Thanks to flanmaja, MadeOfStars, seeleyswifey, CSI-4077, Andromeda03 and fanHANNAH for reviewing the last chapter. Your reviews really brighten up my day. :) Here's chapter three, enjoy!
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The next morning Booth was driving to work. His thoughts were on Brennan and the way she had acted the previous night. She had seemed stressed and anxious about something, but he just couldn't come up with any reason for it. He was sure that there was something she wasn't telling him. He stopped at a red light and glanced at the seat next to him. He had already gotten used to her not sitting there anymore, but that didn't mean that he didn't miss her or want her there. Driving in silence was surprisingly boring. The angry honk from the car behind him brought him back from his reminiscing, and he sped up again.
Once Booth got to his office, he immediately pushed the speed-dial button number two on his cell and waited for an answer.
"Brennan."
"Hey, Bones. Are you at work?"
"Of course, it's eight o'clock." He heard her say something to Zack in the background.
"A busy day?"
"Always."
Booth was again surprised by her curtness. There was definitely something going on.
"Well, I'll come by the lab on my lunch hour, so you'll have to make some room on your schedule for that."
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end. "Why?"
"Because there's something I want to talk about." He heard some rustling from the background.
"Can't it wait? The FBI sent another body here, it's kind of urgent."
Now she was avoiding him? There was no way that he would let her do that.
"No, it can't. I'll see you at twelve." With that, he hung up. He threw his cell on the desk and leaned back in his chair. Now he would just have to prepare himself for the confrontation.
--
Brennan and Cam were in the autopsy room, discussing over the charred corpse that laid on the steel table. As Cam was going over her findings, Brennan kept glancing at the clock on the wall.
"Is there somewhere you need to be, Dr. Brennan?" Cam inquired.
Brennan fixed her gaze on the remains. "No. So this locket was burned into the flesh?"
Cam frowned at the anthropologist's uncharacteristic behaviour, but went on anyway. "Yes. There were some particulates on it, I'll let Hodgins take care of them."
Brennan nodded. "Good. Do you need me for anything?"
"Not right now. I just wanted to keep you posted."
Brennan was afraid she'd say that. She wanted something to do so that she wouldn't have to face Booth. She didn't know why he wanted to see her, but it had sounded serious. A serious conversation wasn't something she wanted to have right now.
"Okay. I'll be in my office," she said and headed out of the autopsy room. One last look at the clock informed her that it was a quarter to twelve. There was no way she'd be able to get out of this anymore.
--
Booth entered the Medico-Legal lab and glanced at the platform. Only Zack was there, measuring a hole on the skull that he was holding.
"Hey there, Zack," he called from the bottom of the stairs. "Is Bones in her office?"
"I wouldn't know. I've been concentrating on these bullet holes," he said without looking up.
Booth left him to it and started walking toward Brennan's office. Suddenly Angela emerged from hers and walked up to him.
"Hey, handsome. What are you doing here?" she said jokingly.
"I'm just here to see Bones," he answered casually.
"Thank goodness. She's been so weird lately, like there's something bothering her. She won't tell me what it is but you could totally do that thing where you pry it out of her," Angela said, smirking.
"She's been acting weird, huh?"
"Yeah, believe me," she emphasized. "Well, I'm off to lunch. If you make any progress with her, let me know." She waved him goodbye and took off.
Booth's worry only increased because of Angela's words. He now walked briskly to Brennan's office, where said woman was sitting at her desk doing paperwork. She looked deeply concentrated, but the slightly dark rims under her eyes gave away her exhaustion.
"Still doing paperwork?"
Her head snapped up at his voice, but she only held eye contact for a second. After that she concentrated on organizing the files on the desk into piles.
"There's always some paperwork to do." She threw an unnecessary post-it into the trash can. "What did you want to talk about?" she continued without missing a beat.
When Booth shut the door, Brennan knew that this wasn't going to be an easy conversation. She had decided to keep herself composed and not to blurt out anything too revealing. She had already embarrassed herself on too many occasions. A clean and detached attitude would be the best here.
Booth sighed and sat on one of the chairs in front of her desk. He decided not to beat about the bush.
"What's going on?"
Brennan knew Booth well enough to predict that question. "What do you mean?" she asked, as if not knowing what he was talking about.
"You've been so distant and evasive lately. Has something happened? With your dad? Russ?"
"No… Nothing's happened."
Booth sighed and looked down at his conjoined hands. He knew that getting the truth out of her wasn't going to be easy, but that didn't stop him from getting a bit annoyed.
"Come on, Bones. I think I know you well enough to see that something's bothering you. Even Angela's noticed."
Brennan puffed out some air. It wasn't at all surprising that they were working together to get her to 'open up'. Why did they have to care so much? That irritated her and she felt the anger rising.
"Well, maybe you have your overly active imaginations to blame."
"Oh, so we're only imagining this in our heads?"
"Obviously."
He looked at her intently. It was clear she was trying to keep a cool exterior, but he could see something flickering in her eyes. He wasn't sure what. He got up and walked to the other side of the desk, gripping the armrests of her chair so that he was leaning very close to the woman. She had a challenging look on her face.
"Don't for a second think that you can fool me, Bones," he said sternly, never leaving his eyes out of hers. "I know you."
The reason he was trying to push her off the edge was that he desperately wanted to get a reaction from her. He couldn't stand that distant attitude of hers.
Brennan felt both annoyed and thrown off by Booth's proximity. She figured that out of those two reactions, annoyance would be the best way to go. So she finally snapped. She rolled her chair back a little and stood up so that she would be on the same level with him. She couldn't help the smouldering look in her eyes.
"Back off, Booth. Don't you think for a second that you can scare me into confessing something that isn't there," she said with as much venom in her voice as she could muster.
Booth raised his voice. "Don't give me that crap! There's something going on but you're just too damn stubborn to let anyone know!"
"So what? We're not partners anymore! We don't need to share everything," she yelled.
"We may not be partners anymore but we're still friends as far as I'm concerned. After all these years I'd expect you to trust me enough to tell me if there's something wrong," he said quietly but sternly.
Brennan felt like hitting something. She was at a dead end: she couldn't tell Booth about her feelings but if she didn't tell him what was going on, he would be offended. She wished he would just get it without her saying it. After taking a few deep breaths, she looked down.
"Booth…" she started. "Could we not do this now? I'm at work and I have things to do."
He noticed the resolve in her voice and realized she wasn't ready to talk yet. He was probably pushing her too hard. Feeling a little guilty, he softened his gaze. "I'll drop this now if you promise that we'll talk later today. After work." He searched for eye contact. "Hmm?"
Brennan nodded, still looking down. "Yes, okay."
He lifted her chin and looked directly into her eyes. "You'll come by my place when you're finished here?"
"Yes." She finally held eye contact with him. Booth dropped his hand from under her chin and nodded.
"I'll see you then." He walked backwards to the door and turned around to open it. Then he was gone.
Brennan stayed still for a few moments and finally settled back on her chair, wondering how her plan to keep a calm façade had gone so terribly wrong.