All the ingredients were on the counter and he was ready to start when the phone rang. Swearing loudly in his empty apartment, Booth grabbed it and answered with a curt greeting. There were other things he had planned for this evening. Answering a call from work after hours was not on his agenda of things to accomplish.
"Why are you calling me about a case tonight?" Booth demanded, eyeing the recipe one more time. Vegetarian food was definitely not his specialty, but for Bones, he'd try anything. "I'm not on call."
The voice on the other end gave a response and Booth's mood went from annoyance straight to anger. "What do you mean Fitzgerald is too sick to respond? He was fine when he left."
This wasn't the first issue he'd had with the new guy in his bullpen. Charlie had cornered him in the break room earlier in the day to express his frustration. Fitzgerald was rude, difficult to work with and unreliable, all of which were concerning to anyone who was partnered with him. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Booth knew he was going to have to deal with the guy in the morning. Unfortunately that wasn't going to solve the problem he was about to have.
"I'm not on call," he repeated a bit more forcefully. "I made that very clear when I left."
Refusing to lose this argument, Booth swallowed a groan when there was a knock at the door. Of course, she'd be early. He eyed the raw ingredients on the counter, squeezed the phone a little tighter in his fist, then made his way over to the door.
"Isn't there a list when this sort of thing happens?" Booth asked, motioning for Brennan to come in. She looked at him curiously until the phone in her purse started to ring.
Groaning, accepting that no matter how he felt about the matter, he was going to lose, Booth gave up. "Send me the address," he ordered, slamming the phone back down to the counter. Starting to put everything back in the fridge, he half listened as Brennan finished her own call.
"I'm guessing date night is postponed?' she asked, staying out of his way. Silently, she observed him, noticing the tight muscles in his shoulders and the angry way he closed cabinets. "You know this is going to happen, Booth. It's what we do."
"No," he argued. "It's not what we do on date night. I made sure I wasn't on call tonight. Seems I should have picked someone more reliable to take my place." He continued to move around her, straightening the kitchen. "Didn't you do the same?"
"I did. But this must be unusual enough that Cam has some questions about what she's looking at. And I'm sure she would prefer not to pay extra money to an intern unless she is required to."
Understanding the logic of her argument didn't do anything to relieve his annoyance. "But it's supposed to be date night," he reminded her.
"If you get upset everytime we miss a date night for the next thirty, fourty or fifty years, you're going to spend a lot of time being unhappy."
He looked over his shoulder at her. It was the first time she'd mentioned this lasting long term and it eased some of his frustration. "You're right," he sighed. "I know you're right." The final items tucked away, he looked down at the jeans and t-shirt he was wearing and decided he wasn't changing. "You want to go in what you're wearing?"
She had on comfortable pants and a loose shirt. No one else would notice quite yet, but it wouldn't be long until she couldn't hide their secret any longer. "I have clothing in the car," she explained. "And I think my emergency bag is still in the back of yours."
Retrieving his phone from where he'd slammed it down, Booth pulled out his keys. "Let's go get this done. Maybe all of this night won't be ruined."
OOOOOOOOOO
Cam eyed the two of them as they walked up, noting Booth's casual clothes. "Weren't you off tonight?" she asked.
"Apparently, someone forgot to tell the other guy," Booth grumbled. "What do you have?" He asked before voicing a second, and what he considered a more important question. "Is that a vat of mud?"
Cam and Hodgins stood in front of a large but shallow pool filled with brown liquid, so thick it looked like it was moving. No body was visible and Booth wasn't sure whether to be thankful or annoyed. He was missing date night for a body in a pool of mud?
"Chocolate pudding, actually," Cam corrected. Next to her, Hodgins was fishing out something with a slotted spoon. "There is a body in here. Somewhere." Inserting a gloved hand into the mixture, she moved it around until the glimmer of a skull was visible. After removing her hand, the pudding oozed over it again, hiding it from view.
"It's Chocolate Pudding Day." Brennan informed them, pulling on her gloves and coming to stand next to her colleagues.
"And apparently this is some sort of celebration of that day," Cam finished for her. "There's a fundraiser and people pay money to swim in the pool of chocolate pudding." She grimaced in disgust. "The smell of this much pudding is bad enough. But to actually get in it?"
Staring at the place where the skull disappeared, Brennan contemplated the scenario. "Is it even possible for pudding to dissolve a body?" she asked, turning toward Hodgins. "What sort of dissolving agents are in pudding?"
Booth waved both arms. "I don't want to know this," he half-shouted, drawing eyes back to him. "Is there anyone I can interview?" Looking around, he noted several teens, with suspicious brown stains on their jeans and shirts, looking very nervous in the back of the crowd. "You," he announced, pointing at the pair. "What do you know about this?"
They shared a glance and shuffled their feet before finally coming forward.
Foot tapping impatiently, Booth waited for them to get closer. He liked pudding. Whether or not it could turn someone into a skeleton wasn't something he needed or wanted to know. Say nothing about the fact he was missing date night for this.
"What's going on?" he asked. "What do you know about this? No, don't look at each other," he ordered. "Just tell me what's going on. Did you find the body?"
"It's not a body," one of them mumbled.
Booth huffed in annoyance. Literal teenagers. "Fine. Did you find the skeleton?"
The second boy answered this time. Shaking his head, he drew a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "We didn't find it. We put it there."
Could it really be that easy? "You put it there?" Booth echoed.
Behind him, Brennan shouted his name. Half turning, so he could see both Brennan and the teens, he waited. "It's fake," she announced, pulling off a glove and grimacing as a glob of pudding dripped to the ground next to her.
Blinking hard, Booth's eyes darted from Bones to the teens and back again. "Did you just say it was fake?"
"It is," the second boy confirmed. His friend was still staring at the ground, but this boy knew it would be better to just admit it and deal with the consequences. "We wanted to scare some of the people who were getting in the pool." He shrugged, hands disappearing into the pocket of his sweatshirt. "We didn't mean for it to go so far."
"That's a pretty good fake," Cam commented. Next to her, Hodgins laughed and reached into the pool to pull the skeleton out.
It looked pretty real to Booth. "Where did you get it?"
The first boy finally decided to step up. "Science Lab at the school," he admitted. "People don't pay real good attention to the props." He looked over at his friend. "Our parents are not going to be happy with us."
Shaking his head, Booth waved one of the local officers over. "Your problem," he said, pointing at the boys.
Stepping away, Booth motioned to his partner. "Come on, Bones. There's plenty of time left in the evening." He waited until she made it back to his side then guided her toward the SUV with a hand in the small of her back.
OOOOOOOOOO
"I've had worse dates," Brennan announced when they were back in Booth's apartment. The food was pulled out again and the apartment was quickly filled with delicious smells.
Booth agreed, though he didn't want Bones to know that. "Worse than a fake body in a pool of chocolate pudding?" he asked.
"I was shot at and dated someone you arrested," she reminded him. Taking a spoon, she tasted what they were creating. "This is good."
He grabbed her hips and pulled her forward for an intense kiss. "Yes, it is," he agreed, brown eyes sparkling.
Eyeing the pot and then the man in front of her, she smiled. "Do you want to make date night even later? Maybe we could have pudding for dessert."
He responded with a wicked smile. "No, to the pudding. Yes, to a later date night." Reaching around her to turn the stove off, Booth took her hand and led her back toward the bedroom. This was exactly the night he planned.