A/N: Don't own or profit from Bones. But I like to play with them.

Weathering the Storm

From Chapter 2: "It's snowing?" Alarmed, she fastened her gaze on the window. "What are we going to do now?"

Chapter 3: White Out

"We're going to wait for daylight, first. Come on, Bones; let's get some more sleep. There's nothing we can do right now. And I have a feeling we're going to need our strength tomorrow." He tugged the silver sheet up close around them and guided her head back onto his shoulder. She yawned and nestled into his arms. Warm and content, he drifted off immediately.

Booth was dreaming about a mission from his combat days. They were pinned down in a cave in mountainous terrain, and he and his unit were taking turns sleeping on the hard rock floor of the cave. It was cold, very cold, but his feet were warm. The thought that his boots were really doing the job crossed his mind as he took his turn on watch.

One of his buddies was crying out in his sleep. Booth's subconscious mind was awake enough to note the irony of Booth's buddy having a nightmare during Booth's dream. Walking over to wake up the frightened soldier Booth was confused when his voice sounded more like that of a hysterical woman. Booth remembered him having a deep voice; who knew he cried like a girl in his sleep?

Wait a minute. I'm dreaming, I'm cold, it's dark, and I hear a woman crying…

"Bones! Hey, don't cry; you're okay." Booth was suddenly awake and in the back of his SUV, wrestling with an unconscious woman obviously in the throes of her own nightmare. Brennan had pulled the Mylar blanket off them both and her arms and legs flailed out when Booth tried to restrain her.

"Whoa, watch it, Bones. You're dreaming. Come on, wake up. Temperance!"

Calling her name did it. Her body relaxed and the hysterical cries subsided to silent sobs. Knowing it was over, Booth hauled her into a firm hold and rocked her like he would Parker. She calmed down by degrees. When she was finally quiet, he reached for the blanket and pulled it around them once again. Then he reached down and rearranged the towel so their feet stayed warm.

"That was some dream," Booth commented. She turned into his chest as he rubbed her back and arms.

"Are you okay now?"

"I was back in the car with Hodgins," she finally managed to whisper. "It was cold, and dark, and I couldn't breathe."

And he'd come within a few seconds of losing her forever. The events of that terrifying day were suddenly playing through his mind in vivid pictures. It had been the worst pain he'd ever felt. Booth bowed his head over hers and pressed his face into her hair. He couldn't help wondering how hard it must be for her to wake up from that particular nightmare to find herself in the back of a cold, dark, car, trapped by a storm. As if to confirm his suspicion, a shudder ran through her body; he felt her arms steal under his coat and tighten around his back.

"It was just a dream," he reassured her, dropping a kiss into her hair. "We're okay, Bones."

"I don't like this, Booth," she confessed shakily. "I want to get out of here."

"I know. We will. Don't be afraid. We're just waiting for daylight. The car's got plenty of gas. In a few hours we'll just drive on out of here, okay? Everything will turn out great."

"Okay," she said, but she sounded unconvinced. Raising her face to his, she stared at him, her expression a mixture of need and affection. Her eyes glowed in the darkness. He leaned in and rested his forehead on hers. This was no longer two partners working a case together. He had felt a lot more than friendship for her for some time now, but this was the first time he'd seen those feelings reflected in Brennan's eyes.

"Although I would prefer to not be trapped in a car during a storm, I have to admit being here with you makes it better. A lot better."

"I wouldn't mind being trapped with you any time," Booth said sweetly.

Bones grinned, touched by his admission. Then her smile disappeared and her expression grew serious. Booth's heart did a nervous flip; something was changing and suddenly every nerve in his body went on alert. She was looking at his mouth and leaning in closer.

He'd decided a while ago when it had become clear to him that she didn't appear to return his feelings that he would wait for her to make the first move. He knew her well enough to know that any advance from him would be likely to scare her away. But here, in the cold and dark, far from their usual routine, he had renewed hope.

His eyes slowly closed and he savored the unbearable sweetness of the moment when her mouth met his in a soft caress. It was finally happening. He could hardly believe it. Not daring to move at first, he let her kiss him the way she wanted to, until he couldn't help himself and with a twist of his lips he took control. She met him eagerly, and for a while the world around them faded away. When she finally eased back, he tried not to feel disappointed, but instead pulled her securely against him.

"Can you sleep now?" He whispered, seeing her eyes were already closed.

