"Hey, that worked better and faster than I thought it might. I actually have the impression that you'll be able to do this on your own from here on out. Do you have any other questions for me?" Emma looked at Booth and Brennan, trying to gauge their reaction.
Brennan spoke first. She was so grateful for Emma's help and advice. They'd needed someone to find back to what they had been, before all the misunderstandings and bad decisions had happened. "I want to thank you very much. I think we really needed this weekend, and I especially needed the conversation last night." She glanced at Booth and then back at Emma. "Maybe we really would have talked past each other so much that we would've seriously jeopardized our relationship. I'm happy that we finally have clarity now, don't we?" She looked back at Booth, who nodded vigorously in agreement, and then at Emma.
Then Booth spoke up. He was still a bit shocked that Brennan had thought he didn't want her anymore. "I don't really want to imagine what would've happened if we hadn't finally spoken openly with each other. Yes, we really needed this weekend. I've been wondering why Bones was behaving so strangely for the past few weeks."
Now he looked at Brennan. "Maybe it was just the right time for us to sit down and talk about everything." He gave Brennan a loving look now, and gently brushed a strand of her hair back over her shoulder. "I wouldn't want to miss this weekend for many reasons. Although we were both constantly aware that we were being watched, we were still able to experience very beautiful moments together."
His eyes told her exactly what he was thinking about, and the slight smile on her lips showed him that she understood.
Then Booth turned back to Emma. "Um, do you have any more questions for us? I guess it's not often that you counsel a couple which is actually just a fake."
Emma grinned. "You're right…this was the first time I"ve encountered something like that, but you guys did really well at presenting yourselves as a couple, especially now that I know all the background. And yes, if you'll allow me, I do have a few more questions. Let's just say I'm curious."
She smiled at the two of them. "Yesterday, you both told me about so many shared experiences. Temperance has already told me that these were events that actually happened, and that you were just embellishing them with some romance. I really would have liked to know more about that. From the way you've described these situations, I get the impression that somehow you've been a couple for a long time, maybe just without the romance, right?"
She looked at the two. Temperance shook her head. "No, no. We've always been just good partners."
Emma saw that Booth was about to say something, but then he chose to remain silent. His look made her understand that he might see things differently, but he didn't want to contradict Brennan. The loving look he then gave his partner said more to her than any words possibly could.
Emma continued."Temperance also told me last night that you guys have saved each other's lives multiple times. This sounds very adventurous to me! Can you tell me more? I'm really curious about that aspect of your partnership."
The real idea behind her request was to show the two partners how much they meant to each other so they'd see how obvious it was that they already were together, even though they both continued to deny it. She'd let them tell the story of their relationship yesterday, and it was apparently made up. Now she wanted to hear the actual story of the two. Having them explain how they saved each other might also help them realize what they already meant to each other.
After considering things for a few seconds, Brennan started. "We had a case where the mafia wanted me out of the way. They had tried to blow me up, but that had gone wrong. My fridge exploded and Booth was almost in front of it. Sadly, he got the blast and had to go to the hospital. However, the mafia had managed to get a crooked FBI agent on the case and he was also trying to kill me. Luckily, Booth found out and left the hospital while he was still recuperating so he could save me."
Now Booth interrupted her. "Yes, and I was probably not a second too soon. Kenton was about to shoot her, but I was able to shoot him instead."
Brennan nodded and beamed at him. "That was the first time we hugged."
Booth grinned in response. "Yeah…on the one hand I would have preferred not to let go of you, but on the other hand, it hurt like hell to hold you so close because, after all, I had several broken ribs."
He looked at Brennan and gently ran a finger across her cheek. "And then, when we got back to the hospital, you stayed with me that evening after canceling your date. That meant a lot to me, you know?"
Booth took a deep breath but then the tender moment between them was over. "And then we had the case with Howard Epps." He turned to Emma to offer a brief explanation. "He was a serial killer. Epps had an accomplice, and we were trying to save the last victim from him. We actually were successful, but the killer had knocked me to the ground and was about to kill me when Bones shot him."
Brennan shook her head in disgust. "This is not a very nice memory." She looked back at Booth. "However, I was able to save you, and that's all that matters. Later, you gave me Jasper to help me feel better. Thank you. It was a thoughtful gesture." She'd never told him how much that meant to her.
