A/N: Well, the laptop is in the shop and I'm having serious writing withdrawals--longhand just isn't cutting it!--so here I typed my story directly on the Boneyard without typing it in Word first gasp. Anyway, this was a one shot I'd been mulling around for a few days. I hope you like it. Could be considered a tad OOC.

Attraction

She waited until he pulled away from the curb in front of Amanda Collins' house.

"You were attracted to her," she said bluntly with a hint of accusation.

Booth's head jerked toward her in surprise and he frowned at her. "What? No!" he replied, looking back at the road again.

Brennan folded her arms. "She was very attractive. There's nothing wrong with admitting it," she said in her most logical tone.

Booth blew out a breath in irritation. He did NOT want to have this conversation with her. "Yes, she was very attractive," he allowed, hoping that would be the end of it. He should have known better.

"You didn't just find her attractive," Brennan pressed. "Your face was flushed and your respiration and pulse were elevated."

He threw another glance her way, frowning, trying to remember if he had given any indication...but no, he really didn't think so. He decided to bluff. "You're imagining things."

Brennan rolled her eyes. "Oh, please! You were being nice to her! You're never nice to a suspect."

That earned her a glare. "I'm always nice. Besides, she isn't really a suspect--"

"What? Of course she is. As far as we know, she was the last one to speak to the victim. And she had motive. That would make her our prime suspect." She studied his profile. A muscle was jumping in his cheek. In spite of that she decided to push a bit more. "Booth, if this is going to be a problem, maybe you should excuse yourself from the case--"

"No! Sheesh, Bones, gimme a break! I've never let anything affect my objectivity--"

"Maybe not in the past. But I've never seen you react that way to a suspect."

"You're delusional. Why don't you leave the mind reading and stuff like that to Angela? You just don't have what it takes."

She smirked. "After two and half years, I know you very well, Booth. I've watched your interaction with subjects during many interrogations. I think I am probably the most qualified person--"

"Maybe if you were like other people. But you're usually pretty oblivious--"

"Not this time," she said firmly, turning her head to look out the window. "I know what I saw."

Booth gritted his teeth in frustration. She really raised the bar on stubborn. "What do you want from me?" he said between clenched teeth.

"I'm just concerned that it might influence your handling of the case."

Taking a deep breath, he fought to control his temper. "It'll be fine." She shot him a dubious look. "Tell ya what, if you feel my 'attraction' to Ms Collins is affecting my handling of the investigations, feel free to point it out," he offered, confident that there was no way that was going to happen. After all, Ms Collins was nowhere near as hot as his partner and he managed to control himself around her.

She looked at him thoughtfully. "Fair enough," she finally said.

Booth felt relieved, but she wasn't done yet.

"Are you going to ask her out?"

He shot her a look of shock. "No! You just told me she's a suspect. I would never date a suspect--"

"I mean if the evidence clears her."

"Oh," Booth said, calming down a little. "Well, I suppose it's possible--"

"So you ARE attracted to her," Brennan crowed victoriously.

"Look, did I give you a hard time when you were attracted to that fireman who cut off his brother's head?" he pointed out rashly.

She paled. "Now that's just mean! Do you have to keep bringing that up?" she asked, hurt that he would mention her poor judgment in that case.

Booth sighed. He regretted his words. He knew how hard she had taken the fact that she had actually considered dating that murderer.

"Can we talk about something else?" Booth asked desperately.

"You always do that," she said.

"Do what?" he asked, puzzled.

"Change the subject whenever you get uncomfortable."

"Doesn't everybody?" he asked reasonably.

"No, some people are able to continue a discussion regardless--"

"Maybe squints can, but normal people don't want to talk about things that make them uncomfortable."

"Avoiding a subject because it makes you uncomfortable hardly allows you to work through the problem. Talking about it might help--"

Booth rolled his eyes. "You're assuming it's a problem in the first place. I just prefer to keep some things, like who I find attractive, private." He gave her a sly look. "Besides, what you're suggesting sounds a lot like therapy."

"We're partners. Are you saying there are some things we can't discuss?"

He suppressed a growl of frustration. "Yes! Now you got it! So can we talk about something else?"

Brennan sighed. And he called HER stubborn. "Fine. How did your date with Michelle go the other night?"

Booth pursed his lips in irritation, counting slowly to ten. That wasn't really any different from what they had been talking about. "How about I choose the topic of conversation?"

A/N: Part two will be posted tomorrow. Please click the little blue button and let me know what you thought.