"I have to tell Angela about the baby," Brennan said, two days after Christmas, while neatly folding sweaters into piles. "She's suspicious and she's my best friend. I was going to tell her before we left for Philadelphia." Booth shook the newspaper, glancing at her from over the top.
"It's a good idea," he agreed. "Angela is shrewd – it won't take her long to make the logical leaps." Brennan sat on the edge of the bed, her hands on her lap. "You'll have to do it today, though. We'll be in Virginia tomorrow. Which reminds me, can you sign a requisition form for me, please?" He gestured to the manila file on the dresser. "Cullen has been on my back, complaining that if the FBI has to pay for your motels during our field trips you'll have to start filling in the necessary documentation." Brennan clicked her tongue.
"Haven't I mentioned my dislike for Bureaucrats before?" she said, rummaging in her cabinet for a pen. "And in all fairness, the Jeffersonian has been invaluable to your investigations since we started working together. You should mention it to Cullen, sometime." Booth chuckled, shaking his head.
"I just do what I'm told, Bones. Unlike you, I don't enjoy pissing the superiors off." Brennan opened the file, her hand hovering over the form.
"Me? Who was the one who lied about a case lead to get me to a house in the middle of nowhere for an afternoon fuck?" Booth maintained an emotionless expression, blinking slowly, deliberately.
"No one found out about that," he said. "So no harm done." Brennan scrawled her name. "Besides, you're costing us a lot of money. Since Goodman decided you were costing them too much." Temperance tossed the pen at his head, crossing her arm.
"I am not costing anyone too much. I am more than worth a few meagre dollars…" She returned to the bed, folding a black cashmere sweater. "Where would you be without me? Huh?" Booth turned unto his side, watching her little hands as they worked with expert efficiency.
"In hell," he said, and she stopped, lifting her eyes. "I'd be lost without you, Bones." She swiped his head, chuckling.
"Exactly! Do you think we'll be back in DC before New Year's Eve? Angela wants me to go to some party – I'm hesitant, but she assures me it will be great fun. Jack's coming." Booth passed his hand across the hardened muscles of his torso in quiet contemplation.
"It depends on how quickly you identify the body, doesn't it? Tell you what, come down to Virginia tomorrow, check everything out and you can take the skeleton back before the thirty first… does that sound fair?" Brennan smiled, touched by his kindness.
"What about you? Don't you have plans for the new year?" Booth shrugged.
"Work. If not, I'll join you and the new couple. What about Zach?" Brennan lifted the pile of sweaters, placing them neatly in the closet.
"He's going north to see his family. Bless him… he misses them so much. He won't be back until after the new year. Jack… he's acting so bizarre. He keeps saying things about the tennis court is covered in snow and if he has to look at another hundred thousand dollar painting from the nineteenth century he's going to go mad. Sometimes," she said, "I think he already is." Booth wondered if perhaps he should explain that Hodgins was in fact a multimillionaire and he was talking about his own tennis court.
He decided it wasn't his secret to tell.
"I agree. The guy's lost his mind. Probably because he's so wrapped up in Angela." Brennan murmured her agreement. "Hey Bones, I have to go pack. Why don't you call Angela, tell her about the baby." He rolled off the bed, tucking the manila folder until his arm and dropping a light kiss to her lips. "I'll drop this into Cullen, do some packing and then I'll be back. Okay?" She smiled, slipping her arms around his waist, watching as his eyes clouded with immediate desire.
"See you soon," she said, her hand brushing his newly formed erection.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Angela fingered the Christmas ball, watching as it's metallic paint caught the light. "It's so unlike you, Bren," she said. "You've never been so…"
"I think the word is 'happy'," Brennan replied, passing a cup of chamomile and honey tea to her friend. "And no, I don't think I have. Booth provides a balance in my life. It's nice. It's comforting." Angela smiled, revelling in the sweetness of it; her best friend, the coolest, most collected woman in the world, brought into the real world of emotions by love.
"I think it's amazing. Booth, the heroic FBI agent… I'd do him." Brennan laughed.
"You're so rude, Angela," she said. "Besides, he's mine."
"My God, Temperance Brennan, defensive over a man? I never thought I'd…" she took a sip of her tea. "Seriously, though, what else could happen to seal your relationship? He's loyal, noble and you're so in love with him. It seems like the two of you have just… connected."
"Angela…"
"And it's as though he worships you. Do you know that? He'd literally bow at your feet if you asked him to…"
"I won't do that. Angela…"
"He's so in love with you," she was swooning.
"I know he is. Listen, Angela…"
"Honey it's-"
"Angela, please listen to me for a moment." Her friend stopped, eyes wide, her mouth open with half formed romantic ideas on the tip of her tongue. Her jaw snapped shut, and she straightened in the chair. "Thank you," Brennan said, crossing her legs, hot chamomile tea warming her trembling hands. "I've been meaning to tell you… well… I wanted to tell you that day in my office before Booth came to get me with a… case… umm…" Angela chuckled, the sound warm and comforting, in ways only a friend's could be.
