This one shot is in response to Cullen's Bullpen challenge.

You know I'd die for you, only sometimes it's so hard living with you."
"I couldn't help overhearing. I had my ear to the door."
"Come back in an hour. I'll be crazy by then."

WARNING: Sexually explicit material, rated M.

Title: This Moment

A/N : To all those who read and review thank you very much, it is the reward for my efforts. This was written straight through, no rewrites, no second guessing. Ary, this is for you, I nudged the envelope, I'll push it next time. Pereybere, you're back, (sigh) I'm so glad. Gayle, my number one fan, please enjoy. Wolfy and Goldpiece, thanks for the challenge, I hope I made you proud.

Angela could hear the voices as she came down the hall, even through the closed door, Booth and Brennan were fighting again. She could almost hear them; Booth's voice was drifting into the hall.

"You know I'd die for you, only sometimes it's so hard living with you. You take risks with your own life, you won't stay in the car when I ask you to, actually you never stay anywhere I ask you to!"

He sounded angry, and worried, she must have scared the hell out of him by following him while he was in pursuit of someone. One of them was going to get killed out there, she made a mental note to talk to Bren again later and see if she could talk some sense into her, although Booth seemed to be trying just that. Angela moved quietly away from the door, she did have a mountain of work to do in her own office.

Hodgins stuck his head in Angela's office, "do you know where Dr. Brennan is? I can't seem to locate her."

"She's in her office, but I wouldn't go down there if I were you." In response to his inquisitive expression she continued, "their fighting again."

"How do you always know?"

"I couldn't help over hearing. I had my ear to the door." At his look of surprise she shook her head, sometimes she wondered about how these geniuses got through the day. "I'm kidding; you can hear them half way down the hall."

He stepped the rest of the way into her office, "man, they have been going at it a lot lately. When do you think I should attempt an approach?"

"I still have to talk to her too, I just have to work on the Angelator program for a while, there's a bug and it's making me nuts, I'll need a break from it before too long. Come back in an hour, I'll be crazy by then."

"Did you just say you had a bug problem?" He was grinning from ear to ear.

"Very funny, I'll see you in an hour." With that she settled herself in front of her system and Hodgins moved down the hall, still grinning.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Temperance looked between the blinds of her office and then spun to face him. She was trying to take a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. She wondered briefly when she had allowed herself to slide into such unprofessional behavior at work. Certainly others in the building could hear them yelling. Her blinds were drawn and her door was closed; only her accent lights were on, the room was dim. Some part of her thought it would help, remove their differences from the glare of florescence and buffer the sound of their anger. When her eyes came up to his she was met with an intensity that both challenged and disarmed her.

She spoke quietly but her voice was so crisp he could feel the edge of it as her words moved over him. "You have to stop making these grandiose gestures of protection every time we are on a case. I can do my job; I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

He lowered his voice, matching her tone, "Bones I won't let you risk your life out there, not your life. Do you understand?"

"What you don't understand is that it is my life and the decisions I make concerning it are really none of your business, much less your responsibility. You do it out of some macho ego driven desire to prove your male status over me as a female and I find it insulting to both my gender and my competence." The last of her words were hissed at him.

He crossed the few steps between them rapidly, vibrating with anger at her words and frustrated by her refusal to understand. Her eyes grew wide at the invasion of her personal space but he was afraid he was going to start yelling again and that always ended with one of them walking out, this was an attempt at conversation, very intense conversation.

"That's not why I do it and it's insulting to me that you think my motivation would be so shallow." His eyes were blazing and as he drew a deep breath against his anger her scent filled him and he realized his mistake. He should never be this close to her, close enough to feel the heat of her.

She saw the shift in him, his shoulders lowered and the rigid line of his stance softened but she was confused by the hesitation in his aggression. His jaw was no longer clenched when he spoke but his eyes were still bright with fire. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she was suddenly more afraid than when he had been yelling.

