TITLE: Better Days
PART TWO: Found
For a month she had worried about him. For a month she had missed him. For a month she had counted all the times that she should have realized what was between them, should have told him how she felt. For a month she replayed their last few interactions, relived the feeling of being in his arms in the warehouse and sitting beside him watching a romantic movie in the hospital. For a month she ran on fumes, disbelieving what was actually happening to her. She'd never been dependent on anyone. Her entire life she had been self-sufficient, even before her parents had disappeared. She never needed anyone.
And then Seeley Booth had come along. He'd taken her world, her self-sufficient, independent world and blown it wide open, starbursted it out. And she learned the meaning of the word 'need.' She'd never needed anyone like she needed Booth. And it took her the duration of the past month to realize the fact that, not only did she need him in her life, but she needed him in it as a primary fixture.
The past month without him had been hell... and she didn't even believe in hell. But that's what being without him was. She recalled the conversation they'd had a month ago, before he left for Oregon.
"Bones, I'm sorry to just show up so late, but... I wanted to tell you in person."He stoodon her doorstep with his hands in his pockets and the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up.
"What?" She stepped aside to allow him entry to her home.
She watched him glance toward her kitchen briefly, probably reliving the explosion. When he flinched, she touched his arm and brought him back to earth.
"Booth."
"Sorry. Maybe we should sit down."
So they did, and he told her what he had come to tell her. That they were having him give profiling a try. "Cullen just wants me to do it once and see if I like it. If I do, then they'll probably talk about transferring me. They need profilers, I guess."
"So what does that mean?"
"It means I'm gonna be going away for awhile, profiling. It's an intense thing, apparently. You have to try to really get into the mind of a criminal in order to catch them."
"How long will you be gone?"
He shrugged and held out his upturned palm, reaching for her. She allowed him to hold her hand, slipping her own inside his and feeling her stomach somersault as he squeezed her hand. "Could be a week... could be several. At the most, maybe a year."
"A year!" She dropped his hand.
He reached for her again, this time grabbing both hands. "Bones, listen, I don't want to do this. But they really need people..."
He trailed off, or at least she thought he did. She was lost in her thoughts at that point. He'd be gone, away from her, for possibly a year. She closed her eyes and she felt his arms around her, in the warehouse... supporting her, protecting her. And then she realized she actually was in his arms. He was holding her, murmuring things into her hair... things he'd never say under any other circumstance.
"You have no idea how much I'll miss you. Especially now, after what we've just been through. I don't want to do this, but I have to. You understand."
"Yes." She understood completely; she just didn't like it. And she would miss him too -- terribly -- but she couldn't bring herself to tell him this. "Be safe."
She didn't want to be at this party, on the uppermost level of the Jeffersonian. It was an annual party for all the employees, and she was not feeling very festive this time. She was in love with her partner and he had left. He had promised he'd keep in touch with her while he was profiling and he hadn't. She'd had maybe twelve hours sleep total in the past two weeks and she was running on empty.
She accepted with a vacant smile her second glass of Merlot from the bartender, staring off into space again and replaying the final conversation she'd had with Booth.
"Bones? I'm sorry to call so late..."
"No, no." She sat up and clicked her bedside lamp on, her heart thudding erratically at the sound of his voice. The voice she'd missed for days, since the last phone call. "I wasn't sleeping." And that was the truth. She'd been lying in bed for two hours with the lights off, but her mind would not shut down. And the most prominent thought in her head? Him. "I'm glad you called," she added, toying with the strap on her nightie. "How's the profile going?"
"Uh, it's... it's going. I wish I could discuss it, but I'm not really allowed to. Suffice it to say, it's intense. I just needed to hear your voice to bring me back to earth again."
"Oh."
A pause ensued before Booth chuckled. "I was kinda hoping I'd hear a lot more of your voice than this though, Bones."
She grinned and placed a hand over her eyes briefly, exhaling her own chuckle. "I'm sorry. I guess I just... don't know what to say."
"It's alright. And I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"You didn't. It's just--"
"This is kinda weird, isn't it? I mean, we're friends and yet..."
Booth left the statement hanging and Brennan's heart skipped as she silently completed it for him: 'and yet we're behaving like a married couple.' "Right."
