Spoilers: Nup.
Disclaimer: Blah, whatever.
Author's Note: Couch! Y'all know what that means! Not so much fluff, but I had to be careful after the last chapter; I couldn't exactly have them jumping each other in the kitchen. Well, I could have, but we won't go there...
Enjoy!
Alex sat on the bottom step, jaw slack. Laura had long since given up on any form of control and was flopped across, and somewhat up, the stairs, one arm over her shocked expression.
"Ho-ly Hell!" Alex breathed. Laura's arm twitched as she laughed silently.
"You said it, Rice," she whispered back, awestruck.
They'd been around the corner to the living room for a good hour, now, eavesdropping on Booth and Brennan's conversation. And what a conversation it was! Booth had managed, somehow, to quell Brennan's anger. Brennan had managed to use the names of twenty-three different body parts. Alex had nearly collapsed in wonder about three times. And Laura had won a good fifty bucks.
"You want a sandwich?" they heard from the lounge room. Booth. Alex shook his head in bafflement.
"That man can eat!" he whispered. Laura's arm was slung across Alex's hunched shoulders, now, as she heaved herself up, feeling very unfit. She grunted as Alex joined her, pulling his wallet from his back pocket. He'd grown to carry it around even inside, now.
Suddenly, Brennan was standing at the doorway, regarding them curiously. Laura blushed just subtly enough for Brennan to miss it. Alex took the reins. "Hey! We hadn't heard anything for a while, so we came back down," he said noncommittally. Brennan frowned.
"Oh. Yeah. Booth and I were just about to have some lunch," she stammered, slightly suspicious. She spotted Alex's hand moving towards his butt. "Wait. Why do you have your wallet out?"
"Poker," he lied flawlessly. "Laura and I know how much Booth hates the game, though we don't know why, so we kept it upstairs." Brennan stared at him for a few seconds.
"Huh." And with that, she returned to the other room. Alex and Laura sighed with relief. Boy, would they incur her wrath if they got caught! And what she gave Booth, she'd give them tenfold.
They walked cautiously into the kitchen to see Brennan staring skeptically at a piece of meat as Booth stuffed it into his mouth.
"Booth, you're going to kill yourself. And, you know, with your job, that'd be a pretty pathetic way to go," she pointed out with a nod. Booth only grinned through the food. Brennan pulled a face. "Ew, Booth. Close your mouth."
Booth did as he was told, but still wanted the last word. After swallowing numerous times, he looked at her. "'Ew'? 'Ew', Bones?"
"What? I may not have seen Star Wars, but I know what 'ew' means," she scoffed, pulling apart a very unfortunate lettuce.
"Well I'd hope so, Bones!" Booth laughed as he leaned across her to retrieve the mayonnaise jar. To Laura's shock, Brennan didn't budge; she just rolled her eyes as Booth's arm brushed her side. "What I meant was that you poke around in slime four days out of five, and you say 'ew' to sandwich meat? Ha! Some slime-woman you are!"
Brennan frowned. "Slime woman? Not on your life," she laughed, forcing the mayonnaise jar back to Booth's 'side' of the counter. She pulled out a plate. "Wonder Woman, maybe…" she finished as she left the room.
Alex watched as Booth grinned, obviously very affected by the reference. Laura went to sit with Brennan and Alex moved over to make himself some lunch. And pry into Booth's private life.
"It's all sorted, then?" he began conversationally. Booth was a little off put. It was uncanny to be so conversational about so un-conversational a topic. Booth imagined he'd be a bomb in the interrogation room.
He figured there wasn't any point in skirting.
"Yeah, well, there wasn't all that much to sort." Much.
"Yeah, right, and the chicken married a fox!" Alex scoffed. What's his obsession with poultry-related metaphors? Booth wondered idly. Instead of answering, he shrugged.
As Alex piled his bread, he began again. "You guys have some stuff, don't you?" he asked, a little more sympathetically this time. Booth laughed despite himself. Some!
"Well, it really depends on what you define as 'stuff'," he dodged.
