Hey there readers! Sorry it's taken so long for me to get a new story up…..you know how things are….but before I ramble into pretexts, let's get on with the story!
Disclaimer: Let's just for today say I own Bones…..watcha gonna do about it, huh?
Never mind, I don't own Bones—I'd feel too guilty doing that, and speaking of guilt…..
So this takes place somewhere in season 3. Sweets barely knows the partners, and your typical angst ensues.
The room was dead silent as always. Sweets was just testing their tension. How long could either of them go without blurting something out? It would be Booth who would break the silence. It always was.
Booth told himself it wasn't awkward. Naturally it was. Sweets had observations to observe. Bones had her anthropological inevitabilities to analyze. Sports reels played over and over and over in Booth's head. If he said something he'd be the one with "issues being passive" -issues that must be discussed at a later session.
The second hand ticked away. They were all counting the seconds.
Finally, "So we're done here I guess." Yes, it was Booth who broke the silence just as the young psychologist had suspected. "Come on, Bones, I'll take you out to dinner."
"Agent Booth, we're not done here. May I ask why you're always so eager to get out of these sessions?"
"Oh, come on Sweets. We've just been sitting here for the past thirteen and a half minutes. You haven't even said anything. Let's go Bones." Just as Booth jumped up from his chair and grabbed Brennan's arm Sweets murmured, "Actually I want to talk about why you can never seem to sit still for extended periods of time. You're an action man I know, but in this session I want to explore your underlying tendencies to remain passive in a tense environment."
Brennan finally piped in, "I've noticed this when we take long drives to a crime scene. Booth can never settle for a minute or two when nobody talks."
"Thanks Bones, I needed you to provoke the twelve year old."
"Ah, once again mocking my age. We'll explore age in another session down the road. But for now I want you to tell me why silence makes you so uneasy." If he wanted to get out of there he was just going to have to force an answer, choke down the psychoanalysis, and stick to his story. Nothing he hadn't done before.
"Alright, if I tell you can Bones and I go get some dinner?"
"Sure, I don't see why not."
"Okay, I guess it started in the military. Every soldier is taught not to speak unless spoken to. So every emotion I had got bottled up inside of me, and I guess when there's silence all those emotions come rushing back and the only way to release them is to break the quiet. There you go. Can we go Bones." He tugged her arm again climbing out of the saggy chair.
"Actually Booth I'd like to stay. I haven't said anything the whole time."
"Oh, you, Miss I Hate Psychology want to stay and talk about why you feel the need to break silence."
"If you remember I didn't say anything during the thirteen and a half minutes, and it was you who tried to drag me out of here."
"She's right Agent Booth. Please sit down and tell me about your childhood. Was there often silence in your home? Abnormal tension? Were you ignored? Neglected? Abandoned?-"
"—No actually I grew up in a rough home. One you wouldn't even imagine," Booth's temper rose, "I never had silence in my house. If Dad wasn't drunk and screaming at me and Jared, he was passed out snoring on the couch. The only silence we ever knew was when he was off at some grimy bar. And do you think that was a nice peaceful time for me? No, I was scared shitless. How drunk was Dad? What was he gonna hit us with tonight? Could I keep from screaming when he did it? The only silence I knew was panic." Booth was screaming at Sweets, beet red and enraged. The doctor kept a stable countenance all the while.
"When you make us sit here minute after minute, I can only imagine my dad bursting through the door belt in hand. So excuse me, but I can't be here anymore." Booth swung himself out of the chair and bolted out the door leaving nothing but the blinds swinging awkwardly on the window.
"Dr. Sweets, Booth is very sensitive about his childhood. I suggest that in the future you keep the topic as light as possible and keep the conversation going the whole time. By his nature he can't sit submissive without starting and argument. Booth is a man of action."
"Yes Dr. Brennan, I know. In fact, I know his entire childhood story. I know about his father and his brother and the lack of a mother figure."
"What are you trying to uncover?"
"I'm sure you know that often times boys who grow up in abusive homes become violent after adolescence."
"Yes, but Booth is violent. He was a ranger wasn't he? Killing fifty people equates to violence."
"But he was told to do that for his country, not for himself. It was not a way to express the pent up rage and fear he's stored since youth. I'm very interested in knowing how Booth reacts under the same conditions as his childhood."
"I don't understand. You want to see if Booth will get drunk and hit Parker if the room is silent for a few minutes?"
"No, nothing like that. I would never condone such violence, but in discovering his rage we might be able to eliminate the horrors he faced in his past."
"I understand your experiment, Dr. Sweets; however, Booth is not a man to experiment on for this. He is only a military man on the outside," Brennan explained getting up to leave, "Sifting out the memories and emotions for him would be cruel."
"It is my job to analyze your partnership. I can't make a rational decision to keep you together until I see if Booth has the same abusive tendencies as his father."
"I approve of your empirical methods, just be careful. Who knows what he has bottled up."