TITLE: The Valentine in the Lights
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yeah, I know I said it would still be awhile for this one when I posted another chapter of 'Nothing Personal', but obviously my muse wanted to make a liar out of me. Be warned that this chapter bears a high-fluff rating. Sap and fluff and romance abound, so be careful ;)
Brennan rushed back inside the ballroom to find her young assistant doing some odd sort of choreographed dance in the middle of the dance floor, and all eyes were on him. She rolled her eyes and looked accusingly at Hodgins. "How could you let him drink so much?"
Hodgins, also a little drunk, laughed. "Hey, I didn't realize any time Zack comes out with us that I've gotta babysit! He's a big boy."
"Brenn, what are you doing in here?" Angela gestured over her shoulder, toward the doors. "I thought Booth went out to find you."
"Oh, he found her, all right," Hodgins piped up, tipping his head back to gulp down the rest of his beer.
Angela and Brennan grimaced in unison at the loud belch to escape his lips afterward. "And just what does that mean?" Angela asked, folding her arms across her chest.
"It means that I found Special Agent Booth and the good doctor, here, looking quite cozy in the gardens."
While Brennan rolled her eyes and went after Zack, Angela reached out to smack Hodgins in the arm, ignoring his yell of pain. "You ass! You interrupted them!"
"What the hell was I supposed to do? If there is a drunken Zack attempting to do an Earthling dance, that's comedy gold, and they had to be in on it."
"Zack? Zack!" Brennan ran up to her assistant and clasped his arm, drawing him away from the dance floor as the song ended.
"Dr. Brennan, did you see? Did you see me dance?" His shaggy brown hair was in slight disarray, and his eyes were glazed over.
"Yes, I saw."
"I swear I was getting checked out by some of the girls. Were they checking me out, Dr. Brennan?"
Brennan tossed a look over her shoulder at said-girls, watching them huddle together and giggle at his expense. "Yes, they were definitely staring." She steered her assistant over to the table and pushed him down into his chair. "Stay right here. I'm going to get you some coffee."
"You're so good to me, Dr. Brennan," Zack sighed, leaning his cheek on the table and closing his eyes. He furrowed his brows. "You know I've always had a crush on you? Yep. Always. Ever since your forensic anthropology class. It's just too bad that Booth already staked his claim over you. All that alpha male posturing... no one else stands a chance." He sighed to himself and seemed to snuggle against the table. "At least you can tell he'll be good to you, though."
Brennan, with slightly wide eyes, visibly shook off her assistant's babbling and went to the bar in search of a cup of coffee. She felt Angela sidle up next to her and turned her head. "What?"
Angela tilted her head apologetically. "Sorry Hodgins interrupted you two, Sweetie."
She made a face. "What is there to be sorry for?" She nodded her thanks at the bartender when he handed her the coffee. "We were just dancing."
Angela's voice was filled with sarcasm. "Yeah. Sure. Okay. On Valentine's Day... in the middle of a beautiful, picturesque garden under hundreds of thousands of romantic little lights. Just dancing. Right."
"What is it with you guys?" Brennan sighed, starting back to the table and fighting not to roll her eyes when Angela followed right on her heels. "First you... then Zack... then you again." She set the cup of coffee down in front of Zack and smiled when he thanked her exuberantly.
"Hodgins, too, actually. And Sweetie, what is 'with us' is that we see something there between you and Booth. Something that, for reasons I can't figure out, you are refusing to see."
"Maybe you guys should be badgering Booth, then."
"Nope." Angela shook her head. "There's no need -- because Booth sees it, honey. Why do you think he agreed to come to this thing with you? Do you really think he had nothing better to do on Valentine's Day? Look at the man!" She chuckled. "You know he's got women lining up around the block to be with him, and yet who does he spend Valentine's Day with? You. Only you."
"I'm getting really tired of these discussions."
"Then open up your eyes and use that ginormous brain you were given, Sweetie. You're not blind or stupid, so quit acting like it and I'll leave you alone." She glanced around the ballroom then while Brennan sighed exasperatedly. She looked at her best friend curiously. "Where is Booth, by the way?"
