The Matter to the Bones Chapter 3
Hello loyal readers! Here is your third chapter -
Thank you to all reviews and supportive words - they really do cheer me up so much! xx
3. Twiddled Thumbs
Temperance Brennan.
She stared at her own fluent, cursive script which formed her name into a tidy signature. That was it.
Her last report she ever have to file on something related to Heather Taffet.
Not surprisingly, she felt some closure as she sealed the envelope that she would never have to open again. After applying the Jeffersonian stamp, she placed it in the tray on the edge of her desk to be collected. Pressing her palms together, she bowed her head against them and heaved a sigh.
"Dr Brennan?"
Brennan's eyes shot open, and she sat up. "Yes Cam?"
"I..." Camille's voice drifted off unsurely, almost warily.
"Cam?"
"It's...ah..."
"Bones?" Another person stood behind her boss now, wearing an expression that was indescribable. His voice was soft - like it had been last night whenever he had been told.
At loss at how to respond at his appearance, Brennan swallowed quickly and nodded towards him in acknowledgement.
"Booth wants the report." Cam wrung her hands.
"But...I could have had an assistant deliver it," Brennan avouched. "Why are you here?"
"Just...y'know Bones." He shifted from foot to foot.
"I don't know..." she mumbled in reply, fiddling with a pen within finger's reach.
Cam clasped her hands together suddenly. "I think I should...I'm going to go." She turned on her heel and disappeared, hitting Booth's chest as she brushed past.
"H-how are you, Bones?" he asked when Cam was out of earshot.
"I have wrapped up the Gravedigger report, I currently have nothing to work on, and I am at loggerheads with you. Just wonderful, thanks."
Booth was silent.
"Anyway, I don't matter. How are you?" She stood and shuffled needlessly through papers, desperately try to come across as blasé, even though she was feeling the complete opposite. "You look horrible," she added as a deduction when he didn't reply.
Booth's eyes flashed furiously. "Really Bones? You think so? Really?"
"Don't use that tone with me," she mandated, fixing her eyes on him sternly. "I don't appreciate it."
"You don't appreciate it?"
"Stop it."
He strode over and stood defensively in front of her, hands balled into fists.
Brennan stood her ground.
Although she was furious, staring into his torn face, her will crumbled, and she began to search the depths of his eyes pleadingly with her own. At that moment, she not only saw the angry person that she had accused yesterday, but behind his eyes, she saw past the man he was with Hannah. For a flicker of a moment, she saw the man that she loved.
Loved.
And it hurt.
Booth may have hurt her, but he was hurting too. And she spear-headed that pain, didn't she?
Somehow, in the last few moments, he had moved so close that she felt his warm, savour breath touch her face upon his exhale.
As she dizzily replied to his closeness all over her body, coherent thought was impossible.
He was so close.
Close enough to touch.
Forcing her hand from her side, and collecting the envelope from her tray, she brought it up between them.
"Booth?"
Brennan mentally chided herself for how uneven her voice sounded.
"Yes?" A husky, soft reply. Almost a whisper.
"Your report." She tapped the A4 package against his chest.
He took it from her swiftly, and cleared his throat.
"Right, thanks." A step back from her.
"You're welcome." Brennan turned quickly and retrieved her lab coat from the closest in the corner of her room.
When she went to face him again though, he was gone.
-~B&B~-
"Dr B, when were you thinking about heading home?" Hodgins asked later that same day, gathering his files from the platform. "It's late."
"I know, Dr Hodgins, but I have done later." She stared again at the radius bone resting in her gloved hands.
Why was she even looking at it? The Civil War soldier on the slab in front of her had been extracted of all possible information. Her interns had done a thorough examination.
The research department of the Jeffersonian was holding the exhibition for the American Civil War in less than a month, and this had been the last of the major studies to compile.
Having been far too distracted with the Gravedigger case, Cam had suggest that it be a project for the 'squinterns' when they weren't on roster for the murder investigation.
It had been a success, and they had been thorough.
So why was she still staring at it? She had nothing to do. She was sitting around, twiddling her thumbs, and waiting for a case - as of today.
"Brennan, you've been staring at these bones for nearly an hour now; why not just let it go for the night, and worry about it tomorrow?"
The anthropologist really didn't want to leave, but she was emotionally and physically drained; so long as she was this tired, nothing scientific was going to jump out and reveal itself to her.
"Okay."
Hodgins was taken back by her easy reply. "Okay...? Well, I'll see you on Monday, then."
"Yes...Monday. Good bye, Hodgins."
The father-to-be had to shake his head at her absentmindedness, but he remembered Angela's gentle warning to him, when she had revealed that there was a fair bit of tension generating between the Hannah-Booth-Brennan love triangle.
Taking the bone from her and stowing it away, he took her arm with his free hand and guided her to her office.
"Take care," he murmured, watching his friend as she collected her belongings mechanically.
Convinced that she was actually going to leave, he left her office.
"Hodgins?" Came her small voice before he had taken more than five steps.
He flicked his head around. "Yeah?"
"Thank you."
"Thank you...?"
"For caring about me...for...being my friend."
"Your welcome."
-~B&B~-
Kathy stared at Andy unfathomably.
"I can't believe you would think that," she whispered heatedly, leaning against her chair for support. "Of all the people..."
"Don't make this something that it's not; you're in the wrong too."
"Me?"
"Yes, you!"
"Why me?"
"Because you..."
"Because I 'what', Andy?"
"You never told me, okay? You never said a freaking word! Now it's too late." The agent was agonisingly pained.
"Andy..." Kathy was breathless. She reached out to him. He turned away. She tried again – pressed her hand against his cheek. Cupped it. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "for what I put you through. So, so sorry."
He looked at her despairingly. "It's too late. We've hurt each other too much. The timing is wrong...it's always been wrong."
"No." The scientist shook her head defiantly. "It's not."
"How can you know that? How can you say that?"
"Because I love you. I've got to believe it."
Andy gaped at her for a moment, before closing the place between them and bring her lips to his, emptying the years of pent-up rage, passion and love into that one kiss.
For once they had to agreed on something; despite their differences, everything would be okay.
They had to believe it.
~B&B~
Brennan smiled contently and leaned back into her couch, re-reading the content of the final chapter to her latest manuscript. Hodgins had been right to send her home; she had had the most wonderful brainwave the moment she stepped outside the building.
Resolve.
And now there it was: After a saga of novels, her character had finally taken the plunge, like she had.
But Kathy would get her happy ending; Brennan would make sure of it - she only wished that her love life was that easily written and backspaced.
Satisfied with the closure of the chapter, Brennan sat down her Mac notebook, and traded it for her cup of tea. Staring at the empty space in front of her, she couldn't help but feel what that small place in front of her reflected; empty. Listless.
She needed to get away for a little while. Perhaps with her father. She just needed to be from everyone for a day or two.
Away from Booth.
She would swing by her editor's place the following day with her completed manuscript, and then visit Max. He always opted for an opportunity to spend with time with her, and although she wanted to be alone, she didn't want to be entirely alone.
That way, she and Booth would have space, and a chance to blow off. Although their encounter that afternoon had almost been intimate, the emotional moment hadn't broken any angry ties. The both needed the chance to let things blow over.
It was a plan.
NB: This is the last 'fiddling' chapter (no more stuffing aruond - we'll get into the 'goodness'!) Feel free to make any suggestions, because when the road hits a fork, it's great to hear what you guys would love to see/hear happen! Will update again soon!
Thank you so much all - Xx G