Disclaimer: See ch. 1

Spoilers: Through season 4, current episode

A/N: Thanks for all the fantastic reviews, as always! This one goes out to everyone who wanted to know when Booth would start to figure things out. He's not everyone's favorite FBI agent for nothing, is he? New episode tomorrow! I cannot wait! The circus, huh, I wonder how Booth will do with all the clowns?

On a side note: I just had to share this with someone who would appreciate it (my dad really didn't care much). I was watching season 1 the other day and I totally caught a screw-up (or at least what I saw as a screw-up). In the season 1 episode Man in the Morgue, there's a voodoo guy swinging a snake around some bodies, doing some good voodoo thing, and Bones goes over and wraps the snake around her hand and pets it and everything. Then, in the season 3 episode Mummy in the Maze she completely flips over the room full of snakes. So is she afraid of snakes or not? Was it just because there were so many of them? I'm way confused here… Anyways…

Booth smiled and handed her a pair of chopsticks and a tub of lo mien.

"Relax, Bones. I'll let you treat me to breakfast in the morning."

She rolled her eyes and dug into her noodles. She supposed her worries could wait just an hour or so. She was awfully hungry, after all.

She was so beautiful sitting there in her sweatpants, eating lo mien like no one was watching. Granted, his Bones was always beautiful no matter what she was doing or what she was wearing. And the most attractive thing about her was that she didn't even know it.

Oh, she knew that her body was well-formed, and she was in great physical shape, and that her face was symmetrical. But she didn't really know.

She didn't know that the sun in her hair could make a man's breath catch. She didn't know that the sway of her hips and the curve of her breast brought about images of carnal release. She could never know that her smile tied a man's tongue in knots, her tears wrenched his heart from his chest, her hugs could be torture and sweet, divine intervention all in one.

She would never know, because he was the only one close enough to tell her without fearing bodily harm, and he never would. Because he would never risk losing her like that. And he surely would if he started saying things like that to her, because she feared attachment in the same way that he feared losing her. The emotional attachment she could ignore, but there was no way she would be able to ignore hearing him talk like that. And so he wouldn't. No, he'd rather see her on the arm of some bozo like Blondie…Hart, than not see her at all.

He shook his head to rid it of the image and blinked to bring her into focus.

"So, um, sorry again for ruining your plans for tonight."

She glanced up at him with that wide-eyed expression that told him she'd been concentrating deeply on something…probably Blondie.

"Oh, no. We didn't have plans," she replied simply.

"Oh, well, then…what was Hart here for?"

She waved a hand as if dismissing his question, then answered it anyway. "He drove me here. My car wouldn't start." She glanced up at him, her eyes narrowed. "I was going to call you to pick me up, but there was no service."

He nearly laughed. She blamed him for poor cell phone reception. As if it was his fault Blondie had had to drive her home. In that moment, he put one piece of the puzzle that was Temperance Brennan together, and the clamp on his heart loosened considerably.

He gave a light chuckle and couldn't resist raising his hand to his ear, pinky and thumb extended, in the universal sign for telephone.

"Can you hear me now?" He asked with a grin.

She frowned and an adorable little line creased between her brows.

"Of course I can hear you, Booth, you're sitting right next to me."

He shook his head. "Yeah, um, never mind."

"But…"

"How about we drive over to the school tomorrow morning and I'll take a look at the car for you?" He asked, ignoring her attempts to interrupt him.

She shook her head. "Thanks, but I called the rental company on the way over here. They're sending someone out in the morning." She glanced up at him. "I was hoping you'd bring me to the university tomorrow. I can find a ride back in the evening."

He set his empty food cartons on the coffee table and leaned closer to her.

"Bones, tomorrow is Saturday. You are not spending the whole day in a stuffy classroom."

She raised a hand as if she might push him away. "Booth, I…"

"There won't even be any students there for you to lecture to."

Her hand dropped back to her lap, but her eyes remained steely. "Some of the professors in the Anthropology department are getting together to discuss the latest find in Indonesia…"

"Call and tell them you're sick or something. There is no way you're…"

"Well, they never actually said I had to be there. I just thought it would be intriguing to hear their opinions on…"

Booth rolled his eyes and grunted, "intriguing," under his breath. Then he took her empty food cartons from her and placed them next to his on the table.

