A/N – Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, alerting and favouriting. I had difficulty writing this chapter so I mainly focused on the beginning of the episode and tried to create some connections between my AU and the canon. As always, I love hearing from you Here is the next chapter, hope you enjoy it. Love, K x

Chapter Three – A Boy in the Tree

Sunlight filtered through the blinds, slowly waking Booth as he pressed his body closer to Brennan's. He looked over to her and observed her soft, even breathing. He brushed a delicate kiss under her ear before whispering, "Good Morning". Brennan moaned in her sleepy haze, her eyes flickered in response to the sunlight as she turned over to face him.

"You do know that 'good morning' is merely a conventional expression of greeting an individual, since we have not been separated it would be inappropriate to greet me," Brennan informed Booth as she looked up at him pressing her palm to his cheek, feeling the warmth of his skin in an almost loving manner.

"Good morning isn't just simply a greeting you know. It can be a way of saying that I think of you when I wake up and can't help but smile because I know that it is a good morning 'cause I am waking up next to you," explained Booth as he swept away a stray tendril of hair from her face. He felt her body stiffen beneath him. His hand entwined with hers stroking the sensitive skin between her thumb and index finger. "It's important to tell others that you appreciate them and consider their feelings. You need to open yourself up to others, you know. Be less task orientated and mingle with the locals, get to know them. Allow yourself to feel something every once in a while."

"I do feel, unless you have forgotten last night," reminded Brennan as she smirked seductively at him.

"Jeez Bones, how can I forget last night?" Booth laughed at Brennan's playfulness as he sat up.

"Since a man's sexual desires peak in the morning, I can think of some activities we could be doing!" Brennan implied suggestively as she pulled him back down on the bed. Brennan threaded her hands through his hair before kissing him savagely.

"I've got to go work now, unlike some people," said Booth breathlessly as he pulled himself away from her. He stood up and began the process of getting changed, whilst Brennan got up wrapped her silky robe round her and exited the room. He heard the coffee machine being turned on, before Brennan shouted through and asking if he wanted coffee.

She emerged from the kitchen with two steaming mugs of coffee and handed one of them to him. He smiled at her in thanks before he took a sip from the cup and allowed the hot liquid to slide down his throat.

"Now that's what I needed," smirked Booth. "My daily dose of coffee to wake me up."

"You do know that research has proven that the first caffeine intake does not make an individual feel more alert then those who don't drink coffee," laughed Brennan.

"Sure," answered Booth making an uncertain mental note to check out this research.

He placed the mug on the bedside cabinet before picking up his tie from the floor where it had been quickly discarded last night. Brennan slipped the tie from his hands.

"Here let me," she offered with a smile, looping the fabric under the collar of his shirt and working it into a knot.

"I'll be at the lab in an hour so call me on my mobile if we have a case sooner," informed Brennan as she smoothed down the tie to ensure that it was sitting correctly.

He slipped on his jacket before holstering his gun and pocketing his FBI badge which had previously occupied a space on Brennan's shelve. He leaned over and placed a swift yet passionate kiss upon her lips.

"Ok, I shall see you at work," smirked Booth before turning and exiting through the front door leaving Brennan contemplating his previous advice. She was not a people person. She had never been good with people, always saying the wrong thing at apparently the most inappropriate times. Yet she couldn't see it unless some pointed it out to her, and Booth, he knew exactly what to say at the correct time. She couldn't understand how he could do that. Could she change? She wanted to, certainly.

xoxo

After a bad meeting with Cullen the Deputy Director on the FBI Booth was ill tempered and had a pounding headache probably due to the lack of sleep from the previous night. After waiting for what seemed like ever for Brennan's assistant John, or something, to get in the car, it surprised even him that he hadn't lost it already. He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel waiting impatiently for the squint to appear. Finally the squint got into the vehicle moaning about some girl trouble and they were off.

"We got a dead body at a prep school out in the sticks," spoke Booth as he gripped the steering wheel in a vice like manner.

"Good morning to you too," said Brennan sarcastically.

"Successful with women, right? I mean they like you?" Zack asked as he leaned forward towards Booth.

"Okay, look, it's a very prestigious prep school with a lot of rich kids," expanded Booth choosing to ignore Zack's last comment.

"I thought that it was good to start with 'Good Morning'," replied a confused Brennan a as she looked over to Booth.

"If a woman said, to you, take a hint, what would that mean?" Zack inquired to Booth. Was Zack really that socially inept or was he just trying to annoy him? Booth didn't know which was more worrying.