"Will it make you uncomfortable if I say that I miss you, Bones?"
She smiled. "No, it won't."
Another pause. Then Booth chuckled again. "Any chance you might miss me too?"
She smiled. "Maybe. A slight chance."
"I'm hoping this will all be over in another week. I'll call you, alright?"
Brennan nodded though she knew Booth couldn't see this and replied softly, "Yeah. Just... hurry and come home safe, okay?"
She felt his answering smile through the phone lines. "You really do miss me, Bones. That's so cute."
She rolled her eyes -- the moment was ruined. "Goodnight, Booth."
"G'night, Temperance."
That had been the last time she'd heard from him. He had promised to call her in a week, but that call had never come. And she knew she hadn't missed it. If he had called her home, there would have been a message waiting for her. And her cell phone was glued to her side every single day -- not to mention she fell asleep with it clutched in her hand every night waiting for him to call -- and still nothing.
He could be dead. She closed her eyes at the thought. What if, somehow, he'd put himself in danger while profiling and gotten himself killed? What if he'd been killed by the very man he was trying to profile? What if he was seriously injured, laid up in an Oregon hospital in the ICU? What if he was in a coma in some hospital, hanging by a thread?
She sipped at her wine and let the endless possibilities tumble through her head while absently listening to the song that was playing. After several moments, her heart suddenly felt a pull; some sort of odd, almost-magnetic force was drawing her eyes up and toward the door. And that's when she saw him.
'Cause tonight's the night the world begins again
His hair stood up in tufts, dark circles were under his eyes, it appeared he hadn't shaven for at least three or four days, and yet he was still the most lovely thing she'd seen in a long time. Brennan's heart skipped when they locked eyes and she felt her wine glass slip from her fingers. She absently registered the voice of the bartender yelling something at her, but she paid no attention. Booth took one step toward her, and she mirrored the action. Soon, they were striding quickly to one another.
His duffel bag, what had probably been his carry-on, banged him repeatedly in the hip as he walked until he shrugged it off his right shoulder and let it drop to the floor, still taking quick, long steps toward her. His wide grin caused a face-splitting smile of her own as she continued to rush toward him, not caring if one person or ten-thousand were watching them. Booth was alive and healthy, right in front of her. She couldn't help but fling herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest and feeling him turn his head into her hair.
And tonight's the night world begins again
"Booth," she whispered into his shirt, tears welling in her eyes without her conscious consent. She chuckled at herself through her tears, trying to inwardly rationalize her emotional state. "I never thought I'd see you again."
He exhaled his chuckle into her hair and kissed her temple. "Never thought I'd get home to you, either."
She closed her eyes as her heart began to skip wildly. Home. That's what she was feeling in his arms... right now, at her home, and in the warehouse. She'd never been able to place that feeling before, but he had just summed it up for her. It felt like home.
"You didn't call."
"I know. I'm so sorry. Things were getting too intense for me to break focus."
She felt his arms tighten around her and she slid her hands around his waist, then up his back to clasp his shoulders, nails digging in slightly as if he'd vanish into thin air when she let go. Kisses rained down on the top of her head, her temples, her forehead... then he leaned his forehead on hers.
"I missed you so damn much, Bones," he murmured, his voice a honeyed baritone that sent shivers sliding down her spine. "So damn much."
Brennan swallowed the lump that had been building in her throat and could finally admit, "I missed you, too."
While their foreheads remained in contact, their hands began a systematic pattern of tactile memorization... re-establishing the connection that had been severed for a month. Booth's hands drifted up to Brennan's face, cupping it gently, his thumbs stroking her cheeks. Brennan slid her hands down his back, around his waist and up his chest to his arms, sliding them down his arms then and to his wrists while her own thumbs stroked the backs of his hands.
Booth dropped a kiss to the corner of each eye while his hands left her face and traveled slowly back down her arms. Brennan let her hands drop from his before they found his waist again, slipping around to the small of his back.
