Brennan woke on Saturday morning staring at the wall in her bedroom. She had to prepare for her day, and since she still hadn't heard from Booth, she was very much dreading the evening. She hadn't been sleeping well, and for some reason, the glass of wine she had before she had retired the night before had given her a slight headache that pounded rhythmically in her head. She then heard the faint buzzing of her front doorbell and groaned, rolling onto her back. The doorbell buzzed again, almost insistently, and she thought for a moment, that maybe, perhaps, it was Booth. At the thought, she nearly leapt from the bed, glancing to her phone to see if there had been any messages on her phone during the night that she hadn't seen, and she grumbled disappointedly at the fact that there hadn't been. Booth had been gone since Thursday, and already she was suffering from withdrawal. "Pathetic." She mumbled to herself as she grabbed her crutches and moved toward the door, grabbing a glance at herself in the mirror, she noted she was decent enough to answer the door at eight in the morning on a Saturday. If anyone expected her to be in anything other than a t-shirt and sweatpants with a messy ponytail in her hair, their expectations were far too high. She moved through the apartment quickly, hearing the bell buzz again. "I'm coming… stop ringing the damn…" She opened the door and was greeted immediately by a man standing at her door with a large package. "Bell…" She muttered.
"Doctor Temperance Brennan?" The man greeted with a friendly smile, she tilted her head and gave him a scrutinizing glare.
"Yes?"
"Package for you."
"I didn't… order anything." She said softly, mostly to herself as she stepped back and allowed the man to enter the apartment.
"Well, this was a special delivery, it was set up a couple of days ago… guy said make sure that I delivered this, and… this…" He said, holding out a long, narrow white box. "This morning specifically… that I needed to install this for you… he paid extra."
"Well, let me see what it is first…" She said, raising her eyebrows, she moved around the package and looked at the size of it. Rectangular, and fairly thin, she was unsure of what it was until she reached her fingertips below the top of it, and pulled just a bit from the corner, a small smile began to appear on her face, as she tore the paper from the object, immediately recognizing the antique mirror that Booth had removed from her apartment, the one that he had fallen into that day, completely fixed and restored. Slipped into the corner of the mirror was a slip of paper, her name delicately traced across the front of it. She looked to the delivery man, and smiled. "It… can be installed in the bathroom." She said, pointing to the correct room. "You'll see where it goes…" She said, as the man nodded and walked past her with the mirror, disappearing into the bathroom.
She turned, holding the paper in her hands, she maneuvered toward the couch and sat down, her eyes moving toward the box that sat unopened on her coffee table, and opened the note. Written in delicately scrawled handwriting, was a message that made her smile so brightly, that it reached her eyes, and then some.
Who is predictable now?
Love,
B.
She stared at the words on the paper and smiled at their conversation on their stakeout, where he had insisted that he was unpredictable. She almost laughed at the memory of his seat snapping backwards, and the memory of the looks on their face when they found their lips only inches apart, her weight pressing down on him as they lie in that precarious position. She looked up when she heard the sound of the delivery man walking out from the bathroom, and she started to stand up when he held his hand out to her.
"No need to stand up, Ma'am… it's installed. The other package is there… I just need, you to sign here." He said with a friendly smile, he handed her a clipboard and she signed her name beneath the line, looking up at the delivery man. "Thank you, Ma'am."
"Wait… let me give you a tip…" She said as she reached behind her for her purse, only to see the man shaking his head.
"No, no it's okay… the guy that had me deliver it… he already gave me a tip, told me not to take one from you." He said with a smile.
"Well, take this anyway…" She said with a smile, handing him a few dollars. "You at least deserve something for making my day, today." She replied, her smile happy and contented as the man took the money gratefully and nodded.
"Have a good day, Ma'am." He said, gathering the packing materials, he nodded again and let himself out, being sure to close the door behind him.
Brennan sat staring at the box on the coffee table, the long white box that seemed to be just screaming for her to lift the lid and see the contents. A gift from Booth, on the day he was dreading, on the day she was dreading, in fact. She mulled for a moment, continuing to stare at the box, and her thoughts went to why he wasn't answering his phone. She assumed it wasn't anger, if it were anger these gifts wouldn't have arrived, so perhaps her own irrational thoughts, mixed with the cloudiness of jealousy, and the screen of responsibility had caused her to assume that he was angry, when he was probably just distancing himself from her, allowing her to do what she needed, allowing her to be herself in a situation that she would have felt uncomfortable, and so completely not herself had he been around, hounding her or teasing her about this non date she was going to this evening. He was just giving her space, and for that, she was appreciative.
Leaning forward, she pulled the box into her hands, letting it rest in her lap, she paused, her fingertips at the edge of the lid of the box, unsure of what lie within it. She very slowly and carefully lifted the lid, placing it on the coffee table. She then moved her fingers through the light tissue paper that lined the box, a card nestled under the first layer found its way to her fingertips. 'Temperance' was written across it, similarly to it was on the folded piece of paper in the mirror package. She slipped the card from its envelope, finding nothing but a plain white card, she turned it over.
Please smile tonight. I love your smile.
Love Always,
B.
The words that she read not only made her smile, it made her blush, and she found her fingertips rolling through the paper to its destination, a stem catching her eyes as she pulled the hidden flower from within the box. A single yellow rose, with delicate red highlights at its tips, the color draining through the veins of the flower like blood through the vessels toward its heart. She stared at the delicate flower in front of her and could feel the warm feeling of something rolling through her body. Perhaps it was love, perhaps it was admiration, but the one thing was clear, and that was that there was only one person in this world that could make her feel this way.
Her phone rang suddenly, and with her heart pounding in skipped beats and palpitations, she grabbed hold of the receiver, hoping that it would be his voice on the other end of the line.
"Sweetie?" Brennan almost let out the breath she had been holding, but if she did, her friend would know that she was hoping for someone else to be on the other end of the line. She didn't reply, and Angela continued. "Are you ready for me to pick you up yet?"
"Why?" She managed to say, without releasing that breath.
"Hair, sweetie… we have to get our hair done… I'll be there in an hour."
"Okay." She said, slamming the phone down on the receiver, she let that breath out, tears springing to her eyes as she stared at the flower in her fingertips, wishing for just this one time, that things could be different today.
