A/N – Thank you so much for reading along. I'm so very grateful, guys.
How could I resist the development in this chapter? Tell me. Because I think it would have been impossible. LOL
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Across the table that holds their victim's bones, Wendell glares at Hodgins, arms crossed tightly against his chest.
"You just had to go and tell Dr. Saroyan…" he says. "That would be bad enough, because it'd be easy enough to trace back to me, but you out and out tell her that it was me you heard it from! Jesus. Dr. Brennan's gonna fire me and then Booth'll shoot me and-"
"Oh, relax, kid," Hodgins laughs. "We were all gonna find out sooner or later. It's not like you spilled national security secrets, okay? No one's going to-"
"But she's up there with him right now," Wendell frets. "You said it yourself – Dr. Saroyan is totally going to confront Booth and he's going to want to know how she knows and she'll rat me out just like that. Because you ratted me out in the first place. I'm screwed."
Hodgins tries to bite back his laughter, coming around the table to clap the younger man on the shoulder. It's times like these that he especially misses Zack – his reaction to an incident like this wouldn't be so mundane, so ordinary, so normal.
"Wendell, man, you're going to be fine. Deep breath, okay?"
Wendell braces his arms on the edge of the table, shaking his head slowly.
"Why did it have to be me, though?" he asks. "Why did I have to overhear that conversation? Why couldn't it have been you… or Dr. Saroyan? Or that weird janitor with the lazy eye? Anyone but me, damn it."
"You were just in the right place at the right time, buddy," Hodgins laughs, but the kid doesn't seem to hear him. He's still shaking his head, looking dazed and panicked.
"I'm trying to decide who I should be more afraid of – Booth or Brennan. I don't think-"
"Why would you be afraid of either of them?" a curious, almost amused voice asks from behind them, and both men turn to see Lance Sweets making his way across the platform.
Wendell immediately straightens up, trying to act as if nothing's amiss, and Hodgins can tell that he doesn't want to be responsible for another person finding out about Booth and Brennan. He feels for the kid – he does – but Wendell's got to realize that this isn't the kind of news that you sit on, particularly when there are people around who've sat through every twist and turn in their relationship and deserve a little payoff in the end.
Sweets looks back and forth between the two men, raising his shoulders expectantly.
"What're you doing here?" Hodgins asks snidely. "I would have thought you'd have your hands pretty full with the latest development in the Booth-Brennan drama… so less time to harass us and all."
"I'm not harassing anyone," Sweets says. "Booth asked me to come by for some profiling. Of the victim this time. To see if maybe it'll help develop some suspects so…" He pauses, cocking his head. "Wait. The latest development in the Booth-Brennan drama? What are you talking about?"
Wendell slinks away to the far side of the exam table, trying to distance himself from the conversation, but Hodgins leans back, making himself comfortable. He senses something interesting happening here and he can't help wanting to see what develops.
"What do you think I'm talking about?" he asks coyly.
"The baby stuff?" Sweets says. "I mean, as I understand it, Dr. Brennan agreed to table that discussion for a while after Agent Booth's illness. Has she decided that she's ready to pursue motherhood once again?"
"The baby stuff?" Hodgins parrots incredulously. "That's old news, man. Seriously old."
Sweets shrugs.
"I'm not aware of any other significant developments in their relationship then. Have they been arguing or something?"
Suddently, this has all become too delicious for words and Hodgins glances over at Wendell, grinning widely and stupidly.
"You believe this?" he asks the intern, who stubbornly averts his eyes and refuses to get involved. Hodgins looks back at Sweets, laughing. "Seriously? You seriously don't know about this?"
"Know about what?"
"When was the last time you saw them? Your last session?"
"Two days ago," Sweets says. He's getting impatient now, annoyed, and he drops his hands to his hips defensively. "Why?"
"Oh, man. You're their damn therapist and you didn't pick up on it! What? Do they just hand out psychology degrees on the street corner in Toronto?"
Sweets clenches his jaw, looking as pissed as Hodgins has ever seen him. He's probably pushing a little too hard but the irony here is just too much.
"Again," Sweets says, and it almost sounds like he's gritting his teeth. "What are you talking about?"
