Disclaimer: If I owned Bones, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction about Booth and Brennan getting together. It'd be happening on TV and many people would be very happy. But sadly, I don't.
A/N: Its just a little something I thought of while reading everybody else's Christmas fics. First one...don't groan! It might be good, you don't know. Give it a shot. If its bad, groan at the end.
His thrusts are mechanical and his kisses are cold and passionless. She seems to be enjoying herself, while he imagines he's somewhere else with someone else. She rakes her nails down his back and he wonders how long this is going to last. Finally, she shakes and shudders, and he silently thanks God that it's over, and he can get away from her.
He flops over on his back and she immediately snuggles into his chest, murmuring something about "best ever" and he wonders how two people can have such different accounts of the same event. He slips his hand behind his head, leaving his unoccupied arm motionless by his side, not daring to touch her.
Go to sleep, he shouts at her in his mind. Please leave me alone. Please don't talk to me.
Unfortunately, she can't read his thoughts, as she rambles on and on about this case and that case. She talks about how brilliant she was when she deduced that the man currently residing on her table was a murder victim not a suicide. He numbly nods his head, though he knows she's not as smart as she thinks. He knows someone smarter. His thoughts make him smile, a broad grin that makes most women weak. She mistakes it for something else and leans up to kiss him.
The grin quickly disappears when her lips touch his, and he can feel his stomach turn into knots as she tries to slip her tongue in his mouth. The ringing of his cell phone interrupts them, and he thanks God for the second time that night.
"Don't answer it, we're busy," she tries to convince him, as she kisses a path down his chest.
"It could be important. It could be Parker," he tells her in a stern voice, grasping her wrists and practically throwing her to the other side of the bed. He quickly grabs the phone off the nightstand and flips it open without glancing at the caller ID.
"Booth."
"You were right, it's not the missing little boy," Temperance Brennan's voice floats over the line, and he can't help but smile. The nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach subsides as he comes up with an appropriate retort.
"Hello Booth, how are you? Well, I'm just fine, Bones. Thank you so much for asking. Your social skills are getting better and better with each passing day. Now, what pray tell is the reason you're calling me at 10:30 at night on Christmas Eve? See what I just did there? It's called a 'conversation', you should try it sometime," he teases her.
"I just told you why I'm calling. I wanted you to know you were right!" She fights back, her tone just as light and mocking as his.
"Ah, well, thank you for that," he responds, reaching for his boxers from the floor. He carefully cradles the phone between his shoulder and his ear so he can slip the garment on. "Are you at the lab still?" He asks though he already knows the answer.
He stands to leave from the bed, and his companion places her hand on his shoulder to stall him. He waves off her hand and retreats from the bedroom. He'd rather talk to Bones all night long than have sex with HER one more time.
He hears Bones sigh on the line before responding. "Yes, I am. I just wanted to get this done. His parents deserve to know."
He plops himself down on the red faux leather couch in his companion's living room, and sighs. "Thank you, Bones, but you should really go home. It's Christmas Eve!"
"Well, I wouldn't be doing anything but work anyway." He imagines her wincing at her confession of loneliness, and gives a sad smile.
"Well, what are you doing tomorrow?" He absently scratches his head as he tries to figure out a way to ask her this without making her uncomfortable.
"Working…"
"On Christmas?"
"Booth, you know that I --"
He immediately cuts her off. "Don't believe in Pagan rituals and that Jesus wasn't even born on December 25th, blah blah blah…I know all this. But that doesn't mean you can't eat a really great home cooked meal, does it?"
"Well, I suppose not…"
"So, come over and eat with Parker and me. I make a prime rib that makes most people drool, and we have pie and eggnog and just in general, eat until we literally drop. So, you should come and help us."
He prays that she says yes. Though he'd seen her just yesterday, he misses her already.
"Oh, Booth, I don't know. I mean, you get so little time with Parker as it is…I don't want to interrupt family time."
"Bones, you are family, okay? You're my partner, you're my friend, you're my…" His voice trails off as he tries to come up with something platonic, but his mind keeps screaming 'one true love' and 'heart' and corny things that most men wouldn't even cop to thinking about.
"Your?" Bones' voice drifts over the line, wrenching him back from his thoughts.
"My favorite forensic anthropologist, and quite possibly Parker's too, but we'll have to ask him because he's so popular and important, he may have actually met other forensic anthropologists."
"He's five, Booth."
"It was a joke, Bones." He smiles at her ignorance. "Dinner's at five thirty."
"Booth…" she half-whines, uncertainty filling her tone.
"Bones…" he mocks her, his mouth forming his infamous charm smile.
"Your charm smile doesn't work over the phone, Booth." He can't help but chuckle. She knows him too well.
"You could come over at four and distract Parker while I work on dinner. You could tell him about the dinosaurs you found on that dig in the Gobi! He loves dinosaurs."
