Chapter 11

Brennan, thankfully, slept soundly and undisturbed by dreams all night. Booth had arranged for her car to be returned to her own parking stall at the apartment so after a leisurely morning, she drove herself to work about 11:00am. Not quite noon as directed, but in comparison to her usual 7:00 am mornings, it was nice not to have to rush to work.

"Hey, sweetie. How are you feeling today?" asked Angela, when she walked into Brennan's office a moment after Brennan arrived. Angela had been on the look out for her so she could have her little chat before any distractions got in the way.

"I'm good, thanks. Slept great...no dreams. Anything new today?" asked Brennan with a relaxed smile for her concerned friend.

Angela was happy to hear this positive response and decided to take the opportunity for some overdue girl talk.

"Well, nothing under the category of recently or otherwise deceased but there is definitely something new between you and our favorite hunky FBI guy. So...what''s been going on?...and don't try to tell me "nothing". Both of you are acting decidedly couple-like," urged Angela and hoped Brennan felt comfortable enough to talk about it.

Brennan thought for a moment how much she wanted to say. Maybe Angela could help her with her changing feelings for Booth. They both moved to the office sofa to talk.

"I told him, Angela, about the Asperger's when I was a kid. I needed to explain...we needed to talk about something that happened between us the other night. Before you get your hopes up, no, I don't mean we slept together or had sex. Just something we needed to talk about. I know you've been telling me this for a while but we admitted that we do have strong feelings for each other. I just don't know if I can trust mine to be enough to build a relationship with someone I work with. I told him I didn't want to change the way things were, but Angela, it already is. This is exactly what I was afraid of," explained Brennan.

"When was this exactly that you two 'talked'?", asked Angela

"Umm... yesterday morning," she answered and waited for the expected exclamation of shock from her friend.

"Oh, my God! Bren, I could tell something had happened recently but no wonder you're so confused. You've got enough to deal with learning about your mom and everything. I was afraid of something like this. You're emotions must be a mess," Angela said with concern.

"Angela, really, I'm fine now. I know everything has been a shock and kind of weird but talking to Booth and then Dad and Russ yesterday helped a lot. We got the bomber so I don't have to worry about that. It's just that yesterday, every time I saw Booth, I ended up wanting to be near him and he let me," Brennan tried to explain her confusion.

"Give yourself a break and Booth a little credit. The last two days have been so far off normal that Booth reacted to what he thought you needed. You know how well he reads people, well he's an expert when it comes to you. He was willing to put himself where you might need him and, sweetie, he knew you would need him. To me, that just proves how much he cares about you. Are you worried about kissing him when he came to take you home yesterday?" Angela said, knowing Brennan often needed emotional situations spelled out for her even though they would be obvious to almost anyone else.

"I guess, it just surprised me. I started the day saying I wanted to keep a proper distance between us and seemed to keep throwing myself at him," explained Brennan, sheepishly.

"Well, he's a guy that loves you. Of course, he's going to hope that you might change your mind. Don't worry so much. He knows that as soon as you sort out your current set of mental baggage, heal some bones and catch up on your sleep, the Brennan we all know and love will be back in control. Right now you need the help of your friends. It's okay to be needy once in a while," Angela said with a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, I know you're right. You know how dense I can be about this kind of thing. I'm just afraid of having something I've done be misunderstood. Things can happen so fast and I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up and do the appropriate thing in response. It's so weird knowing so much about the social conventions of other cultures but I'm so clueless when it comes to my own. Memorizing rules isn't the same as being able to intuitively know and respond to a situation correctly."

"It's like everyone but me has this dictionary of meanings that everything they experience gets filtered through. All I have are my senses. Do you know about those human behavior studies where they test a person's memory to show how unreliable witness testimonies can be?

Someone gets shown a picture of a man with a beard or a lineup of people to look at and they end up thinking 'Hey that guy looks a lot like Uncle Joe'. When asked to describe a particular man, they tend to describe their Uncle Joe. The memory of Uncle Joe replaces what they actually saw with their own eyes. My brain doesn't do that. Whether or not that similarity is true or not, doing that comparison wouldn't occur to me. It would be irrelevant to the task I would be instructed to do. What I remembered would be exactly what I saw."

Every experience or thing I've seen is like a series of photographs in my head. Romantic situations are like that...each one is different so I don't notice something that connects them somehow. My brain isn't constantly rewriting my mind's dictionary as often as everyone else's so that the next time something similar happens to me, I would automatically know how to respond. It would be like flipping through a photo album just to remember something. I'm usually starting from the beginning most of the time."

"The one thing I find though is that it seems that I'm the only one who sees the world the way it really is. Everyone else is living in a world their minds have created from all those similarities and comparisons their brains have worked so hard to keep track of."

"Does any of that make sense," Brennan concluded feeling odd about dissecting her feelings and perceptions like that even though Angela has always been able to understand her somehow.

