From me, an Admirer - Day 6 (Bones - Cadgins)
Title: From me, an Admirer
Author: AccordingToMel
Summary: After Cam starts receiving mysterious gifts, she begins to suspect that she might have a secret admirer.
Pairings: Cadgins
Rating: T
Spoilers: Slight for season 5.
Word Count: 1,838
Disclaimer: Last I checked, no. But let me tell you, if I had my way with the show, things would be vastly different!
Author’s note: Longest chapter yet, woo! That was not what I’d planned, but oh well. At least I had the time to write this chapter out the way I wanted to. Thanks so much to everyone for all the encouragement and kind comments thus far. I’m really enjoying writing this fic! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter :) Tomorrow I have a busy day, though, so I may not get the next chapter out until later in the evening.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From me, an Admirer - Day 6
Cam wakes up on Friday morning feeling even worse than the day before, if that were even possible. She feels so stuffed up that it’s almost difficult to breathe. The sore throat, cough and runny nose are still there as well, except this time there is the added joy of an aching body. She is thoroughly unimpressed, to say the least. Cam is quite sure the last time she missed two consecutive days of work was back after she’d first started working at the Jeffersonian and had nearly died after being poisoned. And previous to that unfortunate incident, Cam hasn’t missed two consecutive days in several years.
But alas, all good things must come to an end, she supposes.
Cam drags herself out of bed and forces her body to move to the kitchen. There she makes more tea and forces a small bowl of porridge down her dry, pained throat. After a hot bath, Cam collapses back into bed and sleeps most of the rest of the morning away.
When she wakes again, she feels slightly more mentally alert, though physically there isn’t much improvement. For lack of anything better to do, Cam decides to give her list one last look-over before working out a plan to narrow down the suspects. Yesterday she had refined the list to include a few more individuals she’d forgotten the first time around. Wendell had been added, but eventually crossed out, as Cam decided that his commitment to Angela was stronger than any interest he had shown in her thus far. Cam also added Vincent Nigel-Murray, but was unable to remove his name from the list for many of the same reasons she kept Fisher and Hodgins on it. She was also forced to add two security guards (Randy and a guy named Chuck), someone from Human Resources, and a guy she had dated for several months last year to the final list. Thankfully, she is able to eliminate Randy and the HR guy. So the current count is up to five possibilities in total.
Looking over the names that remain, Cam realizes that there are only two people on it that she might ever remotely be interested in. One, really, if she’s being entirely honest with herself. But that would open up a whole can of worms that she’s not sure she’d be able to deal with. Still, it wasn’t as if they couldn’t make something like that work, if they really wanted to. She knows he is the fighting type, and Cam is not one to give up either. But she decides then that she’s being presumptuous, drawing wild conclusions based on no real evidence, and makes the conscious choice to stop dwelling on the subject for the moment.
Which seems appropriate, when she hears the doorbell ring.
Cam wonders who in the hell would be at her place at 2:00 pm on a Friday and really doesn’t want to go answer the door looking the way she currently does - dirty, gross and sickly. She waits a few moments, hoping that they’ll just go away. But the doorbell rings a second time then, and Cam figures they must know she’s home. However, seeing as how she doesn’t have a maid and the person outside her door seems to be quite content with waiting for her to answer, she finally gets up, wrapping a housecoat around her suddenly frozen body and padding down to the front door.
Cam pulls the door open to reveal a smiling Hodgins, carrying several bags and looking extremely sympathetic.
She’s not quite sure what to say, so she goes with the obvious. “Hodgins. What are you doing here?”
He shifts awkwardly from foot to foot, casting his gaze towards the ground briefly. “Well, everyone was worried about you. Angela, Sweets, Wendell and I were talking and we decided that maybe somebody should stop by with some soup and make sure you’re still alive.” He shifts again but this time meets her gaze. “Plus, Angela insisted that you needed to see your secret admirer gifts before next week.” He raises one arm and shakes the bags that are attached to it, almost as evidence of their existence.
There’s so much there, but at the moment Cam’s cognitive functioning is running on low and she is only able to process the very last thing he says. “How would you know, unless you’ve been going through my mail?” Cam asks, though there isn’t much accusation in her tone.
“It’s pretty obvious,” he shares with her. “And Angela may have loosely rummaged through your stuff. But only for the packages.”
Cam nods, not really having the energy to even be upset about it. Besides, she kind of has to admit that she’s a tiny bit curious about what her secret admirer left her over the past couple of days. It occurs to her then that Hodgins is still standing outside in the cold, and that she’s exposing her sick self to even more potential germs and sickness, so she steps back and invites him in.
