Thank you for the response to A Learning Experience. This is a companion piece to that one and we see Booth's confrontation with Caroline. I hope you enjoy it. Gregg.
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
My office NOW! Booth.
Booth looked at the terse command he had typed onto the e-mail setting on his computer for a moment and then, taking a deep breath, he hit send. There it went. It was a done deal. In a few moments he knew an angry woman with a mean streak and a heavy Louisiana accent would be storming into his sanctum sanctorum here at the Hoover building and it would end with either him becoming a eunuch, or his message would be heard and obeyed. He was praying for the latter, naturally. Bones would drop him like a hot potato if he showed up a eunuch.
The more he had thought about it the night before after talking with Bones about the whole situation the angrier he had gotten over what Caroline had done. Who was she to tell the Jeffersonian, a world premiere institution no less, who they could have on staff and working with evidence? Sure it was a legit situation where she asks about it, but to go the route she had and unseal that kids expunged record? No, Sir. She had gone too far. Now he had to be the poor soul who got to make that clear to her.
"Just what the Hell are you doing giving me orders, Cher?" the dreaded voice bellowed, shaking him from his thoughts.
"Putting a stubborn Federal Prosecutor in her place," he shot back, leveling a glare at his long time friend.
"Don't you go leveling that glare at me, Seeley Booth," Caroline said haughtily.
"My office, my rules," Booth told her bluntly. "Now sit down and listen, Caroline. You've almost single-handedly screwed everything up with the Jeffersonian, so you get to sit there, and then fix this mess!"
"What the Hell are you talking about?" Caroline huffed, not liking the young whipper snappers tone at all. She was also mentally smiling. Her instincts had been correct. Now to see if she'd been really right.
"That kid Abernathy," Booth said firmly. He kept his glare firmly in place. "You unsealed a sealed, expunged record. Not cool, Caroline. Add in the fact that Bones is pissed about all this, and so is Cam and everyone else over there, and we have a colossal disaster on our hands. Bones is about ready to sever all her ties with law enforcement totally."
Caroline raised her brow. "Then maybe she should, Cher," she put out there. "I won't go into court and get torpedoed because some criminal handled evidence."
"You can get around that and you know it," Booth told her. "Do you think that the work being done isn't looked over by Bones and Cam to the point that even the most competent expert alive would feel like a total slacker?"
Caroline leaned back, shooting a glare of her own at Booth. "Okay, say you're right, and I'm not, mind, but say you are," she said quizzically. "Just how good is this kid? Good enough to risk the reputation of the Jeffersonian, and that Bone Doc of yours?"
"Bones said he's incredible and will be as good as her in a couple of years," Booth relayed the praise. "The kid's only 18 and he's at that level!'''
"And just how long has she had to figure that one out?" Caroline asked. "One, two days? That's not enough. The kid has a record."
"Bones is the best forensic anthropologist there is and you know it," Booth countered. "Hell, all those awards from foreign governments alone should be enough to dazzle anyone. If she says he's that good, then he is. End of discussion."
"Not end of discussion," Caroline told him. "Is the Jeffersonian ready to take a hit when it hits the fan in court? What if we lose a case or two because he handled the evidence? What'll you have to say about that?"
"That you didn't do your damn job," Booth told her bluntly and firmly. "It's not up for discussion, Caroline. You either stop bugging everyone about this, or Bones and the Jeffersonian walks. Do you really want to explain that to the Director and the Attorney General?"
Caroline stood up and looked down at Booth. "Alright, I won't push it," she told him. Then she pointed a finger at him. "But if we end up having to let loose some murderin' gutter trash then you get to explain to the Director and the Attorney General what happened. Got it?" she said as she turned and walked out.
She smiled as she got into the elevator. She had been hoping that someone would show some backbone and stand up to her. That was why she did what she did. She wanted to see just how worthwhile it would be to put in the heavy work needed to defend the kids work. Now she knew it was very worthwhile. Plus, she got to see Seeley Booth get his hackles in an uproar. That was a sight to behold, and if she was twenty years younger and he wasn't with someone she would take that Yankee Adonis for a ride!
Booth grabbed his stuff, sent up a silent thank you to the Man Upstairs for letting him emerge with Junior and the Boys intact, and made tracks for the Jeffersonian. He had something he needed to do right then and there.
"Bones!" he said loudly as he entered her office, seeing her there sitting behind her desk tapping away rapidly on the keyboard of her laptop.
"Booth," she said with a warm smile. She hadn't been expecting to see him before lunch. "Do we have a case?"
"No," he told her. "I just got done putting my balls on the chopping block and told Caroline to drop it over the kid. Now if it goes to shit in court I get to explain it to the Director and the Attorney General. I wanna meet him, Bones. If I go down in flames for someone in the near future, I at least want to know who it is."
Bones led him out to the platform and introduced him to Abernathy. Booth spend about twenty minutes watching the kid work and in that time he could tell he was damn good. Bones didn't interrupt him once, and said "excellent" to the kid when he finished. Booth had only one thing to say at the end of it.
"My balls are on the chopping block because of your record, Kid," he told Abernathy. "Bones thinks your great, and that's good enough for me, but screw up and get me in deep shit with the Federal Prosecutor Caroline Julian, and I'll be using you as a human shield. Got it?"
"I'll do you proud, Sir," Abernathy replied seriously in that slow, twangy country accent he had. Something about the Agent commanded his respect. It was one more reason he knew he was going to like working here.
"Good," Booth said. "Now how about some lunch, Bones," he asked his pregnant partner. "You can even steal most of my food. I'm feeling generous."
"And it's early enough that we can even go home for some sexual intercourse before going back to work," Bones said aloud on the platform as she walked by him.
"Bones!" he complained as he turned beet red under the humorous stare from Abernathy. "We really need to work on appropriate topics of conversation in public," he told her as he made to follow her. "Soon!"
A/N: There it is. Nothing too long as I don't think such a conversation would last long between Booth and Caroline. I hope you enjoyed this one. Gregg.