Seven days, that is all it took for her to break in such an undeniable fashion there was no more doubt in her mind. She was damaged goods. For no rationally explainable reason she shattered without reason or cause. The walls were falling quickly and soon all she would be left with was a mound of rubble and a broken heart.
"Dr. Brennan…" The young man before her pleaded, "We need to discuss your sudden outburst at the crime scene today."
Her eyes flicked up and quickly narrowed at the young psychologist. Sure, she had agreed to a single session but never had she agreed to actually talking about what had happened, just to sit.
"Agent Booth… he believes your sudden shift in demeanor will have an adverse affect on your partnership." He quickly finished, scrawling slowly on in his notebook.
Her eyes narrowed further into unrecognizable slits, knowing her partner would never discuss the inner workings of the partnership with such a feeble imbecile. If he was going to use this lying tactic she knew this session would be shorter than she had predicted. Maybe if she played her cards right she would be able to get out of the Hoover before Booth came out of his meeting, leaving her partner none the wiser of her grave choice.
"He may not have actually told me…" He slowly confessed, flinching at the ghostly stare penetrating every inch of his skin, "but I assure you locking yourself in the SUV and refusing to come out is both childish and…"
"Sweets…" Brennan hissed, "I am not a child." She barked as she stood, "I am older than you!"
"I am not calling you a child, Dr. Brennan" He clarified, holding his hand up to stop her hurried movements, "but sometimes when our emotions get the better of us we tend to act in childish manners. We ourselves are not children but our actions do not convey our adult mentality."
"I am not…" She growled, clearly unhappy with his correct assumptions.
Locking herself in the SUV and refusing to even look at her partner was childish. After all, all he had done was told her she looked beautiful that morning, Noting more than a friendly intercourse between two partners. He was being a gentleman. He had meant nothing by it. She had convinced herself of this fact for the last five years but the stark, desperately needing that dripped from every salable told a much different story.
His body had craved her touch as much as she had. Yet he had not given in to his desire in seven long, damn near haunting nights. For seven long nights insomnia had penetrated her from dusk till dawn but did he care? No. He just went along as if he hadn't felt it too. That the dark pools under his eyes and the constant coffee cups at his side were not any indication of his suffering, that he had the same desperate need to be one before any chance of a dream state was even thought of being feasible.
"So you are saying you are not ashamed by your actions?" He courageously prodded, "If I was to tell your co-workers of your actions this morning… you are telling me…"
"Stop!" She yelled in defeat, "You assured me during our first session…" He words were soft and vulnerable, much more than she had ever meant them to be, "that this is a room of complete confidentiality. I hope… know you need to respect that."
"That I do, Dr. Brennan." He nodded, "In this state of confidentiality, is there anything you would like to confess to?"
"No."
"So your…" With a glance down at his notes Sweets smiled smugly, "refusal of your partner's assistance in retrieving you from the locked vehicle has nothing to do with unresolved trust issues?"
"I trust Booth, Sweets." She spoke earnestly, "Since you do not have a partner, I assure you that you are incapable of understanding our deep affecti- trust in each other. Partners have to trust each other. They just do."
"So you trust him?"
"Explicably."
"You trust him with your deep dark secrets?"
With an easy nod, Brennan's eyes glanced up but soon fell.
"With things you believe could even harm… or break your partnership, you trust him enough to be that honest with him?"
"It's a rule." She hissed in utter defiance, refusing to give in and admit it out loud.
"And this… rule is written down somewhere I can retrieve it for research on partners?"
Leaning back into the chair, Brennan sighed. There was once a time when the only things she had believed in could be proved by scientific research and countless accredited authors but this rule only had one author. Booth. Somehow his rules of partners and life had found a way through her scientific facts, nestling deep in her undeniable truths.
"If you look through the countless literature…"
"So you can point me to your reference?" He cut in, refusing to let her lecture her way out of this, "You assure me there are many studies on this rule… Dr. Brennan have you actually read any of them?"
There Dr. Brennan sat wide-eyed and highly annoyed. There may have been many occasions in this very room she had admitted many things she would have rather not said but now she knew his tricks. He was not going to get her to admit her true rational. Not now, not ever. She may know she loves her partner but there was no way she was going to admit it… out loud… to a child.
"Sweets, I find this-" She stood as she began to turn toward the door.
"Bones!" Booth yelped in surprise as he barged through the shut door and ran right into his partner.
The partners' bodies planed across the loveseat as silence fell sharply over the small room. Smiling Sweets watched as the two ridged figures before him tried desperately to untangle without touching the other. As the rough ground against the soft, their eyes locked briefly before closing in devoted passion. Collapsing against the furniture in defeat, a slight shudder trailed down her body as his body slowly slid away.
"I… I'm sorry…" Booth stuttered as he steadied himself against the door. "The husband just came in and I know how much you like to belittle the suspects with your intellect." Beaming widely he gazed longingly at the soft smile around her lips. "I just-"
"Which integration room?" Brennan shot up and in a flash all that was left was the soft slamming of his office door.
With a knowing smile, Sweets slowly ripped up his doodles before placing the papers in the shredder. It was clear even to their lowly physiologist that their relationship had definitively changed. He knew there would be bumps in the road for the 'partners' but the answers he had long sought after were written on the woman's face the second she sat down before him.
She knew loved him more than her rational crutch, it was clear as day, the question now was… did she know how big this realization truly was?
