A/N: New week new chapter. I am pretty happy with how I have been able to keep updating. The second part of this chapter is also just about ready, but after that, there is a whole field of possibilities that is keeping the voices in my head divided on what to do next. Another round of applause for Kareneb for reviewing so faithfully. I am glad you and everyone else that is reading along, are still reading even though I am making it very very hard on you all XD. As to respond to your review: B&B are not currently together. I've been told the current storyline is cruel XD, but I am not that cruel. All the best to the brave soul that dares to write a story like that - I would totally read it though XD.

"Are you avoiding me?" The words sounded in the - up until then - empty archive room.

Booth could see her looking around, as she tried to determine from which side his now purposefully loud footsteps came from. Since she was quite far away from the door in the large hall she probably couldn't hear from which way his voice was coming. He reveled in the fact that his sniper like footing raddled her.

"Excuse me?" Lilly asked, a lot braver than she was actually feeling at the very moment. Not able to see the mystery person in the file room and she hadn't even heard the door but she could hear footsteps now it seemed she was apparently asking her question to thin air. It sounded like whoever it was, could come from either side, the steps resounding through the large archive room.

"It's a simple question really. And with your skills I am expecting you to be able to understand and answer it, so let me just pretend you didn't hear me correctly."

Five minutes earlier:

Being the Agent in Charge definitely had its downfalls, Booth thought as he logged onto his computer. More paperwork, more annoying staff problems, he mentally scoffed. Moving on to his next task, he pulled up the now - thanks to an FBI technician's improvement aka FBI squint - real-time log of security cards. Hodgins would flip out badly if he'd know that the FBI could see when the squints were at their labs or not. Ah (imaginary) messing with Hodgins always made his paperwork and petty work problems more doable. Clicking on an arrow to go back in the program, he went back to the homepage to look up the history of whereabouts from another agent he noticed that Lilly's card was currently checked in at the Hoover.

Not able to control himself, he double clicked on her name, hoping she had just checked in and was on her way up to see him. Instead, the newest entry to the log showed that Lilly had swiped her card at the checkpoint at the FBI files archive in the basement. Okay, no reason to get angry, he tried to calm himself. Maybe she was just picking up a file for her research or for Caroline before taking the elevator up to the fourth floor to see him? Trying to confirm his theory he slid the page to the far right and let his eyes follow the latest entry into the column with the time stamp. Jumping out of his chair when he saw the date and time, he quickly magnified the page until only the time stared him into his eyes. 7.26 am. She had been here for almost two hours already?!

Backing up blindly while turning around, he grabbed his suit jacket, causing his chair to crash into his cabinet with a muffled boom. Three days was more than enough patience and restraint from him. What was she trying to pull her? Ignore him until one of them would change jobs or something? He expected so much more from her, they had been growing closer to each other as friends, before they jumped the gun - ahum - each other. This would end now, he wanted answers, so he was going to talk to her right this moment.

Completely forgetting about the paperwork issue he was trying to solve, he stormed out of his office, working his arms into his suit jacket. Quickly striding through the ball pen he yelled a half-assed excuse at Charlie for leaving his office before he slammed the button to get the elevator.

Present time:

Lilly could hear the footsteps grow closer. Who could think I am avoiding them?, Lilly thought. She had a hard time recognizing the voice, the walls from the big hall probably distorting it. Assistant deputy director Hacker maybe? He had after all invited her to some sort of FBI staff weekend for young FBI liaisons where he and the ADA would be talking. Although, he had never talked to her with that much sass and she seriously doubted he would even bother to leave his desk to go and look for an intern from a different agency. So who could it be?

"Are. you. avoiding. me?"

She jumped a little because the voice was so close now she could practically feel the words hit her skin. No longer able to focus on determining who was here with her. She squealed as she lost her grip on the carefully picked out files, making them crash to the floor with a soft thud, that in her ears sounded like bang. Looking to her side she finally saw to whom the voice belonged. "Agent Booth", Lilly said, relieved it was a familiar, but this time around, not such a friendly face.

Was she just going to pretend they hadn't seen each other naked? "Don't agent Booth me", he hissed, his eyes darkened by his anger. Hearing his professional title felt like Lilly had given him a bitch slap. Placing his hands on his hips, widening his stance he towered over her. "So? Are you going to answer my question? Because you know it isn't very polite to cancel lunch on Monday and then not to give as much as a signal of life. So, let me ask you for the third time: are you avoiding me?"

Third time, third-degree must be what you mean, Lilly thought skeptically, feeling her discontentment rising. The agent looked incredibly angry. She inhaled deeply. It was kind of impressive how he had carefully sidestepped the fact that they've had sex. Or maybe them having sex hadn't happened at all. That it all had just been a dream, which after three 16-hour-days and an all-nighter that was seriously starting to seem like a plausible explanation. Until he had now barged into here, she had started to think it maybe hadn't happened at all.

