Enjoy, guys.
This was a nice chapter to write =)
(Oh, and before anyone thinks I'm a nut for putting both Clarke, and Wendell in this case, I'm just rotating characters. That's all. ;D)
Xx G
15. Parts of a Greater Puzzle
"I can't believe I missed it before," Brennan repeated again, as she watched Cam analyse her finding.
"You've had a lot on your plate, Dr Brennan. Emotionally. Everyone misses things once in a while." Her boss turned to face her. "You were right though; he was buried alive."
"Do you want to hear my scenario?" Hodgins offered, stepping forward.
They all nodded.
"The murderer slips our victim carbon dioxide – which I discovered was evident around our victim - somehow. He falls unconscious. She buries him alive, and as soon as she is convinced he is dead, a day or so later, she digs up the body and dumps it."
"Why would she do that?" Wendell asked, giving his colleagues a questioning look.
"Would you want a dead body buried on your property?" Hodgins asked with a shrug.
"Probably not." Wendell shifted on his feet, seeing how unnecessary his question had been.
"Well there's you answer," Cam concluded, discarding her gloves. "We have cause of death, a probable scenario, and I have to go to dinner with Paul. We can work more tomorrow. Everyone home. Courtesy to Dr Brennan, we can all rest easily tonight."
Hodgins flicked off the lights.
They all departed the Bone Room, and went to their specified work areas to tidy their belongings.
"Dr Brennan?" Cam called, right before she left.
"Hmm?" Brennan stopped in her tracks.
"You will tell Booth about this. Let him know where we're at."
Nodding stiffly, she complied by her boss' request, and drew her phone from her pocket.
Cam watched her punch in a button, and, when convinced, exited the Jeffersonian.
Once she was sure no one was within visible distance, Brennan dropped the phone back into the pocket of her bag.
"Not calling Booth?" A voice asked from behind her.
"Jack...don't, please," Brennan sighed.
"He needs to be updated." Hodgins shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans, making his statement sound so nonchalant, that Brennan felt guilty for expanding the task's difficulty.
She turned and left.
Sighing sadly, the scientist helplessly watched his friend leave.
-~B&B~-
"Mmm," Angela hummed, sliding a slice of the gourmet spinach tart into her mouth. "Bren, this is amazing. I didn't give you any notice, how did you whip up something...?"
"I'm sorry Ange; this one was bought."
"Oh. Where from?" Angela devoured another forkful.
"The little deli and fresh food place around the corner. I picked it up on the way home, along with lemon gelato, which, mind you, we will have for desert."
A grin reached from ear to ear on Angela's pretty face. "Ooh la lá. J'adore au gelato." She clapped her hands together gleefully.
Brennan smiled. "I thought you might."
They finished up their main course, and the hostess cleared the table, placing it all in the sink to be dealt with later. Opening the freezer, she reached for the gelato just as there was a buzz to her door.
"Can you get that Ange?" she called over her shoulder.
"It might be Hodgins," Angela muttered, striding over to the door. She pulled it open, and a small gasp escaped her lips. "Bren?"
"Yeah?"
"I think I should go..."
"Why?" Brennan rounded the corner, spoon in hand. She saw her visitor, and it slipped from her hold, clattering noisily to the floor. "Booth," she mumbled through stiff lips, disposition having immediately shifted.
"Sweetie, I'll go," Angela offered, collecting her bag from the counter, and sliding her arms into her jacket. "We'll have gelato another time."
As quickly as Brennan had received a new visitor, she lost her most welcome one.
"I'll see you tomorrow," she told Angela, giving her a tight squeeze. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Angela assured her. "I need to get a few hours sleep anyway, and I know that if things had gone my way, I would have been here a few more hours."
When her guest was gone, she had no choice but to allow in her new one.
"Any progressions on the case?" Booth asked brusquely the moment the door was closed behind them.
Brennan shrugged.
"You're really going to lie to me?" he asked in surprise.
She heard the hurt behind his voice.
"I'm not lying," she said thinly, toying with the fabric of her shirt. "I haven't said a word."
"Cam called. She told me about the progressions. Why didn't you tell me, when you found out so much this afternoon?"
"Because..." She smiled hopelessly, under pressure, and feeling ridiculous at the absurdity of the situation. This was Booth, she was talking to, for crying out loud.
"This isn't funny." He was unimpressed.
"I know it isn't," Brennan said defensively, losing her weak reaction. The smile disappeared. "Booth, I know it isn't."
"Then why...?"
