Title: Five Things That Never Happened Between Booth and Bones
(A part of the "Five Things That Never Happened" challenge)
Author: Lerdo
Summary: Many fics in many fandoms have been written in response to the Five things that never happened challenge. This is just my small, Bones/Booth-centric contribution. Pt. II is one version of how Bones might have found out about Booth & Cam.
Disclaimers: Please don't sue me; neither Bones nor the characters belong to me.
Feedback: Always appreciated.
Part II: "The worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves."
Though they had both agreed it was a mistake, that hadn't stopped them from repeating it again and again. Each time they finished, he silently swore it was the last time. But it was never enough to satisfy him for very long. The hunger was a constant torment. Her eyes were brown instead of blue, and her hair was black instead of red-brown.
It wasn't enough.
One night she dragged him to dinner instead of back to her apartment.
"Cam, I'm not looking for a relationship," he warned.
"Relax, it's just dinner." She smiled, dimple flashing. "We're not picking out China."
An hour and a half later, they left Mimo's, stomachs full of deep dish pizza. By this time his jacket had come off and his sleeves were rolled up over his forearms. They went back to the Jeffersonian so she could pick up a report she said she left in Bones' office earlier that day. He felt vaguely uncomfortable, so he waited outside her office until Cam grabbed his tie and tugged him inside with her. One more sharp tug and they were standing face-to-face in Bones' office. He made a move to leave. She pulled him in for a kiss that tasted of tomato sauce and questions he couldn't answer.
The sound of a throat clearing shattered the moment and they both looked up. Brennan stood in the doorway, labcoat draped over her arm and her hair loose and wavy around her shoulders.
"Oh." A quick twitch of her lips. "I'll come back."
The words lacked any inflection, but Booth watched her face and caught the quicksilver change of expression. Booth wasn't a squint, but he considered himself an observant man. There was a subtle shift; he noticed the slight narrowing of her eyes and firming of her lips. Both were a dead giveaway that she'd reached some conclusion. He just wasn't sure what conclusion she'd reached. He'd spent just about two years with her in the field and in the lab. Sometimes, when a new set of bones was brought in and Temperance had assembled them on one of the Jeffersonian's many examination tables, her eyes would sweep over them, ceasing only once she'd reached a conclusion. She would watch the bones, and Booth, Booth would watch her.
Cold. Dispassionate. All words he would once have used to describe his partner.
All the wrong words.
Her passion for truth equaled his hunger for redemption. Sometimes, he found himself painfully hard during those silent moments when she examined scraps of bone in her never-ending search for an ever-shifting truth. The first half-dozen times it had happened, he hadn't known what to make of it. Understanding eventually dawned -- the diamond-hard intensity of her focus hit him right in the gut -- and elsewhere. When she raised her eyes to his, Booth made sure to have a sly quip ready -- more to distract himself than to irritate her.
"No, stay, Dr. Brennan. I just came by to grab these." Cam waved the stack of papers in her hands. "Seeley and I were just leaving." She strode toward the doorway and glanced back at him, head tilted to the side. "Seeley?"
He gave a tiny shake of his head. "Good night, Cam," he said.
"Good night, Booth, Dr. Brennan."
Booth watched as Cam slipped past Brennan, listened as the click of her heels faded away. He slid both hands into his pockets and angled his head toward Bones' office couch. "You want to sit for a minute?" He silently cursed himself for the embarrassment that had turned his voice low. Uncomfortable, he waited for her to sit down before he took his place beside her. "Listen, Bones--"
"You could have told me you were in a relationship with Cam. I thought that, as partners, we should share information like that. I told you when I was seeing David and then Will--"
"Whoa. Hold on there a minute, Bones. Who said anything about a relationship? Me and Cam--"
"Well, I did walk in on the two of you kissing."
"Yeah, about that... Uh, sorry. But still...No relationship there." It seemed important that he convince her of that fact. Why, he didn't know.
Brennan nodded, and her lips curved in a smile that gave him the distinct impression that she was laughing at him. "So what you're saying is that you're having sex with Dr. Saroyan, but you're not in a relationship."
"Sex? Who said anything about sex?"
"Booth, you're starting to repeat yourself. Look," she said and gave him that patient look that told him he wasn't going to like whatever she said next. "I realize that you're a devout Catholic and may have some discomfort about sex--"
He cut in. "Hey, I'll have you know I haven't gotten any complaints about my sexuality."
Brennan continued as if he hadn't interrupted her. "...But I assure you that the biological urges that led you to sleep with Cam are normal and nothing to be embarrassed about. Humans have a need for sex -- for the intimacy of skin-to-skin contact and the cascade of hormones that accompany orgasm."
He couldn't help the groan that escaped at her words. He sent up a fervent prayer. Please don't let her say anything else.
"I need it, and apparently you do, too," Bones said.
Clearly no one upstairs was listening. A sudden visual of Bones "needing it" flashed into Booth's mind and he covered his eyes. "For the love of...Please. No more."
Finally, he moved his hands and dared to sneak a peek at his partner. "So you're ok with.." He gestured vaguely with his hands.
"With you having sex with my boss?" She shrugged her shoulders, the picture of nonchalance. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
The fact that Brennan wasn't even slightly bothered by the thought of him and Cam didn't sit right with him. "So you're not even the tiniest bit..."
"What?" she asked. There was something in her face, something about the way she looked him in the eyes and then quickly glanced away.
But Booth couldn't say anything more without revealing something he wasn't even ready to admit to himself yet. "Nothing, Bones. Just, never mind." A glance at his watch confirmed that it was late. "Come on, I'll walk you out."
Brennan stood and moved toward the doorway. Booth waited a few moments before standing and following her out, his eyes glued to the gentle sway of his partner's hips. It was going to be a long night.
