A/N: Cut to me trying to find a sparky thesaurus while writing this chapter.

Thank you to everyone who has been commenting, favouriting, following– I appreciate it immensely! And Thank you to those of you who have had chats with me and provided feedback in PM. I am always always always open to hear constructive feedback on my work. I'm glad to hear you challenge my plot lines and tell me what you think was good or complete and utter shite. I appreciate it all because it means you've taken time to read it and provide your thoughts, and you feel that something I created was worthwhile enough to even take that precious moment to comment means I've done something right. Whether I made you happy or angry with this, it's impacted you enough to write and I LOVE that. Just remember that I'm not rewriting the show or the characters; I'm simply playing with them. I'll put my toys back together when I'm done, I promise.


Brennan followed Booth under the crime scene tape across his open door to find the living room full of FBI techs and uniformed officers. Andrew was there, sitting on Booth's couch next to Hannah, holding her shaking hand as she held an ice pack against her zygomatic bone. It seemed so odd for him to be there, and she watched as Booth rushed over to them.

"I heard it come over the radio in my office." He explained. Of course Andrew had a police radio in his office. She knew this already. He'd shown it to her once and said that was how he always got 'first dips', or something to that effect, to send her and Booth to a scene. "I wanted to make sure you were both ok." he explained further, and Brennan smiled. Andrew was a good person, underneath everything else.

As soon as he was close enough, Hannah launched herself into Booth's arms, tucking her head under his chin and wrapping her arms around his waist. Feeling a pang of jealousy as he returned the hug and stroked his hand down her back in a long slow motion, Brennan turned around, looking for something to do to make herself useful. That had looked like a guy hug, but it wasn't. There was no guise of just being good friends behind the comforting gesture. They could simply hold each other because they felt like it, because they'd needed a hug, or even just wanted one.

"Were you already here when he entered?" Brennan asked, walking toward the window and examining the frame for any signs of forced entry or damage. Questioning people was Booth's job, but he was just standing there, holding her, like there wasn't information to be gathered.

"I came through the front door, and he was just sitting here in the living room in the dark." she explained, her voice shaking. She must have been terrified. Hannah was used to dodging literal landmines in the desert for her job. This case was getting to all of them. Booth frowned, titling Hannah's chin up to take a look at the bruise forming around her eye.

The gesture was tender, so full of love, she couldn't help but stare, feeling envious of the public display. He'd done the same thing to her a number of times, examined her injuries with a concerned and discerning gaze; she was always getting scrapes and bruises while in pursuit of a criminal. That was long before Hannah had flounced into their lives though. She rarely chased down 'scum bags' with Booth anymore. It was safer in the lab. People don't get hurt in the lab. There were no shootouts in the lab, no explosions, or snipers. There was only science. There was also no Booth during the active part of a case, which was why she'd begun spending so much more time there since they'd returned. She'd needed that, the 'no Booth' safety of her lab.

"I want the entire apartment swept. Nothing left unturned." Booth's voice boomed, commanding the techs and officers and leaving no room for debate with his tone. Finally. "Thank you, Hacker. For coming by here to check on her." Booth said, looking at Andrew as he stood awkwardly by, and Brennan wondered if he was being genuine or was trying to dismiss the other man. Andrew clearly understood, giving Brennan a sad smile and taking his leave.

She attempted to look busy, examining door frames and looking for the point of entry, though her eyes kept falling back toward Booth and Hannah. He was leaning on the arm of the couch, his knees open with her standing between his legs. Her head resting on his shoulder as she sniffled and sobbed periodically. Booth's hand absently moved up and down her back, soothing her with the rhythmic motion. She'd been in a similar position only a few hours earlier, standing between Booth's spread knees as he sat on the edge of her bed, except Booth was the one nearly sobbing, and she'd had his sexual organ in her mouth.

