Title: Outside—Pause and Resume
Rating: G/K
Spoilers/Warnings: Post-ep for "Wannabe in the Weeds"
Summary: It's been fourteen hours. Too soon for both of us.
You've been here since six according to the log. I arrived at seven and you already had your work laid out on the table.But we've been here alone for nearly two hours and you haven't moved in the last twenty minutes. Your eyes haven't left that table and I'm heading for storage. I need to pass, but I get close and I can see you're shaking and you have tears, unshed, in your eyes.
I watch you; Unable to pass, unable to go back.
Because it's been fourteen hours.
Because it's too soon for both of us. I want to tell you, but I had and you won't ever. That means I don't get a say.
We're both here alone this morning, dressed in regret, draped in our lab coats to hide the ugliness of what we normally only face on steel tables, which we are now wearing on our skin.
"Dr. Brennan."
You yelp, jumping back from the table. I don't apologize and you don't blush.
"It's nearly nine. The others'll be here soon."
You nod, stepping back up to the table, resuming your work, and I pass by.