Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

What started off as simply arriving to school at the same time transformed into a daily ritual for Seeley and Temperance. Usually, when Temperance arrived at school, Booth would already be running on the track while his bags would be on their usual picnic table. She would sit down and either work on her own homework or do personal work while he finished up his training session. Then, he would sit on the table while drinking water and she would tell him all about what she had been doing wether that was math or the book she was reading.

After a few weeks, Booth started running a little less and spending more time talking with her. Their talks about random academics subjects turned into talking about their personal lives. Booth told her more about the Flyers and she talked about how she wished she could be in university. At some point they even talked about their favourite meals when Temperance had mentioned she was vegetarian. Neither of them wanted to think about the fact that if they weren’t at school, their little talks could be considered dates.

One of those mornings, Brennan had been working on one of her skeleton sketches when Booth joined her after a quick run. She hadn’t heard him sit down in front of her as she was focused on drawing the left femur properly. When she did look up, Booth was staring at her drawing and for a moment, she had a small moment of fear when she thought he was freaked out by her art like a lot of people were.

However, he slid the sketch book closer to him and flipped through the pages containing hundreds of little sketches of skeletons and bones. “These are really beautiful, I didn’t know you liked to draw.”

“I’m fascinated with the human skeleton, it’s what I want to study in University,” she admitted to him, figuring that she would have that conversation with him at some point. If he was weirded out and didn’t want to talk with her anymore, that was his lost. “I want to study Forensic Anthropology.”

“I finally have a nickname for you!”

“You could just call me Brenn like Angela does, I don’t need another nickname,” Temperance told him, unsure about how her drawings and her career choice made him think of a nickname.

“Yeah but that’s like your common nickname, I want to give you a special nickname,” Booth replied quickly.

“I don’t even like nicknames, my parents already gave me a name. I simply agreed when Angela gave me one to follow the social norms.”

“Give me a chance, if you don’t like it, I’ll never use it.”

He looked so proud of himself that she decided to at least let him try to convince her that she needed another nickname. “Okay what is it?”

“Bones,” Booth announced proudly.

“You want to call me Bones?” Brennan asked, unbelieving what he had just said to her.

“You hate it,” Booth realized with disappointment.

“I don’t really like it, if I’m honest.”

“I’ll never use it again, I’m sorry,” Booth told her, giving her back her notebook.

“You can use it, but only when it’s just the both of us,” Brennan quickly added, hating the look of sadness on his face. “I don’t want people laughing at me because of it.”

“I’d never let people laugh at you,” Booth told her quickly, already feeling angry at the simple idea of someone making fun of her.

“You don’t have to defend me, I can take care of myself,” she argued back.

“Maybe I want to,” Booth knew this was dangerous territory, but said it anyway.

From that day on, her secret nickname stuck and Booth took up the habit of calling her Bones when it was just the two of them and as the days went by, Brennan found herself liking it more and more.

On some days they would walk to home room together and other days Booth would hurry to take a quick shower before class. It was a nice routine that they had settled into, yet they didn’t talk much during the school day. They did exchange looks from time to time across the cafeteria and it was like the rest of the world faded for those few seconds. Still, they didn’t really talk much except for their morning rendez-vous.

Things started to get awkward when people began to notice that they were spending more time together. Booth was hanging out in the locker rooms with the rest of his team when it first came up.

“So Booth, when were you going to tell me about the new girl?” Sully asked his best friend. “You know, the one you spend all of your mornings with instead of us?”

“I spend my mornings running Sully, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Booth wasn’t stupid, he had heard some of the gossip going around the school about his new habit of spending time with Temperance. Truth be told, if he knew how, he would ask her out, but even after spending so much time with her, he didn’t know how to. He was particularly afraid of screwing up their friendship as he enjoyed spending time with her as a friend so much that he didn’t want to lose everything simply because he was catching feelings.

“Booth, you do remember that there are big windows next to the field? And you do know that the field is next to the student parking so like, everyone sees both of you every morning?” Sully had a proud smirk on his face that set Booth on edge. “If Seeley Booth is back in the dating game, then that means more fun for all of us.”

Booth threw on his shirt and stood up from the bench. “You know maybe if I wanted to talk about it, I would talk about it.” His tone of voice was short and slightly laced with anger. He despised it when people tried to meddle with his personal life. He grabbed his bag, slammed his locker shut and left the locker rooms without thinking twice about it.

***

Temperance had a similar experience at her Academic Decathlon practice a few days later. They were supposed to be working on their essays, but it had quickly turned into a free for all session where they talked about everything and nothing at the same time.

“I have been observing your socializing sessions with Seeley Booth every morning,” Zach said out of nowhere, entirely diverging off of their already off topic subject.

Temperance didn’t know what to answer to that, especially since everyone else in the room was now also staring at her including the ninth graders that were attending their practice.

“You’re hanging out with Seeley Booth?” Hodgins had asked, not believing what he had just heard. “How the hell did you manage to do that?”

“I do not have to explain every friendship that I have formed to any of you.” Brennan fell on the defensive immediately. “Would you like it if I questioned every single one of your relationships?”

“Well for us it’s the people that are in this room so,” Sweets cut in. He seemed more curious than judgmental compared to the rest of the other students. “It’s interesting that he didn’t lose interest after getting nowhere with you, the guys on the teams tend to get bored if they get anything in exchange.”

“For people who have been subjected to unfair judgements, you seem to have many yourselves.” Temperance had enough of being interrogated so she left practice early. After all, they hadn’t be studying seriously for the past twenty minutes.