"Bones, I can't stand around when something is happening to you and wait to see if you're going to be alright. I tell you to stay in the car because I don't want you to get caught in the line of fire. If something happened to you the proverbial 'I told you so' would be pointless. Do you know why?" He wanted to tell her it was because he couldn't face the possibility of loosing her. He understood her, he just didn't agree with her, couldn't agree with her, not about this anyway. She was glaring at him, her face flushed from the argument, hostility emanating from every angle of her.

"Because if I'm dead you won't get the satisfaction of me hearing you say it?" She was being direct but she also knew she was being sarcastic, it was not unintentional. He squeezed his eyes shut in frustration and she was startled to find herself waiting for him to open them again, to look at her again. He was out of words, he couldn't think, he just wanted her to see how dangerous it all was and how indispensable she was in his life.

When he opened them they were no longer flashing with anger and yet they were still had a dark intensity and she wanted to look away but found herself unwilling to do so. She wanted to curl up in the heat of him, like an animal in that one ray of sunshine from the window. In her peripheral vision she saw his hands move and her back bristled in anticipation, she expected him to shake her, to want to shake some sense into her. Even though he had never been physical with her in anger, she knew she was being difficult. Her arms were tensed to pull away from him, so she couldn't have been more shocked when instead his hands grasped her hips and pulled her up against him. He was kissing her.

She wanted to hate him; she was thinking it even now as his lips moved against hers and her arms hung suspended for a moment, their intended action halted. His egotistical presentation of his own thoughts, his illogical approach to every problem and his insistence in letting intuition guide him made him unacceptable to her, a terminal source of frustration. His tongue nudged her lips and her mouth opened to him, tasting him, coffee and mint and something else that she knew she could taste forever and not identify as anything but him. Her arms moved around his neck and suddenly she was not just letting him kiss her, she was kissing him back, drinking in his desire, moving into him and deepening the kiss. Heat flashed through her, collecting between her thighs, coming to life with a throb that weakened her knees.

He felt a small moan vibrate into him and he pulled her tighter against him, moving his hands to her back. His erection pressed against her and she pushed into him, moaning deeply. He ached with need at the sound of her and felt himself swell almost painfully. He broke away from her mouth, sliding his lips down her neck, grazing his cheek inside the collar of her clothing and nipping at the flesh along her collar bone. She gasped, unable to focus, her thoughts spiraling around the idea of telling him to stop but never taking hold. He peeled her lab coat off and was unbuttoning her shirt, his lips whispering around her ear and pulling on her lobe. She grabbed his lapels and tugged on his coat, in her mind was the vague intention of pushing him away but she only managed to drag it down his arms. He was disentangling himself from his jacket and she was undoing the buttons on his shirt, pulling it from his pants. As soon as his hands were free he undid her shirt, sliding his arms around her and undoing her bra with a flick of his fingers. Her hands were roaming his chest, touching him, caressing him. He was equally intent; having freed her breasts he pushed her bra away and descended, pausing just before taking her nipple into his mouth. He heard her whimper and whisper "damn you" even as her hand grasped his hair and pulled him against her.

He was pushing her shirt the rest of the way off, she let go of his hair, but he stayed at her breast, relentless, she bit her lip to keep from crying out as the pleasure overflowed. Her bra fell to the floor and he released her, undoing her pants as he backed her up to the desk and moved to her side of it. She heard the soft thud of things falling off her desk as he pushed out a path behind her, some part of her knew she should care. She rocked her hips and her slacks hit the floor. He was kissing her again, her slender fingers began working the front of his pants. His hand pressed against the damp silk of her underwear, the heart of her pressing back. He slid her underwear over her hips and she worked them to the floor. His hand was back between her legs, his mouth moved to her neck, his fingers passed between her folds, dipping into the wet depths. He circled her clitoris, sliding into her and back out, moving back and circling the pucker of her anus, then tracing his way back to press her bundled nerves. He continued the pattern until she knew her legs were not going to hold her, she wanted him, the physical act confirming what she had known all along, he was already inside her. When had he moved beyond her defenses to wander so freely through her head and heart? She was moaning, his fingers moving, stimulating, stroking, torturing. His mouth pulled tightly on her nipple, his finger gently rimming her as her womb contracted in hunger. She backed up into the desk as his hand came back and flicked her clit, causing her to buck forward.

