A/N: Welcome to a new chapter! A couple of days inspiration struck, so I am happy to present the next chapter to you. I split up this chapter because the second half needs a little more fine-tuning, but I feel confident I'll have that done within the week. I promise I did not cut it off on a cliff hanger. Another thank you to Kareneb for reviewing. Enjoy!
Oh: WARNING for a few curse words
"Do you have plans for tonight?" Booth asked as he and Lilly enjoyed breakfast at his kitchen table. It had taken quite some days before breakfast had no longer been a test of his patience and people skills, but he understood why Lilly had been moody. Thankfully, since Lilly had started to talk to Sweets, she had been slowly starting to come around to be more and more like herself again. It was a slow process, but stagnation was worse. Just like his investigation of the crime had stagnated from the start...
Lilly shrugged. "I don't know, watch some TV? Read a book maybe." As she sipped from her orange juice.
"Oh, trust me, TV time will happen. There is no better way to relax after a full work day than with a sports game, a good film or series and the past couple of days were busy enough. I was actually talking about dinner. How about we'll make one of my famous pasta dishes together?" If he would have asked her a similar question a week ago, she would have responded with something along the lines of not wanting to stay at his apartment any longer as the only thing she wanted to do.
Not really able to see Booth, the kick-ass former U.S. Army Ranger, currently FBI agent, doing something so domestic as whipping up anything resembling a complex dish, a corner of her mouth lifted into a smile. In the time she had spent here, she had made a couple of fast meals, but with working late, most of the nights had involved take out. She hadn't seen Booth do more cooking than baking an egg for himself on the weekends. "Famous pasta dish? If you're trying to class up mac and cheese I am out, I rather have pizza."
"Hey", Booth said, playing hurt. "First off, my mac and cheese are world famous, but yeah, from an Italian standpoint totally unacceptable. I still love that too since I am also a patriotic American, but through my grandmother's roots I have some true Italian, nonna styled, dishes up my sleeve."
"Well okay, in that case, it will be my honor to help cook that"
"Splendido", Booth said in an Italian accent.
Surprised Lilly looked at him. "Was that just a random word or do you genuinely speak Italian?"
Feeling somewhat busted, Booth paused before he started to ramble. "Yeah well, I can speak a little Italian. I could probably get by on vacation, curse in Italian and ask a woman out if I am drunk and maybe read a children's book. As for understanding it; that comes a lot easier to me."
Lilly smiled, somehow finding it very insightful that the agent knew more than just English.
"But uh, don't tell Bones, every once in a while she throws in some Latin that I can actually understand, and her face is priceless when I tell her what I got it."
Lilly nodded, affirming she would keep his secret.
Later that same day:
"Hi." Booth greeted Lilly as he walked in with a large bag of groceries. "I think I got everything we'll need, it's been a while since I cooked this and there isn't actually a written version of the recipe. Lilly barely looked up from her phone, a frown evident on her face. "Okay, what is wrong?" Booth asked as he put down the bag on the kitchen counter. "You look like you're watching water burn."
Finally, really looking up from her phone, she looked at Booth. "Yeah, sorry. I uh… I think I need to cancel on Wendell for later this week, but I don't want to lie to him or tell him why I am canceling."
"Oh, I didn't know you had plans. What kind of plans do the two of you have?" Booth started to unpack the groceries that would be needed for the meal.
"I was going to cook for him, this Saturday. I owe him big time for helping me out with Dr. Brennan's class. Thanks to Wendell I passed, doing fairly well even on that test a few weeks back." Lilly responded as she got up to help.
"And you're canceling because?"
"Why do you think I am canceling?" Lilly asked rhetorically. "It isn't like I am really the most pleasant company right now and I can't really invite Wendell over for dinner at your place."
"Don't let staying here hold you back. I could make myself scares for the evening if you'd want me to."
Moved by his generosity, Lilly felt tears well up. "That is really kind of you, but you really don't have to get out of your own apartment. I am sorry I have been so snappy towards you, I appreciate all that you''re doing. I am also pretty sure having that dinner here would raise more questions for Wendell than I am currently willing to answer."
Booth nodded. "I understand and you really don't have to apologize or thank me for anything. As for not sharing details with him now, you could just tell him something came up. Technically something did come up, so you wouldn't even be lying to him."
A sigh escaped Lilly's lips as she got the pans from the pantry. "You know, Dr. Brennan calls that a lie by omission. Maybe that isn't as bad as a full-on lie, but I have to agree with her that it isn't exactly the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I am just so done with lying, I don't think I've ever lied so much to myself and the world in one week as I have this past week."
