"The Object of My Affection" - Chapter 61
Title: Object of my Affection
Author: Shannon - shannyfish
Disclaimer: I do not own “Bones” or its characters, Fox does. This is merely for entertainment purposes only.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Booth and Brennan must struggle with not only the Grad Students trying to take Zack’s old position, but also help get through a tragic end.
Warning: Post Season Three - “Pain in the Heart”. Would take place during Season Four, probably mid to late. Warning! Do not start reading this unless you plan on reading all…like…one hundred chapters (it might be that many…might not…). This will be an epic/saga-type fic and shall include all kinds of fun plot twists. The rating of this story will most likely fluctuate, FYI.
Chapter 61 - “Blast from the Past”
Author’s Note: Calm down people about Sully...I have 40 more chapters at the very most in order to deal with Sully/Brennan/Booth triangle ;) I am still warning about my writing hiatus, I have quite a lot of work to do in order to graduate this semester and its all boiling down to about these last four weeks...but since there was such an uproar over the last chapter, I figured I’d be good and write 61 since technically I-okay when I started it it was spring break...now it’s just...my brain is thinking like 20 or so chapters ahead...
Trailer #1: h t t p : // www . mediafire . com / ?20w12iod0dd
Hopefully this all shows us, just remove the spaces : )
*~*~*
Jeffersonian
“Okay, what’s going on?” Cam finally asked Doctor Brennan. “Booth mentioned something was going on, but he didn’t have time to tell me exactly what was going on. So, what’s going on? Angela’s not here, why not talk to me?”
Brennan chewed her bottom lip as she thought over the offer. Doctor Saroyan had obviously caught onto her because of her unusual behavior. The remains were not going to be released to Doctor Brennan for some time and she knew that. Maybe it was just being in the Jeffersonian that was a comfort. “Angela said I could call her if I really needed her, but I really don’t feel like this is appropriate.”
“So tell me,” Cam prompted as she stopped what she was doing. “What’s going on?”
“Booth and I are going to look at this really great house in Virginia later,” Brennan said. She couldn’t bring herself to bring up Sully just yet. Cam hadn’t known Sully. It would have been easier with Angela; she knew all the past history. Angela also hadn’t had a relationship with Booth before, Cam had.
“Okay...that doesn’t seem like that’s the problem...” Cam said slowly and with a frown.
Brennan looked up at her. Would Cam judge her? “Before you came here...I dated an F.B.I. agent they called Sully,” Brennan finally spoke up. “He and Booth both worked with me for a few cases...he decided that he was done with the F.B.I. and bought a boat. He wanted me to sail away with him down to the Caribbean.”
“But you didn’t.”
“I couldn’t do it,” Brennan told her.
“So, this Sully is back?”
Brennan felt a little like screaming the answer. “Yes, he is. He just showed up at my apartment yesterday while I was packing,” she explained. “It sounds stupid and illogical, but I didn’t know he was kissing me until he’d stopped...”
“Wow...” Cam mumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“I didn’t expect it!” Brennan quickly defended. Cam was judging her, she was sure of it. “I haven’t seen Sully in three years now. He said he’d come back after a year to come get me, but he never came...”
“Would you have gone?” Cam asked curiously. She assumed that she was there then.
Brennan didn’t have to think about it long. “No.” She had a family to try to keep by then, a biological one: Russ and her dad and even Amy, Emma, and Hayley. She had her family at the Jeffersonian: Angela, Hodgins, Zack, and even Cam. She had Booth and Parker. How could she leave them all behind in order to go with Sully to the Caribbean? How could she abandon them? She couldn’t. She’d been abandoned before, she knew what it felt like, she couldn’t do that. Angela would have called it a sabbatical, but it would have been abandonment.
Christine Brennan.
Her mother.
She couldn’t do that.
“Doctor Brennan?”
Brennan snapped her head up to Cam suddenly. She looked worried, but Brennan didn’t understand why she would look so confused. Even Angela held that type of worry for a more convenient time when they could really talk. They couldn’t do that here.
When Cam realized that Brennan was clueless, she tucked her hands into her pockets and tilted her head slightly. “You’re crying.”
“What?” Brennan blurted quickly and then reached up to check for Cam’s observation. Wetness. She stared at her fingertips. Clear liquid. She was crying. “I-I-I have to go,” she said quickly as she tumbled over what she was saying. She turned quickly and tried to wipe her face clean of the assaulting tears.
