Twenty-one Weeks at Quantico

By: Lesera128

Rated: T

Disclaimer: I own nothing... Obviously. Just playing in someone else's sandbox for a bit.

Summary: When the FBI establishes a pilot program for consultants to receive training at the FBI academy, Brennan and Booth clash over whether she should enroll. AU.

3. T-minus 9 Weeks until Orientation

Sitting at the small corner table in the back of the coffee shop, close to the restrooms that a study stream of traffic passed by him, but far enough away from wanna-be-authors and young twenty-somethings cruising the pseudo-art scene for a date, Sam Cullen was mostly left alone with his coffee-of-the-day. He didn't like Starbucks, but he wanted something that was casual, convenient, served caffeine, and had a decreased likelihood that either he or his coffee companion would run into anyone that either of them knew. He glanced at his watch again, and saw that, yes, she was running late.

A few more moments passed and finally he saw her rushing in… she scanned the Starbucks, and, yes, saw him in the back. She smiled a knowing smile and then went to order her drink – a very large cup of coffee given how late it was in the day by most peoples' standards. But… they were cops… or at least they used to be, and their day knew no schedule for appropriate caffeine consumption. Never had, and God-willing, never would.

At last, her beverage preciously guarded in her arms, she came forward and took the empty seat he indicated.

He nodded. "Camille."

"Sam," she looked up at him with a smile. Her face then changed and said, "So why are we here instead of one of the normal stomping grounds?"

He liked that about her… she may have willingly transitioned into being titular "Queen of the Squints", but she still had a cop's demeanor.

"We needed to talk, and I figured this was the best way to have an unofficial, off-the-record, it never happened kind of talk that might get done what needs to get done," Cullen said.

Cam nodded. "Okay… so… what's the real deal with this program at Quantico?"

Sighing, Cullen placed his cup down. "Unofficially… and mostly in my opinion… it's either a very good thing or a very bad thing. Long story short, some of the higher ups… even higher than Hacker, are getting pissed about the amount of money that keeps getting flushed from the Bureau budget lines to you squints. We get charged on a case-by-case basis for those consulting fees... and they add up. You know that... you do the books for your department."

Cam smiled. "Seeing as how I'm the one that signs off on the bill submissions to you guys, yeah, I have an idea of what we cost. But, Sam... we *are* the Jeffersonian."

"And I'm not saying that you're not worth the money. You're good… you're very good… and for the most part, the guys who sign the checks realize that such skill comes with a price," Cullen admitted.

"Well, yeah," Cam said… "that's why we can charge what we want... you get what you pay for..."

Cullen shrugged. "You know bureaucrats, Camille… any time they can figure out a way to try and get more bang for their buck, they think it sounds like a good idea, and they want to do it. Hence this either very smart or very stupid plan emerged. Basic idea is that you take a situation like you have with Booth and Dr. Brennan… and see if it can be replicated to a point where field offices throughout the nation could partner with local institutions of higher learning to take advantage of the talent there, but not risk our insurance liabilities… on a regular basis. The idea is find a pair that is willing, train them, and then subsume them into the Bureau's administrative and financial bailiwick so that, in the end, you can eliminate the subcontractor fees… and streamline the line item budget costs."

"Pay a flat salary to the consultants? Hmm... I don't know very many people that would want to do that, Sam. You guys know that your normal salaries are crap," Cam said.

Cullen shrugged. "Hey, I didn't say how realistic the idea is... I just explained it to you like it was explained to me. I think that's part of why they went with the pilot program idea. Gauge how much interest there is in the guys we want to target."

"I understand," Cam said as she sipped her coffee. "But, going back to your earlier comment... we both know that Booth and Brennan aren't the normal situation,"Cam said.

Cullen nodded. "Most everyone knows that… it takes a special kind of agent to work with a special kind of squint successfully for as long as those two have been catching bad guys... and in the field to boot. There's a reason why Booth was the first SAC to be able to work on a consistent basis with an institution like the Jeffersonian. I've tried explaining to my superiors that you can't just pull any lab rat, drop them in the Bureau's organizational framework – assuming they would even want to join – and expect the same results. So, the idea is use this pilot program to identify lab rats, partner them with selected agents, see if the relationship holds during the 21 weeks it will take them to complete the FBI trainee program, and if so, release them into the wild. The basic idea is to try to balance the Legal part in your lab's title with the science part that's represented by the Medico- label, for example."

"An ambitious plan,"Cam said. "But you already know that Brennan works with Booth… so why are you pulling my best scientist from doing the thing she does best for over five months?"

