A/N: Booth again. He just came to me when I was trying to think of something for this line.

For a moment there...

Seeley Booth liked being an FBI agent. Not just for the cars or the guns or the exciting cases, but because at the end of the day there was something uniquely satisfying about catching the bad guy in the name of truth, justice and the American way. One of the few things Booth disliked about the Bureau was all the legal mumbo-jumbo that was required: warrants and trials and appeals, on and on and on. Why couldn't they just be allowed to catch the bad guy?!

These sorts of thoughts occurred mostly on nights like this one when it was cold and rainy and Bones had insisted on listening to her station on the radio, even though it was his turn to pick. And she couldn't listen to the Dead or even some jazz. No, she had to listen to the most blaring, annoying rap station their radio could pick up.

He turned it off. "We're on a stake out here, Bones. We're supposed to be sneaky."

"Okay," she answered quietly. It was the demureness, the absentness and the general un-Bonesness of her reply that made him look at her. She was staring fixedly out into the gloomy mist. He kicked himself for not remembering sooner. He might hate Jason Bassel, might think he was a terrible inhumane bastard, but Brennan wanted to see him fry. They had a lot of evidence pointing to his being a serial murderer of foster children and every time anything related to foster care came up in a case, Brennan got itchy. She might not like psychology, but she was a regular goldmine.

They had waited another quarter of an hour before Booth decided that Bassel was not going to come back soon. He opened his door and walked to the house with Brennan following behind. They walked over to the front windows. Booth decided that even without a warrant, they could always look into the house. You never knew what little things you could find that could help you later on in a case. It was only when they had reached the windows and Booth had rubbed a hole in the condensation on it that they realized that the blinds were drawn. Booth shrugged and led the way around to the side, where they found the curtains drawn as well. By the time they got to the back windows, Booth was not surprised. But he turned his head as his partner growled low in her throat and dug into her pocket. He couldn't see what she was getting out, but once she stuck something in the door and jiggled, it became clear.

"Bones, what are you doing?! Law, remember? We're supposed to follow the protocols, which means no breaking and entering."

She grunted softly and ignored him. The lock clicked and she kicked the door open. She glanced back at him over her shoulder and for one moment, she didn't look like the rule abiding, justice serving Bones he knew. For one frozen piece of time, he looked into her serious, angry eyes and saw her father in her face: breaking rules to do what he thought was right.

Her voice was low and intense when she spoke. "We can waste time with a warrant or we can go get some evidence that might help us catch this worthless, murdering bastard."

An hour later they were sitting silently in the car, Booth white-knuckling the steering wheel while Brennan stared out the window again. Finally Booth broke the silence.

"You okay?"

"Yes," she responded automatically, then reevaluated. "No. I don't know what happened in there, Booth. I just thought of all those kids he's hurt and I didn't care that what I was doing was wrong. I broke the law, Booth. You have to arrest me." Her voice sounded lost and slightly dazed.

"No, I don't," he said, talking over her contradiction. "You were doing what was right. You had a momentary weakness because you're human and that's what happens. You might not have known those kids, but you knew that you have to put their murderer in jail."

"Usually I 'know' things from something I can see and touch and examine. But this was...I don't deal well with emotion."

He decided that a snorting "ya think?" would not be appropriate. Instead he put a hand on her arm as he slid into a parking space in front of the lab. "You're just a person, Bones. And that's okay." He squeezed her arm and tried to diffuse the tension. "This doesn't mean that you can break and enter whenever you want, though."

She took a deep breath. Her voice was a little choked up but she had a tiny smile quirking her mouth."Thanks Booth." She kissed him on the cheek, stepped out of the car and jogged up the Jeffersonian's steps.

Booth watched her as she entered the glass doors. Then he groaned and rested his head on the steering wheel. That was another FBI rule he disliked: don't get involved with your partner.