The Face With Two Skeletons
by Tropicwhale
disclaimer: Not mine
Author Talk: So, I've been playing this game on Facebook. Mousehunt. I like that's its low attention commitment...unlike the Crush games. I build and set up a trap, make funky cheese, and hit a button every fifteen minutes to see if I caught a mouse. It has a sort of plot but it's mostly about catching the master mice in each location and strategy and puzzles to solve that. Right now I am prepping to hunt a Dragon mouse and then go back to the Dojo to hunt the Master Sensei because I need 10 onyx stones to build the Oynx Mallet so I can catch Balack the Banished. I like it. I'm a knight. (Update: Caught the dragon, am annoyed that I cannot catch Balack with the Forgotten Cupcake trap...don't actually need to hunt the the Master Sensei. Am now in Claw Shot, the old western town hunting a Bounty Hunter Mouse with a Cactus Trap...and I'm now a Lady.)
Chapter Forty-Eight
Cam watched her team disappear into Angela's office then turned to their FBI handler. "Booth, can I speak with you, privately, for a moment? In my office?" She kept her tone polite and civil, professional in front of Sweets and the tact team captain but it broke no argument that Booth needed to come with her. Booth nodded. She smiled tightly at Sweets and the federal agent. "It'll just take a moment. We'll be done before they are." She indicated the squint squad with a nod of her head then turned on her heel and stalked to her office, knowing that Booth was following her. She held the door open for him and paused as he entered the room then firmly shut the door behind him. She considered her options then chose to sit on the couch. This was, after all, a personal matter and it would be unprofessional to use the symbology of her desk for this conversation. She shook herself internally, both in preparation for her conversation with Seeley and because hanging around Brennan and Zack had taken a toll on her brain. Symbology of her desk? Really?
Booth sat next to her on the couch and stared at her as she looked at her hands. This was a good moment for this. They had to let the lateral thinkers do their thing in order to save Zack. Booth was worried for Zack the same as the rest of them. She took a deep breath. She didn't really have a plan and now...she dove in. "I need to talk to you about Zack."
"Okay?" Seeley looked confused. She glanced at him and he had that schoolboy look on his face. The guileless one that made her knees feel weak just from the sheer cute.
"What I am about to say...it's really not my place...but, as someone who cares for him and you...I feel I should speak up." She started carefully. He blinked at her confused.
"Cam? You're stalling." He said. She looked down. She was stalling, wasn't she? She smiled. Damn Seeley and his Seeley-ness.
"I am." She agreed then paused. She took a deep breath, looked Seeley dead in the eye and said "I know you and Zack are sleeping together." Seeley's face went ashen pale. She nodded sharply once.
"What? Uh-?" Seeley's verbal response matched his face. Cam smiled, a little sadly. There were moments where she missed being with Booth. Missed their relationship. For some reason this was one of them. She snapped herself out of it after a moment's indulgence.
"Zack told me." She stated blandly. Seeley blinked. "I guess, my first question is….since when do you like men?" Seeley looked down, beet red.
"Not men. Just Zack."
"I see." She looked away. She pulled strength from her doctorate hanging on the wall of all things. Someone needed to have this conversation with Seeley. Zack needed someone in his corner watching his back. Cam knew what Seeley wanted in a relationship and what he did not want. She just wanted to protect Zack. She looked back at the federal agent, steeling herself against any and all of his reactions. "What is it about Zack? Why him? Why now? You've never liked him before so, why now?"
"Why do you care?" Alpha Male Booth came in on the offensive.
"Because I care about him and I know you. I know that you could break him apart, Seeley, like you broke me apart and all the other women I've seen you date wanting them to be something they weren't. Zack isn't your type, at all. I am also aware that you and he have slept together before his casts came off...something I don't think the others should know about, do you?" Seeley hung his head.
"I don't." Hangdog Seeley retreated into hunched shoulders. "Why did he tell you?"
"I don't know. Opportunity? Trust? Wanting to tell someone he slept with his crush? I don't really care. I care about the fact that you are clearly still sleeping with him. It's all over your face. What are you thinking, Seeley?"
"I don't know. I just-he's smart and athletic and he wants me. Jesus, Cam...he kisses like I'm water. It's-I can't get enough! It's a risk, I know ! But…." And there was Cute Affected Seeley who shook his head and smiled "He needs someone to take care of him...and...there is this part of me that wants to be that person." And Heroic Caregiver Booth swings!
"Do you care about him?" Cam asked. She held up a hand. "And, remember, I know all your tells and you are a terrible liar when someone ISN'T holding a gun to your head." She also remembered that Booth's game was roulette and he liked a cold beer after a case closed. He paused, out of his defenses.
"I don't know. It's weird. It's feels natural to come home to him, make love to him but with this case and everything that's been happening….I just don't know."
"Don't you think Zack deserves that you know? Especially after everything that we know about him now; Bradley, Zerbrowski, the explosion...this case...the fact he really is keen on you-"
"Keen, Sandy Dee?" Booth joked. Cam glared until his grin dropped.
"He deserves someone who cares for him so much that they won't let him be their dirty little secret." She laid down the law. Booth stared at his folded hands and the floor. She knew she had hit home. "After we find Zack, after we solve this case, once he is back in his own place, you are going to figure it out." He looked at her, and nodded.
"Is that all?" He asked, standing. She stayed sitting.
"No. If you hurt him? I will beat you, with a shovel. A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend." She waved him out of the room, waited for him to disappear from view. Then, she collapsed back into the sofa.
Author's After Note: I really enjoy Cam..and I HAD to throw in that Buffy quote. HAD to. Really. It's in my notes "I will beat you with a shovel, a vague disclaimer is nobody's friend." Literally, what my notes say that this chapter should be about. Different delivery but! sentiment still holds.
Love from the Dorkside;
Tropic
