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Coming home…
Chapter 20:
"Win-win situation" I muttered to myself as I took in the decorations practically covering every surface in our living room. I shook my head. Angela had gone overboard, that much was clear to me. I just hoped she would take all that stuff with her after the party was over. The sheer amount of pink and blue balloons had me groaning.
"Sweetie, you want a virgin daiquiri?" Angela's voice travelled over to me from my kitchen. "Sure." I said. Mixing drinks kept her busy… and she had explained to me that drinks with the word 'virgin' in them were without alcohol.
All too soon she reappeared, drink in hand, smiling broadly at me. "Do you like it?" She asked, her eyes glinting. I let my gaze sweep over my – now – very colourful living room. "It looks interesting." I offered.
"Which translates to: you hate it." Angela sighed as she handed me my virgin daiquiri. I knew she had to have put a lot of effort into this…. spectacle.
"No, Ange…. I mean…. It's just overwhelming… I'm not really familiar with this tradition, so I was not sure what to expect." I said slowly, trying to soothe her. "It's obvious you worked hard, so… thank you, Angela."
"Aw thanks." She smiled at me. "And don't worry, I'll be doing all the cleaning up and get rid of the decorations and stuff."
I nearly sighed in relief. "So," Angela asked after glancing at her watch. "Where's Booth? In about half an hour everybody will be here and he hasn't shown up so far. I thought he'd want to be here before the others."
"I know." I said and absently rubbed my belly. The baby had taken up the new – and not appreciated – habit of kicking practically around the clock. As happy as I was to know that our child was healthy and apparently agile, I could have done without CONSTANT reminders. "He said he'd be here by six."
It was half past six, but I was not really worried…. Booth sometimes got held up at the Bureau. But usually he did call to let me know. I frowned a little upon that realisation and that caused the baby to pick up on my slight concern immediately and it kicked me - again. "Sh." I made and rubbed soothing circles on my belly. This whole day had been an ordeal with the baby constantly kicking. And I could have sworn it had turned. To top it all off, the new position had caused a throbbing back ache.
"Maybe I should call him." I said, but in that exact moment my cell phone rang. I tried to get my hands on it, but being eight months and one week pregnant brought along a serious loss in mobility. Angela snatched the phone up from the living room table and handed it to me. "Thanks." I said and glanced at the display. It was Booth.
"Hey." I greeted him.
"Hi, Bones." He said, his voice sounding a little odd, maybe even worried.
"You sound …. Is everything alright?" I asked, instantly concerned.
"Ah…. Depends." He said. "I'm fine…. But I'm stuck in the elevator."
"What?" I asked, not sure if I understood him right.
"I'm stuck in the elevator. I mean, the elevator is stuck. With me inside." He clarified.
"Where?" I asked.
"Ah, between floor 3 and 4." He said and I rolled my eyes at that information. Or rather the lack thereof.
"WHERE?" I almost yelled.
"Oh….Well, our building." He laughed, but it was more a sound of frustration than of humour.
"You're stuck in the elevator…." I sighed. "Okay…. Did you push the emergency button?"
"I'm not stupid, Bones. Of course I did. Three times." Booth answered, a little offended.
"And?" I asked. "Nobody answered. Guess it's not working." He replied. "Could you get somebody to get this damn elevator to move again, Bones? It's not exactly fun being in here."
"I'll get you out of there, Booth. I'll call you back, okay?" I answered and hung up before he could say anything else.
"Why does he need you to get him out of a stuck elevator in the Hoover building?" Angela asked frowning. "Don't they have maintenance personnel there?"
"He's not at the Hoover. He's here." I answered and pushed myself too my feet. My back ached and I groaned a little.
"What, here? As in… Are you saying THIS elevator is stuck? The one your guests are supposed to use to come up to your apartment at the 6th floor?" Angela looked horrified at that thought.
"Ange, Booth's in that elevator." I reminded her.
"Does that mean they'll all have to walk up? To the sixth level?" My best friend repeated and I glared at her. "Angela! There's not going to be a baby shower with Booth stuck in the elevator, okay? So, you either help me get him out of there or …" I left the sentence unfinished, but the unvoiced threat worked. Angela burst into motion. "Okay. Okay. Whom do we need to talk to?" She asked.
I exchanged a long look with her. "I have no idea." I answered. "But I intend to find out."
Ten minutes later we had talked to two of my neighbours and finally found out who was in charge of facility maintenance in our building. The realisation that after living in the same house for more than four years I had had no idea whom to contact in case of an emergency like this one kind of shocked me. On the other hand my life had been pretty much focussed on work and my home had been the place I used to sleep, not… well, to live. I had never really had any interaction with my neighbours until a few months back I had started to leave the house at the same time as other human beings.
I now knew three of my neighbours by name and actually talked to them frequently. Being pregnant had really changed my life on many levels.
Now I was standing at the third floor in front of the elevator, Angela by my side. "Booth?" I yelled.
No answer.
I dug out my phone and called him and he answered immediately. "Bones?"
"Hey." I said. "I'm standing in front of the elevator doors at the third floor. You didn't hear me yell earlier?" I asked him.
"No. I think I'm actually more on the fourth than on the third, but I'm not sure." I heard him sigh.
"Somebody's going to be here soon and take care of the elevator." I said. "Ten or twenty minutes, they said."
"Great." Booth said with an audible lack of enthusiasm. "Thanks."
"I'll come up to the fourth floor, maybe we'll be able to talk without the phone then." I said.
