Chapter 38
Author's Note: CONTENT WARNING…mind the rating for a portion of this one. ;)
In retrospect, as Booth thought about it later, he probably could have handled it better than freezing like a deer caught in the headlights.
Rebecca was parked on Booth's driver's side, leaving Brennan to have to walk all the way around from his passenger side where she had parked. So Rebecca caught sight of Brennan first as she rounded the corner.
"Seeley, here's Parker's backpack. I've already signed his... oh, Dr. Brennan! This is a surprise." That statement was followed by a knowing look at the overnight bag in Brennan's hand, a look that said it wasn't really a surprise and it was probably high time.
"Rebecca." Complete, utter awkwardness from Bones, and a forced smile to accompany that greeting. "Booth?" Questioning eyes.
"Bones! What are you doing here?" A child's delight.
"Hi, Parker!" A little less awkwardness from Bones as Parker ran to hug her, and a slightly more genuine smile.
"Are you spending the night too?" Innocent curiosity. He'd noticed the bag too, of course.
And then panic. It was the only word that could describe the look on her face, as she understood on some level that Booth hadn't expected Parker to be there and that her method of answering Parker's simple question would most likely be of great importance to Booth. If only she had any idea what the right answer was.
Panic was also an apt description of the look on Booth's face as he watched the train wreck unfolding in front of him, scared to death what might come out of any one of the three mouths in front of him and what effect it might have on either of the two people he most adored. When Brennan's eyes flew to him for guidance, she correctly deciphered the look on his face, but none of the reasons for it. He saw her recognize it; knew what she took it to mean. And he still couldn't move - unintentionally leaving her to make the wrong decision.
"No! No, Parker. In fact, I was just leaving." She hesitated for just a moment as she backed a step away, obviously trying to decide whether she needed to say something else and then bolt, or just bolt. "Have a good time with your dad. Rebecca...it's nice to see you again."
The sight of her retreating back and the jingle of her keys was enough to unfreeze Booth from his sudden catatonia. Jeez, she hadn't even told him goodbye, not to mention that the last thing in life he wanted was for her to be alone right then, especially after this.
"Bones, wait!" With an apologetic gesture toward Rebecca and Parker that indicated for them to wait there for him for just a second, he followed his partner back around his truck toward her car, keeping his voice low. "Bones, wait. It's okay. Parker's a pretty smart kid, and I'm pretty sure Rebecca figured out how I feel about you a long time ago. It's okay. I want you to stay."
She stopped directly beside the door to her car. "Booth, I've already told you that I'll be fine. It's not necessary for me to intrude on your time with Parker."
She moved to open her car door, and he reached out and snagged her hand in his. "Bones, you're not intruding, and this isn't just about me being worried about you after today. Didn't you hear what I said a minute ago? I want you to stay. Parker wants you to stay. You saw his face...he was thrilled to see you."
He could see that she was less than convinced. "Am I going to sleep on the couch, or are you?" At his look of shock, she clarified. "Although it is highly unlikely that Parker would be traumatized in any way, it seems unlikely that you would be comfortable with us sharing a bed in his presence."
She was still so Bones, even after four years, that it always took him a moment to catch up when she demonstrated just how well she had come to know him and just how much she had changed through his influence. It almost boggled his mind that not only had she realized he might have some reticence on the subject, she was attempting to react sensitively toward it - even though she saw no logical reason for it.
It made his answer swift and sure. "You'll sleep with me, Bones. I'll talk to Parker. It's not like anything's going to happen tonight anyway."
"Why not?" she frowned at him, shifting gears quickly now that the first issue was settled. Now she was much more focused on why, if she was going to share his bed behind a closed and presumably locked door anyway, nothing could happen.
His mouth hung slightly open for half a second before he consciously closed it, trying to think how to answer that one. Ignoring the obvious answer of the very light sleeper in the form of a prepubescent boy a few steps down the hall, he decided to go for something that might make more sense to her. "For one thing, we're both exhausted. For another, remember rule number 3? Physical contact doesn't go any farther until I've taken you on at least two dates? You agreed. I'm not budging."
Her eyes narrowed, and he could almost see the wheels turning. "By physical contact…you mean you touching me, and me touching you. Correct?"
Suspiciously, he answered what seemed like such an obvious question. "Um...yes." It was the only possible answer, which she must have surely known already, but then why did he feel like he'd just lost some ground there?
She nodded one time curtly, a satisfied smile appearing on her face. That smile didn't really match her next words, leaving him more lost than he had been before. "Good. I'm going home, Booth. Enjoy your night with Parker. I'll call you later." He was so busy being reassured by the quick, firm kiss she reached up and planted on his lips that he missed her hand withdrawing from his until it was too late and she already had her car door open.
"Wait...what? Bones!"
"I have work on my book that I need to finish, and you need to spend some time with Parker. I'll call you as soon as I get home so you won't worry." Resolute as she sounded, he still had the gut feeling there was just a little more to it than that, although he wasn't really picking up anything from her that made him worry she was panicking on him. He couldn't really put his finger on what she was doing, honestly.
"Hang on..." he stalled. If she was determined not to spend the evening with him and Parker, he knew pushing her might be the worst thing he could do. He was just going to have to swallow his admittedly alarmist fears about the guy from the club and let her go home if that's what she was determined to do. The awful flashback she'd had earlier still had him worried, but he could call and check on her once or twice - or 10 times.
"Look, at least come to the diner with us first. I don't have anything in the house Parker's going to touch, so we've gotta go get something to eat anyway. Come with us, and then Parker and I will follow you home." And follow you right in the door so I can at least make sure you're safe if you're not going to just stay with me, he finished mentally, but no use crossing that bridge until he got there.
To his relief she agreed, and soon he was loading up his son and bidding a way-too-smirky Rebecca a good trip, wondering just exactly what was going through his partner's head now as he followed her to the diner.
… ooo … ooo …
To Booth's never ending relief, Parker had pretty quickly dropped the question of why Bones had a bag if she wasn't spending the night, and had done so while he and Booth were still in the truck. Dinner at the diner went smoothly, and was really no different than any of the other handful of times they had all three shared a table at the diner through the years. Parker didn't seem to have noticed anything different, anyway, and if Bones seemed a little awkward Booth could just chalk it up to nerves or the incredibly long day she'd had.
After he shut Parker's car door but before getting in the truck himself to follow Bones back to her apartment, he tried one more time to quietly convince her to just stay the night with him. The slow smile that spread across her face gave him the impression once again that something was definitely up, but she didn't give anything away. In fact, she didn't even answer. She just got in her car and started to drive away, leaving him scrambling to get in his own vehicle and catch up with her.
Parker's first clue that something was different was probably the fact that Booth parked and they followed Bones up to her apartment, but he mostly just seemed interested in talking about the pool and when it would be open for summer.