"You said last night that we were going to give up; let a murderer walk away. What if they had done it again? Murdered someone else? You were beginning to doubt our work, Booth, and I couldn't have that. It was like a huge whack in the gut. You know that I rely on your strength to pull us through – with you giving up, I felt like I was too. It's like we're two halves of the whole; I can't get by without you." She hung her head. "My keeping you out of the loop was my own immature resolution at dealing with the fact that you didn't want to work with me."
"Hey," Booth disagreed huskily, taking a few steps towards her. "I never said that I didn't want to work with you. Never. I was just feeling beaten." He put his hands on her shoulders. "I wish I hadn't been so insecure about it all; I should know better than to be so weak."
"You're not weak," she whispered, leaning her forehead against his. "You're only human." She broke away, and shuffled back. "I know that there is only so many times you can use an apology before it means nothing at all," she added slowly, using the same tone, "but it never feels spent on us. So...sorry?" She stared up at him hopefully, eyes wide.
He enclosed her in his arms. "Yeah, sorry. I'm sorry Bones."
She relaxed in his embrace, and ran her hands under the crooks of his arms, hooking them to the top of his shoulders in a tighter embrace.
"I don't want this case to get between us," she mumbled against his warm chest. "I don't want anything to get between us."
"I know." Booth stroked her hair gently. "What do we do now?" he then asked, after they broke apart some moments later.
"Do you like gelato?"
"Horrible. Hate it. It's not creamy."
"Oh." Her face fell. "Well, I could make pancakes...?"
"Only if you have sugar."
"Better still," she said, picking up the spoon she had dropped earlier. "I have maple syrup."
Booth dropped his jaw in mock surprise.
She hit playfully on the arm. "Don't look at me like that."
"Just...wow. Is it the real stuff?"
"Best money can buy. I bought it for your sweet tooth."
He laughed and kept an arm around her shoulder as they entered her kitchen.
-~B&B~-
"You snore," she mumbled groggily the next morning, swatting her overnight visitor as he was roused from his slumber.
"I do not snore," he protested, pushing off any other papers that hadn't already fallen off the bed. "Liar. You, however, mumble in your sleep."
"I do?"
"Mmhmm."
"What did I say?"
He cracked a cheeky smile.
"Tell me," she demanded.
He shook his head, teeth beginning to show behind the lips he bit. "No way."
After eating pancakes the following night, playing a very competitive card game of Snap, and sharing a drink of scotch, Brennan had taken her laptop into the bedroom, and he had followed. She had sat and typed up her handwritten notes for that day, in preparation for the following day, and Booth had stretched out across the bed as if it were the most utterly normal thing to do.
All the while, she multi-tasked, and answered questions he threw at her. Eventually, the notes had been printed out, and along with others she had collected over the past few days, Brennan had lain them out on the bed and studied them. Booth had read her thorough scripts, until eventually she had fallen asleep on his arm. He realised, as he had drifted to sleep, that them coexisting like this was as easy as breathing.
The same realisation hit him at that very moment, on the morning that he shared with his partner.
It was as easy as breathing. He didn't have to be anything, or anyone when he was with her. And he knew that she felt exactly the same way, regardless whether she decided to verbalise it or not.
He was shaken from his blissful trance when a pillow hit his head.
"Tell me," she begged, with the same, wide eyes she had used on him countless times. "Please."
He shook his head. "I'm keeping that to myself."
"Please?"
Again, he swung his head from side to side in refusal.
She hit him with the pillow, a little harder this time.
He replied by picking up a cushion of his own, and planting it on her himself.
Again, he thrashed with the pillow, and she fought back. The duvet became ruffled, and her legs tangled in the mesh of sheets. Crawling to the edge of the bed for safety, she squealed when he caught her ankle.
"No, Booth!" she giggled, waving at the floating feathers around them, trying to grasp onto anything that would prevent her from being dragged. "No, no, no!"
Fighting against his chest, she felt herself being pushed back into the soft covers.
"Now do you regret attacking a ranger?" he challenged in a laugh, ticking her viciously.
"No! I mean yes!" she gasped hysterically. "Stop! Stop it...sto-" She lifted a hand to strike him playfully, but found that it rested on his cheek in a gentle stroke. She hesitated, heart thumping wildly.
He read the wariness in her eyes, and while a voice in the back of his mind warned him not to push it, he couldn't fight the urge to release a hand that held one of her shoulders in place, and allow it to trail down her torso. He felt her shiver beneath the feather-like touch of his hand.
Desire aching in the pit of her stomach, she reached up to meet his mouth quickly. Warm tongue sliding inside his responsive mouth, she freed one her hands, and grasped the small of his back.