"What happened to your neck?" Hannah mumbled, tracing four very distinct red scratches with her fingertip. Her brow furrowed in confusion as Booth shook his head. They were fresh, and Brennan's stomach turned as she realized she'd caused them just before Booth had gotten that call. It had happened so recently, she would swear she could still feel his hands gripping her thighs like a phantom reminder of what they'd been doing while Hannah was being attacked by Broadsky.

"Don't worry about me. Does this hurt?" he asked, gently prodding her now swollen cheekbone. "You want Bones to take a look?" he offered, glancing over at her in question. She saw the moment of panic flash through his eyes as he too likely knew what Hannah had seen on his neck. Perhaps, even shame.

"Yes, I can see if it feels broken." Brennan agreed, approaching them with hesitant steps. She felt Hannah's hard stare on her face as she gently palpated the other woman's zygomatic arch and orbital socket. Hannah flinched a couple of times, but Brennan determined it was probably only a deep tissue injury. "You should still have it x-rayed." she suggested helpfully.

Hannah nodded, thanking Brennan quietly, though she seemed anything but grateful. "Can they finish this up and get out?" she asked, curling deeper into Booth's embrace. "I just want to go to bed." she murmured, and Brennan swallowed around the painful lump in her throat. She'd wanted to stay in bed too… with Booth.

"Tell me something I don't know about you." Booth's demanding whisper puffed across her cheek as they lay face to face in her bed, their noses nearly touching.

"You know everything about me." she told him incredulously. How could he think otherwise? "You've read my file."

He shook his head, his eyes smiling. "Not that kind of stuff. The deep stuff. Tell me something nobody else knows." he continued, and she thought about it, digging for something from depths of forgotten memories.

"I used to hate when you called me Bones." she told him, and he rolled his eyes.

"I already know that." he teased, and it was her turn to roll her eyes.

"You didn't let me finish." she scolded him. "I used to hate it when you called me Bones because I thought you were doing it maliciously. Nobody had ever given me a nickname before that wasn't rooted in malice, that wasn't for the sole purpose of singling me out and making me feel badly about myself. You– well, when I realized that you were calling me Bones as a gesture of comradery, I decided to allow it."

"Used to?" he asked, tapping his finger on the end of her nose like he'd just discovered something brilliant. At her glare, he continued, "You said you used to hate it. That means, you like it now." he said with a cocky and triumphant grin.

"No, I used to hate it because I thought you were being mean. Now I hate it because you're being annoying." she countered with her own smirk.

Of course she understood that Booth would go to Hannah. She'd been attacked, but a jealous part of her was in the back of her mind, reminding her that as long as Booth was in a relationship with Hannah, Brennan would always be second. The consolation prize, she thought bitterly.

"Yea, why don't you go lay down, and I'll clear everyone out." Booth suggested, pressing a kiss to the top of her blonde hair.

Shaking her head and tightening her grip around his torso, she begged him not to leave her, and he looked over at Brennan, tilting his head to the side, a silent plea in his eyes.

Nodding, she turned to the techs and officers still mulling about the place. "Thank you for your assistance. Please have any evidence gathered here sent directly to the Jeffersonian Medico-Legal Lab. I will take over the collection of physical evidence now." The techs sighed, mostly they seemed relieved. Nobody wanted to be held accountable for screwing up an investigation at Agent Booth's apartment. Some seemed disappointed that they couldn't snoop around longer. As if they'd find some morsel of information on their very private head of Major Crimes hidden in his bookshelf.

"Thanks, Bones." Booth murmured against Hannah's hair. "I think we're gonna go stay at a hotel or something." he suggested, and Hannah nodded without lifting her head from his chest. Normally, she'd insist he– they stay with her, but the mere thought of that made her recoil.

"Yes, please keep her safe. I know how much you cherish her." Brennan commented before turning away and walking across the room. Pulling out her phone, she dialed Cam's number, preparing to fill her in and ask her to bring the team over to process the scene. There was, thankfully, for Hannah's sake, no body this time, but this was Booth and Broadsky; her team would come running.


