(After 'The Change in the Game')
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I don't own Bones.
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Things had been fairly peaceful between Booth and Brennan since they had become a couple. They tried to make accommodations in their living arrangements and for the most part that worked. They both knew that their relationship wouldn't be unicorns and rainbows, but they hoped that any conflicts that they had could be settled amicably and they were able to accomplish that until two and a half months after Mr. Nigel-Murray had been killed on the platform in the Lab.
They'd had a case come up that involved the death of a child. Booth never took those cases well and everyone knew that he could be demanding when he was looking for the killer. Booth suspected that the boy had been killed by his uncle, but so far there was nothing conclusive that they could use to prove that Daniel Green had murdered the boy. All their evidence was circumstantial and would be thrown out in court if it made it that far.
"Daniel Green killed Marvin Green. We all know he did it." Booth was pacing on the platform while Brennan and Cam examined the body of Marvin once more.
This was their second look and Cam was afraid that it wouldn't accomplish anything. They had decided not to clean the bones allowing the parents to have an open casket funeral. Cam knew that a good funeral director could hide the massive bruising on the boy's face. "Hodgins is looking at the boy's clothes again to see if he missed anything."
Moving steadily back and forth in front of the staircase, Booth reminded Cam of a tiger pacing a cage, an agitated tiger.
"There was a witness that said they saw Marvin get into Daniel's truck after school and no one saw Marvin alive again after that." Booth needed something to go after their suspect and he needed it as soon as possible. "Daniel wasn't seen until the next morning when he showed up for work. Marvin's body was found in the Shady Oaks cemetery by a groundskeeper that afternoon. The boy was strangled. He was beat until his face was unrecognizable. He was ten years old and I want Daniel Green's head on a platter."
"That would be murder Booth." Brennan paused to stare at her partner. "We will look for evidence to see if we can determine who the killer is, but that is as far as we can go."
Annoyed, Booth stopped his pacing and stared at Brennan. "If I really wanted Daniel Green's head on a platter, I wouldn't need your help or anyone else's. I'm going back to the Hoover and see what the techs found in Daniel's truck. We found the truck in a junk yard this morning. The bastard isn't as smart as he thinks he is."
Once he was gone, Brennan turned back to the body and sighed. "He's agitated."
"Just a little bit, but that's Booth. He hates dealing with the murder of children." Cam moved her fingers slowly around the victim's neck and felt for any particulates that might have been missed.
"Especially since he's a father." Brennan hadn't told anyone besides Booth that she was pregnant. She wanted to wait until the second trimester before she made her announcement.
Unaware that Booth was going to be a father again, Cam knew that Booth felt every child's death since his own childhood had been horrible. She had known Booth for a long time and she knew that Booth felt the need to protect any child that came into his life and when a child was murdered, he went after the murderer with quiet ferocity.
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The FBI Techs had gone over the truck and found strands of hair in the pocket on the door of the passenger side of the truck as well as a wad of chewing gum under the front passenger seat in the rails along with a broken tooth. The car had been detailed right after Marvin was killed, but the techs realized that the people who had cleaned the truck had been careless. The techs bagged the items, sent them to one of their forensic specialists and kept looking for more clues.
In the meantime, Brennan noted that the child Marvin Green was missing a tooth. Children were usually still losing teeth at that age, but she didn't want to assume anything. The tooth was a recent loss and it was possible that Daniel Green had knocked the child's tooth out when he beat the boy, if he was the killer and they hadn't proven that yet.
After DNA tests were done on the hair, the wad of gum and the tooth, they could now prove that Marvin had been in his uncle's truck since all of the items belonged to the boy. Booth had Daniel Green arrested at his place of employment and brought in for questioning. As was his custom, he invited Brennan into the interview room and expected to confront Daniel with the evidence they had hoping that the man would confess. Things didn't go quite as they expected them to.
"Marvin Green was in your truck, Daniel. You said you hadn't seen your nephew in months, but we know that is a lie." Booth stared at the suspect and waited for him to respond.
Not sure how they knew it was a lie, Daniel sneered at the agent. "I'm not lying. I haven't seen my dear nephew since last Christmas."
Silently, Brennan held up two plastic bags. One held the tooth and the other held some strands of hair. Confident that Daniel was the killer, she placed the bags on the table between them. Curious, she watched the man lean over, look at the tooth then shrug his shoulders. "That tooth belonged to Marvin, Mr. Green."
