I'm not happy with this chapter. I tried to rewrite it, but for reasons only my brain knows, as much as I didn't like it, it was the best out of all my other three pieces. Go figure. But I hope 'the talk' was realistic enough. I have a huge time writing that kind of stuff, because I'm worse at that kind of thing then Brennan and Zack altogether. For real.
"Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth."
Both Booth and Brennan knew it would be hard. They often joked about how young Sweets was, but the truth is, he was a incredibly smart and perceptive guy, so they walked inside his office prepared to get caught.
The office was pretty much the same. The couch, the kid, the chair. 'At least that!' Booth thought. They sat, and for a moment everything felt just like it used to. Until Sweets opened his mouth.
"Are you still going to play dumb?"
"About...?" Booth inquired, genuinely confused. Sweets usually had some topic he wanted to discuss with them, and he would open the section with it, trying to get them to open up. But this was a new approach.
"So you are going to play dumb, huh?" he made it sound like he was expecting it "Look, guys." he leaned toward them "I know. Okay? I'm not gonna tell your boss." he said to Booth "You won't get in any kind of trouble if I can help."
"Dr. Sweets, what are you talking about?" Brennan asked
"Fine!" he replied, exasperated. "Keep your little act. But don't expect me to believe that you're not a couple. Because I know you are!"
Booth's shock was all over his face, but when he turned to Brennan, he was even more shocked to realized she wasn't surprised. She looked almost... resigned. She knew it?
She turned her eyes and met his. And he realized that her feelings were a riot, just like his own. They locked their gaze, all of the sudden forgetting where they were.
"I'm happy for you, but I hope you realize you don't have to hide it." Sweets continued, but stopping when he realized the little interaction in front of him. He smiled.
"You're really gonna lie to me now? Come on. I may be young, but I'm not stupid."
"You're twelve." Booth broke the contact, like he was now aware of the third person on the room. But what usually met a eye roll or a stare, now got a comeback.
"Considering I used to be five, I guess it's a improvement." Before Booth could reply, Brennan's phone rang.
"No, no... no phones!" Sweets tried, but she answered it anyway. It was Angela.
"Hey, Sweetie, I went to your office and I saw your appointment on the calendar. I wish I called sooner, because the Sweets I know is the perfect candidate to figure this whole mess out. Don't know about this one, but..."
"Actually, you're right. He could." she saw the question in Booth's eyes, but they had a chance of getting out, and she couldn't spoil it.
"So, tell him, I don't know, something happened and... Cam, she's... calling you two and... asking you to come over." Angela finished it with some difficulty. That wasn't missed on Brennan.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine, just... tired. So, you think you're getting out?"
"Yes, we'll be there. Bye." She turned to Booth. "Cam wants to talk to us, she found something."
"Great." They got up, but Sweets tried to stop them.
"Wait! I'm sure you can stay. Maybe we can talk about this case. I know children are always hard..." but they were already out.
"So, did Cam said what she have for us?" Booth asked, already in the car.
"Cam didn't call."
"But you said..."
"Angela. She thought that Sweets could figure it out."
"Well, that makes three of us, right?" They stayed in silence for a while
"What he said..." Brennan began "About us. Did I mention I talked to Hannah?"
"What? You talked to Han... and what does it have to do with Sweets?"
"She mentioned it too. She said something about us being a couple and for some reason, she thinks I'm pregnant..."
"She thinks what?"
"I'm not pregnant, I have no idea why she said it! But first her, and now Sweets..."
"So, in this world, we're like... a couple?" His voice sounded tense and cautious.
"A secret one, but yes." he said nothing. After a while, she asked, hesitant "Would it be that bad?"
"What? Why do you say that?"
"Well, you didn't sound very happy about it."
"Bones..."
"Look, I know you're angry. Is a good thing that it was a secret, because we don't need to pass through anything too awkward..."
"Bones!" he called. He tightened his grip in the wheel and took a deep breath before answering "I'm not... I'm not angry anymore. I don't think I was angry in the first place. That day... I was a mess. It was a moment thing."
"So...?"
"So, I didn't say anything after it because of the same reason it took me so long to come clean with you."
"Come clean?" he couldn't help but to laugh a bit. She was still herself, despite everything.
"Yeah, come clean. You know, tell the truth. Open up. And, I wanted to do it for a long time, but I was scared. I was scared you'd reject me."
"And I did." she said in a low voice.
"Yeah... no wonder I didn't want to risk again. After that case, when you told me... you know. You were crying and, I really wanted to do something, but I was scared you would change your mind again, and I was with Hannah... I kind of froze."
"But what changed now?"
"Well, for one thing, we got ourselves in a freaking Douglas Adams book, minus the humor."
"Who?"
"Doesn't matter. My point is, everything changed. And Sweets begins to talk about all those stuff about us being together, and you kissed me, and..." he sighted "I guess is too much to keep inside, you know?"
"Actually, I do." she said with a half smile
"Why are you smiling?"
"I don't know..." the half smile turned into a huge grin.
"What? Come on!" he asked, beginning to smile too "You say everything has a reason, what's yours now?"
"You said everything changed. But not everything changed." she pointed.
"This is the time you say something about gravity or bones, right?"
"Those are rather random and unrelated topics of conversation."
"Well, is the kind of stuff you say, y'know?"
"Nor really, no."
They stopped talking, and remained in silence for a while. The traffic was really bad, and they were stuck for a while. It was almost like they didn't have that talk at all, until Booth brought it up again.
"Let's do something, okay?"
"What?" Brennan asked, curious.
"We start over."
"We can't just start over."
"Why not?" He turned to her, with a look that resembled the one he had on his face when he told her how he felt.
This time, however, she wasn't scared. She knew that, rationally, they couldn't start over. But at that moment, Brennan didn't want anything else.
"Is not like we can pretend nothing ever happened."
"We don't have to." he insisted "One shot. You said you regretted your decision. You just have to make a different one."
The traffic was moving now, so he couldn't keep his eyes on hers. But he could feel her staring at him. He could almost see the logical part of her brain struggling with her feelings.
"How?"
It was a simple question. But despite everything he said, he didn't know what to do. He chose the honest answer.
"I don't know. But we'll figure it out. Right?" he looked over for confirmation. For his relief, he found it in her eyes.
"What?"
Brennan and Angela were in Brennan's apartment, sitting in the couch. The talk they were supposed to have was delayed through the rest of the day. Now, Angela had her jaw dropped and a half-shocked, half-amused smile. Her friend just shared a lot of very interesting data.
"Why didn't you tell me all of this before?"
"I don't know. I... I'm not good at talking about feelings and... other things. I was confused, and scared..."
"Honey. You're still confused and you're still scared."
"I am." she admitted "But now, for some reason, I'm able to deal with that without pushing him away. I've done that two times already. I don't wanna risk it a third time and losing him."
Angela smiled at the confession "So what you're gonna do now?"
"He said something about starting over. But I don't know how to do that, and neither does him."
"Well," Angela said with a playful smirk "You're in a different universe. If you can't make a fresh start here, I don't think you can do it elsewhere."