"The Object of My Affection" - Chapter 22
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 22 - “Affections”
Author’s Note: For all of you who are confused or even like Booth’s confusion when it comes to Brennan, let me give you my slight insight and see if it makes more sense to everyone. I see Booth as not always wanting to see things when it comes to Brennan. I think that if he knows things when he’s not ready to accept them fully, then that’ll just knock him on his ass.
*~*~*
Target
Aberdeen, Maryland
“You’re the Photo Lab Specialist?” Booth asked as he read the paper with her job description.
“Yes,” the young woman replied. “I’ve worked in the photo lab for two years and when the department no longer required a Team Leader, they promoted Annie and started to look for a person to take the Specialist position. I basically ran the lab after they promoted Annie out of the lab, so I ended up with the position.”
“What does the position require?” Booth asked. The paper in front of him told him, but he wanted to keep her talking.
“I run the lab, order the supplies, I’m on call if anyone has problems, and I make the schedule every week.”
Her name was Amber Reynolds and she was the person on duty in the one hour photo lab during the day when William Carmykyl was killed. Booth had a good idea that she had something to do with it, but Brennan had already informed him that if she was an average sized woman that it was unlikely that she’d have the strength to restrain Carmykyl and then toss him into the baler to his death. But he had a feeling that she might know something about it, just the same.
“Have you had any problems with William Carmykyl?” Brennan asked.
“Umm…I really didn’t run into him much…” Amber responded.
“It says that you have to be certified to run the baler in order to be a Photo Lab Specialist,” Booth commented as he continued to look over the paperwork in front of him.
“Yes, but I never use the thing. I throw the boxes in and leave it for one of the guys in the backroom to actually crunch the boxes down and bind them up,” Amber told them. “I was never fully trained. I never really wanted to. That machine freaks me out, could you imagine a condensed cube of carbon bound together with wires snapping and killing you?”
“So, you know Mr. Carmykyl from the backroom?” Booth asked.
“I know who he is.”
“And?”
“That’s it.”
“Miss Reynolds, you have to have something more to say about him than that,” Booth pushed.
“He was creepy,” she finally spoke up after a minute.
“Creepy, how?”
“Look, Morgan said that he would take care of it,” Amber told them.
“Take care of what?” Brennan asked.
“And who is Morgan?” Booth added.
“Morgan Kent…is my boyfriend, he works in the backroom.” Amber for quiet for a moment thinking over things before continuing, “Carmykyl snuck up on me a couple weeks ago in the photo lab’s backroom and it really freaked me out. Morgan said he’d tell him to back off.”
“Did he?”
*~*~*
Target
Aberdeen, Maryland
“Morgan Kent, you work in the backroom here?” Booth asked even though he knew the information.
“Yeah,” Kent mumbled.
“Amber Reynolds is your girlfriend?” Brennan asked.
“Yes, but you already knew that, right?”
“Amber says that you were going to warn Carmykyl to stay away from her after he had her cornered in the backroom of the photo lab,” Booth said. “Did you warn him?”
“A lot of good it did…”
“So, you did warn him?”
“Of course,” Kent told Booth.
“Did you kill him?”
“He scared Amber to death weeks ago and then last week he had her pinned up against a rack in the photo lab’s back room and was feeling up her shirt,” Kent said. “Obviously he didn’t take my warning to heart.”
“So, what did you do?” Booth tried to prompt him to answer.
“Asset Protection, the security we have, was supposed to be there to protect her. They didn’t. They were probably all out patrolling the store instead of someone watching the cameras.” Kent sat there angry as he stared down at the table between them. “I had to protect her.”
Kent walked with his red hoody and khaki pants on as he neared the back room. He didn’t look up, he couldn’t risk being stopped or caught. He kept his eyes on the off-white tile. He knew that Carmykyl was in the backroom. He’d heard his voice on the radio responding to a location check. It wouldn’t be easy to find him necessarily, but he could be patient. He’d wait until the time was right.
He walked calmly into the backroom, letting the double red doors flap behind him. He waited until they settled before entering any further. To his surprise and good fortune, he found William Carmykyl tossing some cardboard boxes into the baler. He walked as quietly as he could, since he hadn’t been noticed yet…just like Carmykyl had done to Amber. He had to protect her.
Reaching out, Kent grasped Carmykyl’s left arm and pulled it behind his back and then twisted it at the wrist. He heard a gasp followed by a scream and then a snapping. The wrist was most likely broken, he didn’t care. He hoisted Carmykyl up, even with the kicking of his legs and managed to get him inside. The baler didn’t have too much condensed cardboard and so he added some from a cart that had been abandoned nearby. He could hear Carmykyl trying to escape his doom, but couldn’t let that happen. He pulled down the cage grate in place and then slammed his hand on the big red button. He watched for a moment as the machine started to lower in order to compact the cardboard inside. The screams didn’t phase him, he only thought of Amber and how Carmykyl wouldn’t touch her ever again. She’d be safe. He turned, not waiting for the baler to completely crush Carmykyl. He calmly walked out of the backroom and out of the store. Amber’s safety the only thing consoling him for his actions.