He also didn't bat an eye when his dad left him standing just inside the doorway with Brennan while he started making his way through her apartment like he owned the place, opening closets and checking everything out. He even grinned when Brennan looked down and, after taking a moment to consider her own childhood with Russ and their possible youthful reactions to their own dad's overprotectiveness, she smirked slightly and rolled her eyes at him. The uncharacteristic gesture from the normally buttoned-down grownup lit an answering spark of mischief in the boy's eyes. He smiled up at Brennan, leaning in slightly as though telling her a secret. "He does this sometimes."
"Yes. He does," Brennan agreed, nodding assuredly.
"You should have seen him the night he brought me home and Mom had left the front door standing wide open," he shared.
Brennan smiled back at the one other person with whom she could really engage in a discussion of personal experience about Booth's overprotective Alpha-male tendencies. "Why? What happened?"
Parker shrugged. "I don't know. He made me wait in the car, and he won't tell me what happened inside or what Mom said to him until I have hair on my armpitts. I tried to tell him the door was just open 'cause Mom and her boyfriend had been painting the living room, but he didn't listen. All I know is that he went sneaking up to the door with his gun out like he was James Bond."
"I know who that is!" Brennan told him delightedly, her own eyes lighting up.
"Doesn't everybody?" Parker responded, reminding her more than a little of his dad the way he said it. "Mom was so mad at him for days after that, so mad that she wouldn't even answer the phone when he called to talk to me. She made me answer. She said he scared years off of her life and he's lucky he can still have more kids. Whatever that means."
Brennan was beginning to get into the spirit of the conversation. "One time, he tackled me because he saw a red light and thought a bomb was about to explode."
"Whoa! There was a bomb?"
Brennan shook her head, her own grin growing. "No. It was just a red light on a transmitter."
Parker grinned delightedly, enjoying the fun at his dad's expense. Shaking his head with that big grin on his face, he looked adorably grown up. "How embarrassing!" he proclaimed gleefully.
Booth showed back up just in time to see the two of them laughing and looking just a little too conspiratory, and to hear Parker's final two words. He had to smile as well at the sight of his two favorite people obviously roasting him in his absence and enjoying every second of it.
"Uh-oh. What's embarrassing? And why are my ears burning?"
Brennan piped up immediately, her grin turning to a frown instantly. "I have no way of knowing, Booth. Paresthesia of the ears could result from a number of conditions, ranging from a simple sunburn to peripheral neuropathy as a possible symptom of diabetes or even multiple sclerosis. Perhaps you should see a doctor."
Parker nudged her, and this time it was Booth that was reminded of himself when Parker patiently-but-exasperatedly translated for her in a mock stage-whisper. "No, Bones! He means he knows we were talking about him."
Brennan's attention turned back to Parker. "Oh. I see." Her frown said she didn't, not really. "But that still wouldn't account for the paresthesia."
"You didn't find a bomb did you, Dad?" Parker smirked mischievously, not willing to let his dad off the hook so easily and just dying to flaunt his new piece of info.
"Bones! You told him about that?" Booth asked in alarm, automatically thinking about her refrigerator blowing him up and just exactly how much Parker really didn't need to know about that.
"I can't believe you tackled Bones and there wasn't even a bomb!" Parker remarked, taking full advantage of his new knowledge, not seeing the way Booth relaxed when he realized what incident they were actually talking about.
"I'll be certain to take appropriate security precautions next time I paint, as well," Brennan threw in. "Thank you for warning me." And Parker nodded sagely at her wisdom.
Booth's hands went to his hips, his expression a lot more stern than he really felt. "I was gone for what? Thirty seconds?"
The two people he'd keep right on protecting no matter how much they teased him for it looked at each other, considering. "I'd say at least a minute, don't you think, Parker?"
"Yeah. It takes him at least that long to crawl under all the beds and point his gun at the bathroom cabinets, even though nobody could really fit under there anyway."
Booth pointed a finger at them. "I do not crawl under the beds. And there's nothing to say an intruder couldn't be very short. If you two are finished, Parker's got school in the morning." He approached and clapped both hands on Parker's shoulders, good-naturedly steering him toward the door as he muttered to himself. "Don't know why I bother to send him. He already knows everything anyway."
"Because you have to send him," Brennan answered from right on his heels. "Truancy is against the law."
One hand still on Parker's shoulder right by the door, Booth turned back around to Brennan with a softly amused smile and affection written all over his face as his other hand came to rest at her waist. "Thanks, Bones. I'll keep that in mind."
The air between them changed just a bit as their eyes met, their faces close together as she had followed him right on his heels the few steps toward the door. Booth debated just exactly how to say goodbye with Parker right there, while she stood waiting expectantly, willing to follow his lead in front of his son.
In the end, the decision was made for them. Parker was young, after all, not blind or stupid.
"Whoa! Dad, are you gonna kiss Bones?"
The corners of Booth's lips turned up slightly. His eyes never left Brennan's face, although they did dance back and forth between her eyes and her lips. "I think I might. How would you feel about that, Parks?"
He was a lot less worried about the answer to that one than Brennan. He knew his son well, and even if he hadn't already known Parker adored Bones, the last few minutes had just confirmed it. Brennan, on the other hand, was no longer even looking at Booth; she was completely focused on Parker and how he would respond.
Parker groaned the way only a boy his age could do to express just how mystifying and somewhat gross adult behavior could be. "It took you long enough. Just don't get too mushy. And I'm closing my eyes."
Booth waited until Brennan's eyes came back to him, knowing she would watch Parker to see if he really did close his eyes. "I'm closing mine, too," he whispered to her then, his eyes twinkling, before he did exactly that and gently kissed her goodnight - one of the most chaste kisses they had shared yet, but still not failing to send shivers down Brennan's spine at the soft caress of Booth's lips combined with the suddenly firmer pressure of his hand at her waist.
He released her all too soon, after only a moment, but it was written all over his face how much more he wanted. He hadn't really expected to be apart from her at night again any time soon...or ever, if he could have found a way to convince her. But he'd rather let her spend this one night alone - a million times over, if necessary - than to push her into spending it with him and Parker and end up making her run. "Good night, Bones. You lock this behind us, you hear?"
At her nod, he opened the door and steered Parker out. Little did he know that his night with Bones was far from over.
… ooo … ooo …
At 11:30 that night, long after he had sent Parker to bed and had already crashed himself, his cell phone rang. He had left his phone right next to his pillow before going to sleep, after the third time he'd called to check on her and make sure she hadn't had any more flashbacks after the events of the day. Heart thudding, he sat straight up in bed and answered quickly. "Bones? What's wrong?"
"Is Parker asleep?"
Her relaxed tone set him instantly at ease, and he leaned back against the headboard and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, kicking the covers off so that he sat in only his soft gray sweatpants he usually wore to bed when Parker was over in case the boy needed something in the middle of the night. "Mm-hm. Down the hall snoring like a freight train. Why?"
"Mmm. Are you in bed?"
Everything, and he did mean everything about her tone had changed, and there was nothing relaxing about it.
"Bones..." He wasn't even sure anymore why he thought that warning tone in his voice would actually accomplish anything. It was a lot like trying to stop a nuclear missile with Parker's pellet gun.
"I realized something last night while you were in the shower, Booth."