"You just bought your truck Daniel." Booth smiled. He knew that Daniel would not be able to talk his way out of this. "It still has that new truck smell . . . We found a wad of gum and the tooth on the floor under the passenger's seat. The hair was in the side door pocket on the passenger side . . .You beat the hell out of your nephew then strangled him. Why? Why did you kill him Daniel? What was so bad that a ten year old child had to die?"
Stunned, Daniel stared at the tooth and tried to think of a way out of his situation. "You planted that tooth and hair in the truck. I had my truck cleaned a few days ago. I haven't seen my nephew since Christmas. You just want a quick end to the case and you've picked me to be the fall guy."
Slowly shaking his head, Booth grabbed the bags and pulled them back across the table until they were sitting on front of him. "Good luck with that defense, Daniel . . . You picked that boy up from school, we have two witnesses to that . . . you drove him somewhere, you got in an argument with him, you beat him and then you strangled him. Marvin was ten years old, Daniel. I'm sure we can probably get you for kidnapping as well as the murder. That means the death penalty."
Terrified, Daniel leaped to his feet and charged around the table. Brennan lunged to her feet and grabbed Daniel's jacket stopping his progress. At the same time, Booth left his chair and grabbed Daniel putting him in a choke hold. During the fracas, Brennan was elbowed in her left eye. Confident that Booth had Daniel under control, Brennan stepped back and held her hand over her eye, certain she was going to have a black eye to show for her trouble. As she watched, two other agents open the door grabbed Daniel Green and cuffed him allowing Booth to release the ranting man. Daniel started screaming in terror and once more he tried to escape while the two agents got him under their control then marched him out of the room.
Once Daniel was on the way to his cell, Booth turned to face his partner. "What the hell did you think you were doing? You're pregnant. You can't just grab suspects like that. He could have hurt you and the baby."
Annoyed, Brennan brushed past Booth and walked towards the door. "Do not tell me what to do, Booth. I'm not an invalid. I am your partner and your backup and that has not changed."
Furious, Booth grabbed Brennan's arm and realizing his mistake, stepped backward and released her arm when she tried to slap him. "Stop . . . Just stop." He closed the door and faced Brennan. "Things have changed. You're responsible for you and for your baby . . . our baby. You cannot try to subdue a murder suspect like that. I mean it. If you do that again, I will keep you from going into the field with me. I won't let you and the baby get hurt. I won't let that happen."
As angry as Booth was, Brennan was just as angry. "If you try that I will make one of my interns your partner. Perhaps Daisy." She knew that Daisy annoyed Booth most of the time and he would balk at the intern being in the field with him.
"You know what? Go ahead." At this point, Booth didn't care. His heart was still racing from fright. He was grateful that Brennan only got a black eye out of the fight, but still anything could have happened. "I mean what I say. You cannot go after a suspect like that. Besides, what the hell did you think was going to happen? He's in the Hoover surrounded by a lot of Agents. He wouldn't have made it off this floor."
Embarrassed, Brennan realized that what Booth said was true. "I don't care. You cannot tell me what to do. Baby or no baby, I am still working with you in the field and I will not change how I do my job. If you don't like it then you can rethink our partnership."
Speechless with anger, Booth yanked the door open and stalked out of the room, leaving his worried partner behind. Had she pushed him away? Would he leave her now? She knew that love didn't last, but was it possible that her relationship with Booth would be this short-lived? She didn't know. She still didn't trust love and she didn't think she ever would.
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"If you don't like it then you can rethink our partnership." Was Brennan threatening their relationship or their working partnership or both? Booth didn't know. She refused to be called his girlfriend and she still called him her partner. It was confusing and he wasn't sure if she had dumped him or not. It made him feel sick. He didn't want to lose Brennan. He hadn't meant to yell at her or grab her arm, but she had given him a fright. It would kill him if they lost the baby and if anything happened to Brennan, he knew that his life would be over. He loved her so much and he didn't want to think about living without her. Not after he had finally got the relationship he wanted.
