just in time.
"Get out," Pops growled out firmly. "Get out right now, Edwin. I mean it. I don't want you here."
Booth and Temperance watched, wide eyed and hearts racing wildly, as Pops led Edwin out of the front door none too gently.
Pops made sure to escort Edwin all the way out of the gates of the beach house and was even generous enough to find him a cab, simply as a way to ensure that he would really be gone and wouldn't just stick around nearby.
Once he'd hailed a cab and had gotten the fairly drunk man into the backseat, he leaned down so that he could speak to Edwin and maintain eye contact.
"I don't want you to come back, Edwin," his voice was low and threatening, and though it broke his heart so badly to practically banish his own son from his life, he had to for the sakes of Booth, Jared and Temperance. He couldn't risk the three of them being around Edwin; not as long as he couldn't kick the habit. "Not here and not to Chicago. Unless you can clean up your act and get some help, you stay away, you hear me? I'm going to report you to the authorities the next time you pull a stunt like this."
Edwin sneered at Pops. "You wouldn't," he said, confident in his words. "You couldn't – or you'd have done it before."
Pops shook his head, his expression solemn, his eyes fiery. "You don't know the lengths I'd go to protect them, Edwin," he promised. "The way you should have protected them."
He leaned his upper body into the cab, reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of crumpled twenties, tossing them in the cab driver's lap. "Take him as far as this covers the fee," he instructed the driver who nodded with a half-smile.
Pops pulled out of the cab, not missing the appraising look Edwin shot at his wallet, and shut the door with a loud slam. He stood there, watching as the cab drove off until it wasn't even visible anymore.
Once he was sure Edwin was gone, Pops let his head drop, squeezing his eyes shut and covering them with his hand. He had never felt more like an old man than he did at that moment.
He allowed himself to wonder, even for one brief moment, what he had ever done in his life that was so horrible that he had to be punished in the form of having to go through something as horrid as kicking out his own son not once but twice in just a few years.
His moment of self-pity and misery was cut short when a car drove by, the loud engine startling him. Shaking himself out of it, Pops reminded himself that he couldn't break down. He had to be the strong, stable one.
He knew Booth and Jared – if he had been present though Pops hadn't seen him anywhere when he'd returned to the house earlier – were probably traumatized by the incident. Temperance, too, would've had a scare due to her own abusive past and having to suddenly deal with such a violent encounter with a stranger.
As he walked back towards the gates of the house, Pops winced. God, Temperance, he thought to himself. I hope Ms. Briggs doesn't think our family life is too unstable for her or something. He could only imagine what the social worker would say if she ever found out about the incident.
Catching himself, Pops rolled his eyes. It seemed that, lately, what with all the secrecy that had been going on, he himself had been prone to making decisions about keeping certain things undisclosed to others as long as these secrets weren't hurting anyone.
He re-entered the house, finding Booth and Temperance in the living room. This time, Jared was with them, looking angry and roughened up just the same.
Booth was seated on the arm of the two-seater, and Temperance was standing in between his legs. Their attention were both directed solely on each other though Jared had an ice pack placed to his cut lip that he figured one of the two had gotten for him.
Pops stood silently for a moment, watching as Temperance and Booth both assessed each other's injuries, hands roving tenderly in an attempt to soothe pain. Temperance even had a wet cloth in her hands, slowly and gently cleaning off the blood from his face.
Shaking his head, Pops cleared his throat to gain their attention. "How are you guys doing?" he asked, stepping forward into the room.
Temperance's head snapped up and she looked over her shoulder at him. "I'm fine," she replied, her attention diverted back to Booth. "Jared's got a split lip and a bruised cheek. I think Booth needs to go to the hospital."
Booth glared at Temperance. "I don't need to go to the hospital," he argued. "I'm fine."
As a contradiction to his statement, he winced and hissed in pain when she pressed another ice pack to his swollen eye. She raised her eyebrow, giving him a knowing look.
"I agree with Temperance," Pops said, much to Booth's chagrin. "We're all going. Right now."
Jared started to shake his head. "I'm not even really hurt," he pointed out. "Seeley told me to hide upstairs like I'm some sort of a weenie kid."
Booth's head swung around in Jared's direction too quickly, causing another jolt of pain to rip through his upper body, "I was trying to protect you."
"I don't need you to protect me," Jared seemed far too angry, something that didn't happen the last time around Edwin was in his life.
Booth remembered him being fearful and always asking questions when he was younger, wondering why Edwin was the way he was and why their mother didn't just take them away so they wouldn't have to deal with the abuse and the drinking anymore. Anger, however, hadn't been a part of his reaction, even when their mother had left them in their father's less than capable care.
Jared had been the sad kid, lost without their mother. Booth remembered him crying himself to sleep for weeks until Edwin had beaten him bloody and told him never to cry over their mother again. After Edwin's abrupt disappearance a year later, Jared had become strangely dependent on Pops for the longest time. Understandably, of course, since he had been only a child when all of this happened. Even now, he was barely twelve years old.
Booth was the moody, depressed kid who got all angry about their family issues so he wasn't really sure what to make of Jared's new attitude.
Pops will figure it out, Booth sighed wearily. I can't deal with this right now.
He'll, of course, keep a lookout for Jared - a job requirement as a good big brother - but he himself felt pretty shaken up at the moment. Besides, if there was anyone who could help Jared through whatever angst he was feeling, Booth knew by experience that Pops was the best candidate.
The trip to the hospital was much too eventful for the three of them, especially when they'd gone through something so emotionally exhausting and physically draining.
Pops had to do everything he could, pulling out all stops to make sure that the physician who attended to the three kids wasn't suspicious, citing a fight with other teenagers around their age had caused their injuries.
The last thing they needed was for the doctor to report abuse to the cops - opening an investigation would probably just take Temperance away from their family and that wasn't something desirable at all.
Once they made sure that Booth - who had the most extensive injuries out of the three - had no internal injuries, they headed out of the hospital, all four of them silent.
Temperance kept sneaking looks at Booth, Pops and Jared. It was strange how similar they looked, a frown on their lips, their faces drawn and their eyes dark and pained. It hurt her to see them like that, especially when she considered them family, but it hurt her the most to see Booth so withdrawn.
Their hands were joined, fingers interlaced in between them as they walked towards Debbie's car that Pops had borrowed, and she gave his hand a squeeze in a silent show of support. In what seemed to be the first sign of life from him in close to two hours, Booth took in a deep, haggard breath of air and turned to give her the smallest hint of a forced smile.
The brief moment passed and he was back to being withdrawn all over again.
Dinner was a tense affair. No one spoke much, and with Debbie gone together with Lydia for the conference in New York City, and things were so uncomfortable that Temperance sat with her spine ramrod stiff the entire time.
Booth mainly stared at his plate, poking at his mashed potatoes sullenly. Unable to control his emotions as much as he'd like to, he had the suffocating feeling that the depression he'd felt before was starting to slowly creep in. He was afraid that he was going to find himself drowning in it, getting so overwhelmed, with no lifeline to speak of.
Jared, on the other hand, couldn't explain the anger he felt bubbling underneath the surface. Ever since that first blow earlier in the day, he had been oddly furious at pretty much everything. He couldn't even give a reason for that anger to himself but everything and everyone around him seemed to piss him off immensely.
Pops lifted his head for a brief moment to shoot his grandsons concerned looks, and ended up catching Temperance's eye. She, too, wore a heavy look of apprehension as she breathed in the tense atmosphere in the air.
