THE THINGS THAT MATTER
Booth and Brennan get snowed in at a motel, and talk about their latest case leads to a discussion about religion, family and love. Twoshot. BB, of course!
Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Bones. Happy now?
"Who was on the phone?"
"Angela. Wanted to know where we were."
Booth grinned. He could guess what else Angela had been asking Brennan. He grinned slightly to himself.
"Bones, are you free next weekend?"
Her palms clammed up immediately. She clenched her fists. "Sure. Why?"
Was he asking her out? Jesus, Brennan. Stop thinking like that. He's just your partner. You wouldn't want him to ask you out anyway.
"Do you want to come to the funfair on Sunday with me and Parker?"
She sighed, relieved. Not a date. But somehow the knot in her stomach that she pretended wasn't there tightened.
"Sure. Sounds like fun." She said. She didn't like children as a rule, but Parker was different. He was like a miniature, blonde, Booth. He called her Dr Bones, made her laugh so much she cried with some of his cute little jokes, and he had that smile. Definitely inherited from his father.
"Great." Booth said, slightly overenthusiastically. Both of them smiled. Again, eyes locked, stomachs churned and heat rose between them. She had to swallow the overwhelming urge to grab his face in her hands and kiss him. She watched his eyes darken as he stared into hers.
There was a knocking on the door. Booth tore his eyes away and moved to open it. Brennan sat down on her side of the bed and stared down at the white pillow.
Oh, God. She thought. I think Booth and I just had a Moment. But you shouldn't have Moments with your partner. I shouldn't be having Moments with Booth at all. Booth should be having Moments with other people. And the thought of Booth having Moments with other people should certainly not make me angry. Now I'm even confusing myself. I'm not thinking rationally. I'm not thinking straight. Oh God…
He walked over and sat down on his side of the bed. "That was housekeeping." He said. "The heating broke down. It's gonna get freezing cold in here within the next ten minutes or so.
"Shit." Brennan said. She slid her feet under the bed covers. "We should go to bed." She said. He nodded agreement.
"I… I don't have any pyjamas…" she said, slightly lamely. It was Booth's turn to blush. He looked across at her, and then sighed.
"Neither do I." he said.
"Well we can't sleep in these." Brennan said, "They'll get creased." And without another word she pulled off her trousers and her blouse until she was left wearing just her panties and a strap top. Then she slid under the covers without looking at him. Following suit, and trying not to think about lying next to a half dressed Brennan all night, he took off his shirt and trousers and was left in his boxers. He switched off the light from the switch on the wall and slipped into bed next to his partner.
They lay in silence for a few minutes, both of them gathering their thoughts. Brennan's foot was lightly touching Booth's leg, and even in the dim half light when he could hardly see her, his heart was still racing at the thought of her this close.
She propped herself up on one elbow and sat there looking at him.
"Booth, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"How can you believe in your God when people do things like that to those Jackson girls?"
He gulped. "Wow, deep and personal question there, Bones."
"Sorry." She whispered.
He smiled a little and rolled over to face her. "Because I believe that those girls are with God now. They're in heaven and it's better there than anywhere on earth. And they're happy."
"How can two little girls ever be happy without their mother?" she said. Her voice caught on the last word and Booth knew she was thinking about her own mother, and missing her. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. She shivered with the contact.
"Because they're with God now." Booth said simply and for the first time in her life Brennan wished she could believe in something with as much absolute faith as Booth believed in his God.
But she did.
She believed in him.
He sighed. "I couldn't look into Sally Jackson's eyes when I told her." He said. "I should have been able to."
She felt his hand slacken on her arm and she reached up and covered it with her own.
"I couldn't look at their pictures when I was working with the bones." She said; her own confession of weakness. He gripped her hand in his and she felt her breath grow short as their fingers laced together. She didn't know what was going on, what she was doing. But she knew it felt better than anything ever before.
"What will she do now?" Brennan asked in a tiny voice. Booth tightened his grip slightly.
"I don't know." He muttered. "I just don't know."
She shuddered, a mixture of the cold air and of the thought of the emptiness of Sally Jackson's life now. He felt the goosebumps rising on his own skin from the cold. Silently he wrapped his free arm around her and drew her closer to him. She was stiff for a second until he whispered: "It's cold, Bones. I need to keep you warm." I want to keep you warm.
She smiled into his shoulder. "Don't go all alpha male on me."
"It's science, isn't it? Body heat or something like that?" he said, trying to disguise the way he was smelling her hair. Tropical shampoo.
The words body and heat reminded her of her position. Freezing cold in a double bed, under a duvet with Booth's arms wrapped around her and her face buried in his neck. Some very distant part of her was screaming about crossing a line, but she didn't move. She was quite comfortable where she was.
"She's got nothing left." Brennan whispered, and Booth was shocked at her openness. He didn't know what had happened to the Bones who took everything literally and rationally.
