A.N. You guys are AWESOME! Thanks for the feedback! No wonder I bust my a** to type as fast I as think. Not exactly what I had in mind when I started it, but still close enough to my outline...

Chapter 4
Bullshit Showdown

Brennan had never been that nervous before, not that kind of nervous, anyway. She couldn't remember the last time she had hosted friends in her home. Tonight, there would be Booth, Angela, Hodgins, Cam, Sweets, Daisy. Oh, and Cal, of course, since she was organizing this whole thing so that he could stop saying he wanted to meet them. He was peculiarly interested in getting to know Booth for some reason. He said she talked about him all the time, which was nonsense. She did not speak of Booth all the time. Though now, ever since Cal had told her she did, she started to refrain from saying his name too much. And she refrained a lot.

Things were going well with them. She felt this was a real, mature relationship. He worked all the time, she worked all the time, they saw each other maybe every other week. It was perfect. But, of course, Booth had something to say about that.

"You don't spend much time with him."

Even though part of her found his overprotective side quite charming at times, she was getting irritated. This was getting old and she had dropped the happy act some time ago already.

"I'm pretty independent. I don't need to be with the man I'm dating 24/7. I get bored easily. This is perfect."

"What about Sully? You spent all your free time with him."

"That was different. The sex was incredible," she said, waiting for him to shudder in puritan disgust.

Aw! Booth did not need more mental images. He was already staring at the skin of her lower back as she tip-toed to reach a book on the top shelf. He buried his hands in his pockets.

"So Lauser's lousy in bed?"

"I wouldn't know," she replied, putting the book down and pulling on the hem of her shirt.

A lot more at ease now, Booth pulled a chair and sat down on the other side of her desk.

"It's been 5 weeks, give or take, and still nothing?" Why was he talking about that? He didn't wanna talk about that!

She realized it was unusual for her to wait that long to consummate a relationship, but she didn't mind. Cal was attractive and everything, but she didn't want to force things.

He put his feet up on the desk, but she walked to him and pushed them off.

"You have a problem with that, too?" she checked.

"God! No!" he laughed. "It's totally your business."

"Thank you." Finally! "Here you go. The preliminary findings on Jane Doe 794. You need me to explain them to you?"

"I'm starting to get the hang of it, thanks."

He got up.

"I'm happy for you, you know," he told her.

"What for?"

"You seem to have a real... relationship. I'm happy for you."

Brennan frowned.

"It's not like it's my first one, Booth."

Why was she looking for a fight, again? He was just trying to be nice!

"I've even lived with a man before," she specified.

The need to say it was overwhelming... "So, you've had a roommate."

"You're one to talk! I don't see you dating anyone. In fact, you haven't dated in ages."

Ouch.

"That's because I don't go flaunting it in your face!"

She felt as if he had just slapped her.

"I'm not flaunting it! You asked about him. You wanted to know!"

"Only because you were burning to tell me!"

They were both out of breath, dazzled. Neither of them understood what was happening to them. We need more therapy, Booth thought.

Brennan looked around the room, pursing her lips. After a moment, she said,

"This is ridiculous. This conversation is pointless."

"That was not a conversation. That was a fight." Another one.

"No wonder we fight all the time, you keep correcting me every time I'm trying to say som..."

"I'm correcting you? Are you nuts?"

"See?! You just did it again! Would you stop..."

"My thoughts exactly!" Cam shouted from outside the office. "Would you both, please, stop arguing? Or take it somewhere else."

They both looked down, embarrassed.

"Thank you," Cam sighed. She turned around and stopped holding the smirk she was hiding. Put some more cameras in this place, and you get a great reality show.

"I'm sorry," he said, trying to be the better man. "I can't wait to meet him properly, tonight."

"Funny. He said the same thing about you."

"You talk about me?" he teased her.

Her flat out response took him by surprise.

"Yes."

"What do you say?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask him tonight?" she suggested.

Oh yeah, sure. He could totally picture it. Hey man, what does your girl say when she talks about me?

"You need me to bring anything?"

She thought for a second.

"No. Just be there at 7."

***

He was there at 6 h 17.

She wasn't even ready yet. She put on her little green dress and tried to zip the back, but she didn't get very far. When he knocked, she yelled "Come in!" and finished putting on her earrings in front of her bedroom mirror.

