Be With Me (B/B smangstmance--rated M) - By Sweetjaimelee Posted 29/09/2007 05:14:17 PM

BGWGscienceteacher

Posted 03/12/2007 07:50:37 AM


OOOOO (*jumps up and down*) that was so great. I'll get dirty with him, and then we can get down to "dirty" business in the shower! That was a great chapter. I still don't trust Jared, and evidently Booth has been rubbing off on Brennan in more ways than one. Great that she can see what he can't about Jared. PPS

A2BOREANAZ

Posted 03/12/2007 09:21:47 AM


oh now that was just wonderful.......brennan telling him things this time.......awesome and fantastic.......oh my.....i didnt think she would be too upset over the picture....however...i did cover my mouth when he told her jared saw her......oops.....and then sex with dirty seeley......hell yeah.....bring on the grease, mud, whatever ya got going on there booth......spread it all over me too...its all good......thats what the shower is for.......oh now woman......i will be waiting for more and more of this one...as well as the others i havent read yet......all is good.......and again.....thank you for entertaining us.....and sharing your talent.....i loved it...........

mereva

Posted 03/12/2007 06:13:25 PM


Love-love-love-LOVE your story!!!

*grumbling* The only thing that troubles me here: the updates come way less often than it was with "Talk to me" (I'm addicted to this story in almost unhealthy way )

JAXTIG

Posted 03/12/2007 10:51:59 PM


That was great! I really thought you would have Jared throw Booth under the bus about the picture! I was so glad he got to tell her himself. And a punishment!!! Oh MY!! Too hot! Her turning the tables and getting in his head was really awsome. PPS

CaRiNeSs

Posted 05/12/2007 00:48:31 AM


aww...hot but sweet at the same time... Booth is such a great guy.... silly boy! post more soon!

Posted 04/01/2008 10:39:17 PM

PART I

Angela Montenegro’s flamboyant personality was occasionally a cause of embarrassment for her more low-key friends, but she liked to consider herself a sensitive and thoughtful person most of the time. Which is why she volunteered her and her fiance’s services to help her good friend move into their new house this weekend. And, after seeing the hesitancy in said friend’s eyes at the offer, she knew how important it was going to be to tone down her excitement at this milestone in Brennan’s life. This is what she told her fiancé Jack Hodgins, who looked at her doubtfully.

“Babe. Booth and Dr. Brennan have been together as a couple for the better part of a year now. They have vacationed together, gone on family outings with his son. They are practically living together already, and I’m fairly certain that they’ve done the nasty in this museum more places and times than we have.”

“I knooooow,” Angela drew out. “Bust just because they are a couple doesn’t mean we have to lay on thick all the coupley-type stuff. We have to make this transition as comfortable as possible for them.”

“Is living in sin supposed to be comfortable?” Jack asked with a grin.

“Yes,” his fiancée replied, shoving him lightly. “They deserve to have something go easy for them. So don’t try to embarrass Booth. No matter how much you think he deserves it for giving you a hard time.”

And Jack had agreed, and Angela was happy. Until she met Jared Booth. At that point, it became exceedingly difficult to keep her mouth shut. His slick smile bothered her, as did his subtle jabs at his younger brother. And his appreciative glances at her best friend, Temperance Brennan? It put her in instant protective mode.

“You know,” she said, as she held the other end of a couch she and Jared were currently lugging into the house, “Booth has totally changed the way we work in the lab at the Jeffersonian. It’s like we have a new sense of purpose now.”

“Uh-huh,” Jared grunted, lifting the end of the sofa up over the small step into the house. He wasn’t listening to her.

“And Brennan…she has benefited so much from working with Booth. Sees things in a completely different way. They are so good for each other.” She was letting Jared take the brunt of the weight of the couch so she could talk.

“Yeah. I bet she has.”

She frowned, unable to tell whether or not he was being a smartass or was simply too overburdened by the couch to respond in socially acceptable ways. “Benefited professionally, personally, emotionally…we always knew that they belonged together. It was just meant to b-….”

“Babe. Why don’t you let me help Jared with that, and you go out and grab some of those other boxes?” Jack swooped in and took the largely unattended part of the couch out of Angela’s hands. Jared sighed in relief, while Angela narrowed her eyes for a second at the intrusion, before realizing she was doing exactly what she had told Jack not to do.

“Fine.” She stalked out towards the moving van, and met up with Brennan on a similar return-trip along the way. “Sweetie,” she hissed, taking hold of her arm and pulling her aside briefly. “Are you trying to tell me that guy came from the same parents as our resident federal sweetie Booth?”

“Ange, stop it,” Brennan whispered back. “Jared’s not that bad. He just has different priorities than our Booth.”

“Yeah. Priority one, emasculate his brother. Priority two, tap your ass.”

“Oh my God, Angela.” Brennan’s hand came and landed on her friend’s mouth. “Don’t you let Booth hear you talk like that. I’m trying to help him get over his insecurities about his brother.” She tilted her head to one side. “What exactly does it mean to tap one’s ass? That sounds awful.”

“Go ask Booth,” Angela replied, rolling her eyes and giving her a slight shove towards the door. Nonplussed, Brennan moved away towards the van, ignoring her friend’s sigh. Brennan had grown so much, and in so many ways in the past few years. But in many other important ways, she would always be her slightly clueless counterpart. And she loved her for it, for all it frustrated her.

Before Brennan could exit the house, she found herself being pulled and spun into what was going to become her new kitchen. Their new kitchen.

“Booth,” she laughed, briefly pretending to fight off his kiss before submitting and returning his embrace. “This isn’t expediting the moving process.”

“Oh well,” he shrugged, running one hand up under her shirt in the back. “It’s making the process more enjoyable. That counts for something, right?” In truth, as much as he could do without the annoyances of moving, very few things could undermine his good mood today. Today, he was finally going to share a home with the woman he loved. He was on top of the fucking world. He even managed to respond with good-natured humor to his brother’s teasing, and forgive him for happening upon the misplaced peep show at Booth’s office. None of it really mattered. Not when he got to wake every morning to Bones’ sugar-sweet kisses…just like the one she was bestowing on him right now that made him feel a little like backing her up against the counter and pulling her tee-shirt off…

“Okay, kids. Lots more work to be done. You can play all you want when you are done. And you’ll have a whole house to do it in.” They looked just a little guiltily over their shoulder at Jack, who gave them an impatient clap to get them moving.

“Sorry, man. Just got a little excited about the move.”

“I can see that.” Hodgins’ voice was exasperated, but he had a smile on his face as he left the room, and Booth knew that he was on their side. He grinned at his partner, who looked only a little flustered about being caught acting decidedly unprofessional with her new roommate.

“You okay with all this?”

Her face was brave. “Yes,” she replied decisively. “We’ve been together for almost a year now. It’s a completely logical and practical next step to cohabitate at this point. There’s no reason to feel uncomfortable about that decision.”

He winked at her and gave her a quick squeeze around her shoulder, proud of her. It had taken a lot of time for her to become comfortable with the concept of Booth and Brennan as a unit, in their own eyes and those of the world. But he was getting the distinct impression that lately, she was entirely unapologetic about their relationship. And he loved to see it.

On his way out to the van, he ran into his brother. “You slacking, bro?” Jared said, punching him lightly on the arm.

“Nope,” Seeley replied breezily. “Showing my appreciation to Temperance Brennan is a full-time job.” He looked at Jared as if challenging him to say something remotely derogatory about him, his relationship, or anything else in his world. Having told Brennan about his accidental slip with her pictures, he felt much more confident, not having a secret hanging over his head. Jared couldn’t touch him, touch them.

To his surprise, Jared merely chuckled and walked to get another load from the van. “Where does this one go?” he asked, lifting a particularly heavy box. Booth looked over his shoulder.

“Take that one up to the bedroom. And be careful with it. It’s fragile.”

Jared muttered to himself as he carried the cardboard box up the stairs to the master bedroom. He should really be working today. Or spending time with Leah. This being a good brother thing was a big pain in his ass. But still, something he felt compelled to try to do. Resisting the urge to simply toss the box down on the floor, he bent over and set it down gently. Turning to go, he realized he wasn’t quite ready yet to face his brother, who had been walking around all day with that self-assured smile on his face, and his friends, who had apparently been programmed to remind Jared just how great his brother had it. Stalling, he ripped the packing tape off of the box that he had carried. Finding a mass of bubble wrap there, he picked up one item and carefully pulled the plastic away, piece by piece. A picture frame. What was with him finding all these damned pictures lately? At least in this one, everyone was dressed. Seeley and Temperance, dressed to the nines, sitting together against the backdrop of a sparkling ocean and sailing ships. And both of them were fucking glowing. Disgusting.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” He nearly dropped the picture in surprise at the sound of the voice, but he recovered quickly at the sight of Seeley and Brennan’s feisty dark-haired friend in the doorway. Angela, right? The artist. The one who seemed the most intent on rubbing in just how close Seeley was to being crowned prodigal son. He laid the picture back in the box.

“Precious,” he replied dryly, and he had enough insight to be appropriately embarrassed by the bitterness he heard in his own voice. Angela sat down the box she had been carrying, and he hoped she would turn and leave just as quickly as she had appeared. Instead, she wandered over and picked up the picture that he had laid down, and looked at it with a small smile on her face.

“I’m not sure if you realized this or not…you’re not around these two every day like we are…just how long it took them to find each other. Find each other, and recognize exactly what it was they had. In some ways, it was really painful to watch them fumble around with their feelings for so long. But when they found it…wow.” Suddenly, the smile on her face was replaced by a much more deadly serious expression, and she met Jared’s eyes squarely. “If anyone were to mess with that…try to undermine their happiness…well, I just might be inclined to kill that person.”

He nearly laughed at her hyperbole, but the chuckle was cut short when he saw not a hint of humor in Angela’s eyes. “Can’t imagine anyone would make a purposeful effort to hurt Seeley and Temperance.”

“It’s hard to tell. There are lots of selfish people in the world. People that can’t stand others being happy, when it’s not them.” For another moment, the artist’s gaze remained nearly intolerably intense. Then, suddenly, her pretty, sweet smile of earlier returned. “It’s a good thing they have people like us to look out for them, right? So that they can have their happily ever after.”

Jared prided himself on his smoothness, but right now he was a bit disconcerted by Angela’s bipolar line of questioning. “Think they are pretty good at looking out for themselves. But yes. We all need friends.”

“Very true,” Angela agreed. She laid the picture down again. “Guess we better get back to work, huh? This stuff’s not going to move itself.” Cheerfully, she waltzed towards the door. “Catch you at the van.”

Jared Booth wasn’t a betting man. Especially not after his little brother’s run-in with Gamblers Anonymous. No way was he going to fall in that trap. But watching Angela’s departure, he had something that felt suspiciously like a premonition. Things didn’t go as smoothly for people as Ange was insisting on. Whether they deserved it or not. Life had a habit of getting in the way. Jared frowned at his sense of foreboding, and wondered if it was born of irritation arising from the implied threat in Angela’s words. He had made a decision awhile back that whatever fate laid ahead for his little brother and his perfect girlfriend, he was not going to have any hand in. But if he were a betting man…well, he would bet on a storm before the calm.

Shaking off the thought, he abandoned the room, wondering that if he were wrong, just how the hell he was going to beat happily ever after?

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PART II

It had been a long time since Brennan had undertaken such a comprehensive move, and it was amazing to her how in the process, so many things that were lost became found again. Sitting on the floor with Booth this evening, amidst piles of what seemed like a whole year’s work at a packaging plant, she delighted in artifacts that she had previously packed away, not having room at her apartment to display. While they sat comfortable in their nightclothes, the crackling fireplace provided a gentle glow for their explorations. “Look at this!” she exclaimed to Booth, who was busy unearthing his own items. “I had forgotten about this sculpture. Isn’t it beautiful?”

Booth glanced over at the object in her hands. “Yes. Gorgeous. Just one question. What the hell is it?”

