So here it is. Chapter 6 is almost finished too, so that will be up as soon as I can post it.

Thanks again for the encouragement!

.

.

CHAPTER 5

.

Things were suddenly much more complicated.

For the first time Booth turned to exchange a look with me. However, instead of surprise, dread, or fear (a combination of which I was feeling now) he looked reassuring, secure.

"That's my girl." He seemed to agree with the suspect. "Now back off."

Bram raised his eyebrows. He was still standing, feet separated a bit more than normal (indicating confidence) and arms crossed (defensiveness). He was taller than I was, about Booth's height, with close cropped blonde hair and clear blue eyes. But he wasn't attractive, and even if he had been I wouldn't have thought him so. He repulsed me.

I decided that Booth had a plan with this, and that I must stick to it. A name sounded in my mind as if someone had just whispered it in my ear: "Roxie...".

I smiled at Booth like we shared a secret, and he grinned back. If I hadn't known him so well, I wouldn't have detected the minute facial details that told me he was acting. Booth didn't grin during a suspect detaining.

"Fine."

And to my immense surprise, it was this that got Bram to stand against the wall. Something to do with psychology, no doubt.

"Good. Cooperating makes you look a bit less like the stupidest killer in the world, Frank."

"Why thank you."

I wondered what happened now. Could we just cuff Bram? He was a suspect for the murder of Lily Sanders, the second victim. What had happened in here? Why wasn't he armed? He hadn't even tried to hurt Mrs Stoker, but she'd sounded afraid… and Booth had told me she had reason to be.

"What happened, ma'am if you don't mind?" Booth asked the woman. She was still standing against the wall, but she was leaning against it looking rather calm. In fact, she looked confident.

"He told me he hadn't killed those women."

I looked at Bram, hating him. He was a gardener, and he'd worked as a groundsman in the school where Lily Sanders had taught. I blinked and behind my eyes the image of her stress fractures was ready to remind me how much she'd suffered. Stab wounds in fourth and fifth vertebrae. And he'd sent her love letters, even though she was married… Lily had died a painful death. And this man could be her killer. Motive and means.

Just no evidence. Not a single trace; hair, skin, fingerprints, particulates we could tie to him… nothing.

All we knew was that he'd claimed to love one of the victims (had worked close to her) and now said he loved a woman who looked like a potential victim, yet hadn't been harmed in any way.

We had nothing but motive for one of three almost exact murders. The fact that they were exact told us it was the same killer, yet he didn't know the other two women. So this motive was nothing, too.

"Is that right? You didn't harm a soul, did you?" Booth shot Bram a disgusted look, gun still pointing at him. "Bones, cuff this idiot." There was a flash of metal and I caught the cuffs he'd thrown at me. I walked to Frank and pulled his arms behind him, pulling exactly the way I knew would hurt the most. Tense ligaments could be painful…

"Ouch! You're a strong cop girl, aren't you?"
"That was for Lily."

Booth finally lowered his gun and I walked back to his side.

"Margaret? Could you tell me why he scared you?"

I knew Frank Bram had worked as a gardener for Margaret Stoker for two months, before he was fired for inappropriate behaviour. He began leaving her love letters telling her to leave Mr Stoker.

She fit his type exactly: tall, mid forties, brunette, beautiful. Married. Or at least she had been when he began sending those letters.

"Just… he creeped me out." Her eyes darted everywhere but at the man standing to her right. "He told me he loved me. That he knew what Kev, my ex-husband… that he knew what Kev had done. And that's impossible. No one knows. Only me and the Agents I told. How…?" now she did turn to Bram. "You can't know. You're lying." She turned back to me and Booth. "He said he'd hurt my husband if the men Kev had been working for tried to hurt me! Kevin was a bad man, but he deserves prison, not death!"

"It's okay, everything's over now. Come with us, backup is a block away. They'll take him. Dr Brennan will take you to the WP House, where you'll be given a new temporary address."

"Thank you, Agent Booth."