He removes his shoes and makes his way towards the kitchen. She trails behind him curiously and watches as he places all of the bags onto her kitchen table. Turning to her, Hodgins smiles shyly. “I’ll get the soup ready for you. It’s chicken noodle - the perfect cure for a common cold.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Cam immediately insists, feeling bad about the fact that Hodgins wants to serve her, though not really sure why that is. “I can make it.”
But Hodgins shakes his head firmly. “No way. You’re sick. That’s against the rules.”
Cam is about to protest a second time when she sneezes - four consecutive times in a row, which happens to be a new record - and thinks that maybe it’s okay to let him do this for her. She takes a seat at the kitchen table and just watches him as he fumbles around her kitchen, trying to find what he needs.
“So how did you get stuck with this detail?” she asks him after a few moments.
Hodgins glances over in her direction and smirks. “I wasn’t stuck with it. I volunteered.” Cam can’t quite stop that feeling of warmth that spreads through her again and she smiles in spite of herself. “Of course, Angela and Wendell were heading out on a date and Sweets had a session to get to,” he adds a moment later, and she feels her heart sink just a tiny bit. “But I didn’t know that when I volunteered, so I think that still counts.” The warmth immediately returns and she grins openly at him.
“Well thank you,” she tells him sincerely. “I appreciate that. And I apologize for the state of my home, as well as the state I’m in. I haven’t even looked in a mirror since yesterday.” Cam has no idea why she just allowed those words to leave her mouth and would instantly like to take them back, except that it’s too late for that.
But Hodgins seems nonplussed by her comment. “You’re sick. No one expects you to look like you’re heading out for a night on the town. Besides, you should see how awful I look when I’m sick. I’ve been known to scare small children.”
Cam chuckles loudly and shakes her head at him. “I doubt that,” she tells him, still laughing.
“You think I kid, but Jack Hodgins does not lie about these kinds of things,” he retorts. “Now stop worrying and eat your soup,” he orders, setting a bowl down in front of her. She has to admit that it smells delicious - which is a feat in and of itself, considering how stuffed up her nose is at the moment - and Cam never realized how hungry she was until she takes her first bite.
He grabs a bowl for himself and they eat a late lunch together, chatting companionably. Cam feels so much better getting a bit of warm food into her body and she is exceptionally grateful to whoever came up with the original idea to bring her soup. Sometime later, after Hodgins has cleaned up and she’s retired to the couch, he brings her two secret admirer gifts out to her.
“Here, you need to open these before I go,” he tells her, placing the bag in front of her and perching on the end of the couch.
Cam smiles and opens the box dated for yesterday. It ends up being a movie. But not just any movie - it is one of her favourite movies from childhood. She used to own it, but a couple of years ago she lent it to a friend who accidentally lost it, and Cam has never gotten around to purchasing another copy.
“What is it?” she hears Hodgins ask curiously.
“The Sound of Music,” Cam tells him, beaming. She knows it’s silly to get this excited over a movie, but she’s seen this film probably a good twenty times in her lifetime and has yet to get sick of it.
“You seem happy,” Hodgins remarks, smiling warmly at her.
“I am,” Cam admits to him with a nod.
He pauses momentarily before asking, “So maybe this whole admirer thing isn’t so awful after all?”
Cam meets his gaze, and she’s not sure if it’s her cold, her overactive imagination, or the fact that she’s really tired, but she gets the distinct sense that he’s waiting for some specific answer from her on this one.
So she goes with what her gut is telling her. “No, I guess it’s not so bad.”
Hodgins smiles again and hands her the second package, this one smaller and thinner than the last one. It ends up being a burnt CD. It doesn’t say what music is on there but Cam is starting to think that it’s probably something she’s going to end up liking. Hodgins offers to put it on for her, and she agrees. It ends up consisting of various Christmas songs - some old classics and others, newer, more modern remakes. They sit in silence for several songs, enjoying the sound of the music filling her place before Cam notices that she’s starting to drift off to sleep.
“I guess I’d better get going,” Hodgins tells her softly, getting up from the couch. Cam wants to protest, but she also knows that she’s not going to be able to stay awake for much longer.
“Thanks for coming by,” Cam mutters groggily. “I appreciate everything you did for me today.”
“It was my pleasure,” Hodgins tells her, reaching down to squeeze her upper arm gently. “Now you get to sleep and feel better, okay? I’ll let myself out.”
He is almost to the door when he stops and turns back to her. “Feel free to give me a call on the weekend if you need anything,” he adds with a smile, and then is gone.
Cam falls asleep to thoughts of Hodgins for the second time in two days.
