Chapter 13. The gators The Mansion and The Book.
Gators.
7 am. The alarm went off and Booth groaned feeling around for it on the bedside table, finally reaching the snooze button and hitting it before he rolled over facing Brennan.
He smiled lightly, remembering she had stayed over again last night even though they had been done with the renovations for nearly 3 days. "Hi." He said being greeted by a small kiss.
"Hi." She smiled back kissing him again.
"I love you Tempe." He said before he was able to stop himself.
She stared at him, stunned. "…oh"
"Oh?" he asked confused now, he hadn't meant to say it but he was still hoping for a better reaction than 'oh'.
"… Seeley …I—I don't… I'm sorry." She said getting out of bed and walking out.
Booth sighed watching her go and mentally reprimanding himself for his big mouth.
9:15 am. Booth walked into the Jeffersonian passing Angela and Cam on the platform.
"Hey Seeley." Cam said surprised to see him there.
"What's up Booth? There's no case is there?"
"Not yet anyways." He shook his head. "Have you guys seen Bones? I need to ask her something."
"…yeah I think she's in her office." Cam said watching as he walked past.
"He's been acting really weird lately." Angela said confused. Cam shrugged, clueless as to why.
Booth walked in finding Brennan working on her novel at her desk.
"Tempe we need to talk." He said sitting on the edge of her desk.
"I'm busy." She said brushing him off.
"Well then you need to get unbusy. Because I'm not leaving here until we talk about what happened this morning." He said looking at her seriously.
"Nothing happened this morning." She said typing. "You were half asleep you said something you didn't mean."
"Doesn't matter if I meant to say it or not. That's not the way you react to someone telling you they love you. You don't run out on them before they have a chance to say anything else."
She looked up at him. "Really there was more? Because it didn't look like you were on the verge of a deep line of conversation, Seeley."
"I was going to wait to tell you, till I thought you were ready, but it slipped out. It doesn't mean it makes me feel any differently about you."
"I'm sorry Seeley but this is getting way too serious for me right now and I can't deal with it." She said standing infront of him. "This is as far as we go Seeley. We're Partners." She said kissing him on the cheek and walking out.
The next day. Outside the Royal Diner. Booth is on the phone.
"Florida? Today?"
"Is that work?" Brennan asked curiously.
"Hot, fun, Miami, Florida? Or sticky, you know, swampy Florida?" an ice cream truck is driving by, very slowly, and the music is drowning out the conversation.
"What's going on in Florida?" Brennan asked confused.
"I'm sorry. What flight?" he asked plugging his other ear as the music grows louder. "Hold on a second. I can't hear you. Enough with the song already, all right?" he yelled to the ice cream man.
"I'm doing business here. Deal with it!"
"Me too! ...yeah …Oh, hold on. I can't hear anything." He said pulling out his gun and shooting the clown head speaker. People scream and some hit the ground covering their heads.
"You shot my clown!" the ice cream man screamed pissed off.
"Great. Flight number? …Okay, thanks!" he hung up and turning to Brennan. "Okay, we're all set!" he said smiling.
"That was not good." She said staring at him as he looked at the smoking clown head.
The next day. Late afternoon. Booth is working on the barbecue pit when the FBI shrink walks back over to him.
"Ohhhh splendid! So was it your father who taught you to read plans, was it?" he asked smiling.
"Wrong tree doc! Dad and I were tight." He said working.
"No, it's just that earlier you said that you weren't used to drinking tea with men, which suggests to me that you're usually pretty rigid with your assignment of gender roles." Wyatt pointed out.
"What? No, no! My partner is a woman, okay? A woman who needs my help." He said looking up at him.
"But are you currently involved with anyone?"
"Just broke up with someone, okay?" he admitted.
"And, how long had you been involved with her? Or… him."
"Her! Let's get that straight, okay? Her! Couple months this time."
"This time?" he asked raising an eyebrow at Booth.
"…we'd gone out before. A couple years ago, and uh, y'know, we, uh, we broke it off… personal issues. …Ahhh, that's it! I shot the clown because I can't let go of the women in my life! Ah, thanks doc! Now I can go back to work, and you can sign the paper!" he said standing up and unfolding the paper.
"Excellent theory, but quite wrong and you're out of time. Tomorrow, all right for you?" he asked walking into the house. Booth sighed walking out of the garden.
The next morning Booth was at Wyatt's house before 9.