"What's wrong sweetie?" she asked, leaning forward in her chair.
"I'm pregnant, Ange…"
There was a long moment of silence in which Brennan could almost hear her heart beating within her chest. And then there was pandemonium as Angela squealed, leaping from her chair and engulfing Brennan in a hug that took the breath from her lungs.
"Oh my God! Sweetie! This is wonderful!" Brennan giggled.
"It took a long time for me to get used to the idea. I really didn't want a baby. But now, with Booth, it doesn't seem so scary anymore." Angela was grinning, sneaking furtive looks at her friend's still-flat torso. "You can't see it yet!" Brennan joked, spreading her fingers over her belly. There was no evidence that she was pregnant, aside from the tell-tale hardness.
"Well, I thought I had got all the amazing news I could handle this week! Apparently not!" Angela fussed over her friend, making noises of disbelief and delight.
"Why? What other amazing news have you got?" Brennan asked, her interest aroused.
"Oh sweetie, I'll tell you about that another time. So… have you thought of names yet?" To this, Brennan chuckled and rolled her eyes.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"I've come to hate the snow," Brennan said, turning the heating as high as it would go, settling back against her seat as the Booth negotiated their vehicle through the hazardous roads. "Things are so much more simple when the sun is shining." Booth smiled at her.
"We're almost there. Besides, Agent Daniel said this one is right up your alley." Brennan turned her eyes to the powdery fields, arms crossed around her body as she tried to retain heat.
"I've never understood that statement," she said. "What has an alley got to do with anything?" Booth pulled a face, one that reminded her he was on a different plane of thought. He preferred not to analyse absolutely everything.
"You sound like Zach," he said. "It's uncanny." Brennan threw him a look, her hands freezing over her arms. "The sooner we get to the park, get the bones sorted and get back to DC, the better." Booth flicked the radio on, filling the car with static until he turned the knob, tuning into the first station that he encountered. "What did Angela say about the baby?"
Brennan smiled at the memory. "She was thrilled. In fact, thrilled is something of an understatement. She was… overwhelmed." Booth nodded, picturing with great imagery just how Angela Montenegro might have responded to news of a pregnancy. Especially when she was so keen for them to establish a relationship from the beginning.
Stopping at the heavy wrought iron gates of the Woodland Park, Booth killed the engine and admired the lovely old house that was tucked away from the road – a long, white-washed building with dark blue facades, shudders and a arched porch. It was perfect. Stunning in its elegance.
Covered by snow, it looked regal, with a winding pathway that had been cleared and disappeared into the trees. He turned to Brennan, watching as she drank in the image, and he knew she was wondering how a heinous crime could have been committed within the beautiful sanctuary.
He felt guilty for his lies. For his second lie.
"Temperance," he said, turning in his seat. "I haven't been completely honest with you." Her gaze flickered to his, her expression changing – immediate hurt passing within her diamond clear eyes. "I made you sign a requisition form that you didn't need to sign. And when I said I was going to the FBI to give it to Cullen… I wasn't really." Brennan blinked.
"I don't understand…" she whispered, her hands stiff.
"It was a fake. I had carbon paper beneath it… God… I sound so deceitful, don't I?" Brennan's lips parted.
"Yes," she hissed, "you do. What the hell is going on?"
Booth sighed, slipping his hand into his jacket and removing a neatly folded sheet of paper. "I was getting you to sign this, instead." Brennan was afraid to touch it, and stared at it as though it were an infectious piece of diseased tissue. "It's a marriage license, Bones," Booth whispered. "I wanted to surprise you… to give our Christmas an extra special touch."
Brennan ran her eyes over the form, rendered speechless. "I don't understand… why couldn't you just have asked?"
"Because then you'd have known…" Booth said.
"Known what?" Temperance felt her hands shake as she looked at her signature, transferred in dark navy blue by the carbon paper. The signature that she'd used to sign off a fake requisition form!
"We're not here to investigate a case, Bones. I was in Philadelphia with you and I realised that, even if I spend forever with you… even if we are together for our whole lifetime, it's not long enough. Forever will never be long enough for me. I want to make a verbal commitment to you because I love you." She felt her throat tighten, her eyes glaze with disbelief and watery emotion. "Zach isn't really with his family, Temperance. He's in there, with Angela and Hodgins, Goodman and the rest of our friends with a registrar who is waiting to marry us. Right now. Today. If you will."
She felt the breath whoosh from her lungs.
"I don't understand…" she said, pressing her fingertips to her trembling lips.
"I'm not sure I can explain it any more clearly. I needed you signature to obtain a marriage license. Will you, Bones? Will you marry me?"
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
I was inspired by something that happened to me a few years ago in the hotel I work in. There were two guests staying and the woman told her partner that they were in Belfast for a vacation and she had arranged a wedding for them at the City Hall (which in Belfast is a very old, very intricate building – Google it) and he didn't know until he arrived there that it was his wedding day and she had flown all their family and friends over! It was a very lovely thought… I hope you like it…
