A/N: Yet another fandom to explore! This is my first Bones fanfic (I'm usually a CSI:NY kinda girl), and--judging by the tingly feeling in the back of my brain--probably not the last. I may build on this, or branch off in another direction, but at the moment this is a stand-alone one-shot full of fluff that takes place sometime post-season 1.
Oh, and the song quoted is part of As the Stars All Fall Away by a guy named Peter Himmelman--it's the same song heard in the background toward the middle of the season finale as Booth and Brennan are sitting in her living room eating Chinese food.
Enjoy!
Booth walked into the lab carrying a manila folder, glancing through the papers it contained as he swiped his ID card and trotted up the steps.
"Hey Bones, we got a case…"
Brennan looked up from her work and opened her mouth to speak, but Angela cut her off.
"Unless it can be solved in five seconds or less, it's gonna have to wait 'til tomorrow," she said firmly. "We're taking Bren out for her birthday tonight."
Booth stopped beside his partner and looked down at her. "It's your birthday? Bones…why didn't you tell me?"
"Because," Brennan replied, shaking her head a little, "it isn't important. It's just the anniversary of the day I was born."
"It's not just the anniversary of the day you were born," Angela grinned. "It's a reason to go out and celebrate with your friends…have a few drinks, dance a little…maybe meet a hot guy…"
Brennan chuckled at that, knowing by the dreamy look on Angela's face that the hot guy would be for Angela, not the birthday girl.
Booth chuckled, too, noting the glimmer in Angela's eyes. "O…kay, have fun with that." Then the tone of his voice mellowed, becoming more serious as he continued, "I guess I'll, uh, be going then. The case can wait one more day."
"Going? Back to work?" Angela asked. "Why don't you come with us?"
Booth instinctively began to decline. "No, I can't…I…"
"Come on, it'll be fun," she insisted. "Hodgins and Zack are going, so it's not like you'll be the only man there…"
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, the two squints in question appeared near the railing on the top floor of the lab, seemingly fighting but without contact and accompanied by some unusual sound effects, unaware that they were being observed.
"What are you two doing?" Brennan called, her face wrinkling into a puzzled frown.
The pair froze, guilty expressions creeping over their features. "Nothing Dr. Brennan," Zack answered sheepishly.
Brennan shifted her hands to her hips and deepened her frown. "This is a multi-million dollar facility, and if anything becomes damaged…"
"We were dueling with light sabers," Hodgins told her, fessing up in an attempt to spare them the speech he knew was coming. "Zack and I rigged up a couple of light sabers like they had in Star Wars, and we were dueling, okay?"
On the floor below, Booth glanced back at Angela and raised his eyebrows. "You were saying something about other men?"
Angela rolled her eyes, turning away from her colleagues, letting Brennan deal with them. "Okay, so other males will be there. But you should come anyway…for Bren."
He thought that one over, allowing his eyes to sweep briefly over his partner, her back still to him as she scolded Zack and Hodgins. "Yeah, sure," he decided. "If it's okay with Bones."
Hearing her nickname, Brennan twisted around. "If what's okay with me?"
"Booth is going out with us tonight for your birthday, sweetie," Angela practically sang.
"If it's okay with you," he repeated. "I mean, if you don't want me to, it's no big deal…"
Brennan halted his sentence before he could finish it. "No, it's okay. I want you to."
"All right," came Hodgins' voice as he entered the second floor of the lab. "The light sabers have been dismantled and stored in separate parts of the building so the young Jedi and I won't be tempted to reassemble them."
"We're sorry, Dr. Brennan," Zack added, following his colleague. "It won't happen again."
"Good," Brennan told them, turning away as she smothered a smile. "It better not."
"What is this place?" Booth asked, holding the door of the little bar open for Angela and Brennan.
"This is the place Bren and I used to come to when we first started working together," Angela explained, steering the little group toward an empty table in the back. "If we had a bad day—or if we had a really good day—we'd come down here and comfort each other or celebrate."
"I can't believe this place is still here," Brennan mused. "I thought they tore it down last year when that new office building went up."
Hodgins looked around the dark room, appraising the place. "Apparently not."
They moved through the bar and set up shop at the table Angela picked out, ordering drinks and dinner. They laughed and talked as they waited, somehow managing to keep the conversation from delving too deeply into work-related issues in deference to the birthday celebration. When their plates arrived, all five dove into their meals, comfortably picking off each other's plates as well as their own as they continued to chatter.
The mood was light and the food was good, but it was all just a little too tame for Angela. Spying the jukebox in the corner of the bar, she fished some quarters out of her purse and rose from her seat. "Who's dancin'?" she asked with a twinkle in her eyes.
The other four stared at her blankly.
"Aw, come on," Angela sighed. Then, switching tactics, "Okay, I'm going to go over there and pick out a song. If I don't meet some handsome stud before I get back, one of you is dancing with me."
She spun on her toe and marched over to the jukebox, flipping through the song catalog and clutching her quarters. Finding one she liked, she plunked the coins into the slot and smiled when she was rewarded with music pouring from the speakers. She turned back toward the table of her friends and raised her eyebrows expectantly.
