Sorry, guys that it took me forever and a half to write the next one shot, but having vacation and stuff really is stressful xDD
Anyway, this is my version of the main problem of season six. So have fun and R&R ;))
Xoxo,
Michi
29
Talking issues
Sighing heavily he leaned back into his couch. He didn't know what to do anymore. Since they had met at the reflecting pool, she was acting that weird. They didn't eat together anymore, she never had time to just hang out anymore, no more Tai food evenings and since two days ago she even refused to go out in the field with him. Said she had too much work to do in the limbo and first of all, she was an anthropologist, meaning she had to stay in the lab. She hardly talked to him, didn't tell him anything about her Maluku trip. Nothing.
He was going crazy. He had missed her so badly and just wanted to catch up on the time they had missed. He wanted her to be his best friend again, wanted her to get to know Hannah, his girlfriend, better and get along with her. He wanted to spend time with her again, but she just refused to.
And everytime he tried to talk to her about it, she built up her walls again and ran back into the limbo. Sometimes she even locked her office and didn't let him in.
When he had asked Angela for help, she had reacted very odd as well. She had been furious and not for the first time in his time with the Jeffersonian team he had been afraid of the young artist. "Booth!", she had nearly shouted. "You're even more stupid than I thought."
And Cam had just looked at him very pitiful. "Seeley, seriously. Sometimes you are really clueless." Not that that had helped him in the slightest. He had been even more confused and desperate than before.
Hannah was mad at him as well, because he was just talking about his Bones, as she had said. He was angry as well, because she had known from the beginning that his partner was a big part of his life. Maybe even his biggest and he had been in love with her since he couldn't even remember after all.
But what had happened a few minutes ago had been the top of the iceberg. Parker had just called him, furious and sad as well, and told him that he had gone to Bones today after school and that she had been kind of depressed.
"Dad, she said we wouldn't see each other again for a while now. And when I asked her why, she said that you aren't her friend anymore. So what did you do? I want Bones to be your friend, dad. Please make it up to her. I don't like it when she is sad and cries."
So Bones had cried? What the hell was wrong? What had he done to make her that distant again? It was even worse than it had been in the beginning of their partnership.
Sighing again he took another sip of his scotch that was standing next to him. What was he supposed to do now? How could he make it up to her? What had he done? And nobody wanted to help him. Everyone was just mad at him. He had been so happy to come home and see them all again, but nothing was the same anymore.
A knock on his door took him out of his thoughts.
Booth sighed again and got up to open the door. He stared at the person who was standing in front of him.
"Max?"
"Booth!" He nodded and sneaked into Booth's apartment. "I think we need to talk."
Wide eyed Booth followed him to the couch. What the hell was going on?
"Until now I liked you a lot, Booth. But it seems as if I have to tell you what happens to people who hurt my baby."
Booth stared at him. Hurt his baby? "Max? I really don't have any idea what you're talking about."
Max looked at him quizzically. "You don't know? Booth, seriously, you have noticed that something is going on!"
Booth swallowed. He really didn't want to talk with Max about his problem, especially since Bones was his daughter, but maybe he was the only one who could help him solving this quiz and answering his questions. "Yeah, but I don't know what I've done because she refuses to talk to me."
Max rolled his eyes and drank Booth's last sip scotch. "You broke her heart, Booth. What did you expect would happen? You know her well enough."
Wide eyed he stared at him. What? "Max! She broke mine, not the other way around."
Impatiently he shook his head. "Listen, Booth. I don't want to show you what happens to guys who hurt my baby because that would probably hurt her even more since it's you, but you will fix it, got it?"
Booth nodded. After all he knew well enough what happened to those people, even if that wasn't something he was afraid of. After all he didn't want to hurt Bones. "Max, I came back from Afghanistan and she was acting like that. We haven't seen each other in a year, so what did I do to make-"
Max sighed and looked pitiful at him, similar to the way Cam had a few days before. "Booth, she is in love with you. You are the first man she ever really and truly loved and now she was finally ready to make a move, to take the risk, but you have given up on her and moved on. Objectively I can't really blame you, but you see, she's my daughter and I want her to be happy. And you're the only one who can make that happen."
Booth's heart started instantly beating like crazy. A wave of emotions spilled over him, incredulity, fear, anger, but most of all, hope. Bones was in love with him? Since when? Why? Really? Why didn't she say anything? Why hadn't he noticed?
Even if he had started dating Hannah, he had never really given up on his partner. Hell, he had wanted to, but he couldn't, even if he had told himself he had moved on. He had kept lying to himself and maybe that was the reason why Hannah was mad at him and stayed in a hotel right now.
His heart let him hardly breath. He knew that he was staring wide eyed at Max, but he couldn't help it. "Why…?", was the only thing that left his lips.
Max smiled, kind of gently and put a hand on his shoulder. "Booth. You've been her partner for freaking six years now. You've been the only constant in her life, you've never disappointed her, saved her life countless times and were her best friend. A person she could rely on, a really good person. You're male and quite handsome. How couldn't she fall in love with you?"
"But…when I told her she rejected me. She didn't want to-", Booth started confused and too afraid to let himself be hopeful again. That couldn't be happening, right?
"But she never said she didn't love you, right?"
