Here's a new chapter for this ongoing story. I want to thank everyone for the incredible response that this story has generated, even when the extreme level of the humor has moved it a bit further afield than I usually take our favorite characters in my stories. I hope that you continue enjoying this one, and I plan on working on this story as long as the interest continues. I hope you enjoy this new chapter. Gregg.
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Three days after Hacker got his just reward for his bullshit Booth was called in for a meeting with Cullen. He knew that he wasn't in any sort of trouble vis-a-vis that pansy Hacker, but he couldn't help being somewhat curious. Cullen was now a couple of levels above him, and most of his supervisory work fell to Hacker. Shrugging as he came up to Cullen's office, he knocked on the door and went in when Cullen bellowed out for him to.
"You wanted to see me, Sam?" Booth asked. Cullen had told him to start calling him by name a number of years before after he and Bones' efforts on behalf of his daughter, whose unfortunate death from cancer still angered Booth given the circumstances surrounding it.
"Yeah," Cullen motioned him to take a seat. "Hacker's been transferred to run the Boston Field Office. That means we have an ADD slot open. The Director feels, and I agree, that you should take Hacker's place."
Booth sighed. He'd turned down several promotions over the last few years because it meant leaving field work, and his partnership with Bones. This one was even more problematic.
"Sam, now is not a good time," he told the older man. "Bones is pregnant, and I promised her that us being together would not end our partnership. She won't work with another agent. Her position is, and we talked about this a few months ago when we got together, was that if I got promoted she would end her consulting for the FBI, but would run the lab while her interns did the work she has been doing."
Cullen nodded in understanding. He'd been ready for this one. "That's why your partnership is not being severed," he told Booth. "There are a lot of cases that another agent and an intern could deal with, and benefit from the work of the other squints in the lab. We want to be able to give you and Dr. Brennan the cases that are uniquely in your field. It would be enough field work to satisfy Dr. Brennan, but leave you enough time here to deal with the work you need to do as the ADD in the major crimes division."
"That's different," Booth commented.
"Sweets was pretty clear as to the likely reaction if we did anything that would sever the partnership, and what was done to that ass Hacker is pretty good evidence that Sweets was right," Cullen leveled a stare at Booth letting the man know that he knew just who was responsible for the tattooing and humiliation of Hacker. Truth was he was still laughing his ass off over it. He'd had the devil of a time holding in the belly laughs when he saw the visual proof of the tattoos. Hacker shrieking that his sex life was permanently destroyed was also a pretty funny memory.
"I'll send Hacker a get well soon fruit basket," Booth dead panned. "And I'll buy Sweets a drink. Obviously the kid knows which side his bread is buttered on."
"After scaring the shit out of him with those fake resignations?" Sam chuckled. "I think he knows never to mess with you two ever again. But I do want the two of you to continue with the counseling for a time while you adjust to your knew position, and also the reduced case load. Understood?"
"Alright," Booth agreed. He knew that this was a promotion he couldn't turn down. It had already been made known to him from on high that if he turned down anymore promotions he may very well find himself transferred with a lateral promotion to make the point that the FBI didn't make promotion offers lightly. Now he just had to make sure that Bones knew that this was something that was non-negotiable.
"Good," Cullen told him. "You'll start transitioning in on Monday. Take the rest of the day off and let Dr. Brennan and the other Squints know what's happening. Tell Dr. Saroyan to contact me so we can work out the details on the new arrangement."
"No problem, Sam," Booth said and left the office to gather his things and head on over to the Jeffersonian.
At The Jeffersonian
"Hey, Cam," Booth said as he approached her. "Sam Cullen needs you to call him. Some changes are going to be made, and he needs to coordinate."
Cam looked startled. "They're not seriously splitting up you and Dr. Brennan's partnership," she blurted the first thought that occurred to her.
"No," Booth told her, "but some changes are being made since Hacker was just transferred to Boston. I'm taking his place, but will still be working some cases with Bones. I need to go talk to her about this right now so she won't hear about it second hand and jump to conclusions."
"She'd castrate you is she thought the partnership was in jeopardy," Cam chuckled.
"Don't I know it," Booth muttered. "Just call Cullen and he'll explain everything. I gotta go."
He found Bones in her office working on some paperwork. It amazed him, as always, how much paperwork seemed to follow them around, no matter how simple some of the work they did was. He could tell that this set had nothing to do with her work with him, but more of what she did outside of that. He closed and locked her door so they could have some privacy.
"Working hard, Bones?" he asked as he approached her.
Bones looked up and smiled. She was always happy when he showed up unannounced. It amused her how different it was from the first year of their partnership. "Hardly," she told him. "I was just reviewing some case profiles that my grad students are working on in Limbo. I was just about finished. Do we have a case?"
"No, but I do have to talk to you about work," he told her, knowing she would understand the implications instantly. She was freaky like that when it came to the Bureau and their partnership.
"What happened?" she demanded.
"It's not bad," he told her, trying to make sure the proper groundwork was laid. He didn't need her hightailing it over to the Hoover to give Cullen the smack down. He'd wind up without a job. "I'm being promoted," he told her.
"I thought you said no upward promotions would be available for some time," she said, her mind awhirl with thoughts of not working cases anymore. She'd made a firm commitment that she would not work with anyone but Booth, and she was sticking to that.
"Hacker, the waste of skin and good air, is being sent to Boston to head up the field office there," he told her. "They want me to replace him here as the ADD of Major Crimes. But, the really big cases they want to continue with us as partners. It means less cases, but we still work together."
"Isn't that somewhat of a demotion for Andrew?" Bones asked. She liked that they would still be working together, though.
"First, please don't refer to that total putz by his first name," Booth told her. "It makes me want to hurl. And second, the idiot shouldn't have been an ADD in the first place, the brown nosing twit. Hell, he shouldn't even be head of a field office, but this was the only way to get rid of his sorry ass without raising all sorts of noise."
Bones was amused at Booth's total loathing of Andrew, but knew that there was good reason for it given that she went on one date with the man, and Booth was definitely the epitome of the jealous Alpha Male. She shut down her computer and put away the files.
"Are you done for the day?" she asked.
"Yeah," he told her.
"Let's go home and celebrate your promotion," she told him, a wicked grin on her face as she emphasized the word celebrate.
Booth paled slightly. "Now, Bones," he said, backtracking slightly. "For the last couple of weeks sex after work has been a no go. Junior's developing a complex since you toss your cookies every time he makes his appearance when the festivities are about to begin. Do I have to break out the old Hazmat suit again?"
Bones chuckled as she pulled Booth's head down for a searing kiss. "No," she told him. "I just took my anti-nausea medicine and feel fine. What I want is to show you how much I approve of your new position in the FBI hierarchy, and show you in a way that will be quite memorable."
"Let's go," Booth said rapidly. "But if you puke, not sex after work or before bed until after the baby's born. I don't want Junior permanently scarred!"
Bones laughed as she let herself be led out of the Jeffersonian and to the SUV. This was going to be fun.
A/N: I decided to write the sex scene as one chapter, which will be the next one. I hope you enjoyed this one, and also Hacker's continuing misery. Gregg.