Hey guys I have an Instagram: bones_castle447 go check it out

Disclaimer: I don't own the show but I do own this book.

Chapter 11 – Player Under Pressure

Brennan and Booth exited the SUV and started to walk toward the gymnasium when Brennan noticed all the students on campus. "Wow. I guess there's life on this campus after all."

Booth looked at her confused. "Oh what? You've been here before?"

Brennan nodded as she looked at Booth a little concerned. She wondered why he didn't remember that. He never really forgot things in the past. "I guest lectured last year, remember? Forensic science majors. Four students showed up. Just four!"

Booth tried to remember her mentioning that. He decided to ask her one more thing to job his memory, "Four? What was your topic?"

Brennan told him as if it were obvious, "Dimorphic distinctions within the human thoracic cavity."

Booth snorted at that. He didn't even think he would go to a lecture like that. "Boy and just four whole people showed up, huh?"

Brennan gave him a narrowed eyed look before she huffed and told him – again, "The dean blamed it on some game halfway across the country."

Booth could see that she had been upset by the lack of interest in her topic and tried to tell her gently, "C'mon, this is Atlantic State University, home of the Jaguars. Okay, other than sex and beer, nothing is more important to these kids than their basketball team."

Brennan furrowed her brow, "What about academics?"

Booth couldn't help to joke with her as he placed his hand on her lower back and held the door open for her. "Tell you what, you bring your little, uh, didactic thoracic, uh, speech here any other time of the year and, uh, you'll draw maybe five, five and a half easy."

Brennan glared at him fully as she pasted him, "Dimorphic, not didactic."

~BONES~

Booth and Brennan were back in the gymnasium waiting for Colby's class to end. Booth was holding a basketball and was showing his wife the proper former as he said, "I can give you a few pointers, Bones. Colby doesn't get out of class for a few minutes. You've gotta sort of flip your wrist you see, like this?" He demonstrated it and then took his shot. He, of course, made it.

She watched with slightly admiration of his physique, but her ire won over the battle as she told him, "Sports should not have such a priority in the University."

Booth retrieved the ball from the floor as he looked at her in slight aggravation. "Alright, you know what? That's crazy."

Brennan shook her as she told him honestly, "No, anthropologically speaking, sports are a way for boys to practice their battle skills."

Booth tried to ignore what she was saying because he knew if he really listened he would become very angry. "Yeah, okay, so you want to just focus straight up, get up on your toes and just…"

Brennan continued on in her (soon to be enraged) rant unthinkingly, "The truth is athletes are basically emotionally arrested in boyhood, acting out childish games as if they have adult importance. The only thing more juvenile, are grown adults who watch sports."

Booth finally couldn't it any more. "Why do you gotta say stuff like that?"

Brennan furrowed her brows, "What? You mean the truth?"

Booth rounded on her as he almost yelled, "Alright. You know what? I'm a jock. So when you say those, you know, things that you say, what are you saying about me?

Brennan immediately saw where her little rant led her. Into uncharted territory that was most definitely going to lead to a fight. "Nothing. You grew out of it."

Booth shook his head in anger. "No, I didn't, alright? My shoulder crapped out on me. Otherwise, I would have gone all the way with it." He set the basketball down at Brennan's feet and feigned shooting a basket before walking away.

Brennan watched as he stormed out and called, "What?"

Booth yelled at her right before he left, "You know what, and another thing, alright? I, uh, I fought in a war! So, if sports is a, uh, childish substitute? I can live with that." Brennan turned toward the basket, sighed and then picked up the ball. She looked at it wondering what the big draw was. She knew that she was going to have figure out what to do about Booth but the reaction she had to holding the ball was odd. She actually wanted to try and make a 'basket'. She did exactly what Booth had said to do and grinned as she made it. She turned to look at the door that Booth had exited out of and then sort of understood Booth's love for the sport.

Brennan ran out the gymnasium to find that Booth had been waiting outside for her. Booth saw Colby as they started walk away from the door. "Ahhh. Yo, Colby!"

Brennan caught up with Booth and raised a brow at his attempt to get the boys attention. "Yo?"

Booth snapped back, "Yeah, yo. You know, I'm a little irritated with you. Just leave me alone long enough so I…"

Brennan was a little thrown that he would admit it openly. He always tried to cool off from something she said unthinkingly before they confronted each other. "What?"

Booth finished as if she didn't say anything. "…can get over it?"

Brennan wanted to know what she could do to apologize but first she needed to figure out what she needed to apologize for exactly. "Why are you irritated?"

Booth glared at her, "Why? Because I love sports. I watch sports. You know, I'm all about sports. You know that!" Brennan did know that and now she needed to see what she could do to fix this. She was trying to think of something as Booth flashed his badge at the couple.

~BONES~

Brennan and Booth walked quickly down an aisle looking for Edward Dekker in the men's locker room. Booth himself thought that she didn't need to be there with him. He knew how these guys were and he also knew what his wife looked like. "Wait outside, Bones, c'mon."

