Disclaimer: Bones and all recognizeable characters and locations belong to someone else. Not me. No profit is being made. Please don't sue me.
"Okay, people," Cam said, giving them a very miffed looked, "I want an explanation and I want it now." Nearly her entire team sat before her. Booth held a handful of napkins to his head and a bunch of bloody napkins were on the table, but Cam was unworried; the napkins at his head were slowly absorbing blood, the wound was probably mostly healed. If a head wound only bled through two handfuls of napkins it was nothing to worry about. A few feet away Angela held a little tub of ice cream to Hodgins' cheek over a blossoming bruise. She was fussing over him, but they both seemed perfectly happy. Zach sat in the corner, all color drained from his face, crying silently.
When no one spoke, Cam raised an eyebrow. "Now!" she repeated. This was why she had become a coroner, not a kindergarten teacher. She expected her scientists to behave like grown-ups.
Angela sighed. "It doesn't matter," she said, trying to diffuse the situation.
"Yes, it does. And don't be dismissive like you weren't involved."
Cam knew as soon as she had said it that she shouldn't have, but at least she accomplished something—being short with Angela got a response from Hodgins. "It's not her fault. I hit Booth, so he was beating the crap out of me!"
Cam nodded. "Yes. That completely makes sense. Why did you hit Booth?" she asked. Hodgins and Angela exchanged glances. "People, I need answers. This is not the image the Jeffersonian wants, or the FBI."
"Because he was trying to intimidate Zach, and that bothers me," Hodgins replied. "What Zach does on his own time is his own business, actually if it's anyone's business it's mine as long as he's living on my property—"
Zach's attention sharpened. "Does that mean I have to move?" he asked.
Hodgins gave him an incredulous look. "No, Zach. It's your personal life, I don't care."
"But you care when Booth is involved…"
"I care when someone—we'll talk about this later, okay?"
Cam agreed, "For now I'd love if we could get to the point, guys."
Zach nodded. He managed to meet Cam's eyes, but she found herself unable to do the same. Zach was looking directly at her and speaking almost completely normally while crying. It unnerved her. "Booth believes I am going to hell. Apparently Hodgins disagrees."
"Of course I—!"
"Sweetie," Angela said. Enough hyper-masculine nonsense; eventually they all needed to return to work. She turned to Cam. "A few days ago, Zach came out to Booth."
"Zach's…?"
Angela nodded. "Yes. And since then, Booth has been trying to convince everyone to convince Zach to act straight, or something, and it's… it's just a big mess."
"Okay," Cam said. She nodded. "I can't believe I have to say this, but your personal lives are not business. Obviously. Don't bring them to work, ever; don't have lunch over hook-ups, don't proselytize, don't… do any of that. This is a working environment." She gave them all a hard look, meanwhile examining their injuries. "Go back to work."
Angela, Booth and Hodgins left, but Zach didn't move. He stared at the floor, his mouth slightly open, looking… well. Let's just say the way he looked no one would have thought him to be a genius. "Zach," Cam prompted.
He looked up. After a moment, he recognized the situation and himself and what he had wanted to say. "Am I fired?"
"Oh! Woah. Um… no," Cam replied. "You're not fired."
"But Angela told you that I'm gay," Zach reminded her, shifting his shoulders, clearly uncomfortable discussing it.
As she usually did when faced with a situation that made sense but was plain weird, Cam began pausing between words, sound like she was searching or mentally debating speaking at all. "I don't care, Zach. Besides, I can't fire you for that, it would be illegal."
"I-it would?" Zach asked.
Cam nodded. "Yes. In a way that would completely destroy my career. And like I said, I don't care. You're—Dr. Brennan!"
"I'm Dr. Brennan?" Zach repeated, not understanding at all. Then he looked around. Cam had been greeting Dr. Brennan, not addressing Zach.
Brennan started to greet Cam, then stepped over to Zach and tilted his hand, saying, "Zach, you're bleeding. What happened?"
Zach allowed his boss to maul his head. He waited until she had finished to explain, "It's not my blood, Dr. Brennan. Most of it is Hodgins'… some of it is Agent Booth's."
"You hit Booth?" Brennan asked. "That was inadvisable, Zach. Did he hurt you?" To Cam, this seemed insulting, but it was perfectly logical to Zach and Brennan. Booth could tear Zach limb from limb and not break a sweat.
Zach shook his head. "Actually, Dr. Brennan, it was Hodgins who hit Booth. He was very upset. Then Booth hit Hodgins, and Angela hit Booth with a lunch tray."
Brennan looked from Zach to Cam. Cam nodded. "It was very high school," she said. "Dr. Brennan, I needed to see you about a case--"
As though she were thinking of work! Brennan shook her head. "Wait, I need more information, at least enough to know if Booth and Hodgins can reasonably work together on a new case. If I need to keep them separate until they're less angry, I need to know in advance, to plan—"
"Actually you need to keep Booth separate from me," Zach said, wincing. He looked away, glanced at Brennan, then looked away again. "Booth wanted to talk to me about going to hell. I recognize that from him this is a gesture of kindness though that is not how I perceive it. Nor Hodgins, apparently, because when I told him this he hit Booth." Zach looked from Brennan to Cam and back, then asked, "Are you sure you want me here?"
Brennan was practically shaking in disbelief. "Dr. Saroyan," she began in a definitive tone, "I don't know that I can work with him."
Zach sighed. "I'm sorry, Dr. Brennan."
"Not you," Brennan said. "Booth."
"Booth?" Cam repeated in disbelief.
"Yes. I'm not comfortable working with him. I'd like to be assigned to another agent."
to be continued
Every time I start a chapter I think, "Almost to the end of the story," yet I feel like the more I write the more I have left!
Reviews are always appreciated... pretty please?