This is my first posting, please read and review...thanks.

Quid pro quo (Latin for "something for something", many times understood by English speakers as "what for what" or "tit for tat") is used to mean, in the English speaking world, a favour for a favour. The exchange in legal terms of something of value, usually information, for something of equal value.

She was standing in the desert, the heat beating down on her, her skin on fire. She wasn't sure how long she had been there or how she had arrived. Her throat was burning. She turned her attention to the horizon, it wobbled in waves of heat, dissipating into the blue sky. In the distance she noticed a movement, a small dark figure walking toward her and she squinted, blinking to try and force herself to focus. It made her eyes hurt, they felt gritty and ached with the urge to release tears. The figure drew closer at a pace that seemed impossible to her. The thought crossed her mind that it could be someone coming to hurt her and the realization struck that she didn't care, she was dying and the stranger would either offer rescue or an end to her suffering, either way she would no longer be baking alive. She tried to step forward and nothing happened. She was frozen in a way she could not comprehend. Confusion creased her brow. Every breath she drew was a burning sliver down to her lungs and she was coated with a fine layer of sand. She turned her attention back to the approaching figure unable to judge the distance between them. She couldn't make out any features but judging by the size and stride she concluded it was a man. In the next instant he was in front of her, inches away and before her mind could wrap itself around the image, he wrapped himself around her, leaning down and gently kissing her parched lips. In that instant everything stopped, everything. She was first aware that her lungs no longer burned and the heat had receded from her flesh as though the sun itself had been turned down. Her mouth was soft against his and she moaned softly into him but all too soon he pulled away. She opened her eyes and the desert was gone, she was cool and unharmed, she was standing in the grass under a tree in her parents back yard, looking deeply in to the twinkling brown eyes of Seely Booth.

"Seely…" she closed her eyes as he kissed her cheek, leaning into her.

Temperance opened her eyes and found herself looking into another mans face. She blinked and pushed him away, crying out as she did so.

"Temperance!"

It was David. She was on her own sofa in her condo. She sat up suddenly, shaking her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She had been sleeping, it was a dream. David was glaring at her.

"It was me Temperance, I kissed you and it was his name on your lips."

"David, I was dreaming…I…" She really didn't know what to say.

"No matter how highly our interests and intellects were matched on-line, I learned everything I need to know about you just now. Please don't fight this, I'm just going to go." He stood and moved away from her, gathering his coat and keys she watched him let himself out the front door. Temperance was still sitting on the couch in a bit of a daze, equally shocked by the dream and her lack of desire to stop David. She saw the cup of tea on the table but as much as she wanted some at that moment, she also wanted to make her own. She remembered now, David had been making her tea and she came to rest on the couch. She had been so tired that she must have fallen asleep while he was in the kitchen. She walked to her sink and poured out the tea, rinsing the cup and placing the water back on to boil. She felt suddenly relaxed and she stood at the counter waiting for the water and thinking about the dream. It was so vivid, she could recall each sensation in such detail that she reflexively raised her hand to touch her lips and felt the heat begin to stir between her legs. Had she moaned out loud as well as saying Seely? Poor David, she felt badly for him and yet respected that he wanted to leave with his dignity.

The kettle began to whistle and she automatically dropped in the bag and poured the steaming water over it. The heat triggered the vision of the dream again and Temperance allowed herself to think briefly of Booth. With every rational fiber of her being she wanted to believe it was just a dream, void of any real meaning or substance but the feeling of it wouldn't leave her. She shook her head at her own foolishness, of course she would dream of Booth rescuing her; he always did, didn't he? It was only logical that she would dream of him in this way. He had been on a case in Kentucky for the last two weeks and was not due back for at least another week. It was probably his absence that provoked her subconscious into conjuring him up in her dream. She was walking back toward the living room when a knock at the door made her jump. She didn't want to deal with David right now but if he wanted to talk it through, she would, she owed him that much. She would not, however, be able to continue to see him so she hoped this was about an explanation and not any type of reconciliation. She took a deep breath and opened the door, freezing in her tracks as she looked at Seely Booth.

"Hey Bones, how are you?" His grin spread up to his eyes. She just stood there, staring at him and after a moment when he realized she was not going to respond he spoke again.

"Bones, what's the matter?" His eyes squinted in concern as he looked at her more closely.

"Breathe" she whispered softly to herself.

"Booth, it's Booth. Wow, a guy is gone for a few short weeks and you already can't remember his name?" His gaze was intense.

"Booth, what are you doing here?" She seemed genuinely confused.

"I got done early so I came home. This is the part where you tell me how much you missed me and invite me inside. That's standard American issue manners." He kept his tone light but she seemed so disoriented it was starting to really concern him. He lowered his voice to a whisper, "Bones, come on, what's the matter?"

She opened the door all the way and waived her hand in a gesture of entrance.

