New chapter: Hairline Fractures
Title: Hairline Fractures 8
Disclaimer: Bones belongs to Fox, Hanson and Reichs
Rating: NC-17
oOoOoOo
Her usual remedy will not work this time. No number of bone shards she pieces together will relieve the pain and sorrow that Zack has become. She spends the day bent over a worktable anyway because there is nothing else that will help either. Turning the once again whole skull over in her hands she remembers how Zack would bring her coffee when she spent long periods of time reassembling bones. There is nothing stopping her from going and getting a cup herself. Nothing except risk running into Angela and her sympathy. She does not want sympathy. She does not want to talk about it. She wants it not to have happened. Nothing of it. Not last night at the hospital, not Zack getting caught in Gormogon's crimes. Not Zack letting himself become part of Gormogon's crimes, she corrects herself.
Then she does something unforgivable. Something she could never imagine herself doing anymore than she could have imagined Zack's betrayal. Bone shards bounce off the wall and rain down on the floor.
She has begun to piece together the skull for the second time when the click-clack of hard soles echoes in the cavernous space. Angela? Booth?
"Dr Brennan."
"Dr Sweets." Acknowledging his title has noting to do with respect. She knows how to create distance using formality.
"I was sorry to hear about Zack."
"So was I. Is there anything I can do for you?" Politeness works too.
Sweets rolls over one of the stools to the worktable and sits down opposite her. Uninvited. Unwanted. "So what are you working on there?"
"Nothing related to Gormogon or any other case that would give you a TV interview." Brennan can not help but feel satisfied at the embarrassment that flits across Sweets' face. Good, he should be embarrassed. He should also leave, which he does not. Has he been taking lessons from Booth, the master of sitting down uninvited and posing unwelcome questions?
"If you're looking for material to further your career you need to go somewhere else," she continues. Sweets does not budge.
"Look, Dr Brennan, I could continue with the small talk, but it's obvious it's not working so I'll just dive right in. Zack tried to kill himself last night. Any idea why?"
"No."
She lay awake when they got back home from the hospital trying to find a reason why Zack would try to commit suicide. In the morning, when she showered, made toast and drove into work she was still wondering why. Booth has been uncharacteristically quiet. Brennan knows he will bring it up sooner or later if she does not, but last night he let her be. He just hugged her when she got back from her chat with Angela in the hospital restroom and held her when they went back to bed. She could have managed had he not held her, but she sensed he needed to be there for her in some way so she let him. What was it he told her that night when he fished up her script from the wastepaper basket in her office and she fixed his back for him? That they help each other. That she helps him by letting him be a guy and fix things.
And it saves her asking, because she finds it difficult to ask for help she does not absolutely need. That she can manage without if she has to. Still, she has accepted that there are things Booth will never change his mind about, like his faith and his inherent need to set everything right for others. No matter what she says to convince him he is wrong.
"No idea at all, Dr Brennan?"
"You're the one with the doctorate degree in psychology, Sweets."
"You were his mentor."
"Until Gormogon took that place." She bends over the table so he will not see how the pain inside her flows over and drops from her eyes.
"If you had not offered Zack the internship someone like Gormogon might have found Zack much sooner."
"You can't prove that!"
"And you can't prove that it wouldn't have happened."
Brennan reaches for the glue hoping Sweets will finally give up. He does not. When she has pieced together part of the frontal bone he tries again.
"Suicide attempts often lead to a lot of questions, but sometimes it's hard to ask them."
"Like how he could be so selfish?"
"I don't think he meant to hurt anyone, to hurt you."
"What was his reason?"
"That's what I'm asking you, Dr Brennan. You know him better than I do"
"Sorry, Sweets, unlike you I don't build theories without proof."
"And if you had to make an educated guess?"
"I don't guess."
"Humor me, just this once."
Brennan sighs and carefully places the partial skull on the worktable. "If I were to make a conjecture based on what is known to me about Zack's personality and recent events I would say that it is not entirely impossible that Zack's mind does not get the stimulation it needs when he's incarcerated in that psychiatric facility. Zack needs mental stimulation."
