Here is the last chapter of this story. I have no idea if it's in any way satisfactory, but I truly hope so... :) Anyway, thanks to corik80, Chasefan, CSI-4077, Darcyli81, ldellis65, flanmaja, VEB.DaffodilDaisy, bonesandlys, seeleyswifey, anteffy1 and GGjunkie33 for reviewing the last chapter. Also a special thank you to my 'regular' reviewers, you people rock.
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Booth heard the elevator doors open. He wished that it would finally be her instead of one of her neighbours. He stared at the elevator for the longest time before the woman in question stepped out of it and into his view. She stopped abruptly after seeing him. He got up from the floor and brushed the dirt off his jeans with his hands.
"Hey," he greeted.
"Hello."
Brennan was surprised to see him there, but she still didn't feel nervous. There was nothing to be nervous about: she had revealed her feelings and come clean, so she had nothing to lose now. That's what gave her all the courage she now had. She dug up her keys from her pocket and walked to the door.
"Bones, can I please come in? I want to talk to you," Booth pleaded as she unlocked the door.
"Sure." She stepped in and left the door open for him to enter. Shrugging off her jacket, she turned some lights on.
Booth studied her. She didn't seem angry or even hurt anymore, she was unusually calm. He closed the door and followed her into the apartment.
She went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. "You want one? I don't have any beers left."
"No, thanks," he replied from the living room area.
She shut the refrigerator door, opened her bottle and took a big gulp of the cool water. All that ice cream earlier had made her thirsty. She made her way to the living room.
Booth stood there, rubbing his hands together and trying to think of a way to begin a conversation. He was drawing a blank.
"You can sit down if you like," she said, taking a seat on the couch herself. He nodded and sat down on the armrest of her armchair. He decided to try to break the ice.
"I, uh, didn't think you'd even talk to me."
She frowned. "Why wouldn't I talk to you?"
He wondered if she really didn't understand or if she was pretending that nothing had happened. Both options sounded plausible. "Because of my reaction earlier," he explained.
"Oh." She took another sip of the water. "I don't see how that would make me not want to talk to you. It was an understandable reaction."
"No, Bones, you don't understand. It wasn't… I didn't mean to say what I said."
"You didn't?" she asked incredulously.
"No. Listen to me, Bones. I was so surprised by the things you said that I think I lost my brain functioning for a while and blurted out the first thing that came to my head."
"So the first thing you thought was that I was trying to get you into bed?" she asked, genuinely interested.
"That's not what I meant. I mean… I had no idea that you had any kind of romantic feelings toward me, so when you suddenly announced that you wanted to have a relationship with me, I thought that you meant… sexually. But only for a second. If that." He was suddenly feeling very warm.
"Huh," she said thoughtfully. "I understand."
"You do?" He got up from the armrest and moved to sit on the couch. "You understand that it wasn't my slightest intention to hurt you?"
She looked into his eyes and saw one of the reasons she loved him. Every once in a while he had that look that was full of concern and care for her. Right now that look was too much for her and she suddenly felt overwhelmed. She fixed her gaze on the water bottle and started fiddling with its label.
"Yes," she said in a low whisper. "But you did anyway."
Booth noticed her mood changing and was surprised by the sudden vulnerability. She rarely let her weaknesses show, but when she did, he was usually there to comfort her. Now he didn't have that right. He watched her finger the bottle cap.
"I know. I'm sorry," he said with every ounce of sincerity he had in him.
"I know you are." They fell into silence, Brennan deep in thought and Booth trying to come up with something to say. A couple of minutes went by before Booth broke the silence.
"Did you mean it?"
She looked up at him. "What?"
"When you left. You said you loved me."
"I'm not an expert on the subject," she started as she got up from the couch and walked over to the bookcase. She had noticed that some of the books weren't in alphabetical order so she started to rearrange them. "But I thought about you and me, everything that we've been through, and my feelings for you. I came to the conclusion that it's quite possibly what people refer to as 'love'. But don't feel bad for not reciprocating my feelings. The reason I told you was mostly about getting some peace of mind, I wasn't expecting you to return the feeling."
He too got up from the couch and walked over to her. He stilled her hands that were stuffing a book in between the other books, and got her attention.
"I do. Return the feeling."
She frowned. "What?"
"I have no idea how it happened, but somehow you charmed me into loving you."
Brennan was now completely and utterly confused. A couple of hours earlier he had barely gotten a word out his mouth after her speech and now he was openly telling her that he loved her? She could never figure out this man.
"Are you just playing with me? Because I won't have that," she said crossing her arms.
Now it was he who frowned. "What? Why would you think that?"
"Because you're being inconsistent! I have a very hard time following your thoughts."
He heard the agitation in her voice. "Bones, listen to me. This is the truth, right here. I would never lead you on, you mean too much to me for that. If there was a list of the people most important to me, you would go very, very high. At the top." He still saw a hint of doubt in her eyes. "You have to believe me."
She contemplated for a moment, all the while looking into his eyes. She saw the sincerity there. "I believe you."
"Good."
She broke eye contact and looked down at her feet. "So… you love me?"
He smiled at her uneasiness. "Yeah."
She looked back up. "Why? Most of the time I just drive you crazy."
"Well yeah, you can be quite a challenge," he smirked. "But you know, Bones… If I start to list all the reasons I love you, we're going to be here well into the morning."
Brennan laughed and shook her head. "Wow. That was… incredibly cheesy."
"Hey… You asked for it," he said and smacked her playfully on her arm.
She went to the coffee table to have a drink of water, her smile never ceasing. "So. What do we do now?" she asked after she had taken a sip of water.
He put his hands in his pockets. "I'm not sure. Take one step at a time?"
"I don't know what that means."
"It means that we take things slowly. I don't think we're in any rush. I mean, it did take us three years to get here." He looked outside the window. "That is, if you really want to have a relationship with me," he added as an afterthought.
"I do," she said almost shyly. "And I think slow sounds good."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
They just stood there smiling at each other, happy to have reached a mutual understanding.
After a while Brennan started feeling foolish. "Booth, can we do something? The silence is unnerving me."
He nodded his head in understanding. "Sure. Are you hungry?"
"Not really. I had some ice cream earlier," she explained. "But I wouldn't say no to a cup of coffee."
"Well let's get going then," he said and walked casually toward the door. Brennan immediately understood where they were going and followed him closely behind. Just as he reached the door, he turned around, slowly placed his hand on the spot where her face meets her neck and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. He gave her time to respond, and when she did, he pulled away. He watched the blush creep up her neck and fiddled with a strand of her hair.
"Sorry. I had to do that."
She smiled brightly at him. "Consider yourself forgiven."
He mirrored her smile and turned around to open the door. They both stepped outside and felt their hearts thumping, eager to see where this would lead them. And while they walked toward the elevator, his hand found hers.
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The End.