-----------------------------
Part Seven
Author: AccordingToMel
Summary: After Cam starts receiving mysterious gifts, she begins to suspect that she might have a secret admirer.
Pairings: Cadgins
Rating: T
Spoilers: Slight for season 5.
Word Count: 1,838
Disclaimer: Last I checked, no. But let me tell you, if I had my way with the show, things would be vastly different!
Author’s note: Longest chapter yet, woo! That was not what I’d planned, but oh well. At least I had the time to write this chapter out the way I wanted to. Thanks so much to everyone for all the encouragement and kind comments thus far. I’m really enjoying writing this fic! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter :) Tomorrow I have a busy day, though, so I may not get the next chapter out until later in the evening.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From me, an Admirer - Day 6
Cam wakes up on Friday morning feeling even worse than the day before, if that were even possible. She feels so stuffed up that it’s almost difficult to breathe. The sore throat, cough and runny nose are still there as well, except this time there is the added joy of an aching body. She is thoroughly unimpressed, to say the least. Cam is quite sure the last time she missed two consecutive days of work was back after she’d first started working at the Jeffersonian and had nearly died after being poisoned. And previous to that unfortunate incident, Cam hasn’t missed two consecutive days in several years.
But alas, all good things must come to an end, she supposes.
Cam drags herself out of bed and forces her body to move to the kitchen. There she makes more tea and forces a small bowl of porridge down her dry, pained throat. After a hot bath, Cam collapses back into bed and sleeps most of the rest of the morning away.
When she wakes again, she feels slightly more mentally alert, though physically there isn’t much improvement. For lack of anything better to do, Cam decides to give her list one last look-over before working out a plan to narrow down the suspects. Yesterday she had refined the list to include a few more individuals she’d forgotten the first time around. Wendell had been added, but eventually crossed out, as Cam decided that his commitment to Angela was stronger than any interest he had shown in her thus far. Cam also added Vincent Nigel-Murray, but was unable to remove his name from the list for many of the same reasons she kept Fisher and Hodgins on it. She was also forced to add two security guards (Randy and a guy named Chuck), someone from Human Resources, and a guy she had dated for several months last year to the final list. Thankfully, she is able to eliminate Randy and the HR guy. So the current count is up to five possibilities in total.
Looking over the names that remain, Cam realizes that there are only two people on it that she might ever remotely be interested in. One, really, if she’s being entirely honest with herself. But that would open up a whole can of worms that she’s not sure she’d be able to deal with. Still, it wasn’t as if they couldn’t make something like that work, if they really wanted to. She knows he is the fighting type, and Cam is not one to give up either. But she decides then that she’s being presumptuous, drawing wild conclusions based on no real evidence, and makes the conscious choice to stop dwelling on the subject for the moment.
Which seems appropriate, when she hears the doorbell ring.
Cam wonders who in the hell would be at her place at 2:00 pm on a Friday and really doesn’t want to go answer the door looking the way she currently does - dirty, gross and sickly. She waits a few moments, hoping that they’ll just go away. But the doorbell rings a second time then, and Cam figures they must know she’s home. However, seeing as how she doesn’t have a maid and the person outside her door seems to be quite content with waiting for her to answer, she finally gets up, wrapping a housecoat around her suddenly frozen body and padding down to the front door.
Cam pulls the door open to reveal a smiling Hodgins, carrying several bags and looking extremely sympathetic.
She’s not quite sure what to say, so she goes with the obvious. “Hodgins. What are you doing here?”
He shifts awkwardly from foot to foot, casting his gaze towards the ground briefly. “Well, everyone was worried about you. Angela, Sweets, Wendell and I were talking and we decided that maybe somebody should stop by with some soup and make sure you’re still alive.” He shifts again but this time meets her gaze. “Plus, Angela insisted that you needed to see your secret admirer gifts before next week.” He raises one arm and shakes the bags that are attached to it, almost as evidence of their existence.
There’s so much there, but at the moment Cam’s cognitive functioning is running on low and she is only able to process the very last thing he says. “How would you know, unless you’ve been going through my mail?” Cam asks, though there isn’t much accusation in her tone.
“It’s pretty obvious,” he shares with her. “And Angela may have loosely rummaged through your stuff. But only for the packages.”
Cam nods, not really having the energy to even be upset about it. Besides, she kind of has to admit that she’s a tiny bit curious about what her secret admirer left her over the past couple of days. It occurs to her then that Hodgins is still standing outside in the cold, and that she’s exposing her sick self to even more potential germs and sickness, so she steps back and invites him in.