Booth reclined against the pillows, holding Hannah in the king size bed in their room at the Holiday Inn, replaying the day over and over in his head. It wasn't very late yet, but the day had been a rollercoaster.

She'd clung to him the entire time he packed an overnight bag for them, gripped his hand the entire ride from the apartment to the hotel, and practically glued herself to his arm as they checked in.

It wasn't until they were behind the closed doors of their suite that she finally released him, sitting down on the edge of the bed and burying her face in her hands. He sat down beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and rocking her body as she sobbed into his chest. It was weird to see her cry. He'd wondered if he had actually ever seen her cry. He couldn't think of a single time since they'd met. It was strange because she'd been through tougher jams than getting knocked around by a murderer.

"I thought you were dead." she'd whispered, fisting the front of his t-shirt like it was a lifeline. He stroked his hand down her hair, trying to comfort her and get her calm again. "He said he had no problem making Parker grow up without a father. Seeley, he's gunning for you." she told him, turning her tearstained face up to look at him, her voice earnest and scared.

"That's not gonna happen, all right." he told her, hugging her again. She'd thought he was dead and he'd spent the afternoon feeling like he'd died and gone straight to heaven. The irony wasn't lost on him. "Come on, lay down. Just get some sleep." he told her, maneuvering them back onto the pillows where they now lay.

He felt her shift as she traced her fingertips across his stomach and turned onto her side. He tilted his chin, glancing down at her as she sighed and reached for the waistband of the sweatpants he put on while they were packing. He watched as she dipped her fingers beneath it and reached out with his free hand, grabbing her wrist and stopping her movements.

"Make love to me, Seeley." she whispered, moving to slide over his body. He flinched, feeling the pinch in his lower back and she leaned back. "What's wrong?" she asked as he gingerly moved her back to her side of the bed.

"I, uh, pulled my back out earlier." he told her. It wasn't a lie. He had pinched the nerve in his back that afternoon. Bones had been half naked when she fixed it for him and grinned like she'd just invented the wheel.

"Are you ok?" Hannah asked, and he nodded, telling her he was just kind of tender right now.

"I took a couple of painkillers. Should be right as rain by tomorrow." he explained, and she gently leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek, clearly accepting his explanation.

Truth was, after how he'd spent his afternoon, he wasn't in the mood to have sex with Hannah. He wasn't sure he'd rehydrated enough to have sex with anyone anytime soon, but it felt wrong just sharing a bed with her. He felt like he was cheating, but… on who? He'd give anything to be back in Bones' apartment right now, that was for damn sure. He'd never made love like that before, never that intense, that connected. It wasn't just the sex part of it. They'd had some intense and intimate conversations in the time they'd been friends, but holding her in his arms and whispering secrets like they'd done today was a whole new level. He'd never experienced something like that before.

As soon as Bones unlocked her apartment door, Booth was pushing her through it, kicking it shut and pressing her between his body and the hard surface of the door. She gasped into his mouth as his lips descended onto her. He growled from deep in his chest when she sucked his tongue, sending a direct message to his already stiff cock. She sighed as he kissed his way down her throat and licked a hot wet line between her cleavage where that damn pen had teased him earlier.

Her hand stroked him through his suit pants, and he groaned at the sweet friction as he reached between them and unbuttoned hers. He watched her face as he slid his hand down the front of her pants, stroking her through her already wet panties. She was so ready, like the anticipation in the car had been foreplay for her. Her head slammed back against the door when his fingers pushed her underwear to the side, and dipped into her slick folds, coating his digits with her essence before he plunged them into her. He twisted and swirled, feeling her stretch around him.

She moaned his name as his fingers dipped in and out of her, and his other hand stroked over her belly, lifting her shirt up to her chest. He stroked the swell of her breasts, watching as she stood, pressed against her door, chest heaving and mouth hanging open. "Come on, baby." he whispered, leaning his head down and sucking her nipple through the lace of her bra. She gripped his head to her chest, holding him in place as he sucked and nipped at her puckered bud. Her body clenched around his fingers as she cried out before going lax in his arms.