"Oh yeah?" A conversational tone. He could do conversation, although why she had decided at 11:30 after one of the longest days in recent memory that she suddenly wanted to have a little chat with him was beyond explanation.
"I haven't had an orgasm since before I left for Albania."
Oh.
He also wasn't sure anymore why it continued to shock the hell out of him when Bones acted like Bones and told him exactly what was on her mind.
Almost by habit, he started to slam on the brakes and give his patented response that it wasn't any of his business and he didn't need to know that…until he remembered the happy fact that it most definitely was his business and he most definitely did need to know that.
But what was he even supposed to say to that, all things considered? Fortunately, she must have foreseen his completely frozen state, and was prepared with a follow up.
"I know that you can't say the same, Booth. I know that you didn't take a cold shower last night as you led me to believe you were."
It was a good thing she couldn't see how wide his eyes went.
"Bones, I..." His initial response was to be embarrassed as hell that she had caught him, and he knew he probably should be.
But he could kid himself all he wanted. Suddenly, he knew exactly where this was going, and there wasn't really much sense in pretending it wasn't. He'd figured out a long time ago that something like this was probably coming at some point anyway if he found himself in a relationship with Bones, though he hadn't planned on it happening over the phone. Wasn't much chance that a woman as brain-oriented as the one he loved didn't have a thing for words and wouldn't want some mental stimulation of the verbal type in her bedroom too. Wasn't like he didn't have a pet fantasy, for pretty much that very reason, which centered around telling her in somewhat-less-than-scientific terms exactly what he planned to do to her, while she squirmed under him.
There was a reason, after all, that he was already getting up to close and lock his bedroom door, and there was also a reason he was already turning on his TV at a low volume to drown out any potential noise before he dropped back down onto his bed, already feeling his blood start to move south, the phone cradled close to his ear.
"Okay. How the hell did you know that?"
"Your bathroom mirror," she informed him calmly. "It was completely fogged up, Booth, after a very short amount of time, indicating that you took what was most likely an extremely hot shower. And I also heard you call my name."
Oh. Busted. Double busted. Scientific evidence and a witness account. Good for a conviction in any court.
Time to try for self-deprecating humor. "Listen, Bones, I'm sorry if I misled you. I just knew I was about to get in bed with you, and I don't think I'd have made it otherwise. Forgive me?"
He may as well not have even spoken. If he didn't know better, he'd half believe that she was working off some kind of damn script.
"Do you know whose name I called the last time I made myself come, Booth? The night before I got on the plane to leave?"
The shift in her words didn't go unnoticed, and hearing Temperance Brennan talking about 'making herself come' instead of 'bringing herself to orgasm' brought an unintentional groan from his lips as more blood went racing to his already partially aroused member. She was sure to hear the strained change in his own voice, and he couldn't bring himself to care. The lateness of the hour, and going from sound asleep to the sound of her husky bedroom voice in his ear all seemed incredibly erotic, and he knew he wasn't going to be stopping her even if this definitely wasn't behavior befitting a something-in-between relationship.
Now he knew exactly why she had made a point of confirming that the rules they had agreed upon involved them touching each other. She had found a loophole, and she had been planning this since his parking lot earlier when she asked him that question, and had probably even been plotting what to say when he was sitting so innocently beside her at the diner.
That thought made him bite back another aroused groan, even as he bristled slightly at her question. Knowing her, he wouldn't even be that surprised if she thought it was just perfectly fine to tell him all about some fantasy about another man.
"I better know whose name it was. There's only one right answer to that question, Temperance," he informed her a little roughly. "So if it's anybody's name other than mine..."
"It's always yours, Booth. It's been yours for a long time."
She dropped that bombshell on him so casually that it really took a few seconds to sink in. She had already told him she hadn't done this since Albania - which meant she had been thinking about him when she touched herself even before he told her how he felt. God, how big of an idiot had he been not to ever tell her he loved her and wanted her? He had wasted so much damn time.
"Jesus, Bones. Me too. I promise." Eyes squeezed shut, he poured every possible ounce of emotion into his voice, willing her to hear the utter truth in his words.
"Could you help me with something, Booth? Please?"
"Anything." That answer was pretty automatic.
"I took a cold shower last night. Even after realizing that you hadn't."
"Yeah?" Okay, so now what was this? Her sudden shifts had a tendency to leave him dizzy, especially with so little blood in his brain. Was this some type of guilt trip?
"I regretted that decision for most of the night. I found it highly unsatisfying."
As if he didn't know. "Yeah, well that's kind of the point, Bones."
"No. The point, Booth, is that I don't intend to do it again. I have been extremely aroused for quite some time, and I intend to come tonight. As you're entirely responsible for my condition, I thought perhaps you would be willing to assist me."
His eyes were still shut, and he took a deep breath as he tried to restore some order to his brain, enough to mount at least the pretense of a protest. Which was utter bullshit because he was already sliding down onto his back and getting good and comfortable.
"You're gonna be the death of me, Bones. This is not the way I envisioned this happening."
"You could say no, of course."
Riiiight….and hang up knowing she was just going to go through with it anyway, with or without him? There weren't words to describe just exactly how much she had him on this one.
"I'm pretty sure you already knew I won't."
"It's actually quite rational, Booth." If it wasn't for the change in her breathing that told him in no uncertain terms her fingers were already exploring, it might have been like any other quasi-argument. Instead, he felt his own breath quickening, his fingers tightening on the phone as she continued to plead her case. "You have concerns about my reactions to actual physical touch. Phone sex allows us to achieve mutual gratification for the first time without that threat. It is a logical compromise, and one which should increase both of our confidence when we move forward physically."
"How so?" he asked, trying to keep up with her words as his mind imagined her fingers creeping beneath the edges of whatever ridiculously sexy panties he assumed she had to be wearing.
"We will both have the knowledge that I have already achieved orgasm once while imagining your hands on me, even after the events that occurred in Albania. Actually having your hands on me in an attempt to bring me to orgasm would then be the next logical step, and should be less concerning for both of us after this."
"Uh-huh," he agreed, giving in to the urge to let his hand wander to his groin, and wondering if her argument would make as much sense the next morning when he wasn't rock hard and dying to agree with her. Two highly aroused people probably shouldn't attempt to set any records for world's most logical reasoning. "And when you say 'mutual gratification...'"
"I should think that would be clear, Booth. I intend for you to come with me."
… ooo … ooo …
The next sound that encroached on his senses through the phone lines, before he could even ask what she was wearing, was one that instantly brought him slightly back to earth. Apparently she intended this to be pretty damn fast. But his willingness to give her whatever she needed notwithstanding, he definitely still drew the line somewhere. And that light buzzing told him she had just backed up and taken a running leap across that line. It also told him it was time to drop his last shred of prudishness in front of her and say whatever was necessary to take that thing's place permanently, even in absentia.
"Bones? What the hell is that?"
