I took a deep breath. "Dr. Brennan, can I talk to you – in private?" I hoped she'd be able to talk right now. She's between cases, so it's not like she's in any rush.
"Of course, Sweets."
Booth stared at me for a minute, but I shooed him out of the room.
I'd tried hinting at it to Booth, but hinting wouldn't get me anywhere with Brennan.
"Dr. Brennan, have you ever heard about Aspergers?"
I'd been expecting a no, but once again she surprised me.
"Of course, Sweets. What about it?"
"See, I know someone who I think might have it and …."
Brennan stared at me. "How did you guess?"
She had to be kidding me. "You KNEW? You knew about it this whole time and never thought to tell me?"
"Well of course I knew. But I hardly see how Zack having Aspergers could be any business of yours."
Zack? I mean, it's not a shock to me, but how would Brennan know?
"So yes, I know what Aspergers' is. I researched it extensively when I first hired Zack. He informed me, assuming it might affect my job. I personally wonder whether the diagnosis is incorrect, though. He never seemed to have any trouble while working for me-"
I hated to interrupt Brennan, but she'd just given me the perfect point to talk to her.
"Dr. Brennan, have you ever considered why he didn't have any trouble working at the Jeffersonian?"
"Sweets, it is considered rude to interrupt me. But no, I never did. Why should I? As long as he wasn't having problems. That's about as ridiculous as wondering why Angela or Hodgins doesn't have problems at work. Because I hired them, with full confidence that they were well-suited to working there, with me."
Just once, could you grasp subtext? "Why don't we consider it now. Assuming his diagnosis is correct, it would stand to reason that there'd be some sort of noticeable difficulty, if not with work, then with his relationships at work with his colleagues, or something along those lines. Would you say that Zack had many more problems than the others you've hired in the past with getting along with the rest of your team?"
"No, I would not say so. Out of everyone I've hired, I'd say he adapted to my expectations fastest. I almost never had to correct him, get him to be more specific or anything of that nature."
"And..."
"And what?"
"And what conclusions can we extrapolate from this?"
"That Zack is far more intelligent and diligent than most people, especially considering that the sample is not random, it's people I have hired in the hope of them being more intelligent than average."
"Okay, that's one possible conclusion. Do you think that another possible – perhaps additional – conclusion could be that he was far more suited to working with you?"
Brennan stared at me. "Of course he was far more suited to working with me."
"Dr. Brennan, if we assume that he had Aspergers, and was more able to work with you than most anyone else you've ever worked with, would you say that a reasonable conclusion would be that you have Aspergers too?"
A/N: Reviews make me smile :D
I wouldn't go so far as to say that they make me write more, but they make me write more Bones fanfic. If I go another month or so without writing fanfic, PM eaglesmeow. It's my other account on here. (That's my usual account, this is for Bones stuff and other random fics. I need to keep them separate in my head, since some people who know me know I'm eaglesmeow. And if I keep my Bones stuff separate, they won't poke into my stories, since they've never seen Mash or House, but they've seen Bones. Don't ask why I post ATU fics on here. I'm still not sure.)