Booth turned up in Brennan's office right after lunch. "Bones, we have a case. Get your stuff. Let's go." He had her kit in hand and was motioning toward the exit.
Brennan huffed, "Could you please give me a second to save the file I'm working on?" She hit a few keys on the keyboard, then stood up, grabbed her kit from his hand, and walked out the door. "Let's go already."
Booth shook his head, thinking 'I can't believe how fast she switched annoyance to impatience.' He lengthened his stride to catch up with her.
Like usual, she refused to let him hold the door and tried to convince him to let her drive. However, after that she was unusually silent. He was glad the trip wasn't long.
He parked the car, hurried around the vehicle and opened her door. She smiled, stepped out, and thanked him. She didn't even object when he grabbed her kit and started helping her over the uneven ground toward the crime scene. 'This is really weird,' he thought.
When she greeted the police officer politely after his introduction and asked how the officer was, Booth's mouth dropped open in astonishment.
"Booth, you look like your trying to catch flies. Are you okay?" Brennan asked.
Booth shook off his amazement. "Huh? Yeah. I'm fine. Let's go." With that, he lead her across the grass toward the corpse near the treeline.
Although it wasn't very far, the length of the walk and the warmth of the day made Booth start to perspire. He shrugged out of his suit coat and tossed it over his arm. Not long after Brennan started calling out the sex and age of the victim (female, twelve to sixteen), she too shrugged out of her jacket. His eyes widened. He couldn't ever remember seeing her wearing a more revealing tank top. Not only was it low cut, it showed a bit of her abdomen. 'I'm glad this area isn't very busy. Otherwise all the cops would be checking her out.' This last thought made him uncomfortable, but he didn't have much time to think about why.
"COD appears to be blunt trauma to the back of the head," Brennan informed him. When he didn't reply, she looked up. A small sly smile graced her lips as she noticed him staring at her body. 'It's working!' she thought triumphantly.
"Earth to Booth," she called.
He shook his head and mumbled something incomprehensible. 'Get your eyes back in your head before you embarrass yourself further,' he lectured himself under his breath.
"What was that?" she asked.
"Bones, would you please repeat that?" Booth requested, glad that a coherent sentence emerged from his mouth. When she looked like that, he could hardly think of anything but her.
Brennan patiently repeated herself and watched him jot it down in his notebook. 'At least now I'm not the only one distracted at work. I hope nothing important comes up; we're both so unfocused we'd probably miss something important.'
After the first hour or so, Booth managed to control his distraction. Several hot hours later, Brennan had finished processing and packing the body and released the scene back to the police CSI unit. Again Brennan allowed him to carry her kit as they headed back to the SUV.
Anxious for the air conditioning of the car, she wasn't watching her step very carefully. Booth reached out to steady her when she stumbled. As his arm snaked around her waist and he felt her bare skin, a spark like an electric shock passed between them. A shiver shook her as the feeling raced over her skin.
Completely unprepared for the effect Brennan had on him, Booth jumped a bit and lost his balance. He fell backward and pulled her with him. Her weight on top of him forced the air out his lungs and he was glad that the back of her head hadn't connected with his face.
Brennan's mind raced. 'What would Angela say I should do? Oh, right, take advantage of the situation.' Instead of simply sliding off him and getting up, she rolled until she could look him in the eyes. She noticed that his eyes had darkened a bit and his breathing seemed a bit labored. "You okay, Booth?" she queried.
He nodded. "Just had the breath knocked out of me. If you'll get up, I'll be able to get a nice deep breath," he wheezed.
She sat up, straddling his hips, and felt his body's response. Slowly, she pushed herself up, keeping her eyes locked on his.
As she stood Booth observed the sinuous way her body moved, glimpsing most of her breasts as she bent the rest of the way up. 'If this was any woman besides Bones, I would swear she was flirting, no… more than flirting, with me.' His eyes traveled up her body, pausing momentarily as he appreciated her curves and the small part of her midriff that was visible. His gaze skittered to her lips, 'Luscious,' he thought, before meeting her eyes. He couldn't seem to pull his eyes from hers. 'I've never seen her eyes look like that before. I wonder what it means.' The bark of a dog returned him to sanity. 'What am I thinking?!? This is Bones, my partner.' He finally drew a few deep breaths, glad he had the wind knocked out of him as a reason for still being on the ground.
"Whew. That was some tumble," he said.
The drive back to the lab was just as silent as the ride to the crime scene had been. Instead of "positing scenarios" as usual, Booth kept stealing glances at Brennan, who didn't seem to notice. His mind was sorting through the possible explanations for her strange behavior.