"Yes."

* * * * *

It seemed like only a few moments had passed when Booth sat up, wide awake, with the dull grey light of a stormy day lighting up the interior of the SUV. He felt somewhat rested, though, so he figured they must have gone back to sleep for several hours. Looking outside, he saw snow still falling, but not so fast or thick as it had been when they had woken during the night. A blanket of white covered the car and the trail around them. The front windshield, being angled more than the side windows, wore a thick mantle of snow.

Turning to his partner, he was charmed to find her still asleep, curled in a ball with her head still cradled against his chest. Their feet were bound together in Parker's towel. Wiggling his toes, he was glad to find them warm and in working order. The next pleasant sensation to register on his brain was Brennan's feet under his. Although the fact that they were still in a potentially dangerous situation weighed heavily on his mind, he wasn't about to let that stop him from thoroughly enjoying this moment.

He studied her face. He loved every minute they spent together, even when she made him so mad or frustrated he could barely see straight. He loved the way she said whatever she was thinking, even when it was an uncomfortable truth. She was without guile, a true scientist who applied the scientific method to every situation. He couldn't think of anyone with as much integrity. He loved her.

She stirred in her sleep. Now that it was light—or as light as it would be until this storm rolled out—Booth could see dark circles under her eyes and stress lines around her mouth. The bruise on her forehead didn't look too bad, still bluish-purple and swollen but no worse, but the other signs told him that she needed more sleep. He paused, having been about to wake her, and changed his mind.

Climbing quietly into the front seat, he turned the key in the ignition and the engine sputtered to life. The heat would take a few minutes to kick in, so he left it running while he got out as quietly as he could manage and took a look around.

The trail they were on was definitely not made for vehicular traffic, but it continued into the brush as far as he could see. Walking back to evaluate the gravel road below, he was glad to find that the snow wasn't too deep. Four, maybe five inches, he estimated. He peered down the slope they'd ascended so urgently last night during the storm. The road below was no longer flooded, at least not obviously so, but instead looked like a ribbon of white cutting a swath through the forest in either direction.

"Booth, what are you doing?"

Bones' sleepy voice made him turn around. She was standing beside the passenger door, her arms wrapped around herself, her hair still fuzzy from sleeping on his shoulder in the back of the SUV. He walked up and got in the driver's side. She climbed in too and they both put their cold hands over the now warm vents.

"I didn't mean to wake you."

"I'm not tired any more." She looked exhausted.

"I think we can try the road below again," he said. "It doesn't seem to be flooded anymore. Of course, now it's full of snow, but this car has four-wheel drive."

"Good. I'm ready to get out of here."

"You are? I was kind of enjoying being stuck here. With you." Booth grinned.

"Well, now that I think about it, this situation has had some positive aspects to it."

"Really?"

"Yes," she said firmly. "Very positive, actually."

"Cool. Okay, let's get this show on the road."

They fastened their seat belts and Booth slowly backed down the trail to where it joined the road below. He slid in the snow the last few feet and the SUV bounced backwards onto the road.

"Let's hope that's the biggest thrill we have for the rest of the ride," Booth said.

Shifting into first, he eased along until they were moving tentatively along, back toward the main road that last night had been separated from them by a raging torrent. Within a few minutes, they reached the point where they'd turned around. There was still a trickle of water running through the snow in the place where the flood waters had flowed last night, but the stream was so diminished that they knew it would be easy to cross. Booth grinned and easily drove through to the other side.

"Good. Now it's only about a half mile and we should hook into the main coastal highway." Bones had the map out again. Just then the GPS kicked in and told them in a sexy alto voice to turn in a half mile.

"Now she decides to help out," Booth groused. Bones seemed to have lost faith in the GPS for she was still studying the map.

"There's a town about fifteen miles down the main highway. Maybe we can find some breakfast there."

"Yeah, I'm starving too. Whoa." They hit a snowdrift and Booth only just managed to plow through.

"Is the snow deeper here, or is that just my imagination?" Bones wondered out loud.

"I think the snow blew around and some of these drifts are pretty high. Don't worry; old Betsy here can handle it."

"Last time you called your car by name, you called her "Maude"," Bones pointed out drily.

"Did I really?" Booth grinned mischievously. "Hey, what do you know? Finally, here's the main highway. Wow."

