[A/N: I'd never promise "light and fluffy," but this chapter is a bit less heavy than some I write. Hope you enjoy the change of pace. If you've been reading, you know that I am clearly not a scientist. All definitions are based on those cited on Dictionary-dot-com's Web site. I intend to use all scientific terms loosely.

Happy Bones Finale Day! Has anyone posted a countdown clock for the S6 premiere? Do I even want to know how long this summer of reruns will be?

Thanks again for reading this story!]

Chapter Nine: Three Fundamental Forces of Nature

"Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love." – Albert Einstein

(1) Gravitational Force: the force of attraction between all masses in the universe.

Seeley Booth had always been able to feel it when someone had been looking at him. Years of worrying that he'd done something to tick off his father combined with years of defending Jared against the enemies he'd regularly made followed by military training and time spent at the bureau had only honed those natural abilities. That's why, before Booth had even been fully awake, he'd known that someone had been observing him. Lying completely still with his eyes still closed, Booth tried to determine where he was. He knew instantly that he wasn't at home. This wasn't his apartment; the sounds and smells were all different. The ache in his back made it clear that this definitely wasn't Bones' sofa. Hers was much more comfortable for sleeping than this one. This one had the feel of high quality fabric, but it was sort of stiff and not meant to support a muscular man for an entire night's sleep. It felt more like something you should sit on during a party than something you should spend an entire night sleeping on.

Allowing himself to wake slowly in order to delay facing the wrath of whomever he'd barged in on the evening before, Booth wiggled his toes and fingers and slowly rolled over. Then he stretched his arms high above his head so that he could begin working out the kinks now firmly set in his back.

As he extended the stretch and let it wake him, he was startled by the sound of a woman's satisfied "mmmm... hmmmm...." His eyes flew open and he looked around quickly to find the source of that approving sound.

When he realized that Cam's daughter Michelle was standing across the room leering at him as if he were some hunk of meat, Booth yanked the blanket up over his naked chest and scrambled into a sitting position, making certain that had his pants on. Damn, it was just his boxers. He couldn't quite remember, but he suspected that he'd stripped down to his boxers sometime during the night in an attempt to get comfortable. Thank goodness he hadn't pulled off his boxers along with everything else.

"Um... Michelle... Shouldn't you be at school already or something?" he asked, trying to sound as authoritative as possible.

"You and Cam used to date, right?" Michelle asked. She continued to ogle him and spoke without waiting for an answer, "You had to be the one to dump her, right?"

Booth furrowed his brow and then spoke in a voice hoarse from drink and lack of sleep, "Michelle, Cam and I are just friends. I know she has a boyfriend. I just slept on the sofa because I'd had one beer too many. And I am not discussing our past with you."

"Mmhmmm," Michelle purred again, still staring at his body and drooling over his appearance.

Booth grabbed his t-shirt and pulled it on quickly. He knew that he was the adult in this situation and that she was just a kid. But he was very uncomfortable with the expression on Michelle's face. On an older woman, that expression might have been a turn on. On Cam's kid, it just plain gave him the creeps.

Michelle wandered around the room keeping her eyes on him. She sauntered as if adult thoughts were definitely on her mind, "I just don't get it. Robert's a nice guy, but... I don't see how Cam or anyone else could stop dating anyone who looks like you do in your boxers."

"You, young lady, are too young to be talking about me—or any other guy—like that."

"I am not too young to appreciate what I see, Uncle Booth."

Now horrified, Booth leapt up and grabbed his jeans, pulling them on hastily behind the sofa and turning his back to fasten them. Despite the lurch of his stomach and the throbbing of his headache because of his quick action, Booth continued, "Uncle Booth... emphasis on the 'Uncle.' Cut it out, Michelle. This is inappropriate."

"What's inappropriate is Cam turning down such a fine specimen..."

"That's it, young lady. You are grounded!" Wow where the hell had that come from?