Then Booth could see in her eyes that another bad memory had come over her. She just breathed "Gravedigger".
Booth took over the narration. "Another time, a different serial killer had buried Bones and her colleague alive in a car, asking for ransom. It was a race against time, and literally in the last second we pulled her and Hodgins out of the ground." Booth took Brennan's hands in his and focused his gaze on them. "I was crazy with fear, and I'll never forget the moment I felt your hand and was able to pull you out of the ground. The relief that I felt…was unbelievable." Then he whispered, "I would've liked to stay with you that night, you know? You shouldn't have been alone after that ordeal."
"Booth…," Brennan whispered back.. "You were with Cam then. It would've been quite inappropriate."
"Still, you shouldn't have sent me away, period."
To wrap up that discussion, Brennan quickly recalled the next situation. "Shortly thereafter, Epps escaped from prison and ambushed me in my apartment. Luckily, we saw through his plan and were prepared."
Booth shuddered as he remembered what happened. "Yeah, and yet I couldn't stop him from escaping punishment since he threw himself off the balcony and I couldn't hang onto his hand. That situation has bothered me for a long time, and you know it."
Brennan nodded and then she had another idea. "But with Gallagher and Lightner, my dad and I got there in time before they could do any more harm to you. We rescued you and both perpetrators were arrested."
"Yeah..I've rarely been so happy to see your father as I was that night. You two did a lot to help me out."
Brennan now turned back to Emma. "I told you last night how Booth stood in front of me to take a bullet." Then she turned back to Booth. "That was very reckless and stupid of you."
Booth's voice became soft and very intimate. "And I told you yesterday I'd do it all over again, because I love you." He gave her a small kiss on the lips and then followed it with a second.
Emma cleared her throat. The mood seemed to change again and she wanted to find out more. "That sounds really breathtaking. Was that the last time?"
Immediately, Brennan and Booth shook their heads vehemently. "Oh no.," Brennan began. "The Gravedigger had also kidnapped Booth and held him captive on a ship that was about to be blown up. Literally at the last moment we were able to rescue Booth with a helicopter."
Booth nodded. "And I just couldn't let go of you on the flight back to land. Your scent filled my nostrils, and I realized that the whole time I was on the ship I only had one thought…I wanted to smell your scent again. I think that's what kept me going."
Brennan shook her head at his comment. "Booth, we'd been working all night! I was still in the formal dress I wore for the awards ceremony…I was sweaty and my hair was an absolute mess…"
"Nonsense, Bones…when I saw you on that helicopter, you were the most beautiful thing I could imagine at that moment. I remember that I told you about Teddy…how he told me that maybe he had to be there to remind me that there was someone to whom I should say 'I love you'...and those words kept running through my head from the moment we hugged. I really wanted to tell you right away, but then the helicopter landed and there were so many people around, so I didn't have a chance anymore. I deeply regret that, because maybe things would have gone differently for us if I had."
He looked at her, regret in his eyes. "And then the tumor was found, and everything turned out differently than planned."
Brennan now looked over to Emma to explain. "I had found out that Booth was seeing things that weren't there and, as it turned out, I correctly assumed he was ill. Later, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Luckily, the operation was successful, but then he had an adverse reaction to the anesthetic and was in a coma for four days."
Booth grabbed Brennan's hand. "You sat by my bed the whole time and told me a story, which then didn't come true." He had a distant look in his gaze, like he was remembering something. "We never spoke about having a baby again." He suddenly wore a wide grin, as if something had become clear to him. "Bones, you were already in love with me, right? Otherwise why would you have wanted me to father your baby?"
Brennan wasn't about to back down. "No, of course not. I've explained it to you. "You have a larger mandible and a more prominent zygomatic arch than Fisher, as well as a more pronounced ratio between the width of your clavicles and your ilia. You also have emotional traits like courage, compassion, and empathy that would be tremendous assets to my child. Sperm banks don't catalog those traits."
Booth chuckled. "So, it's because I'm hot…"
Emma suddenly sat at attention. "Uh, what baby? You guys told me you were never a couple, so why were you talking about a baby?" She looked a bit confused.
As if that were the natural thing in the world, Brennan explained. "I'd made up my mind to have a baby, and Booth was the perfect sperm donor. Everything was already arranged, but then the tumor treatment intervened."