Cullen laughed. "I didn't pull her at all. It… it was thought we would make the offer… see if either she or Booth would accept… and if they did… go from there. However, Booth mucked that offer up when he said no… but Dr. Brennan still said yes… for whatever her reasons. So… Hacker and the rest of them figured… if she wants to go, fine. Let her have the training… it can only reduce her liability in the field… and at the end, we either have an official poster child for the program… or she goes back to how things were and worst thing that happens is she annoys Booth with her increased knowledge of FBI procedure and protocol."

Cam frowned. "You still haven't made up your mind if this is a good thing or not?"

"No," Cullen said. "Despite the respect I have for what Booth and Dr. Brennan have done over the years, I still believe a cop's a cop… and a lab rat's a lab rat… no offense intended, Camille."

"None taken,"Cam said with a smile.

"I still don't know why you went over to the dark side…."

"Like you said… better pay, better hours, better working conditions… and more prestige,"Cam laughed.

Cullen nodded again. "Dr. Brennan once said to me that the best at their jobs don't usually work for the federal government… they're at private institutions like the Jeffersonian… or universities like MIT or Stanford. If this works, it could serve as a way to bring that talent to the Bureau… and I would be a fool not to support a move like that. The benefit could be that great."

"So… now that we know why it's happening… the other issue is… I'm not quite sure what to do with Dr. Brennan. I can't complain about her work… but, my lab is a lot more hostile these days, Sam, and I don't like it. Not one bit,"Cam said.

"Yeah, well, it's not like Booth hasn't been a pain in the ass more than his usual sparkling self at the Hoover lately either," Cullen said.

"Off the record… the tension between them has ratcheted up because she's going and he's not… and they both feel they're in the right on the decision each made,"Cam conceded.

Cullen sighed. "I tried talking to Booth again last week at Hacker's insistence, and he won't budge, Camille. I made him the offer again, and whatever his reasons, he vehemently declined. I mean, we could order him to go, but that sort of defeats the 'voluntary' aspect of the program."

"They need to work this out…."Cam said. "It's… like I said, I can't complain about either one of their levels of professionalism, but..."

"Well, you could," Cullen pointed out.

"Yeah, but we both know that it would be as effective as me standing on my head and chewing gum for an hour during the full moon – in other words, completely ineffective to do anything but piss me off further since we all know I bear only the titular status as Dr. Brennan's boss," Cam said.

"Have you tried talking to Booth as a friend, Camille? If he listens to anyone, it's you," Cullen observed.

Cam shook her head. "Not yet… I plan too… but, I needed to know what I was dealing with first before I cornered him."

Cullen moved to stand. He nodded and said, "Well, good luck with that then… it sounds like you're going to need it."

"Don't take this the wrong way, Seeley, but you look like crap," Jared Booth said, watching his brother turn to greet him.

Booth shrugged. "Yeah, I know."

Jared quirked an eyebrow at him. "You know? What do you mean you know?"

"I haven't slept well in weeks, Jared," Booth said. "Sleep deprivation… and stress… you know?"

"What are you and Tempe fighting about now?" Jared asked, signaling to the bartender for a soda.

Booth frowned. "Why do you think me being sleep deprived and stressed has anything to do with me and Bones… and, more specifically, me and Bones fighting?"

Jared shrugged. "I dunno, Seel… it's just sorta what you guys have always done. It's your thing."

"Fighting is our thing?" Booth asked.

"You tell me?"

Booth sighed. "We don't fight, Jared… we might—"

"Bicker," Jared waved him off. "Yeah, yeah. I've heard that one before too." He then grinned and said, "What are you guys 'bickering' about now?"

Booth reached down, took his pint glass, and downed a long drink of his beer. He then placed it on the bar and nodded at his brother and said, "Bones has decided she wants to be an FBI agent when she grows up, and it's making my life an absolute living hell."

"And why's that?" Jared asked curiously.

Booth then began to explain to his brother.

At the end, Jared shrugged. "You've been together for what... almost a year?"

Booth nodded. Their anniversary was not that far away, and he was wondering how to handle it. As the stress levels of their casework increased, Brennan was actually less combative than she had been when Hacker and Cullen had first told them about the program three weeks before. It had been a bad week... and Booth knew that except for the occasional snide comment, glare, or cold shoulder, she really didn't have the energy level to maintain the hositility as she had for the first two weeks. Hot and cold... that's how her anger ran... and right now... Booth couldn't figure out which one it might be by the time their anniversary actually arrived.

