Thanks so much to FauxMaven for her help with this chapter. I had fun writing it, and I hope you guys have fun reading it.
Disclaimer: I've watched all the Bones episodes ever made often enough that they should be mine, but they're not.
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Pale morning light seeped between the edges of the curtains at the window, creating blocks of light on the sheets and across Seeley Booth's face. He draped his arm across his eyes, trying to block out the light. Uncomfortable in that position, he rolled onto his side, away from the window, and slipped his arm over Temperance Brennan's waist instead. Easing himself across the bed, he pressed his chest to her back, the satin of her nightgown rubbing against his skin. He breathed in her scent, warm with sleep and more than a hint of citrus. His hand rested on her abdomen and he could feel her bandages beneath his palm. He slid his hand across her stomach to her side, then down to her hip, where her nightgown had ridden up during the night. His fingers traced lazy designs on the smooth skin of her thigh.
With a sigh and a groan, Temperance rolled over and gazed sleepily at him. She smiled.
"Morning, Booth. Sleep well?"
He nodded. He had slept better than he had in years. "You?"
She covered her mouth with her hand, yawning. "I did. I'm starving, though."
Booth chuckled and though he wanted nothing more than to stay in bed with her all day, he sat up and placed his feet on the floor.
"How about I take a quick shower and go grab us something to eat?" he suggested.
"That's not necessary. You shouldn't be out running errands, and I have food here anyway." She was still lying in bed, propping her head up with her hand. He grinned, watching her eyes roam over his bare chest.
"Well, can I still take a shower first?" He was sure she had felt his erection pressing against her ass, though she had been polite enough not to mention it. He needed to use the bathroom and to take a coldshower to rid him of the image of her stretched out on her bed, the thin material of her nightgown clinging to her form.
She nodded at him. "Please." She waved a hand in front of her nose, eyes sparkling with amusement. "You stink."
"Bones! That's not nice," he admonished. Before heading to the bathroom he circled the bed and gave her a lingering kiss at the base of her neck. "I'll be out in a few," he whispered in her ear.
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When he emerged from the bathroom twenty minutes later, clean and rejuvenated, he found Brennan sitting at the dining room table. She had set out bagels with cream cheese, slices of cantaloupe, blueberries, and freshly brewed coffee. He was pleased to see she had remained in her pajamas, for the white satin revealed more than she probably realized. He gave her a grin and a wink and sat down to eat.
"So, what's the plan for today?" he asked. "I have an appointment this afternoon to see if I can be cleared to return to work, but until then I can't work on the case."
"I need to go into the lab. I haven't been there in almost three days," she told him.
"Oh, come on, you can't take the morning off?"
She shook her head at him. "No. You're welcome to come with me, though. I know you can't technically work on the case, but you can see what we've managed to find so far."
He pouted at her but when she didn't cave, he relented.
"Okay, fine. But I am going to need my weapons back, you know," he grinned.
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Walking into the lab with Brennan at his side that morning was slightly awkward. They had never arrived together that early in the morning and he was sure that it would be clear to everyone that they had spent the night together. He wasn't worried about the reactions of the majority of the people there, but he was mildly anxious as to how Cam would take it. Even though she had recently reaffirmed that their relationship had been purely recreational, he couldn't help fidgeting as they walked in.
The reality was that no one commented on his arrival with Brennan. The more pressing matter on the squints' minds, which he should have realized, was the incident on the Trail. Both Angela and Cam inquired as to his health, their concern written plainly across their features. Hodgins merely laughed, making lame jokes about vomiting on a girl not being the way to get on her good side. They all stood on the platform, surrounded by human remains and cold metal instruments.
"So why aren't you at work, Booth? Don't you have catching up to do?" Angela asked.
"He can't work yet," Brennan said dismissively. "Not so soon after being exposed to a psychotropic agent."
"Bones, I'm fine," Booth grumbled.
"You're just going to hang out here all day?" Cam questioned, eyebrows raised.
Booth shrugged and nodded.
"Dude, just so you know, I charge $15 an hour for babysitting," Hodgins commented, smirking.
"Don't rile him," Brennan frowned.
Booth crossed his arms over his chest. "I am not a child, guys! Geez."
"You are sulking, though, Agent Booth," Zack pointed out.
Shooting the young doctor a glare, Booth struggled to keep from snapping at him. Cam seemed to sense his mood and changed the subject.