“Doctor Brennan! The remains!” Cam called after a moment. It wasn’t like Brennan to just leave remains on the platform. It was actually more common for the forensic anthropologist to set up camp on the platform for hours at a time rather than leaving... Normally she would call Booth, but she wasn’t sure that would help. Cam was almost tempted to interrupt Angela and Hodgins’ honeymoon for this. She thought it was an emergency. After all, when did Doctor Brennan ever act so emotional?
*~*~*
Sweets’ Office
F.B.I. Building
“Are you sure you want me to advise you on this topic?” Sweets asked.
“That’s why I came here.”
Sweets frowned. “I’m not sure I feel comfortable giving you advice in this particular area.”
“Come on, the F.B.I. psychologists are the best of the best. You can give me advice on this topic. After all, it involves a working partnership. It involves the F.B.I. and its working relationship with the Jeffersonian. It’s practically saying that you have to give me advice.”
Sweets felt like he was being manipulated but that wasn’t uncommon, Booth and Brennan did it all the time. This was no different than those other times. “I’m still not sure.”
“Well, then think about it.”
Once gone, Sweets did think about it. When it came to Booth and Brennan, his favorite subjects, there wasn’t a lot he had to think about when it came to them. The session really could be used in order to help them with partnership, but possibly also to discuss the romantic relationship they were currently in. Their new relationship was already a concern of his, but they weren’t concerned. This would give him a reason to pry into it. He hoped that it would help them as well in seeing how he saw things.
*~*~*
Royal Crown Diner
“Hey Bones,” Booth greeted as he slid into the booth across from her. He hadn’t talked to her all day, but he’d arrived and been happy to see her. “Sweets ask you to come, too?” he asked when she didn’t say anything.
“Yeah.”
Her voice was quiet and even. Booth stared at her, studying her. There was something very wrong. “Do you know what this is about?” he pushed.
“No,” she whispered. “I haven’t talked to Sweets.”
“Cam said that you left a body on the platform. You okay?” he inquired, purely concerned for her.
“Do you know why we’re here?” Brennan questioned. Maybe Cam had said something to him.
Booth reached out to take her hand. “No. You know I would never involve Sweets in our issues.” He ran his thumb over the top of her hand, caressing the soft skin. “You know, I’m not worried about Sully. I’m worried about you.”
“Monogamy is something that...that can be hard, but I was following the rules of it,” Brennan told him honestly. She was upset. She felt stupid. She hated her emotions when they were out of control. “I didn’t mean for it to happen, Booth.”
Tears were not something that he’d expected in the diner. Brennan was normally completely in control. He knew that something had been wrong when she’d refused to go home with him and Parker and then when she wouldn’t return his calls earlier in the day. Which was exactly why he’d put in a call to Cam, so that she’d know that Brennan may have been odd.
Before she could say anything, Booth was at her side with his arm around her pulling her tight against his side. She instantly felt comfort, but also felt guilt. “Don’t be nice to me,” Brennan complained. Brennan didn’t pull away from him, though. She allowed for her head to drop to his shoulder. She felt him place a kiss in her hair. She sniffled and closed her eyes.
“Are we interrupting?” Sweets asked. He was concerned that that Doctor Brennan was crying. He hadn’t expected that.
“Tempe? Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Sully asked concerned as he pushed past the shrink. He slid in across from Brennan and waited for her to talk.
“Leave her alone,” Booth warned Sully. He turned his attention to Sweets, who was still standing. “Why did you ask us both here.”
“Actually,” Sweets said. He knew that there’d be backlash. He was actually afraid of being punched or injured in some other way by Booth. “I invited all three of you here.”
“Three?” Booth questioned.
“Yes,” Sweets responded and his voice broke slightly and he prepared for the blow. When there wasn’t any, he ventured to take the empty seat across from Booth. He noticed that Doctor Brennan’s eyes were still shut. “There is obviously extreme tension between the three of you; you’re basically in a love triangle.”
“Who says it’s a triangle?” Booth asked and then glared at Sully. He’d like the guy better if he’d just stayed on his boat or if he’d been merely happy for him and Brennan.
“I love Tempe, Booth,” Sully spoke up.
Brennan wished that this was all a dream. That was foolish, though. Illogical. This was reality. A harsh one. She opened her eyes and straightened. “I love Booth,” Brennan told Sully. “I would hope that you’d be happy for me.”
“You still love me, though,” Sully pressed as he leaned across the table towards her.
“I may,” Brennan responded, allowing herself to remain calm. “But I love Booth. I love Booth more.”
