London, England
"My God you have a lot of crap," Booth huffed, lugging all her gift bags to the taxi.
"They're gifts," Brennan explained. "Be careful with them." She reached for another one when Booth smacked her hand away.
"That one's mine," he said when she looked at him funny. He pulled out a toy.
"What is that?" she asked, crinkling her nose.
"It's a bobblehead Bobby," Booth replied, shaking his head along with the bobblehead.
"Suits you," Brennan smiled.
"I thought so," he agreed. He noticed her semi subdued mood. "Wexler didn't call huh?"
"He's very busy. I'm sure he had important things to do," Brennan answered quickly. She wasn't really thinking about Wexler at all. In fact, she was more subdued because Booth hadn't been honest with her, and she was too afraid to be honest with him. His phone rang just then.
"Booth," he said into it. The words that were coming through made his face fall, which Brennan quickly noticed.
"What's wrong?" she asked when he hung up.
"It's Wexler," he said.
"What are we waiting for?" Brennan asked.
Zack
He was sitting at the Royal Diner contemplating what he wanted to eat for brunch. Sweets had convinced him it was okay to come out into public because after all, he was heroic in his actions in stopping a cannibalistic serial killer. He noticed Cam and a man kissing by the doorway. This intrigued him a little. He craned his neck to see. Cam left the man and came inside. She stopped in her tracks when she saw him.
"Ohh, Zack," she said. She looked like she'd been caught doing something wrong. This was confusing Zack.
"Hi Dr. Saroyan," he replied. "Was that your boyfriend?"
"Oh God, you saw," she half muttered. "No, not really. Just a fling really. A one night stupid fling."
"Oh. It just seemed more intense than that," Zack frowned.
"I'd love to chat with you all day, but I have to get to work," Cam said, grabbing her coffee and practically fleeing. This behavior was puzzling to Zack, and he was sitting there pondering it when Sweets showed up.
"Hey! Look at you out in public," Sweets said, excited. "I'm glad you took my advice."
"I really wanted to see other people," Zack agreed. "Although, I think I may have seen too much."
"What do you mean?" Sweets asked, crinkling his brow. Zack explained to him what he saw with Cam.
"It just felt weird," he finished.
"Oh. Oh my God," Sweets started laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"That was Grayson. Angela's ex husband. They were kissing?" Sweets asked again to clarify.
"Yes. That's what happens when you mash one's lips together," Zack replied.
"Oh boy. That's gonna be...you know what, I've gotta go," Sweets said hurriedly. Zack was left feeling like he should have just stayed at home.
London, England
Booth could clearly see that the smoke coming out of Wexler's apartment was affecting Brennan. She was tense and stern looking, the way she usually was during a case but more so.
"You are the best," Cate said as they approached her. Booth was almost excited to see his gun being handed back to him.
"But we're leaving," Brennan said.
"Not anymore," Booth finished for her. "You think Ian's in there?"
"I'm not sure," Cate said. "I was hoping Dr. Brennan could tell me."
"You up for it?" Booth asked her.
"Of course," Brennan answered, plowing ahead. Booth and Cate followed at a distance. He was surprised at the damage, and he quickly noticed that the burnt body was holding a cigarette. He went to investigate the kettle on the stove.
"This body appears to have Dr. Wexler's build and age," Brennan said. "I need lab results to confirm for sure."
"I'm sorry, Cate," Booth said, watching Cate's face crumple.
"They said...they said something about a gas explosion," she said, ignoring Booth's statement.
"He was drinking," Brennan pointed out. "Did he smoke?"
"Not that I was aware of," Cate replied.
"No water in the kettle. That doesn't evaporate if the stove wasn't lit," Booth said. Cate looked horrified.
"He wasn't murdered surely?"
"The trauma to the forehead says otherwise," Brennan said matter of factly.
"Well, the ceiling did fall on him," Booth said.
"No, this was before that," she said firmly. "This was not an accident, Cate." Cate looked green suddenly.
"So what do we do now?" she asked.
"What we do best," Brennan said, looking over at Booth. He nodded. They were going to stay and solve Ian's murder.
Later
Cate was addressing Ian's students, who were all looking horrified and tearful. Booth and Brennan were standing aside. Brennan had already told them what she knew. Booth was getting ready to question some of the students.
"You know, Bones, you can skip this part if you want," Booth said to her quietly.
"No, I want to help. He was my friend," Brennan said. Booth knew better than to argue with her. Once Cate had parted, they began talking to the students. It appeared two of them were concerned that Ian was being forced to shut down a dig.
"I'll look into it," Booth said afterward. Brennan sat down heavily, sighing. It was exhausting, all of it. He paused, standing in front of her.