Booth's breath got stuck in his throat. The vision in front of him made his heart race. Her dress was still open in the back and he could see her dark mocha laced bra wrapped around her silky ivory upper body. And he just stood there like an idiot, lips slightly parted, pants getting tight. She was standing in front of the mirror, slightly leaning forward, barefoot.

"You're early," she said, unaware he was gazing at her.

"I'm sorry about that. I just dropped Parker at Rebecca's and I didn't feel like driving back home, so I just..." His voice fainted. He had to stop looking. This was not healthy.

She finally turned around. She grabbed her pumps on the floor and steadied herself with a hand on his shoulder, sliding them on, one by one. He took in the delicious smell of her hair, shut his eyes and counted to three.

That's enough, Booth.

"Thanks," she said. "Could you..."

She turned her back to him again. He held his breath. You're the devil. Before she could figure out he was barely in control of himself, he gently pushed her hair to the side so that it wouldn't get in the way.

As his fingers brushed her neck, she felt her knees starting to buckle. She took a deep breath. She grabbed her hair and their fingers met for a brief second. What was taking so long?

Oblivious to the physical reaction he was provoking in her, he placed his left hand in the middle of her lower back to take the end of the zipper, and he slowly slid it up.

He was done, but neither of them could look at the other. Booth wished the phone would ring, but it didn't.

"How do I look?" she finally said, now facing him.

"Grrood!" FUCK. "I mean great. Good."

"You look tense," she said.

Ha! Ha! No kidding!

"I'm fine. Long day."

She smiled knowingly.

"Don't worry. Cal likes everybody."

Great. I feel so much better.

Much to Booth's relief, they exited the bedroom and headed for a much safer room. The huge living room. He adored that room. If it were his, he would have a huge plasma scr...

"What's this?"

She followed his eyes and wondered if he was already drunk.

"That's a TV..." she said, slowly, suddenly concerned about him.

D'oh!

"That's not a TV," he whispered, approaching it like in trance, "that's a 1920 x 1080p resolution 60 inches plasma screen with a ISFccc calibration feature. That. Is the most. Beautiful thing. I. Have. Ever. Seen."

Brennan laughed.

"You finally listened to me, huh? I'm so proud of you, Bones!" He bumped her in the arm.

"It was a gift from Cal."

Oh.

Booth detached his eyes from the screen and opened one of the beers he had brought with him. She was still talking.

"Personally, I think it's a little too big, but I guess he knows what..."

She shut up. Booth was sulking. Great.

"What now?" she asked.

"Nothing."

He took a sip before he handed her a bottle. She took it.

"I know you've got something to say. Just say it."

"It's nothing. I... He doesn't know you that well, does he?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Giving you a TV? Come on. It's the last thing you want."

"No, it's not. It's a very kind attention from a man who..."

"From a man who has a lot of money. You don't need a TV."

She sat down on her couch, and groaned.

"Gah! Booth! Come on! You were the first telling me I needed a TV!"

That is so true, pal. You're busted.

"Because it's our thing."

"What thing? We don't have a thing."

"We have loads of things. This being one of them. I tell you you need a TV, you tell me you don't. Over and over."

"So what, now you're mad at me because we got one less thing to argue about?"

"Aw, Bones." He sat down beside her. "I am not mad at you. I just think it's stupid of him to be spending all that money on a TV you'll never use."

"I use it all the time."

He chuckled. He reached for the remote and pressed 'Power'. Nothing. He tried again, not even looking at the screen. He was waiting for her to react. And she did. She jumped up.

"It's already broken? That's impossible! I n..."

"You never even turned it on."

She stayed quiet for a second, trying to avoid admitting he was right.

"How do you know?" she mumbled.

"Because..." he said, sliding off the little door on the back, "... there are no batteries in the remote."

"Gimme that," she said, seizing it from his hands.

She went to the kitchen to find batteries.

"Aren't you glad I got a TV, though? Now you can come over and watch... uhm... bowling or something."

"Why would I watch bowling?"

"You love sports."

"It's really not something you watch on the most beautiful TV ever created. Or any TV, for that matter."

Someone knocked at the door. She threw him the remote.

"Here. Have fun," she said. And she went to let people in.

***

Everyone was here, except for Cal. And it was already 8. She kept glancing at the door every five minutes. She really wanted everyone to meet him. Anxious, she checked her cell for new messages.

"Maybe he won't show," Hodgins said before getting slapped in the shoulder by Angela.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon," Daisy tried to comfort her. Sweets agreed with him. So did everyone else.