Booth couldn't help but smile at her partial use of the oath. Lilly was soooo a squint, maybe a more undercover squint like Angela, but nevertheless, still a squint. "Yeah, but white lies are the motor that society runs on, right? When you're ready to explain it all to Wendell he'll understand why you didn't want to get into it at this moment. You could also just not give a reason at all. It will make your omission a little bigger, but the deceiving part would be out of the equation, right?"
Lilly nodded. "Yeah, I guess."
"I hope I am not overstepping, but I've heard some talk about you and Wendell. Is there something going on between you and Wendell?" Booth asked as he handed her a knife. The question had been on his mind ever since Angela had made a scene in his living room and he trusted Lilly to shut the conversation down if she didn't want to discuss it. The blush that appeared on her cheeks, was really all the confirmation he needed. "So, it is true then?"
"Well… I hate to say that it is complicated, because... I guess it wasn't all that complicated before… I do kind of like Wendell, yes. Which, is probably why canceling again feels so crappy. But, currently, there is nothing going on between him and I. I guess you could say some flirting might have occurred, but other than that nothing noteworthy has happened. Technically I don't even know if he even likes me back." Ironic, Lilly thought; why was it always with the person you liked a lot where things were going so slow and weirdly.
Booth let out a low whistle. "You and flirting? I thought you only shot down guys."
"Funny," Lilly said, not very convincingly conveying her sarcasm.
"I am sorry. I shouldn't be teasing. Getting to see your more amorous side is great though. It is cute when you start blushing."
Dryly Lilly looked at him, halfway letting out a snort. "I'd say off all people in DC, you've seen too much of that side."
Booth smiled. "That was not what I meant. I think it is great that you've taken a liking to someone. Especially someone as amazing as Wendell. He is a great guy and I think the two of you would fit well together.
Again, Lilly blushed. "Aha and how come?"
"Well, you're both smart as a whip and capable of understanding each other, despite that little handicap," Booth smirked at his own joke. "I never really gave it much thought before, because I was too focused on my own drama, but when I see you and him together, you are always laughing and so is Wendell. I do have one question though. Did you already like Wendell when… we... happened?"
Lilly nodded. "In a way."
Booth paused chopping the vegetables as he looked at her. "Care to elaborate?"
Lilly looked down shyly, focusing on her cutting board. "When I met him, I knew I liked him. There was this instant connection, a level of comfort from the very first moment. Wendell got himself his mid-morning coffee and he decided to introduce himself to me. It didn't really take me longer than 5 seconds to size him up and decide he was more than okay."
The dreamy sound of her voice made him smile. When you remembered where you met someone for the very first time, that meant it was a very important person. Remembering the moment and remembering how that person made you feel, that meant that person was your significant other. The person you'd always long for. His line of thinking brought him back to when he met Bones at the lecture hall. The smart, cocky and downright self-assuredness of her abilities and knowledge demeanor had attracted him to her. That, aside of her sticking natural beauty, of course.
"... But I didn't really know I liked him. As I've said before, dating was, or maybe still is, I don't really know anymore, the furthest thing from my mind. I guess somewhere along the way I realized I missed the closeness that people have in a relationship. The comfort of being held, sharing problems, maybe I even miss pillow talk. So, yes, I already liked Wendell at that point, but not in the way I think I'd maybe prefer to like him now."
A relieved sigh left Booth's lips. "Well, that is good. I'd hate it if I had unintentionally come between him and you."
"That is sweet, but there isn't really something to come in between off."
He smiled at her defeated sarcasm. "Yeah, but that doesn't have to stay that way, it doesn't even have to stay that way for much longer."
"I don't know about that. There is no guarantee that Wendell feels the same way, and yes, I've heard a couple of speeches that I shouldn't worry too much about that, but somehow it doesn't seem to work that way. The saddest thing is, that he and I were actually getting closer together. But then... Stein happened." Lilly added, a little let down, her to cancel or not to cancel dilemma resurfacing.
"Is Stein really the reason you're keeping your distance from Wendell?" Booth knew he had promised not to bring the events of that Friday night up to Lilly, but she had mentioned it, so he felt it was safe enough to re-open the subject.
"You mean if I am afraid of Stein is what is holding me back?"
"Yeah, to name one thing."
"Well, I am not really afraid of Stein continuing whatever he wanted to do to me. Lance is really helping me to keep my head straight, keep my thoughts straight. And staying here helps too, as much as I simultaneously hate it. While I am staying here, I don't think there is really a good time of the day for Stein to strike again."
"That is great to hear", Booth said. "However, I am feeling that there is a but coming?"
Lilly took a second to think about Booth's words, trying to figure out the but that he was getting at, a but that she hadn't even realized was there. "I just hate that it happened, I was finally working up the courage, no that is not true, I actually already worked up the courage, and then it just feels like it doesn't really matter. My mind right now is too preoccupied to feel in the mood to even have that dinner and I don't know, test the waters."