"I'd say that's a very astute observation."
"But then Zack has been placed in a psychiatric facility as he suffers from mental illness, so his mind is in an altered stage."
"What if it wasn't?"
"Why would you suggest that, Sweets?"
Brennan pins the psychologist with her gaze. "You know something. Why are you suggesting that Zack is mentally sane?"
"I wasn't."
"Yes you were. Has Zack told you anything?"
"It would be unprofessional of me to divulge anything a patient has told me."
"Professional ethics didn't stop you before and Zack is not your patient."
Sweets is beginning to regret he did not start this conversation with Booth present too, threat or no threat to hang him from a windowsill. Booth would have picked up on what he is trying to say without actually coming right out and saying it. Booth reads between the lines.
"Why don't you think Zack should remain in the psychiatric facility, Dr Sweets?"
"I wasn't suggesting that. I think Zack should stay there."
"I don't have time for your psychological puzzles. As you can see I have real pieces of bones to fit together."
Finally Sweets leaves. Brennan wonders what he was trying to say as she assembles the rest of the skull.
oOoOoOo
Hodgins looks even worse than he did last night. He probably spent the night in the hospital, Booth reflects as he sits down across from him by Zack's bed. Ironically Zack looks more rested. Less creased.
"How are you doing, kid? Did you sleep well?"
"I slept like a baby."
"That's great."
Zack gives Booth a funny look. "I was unable to sleep through the night. I woke up several times."
Hodgins snorts.
"What?" Booth demands.
"Watching you two communicate is like observing a human - alien encounter."
Booth grabs the TV remote. "Let's just see what Oprah's up to these days."
When they are all updated on how to childproof your home (Zack questions how installing safety latches on cabinets will stop children from entering a home) and Zack has dozed off Hodgins stands up and stretches his back.
"Lunch?" Booth suggests.
"Don't you need to go back and oppress the little man in the name of the government?"
"Nah, slow day at the office," Booth lies. "Come on, I'm buying."
"So, how's Dr B doing?" Hodgins wants to know when they have ordered.
"She's... you know, coping."
"Angela was a mess, I'm telling you. She was almost in worse shape than I was," Hodgins attempts in a self deprecating joke.
In a way Booth wishes Brennan had been a mess too. She was so quiet on the way back from the hospital and when he awoke this morning she had already left.
oOoOoOo
"It's okay Angela, you can come in," Brennan says and puts down her phone. "I just talked to the hospital."
Angela takes this as an invitation to sit down on the couch in Brennan's office.
"Any news?"
"They won't tell me much as I'm not family. Ange, do you, no, nevermind."
"What, Bren?"
"Do you think that his family will come to see him?"
"I don't know. Maybe."
"I was just wondering."
"We'll go and see him again today, sweetie."
"Yes, we will." Brennan leans back in her chair and sighs.
Angela repeats her words to Booth last night. "So you and Booth, huh?"
Brennan repeats Booth's reply. "Yes."
"That's all Booth said too. As happy as I am for you, I hope you won't turn disgustingly sweet and start behaving like each other, using the same words, finishing each other's sentences. It's only one step away from wearing matching outfits."
Brennan sits up and folds her arms. "Why would I want to repeat what Booth says? He jumps to conclusions and ignores logic whenever it suits his purpose. Not mention his misguided notions when it comes to religion."
"Which, of course, you point out to him whenever you get a chance."
"Of course I do. And why would I want to wear what Booth wears? Or he wear my clothes for that matter?"
It is Angela's turn to sigh. "I meant matching outfits as in his and hers jogging suits. But you know what, Bren, it's not important. What is important is that the two of you finally got your act together and did something about all that sizzling energy between you and those longing looks. I thought Cam would have to start putting away everything flammable to avoid you two setting the lab on fire with your UST," Angela smiles. "So tell me, what was it that Booth said that made you see what 's been right in front of you all this time?"
"It wasn't Booth. It was I."
"You? Good for you!" Angela walks over to lean against Brennan's desk. "Okay, give me the details, the how and the when and the what that made you come to your senses."