Angry and confused, Booth let Charlie know that Daniel Green was in custody and he was leaving for the rest of the day. If anyone asked, he told his assistant to let them know he had a migraine. Once in his truck, he sat there for a while and tried to calm down. Brennan's car was in the guest parking lot, so he didn't need to worry about her. She could drive back to work when she was ready. His heart now beating normally, he felt as calm as he was going to be and drove down the ramp and out into the street. Randomly driving around town, he ended up at the Lincoln Memorial. After he found a place to park, he trudged over to the memorial and sat down on the steps. He spent a few hours watching the tourists come and go and tried not to worry about Brennan. She could take care of herself. Lately, it had become a refrain that she repeated at least once a week. He didn't know if he was smothering her or not, but he knew that he couldn't change who he was. He needed to protect the woman he loved and their baby growing inside her. It's who he was and he thought she knew that.
After the sun went down, he drove to his apartment, ate a sandwich for dinner and went to bed. Since he hadn't received any phone calls from Brennan, he assumed she was still angry with him and there was nothing he could do about it. Either they were still a couple or they weren't. He assumed she'd tell him in the morning. He vowed that if they were breaking up, he would not walk away from his partner. She didn't understand love, she was afraid of love, but he would love her no matter what happened. He would always be there for her and the baby. He would not let her push him out of her life.
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"If you don't like it then you can rethink our partnership." She was worried. Did Booth think she meant their personal relationship? Surely, he knew she was talking about their working relationship. She assumed he was still angry with her since he had made no attempt to contact her. After sitting in the interrogation room for thirty minutes, she assumed that her partner wasn't coming back. She considered driving back to work, but she didn't want to talk about her black eye. Not to anyone and especially not to Angela. She had too much to think about and she needed peace and quiet. Not sure where to go, she went to her apartment assuming that Booth wouldn't be there. She was right and that added to her worry. They were supposed to be sleeping in her apartment that week, but after the sun went down and Booth didn't show up, she ate a salad for dinner and went to bed. She would talk to Booth in the morning and see where their relationship stood.
She didn't know how the situation had escalated so quickly. She had done her job by backing up Booth and now they weren't talking to each other. She didn't want to give up her independence, but she could see that Booth was already trying to stop her from doing her job. If she couldn't back up Booth when he needed it then how could she be his partner? He needed someone to make sure he was safe and she couldn't do that if he was trying to sideline her. She knew that sooner or later she wouldn't be able to do that part of her job, but that was a few months away and until then Booth needed to stop acting irrationally.
He said he loved her. He said it every day. He believed it, but did she? She wasn't sure. Would she ever be sure? That worried her most of all. She had told him outside the Hoover that she didn't have his heart and she still believed that to be true.
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It was two in the morning and Booth was sick from worry. He had tried to call Brennan at midnight, but she hadn't answered her phone. Was she that angry with him? He didn't know, but he needed to do something. He couldn't sleep not knowing if he still had a girlfriend or not, if he had a partner or not.
Dressing, he made his way to his SUV and entered the truck. Not sure if he was doing the right thing, he decided that right or wrong, he would talk to Brennan and see if their relationship was salvageable.
Once at her apartment, he debated using his key and decided to play it safe and knock on the door. She already thought he was trying to control her independence. Entering her apartment unasked might be the final straw and he knew it.
A loud knock broke through Brennan's thoughts. So far, she had been able to sleep no more than an hour or so and she knew she would be exhausted in the morning. Rising from her bed, she slipped on her robe and moved quickly into the living room, opened the door and stepped back. "Why are you knocking on the door? You have a key."
"I didn't want to assume anything." Booth stood in the hallway and waited to see if he would be allowed into the apartment.
"Assume anything?" Confused, Brennan stepped back and motioned for Booth to enter her apartment. "I don't know what you mean." Brennan was afraid. She didn't know if he was there to tell her their relationship was over or not. She didn't want that to happen, but she didn't know how to stop it. It was possible he was going to walk away from her even though he had promised her he never would.
Once he was in the living room Booth turned to face his partner. "You told me to rethink our partnership . . . I don't know if you've broke up with me or not. Are we still together?" There he'd said it. Now it was up to her.
"I haven't broken up my relationship with you, Booth." She knew that she needed to make herself as clear as possible. "I was angry with you when I said that. You were trying to tell me what to do. I will not be controlled by anyone. I can't live like that. I just want to be treated like I was before I became pregnant and we became a couple. Is that really difficult for you?"