“We could have a good life together, Tempe,” Sully told her as he reached out to take her hand, but then frowned when she retracted her hand and hid it in her lap.
“Are you saying that I can’t give her a good life?” Booth challenged, his eyes narrowing at Sully.
“You don’t even call her by her first name and she doesn’t call you by yours, either,” Sully pointed out.
“I call you Sully,” Brennan reminded.
“She’s right,” Booth told him with a smile.
Sweets decided that this was a good time for him to jump in. As interesting as it was to watch them, they did need to be mediated. “Doctor Brennan, you seem to be having a difficult time with this. Do you want to say anything?”
“What do you want me to say?” Brennan asked as she looked down at the tabletop.
“Are you guys set? Can I get you coffee?” a waitress asked.
“Four coffees, please,” Booth said. “A side of fries, a piece of pie, a burger, and a salad.” He smiled at the waitress and then waited for her to leave before turning back to the others.
“I didn’t get to order,” Sully complained.
“I got you the burger,” Booth told him.
“And he got you a coffee,” Brennan pointed out.
“Figured you haven’t had a decent burger...in years...”
“I haven’t,” Sully agreed. “What about Sweets?”
“They ordered me the salad, though Agent Booth normally tries to order me a kids’ meal, though they don’t serve them here,” Sweets told him.
“Booth’s trying to convince them to invent one, though,” Brennan added.
Sweets frowned. Why was it that Brennan and Booth were always plotting against him in minute ways? “Okay, back to our conversation. Doctor Brennan, you still have feelings for Agent Sullivan-”
“He’s retired,” Booth pointed out. “He’s not an agent anymore.”
“Fine,” Sweets conceded. “Tim Sullivan, how is that currently impacting your relationship with Agent Booth?”
Brennan frowned. She was still working through that. “I’m not sure how to respond to that.”
“Honesty would be preferred,” Sweets said.
Brennan waited until the waitress had left; coffees were set upon the tabletop. “Sully surprised me. I didn’t expect him. I really haven’t...I haven’t coped with the fact that I feel like I’ve betrayed Booth by kissing Sully even though he kissed me.”
“You enjoyed it,” Sully told her.
“That doesn’t mean it was right,” Brennan told him with irritation.
“You’re correct,” Sweets spoke up.
Booth kept quiet then. Sweets wasn’t instigating the situation, so he remained still and sipped his coffee.
“But perhaps in order for you to move on with Agent Booth in full confidence, you need to fully address your feelings for Sullivan before you can move on,” Sweets said.
Booth didn’t like the sound of that, but decided to remain quiet. He’d speak up if it went any farther.
“And how are we supposed to do that?” Sully questioned the doctor.
“I propose that I give you both activities to complete,” Sweets said.
“That sounds like that lame homework you gave Bones and I when you first got here,” Booth complained. He hated psychological homework.
“It’s just like that,” Sweets told him. “Brennan will complete it with Sully and then she will do the same with Booth. These homework assignments, as Booth calls them, will help you to better make your decision, Doctor Brennan.”
It all sounded logical. She didn’t like the idea of working on some assignment with Sully, though, but if it would allow her to move on with Booth then she figured that it was something important. “Okay, how do we go about this?” Brennan asked. Booth valued monogamy, honesty, and loyal love. She wanted to be that kind of person for him. She also felt like she needed to apologize to Parker, to explain. He’d been quite upset with her and hadn’t talked to her once Booth had shown up.
Sweets smiled, he loved it when people were willing to trust him and go with recommendations. “I’ll put together the instructions tomorrow and I’ll have you and Sully meet me in my office. Say around eleven?”
“Okay,” Brennan agreed. She looked at Booth and noticed that he was tense. She reached out and put his hand over his under the table. A moment later, his hand grasped hers, she squeezed it gently.
“Sounds good,” Sully said with a bright smile.
The food arrived and Booth pointed the waitress in the direction that everything needed to go in. “So, what happens after that?”
“Once Sully and Brennan have finished their instructions, then you and Brennan will do the same. Then, Doctor Brennan will have adequate data from both of you in order to make a logical choice in her life plans,” Sweets announced.
“That sounds too logical,” Booth scoffed.
“I like logic,” Brennan told him.
“But love is about the heart,” Booth tried to explain. “It’s more than just logic.” He’d tried to explain this to Brennan many times. He’d have hoped that she had started to learn this.
“Booth is right about that,” Sweets spoke up. “But ultimately, Doctor Brennan has to do what’s best for her. This is a huge decision.”
*~*~*
TBC...