"I´d -" She is about to answer when a loud knock at the door startles them.
"Temperance!", Brennan freezes when she recognizes the voice coming from the hallway outside of Booth´s apartment. It´s Chris... of course he had to follow her...
Sure, he has every right to be mad at her for leaving him like she did earlier.. but to follow her all the way to Booth´s apartment?
Booth takes a step back from Brennan, with the clear intention of putting some distance between them. His earlier jealousy and anger coming back almost in full force. It hurts to look at her, to see her panicked expression, her stiffened posture, her eyes cast downward. The love and delight, she seemed to radiate just seconds ago, vanished with the knock on the door, replaced by pure panic and shock.
This could not be happening right now... they finally got to this point just to have it ruined by one of Brennan´s ex boyfriends, lovers, whatever?
At another, more aggressive knock at the door Brennan dares to look directly into Booth´s eyes.
"I´m so sorry Booth.", she says, her voice slightly shivering and unusually quiet.
Booth stays rooted to the spot when she walks to the door, following her every move with his eyes. He knows she should not have to feel sorry about it. It isn´t her fault that this guy decided to basically stalk her. But he couldn´t bring himself to say it out loud... his jealousy and curiosity standing in the way.
Finally having reached the door, Brennan takes a deep breath, trying to prepare for what was going to be an incredibly uncomfortable conversation.
She swings the door open and glares at Chris, who visibly flinches for a second when he sees how mad she is.
He recovers fast though, and pushes past her into the apartment. Sounding almost more confused than actually mad.
"Temperance! What the hell was that earlier? Who do you think you are, teasing me all evening, flirting with me and when I thought we would... you know... you just leave?"
At hearing this, Boot lets out a grumble of disgust. Only now does Chris notice the third person in the room.
"And who is that?", he asks, but before anyone can answer, recognition dawns on him."Wait, isn´t that the guy from the banquet?"
Brennan moves to stand between the now angry Chris and an almost suspiciously calm looking Booth. She turns her back to Booth, directly addressing Chris.
"Look, I am really sorry for leading you on. I shoulnd´t have made out with you in the first place. It was a stupid mistake and won´t happen again. Now could you please leave."
If Chris wasn´t angry before, he sure as hell was pissed now.
"Are you serious right now? A mistake? Temperance, we used to be so good together, don´t you remember?"
"That was a long time ago."
"We were in love!"
"No we were not. Our relationship was purely physical." She states matter-of-factly.
Chris answers with a smug smirk plastered on his face. "Oh that´s right. The sex was amazing."
Brennan doesn´t dare to turn around and look at Booth. She suspects that underneath his calm demeanor he is a blazing fire, burning with rage, right now. She knows it´s only a matter of time before Chris will say something to make Booth snap.
Brennan is desperate to defuse the situation. "Please leave, now Chris."
"Oh, do you remember that one evening", he keeps talking as though he didn´t hear her, "at the restaurant? When you almost made me choke on a spring roll? Very talented fingers...", he says, purposefully trying to provoke Booth.
"Stop. Please." She knows that she sounds desperate, but she doesn´t care. She needs him to stop talking.
Not only does he ignore her plea, but he slowly starts moving towards her.
"I have been thinking a lot about us... it still gives me a very hard time to get on an elevator... if you remember?"
"I remember..", her voice is small, almost inaudible.
"Remember the things I used to do to your body? Hmmm... And the things you did to me...I have to say Temperance, I have never met anyone that could come even close to you and the things you can do with that talented mouth."
Brennan closes her eyes and was just about to take a deep breath in an attempt to control her boiling emotions. But Chris apparently is not done talking.
"I bet he doesn´t make you scream like I did.", he says mischievously with a nod in Booth´s direction.
At that Brennan´s eyes go wide and she is momentarily left speechless.
