Chapter 13

Booth swiped his card and walked onto the platform.

"Where's Brennan?" Cam asked.

"Thought she was here." Booth said.

"I'm here. What is it Cam?" Brennan came up the other side. Angela looked from Booth to Brennan and back again.

"Hodgins found a petroleum-based EEG gel in the sand near the body."

"That is not surprising, he was participating in dream research requiring frequent EEGs."

"But it is something consistent with Robert Newton." Booth said. Brennan opened her mouth to speak but stopped as realization dawned.

"Cam, do you know anything about a Neurologist named James Sullivan?" Brennan asked.

"No, but I can check with a friend. I'll give him a call."

"Is there anything else, Hodgins?" Brennan asked. Booth thought she sounded tired.

"No, nothing." Hodgins said bitterly, clearly frustrated with the case.

"Everyone go home and get some rest. This is a frustrating case and its not going to be easier if we are overtired." Brennan ordered. She nodded definitively and left quickly for her office.

"Guess we're dismissed." Wendell said.

Brennan had her bag in her hand and her lab coat was hung neatly on the rack by the time Booth made it to her office.

"Goodnight Booth. Go home." She said as she brushed past him and left. Booth was about to follow her when his phone rang.

"Its Charlie, Caroline can get that warrant but you have to go with her. She'll meet you in your office in twenty minutes."

"Damn." Booth sighed as he headed to the Hoover Building.

Brennan had no sooner turned on music, poured a glass of wine and took off her shoes when she heard the knock at her door.

"Go home Booth!" She called.

"Its not Booth, baby."

"I don't want to talk about it Dad!"

"Let me in or I'll pick your lock."

"You have a key!"

"Oh, yeah." She heard the lock click and her Dad entered.

"I don't want to talk about it Dad." She repeated.

"I don't either. I want to talk about you."

"Liar."

"Tempe. I'm sorry that we left you."

"Dad, you've already told me this. I understand why."

"But you don't understand what I should have done. I ran because I thought you would be safer. I may have led the danger I created away from you but I left you to face all the rest of life alone. In that act, I taught you in no uncertain way that you couldn't rely on anyone but yourself. Its not something I intended to teach you, and its wrong."

"I know. I rely on my team, they have saved me more than once. I rely on Booth."

"That's good Tempe. Booth is a good FBI Agent. He's more than that you know."

"Dad."

"Temperance, its okay to love him. He will never let you down. He's a better man than I ever was. He really loves you."

"Its not like that. We're partners."

"You looked like more than partners this evening."

"We're just partners. It needs to stay that way. He's the kind of guy who wants a wife, kids, cute house with the white picket fence."

"And you don't?"

"Marriage is an archaic ritual to pass ownership of a woman from her father to her husband."

"Do you think I possessed your mother?"

"I was thinking about that today. Maybe you did, but you never treated her like that. You worshipped her." Brennan's eyes filled with tears and Max put his arm around her. They sat sharing the old grief.

"Temperance, all things evolve. Marriage may have meant that before but it doesn't mean that now. Its a partnership. You know something about partnerships. Talk to him."

"Dad."

"You can't avoid him, he's your partner." Max kissed her cheek, patted her knee and let himself out.

Booth arrived at the Jeffersonian at 8am the next morning. Brennan was in her office with Cam.

"Bones, I brought you breakfast. I stopped by your apartment but you weren't there. Which, I would have known if you would answer your cell phone. We got the warrant." Booth set the bag of food and a cup of coffee in front of Brennan but she moved them aside.

"DNA is inconclusive. Don't even have enough for a failure to exclude. And James Sullivan lost his license to practice medicine seven years ago." Cam said, eyeing the silent battle.

"Shady dealings?" Booth asked. He was now unwrapping a bagel and setting it in front of her.

"No, he just wasn't that good." Cam answered. "I guess the hospital paid one too many malpractice claims." She was trying not to laugh as Booth held the coffee over Brennan's keyboard. She finally took it and, as he stood up, set it aside.

"So he sucks at his job, why kill Newton?" Booth had smeared cream cheese on the bagel and was holding it close enough to Brennan's mouth that she couldn't speak. Cam could take no more.

"Just take it Dr. Brennan before I have to have him arrested for assault." Cam sighed. "What is the warrant for?"

"Bones has a hunch." Booth said proudly.

"I do not have a hunch. I just think that there may be something in the file that James Sullivan kept." Brennan had taken a small bite and was trying to subtly set the bagel down. Booth kept touching it as it got near the desk preventing her from placing it on the desk. Cam pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers.

"Eat up Bones, then we have to go execute this warrant."

"I just have to finish these emails. Could you go check and see if Hodgins has matched the brand of gel?"

"Sure thing." Booth said as he walked out of the office.

"What is going on?" Cam asked.

"Nothing, I had breakfast before I left this morning."

"Okay. When you get those notes, I'll take a look at them." Cam said as she left for her office. A few minutes later Brennan walked over to Hodgins and Booth.

"Anything?"

"No, its a common brand used by every hospital along the East Coast." Hodgins said.

"Ready to go?" Booth asked. Dr. Sweets walked up to them and nodded a silent hello.

"Yes. I asked Wendell and Dr. Sweets to come with us. I would like Wendell's help looking through the files and I think that Dr. Sweet's input when we question Dr. Sullivan again will be valuable. "

"That's great." Booth said. "Let's go." He allowed Dr. Sweets and Wendell to walk and stopped Brennan. "Chicken. We need to talk." He whispered.

"No we don't!" She whispered back as the walked toward the doors.

"We do."

"We don't." Dr. Sweets and Wendell turned to see if they were coming and Booth and Brennan continued the argument with furious scowls.