Same disclaimers apply! Just a quick heads up, this chapter is rated M for moderately explicit sexual content toward the end. Enjoy!
"Miss Wells, may I have a word, please?" Temperance Brennan looked up from her computer to catch a glimpse of her intern clicking her black suede heels toward the lab exit. Her testimony in court was a success, and Mrs. Harding had been sentenced for 25 years for premeditated first-degree murder, while Jackson had been charged with obstruction of justice and placed on probation.
"Sure," Kylie nodded, turning directions. "What's up?"
"I believe I've misjudged you," Brennan sighed, folding her hands on her desk. "You clearly have experience that I was unaware of when I first hired you. I pride myself in using facts and logic to make reasonable, sound conclusions, but I failed to use either in my initial assessment of you. And for that, I owe you an apology."
"Please," Kylie shook her head with a smile. "I'm not completely off the hook, either. I mean, I definitely could've given you less attitude. I guess that's where my youth comes in. I've always had a problem with that."
"You've been through a lot, Miss Wells. You had your reasons for not discussing your background that I should have clued into," the forensic anthropologist said. "Having lost both of your parents when you were barely into your teenage years can't have been easy for you."
"Wait a sec, who told you that?" Kylie demanded. If it was Booth again, she was going to have a word with him; if it was Lance who spilled the beans, there was no way in hell they were having sex again until he gave her a good reason for telling Doctor Brennan without her consent (although that was no longer necessary since he was no longer her psychologist); if it was…no. He wouldn't…would he?
"Zack…but I told him…why?"
"Only because I asked him to," Brennan assured her intern. "You and I share a similar trait in keeping our personal backgrounds to ourselves unless we absolutely trust the person, it becomes relevant to a case, or it becomes a life-or-death situation. Interpersonal communications aren't my strong point, and I wasn't comfortable confronting you directly, therefore I went to the person who was most familiar with you."
"I see," Kylie nodded.
"I lost my mother too," the taller woman went on. "I understand what it's like to have your demeanor often misconstrued because you appear to lack…humanity."
"Or you just do a good job of hiding it, so nobody sees how hurt you really are," Kylie offered.
"That would be an accurate deduction," Dr. Brennan agreed. "I'm also sorry for discrediting you on the grounds that you lack a doctorate, when there is obviously more to you than that."
"It's understandable. You're the best in your field, and to be the best, you believe that one must receive the highest degree of education possible, in addition to experiencing as many areas as possible, which is how you got to where you are now. Statistically, you'd be correct; for most of the general population in the largest part of a normal distribution curve, it would take far more field experience and advanced study to work in a high-stakes environment like this one. I happen to be one of the exceptions."
"That was very logical of you, Miss Wells," Doctor Brennan gave her an impressed smile. "It appears I've taught you well."
"I learned from the best," Kylie beamed. "Which is why I'm quitting."
"Quitting?" Brennan echoed her words. As much as she hated to admit it, once she got past her headstrong, direct attitude, Kylie Wells had come to be her favorite intern. Her methods were unconventional, yet still decently logical, and there was no denying that she was very well-rounded.
"I applied for the position because Zack told me you were looking for a new assistant, and since Zack'll be coming back, seems like you don't really need me," Kylie shrugged.
"But you have proven yourself in more ways than one, Miss Wells. You're very innovative, resourceful, and extremely hard-working, which isn't something I see every day in my interns. I'm afraid I can't let you quit without a logical explanation."
"Are you kidding me, Doctor Brennan?" Kylie raised her eyebrows. "You treated me like crap. You had to resort to putting the case in my inexperienced hands to convince yourself that I was capable. One apology isn't going to make things better just like that. I know you don't believe in luck, but you're very lucky that it was me you put through that, because you could've screwed someone over big time. If you'd done that with any of your other interns, this case would've been fucked and you know it. I loved working with everyone. I really did, but your approval matters the most to me. So with all due respect, I'd rather work somewhere where I feel respected, and let Zack get the credit he deserves. He's your prodigy. You can't deny that, and I don't want to take that away from you. It's been an honor, Doctor Brennan."
