Title: Calling In
Fandom: Bones
Characters: Seeley Booth / Temperance Brennan
Table: Three
Prompt: #2, Bad
Word Count: 810
Rating: Mild M
Summary: Being bad feels pretty good sometimes.
(Written for the
100_situations community)
Seeley Booth's romantic afternoon was not progressing as romantically as anticipated, thanks in large part to his partner's obviously divided attentions. Her customarily singular focus wavered irritatingly between him and her phone, and not even the idyllic setting of the secluded grove he'd brought her to could keep her mind on his seduction. After her gaze strayed to the BlackBerry for the fifth time in as many minutes, Booth choked back a snide remark and forced himself to take a softer approach. Cupping her cheek in his hand, he gently turned her back to face him, holding her gaze and dipping in quickly to capture her lips with his own.
"Nobody's gonna call and bust you for playing hooky today, Bones," he murmured, nibbling at the lower lip she'd been worrying between her teeth. "When's the last time you called in sick, anyway? Sometime in the twentieth century?"
"Don't you think it will look suspicious, that we both called in on the same day?" Both her expression and her tone were clearly troubled, though not enough so to keep her from leaning back in for another kiss. Booth grinned at her, tucking a curl behind her ear and letting his fingers trail back down along her jawline.
"I think it's highly unlikely that Hacker will call Cam and check up on us. Geez, this really does bother you, doesn't it?"
"It does, yes," she admitted, sitting up straighter and picking at something on her pants leg that only she could see. "I'm afraid I'm just not very good at being bad."
"You're great at being bad when it counts," he assured her, bumping her shoulder with his. "And maybe there's such a thing as being too honest, you know?"
She didn't. "I don't think it's ever possible to be too honest, Booth."
"Look, sick and personal days are part of your benefits package, right? You work for them; you earn them; you're entitled to take them. Call it a mental health day."
"My mental health is impeccable," she sniffed. He laughed out loud.
"No argument there. So what excuse did you give when you called in, anyway? You're such a crappy liar, it had to be good."
"Just because I am an honest person doesn't mean that I'm incapable of lying, it just means that I prefer not to have to do it. For your information, I merely left Cam a message stating that I was feeling unwell after overexerting myself over the weekend." She leaned in closer to him, looking deeply into his eyes, and added with a smirk, "That was actually more of an exaggeration than a lie. I did overexert myself this weekend."
"Yeah, I remember," he agreed, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her down over him. She responded by trailing hot little kisses up the side of his neck. "If you're not careful, you might end up overexerting yourself again today. Maybe more than once."
"Then it's fortunate that we're both in excellent physical health, isn't it?" Her husky laughter vibrated pleasantly against the hollow of his throat as she made her way back down, tugging at the neckline of his t-shirt to give her better access. "What excuse did you give when you called in?"
"Told Hacker's secretary that I was sick."
"You definitely lied. You're obviously in peak condition," she added, attacking his shirt from the opposite end now, "though I think I ought to do a full examination just to make sure."
"Oh, Dr. Brennan, you are so wrong," he growled, grasping her upper arms hard as her tongue made contact with his navel, swirling and dipping. "I am so sick." When she finally looked up at him, he waggled his eyebrows suggestively and gave her a loopy grin. "Lovesick, baby."
"Booth, that was horrible," Brennan groaned, rolling off him to flop dramatically onto her back. She was smiling, though, and her moment of passivity gave Booth the necessary opening; the tickle attack was swift and merciless, and left his opponent a gasping, wriggling mess, begging for mercy between shouts of helpless laughter. He relented at length, brushing her hair back and placing the back of his hand against her forehead.
"Gosh, Bones, I think you may be developing a fever. You feel really hot."
She sat up slowly, reaching out for his hand. Her fingers located his pulse point and pressed in firmly. "Booth, your pulse is racing. That could be indicative of something very serious." Sweeping her gaze down the length of him, she paused at belt-buckle level and added, wickedly, "You also appear to be experiencing some localized high blood pressure and swelling."
Gaining his feet with a little difficulty, Booth pulled her up with him. "Then I guess we'd better go home and check each other out before it gets any worse, right?"
Gripping his hand more firmly, Brennan headed off toward his truck at a run. "Yeah. And maybe you'd better turn the siren on, too."