Brennan was sitting at her desk when he walked in, his smile was bright and happy, his step was just on the verge of having a 'skip' in it as he flopped down hard into the chair across from her desk. "Didn't you hear me, Bones?"

"The wife confessed." She replied, looking down at her papers as she sorted them out on her desk.

"And?" He said as he waited for her to continue, only to get an eyebrow raise from his partner. A smile rose on his face as he watched her look down at her desk and continue her task.

"And what?" She asked, looking up into his eyes. "You want a pat on the back? Why are you still here? Don't you have to go talk to the wife?"

"Aren't you going to come with me?" he asked.

"Why? So you can sit in the car and torture me with your hubris?"

"Huh?" he asked, squinting his eyes as he watched her. The glimmer in her eyes was full of humor, and though she hated to make him feel stupid, she always prided herself in stumping him when she could.

"Your pride, Booth… Ego…"

"I don't have an ego." He said, trying to sound offended, he glanced to the doorway when he heard a scoff from Angela.

"Are you guys still arguing?" she asked, leaning against the door frame as she looked in on the two of them.

"Yes." Booth said, at the same time that Brennan said 'no', eliciting a grin from the artist.

"Bren, the keys are here… and I finished the scenario on the Angelator."

"Thank you, Angela…" Brennan said as she started to stand up, reaching for her crutches, Angela watched closely as Booth didn't move for them. She figured that a sure sign that they were dating would be him doting on her, so that was one strike against.

"Where are you going, Bones? I thought you were going to come with me to talk to the wife." He said as he watched her walk away behind him, moving toward Angela.

"You go do your work, Booth… and I'll do mine. You can send the paperwork here… and I'll send our paperwork to you."

"Lunch?" He asked, watching her stop at the door.

"I don't think I'm going to have time for lunch." She said, her eyes burning into his for a split second as he nodded his head.

"Do you need a ride home tonight?" He asked, watching her shake her head.

"Angela can take me home. I'll see you later, Booth… You got it right with the wife… so not having to deal with me for the rest of the day… think of it as your reward." She said with a sarcastic smirk as she moved out of the room quickly and toward the forensics platform, leaving Booth to stare after her until she disappeared from view.

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Later in the afternoon, Brennan sat at her desk quietly going over some of the results on the case when she looked up to see Angela in the doorway. She gave her friend a polite smile and waved her inside. "Hey, Ange."

"Hey, Sweetie." She said as she stepped into the office and sat down in the chair across from her friend. Brennan continued working, periodically looking up at her friend as she sat across from her watching her carefully.

"Is there something you needed?"

"Not really." She shrugged, as Brennan continued typing.

"Then…" She said as she stopped working, she looked up again. "Why are you in here?"

"Visiting."

"Visiting?" Brennan said, her lip curling up to a half smile. "You rarely just visit…me, Angela. What's wrong?"

"I had a question." She shrugged.

"Okay… then you weren't really just visiting me." She pointed out.

"Right… so… can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can… I'm not stopping you." Brennan said, waving her hand over the desk, she stopped typing and pushed her complete focus to her friend.

"Okay… can we speak in hypothetical?"

"Sure."

"Hypothetically… then… there is someone… that… I know… who is… interested in someone she works with."

"Okay."

"And… hypothetically… she knows that she likes him… a lot."

"Okay."

"And… hypothetically… they… don't know if what they want… is to ruin what they have by having more of a relationship than they already have."

"Uh huh…"

"This… friend is very much in love with her job…and her coworker… very in love with his, and if it were to … sever their relationship, it would make things very, very awkward."

"Ange… I'm not going to date Booth." Brennan interrupted as she watched Angela grin and shake her head.

"I wasn't talking about you and Booth, Sweetie. I was talking about me and Hodgins…"

"Well then it wasn't a hypothetical question, it was an actual question."

"No, it was hypothetical… we were hypothesizing."

"If you're the one that you're hypothesizing, why would you need to hypothesize at all, why didn't you just ask the question?"

"I thought it would be easier to hypothesize it so I wouldn't have to tell you who I was talking about."

"But you did tell me who you were talking about…"

Angela stared at her friend for a moment, waiting for a moment of clarity to wash over her features, some semblance of recognition that the conversation had gotten off the wrong track and promptly slammed into oncoming traffic at full speed ahead. "Thanks… Bren, for the advice…" Angela said smiling. She watched her friend's eyebrow go up and she stood up. "I'm gonna go put some finishing touches on the paperwork for that last case… we can go whenever you're ready.

"Sounds good to me." Brennan said as she watched her friend quietly retreat from her office, finding herself just a bit more confused than when she had walked in.

As soon as Angela was out of sight, Brennan continued her work, only to be interrupted by the phone ringing. She rolled her eyes and lifted the receiver. "Brennan." She spoke harshly into the line, annoyed that she hadn't gotten nearly as much work done as she had hoped.

"Geez, did I call at a bad time?"

"No." She said, breathing a slow sigh out as she found herself smiling at his voice.

"Did you spill the beans?"

"What? What beans?"

"No, Bones… did you tell Angela about us…?"

"I don't see how that has anything to do with beans, but no… what's there to tell?" She said, a smirk on her lips that he could picture through the line.

"Good…I'll meet you at your place at eight… with dinner…"

"Thai?"

"If you like to play it that way, sure…" He said as he waited for a response. He let out a laugh. "Yes, Thai… your place… bedtime casual…"

"What does that mean?" She asked, letting out a laugh as he found himself blushing across the line, chuckling to himself.

"I guess I'll see when I get there." He said, listening to the silence on the line. "Eight, Bones…"

"Eight…" She repeated, hanging up the phone, she realized that he had firmly placed a grin on his face, and she couldn't think of one thing that would make it disappear.

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