"Do we have a schedule? " he asked opening the door.
"Uh, listen... I really need to get back to work, so why don't you just give me one of those clown restraining orders and sign my paper."
"Have you had an insight as to why you shot at that clown?"
Booth's cell phone begins to ring. "Yeah, you know what I have some insight. It's right here" he said pointing to his phone. "It's my Bones calling, my partner. Right" he answered the phone watching as Wyatt walked away. "Yeah? Bones."
"So when are you coming back again?" she asked with a sigh.
"What, aren't you playing nice with my substitute?" he asked getting some pleasure out of that fact.
"I'm just not sure how serious Sully really is about his job." She said honestly.
"Sully?" he tried to hide the annoyance, Sully was a great guy, but he was a real charming guy and if he wanted to he wouldn't stop until she went on a date with him. "Look, he's one of the best, all right? He just likes to keep his options open."
"I've noticed."
"Listen, Bones, you're in good hands." He promised as Wyatt came out of the house. "Here he comes, so gotta go, gotta go, gotta go." He said hanging up. "Alright, so maybe I am a little bit irritable." Booth admitted.
"Why do you think that might be?" Wyatt asked curiously.
"Don't they give you papers, and files, and reports?" he asked not wanting to talk about it. Wyatt stares at him until he gives in. "All right, me and my partner caught up to this serial killer named Howard Epps, and he died."
"And who's fault was that, yours or your partner's?"
"No, no, he jumped over that balcony. It wasn't her fault, and I tried to save him but… he fell."
"And where were you when Mr. Epps fell?"
"Holding his arm."
"No, that was before he fell, surely. Mr. Epps was dangling from your arm before he fell at which point he was no longer dangling but falling. Attached to you, he was alive, no longer attached, dead." Wyatt pointed out.
"I don't feel guilty about that. I mean Epps is a serial killer, tried to kill my partner and threatened my son. I was glad when he hit that pavement." Booth said honestly.
"Good." Wyatt said smiling and walking back in the house leaving him to think in the garden.
That afternoon. Booth was still at Wyatt's house working on the barbeque.
"You tend to do things well, don't you? Make coffee, build barbecue machines. "
"It's not really a machine." He pointed out.
"Solve crimes, raise a son, love women, leave women. Whatever you aim at, you hit."
"Is that bad?"
"By no means, no of course not, except … it is indicative of a need to control your environment."
"Again, I ask, is that bad?"
"Of course not, no! Except when you shoot a clown."
"You know, you make it sound like it was walking making balloon animals."
"For the most part, your rebellions are small." He explained. "The colorful socks, the funky belt buckle, they're a mechanism, quiet rebellions, a way of asserting your personal control over a homogenizing organization like the FBI. But shooting a clown is not a quiet rebellion. Shooting a clown is quite literally deafening. " He said standing as Booth's phone rang.
He answered it watching Wyatt walk away."Booth."
"Hey, it's me." Brennan said on the other side.
"Yeah, hold on for a second." He turned to Wyatt. "Wait, why is it Doc that every time I answer the phone, you walk away?"
"Why do you answer the phone knowing it'll make me walk away?" he said entering the house.
"Yeah, you know what Bones, I gotta call you back."
"Wait… Is Sully for real?" she asked uncertain.
"What?"
"I just can't decide whether or not to take him seriously."
"Why? Is he acting unprofessional?"
"No, he's very professional, it's just… can he really do all he says he can do?"
"Oh you mean that whole master carpentry thing? Yeah."
"He's a carpenter as well?"
"As well as what?" her phone beeped. "That's Sully calling right now. We're doing, you know, what we did."
"What we did?" he asked with a sigh.
"You know. Talking to people… working in the lab."
"I'll be back soon." He promised.
She nodded. "…I'll talk to you later." Booth hangs up standing in front of the half finished barbecue pit and got back to work.
The next night. Brennan and Sully are overlooking Isaac through the window of the interrogation room as he confesses.
"There should be a sense of satisfaction after solving a case but most of the time I feel drained." Brennan said with a sigh.
"Yeah, that's why you can only do this job for so long. Murders, death, corpses, you do that your whole life… there's gotta be more, y'know?" he said looking into her eyes.
"The sausage and pepper sandwich." She joked looking away.
"You gotta admit it was good!" he said laughing. "So what do you and Booth usually do now?" he asked as they walked away from the glass. "Is there a bar you got to, a restaurant, pilates class?" he joked.