He sure had startled her by sneaking up on her. Trying to suppress her rising anger, she made a conscious effort to organize the thoughts flashing through her mind. The most rational and therefore best thing she could do to counterbalance his anger was respond in a calm and compassionate way. So she decided she wanted to be as calm as she could manage to try and counterbalance his obvious anger and hurt. Taking a deep breath in and out before responding should be helpful.

"No, I have not been avoiding you. What in hells name gave you that idea? Shouldn't you read me my rights before you start accusing me like that?"

Whoops, that didn't come out as kindly as she had hoped - at all. All her good intentions blasted away by the fireball her adding fuel to the fire had created. She knew she should be more careful. Pushing an angry FBI agent never was a good idea, but apparently, she couldn't help herself. If someone accused her of something she always straight up went on the defense, maybe even offense. Especially now, after starting at the prosecutor's office, there was no way she would let anyone falsely accuse her of anything, particularly without offering any sort of proof.

Booth laughed intimidatingly, not at all impressed by Lilly's response. "I can drag your ass upstairs and into an interrogation room if you'd prefer?" threatening her with a special type of psychical violence, not that he intended to carry through on something like that, but he liked seeing the effect his rattling her had on her. Booth stepped closer to invigorate his rhetorical question. "Last chance, miss Johnson, have you been avoiding me?"

Lilly gasped at the low tone of his voice, shuddering at the way he pronounced her surname. Mocking her with how she had called him by his title out of habit, instead of maliciousness. He never calls me by my last name. He looked rather dangerous and if she would keep pressing his buttons, he'd probably start backing them both up until her back would be flush against the file cabinets. Or maybe he would actually drag her through the Hoover. Lilly immediately could imagine how that would end and she really liked these clothes. Them being in a black-walled room, together; too bad those rooms had cameras. Oh, really nice, Lilly, she admonished herself. This is really not the time to be having these types of thoughts. Agent Booth was angry at her, so sex would be the last thing on his mind. If he wanted to pound anything considering her, it probably would be her face.

Moving closer had been not the best move on his part. Now that they were standing so close they were almost touching noses, it was like their bodies remembered what had happened the last time they had shared a squared yard. And apparently, their bodies weren't bothered by the fight their brains were trying to have.

Lilly felt her breath hitching as her body responded, just from being so close to the agent. Only this time around, they were fully clothed, in the FBI basement and apparently Booth was really pissed with her. Not able to keep her mind from getting right back into the gutter. Would he be feeling the same way? She kind of wanted to look down and check the stance of his trousers, but with his eyes locked on hers, there was no way to do that discreetly. Oh well with the way he was standing and in this light, she wouldn't be able to get to a definitive conclusion anyways.

Booth could see that she hadn't quite bounced back from being startled. It was quite endearing, to be honest. If he wasn't so mad, he would have laughed and playfully teased her about it. Her chest was heaving as she tried to regain control of her breathing again. Her breath flowing out of her parted lips, making him feel the need to tug her bottom lip down with his scraping teeth before whispering how he wouldn't accept her avoiding him like a child. His body and mind betrayed him, he could feel himself harden from just being so close to Lilly. Damn it, this was not the time to live out his library fantasies. Mr. Booth, do you know the penalty for an overdue book? Was he really that much of a bastard that he couldn't even leave sex out of a conversational confrontation? Sure, Lilly was affected by their conversation, he could see that much, but probably not in the same way some parts of his body were hoping for. Fear could cause those bodily reactions as well, right? Partly remembering something Bones once told him.. He was a dick for even thinking it could be arousal on her part.

"I have been incredibly busy. So - like I told you on Monday - I had that jurisprudence lunch meeting with Caroline's department. Then later that day there was a federal justice department trainees afternoon with all the newbies such as myself. When we weren't finished comparing stories during dinner we all went out and had drinks together. Which was a lot of fun, thanks for asking," she sarcastically added. "Would you like the names of my colleagues to check my alibi?" Not waiting for Booth to respond, she continued.

"Then, let's move onto Tuesday, shall we? I had two oral exams and then some defense attorney got a judge to move the Henderson case up to the front of the line, so the whole team had to come in to help prepare the case for trial, which actually took us until yesterday 7.30 pm. We all pulled an all-nighter on the night from Tuesday till Wednesday. I think we might have actually worked 16 hour work days. So yesterday evening - despite being exhausted to the bone - I rushed to a yoga class just to unwind a little and turned in extra early. Now I have been here for", checking her phone for the time, "2 hours to try and get back on schedule to my assigned research." She gestured to the files that were now on the floor, thankfully not all tangled into one big mess. "So no, I have not been avoiding you." I doubt I'd actually had enough energy left to make a conscious decision like that.

