I know this chapter has a sense of finality, but it's not over yet, folks. :) I dedicate this chapter to the lovely RT, who helped me to think through some of my issues with Booth at this point in the series. It was an enormous help!

Thanks for the reviews and follows as usual, all.

Lance was facing another impending nighttime appointment scheduled with his most challenging patients. They were to arrive in a few moments, but Lance was waging a desperate battle with his own emotions. He had saved a message on his cell phone from his mother so that he could hear her voice, but somehow his phone had erased it. This relic of her was now forever deleted from his world. Tears welled up, and he willed them away by swallowing hard. He knew he needed to gather his strength for the counseling session to come. Showing weakness to Booth and Brennan would be like entering a gladiator arena unarmed.

For several days, Lance had been pouring over the questionnaires Booth and Brennan had filled out. Though he had suspected that the two were close, their answers revealed a kind of bond he would have only imagined existed in married couples. He now believed that it was highly unlikely that Brennan's father's trial would unravel their partnership. Test it, sure. But he sensed that they needed a test and that it would only make them more determined in their commitment to each other. He also knew that they totally needed him as a guide to help them navigate their complex emotions. He suspected…how to put this simply, that there was love between them. But neither was willing to admit the gravity of their attachment quite yet.

Lance felt a combination of admiration and concern for the Booth-Brennan relationship. It wasn't professional, this bond they had forged, but it was beautiful, in a way. Lance had to admit, he was almost jealous. He had friends (most of whom were currently living in different states), but he had only been that close with his parents. Perhaps most confusing for Lance was that he desperately wanted to make friends at the FBI, and he liked Booth and Brennan above all other new acquaintances, just as Frannie had predicted. He desired their camaraderie, whether this was appropriate or not, because they were clearly awesome at friendship when they committed to someone. So he would be gentle tonight. He was too tired and sad to attempt the tougher approach anyway.

Speak of the devils.

The two Bs shuffled into his office. Was it his imagination or did they look nearly as dejected as Lance felt?

"So case finished?" Lance began.

The partners gave a weary assent.

"Congratulations," Lance offered genuinely, but Booth and Brennan seemed remote. "You don't seem too happy," he said pointedly.

Booth contemplatively confessed, "Sometimes when you win you end up with somebody else's pain and screwed up life."

Lance had a brief flash back to when he had interned at a mental health facility in Philadelphia, while completing his masters' degree at Temple. One of the schizophrenic patients, Lacy, had made vast improvements under his watch—she had even hugged him before he left. One week later, she had thrown herself out a window. She'd believed she was being chased by a pack of furious wolves. Lance felt that her progress had been obliterated by his departure at a crucial point. To this day he blamed himself. But that was neither here nor there.

Booth had added, turning to Lance, "You work for the FBI, you should know that."

Lance was touched by Booth's admission of pain. He wanted Booth to know that he was impressed. "It must be a challenge for you to access those feelings," he said to Booth.

As had happened several times now in therapy with these two, a dam broke and suddenly Brennan was yelling at Lance. She claimed that Lance didn't know Booth, didn't know either of them.

Brennan growled, "BACK OFF."

Lance was taken aback. He replied honestly, "I'm just trying to help."

Brennan spat, "By questioning his humanity?"

This time Booth swept to Lance's defense, and told Brennan she was overreacting. Not only had Booth come to Lance's aid, but he must have read the young psychologist's genuine distress at being misinterpreted.

Booth continued to Brennan, "He's just a kid, alright? The worst thing that's probably ever happened to him is that he lost at Mortal Kombat."

Lance wasn't about to touch that one. He knew he had an innocent face, but Booth's comment cut the little boy who still stirred within him. Still, Lance guessed that his conjecture about Booth's own troubled childhood was probably spot on. How was Booth to know that Lance was physically marked by his past torment even now? Booth did not have x-ray vision, after all.

"Are you normally this protective of each other?" Lance asked quietly.

Then Booth said something that confirmed it for Lance—there was love between these two people sitting before him. "Sweets I can only hope that one day you know what a real partnership is."

Though the comment had a touch of superiority, Lance thought in response, I hope so too. He wanted love, a family, children. He desperately desired these things. An image of April flicked before his subconscious, and he wondered if she would turn out to be 'the one.' Whether she did or not, it was nice to have the prospect of new love in his life.

Lance told his patients it was obvious that they were close, and they complemented each other. Booth marveled that Brennan-Bones-would have complimented him on the questionnaire.

Brennan corrected him, "Com-ple-ment. Ple. He means we complete each other…as a team."

Booth seemed uncomfortable by the correction, first, and the potential romantic subtext, second. Lance thought that Booth was a kind of blue collar man, surrounded by brainy scientists day in and day out. But Booth was also very sharp. He could read people—as he had read Lance's discomfort when Brennan had jumped all over him several moments ago. Lance also knew that Booth solved the majority of his cases at the FBI—a very impressive feat. The man was clearly observant, intuitive, and smart. Further, he was compassionate. Lance thought, Booth needs someone on his team. He thought about how Brennan had just disdainfully labeled his own psychological analyses as 'subjective' and 'unscientific.' He and Booth were more alike than he could have imagined.

Lance wrapped up the session by informing the partners that they could keep working together but would need to continue seeing him to address underlying issues over the next few months. He noted aloud that there was a deep emotional attachment between them.

They looked thrilled to have his blessing. At that moment, it dawned on Lance that he really had had the power to end their partnership. They had been concerned, despite their perpetual sass. Lance was finally a true therapist, whose counseling had real and lasting consequences for people. It was a grave responsibility. And suddenly, he felt he had done well by these two.

He was writing down a few thoughts and became aware of Booth and Brennan discussing whether or not they would still be friends if they weren't partners. Brennan seemed to be suggesting that they wouldn't, which greatly distressed Booth. Lance smiled. Their affection for each other was palpable. He stopped writing to observe these two fascinating people.

Lance had come so far from his first impressions of the pair. He felt oddly contented in their presence now.