He paused the car at the edge of the paved road, but they couldn't see any pavement. The road and the surrounding countryside all looked the same—a pristine, uniform blanket of white with higher drifts here and there. No plows had been through this stretch of highway.

"Where's the edge of the road?" Bones asked.

"I think we have to guess," Booth returned. He shifted and spun out of the gravel road onto the snow-covered highway. In spite of the SUV's sturdy wheels and capable four-wheel drive, they skidded and slithered their way along. Bones kept an eye on the GPS, which was thankfully online now, and announced each mile as it rolled away.

"We've gone four miles."

"Bones, you don't have to tell me every…. Whoa!"

The car slid off into the ditch, which thankfully was quite shallow at this spot, and Booth manhandled it back onto the berm with a shower of snow in their wake.

"Awesome," Booth crowed.

"Booth, look!" Bones pointed out the window after a few more treacherous miles. "It's starting to snow again. These winter storms often have several bands of precipitation before they blow out to sea."

"You mean it's not over yet?"

"Possibly not. In fact, it seems to be picking up in intensity. We only have about six miles to go, however." She was consulting the GPS again.

"Surely we can drive in this for six miles," Booth muttered to himself, concentrating. The snow was really coming down now, and the wind had made an appearance again. Between the white curtain falling from the grey sky and the white landscape, it was becoming hard to guess where the road was. Booth drove slower and slower until he pulled up and stopped. In the short time since Bones' remark, the snow had closed in and obscured everything—white out. They couldn't tell where the land ended and the sky began. There was nothing to do but wait.

"We had a storm like this once in Philly when I was a kid. I stood at the window and watched the tops of the buildings across the street disappear into a wall of white. Jared and I wanted to go outside in the worst way, but Pops wouldn't let us. He was afraid we'd disappear forever."

"My favorite snow was just before Christmas the year I was six. It snowed so much that the snow line was halfway up our door—taller than me. I wanted to dig a tunnel through it. I wasn't allowed to, either," she said with a chuckle.

"I wonder if it was the same snowstorm," Booth mused, his eyes glowing. "Could have been, you know."

"In that case, I choose to believe it was," Bones offered. She smiled warmly.

"You know, when you're not irritating the hell out of me you can be quite charming," he teased.

"Thank you. Was that a compliment?"

"You bet."

"Look—I can see the trees across the road now. I think this band of snow is passing over. Nor'easters have tight gradients of pressure. That's why the winds are so strong and the precipitation tends to come in waves."

"So you are a weather expert too?"

"I just like meteorology, that's all. I did my high school science fair project on tornadoes."

"Why am I not surprised? Wait—tornadoes? Why not bones?"

"I didn't develop an interest in anatomy and forensics until college."

"Was it a class you took, then?"

She hesitated before answering. "No. Actually, a fellow student in one of my classes was, ah, murdered. A body was found and identified on circumstantial evidence. Later, though, it turned out to not be his remains after all. By the time his body was found and properly identified, the killer's trail had grown stone cold. I wanted to be able to prevent such a tragedy from happening to someone else."

"Was he a good friend?" Booth asked.

"Yes," she said. Something about the way she tilted her head away and looked down at her feet tipped Booth off.

"You were more than friends?"

"Yes," she whispered. This time he was sure he heard it: a long-forgotten pain coming back to life behind her response.

"I'm sorry, Bones. I never thought… I just assumed you loved science and you know… geeky stuff. I had no idea. Like I said—I'm sorry."

"It's history, Booth. I haven't thought about Jeff in years. But his death was the catalyst that got me involved in the study of forensic anthropology. And besides, I really do love science and "geeky" stuff, as you call it. Snow's almost stopped again."

Booth watched her out of the corner of his eye. He knew her better than she knew herself, he was sure of it. In spite of her calm denial, he could see that his casual question had awakened an old wound that still hurt a lot. He wondered if her reluctance to allow herself to love one man had any connection to this long-ago tragedy.

Booth pulled out and eased on the accelerator again, plowing through the freshly fallen snow still doing his best to stay on the hidden roadway. It was mid-morning already and he was hungry and thirsty and needed coffee in the worst way. He knew Bones was probably feeling the same.

"How far to the town now?"

"Five miles."

"So the last mile took us…"

"Fifteen minutes," Bones confirmed grimly.

"Geesh."

"Don't worry, Booth. A wise man told me everything will turn out fine."

To be continued…