A/N - I like this one a lot...though I'm not sure about the spot where I ended it. Since there have been no real complaints, on with the fluff!

Disclaimer - I don't own Bones.

Falling Into You

"Thank you for driving me home, Booth," she says as she looks out the passenger window at the snow swirling around the SUV.

As much as he wants a glimpse of her face given the childlike wonder in her voice, he doesn't dare pry his eyes from the slick roadways. The treacherous commute home was the excuse he gave to get her in the vehicle with him after all. "No problem, Bones," he says with a smile.

"I've missed riding with you," she confesses. He wonders if she's blushing. The 'new' Brennan does from time to time.

"Me, too, Bones," he says on a sigh, "Me, too."

The rest of the trip is spent in silence. He contemplates the way things are and the way they used to be. Sitting at a traffic light, he looks at her and sees something different. Something that he's not sure he's see before. His heart swells in his chest. If she's happy, that's enough for him. It's all he needs.

Turning into her apartment complex, he cuts the engine and makes it to her side of the car just as her door swings open. He offers her his hand and, stubborn as always, she shakes her head and pushes past him. He follows her, his hand at her back. The gesture is both familiar and foreign. They've only just gotten back into this habit.

"Booth, while I appreciate that your alpha male proclivities dictate the necessity of walking me to my door, I really can make it from here." She doesn't look him in the eye and he doesn't back off. "With the roads this dangerous you shou...oh!"

He catches her as she slips on the walkway. In the split second it takes to get her in his arms, he looses his footing as well. Somehow, he manages to hold her tightly to his chest and take all the impact of the fall.

She looks down at him, the curtain of her auburn hair falling over one shoulder in a soft wave. Her hands rest on his chest. "That was very foolish," she says softly. "Your back..."

Yeah. His back would be bothering him in the morning, but he'd gladly take the pain to have her in his arms. He debates telling her, but he's promised himself that he's not going to push this time. He waited years before the Hoover and Hannah. He'll do it all over again. He'll bide his time. He'll have the patience and hope Gordon Gordon counseled. He should have taken that advice rather than impulsively listening to the 12-year-old shrink they had now.

Her eyes soften and a smile twitches at her lips. He watches as her lids flutter closed and her mouth slips softly, almost shyly, against his in a whisper of a kiss. He's afraid to move, to breathe, for fear of the moment vanishing.

She pulls back slightly. Not away, but enough to look down into the depths of his eyes. She watches his Adam's apple bob and feels the weight of his hands on her back.

His eyes search hers, looking for answers that he doesn't expect to find. They move to her mouth and hover there. Watching, waiting, unsure of what's to come.

She surprises his when she lowers her lips to his again. This kiss is different. If the last was a whisper, this is a shout. It's harder, the touch firm and lingering. Her tongue laces between his lips to lap against his.

He pulls back when his lungs begin to ache from the cold air. "Mmm, Bones?" he breathes against her lips. He kisses her cool cheek, his lips moving to her hair as she nuzzles her head toward his shoulder. "You think we could take this inside?" he asks. "I'm starting to get a little stiff."

She giggles in a very un-Brennan-like manner. Squirming slightly against him, she whispers against his ear, "More than a little."

"Bones!" he replies, squeezing his eyes shut as his cheeks turn pink.

She pulls back and looks at him. Her eyebrows lift. "It's a natural reaction, Booth. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Kissing is very sexually arousing and..."

"Um, Bones," he gulps. "While all that's true and I'll grant you there's plenty of evidence to support your conclusion, I was actually talking about my back..."