Into the Wild
Running on Empty
Disclaimer: 'Bones' and its characters belong to Fox and it's affiliates. I am a wannabe novelist with no money and nothing to give except my cat.
Rating: T. For those nymphomaniacs among us, there will be sex again later.
A/N: Once again thanks to those of you who reviewed and those of you who have turned my inbox into a giant request tank. I hope I have sent all the stories I was meant to send. If you asked and didn't get, please send me a PM one more time. I will definitely get it to you this time. Thanks!
She struggled to move through the frigidly cold water. Her arching side rendered her incapable of inhaling - and she needed to breathe so badly. Her chest felt tight and she suddenly understood what it meant to be asthmatic.
Her arms flapped fruitlessly, and despite carrying no weight on her shoulders, she felt as though a tonne was strapped to her legs.
Booth reached for her, his fingers closing around her sleeve to her as she desperately clung to him. His strength knew no bounds, now. She knew he worked moved on adrenaline alone. If they made it up the cliff face, he'd most certainly collapse. The thought panicked her, and she gasped.
It took so much energy to inhale, and a pain shot through her ribs. She jerked, sucking in a mouthful of water. She choked and gagged at the same time, trashing wildly. She was going to drown.
Around them the rain pelted, hitting their skin like bullets. She would have handled the rain, had she not been struggling so distraughtly in the water. Booth pressed his arm against her stomach, and she water spilled forth from her mouth, giant gulps of air flooding her throbbing lungs.
They waded through the river, falling in a heap of limbs at the shore. Booth knelt, his body dripping, his eyes wide. He looked frenzied and frighteningly determined. His knuckles were white around her rucksack. Brennan trembled, her eyes stinging. How had she been so foolish as to get hurt in the wilderness? How had she put them in such a stupid predicament?
"Booth…?"
"We need to go," he hurried, ignoring her one worded plea.
Brennan tried again, but his hand urged her forward, towards the looming cliff. He'd spotted a gentler incline and before she could apologise or even thank him, however trite it might have been, he was moving along the narrow strip of stony shore, his jaw tight. She hurried to maintain his pace, his longer legs carrying him towards the inclination faster than her. She stumbled, her fingers moving over her side, aching and bloody.
Standing at the base of the cliff for a moment, Booth sighed then tossed the bags unto the fist ledge. He moved with the skill and dexterity of someone who was trained, athletic and agile. She felt awkward and needy, digging her fingers into the rock, getting nowhere, fast.
His fingers encircled her wrists and he tugged. She thought her sockets might explode. Brennan could not remember a time when she'd been in so much pain. There had been a few occasions when she'd been hurt - but now, she thought she might die. The notion that she was being melodramatic forced her to grit her teeth and dig her feet into the rock crevices.
She felt stone bite into her knees, and tears fell from her eyes until the cliff above her was blurred. Booth paused for a moment, brushing his palm across her cheek. He held her forearms, his eyes glazed and intense.
"We're off the ground. We're alright, okay? We're alright. Stop crying, Bones." She shook her head, tendrils of her own hair clinging to her dirt-caked cheeks. She smelt blood and a sob caught in her throat. "Temperance," his fingers tightened. "Please? If we concentrate, we'll be okay."
She nodded mutely, pressing her fingers to her eyes, pulling her rucksack over her shoulders, swallowing hard. "Okay," she said.
Booth held her, helping her to the second ledge and then the third.
When her fingers touched upon the grass and wet soil at the top, and she'd hefted her body the final few feet, she released the anguished cry that had she'd suppressed the whole way up the cliff. She fell against the ground as though it were sacred, her arms aching and her legs trembling.
Next to her, Booth greedily drank from his canteen, kneeling. He shook off his bag, turning to her with new found concern.
"You need to rest, Bones," he said. More a second she contemplated refusal, and dismissed it at once. She wasn't even sure she could walk another few metres, let along continue their trek. Winning didn't matter to Booth anyway. He'd made that abundantly clear.