"You know exactly what I mean, man," Alex implied, eyebrows raised. Booth sighed. Alex was annoying, but he liked him. And he was really the only one to talk to. At least until he got to see Angela again.
But he feared that may be too late, in whichever way.
"Yeah," he laughed. "We have more than our share of stuff." He nodded, looking off into space. Alex grinned.
"But she's hot…" he said almost absent-mindedly. Booth glared at him suddenly; he all but growled. Alex's hands went up in surrender. "Sorry, man." Booth's jaw clenched.
Calm it, Seeley! The man didn't mean anything, his now-calm half soothed. Oh, great, now you're calm! He replied. Shaking his head at himself and at his behavior towards Alex, he patted the other man on the shoulder.
"All good, man. All good…" he trailed off.
"Bones." The name brought him back. "Why do you call her that?" Booth's mind screamed déjà vu.
"You know, your partner asked me the same thing."
"And what did you tell her?"
Booth thought for a second, his attention all on Brennan. When he spoke, he spoke bluntly. "A lie."
"So."
"So."
"So."
The word seemed to echo around the room in the uncomfortable silence. Brennan and Booth sat on the couch as far away from each other as they physically could. Their conversation earlier had helped with a lot of things, but neither had been totally honest. Well, Brennan hadn't. Booth had just been…choosy.
"Why do you think they go to bed so early?" Brennan blurted out. Something needed to be said, or their heads would probably implode. Booth looked at her strangely for a second before a slightly-naughty smile adorned his face.
"To make with the dirty, Bones. What else?" he grinned, flashing his eyebrows. Brennan couldn't help but laugh, both at the joke, and at Booth. At least, she assumed it was a joke.
"You've been spending too much time with Angela…" she laughed, rolling her eyes. Booth grinned.
"Nah, she's also too busy making with the dirty." He waved a hand casually, as if it was the only logical answer. Then again, in Angela's case…, he mentally quipped. He realized Brennan had gone quiet. "What are you thinking, Bones?" She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before answering.
"I'm thinking that I wish Ange were here," she stated almost wistfully. Booth smiled sympathetically, a little shocked she was being so candid. He wanted it to keep up.
"Why's that?" Her eyes met his and she laughed quietly, self-deprecatingly.
"She tells me what to do," she said simply. Booth frowned in confusion, and she elaborated. "I'm…okay, I'm bad at this," she admitted begrudgingly.
"This?"
"This." She motioned between them with a hand. "And the only reason I'm telling you this is because you were honest with me today, and I believe it's fair to give something back. That, and the fact that we're stuck here for another three days," she added with a smile.
"And we're supposed to be 'Partner Building'," Booth pointed out. Brennan snorted derisively.
"Well that's working absolute wonders," she said sarcastically. Booth frowned.
"I thought we kinda got somewhere today," he shrugged. He wasn't hurt by Brennan's sarcasm, only a little confused.
"Ha! Hardly! We got back, if anything."
"'We got back', Bones? We got happy grammar, yes," he said in a caveman voice that could quite easily have been mistaken for Cookie Monster. Or Yoda. She threw a pillow at his laughing face.
"Shut up, Booth. What kind of voice was that, anyway?" she asked skeptically, determined to have the last word.
"It was a caveman voice, Bones!"
"I'm not even going into the anthropological reasons that that was not a caveman voice, as you so eloquently put it," she huffed. "Sounded more like Tarzan to me. I Tarzan, you Jane," she mimicked surprisingly well.
"Tarzan? Tarzan and not Star Wars? I wonder, Bones, I really do…"
"Wonder what?" she pouted.
"How you function. Seriously. Star Wars…" he trailed off in semi-mock disappointment. She rolled her eyes and threw another pillow at him.
"Will you let up, Booth? I think you've just about run the Star Wars thing into the ground," she grumbled. Booth stared at her, wide-eyed.
"I would never do such a thing! Star Wars must never touch the ground," he added playfully. "That's like…it's…that's…sacrilege!" he almost yelled. Brennan shook her head. He was never going to let up. Never.
"Grow up," was what she settled with.
"Bones, you can't grow out of Star Wars."
