Thank you very much for the reivews.
Nia insisted on buying the coffee and they sat on the plastic chairs set out in front of the coffee bar. The spring morning was getting warmer and there were very few clouds in the sky.
"First rugby game?" Nia inquired.
Temperance nodded, then decided to step in before Nia began asking awkward questions about her and Booth.
"What do you and Huw do in Washington?" she asked.
"Me?" Nia queried, "I'm a diplomat, I work at the British Embassy." She shrugged, "Second Secretary - Economics. It's an analysis and negotiation role. It's really interesting. Huw's a defence consultant." She paused, "What do you do?"
"I'm a forensic anthropologist, I head the lab at the Jeffersonian..." Temperance trailed off as she saw Nia's eyes light with recognition. "What?"
"You're Bones." Nia announced.
Temperance's shoulders slumped and she rolled her eyes, "Only to Booth."
"Really?" Nia said absently before focusing her penetrating grey eyes on Temperance, "There was me thinking that Seeley had conjoured you out of nowhere today, but actually he's been talking about you all the time."
Temperance felt herself blush. Part of her wanted to run as far away from this conversation as possible, but the other half wanted demand every detail of what Booth had being saying about her. She stared at her coffee.
Nia continued, "How long have you been dating?"
Temperance's head jerked up in shock, "We haven't. I mean we aren't!"
Nia looked at her in disbelief, "You're joking?"
Temperance could almost hear Nia's thoughts - why are you here today then and why did he have his arm around you? She shook herself, "Really, we just work together."
Nia opened her mouth and closed it, biting her lip, after a moment she said, "I'm not going to say anymore or you'll think I'm incredibly rude, but just so you know, Seeley's a great guy." She nodded encouragingly a couple of times.
Temperance laughed slightly, "I know." She said as her blush returned.
Nia tried to fight back a grin, "Good." The grin won out, "You know, it's so funny actually meeting you. We've had 'Bones' this, 'Bones' that for the last ten months, I knew there was something in his voice when he talked about you..." She stopped again, "Sorry, I said I'd stop fishing for details."
Temperance waved the apology away and asked a question of her own, "How do you know Booth anyway?"
"Through the army. Huw was posted with him once." Nia paused, "Huw was a Royal Marine; Seeley was a US Ranger." She poured another sachet of sugar in her coffee and stirred it in, not looking up as she continued to speak. "An operation went badly wrong. Huw's squad got cut off, several were killed, all of them were injured."
She halted and rubbed her right eye for a moment, before continuing, "Seeley saved Huw's life. Got badly shot up in the process. They spent two months in adjacent hospital beds."
She looked across at Temperance and smiled slightly. "They stayed in touch, and when Carys was born, Seeley was the only choice as her godfather. Without him, she wouldn't be here." Her smile widened, "We were so pleased when I got posted to Washington. Seeley helped us find somewhere to live, and to get to know the city. Parker's the same age at Carys, they're at the same pre-school. We share the school-run when Parker's with Seeley."
Temperance noticed that Nia's gaze had shifted over her shoulder, she turned in her chair and saw Booth and Huw threading their way through the crowd towards them. She and Nia stood up and waved.
Temperance's eyes widened as she looked at Booth. The jogging pants had been discarded. She wasn't sure about the black knee high sports socks, but the shorts looked good, or at least the muscular thighs they revealed did. She stared at his quads, wondering how much he leg pressed at the gym to get that level of muscle bulk and definition.
She finally managed to drag her gaze away from legs and locked eyes with him as he came to halt in front of her.
"Everything okay?" He asked quietly, one hand on her arm.
She nodded, gazing at him silently, her mind skittering all over the place. She could see the gentle concern in his brown eyes, but more than that she was simply aware of him. His presence burned so brightly in front of her, that the sunny morning and the hundreds of people milling around seemed to fade into the background. She felt her stomach tilt and turn over. She didn't recognise the feelings surging through her body, or at least she wasn't willing to acknowledge them yet.
Booth was watching her in puzzlement, slightly unnerved by the intensity of her gaze. He'd never expected to inspire that sort of look from Bones. Hoped maybe, but never expected. He let go of her arm and caught her right hand and held it in his.
The touch broke the spell. Temperance looked at him in surprise, but she didn't pull away. He tilted his head questioningly, offering her the chance to disengage. Instead she smiled and laced her fingers through his.
A muffled chuckle from behind them caused them both to turn around. Huw and Nia were studiously looking the other way, but not succeeding in hiding their smiles.
"Daddy, are you going to play yet?" Carys asked tugging his shirt.
"Not just yet, lovely. I get to watch Uncle Seeley get beaten first." He'd broken out into a wide grin, "Don't I?"
"Very funny, Huw." Booth said.
Temperance and Nia looked confused, "His team are in the same Group as the New Zealand embassy side and one of the local Irish teams. They're playing the Kiwis first."
"Oh dear." Nia said.
Temperance looked blank.
Booth sighed, "What Huw means is, we're playing the reigning champions of this competition in the first game and then one of the strongest sides in the Washington league." He began to smile slightly, "Personally, I think the draw was fixed. Still, I'd better find the rest of my team and get this over with. We're playing on pitch six, shall we head over?"
Huw and Nia nodded.
Booth sighed again, "I was kind of hoping you wouldn't want to watch..." They began to walk towards the large playing area marked out as pitch six.
(TBC)
(Game on - next chapter.
I went to see a rugby game last night, driving rain, pitch like a mud bath, impossible to tell which side was which after about 20 mins. Five tries - was fantastic! Lots of inspiration...)