"I was just expecting someone else."

He paused, he could think of nothing but getting here from the moment his current case had ended. He had just wanted to hear her voice, take in her scent and relish for a moment in the feeling of her close proximity. He had missed her so much it made him ache to think of her. It hadn't even occurred to him that she would not be available to him.

"I'll go, I didn't know you were expecting company." He turned to exit when he felt her hand on his arm.

"No, it's fine. I thought it was David."

"Really, I can go if you're expecting him." He was crushed and the last thing he wanted right now was to see them together, on top of missing her that would be more than he wanted to deal with at the moment.

"We broke up Booth, I just thought he was coming back for some sort of closure." She calmly turned and walked to the kitchen counter where she had left her tea. He turned to close the door and allowed himself a quick indulgent smile at the thought that David was out of the picture.

He studied her for a moment before he spoke again. "If you don't mind my asking, why don't you seem upset?" He held his breath.

"Let's just say we had one of those crystal clear moments that unequivocally define the end of a relationship. It was immediate and mutual, an epiphany of sorts." Her voice was clear and a little cold, but even as she said them she knew it was true. There was just nothing of substance between them as nice as David was, he sparked no real interest. She always had to concentrate when they were together to even listen to him.

"Did he do something to hurt you?" Booth's temper began to rise at the thought but her answer slowed him down.

"No, if you must know, there wasn't enough of an emotional investment there to result in it being painful. I'm just grateful it wasn't hostile or messy." She sighed deeply. "You never really answered my question, what are you doing here at this late hour?"

He ignored the question again, unable to tell her the truth.

"You know an epiphany is a pretty big deal. What happened in this 'crystal clear' moment?" He had followed her into the kitchen.

"I had a dream…" Temperance stopped, realizing that she was about to tell him what happened and suddenly aware that to relay the dream to him meant she would be telling Booth that she spoke his name while David kissed her. Her skin tingled and she turned to face him. "It doesn't matter and it's really rather personal. Do you want something to drink?"

"Whoa, hold on a minute there. Did you say you had a dream? The scientist has had a moment of clarity based on a dream? I'm not very scientific but I'm pretty sure that there is no fact based evidence in a dream. What's happened to you Bones?" He was teasing her, smiling that lazy smile that made her stomach flutter.

"Did you want something to drink or not?"

"I'll have a cup of tea if your water is still hot." He never took his eyes off of her, soaking in the site of her with every second. She was grateful to turn away from the weight of his gaze. She busied herself with making the tea while she spoke.

"It wasn't based on a dream, you're making assumptions."

"Then tell me about your dream." He was quiet, waiting. His instinct told him the dream was important in some way and that it meant something to her but he wasn't sure if even she knew what. "I'm pretty good with dream interpretation and we know how you hate psychology so let me help you with this."

She was gently shaking her head.

"I don't hate psychology. I just think it's amazing that supposed doctors draw conclusions from studying behavior when we know that for every person you find with a consistent response to any situation there is another person that can demonstrate an exception. There are no certainties in their conclusions. The control groups are rarely secure. It's a field full of contamination and interpretation, that's not science." She handed him his cup and headed to the living room where she sat at the end of the sofa.

"Bones, you are trying to play a shell game with your mumbo jumbo talk. Just tell me about the dream."

"I don't know what that means." She watched him seat himself next to her, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

"You're stalling. Let me help you with this life epiphany you have had this evening." He was grinning at her now, the charming irresistible grin that she found so disarming.

"I forgot how relentless and annoying you could be." She was smiling at him.

"I know you missed me, you don't have to say so, but it does hurt my feelings a bit that you would forget me in just two short weeks." He gave her his best sad face, but his eyes still held their amusement. She was chuckling now, lured by his playfulness into a feeling of good humor. He had an uncanny knack of being able to drive her crazy with frustration and make her laugh within moments of each other.

"I didn't literally forget you and you know that." She turned away from him, the color rising in her cheeks. In truth she thought of him often while he was gone and it made her chest tight whenever she did. She didn't know when she had become so accustom to his presence that his absence was a distraction, needling her throughout the day. The whole time he was gone she mentally moved between being annoyed at him for popping into her head and being startled by the feelings that having him in her head evoked.

"The dream Bones, the dream, you are really so skilled in avoidance. Why don't you want to share it? I mean if it's only a dream and therefore has no intrinsic power over your life, why would you not want to share it? You don't believe in the power of dreams, do you?" His head was cocked to the side and the tug of a smile still pulled at his mouth. He knew he was taunting her, challenging her beliefs but it was also one of the most effective ways to get her to respond.

