Spoilers: Uhh…not really?
Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah.
Author's Note: Tee hee. This chapter was fun! I hope you all like it! I like the end, myself. But that's just me! Reviews are loved, and thank you to everyone who's reviewed this story so far! Couch!
"I'm not playing that again," Brennan enunciated. No one was listening to her and it was incredibly annoying. She was used to people like Zach hanging off her every word. And not one person in the room seemed to hear her. At least, not in the way she'd have liked.
"You know what, Bones? You're a party-pooper!" Booth scolded. Brennan frowned threateningly.
"That's the second time you've said that to me this week, and I still don't know what it means. You should be clearer when you speak, Booth," she added as a final jab. Booth, as he did so often, spun the comment back on her.
"Yeah, Bones, because you always speak so clearly!" he scoffed as he placed the little cars at the place marked 'Start'.
"Of course I do. One doesn't get three doctorates and still struggle with speech, Booth," she said condescendingly, missing the sarcasm. Booth's eyes shot heavenward.
"I'm talking about your Squint-speak, Bones," he sighed. He didn't know why he even bothered with sarcastic insults with her. "The left spatula and the left, internal, paradoxical clavicle with the transitional scoring pattern. See, Booth?" he mimicked, earning a cackle from Alex and Laura.
Brennan stared at him, torn between anger, amusement and confusion. "Booth, that doesn't make sense! Half the words in that sentence weren't even relevant, and what the hell is a 'spatula'?!" She was growing slowly hysterical, and Booth was having fun.
He prodded her shoulder. "It's this one, here, Bones. Geez, I thought you should know that. Some anthropologist you are!" he huffed, as if purely exasperated by her lack of knowledge. Brennan rolled her eyes and slapped his hand away.
"That's a scapula, Booth; not kitchenware," she snapped. "And I do not sound like that!" Booth grinned and handed her the dice as she fumed.
"Sure, Bones," he teased. "Whatever. Just play."
Alex and Laura flinched when Brennan threw the dice a little too hard onto the board, ricocheting onto the floor. Brennan fell back in her seat, not amused. Both laughed at her childish behavior before dramatically bending down to check the dice.
"Four!" he cried as if he were playing golf. Brennan glared at the board, as if willing it to burst into flames. Booth put the dice on the table before Brennan moved. She shoved her piece forward four spaces.
"Oh, great," she moaned. "Now I'm married and have kids…"
"You don't want kids, Temperance?" Laura asked from her armchair. They'd settled back into the lounge room after Booth kicked their butts at the Game of Life. Twice.
"No," she answered bluntly without any emotion. Laura frowned.
"Why not?"
Booth groaned from the other end of the couch. "Don't get her started!"
"Shut up, Booth," both women replied instantly. Booth pulled a mocking face and motioned Alex to the kitchen. Women, Booth decided, are the reason men eat so much.
"I have no use for children," Brennan said straight off. Laura almost choked at the choice of wording.
"All respect, Temperance, but 'use'? You don't 'use' children," she corrected, a little shocked. She knew Brennan was blunt and scientific, but this just seemed…cold.
"Okay, you don't use them. Then what? I'm happy how I am now; I've got my books, my work. God, Booth keeps me busy enough irrespective of my other work!" she corrected.
"Hey! I do not! I keep you from working yourself to death, Bones!" Booth called from the kitchen through a mouthful of sandwich meat. At the expressions he was met with, Booth turned back to the mayonnaise jar. Alex chuckled.
"But what about leisure activities?" Laura asked.
"I work," Brennan answered.
"No, I mean: What do you do in your free time?" she emphasized, wondering how Brennan could be so oblivious. Brennan raised her eyebrows ever so slightly.
"I understood the question, Laura," she said frankly. "But I work. In my 'free time', I go over cases from Limbo, or read, I suppose. If that counts," she added bitterly. Laura almost physically flinched.
"What do you like to read?" she asked, sounding like she was talking to a child.
"Anthropological journals, mostly," Brennan replied casually, her head seeming to be somewhere else. Laura felt like crying; she was getting absolutely nowhere with this woman.
"Okay, then," she began slowly. "Try this: What do you do that doesn't involve anthropology?"
"Nothing," Booth interrupted. He was met with ice, but quickly found something very interesting in his food.
Brennan stopped. She had to think about that.
"I like music," she finally decided. Booth laughed from the kitchen. Brennan found herself smiling. Laura and Alex looked totally confused. Had they missed something?
Laura looked hopeless, too. She wasn't sure, anymore, whether Brennan actually should be a parent. She persisted anyway, bringing everyone back to the topic.
"Maybe if you had kids, you wouldn't have to work so much," she tried. Behind her, she heard Booth scoff. She ignored him.
"But I like working," Brennan protested. Laura sighed. She'd have to think of another way to get through. She was meeting roadblocks; brick walls.
"But you can't work forever. Maybe one day you'll find a guy, and you'll fall in love, and you'll want to have kids," she said, just catching herself before mentioning marriage.
Brennan shrugged. "Love is illogical." Booth laughed again, knowing Laura was getting nowhere, not that he didn't want her to...
Must have had this conversation, Laura decided. "Love is not illogical!" she shrieked, sounding annoyingly like Angela. Brennan rolled her eyes.
"It's like fear, or anger. They're illogical emotions. They're caused by chemical reactions in the brain; they're products of the environment we've been brought up in. If someone is brought up in a violent society, they're much more likely to be violent. If people are told from birth that 'God'-" she used air-quotes "-is going to send them to hell if they sin, then they will fear sinning. Fear," she concluded. Booth rolled his eyes, finally annoyed.
