Hi, guys. Are you getting tired of hearing from me yet? I hope not. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Musie felt like having a little fun. Thanks. T.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Brennan tiredly rubbed her forehead and turned her chair to look out at the floor of the Jeffersonian. She could see her friends all huddled up and knew they were discussing her. It seemed to be all they could talk about for the last three days, since she had started looking like death warmed over as Angela so charmingly put it. She knew she didn't look her best but it was a little hurtful to have it put so bluntly especially when she just couldn't explain to her best friend why she hadn't been able to more than doze for a few moments at a time for the last three days. No way was she having that conversation with her nosy best friend.

She and Booth had returned from Bali a week ago and things between had been essentially unchanged between them. Oh, except for the fact that Booth slept in her bed every night now. She was afraid that Angela would worm that little tidbit out of her and find it just a little too interesting. Brennan found it disheartening that all they did in her big bed was sleep and it was slowly driving her insane. She had even toyed with the idea of kicking him out of her bed but the last three days had convinced her that really wasn't a viable alternative at this point.

Booth had taken her home from the airport and just never really left. The first night Brennan had made token objections that she didn't need him to stay with her but he had just looked at her and opened his arms where he was lying on the sofa and like the well disciplined scientist that she was, she had told her inner voice to shut the hell up and crawled into his arms. They slept on the couch that night but moved to her bed the next night without any further protest from her. She had spent the next four nights wondering how the heck Booth had come to be living with her and she still wasn't getting any sex from him and plotting on how to change that.

Then three days ago, Booth had been sent out of town for a training seminar that had been put off earlier in the year because of a big case they were working on at the time. The seminar was required and this was the last one offered this year so he had no choice but to attend. You would have thought he was going off to war with the way he hugged and kissed Brennan before leaving for the airport, leaving her cursing the fact that there hadn't been enough time to drag him back to bed. But now, three days and sleepless nights later, she didn't care about the sex anymore. She just wanted Booth to come home so she could sleep.

"Bren," Angela said her friend's name so softly that it wouldn't have disturbed her if she was sleeping. No such luck, she just had her eyes closed.

"Did you need something, Ange?" Brennan asked without opening her eyes.

"Sweetie, I'm really worried about you. You look awful since Booth has been out of town. Did you two have a fight or something?" Angela came to perch a hip on Brennan's desk and Brennan opened her eyes with a sigh to see her friend's face creased with genuine concern for her.

"No, Ange, Booth and I didn't have a fight. I'm just not sleeping well," she threw Angela a crumb hoping it would get her off the scent of Booth. Angela's eyes narrowed and she studied Brennan's face suspiciously. She knew something had happened between the partners in Bali but they had both been so tight lipped since they got back that she couldn't get anything out of either of them. But she had seen the secret smiles, the constant touching, nothing inappropriate but they both seemed to feel the need to constantly touch each other and outside of work, you never saw one without the other, which, granted, wasn't all that big of a change but it was definitely a change. Even Sweets agreed that their relationship had changed during their trip but was at a loss to explain how. Had it been anyone else, Angela would have automatically assumed they were sleeping together, but she didn't get that vibe from the partners. If anything, the sexual tension between them had reached a new high and it was sometimes uncomfortable just to be in the same room with them as their eyes devoured each other. Still, she would be remiss in her duties as a best friend if she didn't explore all the options.

"Bren, are you and Booth sleeping together?" Angela demanded already sure of the answer. At least she was sure until Brennan stiffened and looked away from her, a dead giveaway that she was telling a big one.

"Angela, I've already told you that Booth and I aren't having sex," Brennan told her friend honestly but could tell that Angela was still suspicious. Angela searched Brennan's direct gaze and saw only honesty but something wasn't kosher with this situation and she needed to find out what so she could help her friend figure it out. That's what best friends did, after all.

"Whatever you say, Bren," Angela said airily, growing even more suspicious when Brennan looked relieved. Taking pity on the forensic anthropologist, Angela reached out and patted her shoulder, "Sweetie, why don't you go home and get some sleep. Live a little and take tomorrow off," she suggested. Brennan sighed and rubbed her forehead tiredly.

"It wouldn't do any good, Ange. I can't sleep without…," Angela's ears perked up, sure she was about to get the lowdown on what was going on. Brennan paused on a gasp, utterly appalled that she had almost inadvertently spilled the beans.

"Can't sleep without what, Sweetie?" Angela queried, her tone telling Brennan she wasn't just going to let this one go. Before she could even try to muddle her way through that minefield, Brennan heard a noise that brought joy to her heart and was on her feet instantly.

