Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to review. Musie is in a really good mood today so I took advantage of it and you get another chapter. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Early Thursday morning, Angela rode the elevator up to Booth's apartment, trying to quiet the butterflies in her stomach. She had every right to do this, she told herself. Someone had to protect Brennan's heart and stop Booth from making a mistake he would regret for the rest of his life. Angela knew that Booth loved Brennan and that someday he would dump the home wrecker and turn to his partner. She was only doing her job as Brennan's best friend to have a little chat with Booth and convince him not to break Brennan's heart by telling her about the bimbo tomorrow. In the long run, Booth would benefit from the arrangement, she just had to convince him of that now. But that was the backup plan. The primary plan was to convince him to dump said bimbo immediately and Brennan would never need to know. Angela thought it was a perfectly acceptable plan. She hadn't run it by the others.
After their meeting and her little meltdown on Monday, things were more than a little tense in their group. Cam had bared herself before them and Angela honestly felt empathetic for her suffering but she was still harboring some anger at the other woman's actions and she certainly didn't trust her any longer. Cam had stood beside her decision to leave the group and reiterated that nothing good could come of their continued interference before walking out. Sweets had looked torn, as if he might follow and Angela hadn't tried to stop him. It was his decision to make and he had finally made the right one, stiffening his spine and assuring Angela that he was still in before taking off.
Hodgins had smiled at her and softly kissed her cheek, sending a shiver down her spine before he left without a word. But she didn't need words from Hodgins, she had never doubted that he would stand beside her no matter what and she knew she had some hard decisions to make about him and her life and she was going to have to make them soon. But not until she got things straightened out between Booth and Brennan. Then she would know that it was okay to reach out for what her heart desired the most, then she would take her life in hand and stop just drifting so she didn't have to make the hard choices.
Taking a couple of deep breaths for courage just as the elevator door opened, Angela stiffened her spine, lifted her chin and strode toward Booth's apartment, determination in every line of her body. Five steps from her destination, the door opened and a laughing, very attractive young woman stepped into the hallway. Angela's eyes widened in astonishment then narrowed in anger, critically eyeing the woman and cataloging everything she saw. Young, attractive, nice body showed off to advantage in a tight t-shirt and jeans. Not Booth's usual type but that didn't seem to matter because it was obvious from her sleepy eyes that she had just crawled out of bed. Angela suddenly found anger overwhelming her. What the hell was Seeley Booth thinking? What if Brennan had been the one walking down this hallway? Everything would have been ruined, that's what. Angela wanted to have a screaming, ranting, raving temper tantrum but she reined in her temper, crossed her arms over her chest and waited for the home wrecker to notice her.
"I know how you like your coffee by now, Babe," Padme called over her shoulder. "I'll be right back. I love you."
The answering rumble coming from inside the apartment was drowned out by the fury roaring through Angela at the younger woman so openly expressing her love for Booth. This was much worse than she had suspected and she had to do something but what? As much as she would enjoy physically kicking the bimbo's ass to the curb, Angela knew it wouldn't solve anything in the long run. Ignoring the palms itching to do physical violence, she suddenly knew the best course of action would be to pump the bimbo for information that she could use later. Relaxing her aggressive stance, Angela stood her ground.
Padme closed the apartment door and turned toward the elevator, eager for her first cup of coffee. There was none to be found in the apartment, hence her going out at the ungodly hour of 7AM when she didn't have to be up early. She was brought up short when she almost ran into the slender, dark-haired woman who stood blocking her way. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," Padme apologized with a polite smile.
Angela looked down into friendly brown eyes from her superior height and forced what she hoped passed for a smile to her face. "That's okay. You seem to be in a hurry," she answered, trying to force friendliness into her voice. She thought she sounded rather strangled but Padme's smile widened.
"Yeah, I need some coffee and Seeley doesn't have any," Padme sighed and moved toward the elevator. Angela's hands fisted at her sides at the younger woman's easy use of Booth's given name but she fell into step beside her, determined to learn all she could from this surprise encounter.
"Have you known Booth long?" Angela asked as they stepped onto the elevator, feeling she didn't have time to pussyfoot around.
"Not that long," Padme shrugged, punching the button for the ground floor and warily eying Angela. The other woman's manner was friendly enough but Padme didn't much care for the cold, almost threatening look in her eyes when they turned her way. Enclosed in the confines of the elevator, Padma could almost feel the waves of hostility emanating from the older woman and, inexplicable, directed at her. Nervous, Padme reached out and forcefully punched the ground floor button repeatedly.
Angela's eyes narrowed at the succinct and completely unhelpful answer, her mind quickly considering and discarding ideas to get the information she needed but when Padme scooted into the corner and punched the elevator button rather desperately, Angela grinned to herself. She was making the home wrecker nervous? Now wasn't that a shame? Not!! Suddenly in a much better mood, Angela decided to cut to the chase now that she had a captive audience. Timing it perfectly, she waited until the ground floor lit up then quickly stepped forward and pressed the button to keep the doors closed, fighting laughter as the look of relief on the younger woman's face turned to alarm and then fear. Good. Angela wanted her scared. She wanted her to listen closely to what she had to say and never forget a word.