***

Booth turned off the lawnmower and looked at his work. The lines in the grass were straight and even. He knew his grandfather would be mad that he did it before he had the time to do it himself, but it was worth it. He dragged the lawnmower back to the shed in the backyard and sat down on one of the deck chairs. He had had the time to repair and repaint the entire deck over the summer so that his grandmother could enjoy the sun comfortably in the yard.

Since being confronted by Sully in the locker room, Booth had been conflicted with what to do with Temperance. He still sat with her every morning and talked with her. However he was a lot more conscious of the eyes on them while they hung out. He knew he was acting more reserved around her now, from what he could tell she hadn’t noticed anything at all, but he hated that he had modified his behaviour to keep up an image. He already felt a bit of shame about the fact that he never talked to her anywhere else than at their picnic table. It has been weeks since the beginning of school, yet they hadn’t done anything more than that.

Booth wanted to ask her out, he really did. If it had been him from four years ago, he would have asked her out on day one. He just needed to figure out what to do and how to do it now.

“Seeley, why are you out here alone again?” Booth looked up at the sound of his grandmother’s voice. “You think too much.”

“Yet not hard enough it seems,” Booth mumbled under his breath.

“Here have some lemonade.” Alice handed him a cold glass of her homemade lemonade and sat down in her cushioned chair her grandson had also made for her.

“Thank you Grams.” Booth took a sip and had to admit that he had been thirsty.

“So what’s on your mind my boy?” Alice knew her grandson so well after so many years of him being in her care. He was so alike her own son in some ways, he was stubborn and kept everything on the inside until it hurt him to his core. However, he was so different in the ways that mattered. Seeley profoundly cared about everyone around him, he was a protector. He cared more about the people around him and about their happiness than his own to a point that he was ready to be miserable for others. “You can talk to me Seeley, you know that.”

“It’s complicated Grams. I’m just stuck in my head.”

“About what? Jared tells me the baseball team is doing great and Mrs. Burns tells me your hockey team is also doing good off the ice. Is this about Rebecca?” Something was definitely bothering him and she really hoped it wasn’t Rebecca. The state that Seeley had been in for months after his breakup was not one Alice wanted to witness again.

“This has nothing to do about Rebecca, trust me,” Booth cut off his grandmother quickly. He never wanted to talk about his ex with his grandparents ever again. Some things they really didn’t have to know and one of those was why Rebecca had left him.

“Is it your grades?” Alice knew her grandson was nervous that his grades wouldn’t be good enough to get into a nice college if he didn’t get a sports scholarship.

“I’m actually doing pretty good in class. My math grade is higher that it has ever been.” Booth told his grandmother proudly and then he realized he might have to explain why he’s getting better at math. He probably had the best tutor in the world at the moment even if she didn’t know she was helping him. She made everything more enjoyable to him. A year ago, he wouldn’t have endured hearing about the different metals used in roman coins, but yesterday he had spent thirty minutes doing it and he had enjoyed it. They way she speaks made everything so much more fun and easy to remember.

“So it is a girl that has you feeling like this,” his grandmother said knowingly.

“Where did you get that idea?” Booth closed up immediately.

“You have that look on your face.” Booth looked at his grandmother, confused at her statement. “It’s the same one your grandfather has when he looks at me.” She wanted to tell him that his father had looked at his mother the same way before it all went bad, but she knew Seeley would not appreciate that. “What’s her name?”

“Temperance.” There was no use in denying it anymore, his grandmother was clearly onto him and not letting go. If there was someone that would keep is secret and help him work through his problem, it was his grandmother.

“What is she like?” Alice knew she had won the moment her grandson said the girl’s name.

“She crazy smart. Like she could already be in university if her parents let her skip ahead. I’m telling you, she’s good at everything, it’s amazing. She a vegetarian, she watched a documentary years ago and swore to never eat meat again. She loves history and science.”

“Why hadn’t you talked to her before this year?”

“She just moved to Philly, her mom got a new job and her dad teaches science at our high school. She has an older brother, he’s already in college. From what she tells me, he’s like Jared in some ways. They’re from Chicago actually.”

“She seems nice Seeley.”

“Do you want to know the craziest thing about her?” His grandmother shook her head, happy that Seeley was offering so much information without being forced. “She knows nothing about hockey. She even asked me what the Flyers are. Not who they are, but what they are. Crazy right?”

“That is crazy.” Seeley had a wide grin on his face, one that Alice had not seen in months. “So why haven’t you asked her out on a date?”

“I don’t think I can just ask her out like that, she’s not that type of girl trust me.”

“And what type of girl would you say she is then?”

“Too good for me,” Booth replied quickly. “Definitely too smart for me.”

“Don’t sell yourself so short, you’re a good boy. Ask her out on a nice date, one that you know she’ll like. Impress the girl. Take a chance.” Alice encouraged her grandson to make a move, her gut telling her that he was simply scared of rejection again. “Anyone that spends enough time with you sees how worth it you are.”

Seeley thought about it for a moment and realized that his grandmother was right. He has always been a gambler on the ice and off the ice, it made him unpredictable, but also incredibly good. He could take a gamble with this too. Best case scenario, he was going to have a date with the girl that has been stuck in his brain for the last weeks. Worst case scenario, he loses a friendship he really cares about and goes back to his old ways. He needed to do some research and figure out a plan.

“I need to think about it.”

Alice smiled and leaned back in her chair. Now that she had put the idea in her grandson’s head, she could enjoy the sun on her skin, knowing that it would become rarer with winter arriving quickly. She hoped she would get to meet this Temperance before it was too late.