Sighing heavily, he lowered his head once more. "Could you pass the gravy?" he asked gruffly after a few more long minutes of unbearable silence.
No one moved from their seats to get it. Several seconds passed before Temperance lowered her fork onto the side of her plate. "I'll, uh…" she trailed off, moving to stand up.
Booth cut her off before she could fully stand up. "No, Bones, sit back down," he urged her quietly, dark brown eyes giving her an assuring look. She slowly sank back down into her seat, watching the two brothers with wary eyes as Booth half-turned his head in Jared's direction. "The gravy's right next to you, Jared. Pass it here."
Jared remained silent, though he did scowl angrily at Booth. "Don't boss me around, Seeley," he snapped. "You're not dad."
Booth raised an eyebrow as they stared at one another. What the hell? Booth thought to himself. Where the hell did that come from? "I wasn't trying to be dad, Jared," he snarked. "I just asked you for a favor."
Jared fell silent again, shrugging noncommittally as his gaze dropped back to his plate of food. He repeatedly stabbed at his steak with his knife, seemingly intent to turn the tenderloin into mush if that was possible.
Booth, exhaling loudly and muttering underneath his breath, scraped his chair back with a loud screech and stood, leaning over Jared to grab the gravy bowl. Plopping back down on his chair, he all but slammed the bowl in between Pops and Temperance. "Help yourself," he growled, going so red in the face that the tips of his ears felt like they were burning.
Things went eerily quiet for the next few moments, none of them moving or touching their food.
All of a sudden, Jared broke the silence, his voice frustrated as he snapped his head around to Booth, "You know, I'm not a kid. I can handle myself."
Booth was torn between being defensive about whatever it was that Jared was accusing him of and being confused because he had no idea what it was in the first place. "I never said you were," he pointed out.
"No, but you think it," Jared argued. "I know you do. You never would've sent me up to my room when dad was here unless you thought I was too much of a scared little kid to handle the situation."
Booth gaped at his younger brother for a good few seconds. "Jared, this argument isn't even making any sense," he gritted out exasperatedly. "I did what I had to do to protect you and now you're angry with me for it?"
Jared nodded. "That's right - I am," he agreed. "And what about dad, huh?"
"What about him?" Booth asked in a tone that suggested Jared was walking on very thin ice.
"He was in trouble," Jared said definitively, as though he knew exactly what was going on in Edwin's life. "He needed our help and you just told him to get out."
This was directed to not only Booth, but to Pops as well. Jared had snuck back downstairs, and had been there to witness Pops' encounter with Edwin after he had calmed himself down enough - right before that, he had been, to his utter embarrassment, crying up in his room. It was something he'd never admit or talk about with anyone, and something he wished he could erase.
Just once, he wished he could have been the stronger one.
Pops, who had allowed the two of them to 'talk' not-so-calmly for the past few minutes, decided to step in. After all, he too had asked Edwin to leave. He shared the so-called blame. "Now, wait just a minute, son," he started gently.
Jared interrupted him, shaking his head. "You know, dad could've been in deep trouble, Seeley," he said in a disapproving tone. "Just because he was a little unsteady on his feet-"
"Jared, he was drunk," Booth pointed out, annoyed. "He just came here to try and scam Aunt Lydia for cash so he could feed his sick ha-"
"He asked for help," Jared countered immediately, speaking over Booth's words, his voice rising an octave or two. "You don't know why he needed help. You don't know it's something more."
But Booth was shaking his head. "If he really wanted the kind of help you're wishing he's asking for," he sounded condescending enough to make Jared's entire face flush in anger. "He wouldn't have come here drunk like that, Jar."
"Why are you so intent on making him out to be the bad guy!?" Jared, to his mortification, had tears swimming in his eyes now. "Why do you have to just see the bad side of him?"
Booth uttered a curse under his breath, rubbing his palm down his face wearily. "Am I the only one who remembers our childhood, Jared?" he demanded angrily. "I don't understand why you want to defend him so much, especially when he's in that mood."
"And I don't understand why you have to be such an asshole!" Jared yelled, shooting up from his seat, prompting Booth to do the same.
Pops shot both boys reprimanding looks, holding up his palms. "Hey, hey, okay, hold on," he shushed them sternly before lowering his tone to a much gentler one. "A lot of things happened today, okay? I think we all need to just sleep on it tonight."
Seeing that neither of his grandsons looked like they were backing down, Pops added, "I mean it. I don't want you two fighting, you hear?"
Booth and Jared, locked in a stare off, remained in their tensed positions as though they're both ready to lunge at each other at the sign of an eye twitch. Finally, though, Booth's shoulders relaxed minimally and he rocked back on his heels. Looking away from Jared, he gave a curt nod to his grandfather and sat back down.
Jared wasn't at all pacified. His fight with Booth had seemed like the catalyst, opening up a floodgate's worth of confusing, conflicting, intense emotions. Now it seemed like he was trying to look for an outlet to ease the burden of said emotions, his stomach rolling around sickly.
"I'm going up to my room," he snapped rather childishly at his grandfather, shoving his chair backwards so hard that it banged loudly against the wall a few feet behind it.
Pops and Temperance watched worriedly as he stormed out of the room.
"Should someone go talk to him?" Temperance asked blankly. She had never seen Jared that riled up, either, and it shook her up a little. She knew she wouldn't be the right person to talk to him but maybe Pops could go.
Then maybe she could have some time to talk to Booth and ask if he was doing alright. She'd asked him this earlier but even though he kept insisting he was fine, she had the feeling that he'd gotten steadily worse throughout the day.
Pops shook his head, sinking back down in his seat with an exhausted grunt. "No, he needs to cool off," he decided.
The remaining three fell silent, awkwardly staring at their own cold plates of food. No one felt like eating yet no one seemed to be able to leave.
Finally, though, unable to sit at the table any longer, Booth shook his head and stood up. "I'm gonna head up," he muttered sullenly, moving to grab his plate.
"I'll take care of that," Pops waved him away.
Booth, who would usually argue about that since he had a tendency to want to keep Pops' work load as light as possible, didn't even bat an eyelash. "Fine, whatever," he didn't shove his chair back as hard as Jared had but it was still clear that he was in a bad mood, too.
"Hey," Pops called out as Booth stood. "Don't go antagonizing your brother, okay? You're both tired and angry - now's not a good time to hash anything out."
Booth nodded and turned to leave. He'd barely made one step when Temperance's voice called out to him, soft and small and unsure. It startled him a little because 'unsure' wasn't a word he'd use to describe Temperance when she was around him. Not for a long time now.
"Booth," she spoke up and he halted, turning to face her after a moment's hesitation. "Are you…" she faltered, biting her lip. "Um, I just…I…Are you okay?"
He stared at her for the longest moment, and it scared her how his usually friendly face was so hard and how his beautifully expressive eyes were so dull and vacant.
"Yeah," he said finally, his tone as empty as his words. "I'm fine."
Temperance frowned as she watched Booth retreat out of the dining room, his spine stiffened and his muscles as tensed as ever. His expression had been so hardened all throughout dinner, and his eyes had been hollow and dark in a way that they had never been before
She had never seen him like that before and she had to admit that it scared her. She wasn't frightened of him - she honestly didn't think that would ever happen - but she was frightened of him getting lost in whatever dark emotions he was feeling.
After all, hadn't he told her once that he'd gone through depression for quite a long time the last time his father had left his life?
After that day out on the lake, Booth had never mentioned his abusive past. Not much, anyway. She didn't blame him. Despite the abuse she'd received in several foster homes, none of those people were people she'd loved. None of them had been family to her. For him, however…It must have been a thousand times worse.
