A/N: Thank you, as always, to everyone who's still reading along. You guys are amazing.

I'm kind of partial to this chapter. I like when I get to write B&B in the same scene. LOL

----------------------------

"Okay, so you're a scientist… you need proof of pretty much everything."

Booth charges into her office, as agitated as he's ever been at the Jeffersonian. Still, he remembers to close the door behind him because he's not taking any more chances – no one's going to overhear this damn conversation.

"Well, I've got it for you now," he declares. "Proof. That I was right last night when I told you if we kept things private, there'd be much less trouble. I was completely right."

Bones looks up from her computer calmly. She's no doubt picked up on his mood, but she's always such a cool customer. If she's noticed his frantic, aimless pacing, just in front of her desk, she's not mentioning it.

"What are you talking about?"

He comes to a stand still and drops his hands to his hips, meeting her gaze directly.

"Cam knows."

"Cam knows what?"

He sighs, throwing up his hands.

"Oh, come on, Bones! She *knows.* She knows about us."

He starts pacing again because it seems the only way to work off all the frustration and tension that skittering through him. Bones studies him for a moment, eyes following each agitated step he takes, and then shrugs.

"Oh," she says blandly. "That." She cocks her head and he could swear she's squinting at him. "You told her?"

He freezes again, gaping at her incredulously.

"No! Of course, I didn't tell her. Why would even think that?"

"Well," she begins, leaning back in her chair. "She's your friend in much the same way that Angela is mine so it only makes sense that there would be things that you'd like to share with her." Bones pauses, her eyes narrowing even further in concentration. "Did you think that I might be concerned because you used to have a sexual relationship with Cam? Because I'm not. I trust you, Booth."

He shakes his head, not even wanting to go there right now.

"No, no. It's not that. I just-"

"Wait. If you didn't tell her, then how did she find out? Because I have every confidence that Angela has kept quiet on the subject. She understands how you feel."

He sighs, lifting his shoulders tiredly.

"I don't know how Cam found out. She wouldn't say. But if she knows, then it's probably a safe bet that they all know…" He pauses, remembering his morning, and the pieces click into place. "I was in the lounge before and Wendell was acting really strange. Telling me how great you are… God, he must know too."

Bones nods, a little too knowingly for Booth's tastes.

"Yes. He very well may. Earlier, Angela and I were having a conversation about some of your sexual preferences and there is a significant chance that Wendell may have overheard at least a portion of it."

Booth groans, covering his face with hands.

"You've got to be kidding me!" he mutters. "See! This is exactly why you don't go discussing our sex life in the middle of your office, okay? This is exactly what discretion is for – to prevent things like this from happening."

She scrunches her face up in a dubious expression, one that he'd probably find sexy if he weren't so damn flustered, and shrugs.

"I'm sorry but I honestly do not see why you're making such an issue of this. Obviously, this isn't the ideal way for everyone to find out but it's not as if-"

"Why am I making such an issue of this?" he says. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I'm here trying to do my job and then I get accosted by Cam, demanding all these answers about stuff that's none of her business. Asking me why we're sneaking around – like I'm having an affair with my secretary. I think those were her exact words…"

Bones smiles, her expression so serene and lovely that he almost forgets what he's so annoyed about. He could fall into those eyes, he thinks. Just drift away and never be heard from again.

"Honestly," she says, sounding almost amused. "I wonder those same things myself sometimes."

He looks up at her, startled, and frowns.

"Bones. I didn't mean…"

What exactly is his problem, he wonders. This woman is at the heart of everything he says, does, and feels and he's never done a particularly good job of hiding that fact. It shouldn't be this hard to just admit it, to shout it from the rooftops like Cam suggested. He sighs, slinking off the corner of the office and slouching back against her bookcase. She comes to him almost immediately, stepping between his legs and resting her hands against his shoulders. Their bodies are pressed together and anyone passing by could probably see, despite the fact that they're tucked away in a far corner of the room, but he doesn't care.

He looks down into her lovely face and couldn't care less what the rest of the world sees or thinks or feels.

