058. Dinner
"The victim's fingers were cut off and forced down his throat while his wrists and ankles were bound. The cause of death was asphyxiation." She twirls her chopsticks expertly, getting the noodles from the bowl to her mouth without so much as a drop of broth out of place.
Booth nearly chokes, suddenly picturing fingers ground up to make the meat for the dumpling he's about to eat. He looks over at Brennan to find her regarding him with the vaguely smug look that says she knows she's just done brilliant work. Her eyes sparkle, green in the yellowish light from the candle in the middle of their table. When he remains silent, she quickly plunges her chopsticks back into her bowl, fishing determinedly for some bit of food he can't see. As always, she's most animated while talking about corpses, he notes with a faint smile.
"What?" Brennan freezes with another bite of noodles halfway to her mouth, having noticed his expression.
"Nothing." Booth doesn't want to see the look that means she's disappointed in his squeamishness.
"What?" Persistent as ever.
"Just…you," Booth hedges.
"Me?" Unease creeps into her eyes, and is gone just as quickly. Nearly too fast to be seen. But Booth always sees.
"Remind me never to have dinner with you when I actually want to eat." But he takes a bite of the dumpling, and somehow it tastes even better than usual. He gives her his best real smile, delighting in knowing what she wants. "Great work, Bones."
So um...that worked better than I expected. Thank you. Let's do it again. Ten reviews and I'll post the next one. Even if that happens to be fifteen minutes from now.