"I'm exhausted!" Temperance said as she laid down on the warm sand and closed her eyes.

She was surprised at how much time she had spent in the lake, especially since she had been reluctant to go in the first place.

"Well don't fall asleep on me, we still need to walk back to the car and go back to Washington. Our date isn't over yet." Booth replied, walking up to her.

"It isn't?"

She kept her eyes closed for fear that they would give away the happiness she was now feeling inside. As much as she hated to admit it, the date wasn't going as bad as she had expected it to go and she was surprisingly enjoying herself. And now Booth had announced that it wasn't over, that they would still be spending time together. The day couldn't better than that.

"Of course not. Aren't you hungry? I was sort of hoping we could stop at a restaurant on our way back."

Temperance opened her eyes. Booth stood tall above her and was looking at her with his puppy eyes. She rolled her own.

"Don't give me your puppy eyes, Booth. I never said I didn't want to go to the restaurant. I'm actually starting to be a bit hungry."

Booth smiled as he crouched down to lay down beside her. Their afternoon of swimming had in fact been exhausting. They had made races to see who would get to the other side of lake first (she had beaten once but only because he had made her win, or so he liked to believe), contests to see who could swim the longest under water (she had been amazingly good at it, he had to admit) and, of course, there had been lots of splashing around and Temperance picked up and thrown in the water. Two hours of non-stop swimming would tire out anybody.

"I have to admit, Bones. You were really good at the underwater race thing we did. You actually won three times."

Temperance turned to face her partner, a smile spreading over her tired face.

"I would have won them all if you hadn't cheated."

"Cheated? Moi?"

Temperance smacked him playfully on the arm. Booth chuckled.

"Where do you want to go for dinner? I had something in mind but if there's somewhere in particular you want to go, I'd be willing to consider it."

"No, you choose. I'm too exhausted to think."

"What are you going to do in a couple of minutes? You know, Bones, I'm not carrying you all the way back to the car. We're at least forty minutes away from it."

Temperance groaned.

"Booth, why would you pick such a secluded beach? It's like an hour away from civilization."

Booth rolled over on his side and scooted over a little closer. Bringing his left hand to his partner's face, he tucked a strand of wet hair behind her ear.

"Then we wouldn't have been able to be alone for our first date."

Temperance gulped. Even though Booth had removed his hand immediately after tucking her hair behind her ear, she somehow could still feel the touch of it on her cheek. Butterflies flew in her stomach and the nervousness, which had vanished during their time in the lake, came sweeping back, hitting her hard in the chest. She sat up abruptly.

"We uh... we should get going. We have a long way to walk."

"Right..." Booth mumbled as he closed his eyes.

Why on Earth had he just done this? It was obvious that she wasn't going to be ready for this sort of contact. It was Temperance. But how could something that had felt so right be so wrong?

Great! Now she's got me thinking in cliches. Just great!

He sat up as well. They'd need to change. Both their outfits were soaked and he didn't know if he'd be able to walk back to the car with wet clothing.

"We'll need to change." he said.

"Huh?"

Temperance had been lost in her thoughts.

"I said that we'll need to change. We can't possibly walk back with wet clothes."

"Why not? They'll dry."

Her voice was cold and Booth knew that she had shut herself up. He sighed once again. Would she ever open up for good?

Booth got up and walked to his bag. One glance through it and he realized that Temperance had been right. Their clothes would be dry before they reached the car. They could change at the picnic site or at the restaurant. It wouldn't matter.

He threw on his dry T-shirt before turning to his partner.

"Are you ready to go then?"

Temperance nodded and followed Booth to the small cliff.

"How are we supposed to climb back up?"

"By climbing back up, Bones."

"Was that you being funny?"

Booth sighed again but this time in frustration.

"We had a lot of fun, Bones, this afternoon. You have to admit it. We were doing great. Why do you always have to ruin everything? I'm sorry about the hair tucking thing. I shouldn't have done that, I get it. There's no need for you to get mad at me."

Temperance looked down. He didn't understand anything. How was she supposed to explain to him that she had actually liked it and that had been the reason why she had to shut herself up? Would he understand if she told him that she needed to do this to feel in control of herself and her life? If she did tell him so, he would immediately think that he had power over her and that was something she didn't want. She simply wanted to enjoy this day without thinking about what was to come or analyzing what was going on. Of course, that wasn't going to happen.

"There's a tough branch sticking out of the ground a few feet from here. We'll use this to climb up." Booth replied as he started walking.

Temperance followed.

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"Let's make this more fun."

"How?" Booth asked, wiping the water from his face.

"Let's race. The first one to the other side of the lake wins."

"Wins what?"

"Just wins, Booth. You don't always need to have a prize at the end of something."

"But it's so much more fun." Booth whined, jokingly.

"You're such a child." Temperance replied, rolling her eyes.

"I try to be."

"So are you up for it or not?"

Of course he had been up for it. He had beat her three times out of the four races but she had a feeling he had let her win the last one. Of course he would never admit it. She side-glanced at him. He was walking quickly like he was in a hurry to get somewhere.

"Hey!"

"What?" Booth asked, innocently.

"You cheated!"

"Bones, I am hurt. I would never cheat."

"You came up for air, I just saw you."

Booth chuckled. She had been right. He had cheated. He didn't think that she would come up when he did. Of course she had won the last race. He didn't mind. It had been his punishment for cheating.

"Why are you laughing?" Temperance asked.

"I was just thinking about when you caught me cheating."

"So you do admit that you were cheating!"

"Yeah yeah. I admit it. Now can we just drop this?"

"Sure. How far are we from the main path?"

Booth looked at his watch. They had already been walking for fifteen minutes.

"Not far. We should be back in the picnic area in about fifteen more minutes."

"Good because I'm starved."

Booth laughed.

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Booth collapsed on the picnic table. He was exhausted and really hungry. It hadn't taken him more than five minutes to get changed into something dry and he had decided to wait outside for Temperance to be done. She had been in the restroom for ten minutes and Booth wondered what was taking her so long. Then again, he shouldn't be surprised. His partner was after all a woman, always taking so much more time than necessary getting ready.

The place was almost deserted. A few families were gathering up their stuff and getting ready to head back home. Booth watched two children as they chased each other, laughing uncontrollably and shrieking in delight. His heart squeezed a bit at the thought of Parker. He hadn't seen his son in weeks and he was starting to miss him. He then thought of the woman in the restroom not far away. She didn't want to have any kids and Booth couldn't understand why. Having children was the best thing a person could do yet this woman denied herself of that joy. Maybe he would be able to change her mind about it. How many times had he thought about starting a family with her.

Whoa, relax you! This is your first date with her and you're already thinking about having kids with her. What is the matter with you?

He had been so lost in his thoughts that he barely heard Temperance when she spoke to him.

"Are you ready?"

Coming out of his daze, he turned to stare at her. She looked exactly like she had looked when he had gone to pick her up a few hours ago: breathtaking.

"Of course I'm ready." Booth replied as he stood up.

The couple started walking towards the parking lot.

"So are you going to tell me where we're going?" Temperance asked.

"Nope."

He turned to face her. She looked exasperated. Booth chuckled as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

"You're so cute when you're angry." He said before kissing her sweetly on the cheek.