He gave her no time to recover, staring directly into her dilated eyes and sucking his fingers slowly, licking her come from them before lifting her shirt over head. Her fingers made quick work of his shirt, gliding effortlessly down the length of buttons and splaying her hands over his chest and pushing his shirt off his arms.

"I love this." she murmured, pressing hot open mouthed kisses across his pecs. "Your chest. It's– mmm." she didn't finish her sentence, but he understood the sentiment, and threaded his fingers through her hair. He was pretty in love with her chest too.

He walked them through her kitchen, with a direct route in mind, but as her hands reached down into his pants that had somehow become unbuttoned, and she wrapped her dainty fist around his erection he had to stop. He cursed as she stroked him, and he thrust involuntarily several times, fucking her tight grip, before having to grab her wrist and stop her. "This is going to end very soon if you keep that up." he muttered, grabbing her behind the thighs and hauling her up onto the kitchen counter.

He gasped, freezing completely and closing his eyes as the sharp pain shot through his back, radiating outwards. "Fuck." he said through gritted teeth.

"Are you okay?" she asked, leaning over to try to make eye contact with him. "Your back? Booth! Why did you try to lift me? I have very significant muscle mass!" she scolded him, and he wanted to roll his eyes. She was not that heavy. He could deadlift twice her body weight. He'd lifted her in the bathroom at the Founding Fathers and had been just fine. He was trying to recreate her fantasy from their phone call.

"It was just a bad angle. You know, I moved the wrong way." he told her, taking a deep breath. "I'll be fine in a sec, and then… fuck, then I'm gonna –" he tried to sound as convincing as possible, but he was almost sure this was about to be the end of 'lunch'.

"Let me see." she said, hopping down off of the counter and moving behind him. He flinched as her lace-covered breasts pressed into his bare back and her arms came up under his to clutch his neck. He said a silent prayer that she was able to fix it and not cripple him. When she released him, he felt instant relief. "See!" she said with a big adorable grin, looking so proud of herself.

"Thanks." he muttered, feeling a little embarrassed by the whole ordeal. What kind of useless schmuck was he, straining his back while lifting his girl? His… friend…

"Shall we move to the bedroom?" she suggested, stroking her palm over his chest, and he shook his head. He had a damn fantasy to live up to.

"Not yet. You have no idea how much I've been thinking about this." he told her with a cocky smirk, patting the counter top. "Just gonna need you to hop back up here." he instructed. He watched as she complied, leaning back against the counter and effortlessly lifting herself up with her arms until she was seated on the edge again.

"Like this?" she asked, and he nodded, coming to stand between her legs. "Now what?" she asked, biting her lower lip and watching him through twinkling blue eyes.

"Now, I apologize for being an old, decrepit, loser who needed you to fix his back, so I could continue making love to you." he muttered, rolling his eyes playfully. She didn't laugh though. Instead she grabbed his face between her hands and kissed him like it was the end of the goddamn world.

"Don't say that." she murmured against his lips before leaning back to look into his eyes. "Don't ever say that again." Her brow was furrowed with concern, and she tilted her head to the side. "I would never hold your injuries against you, Booth. You never have to apologize for them, or pretend they don't exist to impress me. I– I don't need to be lifted onto counters and carried around. You–" her eyes were welling with tears, and he reached out to stroke his thumb over her cheek. "You are a war hero. Every one of your aches and pains– I've seen your skeleton, Booth… every last one of those injuries are from protecting the people you love, protecting people you don't even know. You're not old and decrepit. You're a warrior who has earned the right to rest." she told him soberly, tracing her fingertip over the puckered scar from the bullet he'd taken for her years ago.

