(After "The Beginning in the End')

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I don't own Bones.

Ooooooooooooooooooo

The next few days were calmer for everyone. Booth had finally let go of his anger. He didn't want to let his situation with his son make him bitter. He knew that Brennan didn't deserve to live with someone like that. She had supported him and he wanted to make sure she knew that he appreciated it. "Hey Bones, let's take the weekend off and drive somewhere. Just you and me and the open road."

Glad to see Booth in a better mood, Brennan closed her laptop and faced him. "That sounds like a good idea. Do you wish to go to a specific place or do you wish it to be a random trip?"

"Do you have a preference?" He knew she was working on a new novel, so he appreciated that she was humoring him. "If you have someplace specific then we can go there, if not, we can just get on the road and drive until we find some place interesting. I'm game for either one."

She considered it for a few seconds, stood up and moved over to the couch to sit next to Booth. "I think it would be fascinating to just make an unplanned trip. There would be no pressure to see anything in particular or be somewhere in a set time frame."

That sounded like just what the doctor ordered. "Okay, Friday night we'll pack a bag and just leave Saturday morning. I'll warn Harris and Charlie that we're going to be out of pocket. If a body crops up they can get Clark to handle it." He placed his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry I've been in a bad mood lately. I talked to Sweets and he helped me see what game Rebecca was playing. She wanted me to freak out and make a big stink about her move. She wanted me to be the bad guy, the one standing in the way of her career. Sweets thought she pulled her disappearing act so that when I found out she thought I might flip out proving that I was dangerous or something. Maybe she could have kept me from seeing Parker, but I didn't play that game and she lost."

"Sweets said that?" It seemed like a very complicated scheme to Brennan.

Booth shrugged his shoulders. "Well, no he didn't say all of that, but he inferred it and I got it."

Whatever Sweets had said seemed to have helped calm Booth down, so she wasn't going to question what they talked about. "Good . . . We will have a relaxing weekend and we will be refreshed for next week."

Ooooooooooooooooooooo

Their weekend trip turned out to be a drive into a Virginia, a stop at a hotel and that was as far as they got on their adventure. Brennan decided that she wanted to make love to Booth for the rest of the weekend with an occasional break for food and personal needs. Booth thought it was a brilliant idea and by Sunday afternoon, he was blissfully tired. "Okay, we have to behave Bones. I need the strength to drive back home this evening or you do. Someone has to drive us home."

Brennan found the whole thing to be amusing. "Well, if you insist." Moving from the bed, she gathered up their clothes from the dresser and began to pack. "We could have done this at home, but this allowed us to have uninterrupted time together. It seems like someone is always appearing at our door on the weekend to disrupt our plans. I believe this idea might be worth repeating in the future."

Booth chuckled. "Anytime, Bones, anytime." He hadn't felt this relaxed in days and he knew that it was all because of his partner. His eyes closed, he thought about how lucky he was to have Brennan on his side. "I'm glad I turned Colonel Pelant down. I don't want to be away from you let alone for a year."

Not sure what Booth was talking about, Brennan stopped packing and turned to face her lover. "Who is Colonel Pelant and what are you talking about?"

Realizing that he had let his mouth run on autopilot, Booth opened his eyes and sat up. "My former CO tracked me down a couple of weeks ago and tried to get me to reup for something overseas. It would have involved a year of my time. I turned him down. I don't know why he was asking me to go, but he wasted his time."

Thoughtful, she moved over to the bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I turned him down, so there wasn't anything to tell." Booth knew that Brennan was probably upset that he had kept that a secret. "I'm sorry. I should have told you. I just didn't think it was that important. I'm not going anywhere. I'm with you one hundred percent."

She knew that Booth thought she was angry, but she wasn't. "I'm not upset, Booth. I . . . when we got back from the cabin I found a letter from Dr. Dean Fonte. He offered me a position on the Maluku dig. I would have had to commit to a year at the dig. I turned him down . . . It would seem that we were both confronted by someone trying to entice us into leaving for a prolonged period of time. That is quite a coincidence."

"It's weird." Booth tried not to be suspicious, but it seemed damned odd to him. "You know how I feel about coincidences . . . Well, we turned them down and no one can make us take jobs we don't want to take . . . still it's weird. I don't like it."

She found it suspicious too, but if there was something going on they had foiled it. "I think it really is just a coincidence. I can't think of a reason why someone would want to interfere in our lives and separate us."

"Yeah, I'm just being paranoid." Booth vowed to call Danny when he got back to town. Danny Beck was a CIA operative and Booth considered him to be brilliant at what he did. If someone was trying to play games with his life, Danny might be able to find out who and why. "Let's not worry about it." He moved across the bed and kissed Brennan. "Let's rest for a while then pack. We have time to get a good nap in."

"Alright." Brennan slid into bed and Booth lay beside her while they tried to relax and go to sleep. Their conversation had set off alarm bells in Booth's head and he was having a tough time letting it go.