Kylie turned on her heels once more, swallowing back tears. She genuinely enjoyed working at the Jeffersonian; for the first time, she felt like she had a family. An unconventional one, yes, but a family nonetheless. She'd spent most of her life fighting for what she wanted; she wasn't sure how much longer she could do it. If every day was going to be like those she spent leading their last case, she was pretty sure her paycheck would be going towards extra sessions with Melina, her new shrink, instead of toward her postgrad degrees.
"Kylie?" Camille Saroyan looked at the young girl in surprise. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing," Kylie shook her head.
"You might be a walking lie detector, but you should know by now you're a terrible liar," Cam smiled, gesturing her to sit on the bench next to her. "Now talk to me."
"I just told Doctor Brennan I quit," she replied blankly.
Kylie watched in confusion as Cam laughed quietly to herself.
"Why are you laughing?"
"Miss Wells," she breathed through her chuckles. "If you quit, you're gonna have to go through me. Doctor Brennan might be a lot of things, but the boss isn't one of them. Besides, I'm not letting you. You're too good of an asset to us. But if it's what you want…"
"Doctor Brennan hates me," Kylie cut her off. "You saw how she talked to me, what she had to do to convince herself that I was fit for the job. I don't know if I could put up with that every day."
"Look," Cam sighed. "Doctor Brennan has been unstable since the Gormogon incident, and when you came along, she was still hurting, even if she looked and sounded fine. It didn't really help that you and Zack are as close as you are, but for the rest of us, it kinda brightened the place up."
"But now that Zack's back, there isn't really a place for me here anymore," Kylie said. "I only found out about the job opening because of him. Plus, I have a couple doctorates that I'd like to start as soon as possible, now that I know what I want to do."
"You can do both," the head of the Jeffersonian forensics division replied easily. "I know Zack did, but just between us, with the way you work, you'd probably finish faster than he did, if that convinces you. What were you thinking of studying?"
"Biology and forensics. During my time here, I found that I was more suited for those than forensic anthropology," Kylie answered honestly. "But don't tell Doctor Brennan that."
"It's too late for that," the forensic anthropologist interrupted the two of them, having heard the bulk of their conversation. "Miss Wells, your resentment toward me is perfectly rational. I have given you more than enough reason to make you to feel that way. From your attitude, it appears that you are capable of holding a grudge, and I don't blame you. But your presence here hasn't had a negative impact on our work environment, and…I'd like you to stay."
"And you're sure this isn't because you heard me telling Cam I wanted to start my two doctorates?"
"That's Doctor Saroyan, Miss Wells," Brennan corrected her intern.
"No, that's okay," Cam waved her hand. "One syllable is better than five. Especially if she's going to be my new assistant."
Kylie couldn't believe her ears. Her new assistant? "Doctor Sar…Cam," she began, struggling to speak. "You don't…are you sure?"
"Positive," the caramel-skinned woman beamed. "With the way things get around here, I could use an assistant. I think you'll find our methods to be quite similar. Minus the psychology-profiling stuff, though. I've never really studied any of that. But with you around, Sweets won't have to be around all the time."
"What's wrong with Lance?" Kylie got defensive of her boyfriend before realizing her mistake. Neither of them had told anyone that they were official yet. Fuck, she panicked internally. It was an accident, Lance, I promise!
"Ha!" Angela marched in triumphantly with Hodgins and Zack closely following her. "Hodgins owes me thirty bucks!"
"You were betting on me? What are you, twelve?"
"I'm sorry, Kylie, but the evidence was all there," Zack replied. "Angela saw it."
"What are you talking about?" No. No way. There was no way any of them could've seen that, she insisted to herself. Nobody puts a camera in the janitor's closet…do they?
"Sweetie, there's something you should see," Angela brought her over to her computer room, where she pulled up a video from exactly four days ago, at about 10:30 in the evening.
"It's about fucking time," Kylie moaned as she breathed heavily as she felt Lance's cool hands slowly make their way up her plaid flannel shirt and onto her breasts.
"I have a confession to make," Lance stopped suddenly.
"What is it?" she frowned.
"During our sessions, all I could think about was you on me," he breathed, as Kylie's lips made their way to his neck. "Or me on you, depending on who's thinking what," he smiled at the sucking sensation.
