Temperance sat down on the ancient back couch she had noticed earlier and flipped open her laptop. Her publisher had been hinting that she should really be finishing the manuscript for her latest book and with nothing more she could do on the case she was working on – she'd already gone over the x-rays several dozen times – Tempe felt obliged to do so, especially since she'd barely had time before to start and was only on page three. Her publisher didn't know that though. It felt rather strange, trying to write while sitting in Booth's apartment. Booth was asleep for now and hadn't even woken up when she'd applied the antiseptic and bandage to his forehead. Tempe sighed and tried to concentrate on typing. One of these days, Booth was going to work himself to death.

Pausing Brennan reread the sentence she had just written. Well, it wasn't actually a sentence, just a jumbled combination of words. Deleting the nonsense, she started typing again. Concentration was the key here. She needed to focus on what she was doing. What was she doing? Tempe stopped and read the previous paragraph again to herself. Oh, that was right, she was describing the heroine's FBI partner. Finally back on track, she started again:

Special Agent Alec Richter – special for what, I don't know – leaned on the doorframe of my office and grinned at me in a way which he knew I have always found irritating. To another woman, maybe Richter would have seemed appealing in his dark designer suit, red striped tie, and, as always, strange socks which sometimes boasted stripes or spots in various vivid colors depending on the agent's mood that day. His short dark hair was in a constant limbo between slept-on and brushed never quite one or the other and the fact that today it was it seemed decidedly closer to brushed, meant that case that he had just been assigned to was exceptionally interesting. Ignoring him to the best of my ability, I continued to type up the summary of the latest case I had been working on, hoping against hope that he would go away. I had enough paperwork that I needed to finish without him interrupting me. Ignoring the fact that I was ignoring him, Richter sidled across the office to my desk. He's probably the only person I've ever met who can sidle without looking ridiculous. I glared at him as he sat down in the chair across from me and waved a file triumphantly and teasingly in the air just beyond my reach,

"We've got a new case, Scope!"

"Don't call me Scope!" I snapped, frustrated by the use of what Richter thinks is his witty nickname for me – why he insists on calling me that, I will never understand – and the fact that the case file was still just out of my reach and moving to grab it from BRichter would be an open submission to the fact that I was curious which I was not about to admit. Here was no way I would let him get the upper hand on me, even for a moment. The agent continued to grin despite my unimpressed tone,

"Come on, wait 'til you see where the body is…"

Brennan stopped typing for a moment and stretched her shoulders. She'd always thought it was strange how easy it was to write about the changing relationship between Agent Alec Richter and her main character, Dr. Rachel Safford. It was like she already knew how each character was going to react and not just because they were fictional characters that Tempe had created. Sometimes, it felt like she had actually met them, went to work and saw them bickering every day. All of which, of course, was completely illogical. Dr. Safford and Agent Richter were just characters in her book. You couldn't meet characters because they didn't actually exist. A brief part of a memory suddenly flashed through Brennan's mind:

Booth was sitting on the chair in front of her desk with his feet propped up casually next to a stack of recently completed paperwork as she entered her office. He gave her a grin and held a case file in the air,

"We've got a new case, Bones!"

"Don't call me Bones!!!"

Glancing at the clock on her computer screen, Tempe pushed her laptop aside and went to check on Booth.

A/N: Please review! It is your reviews upon which I thrive and am inspired to write more! Sorry for the short chapter – I'll do my best to make the next one longer!