Booth, who had been standing there the whole time, trying very hard to stay composed and not beat the shit out of this guy, is taken aback by the bluntness of the other man. The worst part is that there is some truth to his statement. Booth hadn´t made her scream, he barely had touched her yet. It fueled his anger that this asshole had had the privilege to be with Temperance Brennan, to touch her, to caress her.
"Stop it, Chris. Or I swear I will-", Brennan almost screams with new found determination to make him shut up. Just to be interrupted by Chris, who stubbornly keeps ignoring her.
"Hmm the way you would wrap your delicate fingers around my throbbing p-"
Booth couldn´t listen to this any longer. A fist connecting with his jaw stops Chris mid sentence. He stumbles backwards and touches his hand to his face, checking for blood.
"Don´t talk about her like this ever again. Do you understand?", Booth yells at him, whilst simultaneously moving closer, until he was directly in his face.
Brennan had known it was only a matter of time before Booth lost it, so she isn´t really surprised by his outburst. She could see that Booth was still furious, and decides to try one last time to make Chris leave, before Booth completely snaps.
"Chris, you really should leave now."
This time he actually listens and makes a move towards the door. He doesn´t leave without one last stab at Booth though. "Trust me, you couldn´t handle her."
With that he leaves. Booth slams the door shut behind him, and moves back to stand across the room from Brennan.
They are looking at each other. Neither of them really sure what to say. Booth is pissed. And jealous. And he hates it. Just twenty minutes ago he couldn´t have been happier... right now he wants to hit something. Really hit something. Chris´ words keep replaying in his head, and with them come the pictures his imagination so generously provides him with.
Brennan is embarrassed, hurt and feels like an absolute idiot. Again her taste in men proves to be terrible...
When she looks at Booth and sees the hurt and disgusted expression on his face, she feels panic-induced shivers run down her spine. She is scared. She cannot lose him over this.
She walks over to him and tentatively reaches for his arm when she speaks. "Booth I´m really really so-"
He takes a step back, effectively moving out of her reach. "I´m sorry Bones, but I cannot do this right now. I think it would be better if you go home."
Brennan swallows audibly and nods defeated. She silently grabs her coat and her purse and quickly moves to the door, trying not to shed the tears that are blurring her vision. Just before she is outside, Booth grabs her arm to stop her, but she doesn´t turn to look at him, too afraid to show how hurt and vulnerable she is.
"Bones. Look at me, please.", he says with a hint of desperation in his voice.
When she slowly turns, he sees the tears now freely running down her face. It makes him once more realize that this situation was not her fault and is probably equally hard on her.
"I´m-", he clears his throat, getting choked up himself now. "I´m sorry, Bones. I just need some time to calm down. Can we just talk tomorrow? Please?"
She looks at him, looking for some sign to reassure her that they´ll be okay.
Booth sees her searching eyes, tears still running and smearing her mascara. She looks like an emotional train wreck, tearing at his heart. There is no way he could let her go like that. Reaching out to hold her face in his hands, he places a gentle kiss on her lips. With his thumbs he carefully wipes away the tears, before whispering, "We´ll be alright. Just go home and get some sleep. I´ll call you tomorrow."
Nodding, not trusting her voice, Brennan slowly moves out of his touch. With one last look at Booth, she leaves the apartment and pulls the door shut behind herself.
Booth stands in his living room, staring at the closed door for a good five minutes. A lot has happened today... too much for him to handle all at once, so he decides to just go to bed and hope that tomorrow everything will be clearer to him.
On autopilot he moves around his apartment, changing his clothes, brushing his teeth and finally letting himself fall face first onto his bed. Surprisingly, it doesn´t take long for sleep to overcome him.
Brennan on the other hand has more trouble to find some rest. After removing her clothes and make up, she took a quick shower, brushed her teeth and now lies in bed. Her eyes glued to the ceiling, her mind racing to grasp everything that has happened today. He really told her that he loves her... well she had said it first... Even thinking about it makes her chuckle in disbelief. After many thoughts of her partner, and what he had to endure because of Chris, she finally manages to calm down enough to get some sleep.
To be continued...