Title: Collide
Rating: Well, eventually, after several thousand words, I am sure this story will reach M. As for this chapter? I say T – because Booth's recent sexual adventures will be mentioned herein.
Disclaimer: Fox fucked with our heads with the whole Rebecca/Camille story line. This is my way of getting back at them. I don't think they deserve to own them. But unfortunately, they do and I don't. But I do mean to infringe, because I'm angry with them!
A/N: I know I am changing stories like most people change their underwear, but my ideas are just all over the place these days. I normally revisit stories that I have put on hold for awhile. So anyone concerned about neglected WIPs – don't. They aren't forgotten. My second note is, this story is named after the Howie Day song 'Collide' – which featured in the Pilot episode of the show and if you listen to the lyrics, it was a prelude of things to come for Brennan and Booth's relationship.
Don't forget to review!
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Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find
You and I collide.
It was a biological urge. Sex. He was a hot blooded male, with the kind of characteristics that appealed to enough women to ensure his urges were always kept satisfied. She understood the biology of it. The science. What she didn't understand was her own feelings.
Pressing her forehead to the glass, watching the cars on the highway beyond the Jeffersonian's lush gardens, Temperance Brennan wondered why she had been feeling so frustrated by Booth and his antics. Each time she looked at him, she felt something different. She had dedicated her life to her work, often suppressing her own sexual urges in favour of hard learning. The truth was, she wasn't as sexually alive as she liked to believe. Despite spouting off a spiel about anthropology and biology, she was afraid she and Booth might not have had anything in common.
And it hurt to think he was too different. He worked to live. She lived to work. Opposites might have attracted, in science this was certainly true. Polar opposites were drawn together in the form of magnets. She and Booth simply didn't have enough in common. She felt disillusioned because secretly she had wondered, in the recesses of her girlish indulgences whether there was a chance he would ever look at her as more than just a scientist or at best, a friend.
When she saw Rebecca she understood that Booth might always have an emotional connection to her, the mother of his son. But the memory of her admitting she had made a mistake by turning down his marriage proposal made her see Booth in something of a different light. She wondered if perhaps she were suffering from the common illness of wanting what she couldn't have. Wanting what was just out of reach.
Sighing, she turned away from the window hating that he was always on her mind. Hating more that her science wasn't going to save her this time. Logic was lost amidst her physical desire and her emotional turmoil. Booth said there were certain people it wasn't right to sleep with, and the question of whether he meant the two of them burned in the back of her heart.
Descending the stairs to the laboratory she watched her colleagues as they milled around, unaware of the pressing weight on her stomach recently. How had her relationship with Booth taken such a drastic turn? And why was it entirely one sided?
Angela grinned as she swiped her card.
"Hey sweetie!" she said, "we're just debating what to listen to on the radio." Brennan cast her gaze across the lab, knowing that it would be entirely unfair to take her annoyance at herself out on anyone else, least of all her best friend.
"No radio," she said. "You know I don't like that, Angela." Lifting her head, she saw Dr Saroyan as she meandered through the tables towards them, her eyes fixed ahead. Brennan felt an inexplicable surge of annoyance shoot along her windpipe and she turned abruptly. "Are the bones cleaned yet, Zach?" she asked, her tone icy.
"For the past hour, Dr Brennan," he said, nodding his head in the affirmative. "I couldn't find you."
"I've been busy, Zach…" she replied, still testy.
"I know, Dr Brennan." She somehow hated his understanding. It would have been easier to accept her own bitchiness if he had been somehow indignant. "I've finished the reports too." She felt her shoulders sag and the breath whoosh from her lungs.
"Is everything alright sweetie? You don't seem yourself." Angela asked, slipping her pencil into her hair. Brennan barely looked up from the bones on the steel gurney.
"Hmm," she replied, running her fingers over the smooth, yellowing surfaces.
"We're going for a drink today after work. Booth's coming too…" Brennan felt the knife twist a little deeper, desperately aware that she needed to shake the feeling of disgust from her stomach. Biological facts swirled around her brain, ineffectual against her own biology. Jealousy. The green eyed monster. Regardless of how hard she tried, her life always seemed to crash head first into his. Professional merged with personal, and the line became indistinguishable.
"I have other things to be getting on with," she said, tucking a plastic portfolio under her arm. Camille had finally made her way to their little group, her dark eyes watching them with stern suspicion. She was always suspected that Hodgins and Zach were conducting experiments without authorisation. Brennan brushed past her.
"And good afternoon to you too, Dr Brennan," Camille said.
"Yes," Brennan called back, "good afternoon Dr Saroyan."
After a long moment, Camille sighed. "She doesn't like me. Does she?" Angela folded her arms, shrugging her shoulders.
"I think she has something on her mind…" she said. "Don't take it personally." Camille slid her hands into her pockets.
"I won't," she said. "I'm well aware of Dr Brennan's little quirks. She's just been especially peculiar for the past few weeks." Camille clicked her tongue. "Must be writer's block or something, hmm? Zach? I might require your assistance today." Hodgins peeled off his gloves.
"Shouldn't you get your own assistant and stop 'borrowing' Dr Brennan's?" Camille turned towards him, her gaze sharp and unforgiving.
"I should. Unfortunately I'm too busy supervising the children of the anthropology department to find time to conduct interviews. My office in an hour, Zach." She spun on her heel, her footfalls as pointed as her words, and Jack smirked when she was gone.
"Back to Brennan," Angela said distractedly. "I think she and Booth have had another fight." Hodgins tossed his soiled gloves in the trash can.
"How's that different to any other day?" he asked. "Brennan is always fighting with Booth. Isn't it part of their, like, chemistry?" Angela pulled on the ends of her bangs, chewing on her lower lip.
"Not like this," she said. "Since his rumoured reconciliation with Rebecca, Bren has been behaving oddly."
"But that wasn't true, was it?" Zach said. "He just…" Together all three nodded in unison. "Dr Brennan understands the importance of sex in human beings," Zach hurried to add. "It's essential for procreation so the body secretes hormones that encourage it. She sees it, not as an emotional thing, but a…" Angela draped her arm around the young assistant's shoulder.
"Sweetie," she said, "who are you trying to kid? Bren is not as mechanical as everyone would like to think." She shook her head. "No. As a best friend, I am certain we're looking at a case of the green eyed monster." Heaving a sigh, she removed her card from her pocket. "I'll have to talk to her."
"Good luck. Brennan's been frostier than an December morning recently," Jack said and Angela smiled.
"Lucky I'm as warm as a July breeze then, isn't it?" And she skipped off, disappearing down the corridor to where she knew Brennan would be brooding in her office.
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Lots of angst on the way for you angst lovers! Let me know what you think!