"Excellent. No university. Tomorrow, Bones, you and I are going to take in the sights."

"Take them in where?"

Booth ignored her. "We'll get an early start, grab breakfast on the way, get there in time for…"

"Booth, I promised Dr. Loughlin that I would meet with him and a couple of his students briefly in the morning to discuss a research project. I really can't…"

Booth glared.

Bones looked thoughtful for a moment before she gave a small sigh. "It should only take about a half an hour, then we can…"

He clapped his hands together and rubbed them briskly, a silly grin on his face.

"Great. Half an hour. Then you're mine."

"I'm…"

Her tirade was thankfully interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone. She stared at him.

"Well?" She asked, waving her hand at the phone on his belt.

"Mine's on vibrate," he said. He very seldom turned his phone off vibrate. It was much easier to avoid detection when your phone wasn't blasting off annoying rap songs every few minutes.

"Oh," she gasped and jumped up to search through her purse.

"Brennan," she said once she'd located the thing and flipped it open. "Oh, hi, Ange. Yeah, I'm fine."

Booth smiled to himself and stood from the couch. He leaned down close to Brennan's ear and said in a not-quite-whisper, "I'm going to go get a shower."

She turned to him with an accusing glare as a squeal erupted from over the phone line. Well, hell, if Angela wanted to play one of her matchmaking games, he wasn't about to disappoint her. Because he was sure that's what this little escapade was about. There was obviously no imminent threat to his partner.

"Of course I have a man here, Angela, you sent him here," Bones said in exasperation. "And I have to say, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I called you for advice."

Ah, so she had asked Angela for help with something. Booth's superior investigative skills told him that Hart was at the epicenter of her problem. And he was pretty sure that a hot shower was just what he needed to figure it all out.

He grinned and waved to Bones, then slipped into the bathroom and shut the door.

"Angela, why did you send Booth here? I don't need his help with anything," Bones complained, going into the bedroom and shutting the door.

She set her pillows up against the headboard and sat back on the bed.

"Sweetie, Booth is just the type of help you need in a situation like this. You can't tell me that you haven't already taken advantage of his being there. I bet your little admirer is already under the impression that that piece of F.B. Eye candy is your boyfriend."

Temperance groaned at the accuracy in her friend's words. "I could have taken care of it on my own."

"But you don't have to," Angela said. "The minute Booth heard you needed him, he was programming his GPS for your hotel. Sweetie…"

"Angela, this isn't Booth's problem. And there is absolutely no way to twist this to make it an FBI matter. It was unfair of me to use him like that. Maybe I should just tell him what's going on and…"

"Don't you dare do that," Angela admonished. "If he's going to figure it out, he'll do it on his own."

Temperance ran a hand back through her hair, an uncharacteristic action for her. "But Angela…"

"No, Sweetie. Booth would do anything for you. Just let him help you on this, okay? Let him be there for you."

"Because he's my partner?"

Angela laughed softly. "If you're that naïve, then yes."

"I'm not…"

"I'm gonna go, Bren. You call me and let me know if anything exciting happens, okay?"

"Sure, Angela. But I'm not naïve."

"Okay, Sweetie. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Angela."

Temperance flipped her phone shut and set it down gently on the table next to her bed.

God, things were so not going as planned. She'd just wanted Angela to tell her how to get rid of Logan. She hadn't expected her best friend to send Booth up here. What was she going to tell him? She'd been avoiding the topic since he got here, but she was sure she couldn't do that forever. Would he be mad if he knew she had lied to him? Oh, who was she kidding? He was a highly skilled FBI agent, he was probably fully aware of the fact that she had been lying.

Would he think her weak for not being able to take care of Logan on her own? Well, it wasn't exactly that she couldn't take care of him, it was just that she was trying lately to seem less cold and distant, more human if you will. Telling Logan off and completely ignoring him for the next week was not conducive to seeming more human. Would Booth understand that? Or would he think her the proverbial "damsel in distress", in need of rescuing? Oh, that would play right into his alpha male fantasies.

Temperance sighed as she snuggled deeper into the pillows.