"Could we just concentrate on the job?" Booth exasperated and he looked into the mirror to see Zack leaning back into his seat. Finally. "Thank you. Now, I know the sheriff out there. She's mostly okay but the school got a lot of pull with the county and she's probably trying to scrape the whole case off on us. Look, what I'm trying to say is… it's not just a crime scene but it's a political situation, so when we get out there you follow my lead and you pay attention."

"You call after every sexual encounter, right? Because that's the good thing to do," asserted Zack.

"Look, this is a work mode," explained Booth through gritted teeth. He did not feel comfortable discussing his sex life with anyone especially not when the woman in question was sitting right next to him. There was a line. "This is a work zone. Do not talk sex at work."

"First, you tell me I'm too task oriented," stated Brennan. She was trying to make an effort here, and he was just ignoring her. "Then when I say 'Good Morning', you say that I should concentrate on the job."

"All right, look, we've got about a forty-five minute drive. What do you say we pass it in quiet meditation," suggested Booth as he slid his sun glasses onto his face. He couldn't deal with this right now. He needed silence.

xoxo

Brennan realised that it was not a normal school after she arrived at the school and observed the overly invasive security. They even had to be escorted to the crime scene by security. It made it hard to believe that a murder could have happened in these highly secure premises. They meet the headmaster and Sanders (the individual that was appointed as Head of Security) and made their way along with the Sheriff whose name was Karen to the human remains. Brennan and Karen walked towards a park-like area followed closely be the others.

"I don't know if you remember me but we worked together on a case? Bunch of bones found in a culvert about a year ago?" Karen asked Brennan hopefully.

"I remember the bones in the culvert," answered Bones swiftly. She was ignorant to the harshness of her words. It was true, she had no idea who this woman was, but thoroughly remembered the case.

"You know Bones, being nice to the locals by remembering their names and such wouldn't hurt," whispered Booth reminding Brennan of the conversation they had earlier. He had overheard the conversation and although Brennan's response had not surprised him he was still slightly disappointed that their earlier conversation hadn't changed anything.

"Not big on small talk is she?" Sanders stated interrupting his thoughts.

"Dr. Brennan is very focused," replied Booth swatting away a fly in the process.

"Where are the remains?" Bones asked as she came towards the crime scene unable to see the human remains. Booth pointed up to the body hanging from a noose.

"You want to increase the perimeter here?" Booth indicated to the headmaster and Sanders. "Gentleman, give my forensic anthropologist some room."

"Your forensic anthropologist?" Brennan turned to face Booth raising her eyebrow. So apparently she belonged to him now. She was going to have to talk to him about that later.

"Agent Booth, if you decide that this becomes a suicide it becomes my problem, correct?" Karen asked Booth.

"Actually the person who decides if this is a suicide is me," interrupted Brennan correcting her logic.

"Let's give the bone lady some room!" Karen gave a resounded sigh as she left Brennan to do her job.

"Ah, you know I'm glad we had that little chat about being nice to the locals," whispered Booth sarcastically. She was being her blunt, straight to the point self, nothing had changed and was unlikely to do so in the future.

"I don't like Sheriffs," reasoned Brennan if she was going to attempt to improve her social skills it was most certainly not going to be with a Sheriff. "They are elected into office which means their goal is being re-elected not finding the truth."

xoxo

The case was solved and the two teenagers were now in custody, yet nobody had won. There was a dead teenager, a victim who was just trying to do the right thing. She couldn't possibly begin to understand how his mother was feeling. Here she was with Booth informing her of their findings, the truth about what happened to her son.

"The Headmaster and Head of Security will both lose their jobs over what happened to Nestor. The Sheriff will resign. The two kids who killed your son are both in custody," Booth informed Nestor's mother.

"Thank you," the Ambassador gave a small smile yet nothing would bring back her son.

"We're very sorry… for your loss." Booth gave her their condolences. Brennan watched him. She could never say the right thing yet he could. He empathised with this woman and showed her that he cared. She wished she could do that, be able to say the right thing and supposed now was her opportunity to do that.

"Ambassador Olivos, you told me that all a mother wants is to know that she's raised her child well. That your biggest regret is that you will never know if Nestor would have grown up to be a good man, but he was a good man," remarked Brennan as she handed her the picture of Nestor. His mother's eyes glistening with tears. "He died because he was trying to do the right thing."

"Very impressive Temperance. You got that one right," smiled Booth proudly. She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. Maybe she wasn't as emotionally inept as she had convinced herself.