Booth and Brennan have arrived back, Brennan with some clarity of her feelings for Booth and Booth with a blonde, bouncy girlfriend. Once their partnership was re-established, so was the FBI's requirement that they attend couples therapy.
"Sweets, I don't understand why we are in couples therapy when we are not a couple, we are partners …" she glanced sideways at Booth "and now that Booth has Hannah there is no supposed surrogate relationship keeping us …" her voice trailed off. Booth swallowed hard as he had his head turned to the right and was staring at corner of the room near the floor, his leg shaking slightly.
"Would you agree with that Agent Booth?" Sweets stared intently at Booth waiting for an answer.
Booth looked at him and then back to the spot he had been staring at. "Yeah Sweets, what Bones said." Booth turned and stared Sweets directly in the eye. "We are just partners." Even Brennan could hear the biting tone of his voice when he spat out the descriptor 'partners'.
"Dr. Brennan" Sweets turned his attention to her "Have you resumed dating since you have been back?"
Brennan fidgeted in her seat, glared at Sweets and pulled her lips into a tight line. "No". Booth turned his head enough that he could see her out of his peripheral vision. He creased his brow, he didn't know she hadn't been dating, she lied to him.
"Bones you lied to me. You told me you have been going out." He turned his body to face her.
She continued to stare at Sweets who was watching the partners closely. "I didn't lie. When I said I was going out to dinner, I did, just not with men. You made that assumption all on your own."
"You didn't correct me."
"I didn't know I was suppose to. You have your life with Hannah, we are only partners, and our private affairs don't involve each other any longer."
"Bones we are friends too." his eyes wide with worry that maybe she would not be his friend anymore.
She dipped her head and looked over at him briefly. "Then as friends, I know you would have worried and you should not be worried about me when you have Hannah." Booth pushed himself out of his chair and walked over and stared at the city below.
"Dr. Sweets, I think this session is finished."
"Dr. Brennan, we still have …"
"I am done with this session." She interrupted him and went to the door. She stopped and called over her shoulder. "Coming Booth?"
"Not yet Bones, I need some space."
Her shoulders visibly tensed. "Alright" she exited the room.
As she entered the elevator, a female about 40 walked in and stood beside her. As the doors closed this woman turned towards Brennan. "Dr. Brennan, I am Sharon Ellis, your presence is being requested in Hackers office."
"I am sorry am I suppose to know you?"
"No, however I know of you and Agent Booth and your success rate and that is why I am here today. I have one stop to make and then I will join you. Hacker secretary will not be at her desk, so you may go right on in. Agent Booth should be there."
After Brennan was out of sight, Sharon Ellis headed into Dr. Sweets office. "Well is there enough there? Can it work?"
Sweets stared at her for a long time before answering. "I think they can. If I was a betting man I would put my money on them pulling it off."
"Do you think they will agree to it?"
"That is where you might have a problem. Agent Booth has a girlfriend and you will basically be asking him to cheat, which is against his grain. But, if you can come up with a way to make it sound like he won't be …"
"He won't be cheating."
"He would be sleeping in a bed with someone other than Hannah. To Agent Booth that would be cheating."
"What about Brennan?"
"She can rationalize anything and when it comes to catching a murderer, she will do what she always does and put on her metaphoric mask and do what she needs to do." Sweets paused and sighed heavily, "however, doing this could break her, she still loves him although she denies that love exists."
As Brennan entered Hackers office she saw Booth sitting in a chair facing Hacker. "Temperance" Andrew smiled as he rose from his chair and rounded his desk to greet her with a kiss on the cheek.
"Hello Andrew." She swallowed hard and looked at Booth "Booth"
Booth jaw twitched as Hacker kissed Brennan's cheek. "Bones" he never looked at her just stared straight ahead.
"Please have a seat Temperance" he motioned towards the chair next to Booths. "We are waiting for one more person, who will explain why you were both called here today."
The silence in Hackers office was growing louder by the minute when the door finally opened and in walked Sharon Ellis. "Sorry to keep you waiting." She walked around Hackers desk and looked at Booth. She held out her hand "Agent Booth, I am Sharon Ellis."
"Nice to meet you ma'am." Booth stood and shook her hand and then retook his spot in the chair.
"Dr. Brennan I met on the elevator." Sharon nodded to her. "You are both probably wondering why you were called here?"
"It has crossed my mind." Booth smirked at her.
"Well then I will just get right to business." She was talking as she pulled out copies of a report and handed each of them one. She then pushed Hackers name and other items back and pushed herself up so she was sitting on Hackers desk facing both partners.
"As you can see we have a year old murder involving a couples retreat. We have sent agents in under the pretense of them taking one last shot to save their marriage. However, no team we sent in has been able to convince anyone they were an actual couple. Then I heard about you two." She looked between the two of them. "Tony and Roxie, Buck and Wanda."
"You want us to go to a couples retreat as … as a couple." Booth looked at this woman in disbelief.
"Yes, a couple that wants to strengthen their marriage."
"I don't believe in marriage." Brennan crossed her arms and sat back in her chair.
"You don't have to believe in it to play the part do you?" Sharon was staring at her. "All you have to do is pretend to love Agent Booth." Sharon eyed him up and down causing Booth to squirm a little. "Doesn't seem that it would be that hard, he is easy on the eyes."
"Booth has a girlfriend, I am sure she would not approve of him go off on a couples anything with anyone but her."
"Bones, Hannah is not like that, she understands my work."
"Are you saying you are okay with this?" She looked at him wide eyed.
"Bones, we have done it before, it is just acting." Booth knew that was a lie, secretly he hoped she came up with a good argument against going because he honestly didn't know if he could be that close to her and stay in control.
"Booth, we would be living together for …" she looked to Sharon to supply the answer
"Three months."
"Three months Booth. And you are sure Hannah would be fine with that?" Brennan was on the verge of panic inside. She could not live with Booth for three months as his wife knowing full well that she could not have him.
Sharon watched the pair and then turned and looked at Hacker. Sweets down played these two. They were head over heals in love with each other. So much in love it hurt to watch them. There was only one other couple she knew that was this intense and that was her and Stan. She shook her head to clear her mind as she continued to watch the tennis game going on in front of her.
She whistled to get their attention, two heads jerked her direction.
"Thank you. Are you always like this?"
"Yes" "No", they answered in unison. They turned annoyed looks on each other.
"Oh my God … umm … Okay, you two have a couple of days to look over the case and talk about it, think about it and let Hacker know your decision. If you decide to do this and you can behave that way at the retreat, there is no one and I mean no one that would make you as FBI."