He removes his shoes and makes his way towards the kitchen. She trails behind him curiously and watches as he places all of the bags onto her kitchen table. Turning to her, Hodgins smiles shyly. “I’ll get the soup ready for you. It’s chicken noodle - the perfect cure for a common cold.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Cam immediately insists, feeling bad about the fact that Hodgins wants to serve her, though not really sure why that is. “I can make it.”
But Hodgins shakes his head firmly. “No way. You’re sick. That’s against the rules.”
Cam is about to protest a second time when she sneezes - four consecutive times in a row, which happens to be a new record - and thinks that maybe it’s okay to let him do this for her. She takes a seat at the kitchen table and just watches him as he fumbles around her kitchen, trying to find what he needs.
“So how did you get stuck with this detail?” she asks him after a few moments.
Hodgins glances over in her direction and smirks. “I wasn’t stuck with it. I volunteered.” Cam can’t quite stop that feeling of warmth that spreads through her again and she smiles in spite of herself. “Of course, Angela and Wendell were heading out on a date and Sweets had a session to get to,” he adds a moment later, and she feels her heart sink just a tiny bit. “But I didn’t know that when I volunteered, so I think that still counts.” The warmth immediately returns and she grins openly at him.
“Well thank you,” she tells him sincerely. “I appreciate that. And I apologize for the state of my home, as well as the state I’m in. I haven’t even looked in a mirror since yesterday.” Cam has no idea why she just allowed those words to leave her mouth and would instantly like to take them back, except that it’s too late for that.
But Hodgins seems nonplussed by her comment. “You’re sick. No one expects you to look like you’re heading out for a night on the town. Besides, you should see how awful I look when I’m sick. I’ve been known to scare small children.”
Cam chuckles loudly and shakes her head at him. “I doubt that,” she tells him, still laughing.
“You think I kid, but Jack Hodgins does not lie about these kinds of things,” he retorts. “Now stop worrying and eat your soup,” he orders, setting a bowl down in front of her. She has to admit that it smells delicious - which is a feat in and of itself, considering how stuffed up her nose is at the moment - and Cam never realized how hungry she was until she takes her first bite.
He grabs a bowl for himself and they eat a late lunch together, chatting companionably. Cam feels so much better getting a bit of warm food into her body and she is exceptionally grateful to whoever came up with the original idea to bring her soup. Sometime later, after Hodgins has cleaned up and she’s retired to the couch, he brings her two secret admirer gifts out to her.
“Here, you need to open these before I go,” he tells her, placing the bag in front of her and perching on the end of the couch.
Cam smiles and opens the box dated for yesterday. It ends up being a movie. But not just any movie - it is one of her favourite movies from childhood. She used to own it, but a couple of years ago she lent it to a friend who accidentally lost it, and Cam has never gotten around to purchasing another copy.
“What is it?” she hears Hodgins ask curiously.
“The Sound of Music,” Cam tells him, beaming. She knows it’s silly to get this excited over a movie, but she’s seen this film probably a good twenty times in her lifetime and has yet to get sick of it.
“You seem happy,” Hodgins remarks, smiling warmly at her.
“I am,” Cam admits to him with a nod.
He pauses momentarily before asking, “So maybe this whole admirer thing isn’t so awful after all?”
Cam meets his gaze, and she’s not sure if it’s her cold, her overactive imagination, or the fact that she’s really tired, but she gets the distinct sense that he’s waiting for some specific answer from her on this one.
So she goes with what her gut is telling her. “No, I guess it’s not so bad.”
Hodgins smiles again and hands her the second package, this one smaller and thinner than the last one. It ends up being a burnt CD. It doesn’t say what music is on there but Cam is starting to think that it’s probably something she’s going to end up liking. Hodgins offers to put it on for her, and she agrees. It ends up consisting of various Christmas songs - some old classics and others, newer, more modern remakes. They sit in silence for several songs, enjoying the sound of the music filling her place before Cam notices that she’s starting to drift off to sleep.
“I guess I’d better get going,” Hodgins tells her softly, getting up from the couch. Cam wants to protest, but she also knows that she’s not going to be able to stay awake for much longer.
“Thanks for coming by,” Cam mutters groggily. “I appreciate everything you did for me today.”
“It was my pleasure,” Hodgins tells her, reaching down to squeeze her upper arm gently. “Now you get to sleep and feel better, okay? I’ll let myself out.”
He is almost to the door when he stops and turns back to her. “Feel free to give me a call on the weekend if you need anything,” he adds with a smile, and then is gone.
Cam falls asleep to thoughts of Hodgins for the second time in two days.
-----------------------------
Part Seven