Author's note: first of all I'd like to apologize for the long wait. I planned to update quicker, but things have been crazy hectic at work and, on top of that, I've probably revised this chapter five times, which is why it took me so long to post it. Secondly, thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed the last chapter. Good to know you're all still liking it. One more chapter to go!

Chapter Eight

After having dropped off her completed questionnaire at Sweet's mailbox at the FBI early in the morning, Brennan had driven over to the Jeffersonian Institute, intent on getting some work done now she had the chance. She entered her office with a bone box from the Limbo storage room and sat down to read the accompanying file. As per usual, the file was thin for not much information was known about the remains. It was after all a limbo case.

After having looked at two other bone boxes from Limbo, Brennan noticed Angela entering the Lab and heading over to her office with a cup off coffee in her hands. Brennan put the file she was reading down, rose from her seat and walked over to her friend's workplace. She found Angela standing behind her desk, taking a sip of coffee as she waited for her computer to boot up.

"Morning, Angela."

"Hey," Angela greeted her cheerily. "I didn't see you anymore after we talked yesterday. So, tell me, how did it go?"

"Very well. Warner confessed to the murder, so we've closed the case."

"Oh, that's great. I just figured you'd come back to the Lab after you were done."

"I had an early dinner, otherwise I would have come back to work, yes."

"With Booth?" Angela asked hopefully as they sat down on her couch.

Brennan pushed a pillow to the side. "No, my publicist."

"Oh. To discuss work, right? It wasn't a date, just a business dinner?"

"Yes, we discussed my marketability."

Angela frowned. "Your marketability? It's… your… Why?"

"Apparently, I'm marketed as a sexy scientist and I'm not happy with that. I want to be taken seriously as a novelist."

Angela began to understand. "Is that why you deleted your work from your computer and almost threw away your manuscripts?"

Brennan simply nodded.

Angela shook her head, thinking back to that day. She couldn't believe her friend had almost gotten rid of her bestsellers. "I'm glad Booth was there to rescue them, so I could scan them and get them back on your hard drive. It was a lot of work, but so worth it. Man, if you'd really gotten rid of them… phew… that would not have been good."

"In retrospect, it was irrational of me to do that," Brennan acknowledged. "I see that now."

"So, how will you be marketed from now on? Sexy scientist who solves crimes on the side with her hot FBI agent?" Angela grinned.

"Ange, no. Simply as a forensic anthropologist operating out of the Jeffersonian Institute and working for the FBI on a contractual basis. Just the facts."

Angela smiled to herself, having expected the serious answer. Before she could ask another question, however, Booth walked into her office.

"Ah, there you are," Booth remarked with a smile, looking at his partner.

Angela studied the expression on his face, then looked over at Brennan, whose face had lit up as soon as she'd noticed Booth's presence. Angela couldn't help but smile herself. Despite the tension, it was rather transparent that they were still happy to see each other.

Booth walked further into the room. "What were you two gossiping about now?"

"I don't gossip," Brennan told him.

"But she does," Booth replied, referring to Angela.

Angela raised her eyebrows at him. "Excuse me?"

"You're on the couch, no case files in sight, you're gossiping about something or the other."

"You're good."

"I know," Booth said. "Special Agent, remember?"

"Right. So, Special Agent Seeley Booth, what brings you to my office?"

"Bones," he replied, looking at Brennan again. "You got time to work on the case reports now?"

"I can make time at the very least."

"Great."

Brennan stood up and headed for the door, exiting the office. Booth was about to follow her outside, but Angela managed to grab his arm and quickly pulled him back.

"Booth, if you two would just be honest with each other, everything will work out. I promise," she told him with a serious expression on her face. Booth frowned, pretending he didn't know what she was talking about. Angela was having none of it, however, and sent him on his way. "Go help your partner."

Wondering just how much Angela knew about their situation—perhaps they'd been gossiping about him—Booth headed over to Brennan's office. She was sitting on her couch already, waiting for him to join her.

He sat down next to her. "So, did you drop off the questionnaire at Sweets' office?"

"Of course. I left it in his mailbox. You?"

"Uh-huh. Including the 300 word essay."

"You took it seriously?"