The rational part of her -- the Dr. Brennan part of her -- was vaguely aware that they were still in a public place, and in view of her boss. However, the other part of her -- the Temperance part of her -- could not have cared less. Her partner, the man she'd been in love with for several months, was back. He was in her arms, he was nuzzling her ear and her cheek and murmuring wonderfully sweet things while peppering errant kisses to her hair and face. That Temperance part of her would let the president watch them interact like this for all she cared.
"We have some stuff we should talk about," he whispered, and her eyes slid closed in response.
"Yeah?"
"It kind of pertains to what we're doing now, and why we're doing it."
She smiled, in spite of herself, when their foreheads connected again. "And judging by what's happening right now, Booth, I could accurately hypothesize how that conversation will turn out."
"Ah." His hands slid up her neck to her jawline, cupping her face again as he tilted his head. "Since you've got it all figured out then, how about I just skip to the tail-end of the conversation and kiss you?"
Brennan tilted her head in the opposite direction, still keeping her forehead against his while her eyes closed in anticipation. "Well, that would save some time, wouldn't it?"
"Mm-hmm." He leaned in...
Their lips parted and just feather-lightly touched when a throat clearing startled them apart. They turned, with Booth still cupping Brennan's face, to see Hodgins and Angela beside them. The pair had their arms around each other as if they had been slow dancing, though a fast song was now flowing from the speakers.
Angela smiled at them. "Goodman's still here, so maybe it would be best if you guys, um..." She looked to her partner for help.
Hodgins, taking the cue, raised an eyebrow and finished, "get a room?"
Booth rolled his eyes briefly, then leaned in to kiss Brennan's cheek. "I should go put my bag in your office for safe-keeping," he murmured, and reached into her pocket, fishing out the keys without a fuss from his partner.
Brennan watched him go before turning back to Angela and Hodgins.
They grinned knowingly, widely at her, then Hodgins looked over his shoulder at the dance floor as a new song began. "I can't believe it. They're actually playing a song I enjoy."
"Is this 'Champagne Supernova'?" Angela enquired as her partner began to pull her once more toward the dance floor. "That Oasis song?"
"Yeah," Hodgins nodded over his shoulder, "except it's not them. It's a cover, but it's still good. Come on."
Brennan smiled when she heard Angela gripe, "So when it's a song you like, it's okay to be a mindless drone, but not when it's one I like?"
Her smile grew wider when she watched Hodgins reach back for Angela, wind his arm around her waist, and pull her more forcefully with him. "You wanna dance or not?"
She felt that magnetic pull again, drawing her eyes back to the doorway, and she turned to see Booth watching her. She smiled and made her way over to him. "Something you wanted?"
He nodded slowly while a sly grin twitched at one corner of his lips. "Yeah, to dance with you. But first, there's something that I need."
Before she could ask what that was, Booth grabbed a handful of her shirt material over her abdomen and tugged her into the hallway with him. He spun them around so he was leaning against the wall, then he slipped his hand beneath her hair and pulled her into him. She went with his pull and her lips smiled against his before they crashed together.
Booth drew her tight against him with an arm around her waist and Brennan threaded her own around his neck, both holding on for dear life as their lips parted and came together again and again.
When the need for oxygen became too great, they pulled apart and their foreheads found each other once morewhile their grip on each other loosened. Booth exhaled softly, his breath puffing against her lips, as he slid his hands up and down her back. Brennan kept her arms looped around his shoulders as they began to sway to the song's chorus, the stringed-instrument background music filtering out into the hall.
They were silent, save for the song, for a minute or two. When Booth leaned in to brush his lips to Brennan's again, she smiled. "Will we actually have that conversation, Booth?"
"I suppose we should, eventually."
"Not tonight."
"No, not tonight. Tonight I'm home, I survived my first and only profiling experience, and I've got a beautiful woman in my arms. This day is better than any I've seen in over a month. There's nothing to talk about."
Brennan sighed. "You're home, Booth."
He tilted his head for another kiss and grinned against her lips. "Yeah, Bones. I'm home."
FINIS
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, this didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to... I really should have left it as a oneshot. Silly me, thinking I still had more of the story to tell. Oh, well. Hopefully it wasn't too dissatisfying. And the song mentioned above is the matt pond P.A. version of "Champagne Supernova," one of my very favorite songs ever.