"What…what are you doing?" demanded Padme in a shaking voice as she pressed back against the elevator wall, not having anywhere else to go because of the way Angela was standing.
"I'm cutting through all the bullshit, Sweetie," Angela answered, grinning. "Since we're both adults, I thought you might appreciate it if I got to the point."
"Okay," Padme nodded, swallowing hard, noting the waves of anger and resentment rolling off of Angela despite her quasi friendly tone. Padme was good at reading people, men more so than women, admittedly, but she didn't have any difficulty ascertaining that this woman, whom she had never even met, hated her guts. Padme had no idea why and she really didn't care, her instincts told her to not provoke the psycho, to just let the other woman vent and get the hell away from her as fast as possible, preferably without bloodshed on her part.
Angela's eyebrow lifted at Padme's easy capitulation, a little disappointed that she wasn't putting up a fight so Angela would feel justified in releasing all of her angst. "Listen up, Sweetie, I want to give you the 411 on your boyfriend."
Padme's eyes widened at this indication that Angela knew who she was and that she wanted to tell her something about Jared but she didn't want to provoke the psycho so she kept quiet.
Again, Angela was disappointed in the lack of spirit shown by her victim and she felt a stinging twinge of conscience that she was about to do the same thing to this relatively innocent young woman that she was so angry at Cam for doing to Brennan. But she didn't let that stop her. "I know that he's good looking and God knows he's sex on wheels," Angela ignored the way Padme stiffened and glared at her, "but there is only one woman that man is ever going to love and it's not you."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" demanded Padme, infuriated at Angela's words.
"I'm the woman trying to save you some heartache," she answered, honesty ringing in her softened voice. Stealing herself, Angela forced herself to go in for the kill. "You may be with him right now but Seeley Booth will never be yours. His heart will always belong to someone else and if you wind up ruining that for him, he'll hate you for it in the long run."
Padme stiffened at the pitying look Angela sent her way, so angry that it took her a moment to understand what Angela had actually said. Then she understood. The other woman wanted Seeley, she obviously knew there was someone else in his life but didn't know who it was and had completely misunderstood Padme's presence at his apartment, evidently deciding to use intimidation to scare her off. Padme didn't like to play games that affected other people and normally would have immediately come clean, correcting the misunderstanding but she didn't owe this hostile, angry, insulting woman any explanations. Plus, just last night, Jared had expressed his happiness that his older brother had finally told the woman he loved how he felt and they were now together. He had also expressed his concerns that everyone wouldn't leave them alone and let them find their way, his guilt for what he had deliberately done to that relationship in a misguided attempt to compete with his brother coming to the surface.
Looking into Angela's hostile gaze, Padme's gut told her that this woman would go to extremes to get what she wanted and what she wanted was, apparently Seeley. This woman wouldn't hesitate to attack the socially awkward Dr. Brennan in the same manner that she was attacking her and Padme had no doubts she would cause all kinds of difficulties in a fledgling relationship that didn't need that. While Padme didn't necessarily owe Dr. Brennan any loyalty, she had actually liked the awkward anthropologist the only time she had met her and she did owe Jared and, by extension, his brother her loyalty and what protection she could provide.
"I appreciate the pep talk, Sweetie," she mocked a very surprised Angela, "but my relationship with Seeley is none of your business." Angela felt frustration rise and found she didn't like the younger woman fighting back after all but she had already gone this far, she had nothing to lose by going all the way.
"He doesn't love you and he never will. You might have his body but you'll never have his heart because that's already taken. Take my advice and get out before you get your heart broken," Angela snapped, releasing the button to allow the elevator doors to open and facing forward, done with this conversation and ready to vacate the premises. To her shock, Padme's hand streaked out and her finger landed on the button that Angela's had just vacated.
"As much as I appreciate your advice, I think I'll pass on taking it," Padme snapped. "And you might want to remember that people fall out of love every day, especially when they're with someone who meets their every need." Padme deliberately made her voice throaty and suggestive, pleased as rage flashed in the brown eyes doing their best to stare her down.
"We'll see," snapped Angela, reaching out and knocking Padme's finger aside.
"I guess we will," Padme called after her as she stalked toward the front door of the building.
"Bitch," muttered Angela under her breath, turning in the direction of the Jeffersonian.
"Psycho bitch," muttered Padme under her breath, pushing through the front doors and turning in the direction of the nearest coffee store.
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Daisy Wick had spent hours last night sitting in her lonely apartment, mentally reviewing and refining her plan, coming up with every possible variation of problems that might arise that she could think of and formulating workable solutions to every one of those problems. She was as ready as she was ever going to get for Operation Revenge to begin. The only thing that still concerned her at all about the plan was how very critical the timing was. She had an extremely limited window in which to launch her plan but she needed certain conditions to be met or she didn't have a chance of achieving the ultimate revenge.