She rolled her eyes at him and thrust out the figurine for him to see. “It’s a depiction of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of fertility, love, and warfare. You can tell because she is standing on the backs of lionesses, representing the inherent strength and power of women.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Love and warfare? Those Sumerians had a sense of irony, didn’t they.”

Brennan pulled the statue back to her and ran her fingers over the smooth jade surfaces, while grinning at her partner. “Fine line between love and rage, Booth. Even ancient Sumerians knew that.”

Grinning, he returned to his task. “Well, as much as I’d love to have all of your culturally-rich artifacts displayed prominently around our house…I’d recommend that you lock them away if they mean anything to you.”

“Why?” she asked, genuinely confused.

“Because, Bones, we’ll be having a six-year-old staying with us on a semi-regular basis. And as great as Parker is, he can’t tell the difference between Inanna there and his G.I. Joe.”

Brennan frowned. “G.I. Joe doesn’t have breasts.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to point out the vaguely pornographic quality of your statue, there, but that’s another reason why it’s not exactly child-appropriate.” Seeing her sad sigh, he reached over and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. “Don’t worry, Bones. Parker will be a big kid before we know it, and then you can put out all the bizarre memorabilia you want. At least in your office. The side room is reserved for my Steeler’s stuff.”

Giving him a look, she reluctantly re-wrapped Inanna and placed her gently back in the box, before standing and stretching. “We going to set up the bed tonight?”

“God, no,” he yawned. “We’ve done enough today—let’s just relax. Let’s find the sleeping bags and we can stay down here tonight. Besides, I’m kind of digging the fire. Always wanted a fireplace, and now we have one.”

Laughing, she pulled herself into a standing position. “We finally have a house of our own, and you want to camp out in the living room like squatters.”

“You got a problem with that?” But she obviously didn’t, as she was floating around the room poking at bags, trying to find the sleeping bags. He watched her interestedly, finding it irresistible to give her bottom a pinch when she bent over in front of him. She jumped and looked at him indignantly.

“Well excuse me, Agent Booth. I didn’t realize that moving in together gave you permission to squeeze my ass whenever you felt like it.”

“You should have read the lease more carefully.”

“In that case…” She abandoned her search for the sleeping bags and reached down for him, looking for her own handful in this game of grab-ass. Laughing, he backed away from her, stood, and leaped over the box next to him, trying to get away.

“The lease doesn’t say that the privilege is reciprocal.”

“So you say.” She leapt after him and engaged in a fairly dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, considering all the boxes on the floor, both full and empty. Neither could stop giggling maniacally. She cornered him. “Your ass is mine, Seeley Booth.” He made a move to dart past her, but she caught his arm, throwing him off-balance. After teetering precariously, he tipped over, pulling a squealing Brennan with him and landing ass-first in box that was thankfully filled only with packing peanuts. With her on top, he easily held onto her bottom by both cheeks, and her brief struggle became much more effective when she suddenly pushed her lips onto his, kissing the smile off his face and taking advantage of his surprise, snaking her tongue around his through the “O” of his mouth and rubbing against him sensually.

He quickly forgot about the game while he kissed her, never tiring of her taste, or her smell, or the feeling of her perfectly smooth skin brushing against his own. When she pulled back, she smiling in satisfaction at the dazed look on his face. “Get me out of here, Bones.”

“Why?” she replied innocently, with another quick kiss. Pausing for a second, he then burst out in laughter. “What?” Confused, now.

“I will not do you in a box. I will not…” Cracking up. “I will not do you with a fox…” The thoroughly perplexed look on her face only made him guffaw louder.

“You are a strange man.” She struggled to her feet, holding her hand out to him. He stood as well, brushing the Styrofoam pieces from his pants.

“Dr. Suess is a part of Americana, Bones. We’ll read him the next time Parker comes over.”

“You won’t let Parker see my Inanna statue, but you’ll read him a story about doing it in a box?”

“Well, I took some creative liberties with the words.” His laughter still running its course, he pulled her towards him, taking hold of her ass much more gently this time as he showered adoring kisses on her face. “Thank you,” he whispered through his smile.

“Did I do something?”

“Thank you for just being you. God. It just wouldn’t be the same with anyone else, ya know, Bones?”

“You got that right.” Her leg nudged something on the floor. She looked down and pressed her toe against it. “Hey, look here.” Kneeling, she pulled open the tie of the bag she had been pushed up against. “It’s the sleeping bags!”

“Hey, nice find!” Cheerfully, he pulled out the yards of material of the bag, and tossed it on the empty spot on the floor in front of the fireplace. “Our sleeping quarters await.”

She looked at him witheringly. “I don’t get my own?”

“You want your own? What do you think this is, the Ritz?”

Her stomach was starting to hurt from laughing too much. “You just don’t stop, do you?”

“And I never will, baby.” With a squeeze of her hand, he darted away and into the sleeping bag. “Come in here.”

Sighing dramatically, she fell down beside him, trying to insinuate her way into the bag. “It’s not big enough.”

“You just broke my heart, Bones. Never say those words to me again.” Grinning, he adjusted himself. “You’ll just have to lay on top of me, then.”

“Who’d want to lay on top of you?” she asked, at the same time belying her words by doing just what he suggested. Ignoring her, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her head to rest in that perfectly comfortable (and not just a little tasty) spot between his shoulder and his neck. Finally abandoning her façade of indifference, she snuggled into him deeply, enjoying the warmth of his body and the fire in the dimly lit room. “This can’t be comfortable for you.”

“You kidding me? I’m never more comfortable than I am with you on top of me.”

“Your back’s going to hurt in the morning.”

“I don’t care.” He kissed the top of her head. “Because guess what?” He tucked his head under to whisper into her ear secretively. “We have a house together.”

She was about to say something smart in return, but was momentarily stunned by the truth of his words. He was right. She now officially shared more with this man than she ever had with anyone else in her life. And damn if it didn’t feel good. With the same suddenness as she had when they had tumbled into the box earlier, she kissed him, passionately and lingeringly, until his breathing quickened against her mouth.

“What was that for?” he asked her when she finally pulled back a little.

Her fingers traced his cheeks and his lips. She shrugged. “For being the sexy-as-hell man that I love, I guess.”

She could have sworn that she heard him moan a little. “You have any idea how good those words sound coming from your pretty mouth?”

Grinning wickedly, she replied, “My mouth’s good for other things, too, you know.”

“That’s it,” he declared. “Take off your clothes.” He struggled to pull her top over her head while she giggled.

“Anxious to inaugurate this place, are you?” She wiggled her arms up out of the cocoon that they were in to help him.

“I shouldn’t have to remind you that we already did.”

“But that was different. It wasn’t ours yet.”

He had her shirt half-off, but he paused with it halfway over her head, leaving her temporarily blinded until she fought her way out of it herself. “Am I hearing what I think I’m hearing? Temperance Brennan being sentimental?”

“No,” she scoffed, now working her hands under his own shirt, scratching gently at skin in her quest for his nakedness. “Just call it…territorial.” He raised his eyebrows at that one, too. “Well, I learned from the best.”

Becoming frustrated with his inability to access her breasts from their current position, Booth twisted and lowered her to her side, so that he was spooning her inside the sleeping bag. He murmured his satisfaction when his roving hands were finally able to sweep over the front of her body, lovingly cupping her breasts and running his middle fingers over her nipples. Reacting instantly, she arched her hips backwards, pressing against his growing erection with the little ass he had been so insistently groping earlier. As he touched her here, wrapped up tightly by the crackling fire in their new place, teasing one another in the ways he had come to love, he was filled with a nearly overwhelming sense of satisfaction. This was the way it was supposed to be. They had made it. There were parts that had been challenging and frightening and damn near heartbreaking. But now, there was nothing stopping them. Because he couldn’t find anymore kidding words, he said honest ones. “I love you.” While one of his hands drifted down her stomach and under the waistband of her pants, caressing the short auburn curls he found there. She trembled, just like he knew she would.

“You’ve already got me into bed. The ‘I love yous’ are unnecessary, you know,” she teased, her voice a little shaky now.

“Unnecessary as the rest of our clothes?”

“Nothing is unnecessary as them.”

The sleeping bag restricting their movements, they helped one another undress, luxuriating in how good it felt to be naked together here, warm and safe. He kissed her shoulders, stroked her back, testing her readiness for him by slipping a finger over her sensitive flesh and, with her bucking in invitation, inside of her, stroking her until she was severely testing the limits of their space with her frantic movements. He teased her this way until his cock became insanely jealous of his finger, and her begging became irresistible. Sliding inside her with a sigh, he moved slowly. “Please. Faster, Seeley.” Her whimpering was a ruse, he knew; she could very well tolerate it slow and soft, and her supplications were simply a mark of impatience. He brought a finger to her mouth to hush her, and she promptly sucked it into her mouth, swirling her tongue around it before taking it deeply.

“You know, that would make a lesser man explode,” he whispered through gritted teeth, praying that he wouldn’t turn into one of those lesser men in the next few minutes. “But if you think I’m not going to pump you slow like this until you come at least once, you’re gravely mistaken.” She moaned around his finger, and he knew he was giving her exactly what she wanted and needed right now. Slipping that finger from her mouth and down her body, he touched her pleasure center in time with his thrusts until she began shuddering and sighing his name. There was his girl. He carefully brought her to climax with his slow motions and his whispered words of encouragement in her ear. Sighing in relief as her body milked him, he pumped her faster, faster, giving into their baser instincts and their overwhelming desire for one another. When she came that second time, he went with her, needing to share the experience this time, needing her cries to mingle with his own.

They fell asleep shortly afterwards, sated, secure in one another’s arms. His last words to her before falling asleep were “This is it, Bones. Nothing can touch us now.” She murmured her agreement before drifting into her own dreams.

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“So. You survived.” Brennan hadn’t seen her friend for most of the day, as she had been so immersed in her work. Her interest in Sumer renewed after her discovery of Inanna, she remembered some bones that had in storage from the Akkadian dynasty, and had set about piecing them together. Currently, she planned to finish her documentation and head home. Home. She really had a home. But first, she had to deal with being accosted by Angela. “Did you enjoy your first night living in sin?”

“It was fine, Ange.” The artist raised her eyebrows. “Okay, more than fine. Fantastic. Fabulous. Blew my mind.”

Angela was laughing. “That’s better.”

“We still have a lot more work to do, though. I’m going to leave here shortly.”

“Lots of work, this ass-tapping business is, isn’t it?” Nothing could ever be innocent unpacking with her best friend.

“I think the phrase ‘ass-tapping’ is my cue to go pick up the things I just printed out,” Brennan replied, heading toward the door just as the phone in her office rang. “Can you get that, Ange? I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Sure thing, Sweetie.” As she picked up the phone, she muttered to herself, “Moving, putting nosy brothers in their place, secretarial duty….is there anything I don’t do for this girl?” Finally, the receiver reached her ear. “Temperance Brennan’s office.”

“Hello, who is this?”

The voice sounded vaguely familiar. “This is Angela Montenegro. Who is this?”

“Angela, this is Jared Booth. Put Temperance on the phone.”

Well, it was one thing to be ordered around by her best friend, and another to be by this tool. She sighed. Apparently, her subtle “stay the hell away from my friends” speech didn’t get through to him. “I don’t know, Jared. Are you sure this is important?”

“Yes.” He didn’t elaborate.

“Dr. Brennan is a very busy woman, you know. If you need something, it’s probably better to go through Booth….”

“Angela,” he interrupted. “Put Temperance on the goddamn phone.”

She stopped short, for the first time, hearing the raw anguish in his voice. Without covering the mouthpiece of the phone, she yelled for her friend. “BRENNAN.” She turned her attention back to Jared. “Jared, what’s going on? What’s happening? What’s wrong?”

Brennan came sauntering back into the room, looking over the papers she picked up from the printer. “Jeez, Ange, I have eardrums, you know. Who is it?” She looked at Angela questioningly.

“Jared?” Angela asked again, desperately. Brennan cocked her head in confusion.