"Yeah, it is." Booth didn't move closer to Brennan. He needed her to feel comfortable and as an equal in this conversation. "You're pregnant. I know you don't see why that changes things but it does. Before you were pregnant . . . well, if someone kicked you in the gut it might hurt you, but you'd recover in no time . . . What happened in the interrogation room this morning . . . Daniel Green hit you in the eye and you have one hell of a black eye right now, but what if he'd kicked you in the stomach or thrown you against a chair? You could have lost the baby, our baby. You could be in the hospital right now . . . It scared me, alright? You're too brave for your own good. I want to keep working with you, I really do, but I can't let you charge after dangerous felons. There's too much at stake . . . Look, you scare the shit out of me whenever you do stuff like that. You always have. Why do you think I keep reminding you that I'm the gun? I'm the one that's armed and I'm less likely to be hurt because of it. Sure, you have your taekwondo stuff and you're damn good at it, but sometimes it still isn't good enough. You're vulnerable right now. You're going to be vulnerable until the baby is born . . . I'm not saying that I don't want you to work with me in the field. You've made it clear that you want to work with me, but damn it . . . you have to access the situation before you go off half-cocked. Daniel Green ran this morning, but there was nowhere for him to go to. He was in the Hoover surrounded by hundreds of Feds. Sure, I didn't want him to leave the room, but it wasn't life or death that he was stopped right there. You took an unnecessary risk. You're smarter than that. You're more logical than that."
She agreed. She didn't know why she felt compelled to try to stop Daniel Green. "I should have taken a second to see that, Booth, but I didn't. Perhaps I'm being affected by my pregnancy hormones, but I will not apologize for backing you up. I was closer and I merely grabbed his jacket to slow him down. I knew that you would grab him and control Daniel after that. Of course, he was hysterical and I didn't count on getting a black eye. I should have knocked him down instead of grabbing his jacket."
"Bones, listen to me. I'm the agent not you. You're a forensic anthropologist and my partner. Yes, you back me up, but you shouldn't if it means risking your life. I've always told you that. That isn't new and you know it . . . I am the gun. Not you. I'm the one paid to take risks, not you. I appreciate that you back me up. I really do, but you can't get hurt doing it. That is not acceptable. It never has been and never will be."
She heard him out. It was the same old argument they had every time she inserted herself into a risky situation. "You have a point. These arguments are not new. I have never understood why you think my life is more valuable than yours. It's not true. I value your life and I don't want to see you hurt or killed."
"Look, I don't think your life is more valuable than mine. I . . . I'm a soldier. I'm trained to fight. You're a scientist and you're trained to think. Yeah, you can protect yourself under most circumstances, I get that. I really do, but and this is a big but, you're not paid to risk your life to catch criminals. I am. I'm paid to take risks and I don't want you to do that ever . . . While you're pregnant at least try to be more cautious, okay? Don't be you while you're carrying around a baby. Like this morning, you were trying to stop a murderer from escaping. You jeopardized your life and the baby's and you also jeopardized the murderer." He knew that she needed to see that what she had done was wrong or she would never back down. "By you getting in my way, I had a split second to decide what to do. I had to choose what risk I was willing to take at that moment. Did I risk him hurting you while I tried to find an opening to attack? Did I risk hurting you getting you out of the way to get to Daniel? Did I want to try to subdue him because you were in danger or did I want to go for the kill to protect you? I had a few seconds to decide Bones. Just a few seconds. Do you see? If you had sat at the table, I wouldn't have had to make any decisions. I could have just gone after him and not worry about you or him."
He was trying to explain and Brennan was listening. She didn't agree with some of the things he said, but she understand his reasoning and that was important to her. She had a hard time understanding motives sometimes and she appreciated that Booth was laying bare the facts as he understood them. "I will try to refrain from attacking a suspect in the future unless you are in danger or someone else is in danger. I will not stand idly by and watch you get hurt or killed. I can't do that Booth. I won't do it."
It seemed a fair trade off for now. He would try to make sure she wasn't put in dangerous situations from that moment on, but he was also a realist. Life was unpredictable and he would have to deal with problems when they came. In the meantime, he would make sure she didn't have to back him up in dangerous situations. "Okay, I think we came to an understanding here. Didn't we?"
"Yes, I believe we have . . . would you like to stay the rest of the evening? I find it hard to sleep when you aren't in bed with me. I've grown use to your presence."
"I sure would." Booth moved closer, took her hands in his hands, leaned forward and kissed her. "Have I ever to you about make up sex?"
Intrigued, Brennan returned his kiss. "No, you haven't. Tell me about it."
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