"Oh you have no idea," Kylie shook her head, pulling his head toward her for a slow, deep make-out before they started unbuttoning each other's pants. "Whenever we talked about all my personal issues during our sessions, I was determining the most comfortable positions to do it in your office, factoring in the firmness of the chair and couch, the length and width of your desk, the body angles required by the potential positions, our heights and weights so that we wouldn't break anything, and noise level so that we wouldn't get caught."
"You really are Zack's best friend," he chuckled. "So what are they?"
"Where's the fun in that?" she giggled as Lance made his way down to her lower half. "We'll just have to try them all."
"How many are there?" he laughed, half-excited and half-impressed that she'd come up with all that.
"Again, not telling," Kylie kept mum. This was going to be fun.
"I hate you," he grumbled playfully.
"No, you don't," she pushed him lightly as she wrapped one leg around his.
"You know, Lance," she looked up at him, a one-sided grin plastered on her face. "It's a little hot in here, this being a janitor's closet and all."
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" his dimples appeared on his cheeks as he waited for her response.
"I wish I didn't have any clothes on right now," she tiptoed to whisper in his ear, biting on his ear afterwards.
"I don't really want mine on, either," he smiled at her words. "So is it gonna be me, Miss Minogue?"
"All day, every day, Mr. Bass," she licked his half-exposed chest while he dropped his pants to the floor, and quickly slipped on a condom.
They proceeded to exchange a mixture of yelps, moans, groans, and screams as they experimented with various positions, given their confined space and dim lighting.
"You know," the FBI psychologist gasped and grabbed her surprisingly muscular thighs as she proceeded to full-on straddle him, "if I get fired because of our experiment, you're responsible for finding me another job."
"Looks like we'll have to be sneaky, then," she giggled again, lightly kissing her way up and down his upper half.
"I can do sneaky," he smirked, smoothing his hands downward along her body and preparing to go in for the big finish.
"Is that the best you can do?" Kylie challenged him, pulling harder on his hair and massaging his legs with hers.
"Are you kidding? That was a warm-up. Patience, young one…"
By the time the video had finished, Kylie was standing in front of the screen, frozen and unable to speak. She'd felt violated, sure; she'd never dreamed in a million years of having a sex tape, but truth be told, she was more embarrassed than anything else. To think about what was going through their heads while watching them…especially Zack's head, of all people, watching his best friend and his former psychologist have sex.
"Who else has seen this?" she croaked.
"Sweetie, it's not a big deal, I promise," Angela gave her a hug. "I can even give it to you if it'll make you feel better. But for the future, if you and Sweets ever need a little getaway, there's this really cozy bed down in Egyptology. No cameras, I promise. Trust me, I don't know why they'd put one in there, either."
"Wait," Kylie's face lit up mischievously. "Who? You and Hodgins…?"
"Mhmm," the artist smiled, recalling her first time with Hodgins in the closet.
"Oh, my God," the youngest girl's face was now a deep red from trying not to laugh. "How was it?"
"Amazing," she beamed. "He does this amazing thing that makes you go nuts…I can't even begin to describe it, but it's on page 187 of Doctor Brennan's second book if you're interested. First, he..."
"Can you both stop?" Zack cut them off. "Watching Kylie and Sweets have intercourse was disturbing enough."
"Sorry, Sweetie," Angela went over to ruffle the genius's mop of brown hair.
"You're still my best friend, Zack," Kylie assured him, giving him a quick squeeze around his waist, followed by a kiss on the cheek.
"Yes, I know," he returned her hug, patting her on the back lightly with a gloved hand. "But it doesn't remove what I saw, or make it any less disturbing."
"If it makes you feel any better, it's my fault," the half-Asian girl added. "If it weren't for the bet, I wouldn't have found this."
"Wouldn't have found what?" Cam popped her head in.
"Nothing," the three of them replied, putting on their best poker faces for their boss.
"Firefly and Doctor Who marathon at my place, anyone?" Hodgins popped in after her with a grin. "Call Sweets up, too. Drinks on me!"
So I've officially decided that this will be the second-to last chapter before the epilogue (which I've already planned). There's still one more thing that needs tying up, and this chapter was already getting long enough as it was. Hope you enjoyed it! And 42 followers?! Y'all are the best! Thank you!
