Brennan closes her eyes wearily and rubs her temples. It's late, the office is deserted for the weekend and her fight with Booth earlier today is churning in her head. She has never been one for melodrama, and weakness irritates her…but the look of hurt on his face today had drained the blood from her stomach, made her feel ill and strangely afraid, of what she wasn't sure. He'd turned on his heel and walked calmly out of the lab, she'd been stubborn and stared at the file in front of her refusing to watch his retreating form. She looks up at the clock and sighs; she's been thinking lately, a lot. About where her life is going, about where it should have been already, about where she was too afraid to let it go. So here she is, in a deserted lab on a late Friday night with nothing but her regrets to keep her company. She frowns as the first tear begins to slip down her cheek, unbidden, unforeseen and unwelcomed.
Booth lies on his sofa nursing the end of a beer, he downs the remaining drops of liquid and places the empty bottle on the table next to 6 others. He throws an arm over his eyes and sighs. It'd been a rough week; they'd been at each other's throats the entire time. She was frustrated at the lack of progress on the case, admittedly, he was frustrated too. Over the past couple of days the arguing had become increasingly personal and the working relationship strained. It was as much his fault as it was hers, but they were both too stubborn to admit it, he could see that now.
Today she'd called him a coward….it was the last thing that he would ever expect to hear from her, but like a fool he let his pride take the blow. He didn't know why it mattered, but a coward was the last thing he ever wanted her to imagine him as.
His mind travels back to rescuing her from Kenton's grasp, how she'd clung to him as though he were her lifeline. He had been ashamed at the time to enjoy the feeling of being needed by her but looking back on it now, he wondered if it wasn't she who was comforting him. She was under his skin, her innocent naivety and social ineptness had somehow managed to win her a place in his heart. She affected his entire being, not to mention his personal relationships. Tessa was a victim of Brennan's subtle influence on his life. Tessa could never understand his need to save Brennan, just like he could never explain it.
He swings his legs over the side of the sofa and sits up, he'd been putting off thinking about his relationship with Brennan, now with a few beers under his belt the thoughts were hard to suppress. What did he feel for this woman? Respect? Friendship?...Running his hands through his hair he knows his dishonesty with himself. He loves her, he has since the first time he set eyes on her, since the first time he saw the fire in her eyes and the naïve beauty in her features. He shakes his head and pushing himself to his feet grabs his jacket from the corner of his sofa.