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 10 - He's Changed MOs

He knew it was late, but until he saw her standing in his office doorway looking as tired as he felt, he hadn't realized how late it actually was. Glancing out the window, he became aware of how a scene that had been illuminated by a faintly setting sun―surely, it hadn't gone down all that long ago, right?―had transitioned at some recent moment into one dominated by the inky blackness of late night. And, then, as if the rest of his body was catching up with his realization as to how long he'd actually be hunched over the chair in his office working, Booth realized how stiff his back hurt, how much his head ached, and how hungry he was.

Coming forward, Brennan frowned as she gently deposited a small brown paper sack on the edge of his desk. "I figured you might be hungry," she said quietly. "I wasn't sure what you might want, so I just got you a burger and some fries."

Looking up, Booth smiled what was one of his first real smiles that he'd smiled all day as the tasty aroma wafted from the confines of the take out sack to his nostrils. "Thanks, Bones. Did you already eat?"

Brennan nodded.

"Angela ordered takeout at the lab. I ate while we were waiting for the results of Hodgin's strontium isotope analysis to see if the mass spectrometer might be able to determine any significant markers that might allow us to identify Pelant's latest victim." She stopped, stared at a large poster board that had been rigged up in the corner of Booth's office on a tripod, and saw Pelant's photograph in the middle of a circle of various headshots. "It is him, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Booth nodded as he reached for the bag and pulled out the burger. He didn't even really bother to see if it had been prepared to his liking―although he trusted Brennan to know his preferences. He was just so hungry that he quickly peeled the white waxed paper in which the burger had been wrapped away and bit down into the juicy mess that awaited him. He sighed in contentment as he chewed, and Brennan watched him with an amused eye as he devoured what she'd brought him.

"You skipped lunch again, didn't you?" she asked.

Booth was grateful his mouth full of burger made it almost impossible to wince. Instead, he just shrugged.

"Booth," she responded with a slight furrow of her brow. "You promised."

As he finished chewing the mouthful, he swallowed and then gave his partner a sheepish look. "I know, and I'm sorry, Bones―it's just…this case. It's…just that, well...this morning? His MO changed."

"MO?" Brennan asked curiously. "I assume you aren't using that acronym to mean molecular orbital or microorganism?"

At this, it was Booth who rolled his eyes. "You know I'm not."

"Yes," Brennan smiled instantly, knowing her partner had gotten her rather lame joke. "I know you're not."

Walking around to the back of his desk, Brennan made her way to his chair as Booth reached inside the paper sack and withdrew a handful of mildly warm French fries. He offered one to Brennan, who merely shook her head politely to decline his offer, he shrugged, and then began to stuff them into his mouth. As he ate, the pair were silent for a couple of moments. Absentmindedly, as Brennan stood next to Booth's chair, and her hands crept out to his shoulders as he turned awkwardly in the chair at an angle to eat his late dinner. Feeling the tension in his shoulders and neck as she began to knead firm circles in his muscles, the stress she knew he must be feeling surely was overwhelming. Within a couple of minutes, Booth's efforts to gorge himself slowed as she continued to work the kinks out of his neck. Eventually, he stopped shoveling food into his mouth all together as he closed his eyes and leaned back against the arm of his desk chair and against Brennan's softness. The pounding in his head began to lessen a bit―whether it was from the consumption of his burger and fries, Brennan's magic fingers, or just her reassuring presence, he couldn't say."

After a minute, he felt her reach down and press a gentle kiss to his forehead. "Stop worrying," she said quietly.

Cracking open one eye, he asked, "Huh?"

"You're worrying," Brennan said. "I can feel the tension in your body already starting to accumulate once more in your upper muscle groups. And, seeing as how it might be construed as inappropriate to strip you naked in this office so I can give you a full body massage to ease those strains at the moment, I believe you're just going to have to 'chill out' until such a time as we can go home and do that."

A wry smile tugged at the edge of his lips as he said, "You want to strip me naked, huh?"

Playfully sighing in mock exasperation, Brennan replied, "Why am I not surprised that's the only part you heard me say?"

"Guy here, Bones," Booth chuckled as he pointed at himself playfully. "Duh."

His eyes darted to the white poster board and became a bit more serious as he stared at Pelant's hated face. "My truck was only parked there for four hours, Bones. He had to be waiting for me. That means he's got me under surveillance…watching me…possibly you, hell―he could have eyes on the whole team for all we know. He got into a federal building, past our safeguards, took his little artistic time setting up that message for me, and got out with no one any wiser." He stopped, sighed, and then added, "And, now he's quoting biblical passages. His MO has definitely changed."

"I thought Sweets said his driving need is to search for what he deems the truth," Brennan said. Gesturing with her index finger, she asked, "What possible truth could you have to tell that is tied to all these other agents?"

The dozen or more agents that had given blood at the blood drive several months before that Pelant had used in his first crime scene had their pictures arranged in a circle around Pelant's mugshot. Booth had also reluctantly added his own ID photo to the circle after the discovery of this morning's crime scene.

Looking up, and feeling more weary than he realized in that moment, Booth slowly shook his head as he finally answered Brennan's question honestly. "I don't know, Bones. I just don't know."

-TBC-