Bones Fanfic: The Sun Will Rise (5/6)
A/N: Thanks for the reviews and I hope you guys are enjoying this fic so far.
Chapter 5
As the car winded around the driveway, both occupants let out a deep and satisfied sigh.
“It’s not going to be quite as nice now; usually it’s prettier in the spring time.” Booth told her softly.
“It will be beautiful any time of year, Booth! It’s enough being with you.” Brennan’s eyes shone in the darkness.
“I wonder if Sam is still up,” Booth mentioned as the car continued on toward the next house about a half-mile up the road.
“Who is Sam?” Brennan asked curiously.
“He’s an army buddy, he has run this bed and breakfast for the last five years with his wife Alex.”
“Oh. It’s beautiful here.” Brennan said of what she could see in the darkness. “How did you get a room on short notice? I mean, you didn’t know we were going to be coming here until a few hours ago.”
“I called Sam when we separated tonight and asked him if he still had a room for us. He said that this Christmas the inn wasn’t all that busy, and he had a room. Lucky for us, he said it was the best one.”
“Oh.” Brennan smiled. “Did you want to stop and say hi?” She asked considerately.
“No. I mean of course I want to see him and his wife, but I don’t want to stop tonight.”
“Ok, maybe tomorrow then.” Brennan offered.
“Or the next day.” Booth agreed.
They both laughed, knowing they would be lucky to escape their room.
They reached the end of the journey as the car slid into place right in front of the haven; they both felt it was going to be home for the next few days. They looked at each other smiling, hands reaching out to be held without a spoken word. They sat like that just staring at the dimly lit home, knowing that in a few hours they would be up in the room with the glowing lights finding a blissful rebirth to their lives.
Booth used the key Sam had left for him to open the front door, guiding Brennan into the house. They looked around in amazement as their eyes took in the enchantment of the Cottage. Little elves had to have been working their fingers to the bone. There was no way anyone could have done such preparations in less than three hours.
“It’s beautiful!” The Cottage was utter magic, the tree was filled with shimmering angels of every size and kind in beautiful pastel colors and little white twinkling lights. There was a garland of fresh pine gracing the staircase and more on the mantle. Flower arrangements and candles bathed the room, making it a delightful glittering wonderland.
They circled around each other, not daring to believe that they had everything they could want here. The fire softly flickering lent a special warmth to the already inviting room. It was beginning to feel a whole lot like Christmas.
“How did this...” She looked at him wondering how he could have ever accomplished this in such short notice.
“Don’t look at me.” Booth answered just as confounded. “I wish...” He confessed as his smile deepened. The only reason he hesitated to call Sam and make arrangements to come here was because he knew it wouldn’t feel anything like Christmas for Brennan without a tree and knowing she was missing being with her family he wanted her to have that here for her. She deserved to have everything. He wanted to give her everything the way she had given him, his every dream.
“It was Alex.” Booth informed her. “It’s Sam’s wife.”
Brennan bent down to inspect the packages under the tree, wondering for the first time if maybe this was meant for visiting family of Alex and Sam and if maybe they had displaced someone else from the cottage. She picked up a package looking twice to make sure she read the tag correctly. Her intake of breath alerted Booth.
“What?” He asks curiously.
“The packages here under the tree say To Booth and Brennan. How…”
“I don’t know.” Booth admitted again totally clueless. “I just called Sam tonight, Bones. I had no plans to come here before. I told Sam I was bringing you, I’m sure he told Alex and she probably did all of this. She’s like that.”
Brennan smiled. “Well, someone knew.” She glanced up at the resplendent Seraphim angel on the tree’s top smiling more. “And she has great taste.”
“I’ll say.” Booth walked up to Brennan, standing close and wrapping his arms around her from behind. “This is going to be quite a Christmas.” He whispered kissing the back of her neck lovingly, inhaling the delicacy of Brennan’s scent. “I wanted this for so long.” He confessed quietly.
“Me too.” She turned around to rest her hands on his chest. “Booth, I hope you know that... well, I just…” She was suddenly shy knowing that they had a lot to clear up and knowing that there was still something very seriously out of balance between them.
Something she feared may not balance out anytime soon. And if that never happened, if Booth never came to the same indisputable conclusion as she had, if he never evened the scale or tipped a tiny bit then she had to wonder if things would work out the way she hoped. Those damn fears never seemed very far away, suddenly her legs felt weak.
“What?” Booth asked seeing he collage of emotions in Brennan’s eyes.
“Nothing… It can… I was… nothing.” She reiterated again.
“You sure, Bones?” Booth asked again certain it was more than nothing.
“Yeah.”
“Hey, you hungry?” He asked, knowing that if Alex decorated the cottage, she most certainly shopped too. He owed her big time.
“No, are you?”
