CHAPTER 3: Booth vs Therapist

"It is my duty to inform you that the Brennan-Booth partnership is henceforth severed, and that you, Special Agent Seeley Booth, will be required to assign another Agent amongst your department for handling consultations to the Jeffersonian Institute through Forensic Anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan, in the future."

He blindly went to his car, blindly because the anger had never been so strong before, he'd never felt so bewildered, so confused, so very, very angry in his life. There was a mistake but they would fix it, together, they would make it right like always, because he couldn't lose her. No, he certainly couldn't lose her.

Five days earlier…

"Booth, I think you should be careful with Dr Lenney."

"Careful? Why?"

Her voice was slightly metallic, and he longed to hear it for real, because that would mean she was by his side. But she wasn't, yet. As usual when his thoughts strayed to this topic, his feelings began to spiral around him, confusing, distracting. Very… distracting. She wasn't by his side yet, but was he thinking metaphorically of physically?

Booth cursed silently. Both, always both, of course.

"I… don't know."

Suddenly he was alert. He knew that tone too well.

"Bones, are you all right? Did he upset you?"

"I'm fine Booth, it's just that… forget it."

"No, tell me what you're thinking!"

"Nothing, it's nothing. I'll see you tomorrow."

And she hung up. Booth tried not to think about how much he wanted her to do what he'd said. To tell him… everything.

*

The office had already begun changing. He could feel it, it no longer belonged to Sweets. This was Dr Lenney's territory now.

"Hi."

"Agent Booth, come in."

Dr Lenney raised his eyebrows when Booth sat on the right of the couch, but didn't comment on the fact. Neither did Booth, who felt, at the moment, quite confident.

"I'd like to begin by-"

"Listen Dr Lenney…" with three words and a well placed tone the man had reduced the doctor to a mocking inferior. "Nothing is going to separate me and Bones, get it? Nothing. Not you, not Sweets, not anyone. So why don't you just say it, just say we can be together and today you and I can both go home early?"

Pause.

"Well, that was quite the outburst, Agent Booth." Dr Lenney didn't look impressed. Or at least, not as impressed as a mocking inferior should. "There are several things hidden in those few sentences that have saved me quite a few valuable hours pouring over psychology books. Thank you."

Booth wasn't impressed either. He only coldly raised his eyebrows, giving Dr Lenney permission to elaborate.

"Your nothing seems to include only no one, and not no thing. Implying perhaps that you think it's only someone, not something, who can get between you? Material things are so far from being a threat, they're nothing to you."

Dr Lenney chuckled, and the sound made Booth want to punch him.

"Also, I love the way you phrased that last sentence: say we can be together, not say we can stay together, nor work, the most logical one perhaps, but be."

There was a stony silence from Booth.

"Well, aren't you going to jump in your defence? Say that you're just partners, like Dr Brennan did?"

"Bones did what? What did you tell her?"

And finally, Dr Lenney showed the slightest crack in his armour. Because not even he could not react to the anger, but more than anger, the danger radiating from Booth at that moment.

Dr Lenney flinched.

"I… well, you see, Dr Brennan felt the need to assure me you were just partners, and I presumed you would too."

"Well, of course we're not just partners. We're great friends, we've been through things together, things which you, sitting here in your comfortable chair, can't even imagine. So what did you tell her?"

"Nothing. Nothing, she volunteered the information, so to speak."

"Good."

"I think now would be a good moment for you to describe your relationship with Dr Brennan."

"We're not just partners. And at the same time… we are."

Silence.

"That's it?"

"Yes."

"Please elaborate a little, Agent Booth? I assume you want to be with her?"

This time, Dr Lenney felt an urge to push his chair backwards a little, just to distance himself from the look on Booth's face.

"What I meant was that of course our relationship isn't just professional. We're friends, sometimes we have coffee after a case… and it's also very professional because we are very aware of our… aware of the lines. We know we're not supposed have romantic feelings for the other."

"And you don't?"

"Don't what?"

"Have romantic feelings for the other."

"That's what I just said."

"You said you're no supposed to. Not that you don't."

"Fine, I don't. Happy?"

But this was the wrong tone to use with the doctor. The problem was that Booth realised it a little too late.

"I'd like to ask you to indulge me for a moment, Agent Booth."

"Indulge? What do you want?"

"I'd like you to describe doctor Brennan…"

Booth held his breath, knowing that wasn't the end of it.

"…physically."

"You're kidding, right? You saw her yesterday!"

"I'm aware of that. This is an exercise."

"No it's not, it's a ploy to get me to…" to what? And this was when Booth stamped his letter. When he didn't finish that sentence.

"Please, Agent Booth." The doctor managed not to sound as though he was asking for a favour.

"Fine, you know what? Fine." And in quick succession. "Tall, blue eyes, shoulder length cobalt hair, pale skin, strong, thin."

He looked defiantly at the therapist, daring him to add anything to that list. But of course he did.

"And very beautiful."

"Yes, that too."

"You are aware that you just gave me the characteristics to identify her and distinguish her from a crowd."

"Yes. I described her to you. That's what you asked for, right?"

"Describe doesn't necessarily mean words used to determine the general characters of a suspect, Agent Booth. You don't think of Dr Brennan as a suspect, do you?"

"Are you kidding?"

"No."

Silence.

"You know what, I never thought they day would come, but I miss Sweets. I'm outta here."

"You realise, I hope, that I'm the one who decides…"

"I don't care. I don't want to play stupid little games."

And Booth stood and left.

He thought of the words he'd used to dissect Bones for that stupid so-called therapist. They were all, of course, true, but as he walked to his car he felt… somehow…

Like a liar.