Chapter 11

Brennan had maintained her steely silence throughout the rest of the car ride to the was mad at Booth because he had clearly stated that he would never "cross the line" with one of his partners and clearly he had crossed it with this Switzer woman.

She was hurt and because she was hurt she withdrew into herself and preferred to act cold to Booth rather than confront him about the situation. She did want to ask him why he hadn't told her about this ex-partner before but she realized that she still wanted to hear the information from him willingly because it wouldn't have the same value if she had to force it out of him.

He noticed something was wrong.

"Earth to Bones! Is anyone in there?" he waved a hand in front of her face as they pulled into the parking lot, "Hey kid, what's going on? You have been unusually quiet throughout this whole car ride...and when I say it's unusual I'm not joking." He grinned at the two Drs. in the backseat, "She usually has something to say about everything."

"First of all, I am a full grown adult not a child," she replied icily, "And second of all I have nothing to say which is why I have been silent OBVIOUSLY."

"Woah." Booth replied taking his hands off the steering wheel and holding them up in front of himself, "What I have I done to invoke the wrath of the ice queen?"

This was obviously Sweets' que to come in, which he picked up on right away, "Dr. Brennan is upset because she is seeing that the rapport between you and Dr. Switzer here closely mimics the rapport that SHE has with you. This clearly upsets her because she had it in her head that your feelings towards her were different than any feelings you might have towards another human being in a similar situation. She, in a sense, thought that she was special to you and now she is feeling very put out because she is kicking herself for making an assumption based on what she felt versus logic. Am I right Dr. Brennan?"

Brennan pinned Sweets to the back of his seat with an icy glare and opened her mouth to reply, but all she could manage was a growling sort of noise. Sweets was just fueling the situation and because of this she was starting to agree with Booth's viewpoint that Sweets had not progressed past the stage of adolescence. Why did he always have to mettle with her and Booth?

"We have a case to solve." She said, turning back to Booth, "Let's go Booth."

She turned and opened the door and let her feet drop into the dirt parking lot.

Dr. Switzer, who had obviously been feeling uncomfortable, let out a long sigh and let her gaze slip over to Sweets, "I agree with her, let's go in and talk about the case over some coffee. I think everyone needs some of that." She leaned in closer to him, "And I really don't think what you did was right, fueling the situation like that."

With that she opened her door and got out to follow Dr. Brennan into the dinner. Lance just shrugged and did the same.

Booth was left staring at his hands on the steering wheel, still wondering what he had done.

His relationship with Brennan kept getting more and more confusing.

A half an hour later the group was all in the dinner discussing the case over coffee and food.

Much to Brennan's chagrin, Booth and Dr. Switzer were sitting side by side, sharing a hamburger. Apparently this was a tradition of sorts.

She really didn't like the thought that anyone else had traditions with Booth but had to admit that her feelings were a tad ridiculous. She had no reason to be jealous and no reason to think that Booth had not been just as close with his former partner as he was with her. The thing that really bothered her was the thought that it had never occurred to her before that someone like Dr. Sarah Switzer even existed.

She sighed, shoved a fry in her mouth and listened to the tail end of Dr. Switzers statement.

"So what you are saying is that we have a type of Christian cult on our hands under the leadership of this Chandler man and that it was most probably this Chandler who ordered someone in his community to kill the two pregnant women because he believed that their wombs could possibly house the anti-christ?"

"It sounds sort of like Waco." Booth took another bite of his hamburger.

The trio looked at him. Something intelligent had come out of agent Booths mouth and something even more intelligent was about to pop out...

"You know, those Branch Davidians or whatever they are called?"

"Booth you are brilliant!" Brennan almost felt like kissing him on the cheek before she remembered she was mad at him.

"What we have here is a twist on the Waco set up. Chandler lures people into his cult by advertising it as a gated community for people between a certain age range. If the cult has a quota this helps to fill it."

"A quota for what?" Booth asked, confused.

"Their transcendence to wherever they believe in...which in some cases translates to a massacre."

Dr. Switzer spoke up, "But they have also been weeding out people that they deem unworthy to make the trip by setting up their deaths as accidents. I have no concrete evidence that all the accident related deaths around the community have been premeditated but I have serious suspicions."

"Let's bag that Chandler creep!" Booth growled.

"You have no concrete evidence that it was actually him." Vocalized Dr. Sweets, swiping a French fry in ketchup.

"Booth," Brennan snapped out of a deep thought, "Whoever planted those bodies in the fishing net wanted them found and wanted it out in the news. Don't you remember the latin inscriptions in the bones? Annuit Coeptis and Abu no disce omnes."

