Moments—Chapter 10

Disclaimer: All together now…I don't own any of the characters associated with BONES.

Author's notes: Yes, this is the last chapter of this story—I basically had it ready yesterday but I wanted to review it again and make sure it was suitable to post. I hope you've enjoyed all of the little moments between Booth and Brennan, although sometimes they were overshadowed by the horrible turn in the case. I plan to finish "A Pain That I'm Used To" before I begin one of the numerous story ideas that I have outlined somewhere. Thanks to all of you who read this story and special thanks to all of you who took the time to review.

Please read, enjoy and remember to let me know what you think.

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Angela quietly approached the platform area, watching as Hodgins diligently wrote down his notations on the Stonestreet case. She smiled as he scratched his bearded chin—a sign that he was deep in thought on the subject at hand.

The sound of Angela's card allowing her access to the area broke Hodgins' concentration. He looked up and smiled at the sight of her walking toward him. His heart always stopped for a brief second when he realized that he was the focus of her attention.

"Were you able to extract any DNA from the cigarette butts?" She took a seat and rolled it to his work station.

"Of course," Hodgins replied casually as he leaned back and grinned at her. "You are talking to the 'King of the Lab' baby."

"Oh sorry your majesty, I didn't know." She laughed as she leaned forward, propping her elbow on the table and placing her chin in her hand. "Have you heard anything else from Brennan?"

"Nah, she's probably helping Booth interrogate their suspect…you know, spending quality time together."

Angela rolled her eyes. "They'll probably spend their first date on a stake out or here in the lab over a decomposed body," she sighed. "That is…if they ever decide to see that they're perfect for each other."

He moved his chair closer to hers and leaned in close to her face. "Maybe, just maybe, Angela Montenegro, you should open your eyes and start making a few decisions yourself," he whispered.

Angela felt a shiver run down her back under his steady blue gaze. She knew exactly what he was referring to and it was becoming more and more difficult to conceal what she was feeling for Jack Hodgins.

"Maybe you're right," Angela agreed as her gaze fell upon his lips.

"Oh my god, are you two okay?!" Cam's voice carried through the lab, interrupting their flirtatious moment.

Angela's attention was now drawn to the front entrance where Booth and Brennan stood. "What the hell…?" She and Hodgins quickly moved from the work station in tandem and descended the platform stairs.

"What happened to you two?" Cam questioned the couple as Hodgins and Angela approached.

"Mud hole," Booth responded with a grimace. The feeling of dried mud on certain areas of his body was a less than pleasant sensation.

Hodgins laughed at the agent's obvious discomfort. "Dude, use Jell-O the next time you wanna wrestle somebody—it's easier to clean up."

Booth scowled at the entomologist as Angela laughed. "Personal experience?" she asked.

"There are just certain things you know," he answered with a shrug.

Angela's mood quickly turned to concern when she spied Brennan's injury. "Sweetie, are you okay?"

"Fine. It's a simple hairline fracture," Brennan replied as she held up her wounded arm.

The artist crossed her arms and glared at Booth. "And how did that happen?"

"Wrecking ball," Brennan answered succinctly as she turned away from the group and walked toward her office.

Cam, Hodgins and Angela stood patiently, waiting for Booth to expound on his partner's explanation. He sighed as he removed his jacket, which was stiff from its tumble in the mud. "She pushed me out of the way when Carl Stonestreet sent a wrecking ball through the side of the house…right where I was standing."

"She saved your life again," Cam said softly as she glanced toward Brennan's office before turning back toward Booth, a smile playing upon her lips.

"I'm going to check on her," Angela announced as she moved to walk toward her friend's office.

"I think Agent Booth needs to have a little talk with his partner," Cam stated as she cast a knowing look in his direction. "A long overdue talk."

Hodgins placed his hand on Angela's arm and nodded his agreement with Cam's observation. "Why don't I buy you a cup of coffee?" he asked as he leaned in close to her ear. "And we can have a little conversation of our own…"

Booth and Cam stood silently as Hodgins guided the artist away from them. Booth stared at his shoes, caked with dried mud, as he contemplated his former lover's words.