"Booth," Brennan gasped and Angela raised a brow, her mind still so focused on their conversation that she had missed Booth's booming voice in the lab loudly informing everyone he was back.

"You can't sleep without Booth?" Angela wanted to make sure her information was correct before she let the squeals escape.

"What? No, Ange, well, yes, but Booth is here. Booth is back," Brennan desperately tried to cover the slip revealed by Angela's relentless interrogation techniques and her own tiredness. Angela had more questions but, at that moment, the man in question sailed through the door to Brennan's office.

"I'm back," he exclaimed throwing his arms theatrically wide and looking at Brennan as if he hadn't seen her in years instead of days. It didn't escape Angela's notice that Brennan was giving him the same look. Looking at the FBI agent more closely, Angela was shocked to note that he looked just as bad as Brennan, they both had bags under their eyes that could be used for luggage. Basically ignoring Angela's presence, Brennan rudely pushed past her friend and almost ran to Booth, laughing and throwing her arms around his neck. Angela just happened to catch the look of utter contentment on Booth's face as his arms closed tightly around Brennan and she was surprised to feel anger sweeping through her. Not sleeping together, my ass. There was no way those two weren't bumping uglies and her best friend had just lied to her about it. Why? Why would she do that? Anxious to get out of the room before she said something she might regret later, Angela quietly left the room, closing the door behind her to give them a little privacy. She was truly happy for them, she was just more than a little hurt that her best friend didn't seem to think she could be entrusted with that information.

"Hi," said Booth, cupping Brennan's face in his palms and resting his forehead against hers.

"Hi," she whispered back, her hands going to cover his where they rested on her face.

"You look tired," he mused, tracing the circles under her eyes gently with his thumbs.

"So do you," she returned, unable to make herself pull out of his arms. She was right where she wanted to be, she could stand where she was for the rest of her life and be perfectly content.

"Yeah," he sighed, "I've been having a little trouble sleeping." Her look told him that she knew exactly how much trouble he'd had sleeping and it was more than a little.

"Me, too," Brennan tried to stifle a yawn and Booth took another look at her. She was exhausted, so tired she was swaying on her feet and here he was making her stand in her office because his arms refused to obey his commands to release her when she should be in bed. Finding the will to turn her loose, Booth dropped a kiss on her forehead and stepped behind her, turning her toward the door. "Booth, what are you doing?" she asked but she didn't resist his hands on her shoulders guiding her out the door.

"I'm taking you home and putting you to bed, Bones. You're exhausted. You're no good to the Jeffersonian or anyone else until you get some rest." Booth might not have been quite so blunt with someone else but Brennan understood and respected straightforwardness. "Besides, I'm tired, too," he teased, stepping up beside her and sliding an arm around her shoulders without a peep of protest from her. "Cam, I'm taking Bones home," Booth called out without breaking stride or waiting for an acknowledgement that it was all right.

Cam and Hodgins looked at each other with raised brows. They, too, had their suspicions that the partners were now true partners in every sense of the word and Booth swooping in to kidnap Brennan within minutes of his arrival back in DC only reinforced that impression. Cam had known where Booth's heart lay for a long time and had come to terms with him and Dr. Brennan as a couple and Hodgins was just happy as long as his little work family was happy. He also thought Booth and Brennan did an emotionally devastating, largely thankless job and they deserved to find what happiness they could, especially if it meant they would be there for each other. Seeing Angela approaching, Hodgins could tell that she shared his and Cam's opinion. She definitely thought Booth and Brennan were sleeping together and something about that made her very unhappy, which was a big surprise considering she had been the biggest supporter of a relationship between the two from the first.

"Something wrong, Ange?" Hodgins asked, splitting his concentration between the artist and the slide he was preparing for a closer look under the microscope.

"You know that Booth and Bren are sleeping together, right?" she countered his question with one of her own.

"Well, no, I don't know they are but I do strongly suspect it," he supplied, turning his full attention to Angela when he saw her morose expression. She was truly upset about something. "Would it bother you if they were sleeping together?" he asked, his mind trying to work through why it would bother her and he didn't much like any of the obvious conclusions.

"What? No, I would be happy for them. It does, however, bother me that my best friend just lied to my face about it, Hodgins. Why would she do that?" Ah, now Hodgins understood as he heard the hurt and bewilderment bleeding through the anger in Angela's voice. Propping a hip on the table behind him, he crossed his arms over his chest and looked off into space as he seriously considered the question.

