*Later that night*
Outside Brennan's apartment, a man stood in the shadows just outside the reach of the light. He looked at a picture, then squinted towards the man approaching the front door. *It's a match* He quickly moved to intercept the man before he could get inside the building. "Hey, how you doing?" "Um, good, sorry, do I know you?" The other man looked confused, and slightly preoccupied. He wasn't paying very much attention until the mysterious man said, "No, you don't know me, but you do know someone very close to me. I can't let you into this building, Sully." "Wha- how do you know my name? Who do you think you are to prevent me from going into this building? I am an FBI agent, and I am telling you to move and let me through!" Sully said, and rather pompously too, the man thought. "Unless you getting through pertains to a case, I don't HAVE to let you ANYWHERE. And, I'm a relative of Tempe's. That's all you need to know." Sully looked puzzled for a moment, then said, "Aren't all of Tempe's relatives missing or dead? And how do you know me going up there doesn't pertain to a case?" "Just a guess. Leave now. You might be allowed to see her some other time. I can guarantee that you won't be getting past me tonight." Sully looked like he was going to argue some more, but decided against it, thinking he would just go to the Jeffersonian the next day, and left. Max smiled at the frustration apparent on the agents face. *Booth was right* Max thought with a chuckle, *He is short.* He looked towards Russ's car where Russ was waiting for his turn at "guard duty." *There is no way that man is going to see my daughter until Booth gets a chance to talk to her.*
Booth parked in Brennan's apartment parking lot, trying to get up the nerve to go upstairs and tell her Sully was back. He finally heaved a big sigh, got out, and walked to the door. He gave a nod to Max, who nodded back. "Sully show up?" Booth asked. "Yeah, but it wasn't too difficult to get him to go away," Max replied. "Good." With that, Booth walked through the door and went up to Brennan's apartment. He looked at his watch to see what time it was, and winced when he realized just how late it was. He knocked on the door anyway, not wanting Sully to have a chance to ambush her before he talked to her. He was more than slightly surprised when she answered the door promptly after his knock. "Hey." "Booth, what are you doing here?" Brennan questioned, silently relieved that he was no longer avoiding her. She moved aside to let him in, then shut the door. Booth walked over and stood by the couch, feeling too anxious to sit down. "We need to talk, Bones. It's important, and that's why I came here so late," Booth answered. Brennan was a little nervous when she asked, "What about? Is something wrong?" "Well, not necessarily wrong, but it is something you should be aware of. Cullen wants me to go on a mission for a little while, says I'm the best for the job. He wants me to convince you to work with someone else while I'm gone," Booth answered, somewhat quickly. Brennan wasn't happy that he would be leaving, but if it was just a short while, she could deal with a new agent. "Ok, but somehow I don't think that's all of it. What else is going on?" she inquired, certain that this wasn't the only reason he was in her apartment. "It's Sully, Bones. That's the agent you would be working with. He's back," Booth said, wondering how she could tell something else was up. He watched Brennan very carefully, wondering how she would react. "Well, I'm sure I could work with him, if he could deal with it." Booth was slightly surprised, but not really at the same time. He feared that they would get together again while working on the cases. "Ok, I'll tell Cullen that everything's ok, and get ready for my trip. I'll only be gone a couple weeks, most likely. It could be up to a month or so, so….." Booth's sentence kinda petered out as he realized he would be gone and he would miss his Bones. A LOT. "Are you ok Booth? You look kinda sad," Brennan asked, concerned about her partner. "I mean, if you don't want me to work with Sully, I won't. I could handle not working cases for a while." "Well, Cullen said that if I couldn't convince you to work with Sully, he could send Sully on the mission and I could keep working with you," Booth said, still torn between the options. "But you want to go on this mission to make sure it's done right, don't you?" Brennan asked, knowing her partner all too well. If something went wrong and he had let Sully go on the mission, he would blame himself for it all, thinking if he had been there it would have been ok. "Yeah, I do. But I don't want you to work with Sully. I want to work with you." Brennan could tell Booth was torn, but couldn't figure out what she should do. She decided to talk to Angela for advice before she decided on a plan of action. "Ok, I'll think about it, and call you later with my decision. Ok Booth?" Booth nodded, and left.