TITLE: Nothing Personal
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Just so you all know, I am terrible at writing cases, so anything about their case will be kept brief, at best. Sorry. If I were better at it, I would definitely make more than a half-assed attempt. I'm just in it for the romance, though ;)
Temperance regained consciousness sometime after the sun had already gone down, her body aching from the previous exertion. Laying on her stomach she tried to move, but found herself pinned by a warm body... Booth's, to be exact. His arm had wound tight around her waist and he had tucked her halfway beneath him in his sleep, his leg thrown protectively over both of hers. She frowned and burrowed her cheek against the pillows. How the hell could she get herself out from under him without sustaining an injury?
His ringing cell phone on the nightstand offered the perfect opportunity, and she nudged him with the elbow that was stuffed under his chest. "Booth..." When he didn't stir, she exerted as much force as her abused muscles would allow, using her body to shake him. "Booth!"
"Mmph. Go away, Bones," he mumbled, and pulled her in tighter, burying his nose in her hair.
"Gladly. I'll need you to let go of me first, however."
It was at this that his eyes popped open, and he jumped back from her as if burned. "Sorry, sorry," he immediately sputtered, and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up, reaching for the phone. "Yeah, Booth."
Tempe watched him as he spoke with whoever was on the other end, holding the phone in one hand while pulling on his discarded boxers with the other. She slowly began to dress, realizing how reluctant she was to perform such a task. She then pushed that feeling away just as quickly as it came to her... dismissing it as silly. She and Booth had a job to do. Letting their new... recreational activity... get in the way of that would be ridiculous.
"Yes, I'm sorry. We just arrived," Booth lied to whoever it was. "We'll be there as soon as we can."
He hung up the phone then and sighed heavily, tossing it toward the foot of the bed. Tempe's eyes followed the low arch it made before it touched down against the comforter, and she enquired, "The sheriff?"
"Yeah. Wanting to know where we were." He looked over his shoulder at her accusingly. "Bones, why did you let me sleep?"
She raised her eyebrows, finishing pulling her shirt over her head. "Excuse me? I was the one that was pinned by your body weight. And it wasn't my initial idea to have another go after that first round."
Booth mirrored her eyebrow quirk with one of his own, a slow smirk spreading across his lips. "Well, you didn't seem to have any objections to it, if I remember correctly. In fact, you were a rather willing and active participant."
She rolled her eyes and grabbed her brush out of her overnight bag, running it through her hair haphazardly. "Pig."
"Prude."
Tempe chucked her brush at him, grinning when hit him in the chest and he winced. "Come on, we don't want to keep the sheriff waiting any longer."
"Yeah." His eyes trailed her movement toward the door, finding grace in every step she took. Was she always that beautiful? Had he ever told her just how beautiful she was to him? "Hey, Bones?"
She continued out the door, not bothering to look back or answer him as she called again, "Come on!"
He sighed and finished buttoning his shirt, shaking his head at her behavior as he followed her out the door.
"Alright Bones, whaddya got?" Booth ambled over to his partner, who was busy poking through the victim's medicine cabinet in the bathroom.
They'd been on the scene for a half hour already, and already Booth was anxious to get her back to their cabin. He ignored his brain's silent warnings that they were starting to play with fire. They'd been together only twice... well, three times if he counted that second session at the cabin... and he was addicted. He'd been enamored with the lovely scientist since the beginning, and now that he had gotten so close to her...
"I've found several prescription bottles," she interrupted his thoughts. "Valium, Xanax, Vicodin... all of which are over a year old already. If she was taking these regularly, we'd see some more recent dates on the bottles." She shook her head, the swinging hair drawing her partner's attention. "Booth, I don't think she's lived here for awhile."
"You've come to this conclusion because she's got old prescriptions in her medicine cabinet?" He chuckled. "Come on, Bones, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Maybe she simply didn't need to take any of them anymore, and just didn't throw them out."
Tempe raised her eyebrows in a challenge. "Oh yeah?"
He eyed her. "Why? You got something else?"
Her grin melted his bones. "Maybe."
Booth leaned close to her ear, selfishly indulging himself in a light caress to the side of her neck -- a sensitive spot he'd discovered just hours before. "I don't have to... tease it out of you... do I?"
She chuckled, easing herself away from his touch. "Booth, we're working."
"So?"
Tempe grinned at him over her shoulder while walking to the bedroom. "So quit flirting with me."
He raised his eyebrows to himself, pondering aloud, "when have I ever not flirted with you?" before following where she led.
"Here's what else I found," she announced, stopping suddenly, and his chest collided with her back.
Booth reached instinctively for her waist, bracing both himself and her while his whisper drifted to her ear, "sorry."
She gave him a skeptical look, then brushed off the moment with a sigh, and stepped away from him to move to the dresser... completely missing the look of disappointment that flitted across his face. "Take a look at her dresser."
When he stepped up to the waist-high dresser, throwing a glance toward the mirror only briefly, he noted the light coating of dust on the jewelry box and various perfume bottles. "It's dust."
"Exactly."
"Not seein' where you're going with this, Bones."
"Well, if you had looked at the photo of this woman in the casefile, you would have seen how well-kept she looked -- manicured fingernails, expensive clothes, perfectly styled hair..."
"Yeah?"
"What kind of woman would spend that much time on her appearance and leave her bedroom, the place where she sleeps and primps for her day, covered in dust? I mean, look at this!" She marched over to the bed and slapped her hand down, hard, on the bedspread, a small cloud of dust spraying upward in response.
"That still doesn't mean anything, Bones, and you know that. When this woman was found, she was literally skin and bones. Time of death was determined to be around four months. It's not like this much dust can't accumulate in four months." He couldn't help the smile. "You're reaching."
