Keeping a Secret
Booth eyed the woman in front of him, not sure that he was understanding her correctly. His brain was still whirring- not only because the woman in front of him and her brain trust back on the steps had ID'd Cleo, but they'd done it without ever seeing her picture. Now, now this same woman was skipping across the lawn to keep up with him- in her bare feet, no less- asking what they were going to do next.
He tried to let her down easy. As much as he appreciated their help, he also had a job to do, and part of that job was making sure that everyone was in their proper place and making sure that the press didn't get wind of it before-hand. Every inch of his gut said that this smelled like a huge case- something that could get him into a real office instead of the broom closet he was in now.
Then, she'd dropped an A-bomb. He couldn't just blow off her threat to issue a press release, so he turned around and asked her point-blank what she was trying to do and she calmly explained she was trying to blackmail him. Of course she was. He didn't like it and he told her so, to which she replied that he wasn't supposed to.
He'd been studying her eyes the entire time and knew she meant business. Part of his brain screamed that Cullen would fillet him for letting her be so involved in such huge case where so much was at stake. Another part told him the yeah, that might be true, but the last time he blew off her help she'd gone AWOL on him and chances were if he did it again she'd not only issue the release, but then refuse to work any more cases for him. A third part told him that she looked kinda cute all ticked off, her head tilting to the side, bare feet dug into the ground, not giving an inch.
Shoving all those thoughts aside, he sighed inwardly, standing up as tall as he could, knowing what had to be done so that everything would stay under wraps for as long as possible and so that he could keep bringing cases to her.
"Fine," he said, knowing he'd either just sunk his career or taken it to the next level, "You're in."
