Sorry about the gap in the update time, but i've got the basics set for the rest of the story, so the next shouldn't take too long. Thanks for all the reviews! Hope you like this chapter. Oh the angst!

Chapter 5

Engagement

Booth turned off the engine and sat there for a few minutes thinking. As he got out of his car, he glanced towards a parking spot to see if a certain silver sports car was still there, which it was. Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, he wasn't quite sure yet.

Turning down the hallway towards the lab, he passed the security desk and waved to the guard on duty. He had seen him so many times before when he had dropped by to get Bones to leave the office at a normal hour. He was never really successful, but every once and a while it worked.

Stopping at the entrance to the lab, Booth thought. What am I doing? Why am I here? He knew the answer to that of course, but he still couldn't think of how he was going to explain himself to her.

Just tell her the truth: I'm jealous.

That'll scare her away. And god knows I've already pushed her away enough.

But if you don't tell her, she'll continue to think that you're just an asshole.

But I can't risk the chance of losing her by telling her that I love her—where did that come from!? I know that I have feelings for Bones, but love?

Duhh, you lover her idiot! You've known it since you've basically met her, why do you think it didn't work out with other women; you always compare everyone to Bones. She's set the highest standard that no one is good enough to meet…except for her.

And with that he decided that he was finally going to take his shot and tell her the truth, or at least try to.

Booth looked up from his musings towards her office to see if she was inside. Through the glass door, he could see Brennan walking towards her desk. He smiled to himself; of course she's still working away.

But as Booth began to walk towards her office he noticed another person in there with her. Booth just growled; it was Boyd. What was he doing here? Booth was about to storm into the office when the events in front of him caused his body to stop; frozen in place.

Boyd was down on his knees in front of Brennan. She was smiling and nodding her head. This could not be happening. Did he just---and did she just---are they…? Booth stood in shock for a few seconds before turning around and storming off to the only place he could think of.

Brennan had spent the day focused on work; at least she was trying to focus on work. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Booth and what he said. Brennan's anger boiled as she thought of it. I can't believe he thinks I could be so reckless. What does he think I'm some sort of slut? She gripped the sides of desk as she tried to calm down. She'd been like this all day; think about it, get angry, calm down, and then start to think about it all over again. Well there's no way I'm apologizing this time. I did nothing wrong, again, and he's not going to make me feel guilty for something I didn't do.

With a new motivation, Brennan decided to work on the next chapter of her novel; one that involved the main character kicking ass and breaking hearts, as usual. She wished that were true in her real life, but it never was. Her thought were broken when Angela walked into her office.

"Hey, I finished the sketch for the second victim and we have an id. Here's his file." Angela sat down on Brennan's couch after placing the paper in front of her. Angela's face was red from crying. "He was a cute kid."

Brennan looked up at her friend who was seated on the couch, noticing the hurt in her friend's voice. "Ange, I know how hard these types of cases are for you." Brennan walked across the room and sat down next to her friend. "We just need to keep going in the hopes of stopping whoever is doing this to them."

"There's no way to say it other than: the world sucks," The two women looked up form the couch to the man at the door. "But without you doing what you're doing, it would suck even more."

"Nicely put, Agent Boyd. Thanks." Angela said, as she smiled to the man who had just entered the room. Temperance, on the other hand, just rolled her eyes at his choice of words.

"I didn't mean to interrupt or anything, but I just wanted to stop by and see if anyone would want to join me for some food."

"Can't. Sorry, I have plans." Angela lied quickly.

Brennan stood and started to her desk. "I don't know, I was planning on working on my novel while I waited for some results from a few tests Hodgins is doing."

"Come on, you need to eat. You might as well come with me. Did you even eat anything for lunch today?"

Her avoidance of looking at him gave him his answer; making him even more determined than before.

He gave her a pleading look. "Don't make me beg."

"Ohhh, make him beg. It'll be so entertaining." Angela piped in.