“It’s Seeley, Angela. He’s been in an accident.”

fanofbones

Posted 05/01/2008 00:13:19 AM


loved it as always...it was awesome...
Now I have mixed feelings about Jared...
after his conversation with Ange and then what he said to himself....
then that last line................................
Hummmmmmmmmmmmmm...
now my mind is all swirling wondering what the hell is going on......
can't wait for more...

fab

mereva

Posted 05/01/2008 11:20:38 AM


I already posted my comment on ff site ... PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE don't hurt him (and them)!!!
And be kind, don't let us wait for the next chappy another month...

A2BOREANAZ

Posted 05/01/2008 12:45:45 AM


oh i cant wait for more........want it now.......this chapter was so sweet.......loved them in the sleeping bag by the fire.....of course....its all good

eggfish!!

Posted 05/01/2008 06:33:28 PM


oh my now i know why everyone hangs out here lol.
the writers strike has lead me to fanfic for my B&B fix and now im addicted great story, great smut.
nooo not an injured booth, please dont make him comatose i dont like it when he doesnt talk

CheeseBK

Posted 06/01/2008 06:31:19 AM


oh no.... an accident? oh shit!

nane

Posted 06/01/2008 07:27:54 PM


What have you done? Now I find this gem here again after neglecting ff a lot lately and now Booth has an accident. So no fair. But you gave me a lot of pleasure with all the story before this last line. And the last chappie being XXL, THANKS!

Posted 16/01/2008 10:07:08 PM

PART I

Thanks for all the kind words of everyone reading this over here! This story has certainly gotten more complicated than the one it was spawned from, and I very much hope it is keeping you entertained. Bear with the dramatic digressions, and I promise that soon we will return to our smutty roots;)

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Dissociation. In his Ranger training, he was told that one should usually fight it. It was very important to notice details, to stay alert, even when things started to get mighty unpleasant. But then, there were the other times. When one was being tortured, for example. Bones breaking, punch-taking, skin-splitting, lungs-burning—it wasn’t helpful to stay in the moment and fight dissociation at those times. So when things got unbearable, intolerable, he didn’t fight it. He looked for another place to be. That’s what he did at this moment to get away from the ache that seemed to have taken over his entire being.

Where to go? Maybe—a lake. Yes, he could see it. When he was young, his father took him and Jared to the most beautiful lake to fish. Rippling blue-green water, calm, peaceful, the sound of trees gently blowing and birds chirping and dragonflies buzzing. He relaxed, let go, floating—on a raft? Yes, a raft in the middle of the water with the sunlight beating down on his bare chest and his fingers trailing in the water.

“Daddy.”

He opened one eye and saw the small boat beside him, his son leaning over the edge. He smiled. “Hey, Park.”

“What are you doing?”

“Just maxin’ and relaxin’.” Parker giggled. “Where’s Bones?”

“Right here,” the little boy said, as if exasperated, and when Booth looked again he saw that Parker was right—Bones was right there behind his son, her hand on his shoulder. How could he have missed her? He gave them both his winningest grin.

“Why don’t you come out and join me? This water is amazing,” he said, in his most persuasive voice.

Bones gave him the smirk that he had once found irritating, but that he had come to find so sweet. “Sorry, Booth, but you’re on your own out there for now. We’ve got to stay on solid ground—it’s safer here.”

“Yeah, Dad. Sorry,” his son piped up. He smiled at the image of his partner and his little boy, putting the beauty of nature’s backdrop to shame.

“Well, fine, then. Spoilsports,” he replied jokingly, paddling lightly at the warm water and closing his eyes again. “I’m gonna stay out here for awhile. It feels so good…”

“Alright, Booth. Just don’t stay too long. Or float too far away.”

Listen to his Bones, being the protective one. “Don’t you worry about me, babe. I’m not going anywhere.” He said it definitively. But when he opened an eye to wink at her, he noticed that the raft had already drifted several yards from the boat. He frowned. That was fast. But he was feeling just so incredibly relaxed, and as long as he could still see Parker and Bones, he knew he’d still be alright. More and more relaxed, every second he was out here…just a little while longer, he told himself. He let his eyes slip shut again, and the raft drifted just a little further away.

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Dissociation, she told herself. It had to be the reason she didn’t remember how she responded to Jared once she took the phone from Angela, or leaving the Jeffersonian, or the entire ride to the hospital. When she thought about it later, she didn’t remember any of it.

The surreal bustling of the hospital pulled her back around a little bit. It was a house of science. Yes, she could function here. Surely she’d begin to understand what was happening.

And then there was Jared, taking her by the arms, trying to explain. She heard words…fractures, trauma, concussion, unconscious, critical condition…and her mind, which was usually so adept at putting things together just didn’t seem to be functioning correctly just now, wasn’t seeing the pieces for the gestalt. A high-speed chase…a car crash…Booth never wore his seatbelt. She never mentioned it, figured that was his own prerogative, even as he often took lengthy minutes making sure Parker was secure in his car seat. No seat belt meant nothing stopping him from flying through the windshield on impact, the airbag useless against the massive blow. And now Booth, her Booth, who always emerged from the most dangerous cases mostly unscathed, smiling, telling her he had been hurt worse and nursing whatever wounds he had in private…now he lay in a hospital bed, clinging to life, without her, without anybody, for…how long?

She must have verbalized that last thought, because Jared told her and his answer reverberated in her mind. Two hours. He had been here for two hours. While she was at work thinking about her goddam bones, Booth was here, his broken. When had they gotten that call? No more than a half-hour ago. Out of everything, her mind chose to focus on that one, unbelievable fact.

Her voice was hollow. “Why wasn’t I called?” Angela took her hand and she didn’t feel it.

“I did call you, Temperance. You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

But why? She and Booth were together. They were partners. They lived together now, dammit. He was her….he was her…

“I’m his family,” Jared told her. “The hospital called Mom and Dad first…they’re Seeley’s emergency contacts, and they’re in vacation in Aruba right now. They’re trying to find a plane back as we speak. So they called me, gave me de facto power-of-attorney until they arrive. I’ve been talking to the doctors, trying to figure things out. I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier, but there was nothing you could do here anyway.”

Her cloudy, shocked eyes muddled through space until they connected with his. “I should have been here the whole time, Jared. You know that. The whole time,” she whispered. He looked like he was about to respond, when a white-coated figure walked into the lobby.

“Mr. Booth? If you don’t mind coming with us, we have some information about your brother’s condition.”

Booth’s doctor. Must be. Brennan floated over to him, her eyes pleading. “How is he? Is he stabilizing? Is he going to be okay?”

The doctor’s eyes flickered over to Jared. “Is this Agent Booth’s wife?”

Jared shook his head. “No, he’s unmarried.”

“I’m his partner,” Brennan told him. She had said the words hundreds, thousands of times before, and between her and Booth, they conveyed everything, a million and one things they were to one another. Seeing the confused look of the doctor, she knew the words meant nothing to him. “We work together. We live together.”

“I’m sorry Ms…”

“Brennan,” Angela spoke up, stepping in. “Dr. Brennan.”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Brennan. I understand you are concerned about your…partner. But in order to disclose information about his condition or give you access to the patient, you need to have biological or legal ties to that person.”

“Legal…” The doctor might as well have been speaking a foreign language. One that Brennan didn’t speak herself. “You can’t be saying…”

Jared interrupted her. “Temperance, I’ll keep you apprised of what’s happening. I need to go talk to Dr. Georges now.”

Brennan’s desperate near-lunge at Jared and the doctor was thwarted by Angela, who held her back. “Sweetie, don’t.”

“Ange, did you hear what they said? That can’t be right. It’s not fair…”

“It’s not fair. But Jared’s right. God, I can’t believe I’m saying that. There’s nothing we can do right now.”

If there was one thing Temperance Brennan hated, it was feeling powerless. And never had she felt more utterly helpless than she did right at this moment.

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He must have fallen asleep while he floated, because when he opened up his eyes the boat was a tiny speck on the horizon. And there was a great deal of splashing water just a few yards to his left. Someone was swimming towards him. Not very well. Grinning, he waited.

“That was a good long swim, Bub,” he told his son as he struggled up to join his father on the raft, breathing hard and yellow swimmies in place on each arm. Booth squinted toward the boat again. “You came all that way? Not sure you should have swum that far.”

“Not my fault you got so far away,” Parker huffed. The kid had a point.

“How are things back on the boat?”

His son shrugged. “Okay. You coming back?”

His limbs felt so very heavy, and the thought of paddling back that far made him feel inexplicably exhausted. “Not quite yet, Park.”

The boy looked disappointed, so Booth gave him a quick tickle until he giggled. They were quiet for a second, gently riding the ripples of the water. Finally, the boy piped up again. “I have a soccer game next weekend.”

“I know, we’ve been practicing every day we’ve been together. Can’t wait to see you play.”

Parker nodded. “And…I’m starting first grade soon.”

Booth chuckled. “It’s still a couple months, Bub. But I know, the time will fly. Jeesh, you’re getting big so fast.” It was true. In the span of a few short years, his son had grown so much. In so many ways. It was a little disorienting how fast he went from being a baby, to being this smart, thoughtful little person.

There was another moment of silence. Then: “Are you sure you’re gonna be there?”

“Well of course.”

“Promise?”

“You know I’m gonna try, son.”

The child’s warm brown eyes seemed pleading. “Are you trying your hardest? Right now?”

He frowned at the question, and looked towards the boat, which had come close to disappearing. A second of what felt something close to alarm pierced the nearly surreal calm he was experiencing. “Yikes, Park. I love talkin’ with ya, but you better swim back while I can still see you.”

Glancing back, his son nodded reluctantly. “Why don’t you swim with me? It’s gonna get real hard to find your way back.”

“Don’t you worry. I’m a big strong manly man.” Parker laughed again, a sound he loved to hear. “Tell Bones I’ll be back soon.”

Parker threw his wet arms around his father. “’Kay. Love you Dad.” Without waiting for a reply, the little boy slipped back into the water much more quickly than he had emerged and began his sloppy strokes again back to the boat.

“Love you back,” he called after him, watching him become tinier and tinier the further away he got. Crazy kid, asking him if he was going to be around for all that important stuff. He would. He had to. Just…not right now. Surely after some time he would gain his strength again, be ready for that swim back to the boat. Just a little more rest. A little while longer…

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PART II

“Bones!” Even though the sound of the nickname was nowhere close to Booth’s deep, soothing voice, it was enough to make her head whip around in a reaction faster than any since she had arrived here.

“Hey, Parker.” The little boy let go of his mother’s hand and ran over to Brennan, and she gave him a hug. When Booth had him one weekend shortly before Christmas, Parker had come up to her and tugged on her sleeve, shyly asking if it was okay if he stopped calling her Dr. Brennan and started calling her by her real name. When she said yes, it hadn’t even occurred to her that from Parker’s point of view, her real name was and had always been Dr. Bones Brennan. She hadn’t had the heart to correct him. “You doing okay?”

He nodded. “Uncle Jared told us Dad’s hurt. But he’s been hurt lots of times, and he always gets better.”

“Your dad’s tough. That’s for sure,” she said in a voice that was much calmer than she felt. Glancing upwards, she looked at Parker’s mother. “Hi Rebecca.”

“Hi Dr. Brennan.” Worry lines etched her face. “What’s the latest?”

She had to fight back a hollow laugh. “I wish I knew. Jared disappeared with the doctor awhile ago and I haven’t heard anything. And they won’t tell me anything. Because….”

“Because you aren’t married.”

“That’s basically it,” she replied bitterly. Rebecca looked at her sympathetically.

“When you think about the reasons to get married or not, this isn’t the situation that pops into your mind.”

Her confused mind wrapped around the words. “I don’t think about the reasons to get married.”

“Oh.” Rebecca looked vaguely embarrassed, and relieved when Parker began asking Brennan questions.

“You think daddy will be better by this weekend? I wanna see my new room! What’s it like?” Not for the first time, Brennan wished for just a shred of Parker’s naiveté. She glanced at Angela, who was sitting across the room now, and her friend gave her a slight nod. Pulling together all her concentration, she focused on the little boy in front of her, telling him about his new room, the dinosaur bordering they found for him and the Simon Gagne poster that his father had bought and had framed for his wall, acting as if said father wasn’t lying somewhere in this hospital fighting for his life. Suddenly, Parker cried out “Uncle Jared!,” and all attention in the room was turned to the door.