*~*~*
Booth’s Vehicle
He looked over and noticed that Brennan looked utterly relieved, but she also wasn’t as excited to be out of there as he was. Her smile quickly faded and she averted her gaze to out the passenger side window. He turned the key in the ignition, just enough, so that the radio and lights came on. They needed to talk. They needed to be okay. Booth wasn’t sure if he could deal with so much change in his life. He’d lost Rebecca and he was dealing with being a full time dad to Parker and keeping custody of his son. He wasn’t sure if he could lose his partner and his best friend at the same time.
“Do you mind if we go back to the Jeffersonian? I know you need to pick up Parker in an hour or so…” Brennan requested.
“Yes,” Booth said quietly letting his hands fall from the key in the ignition and the steering wheel. He stared at the steering wheel waiting for her response. He wasn’t trying to hurt her, that was the last thing he wanted, but he also wanted to get their relationship back to normal…he missed all of her comments…the one she had now weren’t the same.
Brennan took a second to process what her partner had just said. He normally didn’t care, or he’d try to get her to go to dinner or something first. “But…”
“It’s either us or us and Sweets.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Brennan told him not bothering to look at him.
Booth sighed, “Okay, I know you’re probably sick of looking at me because we practically live together with how much we’re working, but can we please just talk?”
“What are we going to talk about?”
Reaching out, he put his hand gently under Brennan’s chin and guided it, so that she was staring at him. He could see sadness in her eyes, and it made him sick. Was the sadness because of him? Or because of Zack? His voice was gentle as he spoke to her, “I want to talk about why you’re sad…why you’re upset with me…how I can make things better for you…”
For a long time she just stared into his deep brown eyes. She trusted him with her life, so why couldn’t she trust him with this? She already knew that he’d risk his life for hers…why was this so hard? Was the truth that hard? She was normally so good at telling the simple truth. Things weren’t simple any more.
“If you can’t tell me,” he spoke up after what seemed like an hour. His voice was still gentle and soft, but he didn’t want to make her feel horrible either. “Then I’ll take Kensington Hart as my new forensic anthropologist.”
“What?” Brennan finally blurted out. Her eyes widened in shock as she took things in. Her voice was quiet as she shut her eyes and sucked in breath. She tried to steady her thoughts and then opened her eyes. “I don’t want to go back to the lab,” Brennan told him quietly. “I want to be your partner, Booth…”
“Then what’s wrong with us?” Booth asked.
She didn’t want to say it. How could she? It sounded horrible. “Nothing…” Brennan told him. “There’s nothing wrong with us, there’s something wrong with me.”
Booth’s temple creased and he stared at her confused, “What are you talking about?”
“I…I pushed our relationship too far,” Brennan tried to explain.
“What do you mean you pushed our relationship too far?”
“You explained it to me before, that people who work together shouldn’t be romantically involved,” Brennan explained. “That’s why you and Cam didn’t work out. That’s why you blamed yourself when Cam almost died.”
“Wait…I’m confused.”
“I said I’d marry you,” she said simply.
“I remember,” Booth told her. “I don’t understand how that’s pushing our relationship.”
“It was.”
“You were trying to help me keep Parker; I don’t see that as pushing out relationship.”
“I care about you, Booth…” Brennan explained. “More than just as partners or friends…”
“Really?” Booth asked blinking in shock. He’d always thought that she only saw him as a friend. Nothing more. “But…”
“I said I loved you,” she reminded.
Booth nodded, “I remember.”
“That’s what I meant…”
“I didn’t realize…” Booth told her and noticed that her voice had broken slightly and that her eyes were welling up. It actually hurt her. He was quiet for a moment as he thought about things. He’d seen it, but it hadn’t been what he’d interpreted it as. His life had been so upside down, he’d been blind to what was right in front of him. “I never meant to hurt you.”
“I know you’d never hurt me intentionally,” Brennan said, her voice quiet and laced with breaks as tears fell down her cheeks.
“I love you,” Booth told her. “More than partners…more than friends…”
“You don’t have to say that just because I said it,” Brennan told him with a slight frown.
“I’m not,” Booth told her. “Why do you think that I always want you to come over for dinner or why I didn’t freak out about staying at your apartment?”
“You did at first,” she reminded him with a slight smile.
“I was…I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to maintain my self control,” Booth told her quietly. “I didn’t want it to be like that…between us…”
*~*~*
TBC…