The next morning……

"Heya, Bones" Booth settled into the seat across from her, "Thanks for ordering coffee for me."

"You're late" she eyed him suspiciously.

"Oh, yeah, well…"

Booth's eyes shifted to look out the window, and Brennan frowned.

"Did you have sex last night?"

Booth's eyes met hers. 'What?" he chuckled.

"You're looking around like you are suspicious of something" she lifted her mug to her lips, "It's rather furtive, Booth."

"I…no…, Bones." He shook his head and motioned for the waitress to come over.

"I'll have pancakes" he tapped the menu against the table. "What about you Bones, anything?"

She shook her head. "No thank you. I am quite full from the granola I had this morning at my apartment."

Booth's lip curled and he looked at the waitress. "Extra syrup". He forced a smile and then turned to tilt his head toward his partner. "Anything interesting, there?" he pointed to her newspaper.

"Not really, I was just waiting for you. Which brings me to my first question. Why were you late?"

"Don't recall there being a question" Booth joked and took the sports section from her newspaper."

She huffed. "Well, now there is. What took you so long?"

Booth looked around again and sighed. "Fine…my brother came over to my house last night."

Brennan's eyelids lowered for a second. "Oh?"

Booth watched her face for any indication of emotion, but finding none, he casually leaned back, "Yeah. And uh…he's going to be staying with me for awhile."

Her eyes widened and met his then. "Why?"

"Because, Bones, and don't look so disgusted. He's my brother, by the way."

"Yes, but…" She paused, not sure how much Booth knew, "Well, anyways…for how long?"

Booth smiled as his pancakes were laid in front of him. He picked up the syrup bottle and drizzled it over them before cutting a triangle shaped layer with his fork. He speared it, then brought it up to his mouth. Hoping she'd forgotten her question, he chanced a look, but no, of course not, there she was watching him, one eyebrow raised in expectation. He put the bite in and chewed it, then cut another one. "Well, I guess we've both got a couple of things to figure out" he conceded.

"We do?"

"No, Bones…I meant. I meant me, and Jared. So…until we get it straightened out" he took another bite, "he's going to be staying with me."

Brennan pulled her upper lip between her teeth. "I see."

Booth didn't elaborate, though, just turned back to his newspaper and pancakes.

"What do you need figured out?" she asked

"Hmm? What's that, Bones?"

"Booth…" she leaned closer to him and pushed the newspaper down to the table. "What do you need to figure out? Maybe I can help you."

His eyes met hers and softened, "I wish I could tell you, Bones, but for now…" he took the newspaper back and folded it up, setting it aside. "For now, let's just say it's something between brothers."

"Why do you always say that?" she frowned.

"What?" Booth chuckled. "When have I ever said that?"

Brennan remembered it was actually Jared who'd said that to her. And that had been about something non-good for Booth related. But she didn't really want to reveal that conversation she'd had with Jared.

Booth could tell she was thinking about something, but honestly, he wasn't sure he wanted to continue this conversation, so he didn't ask her thoughts. Instead he focused on his pancakes. They were pretty safe. Pancakes were safe.

"Tell me something good about your brother."

Ookay…choking on pancakes wasn't safe. And as Booth coughed a bit, then swallowed back some coffee, he looked at her in shock. "What?"

She bit the inside of her cheek and shrugged a shoulder. "I…I find I don't much care for your brother, at all. But, it sounds like he's going to be around, so maybe you should improve my outlook of him, and tell me something good about him. Or a good memory you have."

Booth leaned back in his chair and looked at her.

Nervously, she smoothed her hair behind her ear and looked out the window. "Forget it. I'm sorry. Obviously, you meant it when you said it was between brothers, and I intruded." She looked at him, "I'm sorry."

Booth was so ready to just tell her then and there that he loved her. He loved her.

But he didn't.

"Come on, Bones. Finish your coffee" he set his pancakes aside and stood. "And we'll go for a walk. And I'll tell you a story, okay?"

Brennan looked up at his face. He seemed sincere, and his hand was outstretched toward her. She ignored that and stood on her own, reaching for her purse to lay out some bills. "I'll pay today."

Booth didn't argue, just helped her into her jacket.

"Thanks" they said in unison.

Booth swallowed, then tilted his head toward the door. "Ready?"

Brennan nodded. "Ready."

"Oh, wait" Booth paused outside the diner, "how was New York?"

Brennan nodded. "It was enjoyable. Angela managed to completely convince me to…wait, are you changing the subject?" she tilted her head in suspicion.

Booth held up his hands in innocence. "No," he smiled, "I was just trying to make conversation."

"Okay" she nodded and kept walking. "It was fun, but tell me your story."

Booth laughed and took a hold of her elbow, bringing them to stand near a bench, "When I was younger, about seven," he smiled and sat down, inviting her to join him, "And my brother was about five, we would pretend to be one another. Sort of."

"How sort of?"

Booth chuckled and leaned his elbows on his knees. "I guess not each other, well, we sort of did. To annoy people. They would come to visit my mother, or whatever, and say "Oh, Seeley Booth, you are so handsome"

Brennan chuckled, and Booth looked at her in mock offense.

"They did, Bones."

"I'm sure they did. Keep going." She smiled.

"Anyways, I would say something like 'I'm not Seeley. I'm Jared' or whatever, and J would go along with it, and say he was me. And sometimes we would tell each other what to say, and the other one would hide in the hallway, or something. We called it 'The Booth Switch", which wasn't that creative, but at least we'd get the church ladies all in a dither or whatever. It was fun."

"A dither?" she mocked.

Booth groaned and leaned back. "You know what I mean, Bones." He shook his head. "Why do you have to ruin every story?"

She frowned and looked away, "I wasn't ruining it." She stood. "I was just enjoying it."

Booth gritted his teeth and lunged after her. "Bones, I'm sorry. You're right. I was being too sensitlve."

He'd pulled her back, and her balance had shifted, and she'd ended up sprawled on his lap. "I'm sorry, Bones" he repeated, "But you gotta admit, this is new for us."

Brennan wondered whether he was talking about discussing his childhood or… this. But all these growing feelings she'd been experiencing in relation to her physical nearness to Booth were confusing. And upsetting. Because while they seemed to be back on track, he didn't know everything about her date with Jared. At least, she didn't think he did.

She didn't think he knew about the kiss or the way she'd danced with him, closely. But physical proximity was relative. And a kiss, while enjoyable, could mean less than the promise of one.

"Bones…" he whispered, and his hand tightened against her spine.

What was she doing? This was Booth.

"I, uh…" she stood up and brushed off her pant legs. "Thank you for telling me that anecdote. It was enjoyable."

Booth let his hands come back to rest on his knees. "Yeah, Bones. You're welcome." He watched as she looked around, and he sighed. "You go on ahead to work. I'm going to walk a bit more. Gotta get some exercise" he joked and she nodded.

"Okay. I'll talk to you later, I guess."

"Sure, Bones." He waved slightly as she walked away. Waiting until she was outside of hearing distance he opened his phone.

"Booth"

Booth chuckled. "No, this is Booth."

"Seeley, what's up?" Jared asked.

Booth ran his tongue against his teeth and looked around. "Okay, yeah. I need help."