Vigilante Justice

Chapter 7: Home Again

A week went by and thankfully all was quiet. They all began to hope that the problem had been resolved, although Max and Booth were doubtful that Carson could ever be trusted. Bones was able to spend time on some of the remains in Limbo for the first time in almost a month. Booth was assigned to a routine stake out in downtown DC, which by mid-week had turned out to be a false lead, so that by week's end he was cleaning up old files and bored out of his head. He managed to talk Rebecca into letting him have Parker for the whole weekend so he could take his son to the amusement park. So on Friday afternoon after he had picked up Parker for the weekend, he called Bones.

"Where are you?" He asked, hearing the distraction in her tone.

"I'm at the Jeffersonian, still working on this unknown war casualty," she said. "Why do you want to know?"

"Parker and I were hoping you were free for dinner," he said. Parker chimed in the background with a resounding "Yes!"

"Dad, Russ and I are meeting for dinner at The Wharf," she said, naming a popular downtown seafood restaurant. "Do you and Parker want to join us?"

"What time?"

"Seven."

About an hour later, the five of them were seated around a table overlooking the Potomac, Parker exclaiming over the boats he saw out on the water. It was a beautiful sight; after dark the boats were lit up and their reflections on the water sparkled in ever-changing patterns. Parker seemed to know a lot about different kinds of boats and kept them all entertained as they waited for their food by identifying each one that floated past.

"Do you know what an exceptional mind your son has, Booth?" Max said quietly so as not to be overheard by Parker, who was busy informing Bones all about the river traffic.

"Do you really think so, Max?" Booth replied, pleased.

"Absolutely. Have you considered enrolling him in that science camp next summer, the one I gave you the information on?" Max asked.

"Already done," Booth said quickly. "I gave the website to Rebecca and she enrolled him for two weeks in August. She put him in the Marine Sciences theme camp. Every two weeks the theme changes."

"That's perfect for him," Max agreed enthusiastically. "I have to admit, I've grown very attached to your son over this past semester. I hope he can continue to meet with me after school next year."

"He loves it. I don't know where he gets it from, but I seem to be raising a little squint," Booth joked.

"What's wrong with that?" Bones asked, picking a hushpuppy off Booth's plate and popping it into her mouth. Max and Booth turned to her, startled, not having expected her to overhear their conversation.

"Uh, nothing! It's great!" Booth back-peddled, putting an arm around Bones' shoulders and giving her an affectionate squeeze. Max smiled and shook his head. Parker pulled Max's reading glasses out of his pocket and put them on his nose.

"I'm a squint," he announced in an affected voice, looking at the appetizer on his plate like it was under a microscope lens. He'd obviously overheard their comments as well.

"Who taught him that?" Max asked dryly, eying Booth, who was acting overly innocent. Bones slapped at the hand on her shoulder.

"Ow!"

"Wimp."

Russ was quiet, reading the Washington Post off to the side, munching on hushpuppies. Bones rattled his paper.

"C'mon, Polo, stop ignoring us!" She popped up over the top of the newspaper with wide eyes and a silly smile.

"Tempe, I told you not to have another glass of wine," he complained. "Booth, you're going to have to drive her home tonight." They'd all come in separate cars and met up at the restaurant.

"No problem," Booth agreed quickly.

"I'm fine," she protested.

"Let me see that paper," Booth said, suddenly serious. Russ handed it over without a word, wearing a confused expression. Booth turned it over to the page he'd gotten a glimpse of while Russ was holding it.

"Look at this," Booth said. "Andrew Carson was fired from the FBI yesterday."

"What?" Suddenly everyone except Parker grew serious. He was building a fort on his plate using hushpuppies and gluing them with butter.

"Yeah, listen to this," Russ said. "A fifteen year employee of the FBI, Assistant Director Andrew Carson was asked to step down from his duties yesterday based on anonymous reports of suspicious activities conducted while in office. His boss told reporters that Carson was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into alleged criminal dealings."

"Is he in custody?" Booth asked.

Russ read on. "No; he is just barred from reporting to work until the hearing."

"An anonymous report? Carson is going to think I broke my agreement," Max said. His face clouded with worry and fear.

"Maybe we should go talk to him," Bones suggested. "We can explain to him that we had nothing to do with his dismissal."

"He won't believe us. We're the likely suspects, I'm afraid," Russ explained to his sister.

