Booth was quickly running out of ideas to keep himself entertained. For fifteen minutes he had tied every knot he knew into the rope, then tried to teach Brennan to tie them as well. She mastered the knots surprisingly quickly, but she still couldn't do them as fast or as well as Booth, which left her grumpy. She had put the rope down and announced she was going to do something productive- organize their paperwork. Booth had groaned and slumped in his seat.
While Brennan became absorbed in the paperwork, Booth had watched her, sitting up straight in her seat with her legs tucked underneath her. Her hair was curly and messy but seemed to be dry now. Booth's large sweatshirt made her look small and delicate, and Booth couldn't help but smile as she absently rolled up the sleeves that reached beyond her hands. He felt like he could watch her for hours, and felt slightly annoyed and a little bit hurt at her ability to completely ignore him.
But then, inspired by a childish streak of impulsivity, Booth had begun to roll up tiny paper balls from a paper Brennan had placed in the discard pile. Quietly, he flicked them at Brennan. Any paper ball landing in Brennan's hood he decided, would be worth ten points. If it went down the back of her shirt, twenty points and thirty points if he could get one to stick in her hair.
The game turned out to be quite entertaining. Booth had scored fifteen ten pointers, seven twenty pointers, and three thirty pointers. Three-hundred and eighty points... Booth had thought gleefully. Let's see if I can make it to five-hundred... Tongue between his teeth, he had aimed the next paper ball carefully at Brennan's hair, but she turned at the last second and the ball hit her square in the forehead. When she recoiled in surprise, several paper balls shook loose of her hair and hood.
Now, Booth was being punished with the silent treatment. He sighed loudly and dramatically, but Brennan stubbornly ignored him. The paperwork was neatly packed away in her bag and she now sat facing the window, her arms crossed across her chest. The silence in the SUV was driving Booth insane. He tried tapping his fingers against the dashboard, humming, then whistling to fill the silence, but the boredom was overwhelming.
"Bones," he said, reaching out to tap her shoulder. "Hey Bones, I'm bored."
Brennan stretched and yawned, leaning her head against the back of her seat as though he had never spoken. He groaned.
"Listen, I'm sorry about the paper balls Bones..." he wheedled.
A faint trace of a smirk appeared on her face but still, she ignored him.
"You can't ignore me forever Bones..." Booth sang. "Like it or not, you're stuck in this SUV for God knows how long with your favorite FBI agent."
He didn't have to see her face to know that his comment merited one of Brennan's famous eye rolls.
"Come on Bones, deep down you love this. We're all burrowed under the snow like happy little Eskimos..." Booth's voice was filled with barely contained laughter.
He craned his neck to peek around Brennan's body and saw the corners of her mouth beginning to lift into a smile. Booth leaned back in his chair and Aha-ed triumphantly.
"I saw that Bones!" he announced accusingly. "That was a smile, so you can stop pretending to be mad now."
He watched as she struggled to contain the smile that was creeping up on her face. Booth sighed with mock regret.
"You're making me take drastic measures Bones..." he told her gravely.
Quick as lighting, his hand darted behind Brennan's feet where she was hiding the bottle of wine under the seat. He held the bottle up and sloshed the liquid around.
"If you won't talk to me," Booth said, smiling as Brennan finally turned around and looked at him. "I'll just have to drink my boredom away."
Brennan tried to snatch the bottle, but Booth lifted it just out of her reach.
"Booth! I promised Angela I'd bring her something back this time," she told him, still trying to grab the bottle.
Booth smiled openly at her, relieved she was talking to him again.
"I knew you couldn't resist me," he teased, dangling the bottle in front of her as one would a piece of string for a kitten.
Brennan made another futile attempt at reclaiming the bottle of wine, and Booth laughed cheerfully.
"Hand it over Booth!" Brennan demanded.
"Admit that I'm irresistible and I just might consider handing it over," Booth replied, smiling in an obnoxious way he knew drove her up the wall.
Brennan glowered at him. Booth gave her a minute to process the request, and when she remained silent, he made to open the bottle.
"Stop Booth!" Brennan exclaimed.
Booth smiled a toothy grin.
"Say it..." he said, drawing out the syllables.
She wrinkled her nose and twisted her mouth in the manner she always did when she didn't get her way. Booth grinned and waited patiently.
"You're irresistible Booth," she grumbled.
Her hand again reached out for the bottle. Just as her fingertips grazed the bottom, Booth yanked it out of reach once more.
"Come on Booth!" she growled, shoving his knees in frustration. "You promised you'd give it back if I said it..."
Booth shook his head and waggled a finger at her.
"I believe I said I'd consider giving it back," he corrected her. "I did consider it, but I decided that you weren't convincing enough."
Brennan rolled her eyes.
"So what can I do to convince you?" she asked dryly, humoring him.
Booth tapped his chin, pretending to be deep in thought.
"How about an Eskimo kiss?" he suggested lightly.
"What?" Brennan bleated.
Her response was enough to make Booth's grin widen even more.
"Yup Bones," he said with certainty. "I want an Eskimo kiss. This will fit perfectly into your happy little Eskimo fantasy..."
Brennan put her hands on her hips and gave him a pointed stare.
"That's your fantasy Booth," she told him.