Now her heart was so very heavy with worry, concerned that she couldn't help him through whatever he was going through at the moment.
"Aw, don't worry, little lady," Pops said softly, his eyes fixed on her as she kept frowning after Booth's retreating back. "He'll be fine."
Temperance tore her eyes away from the direction Booth had gone in only to look skeptically at Pops. "How can you be sure?" she asked him disbelievingly. "I mean…Do you know for sure?"
Pops shrugged, the saddened look on his face causing him to look much older than he usually did. "I can't say for certain," he allowed. "But he's got family around to help him."
"And you think that's enough?"
Pops smiled a little. "Believe it or not," he sighed heavily. "It was worse the last time around." When she gave no sign of confusion, Pops' suspicion that she'd already been told of Booth's depression was cemented. He couldn't help but be impressed - he knew for a fact that his oldest nephew hated talking about that period in his life. "And if he could make it back then, he could make it back now."
Her voice was impossibly small, matching her fragile looking expression, "Do you really think so?"
Pops nodded, reaching out to ruffle her hair adoringly. "Yes," he answered firmly. "I do. You know why?"
She shook her head, the worried look still very prominent on her face.
He smiled. "He's got more than just us this time. He's got you, too," he almost chuckled when he saw a fierce blush spreading across her ivory skin. Almost; he wasn't rid of enough gloom yet.
"I won't be much help," she argued, shaking her head. "I don't know what to do at all – or what to say. I never know how to be comforting."
"You don't have to know - you'll help even when you don't know you are."
She frowned at him, her eyebrows furrowed together. "Pops…That makes no sense at all," she informed him morosely.
He gently placed his hand on top of her head. "You'll see," was all he said, cryptically. Patting her on the back, he said, "It's getting late, Tempe. Why don't you go on to bed?"
Temperance sighed and nodded. "Yes, you're right," she agreed wearily. "I'll help you with the dishes first."
Pops shook away her help. "No, don't," he advised. "Just leave it."
"Are you sure?"
He nodded firmly. "Yes. Go on," he tilted his head to the side, signaling for her to leave.
Pops watched her stand up, his mind only half present. "Wait," he called out just as she was about to head for the side door leading to the backyard.
He had only just remembered that she didn't actually sleep in the same building as the rest of them, but up in the guest house above the pool, all by herself. "Do you want to stay here tonight? You can take my room - I'll sleep on the couch," he offered kindly.
Temperance looked taken aback by his offer. "Why would I want that?" she asked in her usual blunt manner.
He had to be even a little amused at the confused expression she was wearing. "I just…" he sighed, struggling to express his concern. "After everything that happened today, I wouldn't blame you if you're scared to stay alone out there…If you don't want to stay in the guest house, you could always sleep in my room."
Temperance smiled abashedly back at Pops. "Thank you for the offer, Pops," she said sincerely. It made her feel slightly awkward, though endlessly grateful, that he would think of her at all. "But I'm not scared to stay alone."
"You sure?" he asked her worriedly.
Blushing, she nodded. "I'm sure," she assured him. "Goodnight, Pops."
"'Night, Tempe."
She waved goodnight to him before heading outside. Like she had told Pops, she wasn't the least bit scared of staying on her own. She didn't think Edwin was coming back to the beach house anytime soon, and even if she had been scared, the pathway leading from the backyard garden to the guest house above the pool was lit by lights.
Once she was back in her new, temporary place of residence, Temperance sighed, sinking down on the edge of her bed with a weary groan. She arched her back, linking her fingers together and raising her arms over her head to stretch her tensed muscles.
She had never felt as tired as she did at that exact moment. All that had happened during the day had drained her so much, though she hadn't realized it until just now when everything was quiet.
Deciding she needed to relax and perhaps go to sleep, Temperance quickly entered her en-suite bathroom - once again marveling at the luck she'd suddenly been bequeathed with - and taking a shower.
Changed into her sleep clothes, Temperance settled under the covers only to discover that despite her contradicting weariness, she was wide awake and unable to sleep at all. After a good twenty minutes of tossing and turning, she sat upright, shoving the comforter off of her with an indignant huff. Her eyes roved the pretty, rustic bedroom until they rested on doorway leading to the balcony outside.
Biting her lip, she hesitated for a moment before scrambling off the bed, grabbing her copy of the Scarlet Letter and the afghan blanket hanging over the back of the couch in the seating area. Slipping through the antique finished door, Temperance stepped outside onto the balcony. There was a pair of lounge chaises and a small round coffee table sitting outside, just a few feet away from the stairs leading down to the back path, and she dropped into one, wrapping a blanket loosely around her to shield her from the cool air.
She was halfway through the latest chapter when she caught a slight movement from the corner of her eye. Raising her head, Temperance frowned as she looked out over the flower bushes. She could see quite clearly despite how late it was - there were lights hidden in the bushes, as well. The figure she saw she could recognize anywhere, in a heartbeat.
"Booth…?" she whispered, watching as he snuck quietly down the sandy path leading to the beach in Aunt Lydia's backyard.
She had no idea what he was doing out so late - it was near midnight now and she was pretty sure Pops would never allow him to go out so late, even if it was only to go to the beach nearby - and she had no idea why he was headed there. She sat there, staring into the direction he'd gone in, contemplating whether she should go after him.
No, she decided. He made it clear earlier that he wants to be alone, to think. I should respect that.
Settling back into her chaise, Temperance tried to find a comfortable spot though it wasn't easy since her spine was so stiff with anxiety, and her mind was so overrun with worry for Booth that she stayed on the same page for God knew how long, reading and re-reading the same line over and over again and not retaining a single word.
Her head kept popping up from her book every few seconds, distracting her further, as she glanced towards the beach and towards the watch on her wrist. She had to keep reminding herself, as the time went by, that she needed to give Booth time.
Of course, by the time two hours had gone by and he was still nowhere to be seen coming up the pathway to the house, her worries had taken over completely. Deciding to wait just five more minutes before going out on a search for him, Temperance put her book on the small table in front of her, fixing hawk-like eyes on the path.
Once the minutes flew by, faster than the two hours that had crawled by so slowly, Temperance threw the afghan aside, leapt out of the chaise and darted back inside her room. Shrugging on her knee length, navy blue pea coat, Temperance hurriedly searched her room for a flashlight.
She knew Booth always insisted on both of them having one each in their respective rooms, and had insisted that they'd brought it with them. It was either a boy scout habit, or something spurred on by his past - she knew that she herself had plenty of times hid in dark places like small closets or basements or underneath the bed, and had learnt over time to carry a flashlight with her everywhere she went for the longest time.
She found it in one of the hidden compartments in her luggage, flicking it on and off a few times to make sure it worked just fine. Once she was sure it did, she slipped out of the door and rushed down the steps.
She walked down the sandy shore, waving the flashlight around the darkened beach. She must have walked for over twenty minutes before she saw the silhouette of a figure a few feet away. She sped up slightly, pushing her long, lean legs as far as they could go.
Booth was sitting down on the beach, his legs drawn up and his arms wrapped around his knees. His feet were bare, shoes tossed haphazardly on his left, his toes digging into the sand. The water that kept rolling back onto the beach didn't touch him at all, the sweatpants he wore completely dry.
He didn't seem like he realized she was there at all, but when she spoke and he didn't start, she knew that he'd seen her. "Hey," she murmured softly, letting the beam of light from her torchlight fall to the sand.
He didn't answer, just continued to stare out onto the blackened ocean, his jaw clenched and his expression remained painfully neutral.