Michelle was as shocked hearing those words as Booth had been saying them, "Grounded? You can't ground me! I haven't done anything! You're the one walking around naked looking like that."

"I was not naked, and you are way out of line."

"Well, you still can't ground me. Cam won't do it."

Now that he was fully clothed, Booth felt more comfortable taking charge of the situation, "Well you see, Michelle, there are some benefits of remaining friends with people you used to date. Cam will listen to me. She'll trust me on this. And you will be home and pouting about being grounded by the time school is out."

"You know what? You're mean! And you can find you own way to the office. Cam had asked me to drive you to your car, but I'm not doing any favors for anyone who tries to get me grounded!" And with that, Michelle turned and grabbed her backpack before bolting from the apartment.

Booth sighed. It was going to be a long day. It had been a long day already.

(2) Electromagnetic Force:the fundamental force that is associated with electric and magnetic fields and is responsible for atomic structure, chemical reactions, the attractive and repulsive forces associated with electrical charge and magnetism, and all other electromagnetic phenomena.

Later that morning, Booth showed up at the lab looking as if he'd either had more to drink than he actually had or that he'd slept on Cam's floor instead of the sofa. The quick shower and change had done nothing to take the edge off of the after effects of the prior evening. To his surprise, Bones had said nothing when he popped his head into her office. Surprised by her silence, he stood there wishing his head weren't aching so that he could get a better read on her mood after their discussion the night before. Still strangely silent, Bones walked up to him and handed him a cup of coffee. In his bleary-eyed state of semi-consciousness he spoke almost without thinking, "I love...," he coughed and sputtered for a moment, hoping that Bones would think he had burned his mouth on the hot beverage, "Coffee. Man, do I love coffee." He was mortified that he had almost told her he loved her just because she'd given him a cup of joe. He did love her, of course, but he knew that now would not be the time to make that profession. He made a mental note to make sure that those words were no longer an automatic response once his head stopped aching as if a jackhammer were invading it from all directions.

In his disoriented state, he didn't even realize that Bones had left him temporarily. She returned and handed him some aspirin. He took them from her and smiled at her weakly through his headache. They moved slowly to the platform as he washed the pills down with the coffee. Despite her obvious focus on her work, he could tell that Bones had adjusted her gait to allow him to move more slowly than usual.

"See there, Bones. This is symbiotic. Your brain tells you that I need coffee, and my gut is really grateful. You bring me aspirin for my headache. Your brain and my gut—they're going places."

"Donut?" she asked, offering him two of his favorites in hopes that he'd stop talking about the future. She just wanted to work and have things be normal.

"You got me donuts? Aww… thanks, Bones!"

While his enthusiastic thanks was usually heartwarming, today it had a more unsettling effect on her. She dodged his sincerity in favor of an attempt at humor, "Nothing says 'I think fondly of my partner than a confectionary treat full of three times the daily allowance of saturated fat and overly processed sugar.'"

"Funny… that's really funny, Bones. Man, this donut is… Are there more?"

"Here, have half my bagel."

"Bagels are not donuts. Bagels are boring. Bones and her boring bagels," he mused aloud.

"Are you still intoxicated?"

"No. Well... I may have been last night. Wait... how can you tell?"

"Anyone looking at you today can tell, Booth," she whispered, her tone betraying her concern for him.

Crap, Seeley. Don't go there. Don't let things get awkward. "No worries, Bones. The beer just tasted too good last night."

She gave him a look that made it obvious that she wasn't sure she should buy his cover story.

"Trust me. I'm fine. These donuts are awesome."

When Booth's phone rang, he jumped as if startled and then raised a hand to rub his forehead to ease the pulsing there. Grimacing from even that soft ring, he immediately turned the phone to vibrate and walked away to take the call, talking with half a donut still in his mouth. As he was finishing up, Brennan moved to continue her work examining the remains. She hadn't been completely focused on her work; she couldn't help noticing that Cam had interrupted Booth as he walked back up to the platform.