"There's a diner. Booth says the pie is the best." She said smiling.
"Can I buy you a slice?" Sully asked hopeful.
Brennan hesitated a moment before answering "…Sure."
"Y'know since we're not working together anymore….And since we have no professional obligations to each other, I can ask you out? …Theoretically."
"Theoretically." She agreed with a nod.
"Perhaps after a twenty-four hour waiting period, so the brain can adjust to alternate perceptions of each other. "
"I actually don't need it. My brain adjusts quite quickly." She said matter-of-factly.
"good. Let's go then." He said smiling.
Mansion.
Brennan's office, two weeks later.
"Would I be playing?"
"Uh, no. You will be cheering and watching." Sully said smiling.
"What fun is that?" she said laughing.
"Oh come on. I'm a mad sagger." She stared at him not knowing what that means. "I … I wear my shorts very, very low." He explained.
"Okay." She said, not understanding.
Sully laughed. "You suck hugely at being a girl. Okay, okay … anthropology … anthropology. Oh, okay … think of it as a social ritual in which I impress you with my manly prowess during a game of basketball." He said smiling.
"You want to impress me?" she asked smiling.
"I'm traditional that way." He shrugged.
"Why don't you just bonk me on the head with a giant club?" she said rolling her eyes.
"I'd much prefer you came to the game and ogled my butt crack." He said smiling. "it's law enforcement versus public defenders. Guys with ponytails and love handles. We're heavily favored. So? Will you come?"
Brennan grinned. "Alright I'll be there."
"great." He said smiling then walking out.
Brennan went to talk to Angela and get her opinion .
"hey Sweetie." She said smiling. "what's up?"
"I need advice." She said with a sigh sitting across from her.
"alright. Shoot."
"Sully wants me to go to his basketball game tonight."
"So? What's the problem? Go watch Sully play basketball."
"…But… he still hasn't made a move on me."
"oh…How many times have you gone out?"
"Four … or six. Depending on how you define 'go out'"
"Bumping into each other at the diner does not count as going out."Angela said giving her a look
"Four then."
"Four, huh? So the question is … is Sully damaged goods, or is he just very respectful?"
"Those are my only choices?"
"Damaged goods, you run away; very respectful, you hang in." sje explained.
"I should just make the first move." Brennan said frustrated.
"No, Brennan! For once can you just pretend that you're the girl? …Listen. Go to the basketball game. Let him show off for you, and see what happens."
"I don't know. It sounds so … passive." She said uncertain.
" Now you've got it." Angela said nodding.
Booth's Office. Sully is sitting infront of him and they are talking.
"You just don't get it." Booth shook his head.
"What! I'm asking for guy advice, you are a guy… what's not to get?" Sully asked confused.
"First of all, guys… they don't ask for advice. And secondly, I'm not going to help you get my partner into bed." He said with a chuckle.
"Why not? It's not like you want her." He pointed out. Booth's lips twitch but he doesn't say anything. "Unless … Do you want her?" he asked surprised by his reaction.
"No. Come on, Bones is, you know, my partner." He denied it unconvincingly.
"That is why you need psychiatric treatment, because you have the hots for your partner!" Sully said amused.
"I'm not in psychiatric treatment, okay? It's an evaluation. Big difference." He clarified.
"…okay listen, I can tell that Brennan is the go slow type, but you gotta help me out on how slow, because too slow is worse than not slow enough." He said trying to level with him.
"With Brennan you just gotta be forward. Go for it. You just gotta risk it."
"really?"
Booth nodded. "oh yeah. It's the only way."
3 days later. Brennan and Angela are walking into the dinner for lunch.
"…Wait. You still haven't slept together?" she asked surprised.
"I think I know the problem."
"His religious upbringing?" she joked.
"His penis." She said ignoring angela's comment.
"What's wrong with it?"
"Apparently it's small."
Angela laughed lightly. "Well, that maybe explains why he hasn't made any moves on you yet. He's insecure."
"So I should make the first move, right?" she asked curiously.
"Yeah. Take Sully for a little test drive. Maybe he's got unlimited mileage. That'll make up for the fact that he's a sub-compact." Angela said with an amused nod.
The next morning, Brennan is dropped off at work by Sully and they share a passionate kiss before parting..
"You look happy" Angela said walking up to Brennan as she walked to her office. "You made the first move." Angela guessed. Brennan smiled with a small laugh. "How was it? I mean, I don't mean 'it' … no, no … I do! I mean 'it'."