"Bones, what have we said about digs on my religion?" he asked, frowning.
"I didn't say anything, Booth. You did," she pointed out with a careless wave of her hand. "What I was trying to say; was that almost everyone feels anger and fear, for social, religious, chemical, scientific, anthropologic reasons. Love is the same," she finished with a self-assured shrug. It always amazed her that her explanations didn't ever seem to convince people.
All three were staring at her now. Booth looked amused and troubled, Laura shocked and Alex considering. At least someone was having an open mind to her thoughts, she thought. Either that or he was just trying to figure out what on Earth she was talking about.
Booth looked interested now, rather than skeptical. "But you have fears, Bones. You're claustrophobic," he pointed out. "How can you rule out one and not the other?" His expression became slightly challenging, and he was sure he'd have her stumped.
"Because I know my fear is irrational," she stated easily. Booth moved into the lounge room and perched himself on the edge of the couch again. Alex followed and sat in the free armchair.
Laura and Alex both watched in anticipation as Booth continued, Laura whispering, "Twenty bucks says she yells." Alex looked over to her, amusement etched in his brown eyes.
"Twenty says they have another 'moment'." They shook hands, turning their smiles silently back to Booth and Brennan.
"But doesn't that mean that you can still fall in love? Even if you know it's irrational," he added. Brennan opened her mouth, then closed it. He had a point. If it worked for the other, her theory said it had to work for the other.
Booth leaned closer, smiling in challenge. "You can, can't you, Bones? You could fall in love." His tone was teasing, but his eyes were boring into hers.
She shook her head, making Booth's expectant face unfocused. "But I've been afraid before. I've never fallen in love," she challenged. Oh crap, she panicked in the back of her mind. She mentally threw a book at her worries. Booth raised an eyebrow.
Laura's eyes were huge and Alex shoved a hand over her mouth to stop her from shouting. Never?! Laura shouted in her head. Alex was watching intently, hoping to win the bet. Laura looked at Brennan's expression as she stared at Booth who was dangerously close. Bull shit; never!
"What about Sully?" Booth asked cautiously. He knew it was an odd topic between them, but they were supposed to be 'partner building', anyway. Sweets might let them off if they made enough progress. At the thought, he smiled.
"I wasn't in love with Sully, Booth. Why do you think I didn't go with him?" It was rhetorical, and Booth knew not to push her, so he turned in another direction.
"Michael."
"No."
"David."
"No!" she shrieked. "Booth, I went on one date with him!" He paused. Me? He thought. He kept his mouth shut.
"Huh…" Yeah, Seeley, really smooth. It was, however, much safer that the alternative.
"What?"
He studied her. "What about when you were a kid?"
"What?"
"You know, Summer Lovin',"he joked, jabbing her arm with his elbow. She stared at him.
"I don't know what that means. But I have a feeling the answer is no," she stated, getting annoyed. "If you are saying with I think you are, children have no real idea when it comes to 'love'." She went on arguing, knowing that she was both losing and contradicting herself.
"Of course they do, Bones. They love their parents, don't they?" he replied challengingly.
"But it's a very different kind of love, Booth," she answered easily. Booth stared at her before grinning widely. "What?" She was a little scared now, however irrational it was.
"So you admit it! Come on, Bones, if you can differentiate between platonic and romantic love, you've got some experience! At the very least you're admitting love is actually a thing."
Brennan gulped. She'd talked herself into a corner again. Fantastic. And now she had Booth's cockiness to contend with. That and his unfair proximity. "Well, yes. But it's illogical," she argued. Booth laughed. Her attempt was so half-hearted; he'd begun to think she'd given up totally.
Still, it was a stalemate; a moot argument. They could go in circles like this for the rest of their lives, and still they wouldn't get anywhere. Instead, they stared at each other. For minutes, they just stared at each other. Until Brennan spoke, her confidence seeming to have been restored.
"Well, what about you?" she challenged quietly. Booth knew the exact question, but he wasn't going to let her have him this easily.
"What about me what?" he asked innocently. She almost corrected his grammar, but decided better of it.
"Have you ever been in love, Booth?" she asked, exasperated. He stared at her for a few seconds as if considering. Alex and Laura remained silent and glued to their seats. They looked as if one sound would shatter the tension between them. Then the bet would be off. And they would have to entertain themselves for the rest of the day. Laura studied their weird intimacy. Or hour.
"Yes," he answered finally, his eyes ablaze, solemn. Brennan was shocked by his bluntness. Normally, he would have dodged the question for as long as possible, or ranted about something or other, or changed the subject completely. That, however, was not the reason she found it impossible to think.
"With whom?" she prodded finally. The silence wasn't helping her relax; wasn't helping her ignore the fact that if she moved forward just four inches…
However, Booth's playful side had returned. "Wouldn't you like to know?" he teased. He leaned closer and Laura watched with fascination as Brennan's breathing seemed to stop. Booth's head cocked to one side, and for a second, Laura thought he was going to kiss her.
"No," Brennan answered abruptly. "I don't care. It's none of my business. I don't want to know." She did know the expression; she knew it was rhetoric. But how he was sitting, talking, staring, was just too much.
Her outburst did nothing to dissipate his playful behavior, or the fact that he still wanted to win this. He leaned forward and put his mouth to her ear for the second time that day. She didn't move, too afraid of what she'd do to him if she did. She reminded herself to shoot him when she got her gun back.
"You don't want to know, Bones," he whispered. She could feel him smiling against her cheek. Her hands turned to fists, but she showed no other signs of affect.
At least not visibly.
He let out a long sigh, and Laura watched as Brennan's knuckles turned white. "You really don't."
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