Brennan tells Angela about the morning Booth made waffles in his kitchen and hides her face in her hands. She tells her about the couple in the diner.
"At least there's one thing that's right with the world today." Angela does not mention Zack, she does not have to. "I'm happy for you. And for Booth. You finally figured it out!"
"Actually, we haven't."
"Why am I not surprised?" Angela mutters. "What's the problem, Bren?"
"There must be an optimal way to deal with the change in our relationship, but Booth refuses to see that. He says there isn't."
"Hm." Angela chews her lower lip. "You want a definition of what you are? A plan to follow?"
"That would be useful."
Angela's hands are warm on Brennan's shoulders. "Bren, you've had all the time in the world to work out what you are to each other. If you haven't figured it out by now, then maybe it's not meant to be."
Angela slides off the desk and heads for the door.
"Are you using reverse psychology? Angela?"
She turns around in the doorway. "You know what Booth means to you. What you two have together. How are you going to define that? By moving in together, get engaged, marry?"
"No!"
"Then I don't see what the problem is. You just have to do what the rest of us do."
"What's that?"
"Try your best."
"That's what Booth said too."
"Welcome to the club, sweetie."
oOoOoOo
Brennan drops off Angela by her car when they have been to see Zack. She decided against bringing up what she and Sweets talked about in the lab earlier. She is not sure if it was for Angela's sake or Zack's. Maybe it was because of herself? This is why she prefers science to psychology, the facts are clear and the results are definite.
Rush hour is over so there is less traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue but the lights are still on in many of the windows in the ugly concrete building. He has lost his tie and there is a smudge of ink on his left cheek. She knocks lightly on the open door. Booth looks up and drops his pen on a stack of papers.
"Hey, I was about to call you. You didn't answer earlier."
"Angela and I went to see Zack. He said you'd stopped by."
"I figured he could use some company, hospital stays can be really boring. I didn't know when you'd go to see him. You had left when I woke up this morning."
"I didn't want to wake you. It was so late when we got back last night." That is part of the truth. The other part is the fact that she did not want to talk about Zack. Carefully she had lifted his arm resting around her. When Booth had turned and mumbled something she did what she often does when he he is tossing and turning in his sleep. She strokes his face letting her palm rest against his cheek. It works most of the time and it did this morning, he went back to sleep.
"Rebecca has to catch flight early tomorrow morning so I'm picking up Parker in a while. You want to have dinner with us? I'm making spaghetti."
"Thanks but I should go home and get some writing done."
"You sure?"
"Yes. Yes, I'm sure," she repeats when Booth walks around his desk to where she is standing.
"I don't think you should be alone right now."
"I'll be fine. I should get going."
"Bones."
"I promise. I'll see you tomorrow."
Walking to her car she looks up at his window. He is a dark shape across the yellow square standing there as if he is watching for her.
oOoOoOo
Disclaimer: Bones belongs to Fox, Hanson and Reichs
Rating: NC-17
oOoOoOo
Her usual remedy will not work this time. No number of bone shards she pieces together will relieve the pain and sorrow that Zack has become. She spends the day bent over a worktable anyway because there is nothing else that will help either. Turning the once again whole skull over in her hands she remembers how Zack would bring her coffee when she spent long periods of time reassembling bones. There is nothing stopping her from going and getting a cup herself. Nothing except risk running into Angela and her sympathy. She does not want sympathy. She does not want to talk about it. She wants it not to have happened. Nothing of it. Not last night at the hospital, not Zack getting caught in Gormogon's crimes. Not Zack letting himself become part of Gormogon's crimes, she corrects herself.
Then she does something unforgivable. Something she could never imagine herself doing anymore than she could have imagined Zack's betrayal. Bone shards bounce off the wall and rain down on the floor.
She has begun to piece together the skull for the second time when the click-clack of hard soles echoes in the cavernous space. Angela? Booth?
"Dr Brennan."
"Dr Sweets." Acknowledging his title has noting to do with respect. She knows how to create distance using formality.
"I was sorry to hear about Zack."
