Partners

BB Angela defines the word 'partner' for Brennan.

Disclaimer: I have custody of my Muse and the plot but I humbly acknowledge that I have no jurisdiction over the characters themselves.

A/N:- Everyone who reviewed my last Bones fic – you're all amazing. I've never been given such a supportive welcome into a fandom before. Thank you!

This is just a short, fun, idea that came to me when I was meant to be working on another fic. It wouldn't budge until I'd written it so here we go!

"What have we got Zack?" Temperance Brennan asked, swiping her pass in the machine before climbing the few stairs up to the workstation.

"Hundred year old remains of what looks to be a sailor who fractured his right tibia at a young age." Her assistant informed her.

Brennan stifled a yawn. Her coffee machine had stopped working and she was in dire need of some caffeine. "Okay Zack well you know the first thing to do is ….."

"Oh good you're here." Angela said interrupting. "Come with me." She said, dragging her friend away to her office.

"What are you doing? I've got a case, we've got work." Brennan insisted, trying to get out of her friend's grasp but Angela was unrelenting, pulling her into her own office and shutting the glass door.

"Sit." She ordered pointing to the couch.

Brennan did as she was told. "This had better be important Ange." She sighed.

"Oh it is." Angela said, sitting down opposite her and leaning forward, her shoulders resting on her knees. "So what's been going on between you and Booth recently?"

"You dragged away from a case to talk about Booth at 8.30 am?!" Brennan exclaimed incredulously before standing up, ready to head for the door before Angela continued this ridiculous train of thought.

"You're going to thank me some day." Angela said, pushing her back down. "Now I want you to think this through. As your best friend I think I deserve nothing less than the truth: you and Booth seem to be getting …. Closer as each day goes past. I want to know what's going on with you two. Have you slept together? Was he any good? Did he do that really cute manly thing when he put his-"

"Angela! You're being ridiculous. I don't know why you've brought this up all of a sudden but can't believe I'm having to tell you this again: there is nothing going on between Booth and I." Brennan said exasperatedly. "We are just partners."

At that statement Angela looked like she had won the lottery. She jumped up, headed to Brennan's bookshelf and pulled down what suspiciously looked like the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. "Exactly. You keep saying that over and over again." Angela said as she started flicking through the pages of the well thumbed dictionary.

"That's because it's true." Brennan realised, looking at her friend warily, wondering what all this was leading to. "I seem to spend half of my time saying that to other people too. It's ridiculous that just because Booth and I are of a similar age and we work together that people automatically assume that we're sleeping together as well. I mean I know it's natural to make assumptions like that from an anthropological viewpoint but society has developed so much since the Middle Ages that it ought to be easy to accept that ….."

"Sweetie, be quiet for a minute will you?" Angela demanded. "I've tried my hardest to explain this to you normally, telling you about body language and eye contact and chemistry but since you seem intent on rebuffing everything I've said, I've got no choice but to do it your way." She said. "You believe everything that this book says?" She asked, pointing to the large open book which took up almost the entire coffee table.

"It's the dictionary." Brennan responded monotonously.

"Good." Angela said with a smile. "Let's start then …. 'Partner'. Definition Number One: 'a person who shares or is associated with another in some action or endeavour; sharer; associate.' Does that or does that not define your relationship with Booth?"

Brennan sat back in her chair, crossing both her arms and legs. She never thought in her entire life she would have to sit through Angela reading to her from a dictionary. "Yes of course it does. We do things together almost every day: tracking down suspects, chasing down leads, catching criminals together. That's why we're partners."

Angela nodded. "Okay. Definition Number Two: 'a player on the same side or team as another.'"

"This is ridiculous Ange. I know what 'partner' means. I say it in a sentence about ten times a day, remember?!"

"Just bear with me Brennan." Angela insisted. "So, do you agree with definition number two?"

"Of course. Though we've never literally played on the same team – I mean you can hardly call working with dead bodies playing but we work on the same team day in, day out, and although we argue, we work as a team pretty well: I do the science, he does the interrogating. Actually sometimes I do both…."

"That's good." Angela said, distractedly, apparently eager to move on. "Definition Three: 'either of two people who dance together.'"

"Well, I suppose that's correct as well even if it was only very briefly one time." Brennan said matter-of-factly, smoothing out a wrinkle in her blouse.

"You've danced with Booth?!" Angela exclaimed. "You never told me! When was this?"

"The cannibal case. We were out in a small bar and all these men kept asking me to dance until Booth saved me. He said that they were all trying to hit on me but I'm sure it was actually because they wanted information for the case ……" Brennan trailed off, noticing Angela hadn't said anything for a good few minutes. She looked up and saw her friend staring at her with a small grin on her face. "What? It wasn't romantic or anything."

Angela shrugged. "This brings me onto Definition Four: 'a husband or a wife; spouse or the person you are having a sexual relationship with.'"

It suddenly dawned on Brennan that this was the point Angela had been leading up to all this time. She should have known. "That's ridiculous: you know Booth and I are not sleeping together."

"Hey, do NOT argue with the Oxford English Dictionary." Angela warned.

"Just because we're partners it doesn't mean we have to fit all of the definitions given there. I mean that's what a dictionary is for: to give a range of meanings. Booth and I are partners in the first definition of the word, it does not mean that we're-"

"Woah, calm down Bren. By the way you're all worked up about this anyone would have thought that there was something going on." Angela said, earning herself a death glare. "All I'm trying to say is that when people ask you 'are you sleeping with Booth?' what you're actually saying in reply is 'No, we're sleeping together.'"

"No I'm not." Brennan argued. "I'm just saying-"

"You're the one who said that the dictionary provides a range of different meanings. Who's to say that the person you're talking to doesn't immediately think you're talking about definition number four?"

"No one would-" Brennan started but never got to finish.

There was a tap on the glass before the door opened and Booth walked in holding two cups from Starbucks with a large grin on his face.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything ladies." He said, handing a cup to Brennan.

"Where's mine?" Angela questioned, eyeing the coffee cup enviously.

"Sorry Angela but getting coffee bought for you every morning is a privilege only earned by being my partner." Booth replied.

Brennan didn't even need to look at her friend to feel the triumphant grin radiating off of her.

"Well, I guess it's unfortunate that I'm not your partner then." Angela said, flashing Booth a smile before walking out of the room like she had just single-handedly conquered the universe.

"What's up with her?" Booth asked,

Brennan picked up the Styrofoam cup and took a large gulp of coffee before glancing over at her partner.

"I think she just proved that the 'we're partners' line isn't working out for us anymore."

A/N:- Ambiguity is my friend so you can take the last line any way you want. Hehe.

All feedback is greatly appreciated.