AN: You guys didn't think I WOULDN'T do a tag for this would you??
Gordon Gordon looked at Booth with a look of pure interest, his eyes narrowed as he smirked at Booth while he walked with him to his truck.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Booth asked, placing his hands in his pockets nervously as the psychiatric chef looked at him like a science experiment.
"I'm just reviewing through our conversations Agent Booth," Gordon Gordon said with an evil smile, as he swayed more when he walked, an obvious sign that he noticed something.
"Ok," Booth said quickly, turning on his heels and looking at the wise British man "What's up? You know something…"
"I don't necessarily know," Gordon Gordon said "Per say…it's just more of a realization, a revelation really."
"Well, what sort of epiphany has graced your mind while walking down a Washington street?" Booth asked, leaning against the cool metal of his car as his eyes met the triumphant ones of his Chef Shrink.
"Do you remember, what you said to me before Dr. Brennan came into the kitchen yesterday?" Gordon asked, his arms crossing over his chest as he watched Booth's eyes darken in what looked like fear.
"That she doesn't love me?" Booth asked.
"Why yes," Gordon said, tapping the air with his finger as he tilted his head to the side slightly "Well your word for word account was 'She doesn't love me. I would know if she loved me' but I can't help but think about something."
"I think I see where you're going and I don't like it," Booth said with a groan, scrubbing his face as he was faced with the daily struggle against his feelings for his gorgeous partner.
"Well, look at it this way. You said that things just weren't right. You couldn't shoot, you couldn't tell if someone was lying, you're backwards, upside down, and flipped inside out," Gordon said, reiterating his words with frantic hand motions.
"But," he said quickly, tapping the air again and stopping Booth's words while they still rested in his throat "How is it that you are certain you can't tell if she loves you?"
"Wha-what?" Booth asked "I'm sure I would know if she loved me. I could tell!"
"Repeat to me Agent Booth, what I said your problem was with your shooting," Gordon asked, still smiling triumphantly as he watched Booth start flinching nervously.
"That in my subconscious, I was trying to…protect…her," Booth finished, his head inclining in understanding.
"Ah," Gordon said with a smile "Now you get it. You know she is vulnerable, very vulnerable when it comes to Dr. Brennan's emotions, and I'm sure you of all people would say that love is probably the most important, destructive, passionate, hands down best emotion there is. Am I correct?"
"Yeah," Booth said, his eyes locked on his shoes "Yeah that's right," he whispered, before looking up to the smiling chef "So you're saying that…that, I'm ignoring any sort of nonprofessional feelings from her because I want to protect her?"
"Precisely," Gordon answered in a thick, logic filled tone "And every man's self doubt can be solved with a woman."
"So…what do you want me to do?" Booth asked quietly.
"Grow a set!"
*****
Booth sighed as he walked into the Jeffersonian, the lab cold and lifeless except for the thick ray of light that shot from Brennan's office, her figure bet over her desk, scribbling down notes as she looked between three different books and the paper under her hands.
"Hey Bones," Booth whispered, smiling and admiring how beautiful she looked, even when she looked exhausted.
"Hey Booth," she whispered "Good job on your marksmanship today."
Booth chuckled and stepped into her office, leaning his hip gingerly against the edge of her desk "Thanks, but I really should thank you. You were the one who…kept me focused."
Brennan looked up and smiled gently "Really?" she asked in a tired, but flattered tone.
"Yeah. Gordon Gordon told me that, I wasn't shooting right because I was scared of hurting you, and he told me to bring you because it would remind me that I'm doing all this to keep you safe," Booth explained, his heart fluttering as her face fell in a scared, but love struck cast.
"You know I don't take much stalk in psychology," Brennan answered with a laugh, closing the book that sat closet to his leg, and standing, pressing the large book to her chest as she walked across her office and deposited it on a shelf.
"But it worked," Booth whispered in a husky tone, grabbing her hand as she walked past him to sit back down "I thought of all of the threats that have been issued to you over the years, and remembered all of the people who wanted to hurt you, and my sheet got multiple shots to the heart."
Brennan's eyes drifted between his eyes and their joined hands, electricity poking up her spine as she felt a tingling sensation drift through her body.
"Gordon Gordon also told me something else," Booth whispered, his eyes black as he spoke, his voice thick with an emotional form of arousal, but hinted with fear. "Just now."
"What was that?" Brennan whispered breathlessly, her hand tightening around his in a form of encouragement.
"He told me, yesterday, that I couldn't do anything because I didn't want to assault the vulnerability you have, and he said that I couldn't properly read any sort of emotions coming from you…to me…because I was trying to protect you," he answered, running his thumb over her knuckles.
"E-emotions…from me to you? Li-like what?" Brennan asked.
"Well, overall I told him that you didn't love me, in a romantic sort of way, because I would know if you did, but he said that I know how destructive but fulfilling love can be, and that I didn't want to put you through any sort of pain…"
"Pain?" Brennan asked on a bitter laugh "What pain? It isn't pain anymore, its agonizing numbness."
His eyes widened as he took in her confession, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to form words on his tongue "Bones di-did you just-?"
She stepped in between his legs and wrapped her arms around his neck slowly, leaning down and capturing his lips in a passionate but short kiss, his hands tangled in her hair as she pulled back.
"Yes Booth, the insanity that you are going through, right now, isn't something you're suffering alone," she whispered.
"Bones," he whispered, resting his forehead against hers "I was born to protect you," he whispered "just say the word, and I'll take you from your pain, but you have to be ready for this, once this happens we can't turn back."
"Booth, we past the line of no return a few years ago," Brennan said seriously, her mouth curling in a smile before she continued "But, what is this word that you're talking about? I'll need to know it before I can say it."
Booth chuckled and stood up quickly, his arms wrapping around her torso and lifting her into the air, hugging her tightly and spinning her around before he set her on the ground and kissed her again, his mouth slanting against hers as their tongues clashed together deliciously.
"You said everything you needed to say," he whispered, before his arms circled around her back again, and ran into her hair.