"But since we know it wasn't one of us, then who could it have been? We need to find out who turned him in so we know what we're dealing with," Max said.

"More importantly, we're back on alert. If he thinks one of us broke the agreement, he won't hesitate to come after one or more of you, or send someone to do it for him," Booth pointed out, looking sternly at the Brennan family surrounding him.

The waitress arrived with their main course meals so the discussion was dropped for the time being. For a few minutes while everyone began to eat, Booth had a brief and rare feeling wash over him; almost like they were a normal family, eating out together and catching up on each other's day. Stealing a glance at Bones sitting beside him, he was touched to see her watching Parker enthusiastically eat his chicken fingers and mashed potatoes. He never ordered fish unless forced.

"Do you want my fries?" Bones asked him quietly, seated beside him picking at her plate, looking uninterested in eating.

"Thanks, Bones," he answered her just as softly, picking up a fry and munching on it. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Why, because I don't usually share my fries?"

"Well… yeah."

"I'm worried that this problem with Carson isn't over."

"I never thought it was," Booth replied. "I don't trust him. He sees Max as a threat; bottom line. Now that he knows all of us know who he was in the past, it's a good bet we're all on his bad list."

"But you were the one who thought we should negotiate with him and let him go," Max said, listening in.

"Yes, because the alternatives aren't options. Right, Max?" He asked pointedly. Max looked like he thought taking out Carson was a definite option. Frowning, the older man pushed his plate away.

"Could you bring us the check?" Tempe asked the waitress as she filled their glasses of iced tea. Max and Russ had both stopped eating and had been acting restless ever since Booth had found the article about Carson in the newspaper. The warm, fuzzy atmosphere that they had started their meal with had been replaced by edgy apprehension. Except for Parker, the mood had been ruined. He was still perky and full of smiles, an irrepressible ray of sunshine.

"Come home with me and Parker," Booth asked Bones softly. He helped her slip on her coat and then draped his arm around the back of her chair, staying close while she went through the expected process of clinically evaluating his offer.

"I shouldn't; he's going to want to spend some time with just you," she protested, nodding at the little boy who was currently trying to balance the salt shaker on one end. But her eyes had a longing light in them that Booth didn't miss.

"Believe me Bones; he always loves being with you. As do I. Come on; we'll watch a movie, have a glass of wine after Parker goes to bed…" he raised an eyebrow and gave her a charming grin.

"You're just worried about letting me go home alone now that we know Carson could be a danger again."

"That may have crossed my mind, Bones, but I'd be lying if I said that was my only motivation for inviting you over. I know you're more than capable of taking care of yourself; I just really want your company—just you. Please?"

Finally, her expression softened. "I'd like to spend some time with you, too," she confessed, surprising and delighting him. "I'll follow you back to your place."

It was past Parker's bedtime when they got back to Booth's apartment, and the boy was yawning in spite of his best efforts to appear wide awake. Booth swung him up on his back and trotted off to his room, leaving Bones to entertain herself in the living room for a few minutes. When Booth came back into the room, he found her at the window, watching the street before with a frown.

"Why the long face?"

"Long face?" She asked, confused. Her hand rose to her cheeks as if to feel whether they had elongated. Booth choked back a chuckle and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Sad, Bones; serious. Are you worried?"

"I'm worried about Dad and Russ, not so much for my own safety. The security at my apartment and at the Jeffersonian is quite good and I am quite able to defend myself."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll get arrested."

"But until that happens, we all need to be very careful. You too, Booth." She gazed up at him, and he was surprised to see that she was worried about him, too.

Although he was aware how much she depended on him, on many levels, sometimes he felt like she took him for granted, and didn't really care about him beyond what he could do for her. There had been several moments over the years where he'd thought she was finally beginning to have feelings for him, only to find out the next day that she was involved with someone else. She'd gone out with a good number of other men since they'd become partners and he'd always acted like it didn't bother him; after all, they had a professional relationship and not a personal one. But it did bother him; it caused him to sit up at night thinking about how very much he wanted their relationship to go beyond the professional. It made him irritable too, so much so that he often sniped at Bones without really understanding why he was giving her a hard time.

