Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. I wish they did, but sadly they do not.
Spoiler: The Secret in the Soil
A/N: This started out as a little oneshot, but it ended up fairly long. Anyway, this is Sweets's POV of the final scene in "The Secret in the Soil."
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Unscientific Observations
These two fascinate me. I can't imagine how two people, who are so in sync, are unwilling or unable to acknowledge their true feelings. Take today, for example. I had prepared myself for another excruciating session; forcing this pair to talk about their feelings was like pulling teeth. I mentally braced myself when they plopped down in my chairs, dejectedly.
"So, case finished?" I asked.
"Yes," Dr. Brennan answered quietly.
"Congratulations."
"Yeah," Agent Booth responded glumly.
"You don't seem too happy."
"Well, because sometimes, if you win, you end up with somebody else's pain and screwed-up life. You work for the FBI, you should know that."
"Must be a challenge for you to access those feelings," I prodded, trying to evoke a reaction in him. To my surprise, it was Dr. Brennan that rose to the bait.
"Okay, stop. You don't know Booth. You don't know me. You have a limited view of us based on superficial data you've accumulated on a standardized questionnaire, and a subjective analysis from talking to us that is not at all scientific. So back off."
"Just trying to help."
"By questioning his humanity?" She was really getting worked up now. Dr. Brennan was usually so reserved in our sessions, but apparently needling her partner was all it took to tap into her emotional side. Agent Booth knew just how to appease her.
"Okay, Bones, now you're going a little bit overboard. He's just a kid. Right? I mean, the worst thing that's probably ever happened to him was he lost at Mortal Kombat." By insulting me, he was trying to take the focus off his partner.
"Are you normally this protective of him, Dr. Brennan?"
"We are partners. Our lives depend on being protective of each other," she responded matter-of-factly.
"And you feel the same way, Agent Booth?"
"Sweets, I can only hope that one day you know what a real partnership is." He was trying to get me off track again, calling me "Sweets" when I had asked him not to. It was interesting; He obviously felt his "partnership" with Dr. Brennan was something I should aspire to, although therapists do not generally work with a partner.
"You two are very close, that was evident in your superficial, standardized questionnaire and my unscientific observations. You complement each other."
Agent Booth laughed. "Ha! No, she never compliments me. Did you compliment me in the questionnaire?" Did I detect some insecurity beneath his arrogant façade?
"'Complement,' not 'compliment.' '-Ple.' He means that we complete each other, as a team." Funny, but I didn't remember saying "as a team."
"Yeah, right." Agent Booth looked very uncomfortable. I would bet it had more to do with Dr. Brennan's "we complete each other" statement, rather than embarrassment over being corrected.
"Now, we've got a lot to work on over the next few months," I began, noting the look that passed between the two.
"Meaning we get to stay together?" Dr. Brennan asked, hopefully. As much as she liked to pretend that Agent Booth was more invested in their partnership, her actions (and the questionnaire) frequently betrayed her.
"Yes."
"I'm sensing a 'but,'" Agent Booth said quietly to his partner.
"However…" I tried to continue.
"It's the same as a 'but,'" Dr. Brennan replied to her partner.
"I have observed some underlying issues that need to be addressed."
"Issues?" Agent Booth asked.
"Yes. There's clearly a very deepemotional attachment between you two…" I couldn't hide my amusement.
"We're just partners," Agent Booth insisted.
"And why do you think I would have thought otherwise?" I challenged him.
"'Cause you're 12." Didn't he know by now that insulting my age wasn't going to throw me?
Dr. Brennan jumped in to diffuse her partner's growing irritation with me. "Don't read into anything that Booth said. We're professionals. There's a line that doesn't even need to be there." She truly didn't realize her own actions spoke more about their relationship than anything Agent Booth had said.
"Not at all, I mean, if there were no more murders, I would probably not even, you know, see her." This seemed like a troublesome idea to him.
"That's very true," she agreed.
"We might have coffee," he suggested.
"Probably not," she said, dismissively.
"What?" he asked surprised.
"What?" She recognized the hurt in his tone, but didn't understand the reason for it.
"You wouldn't even have coffee with me?" There was that insecurity again. I suspected he didn't feel "good enough" to be more than her partner, something I would have to delve into in future sessions.
"Well, in your scenario, we wouldn't even know each other because there are no murders." Dr. Brennan wanted to make things better, but she didn't understand how she had offended him. She was just being logical, after all.
"Were. I said 'no more murders.'" Agent Booth was determined to get this straightened out.
"Then fine. I mean, we could have coffee. So that's clear, then?" She was desperately trying to smooth things over without making another blunder. "I mean, we'd have coffee and that's our relationship? Coffee." Afraid of offending him again, she wanted to reestablish their friendship.
"Yeah, let's move on." Realizing they were dangerously close to actually defining their relationship, Agent Booth shut the conversation down. The two shot each other uncertain looks. They were in uncharted waters here. I couldn't wait to push them out of their comfortable little bubble!