Booth shrugged and smiled at her as he challengingly dangled the bottle of wine above her head. He watched as the annoyance and playful banter on Brennan's face faded. Booth felt his grin weaken slowly as Brennan stepped over her own seat to kneel on the edge of his. She placed one hand gently where Booth's neck met his shoulders and the other lightly grazed the stubble on his jaw.
Booth felt his pulse quicken. Her face came closer to his. Almost without any conscious involvement, his free hand tangled in her hair. Brennan stopped mere centimeters away. Booth could feel her breath puff against his lips. Suddenly Booth was unaware of anything except for the slightly parted lips that were almost brushing his own.
Then inexplicably, those exact lips stretched out in a victorious grin. Brennan pulled back an inch and wiggled her nose playfully against Booths. Her right hand reached up and removed the bottle of wine from Booth's slackened grip. In shock, Booth watched as Brennan casually scooted back into her own chair and stored the bottle back where she had it before.
Jaw slack, Booth gave Brennan an incredulous look.
"What?" she asked innocently. "Isn't that what you asked for?"
Booth's look of surprise and bewilderment melded into one of suspicion. His eyes narrowed at Brennan.
"Don't give me that," he said, his voice coming out husky as a result of his suddenly dry mouth. "You know exactly what you just did."
Brennan merely shrugged and tried not to look too pleased with herself. Before we're through with this... Booth vowed to himself, I'm going to get her back for that. Satisfied with this thought, Booth ran his hands over his face in an attempt to rub off the lingering feeling of Brennan's face so close to his. Otherwise, his brain wouldn't be capable of forming a single comprehensible thought. That was twice he almost kissed her in the past hour. There was no way he was going to survive being trapped in an SUV with her for much longer.
"Booth," Brennan said, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention. "It's getting stuffy in here; we should open the windows again for ventilation."
Windows...Booth thought. A safe subject...Thank God.
"Open them?" he asked. "Isn't it still storming outside?"
Brennan shrugged.
"It was still snowing and icing pretty badly when I went out," she replied. "But we can use our spare clothes to make a barrier so that air can get in but the snow can't."
She grabbed a t-shirt out of her bag to demonstrate with her window. Getting the gist of it, Booth dug through his own bag and rigged the windows on his sides.
"Ugh," he said, plopping down on his seat. "Now we're letting cold air in. Can't we turn on the heat or something?"
Brennan slapped his hand away from the ignition.
"Not unless you want to die from carbon monoxide poisoning," she told him poignantly. "Besides, you were right about the Eskimo thing- we shouldn't be worrying too much about the cold."
Booth looked at her blankly.
"We shouldn't worry about the cold?" he asked flatly, disbelievingly.
"Probably not," Brennan said lightly. "We're out of the wind and surrounded by snow. The insulation should prevent heat loss but..."
She trailed off.
"But what?" Booth prompted, motioning for her to continue.
"A lot of factors play into hypothermia," she explained. "We should avoid getting wet, falling asleep, and becoming dehydrated. But that doesn't mean we can drink Angela's wine."
She gave Booth a sharp look. He pouted.
"Come on Bones," he whined. "Alcohol makes you warm inside."
"It makes you feel warm, Booth." she corrected. "In reality, becoming intoxicated is the worst thing we could do right now."
Booth grudgingly agreed with her. There was the whole hypothermia thing, but at the same time, Booth figured if he couldn't control himself sober, he'd be out of luck after half a bottle of wine.
"So what should we do then?" Booth asked.
Brennan hesitated a minute before answering.
"We should stay in the SUV as much as possible," she said slowly. "Since we don't have any of our snow gear anymore, our best bet is to wait for someone to see the flare."
"Told you we should have bought the parkas," Booth mumbled.
Brennan shook her head.
"No you didn't Booth," she reminded him defensively. "We both agreed that it'd be stupid to spend so much money on something we'd only use this once."
Booth sighed and leaned against his window.
"Well then," he relented, "we shouldn't have given them back to the rental place until after we arrived at the airport."
Brennan didn't reply. She leaned against her own window, facing Booth. They sighed simultaneously.
"I just hate sitting around waiting," Booth said quietly.
She nodded in agreement and they fell into silence again. With the windows open several inches, they could now hear the wind whistling outside. Ice pellets hit against the feeble barriers they had put up, but luckily no moisture came through. Brennan closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air coming in. She suddenly realized how tired she was.
"Hey Booth," she called out, sitting up. "We should take turns getting some sleep."
He looked at her confusedly.
"I thought you said you aren't supposed to sleep when you're hypothermic," he recited slowly.
"I did say that," she agreed. "But we aren't hypothermic so... we should sleep while we still can."
Brennan did have a point. It had been over twenty-four hours since the two had slept. Their rescue could take another twenty-four hours or longer. If staying awake was difficult now, it would be impossible by then.
"You sleep first," he told Brennan, handing her a blanket. "I'll keep an eye on you."
She conceded and reclined her chair, curling up on her side under the blanket.
"No longer than three hours," she warned Booth through a yawn.
He nodded and switched off the ceiling light, plunging the SUV into darkness.
Author's note: Thanks again to those who reviewed. Special thanks to those who pointed out snow's special insulating properties lol. Oh yea, and I now have anonymous reviews activated.