Sighing, Temperance sank down on his right. She had been so worried for him earlier when he'd been gone for hours, but now that she'd found him, she had no idea how to comfort him. Was she supposed to say something? She wasn't very good with words, especially during moments when emotions were involved. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to offer some form of physical comfort, either.
It made her feel very awkward, so she mimicked his position, placing the flashlight next to her and looking out at the sea. Her mind ran a mile a minute, her heart thudding a tad faster than normal, as unbidden thoughts surged through her mind, a million scenarios playing out as she tried to find a way to ask him if he was fine. She didn't want him to be as detached as he had been earlier. It just wasn't Booth to her.
She didn't have to worry, however, because he was the one who spoke first. "I love coming to the beach at night," he sighed, startling her completely - they had sat there next to each other, in silence, for so long that she had gotten used to only the sound of the crashing waves in the background.
Turning her head in his direction, she gave him a confused look. "Excuse me?" her brows furrowed together.
"There's a certain kind of peace here at night," he continued on, still staring out into the ocean, his face still tight with tension. "Back when I was a kid, and we'd come here…I'd always sneak out of the house at night just to come here. Think. Clear my head, you know?"
She bit her lip, eyeing him concernedly. "I…" she trailed off, unsure what exactly she was supposed to say to that. "I'm sorry…Do you want me to leave?" she finally came up with.
He ignored that. "I feel safe here," he exhaled once more, as though it was hard for him to breathe normally, and he had to inhale and exhale loudly, deeply, several times. "I don't know why. Maybe because it's so quiet. I just…I'd do everything I can to make sure we always come here during the summer. I just feel so safe here."
She nodded. "I'm glad you have a place like that," she said softly.
Booth fell silent for a few moments, and when he spoke again, his voice was tight, as though he was trying his hardest not to cry. It felt like he was, too, which was embarrassing because he hadn't cried for a long time, especially not in front of anyone else. Especially not in front of a beautiful girl.
"All I had to do was come here," he said, confusing her. "You know, back then. I'd sneak out here at night and I'd have to wait just a little while, and everything…The world doesn't seem so bleak. Even just for one night. I'd sit right here, and I'd get…I'd get serenity."
To his embarrassment, as he turned to look at her, his eyes started clouding up with tears he'd tried his hardest to keep at bay ever since Edwin had slugged him the first time that day. "I have been sitting here for two hours, Bones," his voice shook a little. "And I haven't been at peace once."
"Booth…" Temperance whispered, her concern for him escalating.
He shook his head, blinking back the tears. A few escaped his eyes, anyway, and leaked at the sides. "I sat here for two hours, and all I got were bad memories and the most sickening feeling… I didn't understand it," he continued quietly. "But then you came here - and the world grew quiet again."
She reeled back in shock, wide eyes blinking at him in bewilderment.
He almost laughed.
Instead he reached out, gently brushing back a few strands of hair from her pretty face, before letting his hand fall. "You came along and everything's better somehow," he whispered, keeping his eyes locked on her baby blues.
"Everything's peaceful. When you're around, I feel like everything's going to be okay somehow," his voice had broken in several places as he spoke, showing her just how upset and lost he felt. It made her heart clench to hear that.
Seeing the tears welling up again in his eyes - something that unnerved her greatly because Booth was anything but a weak man - Temperance decided to do what she felt desperately like doing. Shifting herself onto her knees, she inched closer to him then climbed into his lap, her legs on either side of his torso.
He embraced her immediately, his shaking hands moving erratically, arms wrapping around her waist to pull her as close to him as humanly possible, hands moving up to tangle in her hair.
Her own arms went around him, hands smoothing up and down his back repeatedly in a comforting gesture he'd used on her many times before.
As he pressed his throbbing forehead against hers, another tear fell from his eye. One of her hands immediately retracted from his back, and her thumb gently wiped at the fallen tear. The sweet gesture only served to choke him up even more.
"I feel safe with you," he whispered, their faces so close to one another that his breath blew across her face as he spoke. "Safer than I've ever felt anywhere in my life."
A sad smile stole across her lips. "That's good," she whispered back. "Because I feel safe with you, too."
One of his hands softly cupped the side of her head, and he was careful not to irritate the purplish bruise on her cheek as he gently traced the unblemished skin around it. "I didn't keep you very safe today," he reminded her, a self-deprecating tenor so obvious in his voice.
"It's not always about you keeping me safe, Booth," she corrected him softly. "Sometimes it's about me protecting you."
"You did that today," he agreed, nodding his head slightly.
"Yes," she murmured, her hand brushing through his hair, fingers gently scraping against his scalp in a manner that had his eyes fluttering for a moment. "You mean so much to me, Booth. I'll always protect you."
His hand had gripped her hair, and his lips fused themselves on hers, pulling her in with an almost magnetic force that had her craving to be closer and closer. Their bodies were pressed so closely to one another that she could feel his heart pounding furiously in his chest, as she was sure he could feel hers.
Their lips were parted, their tongues meeting in a fierce duel. The tightening in her belly - the one that she was now familiar with thanks to her escalating physical relationship with Booth - made her feel guilty because she knew he was hurting and she didn't think feeling aroused when your boyfriend was hurting was a sign of a good girlfriend.
But he kept drawing her closer, and her stomach kept clenching, and her arms tightened around him.
Finally, though, after what seemed like hours, he pulled away. Both of them were panting heavily, and she was sure her eyes were as clouded and heavy-lidded as his were.
One of her arms were still wrapped around his neck, the fingers of her other hand gently caressing the side of his neck. Booth simply gazed at her for a long moment and though his breathing returned to normal after a few minutes, his heart continued to beat as furiously as before.
He leaned his head down and she thought he was going to kiss her again, her lips parting in anticipation, but instead his lips fell on the corner of her mouth, pressing a sweet kiss there, before trailing up her jaw and making a circuit to her ear and back towards her cheek. When he reached her bruise, he lightly brushed his lips near it and nuzzled his nose at its side.
She smiled, giving him a sweet kiss when he finally, reluctantly, pulled back.
Booth's eyes roved over Temperance's porcelain face, enamored once more by how beautiful she was. His fingers kept raking gently through her hair, keeping a steady pattern she enjoyed immensely.
He had been fighting a battle to tell her something for a few weeks now, and though he'd planned on telling her in a special way - maybe at a candlelit dinner, or during their 'anniversary date night' - his heart was bursting to tell her tonight. He felt like he just had to.
It might not be the most romantic way to tell her, he thought to himself. But it's something I need to do right now. I need her to know.
"Bones," he whispered. "I need to tell you something."
The smile on her face flickered for a moment. He wasn't frowning nor did he looked as upset as he did when she'd found him earlier. In fact, he looked calmer, better. His eyes were still sad, however, so she couldn't tell if whatever it was he wanted to tell her was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Okay," she said anyway.
He took a few deep breaths to calm himself but all it seemed to do was multiply the butterflies in his stomach every time he inhaled and exhaled. However, the familiar, comforting scent of her - something he could clearly latch on to considering how close they were at the moment - did help.
"I love you."
Her mouth fell open, a gasp of surprise lodged in her throat, her eyes growing as round and as huge as saucers. Her entire body had stiffened in shock.
Seeing all of this, he hurried to explain. "I'm not expecting anything out of you," he was hasty to assure her. "You don't have to say it back or anything. I just wanted to let you know."
"Booth…" she whispered, her voice so low, so full of awe. "You love me?"