They would have to walk for miles downhill before they'd be at another river. Brennan sighed, dropping her head.
"I'm sorry, Booth. I've screwed up." He rummaged through his bag, his jaw tight,
"Yes, Bones, you did. You were enormously stupid, assuming you knew best." Her mouth gaped. She hadn't expected him to retort so bluntly and with so much fevered anger. His fingers tugged at her rucksack now, pulling the tent from within. He tossed aside the poles, the metal clinking nosily, reflecting the fury he so desperately wanted to unleash. "Why, Brennan?" His eyes were black - granite black - when he looked at her. She swallowed.
"Why what?" She asked, drawing her knees to her chest. A classic defensive posture. It hurt, even to move.
"Why did you launch yourself unto that rock? Are you insane?" A glimmer of hurt passed across her features at his insinuation. She resented the implication that she was mentally unsound. Afraid, yes. But crazy, no.
"You scared me," she stated, dropping her eyes to the soggy earth. "You wanted to look after me, and I'm not used to that." Booth frowned, wringing the canvas between his fingers.
"When? When did I frighten you, Bones?" She held out her palm, the thorny shrubbery had left an angry mark.
"You said I was hurt. You tried-" she shook her head. "I was stupid, you're right." Booth unrolled the tent, shifting his, glaring through the trees. They needed to move to less soggy ground. He got to his feet.
"I did what any partner would have done. I was looking out for your welfare. But if perhaps a part of my mind wanted to care for you in non platonic ways," he admitted, stopping at a point just inside the trees. The overhead leaves had sheltered much of the ground. He stomped the earth with his foot, satisfied that it wasn't a watery marsh. "If the prospect of that scares you, Brennan, then maybe you need to revaluate what made you sleep with me last night."
Temperance pressed her forehead to her knees. "Maybe," she whispered. The hurt she felt now was concentrated on the inside. She, who analysed everything, had not wanted to analyse why she and Booth had slept together. It had felt good. Better than good. It had felt amazing. She'd promised herself in the morning that she would embrace the new place they'd reached. That she'd allow Booth into her sanctuary and allow him into her independence.
Booth didn't ask for her help as he erected the tent.
He struggled with the poles but he didn't speak.
Brennan shifted, willing herself to help, despite Booth's obvious need to be left alone. When he turned his back, she sighed, dropping against her rucksack and closing her eyes. As her mind whirled from one subject to the next, she saw images of them together, naked and grinding and moaning each others name.
The rain slowed to a drizzle but below the cliff the river had begun to thunder. She thought of their escape, and how lucky they'd been that Booth was so alert. She, the scientist, had failed to acknowledge such a basic fact.
She sighed. "Booth?"
He stood, brushing dirt from his knees.
"I'm going to walk downhill, see if maybe I can find food. Stay here, Brennan. No more of you stupid daredevil escapades, huh?" She folded her arms, watching as he made off through the trees, his shoulders slumped. She understood that, now his adrenaline and need to protect had subsided, his anger had surfaced.
She wanted to apologise, but she wasn't sure how to explain that gnawing fear she felt at the prospect of handing herself over to someone else. She'd been alone for a long time. But she should have understood before indulging in hot wilderness sex that Booth was not like other men. He'd want commitment and things Brennan wasn't familiar with.
He disappeared, and she shuffled into the tent, dropping her head to the makeshift pillow, closing her eyes.
There were many, many things she needed to understand. And many things she needed to discuss with Booth.
But until then, she'd be alone, until he came back and she had the chance to speak with him.
She hoped by then his anger would have receded and he would at least afford her the chance to explain.
In the distance, she heard the rumble of thunder and realised it would be a long day.
I had an idea that I might make another graphic chapter about how, since Brennan can't exactly have sex, Booth would please her. Let me know if you're all interested. PM me, of course. I will happily email you all. Sorry I have to do it this way, but I don't want my account shut down.
I quite like the idea of Booth and Brennan naked in a tent with rain pouring down around them.
Byes!