Dr. Brennan meet Dr. Brennan

Chapter 4

By LizD

x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x

Tempe's Condo in Montreal

Brennan had gotten very little sleep. She never did like sleeping in a strange bed. That was not what kept her awake: there was work to be done. And of course the cat (whatever her name was) was locked out of the master bedroom and started scratching at Brennan's door around three just after Brennan had turned out the light to get some sleep.

Brennan had worked most of the evening after dinner on the case notes that Cam had sent. Booth of course had sent nothing - no surprise. She heard Tempe and Ryan come in just after midnight. They were trying to be quiet but the house - indeed the city was deadly still - not like Washington. Brennan didn't mind but put on her headphones to give them privacy. She actually liked Tempe and Ryan as a couple from the little she had seen of them together. Tempe could be a bit harsh with him and Ryan was a little too playful; he seemed to tease her to get a reaction. But if they found some measure of enjoyment in each other's company it was not Brennan's place to question it. She clearly was no model for interpersonal or romantic relationships.

Their sex made her envious. Brennan hadn't been sexually active in years and she had to question why. With the proper sexual partner she found the experience most exhilarating. Finding the proper partner had always been an issue. Some men wanted more of an emotional connection (like Sully) and others couldn't understand that she didn't (even if they didn't). There were still a few men she could contact when the mood struck her, but it hadn't in a while.

In the past year at least - before Maluku - Booth was definitely a factor in her choice of celibacy but she had yet to really appreciate why he would be. He wasn't an option (or so she had presumed). But yet, there was the book she wrote and deleted. It was certainly not standard fair for a Temperance Brennan novel. Her fans would have hated it, yet there was something enticing and terrifying about the couple she created in that story. It was total fantasy, a fantasy with real names, a fantasy that could blow up in her face and destroy the modicum of peace that she had made for herself, but a fantasy that she indulged on occasion - more often than she cared to admit. She missed those happily married club owners who were about to be parents but not enough to take a real risk with Booth when he suggested that they should take a chance. Instead she ran away, ran away to gain perspective.

While she was in Maluku her attitude had changed. She was willing to put her fears aside. She had come to realize that more could be lost by not risking. Of course now it was completely moot. Booth had moved on and there was no going back regardless of his relationship with Hannah. Whether it worked out or fizzled as so many relationships do, there was no going back for Booth and Brennan. Now the partnership was in jeopardy. Her biggest issue had been trust, and he broke her trust. He implied that he loved her, had loved her from the beginning, yet he had denied it and ignored it for six years - five of which they were partnered. When he final spoke his feelings and was denied not because she didn't love him, but because she did - he moved on. Like throwing a light switch, he moved on – wholly and completely. He didn't look at her they way he used to. He didn't talk to her the way he used to. She didn't fault him. He asked, she said no, he moved on. It was really rather pragmatic of him. He needed more, he needed love in his life and he went out and found it. Sadly he moved on from the partnership as well, if not technically, emotionally. Her only request was that they continue to work together, he agreed, but his heart wasn't into it any more. Yes, she was the one who decided on Maluku, but he came back from Afghanistan a different man with Hannah in tow. It was becoming clear to Brennan, that his 'take a chance' request was more of an ultimatum. Her 'no' lost her everything.

Evolution - it's a law.

x=o=x=o=x=o=x

Brennan got up around five-thirty, found her way to the kitchen, the coffee and the cat food. Birdie was happy. Ryan slipped out of the bedroom shortly before six. He was trying to sneak out. He didn't make it.

"Good morning, Detective Ryan," Brennan called to him as he tiptoed past the kitchen.

He grinned like a teenager. "Didn't want to wake you," he said in a hushed tone.

"I didn't sleep much last night," she nodded to the coffee pot. "But neither did you."

Ryan liked Brennan. He couldn't help it. He liked women who spoke their mind, didn't play games. He also liked that he couldn't charm her. Taking a much needed sip of coffee, "Mmmmm," he swallowed. "Where there's one more difference between you and Tempe. She can't make coffee to save her soul - but don't tell her I said that."

"The filter needed cleaning," Brennan said matter-of-factly still keeping her eyes on her monitor. "Thank you for dinner last night."

"You barely ate." He stood behind her looking at her screen.

"I'm a vegetarian."

"Well the Irish aren't known for their vegetarian cuisine." He leaned down to get a better look. "Is that one of our bodies?"

Brennan was reviewing an X-ray that Cam had sent. "No, this is from a case in Washington."

