I was interested in doing a short piece that tried to look at Bones' early struggle to avoid working with Booth at the latter's beck and call, so to speak, from a different perspective. It also allowed me to utilize the character of Dr. Goodman who I feel was an excellent character who could have been invaluable to the series for another season. I hope you all enjoy it. Gregg.
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Special Agent Seeley Booth was in his office at the J. Edgar Hoover Building filling out all the paperwork on the latest case that he and the Squints had solved. It had been a miserable experience wondering if he would live or die from Valley Fever all because Hodgins had not had his mask on when Zack had sawed into that bone. His threat to Hodgins and Zack hadn't been an idle one. If they had it in the end, he would have shot them with a clear conscience. No one fucks up his chance to spend the holiday with his son and gets away without some serious pain. It was Dec. 29 and he was one of the only ones in the office as most were on holiday until Jan. 2. He liked it that way as he could catch up on the paperwork he usually let slide until he absolutely had to do it. Spending his Christmas in lock down at the Lab was not his idea of fun, so he was now trying to put it out of his mind as much as possible. He had gotten to spend a few precious hours with his son, and all had ended well. Even Careful Lionel had ultimately come through for his long ago love and the granddaughter he'd never met.
"Agent Booth?"
Booth looked up and was very surprised to see Dr. Goodman in the door to his office. He stood up and gestured for the man to come in. He didn't know the man especially well, but he respected him a great deal. "Please have a seat, Dr. Goodman," he said with a smile. "I have some hot apple cider I brought with me. Would you like a cup?" he offered.
"Please," Goodman replied as he took in his surroundings. He could see the office of a man who paid careful attention to detail, yet someone who wanted a comfortable work environment that spoke of who he was, not just what he did for a living. He smiled when he accepted the cup of steaming cider. "Thank you," he said graciously.
"Is there something I can help you with, Dr. Goodman?" Booth asked. He mentally reviewed the time in the lock down and the case that they had all, including Goodman, worked hard to solve, in order to determine if something was wrong relating to that. He couldn't think of anything.
"No, not as such, Agent Booth," Goodman hastened to assure him. "I have a couple of reasons for coming here today unannounced. I hope you don't mind the intrusion?"
"Not at all," Booth immediately told the other man. "It would hardly be fair to deny you the same privilege I've abused in reverse. I seem to show up whenever and with no notice to steal Bones away to help on a case, so it's only fair that my office is always open if you need something from me."
"I wanted to apologize, first of all, for letting slip the information that you have a son," Goodman told the younger man. "I honestly had no idea that none of the others didn't know of it, and I feel ashamed for having betrayed a confidence."
"Woah," Booth said firmly from his chair on the other side of the end table between them. "I never considered what you said to the others a betrayal of any confidence. Under ordinary circumstances team members would know such things, so if anything I should be apologizing for putting you in the position of letting you know something about me that the others didn't. The truth is, I don't let many people know about Parker at all. Mainly it's because of the situation I'm in with respect to him. I practically had to beg to be able to see him at all once this whole quarantine bit happened. People always asking me how he's doing and the usual small talk would be too much of a reminder of how messed up that whole situation is."
"That does ease my mind some, Agent Booth," Goodman said in obvious relief. He'd been concerned about this ever since it had happened, but hadn't had the chance to speak to Booth privately since then. He put that aside and moved on to the next item. "I'd also like to formally invite you to the Jeffersonian Institute's New Year's Eve Party. Dr. Hodgins, Mr. Addy, Ms. Montenegro, and Dr. Brennan all felt badly for your having been trapped in the quarantine over the holiday and making the situation with your son even more difficult. They asked me to invite you to the party and I agree with them. We do consider you a part of the Jeffersonian family, so to speak, Agent Booth."
"Really?" he asked, surprised at that. He knew he was making progress with the Squints and they were gelling into a very effective team, with him and Bones at the helm, but he always thought they considered him some sort of an outsider. "Wait a minute. Bones wants me invited to a party? I thought she hated that sort of thing."
Goodman smiled. "Ordinarily that is true," he admitted. "But she makes an exception for New Years. I won't go into any details, some if which I know you are now aware of, but given her past, she looks at New Years as a chance to feel a sense of accomplishment for getting through the previous year, and also a way to move even farther forward in the year to come. In her case, it really is a celebration, though she does maintain that reserve she affects." Goodman paused, but decided to add one more piece of information. "Frankly, Agent Booth, I believe that this is the first time that Dr. Brennan has extended an invitation to the annual party to anyone. Granted, all of the members of her team wanted you invited, but they each came to me individually."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Booth replied with some wonder. He knew he'd never been terribly kind to the Squints, but to know that they considered him a friend, and that Bones considered him enough of a friend to invite him to the party, made him rethink his general position on the Squints. They could be annoying as Hell, but they were showing something that he hadn't seen yet.
"You should," Goodman agreed. He decided to let Agent Booth know a bit more. "Do you know why Dr. Brennan argues so much about being seconded to the FBI to work on cases with you?" he asked.
"She hates leaving the lab?" Booth chuckled. He had to admit that he enjoyed watching Bones get so riled up about being told she was going with him on a case, especially when travel was required. He'd never tell her that, but it was true.