"Bones, you shouldn't be wandering up and down the stairs all the time. You should be resting. You called these guys, they'll get me out, no problem. Just … sit down somewhere." He sounded concerned.
"Seeley, I'm pregnant, not sick. Walking one flight of stairs is not going to do me any harm. Besides, to get back up to our apartment I'll have to walk, too." I informed him while slowly making my way up the stairs, which made my back hurt… again. "Bye." I simply hung up on him.
"And your guests will have to walk up, too." Angela sighed beside me.
"Ange, everybody's perfectly able to walk the stairs." I rolled my eyes at her. "It's not the real problem here."
"I just wanted your baby shower to be perfect." She sounded miserable. "You know? And now everybody's going to have to walk up and it already starts bad."
"Booth's in the elevator." I reminded her. "that's really bad."
"I know. Sorry, sweetie." She said and sighed again.
"Booth?" I yelled when we were standing in front of the elevator doors at floor number four.
"Hey Bones." I heard his voice, muffled, but without doubt his. "How are you?"
"How are YOU?" I asked back, leaning against the cold metal of the elevator doors.
"Hanging in there." He answered and actually laughed. "That's going to be one great baby shower." I heard him say.
"Tell me about it." Angela muttered beside me. "I totally messed this up."
"It's not your fault." I said and rolled my eyes at her.
"I know that." I heard Booth say, sounding a little irritated.
"I was talking to Angela." I informed him.
"Oh, she's there too? Hi Ange." Booth greeted her cheerfully. The situation seemed somewhat surreal. "Hey sweetie." Angela gave back. "Did you, you know, try to pull the elevator doors open?"
"Doesn't work" He gave back. "Maybe you're not strong enough." I grinned, remembering that a long time ago he had tried to pull open doors like these before…. And failed."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Bones." He gave back. "There's nothing I could hook my fingers in." He added. "Damn."
"We could try from our side here." I suggested.
"No!" Seeley said forcefully. "You said somebody's coming. You're not trying to open these doors, Temperance, okay? You're pregnant, you take it easy."
"But Angela could help me…." I said, but Angela gave me a doubtful look. "Sweetie, I'm not exactly very strong. But your guests should arrive soon, so maybe they can help. I mean, we have Jack, Russ and you Dad coming, a few of Booth's colleagues… and Cullen."
"What?" Booth and I exclaimed at the same time. "You invited my boss to the baby shower?" Booth asked incredulously.
"Why not? Bren's boss will be here too." Angela said, unfazed.
"Yeah, but that's Cam…That's different. It's just…." I sighed. "I wish you would have asked before inviting him."
"Oh, no…" Ange grinned. "This is the best opportunity to rub it into his face that you two are totally happy with each other and I'm so going to enjoy seeing him squirm. That will teach him to talk about one night stands." I shook my head at her words and winced in anticipation of Booth's reaction.
"One night stands?" I heard him growl from the other side of the metal doors.
"Ah…" Angela had the decency to look suitably panicked. "You didn't tell him?"
"No, but thanks to you, Angela, he now knows." I narrowed my eyes at her, but my words were directed at Seeley. "Cullen thought our night together…. Well that it was only a one night stand."
"Asshole" Booth said.
"He's your boss." I gave back.
"If he thought for only a moment…" Booth started, but a male voice from behind Angela and me interrupted us.
"HE thought that, yes. But not anymore. Good evening, by the way." I winced. Deputy Director Cullen had to have come up the stairs without me hearing him. Angela's eyes were wide as she met my gaze. She hadn't heard him approach either.
"Oh, shit." Booth's voice became audible from the inside.
"You're early." Angela commented lamely.
"What's the situation?" Cullen asked, calmly meeting my gaze. I wondered if he had heard Booth's earlier comment, but I was not going to ask – for obvious reasons.
"The elevator is stuck between the third and fourth floor." I explained. "And Booth is in there."
"I gathered that." Cullen commented drily..
"Good evening, Sir." Booth's voice from the inside of the elevator sounded…embarrassed and meek.
"I overheard what you've been discussing. I think I apologised for my… very wrong assessment of the situation, Dr. Brennan." Cullen said, while eyeing the elevator doors, obviously searching for a way to open them.
"To me, yes. Not to Booth." I simply said. Cullen froze for a moment. "You're absolutely right. I'm sorry, Booth. First, I had no right to be judgmental about your relationship at all… and second, I should have known better."
His words surprised me and Angela and I exchanged a wide-eyed looked. She, too, seemed stunned and usually my best friend was a better judge of character than me.
"Ah…" I heard Booth's voice from the other side of the doors. "Thank you, Sir, I guess. And… sorry for what I said earlier."
"I didn't quite catch it, anyway." Cullen said with the hint of a smile in his voice, then he tried to force the elevator doors apart, but without success.
"Let me help." I said and moved near him, but Booth's stern voice stopped me. "Bones, don't you even think of it. You. Take. It. Easy. I'm not claustrophobic, okay? I can stand another few minutes in here."
"I could offer my help, but… you know…" Angela looked at Cullen and shrugged. "I'm not exactly doing weight-lifting in my free time."
"Guess we will have to wait." Cullen said and I nodded. And there we were, standing in front of the elevator doors, looking at each other. Talk about awkward.
Ta-da. I'm working on the next one, don't worry. I hope you liked this chapter, the next one will pick up exactly where we left off. I just didn't want to make it too long.
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