He opened his eyes slowly, trying to adjust the barrage of light that was fighting its way through his lids. Yawning he tries to stretch but is quickly aware of her body lying next to him. The only part of their body touching is their feet, but he is suddenly very awake. His eyes roam over her slowly, her auburn hair spills over his pillows and her open mouth is half pressed into one of them, faint snoring and drool completing the picture. A picture he could get very used to seeing every day. He smiles gently as he watches her slumber, amazed that she is truly comfortable enough in his presence to be sleeping so heavily. It strikes him as funny that none of his past love interests were ever comfortable enough with him to get to a point where they were drooling on his pillow.
He watches as her chest rises and falls with every steady breath that she takes, her full, albeit open, lips had given him many a fantasy on a lonely night. Her perfect nose and strong features all added up beautifully to create the face of Temperance Brennan, a face that had almost taken his breath away the first time he had lain eyes on it. He hadn't always been aware of his feelings for the difficult, literal anthropologist partner but lying here next to her now, her foot curled between his, he can't imagine never having loved her.
The shrill ring of the telephone brings the room to life and her eyes open slowly, mouth closing in unison. He leans across her and brings the receiver to his ear watching her wipe the drool from her chin with the back of her hand.
"Booth…..Okay, good…..we're on our way. Be there in an hour."
He leans across her again and replaces the receiver on its cradle before resting his head on his arm and smiling at her.
"Morning sunshine."
She smiles "Morning Booth…. I'm sorry I didn't mean to fall asleep."He waves his hand to tell her that he didn't mind. She winces slightly and reaches her hand behind her, after a few wiggles of her hips she brings the hand back around now grasping the TV remote. "Ouch."
"Doesn't own a TV yet still hogs the remote….typical…. We need to get ready, the tapes have been couriered to the station. Someone in the lab is reviewing them right now, Robinson's lawyer is there with him now. They think he'll be ready to give a statement soon.. hopefully a confession."
She yawns and stretches, her arm narrowly missing Booth's head, he grabs it in defence. "Hey." She smiles apologetically.
"I need a shower…. I think that was the best sleep I have had in a while."
He watches her push herself from the bed and stretch when she stands up. "You must have needed it." Secretly he is hoping it has something to do with her proximity to him during her sleep. "Anyway, go get a shower, I'm gonna do the same. Then we'll leave in about twenty minutes."
She nods and starts to head to her room, stopping at the connecting room she watches him switch the television off, he looks up at her in question. "You okay Bones?"
"Yeah…. I just wanted to say thanks."
"For what?"
"For being someone I can trust not to lie to me."
He smiles and watches her disappear and close the connecting door behind her. Though touched by her rare display of sentiment, he can't help but feel a bit guilty for knowing that he isn't being entirely honest with her. If he were, then she would know how he feels about her. Sighing he heads into the bathroom.
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Brennan looks at the stills taken from the CCTV footage and smiles triumphantly at Booth. "We got him."
"Yeah we did… We just better hope he doesn't try and make this any harder than it has to be and comes clean… They are taking his statement right now, so we should know in an hour or so. His lawyer has seen the pictures in your hand so it shouldn't be long."
Booth is cut off by Brennan's phone ringing. She pulls the cell out and holds it to her ear. "Zack…what have you got?... A pocket knife, you're certain? Great work Zack, I'll see you soon."
Pocketing the phone again she looks up at Booth. "You might want to check the possessions taken away from Joe. See if he has a pocket knife, can be analysed for DNA left on the blade, it's what he used to torture his parents…"
A detective appears behind her and Booth nods at her to make her aware of his presence. "Agent Booth, Dr Brennan. We got a full confession, he's pleading guilty… Turns out they had a fight over money, he got angry and tried to frighten them into giving him some, things got out of hand. He's accepting full responsibility, against his lawyer's advice… Just thought you might wanna know."
"Thanks Detective. We'll be up in a minute to tie up some loose ends then."
The detective nods and leaves them alone. "So much for the pocket knife then."
Booth smiles at her. "How about we finish this up, then head home?"
Nodding she agrees.
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She sweeps into her apartment with her bag towing behind her and kicks the door closed behind her, with a satisfied smile she drags the bag into her bedroom.
Coming back through to the living area she shrugs off her jacket and drops it onto the sofa before falling onto it with as much grace as the garment next to her. She's happy to be home, relieved that she finally has some time to rest, to think..about everything with Marcus, how she can apologise to Angela…about the escalating feelings that she is having for Booth. The time that they had spent alone together had been both brilliant and torturous at the same time. She isn't used to having such a conflict warring inside her, so coming to any conclusions about how to resolve the situation is almost impossible. She is saved from her journey into in-depth analytical hell by a knock at the door. Her head snaps up to stare at the wooden barrier between herself and the body on the other side, and after a hesitant few seconds she gets to her feet to answer. On reaching for the handle she silently prays that Booth is not the mystery caller. Pulling the door open she is relieved to see Angela on the other side. The sympathetic smile on Angela's face lifts an invisible weight from her shoulders as they both reach for one another for a hug.