"Okay," Hodgins chuckles. "Okay. Someone's got to clue you in or it's just cruel…" He straightens up, looking Sweets in the eye. "Booth and Brennan? You know, the people you're writing a book about? The people whose behavior and relationship you spend hours analyzing and picking apart? You know, *those* two?" He pauses and it's solely for dramatic effect but he can't help himself. "They're knocking boots, buddy."
He reaches out to cuff Sweets on the arm, just to punctuate his revelation. Sweets stares back at him blankly for a moment, as if he doesn't quite understand what he's heard. But then his eyes widen and his mouth drops open and there's no doubt that he's understood.
"Excuse me?" he chokes out. "Are you trying to tell me… are you saying… They're having *sex*?! For real? With each other?"
Hodgins nods, laughing gleefully.
"And right under your nose, man. How did you miss that?"
Sweets looks over at Wendell almost helplessly, like his entire world view has been shaken to the core and he needs someone to piece it back together for him. The intern looks away, though, still determined to keep quiet.
"Are you sure about this?" Sweets asks, looking back at Hodgins. "Because we did an exercise about personal boundaries the other day and there were no indications that anything had changed for them in that regard. I mean, I didn't…"
"Well, if it's any consolation," Hodgins says. "They've been keeping it on the down low. Still, you'd think that a trained psychologist, someone who's trying to make a career out of observing their behavior patterns, would pick up on it…"
Sweets looks up at him in a panic, as if he's thinking the exact same thing, and frowns.
"Are you sure? You're absolutely sure?"
"We're sure." Hodgins looks over at Wendell. "Right, man?"
Wendell shakes his head.
"I'm not saying anything. One way or another."
Hodgins rolls his eyes, and looks back at Sweets.
"Wendell's the one who overheard the conversation that blew the whole thing out of the water," he explains. "So we-"
"Would you stop telling everyone that!" Wendell hisses, but Sweets ignores him, staring at Hodgins rather intensely.
"How long?" he asks. "How long has this been going on?"
Good question, Hodgins thinks, and once more he looks over at Wendell. The kid throws his hands up, frustrated but realizing that he's not going to get out of this easily.
"I have no idea," he says. "I only heard a small part of Dr. Brennan and Angela's conversation. And then I tried to get out of there as fast as I could…"
Sweets nods.
"You overheard Dr. Brennan? She hasn't actually told anyone this?"
"Well, she obviously told Angela," Hodgins says.
"But that's it, right?" Sweets asks, and Hodgins nods. "What about Booth? Is he talking to anyone?"
"Nope. Cam's probably confronting him about it as we speak, though, so maybe she'll have some new info when she's done…"
Sweets bobs his head again, but it's almost incoherently and he braces himself against the exam table, just as Wendell had earlier. He shakes his head, and it's like someone's kicked his damn puppy. The kid looks wrecked – and even Hodgins feels a twinge of sympathy for him.
"I can't believe they didn't tell me," he mutters.
"Hey, Sweets. Come on. Lots of people aren't completely honest with their therapists. They don't want to admit to-"
"But I'm not just their therapist," Sweets protests. "And you and Cam, you're not just their co-workers. We all know that – even if we rarely acknowledge it."
Hodgins shrugs.
"That's true, man. But it's their life. At the end of the day, they don't really owe us anything."
Sweets whips his head up, meeting Hodgins' gaze. He looks at the older man like he's nuts, like he's spouting another crazy conspiracy theory and it's about time they fitted him for straitjacket. But Sweets just shakes his head again and somehow manages to school his features into a bland expression once more.
"This isn't healthy behavior," he declares. "And as their therapist, I cannot in good conscience sit back and allow it to go unacknowledged." He nods once, almost to himself. "Excuse me."
He turns and heads down the stairs in a hurry, right in the direction of Dr. Brennan's office. Hodgins laughs again, already imagining how that conversation might go.
"I'm dead," Wendell says. "Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth are going to be forced to talk about their sex lives with Sweets. They're going to kill me…"
"They'll probably be able to get away with it too," Hodgins teases. "Since they know all the ways to get caught."
"This is all your fault. You can't keep your big mouth shut, can you?"
Hodgins shakes his head, smiling.
"The problem is, everyone is taking this whole thing way too seriously," he says. "For once, it's not all life and death and bones and maggots around here. You'd think people would appreciate that for a change..."
But apparently he works with a bunch of drama queens – and they're just no fun at all.