Seeley Booth was frustrated as he walked in to interview Matthew Barrett. It hadn't even been 24 hours and he and Bones had already had their first fight. She had in no uncertain terms told him as she'd extricated herself from the kiss in his SUV that what they were doing just then was completely inappropriate, that they were professionals and that while they were working the case at least they needed to act like it. He hadn't had an opportunity to even clarify what in the hell she meant as she marched off in the general direction of the bank of elevators and proceeded to avoid his gaze as they made their way up to the floor that the interview was supposed to take place. Ok, he could understand the need to be professional, but they were already late. His face was pinched together as he smoothed his hand down the front of his shirt and slid into the seat at the conference room table across from Matthew Barrett, "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth and this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan." Booth hardly glanced over at Bones, hoping that she had softened the scowl on her face.
"You got stuck in the traffic mess too, huh?" Matthew Barrett looked a little amused at the situation, or maybe it was just relieved because he'd been late to the meeting at the FBI too.
"Yeah, traffic was a bear," Booth sounded short; he wanted to get to the point of this conversation so he could utilize his very professional skills as an FBI agent. "Agent Coleman told me that you found the barrel in a bay north of here and you notified Tribal Police." Booth looked at him skeptically.
"Yeah, that's right, I was working on my boat; checking on it really after all of the stormy weather we've been having and this thing had come up right next to it. I tried to haul it up into my boat, but it was a lot heavier than it looked and it sounded like it was full of something sloshing around. Sure I called the Tribal Police; what if it was toxic waste or something?" Barrett seemed like a normal guy; he was clean cut and friendly and from statements he'd given to the police initially, he was an environmentally concerned citizen too.
Brennan had been studying Matthew Barrett from across the table and something seemed a little off to her, "Mr. Barrett, can I ask you what you were doing on the reservation? You're clearly not Native American." His blond hair and blue eyes were in startling contrast to the dark hair and brown eyes that someone who was truly Native American would possess. Even if he had it in his ancestry, he looked far more Norsk than anything else.
"No, I'm not," He offered Brennan a friendly smile, "Norwegian on my mother's side and Swedish on my dad's. I live on leased land. The tribe offers leases usually in 50 year durations and I just own the structure that it sits on. A pretty sweet deal for me really because I wouldn't be able to afford waterfront property otherwise." With the way real estate prices had been soaring in recent years a shack on the water would have started easily at a cool million.
"Ah," Booth wasn't sure if this was important or not, but he made a note to look into a little deeper just because he wasn't sure he liked this guy. Or maybe that was just because of the way he was smiling at Bones. He had to resist giving him a glare that could disintegrate meteors.
"Have you had other debris wash up in the bay near your boat in the past?" Brennan was interested to find out if the flows were consistent with other major rain and flooding events and if that matched up with the scenarios that Angela and Hodgins had come up with.
Booth glanced over at his partner wondering just when she had taken the reigns in this investigation.
"Yeah, we get stuff floating in now and then, but mostly after flooding. A year or so ago we had a lot of snow fall in the mountains followed by a some unseasonably warm weather and it caused some near record flooding," Barrett seemed pretty pleased that he was being useful to whatever this investigation was. "In fact I found a door back then, it ended up coming from some house in Index that washed down the river."
"Index. Where exactly is that?" Booth was very interested now; if it was possible that debris from other storms had ended up in this bay then it was very possible that wherever this barrel originated was where they should be focusing their investigation.
"Up Highway 2. There isn't much there really, a little store, some cabins, and probably the only latte stand you'll ever see that offers hemp milk as a choice," Barrett snorted out a laugh at that as if it was one of the most ridiculous things he'd ever heard of.
"Hemp milk," Booth frowned as he considered that he preferred his coffee strong and black. What kind of world was it when you put hemp milk in your coffee? What in the hell was hemp milk in the first place?
"It's actually a great vegan choice, Booth. It's got a somewhat nutty flavor," Brennan interjected. Ever since she'd decided to become a vegetarian she'd been exploring the wonderful world of alternative foods.
"They have goat's milk too," Barrett had a rather animated look on his face; this was clearly far more interesting than his typical day.
Booth narrowed his gaze and spoke probably more forcefully than he'd first intended trying to get the conversation back on track, "I take my coffee black." He glanced over at his partner and couldn't help but soften his expression as he noted how serious she looked. Of course she was a professional, what in the hell had he been thinking when he'd wanted to make out in the FBI issued SUV when they had a witness waiting? Oh, that's right, he'd been thinking about just how wonderful it had been to wake up with a naked Bones in his bed, or rather that he'd woken up in her bed.
"Got it man," Barrett was cocky and he seemed pleased to have ruffled this FBI agent's feathers a little.
Booth really didn't like this guy now; he didn't strike him as someone who worked hard for a living and although he knew he was jumping to conclusions, he wondered if there wasn't more to his story than he was telling. Just to be on the safe side, he was going to make sure that a full background check was done on him and if he so much as used one too many tissues to blow his nose he was going to find some reason to haul him back in here for another round of questions. "Thank you for your time, Mr. Barrett, we'll be in touch if we need anything more."
"Nice to meet you both," Barrett walked out of the room looking just as sure of himself as he had during the entire interview.
"I don't like that guy," Booth muttered wishing that he possessed superhero powers of mind reading so he could figure out exactly why he didn't like him.
"He seemed very nice," Brennan thought that Booth was overreacting, "And he provided some information that may be useful. I'm going to call Hodgins and have him and Angela rerun those scenarios to see if Index fits into them."
Booth sat there and watched as she made the call wondering how in the world it had taken him this long to figure out how much she meant to him. Now that they were together he didn't want to let her go ever and he was sure that it would scare her. She didn't believe in marriage, she didn't want children and you couldn't get further from his Catholic upbringing than her firm belief that there was no God. Still he couldn't ignore the unparalleled force that seemed to have brought them together. Their partnership had been bumpy at first but they had eventually fallen into a symbiotic working relationship that just worked. He hoped that the same would be true of this romance they had just embarked upon.
Brennan glanced up as she ended her call to find that Booth was studying her, "What?" She was suddenly uncomfortable, especially since he'd seemed so agitated earlier when she'd pulled away from him in the SUV. A slightly panicked feeling welled up as she considered that he might just change his mind about this thing between them.
"Are we okay?" Booth looked genuinely worried that she would push him away and he only hoped that he could convince her that no relationship was perfect and that this, just like their partnership was going to take a little work to get it going.
"I'm fine," Brennan felt her heart beating faster and she looked for signs that Booth might be second guessing things.
"Earlier in the garage you didn't seem fine," Booth didn't want to get into specifics in the conference room just on the off chance that someone else might be listening in from the observation room on the other side of the two way glass.
"We were late," Brennan smirked at him, "And I didn't think that we should be any later." She relaxed a little as she realized that this shift in their relationship was just as scary for him as it was for her.
"That's why you're the brain person," Booth smirked back at her and then leaned forward a little and whispered, "But you're getting to be a pretty good heart person too."
A myriad of emotions flickered across Brennan's face in response, but she seemed to settle on an appreciative smile, "Thanks, Booth."
