Hello. I've been writing a story called "The Morning After in the Morning" over in the family(ish)-friendly 'T' section. If you've been following it, this is what I am calling "chapter 4a" which, shockingly, follows on from chapter 4. For those of you who wanted to know what Booth did with that zipper. ;)

If you haven't been following my story and are reading this "cold", then firstly, "Hello!" and some context for you:

This story is set a few days after 6x22 - "The Pain in the Heart" and follows canon up until the end of the episode. I have interpreted that Booth and Brennan did indeed sleep together the night of Vincent's murder. At the end of 6x22 in my story, Cam gives the team a few days off. Brennan and Booth spend time together. Booth tells Brennan he wants to take her on a date. She puts on the Roxy Dress from 2x08 - "The Woman in the Sand". It turns out Booth has booked them a couple of nights in a boutique hotel, with some help from Angela. They have dinner, she tells him she loves him for the first time. They end dinner quickly and retreat to their room, where Booth sets about removing Brennan's dress.

"If you don't mind, I've been dreaming about getting you out of this dress for five years."

Brennan chuckled. "You weren't the only one."

"Really?"

"No. I was very attracted to Tony in Vegas. If you had made an advance at me I would probably have responded."

"Really?" he raised an eyebrow. "Right, that's it."

He let go of Brennan just long enough to walked around behind her where he moved up against her. Booth slid his fingers over her shoulders, marvelling at the soft skin he found as he pressed into her skin lightly. He lifted her hair away from the back of her neck, dropped his head and began kissing that spot. He ran his hands lightly back along her shoulders and down her arms, giving her goosebumps, then slid his hands back up again. His kisses started to move away from her neck and further along her shoulder.

"Those straps have got to go." he mumbled. He gently pulled the strap away from her shoulder on one side so it hung loose, kissed the skin underneath and then did the same on the other side. She sighed. Her arms and shoulders were now bare and he took a gulp as he took half a step back and began to slowly unzip the back of the same dress he had zipped up five years before...

Brennan was aware of Booth's hands, pulling the zip down so, so slowly. His hand brushed against her spine as the zipper moved lower, giving her the most exquisite tingles down her back. When the zip could go no further he took a further pace back to admire his handiwork. The dress hung for just a moment and then, like it was on cue, dropped from Brennan's body and pooled on the floor, her back now bare to him, leaving her only in her panties, stockings and suspenders. He stepped back in close behind her again, running his fingers up and down her sides, making her giggle.

"That tickles, Booth." He placed his hands back on her shoulders, swept her hair out of the way and kissed her neck again.

"Tickles, huh?" He chuckled. "That wasn't the plan."

"And what was the plan?" She said huskily.

"Something more seductive. More like this..." At which point he slid his hands round from her back, over her breasts and cupped them, swiping her nipples with his thumbs and then gently massaging them. Brennan threw her head back slightly in response and he moved round to the side of her neck to kiss her more there. That was clearly turning her on hugely. Never one to be a sexual wallflower, Brennan reached behind her and rubbed his crotch. She could feel he was getting hard already.

"Oh shit, that's good... I never got to seduce you the other times so far... and I really wanted to do this the way I always imagined our first time would be... God, your tits, Bones, I never told you yet how perfect they are."

She looked back down at her breasts, covered by his hands, "Thank you." Brennan managed a strained response. They had barely started and she was already a mess. She realised she was half naked and Booth was still fully clothed. That needed to change. She regained some control and took a breath.

"Booth, you are wearing way too many clothes," she said, trying to sound authoritative. She turned to face him, causing his arms to fall from her breasts as she did. Instead he guided his hands around her hips to rest on her buttocks and stroked them firmly through her panties. At the same time, Brennan started to unbutton Booth's shirt.

"This takes me back to the lab..." Booth grinned at her, looking down at her fingers as they deftly managed each button.

"Oh, that's a whole other fantasy, Mister. I'm not mixing them up. I have a very precise list." At which point she unbuttoned the last one and his shirt fell open. She slid her hands up against his chest, pushed his shirt off his perfect acromia and then gripped his biceps. They made eye contact again for a moment and there followed a recurring series of open mouthed, messy kisses as they seemed to fight to see who could get the other most aroused. Somehow it the middle of this, they had the following punctuated conversation, quite remarkably managing to almost bicker their way through the next round of foreplay.

"You have a list? I have a list too. What's on your list?"

"It's a long list."

"Well, mine is also a long list."

"Mine is numbered, though in no priority order." She said, as matter-of-factly as she could whilst he was continuing his ministrations. He rolled his eyes and laughed. Competitive to the last.

"Well tell me your list."

"This, right at the top. Stripping you for evidence. Buck and Wanda in the trailer. Wonder Woman and Clark Kent..." She nuzzled his neck, placing more kisses there as he stroked her hair, revelling in its softness.

"I was a squint!"

"You looked like Clark Kent with those glasses. I liked your hair smoothed down like that."

"Uh-huh." His mouth now on her nipple prevented a more eloquent response.

