"The Object of My Affection" - Chapter Four
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 4 - “Turning Wheels”
Author’s Note: Okay, so I want to get this started now and going because I will be on the road starting August 3rd and I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to update this during that time along with the fact that I’m supposed to be finishing up my CSI: Miami stories and my Stargate: Atlantis stories as well. I’ve been super good at wrapping up loose ends, so I should continue with that.
*~*~*
Brennan’s Apartment
She hadn’t slept well; her mind was running at a hundred miles per hour and refused to rest. She’d finally given up on sleep at four and had ended up doing various things that she’d been telling herself she’d do…like catching up on reading, folding towels, doing laundry… Things that she normally didn’t have the time to do, she had time to do.
There was a knock on her door and she promptly answered it and was surprised to see Booth there. She frowned a bit and tilted her head before speaking. “Booth, is everything alright?” she asked worried that there was something wrong. Why else would he be there?
“I was thinking we’d have breakfast,” Booth told her with a bright smile as he rubbed his hands together. He was hungry just thinking about it.
“Why are you here?”
“I just told you. Breakfast.”
Brennan frowned, “But why today?”
“Why not?” he challenged and let himself in past her. He started to look around for her things, so that they could leave. “Where’s your bag?”
“Booth, why are you here? Today? Asking me to go to breakfast?” Brennan pressed as she let the door closed. She turned and put her hands on her hips as she stared at Booth. “Booth, you must be doing this for some reason.”
Booth sighed and looked at her. She didn’t look like she’d slept, which only made him worry more. “I just…I just wanted to check on you. I figured that maybe breakfast would help get the day going in the right direction.”
Smiling, Brennan walked past him. “That’s sweet, Booth, but I’m fine. I promise.”
“So, does this mean we don’t get to go to breakfast?” Booth asked a bit disappointed. He had been craving pancakes and eggs.
“We can have breakfast here,” Brennan offered.
“I love when you cook for me,” Booth said enthused.
Brennan laughed, “I’ve only done it once before,” she reminded him as she turned to see that he was following her to the kitchen.
“It was fantastic!”
She laughed again and went to the fridge to see what she could make and to pull out the ingredients while she was at it. “It was mac and cheese.”
“Best mac and cheese I’ve ever had,” Booth told her. “So, what are we going to have for breakfast?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Brennan said as she looked through her fridge and tried to decide the best thing to make.
Booth started to look through her cupboards, “Do you have any mix?”
“What kind of mix?” Brennan asked as she continued to look through the fridge.
“Pancake mix.”
“Maybe.”
“Ah ha!” Booth shouted triumphantly and held the box up in the air. “We have pancake mix!” he told her happily and set it on the counter before looking for a bowl.
“I guess we could go with eggs and pancakes,” Brennan told him. “I’m afraid I don’t have any kind of breakfast meat or hash browns or anything…”
“I think that sounds perfect,” Booth said with a smile as she brought a bunch of eggs along with the carton of milk to the kitchen counter near her stove. “We can make breakfast together…it’ll be great,” he told her excited.
Brennan couldn’t hold back the smile on her lips. Booth made her smile even when she didn’t want to. “That sounds much better than going out to breakfast,” she told him sincerely.
*~*~*
Jeffersonian
It didn’t take long for Brennan to be bombarded by information that had come in. Results were always good, but she preferred to put her stuff down and pull on her lab coat first. This was not one of those good days.
“Doctor Brennan!” Kensington Hart shouted happily as she approached the older woman. “We’ve been trying to figure out how the victim died…and we’ve come up with a couple of different scenarios.”
Brennan noticed that Miller and Keller were coming up behind Hart with bright smiles on their faces. They were obviously confidant of what they’d been working on. “You know that Angela can do reconstructions…and most of the time they’re pretty accurate,” she informed them and found herself suddenly aware of how she was talking to the grad students. She needed to let them do what they needed to do.
“I bet they’ve got some pictures or something…old school reconstruction,” Booth spoke up.
“We do have some sketches,” Miller spoke up. “Ms. Montenegro won’t let us into her lab, so we had to keep to the old fashioned methods of reconstruction.”
“That’s very admirable,” Brennan told them and noticed how they all lit up a bit. “Let’s see it,” she prompted and then looked over at Booth briefly. He seemed happy, but he’d seemed like that all morning. Though, most times he seemed happy… She followed the grad students after a moment and noticed that Booth was still at her side. She wasn’t sure if he was there for support or just making sure that she didn’t snap at any of her grad students.
Miller and Keller were in position to do a physical recreation for them, while Hart narrated the events that they felt happened in order for the skeletal remains to have the marks they received and how the body got into the subway tunnel. Brennan and Booth both watched with intrigue and curiosity as the trio tried to solve the murder of the young man found in the tunnel.
“Good job,” Brennan finally spoke up after going over the injuries the young man would have received and took into account the events the grad students thought took place. It was very possible that they had figured out how the young man had been injured.
“It was most likely an accident, Doctor Brennan,” Hart spoke up.
“Know we just need to know who accidentally tossed their buddy into the subway tunnel,” Booth spoke up.
“They would have had to specifically moved him, they cared about him and didn’t want him to get crushed by one of the subway trains,” Miller added.
*~*~*
Brennan’s Office
“You did good out there, you know,” Booth told her with a smile. “It’s good to let the newbie squint squad know that you’re an actual human being under that mass of intelligence.”
“I’m not sure how to respond to that,” Brennan told him honestly.
He smiled brighter and sighed, “That’s okay…”
“I’m not even sure if I should be offended or not,” Brennan told him.
“It’s just that you aren’t always as good with people as I am,” Booth told her. “You and Cam are great with the dead, but the living…that’s more my territory…and Angela’s some times.”
“I just…I can’t see any of them here instead of Zack,” Brennan admitted.
Booth frowned, “I know it’s hard, but you need an assistant. And we both know that I can’t do that. I don’t even know all the different bones…”
“It’s never too late to learn,” she teased with a small smile. Zack wasn’t a happy topic, she knew. It made her sad. She hated to think of him somewhere locked away. She knew she wasn’t the only one who missed Zack, but sometimes it felt that way. Booth had said that everyone else just knew that the world had to keep turning. Life had to go on, and they had to go on with their lives…without Zack.
“You know…the newbie squint squad isn’t so bad. The girl-”
“Kensington Hart.”
“Her.”
“You know her name, I think you just like to make sure I know it,” Brennan told him with an irritated look on her face.
“Just…testing,” Booth told her with a small smile.
“She’s always so…”
“Happy?” Booth tried.
“Yeah….” Brennan told him not too enthused. “I guess it’s not a bad quality… She’s not logical all of the time, though. She makes leaps…”
“Most people make leaps, Bones.”
“Hodgins, Zack, and I don’t make leaps,” Brennan informed him.
“Hodgins and you can keep with the evidence and you can reign with the logic, but sometimes you need to be a bit illogical…to think outside of the box.”
Brennan frowned, “I really don’t know how I’m supposed to pick…and there are more grad students that I can pick from.”
“None of them reminds you of Zack at all?” Booth asked. He was hoping that one of her students would be weird and odd…and genius-like…like Zack had been.
“No.”
“Then, you’re going to have to just find the best fit.”
“The best fit would be Zack.”
“Then the closest fit.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“I’ll help,” Booth promised. “Together, we’ll find you a new assistant.”
*~*~*
TBC…