"That just doesn't sound like Dr. B, Ange. I don't think she would lie to you about something like that," he told her and the conviction in his voice gave her pause. Was it possible she had misunderstood the situation? Had she reacted without having all the facts? She had to admit it was possible. Getting information from Brennan was like pulling teeth and what she considered critical, need to know information might not be viewed the same way by her naïve best friend.

"Thanks, Hodgie," Angela sighed. Damn, she had thought she had this all figured out and now she had to start over from scratch. She knew Brennan was exhausted and she was probably resting so she wouldn't bother her at home today but no way would she escape the interrogation tomorrow. Angela's title as best friend was on the line and she would defend that title at all costs.

Brennan looked at her best friend and wanted to beat her head against a wall, she wanted to curl up in the fetal position and cover her head with her arms until the relentless woman just went away. She wanted to cry uncle and just tell her whatever the hell it was she wanted to know but it had come down to a battle of wills and Brennan was determined not to lose. She might have precious little control over her own life at the moment, but this she could control.

"All you have to do is tell me, Bren, and I'll go away," Angela singsonged and Brennan gritted her teeth to keep the words from escaping so that this torture would be over.

Angela had met her at the lab doors this morning all perky and peppy and Brennan had known something was up, then she had dogged her every footstep for the last five hours with her persistent questions, waving aside Brennan's assertion that she didn't want to talk about it. Brennan couldn't even go to the freaking ladies room to escape her. She had tried, several times but Angela just followed her, yammering the whole time. She had even resorted to texting Booth, demanding that he find her a dead body to which he had laughingly responded that he would see what he could do. That had been in hour one and so far, he hadn't come to her rescue. I mean, really, was it too much to ask for a freaking dead body to turn up when you needed one? Apparently it was but did she complain about all the bodies that turned up when it was so damned inconvenient? No, she did not and oh, my God, if Angela didn't stop soon, she would be insane before the end of the day. Was winning a battle of wills with her perky best friend really important enough to sacrifice her sanity over? She thought it was until Angela's mouth opened again and quickly changed her mind. Hell, no, she didn't have a secret deep enough, dark enough to make this torture worth it to protect.

"Stop," Brennan almost whimpered, her head coming to rest atop her folded arms on her desk. She didn't have to see Angela's face to know the artist wore a smile of satisfaction. Angela took great pride in her ability to ferret information out of people and, although Brennan had never doubted the veracity of Angela's claim she had never had it used on her quite so blatantly before. Now that she had, she could only be glad that Angela fought on the side of good instead of evil cause, damn, the girl had skills.

"Don't worry, Bren, the painful part is over with now," soothed Angela and Brennan shot her a drop dead look that caught Angela completely unaware. When had Brennan learned to give looks like that? Hmm, that would have to be a question for later, she was after much bigger fish at the moment. "So, Bren, you look better this morning. Get a good night's sleep last night?" Brennan's eyes narrowed at the question as it was completely unrelated to the one's Angela had been peppering her with all day.

"Yes, Angela, I slept very well last night. Thank you for asking." Angela's lips twitched at the oh so polite answer coming out of Brennan's mouth while she glared daggers at her. Now that Angela found herself in the position of almost obtaining the information she needed, she hesitated and wasn't sure why except that her instincts were screaming a warning that this was a very bad idea. Looking at Brennan more closely, Angela saw that her friend was genuinely distressed. In fact, she was royally pissed. At her. Angela swallowed hard as she realized what she had been about to do. She never, ever used her techniques on true friends for two reasons. The first was that information obtained under duress was always suspect and the second was there was no surer way to lose a friend than to force them to confide something to you that they weren't ready to share. Suddenly, she was very ashamed of herself.

"Bren, I'm sorry," Angela leaned forward and laid her hand on Brennan's forearm where it rested on her desk. Brennan looked at her suspiciously, obviously wondering if this was simply a change in tactics but she didn't pull her arm away and Angela was encouraged. "You and Booth are none of my business and I'm sorry I've nagged you all day to tell me something you obviously don't want to share. I will understand if you never want to tell me anything again but I'll listen whenever you're ready to talk," Angela rose from her chair and headed for the door, her head hung a little in shame at what she had put her best friend through today. "I really am sorry, Sweetie," she offered softly, placing her hand on the doorknob.

