Okay, told myself I wasn't going to post. But I'm ready for Booth to find out. Yes. I am. It's been waaaaay too long. Ha. But, it's not how you thought it was going to go down.
"So, how was your day with Dr. Brennan?"
Booth sighed and chewed on his French fry, not worried that Cam would steal his french fries like a certain anthropologist he knew.
"What can I say? Bones is Bones."
"How's your eye?"
"Well, I won't be winking any time soon, but it feels fine."
Cam laughed and took a drink of her water.
"Remind me never to get in her way when she's in a rage."
"Ha. How about remind me before I do something stupid again."
"Hmmm. It's been a rough day, hasn't it?"
Nodding his head, Booth swallowed his last piece of hamburger.
"We still don't know who killed Thomas Hart. I don't know what else to do. We can track him to his house, but not after. Bones and I know he made it to the Spotless Clean Laundromat, but we don't know when. And Stephens didn't see him that day. His niece didn't see him either. I don't know. It sounds inky."
"What does Brennan think?"
"I don't know. She wasn't exactly forthcoming like she usually is."
"Well," Cam said, taking a bite of her own hamburger, "at least she talked to you."
"That's true."
"It's good that she told you. I was kind of worried she wouldn't."
Booth threw a fry into his mouth.
"Tell me what?"
"About Perkins."
Booth frowned and sat forward. He caught Cam's stare and held her there.
"You didn't know?" she asked cautiously.
"I don't think so. What was it?"
Cam pushed back and cleared her throat.
"Nothing. I'm sure it wasn't important then. Are you already finished?"
"Don't try to change the subject, Cam. What about Perkins?"
She looked at Booth. The man who had once stolen her heart, but who had vanished from her life just as quickly. The one that she could see spending the rest of her days with. The one who saw her, but thought of someone else.
"Booth," she paused, "it's not my place-."
"Camille, tell me," Booth demanded in a near whisper.
Cam really thought better about it. Brennan was supposed to have told him. Not her. Not her. But here she was. She braced herself.
"Gail Perkins. He offered Brennan a position at the Perkins Institute."
Booth sat there, dumbfounded. He remembered that. He remembered her saying something about how it had more artifacts than the Jeffersonian.
"Wha-? No, no, she would have told me something like that, Camille."
Booth tried to laugh but it sounded hollow.
"Bones would've said something, no matter how pissed she was. She would've told me."
"I didn't know she didn't tell you, Seeley. She told me she was going to today. I just thought..."
For a minute, it had to register. And even then, he couldn't believe it.
"No."
His fist pounded the table and it reverberated with the force.
"She's not going to!"
Cam's eyes widened in shock.
"I'm really not sure. She said she was undecided."
"Wait, she told you all this?"
"Earlier today."
"And you didn't tell her no?"
"How can I tell her no?"
"No. Camille," he pointed at her, "tell me that you told her she could not leave the Jeffersonian."
She let herself consume his words.
"I didn't. She has the right to choose! What was I supposed to say?"
"What? Anything! Tell her that there was legal paper work that would make it impossible to go! Tell her that you would sue her! Anything!"
"She's a grown woman, Booth!"
"Camille!"
Booth rose and his anger nearly sent Cam onto the floor. His stance was like a bull, head down, shoulders hunched, legs ready to sprint toward the enemy.
"What did you say to her? Huh? What did you say to her, Camille?"
Finally, Cam's anger woke up and she looked directly at him.
"I told her that this offer was the best she would ever receive. I said that she would be able to be her own boss. But I also said that the Jeffersonian needs her."
"What? You basically told her to take the job?"
"I gave her my opinion."
"No, Bones didn't need your opinion! She needed the facts!"
"And what are those facts, Seeley?"
"That she can not go across an ocean! That she can not leave behind the squints! That she has more than enough here for her! That her work at the Jeffersonian is more important than work at the Perkins Institute! Those are the facts!"
Camille blinked once, then again. She threw her napkin down on her plate and stared down at it. So, it had come to this. After this whole time, he just couldn't see reason where Brennan was concerned.
"Brennan will make her own choice, whether you want her to or not."
Booth stared into the glass window and saw his reflection. He saw Cam's, and he was enraged. She hadn't even tried, had she?
Angrily, he pulled a few bills out of his pocket and dropped them onto the table.
"For dinner."
He grabbed his coat, and ran out of the restaurant.
No, she hadn't tried to stop Brennan from leaving because of Booth(for the most part). She hadn't tried because she knew what it felt like to be somewhere, where you weren't quite sure of where you belonged anymore. Cam sat there, alone, for the longest time.
Uh-oh. What's going to happen next?! Ha. R&R guys and I'll post as quick as I can.