Chapter 18

It had been three weeks since their trip to the mountains and the crime solving duo was back at it with a case that had them both remembering why they loved their jobs. "A lovers quarrel turned into murder, my favorite." Booth said as he slid into the chair in front of her at the diner. Rolling her eyes at his words she sipped at her coffee. "Oh come on Bones, you love a good and solid case that's cut and dry. One wife finds out the other wife is cheating and murders her and her mistress for it."

Humming she looked at him over the rim of the mug. "You say that yet we have no valuable evidence to convict her outside of the fact that you think every scandal like this is due to a lovers quarrel and not something else." There was no concrete evidence regarding the case at all, they hadn't been able to establish a clear cause of death and she was frustrated that the bones weren't giving her enough information to go forward. "I have Mr. Bray doing a test on the first set of remains to hopefully find the cause of death but right now we need something else to go off of."

"You'll figure it out, you and that big brain of your and the squints, you always pull through." He flashed a smile at her and she smiled back at him watching as he dove into the slice of pie she had ordered for him when she had arrived. Things had been going smoothly between them and their relationship, she had felt as if they were as strong as romantic partners as they were as work partners and that meant a great deal to her. She had always worried that if they joined together outside of their work that their work would be compromised but so far they seemed to be a better team than they were before they confessed their love to one another.

Taking a week off for their vacation had proven to be a light that they had both needed to, as he put it, get their heads back on straight. After a series of hard cases she wasn't feeling as insecure about where she was with her career but her fears hadn't lessened as much as she had hoped. She was still terrified that something was going to happen to either of them, that one of them would be threatened or worse killed, she had yet to shake the warning from Taffett that it wasn't over yet. Even if she literally couldn't do anything being in prison.

"I'm sorry?" She said suddenly realizing she hadn't heard a thing Booth had been telling her about. Warmth flooded her cheeks as he grinned at her having caught her spaced out, something she rarely did.

"You okay, Bones?" He asked leaning forward a bit. "What's going on in that beautiful head of yours that you weren't paying attention?" Booth continued and she simply shook her head and pushed her mug and plate to the side.

"I was just trying to figure out what I'm missing with the remains, I apologize I didn't mean to ignore you. You know I would never dismiss your thoughts on any subject." She admitted feeling bad but refusing to admit that her head was not on the case at the moment. "Do tell me again what you were saying."

He chuckled and leaned back in the chair. "Oh I was just saying how this case has me thinking about how I will never understand what would drive someone to cheat on a loved one, especially when you're married." Nodding she considered what he was saying. Having not exactly believed in monogamy in the past, now that she was in a committed relationship with him she saw a lot of merit in what he was saying. Anthropologically she understood why someone would fall into the arms of someone else, but considering the subject while in a relationship with him she felt quite the opposite.

"I suppose that is something we'll never quite understand. The only thing we can do is figure out what killed these women and if it was the jilted wife that did it or not."

They bid their goodbyes and went their separate ways to their workplaces trying to dive into as much of the evidence they did have on the case as they could. He was working with Sweets on a profile when there was a knock on his office door. "Letter delivered to you at the front desk, Agent Booth." His receptionist said and he cocked an eyebrow and took the envelope before sighing and tossing it aside.

"United States Army?" Sweets said looking at the envelope that was within eyesight. "What is the Army contacting you about?"

"None of your business, Sweets. Focus on the case." He snapped before wincing. "Sorry." Booth mumbled as he reached for the letter and opened it. It was essentially the same as the first but with an additional 'we'll continue to be in touch' thrown in there. Rolling his eyes he handed it to the doctor in front of him.

"The Army wants you back?" He said obviously and Booth just glared at him for pointing out that he could read. "Are you going to do it? It seems like a high honor that they want you to join them to help train soldiers. The way they praise you shows they've really followed your career."

Huffing he took the letter back and shoved it in his jacket pocket. "No, I'm not." He stated. "Well I don't know yet. I don't know yet, but they keep bugging me so I'll have to talk to them eventually about it so they'll go away." The idea of going back over there terrified him but deep inside him he was still a Ranger through and through and if his country needed him it was a hard pill to swallow either way.

"Let's just get back to the case? And don't mention this to Bones, she doesn't know yet." Ignore the look of surprise by the young psychologist he motioned for him to look back at the file at hand, he was not in the mood for any of his pychobabble right now.