"I think you know exactly what it is, or you wouldn't have asked." Her words sounded as squinty-Brennan as ever, but her increasingly breathless tone gave her away: the buzzing sound he heard was beginning to do its job. Only he had just accepted that as his job, and he didn't like being upstaged. She had called him, damnit. Had asked for his help, knowing full well there wasn't a chance in hell he'd actually tell her 'no' to anything, just so long as it wouldn't hurt her...especially not when she did such a fantastic job of making it clear it was his fault she was in this state to begin with. All of which meant he planned on being more than just a spectator with a front row seat for something that had little to do with him.
If she thought he was just going to sit back and passively listen while something else did the work for him, she was more wrong than she could imagine.
"Turn that off, Bones. Right now."
"Why?" she asked, and he could still hear that damn buzzing.
He licked his lips, squeezing the phone so hard he feared it would break, hoping that what she wanted from him was the same thing as what he wanted to give. Because he was about to go all in on this deal, and if he was wrong about what she really wanted from this he was about to either embarrass himself badly and get laughed at, or once again have pushed way too hard. He almost felt lightheaded as he finally answered her.
"Because you asked for my help, so if you want me to be part of this it's going to be me that brings you off, not that thing. You're going to do this with nothing but your own fingers, exactly like I tell you to, and you're going to imagine they're mine while you do it."
Silence met his words, amplified only a couple seconds later when the buzzing abruptly stopped.
That sudden silence was what gave him all the power and let him know he had her - even when she protested on a frustrated whimper.
"M- but Booth, I don't know if I can. It's been quite an extended period of time since I've done this without the added stimulation of..."
"Oh yes, you can, Bones," he assured her, hoping like hell that he wasn't lying and that he could pull himself together enough to help. Because he had just put the responsibility squarely on his own shoulders, and it wasn't going to look very good for him if he couldn't deliver. And he'd be damned if she was turning back to that thing tonight because Seeley Booth failed to satisfy. He might not be able to provide her the type of mental stimulation that gay-Jason had, but he'd logged enough hours thinking about every possible way he could make her come that he was pretty sure he could provide her plenty of mental stimulation of a different kind.
"Just be patient. We're gonna take this slow."
She groaned in frustration and he bit his lip and grinned despite his arousal, reading her mind - if he said the word 'slow' about one more thing, she was probably going to off him.
"First tell me what you're wearing, Bones." Okay, that was a selfish request that probably wasn't gonna help her much, but he desperately wanted to know.
"Damnit, Booth..."
"That's not an article of clothing that I'm aware of, Bones," he told her, mimicking her best squinty tone and loving how completely un-scientific she sounded in the throes of frustrated arousal. It was a side of her he definitely wanted to explore.
"Nothing," she fired back, challenge clear in her voice. "I'm naked. Well, other than the bubbles."
Well damn. She won that round. And she had to know it too, from his sharp inhalation of breath and sudden speechlessness as he imagined her wet, naked, and slippery in her bathtub with her fingers between her legs and his name on her lips, her hair piled up on top of her head and one leg thrown up on the...
"What are you wearing?" she volleyed back at him before he could recover.
His answer was true by the time the last syllable made it across the phone lines to her ears. "Nothing."
There was a slight pause. "You sleep naked, Booth?"
"Mm-hm. Usually."
She made a contented sound. "That's how I've always imagined you sleeping."
His eyes fluttered and his hand gripped himself more tightly at that particular revelation, but he viciously brought himself back under control. It was time to get the whole conversation back under his own control too, but he was going to do it by giving her the illusion of having it herself.
"What else have you imagined, Bones? Tell me what you imagined the last time you screamed my name."
If the word 'cunnilingus' came out of her mouth again like when she fessed up to dreaming about him and feeling him up in his sleep...
But rather than words, all he heard was her irregular breathing and a little moan that went straight to his groin. "Bones. Answer me. Are you touching yourself right now?"
"Mm-hm." It was more of a long moan than an answer, and as usual he was left to wonder exactly who was in control of what.
"Stop." That was definitely an order.
Only her whimper told him that she had obeyed. "Good. Now answer my question, and then I'll let you touch yourself. What did you imagine last time you screamed my name?"
He could imagine her with her eyes squeezed shut, her hand tightly gripping the edge of the tub as she fought to do as he asked. "Your tongue."
It sounded as though it had taken great effort to get that much out, but no way was he letting her get away with that. She loved so much to talk about sex with him - had been trying to get sexual conversation out of him and make him squirm for years. She was about to get her goddamn chance, both to get him to talk about sex with her and to be on the receiving end of the squirming.
"Where, Bones?"
"But you said..." she protested, and he cut her off.
"You're a best selling novelist for God's sake, so I know you can be more descriptive than that. I'll let you touch yourself when I'm happy with your answer. You imagined my tongue. Where?" Already, his hand was beginning to set up a slow rhythm, stroking himself and resisting the urge to speed up and push toward the finish line.
The frustrated sound she made went a long way toward telling him just how impatient she was. "Everywhere."
"Be specific, Bones."
"You told me today to always be as non-specific as possible."
God, she wanted to argue this point now? Jesus. Only Bones. Even phone sex involved bickering.
"Yeah, with Angela. And Caroline. And your damn dad. Not with me."
"How specific do you want me to be?"
"Pretty damn specific. Like this, Bones. Which hand do you have the phone in?"
"Neither. I have the earpiece."
That almost brought a chuckle from him. Of course she was perfectly prepared. Why did he expect anything different? "Good girl. But you still only get one hand until I'm happy with your answer. Put your left hand on the edge of the tub and don't move it." He heard water moving around her, and knew she had obeyed. "Now take your right hand and play with your breasts. You pick which one first. Are your nipples hard for me?"
"Yesss," she whispered, sending another lightning bolt straight through him and making him have to concentrate on keeping things slow.
"Squeeze them, Bones, just like you know I would do. First one and then the other, with that one hand, but don't move the other hand off the tub. Nice and easy. Gentle, Bones. Don't you dare touch yourself anywhere else. Does that feel good?"
"M- I need more, Booth." Her voice was so breathy that he felt the heady sense of power shoot straight through him, making his cock swell and making him feel like a man through and through.
"You're going to get more, baby, just as soon as you answer my question. Where was my tongue, Bones? In your mouth?"
"Mmmm...yes, there too."
That made him smile with something resembling tenderness, but he kept it out of his voice as he rewarded her compliance. "Use both hands now, Bones. I want you to squeeze both nipples harder now and tell me where else you imagined my tongue."
"Boooth..." was her only reply, increasing the speed of his own hand on himself as he imagined her doing just exactly what he had instructed.
"Where else was my tongue, Bones? Answer me. Was my mouth on your breasts? Did I lick them? Did I pull your hard little nipples in my mouth and suck them?"
"Oh God, Booth." She had obviously expected that she would be the one fully in control of this little game, and he could tell that despite her insistence that she hated surprises, finding out that he could take control and talk to her that way was a good one.
"How hard did I suck them, Bones? Just a little bit, so that you begged for more?"
She groaned in a way that let him know she was tugging on her nipples hard, and let him know exactly what her answer would be. "Yes. And then hard...so hard."
Licking his lips, he realized that she had been right; this truly was a unique opportunity to test her limits from safely across town, without risking frightening her. And if he played his cards right, he could get her to tell him without even really asking.