Brennan silenced the twinges of discomfort she felt as Cam pulled Booth across the lab to a more private spot before she began talking to him. She found it uncomfortable to continue observing their intimate exchange. Brennan suspected that the conversation had something to do with the chat she'd had with Michelle earlier that morning. Remembering that conversation vividly, the knot in her stomach now rolled around angrily.

Frustrated by her inability to keep her attention elsewhere, Temperance cringed as she watched Cam place a supportive hand on Booth's arm. She literally ached when she saw him throw an arm around Cam's shoulder, plant a kiss on her cheek, and say something funny that made Cam laugh and that made Booth cringe because of her noisy outburst. For a split second, Brennan was jealous. Where that feeling had come from, Brennan had no idea. She'd never felt this way when Booth and Cam were dating before. If they were reviving that relationship, it shouldn't bring her any pain. As his partner, she knew that his relationships were none of her business. As his friend, she knew that she should be happy for Booth. He'd told her he was moving on. They'd spent weeks... months apart from one another. That was plenty of time for something to have started. Booth had been gracious taking the time to talk to her about things now that they were working together again, but he'd already moved on. The rational thing to do was to be happy for him. Only today she wasn't feeling entirely rational. That was always a dangerous thing.

Caught up in her thoughts, she flinched when Booth walked up behind her and peered over her shoulder. He'd invaded her personal space in doing so. She could feel his breath glance off her cheek as he tried to see what she was doing. He'd done things like that too many times to count, but this particular time, she'd found it frustrating. She barked at him to be careful not to compromise the evidence. He apologized, backed away, and shot her a strange look. Then, hoping to find a way to mend things between them, he offered her the latest news from his office.

"Charlie has located a member of a gang Lieutenant Forster was tracking when she went missing. This guy left the gang several years ago—we're going to wait to haul in current members all at one time, but we're going to question this guy first. The interview is at 10 in the morning. You want in?"

"Yes. I'll be there."

"Good. That's good. Any new evidence here?"

As she turned to point out the findings from their work, Dr. Saroyan walked up onto the platform to hear the latest news. Concerned for Booth given his obvious hangover and the likelihood that he might also be uncomfortable dealing with the woman who'd driven him to drink, Cam instinctively moved closer to Booth for support. Ironically, Brennan took more notice of Cam's proximity to her partner than he did.

Opting as usual for the entirely scientific when emotions threatened to overtake her, Brennan explained that Angela and Wendell had identified what appeared to be an oval and a straight line of bruising on the young victim's chest. Brennan explained that they were researching the matter further but that the symbol could be a number "1." She also told him that this victim had died from the beating he'd received and that the other injuries he'd sustained had occurred postmortem.

Booth had been more than satisfied with the new evidence and thanked Brennan for it. They continued debating bits and pieces of evidence, making decent progress despite having little to go on. Caught up in one of those effective yet publicly intimate exchanges, the partners hadn't realized that everyone else had left them alone on the platform. Brennan was the first to take notice when she watched Dr. Saroyan walk away. She'd been struck again by what felt like another pang of what--in anyone else--would have been deemed jealousy. To camouflage that fact, she put up a strong, supportive front and decided to be straightforward and stop avoiding the issue.

(3) Nuclear Force: Strong interaction.

Nodding toward Cam as she walked away from the platform, Brennan said, "I'm happy for you both."

"What?"

"You and Cam. I'm glad that you've found someone. She's strong and compassionate. You two have a great deal in common. I'm happy for you."

Booth's head pounded harder as he struggled to deal with his partner's misconceptions, "Bones...."

"But I'd be careful if I were you. Anthropologically speaking, Michelle will resent you if you try to parent her. History has shown that stepparents are better off behaving more as friends or perhaps as a doting relative. You should let Cam be the parent. Don't try to replace Michelle's father."

"Whoa... stepparents? What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Michelle told me that you told her she was grounded. She also informed me that you're living there. How did she say it? Oh, yes. She said that you were walking around 'blissfully naked' in their apartment. You should probably make it a practice to be fully clothed when you're outside Cam's bedroom."