Her hands were everywhere, smoothing over his skin pushing his shoulders up, her mouth bit down on his nipple and he gasped, a hiss escaping him as she licked the angry flesh, whispering his name. His penis ached and his balls tightened, skipping along the edge of pain. She lifted her head and looked at him, he moved his hands to her waist, lifting her onto the edge of the desk, releasing the notion that there was a decision to be made here, knowing it had been made a long time ago. He spread her legs and she arched back, dropping her hands to the desk behind her, opening herself to him. Looking at her bathed in the dim light like a vision he never dared to dream, he was struck with the realization that he would never have enough of her. He pressed the head of himself between her waiting lips and pulsed his finger in her anal crest. She was panting as she reached forward and wrapped her hand around the width of him, pushing him in, lifting her knees and pressing her heels against the back of his thighs. Her hands moved to his waist and she pulled him into her, sighing as he filled her. He felt her walls slide along him, clenching to hold onto him as he drew out and then slammed back into her. He held her in place, the buzz of pleasure turning into a burn as he moved within her. A rolling growl escaped him as he pumped into her, She dropped her hands to the edge of the desk, gaining leverage, tipping herself back, drawing her legs up as he sank deeper.

He felt it building, a knot bundling behind his balls, he increased his speed, she was whimpering beneath him when her body arched against the first wracking wave, locking around him, pushing him over the edge. His legs tightened and he hammered his last strokes into her, bone to bone, flesh to flesh, emptying his body, filling hers. His head was dizzy with the reality of it even as her walls continued to seize around him.

She released the desk and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his chest where the sound of his rapid heart echoed her own. Her body was twitching; she heard the familiar sounds of work in the distance and knew they would have to move. She turned her head, placing soft kisses over his heart, wanting the taste of him to linger.

"Temperance, please tell me there's no going back now." He kissed the top of her head, holding her tightly.

She wanted to pretend she didn't understand what he was asking but she wasn't geared to lie. She didn't know what this meant or how it would work; her fantasies of him had always ended with this moment. "We can't go back and just so you know, I wouldn't want to if I could. At the same time, I have no idea how we're going to define the future. Right now, I hope that's enough because it's all I have and I'm not going to pretend this doesn't scare the hell out of me."

He tipped her chin up to look at him, "that's enough." He kissed her, but when she felt him twitch inside her she smiled and broke away.

"We have to stop; they'll be looking for me before too long."

"And we can pick this up later?" He was hesitant, almost shy in asking. Her smile spread.

"Yes, we can pick this up later."

He slid out of her and stepped back, pulling up his underwear he realized the front of them was damp, from her, from them. Their mingled scent rose between them and eased his reluctance in parting from her. She moved to dress and he was surprised by her comfort level. He expected her to be timid but as she stood boldly in front of him stepping into her underwear and grinning he saw just how much he had underestimated her.

"Do you think anyone heard us?" How could she have waited so long to wonder?

"You were pretty loud." He was trying not to recall how she sounded.

She came over and pecked him on the cheek, moving her lips to his ear, "that's funny because I was making a real effort to be quiet."

He groaned softly, "okay, I have to go or I can't be responsible for my actions."

She laughed at the irony.

"Shall I meet you at your apartment later?" He wanted confirmation

"About seven, that'll give me plenty of time to panic and then calm back down over this." His laugh filled her office, dancing over her. They looked each other over as he unlocked the door, indulging in one more kiss before he slipped from the room.

Temperance straightened her desk, wiping it off with scented hand towels, spreading out her work and turning on her computer. She took a deep breath and smiled, this desk would always be the place he took her, the place she gave herself to him. Nothing would ever be the same and for the first time in her life she thought that was not such a bad thing.