"I'm sorry we fought Angela."
"Me too Sweetie, I wish that we'd had the guts to tell you."
Parting from each other, Angela enters the apartment and Brennan closes the door after her.
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He sips his beer and glances at the Buick in front of him; wiping a greasy arm across his forehead to remove rivulets of sweat that had collected under his hairline he manages to smear a line of dark grease across it. Glancing up at the clock of the garage and contemplates calling her, he glances down at his cell on the workbench and taps the beer bottle against his lips as he mulls over what to do, placing the beer down onto the bench he moves his hand to hover above the cell, biting his lip he settles for the wrench beside it and moves to slide underneath the engine of the car.
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Angela fills her wine glass and then tops up Brennan's. Brennan smiles in appreciation before lifting the glass to her lips.
"So…. You were coming out of the bathroom and?"
"He was on his way in. He stopped to wipe some paste from my lip and then… then… I don't know. I can't describe it"
Angela sinks further into the sofa with a coy smile playing on her lips. "Try sweetie, I can feel this going somewhere good."
"I think he wanted to kiss me."
Angela almost sprays her mouthful of wine all over Brennan's laptop as she sits bolt upright, she covers her mouth and places her glass on the table as she sputters and tries to regain her composure. Brennan watches her with amused eyes. "He wanted to kiss you!...Well, I mean, of course he did….. Did you want him to kiss you?"
Brennan looks at her hands and hides her eyes from her friend. "No."
"Tempe." Angela's warning tone makes her glance up.
"Yes." Her eyes immediately drop to the glass in her hands. "But then all at the same time, I was scared.. I mean it's Booth."
Angela puts her hand on Brennan's wrist making her meet her eyes. She smiles widely and nods. "Yeah…it's Booth." Her voice is quiet and she speaks the words almost as though she is revealing the answer to the world's deepest secret. Brennan's eyes fill with unshed tears brought on by her instant confusion.
"I don't know what this is Ange… I don't know what I am feeling. Or why I'm feeling it. He's my partner, my friend…. He's annoying, arrogant, self involved…. He always has to be right..and"
"And, he's saved your life on more than one occasion, he's caring, charming, courageous, smart, funny…….and he loves you."
Brennan looks at her friend and nods slowly. "I don't think he loves me though Angela."
Angela pushes herself up from the sofa and looks down at her friend. "I know he does, he told me so." Brennan lets out a shuddery breath. "Are you in love with him Bren?" Looking back up at her friend, her eyes mist with unshed tears again and she nods slowly.
"I've tried so hard to not be. I can't help it. I just want things to go back to the way they were before Booth, I want it to be us in the lab, you, me Zack and Jack… I don't want to have to deal with these feelings."
Reaching down and pulling her friend to her feet, Angela places her hands on Brennan's shoulders. "I know it's scary sweetie, but unless you deal with this head on, it isn't going to get any better. It'll probably get worse…."
"What should I do"
Reaching down and holding up Brennan's jacket she smiles. "It's time to tell him."
Brennan takes the jacket from her and stares at it "I can't."
"Sweetie. He was really hurt with the whole Marcus thing. I wish you could have seen what that did to him. He loves you Bren, he just doesn't believe that he'll ever be good enough for you…. I want you to go and tell him, tell him everything that you told me…. Tell him that you are scared. He'll understand."
Brennan looks at the jacket in her hand and places her glass on the table, swinging the jacket over her shoulders, Angela reaches forward and pulls open the clasp holding Brennan's hair, at her friends inquisitive gaze she smiles "He prefers your hair down."
She blushes slightly and Angela leans forward to give her a hug. "Now, give him a huge smooch for me… And you should call a cab, don't drive, we don't need you getting arrested on the way over to his place." Brennan smiles and watches as Angela waves and leaves the apartment.
She takes a deep breath and stares at the closed apartment door as she summons some courage to face her greatest fear. Rejection.
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Sorry it's taken so long to update guys, have just been enjoying reading other author's stories for a while. Siapom and Goldpiece, loving your latest.
Only those ones are coming to mind coz I've just finished reading their updated chapters, but I've got so many favourites at the moment. If anyone has any recommendation let me know, otherwise guys, read and review….. it keeps me warm during my long cold Scottish nights. :D