"What? Jeez, Bones. First off, I was not naked."

Thrown off kilter by uninvited yet amazingly realistic mental images of Booth as naked as Michelle had described, Brennan continued quickly as if Booth weren't trying to talk with her. "And then she and I discussed your relationship with Cam. I had to agree with her, Booth. Given your personality and your appealing build and your... abdominal muscles, Michelle was right--Cam was crazy to let you get away the first time."

In her anger and frustration, Michelle had rushed to the lab only to learn that Cam had been in a meeting. Needing something to do while she waited, Michelle had wandered to Brennan's office. The two orphans had bonded over time, and Michelle often sought Temperance's guidance on matters she was uncomfortable discussing with Cam. Dr. Brennan wasn't good with advice about people, but she had been a great help weighing the pros and cons of other decisions. After ranting to Brennan that she had no idea that her partner was "so mean!," Michelle had relayed the events of the morning and made mention of Cam's previous relationship with Booth in a way that had inadvertently made it sound current. Already thrown off by the possibility that Booth really might be dating Cam, Brennan had made an incorrect assumption that he now was. Once that assumption had taken hold, she'd clung to it as much to guard her own heart as anything.

Had Booth not already had a headache, he'd have gotten one by now, "Look, Bones. You and Michelle have no business discussing my social life... or my abdominal... my abdomen."

His sensitivity about the subject served to convince Brennan that she was approaching the truth. She tried to sound matter-of-fact about this relationship. She had a feeling that she would need practice sounding as if she weren't concerned at all about it, "Well, when you're in a relationship with a co-worker whose teenager frequents the office, you can't expect the subject not to come up."

After looking around to make certain that nobody was close enough to hear them, Booth moved closer to her and whispered, "Cam and I are not in a relationship."

Without flinching, Brennan continued, "Oh, well, given your history, I suppose that it's reasonable that you and Cam have opted for fringed benefits instead."

"What?"

"Benefits... Fringed benefits on top of your friendship..."

"Are you talking about being friends with benefits?"

"Oh. Yes. I suppose I am. I'm glad that you've found a friend with benefits."

"Bones, you've got this all wrong."

She would not stand for his expressing concern for her over this development. It was all she could do to deal with the news. Handling sympathy from him for her "loss" was simply asking too much, so she redirected the conversation. "Booth, you don't have to hide this from me. I'm happy for you. I only want your happiness."

"I'm not hiding things! I wasn't naked. I was in my boxers," Booth whispered, his voice now taking on a tone of extreme frustration, "I told Michelle she was grounded because she wouldn't stop looking at my body and talking about it."

"Michelle is a teenager. She's genetically programmed to seek out compatible sexual partners...."

"She's a kid, Bones. It was creepy the way she was looking at me. You should not be encouraging that sort of talk with children."

Frustrated with how close her partner had moved to her as he had defended himself and suddenly uneasy about how well she could identify with Michelle's attraction to him, Brennan took the conversation on an entirely dangerous turn. She'd intended to use a reference to sex to stop him from talking with her. That was a typical conversation-stopper with him. Suspecting that he'd be even more uncomfortable discussing sexual relations now that he was dating Cam again, she could only hope that he'd get frustrated and leave. But she hadn't anticipated the turn the conversation would take.

"Well, Dr. Saroyan is a grown woman, and you would make a logical, rational choice for a mate. Michelle may be a child, but I'm not. I am perfectly capable of judging a person's desirability and of pursuing a physical connection. I admitted that I was drawn to you physically when we first met. And over the years, I have... on other occasions... considered pursuing a strictly physical relationship with you."

"Ok, this..." Booth said gesturing between them awkwardly and starting to perspire. "This conversation cannot happen."

"What? It's widely acknowledged that you're handsome and in commendable physical condition, and I'm desirable and quite accomplished sexually speaking. It's only logical that I considered propositioning you."

