A/N: Well, what can I say except, this time, I'm almost sure that we're nearly finished. Here's the death scene! Enjoy!!
Chapter 9: Death scene
"I'm not sure I wanna die," Booth commented as he and Brennan met up with Goodman again in Limbo to practice the death scene. "Maybe Romeo could come back as a ghost or something."
"I dare not mess with Shakespeare," Goodman said absent mindedly, staring at the bell that he'd brought down with him. He didn't trust it being out of his sight, not with Hodgins running around.
"I've decided to start mid-scene since, before your death Agent Booth, there is a fight scene with Paris."
"Who's playing Paris?"
"Charles Burke from Archeology."
"I don't know who that is."
"You'll meet him tomorrow. Let us begin. Agent Booth, start with the line beginning 'how oft' just after you put Paris in a tomb. Dr. Brennan, please lay on that lab table. Action!"
Booth launched into his speech. It was very long, and Brennan, laying there on the table, eyes closed, pretending to be dead, let her mind wander, hearing only snippets.
"O my love! my wife! Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty: Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, and death's pale flag is not advanced there…Ah, dear Juliet, why art thou yet so fair?... O, here will I set up my everlasting rest, and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars from this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you the doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss a dateless bargain to engrossing death! Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on the dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! Here's to my love!"
She wanted very badly to open her eyes and look at him while he was giving this speech, but was worried that Goodman would see and call her on it. After that morning, she didn't want any more embarrassment. She felt his arms go around her when he mentioned a last embrace, and it took all her self control to remain stiff as a board and to not allow herself to melt into his arms.
"Excellent job," she heard Goodman comment. "For the play, you will obviously have a vial of poison that you will drink at this juncture."
Booth glanced at him. "But not real poison, right?"
"Obviously not."
"Just checking."
He drank from the imaginary vial. "O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die."
If Brennan had thought it was difficult to not react when he held her, not reacting while he kissed her was damn near impossible. Fortunately, it was quick, and he was dead…well, in the play. He leaned against the table, his head next to her feet; the best they could do without a proper set.
Goodman had assured the entire cast that the employees who weren't cast had been working diligently on the set in the basement and that it would be up and ready for the final rehearsal tomorrow morning.
"Excellent!" Goodman proclaimed. Both opened their eyes and looked at him. "Next is a small exchange between myself and Balthasar, so we'll start with my line before Juliet wakes up." He stood near Brennan began the line.
"Romeo!
Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains the stony entrance of
this sepulchre?
What mean these masterless and gory swords to lie
discolour'd by this place of peace? Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What,
Paris too? And steep'd in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour is guilty of
this lamentable chance! The lady stirs."
Brennan woke up much as she would have if she had been taking a nap in her office and said her next line. "O comfortable friar! Where is my lord? I do remember well where I should be, and there I am. Where is my Romeo?"
Goodman continued.
"I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep: A greater power than we can contradict hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away. Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead; and Paris too. Come, I'll dispose of thee among a sisterhood of holy nuns: Stay not to question, for the watch is coming; come, go, good Juliet, I dare no longer stay."
"Go, get thee hence, for I will not away," Brennan said, trying not to stare at Booth. She hadn't been able to help it however, and when she glanced down at him, she found his eyes were open and he was making faces at her. She tried not to chuckle, as Goodman left their 'stage' and went back to sit next to the bell, only to find that it was gone.
"Dr. Hodgins," he muttered, his voice spitting venom. None of them had heard or seen anything. Goodman sighed. "Let's finish the scene."
Brennan continued. "What's here? A cup, closed in my true love's hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end: O churl! Drunk all, and left no friendly drop to help me after? I will kiss thy lips; haply some poison yet doth hang on them, to make die with a restorative." She moved so
she was standing over him and touched her lips to his. Despite the quickness of it, she felt his mouth twitch under hers, wanting to return the kiss.
She gently pulled away, her face expressing Juliet's pain and perhaps a bit of what she could only describe as her own sexual frustration. "Thy lips are warm," she said, her voice full of emotion.
Goodman gave the first watchman's line, and then Brennan continued. "Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!" She paused. "Dr. Goodman, I don't have a dagger."
"I would offer my bell, but it appears to have vanished. Please continue."
She did so. "This is thy sheath." She pantomimed stabbing herself in the heart. There rust, and let me die." She leaned against him as best she could, feeling the warmth of him as she did so, betraying the fact that he was, in fact, not dead, despite his best attempts to look it.
"Thank you both. We shall stop there. If you'll excuse me." He got up and thundered up the stairs to recover his bell.
At last, Brennan allowed herself to melt into his embrace. They were about to indulge in a much needed kiss, when a voice floated to them from the aisles.
"Is he gone?"
They stepped away from each other as Hodgins came out into the open, eyes narrowed, searching for Goodman. He was clutching the bell.
He looked at them and said, eyebrow raised, "You don't have to stop. I already know. Angela told me. Knock yourselves out."
"Were you down here this whole time?" Booth asked.
"Yep. I came down here and hid out before you guys came back down. I knew Goodman wouldn't trust that bell in his office after me and Zach broke in."
"Broke in?" Brennan hadn't heard this.
"Yea, we broke in to his office and stole the bell. Goodman had about three security guys after me. Took all of them to take me down," he said proudly.
Brennan frowned. "Zach didn't get in trouble, did he?"
"No. Goodman understands that he's just an unwitting accomplice. I'm the real mastermind." He smiled wickedly, and disappeared back into the depths of the room to hide the bell.
Even though Hodgins knew about them, they opted not to kiss while he was in the room. Instead, they went upstairs. They still had a little bit of time before actual rehearsal. Hodgins came up and joined them all minutes later, only to be confronted by Goodman. He claimed ignorance of course, and he didn't have the bell on him.
"You don't have anything on me Dr. Goodman. I have no idea where that bell is, but I do not have it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." He ambled to his workstation, trying, unsuccessfully, to keep the confident swagger out of his step. Goodman noticed it, and suddenly seemed to get an idea. He turned and jogged towards the security station.
"What do you wanna do Bones? We still got a bit of time before we gotta rehearse again."
Brennan knew exactly what she wanted to do, but there was no place to do it. The Medico-Legal lab, for some reason, seemed to her to be crawling with people, activity everywhere she looked.
"How much time exactly?" she asked, a thought coming to her mind.
"About a half hour."
Damn. Not enough time to go anywhere a little more private. She chewed on her lip, running through a mental list of places that could work, shooting each one down as a reason to not risk it came to her.
Then an idea presented itself. No, no, not there. It was impossible. But she had to kiss him, had to feel his hands on her. She marveled at her lack of self control, but it could not be helped at this point. Her mind was weakening, and her body was taking over.
"Zach?" She called him over.
"Yes, Dr. Brennan?"
"I need you. Come with us." She then grabbed Booth's hand and dragged him to Goodman's empty, locked office with Zach trailing behind.
A/N: And I'm stopping there. Please R&R…well, I guess if you're at the end, you've already done one 'R', so please, if you feel the urge, do the other 'R' as well by clicking that little button. Thanks so much!!