His attention was drawn back to Jared's words as his brother had continued speaking while Booth zoned out. "And it's not like you guys have had a lot of disagreements... big ones... over a lot of things, Seeley," Jared said. "I mean, yeah, sure... when you guys first met it was like night and day. If the answer was black, you'd say white and vice versa... but, since you've been together, you guys have found a way to make it work. Something was bound to come up to test the status quo between you two. It was only a matter of time, really..."

"Yeah," Booth conceded. "That might be true... but it's not like we didn't go through a lot of difficult stuff to get to that point in the first place."

"Point taken," Jared said. "But... two strong personalities like yours are bound to clash over something eventually, big brother. In a way, I'm kind of surprised it's taken this long... I thought... for a while... last winter that you guys might get into it over the church issue... but you even managed to work that out."

"It's what we've done... until this," Booth confided.

"She told you it was important to her, right?" Jared said.

"Yeah, but-"

"No, Seeley, let me finish," Jared said. "In the course of your relationship over the past year... since things changed between you, how many things has she said to you 'Booth, this is very important to me.'?"

Frowning, Booth sighed. "I can't think of any of the top of my head... before this... and even before that... I can probably count on one hand the number of times she's done it. You know Bones... she doesn't like to ask for special treatment... never has. And she sees those type of things as concessions made based on 'nepotism'... or however the hell she words it."

Jared looked at his brother, and then, after a minute said, "Okay... then why are you being such a dick about this?" Jared asked.

Looking up at his brother, Booth sighed. "I have my reasons, Jared. She should just trust me enough to leave it at that."

"Well," Jared smiled. "Like I said... this thing really isn't a surprise then. It's what you guys do, after all..."

"Why can't he just support me in this?" Brennan said, at almost the same time Jared was trying to reason with his brother. "It's not like I'm moving anywhere. Instead of driving to the Jeffersonian during the day, I'll be driving to Quantico. I'll only be away from home during the weekends when we do the physical testing and field training. I've been gone longer on digs and book tours and conference schedules then this," Brennan railed.

Angela looked over at her best friend with a sigh. She shrugged, and then said, "I don't know, Bren. But… it bothers him. Something about this bothers him, and that's why he doesn't want you to go."

Brennan stood from where she had been sitting on her office couch. Starting to pace, Brennan began to mutter, more to herself than Angela, "Yes, well that makes no logical sense. He is choosing a small thing to demonstrate his alpha-male tendencies over. If he could give me one logical and rational reason why I shouldn't do this, then I wouldn't."

"And he hasn't?" Angela asked.

"No!" Brennan said, her head snapping up. "All he's said is that he doesn't want me to go because he doesn't want me to go… and that's not a good enough answer!"

"Did you tell him that?"

"Yes."

"And he knows how important this is to you?"

"I have told him repeatedly."

"And he said?"

"All he said is that if he asks me not to do something that should be enough reason for me not to do it," Brennan said.

"Ahh," Angela said, the proverbial light bulb going on in her mind. "So, we're back to Booth vs. Brennan Golden Oldie Number 4."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, you guys are having that same old argument about faith versus evidence, sweetie. Booth wants it to be enough that if he asks you to do something, it should be enough for you not to do it... or to do it, I guess, simply because he asked you. And, you, being the wonderful empiricist that you are want a full explanation... or from Booth's point of view, a justification, to persuade you to act in one way or another," Angela said.

Brennan stopped for a moment, and then considered what Angela had said. She then nodded. "That would be a fair assessment, yes."

"How often does he ask you to do or not do things, Bren?" Angela asked.

"A lot!" Brennan said. She lowered her voice and said more softly, "A *lot*, Ange... he..." Brennan paused a moment to sigh. She then looked up at her friend and said, "I know he's not trying to control me, but he is a very bossy person."

"Yeah, well, it's not like you're anything but Miss Independent over there."

"Meaning?" Brennan asked again.

Angela chuckled. "Meaning... I say this with all the love I feel for you, Bren, but some people might call you... well, bossy too."

"I'm not bossy," Brennan immediately challenged. "I-I- I just know the logical and rational way to do something. I take a great amount of time to think through and analyze each situation before I embark on my belief that the choice I made is the correct decision."

"That's squint-speak for bossy, Bren," Angela said.

Brennan frowned. "You know, Ange... there isn't a lot I ask of Booth. He... this is *important* to me."

"Have you told him that? Have you explained why?"

"I've tried... but he only hears me... he doesn't really listen. And then I never really get to the explaining why part..."

"So this has been going on for what... a couple weeks?" Angela asked.

Brennan shrugged. "Actually three."

"I knew it seemed longer," Angela muttered. She looked up at the dark circles under her friend's eyes and asked, "Bren?"

"Yes?"

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"What?"