No, she hadn't when he thought about it that way. She had rejected him, yes, but she had never said she didn't return his feelings. But what did that mean?
"I think Tempe loves you longer than both of you realize. I don't have to tell you how good she is at repressing feelings and other things she's afraid of."
Booth nodded. Yeah, he knew that. Well enough. He inhaled deeply. "So what am I supposed to do?"
Max smiled. "Well…do you still love her?"
He swallowed. Love…he didn't know anything anymore. Everything was confusing and hurting and… "I don't know, Max. I don't know anything anymore. No matter what we do, Bones and I keep hurting each other. How can that be any right when it hurts so much over and over again?"
"It hurts because you are never on the same page. Because you never talk. That's what you need to do. You go and have a long talk with her. And you both need to be completely honest with each other."
Slowly Max got up. "Don't wait too long. Once she has lost trust in you, you won't be able to earn her trust ever again." With a last meaningful look and a squeeze of his shoulder, Max left his apartment.
Booth sat there, dumbfounded and more confused than ever. What the hell had just happened? Suddenly he jumped to his feet. He and Bones needed to talk. And now that her behavior made sense to him, he wouldn't get her away with that.
Half an hour later he was in front of her door. "Bones! Open up. I know that you're home. Have seen the lights!" He knocked.
"I know that you know that. Still doesn't mean I'll open the door." Her voice was cracking a little.
"Bones! Open up or I'm gonna kill your door, but I'm coming in anyway. So make this easier, for both of us."
Silence.
"5…4…3…-"
"Shut up!", she hissed, now facing him. She didn't look good. Her eyes were underlined by dark circles a she seemed a little hollow-cheeked.
"Geez, Bones, you look terrible!"
"Thanks!", she said, rolling her eyes at him. "What do you want?"
"Let me in."
She rolled her eyes again, but this time she didn't fight him. Brennan turned around, leaving it up to him to shut the door and follow her into her living room.
Booth sat down on her couch and waited for her to sit as well, but she didn't. She stood a few feet away from him, arms crossed in front of her chest, eying him somehow annoying and tired.
"So what is it?", she asked.
He didn't really know how to start, after all his visit wasn't really planned. There had just been this need to see her. So he just bubbled it out. "You're in love with me."
Her mask stayed unchanged and calm. "You have a girlfriend." She wasn't even denying it. What happened to the scientist who couldn't change and lived in denial?
"I-I…I can break up with her."
"Your problem. But you shouldn't ruin your first working relationship in years, just because I happen to have that issue."
"Issue?", he asked incredulously. "Bones, love isn't an issue!"
"If it's unrequited, then it is an issue."
"Believe me, Bones, I've been in love with you since I can't even remember and it just happened to get complicated the last weeks before we left."
She shrugged. "It doesn't matter anyway."
Damn it. Damn her. Why did she have to be that calm? He could deal with a crying Bones, with a laughing and even with a furious, but he couldn't handle her when she was acting like that. All closed up and hiding behind this calm mask.
"Wrong. It matters. It does. It affects our partnership and-"
"Booth, from the beginning we were supposed to work that way. You are the agent and I'm the squint, remember. I'm supposed to stay in the lab. And I can do that. I just can't go out in the field with you when I…"
"Do you even realize what you're saying, Bones?" Booth was furious now. Nothing he said seemed to get through to her, so he obviously needed to make an example.
With two big strides he was in front of her. He took another when she backed away, into the corner of her living room. He was cornering her now, bodies just a few inches apart.
"Booth!", she aspirated. "You're scaring me." Because of his proximity she couldn't hide her feelings anymore. They were all mirrored in her eyes, readable for him.
Gently he laid his hand on her cheek, stroking her soft skin. "You don't need to be afraid of me. I'd never hurt you, at least not intentionally."
She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on her inhaling, but didn't answer him.
Still slightly frustrated he grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest, right over his heart. "Feel what you're doing to me, Bones? Just you, no other woman!"
She snatched her eyes open. "No other woman? Booth, you have a girlfriend!" She was angry now. "Why are we having this discussion anyway? Why don't you just go home and-"
He cut her of by pressing his lips forcefully to hers.
She was surprised, to say at least.
His lips were hard, bruising hers and punishing her for the shit she had let him go through the last weeks.
At some point, when she couldn't resist anymore and started to kiss him back, he became more gently. His hands, which had been roughly tangled into her hair, started to explore her body softly. His mouth caressed hers, his tongue started to tease her lips until she opened them and started to fight for dominance with him.
When oxygen became finally too necessary, he broke away reluctantly. "Just so you know, I'm still in love with you, so just quit the shit about unrequited love and staying at the lab, got it?" He locked eyes with her, his gaze intense.
She nodded slowly, tearing up and then she threw herself into his arms.
Sighing happily he caught her and stroked her back gently while she cried.
There were going to be many problems. First of all he had to break up with Hannah. She wouldn't be too excited, especially because another woman was the reason why.
Then he would probably need to prove Bones that he was still in love with her. She wouldn't understand why he had started dating Hannah when he still loved his favorite scientist. Well, right now, with her in his arms, he couldn't even answer this question himself.
But that all didn't matter as long as he was allowed to hold her and kiss her and show her exactly what making love, losing yourself in someone and breaking the laws of physics meant.