"No Booth, dreams are just regurgitation from your sub conscience and their content is so mutilated and mutated that they contain no hidden messages. The images can cause certain feelings in reaction to them, but they are in no way predicators. Speaking of avoidance Booth, why are you here?" She watched his face and saw a flash across his eyes, a look she knew. Working with him all this time had taught her to read some of his silent communications. It was like a private language between them, an expression here, a touch there. Something had happened on the case, something he was holding inside him until he could manage it. She recognized in that instant that he wanted to talk to her about something but was not yet ready for the subject to come up. She felt badly about pushing him. He was staring at his hands in his lap now, swimming in his own thoughts when she broke the silence.

"Well, since you are here, I'll tell you what, you tell me about the last dream you had and what you think it means and maybe I'll tell you about mine. Quid pro quo." She was smiling broadly at him now and he felt a tug in his chest as he looked at her, his features shifting away from the dark place they had gone.

"Bones, are you suggesting we play a game?" His look was stunned.

"I suppose it is a game, you must be rubbing off on me." She was chuckling again and the sound was like a warm breeze against him.

"I'll play, but there is no maybe in quid pro quo. If I tell you mine, you have to tell me yours. It's an equal exchange of information."

She nodded her head but was already thinking about ending the dream short of the kiss when she told it to him.

"I have to think for a moment about what I last dreamt." He was stalling because there was no way he could tell Bones about his last dream. He couldn't even think about it himself without getting an erection. He pushed the thought of her naked body from his mind and squirmed a bit in his seat trying to suppress the tightness starting to form between his legs. He turns his mind instead to a recurring dream he has and quickly decides it's best to go with that instead. He focuses on the images he can recall. "It's a recurring dream in which I am outside a building, a white building and I have a terrible sense of urgency. I know I am supposed to get inside the building or something terrible is going to happen but I can not find an entrance. All sides are white cinderblock, there are no doors or windows and it is about 15 feet square. There are no other buildings around, I am in the middle of nowhere and yet I have a sense that I know this place. My anxiety grows, I can hear someone inside crying. I pick up a large rock and begin to hit the side of the building, trying to break through the wall. My fingers are getting crushed against the wall, my hand is bleeding but I can't stop. The wall doesn't even have a chip in the paint. I am crying by this time because the sound from inside the building has increased to a painful escalating wail. I think I have failed. I can hardly breathe. I press myself against the wall and am screaming NO when the wall gives and just crumbles in front of me. When I step into the room it's empty, there is a wooden chair in the center and everything is covered with blood. A cold feeling washes completely over me and I wake up. It's the same every time." His speech has slowed and when he stops he is surprised at how recalling the dream has brought it back to him so clearly and upset him so much. Until he heard himself actually recounting the dream out loud, he hadn't really thought about how gruesome it sounded. He looked up at her with that lopsided smile, "so what do you think it means?"

Her heart felt heavy listening to him. She wasn't sure what to tell him so she approached it with her usual analytical mind. "How long have you been having this dream?"

He had to think about it. What was going on the first time he had the dream. As Booth worked his mental timeline and really thought it out, his conclusion made him snap his head up to look at her. The expression was quickly shifted and he shot at her, "for a while but not too long."

"Booth, what kind of answer is that? That look you just had was an epiphany look if I have ever seen one. When did the dream start?" Her voice was gentle, soothing and before he could think again he just told her.

"Shortly after I met you." He was looking at her now and the intensity in his eyes made her mouth run dry and her heart pound loudly in her ears. Temperance didn't know what to say, she was torn between responding with the actual analysis and not commenting at all. She reached over and picked up his hand, she moved it onto her lap and held it between both of hers, pulling it against her. The simple gesture brought them both comfort. Neither one of them moved for a long time and then she broke the silence.

"Booth, that was a nightmare, not a dream but I am going to honor my part of the deal, Quid pro quo. I fell asleep on the couch while David was making me some tea. I had this dream that I was in the desert, being baked to death by the sun. I was standing but couldn't move and my throat was like razor blades down into my lungs. I remember being all gritty and covered with sand, just blistering in the heat. I am aware that I'm dying when I see someone coming across the sand toward me. I know it's a man and when he reaches me I see who it is but before I can say anything he kisses me. I close my eyes and moan against him, because it's a very erotic kiss. When I open my eyes we are in my parents back yard in the cool shade of a tree and I'm fine, I say his name out loud and he leans in to kiss me again. It was at this point that I woke up and David was calling my name." She pauses here and takes a very deep breath. Seely has been so still that she is unable to look directly at him. When she continues she is talking more quickly. "All David said was that with everything we had in common on-line he had just learned the only thing he needed to know about me because when he was kissing me, I said your name. That's when he left."

Booth felt like all the oxygen had been sucked from the room. His heart was slamming in his chest and he was so unsure that he had heard her correctly that he almost asked her to repeat herself. She was looking down, playing with his hand in her lap as though it was a toy she was holding. When she lifted her head there was a deep flush to her cheeks, her eyes were shining and a small smile crept across her lips. "What do you think it means?"