Title: Slow hands
Author: wanderingsmith
Disclaimer: I ain't got no money, and nobody'd be daft enough to pay me for this.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Who's playing that music? And who's going to tango...
Warning: BB

Chapter Two

The morning before

Bones sighed as she sat down at her desk. 'A full night's sleep should have more effect than this!' She'd slept 8 hours straight, yet she'd still had to drag herself out of bed this morning. And she could still feel remnants of cotton clouding her thoughts! Damned FBI.

She knew she was being unfair, the FBI didn't create cases, they just responded to them. On the other hand, they, and a certain agent in particular, made for very handy targets to blame for lack of sleep, short temper and the work pilling up to be done.

"Hey Sweety, you look like you need this."

Temperance raised her head from it's position flopped on her chair's headrest. She gave Angela a grateful smile for the coffee she was holding out. "Thanks Ange"

"Seriously hon, you look beat. Why don't you go home and get some more rest? I'm positive Dr. Goodman would be right behind me."

"Umm, and these bones are just going to identify themselves? I'm fine Angela, I had a full night's sleep."

"One night out of 21 does not 'fine' make." She added as she turned to walk back out, "and those bones won't get identified at all if you give yourself a heart attack."

Temperance shook her head with a smile, she counted herself lucky to have Angela's friendship, no matter how demanding it sometimes felt to try to keep up her side.

Not for the first time, she reminded herself why she stayed out of serious relationship with men. That would be a whole other range of demanding.

As it too often did, thoughts of relationships brought Booth to mind, which brought the last few weeks of FBI hell to mind. 6 cases in 21 days, Angela had exaggerated somewhat in her estimate, but she certainly hadn't stayed in her house more than four hours at a stretch during that period. Her two trips out of town with Booth to dig up crime scenes had been madness as they simultaneously tried to continue running other cases here in DC. Thank God for the rest of her team. Without their willingness to cooperate with the FBI (than you Hodgins) and to do some of the legwork she usually did with Booth... well, say what they will, without 'Squints' eyes in the field, cases would take far longer to get all their evidence found.

She started her morning routine of booting the computer, checking mail and the inbox on her desk. 'Did we sleep in the SUV one night?' She frowned as she tried to remember the details around the sudden mental image. She could remember sitting in the back with a case file spread on the floor in front of them, the car parked at a crime scene in the forest in Nebraska in the middle of the night. After spending four hours digging up the bones that were found and sending them back to DC, they were trying to decide what their next step needed to be. Knowing all the while that they also had an open case back home that was going to get cold if they didn't get back.

And then she could remember waking up, slightly stiff but warm and cozy. As her senses started to wake up, she realized the warm pillow was Booth, what she'd thought was her cat purring was actually his light snore, and the reason she was stiff was that his arm was holding her curled against his side as he leaned back against the wall of the SUV with his head dropping on hers.

Neither of them had said a word when he woke as she started to move away. He was as worn down as she was, chasing suspects and information, on his own or with her and then standing over her shoulder and theorizing as she and her team analyzed whatever remains were at the centre of the case. Between her and Angela, they'd managed to insist that Zack and Hodgins go home at reasonable times after the first 3 days of working well into the night, and Angela was always wise enough to know when to quit and give her mind a chance to recharge. She'd tried to send Booth home too, or at least to her couch for some rest, but he'd said flatly that he couldn't sleep any more than she could with the case the way it was.

She could only hope that it was over now. They'd closed their last case yesterday afternoon, it was all in the hands of the lawyers now. And she'd made it through the night without being woken by a tired Booth on her cell. And no emails. She closed her eyes and sighed softly before taking a deep breath, stretching her neck and shoulders and getting up. She had dark age bones to verify.

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By five o'clock she'd only managed half the work she'd expected to get through and she could feel tiredness trying to scratch her eyes out. By six the building was pitch quiet, everyone gone home, even Angela, though not before trying to chivvy Temperance into leaving. She was starting to feel ligh-headed and decided she would just finish replying to her emails and call it a day.

By seven, she'd passed over 'the wall' and gotten her second breath. And if she wasn't quite her usual collected self.. there was no one there to notice and convince her that she was as good as high on exhaustion fumes.

The silence was starting to get on her too sensitive nerves and Temperance checked her drawers to see what music she had. She frowned at the third one she found, 'Home groove' 'How did that get here?'. Then she remembered bringing her home-made mix for Angela to copy for a date. Her frown cleared and she decided that it was sign from that 'someone up above' Booth was always on about. She hadn't relaxed with some music since.. well, that rap club outing hadn't made it to relaxing, not really.

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As he closed the car door, Agent Booth frowned suddenly and checked his watch, 'Damn, she's probably already gone home, idiot.' "Then again, if anyone is likely to work late, it's Bones. Might as well go in and check, now that I'm here." He sighed deeply as he mumbled to himself. He didn't even know what day it was 7:30 of. He was getting as bad as the anthropologist.

Before pushing the doors open, he rubbed his hands over his face a couple times to wake up and straightened his shoulders, 'OK, find Bones, tell her the guy pleaded guilty, try to talk her into going to sleep and GET HOME! Right.' Plan in place, he made his way into the darkened building.

TBC in chapter 3