"Booth," she whispered as she placed her hand on his arm. "Go talk to her."

He shook his head as his eyes met hers. "I don't think she would be very receptive at this point…"

Cam chuckled and squeezed his arm. "Men can be so dense sometimes. Brennan would be more than receptive but she's scared…I know, I've been there myself."

"But…"

"For god's sake Booth, no 'buts', okay? She saved your life—again! She threw herself into the path of a wrecking ball for you."

"You would've done the same thing."

Cam removed her hand from his arm and smoothed down her jacket, slightly extending her left foot to show off her high heel shoes. "Not in this outfit with these shoes honey. It takes a lotta of money to look this good." She lowered her foot and smiled. "You're worth many things Seeley Booth but destroying a pair of three hundred and fifty dollar shoes—nu huh."

"That hurts Cam," he said as he laughed. "But having ruined one of my fifteen hundred dollar suits, I can completely understand."

"You're stalling…go." She nodded her head in the direction of Brennan's office. "Don't miss out on any more moments with her."

Exhaling a long breath and squaring his broad shoulders, Booth strode to Brennan's office, his resolve wavering with each step. He stopped for a moment at her door and took in the sight of her sitting at her desk, scanning the contents of a folder.

"Hey Bones, how's your wrist?" He moved toward her couch and took a seat.

"The same as it was when you asked thirty minutes ago." She continued to peruse the folder on her desk, pretending that he wasn't in the room. After their close encounter at the hospital Brennan had decided to take a step back from their partnership and examine what had almost occurred between them.

Of course that examination ended abruptly when she realized that her behavior over the last few days had stemmed from jealousy—jealousy that Booth had chosen Cam over her; jealousy that he had not even considered her…at least in her estimation of the situation.

Then her self examination began all over again when her brain and her heart aligned for a millisecond and she realized what she potentially felt for her partner was more than just friendship. That was when Brennan's head overruled her emotions and screamed at her to keep the only healthy relationship she'd ever had with a man purely platonic.

She found the purely platonic epiphany difficult to enforce when the object of her newly realized desire was sitting on her couch, speaking to her in a playful tone, giving her "puppy dog" eyes.

"Well, another case solved," Booth said with pride as he leaned back into the soft cushions of her couch with his jacket draped over one leg. "By the way, I'll pay to have the couch cleaned."

Brennan simply glanced up at him and shook her head before returning her attention to her work.

"Yeah, Bones, I told you it was the father…"

"Step-father Booth and you only came to that conclusion after Lucas told you he was gay." She sat up straight in her chair, sending him a challenging look.

"That was a new fact that helped to put the case in perspective…."

"It was a new fact that made you very uncomfortable," she stated with an authoritative tone.

"No it didn't."

"Yes it did. I've been reading a book on body language and when Lucas told you that he was gay you moved closer to me…"

"So?"

"So, by moving closer to me you were displaying your discomfort with that new little fact that gave you 'perspective'."

"Okay, first of all," he began as he sat forward. "You need to stop reading books on body language and how to get along with co-workers and all of that other crap that you can't learn about by reading. And second of all, if—IF—I did move closer to you, then, yeah, maybe I was letting him know, subconsciously, that I like women."

"You should've just thrown a pair of Cam's underwear at him," she mumbled.

Booth closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling as though he had been punched in the stomach. "Hope your wrist feels better Bones," he said softly as he stood.

Brennan swiveled her chair away from him and stood before moving to her bookcase. She knew her last comment had been a low blow but she wasn't in the mood to dole out apologies, especially when her objective was to get him to leave her alone. At least alone she knew she stood a better chance of burying her feelings about a certain FBI agent.

He walked toward the door and stopped short, realizing that he needed her to know how he felt even if she wasn't receptive or didn't feel the same. Pushing the door shut, he locked it so that none of the Squints could interrupt. Booth turned on his heel and walked around the desk to where Brennan stood in front of the bookcase. He grabbed the book from her hands, careful not to jostle her injured wrist, tossed the book on her desk and then leaned in close, causing Brennan to take a few steps back.