"Okay, people. What are everyone's plans for today?
"I need to work on identifying the last victim," Brennan said.
"I already confirmed that it was Atropa belladonna that Booth was poisoned with. I'll check the fleshier victims for traces of it as well," Hodgins said.
"Is Belladonna hard to find?" Angela asked.
Hodgins shrugged. "Not really. You can grow it in your yard, or you can buy it in herbalist shops. I'm sure you can order it online, too."
"Where are the contents of the suspect's pack?" Booth asked.
Zack spoke up. "They're in my office."
"Alright, kid, let's go."
The team scattered, Cam and Angela heading to their respective offices, while Brennan moved off to examine a set of bones and Hodgins prepared to collect samples from two other bodies. Booth trailed Zack into his office where the contents of the pack were laid out on a table. Zack began working on some obscure project while Booth rummaged through the assortment of camping gear. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary, everything there was what you would expect in a hiker's backpack. His choice of reading material seemed a little odd, but beyond that, Booth couldn't see anything that might lead them to identify the suspect. It was fairly risky for a hiker not to carry a license or any other form of identification, although Booth supposed he may have had it on him rather than in his pack. Sighing in frustration, Booth looked around Zack's office.
Spying Zack's MP3 player sitting on his desk, Booth picked it up. He glanced at Zack, who was still immersed in whatever he was doing, then slipped the ear pieces on. Scanning through Zack's playlist, Booth smirked and hit 'play.' He sat in a chair and put his feet up on Zack's desk, tapping his feet in rhythm with the music. When Booth started to hum along, Zack looked up at him.
"Agent Booth, what are you doing?"
"The Shins aren't really my taste, but I'm still impressed you like them," Booth commented.
Zack frowned at him. "My brother downloaded those songs for me. He said that I needed to modernize my musical preferences. He also said it might make me appear to be 'almost normal.'"
Pursing his lips, Booth turned off the music, removed the ear pieces, and set the player back down on the desk. Zack's way of stating uncomfortable truths was one of the main reasons Booth didn't really like spending time around him. He rose and started to move toward the door.
"Hey, thanks for letting me, uh, listen to your music." Booth picked up the book from the killer's gear and indicated the rest of the pile with a nod. "And let me know if you find anything, you know, interesting."
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Booth stretched out on the couch in Brennan's office, his shoes on the floor and his feet up on the arm of the couch. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but he could only sit upright for so long before needing to change positions. He had been at the lab all morning and it was finally nearing lunchtime. The book he had been reading for the last hour was actually more interesting than he had suspected. Brennan strode into her office, removing her lab coat as she did. She glanced at Booth and the book in his hand before sitting down in her chair.
"What's that you're reading?" she asked as she clicked with the mouse and tapped out a few keystrokes on the keyboard.
Booth turned the book over to glance at the cover. "It's called Modern Vampyrism and Its Roots."
"Really? You don't seem the blood-drinking type."
"Yeah, I know. It was in with the suspect's gear," he told her.
Brennan hummed in response, focusing on her computer.
With a groan, Booth dropped the book onto the coffee table and sat up. "Hey, can we go get lunch or something? I'm going out of my mind with boredom." He picked up his shoes and slipped them on.
"You go ahead, I have work to do."
"Come on, Bones, a half hour break isn't going to kill you."
"I certainly hope not," she said absentmindedly.
Booth considered falling to his knees and groveling, but decided on a different tactic. He crossed the room and stood behind her chair, then leaned forward, putting his mouth next to her ear.
He blew gently on her ear, then whispered, "Wouldn't you like some sweet, succulent pie?"
Brennan chuckled and turned, giving him a brief kiss on the lips. "How can I say no to you when you whisper in my ear like that?"
He grinned and winked at her. "You're not supposed to say no."
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With a half an hour to kill before he needed to leave for his appointment to get cleared for work, Booth wandered aimlessly through the lab. He glanced in passing at the various technicians working at over-sized microscopes and before long, found himself at Hodgins' work station. The entomologist was looking at a jumble of numbers on his computer monitor.
"Hey, man," Hodgins said as he noticed Booth approach.
Booth nodded in greeting. "What's that?"
"Oh, these are the results from the testing we did on your vomit, it shows Atropa belladonna. See?"