He nodded, his eyes darting around her entire face to gauge if her reaction was a good one or a bad one.
She bit her lip, the light in her eyes dimming slightly. "Booth…After everything that's happened today…" she trailed off unsurely. "Maybe you're just, um, I don't know, shocked or something and-"
Comprehending where she was going with this, he shook his head fervently. "No, no," he waved her suggestion aside. "I've wanted to tell you this for weeks, Bones. But I didn't because at first I just thought it was too soon - we've only been dating for a few months - and then, when I figured I was ready to tell you, I just wanted it to be romantic."
"Oh."
He nodded, his eyes still on hers though he didn't allow himself to analyze her every expression as he ploughed on almost hurriedly. "But then today happened and sitting here with you…I just needed to tell you," he said lamely. "I don't know why but I needed you to know."
She didn't understand his logic one bit, and his words had shaken her up so completely, so she blurted out, "Love is just the product of certain chemicals in the body."
Booth had to roll his eyes at the very Temperance Brennan reply he'd just gotten.
Cupping the sides of her head in his palms, he leaned in closer to murmur against her lips. "So you say it's chemicals, I say it's the heart," he shrugged slightly. "Call it whatever you want - it's still love."
A small smile tugged at her lips. "You love me," she repeated, though her voice wasn't as unsteady as before and she stated more than asked this time.
He nodded yet again. "Yes, I do," he smiled too. "I love you. I love you very much, Temperance."
As their lips drew nearer, Temperance whispered, "I…I don't know what to say, Booth."
"No, don't say anything," he murmured softly. "Not now. Not unless you're ready. I already told you - I'm not expecting anything in return."
"You just wanted me to know?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
"I love you, Bones."
Her smile was wide this time, as bright as the sparkle in her blue eyes as she locked her gaze with him. "Yes," she agreed happily, feeling oddly giddy for some reason. "I know."
Their kiss was different than the one they'd shared prior to his admission - it was softer, more tender…Intimate somehow - made up of a thousand smaller, sweet kisses that left her toes curling and her mind strangely foggy.
His hand had just snaked underneath her jacket and sleep shirt, fingers tenderly stroking the soft skin of her lower back, when rain started pouring down unexpectedly, heavily.
Temperance gasped, wrenching her lips away from his to blink up in shock at the sky. In the few seconds it had started to rain, they were both already soaked to their bones. She dropped her head back to look at him, startled slightly when she saw that his intense gaze hadn't left her. He seemed to be oblivious to the summer rain that had started out of the blue, his focus only on her.
It made her blush, but she smiled at him anyway. "Come on," she said quietly, moving to climb off of him, standing up and pulling him up with her by the hand.
He grabbed his shoes and she grabbed her flashlight and, with clasped hands, they took off in a run back towards the beach house.
By the time they'd reached the back path to the house, the heavy downpour had ceased completely, stopping just as suddenly and without warning as it had started, leaving the two of them shivering in their drenched clothes.
Despite how light he had felt back at the beach, Temperance in his arms, his heart exposed to her, he was starting to lose the euphoria. Being back at the beach house…It brought back the horrible memories of the day.
He didn't want to go back up to the house, didn't want to pass the living room he didn't think he'd ever be able to step into again without remembering what his father had done there.
The beach house used to be a haven. Even when they were kids, Edwin had never allowed himself to get drunk when surrounded by his sister and his father. He knew that they would never allow for his out of control alcoholism to hurt Booth and Jared if they ever found out. Now it was as though his haven had been violated, and the peace ruined.
With every step, his shoulders drooped further, his heart grew heavier, his eyes became sadder and he had to drag his feet against wet gravel, almost unwilling to go back despite the promise of a warm set of clothes and a soft bed.
As though she could read his mind, as though she understood what he was feeling so perfectly, Temperance halted to a stop as they neared the house. She turned around, her hand still clasped in his.
Her deep blue eyes, a color so stunningly vivid he didn't think anyone else in the world had eyes like hers, pierced through him, making him feel like she was seeing right through to his charred soul.
"Do you want to stay with me for the night?" she asked him quietly. She didn't say anything else, didn't justify her offer or tell him that she knew how he must be feeling. She remained silent, just watching him for an answer.
Without speaking a word, Booth simply nodded a 'yes'.
So instead of going left back to the main house, Temperance led him to their right. They climbed up the steps leading up to the back of the guest house and entered through the door that was still wide open.
She finally released his hand as they stepped through the threshold, turning around to close the door behind them.
"Come on," she urged him, her voice still soft even though they were in no danger of being overheard. "Come with me."
Wordlessly, he followed her past the sitting area and past her bed, and into the en-suite bathroom. It was as pretty and as feminine as the bedroom, the walls a soft sage green and the floor tiles were made of terracotta. There were pretty flowers in small pots and sweet scented candles everywhere.
He barely paid attention to the details he knew Deb must have slaved over. Instead, his eyes were fixed on Temperance as she slowly peeled off her wet jacket and threw them into the dryer.
"You should dry your clothes, too," she told him. "Maybe take a warm shower if you want? Or a bath. A bath is good…You-you must be freezing cold."
He blinked at her.
"I'll, uh, I'll wait outside," she muttered. "Just…Um, take your time."
As she move past him, his arm suddenly reached in her direction, his fingers closing around her wrist. She stopped, turning her head to look at him, bewildered.
"Stay with me?"
His voice was as hoarse and as sad as they were back at the beach before their kiss, and the intensity in his eyes compelled her to say "Yes, of course."
Despite the fact that neither of them had ever done something like this before, creating a sense of awkwardness that he tamped down easier than she did, their movements were still fluid, their minds in synched.
She didn't make a move towards the shower. Instead, she went up to the pretty copper bath tub she'd loved ever since her first night at the beach house, and turned on the tap to fill it up.
She looked around, eyeing the bottles of shampoo and soap she'd placed on top of the garden chair she'd moved to the side of the tub from the bathroom sitting area near the window. Not seeing what she wanted, she went towards the cabinet and smiled slightly when she took out a jar of the bath salts she'd found her first night in the guest house.
She lifted the ribbon adorned lid off of the glass jar and tipped it so that a handful of the bath salts would fall into the water. Putting the lid back on, she placed the jar on top of the wicker ottoman at the sitting area, snatching up the small square wicker basket full of accessories like a soft, small towel and a loofah. She placed the basket on the garden chair as well before turning around to face Booth.
He was leaning against the storage cabinet, still wearing his drenched clothes, though his shoes and socks were off to the side of the wicker laundry hamper. His arms were crossed over his chest, watching her move with an undefined expression on his face.
She stared right back at him for a few moments, breaking her gaze only once to turn off the tap once the tub was full enough. Drawing her bottom lip between her teeth, she chewed on it for a few seconds before asking softly, "Do you still want me to stay?"
He gazed at her silently before nodding once. "Yes, please stay."
She nodded, and they moved together - she stepped around the tub and he pushed away from the cabinet - stepping closer to one another until they were barely a foot apart.
Their eyes locked on one another, they moved as though in a practiced dance. Their actions weren't sexual in any way, though they were intimate just the same as they peeled off their wet clothes off their cold skin.
They didn't kiss and they only touched when Temperance climbed into the tub after Booth, straddling him the same way she had at the beach. Their touch weren't meant to be in any way inappropriate, just a way to comfort one another.
Her small, nimble hands caressed the smooth, tanned skin of his chest, sending shivers down his spine. She grabbed a bar of lavender soap from the decorative soap caddy at the side of the tub and gently ran it up and down and all around his upper torso, his arms and his neck.