When her back made contact with the wall she seemed surprised. Booth closed in on her and placed one hand against the wall near her shoulder, effectively trapping her.

"Listen to me very carefully. I'm done apologizing for what happened with Cam," he said in a low tone as his breath caressed her face. "It was a mistake. I told you that it was over with her and it is because I didn't love her. Remember when we had that conversation about sleeping with people as a 'release'?"

She stared at him, dumbfounded by his actions.

"And you remember how I said something about there's certain people you can sleep with and it's more than just sex?" He leaned in closer to her face as his body hovered near hers. "For me, Temperance, you are that person. When, not if, but when we sleep together it won't be just sex…because I love you…"

He watched the fear enter her eyes at his confession.

Brennan stood very still although her body was vibrating at the close proximity of Booth's. She barely had time to register that Booth anticipated that they would, at some point, sleep together when he said the three words that sent her running every time.

Booth didn't allow her lack of a response to stop his diatribe. "You can have your fun with Sean and anybody else who doesn't mean anything to you….but I'm done with that. I know what I want—who I want—and it's you. And I'm willing to wait for however long it takes for you to come to your senses."

"Why?" she managed to whisper.

He smiled at her as he brought his lips closer to her. "Because all of the little moments that we've shared…they mean everything to me and I want more of them." He gently brushed his lips over hers before leaning back. "Let me know when you're ready."

He removed his hand from the wall and walked toward her office door again, pausing to unlock it. As Booth opened the door he came face to face with Sean Weatherman.

"Oh, Agent Booth, excuse me," the archeologist said cheerfully. "I'm looking for Temperance."

Booth turned slightly and glanced at Brennan who was still standing next to the bookcase with her back against the wall.

"I'm not, uh, interrupting anything am I?" Sean asked as his eyes traveled up and down Booth's muddy wardrobe.

"No, we're done….for now." He smiled, slapping the doctor on the back as he left the office. "See ya Weatherman."

"Actually it's…oh wait, he got it right," Sean mumbled to himself as he ambled into the office. He frowned as he looked at the dried mud that had flaked off Booth's suit onto the couch before settling his gaze on Brennan.

"I have news," he stated, watching as she slowly moved back to her desk and took a seat. "I took the job with Stanford!"

She nodded as she stared at the top of her desk. "That's nice."

"That's 'nice'? Temperance, they are paying me an obscene amount of money to head their archeology department and I still get to travel and go on archeological digs—that's more than nice." He took a seat across from her and narrowed his eyes when he finally noticed the cast on her left wrist. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Nothing…it's nothing." She looked up at him and offered a small smile. "Congratulations on your job…"

"I thought that perhaps I could take you out for a celebratory dinner." He watched as she turned toward her computer monitor, her focus obviously elsewhere. Sean glanced toward her office door recalling Booth's retreat. "And then maybe we could signal an alien spaceship and take a ride around the galaxy, through the Milky Way…"

"I'm really busy this evening Sean," she replied.

Shaking his head, he emitted a soft chuckle and leaned forward in his chair. "Hey Temperance…"

"Sean, I told you…"

"No, I know we're not going to dinner."

She turned to look at him, confusion evident in her features.

"I don't know what happened in the last day or two between you and Agent Booth but I do know that whatever it was—it's apparently been a long time coming."

Brennan opened her mouth to rebuff his observation but Sean cut her off. "Go talk to him. If you don't, you'll regret it. Trust me…I speak from experience." As he stood to leave, he winked at her. "It was good seeing you again Temperance. If you ever change your mind about, you know, Stanford…or me…give me a call."

She remained very still and contemplative as Sean left her office. Booth had made a declaration of love—a more than platonic friends type of love. She replayed all of the moments between herself and Booth that he had mentioned and suddenly all of the pieces of the puzzle of their relationship fell into place.

Somewhere between their first meeting, being forced to work together, and identifying her mother's remains, she had developed feelings beyond friendship for Booth. She had never denied, at least to herself, that she had always found him physically attractive and had even entertained the idea of having sex with him for purely recreational purposes. In the end she decided that their professional relationship and their cases outweighed her basic physiological needs and biological urges. But now….