"Yep, it cost me almost two hours to complete the whole thing. So, when did you drop it off? I figured you would've stopped by my office on your way out, or in."

"I did, but you weren't there," Brennan told him, then elaborated off his look. "At six thirty."

"Six thirty!"

"I wanted to be here around seven. I have a lot of work to do."

Booth nodded, aware of her dedication. "Limbo?"

"I've already looked at three World War II cases this morning."

"That's wonderful, Bones."

"You aren't just saying that, are you?"

"No, I mean it. I know you're very dedicated and I lo-like that about you," Booth said, almost slipping up.

If Brennan noticed his faux-pas, she didn't acknowledge it. "So, since I got a lot of work done this morning, I now have time to do the case report."

"Perfect. Let's get started, then."

BBB BBB
BBB BBB

Having officially closed the case and after notifying the victim's daughter about it, the partners drove over to the Cohen & Co. Fairground in the late afternoon. They had called the owner beforehand and he was waiting for them at the entrance gate. The three of them chatted about the case plus its outcome and then about the state of the fairground for a moment.

Since Booth and Brennan had an appointment with Sweets at five o'clock, it was time to part ways and they informed Cohen so.

"I want to thank you again," Cohen told them, shaking their hands profusely. "I'm glad you managed to solve the case, although I still can't believe it was Pete. I just can't… He's been with us for so long."

"People can do strange things and behave uncharacteristically when they feel threatened about their future," Booth explained. "He figured he would end up losing his job because of Hugh Everton."

Cohen nodded. "There was a chance we would all lose our jobs, but certainly not because of Hugh." He looked over at Brennan. "And because of your generous check, I will be able to keep the fairground open and actually do some improvements for the first time in eight years."

Booth looked over at Brennan as well, not aware she had financially helped out yet another person in need. She felt his stare on her, but didn't look back at him. Instead, she smiled at Cohen. "Glad I could help out."

"You don't know how much that means to me. I can't thank you enough, Dr. Brennan. As a token of my appreciation I would like to give both of you a set of tickets to the fairground. They will allow you free entrance for the rest of the season. I'd be honored to have you here."

Cohen reached into his pocket to retrieve the tickets and handed them to Booth and Brennan. They thanked him politely and then said their goodbyes. They headed back to Booth's car and climbed inside, after which he started the engine and they drove off in the direction of the FBI building. Brennan looked over at Booth and found that he seemed to be deep in thought.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked him, curiously, as she studied his profile. "You are concentrating on the road, right? I can drive if something's distracting you."

"Nothing's distracting me."

"Booth?"

"Hmm. What?"

"We're supposed to share things. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that we…"

"Okay, okay," he interjected. "It's just that I'm amazed you wrote Cohen a check. That's all."

Brennan frowned. "I shouldn't have?"

"No, no. It's great."

"Then what?"

Booth sighed, not sure if he should say anything. "I just don't understand why people assume you're cold and heartless. If they knew you, they'd know they're so wrong. You are one of the most caring persons I've ever met. I guess most people just don't take the time to find out."

Brennan looked at him for a moment, surprised and deeply moved by his admission. "Thank you."

"No, thank you," Booth told her. "And it's not just Cohen. You helped a lot more people. The employees, the families who come to visit, basically everyone involved with the fairground."

"You can have my set of tickets, though," Brennan spoke up after a moment of silence, steering their conversation into another direction for she wasn't sure how to react to his kind words. "I have no reason to go to the fairground myself. You could take Parker."

"Or maybe the three of us could go together sometime?" Booth suggested, almost afraid she'd turn down his invitation.

"I think I'd like that."

Both were surprised she didn't need more time to cogitate on her response.

BBB BBB
BBB BBB

Having made it back to the J. Edgar Hoover building, Booth held open the door to Sweets' office and allowed Brennan entrance first. The therapist watched the pair with interest and smiled at them as they sat down across from him.

"You had time to look at our homework?" Booth immediately asked him, intent on leaving if he hadn't.

"As a matter of fact, I did," Sweets replied, patting the four questionnaires lying on the armrest of his seat—the two old booklets on the bottom and the two recently completed ones on top of them. "Very telling."

"Right."

"Are you ready to discuss them?"

"I don't suppose we have another choice."