She turned to Angela and whispered. "What if Hodgins' right? What if he doesn't show?"

"Don't worry. If he doesn't show, he will have a former sniper hunting him down."

She smiled. And she knew she wasn't kidding, so she hoped he'd arrive soon.

There was beer, vodka, scotch, margaritas, there was music, there was a huge TV... but they were all sitting there, doing nothing. This was a disaster.

Everyone suddenly stopped talking. There was someone at the door. Brennan's heart stopped. She wasn't too sure she wanted him to meet everyone. What if...

"Bones, maybe you should get the door?" he laughed.

She stood up unsteadily. This was such a bad idea. She straightened her outfit. That freaking silence was killing her. She knew they were all staring as she opened the door.

"I am so terribly sorry, Tempe."

She smiled and let him in. "It's fine."

"Hi..." he whispered, wrapping his arms around her. He leaned in and kissed her slowly.

Booth swallowed the big lump in his throat. He couldn't help but stare, teeth clenched, as she kissed him back.

Angela, who was watching Booth, nudged Cam and motioned her chin towards him. Cam shook her head, discouraged.

"Everybody, this is Cal," she said.

They all got up in one sweep. Cal laughed.

"Well, this is not at all intimidating..."

He kept his arm around her as she introduced everyone one by one. She finally arrived to Booth.

"And you've already seen Seeley Booth, my partner."

"Yes, good to see you again, Seeley."

"Don't call him that, he hates it," she explained.

"Oh, sorry. I know how you feel."

"I bet," Booth mocked him. Brennan yelled at Booth with her eyes, but both men laughed. They shook hands and started talking about his hotels.

She went back to Angela and lowered her voice.

"Do you like him?" she asked.

"I haven't even talked to him yet, Bren. But he looks nice."

***

This little soirée wasn't that bad, after all. As she looked around, they looked to be having fun. Hodgins and Sweets were picking on each other, Daisy kept laughing at anything anyone said. She really had that fake-happiness thing down, getting everyone cheery.

"I brought a deck of cards, maybe we could..." Sweets proposed.

"You are so cute," Daisy said. "We could play poker!"

"As long as it's regular poker..." Cam said. "My strip-poker days are over."

"I think you still have a few years to go," Booth flirted.

Brennan's head spun towards him. She smiled because everyone was laughing, but her stomach twisted. Objectively, she knew Cam was a gorgeous woman... She didn't know why it bothered her that Booth said it openly. She took Cal's hand.

"Maybe we could play Bullshit," Cal suggested.

"Oh! That's a great idea!" Angela agreed.

"I'd rather play poker. I don't know bullshit," she interfered.

They all laughed out loud at the way those words sounded coming from her.

"It's really easy."

"And fun!"

"And it's a great way to learn to read people."

Great. Now I know I'm gonna suck at it.

But she didn't object since everybody seemed on board. They all sat around the kitchen table, and Hodgins stole Sweets' cards so he could deal them himself. He dealt the whole deck. She got 5 cards. She observed the others. They were all hiding hand, so she made sure no one could see hers.

Booth, who was sitting across from her, was rearranging his cards. She remembered.

"Booth can't play!" she interjected. "He's degenerate!"

"What?" Cal tittered.

"He's got a gambling problem," she explained.

"It's fine, Bones. We're not playing for money, we're playing for fun. "

"As a psychology expert," Sweets began, "I would say..."

Booth shot him a look. Terrifying.

"... that he's fine."

The game was fairly simple. The object was to get rid of all your cards. The table used as a discard pile was filling up quickly. When your turn arrived, you had to discard one or more cards face down and call out their ranks, starting with Aces and going all the way up to Kings. When you didn't have the cards to follow ranking, you had to pretend you did. If no one said "Bullshit", you were ok. If someone called you out on your lie, you had to show the discarded cards and take the whole pile if you really had lied.

They had spent the last 2 hours on this Bullshit showdown. Sweets had finished first, followed respectively by Cam, Hodgins, Angela, Cal and Daisy. Only Booth and she remained.

"Can I propose a twist," Sweets interrupted them.

"Like a dance? No, thank you," Booth replied.

"Since there's only both of you left, and you each have half the deck, you will instantly know if the other is lying based solely on your hand. I propose to randomly take out 30 cards, to spice things up."

"Then we could see who knows whom best..." Angela said.

Brennan locked eyes with him.

"I'm in," she said.

Booth sneered.

