Sabbaticals - 6 weeks

Booth was six weeks into his deployment in Afghanistan. The work had been hard, but within a few weeks he had settled back into military life as if he had never left. The military had changed so much with all of the technological advances, but the basic skills of the military fighter were unchanged - routines that had been honed over decades. So Booth was able to bring his knowledge and skills to teach the new recruits who continually arrived at the base.

They now had drones - both large ones flying high enough that they couldn't be detected from the ground, and compact mini drones they could take with them into the field to give them site lines not available in his past service. The mini drones had advantages and disadvantages. They could be deployed quickly and the soldiers in the field had direct control. And they were inexpensive, so if one was destroyed or lost, it wasn't a problem. They could disable a lost drone from the controller, so it would be of no use if it was recovered by the enemy. But they did make some noise, so they had to be careful where they used them.

And the communications were like a dream - Booth found himself wishing they had these types of communication systems at the FBI. Each soldier had an earpiece in at all times, and a walkie talkie attached to his uniform. One button allowed anyone to talk to the whole team on the ground and the other one connected them to the operations center that was controlling the current mission. And they were all issued smart phones. These were used mostly to take photos and videos that could be immediately transmitted to the operations center. The operations center could also transmit photos to them in the field when necessary. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. The military tactics were as old as time, but the technology that underpinned everything made him feel like he was in a Star Wars movie.

Personally, he had settled easily into his life on the base and had more free time than he remembered in his previous deployments. Part of it had to do with the higher rank he was given to make the one year commitment. One perk of the job was that he had his own quarters. All of the soldiers had modified shipping containers for their dwellings, and they usually housed two or four people each. But a few lucky people had a whole "hooch", as they called it, to themselves. Booth had this privilege partly due to his rank, but also because of his military and FBI experience, and the fact that he agreed to put his life on hold for a year at the Army's request. It allowed him a quiet space to plan for the next day's activities. And he appreciated the privacy for his weekly video calls with Parker.

He kept up email correspondence with some of the friends on his hockey team, and a couple of co-workers who occasionally looked to him for advice on their cases. There was only one other person he had hoped to hear from, and six weeks in he was starting to give up on the tiny sliver of hope he carried every time he opened his inbox. During those last few weeks as they got ready to leave on their "sabbaticals", the topic of communication between them was never discussed. He almost brought it up a couple of times in that last week, but controlled the impulse because they both needed time away from each other. He didn't know how she felt about it, but he was adamant that he wouldn't make the first move because he had laid his heart open to her. The next move was up to her. He didn't have much hope that she would make that move, and these first six weeks had confirmed his suspicion.

So, in his mind he was functioning as a free agent. He was moving on. He certainly wasn't looking to find a life partner in the deserts of Afghanistan, but he was done holding himself in check. If the opportunity for a one night stand presented itself, he was open to it. He'd had enough of the frequent nights lying in his bed masturbating while he fantasized about being buried deep inside his partner. This had been his life and a frequent habit for a few years now. But now that he was in Afghanistan, and trying to move on from her, he still couldn't contain himself. Many nights lying in his bed in Afghanistan, he found his thoughts going back to her again and again, and he was glad for the privacy.

But if the real thing was never going to happen with her, it was time to put himself out there and find a desirable woman to sate his urges. Bones always talked about taking lovers for just the physical satisfaction - with no desire to actually form a relationship. If she could do it, so could he. He had been celibate for several years now. It wasn't a conscious thing, but deep down he knew he was saving himself for her. Any time he was in a position to invite a woman home with him, he thought about her, and he just couldn't do it. Now he was feeling peeved at himself - and at her. He was in a situation for the next year where moving on to a new romantic partner didn't seem in the cards. So he thought maybe it was time to try it her way - satisfying his urges with women who were happy to indulge with no strings attached.

In getting the lay of the land here, he saw that there would be lots of opportunities to go into the local town with the young bucks he was training. They assured him that there were plenty of willing women who flocked like moths to a flame when American soldiers walked into the local bars. They told him to keep his wallet stocked with condoms and he was good to go.

So he went into town with them one evening and it turned out to be a fairly raucous night for the soldiers. They pulled a few tables together and started ordering pitchers of beer. As the evening went on, small groups of women came to join the table and the boys kept adding more and more tables to accommodate the growing party. As the girls began to pair up with the soldiers, many of them sat in their laps and became affectionate as they joined in the laughing and the joking.

Booth noticed that over the next few hours, several of the pairs had left the table and returned 20 to 30 minutes later and jumped right back into the revelry. He was sure he knew why they had left, but he finally asked Joe, who was sitting next to him, where they were going to hook up. The answer was that the bar had individual bathrooms for patrons - there were a total of 10 of them down the corridor at the back of the building. That was one of the reasons that this particular bar was the one the soldiers always patronized when they were looking for female companionship. Joe elbowed him in the ribs. "Are you game? There are a pair of hotties at the bar who have been eyeballing you for the last 10 minutes. You can have your pick - I'd be happy as a pig in mud with either one of them."