"Where are we while I'm licking your nipples, Bones? Tell me where we are and what our bodies are doing. Where do you want me?" He realized he was holding his breath waiting for her answer.
"Your bed. You're on top of me, Booth, and I want you there."
His eyes almost rolled back in his head. "Good answer, baby. Oh, God, Bones... Where are your hands? What are you doing with them while I'm sucking you?"
The erotic groan that came out of her was almost his undoing. "Nothing. They're over my head. You've got them stretched out over my head."
"Jesus, Bones." It was like she had picked the fantasy straight from his own mind. How many of their other fantasies were a perfect match for each other? The very thought had him gripping himself more tightly, beginning to pant with the effort it took not to go off like a rocket. He wanted her with him when he let go, and he wasn't ready to put an end to this yet.
It struck him that somewhere along the way they had stopped talking about her past fantasies and started talking present tense. And that was even better, because if the thought of him holding her arms down while he sucked her nipples for all he was worth could still turn her on post-Albania, that meant they'd get there one day. It still didn't mean he'd be jumping on top of her in bed and holding her arms down the very first time they made love or even the first 100 times - because clearly what she was comfortable with by phone when he was clear across town might be a little different in person - but it sure as hell increased his confidence that the day would come that he wouldn't have to hold back with her and he could make love to her with every bit of the passion he felt for her.
With another deep breath, he tried to keep her from hearing just how much she was affecting him, but the groan he barely managed to stifle probably gave her a clue. "Do you still want more, baby? Do you want me to touch you anywhere else?"
She had obviously lost none of her steep learning curve: she had already learned that specific was the way to go. "I want your fingers inside me, Booth. Right now."
Had she seen his predatory look, it might have helped push her a little farther along. "Then finish answering my question. Was my tongue anywhere else? Where was my tongue when you screamed my name, Bones?"
He had definitely made his point. "Between my legs. Teasing my clitoris. Sucking my clitoris. Inside me. Everywhere at once."
It was almost too much, his hips bucking up into his hand and his other hand fisting the sheets. "God, Bones, do you know how long I've waited to taste you?"
"Booth...please..."
'I want you to put one finger inside you, Bones, knuckle deep. Right hand. Keep your left hand right where it is on your nipple, and don't stop."
"Please let me..."
"I think about tasting you all the time, Bones," he admitted, voice hoarse and unable to stop his impromptu confession. "Last night, with you wet against my stomach? I could smell you, even over the strawberries. All I wanted was to get my tongue inside you and make you scream."
"BOOTH!"
"Push that finger all the way in, Bones, and then I want you to stroke yourself with it - in and out. Nice and slow. Don't touch your clit. Not yet. I'll tell you when."
She sounded ready to cry, and his own hand sped up again from where he had forced himself to back down the tempo. "Booth, I need to...I need you inside me."
He was getting dangerously close. "Add another finger, Bones, and pick up the pace. I want you to push them in as far as you can. Do you feel my fingers in you, baby?"
"Yes, Booth. Your...ah...your fingers - Booth - I love your fingers. They're so - oh! - so long. I can't wait to..."
If he let her keep going down that road, he was done for. Just knowing she had noticed the length of his fingers and had been thinking about them inside her was more than enough stimuli. He was already practically talking through clenched teeth, barely holding it together. "Me either, baby. And I will, soon. Bring your other hand down and touch your clit for me, now, Bones. You know that's my tongue on you, don't you?"
"Yessss...more, Booth. Harder..."
He was as out of breath as if he had just run a marathon. "Rub it hard, Bones. Tease it with your finger easy, and then rub it hard. Keep going with those two fingers inside you. Faster. Harder. You know I can do this for you, don't you, baby?"
"BOOTH...I'm CLOSE...oh, please..."
He gritted his teeth and just tried to hang on. "I didn't tell you to come yet, Bones. Keep going and answer my question. Do you know I can do this to you?"
The sound that came out of her mouth couldn't have passed for a word by anybody's definition, but he accepted it. He couldn't hold out any longer, either. His hips were bucking wildly into his hands and the pressure building up was more than he could bear. His own voice was so strained he hoped she could even understand him at that point.
"Are you ready, Temperance? Are you ready for me to make you come so hard?"
She whimpered plaintively, her breath coming in gasps in his ear, and he knew she was there. "Use your fingers, Bones, to feel what my mouth is doing to you. I'm going to suck on your clit hard, and you're going to keep fucking yourself with my fingers while you come and scream my name. You're going to do it right..."
"BOOTH!"
"Now, Bones! Come for me, right now."
His only regret was that he couldn't see her as she shattered with her fingers between her legs and his name on her lips; but he could certainly hear her, and it sent him over the edge right with her.
"Booth!" He could hear her breathing hard, gasping and moaning, and her cries mingled with his.
"Bones...I'm with you...I love you...Oh God, Bones..."
And then there was only the sound of both their labored breathing, and the low sound of Booth's television playing in the background.
… ooo … ooo …
Breathing eventually returned to something near normal on both ends of the phone line. But although he should have been relaxed and ready to fall asleep, now that the heat of the moment had passed there were so many thoughts racing through Booth's mind that he didn't even know where to start. The only thing he was sure of was that he needed to get her talking before she could hastily hang up on him and leave him to spend a sleepless night tormenting himself about whether he had crossed the line in any way - well, whether he had crossed any of her lines, anyway. He'd pretty much obliterated all of his, though it really shouldn't have surprised him that she was capable of getting him to do so, and so very, very easily. It seemed there was very little she couldn't get him to do. Strangely, he didn't even mind.
"Bones?" he tried softly, his voice infinitely tender.
"Hm?"
Well that didn't tell him much. God, he was as tired of asking this question as she probably was of answering it, but he was going to ask it yet again - had to ask it again - because he just couldn't shake his long-standing fears that she'd run from him after a moment of intimacy; even one over the phone. And over the phone was possibly even worse, because she wasn't even within reach where he could stop her from running out without talking to him. She might have been the one with the deep-seated abandonment issues, but ironically he was the one most in need of reassurance.
"Are you all right?"
"Mm-hm." He heard a long, contented sigh escape her lips and cross the phone line into his ears by way of answer, but even as reassuring as that was he still just wanted to hear her voice. He waited patiently - or at least he thought he did - for all of another five seconds afterward. In anticipation, he raised up on an elbow, pressing the phone closer to his ear as though he might gain a clue to her mental state if he just listened a little more closely to her breathing.
"Bones? Maybe you could actually say something right now, huh?"
"Oh. Okay." There was a second's pause as she obviously tried to formulate a statement. "The water's getting cold."
His eyes rolled skyward with the realization that his always just-below-the-surface mild desire to shake her had returned full force less than two minutes after the euphoria of 'mutual gratification' with her had begun to fade. Sure, she sounded all satisfied, happy, and even mildly dazed, all of which pleased him to no end, but he was looking for a little more than that.
"Not exactly the response I was hoping for, Bones. You're kinda killing me here."