Booth nodded, though he didn't really see. He'd learned long ago to just take the squints' word for it. Hodgins clicked the mouse and another set of numbers appeared on the screen.
"This is what we got from the vial in the killer's pack. Definitely Atropa belladonna." Hodgins clicked again. "And here are Lessard's results. More Atropa belladonna." Another click, and more numbers. "And Chouinard's, there were traces in her as well."
"So the guy who drugged me was definitely the killer?"
Hodgins nodded. "It would be extremely improbable that there would be two guys in the same stretch of woods drugging hikers with the same toxin."
Booth hummed quietly.
"Hey, you okay, man?" Hodgins asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah." Booth paused. "It's just kind of weird, you know?" He didn't like being included with the victims.
Hodgins nodded. "Yeah, definitely. Men almost never use poisons to incapacitate their victims. Women use poisons much more frequently to incapacitate or kill, even to commit suicide. Across the world, women are much more likely than men to ingest poisons. A guy's more likely to take a gun to his head. Did you know that 80 of firearms suicides are white men?"
Booth shook his head slowly. "Um, no. Thanks for that info, though, really."
"Sure, no problem." Hodgins smiled and returned his attention to the monitor in front of him.
Rolling his eyes, Booth turned and headed back toward the platform where Brennan was bent over a set of remains. He scanned himself in and bounded up the steps. She glanced up at him and smiled before looking back down at the bones in front of her. Moving beside her, he placed his hand on her back.
"I'm going to go now, I've gotta get out of this place," he told her.
Brennan straightened and looked at him curiously. "You don't like it here?"
"No, I do," he said hastily. "It's just, you know, it's been a long morning."
She nodded at him, then seemed to become distinctly uncomfortable. She glanced around the lab.. Booth raised his eyebrows at her when her gaze refocused on him. Blushing sheepishly, she leaned toward him and brushed her lips across his.
"See you soon?"
He grinned foolishly at her and nodded. "Yeah, definitely."
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Booth wasn't able to return to the lab until much later than he had anticipated. He'd had to wait an obscene amount of time to see a doctor, and then the clearance had involved a much more thorough exam than he had been expecting. His mood was sour as he walked through the doors to the lab. All he wanted to do now was go home and spend the evening relaxing, preferably with Temperance. He strode into her office, prepared to call out a witty greeting, and was disappointed to see that the room was empty. He hadn't seen her on the platform, either, and was a bit flummoxed as to where she was. Shuffling the papers on her desk, he looked to see if she'd left him a note, but there was nothing. He noticed the vampyrism book sitting on the table and picked it up, figuring he could put it back with the other gear while he was looking for Brennan. As he headed down the hallway, Angela stepped out of her office, nearly bumping into him
"Oh, hey, Booth. Sorry," she smiled.
He returned the smile. "Not a problem. Seen Bones?"
She shook her head, then indicated the book in Booth's hands. "What's that?"
"It was in with the suspect's gear," he said, showing her the book.
She took it from him and studied the cover, then flipped it over to read the back.
"'Ceridwen's Closet'?" she asked.
"Bless you."
Angela rolled her eyes at him. "No, here on the price tag, it says 'Ceridwen's Closet.'"
"Okay, and?"
"Isn't that the New Age-y store downtown?"
Booth shrugged. "No idea, doesn't sound like my type of place."
"Right, well, the point is, it's got a whole wall full of little bags of Eye of Newt and stuff like that."
"Great, Angela," he said and held out his hand for the book.
She placed the book back in his hand and he nodded his thanks. After he had turned and continued on his way down the hallway, she called out after him, "Oh, Booth? Hodgins said that you can get Belladonna in herbalist shops. Might wanna check that out."
Booth stopped and groaned, looking down at the book in his hands. He turned to face Angela and, holding out his hands in a gesture of acquiescence, gave her his most winning smile.
"You're the best, Angela. Thanks."
Chuckling, Angela rolled her eyes at him in mock exasperation. "Check the mezzanine, she might be up there."
Booth found Brennan up on the mezzanine as Angela had suggested. She was sitting with Hodgins and Cam, sipping a glass of water while the others drank coffees. They all looked up at him expectantly. He was distinctly aware of Brennan and Cam sitting next to each other, each waiting for him to speak. While he knew they were just waiting to hear how his appointment had gone, he almost felt torn between the two women. It wasn't that he held any romantic feelings for Cam any longer, but she had the look in her eyes that belied a deeper perception of the interpersonal relationships among him and the other squints. He would feel responsible if his budding romance with Temperance caused Cam any grief, though he hoped she would understand. After all, right from the start, he had told Cam how he felt about his partner, though he hadn't directly implied attraction. He knew Cam, she was smart and seemed to have gotten the idea. Their fling had been laced with an awareness of Booth's devotion to Temperance and what that meant for their long-term prospects.