"Argh! You, Seeley Booth, are impossible!" she decided finally letting her head fall back onto the couch for emphasis.
"That's what they tell me, baby," he said, winking. Her eyes snapped open and she raised an eyebrow. Angry but inquisitive, he decided. That tends to be a good sign.
"Sorry," he apologized. She shook her head, almost sadly.
"You're as bad as Hodgins," she sighed, still shaking her head. He threw her a look of utter horror.
"Oh, that's too far! You take that back!" he scoffed. She laughed at him as he hurled one of the pillows back at her. She caught it. "As bad as Hodgins…freaky little bug-and-slime conspiracy theorist…" he added more to himself than to her. He didn't dislike Hodgins at all. He just made him a little uncomfortable. But then, that could be said for all the Squints.
He looked at Brennan. Especially her…he sighed as his less-subtle mind reawakened. He snapped out of his adoration when he saw Brennan's eyebrow slide up. He smiled and turned his attention to anything else that would warrant it.
He settled on the TV. TV was a safe activity. No movement; no temptation. Something to keep his attention. Well, something he could pretend kept his attention. He picked the remote up from the coffee table and offered it to Brennan. It was met with a quizzical eye.
"Oh, yeah, sorry. Freak," he added, grinning, as he flicked the TV on. Brennan snatched the remote off him, glaring. "Hey. You compared me to Hodgins."
The remote was returned to his hands.
--
"Bones?"
"Mm?" she offered, half-absorbed in pointing out the discrepancies in the Law & Order script.
"Come here."
Her head swiveled and her eyes met his. "What?"
Booth cleared his throat and looked at her hopefully. Their conversation had cleared a lot up, but of one thing he was still sure: she was lying when she'd said she wasn't attracted to him. He held his arms out.
"Booth," she said in the most warning tone she could muster. The invitation wasn't the problem. Well, it was. But more so, it was the fact that she felt the overwhelming urge to take said offer.
"I do remember what you said earlier. And I respect that. But I'm cold, and uncomfortable and falling asleep," he said matter-of-factly. She stared at him. He'd played the 'respect' card. Damn him, she thought bitterly. And those eyes…Shut up! "So are you gonna stare at my beautiful face or are you gonna come join me?" he said, feigning exasperation.
"No, Booth," she said, her voice still warning. At least it meant she hadn't ruled it out completely, Booth surmised.
"I won't try anything, Bones. I promise. Now, do you trust me?" His eyebrows raised in question as she remained silent for a few seconds. The 'trust' card, too. No wonder this man was a gambler, she joked lamely to herself. She smirked.
"No, Booth." His hands flew to his heart in a bizarre parody of pain.
"Bones, you wound me!"
"Yeah, and I should more often." His pained expression grew into one of terror. "The very fact that your ego is so big you can ask me to…do that after our conversation earlier…" She shook her head in wonderment.
"'Do that'? You say it as if I'm propositioning you!" he laughed. His face became a mask of seriousness. "Bones, I do not want to have sex with you." At least, not now, he added mentally.
Her eyes widened a little. It wasn't normally Booth's way to be so blunt, but she could tell her wasn't lying. "Yeah!" she scoffed. "Like I'd let that happen anyway!"
"Oh, come on, you so would," he prodded teasingly.
"Shut up, Booth. I'm very close to hurting you."
"Ha! Like I'd let that happen!"
She glared at the reuse of her words. Normally she spoke in such complicated language he couldn't quote her on anything. He took this as quite a victory.
"Sure, Booth, whatever you say."
"Damn right!" he agreed enthusiastically. She closed her eyes as if warding him off and leaned into him. Shocked, he put an arm around her shoulders cautiously. What the hell brought that on?! they both wondered inwardly.
Neither moved for at least ten minutes, getting used to the feeling; savoring it. Subtly, Booth rested his cheek on Brennan's hair. "Hey, guess what," he whispered with a smile in his voice.
Brennan risked a glance upwards in question and Booth pulled his head back; keeping his distance. He grinned at her.
"I'm not uncomfortable anymore."