Tossing the greens into the boiling water, he and Lilly had chopped into bite-sized-bits, he thought. "You know, I think you might be readier than you know. The fact that it bothers you so much you actually do want to take the next step with Wendell tells me exactly that. But it is more than okay to take all the time you need. Just don't wait six years or so."
An eyebrow went up. "That is an awfully specific number."
"Yes, it is", Booth said. "Our situations aren't very similar, but the results are in a way very similar. Something stupid happened and it results in being overly careful with love or just unwilling to commit already to the person you know could make you happy."
Lilly turned to fully look at Booth, trying to satisfy her curiosity just by reading his body language. When she couldn't figure it out, she spoke up. "What are you trying to say?"
"I am trying to tell you that even if you wait, it doesn't matter eventually. In the end, the things that are bound to happen, will happen. So, in a way, I am trying to tell you, miss Lilly - usually very optimistic - Johnson, that this, with you and Wendell, will work out."
She could hear the veal, the cloak of mystery Booth was wrapping around his motivational speech. "That is some beautiful text for a bumper sticker, but I feel there is more to this story. I know you aren't really the evidence type of person..."
Booth groaned at the mention of evidence.
"... but do you have anything, your famous gut feeling, or like, I don't know, maybe anecdotal evidence to back your story?"
"I do. Remember me being mad at the world, women, myself, that whole emotional mess you found me in when you just started working here?"
Lilly nodded, having moved on to set the table. "Of course, I do. It is kind of hard to forget." Hard to forget when I somehow made it into your rebound girl.
"I told you a lot about that already, so to prevent me from crying about it too much, let's stick to the highlights of what I have already told you. Being with Hannah was and ended messy, because I was actually still in love with the second woman I ever proposed to. That woman is really special, so the proposal to her wasn't even for a marriage, but to give a relationship with me a shot. She rejected it, because she didn't think it could work. I took her rejection of a personal relationship with me as a rejection of me. It turned out that she didn't want to risk the relationship, mainly the friendship, we already had for something that only might be successful.
Still, her telling me no... It felt worse than when the wedding proposals got shot down. But fast forward to more recently. There was this smart-ass intern that told me to go and see a movie. She told me to relax a little, to just go out and spend it laughing with a friend. She told me to do something fun, instead of working and sleeping. I decided to listen, took the advice and I asked the best friend I ever had and who I neglected grossly for the past couple of months to see that movie with me."
Not really patient enough for a scavenger hunt or a fairy tale edition of Booth's life, Lilly interrupted him. "Yeah yeah yeah, I am not Parker waiting for a bedtime story. I think I have an idea who that annoying intern is but who is the woman?"
Booth smiled at Lilly's impatience. "It is Bones."
"Dr. Brennan is the friend who went with you to the movies or the second proposal lady?"
"She's both."
Lilly's jaw slightly unhinged. "Woah. I didn't see that one coming."
"Seeing you stunned into silence, that is quite the view," Booth said chuckling, pausing his story until Lilly would have re-found her focus.
Lilly smiled, seeing the humor. "Yeah okay, glad I am amusing. Though why did you never say you fancied Dr. B?"
Booth shrugged. "It was nice to talk to you about those things. To you specifically and to you as someone who hasn't heard the whole history yet. Because the whole story is quite long." Trying to explain himself better, he tried to put it in different words. "You know that sometimes you get yourself in a situation where you just meet someone who you barely know? Like on a train and all of a sudden you are sharing details you wouldn't even have thought of ever sharing with anyone. It sort of felt like that."
Wrinkling her nose Lilly looked at Booth. "I am a stranger on the train to you? We should both be lucky to still be alive then."
"No, that is not what I am trying to say. You made it to one of my closest friends in record time. Which is quite the achievement, actually. You're more like the opposite of a stranger that I can confide in. Maybe I didn't want to turn you into another Booth and Brennan fangirl if I had told you from the start. God knows there are, or maybe rather were, more than enough fans of Bones and I getting together."
Still looking skeptically at him, she didn't immediately respond. "Care to tell me that whole, lengthy, story about you and Dr. Brennan now?"
Booth snorted. "That is going to take a long time."
"Well, I've got plenty of time, since I am staying here anyway; until you feel I won't be chased by a looney tune lawyer again. And I think dinner is almost ready, right?" She looked in the pan, smelling all the lovely herbs.
A/N: And that is it for today, folks! Next chapter will pick up right where this one leaves off. For the last couple of chapters, the biggest concern was Bones' reaction to learning about Booth's little slip-up. If you were wondering how Lilly learned about Booth and Bones being partners with all but the usual benefits XD, I hope this chapter was a good start. I'd love it if you have time to review. See you all soon!