“Hiya, buddy,” Jared replied, picking Parker up easily in his strong arms. He looked over his shoulder and nodded to the other newcomer. “Rebecca.”

“How’s daddy?”

It was the question of the day. “Well, let’s talk abut that.” His face looked tired, and he sat, Pulling Parker onto his lap, the rest of the group surrounding him like he was about to read them a particularly interesting bedtime story. “Your dad got a pretty nasty bump on his head. You remember what happened that time Uncle Jared got his hand caught in the car door?” Parker nodded. “What happened to his hand?”

“It got all big and ugly-looking.”

“That’s right. It swelled up.”

“So daddy’s head is big.”

A slight smile touched Jared’s face. “It was always big, buddy. But you’re right. His brain is swelling up.”

“Will medicine or ice or something fix it? Like it helped with your hand?”

“That’s the thing, kiddo. My hand could get about as big as it needed to, and we could get right at it to try to help. But your dad’s brain is inside his skull, so it doesn’t have much room to grow. So it’s gonna be harder to fix it. He’s going to go into surgery soon so they can make room.”

There was only one thing he could mean, Brennan realized. “They’re going to remove part of his skull.”

Jared nodded. “Yes.” Angela made a small sound of shock, and she took Brennan’s hand. She didn’t even feel it.

It took everything she was not to blurt out everything she was thinking in front of Parker and Rebecca and the world. “Can I talk to you privately for a second, Jared?”

Booth’s brother lifted Parker onto the floor, and moved to the corner with Brennan. “That kind of surgery is so incredibly dangerous. Surely there are other things to try first. There’s medication that pulls fluid away from the brain to decrease the swelling. There’s medically-induced coma. Why surgery? Why now?”

It was easy to decipher the edge of impatience in his voice. “I talked to the doctor about all of this. The swelling is happening at such a rapid rate that if those methods don’t work, Seeley could be dead or brain damaged before surgery could even be attempted. We’re going to head it off at the pass right now.”

Dead. Brain damaged. She fought back a wave of something that felt like nausea. “I want to talk to the doctor about this.”

“Temperance, there’s no use. He’s already being prepped for surgery now. This is going to happen. I have the final say.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You bastard.”

“I know you are upset and you don’t mean that. Look, Temperance…you have to know that I’m trying to do the best thing for Seeley. You are just going to have to trust in that. Now, I have to go…I’m going to take Parker in to see his father before the surgery.”

“I’m going too.”

“You can’t.” He saw the dangerous flash of her eyes. “What I mean is, I talked to the doctor about it. They are very strict. Since you aren’t a family member, you can’t be in that room without Seeley’s express permission. And believe it or not, he’s not talking right now, so you have to wait until the surgery is over, and he wakes up. I’m sorry.”

He turned to go, and Brennan caught his coat, her voice in an angry whisper. “You’re trying to tell me that my partner might die in the next few hours, and I’m not allowed to see him because I don’t have a ring on my finger.”

“Please don’t be angry with me about the consequences of your personal choices. I have no say in this.”

She let go of his jacket, staring at him as she backed away a step. He gave her an apologetic look before turning away. “Let’s go see your dad, kiddo. He’s asleep and kind of funny-looking with all these tubes and a big old patch of his hair shaved off. But we can wish him good luck and not make fun of him too much, right?”

Parker’s intuition about the emotional state of the adults around him, and his natural intelligence had begun to interfere with his blissful naivete. He nodded nervously, though. “Can he hear me?”

“Not sure. But we’ll think of something good to say if he can.” Picking up the child, Jared walked out of the room, leaving the three women behind.

None of them said anything for a few long moments. Brennan had her back turned to the others. Angela walked up to her, put her hand on her shoulder tentatively. “Sweetie? Is there anything I can do?” When she didn’t get a response, she squeezed her shoulder lightly, trying to get a reaction, any reaction. She almost regretted the decision when Brennan finally turned to face her, and she saw the frustrated, angry, frightened tears that were running down her face. God, she had no idea how to deal with this. There was nothing that could equip her for dealing with this, and the pain her friend was feeling.

“I’m not allowed to talk to the doctors about him. I’m not allowed to be involved in any of the decisions about him. I’m not allowed to see him.”

“I’m so sorry, Sweetie. It’s so completely unfair.”

“I can’t accept this.”

Angela didn’t know what to do except to pull her friend into her arms and stroke her hair. “We’ll get through this.” But her confidence was shaken when, for the first time in the history of their friendship, Brennan began to sob on her shoulder.

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He could stay out here forever, it felt like. It was a good place. Just so easy to drift off and not think about anything at all.

He heard water churning again, and he opened his eyes, again seeing someone swimming towards him, this time with smooth and practiced strokes. The figure reached out and clutched the side of his raft.

“How did you get so good at everything, Bones?”

She simply glared at him, and he tried not to laugh. “What the hell do you think you are doing, Seeley Booth?”

“Can’t a guy just take a break from all the stress for awhile?”

“It’s one thing to take a break. Look. Look at how far you’ve gone.” He looked back to where he remembered the boat being, and was mildly alarmed when he couldn’t see it anymore.

“Wow. Sorry. Guess I went further than I thought.”

“You should be sorry.” She pulled herself up onto the raft, swung her leg around him and straddled his middle. His hands went to her waist, and he admired her dripping form above him. She looked like a goddess. “Come back with me.”

“But you just got here.” Reaching up, he tried to pull her face down to his for a kiss, and she resisted.

“Booth. You’ve never shied away a challenge before. Why are you doing it now?”

He contemplated this for a second. “It’s so beautiful out here, Bones. I’m so tired. Things are hard back that way. They hurt. Can’t we just stay out here?”

She just stared at him for awhile, and he started to get a little uncomfortable before she swooped down and touched her dewy lips to his. It was irresistible. Tangling his fingers into her wet hair, he held her, sucking her lower lip into his mouth and running his tongue across it. He had memorized her flavor by now, could taste it in his dreams, but every time he kissed her it was thrilling, like the first time. She pressed her chest to his, and he groaned softly, wishing he had more energy to pull her toward him, tug at her hips until he could show her just how badly he wanted her there with him. How did she get so good at everything, indeed? She could win awards for how well she simultaneously got him hot and warmed his heart. Suddenly, her lips were gone from his, and he groped for her, not wanting the distance. “You know I can’t stay here, Booth.” The water of the lake dripping from her hair and down her face looked suspiciously like teardrops. “I’ll be waiting when you come back.”

“Please don’t make me do this, Bones,” he begged, hating himself for how weak he sounded. “What if I can’t make it back?”

“You better damn well try. Try harder than you ever have in your life.” She leaned in for one last, soft kiss. “Are we worth it?”

He thought of his job, his sweet son, his new house with the partner that had seemed so intensely symbolic of all he had ever wanted and needed out of his life. He looked into the serious blue depths of her eyes. “How can you ask? You know. You have to know.”

Her lips paused by his ear. “Then prove it.” And she slipped from his grasp, back into the water, swimming away.

He groaned, watching her recede into the horizon. God. This was so unfair. Gingerly he tried a weak paddle in the direction he saw her go. His muscles felt like jelly, and he felt a brief resurgence of that deep ache, the one that had nearly overwhelmed him before he decided to go to the lake. That one, minimal effort hurt so much. How the hell would he ever make his way back? He tried one more time. This time it felt the strength of another hand joined his own in that water, and for a glorious second it felt like maybe he could do this. Then, in the next breath, it was gone. And he was on his own again.

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“Do you think it hurts him?” The young boy sitting on the edge of the surgical table looked worriedly at his father, who seemed to be hooked to a hundred whirring, blinking, beeping machines. Jared didn’t blame him for being concerned. Those cuts and bruises were painful to look at.

“He’s asleep, kiddo. He can’t feel much in his sleep.”

“That’s good, I guess. He’s gonna wake up soon, though, right?”

There was a reason that Jared made a better uncle than a father….he had no idea how to answer these hard questions. “It’s gonna be rough on your dad for awhile, bud, not gonna lie. But he’s a tough guy. If anybody can take a licking and come out ticking, it’s him.” He did his best to smile. The door opened behind him and they looked back

“We’re going to be wanting to start in a few minutes,” Dr. Georges informed them.

“Okay, doctor. We’ll say our goodbyes.” The door was shut, and Jared and Parker looked at one another. “You and your dad have anything you say or do to get the good luck flowin’?”

Parker nodded. Gingerly, he leaned down, dodging the dangling tubes and resting his head on his father’s chest. “Just do your best,” he whispered. Jared’s heart nearly cracked in two, and he wiped at his watering eyes. He hadn’t cried in years, and he wasn’t going to start now and scare his nephew. Parker sat up. “’Kay. I’m ready.”

Jared helped him slide down, and took his hand to walk him out. Before passing through the door, he paused. “Hey, hold on a second, bud.” Letting go of the boy’s hand, he quickly went back to his brother’s side, and whispered. “I’m sorry for all the times I wasn’t the best brother to you. And I’m sorry that Mom and Dad and Temperance can’t be here now. I know they want to be. They love you. You lucky bastard. Except…you know…the whole brain injury thing right now.” He knew Seeley would get a kick out of that one, if he were awake. He’d have to tell him about it when he woke up. If he woke up. “And…you know…uh…so do I. The love thing.” Feeling foolish, talking to someone who couldn’t even hear him, he sighed. “Okay. Hang in there.” Turning, he couldn’t bear to look back this time. He took Parker by the hand and quickly walked him back in the direction of the lobby. Neither of them noticed the figure behind the door they exited.

She had lingered by the doors to the surgery unit for awhile. When she saw Dr. Georges go in the first time, she thought she had lost her chance. But he poked his head in the room that must have been Booth’s, then left again. After she slipped in, all there was to do was wait either to be discovered, or to find her opportunity.

When Jared and Parker left, she took it. Quietly, Brennan slipped in.

“Oh, Booth.” She left out a shuddering breath at the sight of him. Amazingly, even as damaged as he was, with all those tubes and machines, he still looked strong. She took him in. “Your hair,” she said, noticing the spot that had been shaved to prepare for the surgery. “You aren’t going to be happy about that when you wake up.” She hoped with all she was, unrealistically, that this would be the most upsetting thing to deal with once this was all said and done. Stepping beside him, she clasped his hand in hers. It felt cold. “Please come back,” she whispered. “Try. Try harder than you ever have in your life.” For one, heart-stopping second, she could have sworn his fingers closed around hers a little tighter. Just a little.

“Dr. Brennan, you can’t be here,” a brusque voice told her. She looked up as Dr. Georges made his way in the room with two assistants at his side.

“Yes,” she said quietly, looking back down at her partner.

“I’m sorry,” he explained, trying to be empathetic. “You’re not family.”

She blinked back a tear. “You’re wrong.” But she wasn’t about to fight him. She leaned down quickly. “I’ll be waiting for you when you get back.” A light kiss on the cheek. And then, she allowed herself to be ushered to the door and back to her vessel, while Booth clung to his life raft.

willgirl

Posted 16/01/2008 11:08:26 PM


I want to smack Jared. I mean cause some serious pain. What an ass!

I feel so bad for Brennan, not being considered family. I'm not worried because I know you will fix this. Right? Right? Booth will wake up and kick his brother's ass. Then run off with Brennan for some hot smut! See there's your next chapter right there!

Excellent job, I'm on the edge of my seat! WOO!

mereva

Posted 17/01/2008 09:38:08 AM


Jamie, you evil girl, you made me cry - and I pretty much never cry over fictions.
Jared is an asshole, indeed (pardon my French)! (Willgirl, I'm right after you by smacking him, just need to take something heavy...)
Poor Temperance... May be now she'll consider to marry him: even if she doesn't need a marriage certificate to love him, it sometimes is NOT enough in a real life and could be very painful in a situation like that.
(*looking evil* And if I were them I wouldn't invite Jared!)