Daisy looked up from her spot on the platform as Angela stalked through the lab doors, heading directly toward her office, looking neither left nor right, her aggressive stomp warning people to stay out of her way. Daisy's eyebrows rose. It would appear that something had upset Ms. Montenegro. Interesting and fortuitous. For her, that is. She needed the person most likely to be suspicious of her sudden change of heart distracted and viola, Angela was distracted, almost like divine intervention. Ducking her head to hide a smile, Daisy mentally reviewed the parameters that she had so carefully constructed to assure the success of her plan and made a decision. It was time.
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Angela stomped into her office, threw her purse across the room and sank down into her desk chair, immediately burying her face in the arms folded atop her desk, absolutely disgusted. With herself. She had no idea how she had gone from information gathering mode into seek and destroy mode with Booth's bimbo. Okay, fine, she knew how it had happened. She had allowed the unreasonable anger she had been feeling lately about her life seemingly being out of her control to spill over onto the Booth/Brennan situation. Who was she kidding? This anger was spilling over onto and beginning to color everything in her life and it was turning her into someone she didn't know and didn't particularly like. She knew she had had no right to attack that young woman in the elevator so viciously, even in defense of her best friend and she had no doubt she would be answering for that as soon as Booth found out what she had done. She suddenly felt much more sympathetic toward Cam's current predicament because she, too, felt small and mean and vicious and as if she deserved to be punished.
Oh, God, what was she going to do? Logically, she knew that she should back off and let Booth and Brennan handle their own love life but she found it hilarious that the word logically would even enter her brain and it was highly unlikely that she would follow her own advice. After all, she hadn't done anything logical, rational or reasonable in her own life in so long that she was obviously seeking to exert control over something that she truly cared about but carried much less of an emotional risk to her than her own screwed up love life. Hence her obsession with Booth and Brennan. If she could make things work out for them, she could trust herself to make the hard decisions in her own life and, she sadly acknowledged to herself, she just wasn't going to be able to let it go until something was settled between Booth and Brennan one way or the other. So she had better stop feeling sorry for herself and get to work on damage control, she told herself firmly. Standing up, she straightened her shoulders and headed for the door, figuring she had no longer than the rest of the day to come up with something before she was taken to task by Booth. Fortunately for her, she already had a plan that would delay her having to face the wrath of Booth and quite possibly deliver the exact results she was after, she just needed to take care of a few minor details before she put it into action.
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Padme entered Booth's apartment, kicking the door closed behind her a little harder than she had meant to but not as hard as she wanted to, still angry over her encounter with the psycho in the elevator. Jared jumped up from where he was sprawled on the couch and relieved her of one of the coffee cups and the bag of muffins she was juggling, his brow lifting in question as he took in her furious face.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"I just got warned off by one of your brother's old flames," she answered, lingering anger from the encounter seeping into her voice.
"What happened?" Jared's concern was rapidly escalating. It took a lot to make his fiancé angry and he could clearly see she was furious.
"At least, I assumed she was an old flame but she did act crazy so I guess she could just be some random psycho who's fixated on Seeley," she rambled, musing out loud.
"Padme!" Jared barked out in his best Attention soldier voice.
"What?" she snapped giving him a disgruntled look. She had repeatedly told him she wasn't one of his soldiers but he seemed to have difficulty grasping that.
"What happened?" Looking at him now, she immediately softened at the concern in his face and voice. Taking a deep breath, she tamped down her temper and told him, relating her conversation with the bizarre woman almost word for word. At the end of the tale, Jared whistled sharply.
"And you didn't get a name?" Padme rolled her eyes.
"It's not like we became BFF's, Jared, so no, I didn't get her name but she was tall, slender, dark hair, brown eyes, very pretty and she made it clear she considered your brother her personal property."
Ignoring Padme's sarcasm, Jared frowned at the description. That didn't sound like Seeley's usual type but, then again, Seeley didn't have a type anymore. He had been a one woman man for years and now that he was happy with that woman, Jared hated the thought of anyone, especially a jealous ex stirring up trouble for the two of them. Running through the description again, he could only think of one person of his brother's acquaintance that it fit but he immediately dismissed her as a possibility. His brother had been stupid enough to sleep with Temperence's boss but he would never be stupid enough to sleep with her best friend. Regardless of the woman's identity, his brother needed to know about this.
"We have to tell Seeley about this," he voiced his last thought aloud and Padme nodded, in full agreement. If the couple had trouble coming their way, they at least deserved a head's up so they could be on the lookout for it. Padme knew from experience that it was far from pleasant to be blindsided by the psycho from hell and she could only hope that if the unpleasant woman ever caught up with Brennan, the good doctor would kick her obnoxious ass.