"I don't do dinosaurs, Booth." She gives a frustrated sigh.
"Well, then talk to him about phylogeny and hexavalent chromium. If Dr. Bones is talking about it, Parker's excited about it. He adores you, and he would be so excited to see you. It would make his Christmas complete. Please?"
He can practically hear the gears turning in her head, trying to figure a way out of it. Finally, she lets out a huff. "Okay, I'll come."
His fist shoots in the air in triumph. "Great! We'll see you at four!"
"Yeah, okay." She replies.
"Thanks for calling me, Bones. I really appreciate it. You should go home now, get some rest. Parker can be very exhausting."
"Must get that from his father," she teases.
"I'll take that as a compliment. Go home, Bones. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Night Booth." He hears the smile in her voice.
"Good night Temperance." He grins from ear to ear as he flips his cell phone shut. He lets out a sigh of relief as he slumps back against the couch, holding his cell phone to his heart.
"Well, it just wouldn't be Christmas Eve sex, if Dr. Brennan didn't call right in the middle of it," Cam's voice comes from behind him.
Booth shoots up off the couch and turns to face her. "Sorry, she was just calling to update me on the body found yesterday."
"Long update," she snaps.
"Well, she was still at the lab, and I was trying to get her to go home, it being Christmas Eve and all."
"And that necessitated you inviting her to your house for Christmas Dinner?" Cam folds her arms across her chest in defiance.
"You were eavesdropping?" He mimics her action, crossing his arms over his bare chest.
"Don't change the subject, Seeley. You invited her over to your house on Christmas to eat dinner with you and your son, and you won't even introduce me to him! I'm your girlfriend, not HER." She's right, of course. It should be her at his table tomorrow with him and his son. He just couldn't do it.
"I don't like to introduce Parker to my girlfriends unless I know that it's going somewhere. I can't just bring women into his life left and right. It's not fair to him." He responds calmly.
"Well, it's not fair to me either. It's not fair that I have to play second fiddle to everyone else."
"Not everyone else, just Parker. He's my son. You have to understand that, we've talked about this. He comes first, no matter what. I won't tell you that again." He feels the anger boiling within.
"And Dr. Brennan," she says, matter-of-factly, planting her hands on her hips.
"She's my partner. Her dad and brother have abandoned her. She has no where else to go!" He drops his arms to his sides, his hands clenching into fists.
"Always rushing in to defend her! Always trying to save her. You don't have to!"
"Yes I do! I'm her partner. It's my job to protect her even if it's from herself!"
"And what about me?"
"I told you, Cam. I told you I was on her side."
"I didn't realize the 'I'm with Bones all the way' included choosing her over me in our PERSONAL LIVES."
Booth lets out a sigh of frustration. Cam's right. He isn't being fair to her. In the beginning, it was just a sexual release because he couldn't have who he wanted. Now, it's just because he couldn't figure out how to end it without letting on that he was head over heels for his partner, but no one deserved this.
"I'm sorry," he whispers.
Cam's face contorts to an expression of shock. "What do you mean you're sorry?"
"You're right. This isn't fair. You should be first and you're not, and you don't deserve that. I'm sorry."
He watches her eyes fill with unshed tears. "What are you saying?" She trembles.
He takes a careful step around the sofa, toward his quivering companion. "You deserve to be someone's first priority and you're not mine. You, you never will be." He takes another step toward her, placing a hand on her arm. "Parker is the most important person in my life, and Bones…" He runs his other hand through his hair. "She runs a close second," he admits.
He watches as she takes a step back and takes in a deep breath. "I kinda knew that," she finally says. "I just thought things would change after we were together for a while. I thought you would see I was better." She gives a snort of faux amusement. "I should have known better." She swipes at her eyes and he feels a pang of guilt. He shouldn't have let it go this far.
"I'm sorry, Cam. I really am."
She shakes her head, raising her eyes to his. "You should go."
He opens his mouth to protest, but she pushes on. "That wasn't a suggestion, Seeley. I want you to go." He nods his head in assent and walks into her bedroom to gather his stuff.
Five minutes later, he gives her one last look, one last apology, and walks out her front door. He pauses a moment when he hears a loud gasp, and sighs as he listens to the woman inside hysterically sob.
For a moment, he wishes he could cry too. If anyone understands her, it's him. He understands unrequited love. He understands that heartache. As his thoughts turn back to Bones, he shuffles down the sidewalk.
This love thing is not for kids, he thinks as he walks to his car. Definitely not.
Did you groan? I thought I might write another chapter...maybe? Christmas Day? Could be fun.
So, I really wanted Cam to be this "female dog" about the whole thing, but I couldn't write it. Maybe another story, another time. If you'll take some time to review, I'd appreciate it. If not, I'll try not to take it personally!