Now Booth had changed the dynamic of their relationship with his revelations and there was no going back. Should she suppress her emotions and continue with the status quo of their partnership as though nothing had happened? Or should she find Booth and trust that the one man who had always been there for her would continue the trend?

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A hot shower and a cold beer later, Booth stood in front of his refrigerator opening his second beer thinking about what happened in Brennan's office. He sighed softly, wondering if he had gone too far too fast with her. He knew when Brennan felt cornered or pushed, she either pushed back or she shut down. Apparently this time she had chosen 'shut down' mode.

He closed the refrigerator door and took a swig of his beer. While he had meant every word that he'd said to her, Booth knew full well he could be in for a hell of wait for Temperance Brennan to admit her feelings.

A knock on his door broke his reverie and he placed his beer on the counter and picked up the money he had set aside for the pizza he had ordered.

"So how much do I owe you?" he asked as he opened the door.

"Speaking in monetary terms, nothing; but I could go for a beer," Brennan answered.

"Oh…hey Bones. I was expecting the pizza guy."

"I can always come back another time…" She started to turn and walk away but Booth grabbed her arm.

"Bones, he's just going to drop off the pizza, not stay and help me eat it. Come on in."

She walked past him into the apartment and removed a small package from her bag.

"Here," she said as she gave him the package.

"What's this for?"

Brennan shrugged and watched as he opened his gift. Booth smiled as he held up a pair of green socks with dancing leprechauns on them.

"I hope they're okay. You mumbled something about leprechaun socks at the hospital and I surmised that the pair you owned was ruined."

He chuckled as he placed the socks on his kitchen counter and took a beer out of the refrigerator for her. "Thanks."

She took the beer from his hand and nodded her thanks.

"You wanna sit down?" He gestured toward the couch and they moved into the living room. They sat in silence for a few minutes and drank their beers, neither sure what to say or where to start. Booth knew that he wanted her to make the first move so that he knew where he stood.

Her fingers slowly peeled away pieces of the label on the beer bottle as she began talking. "What you said earlier in my office…I thought about it."

His eyes studied her face as he lowered his beer bottle. "And?" he prompted softly.

"If we decide to pursue a relationship beyond the established parameters we have now, we both know that there could be certain consequences…"

Booth smiled at her ability to endlessly rationalize any situation, even one involving her feelings. "I think we are both very capable at handling any situation that comes our way."

Brennan nodded and continued to nervously peel her label. "I…will admit that I…have developed feelings for you that cannot be explained by certain chemical or physiological responses…"

"Although I'm sure you tried."

"Yes," she admitted softly. "I did. But I realized that the reason your relationship with Cam bothered me so much was that I was…."

"Jealous?" he guessed.

Brennan nodded again as her face blushed. "That was something that I didn't want to admit, even to myself."

His laughter caught her off guard and she looked at him with a hurt expression. "I'm not laughing at you Bones. I just…I have to admit that I absolutely hated that Sean guy."

"Yeah, he figured as much," she said with a smile.

"So?" He smiled at her warmly, silently encouraging her to continue.

"So…you said the, uh, nightmares will continue for awhile."

His smile never wavered as he reached out and took her hand, giving it a slight squeeze. Booth understood she was giving him what she could at the moment; and at the moment, she was willing to let him help her with something that was bothering her. He knew Brennan would take her time and thoroughly examine their budding relationship as she did everything else.

"Yes, for awhile but they'll slowly disappear. However, I'm not gonna lie to you—you're always going to feel different." He moved closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him. "Do you want to tell me about the nightmares?"

As she began recalling her disturbing dreams involving Epps, Booth glanced over at the leprechaun socks she'd bought for him. There was a pot of gold and the promise of many more moments between them at the end of the rainbow after all.

Author's notes: I hope you all enjoyed this fic, especially since I had a great time writing it….when I could find the time to write that is. I'm off now to try and finish "A Pain That I'm Used To"—for those of you who are reading that story, I'm going to do my best to update soon. Thanks again for reading and reviewing!