Booth tried repeatedly to call Brennan, but she wasn't answering, so he threw his cellphone down in frustration and just drove, and thought.
What had she meant by what she had said in his office? It was confusing. Did she have feelings for him?
Hope galloped through his body like wild horses, but he beat it down. Maybe he was misinterpreting what she said because of the strength of his own feelings. It was then he realized that things had come to a tipping point.
He realized he was on the verge of not being an effective FBI agent at all, or partner to Brennan. Because of his unresolved feelings for her, it was affecting him in ways that was starting to erode his skills and distract him from their work.
Come what may, he had to deal with this, once and for all, he had to tell her how he felt about her. He took a deep shuddering breath. Maybe she had no feelings for him at all, other than professionally. He knew it could go badly, he knew doing this could doom their working relationship.
His eyes flicked up, to where the tiny speck of a plane traced two thin white lines against the cloudless blue sky. If things went bad, he'd have to leave. He'd have to go as far away as as it was necessary to go to forget about her..... but he knew there was no plane on earth that could fly that far. Hell, there was nowhere in the universe he could go that would ever get her out of his mind.
He reached the Jeffersonian and parked beside Brennan's car. Well, at least he knew she was here.
He thought about how this could drive them apart, and he gripped the steering wheel so hard it creaked. The thought of never seeing her again, never talking to her, never standing beside her, that terrified him more than anything ever had before...even if they couldn't be together, the thought of not being near her or never having some sort of contact with her......he couldn't even think about it....he had to make some sort of move.. ...he knew it had to be done.
As he came through the doors of the Jeffersonian, he ran into Angela.
"Angela!! Where's Temperance?"
The urgency in Booth's voice, and the use of Temp's full first name were both unusual for Booth, so Angela stopped, arched an eyebrow, and said, "She's here somewhere, but I haven't seen her yet. Its kinda slow, so I'm going out to do some early Christmas 's up Booth?"
"I...we....Temp...if she's here, I gotta find her, we..I have to tell her...its..."
"Booth, you're babbling." Angela placed a calming hand on Booth's chest. "Slow down and tell me what's the matter."
"I have to find her. I have to tell her how much I....." Booth just stopped and looked at Angela.
Angela's eyebrow arched even higher, and she smiled a knowing and understanding smile. "Well she's here somewhere, I'm sure a trained professional like you can track her down.....Booth?"
"Uh, yes Angela?"
Angela spoke slowly and carefully. "If this is what I think its about..." Angela's hand grasped Booth's tie tightly......"Make sure you do it right, so there's no misunderstandings, because..."
Angela slowly winched Booth by his tie down to her eye level with surprising strength...
"If you hurt her, I'll hang you with this tie..."
"Got it, Angela."
"And not by the neck, Booth." Angela smiled a sweet and totally deadly looking smile. "It'll be somewhere a LOT more painful. OK?" Angela let go of Booth's tie, smoothed it out as he straightened back up, patted his cheek, and said, "Go find her Booth. She's kinda tall, great hair, nice eyes, long legs, I'm sure you'll be able to spot her."
Angela grinned, watched as Booth took a few steps, stopped, seemed to gather himself, then went on. She decided she wasn't going anywhere. She'd stick around, keep out of the way, wait to see how things went, and try to suppress the giant squee that threatened to build out of control....
Booth took a few steps and stopped. He was more terrified than he had ever been in his life. Nothing that had happened to him in FBI work, nothing in combat had scared him as much as this situation had, with the thought of potentially losing Brennan. Booth also thought distantly he didn't relish the thought of facing Angela if things went bad either. His groin cringed in fear a little, then he got himself together, and went to find the woman he loved......