Disclaimer: I own nothing. I just like to take the characters and write things I so dearly wish they would just do on television. :)
It was after Brennan had said she was done. Finished. With the murders and the sadness and the pain and the crimes. Done. It was long after that. Long enough for Booth to finally get every thought in his mind in order, but that didn't take too long when he knew. Because he knows things... Some things he just knows.
Because they were standing in front of the Founding Fathers bar. And she had that look on her face that just made his heart sink for the third time within a span of an hour. The congratulating Angela and Hodgins look, the look saying she was done, and the look she got when she saw Booth's expression to the news of her possible departure.
Which wasn't going to happen.
Booth hadn't been selfish at all in this, but he had to be. It was serious now. This was talk about losing a partner, a best friend, and... Well, you know. We all know.
And so her father had left, and Booth had watched Max as he walked and as the darkness had cast upon him from the street lights against the night sky. It wasn't until he noticed Brennan hailing a cab that he had to put an end to it. To all of it.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa—"
He gently grasped her hand and pulled Brennan away from the in-mid-stop cab. He waved it on and silenced her protests with a few, "Shhhs."
"I'm not letting you leave like this," he stated.
"Like what? I don't..."
"Bones. This isn't about your job. You couldn't wait to get in the field, and you didn't complain for six years! Six years. And you're going to leave your partner of six years for what? A dig somewhere in China?"
"Booth, change is evident everywhere around us and I don't want to be the one wondering why, at the end of everything, I'm the one that didn't..."
They had walked and talked, wandered a bit from where the cab had driven off. Brennan watched impatiently as the yellow cab shrunk in the distance, and narrowly stared down Booth only moments after it had left. He didn't notice. You know. He was only mildly fixated on the fact that he could lose his parter, best friend...
And so her words got lost in his mind. His thoughts got jumbled up and thrown around in the confines of his mind because he couldn't focus. Because this wasn't happening.
She wasn't just going to randomly drop this bomb and run. He wasn't doing the hiding thing anymore—the shying away, ignoring, tension... None of it. Not anymore.
He had tried that road. And then he gambled.
But he sure as hell wasn't giving up.
"Booth?"
"Bones, please..."
His pleading eyes stared down into the depths of hers, and he reached up for her elbow, absorbing the textures of her jacket in his fingertips. He couldn't explain it: he was like a sponge around her. He absorbed everything. Her scent, feel, attire, words, everything. All at once. It never failed to hit him like a ton of bricks.
She never failed to intoxicate every fiber of his being with, well, her. Everything her.
All the time.
It made it harder to breathe. Yet it was the most comfortable thing that had ever happened to him.
Tears welled up in her eyes. She cursed inwardly because she felt she was doing that a lot lately. The crying thing. Way too much. And she couldn't stop it. She just couldn't. Because he was saying things and doing things and he wouldn't let her leave.
And the relationships she built were clouding everything: her knowledge, her previous thoughts and beliefs on issues, every. Single. Thing. And she needed to get away because it was all changing so quickly. She didn't have control. She didn't like change.
"Booth..."
And that's all it took.
It was like the key to a lock that had been forever forgotten; a dam breaking on a strong-flowing fiver; an explosion only set off by a tiny fiber rubbing against it. He broke loose. He broke loose because he stepped into her, cupped her head in his hands, and pressed her against the wall of the nearest building. And he met their lips in a kiss that caused a freaking lightning storm between them.
It was like their "Unless first a dream..." kiss on steroids. Because it happened only a short while after their last kiss. It was like the feelings were still in their preconscious and were readily available at any moment.
Because, man, they were available.
And his pelvis pressed into hers, and she sighed over his lips which filled him with even more of her intoxicating being.
He couldn't stop any of it.
He had no control. He didn't want control.
Control. Control?
She wasn't pushing him away, and he sure as hell wasn't about to pull himself away. And his tongue swept over her lips, a gentle touch that (he could've sworn) caused her knees to buckle slightly. He reflexively held her closer to him, noticing how easily they fit together.
She parted her lips to his touch and allowed the tiniest moan to flow into his mouth, that naturally sent him into over-drive. Well, both of them. Because this definitely was not a one-way kiss. Nope. Nuh-uh.
And she couldn't help it but there were more tears.
And she really couldn't help it because she felt his own tears fall onto her soft skin. She felt the salinity mildly take over their kiss, and she wasn't sure whose tears they even were. And, truth be told, she didn't care.
It wasn't supposed to be like this, though—the kiss that most likely had the potential to save all. It really wasn't. Because they were in public, and they had alcohol on their breaths, and Catherine...
Catherine.
He gently ran his tongue over her lips one last time, slowly parting from her, and gave her one last full kiss—soft, tender. Love.
Brennan looked up into his eyes, dazed, worried, confused, ashamed... Something. Sated on some level. He couldn't read her; he couldn't read himself.
"I want to do this, trust me I want to..." He took in a breath, trying to level out his breathing. His heart still beat wildly in his chest.
She didn't say anything. She waited. She's been learning to do that.
But he smiled.
"I want to kiss you, hold you, make love to you—I would like to do everything with you, if you'll let me. And I'll give you time to think it over—not a lot of time because you're on the verge of leaving... But time."
He paused.
"But first, before I can kiss you, really kiss you... There's something I have to do."
And they both knew exactly what that was. Because Booth was that kind of guy. And that's how things had to be.
But he gave her this smile that made her feel like everything was going to be okay. Like the pain, the sadness, the crimes... Like they were bearable. That's how he made her feel. Right then, right there. She ignored everything else save for him. Save for them.
And she'd never felt this before, but his smile... That smile we just talked about? It was something she needed to see all the time. It was true happiness. Because reality still hasn't sunken in yet, and, well, she didn't want it to.
Because it was okay, for now. Everything was.
She brought a finger up to her lips and nonchalantly traced along them, staring over at the street.
"Wait for me."
It wasn't a question.
"Booth," she started, then cleared her throat before continuing. "It's dark out and we're still—"
"Bones."
He gave her a look, one she hadn't seen too frequently. One that said... I love you. Wait for me. Don't choose anyone else. Don't leave me. Love me. Please.
And she opened her mouth to speak, but instead... Well, instead... She smiled.
A/N: I haven't written in a long, long time... I would truly appreciate some feedback. Really, truly. :)