PLEASE put Booth, Bones - and us readers! - out of this misery, update soon!

BGWGscienceteacher

Posted 17/01/2008 05:11:09 PM


Okay, JARED IS AN ASS!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm with everyone else on this. Booth needs to wake up and kick his brothers ass, or better yet kill him outright. Bull shit, she can't be in there. I've been through this one, and all that has to be done is for the family to give permission. Please put us all out of our missery soon!!! PPS

Posted 09/02/2008 05:45:24 PM

PART I

“How’s that?”

Brennan leaned over Parker’s shoulder while he carefully pressed the picture against the construction paper. “That’s just fine. Are you going to put the glitter on, too?”

Parker nodded. “After the glue for the picture dries.”

She nodded. “Good call.”

“Will you sign it too?”

“Of course. It’s from both of us.”

The child took to blowing gently on the glue to assist its drying, while Brennan spread out newspapers on the table, just a little alarmed by the mess that was arts and crafts with Parker. She couldn’t help smiling a little at the intentness with which the child pieced together the card for his father, the centerpiece of which was a photo of the two of them, heads together, giving a thumbs-up in the direction of the camera.

“Bones?”

“Hmm?”

“Why don’t you ever come with us to visit Daddy?” He didn’t meet her eyes. Out of the corner of her eye, Brennan saw Rebecca turn to look concernedly from the couch she was sitting on watching television.

“Parker, we talked about that,” Rebecca said softly.

Parker shrugged. “I guess I don’t really get it.”

Brennan could see from Rebecca’s face that she was worried about Parker upsetting her, so she gave her an understanding look. “It’s okay,” she told her, sighing, as she prepared to explain to Parker something that she didn’t entirely understand herself. “The hospital has rules that only people who are related to patients are allowed to know information about them and visit them. It’s supposed to protect a person’s privacy, so not just anybody can know personal things about him. So since I’m not related to your dad like you or your uncle or your grandma and pappy, I’m one of those people who doesn’t get to know what’s going on.”

“But Daddy would want you to visit.”

Her heart gave a pang. “I know. But the hospital doesn’t know that, since he’s not awake to tell them.”

“But you live in the same house. They should know that he wants you to be there.”

“That makes sense, Park. But whether it should or not, living together doesn’t count.”

“What counts?”

Don’t make me say it, Park, she thought. Don’t make me reinforce these antiquated, sexist ideals about what it means to be really, truly together with someone. But there was no way around it. “Being married.” She wasn’t going to lie to the kid. But it was followed up by exactly the question she feared.

“Why aren’t you married then?” She saw Rebecca turn around again, looking at them worriedly. Brennan chose her words carefully.

“Some people believe that you have to be married to prove you love someone. I love your Dad a lot, and I show it in other ways. I feel like we can love each other just as much without being married.” Nothing like trying to explain feminist concepts to a 6-year-old. Not surprisingly, he looked vaguely confused.

“Okay. But now that you showed it in other ways, can you get married when Daddy wakes up so that the hospital people will understand?

She forced a smile. “Once he wakes up, it doesn’t matter if the hospital people understand. All that will matter is that we are all together again.”

“True.” Parker nodded earnestly. “But…you never know what’s going to happen.” She was momentarily set off-kilter by the child’s morbid statement, and she knew that he must have picked it up from some adult in his life. She was trying to figure out how to respond to that when he glanced back up at her. “I’m ready for the glitter now.”

Switching gears again took effort, but she managed. “Here you go, Parker,” she said, handing him the jar of sparkling silver. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay? I’m going to talk to your Mom for a little.”

“Sure.” He was concentrating so intently on his glitter job that he seemed to barely notice her departure. Brennan touched his hair gently before she walked over to sit next to Rebecca on the couch. The other women looked up at her and gave her a small smile.

“The place looks really great, Dr. Brennan.”

“Thank you. There’s still a lot to be done. We didn’t get a chance to get much situated before…” She trailed off. Before things did what they do best for me. Fall apart. She was ashamed of her own cynicism.

“Well we appreciate you inviting us over. Parker has been asking about you.” They both paused, looking downwards, neither quite sure what to say. Finally, Rebecca asked. “Are you okay? Really?”

Okay. Okay was relative, wasn’t it? She was functioning. She had gone back to work last week, ignoring the sympathetic and concerned faces of her coworkers, giving them a no-frills update on what Jared and his parents had told her about Booth’s condition before brusquely insisting that everything turn their attention back to science. When she came home at the end of the day…the home that she had thought was too big for her and Booth, and was most definitely too big for her alone…she picked away at the remaining boxes, putting things in their place, preparing for the day when her partner would come back. Most every waking second was spent trying to distract herself. Trying to forget that Booth still lay in a medically-induced coma that would be maintained until the swelling of his brain went down to a manageable level. Once they brought him out, there was no guarantee that he would wake up, but they would at least be able to measure his brain wave functioning to get the first evidence about whether or not any permanent damage had been caused by the accident. That was the morbid question her mind always tried to return to before she shoved the thought away. Which would be less painful…Booth dying of his injuries, or Booth’s body remaining alive and healing while the brilliant, beautiful mind that she had fallen in love with stayed dormant, unresponsive? Either thought made her nauseous. So she distracted herself.

“I’m managing.” It wasn’t a lie, at least.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why would you be sorry? Nothing that has happened is your fault.”

“No, but…I know how scary this must be for you. It’s scary for me, so what you’re feeling must be…” She couldn’t finish that sentence. “And I’m sorry about people questioning the validity of your relationship with Seeley. It’s not right. We all know that, and nobody can do anything about it, and that’s horrible.” Rebecca spoke forcefully, and Brennan was a little surprised at this.

“Thank you. I don’t think I had realized…”

“That I was so much on your side?”

The fact was that Brennan had wondered about Rebecca’s opinions about her relationship with Booth, ever since she began to spend so much time with their son. Now she just looked at her curiously. She wasn’t going to push.

“Months ago, Seeley came by my place to drop off Parker, and he was so disgustingly happy. He was whistling. And I said, joking, ‘Who are you in love with?’ But he didn’t even skip a beat before answering. ‘Temperance Brennan’.” Both women smiled, and Brennan blushed lightly, embarrassed, but more than a little pleased. “Then he grabbed my hands and acted like he was telling me a secret when he said ‘Beck…I think this is it,’ with that ridiculous smile on his face. But it wasn’t a secret. It never was. You two are good for each other. I don’t claim to entirely understand it, but you can’t deny the undeniable.”

‘But we did,’ Brennan thought. ‘For two years.’ It seemed like such a waste of time now. Not for the first time in the past 2 weeks, she wished that she believed in God, so she’d have someone to bargain with.

Her reverie was broken by the ringing of a phone. Both her and Rebecca’s hands immediately went to their pockets, and it was Rebecca who came up with the winner. She had a brief conversation while Brennan wandered back to the table to check on Parker’s progress with the glitter. It now covered the card and mostly of the table. She signed the one sparkle-free spot that he had left for her name. When Rebecca hung up, she motioned Temperance back over. “That was Mr. Booth. They are going to pull Seeley out of the induced coma today. It’s unlikely that he’ll regain consciousness right away, but they are going to start the tests to check his responses.” Brennan’s heart fluttered. She knew this moment was going to come soon. But somehow, she didn’t feel prepared. “I’m going to take Parker over to be with the rest of the Booths.” She hesitated. “Do you want to come?”

Her question was met with a sense of frustration and helplessness that had become typical in the past several weeks. “It doesn’t really make sense for me to be there, Rebecca. I’ll just have to stay in the lobby, going out of my mind while I wait for someone to tell me what’s going on. I can just as easily go out of my mind in the comfort of my own home, waiting for a phone call.”

“At least I’d have someone to wait and go crazy with,” the blond woman told her, making her feel a pang of guilt. Rebecca and Booth had once been close, and they still shared a special connection through Parker. This nightmare wasn’t just difficult on Brennan. But truth be told, she didn’t yet feel comfortable enough with Rebecca to expose her to the inevitable explosion inside of her that would come if the news wasn’t good. She would much prefer to break down at home.

“Thank you. Really. But…it’s better if I stay here. Please do call me if anything happens, though. I trust Mr. and Mrs. Booth to get me information as soon as they can, but depending on what’s going on they might forget.”

“I won’t forget,” she promised. Brennan smiled gratefully at her. “Hey Park,” she called across the room. “You ready to take that card to Daddy?”

“Yup,” he agreed, lifting the glue-heavy thing up and allowing a shower of sparkles to fall to the floor. At least vacuuming would allow for an extra 10 minutes of distraction today. “Bye Bones,” he said, giving her a hug with his sticky fingers. “Thanks for letting me come see my room.”

“Of course. I miss you.”

“Miss you too. And I miss Daddy.”

“Me too,” she agreed, letting go of him. She wanted to add something optimistic, about how when Booth was back with them they’d go on a trip, order pizza, finish decorating Parker’s room, something. But it just wasn’t in her. Not yet.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Angela.”

“What?”

“You’re staring.”

“I can’t help it. I’m worried about you.”

“Can you worry someplace where you’ll be less distracting? I’m trying to finish this.”

“Why don’t you let me come over and stay with you for a few days? You shouldn’t be in that house all by yourself at a time like this.”

“Ange, please. Stop acting like I’m a grieving widow. I told you, everything’s been going as well as it can be. The signs are all positive since Booth was removed from the coma. He’s breathing on his own, tests of brain functioning show that he’s responding to pain stimuli. This is all good news.”

“I know, Sweetie, and I’m grateful for that. But he’s still not with you.” Brennan had to hold back a sarcastic comment at that. ‘No shit, Ange.’ “Are you eating?”

“Yes.” When she remembered to.

“Sleeping?”

“Enough.” Little white lie. For months now, she had trouble sleeping alone, even when she knew Booth was alive and well and safe in his own apartment. This lying awake, a hundred scenarios playing through her mind thing was not conducive to a good night’s rest. When she did sleep, strange images haunted her dreams.

“Going to counseling?”

“We are mandated to attend sessions as partners. Without Booth, there is no need to go.”

“I would say that there’s never been more of a need to go.”

Yes, she could just imagine it. Her falling apart when Dr. Wyatt asked her some sort of arcane, rhetorical question like “What would it mean for you to live a life without the psychological presence of your partner?” She had cried at the hospital, on the day of Booth’s accident. Every day since then, she had somehow sucked up those tears and stored them somewhere inside of her. Now, she had the absurd fear that if something released them, there would be a flood of biblical proportions.

“I’m fine, Ange. See, I’m here at work, getting things done…last week Rebecca brought Parker over and we visited for a little while. When I’m locked in my room and won’t get out of bed you can worry about me. Right now…just…please, help me feel like things are normal here.”

Angela’s sympathetic look only made her feel guiltier, and although she had come to dread phone calls lately, she was a little relieved when hers vibrated in the pocket of her lab coat. “I’ve got to take this.” She spun to avoid her friend’s concerned gaze while she answered the phone. “Brennan.”

Angela refused to leave before the conversation was finished, and it was a good thing she was there or else no one might have been able to steady her when she swayed dangerously. “Sweetie, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

She weakly pressed the “call end” button of her phone and dropped it back in her pocket. “It’s Booth, Angela. He woke up.”

Her friend’s eyes fluttered shut. “Oh, thank God. Is he…?”

“Don’t know yet.”

“Can you see him yet?”

She was already hurrying to her office to grab her coat. “I’m going to. If it kills me. I’m going to.”

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PART II

It was Jared who had been keeping vigil today. He and each of his parents had been taking turns spending time at the hospital, just in case there was a change in Seeley’s condition. Brennan had been moderately surprised that he had taken of so much work to spend time with his unconscious brother. She wouldn’t have expected it. But, she had to acknowledge, this kind of thing changed people. It had changed her.

A nurse had retrieved him from Booth’s room upon Brennan’s request. When he joined her in the waiting room, his smile was one of genuine relief. “Temperance. You don’t know how good it felt to actually call you with good news.”