There was a brief pause, and he could almost picture her looking confused as she tried to figure out what he wanted. It was enough to make him decide to just give up, relax - since she obviously didn't plan to hang up on him and jump a plane for East Lactobaskinstangolia or someplace at that exact moment - and just start the entire conversation over.
"You know what? Never mind. I just wish you were here with me right now," he told her instead, dropping back onto his back and throwing his arm over his eyes, his voice deep and gritty with both exhaustion and emotion.
He had never heard her post-orgasm voice either, he realized, as he listened to her slightly deeper tone slide richly around his eardrum through the phone line; that realization gave him just a twinge of regret that this was all happening with them separated. He didn't get to dwell on it, though, once her actual words started to sink in.
"I agree. But even if I was, Booth, it wouldn't matter. The average refractory period after orgasm for a male of your age would almost certainly prevent..."
That popped his eyes open and stopped his impending relaxation pretty effectively. "Whoa! Stop! Stop right there." At least he didn't want to shake her anymore. On the down side, he was quickly developing a desire to strangle her. "That is not what I meant."
With a sigh, he brought the sharpness in his tone down a couple of notches, reminding himself that it really wasn't her fault that pretty much every other bastard who'd ever gotten her into their beds had taught her to believe that once they climaxed, that was the end of intimacy until they could get it up again. Their loss, his gain, but they would all still be much better off not to ever cross paths with him.
Steeling his nerves, he readied himself for the argument that was sure to ensue about how absolutely unnecessary and needlessly sentimental his next statement was going to be. But first things first...
"First of all, jeez, I'm not that old, and you might just be surprised." Male pride taken care of, he got around to his real point. "But that's not why I wish you were here with me, Bones. I just want you here right now so I can hold you. I never thought this would happen this way, and no, I don't regret it at all, but I do still wish that I could go to sleep now with my arms around you and wake up the same way. You deserve that. We both do."
To his utter surprise, an argument wasn't what he got. After a few silent seconds of listening to her breathing, which he thought might have picked up slightly in pace, the sudden sounds of light splashing and water moving around told him that she had just sat straight up.
"I could be at your apartment in 20 minutes," she told him quietly, seriously - a seriousness that surprised him. But the mildly uncertain vulnerability in her voice - almost a questioning tone - had him clenching his teeth not to give her the first answer that screamed through his brain...
God, yes.
God yes, except for the fact that it was the middle of the night, and there was some bastard out there messing with her - some bastard that Booth didn't trust not to do anything stupid, like trying to approach her and ending up with a former Army Ranger sniper on his trail so fast his head would spin. Not that he'd be difficult to track, because Bones would probably have both the guy's legs broken before Booth could even assemble his rifle. But still. It was the principle of the matter - Seeley Booth was a gentleman, and gentlemen don't ask the women they love to drive across town alone in the middle of the night to come to them. Even though the woman in question could probably kick his butt on a really good day.
So on a long sigh, he gave the answer he least wanted to give. "No, Bones. You have no idea how bad I want you to. But no. If Parker wasn't here I'd come to you, but I can't. Don't leave your apartment tonight. Please."
"Booth?"
"Yeah?"
She paused a beat, just long enough for him to foolishly expect another heart-melting response like the last one. He should have known better.
"That's sexist and somewhat insulting. I've trekked through the Tibetan jungles alone. I'm perfectly capable of venturing out at night without male protection."
A smug grin slowly spread across his face as he realized that he'd actually already won this war. It hadn't exactly escaped his notice that while she had given the expected argument against his old-fashioned protective notions, she hadn't even batted an eye about him wanting to hold her all night after 'sex.' In fact, she'd all but jumped at the chance. Not that he was stupid enough to point that out...
But he'd definitely won the war. Because if she planned on letting him hold her in his arms to sleep after he made love to her - like he planned to do every night for the rest of his life once they got through this - she'd be protected anyway. The argument was a moot point.
Of course, although the war might have been won, he still needed to finish this particular battle. He didn't want her out running around by herself.
"I know you can, Bones," he soothed. "But don't you think Parker might be a little curious how you just suddenly appeared in my bed in the middle of the night after you already told him you weren't sleeping over?"
To be honest, Parker probably wouldn't care one little bit so long as he still got bacon, eggs and donuts for breakfast. And yes, playing the concerned father card was somewhat manipulative. But if it kept her in her apartment behind her locked door where nobody outside could get to her while his hands were figuratively tied, then he didn't feel too bad about it.
"Oh." It was that prim, proper little 'oh' that only popped its head up when she had been outmaneuvered but wasn't entirely sure she wanted to admit it. It was so cute that it made him bite his lip to hold in his chuckle. Not that he was stupid enough to mention that, either. "Yes, of course."
"Hey, Bones?"
"Yes?"
"This might be the wrong thing to say, but..." The words had just started spilling across his lips before he really thought them through. He realized with a sudden and almost painful stab that he might should have kept it to himself, but there wasn't any going back now. She'd never let it rest until he told her after hearing that lead-in, and while he might be willing to manipulate a little bit for her safety's sake, he still wasn't going to flat-out lie to her. Taking a deep breath, he gathered his courage and finished. "I really want to be in the same room with you next time we do that."
He realized he wasn't breathing while he waited for her to reply. But of course he was going to get to say it again, because she took him literally.
"You want to have phone sex while in the same room? That seems...redundant."
"No! I meant..." He didn't even know what he meant, other than that he just needed to suck it up and spit it out plainly, which he would really try to do if she'd just stop talking.
"Or are you suggesting that the next step should be mutual masturbation, wherein we would each independently manually stimulate ourselves to orgasm while watching one another?"
How did things like that roll off her tongue so easily? He turned red just thinking about it, even if that mental image coming out of her pretty little mouth did start the process of disproving her data on refractory periods for males of his age. It wasn't like the thought of watching her pleasure herself had never even crossed his mind. Not that, once again, he was stupid enough to mention that either. Again, he took a deep breath, sincerely hoping he wasn't about to be coming on too strong.
The thought had occurred to him on more than one occasion that his own reluctance to move forward might actually be part of the reason she seemed so comfortable pursuing an advance in their sexual relationship. She had all the control, and she had been the aggressor at every turn, just as he had once discussed with Sweets. Even what had just happened had been because she pushed for it.
Frankly, even after all they had done, he was more than a little terrified to topple that delicate balance and make even one first move, or reveal to her what he wanted physically, or even give in too quickly to anything she pursued. But the relative safety of the phone as opposed to being in the same room with her emboldened him, just as it had a few minutes earlier.
Closing his eyes and praying he wasn't making a mistake, he took a gamble.
"No, Bones. I mean that next time we...next time we, you know, do that, I want it to be for real. You know?" He had started this now, and he was going to finish it. He sure as hell wasn't leaving room for her to misunderstand, not when he had come this far. "I want us to really touch each other. I want it to really be my fingers, my tongue touching you...inside you. I want it to be... Bones, I want to make love to you."
He heard her shaky intake of breath...
And he panicked. He didn't even give her time to answer. He just completely panicked.