"I'm gonna smell all girly," he said softly, not really complaining.
She smiled, leaning in closer so that she could nudge his cheek with her nose. "That's okay," she assured him. "You'll just smell like me."
"I can live with that," he agreed. He cupped his hand, scooping water with his palm and poured it on her back and her thigh.
Reaching out with his right arm, Booth took hold of the small towel from the wicker basket she'd placed on the chair earlier. He dipped the soft towel into the sudsy water before running it repeatedly, gently over Temperance's back..
She smiled, reveling in the loving attention of his hands, and tried to return the favor for him.
They stayed in the water, just bathing one other even when they were both clean simply for the chance to continue being in each other's embrace, until the water had gotten so cold that they were shivering.
"We should get out of the tub," Booth said to Temperance, even as he continued to run the loofah repeatedly over her skin.
Temperance, who had her arms around him, her head resting in the crook of his neck as she snuggled into his body, sighed. The puff of air hit the side of his neck, making him smile slightly. "Okay," she replied lazily. She made not a single move to get up.
He allowed himself to relax into her for a few moments but when he felt her shiver once more, he finally moved. Nuzzling the top of her head, he breathed in her scent and pressed a kiss to her forehead before standing up, taking her with him as his arms were still around her.
She sighed again as she gave him one final squeeze around the neck before stepping away from him. Blushing slightly, she yanked a light pink towel from the towel rack and wrapped it around her body. She had just spent almost an hour buck naked with Booth so being self-conscious all of a sudden made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but she couldn't help herself.
"I'll…Uh, I'm gonna go put on some clothes," even the words made her blush brighter.
He nodded wordlessly, watching with dark eyes as she turned on her heel, one hand clutching at the towel knot she'd made underneath her arm.
Sighing, he looked over at his wet clothes on the floor. Bending over, he grabbed them and wrinkled his nose when he saw the muddied stains on his pants. The sand on the beach had turned muddy when the rain had started pouring so suddenly. He threw his pants, his shirt and his jacket into the washing machine at the far corner of the bathroom, just throwing in his boxers in the dryer. He figured he needed to wash off the sand of his clothes, anyway.
Once he had dried himself and threw on his newly dried pair of boxers, he turned the knob of the bathroom door and tentatively stepped outside into the bedroom.
His eyes immediately fell on the bed. The sheets were messed up, but Temperance wasn't on it.
Heart thudding, a bout of panic at the irrational thought that she'd found everything that had transpired that day to be too much for her to handle and had somehow ran off, Booth swept the room with anxious eyes.
Of course, she hadn't run off at all. Where would she go in the middle of the night? Booth scoffed to himself. Not that I'd blame her if she did want to run. My life is so messed up.
He found her drying and brushing her hair in front of the mirror, a faraway look on her face.
He had to hold in a gasp when he saw what she was wearing - a mid-thigh length white nightgown, with white lace trim at the bust and the hem of the nightgown, and a purple satin ribbon trim at the top.
He had no idea she slept in things like that, or where she'd gotten something like that, but it did nothing to help him calm down, especially after spending an hour with her, naked.
Not wanting to startle her too much, he cleared his throat quietly. She turned around at the noise, smiling shyly when she saw him. "Hi," she murmured.
"Hi," he said back. He really had no idea why he was being so bashful, but then again it wasn't like seeing her naked one time would rid him of all timidity.
They stared at one another for a long moment before Booth cleared his throat again. He jerked his thumb at the couch. "I'm just gonna…Uh…"
Temperance's gaze followed the direction he was pointing at, and her smile slipped slightly. "Oh," she said, sounding just a tad disappointed. "I thought you were going to sleep in the bed."
His eyebrows furrowed together. "I can't let you sleep on the couch," he scoffed.
Temperance blushed furiously as she shook her head, "No…I-I meant we could sleep on the bed together." At his hesitance, she frowned, reminding him, "We've fallen asleep together before, Booth."
"Yeah," he agreed. "But we've never fallen asleep together after we…" he waved his hand between them, trailing off lamely.
She quirked an eyebrow. "Took a bath together?" she finished his sentence for him. He nodded, averting her gaze. She chuckled nervously even as she said in what she hoped was a nonchalant tone, "We didn't have sex, Booth."
He choked a little on air.
"We just took a bath."
"Yeah - naked," he hissed.
Noting his slightly panicked expression, she frowned. "Are you regretting it?" she asked him, and he noticed the hurt look in her eyes, noticed it in her voice. "It didn't seem like you did in the bathroom…"
He shook his head. "No, no, that's not it," he sighed, running a hand through his still slightly damp hair. "I just…I don't want us to do something we're not ready for."
"Why would we do that?" she questioned him curiously, tilting her head to the side.
The look she gave him was pure Bambi. It made his heart clench with emotion. God, what this girl does to me, he thought with an internal chuckle.
"I mean, I suppose we have been more physical with one another lately," she allowed, thinking over their last few encounters when they'd been completely alone with each other. "But I think we both know we're not ready to have sex yet."
Booth gave her a weary grin. "Bones," he half-groaned, half-laughed. "I'm a guy. All I know is that I just saw the girl I love naked. It does things to me."
He froze, his smile vanishing and his eyes locked on hers as though he was a frightened deer and she was a hungry lioness. It was as though he had spoken without thinking and now had just realized he'd said the 'L' word again, thrown into conversation so carelessly.
Temperance, too, had frozen up.
While she had been taken aback when he had said it back at the beach and even more taken aback at how happy it had made her feel that he'd said it, she still wasn't sure if he really meant it. She needed time to process it.
She had, admittedly, been thinking of nothing but this 'I love you' thing ever since they'd sat together in the bathtub. They hadn't spoken much to one another, just staying in a very intimate embrace until the water ran cold and they'd gotten out. She'd spent nearly a whole hour trying to make sense of her own emotions.
She wasn't clueless enough that she didn't know that even if he didn't expect an answer out of her now, he would need an answer out of her soon enough. She couldn't blame him - if things were reverse, she wondered how long she would wait to hear those words herself.
Now, she had been taken by surprise all over again. She had no idea how people in love acted in relationships. Her brother had never been in love with any of his girlfriends before so she couldn't make a comparison. She had seen her own parents in love for the first twelve years of her life, but they were adults so she wasn't sure if they were even on the same playing field.
Not knowing what to say, and wishing more than anything that the awkwardness between them would disappear into thin air, Temperance blurted out, "The couch isn't good for your back!"
Booth blinked at her in shock, unsure where that outburst had come from. "What?" he asked dumbly.
"The-the couch," she stuttered idiotically. "It's, um, it's not good for your back. Let's just…Go to bed."
He stared at her anxiously. "Are you sure?" his voice was so low it could be a whisper.
She nodded, offering him a small smile. "Yes," she replied bluntly. "We're just going to sleep. I don't mind, Booth."
He nodded along with her. "Okay," he agreed, internally giving himself pep talks to not embarrass himself by being all handsy with her and ending up with a broken nose or something. He'd seen her right hook earlier and he wasn't eager to be on the receiving end of it.
She put her brush away and walked past him to throw her wet towel into the hamper. He almost groaned out loud as he caught the scent of her as she passed him. They'd taken a bath together and used all the same products but it wasn't like he went around sniffing himself. She smelled so good, so nice and clean and pure and pretty…
Be good, Seeley, he reminded himself with a scold. Behave.
He silently wondered if he could blame it on not being able to control his actions while he was sleeping if he ended up groping her in her sleep.
Yeah, that didn't sound perverted at all, he thought with a roll of his eyes.