Brennan turned from her desk to glare at Angela only to find Boyd down on his knees. "Please come to dinner with me." He grabbed hold of her hands. "Please."

"Bren. How can you say no to that?" Angela managed to comment between giggles.

"If I say yes, would you get off the floor?"

"Yes…"

Brennan stood there for a second, making it look as though she were actually contemplating it. She knew she needed food, and she knew that at this point Booth wasn't going to show up and force feed her like he normally did. So she knew her answer, but she decided to torture him by making him wait.

"You know, you didn't actually have to grovel." Brennan replied gaining a laugh from Angela, who was now lying on the couch, enjoying the show in front of her. She deserves to be happy and since Booth clearly isn't stepping up, this Boyd guy'll have to do.

Boyd jumped to his feet and quickly grabbed her coat and helped put it on. "Well, let's go then." And with that he pulled her out the door, like an eager little kid.

Booth held the door open as they entered. La Chaumière was one of D.C.'s finest French restaurants and Booth planned on enjoying it.

"Do you have reservations, sir?"

"Yes, under Booth." He had been lucky enough to score a table for two at the last minute, it was normally hard to get a reservation at all, but someone owed him a favor and he had decided to cash it in tonight.

"Ahh, Mr. Booth. Right this way." He said as he led them towards a nice candle lit table for two near the back. Booth pulled the chair out, allowing Cam to sit down and then went around the table and sat down himself.

"I'm glad you asked me to come, Seeley." Cam smiled across the table.

"Me too." He replied, hoping that it was at least partly true.

After half an hour of numb conversation their food arrived. Booth was finely becoming more comfortable in the awkward situation and thought that maybe this wasn't so bad. Cam was a nice, smart, beautiful woman and he did enjoy her company. He thought about how happy they had been when they had actually dated before.

But his thoughts of happiness quickly ceased when he looked up from his plate and saw a couple enter the restaurant.

Brennan sat down in her seat, which Boyd had pulled out for her. "You know I can do that myself."

He smiled at her as he sat down, "But where would the fun in that be. And anyway, you deserve to have nice things done for you, even if it is just me pulling out a chair for you."

"Thanks." She whispered as she blushed. No one had told her that before. Every time Booth had held the door for her, or helped her out of the car, he would always just reply 'I know' or 'just let me' when she would say she could do it herself; he had never told her that she was worthy of being treated that way. And of course, you can't go ten minutes without thinking of him! Stop, Tempe!

She looked across the table to Boyd. "This is a nice place. When you said dinner I thought we would just go to a diner or somewhere and talk about the case."

"If we're going to be eating, it might as well be somewhere nice." He gazed at her, making Brennan feel slightly uncomfortable as she blushed.

"Okay. Well, anyway, Angela was able to sketch the second victim and we found out his name; Aidan Madhoil. He went missing about a month ago with his little brother Lucas, who happens to be one of the boys we had narrowed the other victim down to be. Hodgins was able to –"

Boyd had put his hand over Brennan's mouth to get her to stop talking. "Tempe, I'll remove my hand as soon as I know that you'll stop talking about the case. At least for now because I know I'm not going to be able to stop you from talking about it at some point to night. At least that's the type of person I've heard that you are."

She nodded, showing that she'd hold off on talking about the case and Boyd removed his hand. "What do you mean by you've heard I'm that type of person?"

"Well, Booth does talk about you; the hard-headed, stubborn, arrogant doctor that he works with. I'm pretty sure that I knew all about you before I even met you."

Brennan was shocked; Booth talked about her to other people. "Wait, so you've worked with Booth?"

"Ahh, I'm guessing he didn't tell you about me." He looked across at her as she shook her head. "I used to be Agent Booth's partner up until about a year and a half ago."

She thought for a few moments before she realized, "That's when Booth and I started to work together…I didn't know Booth had had a partner."