"I'm okay," she said before he even opened his mouth.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. It's just a little more difficult blocking out his face when I look at his skull," Brennan said. Her throat tightened a little bit.
"I can see that," Booth said, sitting down beside her.
"I will finish this," she declared. "I will get past it. We need to know what happened to him."
"And we will, Bones," he said, giving a small smile. "We're the best." She smiled back at him. He was a great comfort to her at times, not that she would admit it to him. She felt it would make his ego bigger.
The Jeffersonian
The silence after was almost deafening to Cam. Now she wished she had kept her mouth shut, but she knew it wouldn't be long before Zack blew the whistle on her. Clark was standing beside her visibly annoyed at being dragged into the middle of it.
"It's fine," Angela said finally. "I mean, we're divorced and all, and I'm with Hodgins. Don't worry about it."
"Really? Truly?" Cam asked. "I've never done this before. It was stupid..."
"Don't worry about it," Angela said again.
"You're wonderful," Cam said.
"Why is she wonderful this time?" Hodgins asked, coming up to join them.
"I slept with her ex husband and she's okay with it," Cam offered.
"Well, why wouldn't she be?" Hodgins asked, nervous.
"Exactly," Angela said, kissing him. "What have you got for us?" He explained his bug and slime findings to them. Clark had slowly edged out of the scene and back to where he was comfortable, away from them. The people here drove him nuts.
London, England
"Okay, so we know the gentlemen from the so called gentleman's club weren't so gentle," Booth said, looking over her shoulder at Ian's remains. "I'm headed over to the Henley-on-Thames based on a lead from Hodgins. You wanna come?"
"All right," she said. Anything was better than standing here and looking at Ian. When they arrived, there were two rowers walking a boat from the boathouse.
"Hold up," Booth said. "You guys know Ian Wexler?" He flashed his badge.
"Wrong continent," the one said, smirking. "That doesn't hold up here." He made to move past when Booth grabbed his arm. The man rammed his head against Booth's, but he ended up falling down instead, grunting in pain.
"We are working with Scotland Yard," Booth went on like it never happened. Brennan had to admit she was a little impressed at this.
"So why isn't Cate here?" the other man asked. "I'm pretty sure she was messing around with him."
"Is that so?" Booth asked, writing that down. He was going to confront her later.
"Yea. He's not the faithful type really. Hope he didn't promise you anything," the first man said, gesturing to Brennan.
"He's dead," she said flatly.
"What?!" they both said, shocked.
"Yea. You've got the same tattoo as the man who tossed him out of the gentleman's club last night," Brennan said, nodding. She always got right to the point.
"Hang on," the first man said. "You think we killed him? No way! We simply hauled his sorry ass out of there before he became to drunk. We needed him sober today for the race."
"So you didn't head butt him like you did my friend here and cause him damage to his skull?" Brennan asked.
"Nope. Try Jasper Ferry though. He gave him a good one," the second man said.
Later
"Stop trying to make him react. You'll get arrested," Brennan said as Booth stared down Jasper Ferry.
"I've almost got him," Booth replied.
"Agent Booth, stop that now or I'll have to arrest you," Cate said, almost as if on cue.
"Look, I'm just waiting for him to get off duty is all. I have some questions," Booth said.
"He didn't kill Ian. He knocked him on the head when he found out Ian was sleeping with his sister. That's all," Cate explained.
"Interesting," Booth said.
"I do ask questions to murder victim's friends you know," Cate said. "Give me some credit. Although I'm impressed you got here on some particulates." She walked away.
"She's in a mood," Brennan noted.
"I'd be too if my partner was killed," Booth said. He gestured to Brennan to follow.
"What are we doing?" she asked.
"Hey, Cate," Booth called, making her turn. "How long were you sleeping with Ian?"
"You are smart," she said.
"You should have told us," Booth said.
"I didn't kill Ian because he was sleeping with his students. Honestly? It gave him practice," she scoffed. Brennan's phone rang, making her excuse herself to answer it.
"Cate, I know why you're doing this," Booth said. "I'd do the same thing."
"Then stop doubting me," Cate said.
"Booth," Brennan said, coming back. "Ian was stabbed to death. Cate, did you see anything at the scene?"
"No," she replied. Booth shot Brennan a look. "You don't believe me."
"Would you?" Booth asked.
"I've had enough of this," Cate said, walking away. Brennan hurried after her.
"Cate, wait," Brennan called.
"Look, I can assure you my sex life wasn't limited to Ian as I'm sure yours wasn't," Cate said angrily.
"That's not what I was going to say, and also, I didn't sleep with Ian," Brennan replied.
"You didn't?" Cate asked. She was intrigued. "Why not?"
"Because of Booth."
"Right. Thought there was something there," Cate smiled knowingly.