She nodded. “I appreciate that. Can you tell me more now?”

“There’s not much more to tell right now. He drifts in and out. His eyes open. Can’t speak yet, of course…they just removed the breathing tubes last week. He seems confused when he’s awake, which isn’t surprising…he’s still on a lot of pain medication, so the doctor doesn’t think it’s indicative of his mental functioning. It would probably be much more of a relief for him to go back to sleep. But he seems to be fighting it.”

Of course he was, she thought ruefully. God forbid he make things easier on himself.

“I’ve told him about the accident, and about how long he’s been here. I’ll tell him you’re here now. I’m not sure if he understands anything right now, but if he does, he’d want to know.

“Jared. I’m going to see him today.”

Jared sighed and closed his eyes, massaging his temples with his fingers. “Please don’t do this today, Temperance. Things are finally going well.”

“It has nothing to do with you. I’m not asking for your permission. If Booth can sense my presence at all, I will be there so he will know.”

“The entire hospital staff knows who you are. They are not going to let you in that room.”

“Then I suppose I’ll have to convince them.”

Jared opened his eyes. “You know what? You’re right. It has nothing to do with me. Why don’t you come back to the room with me right now? Dr. Georges is there. You can work on convincing him to disregard hospital policy, and I can be with my brother.”

She nodded. “Good idea.” Jared looked at her incredulously, but then motioned for her to follow him. Without hesitation, she complied.

Booth’s new room was much less medical-looking than the one she had last seen him in, but still had the sterile, near-sickening hospital smell as Jared pushed the door open. All she could see was the back of the white lab coat of the doctor leaning over her partner. “Dr. Georges,” Jared said, and the man looked over his shoulder. “Dr. Brennan would like to argue with you.” The doctor’s expression mirrored Jared’s own when Brennan had announced her intentions to him. Laying down whatever piece of medical equipment he had been holding, he walked towards the door, escorting Brennan away from the room while Jared slipped back inside without a word. She watched him go resentfully.

“Dr. Brennan…” the lab-coated figure began. “We have discussed this before. You can’t have contact with Agent Booth until he gives written permission to have you present. And although his condition has improved, he is not in a position to do this. It is unlikely that he could even comprehend the meaning behind such a document right now. So you will have to wait.”

She struggled to maintain her composure. “I understand you are in a difficult position, Doctor. So I am. I have waited for almost a month now to see my partner. I followed your rules, even though it was difficult for me. But now he is awake, and possibly knows the difference about whether or not I am here, and I will not have him feeling abandoned or alone because this world is too ignorant to acknowledge the sanctity of a relationship that falls outside of traditional norms.” She had practiced the speech all the way to the hospital, but seeing the unmoved quality to the man’s eyes, she began to feel desperation trickling in. “He is the person I love. It took us years to find our way to one another. I finally accepted him as part of my life, and these past few weeks I…” A tear slipped unbidden down her cheek. “I’ve been so scared. I need to see him. He needs to see me. Please…”

Her soul was bared to this stranger, and when she saw the words “I’m sorry…” begin to form on his lips, and she knew she was going to be turned away again, something in her snapped.

“LET ME SEE MY PARTNER.” His eyes widened at her forcefulness. He backed away from her.

“I’m calling security if you don’t leave this hospital immediately, Dr. Brennan. I won’t have you shouting and upsetting my patients.” He moved towards the phone in the hallway.

“Dr. Georges.” They had been so intent in their standoff that neither had noticed Jared’s reappearance in the hallway. “Does this help?” He handed him a piece of paper, and the doctor looked at it dumbly.

“What is this?” Brennan looked over his shoulder. In shaky, childlike capitals, two words were written.

BONES. NOW.

Her heart dropped and her eyes filled with tears again. “Bones. Me. I’m Bones. He wants to see me.”

The doctor looked at Jared dubiously. “You’re telling me your brother wrote this?”

“I held the paper. But he wrote it.”

“He can barely move.” Said suspiciously.

“I know,” Jared replied simply. “If you don’t believe me, you can come in. I’m sure he’ll do it again, even though it’s extremely painful for him.”

Dr. George’s looked extremely reluctant to accuse Jared of being a liar. “That’s good news, that he has retained motor skills to do this. But…this is hardly a legal document.”

Jared took a step closer to him and spoke in a quiet, cold voice. “For God’s sake, the man has been in a terrible accident and has been unconscious for weeks. He’s probably in unbearable pain. And all he wants is to see his partner.”

The doctor’s eyes flickered from Brennan’s desperate face, to Jared’s somewhat threatening one, and back again. Everyone was quiet. At long last, he stepped back. “You know what?” he muttered. “This isn’t worth it. Do what you want. But I swear that if someone tries to bring a lawsuit against me, we never had this conversation. You broke into his room without consent.” Without waiting for an answer, he turned and walked away. “I’ll be back in 20 minutes to start the mental status tests. If you are still here, I’m calling security.” He disappeared around the corner.

“Well, that was easy,” Jared joked dryly. He couldn’t go on because in an instant he had a very grateful Brennan in his arms, hugging him tightly.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Yeah, well,” he said uncomfortably. “I don’t need both you and Seeley bitching at me once he’s talking again. If I didn’t help you out, I’d never hear the end of it.” He extracted himself from her embrace. “Besides, he did all the work. I just told him that if he wanted to see you, he better damned well find some way to communicate it because the doctor was being an asshole. I didn’t know if he understood me. But apparently…” He pushed her lightly towards the door. “Go. You heard the man. Twenty minutes.”

She didn’t need to be told twice. She pushed her way into the white room.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

His eyes were closed, and it gave her a chance to study him. She noted with relief that he didn’t look as bad as he did almost a month ago. The breathing tube was out. The worst of the cuts and bruises had at least faded a bit, leaving him with a slightly sallow complexion. The bandage of the back of his head was still there, and his entire left arm and most of the fingers of his right hand were in casts. He was a mess. Then he opened his eyes. And she had never seen him look so perfect as he did right that second. They looked unfocused for a second.

“Seeley Booth,” she said softly. His eyes immediately were right on her, and without all the tests and science to prove it to be so, she knew with every fiber of her being that everything that made him him was intact. She gave a small smile. “Where have you been all my life?”

The doctor was right. He could barely move. But she saw the fingers on his semi-intact hand flex. Come here. She was by his side in an instant, using all her restraint not to throw himself on him and squeeze him until he burst. She settled for resting one gentle hand on his. As soon as she touched him, the dam inside of her broke. Long-repressed tears spilled onto her cheeks. “You ruined it, you know. I was so good at being on my own. Enjoyed it, even. And now…God…it’s just no good without you, you know?”

His eyes reflected confusion, pain, and she felt a stab of guilt for these accusing words being the first she spoke to him. “We don’t have much time. It’s been a fight to see you. So…” What to say when you’ve been waiting for weeks, and you only had a few minutes? “I’ve been trying to finish unpacking and get the house ready for you. You better come back soon, or else the place is going to look like a museum. Parker came over, and he loves his room. We made you a card. I’ll let him show it to you when he gets here. Rebecca will probably bring him after school.” She bit her lip. Her tears had waned while talking about these superficial things, and part of her desperately wanted to continue along those lines. But there was more…so much more. “I’ve been missing you. I’ve been staying downstairs at night because I didn’t want my first memories of our bedroom to be the ones I spent sleeping alone. I think a lot about the past few years. How hard I fought against being with you and loving you, and it makes me angry with myself. I know that I told you I had no regrets, but while I couldn’t see you, every second felt like wasted time." She let one finger trace his lightly bruised face and collect the tear that fell from his eye. “We’ll be together again soon. And when we are…I’m not going to let anybody take that from me again. I promise you. I love you so much, Booth. I can’t remember not loving you.”

When those words left her, she was surprised to find herself exhausted of them. It was what she needed to say. Sinking to her knees beside the bed, she rested her head against his side. His three good fingers tangled in her hair and stroked softly, the best they could. When Jared came in the room to warn her that her time was up, her tears had dried. Standing stiffly, she nodded at him. She turned to Booth one last time. He looked at her desperately. Don’t go.

“Thank you for coming back to me.” She pressed a gentle kiss against his lips, the ones still to bruised to kiss her back. Pulling back slightly, their eyes locked. “We’ll make this right again,” she promised him. And as she walked away, she promised herself that it would be the last time she would be forced to leave him.

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The next few days passed in a blur, it seemed. Tests. Lots of tests. Tests to predict the future functionality of muscles and joints and bones, tests of how his brain was working, spatial reasoning, procedural memory, long-term, short-term…tests to try to figure out if the maddening tinnitus he was experiencing was a transient side-effect of the surgery, or a long-term consequence of his brain trauma. Medicine and painkillers to bring the gut-wrenching pain of movement to a dull roar as he began the very first steps of physical therapy. Reunions that were both joyful and painful, the relief that came with the determination that Booth was of sound enough mind to determine his own visitors. Brennan would never forget coming into that hospital room with full consent, escorted by Dr. Georges himself, who apparently wasn’t such a bad guy when he wasn’t worried about getting his ass sued off. After several days, Booth got his voice back…barely, but enough to greet his visitors and gripe about his hair and tell Brennan and Parker that he loved them. Every small improvement made her jubilant. She was going to get him back. She would wait as long as it took.

A week after his awakening, Brennan sat with him. It was after visiting hours, but Booth had pulled some sort of strings. She wasn't quite sure how he had managed that, being as incapacitated as he was, but he apparently still somehow conveyed threat well, even as he lay barely able to talk or move on a hospital bed. She had been talking a lot, trying to be mindful of the exhaustion of his recovery and the difficulty of his speech. Still, she couldn’t help asking him if he remembered anything.

“I remember…a long swim.” His voice was raspy, painful. “Had to get back to you and Park on the boat.” She looked at him curiously, but didn’t inquire further. He was getting stronger. Someday, he’d be able to tell her more. But now…God. All she wanted was to be able to hold him again.

“Booth,” she said tentatively, and he looked at her questioningly. “There’s something I’ve been thinking about. I was going to wait until you came home but…well…I don’t want to wait. This past month has been a nightmare. Being told I had no rights to see you, not being allowed involvement in decisions about your life and death…it was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced. And that’s saying a lot.” She hesitated a second, disturbed by the guilty look on his face.

“I’m sorry.”

“No. It’s not your fault. Well, the not-wearing-your-seatbelt part…that’s something we need to have a serious talk about. But the rest…” Her throat felt dry, and she had to force herself to continue. “The practical considerations of our relationships…have really been on my mind. Fair or not, this world operates by the legality of partnerships, not by the intent behind them. It doesn’t matter if I like it. It’s not going to change anytime soon. So…I was thinking….we should get married. We should create that legal tie so that our partnership will be recognized in the social and legal sphere. It would decrease the complications in situations like this. It’s….it’s only practical. So…I guess…I guess I’m asking you to marry me, Booth. As soon as possible.”

There. She had said it. And even though it went against everything she had thought she believed in and wanted for her life, the fear was tempered a bit by the joy she knew he’d experience in hearing her say the words. And seeing that joy…she eagerly anticipated that reaction. This would be one of the truly wonderful moments in their lives.

He stared at her. “Temperance,” he breathed, and she gave him a small smile. “You know I love you, right?”

She nodded. Of course she did. That’s why he was going to be so happy. “I love you too.”

He made a small gesture for her to come closer, and she did. “Good. Remember that.” She grinned, probably for the first time since this whole mess had started, and brushed her lips against his as gently as she could. “But…”

“But?”

The sigh that left him somehow sounded more despairing than any she had heard since he had awoken. “There’s no way in hell I am going to marry you.”

mereva

Posted 09/02/2008 06:14:27 PM


Jamie, I'm still sobbing, you totally broke my heart.

TemperTemper

Posted 09/02/2008 07:49:12 PM


Just headed over here from reviewing at ff.net and STILL sniffling! All's good that ends with Booth alive and well though, right??