Oooooooooooooooooo

Danny insisted on meeting Booth somewhere that was fairly quiet. Booth thought his friend was being paranoid, but he humored him. Carrying a bouquet of flowers, Booth approached Christine Brennan's grave and spotted Danny leaning against the tree near the gravestone. Once he placed the flowers on the grave, he crossed himself, said a prayer and crossed himself again. This was the first time he had been the grave without Brennan and it felt a little odd. "Okay Danny, I'm here. Why the James Bones schtick?"

A quick glance around, Danny straightened, but remained where he was. "There are people interested in you that shouldn't be . . . A Deputy Director of Homeland Security has been making inquiries about you and Dr. Brennan. I'm not sure why."

"How do you know that?" Booth found this conversation was quickly turning surreal.

"Let's just say that someone is keeping an eye on the Deputy Director of Homeland Security and that someone found out that the man is keeping a list. It's an unusual list . . . Mostly very patriotic federal employees like yourself. Patriots that have served their country and are beyond reproach."

Booth stared at the gravestone in front of him. "The CIA is keeping tabs on the guy? Why?"

"Of course not. It's illegal for the CIA to operate in this country. You know that." Danny didn't want Booth pointing fingers at the Agency. "Let's just say that a friend is keeping me informed. He came across something that upset him and he contacted me because he knows I'm a concerned citizen." Get it Booth?

"Alright." Booth considered what Danny had told him. "I told you that Colonel Pelant approached me and tried to get me to take an assignment overseas for a year. Someone offered Dr. Brennan a job in the Maluku's too. It almost seems like someone is trying to break up my partnership and they want us out of the country."

Danny nodded his head. "You aren't being paranoid, Booth. My guy says our person of interest approached Colonel Pelant about a month ago. He only knows there was a meeting, but not what it was about. I don't know anything about the Maluku thing except it's a legitimate archeological project."

"I don't think I like this." To be honest, Booth hated this situation. "Why would anyone be interested in me or Bones? I don't like it at all."

"No one likes it Booth." Danny and his supervisor were looking into a few things, but so far there were just suspicions and nothing to point to a conspiracy or anything illegal going on. "Our person of interest has been associating with other persons of interest, but so far we don't know what's going on. The CIA can't get involved in any investigations in this country, so our hands are tied. We are keeping our eyes open and our ears to the ground because something doesn't seem right, but so far we don't have anything that we can point to that seems dangerous. If we do we'll pass it on to the FBI like we're supposed to. Right now, I think Homeland Security has a problem, but we can't pinpoint what it is."

Booth glanced at Danny then back at the gravestone. "Why are you and your friend interested in our person of interest?"

Cautiously, the CIA agent looked around to make sure they were still alone. "A federal employee was murdered four months ago. It was made to look like a robbery, but the victim had left a letter with his ex-wife that he wanted it mailed if anything happened to him. My friend found some very interesting and very disturbing information in that letter. Unfortunately, there was supposed to be some proof that was supposed to point to some interesting behavior going on by our person of interest, but the victim's house and office was ransacked around the time he was murdered and so whatever he had left for my friend was lost. All we have is a damning letter and not much else . . . We can't legally look into what's going on, so I asked my friend for a favor. He promised to look into it and once he did . . . well, he's says our person of interest is acting mighty shady. He's doing what he can, but he has to be careful he doesn't become a murder victim himself . . . It's that serious."

"What the hell does this have to do with me?" Booth was worried. "I work with the FBI not Homeland Security and if someone thinks they can convince me to betray my country they're looking at the wrong guy."

"I know that, Booth. Shit everyone knows that." Danny sighed. "We don't know what's going on, but we're trying to find out. I recommend you just keep doing your job and be a good boy. If someone approaches you about anything skeezy you call me."

His right hand in his pants pocket, Booth clutched his dice. "I wish I knew what to look for . . . Do you think there may be traitors in the FBI?" He prayed that wasn't true. "Damn it! Deputy Director Kirby . . . what if this has to do with that . . . Is it possible that Kirby was into more than being part of a criminal organization?"

That was a good question as far as Danny was concerned. "I don't know . . . It might be worth looking into. You sure wrecked that operation . . . you and your squints. Maybe our person of interest is trying to avoid that happening again . . . I have some people I need to talk to. You keep your eyes open and don't trust anyone."

"Not a problem. I don't have very many people that I trust as it is." Booth knew that there was nothing he could do right now. He'd keep his eyes open and make note of anyone at the FBI that was acting suspicious. It was all he could do for the moment. "No one better fuck with me or Bones. They won't like what I do to them if they do."

A little salute and Danny walked away. Booth's question about the late unlamented Deputy Director was insightful and worrisome. If there was something else going on, they needed to find out what it was.

Oooooooooooooooooooooo

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