Too mortified to appreciate the loaded compliment, Booth continued, "Bones, really... Cut it out. We are not having this conversation."

"Why not? I know that you wanted to have sex with me before you started dating Cam," she said boldly as if she were discussing the weather or 1,000-year-old bones.

"Shhhh.... Keep it down, will you? This is way past inappropriate."

"What? We're adults having a stimulating conversation. There's nothing inappropriate about that."

Booth glared at her as if that would stop her from harassing him and whispered, "Enough with the S-E-X talk already."

"Booth, everyone here can spell that three-letter word."

"I know that, Bones. I'm just trying to be discreet here."

"I know that you have antiquated ideas about relationships and intercourse, but you are an alpha male in prime physical condition. Admit it. You have thought often about having sex with me, too."

Booth wanted to die. He really did. This was the most cruel form of torture. Dealing with this uncomfortable situation with a hangover the size of Manhattan was unendurable. He couldn't lie to Bones, but it really was supremely unfair that he should be forced to have this discussion with her at all—much less out in the open at their place of work. He tried to ignore her in vain hopes that she'd lose interest or become distracted by the evidence and stop talking altogether.

"Does Hodgins have any results on those last tests on the particulates from the third victim?" Booth asked, hoping to lure her away from torturing him by focusing her on her beloved science.

Nearly smiling at his obvious discomfort, Brennan decided to continue the conversation, "Talking about desires you had before you started dating Dr. Saroyan is not cheating on her, Booth. You wanted to have intercourse with me when we first met. I will admit that I am older now, but I am healthy and have not aged to an extent that would lessen my desirability. In fact," she continued with a coy expression, "I suspect the experience would be even more rewarding now that I'm approaching my sexual prime."

He simply couldn't take it anymore. She was standing there taunting him with that expression that made him want her even more. He was certain that she was not manipulating him on purpose. From anyone else, this would have been a premeditated attempt to flirt madly just to tease him or to lure him into her office for sex. But from Bones, it was just her never-ending search for facts leading her to the truth. Constrained by her past, she simply wasn't equipped with the filters to stop herself from taking conversations into forbidden territory. She had no concept of political correctness, tact, or reserve. She simply asked the questions that came to mind—not unkindly but without regard for the impact they had on others. Yet even knowing that Bones wasn't trying to drive him to seduce her didn't stop Booth from responding to the way that she was driving him absolutely crazy.

Without another word, he yanked her elbow hard, pulling her toward him. Holding her arm in a vice grip, he led her off the platform, down the hallway, and into her office, ignoring her protests and her wriggling to escape him all the way.

Once inside her office, he slammed the door and pressed her back against it, pinning her there with his body though not quite touching it. Even though he was still some microscopic distance away from her, the air between them was filled with heat and desire and more than a bit of fear. Placing his palms flat against the door near her head to brace himself and to keep him from touching her in his current agitated state, Booth stared at her for a long moment.

Temperance was breathing hard and failing to succeed in calming herself down. Booth was so close that she could feel his stilted breaths caress her face. Being this close to her partner in such a sexually charged situation was overpowering. Ever since that dream, she'd struggled to deal with being near him. The persona she assigned to Booth had been partner and then trusted friend. Aside from those few select kisses that had led nowhere, he'd always obeyed the limits those roles provided—keeping his distance as a partner and only getting close enough for "guy hugs" as her friend. For the first time she could remember, she was now struggling not to identify with Booth simply as a man. Being confronted with his body so near made the fact that he was a beautiful, vital man nearly impossible to ignore. Booth exuded alpha male strength and capability at all times—up close and personal it was simply too sexy to withstand. She looked up at him—suddenly as afraid that he might not kiss her as that he would. She watched the flare of physical attraction burn brightly in those chocolate brown eyes she adored. Lust lit them up and added a touch of caramel to their color making them even more entrancing. And when he looked at her the way he was now, his eyes said things that his mouth wouldn't dare try to explain to her.