"She'll find something to live for, Bones." Booth said, "These people always do."
"They were her entire world, Booth. She didn't have a job, or a pet, or anything. They were her everything." She took a deep breath. Tonight was a night to be open, to be emotional, to be honest. "That scares me a little bit. Being that dependent on people."
He didn't know what to say. She was never like this. He began to wonder how much the Jackson case had affected her. How close to falling she was getting. It didn't matter though, because whilst she was there in his arms he could catch her.
"Some people are people people, Bones. Some people need other people for their lives to be happy, and some people don't."
"You're a people person." She stated simply. "If anything happened to Parker, you'd never be the same again. He's what makes you happy."
And you. Booth thought, but said nothing.
"Some people need love to survive."
"There's no such thing as love, not really." She said, and it was like she was back on Bones autopilot.
"You really think that?" he said, and she noticed an almost sad tone in his voice.
"Yes." She turned her head so it rested a few inches away from his on the pillow, staring at the ceiling, "There's passion, there's good sex, there's lust, there's desire, but there's not really anything more…" she trailed, realising she didn't even half believe in that anymore.
"So you've never been in love?" Booth asked her.
I am now. Said a little voice that sounded worryingly like Angela in her mind. She pushed it away. "No. I've been attracted to people, yes, but…"
"So you've never had stronger feelings than attraction?"
"I don't believe in stronger feelings. The sensation of being in love is merely a mixture of endorphins and-"
He cut her off. "No, Bones, it's more than that. More than chemicals. It's feeling happy just when you see them. It's wanting to make them smile more than anything. It's longing to see them when you're not with them. It's shivering and burning up all at once with one touch. It's thinking they're beautiful no matter what they look like. It's…"
He felt her stiffen in his arms, and he wondered if he'd gone too far.
"Wow." She whispered, and relaxed again. He let his face fall into her silky hair, breathing her in. Her shoulders were shaking slightly, trembling.
"Booth…" she murmured, and let out a breath on his neck which sent a shiver down his spine. Very slowly and carefully as if she was a fragile china doll he lifted one hand and cupped her face with it, pulling her head up to his level so he could look into the pools of darkness that were her eyes. He could have drawn his hand away, never done it, and gone on pretending to feel nothing, staying his side of the line. She could have pulled back, telling him he was going too far, too fast, and never had to feel this terrifying, exhilarating feeling again. But she leant in and touched her lips to his, gently.
His eyes closed almost instantly, his heart racing, his head pounding. Drawing her even tighter to him in his arms he kissed her back with reckless abandon. Gradually but surely her mouth opened and she let the tip of her tongue touch his, just a tiny moment of contact that sent both of their desires into a whole new dimension. She had her arms around his neck, kissing him hard, kissing him like she'd never kissed anyone before. When they drew back a little, panting, Booth was the first to speak.
"What the hell was that, Bones?" he asked.
She shrugged, lacing her fingers through his. "That was the end of my theory about love." She said simply, and he felt the wide smile tracing over his lips. He kissed her on the forehead and then they pressed their faces together.
"I love you too." He murmured. She felt a tear leak out of one of her eyes and fall onto the pillow, but she didn't move to wipe it away.
He held her tightly to him, almost protectively, and for the first time she wasn't thinking about alpha male tendencies and testosterone and things, but about how it felt, her body pressed into Booth's bare chest, her bare legs entangled with his.
From where she laid, her head in his shoulder, she travelled kisses up, his neck, his chin, his jaw line and then onto his lips again, kissing with a hunger and an emotion that was totally alien to her.
His hands tangled in her hair and she slid her hands down his body, leaving him breathless. His hands slid under her shirt and she stopped, frozen.
"Bones?" he whispered, dreading her running away.
"I'm scared." She said in a tiny voice.
He drew her closer, holding her head to his chest.
"Scared of losing you." She whispered, "Scared of feeling like I've never felt before."
He kissed her mouth fiercely, trying to tell her without words that he'd never leave her. "I'm scared too." He said. "And I've never felt quite like this. But I want this, and you want this too. Don't you?"
She hesitated and for a moment he thought his minutes of joy were over. Then she kissed him softly, a kiss so full of everything she was feeling that he was almost overwhelmed by it.
"I love you." She said, and then she almost laughed. "And I never thought I'd say that."
"I love you too." He said, and held her tightly. She kissed him, with more desire and passion, and then her hands travelled to the waist band of his boxers.
He caught her hands. "Are you sure, Bones?" he whispered, "I don't want you running away in the morning."
She kissed him lightly, playfully. "I'm sure." She said, and lost herself in him completely, each kiss opening her up to love a little more, each touch breaking down the walls around her heart.
Yay those two are so meant to be together!!!! Anyways, please review and I will bake you muffins!!!!!
xxx