"Last I saw him, he was out in the gardens. I could have sworn he was going to follow me in here..." She looked over her shoulder with a furrowed brow, as if just noticing her partner's absence.
"Ow!" Zack leaned sharply back in his chair, his tongue hanging out of his mouth while he touched it. "That coffee is hot."
Hodgins, watching him from the other side of the table, nodded slowly. "I hear that's how they're making it now."
"Still no sign of him?" Angela asked upon her return from the ladies' room.
Her best friend sat with her elbow on the table, cheek propped in her hand as she stared forlornly at all the glitter. "No. And it's been almost an hour, already."
"He's not in the coat room or the men's room," Hodgins chimed in, stepping up to the table, "and there's no sign of him out in the gardens."
"I'm sorry, honey." Angela rubbed her friend's back, discretely checking her watch. When Hodgins looked to her inquisitively, she raised her brows and kept quiet, patting her friend on the back instead and leaning down to her. "Brenn, why don't you head home? Take the limo, I'm sure Dr. Goodman wouldn't mind."
"Wouldn't mind what?" Goodman's deep voice nearly startled Angela out of her skin, and she gave him a tight smile.
"You wouldn't mind if Dr. Brennan went home, would you?"
Before he could respond, Hodgins spoke up over the rim of a new glass of beer. "What about Booth? What if we find him?"
At this, Dr. Goodman raised his eyebrows. "I actually spotted Agent Booth while I was out back speaking with one of the Board members. He got into a cab and left."
"He stood you up?" Hodgins laughed.
Angela threw him a sharp glare, still rubbing Brennan's back supportively. "Booth would not 'stand her up'."
"And to stand me up would imply a date, which this was not. It's fine."
Goodman glanced down at Brennan. "Are you alright, Dr. Brennan? You look a little upset."
"I'm fine," she sighed wearily, rubbing her hands over her eyes before letting them fall to her lap. She pushed herself to a standing position, shrugging off Angela's hand. "I think maybe I'll just walk home." She gestured toward the doors. "It's just a few blocks to my place, and... it's a nice night out for February."
"You are more than welcome to use the limousine, Temperance," Dr. Goodman intoned gently, noting her seemingly-depressed state.
"Thank you, Dr. Goodman, but I'll be okay. I just need to go home and go to bed, I think."
Angela frowned sympathetically and reached out to give her best friend a hug. "Alright. Call me tomorrow, Sweetie, okay?"
"I will," she promised, and bid goodnight to everyone else before heading out the door.
Brennan kept her eyes on the pavement beneath her the entire walk home, finding that what she had told Dr. Goodman and everyone else was a lie. She wasn't fine. She was sad. Sad that her dance in the gardens with Booth was cut short... sad that he left without telling her... sad that yet another Valentine's Day left her disappointed. She then admonished herself -- what did she expect it to be? She and Booth were not an item, despite her coworkers' obvious betting to the contrary. He was not her official 'date' to this event, so she had no reason whatsoever to be sad.
But dancing with him, being close to him, had felt so damn good. That, she was not blind to. She was never blind to any of it, in fact. She just trained herself to continually push the burgeoning feelings for Booth away, for the good of their working relationship. Tonight, however... being in his arms... she realized she couldn't push it away anymore. But she was the one that ran -- twice. First, using the excuse that she needed some air... then, when he predictably followed her and tried again, she used Hodgins' interruption to run again. She needed to stop running and just accept it -- accept the dances, accept what Booth was offering her -- basically, to just accept the inevitable.
Brennan paused once she reached her driveway, inwardly feeling a strange but thrilling surge of electricity. Her eyes were drawn upward of their own accord, and she gasped loudly at what she saw:
On her lawn was the outline of a giant red heart, made of dozens of strings of red Christmas lights. The inside of the heart was strewn with rose petals, and in the middle of the heart stood Seeley Booth... smiling that charming, soul-piercing smile of his. Her hand floated to her erratically thudding heart as she then spotted what was next to the lighted heart -- strings of white Christmas lights looped together in cursive, spelling out the words 'Be Mine.'
Brennan met his eyes, her own wide in shock, and chuckled as he smiled. "Booth, what is this?"
