The drive back to her apartment was uncharacteristically quiet, both seemingly lost in their thoughts. As Booth notices them closing in on her part of town he chances a glance at her. She is looking out of her window, her chin resting on her palm.
"You ok?"
She turns to him and forces a smile. "Of course, I'm fine."
"So what's your plans for tonight..heading out with Angela? You two trawling the DC streets for man candy.. did I say that right?" He chuckles and flashes the charms smile in her direction. The smile disappears quickly when he sees the less than impressed expression on her face.
"Do you really think that of me? That I'm so shallow that I'll only ever be interested in physical gratification with men.. that I'll have sex with random men I pick up in bars?"
His eyebrows threaten to shoot off of his forehead at her question and he carelessly manoeuvres the Sequoia to the side of the road and pulls up alongside a pizza parlour.
"Whoa Bones.. I didn't mean that, I was fooling about. Of course I don't think that of you." She's refusing to meet his eyes so he leans across and places a gentle hand on her shoulder causing her eyes to meet his. "I'm sorry, can we start over?"
After a few seconds her expressions shifts and her eyes soften. "I'm sorry for snapping at you. I guess I'm just tired."
He smiles gently. "Hey, it's ok. I take it that means no night on the town with Angela?" He silently curses himself for the hint of hope that appears to have crept into his voice.
She grins at him and shakes her head slowly. "Angela is entertaining tonight."
"Oh." He gives her a knowing grin. "Guess that means it's you and me Bones. How does pizza sound?" He nods at the pizza place outside of her window.
"Only if I can have jalapenos on it."
He starts to get out of the Sequoia and pulls a face at her. "You know I can't handle those chillies, it's unnatural that you can eat seeds of hell."
She rolls her eyes at him and watches him walk around the vehicle and into the shop. Resting her head against the window she observes him inside and sighs gently. She thinks back to her time in Sweets' office with Booth, had he really believed that she thought him beneath her? She is well aware that Booth is an attractive man but having Sweets bring up the forbidden conversation had unnerved her, has unnerved her. She's just happy to be back in a situation where she has some control, and she's grateful at not having to spend another Friday night alone.
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He drops a half eaten slice back into the box and groans loudly, "Those chillies are not going to be nice to me tomorrow morning."
"Well it'll be your own fault for eating my half."
Booth pushes himself up from her floor and sweeps the box off of the table heading towards the kitchen. "Come on Bones, you couldn't manage a whole half of pizza, no matter how good it is... It's why you are so..slim."
He dumps the box near the garbage can and pulls a beer from the fridge. When he starts to head back into the lounge to join her he notices the frown on her face. "What?"
"You were going to call me skinny."
He flops onto the sofa next to her. "What? No,... Is that a bad thing? I mean I wasn't going to say skinny... but would that have been offensive?"
"Yes, I have a small frame, but I am proportional."
Booth turns to her and smiles gently when her eyes meet his. "Bones, I think you're perfect." She smiles back at him gently, slightly embarrassed. She chuckles and pulls her eyes away, noticing her discomfort he grabs the remote from the arm of the chair and flicks on the tv. "Ok Bones, what have we got?"
She watches him out of the corner of her eye as he flicks through the channels and smiles gently to herself before taking a long drink from her wine glass, the tension between them immediately forgotten.
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It is Booth's weekend with Parker, he'd told her excitedly about their plans the night before so she hadn't expected to hear from him until Monday, so needless to say she is surprised when he calls to tell her that they have a case but even more surprised when he tells her that Parker found the evidence.
When she arrives at the scene Booth grumbles a little about having to give Parker back to Rebecca but his annoyance disappears when she starts spouting off facts about Possums. In fact though his expression doesn't betray it, he's impressed.
The case involves a veterinarian killed by a dog. She manages to pull a few strings and Cesar Milan agrees to assist on the case, he too makes the same mistake of thinking that her relationship with Booth runs deeper than the 'strictly professional' tag that they like to label their partnership with, and though she brushes it off, she is struck by the increasing frequency that they encounter that particular assumption.
The case is wrapped up quickly, the killer a med student, the weapon a dog. The victory of another case closed would taste sweet if it wasn't for Brennan's loss. She'd developed a bond with Ripley, the dog responsible for the veterinarian's death, and not understanding the law surrounding dangerous dogs she had set her mind on adopting him. Booth delivers the news of Ripley's euthanization and she is hurt once more. Hating the sadness that mars her face he takes her to bury the dog and holds her when her sadness overwhelms her.
That brings them up to now, another session with their young shrink. Sweets is scribbling down notes even though nothing in particular has been said by either partner. A short huff from Booth causes the psychologist to look up and cross his hands in his lap. Brennan looks as though she would rather be anywhere but here.
