Author's Note: Well here's chapter two. I'm thinking of leaving it at this, but I could always throw in Booth's side if any of you are interested. Let me know. :)
Angela sat in her office waiting for Brennan to catch up. She was so excited and happy for Bren, she couldn't stand it. She had been waiting years for this to happen, and she intended to enjoy every delicious moment.
By the time Brennan appeared in Angela's doorway, she had her game face on, and a plan of action in place.
"All right, Angela," she announced as she walked in the door, "I'll tell you what you want to know. But you have to give me your word of honor that it won't go any further. And that means not a word to Jack, or anyone else. If you tell anyone, I won't tell you anything again. Ever. And you know I am perfectly capable of keeping that promise."
Angela sighed and wondered why Jack had to pick today of all days to have a meeting across town. She had known that the element of surprise would work on Brennan, but there was always the risk that she would snap back into her stubborn, rational, scientist mode. On this occasion, Brennan had managed it in record time.
"Sweetie, how can you ask me not to tell the man I love?" she said plaintively. "It's inhuman."
"You can simply 'forget' to tell him the way you 'forgot' to tell him about your marriage still being valid," Brennan shot back.
"Low blow, sweetie. You know that that was just a case of wishful thinking on my part. I kept hoping that he would have gotten a divorce without my knowing it. I still say it shouldn't have been valid. Or at the very least they should have put a huge warning in the cruise brochure. You know, like big red letters saying 'If you are convicted of drug possession here, you will spend the rest of your life in prison.' But we're not here to talk about me," she concluded hastily, walking over to shut the door of her office. She wondered when Brennan had gotten so good at deflecting the interrogator's questions with off-the-wall, irrelevant red herrings. That was definitely a higher level technique. She detected Booth's influence.
"I agree to your terms," Angela said decisively. "Now spill. Tell me every teeny tiny little detail. Don't leave anything out."
Brennan thought swiftly and decided that the best methodology would be a clinical statement of the facts, without embellishment. There was no need to tell Angela anything about anything she might have felt, since that was irrelevant.
"All right, Ange. The facts are these: I wanted to bring Christmas to my dad and brother at the jail. It was a chance for us to have our first Christmas together since…well, for a long time. I needed Caroline Julian to approve it as the Federal attorney in charge of Dad's case. However, when I asked her, she did not want to grant my request without my making a reciprocal gesture."
"Damn," Angela thought as Brennan paused. When Brennan started sounding like she was giving a paper at an American Association of Forensic Sciences meeting, it was a sign that she didn't intend to use any really juicy descriptive terminology. Angela knew better than anyone that most scientists could make Lady Chatterley's Lover sound like the phone book. She began to think of strategies to throw Brennan off balance so that she would blurt out more details. This was going to be tricky.
"What kind of reciprocal gesture, sweetie?" she asked, but she had a pretty good idea of the answer. Caroline Julian was obviously a kindred spirit when it came to wanting to do whatever it took to make something happen between Booth and Brennan. Who would have thought?
"She said I had to kiss Booth under the mistletoe and that it had to last for five steamboats. I tried to get her to let me take her to dinner instead, but she refused. So we set up a time, and I called Booth and told him to meet me in my office," Brennan said in a rush.
"Wait… what? What do you mean 'five steamboats'? I thought 'steamboat' was something dirty? And you kissed him here???!!!! How the hell did I miss that? Oh my God, I wonder if the digital security video of your office from before Christmas is still on the computer! I'll have to check with Elaine in IT! She owes me a favor!"
"Angela, don't you dare! I swear that I will never speak to you again if you do that! Promise me right now!" Brennan demanded.
Angela sighed in disappointment. When Brennan used that tone of voice, she meant what she said.
"All right, sweetie, calm down. I promise. And don't worry. I'm pretty sure they wipe the video after 30 days anyway," Angela said reluctantly. She made a mental note to discreetly check on that last fact, just in case.
"OK, Ange," Brennan said, feeling her heartbeat beginning to slow down. She cleared her throat.
"To answer your relevant questions in reverse order: it happened after you and everyone else had already gone home. I think 'steamboats' are something to do with football. Or maybe basketball. Anyway, you repeat the word 'steamboat' in order to make sure that a certain interval of time has passed. It's like 'Mississippi,' only shorter, although given the different speech cadences that exist, it would be a very inexact timekeeping method," Brennan explained. The more unrelated trivia she threw in, the more bored Angela would get.
"Thanks, I get the gist," Angela cut in. "Would you get to the 'good stuff' already?"