"I discovered something very interesting about cops and nicknames."
"Anthropologically interesting?"
"Anatomically interesting. They call the bald guy 'Curly', and the fat guy 'Tiny'. It's ironic." She explained smiling
"So when they call Sully 'Peanut… " Angela said following her train of thought as they reached Brennan's office and found Booth sitting in the chair infront of her desk, waiting. "Do you have a nickname, Booth? Something the other cops call you?"
"Why? What have you heard?" he asked smiling a Boothy grin.
"Congrats, Brennan." Angela laughed walking out.
"congrats on what?" he asked curiously.
"I slept with Sully last night." She said coolly. "I see you're back to the crazy socks." She observed.
"…I thought the two of you already, uh …"
"No. Last night." She shook her head.
"Ah." He nodded, uncomfortably. "It's really none of my business."
"Except we're partners." She pointed out.
"…yeah. Partners." He nodded again.
"…Do we have a case, or are you just visiting?" she asked changing the subject.
"Yeah, I'll fill you in on the way. It's messy, better get some protection."
"Let me get my gumboots." She said standing and leaving.
Booth looks at his watch and fixes his tie."Yeah. I'm gonna need a flashier tie." He said remembering Wyatt's comment about the ties being his way of expressing frustration. He sighed and walked out following his 'partner'.
The Book.
8 am. The phone rings
"No, no, no, no. Don't answer it." Sully said breathing heavily as Brennan comes out from under the covers.
"it's probably the publicist for my book." She said looking at the phone.
"Shh. Pretend it's the ocean." Sully said smiling and covering them back up again and the ringing stopped. "See that? God loves us." They laughed kissing again.
The ringing starts all over again and Brennan throws the covers off again. "Ugh. She'll only keep calling."
"I thought you hated publicity."
"I do but it's part of my contract. The book's getting a lot of attention." She said reaching for the phone. "Hello? …Hi Ellen."
"Of course, you did look hot on The View. I think Rosie had a little thing for you." Sully joked.
Brennan covers his mouth and he rolls her over, trying to distract her by kissing her neck. "That seems like a lot. …What, it's two interviews and a book signing in one day…. I – I don't – I don't know about Tuesday." She said as she takes the phone away from her ear and kisses Sully, then goes back to the phone. "Just, um…send the schedule to the Jeffersonian. We'll discuss it then, okay? I'll see you. I'm leaving right now." She lied hanging up and kissing Sully again, rolling them over.
6 pm.
"you get anything on the Victim" Brennan asked when Booth walked into his office.
"Yeah, uh. Sadie Keller. Recently married Ashton Keller, 29. No work history, went to some pretty fancy schools though." He said handing her the file.
"She was rich."
Booth nodded. "So we got a dead traveling salesman and a prep school socialite. What the hell is the connection?"
"Not Greg Braley. His story checks out. He was camping the night Lopata was killed. Two Rangers recognized him." Sully said walking in.
Booth looked to Brennan. "ah, great. So the only connection we have is the tape and the fact that they were both fed to animals." He sighed.
"So we're back to me."
"No. Your book." Sully clarified.
"Well, I can only deal with what's before me. Two completely different cases and the only connection is—"
"look, Bones-I know it's probably easier for you to, uh, believe that-" Booth said trying to calm her.
"No. There is nothing that would make the loss of two lives easier for me, Booth." She shot back.
"I'm sorry, but-"
"I'm not burying my head in the sand here. I wanna catch whoever did this as much as you guys do, but I have a method and the method doesn't change. I'll be back in my lab" she said storming out.
"She wasn't this emotional before you came in the picture." Booth said looking at Sully.
"Ah, I thought you weren't interested." He shot back.
Booth chuckled. "Haha. Alright, look, I don't need that, okay? Believe me. I'm gonna go talk to Sadie Keller's husband and why don't you just go back to your office there and, uh, sort through the fan mail, alright?"
"ok. Whatever you say." Sully laughed walking out, knowing he'd won.
A half hour later. Brennan was working on paperwork when Sully enters.
"Lunchtime, hoooo!" he said smiling and tossing her a sandwich.
"I'm not hungry." She said catching it and putting it on the desk.
"Oh, come on. It's meatball! It's the perfect food." He said smiling.
"Shouldn't you be working?" she asked coldly.
"I went through the fan mail and gave the likely candidates to Booth to check out."