Brennan thought that he was telling her that because he didn't want to be around her. She asked quietly, "Are you still angry at me for saying that athletes are emotionally stunted?"

Booth heard a student call out, 'Hey baby, I know you want some…' before he answered, "Of course not." He just didn't want her to get hit on by these hormone-driving players. And he just knew that Eddie was going to be exhibit A. This case was not turning out to be what he had hoped for.

~BONES~

Cutler was sitting on the bleachers when Booth and Brennan came into the gymnasium. Booth immediately felt his gut clench. He whispered to Brennan, "Just a moment." He motioned for her to stay in her spot as he continued to walk forward and called out, "Hey, Chief."

Cutler shook his head in dismay, "If I hadn't of spat on that son of a bitch, you never would have caught me, right?"

Brennan of course had not listened to Booth, he thought angrily, as she said from behind him, "Well, Celeste might have told us."

Cutler shook his head as he told them, trying not to cry, "She doesn't know. I came in and saw my little girl, saw her with R.J. …doing what she was doing. She heard me and took off. None of the girls could resist R.J. Kid had it all. Magic boy. You know what else he had? The clap. And he knew that when he took my daughter underneath the blea…" He couldn't take it anymore and broke down and pulled out his gun.

Booth took a step in front of his wife as a shield and pulled his own gun, "No. He's got a gun, Bones. I need you to leave now."

Cutler shook his head again and told him seriously, "Don't worry, it's not you I intend to shoot." He then sighed and pointed to gun to his head.

Booth yelled at him, "There's no way Cutter Cutler kills himself. No way Cutter Cutler goes down without a fight."

Brennan asked Booth quietly in confusion, "What are you doing? Do you want him to shoot at you?"

Booth shot her a look as he told her, "Go."

Booth sighed in relief as he watched her walk away from them. But his attention was drawn back to Cutler as he said, "I was just like him, you know? Under these same bleachers, in fact. I was as bad as him. You wouldn't understand." He lowered the gun, holding it against his chest in anguish.

Booth tried to reason with him, "We were all like that."

Cutler still couldn't believe what his little girl had done, "It changes your life view, you see your little girl. It's a different perspective."

Booth told him quietly, "People are gonna understand the action that you took, okay? I do. Man, you're Cutter Cutler. Lowest assist and turnover ratios. Twelve triple doubles in your last season. Nobody could change direction in the open court like you, man, nobody." He watched as Cutler pointed the gun back to his head. "No, do it now. Change direction again."

Cutler slid the gun back to his chest as he told Booth regretfully, "Cutter Cutler died a long time ago. I'm just putting him away."

Booth raised his gun at the same time Cutler put it to his head again. Brennan however had been listening to the whole conversation from the side of the bleachers. She ran forward and reached her hand up to stop him. Cutler cocked the hammer back and went to pull the trigger, but the web of Brennan's hand slipped between the hammer and the firing pin, pinching the skin in progress. She gasped in pain as she took the gun from Cutler, which was still pinched to her hand. She removed it slowly, revealing an open wound. "Ow!"

Booth sighed in relief both for Cutler and Brennan. "Alright."

~BONES~

Brennan and Booth were sitting at a table by the window at the Royal Diner. They had been discussing the case over their meal, but Booth changed the subject as he asked, "Your hand hurt?"

Brennan looked down at her hand and then nodded, "A little."

Booth sighed a little after she said that, remembering how this case ended. "So, jock mentality…teams…not all bad, huh?"

Brennan looked up at him a little confused. She thought that she had already told him what she thought. "Why are you telling me this?"

Booth shrugged a little uncomfortably. He knew deep down that she didn't think of him like that, but still. "You just said we're all stunted adolescents who take children's games too seriously."

Brennan leaned forward and told him seriously, "I never meant you."

Booth gave her a look as he said, "Bones…"

Brennan didn't understand that look. It was as if he thought she was lying. "What?"

He pointed out, "Bones, I'm one of those guys."

Brennan shook her head as she grabbed his hand, "No, you aren't. You don't play at being a warrior. You are a warrior. Every day. You're definitely… a fully developed man." She smiled affectionately at him then.

Booth smiled back at her and squeezed her hand. "Okay, okay." He threw down the money for their bill, "You leave the tip."

Brennan smiled at that. It had been one of their many debates while going out. So each time they went out one paid the bill and one paid the tip. She then finally spoke what she had been thinking ever since they left the gymnasium. "Even Cutler knew you were lying when you said you treated women like that beneath the bleachers."

Booth snorted a little at that. "Oh, and you believe him?"

Brennan nodded her head. "Yes, because you still remember that first girl's name." She sucked down the last of her milkshake and Booth took another drink of his, leaving a milkshake mustache. She got up and said, "Let's go." She started to motion to his lip a few times before she stopped and then walked up to him and kissed him squarely on the lips and licked it off. As she leaned away Booth smiled at her as he took her hand in his and guided them to their car.

A/N: I'm sorry I haven't been posting in a while it's just with school and after school things I don't have enough time to do anything.

P.S. I'm sorry this chapter is short I was rushing