TITLE: Undoing
CHAPTER 23: The Obvious Issue
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"You know, I think you frightened your squints today," Booth commented as he carried a bottle of water over to his pregnant fiancee, who was currently perched on his living room couch.
She reached over her head and gingerly took it from him, her eyes following his movements until he sat down directly beside her. "I did?" Her tone was all innocence, as if she hadn't even noticed a change in her behavior.
Booth's eyebrows flicked upward. "Uh, yeah. Zack at one point asked if he should start making out his will, just in case."
Brennan chuckled. "What did you tell him?"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Told him yes. I mean... I know you don't mind the kid, but if you and your mood swings don't kill him one of these days, I probably will."
She rolled her eyes. "Booth..."
"So, how about that rub-down I promised you? Huh?" He waggled his eyebrows and held his hands up, wiggling his fingers enticingly.
This won him a smile from her. "I should be working on follow-up for our case."
"Ah, follow-up can wait, Bones. I would guess your muscles can't."
Tempe shifted a bit on the couch and made a face when the muscles in her lower back protested. "Yeah, maybe you're right."
"Excuse me?" Booth teasingly cupped a hand around his ear and leaned close, feigning hearing loss.
She rolled her eyes once again. "I'm not afraid to sit on you and crush you."
He chuffed. "You're not as big as you think you are, Bones. I could still bench press you any day."
Tempe's brow raised briefly at the image that statement produced, and she momentarily felt a wave of arousal slide down her spine. "Really?"
Booth glanced up at her, noting the change in her tone, and he mirrored her eyebrow quirk. "I could demonstrate for you, if you like." He slid a little closer to her on the couch and gently moved her hair away from her neck, planting kisses along it.
Tempe closed her eyes and smiled. "Booth... I really should do follow-up. The case..."
"Can wait, Temperance," he finished for her, fingers gently tickling her collarbone before he began to unbutton her shirt.
When he leaned down and his tongue flicked across that magic spot at the indentation of her clavicle, she gave up. Her fingers went to his head, twining through his short-cropped hair, holding him to her. "What if we can't stop?" she breathed.
Booth smiled against her skin as he parted her shirt, sliding it down her arms while he took in the swell of her abdomen. "Why would we need to stop?"
"Won't it hurt the baby?" She gently pushed him away to look into his eyes. "Won't you... y'know... poke it?"
At this, and the look of innocent confusion on her face, he chuckled. "Bones, I appreciate the ego-stroke, but you're over-exaggerating my, uh, talents just a little... aren't you?" He reached for the clip in her hair and pulled it out, lovingly admiring the riot of curls dancing around her shoulders. "You should really read those pregnancy books Angela bought for you. It can't harm the baby."
"Oh." Tempe's hands were alternately clenching and relaxing around his biceps as his hands went lower and lower. "So we don't have to stop?"
"Nope. Not if you don't want to, Bones." He met her eyes.
Her grin seared his heart, and he wanted to marry her in that instant. "Good."
"Come on." He stood and briefly glanced down at himself, wondering just when she'd unbuttoned his shirt all the way and why he hadn't noticed. Then, he leaned down and scooped her into his arms. "Now... rub down in the bedroom?"
Her smouldering stare froze him halfway to the bedroom. "Maybe after."
He let out a barely audible groan at the tone of her voice and then, with his pregnant fiancee in his arms, he made haste for the bedroom.
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"Hey."
Angela glanced up from her sketches to see a mass of curls appear in the doorway, accompanied by Hodgins' face.
His large blue eyes panned around the room. "All clear?"
She smiled and turned her eyes back to the sketches she was filing away. "Yes, she went home with the G-man an hour ago."
He released a small sigh of relief and curled around the doorframe, leaning back against it. "Aren't you heading home?"
"Shortly." She shut down her mainframe and her computer, looking up at him when she was through and noticing his stare. "What?"
He shrugged. "Nothin'."
Angela sighed. "What's going on with you, Jack? You've been acting strange."
Hodgins stuffed his hands in the pockets of his faded blue jeans and ambled slowly into the office. "I know. And I'm sorry."
"So what's the deal? Do you have an issue with me or something?"
Another shrug. "Not really."
She tilted her head. "'Not really?' What's that supposed to mean?"
He locked on to her deep, sable eyes. "It means that, professionally, I have no issues with you."
She nodded. "Okay..." She pressed her lips together briefly. "Personally?"
In a few quick strides, he was standing directly across from her, on the other side of her desk. He noted the look of surprise on her face at the sudden quick motion. "Y'know, I really suck at this whole 'dancing-around-the-issue' thing. And I'm not good with subtlety."
"Alright, so... how do you propose addressing this obvious issue that you have with me?"
"Angela, the..." He shook his head, inwardly damning himself for being so unbelievably tongue-tied whenever she was close. "The issue I have with you isn't even a bad one. It's just... it's..."
Noting his struggle, Angela leaned slightly across her desk, pressing her hands against the cool metal. "What is it, Jack? You can tell me anything."
He lifted his eyes to hers and took the final step up to her desk. Slowly removing his hands from his pockets, he placed them on the desk and leaned on them. She didn't flinch, or back away... just held his stare, patiently awaiting a response.
He swallowed hard, then, before he lost his nerve, he leaned in and captured her lips. When he heard her utter a brief protest into his mouth, he broke away.
"Sorry," he blurted, and rushed from the office before Angela could even process what had happened.
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TBC
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