"good. …I'm busy, Sully. I'm cataloging injuries the two victims suffered." She said dismissively.
"Hey. I am on your side, Tempe. I know what you're going through..." he said growing defensive.
"Okay, what? What, Sully? What – what am I going through?" she challenged.
"Okay. …You feel responsible. You feel that somehow if you didn't write that book those two people would still be alive. And you're terrified cause you know that someone else dies in the book." He accused.
"I don't put much credence in psychology."
"yeah, well neither do I. I'm basing this on knowing you. Knowing how much you care about your work and if trivializing it in the book caused this…" he shook his head.
"statistically, the murders would have happened whether the book was written or not. The method might be different is all." She shot back.
"Right. …Now if you only believed that."
"You …you don't know me as well as you think. We're just having a fling, so don't get carried away." She said not looking at him.
Sully leans over and reaches for her hand and she pulled it away. "When you can't stop thinking about someone when they're not around…that's not a fling. When you remember their touch just like they were still right next to you? That's not a fling. If you need to be alone with this, fine … but we both know what we have." He turns and leaves.
Brennan looks after him, visibly shaken and drops her head to her desk.
A few hours later they had just learned that Laurier definitely wasn't the killer.
"I'm going to be late for my reading."
"…there's still potentially one more victim. I – I think you should cancel." Sully said worried.
"What? The – the killers not after me, Sully. If he is using the book, that makes me the object of these actions not the target. … you're the profiler, right?"
"I'm just trying to help." He said with a sigh.
"What!?" Booth starts to back away slowly, not wanting to be dragged into this. "You're making this personal! You got yourself assigned to this case just because of me!" she accused angrily.
"Absolutely! What? You're gonna give me more crap now because I care about you?"
"I'll be… over here making a few calls..." Booth said sitting down and they both turn on him.
"A little help, Booth. Do you think she should go alone?" Sully asked giving Brennan a look.
"No, no. Not at all. But there seems to be other stuff going on here, I don't wanna get involved" he said attempting to stay out of their fight.
"No. You agreed with him. You are involved." Brennan said pissed.
"Alright, so let Booth take you and that way it won't be personal between us." He suggested.
"Fine!" she practically shouted.
"Fine." He said smiling.
"Fine."
"Fine." they turn to booth again.
"Fine." He said shrugging and standing.
A few, very long, very tense days later, Booth and Brennan were talking in her office after the real murderers were caught.
"Tell ya something, alright? Sales of your book are gonna sky rocket after this." Booth said dropping into the chair opposite her.
"The only problem is our ending is a lot better than the one I wrote in the book." Brennan said with a slight smile.
"What, are you kidding me? Huh? Kathy Reichs and the FBI guy in the back of the AMG?" he said waggling his eyebrows. They laughed.
"I meant the arrest." She said still smiling at him.
"Oh, yeah. There's that." He nodded smiling back.
Brennan sees Sully in the door way and her smile fades. "Sully."
"Yeah, you know you really should apologize. I mean, you were really ragging on the guy. He seemed a little frail." He said not seeing him.
"Eh, I'm a lot stronger than I look." Sully said from the doorway.
"…Oh, you were…"Booth said looking back and forth between them and standing. "Hey, Sull."
"Hey." He nodded. "So, congratulations. You guys, make a great team." He complimented.
"mmhmm. It's true." He said looking at Brennan who is looking at him, and he smiles a boothy grin. "So true."
"Thanks for your help." Brennan said thanking Sully.
"Sure." He nodded. Sully and Brennan grow lost in their own world
"You know, I should run. Bones, ya know, I – I got stuff." He said uncomfortably. She didn't notice, she was to focused on Sully. "See ya at work, Sull?"
"Yeah, I'll see ya man."
Booth tries once more, unsuccessfully, to get Brennan attention and then leaves her office with a sigh. Sully moves closer to where Brennan is sitting. "I did feel responsible, Sully… Do, I mean." She said standing to meet him.
"And you thought if I saw you, vulnerable, needing me- that I'd run." He guessed.
"I've been alone my whole life. It's all I know." She confessed looking into his eyes.
"don't worry. You'll learn fast." He said smiling and kissing her.
Booth stands outside of Brennan's office talking to Hodgins but as Hodgins leaves Booth can't help but turn back and look through her office window. He sees the two of them kissing and with a sigh he drops the folder down on the nearest desk and heads out the door.