"Booth?" he heard her slightly husky voice calling to him. Blinking out of his stupor, he realized that she had already climbed into bed and was now looking at him expectantly, a frown on her face. "Are you coming to bed?"
He swallowed and, not trusting himself to speak and not do something embarrassing like squeak out loud, he nodded, stepping unsteadily forward until he reached the bed. Smiling nervously at her, he slipped into bed with her.
He laid on his side of the bed, stock still and as stiff as a board. Temperance mimicked his position, turning her head every few seconds to look at Booth. Finally, she shifted onto her side and propped her head up with her elbow. "Are you really going to lie like that all night?" she asked him exasperatedly.
He sighed, tilting his head back before turning on his side to face her as well. "I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "I just wanted to make sure I didn't…You know, get too handsy or something."
She looked at him as if she was concerned this was some sort of actual medical condition. "Is that something you can't control?"
"No, babe, not in that sense," he was interrupted by her sharply telling him not to call her 'babe'.
He chuckled half-heartedly.
"I just…I love you," there was that 'L' word again. He didn't even seem like he realized he'd said it, which probably unnerved her more than if he did. "And we both just went through something horrible today. Not to mention the fact that I just saw you naked just a couple of minutes ago."
She blushed once again at the reminder. "That doesn't mean you have to lie there so awkwardly, Booth," she shook her head, giggling shyly.
He nodded. "You're right," he agreed with her, reaching out with his free hand to brush his fingers through her silken locks.
She caught a slight hint of mischief in his eyes - the sparkle was far less bright than it was before Edwin's reappearance in his life, but it was there nonetheless and it gave her hope that he would recover from it. "C'mere," his tone was playful as his arm wrapped around her middle and rolled her on top of him.
She laughed, giving a squeal of surprise at his sudden move, and they rolled back and forth on the huge bed, their arms wrapped around each other. They stopped with Temperance lying on top of Booth. She gave him a cheeky smile as she shifted on top of him, intentionally jabbing him in the ribs with her elbow a few times.
"Ow," he laughed, groaning. "Bones…"
A teasing smile lit on her face. "Just trying to distract you from whatever inappropriate thoughts you might have," she joked.
His laughter was warm and reverberated through both their bodies as Temperance snuggled into him, their bodies aligned together. She folded her arms on his chest and rested her chin on the back of her hand.
Booth's laughter ceased and he gazed at her concernedly. "What's wrong, baby?"
She ignored the term of endearment, her eyes searching his for a long moment. "It's just…" she sighed. "I know you said you're not expecting anything out of me…"
Already knowing where this conversation was headed, Booth hastened to assure her, "I'm not."
She nodded, "But at some point, I'm going to have to react to this, right?" Even he had to agree with that. "I just want you to know that…I've never, well, I'm just…I'm not sure how it feels to be in love. I've never had that before."
"That's reasonable," he cupped her cheek tenderly. "But, you know, I've never been in love before you, either. I just know that I am in love with you."
She shrugged slightly. "That's different - you're Booth," she argued. At his raised eyebrow, she explained, "You're not as awkward about your emotions as I am."
"First of all - I'm not an emotional guy," he pretended to scowl at this. Seeing her smile again, anxiety all but gone, made him chuckle. "And secondly, I think you're cute when you're all weird and awkward."
She rolled her eyes, unfolding her arms and slapping his chest not so lightly. "I'm serious, Booth," she said after their playfulness had dissipated slightly. "Someday you're going to want an answer out of me, and I need you to know the truth."
Taking a deep breath and steeling herself to go through with the plan she'd come up with when she'd gotten dressed after their bath, she decided on telling the truth. "And the truth is - I don't know if what I feel for you is love," she confessed.
"All I do know is that I adore you very much," the soft smile that curved on her lips made him fall even just a tiny bit more in love with her. "I feel very strongly about you and I could say, with absolute certainty, that I would be devastated if you were gone from my life."
Before she knew it, she was lying on her back, Booth hovering over her. "Aw, baby…" he whispered lovingly. She was surprised to see that his eyes were slightly misty. His thumb rubbed gently against her bottom lip. "I adore you, too, Bones."
She grinned shyly at him. "I just want you to know that one day, I'm going to tell you…Those three words – but that would only happen when I'm certain of it and have all the facts right," she sounded so much like she did whenever she tutored him in Biology that it made him smile widely.
He swooped down to steal a kiss from her lips. "Okay," he nodded, accepting her words easily.
He knew her so well, so he could understand that it couldn't be easy for her to process everything. Hell, it hadn't been easy for him, either. He could be patient. He'd wait for her no matter how long it took.
Their chaste kisses so easily turned slow and languid, passionate touches growing bolder as the minutes ticked by. He pulled back slightly after who knew how long, still close enough that every time he exhaled, she could feel a small puff of hot air blow across her face.
Booth had one arm wrapped around her waist, hand splayed across her lower back while his other hand stroked through her hair. Their half-lidded eyes met, an unspoken invitation answered, and she reached up, arms loosely draped over his shoulders and fingers dragging gently through the baby hairs at the nape of his neck.
Before long, Booth's kisses grew more aggressive than they had ever been before, his touch more desperate, but even underneath all of that urgency, all of that tension building up, she could still sense the gentleness that always carried whenever he was with her; as though he was handling the most fragile, silken glass.
Temperance let out a breathless moan, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, her head turned to the side and face buried in her pillow, as his lips trailed down her throat, mouth latching onto her pulse point and sucking feverishly.
His hands were wandering, digging almost painfully into her skin, dragging up her nightgown a little, hitching it up enough to expose her creamy thighs. He didn't make a move to remove her clothes, but she was getting hotter and hotter, her skin flushed a deep pink, a certain, unfamiliar but welcomed tightening in the pit of her stomach.
Her eyes flew open as she felt something hard pressing into her stomach, moving slightly. Her gaze locked on his, emotions flaring in both their eyes, moving at breakneck speed, speaking out loud what words could never express.
Embarrassment.
Excitement.
Sadness.
Joy.
Lust.
Love.
Temperance wrapped an arm around Booth's neck just as he was about to pull away, convinced he's crossed a line somehow due to his Catholic morals. Her fingers sank into his soft, dark brown hair, her other arm hooking around his torso, hand splayed across his back in an attempt to keep him where he was. Her legs went up, wrapping around his waist, her thighs pressing against his sides tightly, their heat pressed against each other for the first time.
"Kiss me," was her whispered plea, breathless and filled with emotion, and, ultimately, his breaking point.
His entire body was trembling as he moved. His hands, still gripping at the silky fabric of her nightgown and digging into her soft, malleable flesh, stayed where they were, flexing over her flesh. His lips descended upon hers, their slow, passionate kiss turning into a much frantic one, their bodies pressed flush against one another.
He wasn't exactly sure how it happened, though he was pretty sure it was more than just teenage hormones gone awry - all of the tension that had started when Edwin had came back into his life, no matter for how short of a time, had come crashing down on him, and Temperance's constant presence, her persistence at being there for him…It was like a rubber band snapping, letting out all the emotions he'd suppressed for her for fear that it would push her too far away.
He swallowed back the three words he wanted to tell her over and over again, that he'd wanted to tell her for some time now, that had been cemented just hours ago. He knew this wasn't the time, and definitely not the place - a declaration of love should not happen while a couple was dry humping each other. Not when the concept itself was so new to them.
"Booth," Temperance whispered, her voice almost reverent, as she threw her head back, her eyes wide open and unseeing, a throaty groan slipping past her full lips as she clung onto him, her release washing over her.