Posted 14/02/2008 04:07:50 PM

PART I

A/N: Thanks for sticking with me through all the angst, loveys. Much appreciation for you.
----------------------------------------------------

“Temperance.” His voice sounded tired. “Haven’t you been seeing enough of me lately?”

“I wanted to see you now,” she explained simply.

“We could have talked on the phone.”

“I suppose. I just thought…” She paused, not quite sure what to say. What was she doing here, miles from home? “I helped you with your publishing questions a few months ago. Now I need help with something that you might have insight about.”

Jared gave a tired smile. “Quid pro quo, huh? Alright. Come on in.” Standing to the side, he allowed her entrance into his home. And an impressive home it was, for a single man. Everything was expensive wood and rich colors, but to Brennan it felt just a little cold—like it was trying too hard to be perceived as valuable. Much like the man who lived there himself.

She was lead through a massive foyer into a family room that was far too neat to contain an actual family. Right now, it only contained one person: Leah, sitting primly on the leather sofa reading a (what else?) Good Housekeeping magazine. At the sight of their visitor, she was on her feet in a second.

“Temperance…I didn’t know that you would be visiting today. How are you? Can I get you something? Coffee? Tea?”

As she had been before, Brennan found herself a little unnerved at Leah’s eagerness to please. “Thank you, Leah, but I’m fine.”

“Sweetheart, Temperance came to talk about Seeley for a bit. Could you give us some time?” Brennan hadn’t told Jared what she was here for, but had apparently intuited her need for privacy. Still, she felt bad when she saw Leah’s slightly confused look towards the pair.

“Suuuuure,” she drew out, looking a little uncertain. “I just….will be in the kitchen, I guess. Let me know if you need anything…”

Brennan fought the urge to tell the woman to stop worrying so damn much about other people and do something for herself for a change. But she wasn’t here to cause trouble, so she gave Leah a tightlipped smile as she exited the room. Jared turned towards her expectantly and gestured towards the sofa where she sat while he took a position in the matching armchair. “What can I do for you? I’m thinking it must be important, for you to have come all this way.”

“I suppose.” She hesitated a bit, trying to remember why, exactly, she did come all this way. It all seemed very silly at the moment…Booth was mostly out of the woods, despite having a rather lengthy recovery ahead of him, and the pins and needles that everybody had been waiting on had dissipated. But still… “I wanted to talk to you because…you know Booth.”

Jared raised his eyebrows. “And you don’t?”

“I’m getting to know Booth. More every day. But you have thirty extra years on me, in that department.”

He smiled. “Thanks for the reminder of my rapidly advancing age.”

Brennan frowned. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know. Please go on.”

“Do you remember what you told me in the hospital? When I became angry with you the first time you told me I couldn’t see Booth.”

Jared’s face colored slightly. “Don’t tell me. Something horrible, right?” Seeing her impassive face, which betrayed nothing, he sighed. “Sorry, Temperance. I wasn’t thinking about you then. All I was thinking about was my brother. I never meant you any offense.”

“I took offense at the time. You told me not to blame you for the consequences of my personal choices. It felt as though you were implying that I should have seen Booth’s accident coming.” She saw him begin to speak up in defense, but stopped him. “I know that wasn’t your intention. And later, when I thought about it, I realized you were right.”

“I was?” he asked, surprised.

“Yes. I had made it very clear to Seeley over the course of our partnership that I didn’t believe in marriage. I assumed that he never pressed the issue because of that. And because of my opposition to the principle of marriage, I ignored the practicality of it. Once the dust settled in the wake of all of Booth’s accident, I found myself reconsidering.”

He looked at her curiously. “You aren’t asking for permission to marry my brother, are you?”

“What? No. Ask permission?” She shook her head. “And people wonder why I object to the ritual.”

“I’m sorry. I won’t interrupt anymore.”

“I asked him. I let him know that, after taking into account all the potential inconveniences in keeping our partnership the way it is, I was willing to make our relationship legally binding.”

“That’s what you told him?”

“Not in exactly those words, but…yes. That’s the message I conveyed. And…”

Despite his promise not to interrupt anymore, Jared did just that. “Let me guess. He told you there was no way in hell that he was going to marry you.”

Her eyes widened. Now she remembered why she had come to talk to Jared. “That’s exactly it. But I didn’t find that response as predictable as you obviously did.”

Jared chuckled softly. “I suppose you do have some things to learn about Seeley. Didn’t he tell you why?”

She sighed. “He told me I knew already. And I would have asked more questions, but I’ve been trying to not make him talk so much, since it’s still difficult for him.”

“But if you thought you knew already, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

Brennan’s face scrunched up. “I sort of understand. Almost. Kind of. Not really.”

“Tempe. Surely you know that Seeley Booth believes himself to be a man of principle.”

“But he believes in marriage.”

“Not the kind that you are talking about.”

Now she felt more confused than ever. “There’s more than one kind? I’m pretty sure there’s only one kind.”

Jared shook his head ruefully at her. For as much conflict as the two of them had experienced over the past several weeks, he still found her brilliance, in combination with a sweet naivete, to be charming. How could he explain this to her? “Temperance, did Seeley ever tell you the Space Camp story?”

“Yes. The two of you were only able to go if you got perfect marks on your report cards. He got a B in gym because he neglected his athletics, and wasn’t allowed to go.”

“That’s right. That’s the way he always tells the story. ‘I didn’t have perfect grades, so I wasn’t allowed to go.’ But he always leaves out a part that I think is important.”

“What’s that?” Brennan asked interestedly.

“Mom was always a pushover for Seeley. He was her baby. She saw how devastated he was; it was him who really wanted to go in the first place. I just thought it would be kind of cool, but it was his dream. Anyway, when we came home and showed our report cards to Mom, she told him that she would talk to Dad about it. He got A’s in all the really important subjects, and it wasn’t his fault the gym teacher was an ass. Dad was pretty strict about things, but Mom could be persuasive when she wanted to be. If she would have put her mind to it, he would have caved and let Seeley go.”

“But he didn’t get to go…”

“Exactly. Seeley made Mom swear that she wouldn’t try to convince Dad to let him go. He had known what he had to accomplish to get that trip secured. And he didn’t reach that goal. He knew that if he went to camp, he’d have a miserable time, because all he’d be thinking about was that he didn’t deserve it. He wanted to go, so badly. But not that way. Not because Mom begged Dad to let him have a break. He only wanted to go if he felt that he earned it.” Jared stopped.

“Yes, that sounds like Booth,” Brennan mused softly. Jared didn’t go on, and she looked at him expectantly. “So…what does that have to do with Booth not agreeing to marry me?”

“Because, Temperance, he only wants to marry you if he feels it’s the right way, under the right circumstances. He’s not going to do it because it’s logical, or rational, or practical. Seeley’s a man of principle. He’s only going to do it if it’s for the right reasons. And I can assure you that the reasons you mentioned…to him, those aren’t the right ones.”

They were both silent for a few moments while Brennan absorbed what Jared was telling her. It wasn’t that Booth didn’t want to marry her. He wanted her to want to marry him. And thinking it was a good idea wasn’t the same as wanting it, in his world. Yes. That sounded like Booth. Noticing her expression, he tried to reassure her. “There are other ways to accomplish the things you are thinking of. I’m sure that as soon as he is well, Seeley will sign over power of attorney to you so that this particular situation doesn’t happen again.”

“Yes. I know,” she said thoughtfully. They had already discussed it.

He looked at her curiously. “This isn’t a personal rejection, you know.”

“I know that, too.”

“Okay. It’s just…you look disappointed.”

“Yes, well.” She smiled a little sadly. “I suppose I’m just not used to him saying no to me anymore.” At least not off the job. She still didn’t have a weapon approved by the F.B.I.

“Ah. Well. That’s not a surprise. The man is stupid in love with you.” She couldn’t quite decipher the expression on Jared’s face. “But that doesn’t mean he can’t be one stubborn son of a bitch when he really believes in something.”

“It’s one of the things I admire about him, I guess. Even when it drives me crazy.”

Jared studied her, and she didn’t truly expect the next words out of his mouth. “I apologize for the way things have been with us in the past few weeks. I think I had lost sight of how important my family is to me, and realizing that in the face of Seeley’s accident sort of threw me. My…uh…tendency towards self-absorption prevented me from recognizing that you might have been going through the same process. The fact is, Temperance, ring or no, you are family now. So.” He gestured to his surroundings. “Welcome to our dysfunctional little world.”

She laughed, a little embarrassed. “Trust me, Jared. You certainly haven’t cornered the market on dysfunctional families.” Maybe, someday, when they had more time, she would tell him the tale of her outlaw parents and her tumultuous childhood. But right now, she had more important things to accomplish. “We were all going through an emotionally difficult time. Hopefully, come next crisis, we’ll be able to cope more efficiently.”

“Hopefully there won’t be any more crises.”

“Touche.” She smiled, and stood. “Thanks for your help.”

He stood, as well. “That’s what you came all this way for? I thought you were going to ask me something hard.”

“I think I may have needed the drive to clear my mind.”

“Thinking will get you nowhere but trouble, you know.”

So she had been told before, but it was one lesson she might never fully learn. Even having more insight about Booth’s reaction to her proposal, her mind was still churning. Mostly to understand why, knowing full well that Jared was right and the rejection wasn’t personal, her feelings still felt a little hurt.

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She arrived at the hospital early the next morning, before visiting hours began, and found Booth in his room chatting remarkably well with a giggling nurse. “This is nothing,” he was telling her. “You should have seen the windshield. That’s what you should feel sorry for.” The two glanced over when Brennan pushed her way through the door. “Bones,” he said, pleased. “You’re a sight for sore…everything. Everything is sore.”

The nurse laughed again. “You’re a trip, Seeley.” She patted him lightly on the shoulder. “I’ll be back in a few hours to change your bandages and give you your meds, okay?”

“Sounds great, Gracie. Thank you.”

“No problem.” She walked briskly past Brennan and out the door, closing it behind her, and Brennan watched her before she joined her partner by his bedside.

“Now I see how you are getting all those special privileges,” she told him.

“Jealous?”

“About this much.” She showed him a space of about an inch between her thumb and forefinger.

“You know that all my special privileges are used to get time with you.”

“That’s why only that much.” She demonstrated the inch again. “Your voice sounds much better today.”

“It is. My throat seems to be about the only thing making a speedy recovery.”

“I think you are healing remarkably fast.”

“Maybe. But I’m ready to get out of this bed.”

“Booth. You can’t even sit up without help right now.”

“Well. I shoot for the stars.” She smiled at him. “I missed you yesterday afternoon and evening.”

“I’m sorry.” She pulled up the chair next to his bed. “I had something I needed to accomplish.”

“Come in here with me,” he told her, gesturing to the miniscule space beside him on the bed.

“There’s not enough room. And I’ll hurt you.”

“It’ll only hurt for a second. I want you in here.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Bones.” His head tilted and he looked at her critically. “Are you pouting?”

“What? No!” She exclaimed, just a little too indignantly.

“I think you are. I think you are pouting because I said no to you.”

“Well,” she responded sulkily, “you weren’t very nice about it.”

“Sorry, Bones. I don’t respond very well to pity proposals.”

“It wasn’t a pity proposal. It was a well-thought-out, rational choice.”

“Please stop with all the romance. It’s going to make my teeth rot.” He couldn’t quite manage a full-out grin on his still-healing face, but he made a quirky smile.

“Stop making fun of me.”

“Okay. But stop being a baby. Come here. You know I love you.” He held the covers up beside him. After scowling at him for just a second, she relented, insinuating herself one limb at a time, as gently as possible, next to his body. It took some work to get his arm around her and he winced in pain a few times, but kept a brave face when she looked at him concernedly. When all was said and done, she was finally snuggled next to her partner the way she had been longing to be for weeks on end. “See? Isn’t that nice?”

PART II

It was. Almost unbearably so. It was a struggle not to squeeze him too tight, not to bury her face into his skin and eagerly inhale him, not to wrap her legs around him so that he couldn’t get away. As if he could get very far right now. “Yes.”