"Don't talk to me like that," Booth said harshly. He had never liked being on the receiving end of rhetorical questions.

Lilly raised an eyebrow, feigning innocence. "Talk how? Like how you stalk in here and talk to me? You don't like a taste of your own medicine?" Innocence changing into biting sarcasm within a second as she moved even closer towards the agent. Standing so close to each other seemed so aggressive and Lilly wasn't about to back down from agent Booth's unfounded accusations.

God, she could be so infuriating. He wanted to stamp his feet, scream along arrrggghhh out of frustration. If only she was a suspect, he could rough her up against a wall to make her talk, or at least make her understand his irritation. "Oh really? Well, why did you give me the cold shoulder? I mean, the first thing out of your mouth before you walked off the face of the earth was we're going to have to hurry. And let's look at the evidence because you are part of the evidence fan club, right? After canceling lunch, you practically disappear for four days. I even emailed you a couple of times, which for the record you didn't respond to. And why did you go to Bones' class if you were soooo busy huh? If I was just a good good morning shag, you should have just told me that instead of trying to stay out of my way. You do know we would run into each other because of our jobs sooner or later anyways" Booth spat out his words, no longer interested in keeping it civil, just plainly speaking his mind.

It was like he was trying to provoke her. Pushing against her with words, trying to piss her off as much as he was pissed off. Well, it is definitely working. Lilly looked down at her feet trying once more to find the strength to stay somewhat calm. Before looking back up, she shook her head. Unbelievable, for a special agent he could be so ordinarily shortsighted.

Slowly she raised her head until she could see his eyes. Behind the anger, she noticed the hurt and as the hurt stabbed her in the heart she felt incredibly bad for pissing him off further than he already had been. It must have looked really bad from his perspective. Lilly sighed, her anger turning into frustration. "I know, am sorry, you are right, it does look bad. But I swear, I didn't mean to avoid you, it just happened. I am actually really terrible at hide and seek." She fell silent for a second.

"As for my immediate reaction… Sometimes I am more emotional and sometimes it is more rational. And apparently one of the first things I remembered was something maybe a little too practical for this situation.

I went to dr. Brennan's class right after those exams and midway Caroline called me about the Henderson case. Caroline had some questions about some of the techniques so I stayed to ask dr. Brennan for help and then I did get back to the office.

As for a good morning shag; I really hoped you held me to a higher standard. At the very least I know you aren't the morning shag type of man. I don't appreciate the implication I would be that type of girl. Now I don't know what or why we ended up in the shower like that, but it happened. It probably meant something, even though I am unsure what it meant... I can't make you believe me and it seems that you are hard bent on not believing me, so." Lilly concluded as she mentally she flipped off Booth. Having noticed the storm of emotions in Booth she had managed to get out the first part in relative calm, but remembering the comment of a good morning shag got her anger resurfacing again.

In her eyes, he saw his own anger and hurt staring back at him. Lilly looked stubborn, unyielding and insulted at his assumptions.

"I am sorry too." He worked for his hand through his hair before dropping his arms to his sides. Throwing his arms around him casually, showing his desperation, hurt, confusion. His palms to the sky almost making an upside down W-shape with his body as he tapped the floor with his right foot, impatient for his thinking to catch up with what he was trying to tell Lilly. An uncomfortable little laugh broke the silence between them. "I am sorry for overreacting. Sorry for getting you involved in the mess that is currently my life." He let out his breath slowly, looking for the right words. "I guess I just panicked when you didn't react to any of my messages and then when I saw you were actually here, in the building, I just jumped to conclusions and I shouldn't have. I should have been civilized enough to have kept my calm."

Lilly nodded, silently accepting his apology, but not really knowing where to go from there. She hated being on bad terms with good people and she genuinely liked working and hanging out with the agent. Lilly believed that everything happened for a reason and just because she didn't know exactly why they had slipped and fallen into each other, didn't mean it was a mistake. Maybe they shouldn't repeat it– for obvious reasons and all - but to be honest she wasn't sure about anything at the moment.

Her emotions fluttering from side to side like a butterfly in early spring. She really hadn't had enough time to think all this through in these last few days and when she had had the time she had decided on drinking away her ability to think. She had thought she needed time to process, but now, with the agent standing right in front of her here, that simply didn't seem like that good of an option anymore.

"I don't really know where we should go from here," Lilly spoke softly, uncertainly voicing her thought. Feelings of guilt coursing through her, she should have realized the agent was going to be upset like he was now and had been for the past couple of days.

A/N: I'd love to know what you guys are thinking! However much fun it is to try and write, it is so much more fun while knowing the thoughts that are going through your heads. So feel free to leave your thoughts on this chapter or any of the other ones or to guestimate what will be next :).