A/N: Hello there! Welcome back for the next chapter. It is time for Wendell to fix his storming out during the uber-romantic dinner date XD. The working title for this chapter was Surrounding the date, but I felt the current title worked better. Enjoy!

Thank you Mphs95 for reviewing the previous chapter.

"Hi," Wendell greeted Lilly as he found her crossing the hallway with her freshly printed research materials.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" Lilly responded surprised. He looked happy and confident, a completely different look from when he had dashed off, leaving her standing in the doorway of her apartment a few days ago.

Wendell smiled at the eager look on her face. "Looking for you of course. Do you have a second?"

"Sure", Lilly said as she nodded and put her papers on her desk. Before turning toward Wendell. "What's up?"

"Can we talk in private?" As he looked around at the bullpen, they were standing in. Some occupied, others empty, but not empty enough for his likings.

"Oh", Lilly said surprised. "Yeah, sure." She signaled him to follow her to one of the conference rooms down the hall.

Letting Lilly walk in first, he closed the door behind them. "I wanted to apologize. I had some time to think about our dinner and you were right. I shouldn't have treated you like a damsel in distress. If you say you're okay, then you are. I shouldn't doubt your judgment. I am sorry I overreacted."

Lilly smiled. "Apology accepted, although an apology wasn't necessary. I totally sprang all that on you, so I understand why you reacted how you did. Though I am glad you came to your senses."

He nodded. "I also came to another conclusion. Well actually, we had already reached that conclusion, but it resurfaced when I had gained that much-needed clarity. Since we like each other and I acted like a complete idiot, I wanted to ask if you'd like to go on a date with me. To make up for my foolishness."

"Ohh, ready to move this along, are we?" Lilly said grinning, gently teasing him for his groveling. "And yeah, of course, I would love to. Just tell me where and when."

"Great, are you free tomorrow evening?"

"I believe so. Where do you want to meet?"

Wendell grinned. "I'll pick you up and we'll go there together."

"What? I can't know where we are going?"

"Nope", Wendell said.

"Oh God, I hate surprises", Lilly said dramatically but with a smile. "How will I know what to wear if I don't know where we'll go?"

"Whatever you want to wear is fine, but there is no need to be overly dressed."

Lilly smiled. "Ah, so no business attire then?"

"Nope", Wendell said. "You do own casual clothes, right?" Wendell questioned teasingly.

Snorting Lilly nodded. "Yes, I think I'll be able to find something appropriately not business fancy somewhere deep down in my closet."

Their eyes lingered.

"Anything else you wanted to discuss?" Lilly asked.

"Yes. That kiss we shared; it was amazing."

Lilly could feel the tension between them increasing as her eyes locked with his. "I agree, the ending was a little abrupt for my taste but other than that it was definitely great. It showed great potential."

"Hmm. You want to continue where we left off last time?" Wendell asked, mesmerized by her lips.

"Yes. I would love to." Lilly leaned in, placing her lips on his.

As their lips connected, their bodies slowly inching closer and closer until their torsos touched.

After what felt like forever, but still not long enough, Lilly broke this kiss. "We should stop before we'll escalate."

With regret, Wendell stepped back. "Yeah, you're right. I have to head back too. I'll see you tomorrow."

And once again Wendell walked away, but this time the air was filled with promises and a date.

The day after the date, in Sweet's office.

"Did you have a nightmare or something?"

Lilly cringed. After spending the whole night tossing and turning if she wasn't having that dream, she had thought she was ripe for the looney bin. So as soon as her clock had pointed to a not all too indecent hour for calling the one and only Dr. Sweets, she had done so. Thankfully Sweets had been able to squeeze her into his schedule. More like the exact opposite, she thought and shame washed over her. She needed someone to talk this through and her first instincts had been to seek out Lance. "Yes, something like that. But... can we even talk about things concerning personal relationships? Or would that be way too uncomfortable or not even your job?"

Ah, that made sense as the reason for her discomfort. "We can talk about anything you want. That is what I am here for."

"Are you sure? I don't want it to be uncomfortable between us; since we also work together on occasion."

Sweets smiled. She still looked very hesitant to tell him whatever had made her call him at the crack of dawn. "You don't need to worry about that, I can assure you I am a professional. Whatever it is you want to discuss; I am positive we'll be able to keep working together when needed."

Lilly nodded, biting her nails. "Yeah okay, I... guess I already knew that. I just don't know where to start."

Leaning back, Sweets nodded. "That is very common. Let's try this to ease some of your stress. Close your eyes. Think back to your yoga practices and take three deep breaths, calming yourself. And when you've silenced most of your thoughts just tell me the first thought that pops into your mind and we'll go from there."

Lilly carefully followed Lance's instructions, letting her thoughts float away as she followed his calm voice. After taking a few deep breaths, she let out the last one with a long sigh. Opening her eyes, she looked for Sweets'. "I like Wendell," she blurted out.

Not entirely sure what she meant he just nodded, hoping it would encourage her to continue talking. Nothing. Okay. "What is not to like about Wendell? Do you think you could elaborate a little?"

"I think I like him romantically, like him more than just liking him," Lilly stated, hoping that would be enough information for Sweets to do his magic.

"And that is a problem how?" Sweets asked kindly.

"Not per se a problem, but complicated, I guess."

