Seeeeeee, I told you I don't update that quickly all the time. Eep. But yay reviews!! Thanks and enjoy.


Far sooner than she would have liked, Brennan found herself back on that black leather couch facing the young man who had wormed himself into her and Booth's lives. This time, she was alone. In addition, she was not particularly happy. Her fingernails picked at the cardboard heat protector that encased her Starbucks cup. The latte was long gone, but she held onto the cup anyway, trying to keep her hands occupied when she knew they could be far more useful in the lab this morning. Her eyes drifted around the office, waiting for Sweets to speak. At the moment, the therapist was seated in his usual place opposite her, his fingers steepled together in front of his face.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, Dr. Brennan," he said, breaking the silence. "It was just a tactic."

"Not a very good one," she replied honestly.

"I was just trying to give you options on how to release your thoughts."

"By having me draw pictures…" she narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"Okay, clearly it was not the right choice," he said quickly, dropping his hands into his lap and scooting forward in his chair. Brennan shrugged a shoulder.

"Maybe if I was ten."

Sweets gave her what bordered on a withering look. Much as she frustrated him sometimes, it was still not his place to insult her.

"Thank you," he said dryly.

"No, I'm only saying that had I been a young child, I'm sure your tactic would have worked very well," Brennan made a quick attempt at being reassuring. "It's just that… I'm not."

Although there are times… Sweets thought to himself. He cleared his throat and reached for his tie, loosening it and collecting his thoughts. The trouble with working with one of the world's finest minds was that it took all his effort and training to ask the right questions in order to coax the right answers. Dr. Brennan was very good at dodging his insights. Whether she meant to or not was something he had yet to determine.

"Right," he said, deciding to try a more direct approach. "So I understand that Agent Booth left for a case yesterday."

"Yes, he did."

Silence followed her words as Sweets waited to see if she would volunteer any information on what was bound to be a sore subject. Her eyes remained calmly locked with his, her hands still laced around the coffee cup.

"And how are you dealing with that?" he asked her point blank. Her brow furrowed only slightly.

"Well… he's gone," she said slowly, as though she were trying to explain the situation to a child. "So currently I'm waiting for him to send along any evidence that he may come across that we can process in the lab. The body hasn't arrived yet."

"No, no," Sweets stopped her gently and held up his hand. "I don't need to know about the case. What I want to know is how you're feeling about not being with Booth."

"I'm annoyed."

Bingo.

His eyebrows quirked, a bit surprised at the blunt answer. When she didn't elaborate immediately, he was worried that perhaps that would be the only answer he would get. However, he took quick notice of her stiffened posture, the tightened grip on her cup, the slight pout in her usually neutral mouth. Sweets leaned back in his chair and gestured for her to continue, not bothering to pose any specific question. Brennan blinked a few times and took a deep breath.

"I should be with him," she said, sounding as put out as she looked. "We work exceptionally well as partners, and this forced separation may very well hinder the work that we do. So yes, I'm annoyed."

"Because you don't think you'll be able to do your job right."

"Yes."

"Because you won't be working directly with Booth."

"Yes."

"Because of a forced separation."

"Yes."

"A forced separation that you agreed to only two days ago."

"I…" Brennan started, finding herself unable to come up with a reasonable explanation yet again for why she had agreed to this. So she fell back on the reason she did most anything. "If this is what it takes to be allowed back into the field, to remain partners with Booth… to keep doing what it is that I do… then I'll agree to it."

"Hm," Sweets considered her for a moment. She would do almost anything to continue with her work, even putting up with a science she deemed faulty and ineffectual. Her dedication to her work and to Booth was exceptionally strong. Yet, he had come to know her too well to believe that work was the sole reason for her cooperation. Somewhere under all the passion for bones and discovering the truth was a deeper passion for the people in her life that she had been denying for years. Maybe he was just being optimistic, but Sweets thought that maybe that passion was finally bubbling to the surface. "Fair enough, Dr. Brennan. So, in that case, indulge me for a minute: did you and Booth see each other before he left? Did you discuss what you just told me?"

"What? No," Brennan's voiced jumped half an octave and her eyes snapped up to meet Sweets.' "I mean, yes, we did see each other. To discuss the details of what would happen with the case with him being in the mountains and with me being… here. It was important to organize the process of communication under the circumstances. But no… I guess I didn't tell him anything about why I said yes. To this."

"Did he ask?"

"No," she answered, her eyes dropping to her hands. Sweets leaned forward and waited until she met his gaze again.

"Maybe," he said softly, "try telling him sometime. The dude worries about you. It might reassure him."

Brennan quietly processed his words as Sweets leaned back in his chair again and grabbed a notepad and pen off the end table next to him. He flipped a few pages and the uncapped the pen.

"So!" he switched gears. "Have you talked to your dad recently?"

"A few days ago," she replied, grateful for the change in topic.

"How's that going?"

Brennan answered his questions about her father without hesitation, being sure to inform him about their plans to meet for lunch every Friday. The beginnings of a new relationship. Her mind went on autopilot as he inquired on a subject that held no secrets, but for Sweets probably revealed a lot. She wasn't terribly concerned. All she cared about was that he had stopped asking her about her last moments with Booth before he had left for West Virginia. She was afraid that he would be able to see her heart hammering away inside her chest, or pick up on the flush that she was sure crept over her skin. In that moment she had prayed to a god she didn't believe in to let Sweets overlook the signs, because all she wanted to do was forget, and discussing any of that night with Sweets was the complete opposite of forgetting. Somehow, though, she knew the memory of Booth's hands on her skin and his lips pressed oh so gently against hers would remain tattooed in her mind for a long, long time.


Don't panic, lovies, there will be a re-cap. I'm not that cruel.