Brennan spoke first. "Well?"
A lazy grin spread across Booth's lips. "I'm back on the job."
Brennan's quiet smile matched the relief in her eyes.
"Thank god, man. No offense," Hodgins said as he rose and slapped Booth on the back. "Now maybe you can stop hovering over us all."
Booth ignored the dig and turned to Brennan. "So, I'm going to go. I'll probably just go home, I'm really tired." He tried to discreetly give her a pointed look, but wasn't sure if it came off right.
"Oh, sure," she nodded and stood. She glanced at Cam, then back to Booth. "I'll just, you know, your stuff is in my office."
"Right, it is." He knew he sounded like a moron—Cam's smirk was proof.
"Okay. Yeah." Again Brennan glanced toward Cam, then out over the lab. "Should we go then?"
Trying to suppress a grin, he nodded at Brennan and his hand fell to the small of her back, guiding her toward the stairs.
In her office, Brennan shut the door behind her and groaned.
"I know we didn't discuss whether we should keep our relationship private, but I don't think it would work. We both acted like idiots up there," Brennan sighed as she gathered her belongings.
Booth chuckled. "Angela knows anyway, right?" At her nod, he added, "Then Hodgins probably knows, too. And Cam's perceptive enough to see what's going on."
"Will she be upset?"
"No, I don't think so. Even when we were, you know, she seemed to understand..." he motioned between the two of them, trying to express in hand gestures what they still had not spoken of.
She nodded. "There probably isn't a need for us to leave separately or anything then, is there?"
"No, probably not," he winked at her.
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As Booth drove to Brennan's apartment, he wondered at the assumption they had both made that they'd be spending at least the evening together, and that it would be at her place. It just seemed natural and easy between them. Since his appointment, he had tried not to let himself imagine what tonight would be like, whether he would feel up for any recreational activities, so to speak. Or more importantly, whether she would be interested. Thankfully, she hadn't seemed too put off by his erratic and often disgusting behavior on the Trail. He knew that she wasn't inhibited when it came to talking about sex, and he was intensely curious as to how that would translate when they were in bed.
Dinner was fairly subdued, though he felt his tension increase almost by the minute. He couldn't help watching her mouth as she brought bites of food to her lips, and each moan of enjoyment he imagined was for him and not for her meal. Halfway through dinner she shrugged out the long-sleeve shirt she wore over a tank top and Booth could hardly keep his eyes off the smooth, pale skin of her shoulders and toned arms. She had smiled apologetically at him as she removed the shirt, but he could have sworn he saw a glint in her eye that suggested showing some skin was a hint of hers. Booth set down his fork and gazed at her.
Arching her eyebrows at him, she set down her fork as well and wiped her mouth with her napkin. "So, how are you feeling, Booth?"
"Pretty damn good, Bones," he grinned at her.
She nodded, a seductive smile gracing her lips. "That's good."
"Well, there is one thing I've been wanting to do all night, though," he said
"And what's that?" she asked, her voice quiet yet filled with anticipation.
Booth stood and crossed to her side of the table, took her hands in his, and pulled her to her feet. He reached out and brushed her cheek with his palm, sliding his hand around to the back of her head, winding his fingers through her hair. He tilted her head back slightly and brought his lips to hers. She pressed her body to his as he slipped his tongue past her lips, tasting the warmth and sweetness of her. His whole being was filled with an aching need for her. He brought his hands back to her face and reluctantly broke the kiss.
She smiled at him, her face flushed and eyes sparkling. Her hands came up to rest on his forearms and she pulled his hands down from her face. She leaned over the table and blew out the candles, then switched off the lights in the kitchen. Intertwining her fingers with his, she lightly brushed her lips across his knuckles then led him to her bedroom.
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Oh no! Not a fade-to-black! Don't worry, you can read the rest of it on my LiveJournal. My username is SkylaraK, just like here. It's not for children, so keep that in mind. If ya do read it, please let me know what you think.