Booth didn't think he'd ever seen her so beautiful - her skin, all the way from her creamy thighs to her exposed upper chest and throat to her cheeks were flushed a deep pink, her bottom lip was drawn in between her teeth, her body was shaking with tremors, the heat coming from her incredible to him.
He followed her into oblivion just moments later, his head falling onto her shoulder, his weight crushing her for a few seconds before he made to pull away from her.
"No," she protested in a weak voice.
"I'm crushing you," he murmured, lifting his head to gaze at her. He retracted one of his hands from around her, his thumb caressing gently, lovingly, across her defined cheekbone.
Temperance shook her head slightly, eyes sparkling as she gazed up at him. "I don't care," she insisted stubbornly. "Stay."
He allowed a small smile to grace his features, which only caused her to grow excited - it was his first real smile since Edwin Booth had ruined everything by stepping into his sons' lives once more; despite how small his smile was, it was genuine. That's good, she commented silently, leaning up to brush kisses upon his smiling lips.
"I'll stay," he assured her, deepening their kiss for several minutes before pulling away - his hormones were getting in the way already, and he knew she'd reciprocate, but they were both exhausted, both physically and emotionally, from the day's events. They needed to rest for the night.
Eventually, when she was all jelly-limbed and half-asleep, he managed to pull away from her without too much of a fight.
"Where are you going?" Temperance mumbled sleepily, disappointment evident in her features as she watched him climb out of the bed.
"Shh," he murmured, brushing a light kiss on her forehead, brushing her hair out of her face tenderly. "I'm just going to the bathroom. I'll be right back."
She nodded, her eyes fluttering as she went back and forth between fighting off sleep and giving in. Booth chuckled slightly, shaking his head as he walked into her en-suite bathroom.
His cheeks flushed red as he remembered what had occurred in the bathroom just barely over an hour ago. He had seen Temperance naked for the first time. Considering what they had just done in her bed, it shouldn't have been such a big deal, but it was to him.
He wasn't as innocent as she had been before tonight. He had never had sex before, never gone all the way before, but he had gone farther than innocent kisses. Truth be told, if Temperance had never come into his life when she had, he probably would've gone further by now.
But she had, and somewhere along the line, fascination had turned into adoration and adoration had turned into love.
Everything with her was so much more different than it had been with any of the girls he'd ever been with, chastely or otherwise. Everything was so much more intense. He didn't think it had anything to do with age - they were both still young, both still inexperienced if it came right down to it.
She was just…Special.
Booth tugged down his boxers, wincing slightly at the mess, and cleaned himself up. He threw his boxers into the washing machine in the corner of the bathroom, grabbing a small wash towel and placing it next to the sink as he waited for his boxers to be washed. Once the timer went off, he grabbed his boxers and threw it in the dryer.
Running the wash towel under warm water, he yanked his boxers back up his legs and settled them nicely on his hips. He reentered the bedroom, smiling to himself when he saw Temperance still laid out on the bed, half asleep.
"Booth," she murmured almost inaudibly, sighing as she felt him climb back into bed. Her eyes cracked open slightly to look at him, a sleepy smile spreading across her lips.
Booth's heart thudded almost painfully in his chest as he gazed down at her. "Hi, baby," he whispered, kneeling by her feet, his knees on either side of her.
Not wanting the warm water soaking the towel to get cold, he placed his hands on her hips, pushing the fabric of her nightgown back until they bunched up at her hips. He hooked his fingers underneath the lace fabric of her panties, touching smooth, firm skin.
Booth paused, his fingers stilling. He looked up into her eyes, wanting to check if this was okay with her - despite everything that had happened in the past hour or so, he didn't want to unintentionally cross any boundaries she might have. All of this was still new to the both of them.
Temperance's porcelain cheeks were flushed a rosy pink color, her eyes wider and more awake, her hands on either side of her head as her fingers curled against the fabric of her pillowcase. She didn't protest, and the small, shy smile on her lips told him it was alright for him to go on.
Booth smiled, bending his upper body to press a feather light kiss on her stomach. "I'm just going to take care of you," he assured her in a soft murmur, pulling down her panties slowly down her lean legs.
It was only the second time she was bare to him, and he couldn't look away, couldn't tamp down the arousal he felt. Don't be such a guy, Seel, he chided himself, tossing the undergarment to the side.
Grabbing the wetted wash cloth, he was satisfied to find that it was still warm. Gently nudging her thighs apart, he pulled her legs up until her feet were planted on the bed, knees drawn up. He gently ran the warm cloth from the inside of her thighs to the middle of her legs, cleaning her up with loving hands.
Temperance watched him, sleep completely evading her mind, weariness gone from her senses. She bit her lower lip, feeling an odd mixture of lust and affection and a myriad of other tender emotions she couldn't put a name to even if she tried. Instead, she allowed herself to just lose herself in the moment, enjoying how his hands felt on her, liking the pull in the pit of her stomach she knew, scientifically and otherwise, had everything to do with her arousal.
Booth took longer than necessary, perhaps, to clean her up, continuing to brush the soft cloth between her legs over and over again, aware of the slight trembling of her legs, until the towel was no longer warm at all. He dropped the towel on top of her discarded panties, climbing off the bed to go to her dresser, searching until he found the small amount of undergarments she'd brought with her for their vacation. He pulled out a blue colored pair of panties and went back to the bed, sliding them up her legs and covering her up once more.
He grabbed the towel and the discarded pair of underwear, throwing them in the laundry basket by the bathroom door. He flicked off the light switch and quietly slid back into her bed.
Slipping the covers over the both of them, he settled in behind her, pulling her back flushed with his front. Wrapping his arms protectively around her, he took in a breath, marveling at how this was the first breath he'd had since this morning that was free and unforced, and made him feel like he was really alive and not as though he was struggling not to drown.
Had it been just that afternoon when she had been the one to take the wheel and protect him?
When he was sure that she was asleep, practically dead to the world, he smiled down at her. "I'll always protect you," he repeated her words from earlier by the beach. "I love you."
He pressed a gentle kiss to the side of her hair, inhaling her scent, before snuggling into her, burying his nose into her sweet smelling hair, letting her presence alone comfort and lull him into a peaceful slumber.
Personally, I loved this chapter to bits. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Even though it involved Booth and Temperance being naked/semi-naked, I'm just not sure if I should bump it to an M. After all, it wasn't explicit at all. I wanted it to be a T story but then I realized somewhere along the line that a story about two teenagers falling in love just couldn't have no sex in it. I'm still not going to write lemons in this story because if I write it once then I'll feel like I have to keep writing it in certain chapters. So there will be mentions, like the above scene, but no explicit scenes…Did any of that make sense?
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to drop a line...And I'm really sorry, I hate to sound like a writer begging for reviews but I can't help feeling disappointed that so few of you reviewed last chapter. I appreciate each and every one of those reviews so thanks, but still...I'm feeling slightly guilty for wanting more. Is everyone on a Bones strike or is my story just isn't cutting it? I'm sorry for being so demanding, it's just that I like hearing what you guys think about the story, even if it's just a line.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless.
Pictures for this chapter are on my profile.
EDIT: As there were a lot of mentions of Booth's mom Marianne in this chapter, I would just like to remind you that in the revised BOF universe, Booth's mom left instead of died. She would have left in 1984 when Booth was 13 and Jared was 9. Edwin left in 1985, less than a year later, and Booth and Jared went to live with Pops in Chicago immediately.
Thank you!
Juliet.