Booth had a sixth sense. His partner wouldn't believe it, but he sometimes he could just know that something was wrong. That something that night led him to go and open his front door. He was fully expecting to see the empty beige colored hall, but when he opened the door he found something else entirely. Leaning against the doorframe, with tear stained cheeks, a bandaged wrist and a bruised forehead, was D.C.'s top forensic anthropologist. She didn't say a word, she didn't have to; he pulled her inside without a second thought.
"Bones? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Nothing. I just wanted… well I don't really know what I wanted…"
He wasn't convinced at all. "Booones…" He warned. "You can't stand there crying and tell me everything is alright. Tell me what's up. You aren't fine."
"No. I guess I'm not." She shut her eyes and swallowed hard. "My head hurts from New Orleans, and my head hurting reminds me of the case."
"Oh, Bones." He breathed, heart swelling with concern. She had nearly been killed and couldn't remember a thing. But she had come through in the end, just like always. The flight home had been silent; they had met the others at the lab for a while and she had seemed nearly normal, and when he had dropped her off at her apartment she had assured him that she was fine, but he knew otherwise. At least she had come to him instead of going to the lab and working herself to death.
"He killed his own daughter. I understand why he did it… but I just can't comprehend how. How could you do that to someone you raised and cared for? To someone who depended on you?" More tears began the journey down her cheeks, but she wiped them clean, trying to keep herself from the emotions she was obviously being overloaded with. "I don't know why this is affecting me so much… I see stuff like this everyday."
Booth stepped next to her and rubbed a reassuring hand across the back of her shoulders. "You're not really up to full strength yet Bones. Give it time. You'll be back kicking my butt around the lab by mid-next week."
She sniffled a little as she smiled weakly at him. "Thanks Booth."
He wanted her to stay; he wanted to make sure she really was ok before he let her go home.
"Hey Bones, why don't you stick around? We're both alone tonight, we can be alone together."
"Sure." She was feeling much better just being with another person and she had been hoping he would let her stay. "What are we going to do?"
"It's your lucky night." He sat down on the oversized denim couch and picked up the TV remote, flicking the set on. "Because I'm going to introduce you to the art of channel surfing."
"I don't know what that means."
"I know; that's why I'm going to teach you. Channel surfing is something you do when you're bored, you turn on the TV and just look through the channels, seeing if you can find anything that interests you."
She sat down beside him, looking expectantly between the remote and the TV. "Sounds easy enough. Are there rules?"
He smiled at her typical squint-ness. "Nope. That's the beauty of it, you just click around and stop when you see something cool, and then move on when it gets boring."
She was satisfied, but curious about how this concept would really work. "Ok then. Let's surf."
……………
"Hey, Hey. Booth, go back. That was a documentary on the spotted owl that Hodgins said I should see."
"Aaaabsolutely not."
She frowned. "Fine." One more channel and her face went back to intrigued. "Oooh, Booth, can we watch this?" They had stumbled upon yet another documentary, one about Benjamin Franklin.
"No dice Bones. We're looking for whimsy, something fun to take our minds off of the real world."
"Then how about that show you stopped at a while back… The one about tattoos?"
"Angela was right. You really don't understand the concept of whimsy do you?" He kept flicking channels. 55. 54. 53. 52. 5…
"Wait! Stop here. Booth, I know this movie!"
He looked up and focused on the screen. A rag-tag foursome filled the screen, walking along a yellow path and singing a familiar song. He almost burst out laughing. No, he did burst out laughing.
"The Wizard of Oz?! Of course you know it. It's like the most popular kids movie in the world Bones."
"Is that what it's called? I remember watching this as a kid when I lived in Ohio. I think it was Russ and I's favorite. We watched it like a hundred times or something."
"Probably. It was my favorite for a while too." He grinned remembering watching it over and over on the family room floor when he was about six. "I haven't seen it in years. We can watch this if you want. It definitely fulfills the whimsy requirement."
As Dorothy and her friends made their way along the yellow brick road, Booth saw a change in his partner. She was relaxing, becoming the woman he knew was buried under all the bones and scientific words; underneath the objectivity and the logic; the girl he knew was inside the scientist; the girl who just desperately wanted to wear her mother's favorite earrings.
They laughed together at the scarecrow and the lion, and Booth sang the songs he knew so well from watching it with Parker. Brennan surprised him and started to sing some of them too. "We're off to see the wizard…"
………………….
By the end of the movie they had reclined back into Booth's overstuffed sofa, comfortably shoulder to shoulder with their feet up on his coffee table next to what remained of a bowl of popcorn. Brennan's arms crossed in front of her on top of her stomach and the sides of their heads were resting together, supporting each other.
"Booth, why would someone make an entire city out of emeralds?"
"No idea Bones."
She giggled a little at his nonchalant answer. Emeralds…
"Wait a second!" She sat up so fast that Booth nearly lost his balance and fell behind her.
"A little warning would be nice Bones." He groaned running a hand through his hair as he sat up. He noticed that she was smiling, smiling as broadly as he had ever seen her. It wasn't just a smile. It was a grin. Dr. Temperance Brennan was grinning like a five year old on Christmas morning. "What's so funny Bones?"
"Russ named our first pet dog Emerald. And now I know why."
Channel surfing was such a good idea.
…………………
17 days til' Christmas!!! Does that make you excited enough to review?