“Nah, had stuff at the party.” He turned away wondering why everything seemed so awkward and made busy with the fire to avoid her eyes. He didn’t know how to avoid this inevitably uncomfortable moment.
Brennan’s legs felt like they had been dancing a marathon and need a long awaited rest. Maybe she was dancing around this issue that needed clarity before they could make any more progress towards their mutual goal: each other.
“Bones, what’s on your mind?” He asked concerned.
She looked at him, “I’m scared, but I don’t want to mess this up.”
“I’m scared too, Bones. You have to know that I will never hurt you...”
“I’m sorry that I didn’t know what to trust back then… I wanted to Booth… I really wanted to...”
“Bones. Let’s not go back.” Booth shied away from the pain he knew would haunt them more. He wants to move ahead and leave the past behind them.
“Do you want to?”
“Yes.”
“Okay...” His fingers caressed her cheek gently.
He felt her intake of breath against his finger still caressing her cheek. She opened her mouth to say something but Booth’s single finger quieted her.
“Shhhhhh…” Came the hushed whisper as he kissed her doubts away tenderly.
Brennan pulled back from him, “No, let me explain, please. I decided the only thing I could do to make sure I never had that effect on you was to stay away… I wanted to protect you from me…”
“Why?” Booth loved that she was opening up about every feeling she had since the beginning moments of their first meeting to now. He had always wished she would admit what he knew they both felt.
“Because you were right. You said I would never be able to take you away from all of what we do... I was afraid that I wasn’t enough for you... I guess I still am in a way...”
Booth moved closer to her looking deeply into her eyes.
“No. Bones. I was afraid too, I didn’t think I was enough for you either. We are a couple of cowards...” Booth laughed affectionately.
“Yeah, totally yellow.” Brennan agreed enjoying the light moment. They had only scratched the surface of so many of the ill-conceived ideas they had entertained.
“Ah but I was totally blue the other way...”
“Me too... I was awful.”
“You. I was like the saddest sack.”
Booth tickled her sides a little playfully so happy to have her side so near his. He suddenly lost the smile. “I’m sorry I wasted so much time...”
“We wasted...” Brennan stopped for a moment and looked Booth in the eyes. “No! Booth we didn’t... I think this is the right time... now is the right time. We can’t change what’s happened, and maybe it all happened for a reason... we really weren’t ready to accept that we could be together…” Brennan stopped because even though Booth had said a lot for Booth, he hadn’t said enough.
“When you said you know what we were and what we weren’t?” Booth asked after taking her hand in his.
“I knew then...”
“But I asked you then, and you said no.” Booth’s eyes seemed stymied. How could they get it all so wrong?
“And I answered the way I thought would be the best for us, I didn’t want to hurt you. I was afraid.”
“But you could never hurt me… you were always more... you are everything... don’t you know that?” Booth told her, her eyes luminous as he pulled her close to reinforce the reassurance with a sweet kiss. If they didn’t stop soon then they might not make it up the stairs and one thing for sure in both their minds was that they were definitely going up.
As they ended the long luscious kiss with little pecks of promises that there would be much more to come, they held each other. The angst had fallen away and was replaced by the need to hold on to what they had to unravel, what had become tangled and webbed and brought all the truth to the surface so there was no more misconception of where they were now. They sat there silent for a few minutes, cuddled together almost in disbelief that at last they had come full circle. At long last they had found the right path, one they planned to travel on together.
“Booth, I know. There are more, so many more questions and probably not nearly as many answers...” Brennan’s voice held a question of its own.
“Not all questions have to be answered tonight, Bones...” His lips curved into her neck sending tantalizing chills through her body.
She sighed, a little relieved. She could see them still huddled in front of the fire long after the sun rose. She could live with that if he needed to explore their past more deeply. “Booth if you need...”
“The only thing I need Bones, is you. Let’s go upstairs and see if in this magic house has unpacked our luggage too...” His smile reached his eyes.
“Booth could you...” Brennan hated to delay him but he wouldn’t mind the wait once she had her way.
“What?” Booth asked a little curious when Brennan stammered, it was usually caused by nerves.
“Well, maybe you could find some wine and lock up... I just need...”
“Sure.” Booth felt the shyness overtake him too. This was so strange, how one minute you felt more comfortable with this person than anyone else on the face of the earth and the next minute you felt like a shy klutz who had barely learned to walk in the romance department. She stood, and he followed as she moved to leave, he took the steps to enhance his education as his arms pulled her towards him and he rose her hand to his mouth kissing it tenderly three times.
“I won’t be long.” Her voice came out a bit breathless.
“Bones, no it’ll wait...” Booth had something else to say, but here and now wasn’t the right place or time, he was waiting this long.
A/N: Thoughts? Reviews are welcomed. Thanks for reading.