"So was I. Is there anything I can do for you?" Politeness works too.
Sweets rolls over one of the stools to the worktable and sits down opposite her. Uninvited. Unwanted. "So what are you working on there?"
"Nothing related to Gormogon or any other case that would give you a TV interview." Brennan can not help but feel satisfied at the embarrassment that flits across Sweets' face. Good, he should be embarrassed. He should also leave, which he does not. Has he been taking lessons from Booth, the master of sitting down uninvited and posing unwelcome questions?
"If you're looking for material to further your career you need to go somewhere else," she continues. Sweets does not budge.
"Look, Dr Brennan, I could continue with the small talk, but it's obvious it's not working so I'll just dive right in. Zack tried to kill himself last night. Any idea why?"
"No."
She lay awake when they got back home from the hospital trying to find a reason why Zack would try to commit suicide. In the morning, when she showered, made toast and drove into work she was still wondering why. Booth has been uncharacteristically quiet. Brennan knows he will bring it up sooner or later if she does not, but last night he let her be. He just hugged her when she got back from her chat with Angela in the hospital restroom and held her when they went back to bed. She could have managed had he not held her, but she sensed he needed to be there for her in some way so she let him. What was it he told her that night when he fished up her script from the wastepaper basket in her office and she fixed his back for him? That they help each other. That she helps him by letting him be a guy and fix things.
And it saves her asking, because she finds it difficult to ask for help she does not absolutely need. That she can manage without if she has to. Still, she has accepted that there are things Booth will never change his mind about, like his faith and his inherent need to set everything right for others. No matter what she says to convince him he is wrong.
"No idea at all, Dr Brennan?"
"You're the one with the doctorate degree in psychology, Sweets."
"You were his mentor."
"Until Gormogon took that place." She bends over the table so he will not see how the pain inside her flows over and drops from her eyes.
"If you had not offered Zack the internship someone like Gormogon might have found Zack much sooner."
"You can't prove that!"
"And you can't prove that it wouldn't have happened."
Brennan reaches for the glue hoping Sweets will finally give up. He does not. When she has pieced together part of the frontal bone he tries again.
"Suicide attempts often lead to a lot of questions, but sometimes it's hard to ask them."
"Like how he could be so selfish?"
"I don't think he meant to hurt anyone, to hurt you."
"What was his reason?"
"That's what I'm asking you, Dr Brennan. You know him better than I do"
"Sorry, Sweets, unlike you I don't build theories without proof."
"And if you had to make an educated guess?"
"I don't guess."
"Humor me, just this once."
Brennan sighs and carefully places the partial skull on the worktable. "If I were to make a conjecture based on what is known to me about Zack's personality and recent events I would say that it is not entirely impossible that Zack's mind does not get the stimulation it needs when he's incarcerated in that psychiatric facility. Zack needs mental stimulation."
"I'd say that's a very astute observation."
"But then Zack has been placed in a psychiatric facility as he suffers from mental illness, so his mind is in an altered stage."
"What if it wasn't?"
"Why would you suggest that, Sweets?"
Brennan pins the psychologist with her gaze. "You know something. Why are you suggesting that Zack is mentally sane?"
"I wasn't."
"Yes you were. Has Zack told you anything?"
"It would be unprofessional of me to divulge anything a patient has told me."
"Professional ethics didn't stop you before and Zack is not your patient."
Sweets is beginning to regret he did not start this conversation with Booth present too, threat or no threat to hang him from a windowsill. Booth would have picked up on what he is trying to say without actually coming right out and saying it. Booth reads between the lines.
"Why don't you think Zack should remain in the psychiatric facility, Dr Sweets?"
"I wasn't suggesting that. I think Zack should stay there."
"I don't have time for your psychological puzzles. As you can see I have real pieces of bones to fit together."
Finally Sweets leaves. Brennan wonders what he was trying to say as she assembles the rest of the skull.
oOoOoOo
Hodgins looks even worse than he did last night. He probably spent the night in the hospital, Booth reflects as he sits down across from him by Zack's bed. Ironically Zack looks more rested. Less creased.