He stroked his thumb over her wet cheeks and leaned in, kissing her salty lips tenderly. "Thank you." he whispered against her lips. It didn't take long for their kiss to grow heated again, and he slid his hands to the waistband of her pants. Slipping his fingers beneath the elastic of her panties too, he met her eyes and tugged playfully, pulling her closer to the edge of the counter. She giggled, lifting her hips up in an effort to help. He savored pulling them down the swell of her ass and the soft curves of her thighs before dragging them down the impossible length of her legs.

Grabbing her ankle and lifting it to his mouth, she was forced to lean back on her elbows. He kissed his way up the inside of her leg, sucking and licking her calf, nipping at the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh. He smiled against her glistening sex when she sobbed at the first flick of his tongue over her pulsing nub. She tasted like heaven as he wrapped his lips around that tight bundle of nerves, sucking her as his finger slipped in and out of her to stroke her in a slow torturous rhythm. He averted his gaze to her face as he licked her from her clit to her dripping entrance, circling and plunging his tongue into her. She clutched at his shoulders, his hair, gripping frantically for anything she could as he fucked her with his tongue. Her face was the perfect picture of sweet anguish, and he never wanted to stop making her look like that.

She chanted his name like benediction when she came again, this time on his tongue, and he lapped up every drop her pussy offered up to him, kissing and sucking her folds and sliding his tongue into every crease.

He was wiping his mouth and staring at her splayed on her kitchen counter like the last supper when she got a downright feral gleam in her eyes. Fast like a damn flea, she was hopping off of the counter, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing hot kisses across his chest and shoulders, urging him toward the bedroom. Her hand snaked into his pants again, stroking him torturously slowly as he walked backwards, one hand on her ass, holding her against him and the other feeling for walls and searching for the damn bedroom door knob. They stumbled through it as soon as he turned the knob, nearly falling over.

Her palm on his chest suddenly as she shoved him backward took him by surprise, and he smiled. Bossy Bones was definitely hot. Stepping forward, she used her knee to spread his legs, and moved closer to stand between them. She reached behind her back and unsnapped her bra, shaking her head when he leaned forward to reach for it. She flashed him a saucy grin, tossing the bra onto the floor before bending over and kissing him. She moved her torturous mouth slowly across his chest again, licking and sucking at his pecs and nipples and he smirked to himself.

She really did like it, didn't she?

Reclining backward and bracing himself on one elbow, he reached for her hips, stroking over her soft skin, caressing the arc of her ass as she continued kissing a path down his chest toward his stomach. He laid back further onto his elbows out of necessity as her lips traveled lower, and strained his neck just to watch as her tongue dipped into his belly button and traced the line of hair that disappeared down the front of his open dress pants.

"Lift." she demanded, and he complied, without hesitation, lifting his ass off of her bed as she yanked his pants and boxers down his legs, kicking them out of her way. A string of expletives left his mouth the moment the tip of her tongue touched his cock, teasing his slit and tasting the moisture that had already begun to bead there. He felt her smile against his flesh, clearly enjoying the response she'd elicited from that one little touch. He fought the urge to grip her hair and thrust into her hot mouth as she teased him, sucking his head and letting it pop loudly out of her mouth before sucking on hard it again.

"Baby." he groaned, but it came out sounding more like a plea for mercy as she licked the underside of his length. She blessedly took pity on him, and he cursed when she made eye contact with him and engulfed his entire length. Her head bobbed slowly up and down, the texture of her flattened tongue rubbing against the length of his shaft. He watched in awe as his cock disappeared entirely into her mouth. He was already on the verge of combustion before he felt her fingers stroke over his balls, her hand squeezing and rolling her palm over the tender flesh. It was the feeling of her thumbnail gliding along the crease of his sac that had him gripping her hair and squeezing his eyes shut. He said a silent prayer of thanks for her extensive knowledge of anatomy and kinesiology and whatever the fuck else she held degrees in that made her so damn good at this.

"Fuck… Bones if you don't– if you keep that up…" he couldn't get the words out, but she seemed to understand exactly what he was saying as she let his dick slowly slip from her mouth. She leaned over his body, bracing her hands on the bed next to his and flashed him a cocky little smirk. "You're pretty cocky, you know." he breathed out, catching his bearings again.

