(Season 10)
A/N: This story is the idea of Lauwy. I started to write it last year, but my mother had surgery and my life got a little more hectic, between work, trying to keep up her house and mine and helping her with baths when I got home each evening. I looked it over and finished writing it last Saturday. This story is four chapters long. I plan to post each chapter in the next four days.
I don't own Bones.
Ooooooooooooooooo
Worried about the changes in Booth, Brennan sought out their younger friend, Lance Sweets. Her husband seemed to be off kilter, obsessed and volatile in a way she had never seen before. She needed help to understand what was going on.
"Booth is driven by his belief in honesty, in honor and service." Sweets had also noticed the changes in his friend and he too was worried. "Now, Booth's beliefs have been betrayed by the organization that he trusted, that he served."
She hesitated to say it, but Brennan didn't know how else to explain the changes in Booth. "It . . . it's as if someone died . . . it's like Booth died." Her voice was so soft, but conveyed so much pain.
The psychologist in Sweets knew exactly what Brennan was saying to him and it made him sad to confirm her fears. "In a sense, he has you know? He . . . he doesn't have an anchor."
His refusal to pray, to wear his St. Christopher medal, his failure to attend church had been the first thing Brennan had noticed about Booth when he returned home. It was completely out of character and since Booth was a man of faith, it worried her that he was displaying disinterest in his own faith. "Faith in something greater than himself." She wasn't sure if Sweets was talking about religious faith or faith in his government, but at this point she felt that the lack of faith was dangerous.
"That's good." Sweets was surprised that Brennan had picked up on Booth's biggest problem. She was always saying that she was clueless about verbal clues and body language and yet here she had picked up on Booth's lack of faith. "Watch out or you'll turn into a psychologist . . . Look, Booth is afraid of trusting again . . . it's natural. We just need to show him it's a risk worth taking."
Brennan knew now that Sweets was talking about faith in the people around Booth, but she knew her husband's loss was deeper than that. If he had lost his faith in his God then Booth was lost and she needed to help him to find himself before he was irrevocably changed.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooo
The first time she met Special Agent James Aubrey, Brennan had been impressed with his confidence, his professionalism and his willingness to help Booth. The younger agent was working with Sweets to help Booth with their case. While they worked the case it had taken odd and terrifying twists and turns. Starting with the death of Wesley Foster, they had worked their way through evidence that led them to someone in the EPA named Howard Cooper who supposedly had died of leukemia, but who had actually been murdered with an injected toxin. That death had led them eventually to Hugo Sanderson who had been set up as a patsy by Dr. Glen Durant.
Durant was later revealed to be the head of an organization bent on bending the government to a set of beliefs that could be traced back to Herbert Hoover, the former and deceased Director of the FBI and those beliefs were grotesque to both Booth and Brennan. Durant had been raised by a step-father who had worshiped Hoover and his twisted beliefs. That beloved step-father had passed down those beliefs to the doctor as well as Hoover's secret files and those files had let Durant gain control of many powerful people around the country.
Hoover had believed that the Founding Fathers had disdained democracy and that the country should be ruled by the educated elite and property owners. In turn Durant believed the same things. He felt that the masses were merely mob rule and allowing them a say in government was anathema to the doctor. He had used the records that Hoover had accumulated over the years and had blackmailed as many government officials that he could to influence how the government was run. In essence he was the man behind the curtain, an evil twisted version of the Wizard of Oz.
Before they had finally found the proof to arrest Durant for treason and murder, Lance Sweets had been murdered. It was Agent Aubrey who found the profiler dying on a parking garage floor and let Booth and Brennan know so they could be with their friend at the end of his life. It was a hard loss for both of them and Booth had completely gone off the rails for a short while. He had contemplated the murder of Hugo Sanderson and if Brennan hadn't confronted her husband, the mourning agent would have probably committed cold blooded murder. Brennan had never been so afraid and so furious. She needed Booth to be Booth and he wasn't acting like the man she had fallen in love with. It had been a truly terrifying time in her life.
Ooooooooooooooooooo
After the wake for Sweets in the park, Brennan had found that she needed to talk to someone about her husband and though she felt like it was a betrayal to Booth, she chose to talk to Aubrey anyway. They met at a small coffee shop several miles from the Lab and the Hoover. Brennan chose it because as far as she knew, Booth never bought coffee from that shop. "Booth needs a partner."
Famished, Aubrey bit into his piece of banana coffee cake and chewed it slowly. His thoughts organized, he swallowed and grimly nodded his head. "Yeah, but your husband doesn't want a partner. I don't think he even likes me . . . Deputy Director Stark has assigned me to Major Crimes and he wants me to find a way to get Booth to accept me as a partner, but I think it's going to be a tough sell."
"Yes, it will be." Brennan sipped her coffee and was careful with her next words. "My husband had lost his ability to trust. Right now I am the only one he truly trusts. He has some faith in Dr. Saroyan, Dr. Hodgins and Angela Montenegro and of course Caroline Julian, but not total faith. He is . . . he is lost at the moment . . . of course you know I don't mean physically lost, but mentally lost, spiritually lost."
Slightly amused, Aubrey realized that the gossip he had heard about Brennan was true. She was a very literal person and it was fascinating. "Stark thinks I can learn a lot from your husband. Booth is considered to be a great investigator and his solve rate . . . with the help of you and the Jeffersonian . . . well that solve rate is mind boggling. I do want to be his partner, but I don't know if Booth is going to let me."
Her sigh betrayed her thoughts and Brennan knew it. "Prison had changed Booth and he has lost his confidence in everyone at the Hoover and at the Justice Department. It will be hard to get him to accept you, but if you persevere I think you may be able to sway him eventually. My husband values loyalty and trustworthiness. He himself is very loyal to those he believes deserves that loyalty. I don't think that has changed in him and it is a way to sway him. You will have to work hard, but I think you can succeed."
"I hope so." Aubrey sipped some of his coffee and thought about what he needed to do to get Booth to trust him. "Like I said, Deputy Director Stark wants me to be Booth's partner and now that I know you do too, maybe between the both of us, we can make that happen." At least I hope so.
"I will try to influence him to the best of my ability." Brennan was concerned that Booth wouldn't be receptive to a partnership with Aubrey, but at this point she knew it had to be done. She couldn't be in the field all of the time. Concerned for her daughter's future, she wanted to lessen the possibility that both she and Booth would be killed leaving their daughter an orphan. Brennan was willing to go into the field, but some of the more dangerous aspects of the job needed to be taken up by Aubrey or someone like Aubrey. "You will need to be patient."
"Yeah." He had a plan and he thought it might work. "The next case you get, I'm going to try to be part of the investigation. I'm sure Booth is going to balk, but I think I can make it work. It's worth a shot anyway."
Pleased that Aubrey was at least willing to try, she hoped he had a thick skin because Booth could be very abrasive when he took a dislike to someone or a situation. "My husband is going to be very displeased with your plan, but like you say, it is worth a shot." Normally she didn't understand colloquialisms, but this phrase had been used by Booth numerous times over the years and she knew exactly what Aubrey meant.
Ooooooooooooooooooo
The purpose of this story is to show you part of season 10 from Brennan's point of view. This is a companion story to 'A Thankless Job'. That story was written from Aubrey's and Booth's point of view. Let me know what you think of it. Thank you.