Downward Spiral

Angela confronts Booth about his faux-pas in the park.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones, and I make no profit from this little venture.

Major thanks to ani8, both for being patient with the next chapter of Red Fish, Blue Fish (which is coming soon, I promise!) and for the quick beta and title for this piece. Cheers!

Downward Spiral

"I think you're making a mistake."

Booth looked up from his last-minute paperwork and frowned at the sight of Angela Montenegro silhouetted in his office doorway. "Oh, really, well, that's new." He dismissed her with a slight narrowing of his eyes and turned his attention back to the work at hand.

"Actually, it is." Ignoring his obvious disinclination to converse with her, she made herself at home in one of the other chairs. "Brennan told me about your conversation in the park."

At that, he looked up sharply. She guessed he was probably annoyed – with her, or with Brennan's peculiar inability to understand which sort of things could be discussed with one's best friend, and which were confidential. He didn't understand yet that sometimes Brennan needed her as a filter for real life events she couldn't decipher on her own. "Why does that not surprise me?"

Angela easily picked up on his tone, reaching across his desk and confiscating his pen. "Your license to be angry has been temporarily suspended. I can't believe that with all the time you spend around ridiculously smart people, none of it has rubbed off. Don't you know by now that you can't say things like that to her?"

His face took on a closed, guarded expression. "My relationship with Cam is none of her business. Or yours, for that matter."

So that's what that was about. She had guessed, of course, but she couldn't quite bring herself to explain everything to Brennan. She was fragile enough already. "But your friendship with Brennan is."

Angela watched as, ever-so-slowly, Booth put on his I-fucked-up face.

"Yeah." Angela let the impact of her words sink in. "You basically told a woman who's just lost her brother and her father – again – that you can't be her friend because you can't deal with it if she gets hurt. Good one." She had the sneaking suspicion that what he'd meant to say would have been even more hurtful.

"Shit."

"Not what you were going for, huh?"

Booth smoothed his hands over his face. "That's not what I meant." He grimaced. "But I'm not changing my mind about Cam."

She crossed her legs. "Now that's interesting. Why might that be?"

She had her own theories, of course. Booth was a private man, and his relationship with Cam had been a near-mystery to her from the start. She had been so sure, at first, that Cam was just a distraction for him – something to keep his mind from Brennan until she was ready. Then she'd decided that maybe this was all a practice run, a way to prove to himself that he could keep the professional and the private separate. But now, she was beginning to wonder if he really was completely unaware of the tension that existed between himself and Brennan.

Nothing else made any sense.

"Because of our relationship – because I yelled at her – she skipped a critical step in the examination of Caroline Epps' head. She wouldn't have done that if we weren't together. I just about cost her her life. Our relationship isn't worth that."

Yeah, right, Angela thought. "Booth, how many bullets have you taken in the line of duty?"

That made him visibly uncomfortable. "I don't know, a few-"

"And how many times have you ended up in the hospital instead of Brennan?"

He squirmed. "That's different. That's in the line of duty-"

"You gave her your gun and took a two-by-four to the chest. Don't even try to tell me that that's in the FBI Super Agent Handbook somewhere."

Poor Booth looked like he'd just taken a header from a brick wall. Angela decided that maybe she ought to ease into the rest of the discussion a little more gently. "You take responsibility for your own actions, Booth. Not other people's. Listen, you know why she got a gun?"

He was trying to cover his discomfort with sarcasm, but it wasn't working. "Because she's a power-happy card-carrying NRA member?"

Angela rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to smile. "Before you started dating Cam, she wanted a gun. She wanted to prove that she could handle it, and she wanted to feel safe – but she didn't need a gun for that. Before you and Cam hooked up, she had you."

Being Brennan, of course, she probably hadn't realized it. Neither, Angela was beginning to suspect, had he.

"Angela... don't go there with me today, alright?"

He looked tired. He looked irritable. That probably meant she was zeroing in on her target. "Shut up. I get that you didn't mean to apply your misguided overprotective tendencies to Brennan. That's good. Now I'm going to straighten you out about Cam." Even as she said the words, Angela couldn't quite believe she was doing it. "When Brennan and Hodgins were buried alive, you didn't try to pull a stunt like this." She leaned forward and put her hand on top of his. "That was the right decision."

Booth protested, "They've been in danger ever since-"

"We've all been in danger from the beginning. Epps sent me his wife's heart in a box! It's not only you that puts us in danger – and it's a choice we all make, every day." She paused. Now for the really convincing argument. "When Jack and Brennan were taken, we were all terrified, okay? But if we didn't love them, if we didn't know them intimately, we would never have believed they could still be alive, and they would have died."

"That's not true. We would have given one hundred percent, no matter what."

Angela shook her head. "Our best is better for the ones we love. Don't you believe that?"

She could tell by the look on his face that he did. It was the kind of thing Booth would believe until his dying day.

He kept his mouth shut.

"Booth, Cam is a good woman, but she is not a patient woman. She's not going to wait forever for you to make up your mind. I understand that this is a difficult concept for you, so I'm going to put it in words you can understand."

"You're on strike two." Angela paused, considering. "She'll give you another shot, if you ask her to. But when you fuck that up – and you will – that will be it for you. I think you should go for it. You'll need the batting practice. Because Temperance Brennan is a patient woman – but she is only going to throw you one pitch, and I don't think I need to tell you that you're going to have to hit it out of the park."

She stood, collecting her purse and her thoughts. She had been brave – and frank, even for her. Now was the time to leave him to his thoughts. "If you want to break up with Cam, that's your business, but at least have the balls to be honest with yourself about why you're doing it." She handed him back his pen. "If you need to talk..."

He wouldn't, she knew as she stepped outside and into the waiting mini cooper. Not with her, anyway.

"Crisis averted?" Jack asked from the driver's seat, leaning over to kiss her cheek.

She smiled. This was still unfamiliar territory, but she was enjoying the thrill of discovery more than she'd ever thought possible. "The crisis is only beginning. But I think that maybe, at the last minute, it will work itself out."

"That's my girl."

END