"Alright. Well, to an outside therapist, or any casual observer for that matter, the outcome of the comparison would be very puzzling, but having gotten to know the two of you a little bit, I was able to determine what… happened."

"Something happened?" Brennan asked him, a scowl on her forehead.

"There are two conclusions, really," Sweets continued. "On the one hand, the comparison clearly showed that you've become so much closer over the past year. Obviously, a lot has happened and it evidently tightened your emotional bond. It became even deeper than it already was, which is not surprising."

"And on the other hand?" Booth and Brennan both inquired.

"Well, at the same time there seems to be some tension and awkwardness. While your relationship has become deeper, it has also become slightly strained. There were some questions, mostly on the topics of relationships, religion and future goals, which you answered completely different compared to last year, but also compared to each other," Sweets told them. "I think it all leads back to what happened between you after the Richardson case. Are you ready now to tell me what exactly that was?"

"He kissed me," Brennan answered almost immediately.

Booth's eyes widened in surprise. "Bones," he hissed.

Sweets' eyes widened as well, but he tried to keep a straight face otherwise. "I see. That explains a lot."

"But we've moved on, okay," Booth tried to assure him, intent on putting an end to the conversation.

Even though the FBI Agent repeatedly looked upon him as a twelve-year-old kid, he wasn't born yesterday. "Obviously you didn't and I believe your questionnaires clearly indicate the same thing. Surely you realize that you can't move on if you don't deal with what happened first. What makes me wonder, however… No, let me phrase that differently. I know that you've kissed before, at least once around Christmas last year. You mentioned something about mistletoe when we were at the…"

"Yeah, so?" Booth asked, before Sweets could even finish his sentence.

"So, what changed? What was different this time?"

Booth's jaw was set hard. "Why would anything be different?"

"Back then you did manage to move on, your relationship didn't become strained over it. It was almost like the kiss never happened."

"I think it was because we both knew it didn't mean anything back then. Caroline Julian basically blackmailed us," Brennan responded, deciding it was time to interject. "This time around, though, I think I might have misjudged Booth's intentions."

"And those were?" Sweets asked Booth, who looked like he'd had enough.

"I can only tell you about my current intention, which is to leave this room right this second," Booth said angrily, as he got up and walked up to the door. "I feel no need to discuss this here, with you."

"Booth," Brennan pleaded as he left the office, slamming the door closed so hard that the wall vibrated. Distressed, she looked back at Sweets.

"Wow," he remarked. "Touchy."

"Don't say that."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Brennan. It's just that I didn't expect that reaction."

"You should've. I should have expected it. We both know he's not comfortable talking about these things. He's a much more private person."

Sweets nodded. "You're absolutely right, but therapy mostly concerns topics and feelings that people are uncomfortable with. Therapy helps them deal with that."

"Fine. So, what do I do now?"

"I think it's best if you two talk about this somewhere private," Sweets told her with a sigh, regretting the mess he'd made. "And Dr. Brennan, please take it from someone who is trained to recognize emotions and even though there might be times I'm wrong, I'm sure about one thing and that is that the two of you are meant to be together. Not just as partners, I mean romantically. Do you remember the session during which agent Booth told you there was one special person for everyone, someone you're meant to spend the rest of your life with and that you just have to be open enough to see it?"

"Yes."

"It was obvious that he was talking about the two of you then and he's right."

Brennan nodded, a slight blush on her cheeks. "I was beginning to see that."

"Awesome. So, go talk to him, okay?"

"I wouldn't know what to say, Dr. Sweets. This is the first time I…" Brennan started, then sighed. She bit her lip before speaking up again. "I'm afraid that the moment I commit he'll abandon me, which seems to be a recurring pattern in my life. Everybody leaves."

"Please don't compare him to your parents or your brother, Dr. Brennan. I'm aware that you've been disappointed many times, by them and by others, but this is a totally different situation," Sweets told her. "And yes, love can be a scary emotion, but it's also the most wonderful thing in the world to have, to share. That's why you should take a risk. I want you to rely solely on your heart this time, not on your brain."

"Booth always tells me the same thing. He's the heart person, though."

Sweets smiled encouragingly. "Then you know I'm right. Trust him."

"I think I will."

Please leave a review; I really appreciate them!