"He has approved the undertakings and from one learn all." Dr. Switzer was quick to translate.

"Chandler leads his community by fear."

"We are going to go back to the ranch, turn in for the night and then bag the scumbag in the morning."

"He probably had somebody else do it for him."

All eyes were on Dr. Switzer.

"I would talk to Lionel Porter."

"Lionel? But the one victim is most probably his daughter."

"Exactly. Who would ever suspect kind old Mr. Porter could kill his own daughter, right? But at the command of Chandler it was all for the greater good."

After dropping Dr. Switzer and Sweets off with the rest of the Jeffersonian team, Booth and Brennan drove back to Cumberfield Gardens.

There was silence again, but this time Booth seemed to know just what to say.

He pulled into the driveway of the house and left the car running. He turned to his partner.

"Hey Bones."

She glared at him, her hands crossed defensively over her chest. He reached out and grabbed one of those hands.

"I just wanted to let you know that you are special. And you have a special spot right in here..." he touched her hand to his heart.

"Booth that is ridiculous! The only compartments in the organ known as the heart are the right and left atrium and the right and left ventricle."

"Bones...just go with me on this one."

"Okay," she sighed, but withdrew her hand anyway and then raised her eyes to him.

"Does Dr. Switzer have a special compartment in your heart too?"

"Yes," he was smiling, "But yours is bigger."

"Fair enough. Let's get to bed, it's been a long day." She unfolded had unfolded her arms but couldn't meet his gaze. Now she felt like an idiot for having have been mad with him.

"This time you won't argue with me when I say I'm sleeping on the couch though..."

"You can't---"

"You owe me one."

Bones was awoken in the middle of the night by the sensor light going off outside her building.

"Ange...Ange can you hear me? You aren't asleep are you?"

"Loud and clear sweetie. Hodgins and I are fully stocked on redbull and still going strong."

"Good, because I think there is someone outside our house."

"Let me check for you." Angela glanced at the televisions in the van that were set up like security monitors.

"Oh yeah...there is definitely a man out there."

Brennan ran into the living room and shook Booth awake.

"Bones...ah...what now?" he grumbled.

"Ange says that there is a man outside our house...I think we should go and investigate."

"Hold on." Booth responded reluctantly. He rolled over and pushed himself up from the couch. Brennan couldn't help but notice he was wearing the too tight Thomas the tank engine boxers again. She looked at his upper body and thanked god for the white undershirt he was wearing because she was sure her blush would have been obvious had he been shirtless.

They clambored out the door and looked around but saw no one. When they got near the driveway Booth gently pushed her up against the SUV.

Brennan could feel the door handle digging into her back.

"Booth," she whispered, "What are you doing?"

"Bones, we have to hide our faces....I saw the man and it's that boy from Laurence Bogan's crew that we thought was a little off. He'll recognize us for sure and our cover will be blown!"

"Well what do you want me to do?"

"Just hide your face in my shoulder or something."

"What about you?"

"Good point," Agent Booth took a breath, a plan running through his head. He took another deep breath, unsure of what he was about to do.

"Okay, Bones...just go with me here....and remember this is all for the good of the case."

"Booth what are you---- "

And before she knew it Booth's mouth was on hers in a very light kiss.

Her body reacted immediately before her brain could process what was happening. Her hands went up and grabbed the front of Booth's undershirt and she deepened the kiss.

"Oh my god!" came Angela's voice from the earpiece, "I feel like I should be paying money to watch this."

"You already are!" spoke a gleeful Hodgins.

"What---why?"

"Because, my lovely, I WON the pool."

"Like you need anymore money."

"That's not the point...I won!"

"I don't think a kiss really constitutes as them getting together or Caroline would have won when she pulled that little stunt back at Christmas."

Hodgins just sighed and looked at his fiancé. "Okay, I give up."

Brennan broke the kiss and met Booth with bewildered eyes. She was surprised to see he looked just as shocked as she did.

"Bones, what the hell was that for!"

"Newlyweds don't peck at each other like birds Booth."

"Oh," he sounded deflated, "I guess you are right."

Brennan looked down and cleared her throat "I guess we know who planted the bodies now."

"Yeah," Booth answered, his discomfort apparent in his voice, "We should get back to sleep now if we want to get up early in the morning to figure this whole thing out."

"Yeah."

They followed each other back into the house.

"Well goodnight then." Brennan said awkwardly as Booth settled himself back on the couch.

"Yeah, goodnight." He replied.

What Brennan didn't know was that Booth wouldn't get a wink of sleep that night. Instead he would lie awake replaying their kiss over and over again in his head and wondering if he had really done the right thing.