Angela leaned over to give Brennan a hug. "Hey, you're not that clueless. You've come a long way since you were a kid. Bren, I don't think you really appreciate how special your partnership with Booth is. You have been able to get to know each other so well that responding to each other's emotions and actions are second nature, so much so that you don't notice it. Sure, Booth seems to be better at it but that's okay. You bring a lot of unique talent to the relationship, too. You've already built a trust in each other that is tested almost every day. You put your lives in each other's hands all the time. You're afraid of building a relationship with someone but, sweetie, you've already got one that a lot of other couples would envy. Your brain might make you different but that doesn't make you unlovable or incapable of expressing love. You're not a robot with a few senses to view the world. You've got a good heart and we all know that, especially Booth."

"Thanks, Angela.Hearing you explain it makes it easier to understand somehow," she said realising how much she had missed. Angela's description of her relationship with Booth just proved her point. She remembered an expression that always made her think. When she first heard it, she saw it literally in her mind until it's meaning sunk in. "Not seeing the forest for the trees" seemed to fit her state of mind perfectly.

"Anytime, sweetie...so what happened between you two anyway. Come on, the price for my expert advice is all those juicy details you conveniently left out," urged Angela with an impish smile.

Brennan sighed and gave her the complete version of her dream and waking up in Booth's arms.

"Wow, and he really thought you could be kissing him and still be asleep? I've never heard of that before but anything's possible, I guess," Angela said as she suddenly had a silly vision in her mind of two sleepwalking people meeting in a hallway for a romantic encounter before returning unawares to their respective beds. Getting up to raid the fridge in the middle of the night was one thing but her impromptu thought had her suppressing inappropriate giggles that she didn't want to explain. She gave Brennan another hugto hid her silenced chuckles and then stood up.

"I'd better get back to work before Cam notices I'm not being a productive little worker bee. You going to be okay?" she asked noticing her friend looked a little weepy.

"Yeah, sure. Go on. I'm fine," she shooed Angela away. At that moment, her desk phone rang.

"Brennan," she answered." Oh, yes.. send them right up."

"Angela, Marianne and Anna are here," she said calling her back to wait for their visitors. A few minutes later, they could hear the excited voice of a little girl acting like an experienced tour guide.

"This is Dr. Brennan's office, Nana, and Angela's is down there," Anna said as she pulled her grandmother through Brennan's doorway with her good arm.

"Anna, this is where people work, Don't forget your manners. You should knock or wait until someone says you can come in," explained Marianne to her exuberant granddaughter.

"Of course, you can both come in," said Brennan who welcomed them in with a smile as she was bombarded by a child in projectile hug mode, first for Brennan and then Angela.

"They released her this morning and this is the first place she wanted to come," explained Marianne,"You're looking much better yourself, dear. I was quite concerned about you yesterday,"

"Yes, I am, thanks. So, would you like a tour of the lab? No doubt Anna would like to continue showing you around and we can fill in anything she missed. Anna, I want to thank you for your help catching our bomber yesterday. We still don't know why he wanted to blow things up but at least he can't make any more to hurt people," Brennan said. She was still not comfortable with the whole idea of what Anna was able to do but knew it was important for her to view her talents positively.

Anna beamed happily after hearing Brennan's praise and for the next few minutes, they followed her as she lead everyone on her 'dream' tour. Anna and her grandmother were introduced to Zack and Hodgins who were both impressed by the little girl's knowledge. They hadn't been let in on the secret of her previous 'visit'. Zack showed her one of his flesh-eating bugs which she thought was interesting but still didn't want to remember seeing so many in the now empty glass case. Angela demonstrated the Angelator for them and included the Christmas tree she had created last year while they had been stuck in quarantine.

As they walked back to the lab's entrance, Marianne thanked them for showing them around and said,"Well Anna, I think we need to let these people get back to their work."

"Nana, don't forget my pictures for Dr. Brennan," Anna reminded her grandmother, who dug a handful of folded art paper from her bag and gave them to Anna.

"Here, these are for you. I don't know what they're all about. I just drew what I saw in my head. If I don't, the picture won't go away so I can draw something I want to draw," explained Anna as she handed them over to Brennan.

"Thank you, Anna." Brennan said as she gave the little girl a hug. She quickly looked at the first one and was surprised at the vivid colours that looked like a crime scene photo done in crayon. She folded it back up and tried to cover her surprise with a smile knowing that her curiosity would have to wait until later for a closer inspection.

"Well we must go look at some of your famous exhibits. Say good-bye Anna," said Marianne, as she waited to break her gregarious granddaughter away from her new friends. Everyone was busily signing Anna's arm cast.

At that moment, Booth came through the door and saw the gathered lab staff with Anna and her grandmother. After greeting him, they turned to leave. Anna suddenly turned back and said, "Oh, Mr. Booth, your grampa Nick wants you to give Parker his old catcher's glove." Anna then giggled before continuing," And he knows you think you lost it or forgot it in a neighbour's back yard. It's in Jared's toy trunk in the attic at your momma and daddy's house."

Everyone waved as an exasperated Marianne herded Anna through the door.

Booth just stood there with a look of shock on his face that Brennan enjoyed with a smile in spite of herself knowing how disconcerting it was to be on the receiving end of Anna's "messages". He soon recovered and said,"Come on, Bones. we have a case."

Brennan quickly grabbed her jacket and bag from her office and followed Booth out of the lab.