Emma shook her head. "You two are really something. As I see it, you've loved each other for years and neither is willing to tell the other, and that's why you take such detours. It's good that we're talking about everything now. What happened after that?"
Booth looked at his hands. What came next was still very difficult for him. "Bones had told me a story while I was in coma about a couple who were very happy and were expecting a baby. The characters in the story were both of us and also all of the colleagues we have at work, although with different jobs. I knew it was just a made-up thing to help me recover, but I couldn't forget how happy me and Bones were in my dream…and when I woke up, at first I had trouble distinguishing between the dream world and reality. I had to realize that Bones and I weren't married…we weren't a couple, we were just colleagues, and we weren't expecting a baby, either. Bones was so confused by my behavior that she went on a dig for six weeks."
He turned back to Emma. "You see, whenever things get complicated, she flees." He raised an eyebrow at Brennan. "But I won't allow that to happen anymore. I won't watch you leave me again."
Brennan smiled at him and then looked back at Emma."He also saved my life in the first case after his coma. A man wanted to kill me and had already jabbed a scalpel into my arm. Booth then came at the last moment and shot the perpetrator." She looked at Booth. "While we waited for the ambulance, you held me tight in your arms, kissed my head and called me baby. I only became aware of this again while I was in Maluku. In the stress of the moment, I hadn't noticed it at all…but the memory came back to me…"
Booth nodded. "I also told you later that day that I love you, but because you looked so horrified, I softened it... to be love between colleagues." He looked deep into her eyes. "I should've told you that day that I'm absolutely in love with you, instead of waiting until later, when it all went so wrong."
Brennan nodded. They really had missed so many opportunities.
Emma had another question for them. Even for her, as an experienced therapist, it was always exhilarating when couples found each other again simply by remembering the history they shared. "What happened then? How did things go on with you?"
Booth grinned. "The burst water pipe on my kitchen floor really happened. I mean, we got wet, but we made up the rest yesterday. And there was also the night at the museum…you saw the picture." He was now looking at Brennan. "I think that night we got really close. When we agreed that what goes on between us is only ours, I really wanted to kiss you at that moment, Bones. Too bad the squints interrupted us then."
"Yes…," Brennan agreed ."I think if it had happened that night, a lot of things might have gone differently between us." She turned to Emma to explain. "We really missed so many chances."
Emma just nodded. "So, while we're talking about your memories, I want to know something else. How much is true about undressing Booth and seeing him naked? Is that a story where you missed another chance? I really want the whole truth…," she chuckled. "...to satisfy my curiosity."
Brennan laughed. "Oh yes…that was very intimate. A bank robber had been blown up, and Booth was there when it happened, so he was littered with evidence…he was evidence in the truest sense of the word. It was my pleasure to secure the evidence, and to do so, I had to undress him."
Emma laughed. "And you even had to take his underwear off?"
Brennan laughed, too. "No, he kept his boxers on. We were there in our laboratory, when it happened. In fact everyone there saw him in only his underpants…but I've seen him completely naked years before that…"
She looked at Booth with a grin on her face."When Booth stood in front of me to catch a bullet, the FBI, in order to catch a killer, declared that Booth was dead. I should've been informed that this wasn't the case, but that didn't happen. For 14 days I thought Booth was dead, and it wasn't until his funeral that the truth came out. After it became clear that Booth wasn't dead, I was very disappointed that I hadn't been informed and wanted to confront Booth, so I went to his apartment and stormed into his bathroom, where he sat in the bathtub. When he stood up in indignation at my anger...well...there was nothing left to my imagination anymore." She smiled softly to herself.
Emma nodded. "I understand. You two are quite a pair. So many chances to become a couple and you missed one after another." She wanted to know more. "And then what happened? I understand that at some point the separation came and Temperance went to Maluku and Booth to Afghanistan. So there was probably no more lifesaving then, right?
Booth shook his head. "Oh no…when we got back, we had a particularly delicate case. Bones was alone at night in a gloomy area, trying to find evidence. She knelt on the ground and didn't notice that a car had rounded the corner. If I hadn't snatched her away at the last second, she would certainly have been run over."
Brennan now looked very sad. "That night I finally confessed to Booth that I love him, but he was dating Hannah then. We really always have bad timing."