It would be best just to tell him. She would make him understand her viewpoint. He would eventually forgive her for lying. As his partner, she owed it to him to tell him the truth now. And then he could help her really get rid of Logan. Yes, that would be best. She'd tell him the truth. But maybe she'd do it tomorrow, while they were "taking in the sights". Yes, he'd be much more relaxed then, easygoing. Yes, that would be a good time to tell him. She smiled to herself as she imagined his reaction when she told him that she needed his help getting rid of a man. God, he was going to love this. He'd never let her live this one down.

So, Hart was at the center of the problem, Booth thought as he allowed the hot water to stream over his face and down his chest. He almost laughed. To have a man be the thing that his Bones needed help with was just too ironic. Bones never needed help with men. She could take a grown man down almost as well as he could, no doubt about that. And no way would she ever ask for advice on anything else to do with a man. Well, she wouldn't ask him anyway. Which he was more than okay with; he did not want to know any more about her relationships with guys than she forced on him.

He cringed as he thought back two years to her relationship with Sully. God, that had been awful. And then to have her tell him that she had slept with the other man; like he was her best girl friend instead of her FBI partner, and they should squeal about it and compare notes. God, it wasn't like he was Angela.

He scrubbed the soap roughly over is body and let the beating water rinse it away.

Focus, Seeley. Quit it with the trips down memory lane. Sully is gone, and she stayed here. With you.

He shook his head in disgust. She hadn't stayed for him. Temperance Brennan rarely did anything for anyone else. She had stayed because she wasn't ready to leave. She had a job and a life she loved in D.C. and she hadn't been ready to just leave it all. Nothing to do with him. Nothing at all.

But she did need him now. He was sure of it. Oh, she would never admit it, but he was her partner, her friend, and he knew her better than anyone. The threat wasn't physical, he knew that, but she was out of her element, and the fact that she hadn't explained things to him and sent him away told him that she knew she needed him.

Hart was the issue, and Booth was pretty sure he knew what the problem was. An ex-boyfriend, obviously still interested. Bones introducing him by his first name instead of as her partner. He knew he was being used and yet he couldn't muster up the energy to care. If she needed him, Bones could use him any time she liked. God, that sounded bad, but he meant it with all his heart. He couldn't stand the thought of her alone and hurting and thinking she couldn't come to him. He was glad Angela had called him, meddling artist or not.

Booth shut off the water and stepped out of the shower, snagging a too-small hotel towel from the wrack above the toilet. Ritzy hotel like this, you'd think they could splurge on a towel that actually wrapped all the way around him. He couldn't have been the only well-built male to stay at this place. He doubted these things would even cover Bones, and she was by no means a large woman. And that thought almost had him stepping back into the shower and turning the cold water on full blast. Bones in a towel was bad enough. His traitorous mind needed to not picture her half out of a towel.

He dried off quickly and stepped into the sweatpants he'd brought with him into the bathroom.

He opened the door and peeked out. No Bones. She was probably still in her room gabbing with Angela. Probably reaming the artist a new one for sending him here. He let out a soft chuckle and moved to her bedroom door.

An ear to the door revealed silence, so he knocked gently. When there was no reply, he brought his hand up to the knob and turned. A quick peek in revealed his partner, propped up against the headboard, fast asleep. He shook his head, a silly grin all over his face. That was his Temperance, working herself to the bone and collapsing where she sat.

He moved into the room silently and approached the bed. With utmost care, dreading the second she shot awake, he pulled back the covers on the bed. Watching her carefully, he tugged gently until he had her lying down, her pillow under her head. His senses were alert, waiting for her to wake up and attack him, but she didn't, simply snuggled deeper into the pillow with a sigh.

It wasn't until he pulled the blanket up over her that she stirred. Her eyes didn't open, but her nose wrinkled and murmured, "Booth?" under her breath.

He froze.

"Yeah, Bones, it's just me. You fell asleep sitting up. I was tucking you in."

"Mmm," she hummed, rolling over onto her stomach. "Thanks…Still sleeping on the couch." And then she was out.

Booth laughed softly. "Of course, Bones. I'm still sleeping on the couch."

He couldn't resist. Without giving himself time to think, he leaned down and placed a light kiss on her forehead. She didn't stir. Thank God.

He straightened up and headed to the door, flicking off the light on his way out. He took one last look at his sleeping partner, then closed the door behind him.

A/N: Thanks again for reading! I promise, there will be more action and excitement in the next chapter. And maybe a confrontation or two. Please let me know what you thought!