F i c t i o n : B o n e s : E x c a l i b e r
Title: Excaliber
Fandom: Bones
Author: twisted_badger
Beta: Katie. She's awesome. Everything left that is crap is mine. Mine after the fact that was hers.
Rating: PG - NC 17
Pairing: Booth/Brennan
Summary: A conference in Vegas. Hilarity ensues. No actually Brennan goes to Vegas. There's a baddy after her. And BOoth is there two. Because that's the only way I could make them fall in sweet sweet love. That and angst.
Prologue;
Temperance Brennan pulled her arms tightly into her chest. It provided little protection against the cold.
The unsympathetic freeze had been slowly creeping into her soul the past couple of weeks, and didn't look ready to leave.
She tipped her head up, looking at the stars, clearly visible in the bitterly cold night sky. Temperance wondered if wishing upon them would do any good. Pretending nothing was wrong and working herself to death certainly wasn't.
She was pretending she was fine, pretending she didn't notice the hints dropped to her by her team, her friends, that she needed some time off.
Everyone was saying different things to her but they all had the same underlying rhythm, “it wasn’t her fault…” and, “everything will be fine…”
She didn't know if she believed that, but she did know she was getting tired of hearing it. Sometimes 'leave me alone' really did just mean 'leave me alone'.
Stepping into her building, she let herself drink in the warm burst of air and then continued deeper into the belly of her beast.
Temperance threw down her bag and walked over to the coffee machine, pushing play on her CD player. She switched the coffee machine on and got a cup out in preparation.
Glancing at the cluttered bench, a bench that in all her memories had never been cluttered before, Temperance sighed.
Her cat, Birdie nuzzled her legs and she smiled down at him, "Yeah, you think mum needs a hug too, don't you boy?"
"...Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk..." Sang out quietly on the radio, and she did truly want to forget all the things she had said and done that night. Maybe then she would have enough time to clear the bench, or enough forethought left in her ever so frazzled mind to feed the hungry cat at her feet.
Temperance’s tears fell lightly compared to the rain, but only she would know they had ever been there. By the time she was up in his room, they would be gone.
Tears were a pleasure Temperance only allowed herself in secret.
The rain bit into her hard, cold cutting deep into her body as if it knew the anger and grief there would do nothing but welcome it.
She missed him so much. He had changed her so much. He was the only person who had made her feel as if she belonged here, alive, in this world and now she had to live with the pain she had caused him, her friends, and herself.
Looking back over her shoulders once before she pushed open the clean white hospitals doors, Tempe looked up at the stars and wished on every single one. What harm could it do?
With all her heart she hoped it worked.
With all her heart, she hoped Seeley Booth would wake up.
Chapter One;
“With all due respect Sir, I do NOT need a babysitter!” Temperance slammed down the phone and Angela winced at the clash of plastic.
Leaning in the door Angela put up her hands in mock defense and said, “Sweetie, everything alright in here?”
“Fine,” Temperance Brennan smiled up at her best friend, knowing she would see right through her.
“I take it they still want to send you with an escort?”
Temperance nodded unhappily and shuffled some papers around on her desk, “I would feel less…”
“Livid?” Angela supplied helpfully.
“Apprehensive,” Temperance continued, “About having to spend what I was thinking of as a nice holiday being shadowed by some holier-than-thou know-it-all men in black, if they would tell me why all of a sudden I am a fragile woman who needs protection!”
“Sweetie, I’m sure there’s a reason, probably one that is tied up in red tape and less than meaningful to even your know-it-all shadows.”
Temperance nodded.
“And you know maybe you could get Booth to be your shadow?” Angela smiled, “I’m sure the two of you would get along very well away from the morgue! Just think about it! A whole week where the dead bodies you are discussing aren’t pertinent to any case!”
“Some of the cases are still relevant you know. Just because the bones on show and lectures are about hundreds of year old skeletons does not mean they aren’t important.”
“I know sweetie,” Angela said in a voice that, coming from anyone else would be condescending, but from Angela was nothing but caring, “and you know if the FBI wants to look after you there is probably a good reason. Anyway, didn’t they say you couldn’t have the time off instead you said yes? More importantly, it’s Vegas! The city of Sin baby! It might be nice being able to walk around in the middle of the night and not be worried about someone,” she shrugged, “stealing your purse.”
Temperance frowned and sighed, not giving up yet, but getting closer and closer to knowing there would be no other choice.
“The conference will be held primarily during the day, and only the lectures will actually take place at the hotel, we’ll also be spending a lot of time further out.”
“I think Magnum PI lives out there! You should stop buy and get his autograph for me,” Angela joked.
“Magnum PI?”
“Don’t worry sweetie, you probably don’t know what the means,” Angela gave a small laugh and Temperance gave what could almost be construed as a huff.
Standing up she dropped the papers, useless now, into the bin and walked past her friend, “Fine, whatever, you win. They can follow me around all they like. Even if for no other reason than to escape people like you for a week!”
Angela smiled, she knew Temperance was joking, and she wasn’t worried. Temperance would have a great time, and when she got back, she’d have nothing to say to Angela but thank you.