"Ange, wait." Something must have convinced Brennan that she was serious about the apologies and Angela turned back to find the other woman gnawing on her lower lip and eyeing her appraisingly. Raising a brow, Angela waited. "What if we talked about a hypothetical situation?" Brennan offered. Angela nodded slowly and walked back to her chair. Brennan hadn't realized how much she needed to talk to someone about what was going on in her life at the moment until Angela had been about to exit her office. She desperately needed some perspective and no one would give it to her straight like her best friend, but she just couldn't bring herself to blurt out the facts about her and Booth. So she couched it in a hypothetical situation knowing that with her savvy, Angela would know they were really discussing the partners, but Brennan's pride could live with that.

"Hypothetically speaking, what would you say if two people were sleeping together and not having sex?" Angela almost sagged in disappointment. She knew she didn't deserve it after the way she had treated Brennan today but she had thought they were going to talk about her and Booth, but this conversation couldn't be about those two because no way would they crawl into the same bed and not have sex. It must be some research on one of Brennan's anthropological papers. Prepared to lend her expertise to the subject, Angela gave the question some serious thought.

"Are they the same sex?"

"No."

"Is either one of them gay?"

"No."

"Are they both hot or is one of them hot and the other is ugly?"

"I would have to say they are both attractive to members of the opposite sex." Angela's eyes narrowed and her finger tapped on her lips as she considered the options.

"Has this been going on long?"

"A couple of weeks."

"Is there groping? Kissing?"

"Not lately." Angela was too caught up in her own thoughts to notice the morose tone of voice Brennan used.

"When there was groping and kissing, who instigated it?" Brennan perked up at the air of excitement in Angela's face, sure she was about to get the answer she needed to tell her what to do.

"The female."

"Ah, there you go then." Angela nodded as if that explained everything but it really, really didn't.

"I don't know what that means," Brennan admitted, still hoping for an insightful breakthrough.

"Come on, Bren. If some guy crawls into bed with you over and over, especially someone you've put the moves on and doesn't even try anything, there's only one logical conclusion." Brennan had reached her own conclusions a few days ago, she was only hoping that Angela's would be different and let her avoid directly addressing the situation at present but she was getting a very bad feeling about this.

"And what's your conclusion?" Brennan asked, trying hard to keep her voice from shaking. Angela turned toward her best friend and calmly, logically shattered every bit of hope she had managed to maintain over the last confusing weeks.

"The guy's just not into that particular woman. I mean, seriously, no guy turns down freely offered sex," Angela asserted confidently. "So, did I help? Did I get it right?" Angela asked eagerly and Brennan managed a ghost of a smile.

"Yes, Angela, I think you got it exactly right. Thank you for your assistance." Angela frowned a little at the formality of Brennan's speech but she was just glad she was forgiven and had been able to help. Bouncing out of her chair, Angela headed happily back to her office, never seeing the tears tracking down Brennan's face.

Brennan didn't even bother to swipe away the tears as she spun her chair to face away from the door and leaned her head back against it. She didn't even know why she was crying. It wasn't like Angela had told her anything she hadn't already deduced on her own. Booth just wasn't that into her. She had figured that out days ago. She had just needed it confirmed by someone who understood men better than she did because she sure as hell didn't understand Seeley Booth at the moment. She had told Angela there was no kissing or groping, but that wasn't entirely true. Booth would never be so crass as to grope but he touched her all the freaking time. Little brushes of his hand on her cheek, pulling her hair free of her coat collar then leaning down to smell her hair and telling her she smelled delicious, pulling her against him when they were on the sofa, nuzzling his nose against her neck then laughing when she shivered from the contact. In fact, he couldn't seem to keep his hands off of her, especially when they were in her apartment. He would walk up behind her and slip his arms around her waist, one hand always going under her shirt to splay possessively on her abdomen, his hot fingers on her skin making her weak in the knees but apparently not him. He would drop a kiss on her neck or shoulder and simply walk away while she grabbed onto something for support.

And he had gotten into the habit of kissing her goodnight and good morning. She had come to anticipate those kisses as the highlight of her day. God, how pathetic was that? He kissed her until her toes curled and then easily drifted off to sleep while she was so filled with lust that the nights were becoming pure torture for her to have him so physically close but forbidden. It didn't help matters any that she had been having this recurring dream about them in Bali. They didn't actually have sex but what they did do left Brennan physically aching for more. She had done everything she knew to do to subtly show him she wanted them to move their relationship to the next level short of handcuffing him to the bed and having her wicked way with him and she was flat out of ideas. And with Angela's insights, she was out of hope that this thing was going to lead anywhere but to heartbreak. For her, anyway. Apparently, Booth just wasn't that into her.

