(The Man in the Mansion)
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A/N: this story is rated T for a reason.
I don't own Bones.
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Though she rarely did it, Brennan was day dreaming. She usually considered it a waste of time, but she was waiting for the victim's bones to be cleaned before she could examine them and she was too restless to work on her notes for a new book idea she was working on.
He sat there, looking so sad, so concerned or at least those were the emotions she thought he was feeling. She was well aware that she had difficulty understanding emotions in other people, but she had worked with Booth for many months and she had become accustomed to his reactions towards certain scenarios. She thought she knew him well enough to understand that he was concerned about what had happened when they'd had to deal with Howard Epps.
"You know what happened to Cam happened because we had a personal relationship." Booth was watching his son on the carousel while he talked to her. "People who work in high-risk situations, they can't be involved. Every single day, it's with us. There's this line and we can't cross it. You know what I'm saying?
And she had known what he was saying. Though she had thought about what it would be like to enter into a physical relationship with her partner, she had kept her thoughts to herself. She considered Booth to be a friend as well as her partner and if there was a chance that a personal relationship would damage that friendship then she would not risk it on something so ephemeral as love.
She didn't really believe in love she wasn't romantic and she didn't think relationships lasted. Past experience had proved to her that she couldn't trust anyone that professed that they loved her.
Her parents had abandoned her when she was fifteen and her brother a few short weeks later. They had told her that they had loved her for fifteen years and then they threw her away like an old newspaper. As it turned out, her mother was dead, her father was a conman wanted for murder and her brother had abandoned her after they had been in contact for a few months, running away with their father. If that was love, then love was cruel and she didn't want any part of it.
Michael Stires had lasted a couple of years and when she had renewed their relationship, he had betrayed her by making her seem a damaged robot in court. Someone incapable of seeing the human side of the cases she worked on. He had never told her that he loved her, but she had thought he was her friend and someone she could rely upon. His betrayal had proved to her that even friendships didn't last for long.
How long she and Booth would remain friends was an unknown factor in her relationship with him, but she would value that friendship while it lasted. She hoped it would last a long time, but she wouldn't be surprised when it ended. Nothing was permanent when it came to human interaction.
Since she had met Timothy Sullivan, she had found herself drawn to him. He was kind, funny and a very knowledgeable person. He wasn't dedicated to his job which she found perplexing, but he did do the work assigned to him and he did it professionally.
He was interesting. She hadn't been able to say that about any man, besides Booth for quite a while. The last man she had consistently dated had been David Simmons and their relationship had ended with a fizzle. They had been dating when she'd found her mother's remains in Bones Storage and somehow the events that occurred after that placed David in a sort of limbo. She just stopped taking his phone calls or answering his emails. Her mother's death had reminded her that love didn't last and for whatever reason, she had stopped seeing David. Was it a mistake? She didn't know, but she was a realist and Sully seemed like someone that might be interesting to know.
She hadn't quite made up her mind if she wanted to really date him or not. Going to a basketball game to watch him play had been amusing and she'd had fun, but she wasn't sure if Sully was serious enough to date. The man didn't seem to take life too seriously. He spoke about leaving the FBI and moving on, but his reasoning seemed flawed. He seemed to flit from one job to another and she found that hard to understand. His life was unstable and she needed stability. Didn't she?
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After a conversation with Angela, Brennan realized that she would have to be the one to forward her relationship with Sully if she wanted one. The man was holding back and she thought it might be because he was embarrassed because he diverged from the quantifiable morphological norm when it came to his penis. She had overheard a conversation at the basketball game and Sully had been referred to as peanut. She didn't see why that mattered that much, so she took the bull by the proverbial horn.
"Are you free tonight?" Brennan was in the middle of a trial, but she had time to live her life. Dating Sully might prove to be entertaining since the trial was not a slam dunk case and might end badly. "I think it's time we went on a date, don't you?"
"What?" Surprised, Sully put his cup of coffee down on the table and stared at Brennan. "I've been hinting for a couple of weeks that we should date and you've ignored me and now you want to go on a date? You know you're terrible at being a girl."
Amused, Brennan leaned forward and lowered her voice. "I don't understand most hints. I prefer direct conversation. If you wanted me to go out on a date with you, you should have said so. I thought the basketball game might have been your way to ask me on a date, but I was wrong. After that, I thought you might not be interested in me and just wanted to be friends like Booth and me."
"Are you kidding me?" Sully reached out and took one her hands in his. "You're the most fascinating woman I've ever met. You're beautiful, scary smart, honest and you're not dating anyone. A perfect woman in my books. Of course, I want to date you. And yes, I am free tonight. How about you?"
"Yes, I am. That is why I asked you if you're free." Brennan shook her head and thought their conversation had taken a circular turn. Sometimes conversations seem to do that. "We could go to a jazz club I know about. The musicians are talented and the club isn't too crowded during the week."
It sounded like a fun date to him. "Hey, I love music. Maybe we could go get a bite to eat afterward."
"Or we could get take out and take it back to my place." Brennan had plans for the evening and she didn't want to waste her time at a restaurant. "I have a king size bed and it is very comfortable."
His mouth opened for just a few seconds then snapped shut. "So, this is what it's like to date you. Very interesting." Before he could say anything further, Booth sat down beside him and motioned for the waitress to bring him a cup of coffee.
"I don't know if I'm going to kill Hodgins or not. Messing around with evidence, not telling me he knew the victim or the victim's wife . . . I can't believe he did something like that." Booth was aggravated and he knew it was a good thing he was seeing Gordon Gordon that afternoon. Seeing the psychologist was supposed to be helping him and he guessed he was about some things but so far, he was just as angry about other things as he always was.
Brennan was concerned about the things that Hodgins had done, but she felt Booth was going too far. "The case wasn't thrown out and the Judge is going to allow new evidence to be introduced tomorrow morning as long as Hodgins had no hand in finding it. He made a mistake. He won't do it again."
Sighing, Booth leaned back and let Jane place the cup of coffee in front of him. "Some mistake." Sipping his coffee, he relished the taste. The coffee tasted like dirty dish water back at the Hoover and he needed some real coffee which he knew the Diner could provide. "Anyway, you got any plans tonight, Bones? There's a new movie out that you might be interested in. I thought we could go."
"Sorry Buddy, Tempe and I are going on a date." Sully winked at Brennan. He couldn't wait for that to start. "You'll have to go by yourself."
Though she hated the idea of Booth going by himself when he clearly wanted company, Brennan wasn't going to postpone her date with Sully. "Perhaps we can go this weekend."
Disappointed, Booth nodded his head. "Sure, we can go then." He wasn't happy that Brennan was dating, but he didn't have a right to object. They were just friends, weren't they? "I hope you have fun." But not too much fun.
"Oh, I think we will." Sully finished drinking his coffee. "A little jazz and a nice meal together, yeah, I think we will."
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