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It had been a long day, mentally and physically. Temperance was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to draw herself a nice warm bath and fall asleep in the tub. She grunted as she leaned down to untie the shoes that everyone claimed were to sensible for a women her age. This evening her apartment seemed lonelier than normal. She had grown used to the peacefulness of living by herself, being in control of her own life with no one to answer too. She had gotten comfortable and set in her ways. Things in her apartment were just so. Things were never left out, dishes were never left undone; she had convinced herself after years of being alone that this was the way she preferred it, however, tonight things were different. Her apartment seemed sad and inhospitable. She was wound up in an emotional ball, it tended to happen to her with a case like the one she was on now. "Don't get emotionally involved" she would tell herself, "Focus on the facts," she would lecture, and she would. She would bottle it all up, do her job, and battle with the inner demons in her head later.
The knock on the door surprised her, made her skin crawl just a little in fear, yet she found her way to the door to see who had graced her with their presence at such a late hour.
She quickly peered through the peep hole. A habit that Booth had insisted she get used to doing.
"Ugh… what now." She mumbled while opening the door.
"Gee, so nice to see you too."
"Well, at least you knocked this time." Bones said in a huff while sliding to the left of the door to allow him entrance into her apartment.
"I can see I'm never going to hear the end of that one, it was a joke Bones, you know, funny ha ha, laugh it off and get over it."
"What do you want?"
Booth could see the annoyed look on her face and wondered what exactly she had been doing that would cause her so much annoyance at the interruption of a friend.
"I thought you might be hungry, I noticed that you didn't eat anything today, figured we could go to Wong Foo's and grab a bite to eat."
"I'm really not in the mood, besides I've already been home for an hour I don't feel like leaving again. I'll just grab something I have in the kitchen." Bones said hoping that he would take the hint and leave.
The truth was, she was sort of glad that he was there. Broke the silence from the room, and scared away the millions of thoughts that pounded her brain.
"Bones, you never have food in your apartment, what are you going to eat the fish food?"
"For your information I went to the store this weekend and I have plenty of food here to eat."
Booth walked into the kitchen and instantly began to investigate the contents of her pantry. He was impressed, he had never actually seen food in Tempe's apartment before, she was never there enough to bother with going to the store, and usually either ate out, or ordered in.
"What do you want?" He yelled back at her over his shoulder. "I can make a mean pot of spaghetti, is that good with you?"
He reached into the pantry to recover the ingredients he needed and then quickly shut the door.
"What are you doing?" Temperance asked with a somewhat bewildered look on her face.
"Making dinner what does it look like?"
"Obviously, but why?"
"Because you're hungry, I am too by the way, and you said that you didn't want to go anywhere. That leaves two options, Pizza, which I had for lunch, or cooking something, I just opted for the cooking."
"Just because I don't want to leave doesn't mean that you can't." Tempe's said silently hoping that he would argue with her and opt to stay anyways.
"Listen, Temperance, we have both had a long day, we are both tired and both hungry. The last time I checked we were also friends, that to me means that sitting down and having dinner, maybe sharing in a little bit of "light" conversation is acceptable, however if you want me to leave all you have to do is ask."
Booth looked hurt and Tempe noticed it. What was she doing? Why was she being so difficult? The two of them eat dinner all of the time, why would this be different. She decided to concede.
"Ok, fine, you can stay, spaghetti is fine. Would you like anything to drink?"
"Water is fine… um…. Got a pot?"
"Yea, under the island."
"Got it."
Temperance shifted uncomfortably not knowing how to act in her own home. It had been a long time since she had a man in her apartment, and she had never had one that had cooked for her. She couldn't however, in spite of her own feelings help but notice how at ease Booth looked. He looked at peace in her apartment, like it was a second home to him, one that he spent holiday's at and left clothes at just incase something was to come up. He had of course made comments to the fact that she didn't own a television, but when it came right down to it, all they ever did was talk anyways.
She enjoyed his pleasant conversations. They usually revolved around something going on in his life like Parker, and they vary rarely touched on her past. She assumed that he realized it was a hard topic for her, so he just avoided it to be polite, but all in all things were relatively casual and calm between the two of them.
"What you thinking about?" Booth interrupted not knowing that she was thinking of him. Temperance was disillusioned to the fact that he had been staring at her for the last five minutes, if so, it would have taken her uncomfort to a whole new level.
"Nothing important" Tempe said obvious to the world that she was lying through her teeth.
"You know, part of my job is to know when people are lying, and I hate to say it, but you are horrible at it. Now, I'll ask again only because whatever it was you were thinking about looked pretty serious."
"I was thinking about you."
Booth stood there in silence. He had no idea how to respond to what he had just heard and was surprised that whatever the thought could have been would form such a confused look on Bones' face.
"I was thinking how odd it is that you look so comfortable in my house."
"Oh, well, you know, I'm not that picky, I'll go anywhere if it involves good food. Are you sure that's it?" Booth said trying to pry a little deeper into the person he was starting to care a lot about.
"Why did you come here tonight? Was it really because you were hungry?"
"Yea."
Temperance unintentionally let out a sigh of disappointment.
"Ok, that was a lie, I came over because I didn't want to be alone, and you seemed like the most logical choice."
"Logical choice?" she drew the words out.
"You are my partner so you understand the type of day I had which means that you won't ask me questions about it, You are my friend, so naturally I like to spend time with my friends, and most of all because I missed you."
Booth had said the last part of the statement so soft that Tempe had almost missed it.
"What did you say?" Temperance's heartbeat had begun to beat faster than normal, and she could feel the heat starting to rise in her cheeks. She was lost within herself as to why those words had such a strong effect on her, but they had, and now she needed to know why.
"I said you are my friend and.." Tempe cut him off mid sentence.
"No, what did you say last?"
"I said I missed you."
"How can you miss me? You see me everyday."
"No I don't, I see Dr. Brennan, I see the forensic pathologist, I don't see you. I don't see Temperance. I miss Temperance."
Bones was completely dumbfounded. Speechless, stunned. "What?" was all that could process through her head at the moment.
"Listen, you don't open up for people, and you know it, but there are those few freak moments when you have, and they have been with me. It's just nice to know the real you. The person that you are when you come home and you aren't hiding behind facts and work as an excuse to be unsociable."
Booth hadn't meant for it to happen, but it had. He saw the small tear roll down the side of her face then balance gracefully at the base of her chin. Without a second thought he reached up with his thumb to wipe it away at the same time turning her face towards his.
"I didn't mean that to be harsh Tempe, my intention was not to come over here and upset you, all I wanted was to spend some time with you outside of the office, bond, ya know."
Temperance shook her head still unable to speak.
"How about we just eat, the food is almost ready, and I promise to keep my mouth shut so I don't upset you any more."
Booth moved back towards the stove to remove the noodles that were now ready to drain and eat. The rest of the evening was spent in silence until Booth decided to leave.
"What have I done" he thought to himself while walking down the stairs and out of the building. "This can't happen Seely!" he scolded himself and he put the car in drive and made his way back to the other side of town where things were safe and he was far away from the person that cause his heart to ache.