He pointed to the screen. "That's not a gunshot wound."

"No, it's not." She expanded the image to show that there was an entry and an exit. "But it is a projectile of some sort, Detective."

"Please ... I'm half dressed and you probably heard some things last night that are typically reserved for the most intimate of friends, call me Andy, OK?"

"OK."

He pulled on his shirt and sat down at the table with his coffee caddy corner from Brennan. "So you really want to go out to the dump site?"

Brennan cringed. She had always hated that expression. It implied that the body, the remains, the victim, that person whose life had been wasted was garbage. She appreciated that cops needed to deal in their own way, but it still unnerved her. "I was under the impression that they were buried."

"Buried, yes ... but no caskets, no head stones, no markers and less than three feet down. This burial wasn't presided over by God."

Brennan was again about to open her mouth to discuss the various burial rituals of various cultures but decided to keep it to herself. "Still, I would like to go out there. Do you have any idea where there women were killed?"

"So you have decided it was murder, not some disease or famine or some other natural disaster."

"It is my opinion that these women did not meet a natural end, but their life was not easy either: malnutrition, dehydration, little or no medical or dental care."

"Sounds like a cult."

"I can't determine that from the remains. But these women do have something else in common. I will know more when we get the DNA results back from the Jeffersonian."

"You sent the tests to Washington?"

"Purely for expediency."

"Right," he smiled. Everyone likes to play in their own backyard. "Tempe will be asleep for hours yet. We could take a ride out there and be back at the lab by eleven."

"Would she be OK with that?"

He nodded. "We'll leave a note. Come on. I'll buy you the best croissant breakfast sandwich you've ever had - vegetarian is their specialty."

"Tempe mentioned that you take great interest in her diet."

Ryan shrugged. "Someone has to take care of her."

x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x

Booth was at Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale for the province of Quebec at little after ten in the morning. His plane was on time, but he got lost on the way to the hotel. He hated the French, their language and their road signs. It was Canada for God's sake, not Paris … speaka-the-English.

He marched up to the security guard and flashed his FBI badge. "Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI, USA, looking for Dr. Temperance Brennan."

The guards were un-phased by his badge or his command attitude. "Is Dr. Brennan expecting you?"

"She will see me."

One guard looked at the other and nodded. The other guard picked up the phone and called. "Dr. LaManche, there is an FBI agent down here to speak with Dr. Brennan … yes, sir ... yes, sir … thank you." He hung up and glanced at his mate before fixing Booth with a glare. "Dr. LaManche will be down in a moment. Please wait over there."

Booth moved away reluctantly. So the colleague was Dr. LaManche; the one that Bones found interesting enough to leave him for. He probably spoke French. Booth couldn't sit patiently so he paced. About thirty minutes later, an older man (in his sixties) dressed in a lab coat approached Booth.

"Agent Booth?" he said in heavily accented English. "I am Dr. LaManche, Dr. Brennan's … how you say? … her boss."

"Boss?" Booth was shocked. Not a lover but a boss? Bones had taken a job in Quebec. What the hell? "Well I'm her partner," Booth stated.

"I do not know much of her exploits when she is not in Québec." He stepped back. "Please, if you will follow me. Dr. Brennan is in the morgue."

Booth took an audible gasp.

"Sorry," LaManche corrected. "She is working in the morgue." He pushed the button for the elevator. "You are not squeamish at the sight of dead bodies, are you, Mousier Booth."

"No." Booth had about a thousand questions, but would let Bones answer them. Except one: "She works here?"

"Oh yes. We are most grateful to have her if only part time."

x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x

Brennan and Ryan were on their way back to the LSJML. It was productive out at the burial site. Tempe had called and reminded Brennan that they needed more soil samples. Brennan was able to find what they needed and discovered what she thought were tire tracks made in the mud and then frozen over. In such a remote location it was reasonable to think they were made by the person burying the women. Ryan was going to get his crime scene unit back out there (after ripping them a new one for missing as much as they did the first time). Ryan really didn't like going to a crime scene without a forensic expert.

On their way back Brennan received several calls but none were able to be completed due to the remoteness of the location. Two at least were from Booth. Brennan was actually getting annoyed at his persistence.

"Partners can be very trying at times," Ryan said after she put her phone away.

"The partnership is changing and we are…" She was about to say 'feeling each other up' again but knew that was wrong but couldn't remember what Booth had corrected the expression to.

"You don't have to explain. While I have never had a female partner, I can appreciate that sex or lack of sex can complicate any relationship … even a partnership."