"I don't know what you mean, Angela. Booth got here before Ms. Julian. I explained the situation to him, and he agreed. Ms. Julian came in, and I kissed him. Then she arranged for a very nice Christmas in a trailer at the jail, except that we couldn't have a Christmas tree because it could be used as a weapon. So Booth very thoughtfully brought a Christmas tree and set it up outside the window," Brennan recited as though reading from one of Jack's more boring reports on fungi.
"Unh-unh. No way. You are not getting away with that, Bren,"Angela said with determination. "You promised me 'every teeny tiny little detail,' remember? I want to know about The Kiss! How was it? Didn't you love it? Did you get all hot and bothered? Did Booth? I want to know absolutely everything."
"Angela, of course we didn't get 'hot and bothered.' It was a meaningless kiss under the mistletoe. That's all," Brennan tried, but didn't sound very convincing, even to her own ears. She felt her face getting red just thinking about The Kiss.
"Come on, sweetie," Angela coaxed. "This is me you're talking to. Even when you're not touching you and Booth generate enough electricity to help solve the energy crisis. Don't tell me that you locked lips with Booth for five steamboats and didn't feel anything, because I don't believe you. So how was it? Was there tongue? What am I saying, of course there was. No way did you two kiss without getting into it. Give me details."
Brennan tried to think fast. It was difficult to do when thinking about The Kiss. And The Kiss was very difficult to describe without describing how it felt. She decided to remain as clinical as possible. She said the first thing that came into her head.
"You're just as bad as Sweets. Yes, Angela, if you must know, there was 'tongue.' It was a very nice kiss, but since Caroline Julian was standing right there, that's all it was," she said finally. "But it felt 'strange' because neither Booth nor I think of each other that way. We're partners. I don't know what Ms. Julian could have been thinking, asking us to kiss like that," Brennan said briefly, trying desperately to sound matter of fact about It.
"Sweets!? You mean you told Sweets!?" Angela exclaimed. "I can't believe you told him and not me!"
"I didn't. Booth let it slip out accidentally. He also told Sweets that there was nothing sexual about the kiss whatsoever," Brennan said smugly.
"Yeah, right. I'll bet his nose grew when he said that. Or some other part of his anatomy," Angela riposted sarcastically. "No couple over the legal age limit can French kiss and not think about sex, sweetie. It's just not possible. So how was his technique?" Angela decided to try the direct approach by asking specific questions.
"His technique was fine, Ange. Booth is an excellent kisser. Is that what you want to hear?" Brennan replied shortly. It was obvious that she did not want to talk about it with Angela the way she had about her previous boyfriends.
It was becoming plain to Angela that Brennan was about to get really difficult. She'd never get anything out of her if she dug her heels in. Angela decided to try for sincere interest.
"I want to hear it if it's true, Bren," she said gently. "Mostly I want to know what you remember about it, how it made you feel," Angela said persuasively. "I'd really like to know as a friend, sweetie. If you were disappointed, I'll understand, and I won't say any more about it. I promise." She crossed her fingers and prayed that Brennan didn't take the 'out' she had just given her.
Brennan was torn. When Angela asked like that, she didn't feel she could lie and say she was disappointed, or that It was just 'OK'. "I... he...It was very unexpected, Angela. Very atypical. I can usually remember exactly what I was thinking when I kiss someone, but with Booth. . . " She struggled to find the right words, "There was such a cognitive dissonance between my brain and what I was feeling that I can't really put it into words. With most men, I can say it was either 'nice' or 'enthusiastic' or 'great' or something, but with Booth it was. . . different. Like I wasn't a separate, rational, thinking entity at all." She shook her head slightly as if the thought left her bemused. "It was different from anything I've ever experienced before," she murmured softly, almost to herself.
"Oh sweetie," Angela thought fondly, her eyes sincerely damp all of a sudden, "Of course it was. It's the first time you've ever actually loved the guy you were kissing." And then, wryly, she thought, "Leave it to Brennan to use the words 'atypical' and 'cognitive dissonance' to describe her first passionate kiss with the man she loves."
Out loud, she said gently, "Thank you, sweetie. You don't have to say anything else if you don't want to. I appreciate your honesty, I really do."
As Angela watched, Brennan sat there gazing into space, with a look on her face that they had all called 'Dreamy' in junior high. It was obvious that she was remembering The Kiss. It might not have been the stereotypical Big Romantic Moment, but you couldn't really expect that with Temperance Brennan and Seeley Booth. Every milestone they had together came from so far away from 'Typical' it was practically in another galaxy. But it was a good beginning, and now they had something unique and very, very real to think about that they hadn't had before. Something they could measure any other lovers by and, of course, find them lacking. And as far as their very good friend Angela Montenegro was concerned, that was enough for now.