But tonight, the look on her face, much to his delight, didn't have anything to do with the job. She was worried about him. And there was more in her expression than worry. He began to allow himself to hope that she cared for him the way he cared for her. His mind wandered back to the cabin at Deep Creek. They'd fallen asleep in the same bed. He'd been half asleep, but he still had a hazy memory of her touching his hair, his face, his lips. What had been going through her mind? What did she really feel for him? He was tired of not knowing. Since this whole nightmare with Andrew Carson had started, she'd been kind of clingy, rare behavior for his self-sufficient partner. He was ready to find out how much of that was fear and how much was evidence of deeper feelings that were beginning to surface at last.

"I know how to take care of myself," he reminded her, his arm still around her. They stared out into the dark street below.

"Of course you do. But anyone can be taken by surprise. Be careful, Booth. Please." Bones was staring at him again.

"I'm always careful," he assured her flippantly.

She twisted around and wrapped her arms around his waist. Before he could wonder what she was doing, she kissed his cheek, softly, warmly, with a lingering touch. Then she laid her head on his shoulder and held him even more tightly. Without hesitation his arms wound around her body and he held her close, and his mind filled with a strange euphoria. He wanted to ask her what was going on, because they were way beyond the familiar, but he didn't want to break the spell.

She lifted her head from his shoulder and their eyes met with a shock of new awareness. He waited, not breathing, as she moved closer. Her eyelashes flicked like silk against the skin of his cheek. He should say something, he thought vaguely. He should stop her before she did something he was pretty sure she'd regret later. She was under a lot of stress right now; she wasn't acting like herself. This wasn't them; they didn't do this.

On the other hand, maybe they did. Bones moved slowly, so slowly it was killing him, but she never stopped until her lips were moist against his in a delightful explosion of sensory overload. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he'd think about that later. Right now, he concentrated on the task at hand—making sure Bones knew how much he wanted this.

"Stay," he whispered without thinking. Capturing her lips again, he kissed her back with electric intensity.

"Booth," she murmured, indistinctly at first. He ignored her, lost in the pleasure of the moment. She struggled, cried out and tried to pull away. Where his elevated breathing was from arousal, hers seemed to be born of fear.

"What's wrong?" He couldn't seem to release her even though she was definitely resisting him.

"I shouldn't have done that; I'm sorry. I've ruined everything."

"What? What have you ruined? Bones, this doesn't change anything. Look at me. I'm glad you kissed me. Stay here tonight," he urged again, framing her face with his hands. He was saddened and bewildered to see tears forming in her eyes.

"I can't. I'm going home, Booth. I shouldn't have—I'm sorry. I'll, uh, I'll call you tomorrow…"

She pulled away and went straight to the door, grabbing her coat and handbag as she went. Booth stood at the window, trembling, long after the door had closed behind her, devastated by her reaction. He couldn't believe how badly he had misread her.

Down on the street in front of his apartment, Bones could barely unlock the car door but she finally managed to climb into the driver's seat. Collapsing behind the wheel, she started to turn the key in the ignition, but couldn't bring herself to leave yet.

What had she done? Her relationship with Booth was the most important thing in her life, and she'd just completely ruined it. These hard-to-control feelings for Booth had been secretly building for a long time, but up until now, she'd managed to keep them locked away. Except for that brief moment at the cabin when she'd given into a whim and touched his face and hair while he was sleeping. Bad idea. It had opened a door that she couldn't seem to close up again.

A daring thought entered her mind.

Why not?

Booth had seemed thrilled just now, clearly ready to move into a personal relationship and so sure it wouldn't mess up what they had. Could he be right? She never let herself fall in love with the men she dated. Love was a scary thing, something that worked out for others, but not her. But what she felt for Booth, and had felt for some time now, if she was honest, could only be described as love. Maybe she wasn't running from Booth out of respect for their job, but out of her own fear of love.

Biting her lip to still her tears, Bones deliberately put her car keys back into her pocket and got out of the car. Scared to death but for once following her much-guarded heart, she breathed deeply and began walking back to Booth's apartment. She had no idea what to say when she got there, but she hoped he'd help her with that. Booth always knew the right thing to say.

The back door to the apartment stairwell was just around the side of the building. She pulled out the key Booth had given her months ago and put it in the lock. This was it; there would be no turning back. But it only took her a split second to decide she was tired of denying her feelings, and that she owed it to Booth and herself to give this, to give them, a chance. She took another deep breath and turned the key.

A scraping sound behind her was all the warning she had before she heard an ominous voice terrifyingly close to her ear.

"Hello, Temperance."

To be continued…

A/N: You KNEW this had to happen sometime. Stay tuned!