Or so she had thought.

She tried to speak, needing more than wanting to extract herself from the delicate situation, but his eyes held her there as if she were truly physically immobilized. He looked away for a moment to gather his thoughts and then brought his raging brown eyes back to focus on her dazzled blue ones.

"The sex talk stops—right... now...," he said in a hoarse whisper.

She was silenced by the heat of his stare.

"You can't turn down a relationship and then stir the sex pot.... Not with me. You have to stop."

Brennan started to speak but felt her voice choke off when he glared at her for considering it.

"You treat me as if I'm old-fashioned and chaste or something. Well, I'm not.... Not at all."

Brennan felt as if her heart had started beating wildly like a tribal drum. Normally she'd have recalled which specific instrument she'd heard beat that rapidly on a dig in an African country, but at the moment, her brain had literally stopped and focused completely on her partner. Given his effect on her, she couldn't have even found Africa on a map.

"Cam and I are not in a relationship. But that's not the main problem here. For some insane reason, you seem to be hell-bent on hypothesizing about what it would be like if we had sex. Well, I don't need to wonder... I don't need to think... I know, Bones. I know that if we had sex, it would be incredible. I know that like you know your bones," he husked, clearly struggling to grasp tightly to what remained of his self-control. Brennan's heart was beating so loudly that she wondered how she could hear him talking.

"I also know that you haven't ever made love the way that we'd make love, Temperance. I would consume you, take more from you than you'd ever offer anyone and give you more of myself than you could handle. I also know that, if you and I were to take that step, the sex would be so mind-blowing and life-altering that you'd be the one asking me for a relationship—not the other way around."

Brennan felt the last of the air squeak out of her lungs but she really didn't care. Booth was intoxicating when he was wound up like this and pressed so close to her. This was a side of him he'd kept well-hidden from her until this moment. Given the near heart palpitations she was experiencing under his smoldering gaze, she also suspected that he was absolutely right about the way that things would play out. "But...."

"If...," he began but then paused to consider her reaction to his words thus far. Screw it, she'd started this. "When we make love, it will be something that neither one of us could walk away from without consequences. I couldn't give that much of myself to you and have you turn away from it. Having sex would be a partnership-altering course of action, Bones. And talking about it the way you have been is pushing both of us in that direction--fast. So unless you're willing to back up your big talk and experiment with a helluva lot more than just our hormones, Bones, you'd better back the hell off and stop talking about my body and my sex life."

She swallowed hard and stared up at him, amazed by how clearly she could read his want of her on his beautifully flushed, handsome face, "Okay."

"Okay?" he asked in a now-shaky voice, surprised by the way that she caved to his demands.

"I understand," she half-gulped, still shaken by his words and the promises they conveyed to her body and her mind. She watched virtual doors close in his brain as he backed away from the edge of giving in to his passion. She felt colder with each passing moment after seeing a glimpse of the heat he'd kept hidden away for so long.

Without another word, Booth pushed away from the door and paced for a long moment. Then, sitting on the edge of her desk, he said softly. "Look Bones, this thing... this can of worms I opened after we talked to Sweets? You're just gonna have to shove it into a storage drawer and lock it up tight, okay?"

"What?" she barely choked out in a whisper. His choice of eerily timed metaphor sent chills down her spine.

"Just compartmentalize like you always do. Lock this up in a drawer—that's what you do, right? Put this whole thing in one of your boxes or drawers or whatever kinds of compartments you use. Just lock this whole thing up and throw away the key or something. I know I started it, and I'm sorry that it's upset both of us. But you not being able to deal with me like you normally do is affecting my ability to deal with you. For the sake of our partnership, Bones, please just store this away for now. We need to be able to do our jobs."

She nodded, willing the tears to refrain from filling her eyes.

"Can you... can you give me just a minute?" he asked, looking the worse for wear having allowed her to see how much he craved more than just her companionship.

"Certainly," she whispered, turning and leaving the room.