Getting impatient, Brennan knocked on Booth's door. Again. For the third time.
She had been sitting in her apartment, quite bored if truth be told, and decided to call in on her partner. It's not like she had anything better to do with her evening. Why did they always have to meet in her apartment anyway?
"Just a minute!"
Brennan began to tap her foot.
"That's the second time you've said that!"
"Yeah, well, it's the second time I've meant it."
She let out a little growl. Sometimes that man could be so infuriating.
Eventually, the door was pulled open.
"Did you just growl at me?"
Patience long gone, she barrelled past him into the apartment. At about six feet in, she ran out of steam and turned to face him. He was closing the door and avoiding her gaze.
"Booth…"
She caught sight of his face.
"Oh my…are you alright? What's wrong? What happened?"
"What? Nothing's wrong. Everything's fine."
He started to move past her, but she stopped him with her arm.
"You've been crying."
He let out a snort, shifting his weight back.
"What? No I haven't."
"Booth, I can see tears on your face."
He made something that sounded like a dismissive "psh" noise.
"No you can't."
Pursing her lips in determination, Brennan licked the pad of her index finger. Before Booth had time to react, she ran the finger down his cheek and returned it to her mouth.
"See! Salty! Told you."
"Bones! You don't just… You're a very…special person, you know that?"
"Thank you."
Shaking his head, he moved into the living room. Brennan followed at a distance.
"So…what happened? Is it Parker?"
Eyes huge, he spun around to face her.
"God, no. Nothing like that."
"So there is something wrong."
He closed his eyes and tilted his head upwards, breathing deeply.
"No there isn't."
But you've been crying."
"No I haven't."
She could feel her cheeks turning red as she got more and more infuriated by the circular argument. She looked quickly around the room to try and calm herself down.
"Wait, were you watching TV?"
"No." He suddenly looked very sheepish.
A smile twitched Brennan's lips as she felt herself getting closer to victory.
"The TV's clearly on, Booth. Although, it seems to be broken."
She moved around him and stood in front of the machine.
She leaned forward and gave the screen a few experimental taps.
"Why's it frozen?"
"No reason."
Suddenly, all the pieces clicked into place.
"You were watching a…what do you call them…a DVD!"
Dizzy with success, she spun around in a circle, frantically looking for proof.
"Aha!"
She made quite an impressive dive towards the coffee table. Booth, seeing all was lost, got his neutral expression firmly in place.
Brow creased, she examined the box.
"You were watching Bambi? A children's movie?"
"No I wasn't."
Not even dignifying his response with a glance, she scrutinised the front cover.
"This is about deer?"
Booth bit his tongue firmly against the "No it isn't." comment that was dying to escape. Instead he settled for some indistinguishable mumbling.
"Why would deer make you cry? There's nothing sad about them. This fellow looks adorable."
"Hismothergotshotanditwas…hedidn'tunderstand…he'sallalone."
It was out before he even realised it.
Her eyebrows looked set to hit the ceiling.
"Excuse me? How would you know he didn't understand? This isn't one of those ridiculous films where they actually try to feed you the concept that animals can talk is it, because you know, Booth, that's absolutely, completely…"
Annoyed at himself and at her, he threw himself down on the couch.
"You haven't seen it. You wouldn't know." He continued to mutter angrily to himself.
Nearly bursting a blood vessel in the effort to keep a straight face, she sank down beside him.
"You're right. I don't know. Would you show me?" She handed him the remote.
"You want to see this?"
"Yes. Put it right back to the start."
"Ok…" He pressed the necessary buttons and settled back.
Brennan was rummaging for something in her bag.
As the opening credits came on, in all mock seriousness, she held the object up to him.
"Tissue?"