"Mmmm, keep doing that Booth..." A few moments passed as she relished the suction he was applying. As he moved on to lick and suck her somewhere marginally less sensitive elsewhere, her speech returned.

"Plumbing."

"Oh yeah. I loved plumbing. You were a great student. I should have done something about helping you getting out of those wet clothes..." At that point Booth then had to stop and look down in some awe as Brennan started negotiating his trouser flies. She continued.

"The Egyptian exhibit. I wanted you to kiss me then, and then take me home and bond the deal."

"Seal the deal, Bones," he corrected her between his moans as she rubbed his shaft through his underwear. "I gotta say that was the worst interruption ever, because I would've, you know?"

"Mmmmm" she was struggling to concentrate as he'd bought his hand down to her mound and was sending an exploratory finger in to her folds. She was wet and ready for whatever he wanted to do to her. And he had his own, equally long list...

"After that that lap dance I bought you. I wanted to show you what you were really missing."

"Don't think I didn't wonder..."

She pushed his trousers down as much as was possible without breaking contact with his upper body. He wriggled and they too pooled at his ankles by the floor and he was now left in just his jockeys.

"That's better." She smirked at him before continuing her kisses on his neck and chest. "Librarian...for you ...and mile high club for me."

"I thought you were clueless about that. how did you-?"

"I described the scenario to Angela."

"Oh. That would work. One for me. That's very sweet by the way." and he chose that moment to kiss her softly on the mouth again. Booth stopped for a second. He pulled back to look at her for a moment." Hang on - you know about the mile high club?"

"Booth, I travel first class. I've seen people following each other into the bathroom on planes and it doesn't take a genius to work out by the amount of time they spend in there what they are doing. I asked a steward once. And he told me - 'mile high club'."

"Mile high club." Booth chuckled. He gripped her shoulders again and kissing her once more, he stepped out of the trip hazard that were his trousers, walked her back towards the bed and when they got there, pushed her back gently onto the bed so she was lying flat with her legs dangling off the end. He got on his knees and reaching over her, he hooked his fingers into her panties, trailing kisses down her body as he did. Brennan was just managing to keep enough composure to continue talking, although she was certain she was functioning a few IQ points down on normal.

"After sports. You look sexy after you've done sports. You're pumped full of adrenalin. You're all hot and sweaty. I always imagined you'd taste quite delicious."

"I like that one." He slowly pulled down her panties, continuing to kiss her southwards as he did so until he reached his goal, running his tongue briefly over her most sensitive part. She tasted sweet and musky and as he licked her she groaned appreciatively.

He unhooked her stockings from her suspender belt. That had been a nice touch. She watched him roll each of her stockings slowly down. She stroked each leg, kissing her ankles and finally, with a little helpful contortion from her, he finally removed the suspender belt.

"In the back of the SUV..."

"Oh yeah." He was kissing her back up her legs again, aiming for his own personal nirvana... but what came next surprised him.

"Outside the Hoover Building. After Sweets' book. I wanted you then. More than you can imagine."

Booth stopped. Everything stopped. He pulled up and looked into her eyes.

"But you rejected me?"

"You never actually told me you loved me. I wasn't strong enough then to just accept what you said without some sort of qualification."

The realisation in Booth's mind felt like a sucker punch. Over a year they had wasted. He'd crushed her heart, twice - and in the process had his own heart crushed twice too. They could have had it all so much sooner. He had been a coward.

"Oh my God, Bones, I am so sorry." He shot back up the bed and kissed her passionately. She pulled away, but not in anger.

"It's OK Booth, we got there eventually." She looked tenderly at him, stroking his face.

"But I can't believe that I didn't say it. I thought I'd said it."

"No, you said a lot of things but at the time I was unable to reconcile them even though now I recognise that in your own way you were telling me you loved me."

Booth responded by kissing her even harder, if that were possible. He was desperate to be with her, inside her. He needed to show her.

"Bones, I can't believe we wasted so much time! I'm so sorry, Baby, so sorry." They were pressed tight against each other, her hands still roaming his body. Brennan tried one handedly to pull down his jockeys, which frustratingly had gotten caught on his erection, whilst the other hand was still round the back of his neck, trying to soothe him.

"Let me help you there..." He was distracted by her attempt to remove the last item of clothing. He pushed up on his hands to allow her to slide the underwear off, finishing the task by kicking the offending shorts out of the way with his free foot, leaving them both naked. They scooted up the bed so they were in the middle.

"Booth, I was there too, not just you. I could have given us a chance back then."

"I pushed you too hard."

"I was just not strong enough Booth, but the point is I am now." She pressed her forehead against his and kissed him again, so adoringly. He was usually the emotionally strong one of the two of them, where she clammed up and became hyper-rational, he would open up feelings, but this time he could see just how far she had come by the way she was dealing with this. Brennan was comforting him, pulling him through. If it was possible for him to love her more than he did at that moment, he didn't see how.

For Brennan, this moment confirmed more than any other to date just how much she felt for him. She had no desire to make Booth feel guilty, on the contrary, she really wanted him to know that she'd been thinking about his for quite some time and she was OK with it. She had worked through it with logical precision after their candle-lit conversation in his apartment. She needed to be strong for both of them.