Brennan was puzzled. "Booth has a habit of saying things to shock a suspect to get him or her to reveal something that they wouldn't normally reveal."

Ryan laughed. "You caught me. Sorry, another bad habit. I have a few."

Brennan turned back toward the road. She looked miserable.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm a pretty good listener too." Ryan smiled warmly at her.

"It's not really any of your concern, is it?"

"No," he said honestly. "But I can still listen, and I'm very good at keeping confidences."

Brennan nodded.

"It's just that I see something that is bothering you."

Brennan nodded again.

"Would you feel more comfortable if I shared something personal about myself?"

"Booth has suggested that that is how trust is built."

"Can't argue with him there." Ryan gave her a quick glance. "I'm in love with Tempe …have been for years … I haven't told her that, of course."

"Why not?"

"She's not ready to hear it."

"Do all men make the same assumption about women, or is it just the fear of being rejected that prevents them from being honest?"

"Are you really asking me?"

"Yes, I'm asking." She was at her deadpan seriousness.

"Fear of rejection is high on the list. But higher on the list is speaking too soon." He glanced at her again. "Too soon can ruin everything."

"But if it's truly love, shouldn't it withstand bad timing."

Ryan laughed. "You would think so, wouldn't you? But women get funny ideas in their head. They think too much."

"That is a grand generalization."

"Maybe, but true to my experience."

"If you had expressed your feelings to Tempe, and she said no, would you," Brennan swallowed hard. "Would you move on?"

Ryan thought for a moment. The situation she proposed was not unfamiliar to him. "I suppose I would have to eventually or risk looking like a jerk chasing around after someone who doesn't want me."

"Eventually."

"Yeah, might even go so far as to pick up with someone else to prove that I was over her." He wiped a hand over his face. "Been there, done that."

"Excuse me?"

"I took up with a woman I used to know a long time ago – the mother of a child I didn't know I had for twenty plus years." He stopped and gave her a sidelong look. "Tempe didn't tell you this?"

"She told me that you were in an on-again/off-again relationship but not the details."

"Well," Ryan continued. "I reconciled with this woman for my daughter's sake and it effectively ended whatever Tempe and I had going on - which was tentative at best. Part of my motivation was to let Tempe know that I had options, that she couldn't keep me waiting forever."

"What happened?"

"It was five months of hell, and I went crawling back to Tempe begging for another chance."

"And you think that proves you love her?"

"Don't have to prove it. I know what I feel when I'm with her and without her. But Tempe does not forgive easily. So you see if I told her now that I loved her, she would run for the hills. We need to rebuild the trust."

Brennan shook her head. "It's a game."

Ryan laughed out loud. "It's a war with no winners."

"Then it's pointless."

"Not at all. It's the only thing worth fighting for."

Brennan considered his statement but didn't know if she could agree with him. "If Tempe had told you to break up with your daughter's mother, would you have done it?"

"In a heartbeat."

Brennan turned to look out the window.

He waited a long moment and didn't speak until she knew she wasn't going to. "So, your partner has someone new in his life?"

Brennan turned back to him. "Are you guessing again?"

Ryan shrugged a nod.

"You are very good at your job, Detective Ryan." Brennan fixed her eyes on the road. She was done talking. Ryan had his answer and didn't need to pursue it any more.

x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x

Booth was shown into the morgue. There was a woman dressed in scrubs with a mask leaning over a set of remains. It wasn't Bones. She was blonde and very thin. She did not look up when he entered. Booth waited for a long moment and shifted his position often to get her attention.

"I'm sorry Agent Booth," she said through her mask. "I will be right with you."

"I was told that Dr. Brennan would be in here."

She stood up, pulled her mask free revealing her face and slight smile. She was about fifteen years older than Bones but the same blue eyes. "Yes, I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan, may I help you?"

Booth was speechless.

"Are you alright Agent Booth? May I get you a glass of water? Would you like to sit down?"

"I don't understand."

Tempe laughed. "I'm sorry." She pulled off her gloves. "I couldn't help myself. I realize that I am not the Temperance Brennan you were looking for – your partner - but my name is Temperance Brennan. The one you are looking for is on her way back from the burial site with Detective Ryan. She should be here in an hour."

Booth still shook his head and sunk into a nearby chair.

"Yes, Mr. Booth. There are two of us." Her grin widened. She didn't know why, but felt that giving him that little shock was necessary.

x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x=o=x

A/N: Thanks for reading. Comments are nice.