***
As the plane flew in over Vegas, Temperance looked out to the Horizon.
Such a great city, a mere speck on the dessert that surrounded it, that looked like the ground had just spat it up one day.
The plane taxied in and over the hot black tarmac Temperance named the hotels in her head as they appeared. There was the Luxor, with it’s imposing sphinx and pyramids, the New York themed hotel she had heard about with a roller coaster gliding through it… The Hilton, The Monte Carlo… an endless number of places for people like her to stay.
No, not people like her she decided. She was here to learn, she was here to discuss intellectual matters with people interested in intellectual things. She didn’t have any money allotted to gamble with and she wasn’t planning on seeing any shows.
She wasn’t like these people. Not at all.
“May I take your bag ma’am?” Eddie asked as he rose, almost touching the ceiling with his shiny bald head.
“No thank you,” Temperance smiled but kept it brief, just like their conversations to date.
His name was Eddie, he was an American citizen, although he immigrated here when he was six from South Africa, and he had a fondness for cheese.
This last piece of information had not been gleamed from any of their words, but Temperance had picked up on it sometime during his third inquiry to the hostess if there was any more cheese for his crackers. Temperance wasn’t at all fond of plane food, and found ‘snack’ plane food even worse. If someone can live on a cracker, surely they could live on a plane ride without one?!
Temperance stepped out into the aisle in front of Eddie and walked towards the exit, not looking forward to, nor exactly dreading the wall of heat that would hit her as she stepped out into the un-air conditioned Las Vegas atmosphere.
She had been warned, by the ever-helpful Hodgins, that record heat was being recorded in Vegas. This was strange, for many reasons, the only one of which Temperance bothered remembering was that it wasn’t summer. Not at all.
But whatever Hodgins had said about Area 51 knowing more about it than they knew, or some such, she didn’t care, she was prepared.
Forever packing light, she had not forgotten a small fan, or to wear comfortable light cotton on the plane. She almost felt sorry for Eddie in his thick FBI issue black suit.
Temperance had always thought such agencies would function better if, when trying to be inconspicuous, like in this case, and trying not to inconvenience any of their charges, like her, they stopped giving everyone who held a gun, a uniform that clearly stated, ‘I HAVE A GUN, SEE THIS BULDGE HERE? I AM NOT HAPPY TO SEE YOU.’
She didn’t relish the thought of her heavy weave pants suit she had chosen to lecture in. It was her best, and made her feel at her best, but she just never did get the hang of feeling professional while covered in sweat.
As she found herself in Las Vegas airport all her senses were assaulted by a town built to be a casino. Everywhere she turned, there was a slot machine and as she weaved to where she would get a cab she found herself dodging posters of the Blue Man Group and ominous cracking clay sculptures. She almost stopped to take a picture of the scorpion, her favourite of the bunch, but she rushed on ahead instead, looking for an exit that wasn’t also an entry into a game she didn’t want to play.
***
At the back of a large white, well furnished room, he gazed up to the stadium, to where she would stand, and smiled to himself. In his head, every word of what she would say played through his head, hearing the crowd laugh at the jokes she had written in with pencil the night before she got on the plane. He watched her take a sip of her water, finishing it, too hot in her expensive heavy weave suit. Had he had the chance he would have told her not to wear it. In fact, he had told her not to wear it.
He pulled his hands into fists, irritated.
She had packed it anyway. Bitch. They never listen. Never listen to what they were told. It’s not like he was just anyone. They had been talking for weeks. She should trust him by now. She should respect him.
His fists grew white with anger.
Bitch.
Catching a taxi to her hotel had been more of an experience than she had expected. Upon saying she had never been to Vegas before the cabby took it upon himself to tell her where was good to eat, what was playing, and take her on a small tour of the places to be, at no extra charge.
He had been a nice man, easily in his late sixties, and from a small town in Ireland she had learned. Happy to share stories with a, ‘pretty little lady’, as he had put it, Brennan’s lack of conversations skills hadn’t matter much at all, as he hadn’t left her much time to speak.
Getting up to her room had taken longer, they had her booked into a ‘lovely’ room they had told her, with a ‘great view’ they had said. What they hadn’t said before she got up to the desk with her bags, baggage and Eddie, was that there would be a few hours wait, because she had arrived in between times or some such. Not particularly jolly at the time, Tempe had simply sat on her bag and waited. Eddie must have had better days before this one, she thought fleetingly as he sat sweating silently, without a hint of being uncomfortable or bored.
When she finally got up to her room, she threw her bags on the bed closest to the door, noting that two double beds would be a bit much for her. She double checked in her memory that she had specifically stated that she was a lecturer here as a favor to them and they would do well not to place her with any room mates. They had agreed. She really hoped they had stuck to their word, and even if they didn't know it yet, they hoped they did aswell. Temperance wanted this holiday to go well.
Shrugging it off and being positive she headed straight for the shower, looking forward to washing plane and heat and all the worries and thoughts of the day from her body, and starting out into the night, and night ful of possibilities.
Note: I'm going to post update all chapters to this post, and when finished, post links to this post to Bones communities.