"Do I have a reason not to be?" she asked, her tone full of sex and seduction that he'd never heard from her before. "Do you need me to remind you already?" she asked, moving as though to bring her mouth back to his cock.

Grabbing her face, he pulled her lips up his and shoved his tongue roughly into her mouth. Holding her cheeks between one hand, he stroked the knuckles of his other hand over her erect nipples. "If you put–" he said, pressing another rough wet kiss to her lips. "- this mouth–" another kiss "- on me again–" kiss "- so soon…" He paused, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath at the thought of saying this out loud to her. "It's going to be full of come."

"What is your refractory time like?" she asked, and he looked at her for a long moment because that had not at all been in the spectrum of what he'd expected her response to be. "Your recovery between orgasm and renewed erection. How long?" she asked, and suddenly he felt like he had dirty Dr. Brennan leaning over him. When he didn't respond, she continued. "You're a relatively healthy, 38 year old male. I would make an educated guess that, if I stimulate you to orgasm now, then within twenty minutes, give or take a few, you should be ready for more." she told him, and he couldn't stop the growl that rumbled through his chest. Did she have any idea how fucking sexy it was when she talked all nerdy like that?

He didn't have time to respond, or fully process what she'd just told him before she was shoving him flat on his back and taking his cock in her mouth again. He was in heaven. He had to be. He was definitely dead and this fucking goddess, his goddamn dream girl, was blowing his dick like her own life depended on it. He grunted, his fingers tangling in her silky auburn locks as his hips lifted of their own accord. He tilted his head up to watch again as her pouty lips fucked him, and he tried to warn her. "B–Bones…" He swore, gasping for breath as she sucked him through his orgasm, taking him deep to the back of her throat as his whole body spasmed and his come spilled into her mouth.

Breathing heavily, he blindly reached for her, grabbing her hands and pulling her up to lay beside him, their legs dangling off the end of the bed. "You're incredible." he muttered, still feeling the aftershocks tremble through him. "Fucking amazing." he added with a smile.

It turned out she was right about his recovery time, just like pretty much everything else. By the time they had moved up onto the pillows, sharing heated kisses as he fingered her to another orgasm, his erection had indeed come back full force. "Please, Booth." she was begging him, lifting her leg over his hip and pressing her wet core against the ridge of his cock. It took every functioning brain cell he still had not to thrust forward and plunge himself into her waiting body.

He growled, releasing the nipple that he'd been torturously sucking on. "Do you, uh, do you have–" he paused, feeling a blush creeping up his throat. "- you know…"

Bones laughed out loud, and he closed his eyes, clearing his throat. "Booth, we have spent the last two hours stimulating each other's genitals both orally and digitally, and you can't ask me if I have contraceptives?" she teased him, and he wished for a moment that the earth would open up and swallow him whole.

"You know what, I'm trying to be a gentleman, here." he defended playfully. "And do you really have to say it like that? Stimulating genitals." he mocked with a cringe.

He should have known when she bit her lip and slid her hands up his chest that she was planning to murder him, but he was definitely blindsided. "You would prefer, perhaps–" she practically purred against the shell of his ear. "- if I said that you licked my wet pussy until I screamed your name, and you can't ask me if I have any condoms before you slide your big hard cock into my tight cu–"

"Okay!" he stopped her, feeling like he was about to pull a Hacker and come on her damn leg if she kept talking. "Yes, okay, I am asking if you have any condoms. I know we didn't use any last time… Bones, I always, ALWAYS use condoms." he told her, assured her really, trying to convey the unspoken words he wanted to say– that he hadn't been having sex with anyone else without protection. Truthfully, other than Bones, he hadn't had much sex lately at all. Schedules just didn't seem to line up well, so it really hadn't come up too often.