He locked a hand around her waste, and cradled her head with his other. Fingers gently kneading her skull in massaging motions, her skin flushed with desire, and they melted into each other. For a long time, they remained locked in each other's embrace, moving mouths against each other, and tongues battling for control.
Until her phone shrilled.
He covered her ears with his hands, and kissed her hungrily, sincerely hoping that she would dismiss it. She kissed him back, lips folding around his.
The phone stopped.
The room lapsed into silence again.
She played with the waistband of his pants, and he bunched the cotton of he shirt in his hand, moving it over bare flesh.
His phone buzzed from the bedside table.
Releasing a throaty, irate moan, he broke apart from her in heaving breaths. She too, gasped breathlessly for air, but her eyes portrayed no evidence of exhaustion. They were electric, as he imagine his own were.
Reaching for the device, he held it to his ear.
"Booth," he puffed.
"Booth, it's Cam. Are you working out?" The caller sounded amused. Very.
"What? No. Not working out, just, never mind. Waddaya want?" Booth knew that his reply was rushed, but his mind was a scramble.
"Dr Brennan didn't answer her phone just a moment ago, so I tried you. She always answers her phone."
"Mmm. Right. What is it that you want?"
"Are you ready to come in yet? Stupid question, it's eight o'clock. Of course you are. Get in here as soon as you can; there's discussing to be done. Tell Dr Brennan the same, please."
"Bones isn't with-"
"Save it Big Man," Cam laughed lightly, "I'll see you soon."
Booth disconnected, and stared down at Brennan.
He couldn't tell whether she was flushed with embarrassment or excitement.
He settled on both. Swiftly, he ran a warm hand against her smouldering cheek.
"I have to go," he said lowly, regret burning evidently in his voice.
"Couldn't we just both go in now?" she asked, with the normal level of oxygen flooding her lungs, so her rushed words were legible.
"I slept in these clothes, Bones. I gotta go home and change."
"At least let me give you breakfast and a coffee to go," she negotiated.
He agreed, and slipped of the bed.
Leaning against the kitchen bench, he waited thoughtfully while she showered and readied herself for the day. When she finally entered the kitchen, and began about the space as he imagined she did every day, he couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking.
"Where does this leave us?" he asked, speaking his thoughts, and staring at his bare feet.
"What do you mean?" she replied in question, confused.
"You and I. Us."
"What about us?" She seemed very hesitant.
"We kissed."
"I know."
"This morning."
A smile cracked its way through her controlled face. "Yes, we did." She turned away, and flipped the switch on her coffee machine. It buzzed as it warmed up, and after she placed a travel cup underneath, she pressed the start button, and they waited in silence as the mug filled with steaming, fragrant, coffee.
In the meantime, Brennan reached over to her cupboard, retrieved a small cup, and filled it with milk. Popping it in the microwave, and setting it to a minute, she bustled about to her toaster and tossed two slices in.
While the toast cooked, she finished preparing the coffee, pouring in the hot milk, adding Booth's two sugars, and securing the lid.
"Go and get dressed," she ordered him quietly, heading back to the toaster. "Your tie and coat are still in the lounge, and your shoes and socks are in my bedroom."
He complied, and while he was gone, she swiftly sliced pieces of tomato and cheese. Retrieving the toast, she set down a layer of cheese on it, sat the tomato slices on top, and sprinkled over pepper. She put the small entrée into the grill of the oven.
After a few moments, the cheese had melted, and the tomatoes heated steamily. She retrieved them, placed them together sandwich-style, and cut them in triangle halves.
Eventually, when Booth returned with his socks, shoes in tact, and a washed face, he collected his tie and jacket from the lounge and made his way over to her.
She held out the coffee cup and paper bag.
He went to put down his tie so he could accept them, but she put them down, and picked the navy silk out of his hands. Hastily, but very tidily, she fastened it around his neck.
"I'm very capable of putting on my own tie," he managed, flushed.
"I know," she replied chastely. "But I do it better." She picked up his breakfast and handed it to him. "Just so you know," she added, wrinkling her nose, "I would never eat that. But you would, so..."
"You're only saying that, because you're a muesli nut," he defended, giving her a quick wink. "I'll see you at work."
She stood back and wrapped her arms around her torso, heaving an unsteady sigh. "Work."
He offered her a small smile.
Just as he thought she wasn't going to return it, and her opened the door to leave, her beautiful face broke into a lovely smile.
Work, he told himself, an hour, and you'll see her again.
He left his partner's apartment on Cloud Nine.
Thanks for any reviews already - you guys are really generous =) and I enjoy reading them. Next chapter soon, as per promised! XxG