I led her outside, while Booth grabbed Bram.

As we walked away I heard the their voices:

"… so she's not a cop. Interesting." Bram was saying.

"Shut up and forget her. Don't even think about it. She's my girl, and if you so much as blink at her I swear…"

The deep menace in his voice had me rolling my eyes. His girl… please.

No, really.

Please.

*

"… have decided to let the suspect, Frank Bram, believe the Agent and Dr Brennan have a romantic relationship. This is due to circumstances which forced me to lie in order to control the suspect."

"I still don't understand why you said that."

"But after I did he listened to us, didn't he?"

"Yes. But I don't know why."

We were sitting in Booth's office and he was writing his report about last night. It was the next day at eight in the morning. After we finished I'd go back to work at the Jeffersonian; this was our only case, and Booth wasn't interrogating Frank Bram until tomorrow morning. We would see each other tonight, however, because Sweets wanted to meet us in the Diner.

"Why would us being together change his attitude?"

Booth took a deep breath and looked at me. I sat up straighter, understanding that he was going to explain. And that it wouldn't be simple.

Psychology again.

"He thinks he loves them, Bones. Lily got letters. The others; Sandra, Helen, Jeannie, they got roses, or chocolates, even though we can't prove he sent them. And then he kills because his love turns to hate the moment he feels betrayed. Maybe she's tired and her smile isn't as radiant as usual. Or she answers his good morning with a nod and not a sentence. Maybe she wears a ponytail and he likes her hair down. Or maybe her husband comes to say hi, and they kiss. I don't know. And it's disgusting, but his entire lunacy is built on an illusion of feelings. He thinks that what he feels is like what everyone else does. He thinks he understands relationships."

"So you made him relate with you?"

"Exactly."

I was very impressed.

"Bones… I'm going to write that the rain was the reason we didn't see Bram enter the building. Just so you know, in case someone asks…"

"What? You're going to blatantly lie to the FBI?"

"It's not… why do you have to say it like that? I have to lie."

"No you don't."

"Oh, I don't? What would you have me write, then? You'd prefer they just split us up, wouldn't you…?"

"Of course not!"

"Then what do you want me to write?"

I tried to find the words. I searched and searched… but I found nothing.

"What? No ideas, Bones? Should I write 'Agent was so overcome by the sound of Dr Brennan's breathing inside the confined space, the rise and fall of her chest that he couldn't help but….'"

"No." I cut him off before the finished the sentence. And I had to tell myself a couple of times that this was a good thing.

There was a terrible moment when he didn't speak, and neither did I, and I was breathing so my chest did rise and fall… until I remembered how to think and broke the silence.

"All right, I understand your reasoning. But… Bram saw us."

"Bram thinks we're a couple."

"The FBI doesn't. They think we lied to Bram." I said, willing him to understand.

There was a pause.

"Oh."

What if Bram told someone about us? He didn't know that the information was valuable to him because he thought the FBI was aware of our relationship. A small slip during a stakeout wasn't exactly bargaining or blackmail material.

But the possible severance of our partnership if anyone found out was. We weren't allowed to have a romantic relationship. It was counter productive, and in the field, it could become very dangerous.

"What do we do?" He asked, looking doubtful.

"The truth." I answered without hesitation. Truth was always the most important.

"No. The truth will get the same results than if Bram tells on us."

"Fine, then let's just hope he won't."

"Don't use sarcasm, it sounds weird coming from you." I flinched. His words were sharp and they cut.

"Oh come on, Booth, we have to do something. Propose a solution."

"Let me think, okay?"

I let him.

"Got it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'll write that, to maintain the illusion we'd created, I kissed you."

"But I kissed you…" it had been so much more, the word fell short. "… before we had to make that up in the first place."

"I know. But they don't. I don't think Bram will be keen on the timing. And he doesn't know either."

Oh.

And now I understood.

.

.

.

.

Reviewing will make Chapter 6 come faaaaster! And Chapter 6 is... ah, but you have to review and find out!

;)