They both stilled for a moment.

"What can I do, Bones?"

"Do you love me?" She asked him. Oh that sounded familiar. He had heard those words before. Iceland. Bren. This was her way of showing him her open heart.

"Yeah. Do you want me to prove it to you"? He responded, waiting to see if her next line was what he hoped it would be.

"Only if you're not too sleepy." Then she paused, stroked his cheek and added something he hadn't heard in his coma: "Show me everything."

Sex had turned from a desire into a need for both of them and it took Booth no further encouragement to line himself up at her entrance and, with their eyes locked together, press home.

It was not the first time they had made love. Their previous engagements so far had been in turns - comforting, playful and downright lustful; but this time - this time they were confronting feelings they hadn't really discussed fully for months. It had taken on an intensity born out of Booth's metaphorical self-flagellation for a crime he hadn't really committed, but Brennan knew this was some sort of confessional for him and she was going to have to fuck the guilt and the pain out of him with some sort of inquisition until he felt he was absolved.

He moved in and out of her quite slowly at first. They established a steady rhythm which they maintained for several minutes, enough for them both to feel him moving solidly inside of her and allowing them to revel in their joining and the general sensation of making love. Every so often he would kiss her again like he was worshipping her.

"Tell me the first time you knew you loved me..." She breathed between kisses.

"At the diner. After Zach passed his doctorate."

"You told me there was more than one kind of family." She smiled.

"And you," he grunted as she lifted a leg slightly to deepen the angle. " Tell me the first time... you knew you loved me."

"After Sully left without me. You were there. On the Quay. All cocky. I hated you. Because couldn't leave. I couldn't leave my work. What we'd built. But mostly I couldn't leave you." Short sentences. What he was doing felt sublime; it was clearing her mind when she needed to continue to engage him. Think, Brennan...

"The first time you wanted to fuck me..."

"American University." Booth said confidently, pumping just a bit harder as he enjoyed her use of the vernacular.

"Really? The first day?"

"You were so hot, Bones. Not what I expected. That pencil skirt. Your hair was straight. I remember everything." They kissed again, hard, then broke apart, eyes still locked together. She knew she had to ask him one question that was going to likely upset her too because she already knew the answer.

"Worst moment?"

"Car. Gravedigger. Thought I'd lost you."

"I had faith." The emotions from that horrible experience made her physically shudder. He felt it. She felt her own need to be near him intensify and she kissed him quite forcefully, running one down his back to grab his butt, her nails scraping his skin whilst the other remained firmly stroking the nape of his neck. That one sentence seemed to soothe him, open the door to his absolution that she needed him to walk through. He pulled his hands underneath her rear too and pulled her in as he increased his pace, changing the angle again slightly and increasing the friction. They both moaned in pleasure. Her eyes remained locked on his, searching for confirmation that was could release himself from his self-imposed purgatory. She recomposed herself as best she could considering she was being quite thoroughly screwed senseless. Her breaths were coming shorter now as she struggled to keep composure.

"If you could have done one thing... differently between us... what would it have been?"

"Goddam line." Was all he could manage as his thrusts had become firmer. He had so much longing in his eyes and he was almost sobbing as he pushed into her.

"Line's gone, Booth."

"Sorry... For everything."

"All gone, just us..." She moved to cradle his head in her hands for a moment. She wanted him to see they were absolutely OK. She was absolutely OK. She just loved him.

"Wanna. Make. It. Right."

"You have. Already."

"Love. You... So. Much." He had lost the ability to generate pronouns at this point.

"I know." The emotion of feeling so loved had become a huge aphrodisiac for her.

"Wanna make you..." She felt so good. So tight. His brain was only basal instincts now. "...cum..."

"Getting close..." She promised him.

"Baby, please..." Their rhythm had become fast and erratic, he was re-routing all energy and what little brainpower he had left to will them both to orgasm. They continued thrusting wildly against each other until Brennan found herself with a coiled feeling in her lower belly. Then the feeling hit her all at once. It was like a freight train. She couldn't stop the emotion hitting her square in the gut as a little part of her died in ecstasy; and her heart, unexplainably grew, forever, ever so slightly bigger.

"Booth!... I love you!" She screamed out as everything turned black and suddenly she was seeing explosions in front of her eyes. Hearing those words for the second time in an hour was enough to send Booth over the edge a couple of seconds after. He grunted a stream of expletives as he came inside her.

And then they were quiet. Only their breathing remained, heavy and ragged panting, arms still wrapped round each other. Booth felt chains released from their mid-sex conversation, a euphoria from both the sex itself and the achievement of getting close to breaking those laws of physics with the woman he was totally in love with.

Brennan was blown away. Not even the first time with Booth himself had been like this. This had changed her forever.

Wow. I'm not entirely sure where that came from. Took on a bit of a life of its own. Those of you following the rest of the story, chapter five should be up within a few days.

Reviews most welcomed, thank you.