Backpedaling hard, he sat bolt upright and backtracked to the last possibility she had brought up, no matter how red it was going to make him if that's what she wanted. At the moment, anything seemed safer than what he had just suggested. If anybody had told him three weeks earlier that he'd voluntarily even discuss a topic like mutual masturbation with her, he'd have told them they were crazy.
"But if..." he stammered, hoping she couldn't hear the blind terror in his voice that he had just scared her off, and praying he wouldn't hear the click of the phone disconnecting. He wasn't sure what he'd do if she ran from him now. "I mean, Bones, if you'd rather… if that's what you want, then - then I'll do whatever you need me to next time. I will. If you need me in the room with you but not touching you... and if you need me to - well, you know - then...I will, Bones. I'll do that." He paused for a half second, but she still didn't speak, so his panicked backpedaling took a step further back. "Or not. I mean, I'll do it if you want me to, but not if...if you don't." Mentally, he was trying to make sure he had covered all the bases in that rambling recant, his ears and neck burning like fire.
She sounded a little strange to him when she answered, but he couldn't read her. He was way, way too worried about her response to accurately get a read on her without projecting his own worries.
"It would be a rational next step prior to attempting intercourse, allowing for mutual gratification in one another's physical presence without actual physical contact."
"Okay," he agreed quickly, face flaming, more mortified at having pushed too hard than he could ever be at the thought of giving her what she needed. His heart was still thudding in his chest at an alarming rate of speed. That had been way too close. What had made him think it was okay to start making demands like that? "Bones, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to push you if you're not ready for..."
"But it's not what I want either," she cut him off, ignoring his interruption as she continued, and probably just slightly oblivious to exactly how hard her next words were going to hit the man who would rather cut off his own arm than hurt her.
Her voice was full of certainty, underscored by just a hint of something resembling shyness as she spoke words she had never thought to hear come out of her mouth - at least not until one seemingly ordinary night at the diner when Seeley Booth had made sure and certain that 'making love' was a concept that would fascinate her and draw her with an almost magnetic pull until she experienced it for herself.
"I want it to be real too, Booth. We agreed to two dinner dates before moving forward. But after the second one...I think - I want you to make love to me."
His breath left him all in a whoosh. He had not even considered it being that soon, even with what he had just said. "Bones..." he whispered, almost reverently. "I - are you sure?" Suddenly, the prospect terrified him far more than it had probably ever terrified her, and he was urgently desperate to see her face and look in her eyes. All of the bridges they hadn't yet crossed flashed through his mind's eye, giving him even more to worry about. "We haven't even...I mean what if..."
Her almost shy tone disappeared in favor of her normal matter-of-fact squint voice, now that she had something to dispute him about. "I haven't had a fearful reaction to you in quite some time now, Booth."
That dragged him back to earth pretty fast. "Haven't had - Bones, for God's sake, what about today! I saw your face. You were right back there in that room, and you scared me half to death!" The memory slammed into his chest like a brick, and he went into full scale retreat mode. "No. This is a bad idea. It's too soon to even try. No way."
"Yes, Booth. I did have a flashback today, but it certainly wasn't about you," she rebutted calmly. "When the officer applied the handcuffs, it caused a strong memory of my captivity in Albania prior to your arrival. Aside from the first few days after our return, most of my flashbacks have revolved around Edon abducting and binding me, and my captivity in the warehouse bed. They have had little to do with you in any role other than my rescuer, and in fact have had nothing to do with sexual assault. They have centered mostly upon being trapped and restrained, which is entirely different. In my discussion with Dr. Wyatt, he caused me to understand the distinction and possible triggers."
Booth opened his mouth to protest and then immediately closed it as he realized that both she and Gordon-Gordon were right. Just because something caused a fear response in her didn't automatically make it his fault, no matter how much he might like to blame himself. And other than that incident in her motel room, even the times she had reacted fearfully to him he had been blocking her in somehow or approaching too quickly when she had nowhere to go - and several of those times while they were arguing. Actually, other than the motel room, she hadn't really tensed up even once when they had kissed or touched in a romantic way...
But on the other hand, what if the only reason she hadn't had any flashbacks about him hurting her was because he had been so extremely cautious not to do anything that could trigger one? Every single first move had been made by her, and he hadn't even agreed too readily to her advances. How could he be sure that the very first time he started something himself it wasn't going to send her mind right back to that godforsaken bed in Albania with him holding her down and making her think he was about to hurt her?
And then there were her nightmares, which were an entirely different creature and which he damn sure knew still involved 'sexual assault' as she so clinically put it.
And yet...this was what she wanted. She wanted him, and she wanted to restore normalcy to that area of her life. How could he continue to deny her what she wanted and even needed?
He drew a deep, almost shaky breath. This wasn't a decision he was making this time of night after all that had just happened. There was no way he could think clearly with two all-too-fresh and all-too-contradictory memories warring for dominance in his mind and pulling him in opposite directions: first, her face as she flashed back when the officer cuffed her; but then second, her voice crying his name through the phone lines as she came apart imagining him touching her. Each was too powerful, too swaying, too much too ignore. And he had too much riding on this decision to hastily choose one and make her a promise that risked signing the death warrant on his relationship with the one woman he wanted to have for the rest of his life.
"Listen, Bones. Let me think about that, okay?"
He could almost see her frown. "You're the one who suggested it, Booth."
"I know what I said. But I didn't necessarily mean quite that soon, Bones. I'm not saying no, okay? I just...let me think about this and figure out how I want to go about it, all right? And in the meantime, you're still going to be seeing Dr. Wyatt?"
"Twice a week."
He expelled every ounce of the air in his lungs, more nervous than he had been in a while. "Good. That's good, Bones. I think that'll help."
She sighed into the phone, a sleepy, relaxed sound, resigned to the fact that nothing would be resolved that night. "I should go to sleep, Booth, and you probably should as well. You have to take Parker to school in the morning."
He nodded distractedly until he remembered she couldn't see him. "Yeah..." He reluctantly agreed. "You're right. Are you sure everything's okay? Your doors are locked?"
"I'm fine," she assured him. "I'll talk to you tomorrow?" It was a question and a statement all wrapped in one.
"You know you will," he gently scolded, and then hesitated, unwilling to let her go. "I love you, Bones. You know that right?"
Longing filled him as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He knew she didn't always repeat it; he 'got' her, and most of the time he didn't even need it. Just so long as she showed him, he was happy. But tonight, he needed to hear it. Desperately.
"I know," she answered quickly, and then hesitated. And then she set his heart pounding in happy reassurance. It was going to be the longest 'I love you too' he had ever heard, but he wouldn't have traded one squinty word.
"And although you've given no indications that your feelings have changed, you continue to tell me. While that seems redundant, I've found..." She paused, with him hanging on her every word, but he waited patiently with the full knowledge that she would finish. She did, with only a hint of awkward, rushed vulnerability. "I've found that I like hearing it. And based on that, considering that you are the more emotionally oriented of the two of us, I've concluded that you most likely have a strong desire to hear it in return, despite the fact that my feelings have also not changed. Am I correct, Booth?"