“Best medicine I’ve gotten since I came to this place.” He gently kissed the top of her head.

“Booth? Do you think you missed out on anything by not going to Space Camp?”

She felt his lips still on the top of her head. “Now what made you think of that?”

“I was talking to Jared.”

“Was he gloating because he got to go and I didn’t?”

“No.”

“Hmm. Well. I suppose if I would have gone, I would have had new experiences and learned new things about the world and myself. But…no use having regrets. It wasn’t meant to be.”

But it could have been, she thought. Just not the way you wanted it. Stubborn son of a…. She stopped short of reflecting Jared’s words.

“Hey Bones. Have you thought about me in the past couple weeks?”

She looked up at him disbelievingly. “What kind of question is that? Of course I’ve thought about you. It’s been hard to think about anything else.”

“No, not like that. I mean…have you thought about me.” The suggestive note wasn’t lost on her.

She had to suppress a laugh. “Booth, I’ve been concerned with your recovery after a major accident and major surgery. Sex hasn’t been first and foremost on my mind. Believe it or not.”

“Ah. Too bad.”

Shaking her head, she replied, “Why? You ready to start swinging from the chandeliers?”

“No. But it hasn’t been so long that I’ve forgotten how good it makes me feel to make you feel good. Besides. I was thinking that we could use this opportunity to our advantage.”

“I fail to see how anything about your current condition could be an advantage to our sex life.”

“Well maybe….” His lips lowered to her ear and she shivered lightly at the breath that was blown across her… “Maybe this gives us an opportunity to do a little bit of time travel.”

“What are you talking about? You know very well that time travel is physically imposs…”

“How about you let me recall a little memory I have. With a few adjustments that I thought of in my spare time, lying here all day. And you can feel free to do whatever feels natural.”

She settled back in his arms, curious to see where he’d take this. And just a little amused that even with a broken body, these were the things that occupied her partner’s mind. “Okay. Will I share this memory?”

“Maybe. It’s of the first day we met.” Well this could be interesting. “Do you remember?”

“Yes. You made me watch that horrible video with all the F.B.I. cadets.”

“I didn’t make you. You hadn’t had experience handling evidence according to F.B.I. protocol, so you needed to watch the procedural video with everyone else. That’s just standard practice. As I recall, I only stayed with you to be nice. I thought it would be a friendly gesture to someone I was being forced to work with.”

“Fine. Go on.”

“You came into the J.E.H. building and I don’t think you even noticed everyone staring at you. We don’t see women who look like you walk through our doors very often. I knew you from your books. I walked up and introduced myself. Told you who I was, that I would be your liaison for the F.B.I. That I was looking forward to working with you. Do you remember what you said?”

“No.”

“You asked me, ‘Why do I have to be here?’ Those were the first words out of your mouth to me.”

“Oh. Sorry. I was probably busy.”

“Yeah, probably. But you looked at me, up and down. I could read that look. Part of it was sizing me up, trying to decide if you could bully me into getting what you wanted, if I would cave under your brusqueness. But I caught something else. You were also looking at me like a woman looks at a man, when she’s figuring out whether or not he’s worth her time.”

“Are you insinuating that I was attracted to you from the first moment I met you?”

“I’m insinuating that when I saw that look, that’s what I hoped it was. Because that was the first time that I started to fantasize about you.”

That gave her a chill. “Oh really?”

“I promised the video wouldn’t be too long, and I offered to stay and watch it with you. You looked disappointed. I think you were hoping you could skip out on it. But I was going to make it worth your while.”

“I don’t remember it being worth my while.”

“That’s where the time travel comes in. Give me a minute.”

“Ah.”

“There were those long desks, filled with rows of cadets in uniform, and then there was you and me. I led you to the last row, where there was no one else, just in case you had been noticing the guys ogling you and it bothered you. That, and I wanted to be the only one ogling you. I sat close to you. I didn’t even realize it, I don’t think, but I was testing you seeing how close you’d let me get. And you didn’t back away. Not one bit.”

“I couldn’t let you know that you were getting to me.”

“Of course not. The lights dimmed, and the film began. The material of my suit was brushing your clothes. I could feel how warm you were, underneath. I wanted to feel more of it. I knew there was more than that distant, dismissive exterior. I was going to inside of it.”

“And how exactly were you going to do that, Agent Booth?”

“You’re the one who gave me the opening. You were writing something in your notebook—something completely unrelated from the film we were watching, I’m sure—and you dropped your pen.”

“You picked it up and gave it back to me.”

“Yes. But that’s where, in my mind, I start to change history. I told you I’d get it, and you looked at me with those ice-cold eyes. I leaned down, under the table, and saw your legs…they seemed to go on for miles, and were so perfectly smooth-looking. It didn’t look like you were wearing pantyhose, and the skirt you had on barely covered your knees. I decided you must be torturing me.”

“You thought I was dressing for your benefit? That’s a little presumptuous.”

“Maybe. But I couldn’t resist testing more. I picked that pen off the floor and started straightening up. But I did it slow. And I ran the outside of my little finger from your ankle, to your calf, up to the inside of your knee. When I got up, I offered you the pen and looked straight into your eyes. And you studied me. Probably trying to decide if I did it on purpose or not, and if principle required that you punch me in the face. I could hear your breathing. It was just a little faster. I was getting to you.”

He was getting to her. Something about his voice, still a little gravelly in his recovery. Her breathing increased in time with his words.

“You decided not to punch me. In fact, you thanked me, softly, while you took the pen back. And it gave me the balls to do what I did next.”

:”Which was?” She asked breathily.

“Under the table, I put my hand on your knee, right where your skirt ended. I felt you jump and gasp, just a little bit. Maybe you thought about getting up, pushing me away. But you didn’t, and you hesitated, and that’s when I knew that you weren’t going to stop me. You were going to let me do what I had to do. God, your skin was so soft right there, Temperance. I rubbed it, lightly, pushing the hem of your skirt up just a little inch.”

Her hand went instinctively to the skin of her thighs. “In that room, with all those people? That’s very, very bad of you.”

“But it was keeping you quiet. And you weren’t complaining. In fact, you opened up your legs for me. Just a little. I took that invitation, trailing my fingertips up over the top of your leg, then along the inside of your thigh. My hand was getting hotter and hotter. I had never been so hard in my life. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw you glance over at me, your eyes saying ‘How far are you really going to take this, Agent Booth?’ But I stayed staring straight ahead at that damn movie that I had seen a hundred times, and you had never seen because you were too stubborn to think it was important. But this was more important.”

Now, she was really starting to feel the fact that she hadn’t been sexual in any way, shape, or form in the past month. It had been the last thing on her mind. But now….

“Don’t think I wasn’t being affected. I was. I was aroused, and I was terrified. Imagine, being caught feeling up my new partner in a public place. It could ruin me. I was aware of every chance I was taking and it didn’t matter. Especially not when you took my hand in yours and moved it up even further. Your inner thighs were as soft as goddamn flower petals, and suddenly I didn’t even know where we were anymore. We might as well have been in some shady porno theater, and all that mattered was getting my hand into your panties.”

“You sure I was wearing panties?”

She was gratified to hear his sharp breath. “Of course you were. What kind of a woman wouldn’t wear panties on her first trip to meet her partner?”

She smiled lightly. “Just checking.”

“They are silky. My little finger gets there first, pressing just a little, and you make a little noise in the back of your throat. I’m surprised the material there hasn’t caught fire, it’s so hot. Maybe it’s because they are so wet. I can feel how damp you are, and I want to get my fingers in that wetness, bring it to my lips and taste it.”

A moan left her lips now, and she knew what he had meant when he had told her to do whatever felt natural. Right now it felt that the only thing left to do in the universe was bury her face into his neck and bury her hand in her crotch.

“I draw my finger up and over you…soft, soft, soft, and then I find it, that hard little bud that has just got to be throbbing by now, screaming for me because you can’t. I run my fingernail up and down over the silk there, tickling, teasing, making you jerk a little. I can smell you, all perfume and sex, and you are letting me touch you like this because you want me too, I know you do, I knew I couldn’t be as hot for this by myself. When I take my hand away you practically hiss, but you don’t have to worry, I haven’t gotten enough yet. I use my thumb to push that ridiculous scrap of material aside, and there we go…bare skin, lush, soft, swollen for me, and I’m like a greedy little boy. My middle finger slides inside of you, hard, and I see your eyes slam shut while your hips arch under the desk. Thank God for that desk. If anybody saw…but they didn’t, their eyes are all glazed over as they watch the film, having no idea that I’m behind them trying my damndest to get my new partner to come on my fingers.”

She was rubbing herself more frantically now in the hospital bed, wishing desperately that it was his fingers pleasuring her. His fingers, or better yet…

“You’re doing pretty good at being quiet, but I have to move slow so those wet sounds of my fingers in you don’t drift to the others. I rub the heel of my hand against your clit while I fill you with my finger. You’re grinding against me, and your hand on the desk is squeezing that pen like you are trying to strangle it. You had asked me why you had to be here today? This is why. Because you need this too. You need it bad.”

“I need you,” she agreed, mumbling, practically lost to everything in the room and everything else that was happening. There was her, in his arms, and nothing else.

“You are so fucking hot. I knew it, the second I saw you. I knew there’d be something with us. You’re squeezing my fingers. Your eyes are slammed shut. I move my fingers faster. It’s driving me crazy. It’s driving you crazy. I’m about ready to say fuck all these people, and throw you on the desk, to hell with being quiet, being private. My hand feels like it’s on fire…it feels like it’s going to explode along with you…God I want you to…

And she didn’t let him continue because she lost it against her own hand. Whimpering, her body spasmed and she bucked, with what was left in her consciousness trying hard not to jar his body too much in the process. He pressed his lips against her hair as she came, riding it out with her, pulling strength from his continuing ability to affect her this way, even as he lay there mostly helpless. Although, if anyone were to walk in right now and interrupt them, he might just get up from the bed and kill them, broken bones or no.

“That’s my girl,” he whispered. “Did you like how I changed the story? I rather like the additions, myself.”

“Hmm?” she asked, thickly, her muddled mind wrapping around his words again.

“The story.”

It took her a second to realize that somewhere along the way, she had stopped listening to the words of his narrative. They didn’t seem important. There was his voice…his scent….his skin….his body….and all of it had wrapped around her and made her love him and turned her on and gave her the most incredible sense of satisfaction and peace. What was wrong with her? Never before had she been so unable to distinguish between love and lust and intimacy and commitment. It was all a tangled ball of feeling. It felt scary. It felt right.

“You didn’t even let me finish it.”

“Sorry. Was the end important?”

“Yeah, the most important part was coming up.”

“What was that?”

“That we fell in love. And lived happily ever after.”

She laughed a little breathlessly. “From such humble beginnings…” He smiled back at her. “Nobody told me that happily ever after was going to include near-death experiences and having my marriage proposal shot down.”

“That’s really bothering you, isn’t it?”

“Your near-death experience? Yes. Yes, it bothered me just a little.”

“You know what I mean.” She shrugged. “You know why I had to do that, right?”

“Because you don’t believe that legal, social, and economic stability alone is a legitimate reason to marry.”

“No. I had to say no because you do believe that.”

She looked upwards at him curiously. “Alright, then. What do you believe?”

He was quiet for a moment before answering. “I believe that we make our own meaning of things, Bones. Believing in things makes them true…not in the world at large, but for us. And I would much rather be in a relationship with you that you believe is based on love and trust and choice, than a marriage that you believe is based on something as practical as legal stability. Like it or not, what we are together or what we feel for each other isn’t practical or logical or rational. Pretending like it is…” He shrugged… “pretending like it is takes the magic away.”

“So you want me to believe in magic?”

“No. I want you to believe whatever you believe. But I want you to let me believe in magic.”

As she laid in his arms, she contemplated this. And she wondered, not for the first time, what a person who didn’t believe in magic was supposed to do when she was continually confronted with a love that defied logic.

CheeseBK

Posted 15/02/2008 04:00:32 AM


oh, at least you made it better!!! very good and very descrïptive!