"Booth relax, I'm on oral contraception, and I too am very proactive about condoms. I also have regular screenings for sexually transmitted infections." she assured him. Of course she did; she's Bones. He hated this part of the fun, but for some reason, with Bones, getting a little clinical didn't seem to be a turn off.

"Leaning forward, he sucked her lower lip. "Thank you." he murmured. "For the clarification." he added, gripping her thigh and pulling her leg further up over his hip so he could press the head of his cock between her wet slit, stroking it up and down slowly, covering it in her essence. "Slip ups like that are how I got Parker." he laughed, moving his lips down her throat.

"You don't want another Parker?" she asked him, stroking her hands almost tenderly up his arms and over his shoulder. Her eyes were warm and full of love. He knew how she felt about his son. Once upon a time, he almost did have another Parker, with Bones, but not really with her. The irony that now they were talking about taking precautions to prevent that while they were doing it the old fashioned way wasn't lost on him.

"I don't want another Rebecca." he said and they both laughed at that. She was certainly privy to his struggles with his ex. "Pops asked me if I got someone pregnant when I told him about what we did." Booth confessed, not sure why he was bringing it up. Like she'd want to talk about how they'd crossed a line, how they were currently way past the damn line. It was one of those conversations, one of those situations, that nobody but Bones would be all right with talking about, really. Yup, he'd brought up his grandfather while naked in bed with a woman.

"You told Hank that we had sex?" she asked, with an embarrassed smile.

Chuckling, he shook his head, running his hands down her back and stroking over her soft skin, letting his cock rest comfortably between her thighs. "No, I told him about that first night, on your living room floor. I wanted advice. He told me I was too bashful too, and said that you would probably have a full written report about the experience complete with anthropological observations about the size of my cock." he told her, wondering if she'd give him some more of that sexy professor talk.

As she chattered on about male dominance and societies and some other shit about virility, he slid his, in her own words, above average penis, into her tight heat and smiled as her nerdy words turned into moans.

"Looks like you're feeling a little better." Hannah's voice startled him from his thoughts and nearly choked as she stroked her hand over the ridge of his erection through his sweats. He didn't think that should even be fucking possible at this point.

"No, I'm not." he said, grabbing her wrist and moving her hand away from his cock. "I'm gonna try a hot shower for my back, I think." he told Hannah, getting up slowly from the bed. He picked up his phone off the nightstand, wondering if she'd comment. It wasn't like he didn't take his phone with him everywhere anyways. He was on call 24/7. "I, uh, I'm gonna call and see how things are going at the apartment." he muttered.

"Seeley" she called him as he got to the bathroom door. He turned and looked expectantly at her. "I think this trip is going to be exactly what we need." she told him. "We'll be so much safer if we're not in DC for a while." she told him, and he nodded before heading into the bathroom.

For the first time since she'd mentioned his neck, he was finally alone and stood in front of the mirror, tracing the red scratches that he knew Bones had made. He dialed Bones' number and listened as it rang several times before her voicemail picked up. She was probably elbow deep in dust bunnies that Hodgins found behind his bookcase or something.

Placing his phone on the counter, he turned around to the tub and turned on the water, yanking the handle to start the shower up. His phone vibrated against the countertop behind him and he smiled, reaching for it.

"Hey." he answered with a flirty lilt, not bothering to look at the screen.

"Hello, Booth." It was not the voice he'd been expecting to call him, and he glanced at the caller ID. It was a blocked number.

"Jake. I heard about Paula." Booth taunted him, wanting to catch him off guard, make him slip up. "You crossed a line going into my home." he told him, glaring at his own reflection as if the other man was standing right there.

"You crossed it first by involving Paula." Broadsky accused him.

"What did you think you were going to do Jake? You looking for payback for Paula's death?" he demanded, and Broadsky laughed.

"Booth, if I wanted to punish you and make you feel the pain I am feeling by losing Paula, it's certainly not the blonde girlfriend that will be in my crosshairs." he warned before hanging up.

Booth glared at his phone for a moment before slamming it down on the counter, smashing the screen and dislodging the battery.