Hodgins prepared the smaller deck and distributed 11 cards to each of them.

Half an hour later, they were still at it.

"This is fascinating..." Sweets whispered in Daisy's ear.

"Three nines," Booth said. Now he only had four cards left.

They were still staring at each other, as if they were alone.

"One ten," Brenna called, putting the card on the pile.

Booth's eyes flickered.

"Bullshit," he said, shaking his head.

Angela turned the card over and exposed its real number: a Jack.

"Wow," Hodgins really was amazed.

"We could stop, you know," Cam said. "If we don't, it really could take all night..."

"I'm starting to believe that," Cal said.

"Do you wanna stop?" Booth asked her.

"If we call it even, then sure."

"We can't call it even, I'm clearly winning. I got 4 cards left!"

"You've had 4 cards 6 times already. Doesn't mean anything."

"Ok, game over," Cam decided. She took all their cards away.

"Hey!" they both cried out.

***

Brennan was making some more guacamole in the kitchen while everyone was exchanging stories in the living room. The music was so loud she knew her neighbors would complain in the morning. She didn't care. She was having a great time.

"Hey."

Booth came in with 3 empty glasses. He rinsed them out and put them away in the dishwasher. The kitchen suddenly felt smaller.

"You having a good time?" she asked.

"I am. You?"

She nodded.

"What do you think?"

"About?" he asked, knowing too well she meant about him.

It killed him to say it, but he knew it really was important to her.

"You picked a good one this time," he murmured, serious.

A smile appeared on the corner of her lips.

"Thanks. I guess..."

Why was she feeling sad all of a sudden? She wanted Booth to approve, God knows why. But now that he officially had, she felt empty.

"Although..."

Of course he'd have something to add! She folded her arms in front of her and waited.

"... he doesn't like me at all."

She rolled her eyes.

"You're paranoid."

"No! I'm serious! As soon as you left his side to go into the kitchen, he called me Seeley."

"That doesn't mean anything."

But Booth wasn't done.

"He also kept asking about you and me."

You and me.

"W... Why?"

"He wanted to know how long we had gone out for."

"Out where?"

"Out out. He asked how long we had dated."

"We never dated!" she objected.

"Yeah, I know that. But I don't think he believed me."

"But that's ridiculous." She finished mixing the avocado and the olive oil with a fork. "Why would he think you were my ex? He didn't see us fight. Not really... I..."

Do I really have to explain it to her?

"What did you say to make him think that?" she accused him.

"Nothing! It's not my fault we have chemistry."

You. Did not. Just SAY that!!

She turned to him, heart accelerating. Still holding the fork, she denied it, though her tone was uncertain.

"We do not have chemistry..."

Bullshit.

Before he even took one step closer, she felt the butterflies. Not those again!

"We do."

Booth couldn't believe how close to her body he was. He had no idea he had the nerve to get this close.

"We don't..." her voice was faint.

"Really?" It sounded like a warm whisper.

Her lips parted and her eyes were scanning his face for a trace of smirking or for anything that could show her he was kidding.

He took the fork from her hand and, without breaking eye contact, put it on the counter.

"Everyone knows it, and Cal picked up on it. That's why he hates me."

She wasn't sure what he had just said, her brain wasn't recording anymore.

"You know I'm right."

"You two arguing again?" Angela's voice, so loud, made them fly apart. Brennan almost bumped into the fridge.

"The usual," Booth recovered first.

With one last look towards his partner, he went back to the living room.

Brennan was frozen in place, trying to calm down. She felt played with. And she was furious.

"You ok, sweetie?"

"Sure, why not."

She abandoned the guacamole and went back to her guests.

She didn't look at Booth until he left. Good thing he left early.

***

Booth locked his apartment door behind him. He was an idiot. He threw his jacket on the couch. Why the hell would he do something like this? He didn't pick it up when it fell to the floor. He had lost control. He walked straight to his bedroom. God knows what he would have done if Angela hadn't walked in. He opened the closet. She would never talk to him again.

He saw it. Or maybe she would, you never knew with her. It was exactly where he had left it after buying it, as he had tried to find the perfect occasion to give it to her. That occasion was never going to arise now. He took the medium sized box and headed to Parker's bedroom. Who said 7-year-old boys couldn't have their own TV?

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TBC... Still with me??

NEXT UP: Probably involves a stake out and a huge storm that blocks traffic and forces people to sleep in ugly stinky oh-so-small motel rooms...