"You and Booth have been fighting about this for weeks now…."

"Yes, I said that."

"Well, that's a long time," Angela said carefully.

Brennan frowned. "It's not like we spend every moment we're together debating the issue... recently we just sort of decided... not to talk about it."

"And that's resulted in this tension oozing between you two any time you two are in close proximity," Angela said. "It's driving everyone nuts."

"Yes, well, I am doing my best to do my job to the best of my abilities," Brennan defended herself.

"No one's saying you aren't being the picture of professionalism, Bren... it's just... it's just a lot more fun to be around you two when you aren't both strung so tight that Hodgins is taking bets as to when and who is going to snap first," Angela said.

"Yes, well, I'm not conceding this point to him, Ange… I'm just not going to do it," Brennan said finally. "I don't like my fruit cooked, I don't believe in the validity of religious rituals, and I do believe that going through this training is an excellent opportunity that I would be a fool not to take advantage of..."

A knowing look coming into her eye, Angela watched Brennan go when Wendell call out to her about a discovery he had made on their most recent case-related skeleton. Thinking back, Angela definitely knew that something at some point over the past year had changed between Booth and her best friend. Although many of the individuals in the Jeffersonian's Medico-Legal lab didn't know for certain if something had indeed changed in the status of the partner's personal relationship in the past few months… something, for a time, had shifted... and that shift was a positive event.

And, now, ever since this issue about the FBI's pilot program had come up… the tension between the pair had rocketed sky high in the opposite direction… to levels that Angela had not seen since before she and Jack had started dating. And, quite frankly, after the détente that had been established between the pair resulting in a more pleasant lab… no one… NO ONE in the lab was happy to see the aggressive hostility return between the pair.

Finally, Angela spoke to herself. "This is going to be a really long month," Angela sighed.

Later that evening, Brennan was the one who got home after she thought she would. She was greeted with an exuberant 'Hey Bones!' from the kitchen. It was not, however, Booth's voice that welcomed her… but Parker's.

Moving in, she dropped her laptop bag and purse near the couch. Walking into the kitchen, she went up to Parker and gave him a hug and quick kiss on the head. "Hello, Parker."

She looked at Booth who was watching his son prepare the ingredients for pizza… as Brennan had taught him some time before. Merely frowning, she said nothing. Instead, Brennan turned to Parker and said, "That smells quite appetizing, Parker."

He nodded. "It should be. Dad helped me grate the cheese and cut the toppings up… but I didn't let him near the dough or the sauce."

"Hey," Booth protested. "I could have helped."

"Not if we wanted something edible," Brennan muttered in a sharp retort.

Booth scowled at her but said nothing.

Parked immediately spun his head and glanced back and forth from Booth to Brennan and back again. He then asked, "Are you guys still fighting?"

"No!" Both Brennan and Booth emphatically responded at the same time. They both then gave one another another scowl.

Parker nodded and reached to stir the marina sauce that would be used on the pizza. "Great… should make for a fun dinner… again."

A few hours later, Brennan felt herself nodding off and letting the anthropology journal she had been reading slip from her grasp. She sat up when Booth came back into the bedroom and was looking as tired and worn out as she felt.

"What was it?" she said, groggily.

He sighed as he climbed into bed and reached out for her. She scooted over to him almost instanteously. "Parker. He was up playing with that new PSP that Captain Fantastic bought him. He was looking for a way to plug in the A/C adapter because the battery was low. He couldn't find an open outlet, so he tried moving the dresser and things went crashing when he misjudged how hard to move it without causing anything to fall."

"He okay?"

"Yes... and lucky he only disturbed us. Man, that kid," Booth sighed... He then glanced at the clock and said, "And I missed Sportscenter, damn it..." Booth complained.

Brennan sighed. "They have the ESPN News channel. Just flip it on and you can see who won the hockey game there, Booth."

Shaking his head, Booth said, "Naaw. I'll watch tomorrow morning."

Brennan nodded. "I believe we both know that I don't believe in any higher powers, but I find using the euphism... 'God, I'm tired'... to be a very appropriate statement right now."

"It was a long day," Booth admitted. He reached over her and tossed the journal on her nightstand before clicking off the lamp. "A long day to a very long week... but the case is done... even the paperwork... so we have the weekend to recover." He pulled her to him more tightly, and unlike earlier in the week, this time, she didn't resist. "You still angry at me?"

"Yes," she murmured. "But I just don't have the energy to act on my annoyance. I figured I'd leave that for Monday morning as long as we don't bring it up this weekend. That okay with you?"

Booth nodded as he tightened his hold. "Sure. That sounds good to me."

-TBC-