Hodgins blew out a breath. "Pickings are pretty slim here—I'll save her the embarrassment of trying to find a dance partner who won't drool all over her." He pushed back his chair and stood, his gaze meeting Angela's as he moved toward her.
"Looks like we need another round of drinks," Zack noted, rising from his seat, too, and moving off in the direction of the bar. A young blond intercepted him, speaking to him for a moment with a bright smile and a toss of her hair.
"Oh, he's a goner," Booth grinned from the table.
The girl reached out to touch Zack's arm, and a goofy smile instantly spread across his face. He offered her his hand and she took it, the smile growing. Nodding in the direction of Booth and Brennan and catching Hodgins' eye, Zack escorted the girl out onto the small dance floor, very proud of himself.
Booth whistled. "That was fast."
"Well, if a pretty girl like that stopped you and asked you to dance, you wouldn't hesitate either, would you?"
His eyes moved from Zack and the blond to Brennan, his subconscious appraising her for the second time that evening. "Eh," he shrugged, waiving his hand dismissively. "She's not really my type."
"Not your type?" Brennan asked with a snort. "Tall, blond, and leggy isn't your type?"
"Nope," he replied simply.
"Since when?"
Since you, a voice in the back of his mind answered. He shook his head a little and scrunched his face, pushing the thought away. "Never mind, Bones. You wanna dance?"
She eyed him, knowing he was only asking to change the subject. But the song currently playing on the jukebox was one of her favorites, and she decided to have some fun on her birthday. "Yes."
Aretha Franklin's voice poured from the speakers demanding R-E-S-P-E-C-T as Brennan took the hand Booth offered and allowed him to help her from her chair. He slid an arm around her waist and led her around the dance floor, twirling and spinning her, swinging his hips in time to the music. When he began to enthusiastically sing along, his face contorting with effort as he tried his best to hit the high notes, Brennan dissolved into laughter, bowing her head against his shoulder in an effort to extinguish—or at least conceal—her giggles. Booth laughed with her, running his hand affectionately over her back as the song ended.
The music changed, slowing in tempo as a song began that Booth couldn't place, though it sounded familiar. Scanning his memory, he decided it wasn't played on any of the radio stations he listened to, but he still had the feeling he had heard it before.
As the stars all fall away
Consumed within a glimmer of the dawn
So will all my doubting words
Be humbled by your grace and then be gone
Then it hit him. The day Bones identified her mother's remains…
He had kept a close eye on her, visiting her apartment that night to check on her, to make sure she was okay. They had sat in her living room eating Chinese food, wondering how to deal with the all the issues her mother's discovery brought, while this song played on the radio.
He immediately began to feel self-conscious and uncomfortable, as though he were intruding on a sensitive personal matter. "We don't have to dance this one, Bones," he said to her, his eyes trying to but not quite succeeding in meeting hers. "We can sit down if you want."
She shook her head, a little surprised by her own action. "No, I'm okay dancing…unless you want to sit down…"
He smiled a little, his heart deciding for him. "No, I'm good."
Booth wrapped his arm a bit tighter around her waist, pulling her closer as dictated by the slower music, smiling inwardly as Brennan's hand slid a little further up his shoulder.
As the doors open wide
To let in the day
All my empty fears abate
Just as the stars fall away
Silence fell between them for a moment before Brennan spoke again. "This is the third time we've danced together, you know," she told him, grinning.
"The third?"
"Yep," she confirmed. "There was that time out in Washington State…"
"…in that little hick town where all the men were drooling over you," he finished with a teasing smile.
She blushed faintly, but ignored his tone. "Then there was Hot Blooded in my living room…"
"…right before I got blown up," he winced. A more awkward silence sprung up between them at the memory, and Booth knew she still felt responsible for his hospital visit that night.
"I'm sorry," she apologized quickly, her eyelids fluttering as her gaze shifted from his face to his shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault, Bones," he said firmly, even though he'd spoken the same words many times before. "It was that gang that planted the bomb. I'm just glad you weren't hurt."
There is no taking back the things I've done
I only want to tell you that I know
For certain
That I need you now
"So this is our third time dancing," he continued, the smile returning to his face as her eyes met his again. "You know what they say…the third time's a charm."
"A charm for what?" she asked, confused by the idiom.
"Nothing," he chuckled, shaking his head.
As the stars all fall away
Consumed within a glimmer of the dawn
So will all my doubting words
Be humbled by your grace and then be gone
He drew her closer and leaned down, his lips brushing softly against her ear as he whispered, "Happy birthday, Temperance."
And as the doors open wide
Just to let in the day
He didn't see her mouth form a shy smile, or the way her eyes shone when he said her name. He didn't know about the butterflies forming in her stomach, or how mystified she was by the wave of happiness that washed over her as they moved to the music. All he knew was that her hand shifted from his shoulder to his back, and that she was holding him as tightly as he was holding her.
All my empty fears abate
Just as the stars fall away