Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Booth clicked off his phone. Bones had been brief and she sounded tired. She said she would speak to him the next day. He really wished he had somehow found a way of going with her. It seemed that she had only just forgiven him for his "death" and started processing Zach's betrayal when she had decided to go for her trip across the pond to visit "the men in skirts", as he had put it.

He had first suggested that he should accompany her to insure her safety; he had heard many times that Glasgow was infamous for the high level of knife crime in the city. At that she had scoffed, of course, reminding him that she had been to far more dangerous places than that and that most cities in the US probably had higher crime rates than Glasgow anyway. After several more attempts he had had to accept that she was going on this trip alone. He had at least agreed on one thing with her; he would be bored to tears hanging out with other squints talking about anthropologically this and anthropologically that. And it would have been a shame to use some his holidays to spend time in the rain and cold. Still he was glad she had accepted his offer of a lift to the airport and he was even happier that she had seem a little sad at letting go of him after their good-bye hug. Or was it just wishful thinking?

He pocketed his phone and tried to concentrate on the mountain of paperwork that was tittering on the edge of his desk. He would really get in trouble if he didn't get that done and since there were no cases to work on at the moment, he might as well use the time to get it finished. His mind kept going back to the last few weeks though. He had thought Bones would never forgive him for not telling her that he wasn't in fact dead. She had even broken into his house, his bathroom… He winced at the thought of that incident, how he had stood up in the heat of the moment forgetting he was completely naked. They had never talked about it afterward, even Sweets had known better than to bring it up in their subsequent sessions. Still he was convinced that just for a second she had looked down and he wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Despite this though, they had grown closer after Zach's arrest, and now she seemed to trust him again completely. She had even invited him one evening to spend some time with her and her family. He knew she still couldn't think about Zach without crying but she had seemed ready to start moving on. She hadn't pretended no to hear when Cam had suggested they started to look for someone to fill in his position. He knew that Bones had relied on him more than ever during that time and he had been surprised that she had allowed herself to accept his support.

She had changed so much since they had first met and he was glad that he was at least in part responsible for her opening to the world around her. He also knew that everyday that damn line, his line, was getting blurrier. He couldn't deny that his hands always found ways to touch her even briefly, nor could he be oblivious to the fact that she was now leaning into his touch a little more each time. And then, recently in those dark moments where he knew she was thinking about Zach, they had hugged; and these were most definitely not guy hugs because he sure as hell didn't hug any of his buddies like that. The hugs had been tighter and longer and it always felt like neither of them wanted to let go. Maybe it was better that she had gone away for a bit. It would allow them to find their own space again. Because he knew that there was only so much he could take before he decided to send that damn line to hell, screw the consequences and kiss her, and he just wasn't sure what her reaction would be to that. With her there was no telling. He could read bad guys, he could sense the most obscure motivations in the least cooperating suspect but he could rarely decipher what went on in that brain of hers.

He checked his watch again. Only 10 o'clock. God this was going to be a long day! It was going to be a long two weeks if he couldn't stop thinking about her the whole time she was gone! At least the friend she was meeting was married…he told himself and started writing another report. This had been another one of his reasons for wanting to go with her at first. He had felt a slight pang of jealousy after she had announced her intentions of meeting up with an old friend. He thought about that slimy Michael who had used her to make himself feel better and he couldn't bear the thought of some other nerdy, tweed-wearing academic treating like that again…