"I'm sorry," she says. "I'm sorry if everyone knowing makes you uncomfortable. It was not my intention to embarrass you when I had that conversation with Angela."

He nods, pulling her even closer.

"I know that, Bones. And I'm not really that upset. I just…" He cocks his head, stroking his thumb along her cheek. "I want to do this right. I don't want to screw it up."

"Why would our friends knowing screw anything up?" she asks.

As usual, she gets to the heart of the matter quicker than anyone he knows.

"I don't know," he tells her. "I don't…" He laughs, shaking his head. "I know, I know. I'm being irrational. But I gotta tell you, Bones – you make me do that a lot. You drive me absolutely crazy."

She grins, looking absolutely pleased with his admission, and he loves her like this, when she's so girlish and giggly that he can imagine what she might have been like before her parents disappeared.

"The feeling is mutual," she says happily. "I'm never more irrational than when I'm with you."

"Hmmm," he chuckles. "I think there's a compliment in there somewhere..."

"There is. It means that when I'm with you, I often forget about reason and logic entirely. And that's actually quite liberating. And exciting."

He flushes and it occurs to him that they might be more similar than they think.

At least in this they are.

"You kind of excite me too," he teases. "Just a little bit."

He leans in for a kiss and she tastes so dark and rich and feels so warm and firm and he wonders, not for the first time, how he held out for four damn years. It was beyond masochistic.

"You know, there are benefits to everyone knowing," she whispers against his mouth, tugging on his tie for emphasis.

He grins.

"Oh yeah?" He kisses her again, taking his time. "Like what?"

"Well, if everyone already knows, we can do this…" She kisses him this time, slow and deep and dizzying, until he's desperate for breath. "Whenever we'd like…"

"That is a very good point," he says. "You really are a genius…"

He slides his mouth against hers once more, but she squirms away just when it's getting interesting, giggling and slapping his hands away when he tries to tug her back.

"But I do want to respect your discomfort with public displays of affection," she says cheekily. "So it's probably best if we refrain here at the office."

He makes a strangled sound, halfway between a groan and a laugh, and struggles to stand up.

"Oh, you are so gonna get it later …"

She grins at him from behind her desk once more.

"Promises, promises."

They gaze at one another across the office, the world still and forgotten once more. He thinks that they're both probably smiling like fools and he feels them slipping into one of those moments that seems like it could stretch on into eternity, so simple and easy and-

Until, of course, the office door is unceremoniously flung open, and they both look away from one another and toward the hall, where Sweets stands, looking like a kicked, wounded puppy.

"Well, well, well," he says, almost snidely. "If it isn't my two most prized patients…"

Bones furrows her brow, frowning.

"You sound as if you're surprised. It's my office. Wouldn't you expect to find us here?"

Sweets nods, stepping into the room.

"Well, yes. Logically speaking, it is a safe assumption that I could find you in your office, Dr. Brenna. Agent Booth, however, is less predictable." He smirks, a sharpness in his expression that is so uncharacteristic of him. "But then again, since you two are joined at the hip, it's not entirely surprising now, is it?"

Booth laughs.

"Okay, what the hell is wrong, Sweets? You're a lot crankier than usual."

"Cranky?" Sweets says. "Why would I possibly be cranky?"

He looks back and forth between Booth and Bones expectantly, like the question was more than rhetorical. They look at one another in confusion, but this only seems to set the younger man off and he throws his hands up, huffing out a frustrated breath.

"I mean, it couldn't possibly be because two patients that I trust and believed that I'd come to develop a rapport with, two patients who know full well that my manuscript revolves around the nature of their interpersonal relationship, have been hiding something from me that is so significant, so momentous, that it completely changes everything about said relationship. And they've done so deliberately and purposefully…" He shakes his head, grinning humorlessly. "I mean, surely a man who's not engaged in a romantic relationship with his colleague would not inform me - just two days ago, mind you - that it wasn't really necessary to discuss intimacy issues in therapy because –" He stops to curl his fingers through the air in mock quotes. "'Those issues don't apply to Bones and me.'"

Booth groans, covering his eyes with hands.

"Damn it, just shoot me now. Sweets knows, too."