To Come Through
By: Lesera128
Rated: M
Disclaimer: ::stares:: ::blinks:: ::stares again:: Yeah. I still don't own anything…but, you knew that from the stares, right?
Summary: Everyone has a breaking point. After Pelant's latest threats against the team, Booth reaches his and does something that pushes his partnership with Brennan past the point of no return. Set post-7x13.
Logistical Notes on the Story: Set at the end of season 7. Beware of such spoilers. Enter at your own risk.
Chapter 9 - A Displeased Forensic Pathologist
Booth watched as Brennan began to do a cursory examination of the twenty-four ribs that had been spreadeagled around the bloody heart that sat at the base of the parking spot in which he'd deposited his black Toyota Sequoia SUV less than four hours earlier.
Since the only soft tissue to examine constituted the heart that had been left in the middle of the rib spread, there wasn't much for forensic pathologist Dr. Camille Saroyan to do until they got the remains back to the lab. That is, there wasn't that much for her to do regarding the investigation into what almost everyone believed to be Christopher Pelant's latest homicide. However, as she saw her old friend standing alone, several feet away from the SUV as Brennan and the FBI techs scurried about their work, muttering with a displeased look on his face, she decided to seize the opportunity.
Walking over to where Booth stood so that they were close enough that they could talk softly and not be overheard, Cam waited in silence for a moment. She didn't make eye contact or nod at him in acknowledgement or say anything verbally to let him know what she was thinking. Instead, she simply stood there and waited for Booth to speak. It was a tactic that had worked with almost every person she'd ever know―from her sister Felicia to perps she'd encountered in her days as a cop in New York to the squints at the lab to the men she dated. Really, the tactic had always worked...it had always worked except for an entire three people that she could think of in her entire life―her mother (that wasn't really surprising since she'd been the one to teach the tactic to Cam), Dr. Brennan…and the man she now stood next to in the parking garage. In effect, Cam reluctantly admitted to herself, it was Booth's stubbornness and occasional inflexibility that were probably some of the things that had both attracted her to him…and eventually lead to both their breakups. After all, it wasn't like she knew she should expect someone like Booth, given his background, to cave by her merely standing next to him radiating displeasure. Snipers, she knew, were patient people by nature, if not by training. Still, she couldn't help herself as she tried the tactic just because she wasn't sure how else to broach the topic of her current displeasure with Booth.
And, thus, she was quite surprised that just as she opened her mouth to speak that she suddenly heard a sigh from beside her followed by a single word.
"What?"
Slowly, Cam turned her head and looked at Booth, a measuring quality in her piercing brown eyes as she studied him.
"Seriously, Camille," Booth sighed again. "What is it?"
Her eyes widened a bit as she suddenly realized that the exhaustion heralded by the dark circles under Booth's eyes wasn't the only explanation for his out-of-character behavior.
"You're freaked out," she said quietly, her eyes darting around as she made certain that no one would overhear them.
Booth's own eyes narrowed for a minute, and then he smiled and shook his head slightly as an easy facade settled over his handsome features. "Just about how I'm gonna explain this to the motor pool. You don't happen to know how blood affects a paint job, do you? Because, I have a feeling I'm gonna catch hell about this whether it washes off or not."
Cam's lips pursed into a thin frown as she tilted her head and said, "Seeley, come on―"
"I'm fine, Camille," he said, his eyes turning to hers, and a sharpness coming into his voice as he repeated his statement and all the joviality evaporated in a flash. "I'm fine…now leave it alone"
Her brow furrowed as she said, "I've known you for how long and you're going to pull that big, bad brooding cop thing on me, Seeley…when I was doing it long before you, huh? Please." She stopped shook her head and then said, "Fine. You don't want to talk about Pelant, fine―"
"Thank you."
"Then, how about we talk about how your boneheaded ideas are messing with my lab?" Cam asked as she placed her hands on her hips. "You don't happen to have anything to say about that now, do you?"
Booth winced a bit at the tone in her voice, some of his stubbornness fading as she let the issue of Pelant fall away.
"Uhhh, Bones said you were upset about the news," Booth began.
Lifting one hand off of her hip and jabbing her index finger in the air near him, Cam responded, "You're damn straight I'm upset about the news. I mean, what gives, Seeley? You don't tell anyone that you're doing this…don't speak to anyone, don't consult anyone…not even Dr. Brennan?" Shaking her head, Cam's lips curled in obvious displeasure as she said, "That woman must have more patience than what God gave the average saint, because it doesn't seem like she's more than moderately annoyed at you for pulling this crap…and in the way you did it, too. I mean, if I thought anyone would be ready to put you in front of a firing range it'd be her, but no. She only said she'd 'talk to you and make appropriate adjustments based on the outcome of that conversation'."
Booth flushed a bit as he remembered that the result of that outcome had been an incredibly fast and hard pair of orgasms for the both of them since they'd never really gone back to talking like Brennan had wanted.
"―and, I said, fine," Cam continued, Booth only zoning back in after he pushed the thought of Brennan moving beneath him on their bed out of his mind. "Seeley, can you at least pay attention to me when I'm trying to read you the riot act, here? Seeley?" At last, Cam reached out and gave Booth a little poke in the shoulder as she muttered, "Booth!"
"Hey, yeah, what?" he came out of his own thoughts as he made a face and stared down at where she'd jabbed her finger at him. "Hey!" he said again. "That hurt."
"Oh, don't be such a big baby," Cam said. "Now, did you hear a word I said?"
Knowing dishonesty would piss her off more, Booth gave her a sheepish look as he shrugged his shoulders. "Uhh, no, Cam, I didn't―not really."
This time, it was Cam's turn to sigh again as she shook her head and said, "Okay, then just listen up right now, because here's the important part in a nutshell―if you think I'm going to let you do something that will tear my lab apart again after that shit that you two pulled two years ago when you went running off to opposite ends of the earth, you're crazy. So, I don't care what you have to do, but―fix this, Booth. Fix it now."
Cam then gave him one final cutting look before she turned away and moved back to where Brennan was working with the remains, Booth watching her as she went.
-TBC-