"Yeah," he rasped, unable to say more around the lump in his throat. God, he loved this woman. He swallowed hard, never wishing harder that she was within reach. "Yeah. That's right."
"I love you."
He breathed deeply, fighting for control, not daring to give voice to any of the million responses that immediately bubbled up in his throat. Even if she liked hearing he loved her, it'd probably scare the hell out of her exactly how much and how passionately he loved her, right then and always. Hell, it scared him. And right along with that love, fierce protectiveness swelled up forcefully.
"Bones, promise you'll call me if anything happens tonight - I mean anything. You hear me? A flashback, a nightmare, a knock on your door - I want to know about it."
She agreed, and all too quickly she was getting ready to hang up. "Good night, Booth."
"G'nite, Bones."
It didn't take him long to realize that trying to sleep was ludicrous when all he could think about was should he or should he not agree to try to make love to his beautiful partner for the first time after their second date.
… ooo … ooo …
He dragged poor, grumbling Parker out of bed bright and early the next morning, an hour and a half earlier than he had originally planned, having come to a conclusion about his next step and needing to put it into place early. He had already made several phone calls, and also already had a huge breakfast made for the sleepy little boy, who after his first donut quickly warmed to the idea of helping his dad engineer a surprise for Bones in her office before school. After all, Parker liked surprises. Didn't everybody? And he liked being part of surprises too - he had learned that about himself when he helped his dad give Bones a Christmas tree one year.
By the time Booth bundled him out the door, Parker was chattering excitedly, never dreaming that his dad could possibly be way more excited about this particular surprise than he was.
… ooo … ooo …
Brennan was a little surprised when a bleary-eyed Angela showed up at her door bright and early the next morning - and just a little jumpy when the doorbell first rang, despite the fact that she'd never have admitted it.
"Ange?" she asked, after checking the peephole and quickly opening the door. "What are you doing here? It's 6:00 A.M. I was just about to leave for work."
"Coffee." That cryptic reply came as Angela all but staggered through her front door into her living room.
Brennan closed the door behind her. "You came here for...coffee? Don't you have any at home?"
Angela glared at her. "Nuh-uh, Brennan. It's way too early for you to be you. We're going to get coffee. Right now."
"I've already had coffee."
"Shut up, Bren," Angela replied, without any real venom. "I'm playing the best friend card. You have to just go along with me on this one. I'm driving. You're coming with me. We're going to get coffee. I'm going to drink coffee. You can either drink coffee or not. I don't care."
"What's going on?" Brennan asked suspiciously.
"Coffee. Now."
… ooo … ooo …
Angela eventually coaxed Brennan into her car, cutting off any and all protests about getting to work on time. After the third cup of coffee Angela slowly downed at the diner while Brennan waited, impatiently checking her watch, Angela finally peered out the window straining to see something.
"All right, Bren. I think I'm good now. You want me to take you home to get your car?"
It wasn't exactly a textbook example of subtlety, nor had it been intended to be, and Brennan whirled around to look in the direction Angela had just been staring.
"Was that Booth's truck? And was that Parker's arm waving out the window?"
"Of course not, sweetie." Angela's voice was absolutely dripping with sarcasm, but as usual Brennan missed it completely.
"Oh. Then what were you looking at?"
Angela just shook her head. She had no idea why Booth had woken her from a perfectly delicious dream by making her phone scream at her at 5:00 in the morning, and no idea why he had all but begged her to keep Brennan out of her office until she saw him drive past the diner. She really just wanted to go home and sleep. But if he had filled Brennan's office with something spectacular, there better at least be a box with a pair of diamond earrings on her own chair, or she'd probably kill them both. Once she had a nap.
… ooo … ooo …
All of her irritation about being late was forgotten the moment Brennan impatiently pushed open her office door and flicked the light.
In fact, she had to laugh out loud. Angela wasn't the only one who had chosen to forego subtlety that morning. In fact, Angela wasn't even in the running with Booth on that one; and Brennan didn't need a card to tell her that she had pushed Booth over the edge in more ways than one the night before. Her only question was where Booth had managed to find a 24-hour florist, but even that didn't really surprise her. Sometimes she thought he could do anything. Knowing him, he'd had them on standby for days.
Her office had turned into a daffodil. An astronomical number of...ahem, a lot of daffodils.
Everywhere. Strewed in her chair, across her desk, her couch, arranged around the knickknacks on her shelves, even lining a pathway across her floor to her desk.
There was even one sticking out of the skull that sat on the shelf behind her desk...which was how she came to the conclusion that he might possibly have had some help. Jasper and Brainy Smurf, from their perches on her desk, even each held a daffodil; that, she was pretty sure, was the older Booth's doing. And the jury was still out on the flower in the skull...could've been the older or younger version.
There wasn't a daisy in sight.
She had to bite her lip to hold back the smile when she saw the bright yellow envelope sticking up out of the one truly massive arrangement on her desk, huge arrows pointing all around to the rather large words written in thick, bright red marker across the center of it: "READ ME!"
Where he had found a white flag she wasn't sure, but a medium sized one stuck up from the center of the arrangement, just slightly taller than the flowers around it, signaling his surrender. She supposed she'd have to read the card to find out exactly what he was surrendering to, although the lack of any daisies gave her a pretty good idea.
Her eyes next tracked upward, above the vase, her smile growing as she followed the string hanging from her ceiling down to a huge sign hung directly over the vase, written in childish scrawl that she immediately knew was Parker's doing, at his dad's verbatim instruction.
"Bones! Read the card this time!" Huge arrows pointed down from the sign as well.
He needn't have worried. She planned to make a beeline for the card this time.
Quickly, she turned to close her door to keep anyone else from coming in before she was ready to explain the garden in her office, and this time there was no holding back the laughter. Attached to the back of her door was yet another sign, written in bright red marker, each small sentence on a different numbered line. This handwriting was more adult, if only slightly, and she was very familiar with it.
"Stop. Do not open door. Turn around. Walk to desk. Remove card. Read card. Don't leave. Call Booth."
Feeling more like it was Christmas morning than she had since she was 14, she crossed her office in two steps. Ripping open the envelope, she pulled out a duplicate of the first card, a gorgeous field of daffodils on the front with a blank inside.
Only this time, only a few lines of script were neatly scrawled onto the blank inside the card:
"I think it's safe to say we blew something-in-between right out of the water last night. So I'm not doing this backwards anymore. I'll be at your apartment at 7:00, and I'm taking you to dinner tonight. Date number one, Bones. Traditionally ends with a kiss. I can't wait. -Booth"
… ooo … ooo … ooo
A few doors away in the Jeffersonian, another woman was smiling and resisting the temptation to barge into Brennan's office and see for herself what the most too-good-to-be-true man she'd ever had the pleasure of knowing had done with the time she had sacrificed sleep to buy him.
As she considered that, Angela spun the pretty yellow friendship rose round and round in her hands, smiling at the attached note that she was pretty sure baby-Booth had written for his dad: 'Thank you..for everything.'
TO BE CONTINUED…