"Yea, well, I still occasionally work with him when ever there's a case that doesn't include bones. Besides, I can understand why he wanted you to be his partner over me…"

"There's nothing between Booth and I, were just friends."

"I never said there was, I'm saying that I wouldn't mind spending my days with you."

At that Brennan blushed, "Well, we might be spending a lot of time together now...because of the case I mean."

"Why Dr. Brennan! Are you flirting with me?" Temperance was shocked with herself, it was like Angela had taken over her body. She was sure she never acted like this, but for some reason she didn't mind and she decided to go on.

"Depends, are you flirting back?"

"Booth said you weren't a people person...but then again, he also said you were full of surprises."

"Well, like I said before, Booth and I are just friends. He doesn't know everything about me." She was tempted to join Boyd and drop her jaw too, but stopped herself.

Booth had to keep himself from falling over in shock. He saw Bones walk into the restaurant with Boyd and they were led to a table close by. Unfortunately for Booth, there was a drape between the tables and he was unable to see his Bones and her dinner partner. They hadn't even seen him and Cam sitting at the table as they passed; heck, Cam hadn't even noticed that they had walked by and that Booth was now paying barely any attention to her.

Lucky for Booth, he could hear their conversation through the drape. Cam still unaware of what was going on, Booth decided to listen in. He told himself that he was protecting his partner; Boyd could be the murderer for all they knew.

"Well, we might be spending a lot of time together now, because of the case I mean." Booth was a bit shocked, by the way she had said the last part; it had sounded like she was flirting with him!

"Why Dr. Brennan! Are you flirting with me?" Right, play all innocent...

"Depends, are you flirting back?" Booth was now completely and totally stunned. This so wasn't his Bones. Then again, his Bones didn't believe in marriage or having children either, but hey, apparently that had changed too.

Booth was suddenly brought back to reality when he realized that Cam was playing footsies with him. She smiled across the table at him and he decided that if Bones considered them 'just friends' then he could too. Hey, if she wants to get married to some other guy then he could care less.

He flagged down the waiter and paid the bill and then stood up offering his hand to Cam. He spoke a little more loudly than necessary, hoping that a certain person might hear. "So Camille, would you like to go back to my place now? I'd rather be alone with you right now, than be here."

Okay so the last part was a total lie, he told himself, but he couldn't stand to be alone and Cam was right there…

She smiled up at him and grasped his hand. As they walked out of the restaurant he made sure they passed by Bone's table and he made sure that there was a glowing smile plastered on his face. He ignored the look of shock he received from his partner, and walked out of the door with Cam on his arm.

He was laughing at what she had just said, but Temperance paid no attention. She could have sworn she heard Booth. Don't be silly. And what did you decide earlier about not thinking about him for the night? Oh, right, DON'T THINK ABOUT HIM!

Brennan turned her attention back to Boyd and smiled, but she admitted it wasn't one of her best. She listened as Boyd talked about one of his trips to the Amazon, he is quite amazing actually, he's had an interesting life like me.

"So do you--" But Temperance stopped mid question when she saw Booth standing up from a table that had been blocked from her view. His hand was outstretched and he was -- "So Camille would you like to go back to my place now? I rather be alone with you right now than be here."

He just – she had – and they just! Her mind was spinning. He was with Cam for real, not just some one night thing, releasing his biological urges like she had made herself believe; they were in public, on a date, together, as in a couple. How could she have thought that he might have ever cared about her when he had Cam? A look of shock and pain spread across her face as he passed by their table and he ignored her.

"Do I what?" Boyd looked at her curiously, apparently unaware to the person who had just passed by.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Brennan brought her attention to the man sitting in front of her. He was smart, kind, and totally hot, and he liked her; he was there for the taking.

Chapter over!!! What did you think? Drama!! I'll be updating soon, don't worry. soo...reviews are always good...walks away humming just keep reviewing, just keep reviewing, reviewing, reviewing, what do we do...review, review!