He glanced around at the lights, "this is my attempt at asking you seriously to be my Valentine, Temperance Brennan -- something that, hopefully, you will find cute and romantic." He shrugged, an impish grin breaking forth. "If not, then... this is me making an ass of myself. Again."
"How did you..."
"Angela helped set everything up. I just ducked out early to grab this..." He stepped to the side and gestured to the portable boom box on the lawn behind him.
Still stunned as she stepped toward him, careful of the lights, she took the hand he offered, and allowed him to pull her into the heart. He emitted a hopeful smile. "Does this mean yes?"
Brennan nodded automatically, still staring at the beautiful display of lights and rose petals around them. "Why did you do this?"
"Well..." He nudged one of the buttons on the boom box with his foot, soft music beginning to play. "You know those two people I mentioned earlier? That man and that woman that met all those months ago?"
Today's gonna be the day that they're gonna give it back to you
"Yeah..." She smiled up at him and accepted his arms around her, looping her own around his neck as they began to slowly sway for the third time that evening.
By now you should've somehow realized what you gotta do
"Well, let's say that, that man fell in love with that woman. That he maybe even started falling in love with her way back when they were first getting to know one another. And let's say that's the real reason he and his girlfriend broke up -- because she accused him of being in love with this woman and he didn't deny it. He couldn't deny it."
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now
Her eyes went wide again. "I'm the reason you and Tessa broke up?" She shivered as his hands tickled gently up and down her back as she continued, "I thought it was the whole Jamaica thing."
Back beat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out
"Well, Jamaica was sort of the catalyst," he explained, "but it had been a long time coming. I met you, and... soon after, being with Tessa didn't hold the same attraction it used to. She wasn't a challenge for me. You were." He grinned and laid a finger against her lips when she began to protest. "And I mean that in a good way."
I'm sure you've heard it all before, you never really had a doubt
Brennan smiled against his finger and blinked slowly. He chuckled, removing his finger from her lips to pull her close, and leaned his forehead on hers. "Oh, Bones," he sighed. "Bones, Bones, Bones."
"What?" she chuckled back, locking her arms tight around his neck and revelling in the butterflies his closeness gave to her.
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now
"Nothing, just..." He pulled back again to smile lovingly into her eyes, moving an errant piece of hair that was obstructing her vision. "You've completely ruined me from wanting to be with anyone else."
And all the roads we have to walk are winding, and all the lights that lead the way are blinding
"I have, have I?" she laughed, and allowed herself to caress the short hair at the nape of his neck.
There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't know how
"Mm-hmm." He leaned in to nuzzle her ear, dropping his voice to a whisper as he added, "and I've fallen hopelessly in love with you."
Said maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me
Her heart leapt at the words and she pulled back, searching his eyes with her own. What she found there was honest and genuine -- he really was in love with her. It was something that should have scared her... would have scared her had it been any other man... but with Booth, all it did was allow her to release her own months-old confession, "I've fallen in love with you too."
You're gonna be the one that saves me
The smile that lit his features was seen only briefly as he started to bring their lips together. When they were no more than a hair's breadth away from touching, he paused with a grin.
"What?" she whispered, desperate now for him to close the distance as their lips just barely touched.
And after all, you're my wonderwall
He exhaled another beatific smile, the movement causing their lips to brush feather-lightly again, and he shivered as she whimpered. He slid his hand around to cup the back of her neck. "Just waiting to see if we'll be interrupted again," he whispered against her lips.
He felt her smile back against his lips as she whispered back, "I think we'll be okay this time."
You're my wonderwall
"Good." He seduced her lips with a slow glide of his own across them, and he pecked at her mouth when she sighed happily. As they began to nibble at each other's lips, he quipped, "Because if Hodgins jumps out to interrupt us again, I'll pull my gun and shoot him."
She giggled against his lips and kissed him deeply before adding, "If Hodgins interrupts us, I'll pull your gun and shoot him."
Booth grinned against her mouth, "that's my girl," and pulled her in for another kiss.
FINIS
More Author's Notes: See? Told you it'd be saptastic. Hopefully it wasn't too unbearable, though ;) And yes, that was indeed the Ryan Adams version of 'Wonderwall.'
More Bonesfics to come, have no fear!