I heard the faint sound of banter approaching from the hallway, and caught only the tail end of their conversation before they entered.
"But Booth," she protested. "It wasn't my fault!"
"Next time, I'm driving." he retorted.
As the door opened, I heard her murmur to herself, "If there is a next time…"
I watched them enter the room. She was first; he trailed behind with his hand on the small of her back. The gesture was slight but very telling. A male will place his hand on a female's shoulder or the small of her back to show dominance and ownership of sorts in order to prevent other men from approaching her. It seemed to come very naturally to them: she didn't flinch at his touch and he didn't hesitate (an unconscious reaction) before doing it. Based on their lack of reaction, one could assume that he often places his hand on her in that manner. I watched as they took their seats on the couch. She sat as far to the right as possible, but he hesitated a moment before taking the seat to the far left.
"Dr. Brennan, I'm glad you could join us today," I started.
"Temperance, Dr. Wyatt. You can call me Temperance," she offered. "I'm not exactly certain as to why I am here, though. I thought this was only mandatory for Booth."
"It is. I asked Booth if he would be willing to ask you to join us so we could discuss some of his concerns with you directly."
"Wait, so this isn't mandatory for me?" She turned to Booth, anger starting to rise in her voice. "Booth..."
"Well, um, yeah," he said, looking down at his hands for a few seconds before his eyes finally settled upon her face. "It wasn't exactly mandatory for you, Bones, but would you have come willingly if I was all 'Hey Bones, let's go gets our heads shrunk today?'
Immediately he turned to me and put up his hand. "No offense." I just nodded in acknowledgement.
"Besides," he continued, turning to face her again and shifting a bit closer to her on the cushion. "I did let you drive." He flashed her a smile which can only be construed as one dripping with self-satisfaction. I'm beginning to realize that he does that a lot in uncomfortable situations. It definitely appeared to be one of his many coping mechanisms.
"Ugh," she replied, rolling her eyes in his general direction.
"Temperance," I began. "Agent Booth has expressed some concerns regarding the status of your partnership."
"The status of our partnership?" She looked at me questioningly then turned quickly in the Agent's direction. "Booth? Our partnership? What is he talking about? You've been talking about us— me in your sessions?"
Instead of looking at her, Booth focused his attention on me. "See? This is what I mean. She's so concentrated on writing her books and going off to solve cases with her new boyfriend that she doesn't realize that there's anything wrong with us!"
"And by us, you strictly mean your working relationship? Am I correct in that assumption?" I probed.
I watched him surreptitiously glance in her direction, which led me to I assume that he was trying to gauge her thoughts so he could provide the appropriate response. At that point her body language was definitely that of defiance. Closed off. Her arms were crossed over her chest, what could only be described as a scowl was prominent on her face and her eyes were focused on a spot on the wall next to her.
"Yes," he said after taking in her appearance. "That is correct."
Snapping back into focus, Temperance turned to address me. "How am I supposed to know he has concerns if he doesn't express them to me? Aren't partners supposed to be open and tell each other things, Dr. Wyatt?" She sat up straighter and moved more forward on the cushion. "For example, when he started dating Cam, did he tell me directly? No, of course not. I had to find out on my own. Yet, when I was thinking about dating Will, I mentioned it to him right away—"
"Yeah, and we all know how well that turned out..." he trailed off as she shot him a nasty look.
"Anyway," she continued. "My point is, how are we supposed to work together when he can't even talk to me about the simplest things?"
"No offense, Temperance, but should who you're dating - or not dating - directly affect your partnership?" I point out.
Neither one of them replied right away. Instead they just turned to look at one another. Locking eyes with Booth, for just a second more than necessary, she replied, "No. No, it shouldn't."
"But, it apparently does," I interjected. "Booth feels that your 'partnership' with Agent Sullivan is causing a strain on your partnership with him."
"He what?" I saw confusion - or pleading - in her eyes as she turned back to him. "Booth?"
Booth turned to me with hesitation and trepidation in his eyes.
"Go on, Booth." I egged him on. "Tell her what you're feeling. The only way you'll ever move forward with your relationship and remedy these issues is for both of you to face them head on."
Booth slowly moved closer to where Temperance was seated on the couch, lessening the distance between them.