Sweets still wasn't following along. "He doesn't 'like' you back?"

"No that is not it. I am pretty sure he likes me back just fine." A giant smile appeared as she thought about the date, she and Wendell had last night. "We've spent the biggest part of last night having fun and pretty much flirting the whole time."

"That is great, right? But I still don't see what has gotten you all anxious."

Lilly nodded. "Of course. Let me start from the beginning. Wendell tutored me for procedural anthropology. If I would pass the test, we would have dinner together. We had this ongoing joke that it would be a romantic dinner, because I kept turning all the guys down that asked me out on a date." Lilly rolled with her eyes as she remembered how awkward and somewhat weird those first few weeks at the Jeffersonian had been because of those proposals.

"I didn't exactly ace this test but thanks to Wendell's help I did well enough to keep up my GPA. So, after rescheduling way too many times, we had that dinner last week. it was a great night that ended with an amazing kiss. Which I would not have minded if we had continued for a while, but Wendell freaked out. His freak out was totally my mistake because I had told him the headlines of what happened with Stein during that night. And since Wendell initiated the kiss, I suppose he felt guilty for kissing me or something. We patched that up earlier this week and went out last night to a bar. We ended up winning the pub quiz. Still not that big of a deal, right?" Lilly said as she saw Sweets trying to follow along while trying to figure out the problem.

"But last night after that pub quiz, when I was asleep in my own bed...", Lilly emphasized, "... I dreamed about... Well... more than just kissing. I guess you can imagine." Lilly paused for a single second. "If Wendell hadn't freaked out last week, I felt like I could have maybe ended up in my bedroom with him then. If he hadn't insisted, we needed to go home to make it to work on time today, the same thing."

"Ah, and you consider the dream a problem?" Sweets asked, swallowing. As his head filled with imagines that definitely undermined his professionalism. "If he likes you too, I'd say that could be an amazing experience for the both of you."

"I suppose, but... originally we had planned this dinner for about a week after getting my grade back, but then the case interfered and after Stein, I canceled, because I felt conflicted about what happened. As you very well know", Lilly added softly.

Lance nodded. "Yes, of course. That is also very normal. I am sure Wendell doesn't hold it against you that you canceled."

"Oh no, he doesn't. Telling him went a lot better than I expected, which just added to me wanting to spend the night with him, or at least eventually. Wendell freaking out made me think whether or not I would be ready myself. Now I am more worried about what would happen if we would get involved and it would you know... actually go into the bedroom." Her cheeks colored against her will, she knew she didn't have anything to be ashamed about, but somehow, she felt like a scared virgin all over again.

Sweets nodded. "I understand. Traumatic experiences can cause issues with libido and cause uncomfortable flashbacks. Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent that from happening, if it were to happen in the first place. Though there are ways to prepare yourself for it, so you can intervene if it were to happen. I know this is a rather personal question, but have you resumed anything bedroom related since the incident?"

"No", Lilly said.

"Okay, is that unusual for you or have you been holding off on purpose?"

Lilly thought for a second. "Maybe both? Now, of course, there definitely was no chance in hell I'd consider anything like that while staying with Booth, but I've been home for a while now, so maybe I am postponing? I don't really know."

Sweets gave her a reassuring smile. "I didn't ask you to make you worry about it. The fact that it is taking you a second to find an answer to this question is actually a good sign. I asked, because it usually is a pretty good indicator and resuming sexual activity after an incident feels more comfortable for most people when they are completely in control of all circumstances."

Lilly cringed before she snorted. "So basically, you're telling me I should try to get my own rocks off to figure out if I'll freak out if I were to get my freak on with someone?"

"Well, yes. That is what it comes down to. Of course, you could skip 'rocking your own world', but on the slight chance it would go 'wrong', it would be much more complicated when there is a partner involved.

Thinking it through, her smile disappeared. "What should I do to prepare for a flashback?"

After Lilly left, Sweets fanned himself down, sighing deeply. That was one hell of a conversation. Important of course, but complicated. This level of worry was rare for Lilly and truth to be told it was difficult to witness it. Throughout the weeks she had been coming to therapy, her recovery had gone pretty well. He wholeheartedly hoped she wasn't going to experience flashbacks and that she and Wendell would be happy together.

From the moment he had met her he had known that he didn't stand a fighting chance, he also hadn't expected that Wendell actually did. But then again... He also hadn't expected her to - allegedly - make it into Booth's bed, at least that was the rumor he had picked up at the Jeffersonian. Love, lust, and attraction were weird and unpredictable. Regardless, Wendell and Lilly made a good-looking couple.

Booth walked in, holding his own file. The agent stared at Sweets. "What are you doing?"

Embarrassed Sweets immediately dropped the manila folder he had been fanning himself with. "I... Uhm... I just had a pretty difficult session."

Booth grinned. Fanning one selves down, that was something he had done quite often after he had only started to work with Bones. It was something of a universal sign that wasn't hard to recognize as a man. After a while, he, thankfully, had learned to compartmentalize and leave the fantasying for when he was in his apartment. "Too much of an adult subject-matter for you, huh Sweets?"

"I am an adult, so no that is not the problem. But never mind that session. What can I do for you?"

A/N: There was no point in that last bit, but I thought it was funny. Thank you for reading and if you're inclined to leave a review I would be very happy.