Bones walked into my office and let the door bang closed behind her, drawing curious glances from nearly everyone on my end of the hallway. Not that we didn't always draw curious glances when she visited my office, but the slamming door had them clearly amused.

"I got your message. Was that code for something, because you are not seriously trying to set me up on a blind date." She was standing near the closed door, with her hands on her hips. To anyone else she would just look pissed off at the intrusion into her personal life, but I could tell she was thrown. She did not know what to make of the departure from our regular routine of her volunteering too much information regarding her after hours activities, and me cringing at any and all mention of it.

She didn't phrase it as a question, but I pretended not to notice. "I am. Griffin is a great guy. We have been friends since we were kids. He and his daughter have moved around a lot since he lost his wife a few years ago, but he decided to settle here in DC after he was offered a job downstairs in the forensics lab."

"Give me one good reason why you think this is a good idea." I was relieved when she sat down in one of the chairs facing my desk.

"Come on, Bones. I'll give you two reasons just off the top of my head. One. You need to get out more. Two. Griffin needs to get out more." I thought to myself that this is going better than I expected. She was looking at me like she might actually be considering it.

"What about you? When was the last time you 'got out'? We should make it a threesome."

Maybe this wasn't going so well after all. She always pulls out the sexual innuendo when she's trying to win an argument. "Sorry, Bones. I don't think that's his thing. What do you say?" The thing is, I couldn't quite tell if we were arguing about this yet. She didn't look angry. She looked resigned, or bored, like she might actually agree just to make me stop talking about it. Or maybe she just wasn't taking my request all that seriously.

"I don't need you recommending me to your friends like I am some recipe that you tried and just had to share."

Maybe it wasn't going so well after all. It's always a bad sign when she starts speaking to me metaphorically. I was trying to ignore her patient, condescending attitude. I was doing her a favor, doing us both a favor. She just didn't realize it.

"It's just dinner, with somebody I know is trustworthy, respectful and responsible."

"Somebody like you? That is a very vain assumption on your part that I would want to become involved with somebody with qualities similar to your own."

She looked me right in the eyes when she dropped that one on me, and didn't bother to look away. "Somebody safe that you can spend an evening with and not have to worry about misguided intentions, or consequences, or breaking rules...." I never let my eyes slip away from hers, but I had to remind myself to start breathing again while I waited to see how she would respond.

"That's very considerate of you." Her tone was laced with sarcasm. It was several seconds before she stood up, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked down at me and raised her eyebrows, keeping her features an unreadable mask. "Fine."

"Fine?" This was an unexpected turn of events. Her face definitely didn't say fine. Her body language didn't say fine. I was beginning to have doubts about whether I really thought it was fine.

"Fine. Set it up. Give him my number."

Now was not the best time to realize that I had changed my mind. I spent fifteen minutes convincing her it was a good idea, and it took me less than a second to realize it was a mistake. "Are you sure?"

"That's what you want, right? I will defer to you on this one. You have noted frequently how poor my judgement is regarding the men I choose to be with. Maybe I will have better luck this way. Sully was your friend, and objectively, I would say we were very good together."

She put her hands on the edge of my desk, and leaned toward me while I was still considering the implications of what I had set in motion. What was I thinking? I know my reasons were good, solid ones, but all I could think about was how she was looking at me like I was betraying her in some way, and I was sure that I would be analyzing that for many hours after she walked out of my office.

She must have realized that I was not planning on responding, so she went on. "Just one more thing. What if it turns out to be more than just dinner, or more than just one evening? Are you OK with that?"

I am definitely not OK with that. An old conversation about take backs and changies came to mind, and I just stared after her. I was not prepared to face that eventuality, even though it was, technically, my original intent, to get her involved in a relationship where she could be happy and safe. This would force me to forget about any muddled ideas I may have had about our relationship being more than just friendship. I will be the first to admit I was being hasty in putting this plan into action.

I was already contemplating how much of her I would be truly willing to share, if I was being completely honest with myself. How many pieces of her would I want to keep all to myself, and which of those pieces was I giving Griffin a chance to take away from me.

..........

A/N: I know you are all saying, WTH? He wouldn't do that. Ha! He just did. Evil, I know, but I will make it better. I promise. Or maybe I won't. You won't know if you don't review and let me know how much you disapprove.