Author's Note: Okay, I confess. Unlike the first two chapters, this isn't really a conversation that I felt needed to be had. It was more...my no so inner Semperance shipper that way dying just a little bit after this week's episode. Don't get me wrong. It wasn't that it wasn't Brennan with Booth. Oh, no. It was more his starting the episode with one woman, and ending with another. Well. Anyway, this is a little random, and definitely not as canon-following as the first two chapters, but hey...maybe future chapters will be better. And frankly, it's Thursday night, three in the morning, while running on maybe thirty-ish hours of sleep this week...don't ask me why I'm awake, let alone writing when I really should be studying. Oh, death. Until then...enjoy.

Chapter Three - The Truth in the Lye

"Everything okay with you and Rebecca?" Brennan asked conversationally.

"Yeah, yeah, we're good." Booth glanced away from the road long enough to see that she was looking out the window, away from him, and he wondered if she'd finally realized how easily he could read the minute subtleties of her facial expressions. "She, uh, she said she talked to you."

"Yeah," she nodded, and he knew she was pursing her lips thoughtfully. Funny how easy it was to imagine her reaction. "I liked her."

Then again, just when he thought he knew her, she would go and say something like that and throw him off-balance all over again.

"Really?"

"Why does that surprise you?" she asked. "I can build interpersonal relations, you know."

"I know, but you and Rebecca…you've very different people."

She shrugged. "I understand her perspective on the subject of marriage. At least, I understand her reticence in marrying you."

Her calm, even tone made it clear that she didn't mean to hurt him, but that didn't negate the slight sting in her words. "I'm going to pretend you weren't just completely insensitive again."

"I'm just saying, she's a very independent woman. I respect that. Besides," she added defensively, "I thought you liked independent women. Your history of romantic relationships certainly indicates that tendency."

"What?"

"Well," she said reasonably, "Rebecca is obviously a very self-sufficient woman. I didn't know Tessa very well, but her profession and demeanour would suggest a certain degree of independency. And Cam-"

"Whoa," he cut her off, his hand coming off the steering wheel as he gestured sharply. "Where did Cam come from?"

And, he added silently, where was she getting this sudden insight into him from?

God, did she know about him and Cam? And why was his heart racing at the thought that she did? Clammy hands, slight sweating…all subtle physiological indicators of fear.

He wasn't sure why, but the thought of Brennan knowing about him and Cam filled him with dread. He just…he wasn't ready for her to know just yet. Not yet…

Her knowing would change the way they were right now, and he wasn't sure he could handle that on top of everything else. And then he realized she was talking.

"She's from New York. I thought you knew that."

Okay, so maybe she didn't know.

"What I meant was," he continued as calmly as he could, "how does Cam fit into this?"

"The two of you had a relationship in the past, didn't you?" she asked. "I'm just pointing out that she fits your trend of dating independent women."

"How does someone even notice something like that?" he wondered out loud.

"I'm an excellent observer," she explained, as confident and assured as ever when it came to her abilities. "Besides, I thought noticing things about your colleagues was good. Building interpersonal relationships in the workplace and all that. Like birthdays."

"What?"

"Angela said that I should pay more attention to irrelevant details. Like birthdays. Hers is June 9th."

A glance to his right revealed a proudly smiling Brennan. When she smiled like that, all hope and social awkwardness, he had the completely irrational urge to hug her.

"When's yours?"

"When's my what?" he asked, caught off-guard, and distracted by both the task of driving and the maelstrom of confusion she always seemed to be able to incite in him.

"Your birthday. So I can remember it so my computer doesn't have to."

He shot her a weird look before answering. "May 16th."

Her face went all squinty and he knew she wouldn't forget it. Pulling into the closet unmarked parking spot, Booth shifted gears, and turned off the ignition. "And just for the record, Bones, as interesting as your little insights into my tastes has been…let's not do that again."

Getting out, he let the door shut on her confused expression, striding off towards the Jeffersonian. A slam and quick footsteps told him she was following.

"What did I do?" she asked concernedly, catching up with him. "All I said was that you exhibit a tendency towards independent women when it comes to relationships. Anthropologically speaking, it's interesting that–"

Whatever was so interesting to her was cut off by the hand he slapped against her mouth, stopping her in her tracks, right in front of the lab's main platform, and stilling her words in her now closed mouth.

His gaze was firm, and silently asked – no, commanded – her to stop talking about it. "I know what I like, Bones. You don't have to tell me. And you don't have to rationalize it for me."

Her eyes met his, and there was that look. The one they both recognized, were both familiar with, the one that left them silent, yet with a deafening buzzing in their ears. The one where they were afraid of what might happen if their self-control slipped just a little bit.

The one that could be intense enough to stop a heartbeat, that could be so gentle it felt like a warm blanket on a cold night. The one they shared in the fieriest of arguments, and in the most intimate moments of friendship. Forever changing, mutating, from that one look that expressed things neither could name.

"Bones-"

"Booth, you're back." Cam stepped into the three foot gap between them, breaking the bridge their shared gaze had forged. He saw Brennan look away before he turned his attention to the smiling pathologist that was looking at him expectantly with that half-smile.

Brennan watched, silently, frozen in inertia by the look, by the sudden, unexpected intrusion. No, not intrusion. A surprise. It was a surprise. She hadn't expected Dr. Saroyan to still be at the lab.

She let herself stand there, unsure of what exactly she was expecting, her eyes noting the way Cam's hand went out to touch his arm. Something inside of her twitched, and she remembered the stack of paperwork she still had to do to close their latest case.

Her office. She was comfortable there. There…there, everything made sense.

By the time he looked for her, she was gone.

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