A little pang shot through her heart every time that thought ran through her mind. What was she going to do? She had no idea, but she did know that she couldn't continue to ignore that nagging voice inside her head that told her to do something, anything but things couldn't continue as they were. She was a logical, rational scientist and she knew that the longer she put off dealing with things, the harder they would be to deal with. Her biggest fear was that if she confronted Booth with this issue, she would drive him away entirely. Her biggest problem was that she didn't think she could function without Booth in her life. Oh, she logically knew she would survive but that would be all it would be. She wouldn't be living, she wouldn't be happy and she sure as hell wouldn't be the same person he had helped her become, but that was true whether it happened now or at some point in the murky future and she just couldn't go on like this. So, she had better be damned sure of what she was doing because she would be burning her bridges behind her. But how could she be sure this was the right thing to do? Maybe she should just give it a little more time. Trying to ignore her inner Angela who was telling her to grow a backbone, Brennan dropped her head into her hands with a groan. The real Angela had given her a headache and it was hard to think over the throb. Brennan's head suddenly came up the proverbial light bulb went off.

Angela. Of course. Angela would know what to do and how to gauge Booth's responses so Brennan wasn't in any doubt of her facts and it wasn't like the artist didn't already know about them, so her pride was already in tatters with her friend anyway. Besides, Angela was always pontificating on the duties of a best friend and Brennan figured that if she wanted the job, she could damn well work for it and help her figure this mess out. Feeling much better now that she had something approaching a plan, Brennan dried her eyes and trotted to Angela's office.

"Ange," Brennan gasped breathlessly from the door, "about that hypothetical situation we were discussing earlier, how could you tell with absolute certainty whether the man was interested in the woman sexually or not?" Angela didn't even look up from her sketch. She simply shrugged her slender shoulders, she was glad to help Brennan out but she wasn't nearly as interested in this hypothetical situation as she would have been in if they were talking about Booth and Brennan.

"She should just jump him, Bren," Angela suggested with a grin. "That should tell her everything she needs to know."

"I agree with your assessment of the situation, Angela." Brennan sighed impatiently. "But, what if, hypothetically speaking, that scenario wasn't a possibility?" Angela did look up then, her grin widening at the look of reserved excitement on her best friend's face. Wow, she hadn't seen the anthropologist this excited over one of her experiments in a really long time and Angela had some time so she gave Brennan her full attention. Patting the seat of the chair beside her, Angela laughed out loud as Brennan seated herself primly then eagerly leaned forward, ready to hear all of Angela's words of wisdom.

"Ok, Sweetie, does your girl want to blow this guys socks off or just subtly let him know she's interested?" Brennan didn't even have to think about that one.

"Blow his socks off. Definitely. She's already tried subtle with very disappointing results."

"So if this guy is stupid, why does she want him in the first place?" Furiously scribbling notes, Brennan's head snapped up at the question, she wasn't sure what she had said to give Angela the impression that Booth was stupid but, even being as upset with him as she currently was, she couldn't let that stand.

"He's not stupid, Ange. Like you said, he's just probably not that into her."

"Well, Bren, if he's not stupid and he's keeping this woman all revved up without coming through with the goods then that makes him a tease," Angela laughed. Brennan pondered Angela's offhand comment and her eyes widened. Oh, my God, Angela was right, Seeley Booth was a tease. She wasn't sure how that little tidbit helped her but all information was good. She would surely find some use for that interesting fact.

"So what would you do, Ange?" Brennan asked quietly when Angela's laughter subsided. The serious tone of her voice made Angela take a closer look at her friend's face and she felt the first stirrings of unease in the pit of her stomach.

"Bren," Angela reached out and placed a hand over the one currently taking notes. Brennan's writing paused but she didn't look up. "This is for one of your experiments, right?" Brennan thought quickly and was able to meet her friend's eyes levelly.

"Yes, Ange, this is for an experiment." It wasn't a lie, she justified to herself as a relieved smile lit Angela's face. Brennan had no idea how Angela didn't know they were talking about her and Booth but she wasn't about to spill the beans now and this could easily be classified as an experiment. Probably the most important one of her life.

"Ok, then," Angela was back to smiling, her fertile mind whirling with possibilities. If this had been advice for Brennan, Angela would have edited it considerably and explained it in detail but since it was just a hypothetical situation, she could be as outrageous as she wanted and she excelled at outrageous.