Booth hesitated. "Is this really what I want to do?" Then he thought about Bones and the fact that he hadn't heard from her in the six weeks he had been here. And how she had turned him down that night in front of the Hoover Building. And all the times he knew she was sleeping with men she had no real interest in. "Yeah. Let's go talk to them."

The young women were thrilled when the two muscular soldiers walked up and bought drinks for them. They made small talk for a little bit and eventually Booth and Joe each had a girl in their lap. Booth hadn't asked his girl for her name. He thought it was better to keep it anonymous. She began nuzzling his neck and he turned his head and began a slow, but intense kiss. While they kissed, she reached down and started massaging his growing erection. She broke the kiss and whispered in his ear, "Mmmmm. Big man. You want to take a walk?" He was seriously worried he might not make it to their destination because this was the first time in several years that a woman had touched him in this way. He picked her up off of his lap, set her on the floor, and took her hand. "Lead the way."

When they walked into the small room, he had to just blank out his mind so he wouldn't think about how many times this room had been "used" since it was last cleaned. She jumped up on the sink counter and spread her legs. That's when he realized she wasn't wearing any underwear beneath her long flowing skirt. She reached for the waistband of his camouflage pants and, in one motion, pushed them and his underwear down to his knees. The thought ran through his mind that she had done this many times before, but he was too far gone to care.

He explored her with his fingers and found that she was certainly ready for him. But he wanted to prolong the encounter a bit because he knew he wouldn't last long due to his long celibacy. He inserted first two, and then three fingers into her and began to move them in and out while massaging her clit with his thumb. She grabbed his head and kissed him, opening her mouth to him and they each used their tongues to replicate what he was doing with his fingers. He curled his fingers up and found her g-spot and that sent her into an intense orgasm. As he heard and felt her scream, he realized that the bathrooms must have been soundproofed, because he hadn't detected any sounds during his time in the bar or while walking down the hallway.

As she started to recover, she reached for him, wrapped her fingers around him and began slowly pumping. Her lips rested against his and she whispered, "You like?" "Oh yeah. I like." He grabbed her hand and stepped back, reaching into his pocket, which was now down around his ankles, and grabbed a condom. As he opened the packet, she reached for it and smiled at him. He watched as she expertly rolled it onto him. Oh, he had missed all this so much. To have a woman touching him so intimately. It didn't matter that he didn't know this woman. That he was in this filthy…no, don't even think about it. He helped her arrange herself on the edge of the counter and then plunged into her. He found himself buried to the hilt and couldn't hold back. "Oh. my. God." It wasn't a shout, but more a reverential exhaling. Like he had just reached the summit of Mt Everest.

She giggled, and as he started to move, she began to moan. All he could think was how long it had been since his penis had felt the inside of a woman. While masturbation was an adequate release, there was nothing that compared to the real act. Whether it was "making love" or "crappy sex", it still felt damn good. He started with a slow pace, but his body had other ideas. He began to pound into her and she responded in kind, meeting him stroke for stroke. It turned into quite a violent coming together because each time he rammed home, she slammed her body into his. When he felt her start to break apart around him, he finally let himself go and with one last plunge he erupted and felt his sperm soaking the tip of his penis inside the condom. His legs felt like rubber, so he leaned down and buried his face into her neck as they both tried to catch their breath.

When he regained his bearings, he stepped back and she gave him a big smile. "You are a very good lover big guy." He smiled back at her. "You're not so bad yourself." He turned his back, disposed of the condom, cleaned himself up, and resolved his state of undress. When he turned around, she had jumped down from the counter and was waiting for him. He gave her a crooked smile. "I think I'd like another drink. How about you?" She smiled and nodded, and they made their way back to the bar. Joe and his girl were nowhere to be found, so after having another drink together, he told her that he needed to get back to the base. As he walked by the tables of soldiers, he told a couple of them that he was ready to go whenever they were. He was going outside for some air and would meet them at the jeep.

Booth leaned against the side of the jeep in the bar parking lot. He was content to just drink in the cool night air until his friends decided it was time to head back to the base. He had mixed feelings. His body felt great after having the first real natural release in so long. But he also felt dirty. He was glad he didn't have one of Bones' black light flashlights when he was in that bathroom. He shuddered just thinking about the room. It just didn't feel right having an anonymous quickie in that germ infested place. He wondered if Bones had ever had a similar sexual encounter, but discarded that thought because she had too much class. He was sure that her casual sex was probably always with men she knew, and usually in a bed. But just the thought of her being taken against a wall made him hard again. She was confident enough in her body that he could see that happening, but it wouldn't be with an anonymous stranger, and it would never be in a cesspool of a room like the one he had just left. He wished he had more control over his thoughts. He had just started his "moving on" by having his first sexual encounter in several years, and now, there he stood with an erection and the gorgeous Dr Temperance Brennan running through his head.