Author’s Note: Aaargh, the site’s acting up again and I haven’t been able to post this chapter until now. Sorry about that.

Once again, lots of thanks to everyone who read, reviewed and alerted this story! Here’s a little present for you: about time to find out how Booth is doing, don’t you think?

Edit: Many thanks to Gryphin for the suggestion for the chapter title. The song is Crazy Love by Aaron Neville. I thought it fits the POV beautifully. Just check it out and let me know.

Setting: The spring and summer of season 4.

Disclaimer: They don’t have to be mine for me to just love them.

5. Crazy Love

On the forty-third day, Bones had smiled at him. Nothing short of a miracle, if you asked him.

Faced with her all-consuming anger and with her insistence that she’d been perfectly able to compartmentalize, thank you very much, he had to summon all his self-control to keep himself from giving in to the nearly overwhelming instinct to run. To go anywhere, really, as long as he didn’t have to deal with angry partners, incomprehensible squints, cannibalistic serial killers, lost kids turned into criminals, stalkers shooting at him or any of the other crazy things that had come crashing in on him within the space of a few weeks. Anywhere he could huddle in a corner and lick his wounds for a while.

He stayed instead. Because long ago, probably around the same time that he’d stopped wondering why God had chosen to inflict Temperance Brennan on him (pretty soon after he’d met her, if he was honest), he’d come to realize that she was the woman of his life - nothing like he would have imagined, yet somehow all that he ever wanted.

So he made a deal with himself. He’d stay until he saw her smile at him again, until she was no longer angry and disappointed and confused and sad. Maybe he could leave then, knowing that she was okay.

It turned out that he had to wait for forty-three long days stretching one after another. When she smiled at him again – really smiled at him – he'd felt a twinge of pain from the wound in his chest. He’d forgotten how addictive her smile was. So he promised himself to stay just a little bit more, until the next smile. Before he knew it, he was locked in once again. He stopped pretending that he wanted to leave. He stayed.

Yes, the smile felt like a miracle. But the hug... the hug feels so much better.

He takes a deep breath and feels something inside him release, then settle.

He waits until she pulls out – she’s almost always the one to withdraw first – then puts his hands on her shoulders lightly.

“Listen, Bones, what are you doing tonight?”

“Why?” she replies a little warily.

“I got this thing to do and I thought you could come with me. Kind of sensitive – we suspect that this guy’s been dealing to assorted movers and shakers, and y’know how it is – antsy politicians and other kinds of crap. So I gotta keep an eye on him. He works as a barman, so I gotta spend an evening figuring out what he’s up to.”

“I don’t know...”

“Come on, Bones – classy bar, nice company, helping the FBI... You gotta live a little. Look, I’ll even buy you one of those fruity drinks with a little umbrella in them,” he says with his best charm smile.

“...okay.”

Would it be too much to say that he lives for those smiles?

“No drinks with little umbrellas, though.”

“Whatever you want, Bones, whatever you want.”

The bar is nice. Better than nice. The company is great. Better than great. All is fine with the world. Yep - Seeley Booth is a happy man.

They are sitting at a table placed discreetly to the side, close to the bar but not close enough to draw attention. His arm is draped loosely around the back of her chair, his long legs stretched out in front of him. The band is playing a jazzy song that she seems to like.

“What about those men?”

“Don’t point, Bones, we kind of want to keep things under wraps. Where?”

They’re playing this game where they’re trying to imagine the stories of the people around them. Bones is smiling, all curiosity and flushed cheeks.

“Over there, next to the woman in the short red dress.”

“Oh, that’s the definition of yuppie. Or whatever they’re called these days.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“You know, the basic demographic for the DC professional: young, career-oriented, successful.”

“Like us.”

“What? No, not like us!”

“Well, you just said ‘young, career-oriented and successful’. That would certainly describe us.”

“Look, it’s a negative word. Plus, I don’t get paid enough to be a yuppie. And you earn too much to fit the bill. And none of us is very materialistic anyway.”

Wow, it’s only around Bones that he’s that coherent when a little drunk. She must have rubbed off on him.

They argue a little more, then she falls silent, a contemplative look on her face. He drinks some more beer and she drinks some more wine. They look hazily around, taking stock of their surroundings.

He feels a little hot and a little high and the band has just started playing one of his favorite songs and this woman is sitting so close to him and the next thing he does feels completely natural.

“Come on, Bones, dance with me.”

He jumps up and grabs her hand, pulling her out of her chair.

“What about the... you know, the guy?” she protests.

Damn, it feels good to act on impulse around her for once.

“Never mind him. He’s not going anywhere.”

He wraps one arm around her waist, holding her hand with the other. They’re so close he can feel her warmth coming off her in waves. Her scent, subtly changed by her heated skin. Yeah, he’s totally lost. And it feels like no other high he's ever experienced.

He feels her start to relax against him, so he lets go of her hand and wraps his other arm around her. He half expects her to pull back. Instead, she just puts her head on his shoulder.

They sway gently with the music. He wishes that they could stay like that for a long time. She has the inexplicable thought that she doesn’t want to let go.

Whew, we’re getting there.

Now – since people have very different tastes in music, I decided to refrain from mentioning anything about the song playing while they’re dancing.

So... you tell me. Please review and let me know whether you liked this chapter and what you think the song should be!