"No, he was just protecting me," Brennan said quickly. That wasn't the reason at all, but she wasn't about to admit it.
"Hmm. Well, Ian was my Everest. Even though it had been climbed before, it was still exhilarating," Cate smirked.
"Was Booth an Everest to you too?" Brennan asked. Cate cocked her head at her. "I saw you two the other night."
"Ah. Yes, well, he would have been a great Everest I think, but he seemed elsewhere. Maybe you'd know why," Cate said.
"Not a clue," Brennan lied. So Booth really had ended it. This was promising. "Look, have you withheld anything else from us?"
"Not intentionally," Cate said. "But here's a letter I forgot to give to Agent Booth. It's a writ of release on Frampton's building site. I suggest you go ask him if he killed Ian."
"Okay," Brennan said. She made to walk away.
"Oh, Dr. Brennan," Cate said again, making her turn around. "I advise you not to forego Everest." She gave Brennan a meaningful look before closing her car door and driving away. Brennan knew exactly what she was saying.
Zack
He was watching TV when Hodgins came home.
"What a day," he huffed. "First, Cam admits to sleeping with Grayson..."
Zack choked on his chips.
"...then we're all angry at each other so Sweets makes us do therapy in order to move on. It kind of helped," Hodgins sighed. "So, what did you get up to today?"
"I went to the diner," Zack replied.
"That's great! You went out. I'm proud of you," Hodgins grinned. "Beer?"
"No thanks. How's the case coming? And how is Dr. Brennan doing knowing her colleague has been murdered?" he asked, wanting to know.
"She seems stressed. We're getting closer to solving it I think. They mentioned something about Ian signing off the dig he was doing for a bribe," Hodgins said eagerly, sitting down in his recliner with a beer.
"Sounds like something I'm not interested in," Zack said.
"It's all I've got, sorry," Hodgins shrugged. Zack was unsure of what else to say, so he just turned back to the TV and crunched on his chips silently. He never was good in these types of situations.
London, England
"Ah, man," Booth was saying after draining his second beer. "I gotta go back to that stupid motel room." Brennan felt her pulse quicken at this. She knew it had been awful for him there. Cate had just left after giving them some more information. They knew they needed to speak with Cyril again. That was tomorrow morning's job.
"You can stay with me," Brennan said casually. Booth's head snapped up.
"Really?" he asked.
"Yea. I've got two beds in my room. It's just sitting there," she said reasonably.
"That would be fantastic," he replied, grinning. "No more shitty coffee for me." They stood to leave. Brennan was feeling nervous suddenly. Booth seemed to sense this.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing," she replied quickly. "I'll get us a cab." She went outside and hailed one immediately. They climbed in together. Booth was wondering if her offer was for a different reason, but he thought maybe that was just the alcohol talking. Once they arrived at her hotel room, they stood in front of the door like two awkward people after a first date who were playing the should I, shouldn't I game.
"I don't have to," he said.
"No, no. I want you to," she said dismissively. He whistled when he entered the room.
"This is outstanding," he said. "I should start writing books."
"I'd like to see that," Brennan laughed.
"I could write books," Booth defended himself. Brennan just smiled and went into the bathroom. Booth stood there feeling awkward. It wasn't like they'd slept in the same room before. It just felt different somehow. Brennan came back out in sweats and a t-shirt. Booth was already down to his undershirt and pajama pants.
"Cate said something interesting to me today," she said, crawling into her sheets.
"Oh yea?" Booth asked, climbing into his. It felt cold.
"She said Ian was her Everest, that she knew it had been climbed before but she still enjoyed the climb."
"Huh," Booth said. He wondered why she was telling him this.
"She said I should consider climbing my Everest," Brennan said casually. She looked over at him. Booth got her meaning loud and clear.
"Oh," he said, acting nonchalant. "Are you?"
"I'm thinking about it," she replied. He kept staring at her. Was she really hinting at the fact that she was thinking about having sex with him?
"I see," he said. He felt like he should say more, but he had no idea what.
"I thought maybe after the case I'd have an answer," Brennan went on.
"After the case," Booth repeated. "Yea. Okay. That's fine."
"Goodnight, Booth," she smiled, turning her lamp off.
"Goodnight," he said absently, lying there in the dark. His mind was racing. They were close to solving this case, he could feel it. That meant he was close to getting her answer. At least, he was sure it was an answer about them. It had to be. He didn't want to ask her. He was afraid of her answer.
The Royal Diner-Next Day
Hodgins was sitting there dumbfounded when Zack came in. He still couldn't believe that Angie had just left him.
"What's wrong?" Zack asked. He could clearly pick up Hodgins was upset.
"Angela..." he started. "We...we broke up."
