TITLE: Nothing Personal
CHAPTER TEN: Giving a Lift

Booth found his partner standing with Angela, Zack, and Hodgins at the holographic display -- what had been dubbed by the squints as the 'Angelator' due to its creator, and the office in which it resided -- and Booth stepped up behind Bones as he began to catch what Angela was saying...

"From the positioning of the bodies when they were brought in, not to mention the general condition of all of the bones, I was able to sketch a mock-up of the possible way in which they were buried--" She hit a few buttons on the pad in front of her, using her stylus, and a new image appeared of the four bodies stacked one on top of the other.

"Like pancakes?" Hodgins questioned, a half smirk on his lips only until he received a reproachful look from Tempe; he apologized immediately.

"The grave would've had to have been shallow," Tempe surmised, pointing to the bodies, "with the manner in which they're buried."

Zack chimed in, "There was no way to pinpoint exact times of death for each victim, but it's safe to say that, according to the condition of the bones and the particulates found on each of them that they were all killed roughly at the same time, and with the same weapon."

"Yes, that five-inch dagger you mentioned," Booth stepped forward, and reached into his pocket, "which I happened to find a replica of thanks to a local pawn shop." He pulled out the dagger and set it on the edge of the table. "I took one of the molds with me for comparison, and this is the exact dagger."

"Any way to see how many have been sold from that pawn shop recently?"

Booth shook his head. "Can't. It's cash only, so there's no paper trail whatsoever to go on." He sighed. "I did get a call from my lab guys at Quantico, and the results came back on Vaughn's butt."

Angela, Zack, and Hodgins all snapped their heads around to look at Booth incredulously, and he emitted a slight smile as he amended, "Cigarette butt." He looked back up at Bones and found her smiling at him. He smiled right back, briefly, before getting down to the business at hand. "DNA was a match to the butts found at Jamie's cabin."

Tempe nodded slowly. "Okay. But that still doesn't necessarily mean that he was the killer. We need more proof. What other evidence do we have that we can try to link him to?"

"The bodies?" Zack offered, his naivete his only saving grace from Booth pulling his gun.

Tempe smiled at her assistant wanly. "More than that, Zack."

"We've got the size eleven shoe prints, the handwriting on the mirror."

"If he was your killer, though," Angela piped up, "why would he go all the way to upstate New York to just call Booth and then scribble something on a mirror? It doesn't make any sense."

Booth shook his head. "It rarely does."

"Bones? Hey, Bones..."

Tempe looked up and gave her partner a tired smile as he re-entered the Jeffersonian, finding her busy shutting things down for the night. "Find anything else?"

Booth shook his head and slid his pass-card through the slot at the bottom of the steps before he was allowed entrance to the autopsy bay. He jogged up the few steps and was at her side in seconds, his hands finding her waist. "Nothing else that can link back to Vaughn, nope."

She smiled and kept her eyes on his hands, which were still around her waist while he pulled her close, her back colliding with his chest. "Booth... how many times do I have to remind you about the flirting thing?"

"Oh, I could have sworn that was just for 'on-the-job' situations only, Bones. And, as you can see, judging by the fact that we're the only ones in this place now..." He swept her hair off the side of her neck and began to plant kisses there, "We're not on the job."

Her eyes slipped closed and a wide smile broke forth. She tried half-heartedly to struggle, but Booth's lips on her skin made her promptly relinquish the fight. "I guess when you have a point, you have a point." She spun in his arms then and, off his grin, pulled him down to her for a deep, soul-searching kiss.

His hands stole up her back, his touch feather-light and highly arousing. She shivered, and sighed against his lips. He pulled her in tighter in response, pressing himself against her. She broke from his lips with a groan. "Not here, Booth."

His grin was cat-like; predatory. "Come onn..." his honeyed baritone seduced her, and scraped her senses like velvet. "You've never fantasized about having sex here, right in the middle of the Jeffersonian?"

"It's not sanitary. We'll go to my place." She gave him one last definitive peck on the lips before she broke away, resuming her task of shutting everything down.

He raised his eyebrows at her comment and quipped, "You wild woman, you," but obeyed nonetheless, waiting patiently for her against the railing until she was ready to go.

Booth led her to his car with his hand around her waist, and this time she didn't protest. Rather, she threw him a rather heart-fluttering grin. As he opened the passenger side door for her and watched her climb in, she asked, "What about my car?"

He shrugged. "If anyone asks, then you had car trouble and I gave you a lift home."

Tempe tilted her head at her partner as he shut her door and went around to the driver's side, her eyes following him the entire way. He slid the key into the ignition and turned to grin, feeling her eyes on him.

She was still regarding him through her lashes. "You know Angela's not going to buy that."

He nodded. "Yeah, I know. But hopefully Dr. Goodman and the rest of the squints will."

Tempe rolled her eyes, but smiled at him as he tossed her another grin and shifted gears, pulling out of the parking lot and speeding toward her house.

"Booth, had you driven any faster we would've broke the sound barrier. And will you let me get my keys out? Hands off, for two seconds!"

"I love it when you get all bossy and domineering, Bones, it's such a turn-on. I just might let you be on top tonight."

Her keys jingled in her hand and she chuckled, leaning her head away from Booth as she tried to the fit the key in the lock. His lips chased after hers, and he gave up only to settle for latching on to her earlobe while his hands stroked her hips and thighs. "Boy, what a treat for me," she quipped in response to his comment, and her eyes slipped closed against his ministrations. She swayed slightly and felt his grin as he grasped her hips to steady her.

"Is that door unlocked yet, Bones?" Booth trailed hot, wet kisses down her neck, his fingers now fumbling with the buttons on her shirt.

She weakly reached for her key, still in the lock, just barely managing enough coherence to turn the deadbolt. "I think so... why?"