"So, I want to pick up where we left off last week, I think that we were making excellent progress and I would like to further explore the issues that we were touching on."
Booth stiffens noticeably, his brow furrows and he studiously avoids both Sweets' and Brennan's eyes. Brennan simply tugs her sleeves down on her jumper and calmly folds her hands in her lap.
"What did you guys do when you left last week?"
"Bones and I had pizza, couple of beers and tv."
Sweets nods smiling, "Anything else?"
Booth sits forward conspiratorially and smirks. "Yeah, then we had mind blowing animal sex on her living room floor." Booth smiles cockily at Sweets who gives him a disapproving look. Brennan on the other hand looks mortified.
"No we didn't! We didn't Sweets."
Booth rolls his eyes and turns to her. "I wasn't being serious Bones."
Holding her palms out towards Sweets she leans into whisper to her partner. "He may not know that Booth."
Sweets smiles reassuringly at her, "It's ok Dr Brennan, I know that Agent Booth was simply being facetious."
Booth turns to the young agent. "Careful Sweets."
Sweets has the grace to look reprimanded and starts to write on the notepad in front of him "Do you often have sexual fantasies about Dr Brennan?" He looks up just in time to see Booth's jaw drop in complete shock. Brennan, on the other hand who doesn't appear to be phased at all, is turning to face Booth, her face showing interest. Booth's eyes dart nervously between his partner and the psychologist.
"That's ridiculous Sweets, of course I don't have fantasies about Bones!"
Brennan's face contorts into a confused frown and Sweets jots down another few words on his pad. "Why is it ridiculous Booth? It would be considered completely rational and not at all unheard of for you to include me in your sexual fantasies from time to time." Booth looks at her in mortification. "Men on average fantasise for a few hours each day, and since we spend most of our working time together I think it wouldn't be a surprise if I had featured in one or two of those fantasies."
Booth can't tear his eyes from her, he is sure that the earth is about to open up swallow him, or maybe he is hoping that it will. Sweets smirks to himself and turns to Brennan.
"Have you ever fantasised about Agent Booth, Dr Brennan?"
She looks straight at him and nods. "Yes. I have no control over my fantasies, Booth is an attractive man, and I spend alot of my time with him. I would rather not have those thoughts about him because it's not professional, but I won't deny that I have indulged on occasion."
When Sweets turns back to Booth he notes that the agent has his head in his hands and is squirming in his seat. "Could it perhaps be that you don't find Dr Brennan attractive?"
Booth's head shoots up and he responds without hesitation. "No." He realises that he has answered perhaps a little too quickly. "I mean, Bones is an attractive, intelligent, strong woman. I don't think that there are many straight men out there who wouldn't be attracted to her." He chances a glance at her then and sees her inquisitive stare aimed back at him.
Sweets frowns. "So you are attracted to her." Booth clenches his jaw.
"I'm saying she is an attractive woman Sweets." He manages to get the words out barely through clenched teeth. "Can we talk about something that might actually help Bones and I, I don't see how this is relevant."
Brennan leans forward in her seat. "I think that Sweets is trying to rule out sexual tension between us." She turns to Sweets and gestures to the space between her and her partner. "We've spoken about the line before, we are professionals. We won't let attraction get in the way of our work, we're both rational and if either of us felt inclined towards that kind of attraction I am sure that we could work past it without having to inform the other. We just don't consider each other in that way Sweets."
The sureness in her voice bothers Booth slightly, but he doesn't want to make either of them aware of that. Sweets misses the look of hurt that passes over Booth's features as he scribbles furiously on the note pad. "How can you be sure of that Dr Brennan?"
"What?"
Sweets looks her dead in the face. "You asked me to help you to advance your people skills, to enhance your ability to read emotions from expressions." She frowns, unsure of where the psychologist is going with the conversation. "How do you know that Agent Booth doesn't have those feelings for you?"
"Because he's my partner."
"If you can't recognise the emotions that he displays when he is interacting with you, how can you honestly claim to know how he is feeling, or how he feels about you?" Booth goes to interrupt, Brennan seems to be thinking her answer over, but Sweets holds up a hand to stop them both. Looking at his watch he smiles and puts the lid back on his pen. "Look at the time. This will need to wait til next time."
Booth is out of his seat and grabbing Brennan out of hers, Sweets bites back a chuckle as he watches the agent bustling the confused anthropologist out of the office door throwing a goodbye behind him as they go. "Clueless."
Brennan protests as Booth steers them quickly to the elevator, grumbling about his enthusiasm for leaving, all the while Booth is trying to think of a way to get Brennan to stop her 'emotion reading' sessions with Sweets, the last thing he needs is to be ganged up on by both of them. He shudders at the thought.
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Sorry it took so long guys.