Goodman smiled. "Not really," he told the younger man. "At least not fully. Dr. Brennan is fiercely dedicated to identifying long forgotten remains, particularly war remains. As such, and given her own past, it is understandable that she wants to devote her time to the cases in Limbo," he said, using the colorful name for the storage area for remains. "She considers it her duty to the families of those poor souls. Because of that, she feels that in order to justify taking time to work on other cases, meaning her work with you, she needs to argue about it in order to reduce it to a reason that she can understand and acknowledge as satisfactory enough to warrant taking time from her primary task. So you see, Agent Booth, the fact that she argues with me, and also with you, about going out on a case is indicative of the fact that she really wants to, but simply needs a good enough reason, intellectually, to do so. If she didn't want to, she would simply ignore us and continue working on the remains she feels have priority."
"But she'd be fired!" Booth exclaimed, shocked that Bones would risk something like that. Arguing was one thing, direct disobedience was another.
"Hardly, Agent Booth," Goodman assured him. "Please never tell this to Dr. Brennan, but the fact is that she is the world's foremost expert in forensic anthropology. The Jeffersonian would never do anything to put in jeopardy having her on staff. I may technically be her superior, but if it was a choice between backing me or Dr. Brennan in a dispute between us, I would be looking for another position somewhere else. I understand that, and I also understand that my role is to provide her a substantial enough reason to do what she desires outside of her self-imposed mission. So far, I have been successful, but as I pointed out to her a while back, she has a disturbingly high learning curve."
"What about when I was named the liaison at the beginning of the Cleo Eller case? She didn't want to have anything to do with me considering the one time we'd worked on a case before that," Booth asked curiously.
"She did indeed want to work with you, Agent Booth," Goodman laughed outright. "She may have been upset after the first case you ever worked on with her, but after that case she researched all she could about you and your background. When you picked her up at the Airport and she found that you needed her for another case, she knew full well that she could get exactly the deal she made with you and get exactly what she wanted. You were her perfect excuse to do meaningful work utilizing her skills outside of the lab, or on classified work for other agencies. In essence it was a template of the arguments she and I have about her being assigned to work with you on a specific case."
Booth's jaw almost fell to the floor. "Bones played me!" he exclaimed, a bit of embarrassment and also some wonder in his tone.
"She most certainly did, Agent Booth," Goodman acknowledged. He stood up and handed his cup to Agent Booth who stood up as well. "All of what I said is in confidence Agent Booth. I shudder to think what Dr. Brennan would do if she found out I told you any of this."
"Don't worry, Dr. Goodman," Booth assured him. "She'll never hear it from me."
"I had best be off then," Goodman told him. "One other thing, though. I know we are of different faiths, but my Church has a New Year's Morning service and then a brunch afterwards to celebrate the dawn of a new, and, hopefully, better year. I would like to extend an invitation to you to be my guest, and my family's, for the service and the brunch. If you have your son, by chance, you are most welcome to bring him, too."
"I know I won't have Parker, but I will most certainly be there," Booth replied with a smile. "Thank you for the invitation. I ordinarily go to Mass, but alone. This will make New Year's Day a lot brighter."
"As I said, Agent Booth," Goodman said as he shook hands and handed Booth a card with the information for the service and brunch on it, "you've been slowly becoming a part of the family at the Jeffersonian. I dare say that you are becoming the friend that Dr. Brennan and her team needs. The very kind of friend that I would enjoy sharing my family with on a day such as that. On that note, I have a sleigh ride date with my two daughters. I will see you on New Year's Morning."
Booth went back to his desk and sat down, deep in thought. He'd obviously misread the situation with the Squints, and Bones in particular. It didn't matter, though, as the situation was one in which they were all benefiting. He looked at his watch and noticed that it was almost time for lunch. He picked up his cell phone and pressed one on the speed dial.
"Brennan," came the clipped response.
"Hey, Bones," he said with a smile in his voice.
"Booth," he heard her say with a definite bit of excitement tinging her voice. "Do we have a case?"
"No case today, Bones, but I was about to head out for lunch and wondered if you were interested in joining me. I'm going to Wong Fu's," he told her. He was expecting a real laundry list of reasons as to why she couldn't leave the lab, so what he got instead really surprised him.
"Sure. Can you give me about half an hour before picking me up? I waiting for the results on a couple of tests that should be done in about twenty minutes," she replied.
"No problem, Bones," he told her. "I'll come back to the lab and get you so you can work until then. See you in about forty minutes."
"Thanks, Booth," she said and then hung up.
He snapped his cell phone shut and smiled. In the space of an hour his day had went from boring, to a really good one. He now knew more about Bones' motivations, and he also felt a closer connection to her and the Squints. All in all, the coming new year was shaping up to be a good one. He intended on not letting Bones in on his new insights, but he did intend on working to become better friends with her, and, to a lesser degree, the Squints. His ordinary New Years resolutions were mundane and rather pedestrian. This year he had some definite bridge building to accomplish and making resolutions for that made perfect sense. This lunch would be phase one. He silently thanked Goodman for stopping by that day.
A/N: I hope that this story accomplished my goal of providing a different perspective on all the arguing and bickering we saw early on in the series where Bones seemed to be trying to avoid working with Booth unless she felt the time was right. I also wanted to work in the Goodman character with a substantial role in a story. Is my perspective plausible? I'll leave the answer to that one in the reviewers' more than capable hands. All the best, Gregg.