"Because I am about to tear your clothes off and sex you into next week whether we're on your doorstep or not."

Tempe grinned and reached behind her, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and dragging him inside as she teased, "You're such a cheeseball, Booth."

His grin was predatory again. "A cheeseball that's gonna sex you into next week, baby."

He kicked the door shut with his foot before his lips claimed hers, and after tossing her keys onto the table she became a willing and active participant. Her hands raked through his hair and slid down his face, gliding over his shoulders and inward to undo his shirt buttons.

"How do you want this?" he murmured breathlessly between kisses.

Her eyes popped open and locked on his while she sucked his bottom lip between her teeth. "What do you mean?"

A grin lit his eyes but didn't quite reach his otherwise-occupied lips as he helped her remove her shirt and replied, "Do you want fast and dirty or slow and romantic?"

Tempe gave him a smoldering look through her lashes in response. "How about we just let our bodies make the decision for us?"

Booth's eyes widened slightly, and he whipped his button-down shirt off, eagerly pulling his white beater over his head next. "I'm all for that. You're so smart." He attacked her lips again.

"Hmm, I know," she hummed, hooking her thumbs in his belt loops and backing toward her bedroom, effectively pulling him with her.

He pinned her to the wall in the hallway and slid his hand down the center of her body, spreading her button-down shirt open and gliding his hand down her abdomen, past the barrier of her pants. She sucked in a breath when that skilled hand slipped beneath the waistband of her panties, and--

"Oh, God!" Her head lolled back against the wall.

Booth grinned and lavished her now-exposed throat with open-mouthed kisses, pressing his arm to the wall above her head and leaning on it as his other hand worked her arousal to a fever pitch. When she began to buck against his hand and pant into his ear, he knew she was close; that was confirmed as she whimpered, "Booth, stop, stop. I'm going to--"

"No way, Bones," he replied nonchalantly and pressed his lips tight against her neck, sucking the skin into his mouth.

With one more gasp -- of his name, which sent his blood pressure soaring -- he felt her fly over the edge, her fingers clutching at his shoulders desperately. His kisses on her neck gentled, and he leaned up to kiss her lips again as he waited for her to calm.

When she did, she pulled away, and the look in her eyes nearly stopped his heart. "I need you. Now."

Booth groaned aloud at the raw lust in her voice and did as she bade, stripping himself and her at warp speed before his hands flew everywhere, his mouth covering her with kisses. "Shall I carry you to the bedroom?" He grasped her by the backs of her thighs and hoisted her up, locking her legs around his waist before he pinned her to the wall again.

She shook her head adamantly and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him passionately. "No." Before he could set her down, she reached between them and curled her fingers around his arousal, delighting in the rapid dilation of his pupils.

She smiled, her eyes locked on his as she leaned to kiss him again and guided him to her entrance, whispering, "I want you right here."

He groaned again and was powerless to stop himself from replying huskily, "God, I love you," before pulling her onto him.

Tempe threw her head back against the wall again and groaned, half in lust and half in pain as the back of her head hit the hard plaster. Each movement Booth made sent a whimper cascading from her lips, her nerve endings already over-sensitized from her recent climax, and before long he had her at the peak again.

She kissed along his shoulder, smiling at his slow motion, knowing he was trying to hold back for her. "Booth, you can go faster."

He whispered his thank you and they clung to each other -- and the wall -- for dear life, his hips speeding up. His words came back to her as they fell over the edge together, and as they slumped against the wall in a sweaty tangle of limbs, Tempe had to ponder the meaning behind those words.

Booth kissed her ear gently and guided her back to the floor, smiling when he had to grab her hips to brace her shaking legs. "Easy," he chuckled, his grin widening when she glared.

They got half-dressed in silence, throwing each other looks the entire time. Booth pulled his pants and boxers up but left the buckle unlatched, and pulled his button-down shirt on but left the buttons undone. Tempe stepped into her panties again and pulled them up, pulling her tanktop back on sans bra and smiling at him when she'd pulled it into place.

He smiled back and leaned to kiss her, slightly disconcerted when she pulled away after just a moment. "What?"

"Did you mean that?"

Booth searched the pair of clear blue eyes currently scrutinizing him, and furrowed his brow in a silent request for clarification. "Mean what?"

"Before, when we were about to..." She gestured to the wall.

His grin made her roll her eyes. "Have sex? Bones, I told you, you can say it. It's not dirty."

"When we were about to have sex, you-you said..."

As she trailed off, she saw the realization dawning on his features, comprehension finally reaching him. He nodded slowly and broke into a smile. "Yeah. Uh, it wasn't exactly the romantic scenario I had envisioned when I planned on telling you that, but that doesn't make it any less true."

"So you do--"

"Love you?" He finished, raising his eyebrows. He nodded again with another stunning smile. "Yeah, yeah I do."

Tempe smiled back when Booth pecked her cheek and patted her shoulder, buttoning his shirt as he brushed past her to head for the bedroom. He loved her. Booth loved her. She spun around, fully ready to tell him that she felt the same... when she caught the look on his face. She paused a moment and just studied him -- mouth open, staring straight at the mirror attached to her waist-high dresser. She chuckled. "What?"

That stunned look was turned on her as his head swiveled to meet her gaze. She raised her eyebrows and stepped toward him. "Booth, what?"

He looked around her room, eyes settling on the open window where the curtains were fluttering in the midnight breeze. He reached for her automatically, sensing her close, and drew her into the room as his eyes went back to the mirror.

When her gaze followed his she gasped, a hand flying to cover her mouth. Her already shaky legs began to give way beneath her and Booth caught her just in time, holding her against him as they stared at the garish red scrawling:

I KILLED THEM ALL AND I'LL KILL YOU, TOO.

TBC