"You broke up?" Zack repeated.
"Yea. She doesn't trust me, and I don't trust her. Who knew?" Hodgins asked.
"I'm sorry." Zack sat there feeling awkward.
"Me too, Zack," Hodgins said. "Me too."
London, England
"Good job face-planting Vera like that," Booth congratulated Brennan as they made their way back to the hotel. They had solved the case, and Booth was feeling anxious.
"I enjoy it when you compliment me," she smiled. He opened the door for her. Brennan nodded to the front desk as they stepped into the elevator.
"So," Booth said once the doors had shut. "About what you said last night..."
"Yes?"
"Do you have an answer?"
Brennan studied him for a moment. He seemed to want what she was offering. If he didn't care for her like that, then he wouldn't, right? She was trying to make it less confusing for herself. Everyone knew relationships were not her best quality. Her phone rang, making her jump. It was Angela. Booth watched her carefully as she sent it to voicemail. He was afraid to ask her again in case it made her change her mind, but he also wanted to know.
"Bones?"
Brennan made up her mind. She dropped her bag and closed the gap between them within seconds, and before Booth realized fully what was happening, she was kissing him. He did not hesitate to return it. Brennan put her all into that kiss. She had him against the elevator wall when the doors dinged and opened. They broke apart quickly, trying to look discreet as an elderly couple looked at them warily from the hall.
"Excuse us," Brennan said, grabbing her bag and pulling Booth behind her.
"Why don't you kiss me like that?" the man asked the woman as they walked away. Both Brennan and Booth bit back their laughter. They fell into her hotel room, and Booth immediately began kissing her again.
"One thing," Brennan said during a pause.
"Mmhmm?" he asked, kissing her neck.
"I don't know where this is going to go," she said. He stopped and looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
"I just...I'm not good with relationships, and Sully left me...fragile," Brennan explained. "More so than I already was. I don't want you to get hurt in this."
"You don't see us having a future together?" Booth asked.
"I don't know that. I can't know that. I'm more of a one day at a time kind of person," she said.
"I see."
"Does that upset you?" she asked, noticing his mood drop a little.
"No. I mean, who really knows if a relationship is going to work out, right?" he asked, laughing a little.
"Exactly! I'm glad you agree," Brennan said.
"I'm the kind of guy who has hope though," Booth finished, looking at her seriously.
"I know. I would like to have that kind of hope too," she said, taking his hand into hers. "Maybe you can help me with that?"
"I'd love to," he smiled.
"Can we just not call this a relationship yet though?" she went on. "I don't want to overthink it and mess things up."
"Just two people who are close and are having sex," Booth said. "I think I can live with that."
"And don't share it with the others," she added.
"Definitely wouldn't dream of it," he replied. She stood there in front of him, looking at him.
"Are you sure you're okay with this agreement?" she asked.
"I'm still here, aren't I?"
"You are," she agreed. She smiled crookedly. Booth moved in and kissed her again. She tasted amazing. He had always imagined what it would be like to do this with her. She wasted no time moving them to her bed. He discovered that even after all the times he'd done this with others, this was like his first time all over again. He didn't want to disappoint her. He loved the way she said his name, clutched at him, and responded to his touch. Brennan was enjoying every moment with him. She didn't consider him her Everest. She considered him as her closest friend with whom she was moving things along with slowly. At the end, they both were just lying there stunned.
"Wow," he said.
"I concur," she laughed.
"You were...you just...wow," he said again.
"You're very good at that," Brennan told him.
"Thanks," he replied. She curled up on her side, resting her head on his chest. He slipped an arm around her.
"I'm glad we did this," she said. "I've been wanting to for a while."
"Really?" he asked. "You never said anything."
"You didn't either!" she pointed out, laughing again.
"It was implied," he smirked.
"Hmm," was all she said. It was a big step for them, she knew that. Booth did too. He knew she was fragile, just like she said. He would be careful. As would she. She didn't want to hurt him either. It was just something they'd have to figure out together.
"Booth?"
"Yea?"
"In the future, don't call me Bones during sex."
"Why not?"
"Because. I start thinking about decomposing corpses, and that doesn't help me get in the mood," she explained. He burst out laughing.
"I didn't even think about that," he said. "So what should I call you?"
"How about Temperance?" she suggested.
"Or Tempe?" he countered.
"I suppose that's all right," she said, nodding.
"Okay, Tempe," he said, smiling. It felt a little strange rolling off his tongue, but he was sure he'd get used to it. Hell, he'd get used to all of this. He just hoped that would be able to give her the hope she so desired when it came to their newfound territory. He was careful not to think of it as a relationship. He'd take this over nothing, and he was sure that someday, somehow, it would go somewhere.