Tempe rolled her eyes and huffed, brushing past him and shoulder-checking him out of spite. "Yeah, and you're starting to piss me off."
His brows quirked. "Good.I'll let youtake out your frustration on me later, then, I promise."
"What about her closet?" She threw open the doors and gestured for Booth to take a look inside.
He did so, warily, half-fearing she would shove him inside and lock him in there for the remainder of their time at the scene. "Booth, where do you keep your suitcases?" she asked out of the blue.
He furrowed his brows at her. "Top shelf of my closet, why?"
"So do I. And look..." she pointed toward the top shelf, her smile smug. "No suitcases."
"Still reaching, Bones."
"Look at all the empty hangers."
He sighed and nabbed her elbow, spinning her around as he slipped his hand up to clasp the inside of her arm, leading her downstairs. "Yeah, Bones, you can show me all the empty hangers and dusty perfume bottles you want, but it doesn't prove anything. Not yet."
Booth felt her eyes burning holes in his skin all the way down the staircase, and he was all-too-grateful to speak to the sheriff who was waiting for them on the landing. "Just spoke to the neighbor," he announced, and pulled a small notepad out of the breast-pocket of his uniform, flipping it open. "An elderly man named Clarence Haskins. He's been watching the place for her since she's been gone."
Booth raised his eyebrows and released his partner's arm upon catching the sheriff's inquisitive stare. "Gone, as in missing?"
The sheriff shook his head. "No. According to Mr. Haskins, our vic left town about a year ago to pursue a job offer in D.C."
Tempe couldn't help but throw a smug grin in Booth's direction, widening it when he glared at her. "Is that so?" she asked.
"Yeah. He said she sent him money every now and then for basic upkeep, but four months ago, the checks stopped coming."
Booth nodded once, quickly, and grabbed his partner's arm again. "Okay. Thanks, sheriff," he managed to get out, and dragged her toward the door.
"What is the matter with you?" Tempe chuckled, prying her arm out of his strong grip. "So you were wrong, big deal!"
"You didn't have to be so smug about it."
"You didn't have to be so dismissive of my conclusions upstairs!"
His brows knit together in confusion and he placed his hands on his hips, the sides of his suit jacket spreading apart as he did so. "Aren't you the same person who once said you didn't like to draw conclusions until all the evidence was in?"
She threw her hands up in an exaggerated shrug. "Well maybe being with you has started to rub off on me!" Upon catching his wide-eyed look, she clarified. "As your partner." She threw her hands up again and started for the SUV. "What's the big deal? It's only natural for us to pick up things from each other, working so closely together for such long hours. Anthropologically speaking, we're adapting."
He rolled his eyes exasperatedly and climbed in to the driver's side. "Oh God, don't start with the anthropology lecture now."
"I'm not starting with anything, and why are you being such a jerk about this?"
"Y'know what Bones? Now you're the one who's really pissing me off, okay? So why don't we just not talk to each other for the rest of the night?"
"Fine!"
"Fine."
Thick silence reigned, just as it had that morning, the rest of the way back to their cabin.
Booth exhaled through pursed lips, the action sending up a spray of water while he stood under the showerhead, angrily rubbing his scalp... rinsing away the shampoo. Nothing personal. What a crock. Why the hell did he even say that in the first place? Sex with Bones was anything but impersonal. Any kind of sex was a personal act, but with Bones? The woman he'd been falling for since their first case together?
He'd been wrong. This couldn't continue. It had only happened twice (three, again, if he was to count that second time earlier), and that had to be it. While it was a definite relief to get rid of some of that tension, he couldn't shake the new kind of tension it was creating. It was quite obvious that, as usual, they were coming at this from two different angles. He knew, from her behavior earlier, that she would do everything to keep it from being personal. Just casual sex between work partners, and nothing more. But as much as he knew that, he also knew there was no way he'd be able to handle having casual sex with this woman.
And the way she had rebuffed his flirtations at the scene had, quite frankly, hurt. They had always flirted on the job and she'd never had a problem with it before. He had to end this. So immersed was he in his thoughts that he didn't hear the glass shower door opening. Then, when two hands crept to his shoulders, he jumped and spun around as quickly as he could without slipping.
There, in all her naked glory, stood a smiling Temperance Brennan, nudging him out of the way to step under the warm spray. She turned back to face him with a rather devilish grin, her hands smoothing her now-slicked hair back as she sighed out, "We need to have sex again. Now."
He echoed the sigh, though far less enthusiastically. "No offense, Bones, but I really need you to just leave me alone for right now."
Tempe ignored him, instead stretching up on her toes to start peppering kisses alongside his neck. "I understand you're still upset with me, and that's fine," she muttered between kisses. She pulled away to smirk. "But to forfeit sex in order to pout in the shower? That's just not like you."
She kissed his lips and Booth was powerless to do anything but kiss back, sliding his hands through her saturated hair. Her tongue flirted with his lips and he let her in... only for the briefest of moments before he pulled away, head shaking emphatically. "No."
"Oh, come on." She slid her hand down his torso, to his abdomen, and shoved his hand away when he clamped it over her wrist to stop her. "We can fight some more later. Right now, there's too much tension between us. And, for me?" She raised dusky blue eyes to his, her gaze beguiling through smoky lashes. "You're the only one that can relieve the tension."
Her hand slid beyond his abdomen and he gave up the fight, resolving, as he lifted her up against the wall and pushed inside her... that one more time wouldn't hurt him. Not that much, anyway... would it?
TBC
More Author's Notes: For those of you that enjoy reading the love scenes, I apologize forteasing you these past couple chapters. I will try my hardest to have more good BB lovin' in chapter four!
And to those still waiting on chapter 3 of 'The Valentine in the Lights', I promise you I'm working on it. It's just taking a tad longer than expected ;)