Booth put both hands on Brennan's shoulders."But that's over now, okay? No more running away… no more denial." He waved his finger between them. "Me and you belong together, and we're going to make it this time, okay?"
He lovingly looked at her. Yes, they'd work it out. Nothing should stand between them anymore.
Emma stood up and smoothed her clothes. "I think my work is done here. The way I see it, you've been in love for years, and if you'll admit, you were kind of a couple, too, just without romance, right?"
Booth and Brennan looked at each other and both shrugged helplessly. They just had to accept this view from Emma. It seemed funny that so many people regarded them as a couple over the years.
Emma packed away her notes and reached for her bag. "I think you two can work on things on your own from now on." She looked at them both. "It was an honor to hear your story and indeed, I'm a little bit proud that I could help you to clarify your situation." Then she winked at them both. "I think you can go alone from here on, but if there should ever be a problem, you do have my number, okay?"
Following an impulse, she briefly hugged Brennan and Booth as they said goodbye. It was rare for her to develop such a good relationship with her clients in such a short time. Yes, although she had been in the profession for almost 30 years, there were still surprises.
§§§
Booth stopped his car in front of Brennan's house. They had left in the late afternoon and now it was already after 10 p.m. Brennan had fallen asleep in the passenger seat more than 2 hours ago. Obviously she was very tired because she didn't wake up either when he drove the car into the parking lot or when he stopped the car completely. Light from a lantern in front of her apartment complex threw light into the car so he could see her. She looked so relaxed, but so fragile at the same time. He had only noticed in the last few days how thin she had become. Yes, he wasn't there for her anymore to make sure that she ate regularly,
A wave of affection and love washed over him. He had always loved her, but now that he had said it openly , a deep peace filled his heart. And she was finally ready, to admit her feelings and to love him as well.
At that moment, he felt a large part of his anger dissipate already. He was sure his healing would be quick. She had promised to wait for him no matter how long it took him.
He was not sure exactly how things would go for them. Of course they would now spend a lot more time together, surely he would soon ask her out on a first date.
It would certainly be more difficult for both of them to hold back. After all, they had the knowledge now how it was to kiss, to kiss passionately. They knew how it felt to be skin to skin and to caress each other. How it felt to arouse each other. It really wasn't easy going back to holding hands and shy kisses goodnight.
They had to talk about it, to set new boundaries for themselves. They wanted to do it right this time. That was the top priority for both of them. They would be successful, that was absolutely clear to him. They were made for each other. There had been many detours, but now there would be only one way for them, together. And forever.
He noticed Brennen slowly waking up and opening her eyes. A little confused at first, but then suddenly awake when she remembered where she was and realized that they were already home.
"Hi," he slowly ran a finger down her cheek. "We are at home." She was now sitting fully upright and stretching. "Booth, you should have woken me, I could have done part of the driving." She looked at him and shook her head slightly. "It was more than five hours, surely you're just as tired as I was."
He just laughed softly. "Bones, you know how much I love to drive and it really wasn't an effort for me." He opened the driver's door and got out of the car. "I'll help you bring your bag upstairs."
"Booth!" She quickly got out of the car too. "I can really do this on my own. You should really get home and go to bed now too."
Yes, it was clear they weren't going to spend the night together. As they had agreed, they wanted to give each other time and spending the night together, if only to sleep, wasn't really helpful. It was too tempting to give in to the desire to finally love each other.
Booth didn't let her in any way walk to her apartment on her own. But he didn't go in. He put the bag down in front of her door and then turned to her. However, he couldn't resist pulling her into his arms and as willingly as she snuggled into his arms, that must have been her desire as well.
"Night Bones!" She bowed her head back and looked at him. "Night Booth!" He leaned forward and gave her a very light kiss on the forehead. " Sleep well. See you tomorrow."
And then he quickly walked back to the elevator. The urge to stay was immediately there , and they didn't want to give in to it suddenly. It was going to be a tough few weeks.
But one thing was certain for both of them, there would be a time when she wouldn't leave him at the door. He would go in with her and he wouldn't go home that night either. She would fall asleep in his arms after making extensive love. That thought brought a mischievous smile to his face and this was the last, what she saw as he disappeared into the elevator.
AN: This was planned to be the end. But then I thought, I should really bring them finally together, so there will be an epilogue.
Hope you like to read one more chapter, please let me know. Have a nice weekend.
