The surveillance was already at Brennan's apartment when Booth screeched to halt in front of the sidewalk. Agent Landon was slightly shorter, slightly younger and slightly larger around the middle than Booth. He had dirty blonde hair that was graying on the sides which brought out the bags under his eyes accompanied by deep smile lines.

"Dr. Brennan, I'm Agent Bill Landon. Agent Booth has requested that I provide security for the night. I will remain in the hallway of your floor if you would like.'

"Um yes he did. And you can come inside if you'd like. The hallway can get quite boring. Not that I would know; I don't spend much time there. Unless I have a lot to bring in or take out then I do spent a few extra moments, and it's never exited me. Although one time a couple was fighting and I could hear it while walking--"

"They warned me you would do that."

"Who warned you I would do what?"

"Dr. Brennan, most of the agents at the bureau have come to consider you a very literal person."

"Yes, I know. I find speaking figuratively causes ambiguity." Landon just snickered at her comments. They climbed up the stairs to the third floor and walked rather slowly down to Brennan's door. Brennan ushered Landon into the quiet room. He walked just like Booth did when was angry; great posture, high knees, confident look. But he looked arrogant when he moved, not swift and commanding like her partner.

"Do you think I could have something to drink Dr. Brennan? Water or lemonade maybe?"

"Sure let me get that for you, and please call me Temperance." She had no lemonade and the water was distilled that she meant to take into the lab for cleaning bones. "Is beer alright?'

"That would be wonderful, Dr. Bren—Temperance."

Booth's glass was still on the coffee table. It seemed like an embarrassment to the living room. Not a single thing out of place except for that glass. Booth's glass.

"Here you go Agent Landon. Please feel free to...sit…I don't have a television. I'll be in the bedroom making a few phone calls if you need anything."

"Don't worry about me. And good thing about the TV, I can stay totally focused on my job."

Once in her bedroom, Brennan called Angela to talk about Booth's anger issues.

"Hey Ange, I need some advice about Booth."

"What, are you finally ready to jump his bones?"

"No, it's just that when he picked me up from the lab…"Brennan recounted the entire story.

"I totally hear what you're saying sweetie, but I think you need to go back and listen to yourself. Booth said he was upset about the case, so what can you infer from that?"

"I don't know, he doesn't want to be eaten by dogs? I hate it when you ask me questions you already know the answer to, but you make me figure it out on my own. It's a societal technique of establishing dominance; I do it to Zack all the time."

"You said that Booth made you come inside with him for just a few seconds, and he got another agent, who by the way sounds very cute, to come over really quickly… I'll just tell you this one. Booth obviously cares enough about you to watch over you himself and your safety means a lot to him. He's stressed about not being able to keep you alive."

"So Booth cares about me."

"A lot."

"Booth cares about me a lot, and he's worried that he can't protect my life."

"Exactly. Now do you have an answer to my first question? Why is Booth so upset about this case?"

"He was distressed when we were examining the girl. He mentioned that he had seen this before. He's afraid I'm going to die. Like one of the girls if he can't protect me."

"Is it starting to make sense now? Can you connect all the pieces?"

"I feel like I need to apologize to Booth, but I don't know what for."

"It'll come to you when you see him."

"Okay, but one more thing. If Booth is so concerned and he cares so much, why did he call Agent Landon?"

"That's something you need to ask Booth. I love you Sweetie. Please just go and see him and apologize even if you don't know what to apologize for." Brennan promised she would and said her goodbye.

"Agent Landon? I'm needed at the lab right away for some problem with a patella. Feel free to go home if you want, Booth said he would meet me at the lab. And thanks for coming all this way for just a few minutes." Before Landon could interject she was out the door into the hallway where nothing of interest was happening.

***

Before too long Brennan was knocking on Booth's door. She still hadn't figured out what to apologize for and was getting nervous as his footsteps got closer.

"Hey Bones! What're you doing here? Is everything ok? Where's Landon?" Booth questioned bubbly.

What happened to 'I can't even be around you right now'? "Ya, I'm okay. I need to talk to you. Can I come in?"

"Yes, please do. I need to talk to you first. Sit down I'll get you a drink," he kept talking as he went to the fridge and took out two cans of Coke, "The second I left your place I got this horrible feeling that I had done something wrong although I felt justified. I kept thinking that I had nothing to apologize for and that I was just doing my job. But when I got in here and contemplated it for a while I realized the reason I snapped was because I am so afraid of losing you and not having you as a friend that I was actually mad at myself for being rude to you about David and the thing with the door. So what I'm trying to say is I'm sorry for yelling at you and saying I didn't want to be around you because as it turns out I care too much about you to not be around you."

"Well that's a lot to take in. I was just about to tell you the same thing. However, I didn't come up with it on my own; I had to have Angela help me."

"All that's important to me is that you do feel that way, Bones."

"I still have two questions you haven't answered: why did you call for another agent and why does this case disturb you so much?"