"Bones.." he started slowly, his gaze holding hers. "Our 'partnership' has had it's ups and downs over the years, but one thing that has been consistent was that we were always there for each other 100 percent, no matter what. I had your back and you had mine. I had even told Cam, when she had considered firing you -"
"Cam was seriously considering firing me? For what?" She leaned forward, recalling past events. "We had a heated discussion about my disapproval of her methods and her disapproval on how I conducted myself. She made some comments about looking for a suitable replacement, but I never thought that she had seriously considered firing me. How did you find out? Wait, maybe I don't want to know," she concluded.
"It was more of a hypothetical," he admitted. "I stopped in to pick up some paperwork from you, and decided to stop by Cam's office to see how things were going. She asked me something along the lines of 'what would you do if I fired Dr. Brennan?' So I told her. I told her that I was with you all the way. No matter what. And I meant every word of it."
Watching the two of them concentrate so hard on each other, I felt a bit like a voyeur. Which, technically is what my profession really is; watching others as they come to realizations about themselves and the people they love. It was good to see Booth was starting to open up to her and that she appeared to be accepting of his words, even though simultaneously she seemed a little scared.
"That's to be expected, Booth. In our line of work, our lives are constantly on the line - even though before I was partnered with you, mine never use to be," She gave him a weak smile. "But, if we didn't have that trust in our partnership we'd have nothing."
"Yeah, but for me, it's extended to more than just our partnership," he conceded.
"Oh." she uttered, knowing exactly what he meant.
"Anyway, once Agent Sullivan entered the picture, I felt that our - partnership - became strained. I would bring you a case, but when I got there, it turned out that Sully beat me to it. Cullen assigned you to me. Not him. Just because you're dating – or, whatever - doesn't mean that you have to be together all. The. Time," he emphasized by poking his finger into the cushion between them.
"First of all, Cullen was the one who told Sully to bring me those cases," she explained. "He didn't reassign me to him. The cases in question were time sensitive and needed my immediate attention."
"So that's why when I came to you with a new case, you waved me off and told me to take Zack with me!" he fumed.
"He just got his Doctorate, Booth, and wanted to get out in the field a bit. I didn't think it was going to cause that much of an issue since you both seemed to be doing quite a bit of male bonding," she spouted. "Zack is a perfectly adept Forensic Anthropologist. He knows practically everything I do. The bones were identified in a timely manner and the case still got solved. So how is that an issue, Booth?"
"Because apparently, you'd rather be off with Sully, than with me," he blurted out.
They both sat and stared at each other. A look of shock crossed over her face.
"You're the one who introduced us - which would have never happened if you hadn't been all trigger happy and shot that ice cream truck," she retorted.
She turned to me, frustrated. "And he's the one who tells me that I can't have a gun because he's afraid of what I'll do with it. At least I never shot and inanimate object!"
She turned back to Booth and continued, "Anyway, he's one of your oldest friends, from back in your army days. You trusted him enough to partner him with me in your absence, so why shouldn't I trust him? Unlike you though, he chooses to open up to me about his past, the things he's seen and done. I can talk to him without wondering if he'll try to shut me out or skirt an issue. He treats me as an equal, Booth, not as something to which he can claim ownership. But, most importantly, he tells me how he feels about me and doesn't try to hide behind metaphors," she said, shifting on the couch to sit farther from Booth.
"You're as guilty of that as I am, Bones," he said quietly, looking down at his hands.
She sighed and directed her attention back to me. "I honestly don't see how this is getting us anywhere, Dr. Wyatt."
"Trust me, Temperance. We've most definitely made progress," I said, smiling. Maybe there's hope for these two yet.
They continued to sit on the couch, staring at each other - the tension between them evident.
"Well, times up for this week," I said. "Will we be seeing you again next week, Temperance?"
"We'll see, Dr. Wyatt. We'll see." With that, the two of them simultaneously rose off the couch. Before either of them moved, she turned to him and reached in his jacket pocket, searching for something. It turned out to be his keys.
"I'm driving," she stated.
"It's my car," he countered as they started towards the door.
"If you want me to come back with you next week, you'll let me drive," she challenged.
"So you do want to come back again," he smiled at her in jest as they left the room. "You could have just said so, Bones."
"No, I just want to drive," she replied stubbornly as they headed down the hallway.
I could see that it was going to be a long week for the two of them. I knew they'd avoid talking about anything that had been discussed in this session, but all the while it would nag at them in the back at their minds. I also knew that even amidst her protests, Dr. Brennan would be back again the following week.
Just wanted to say a huge "Thank You" to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. All your feedback really means a lot to me. I'm already working on the third chapter, so it should be up soon!