"How are you doing, kid? Did you sleep well?"
"I slept like a baby."
"That's great."
Zack gives Booth a funny look. "I was unable to sleep through the night. I woke up several times."
Hodgins snorts.
"What?" Booth demands.
"Watching you two communicate is like observing a human - alien encounter."
Booth grabs the TV remote. "Let's just see what Oprah's up to these days."
When they are all updated on how to childproof your home (Zack questions how installing safety latches on cabinets will stop children from entering a home) and Zack has dozed off Hodgins stands up and stretches his back.
"Lunch?" Booth suggests.
"Don't you need to go back and oppress the little man in the name of the government?"
"Nah, slow day at the office," Booth lies. "Come on, I'm buying."
"So, how's Dr B doing?" Hodgins wants to know when they have ordered.
"She's... you know, coping."
"Angela was a mess, I'm telling you. She was almost in worse shape than I was," Hodgins attempts in a self deprecating joke.
In a way Booth wishes Brennan had been a mess too. She was so quiet on the way back from the hospital and when he awoke this morning she had already left.
oOoOoOo
"It's okay Angela, you can come in," Brennan says and puts down her phone. "I just talked to the hospital."
Angela takes this as an invitation to sit down on the couch in Brennan's office.
"Any news?"
"They won't tell me much as I'm not family. Ange, do you, no, nevermind."
"What, Bren?"
"Do you think that his family will come to see him?"
"I don't know. Maybe."
"I was just wondering."
"We'll go and see him again today, sweetie."
"Yes, we will." Brennan leans back in her chair and sighs.
Angela repeats her words to Booth last night. "So you and Booth, huh?"
Brennan repeats Booth's reply. "Yes."
"That's all Booth said too. As happy as I am for you, I hope you won't turn disgustingly sweet and start behaving like each other, using the same words, finishing each other's sentences. It's only one step away from wearing matching outfits."
Brennan sits up and folds her arms. "Why would I want to repeat what Booth says? He jumps to conclusions and ignores logic whenever it suits his purpose. Not mention his misguided notions when it comes to religion."
"Which, of course, you point out to him whenever you get a chance."
"Of course I do. And why would I want to wear what Booth wears? Or he wear my clothes for that matter?"
It is Angela's turn to sigh. "I meant matching outfits as in his and hers jogging suits. But you know what, Bren, it's not important. What is important is that the two of you finally got your act together and did something about all that sizzling energy between you and those longing looks. I thought Cam would have to start putting away everything flammable to avoid you two setting the lab on fire with your UST," Angela smiles. "So tell me, what was it that Booth said that made you see what 's been right in front of you all this time?"
"It wasn't Booth. It was I."
"You? Good for you!" Angela walks over to lean against Brennan's desk. "Okay, give me the details, the how and the when and the what that made you come to your senses."
Brennan tells Angela about the morning Booth made waffles in his kitchen and hides her face in her hands. She tells her about the couple in the diner.
"At least there's one thing that's right with the world today." Angela does not mention Zack, she does not have to. "I'm happy for you. And for Booth. You finally figured it out!"
"Actually, we haven't."
"Why am I not surprised?" Angela mutters. "What's the problem, Bren?"
"There must be an optimal way to deal with the change in our relationship, but Booth refuses to see that. He says there isn't."
"Hm." Angela chews her lower lip. "You want a definition of what you are? A plan to follow?"
"That would be useful."
Angela's hands are warm on Brennan's shoulders. "Bren, you've had all the time in the world to work out what you are to each other. If you haven't figured it out by now, then maybe it's not meant to be."
Angela slides off the desk and heads for the door.
"Are you using reverse psychology? Angela?"
She turns around in the doorway. "You know what Booth means to you. What you two have together. How are you going to define that? By moving in together, get engaged, marry?"
"No!"
"Then I don't see what the problem is. You just have to do what the rest of us do."
"What's that?"
"Try your best."
"That's what Booth said too."
"Welcome to the club, sweetie."
oOoOoOo
Brennan drops off Angela by her car when they have been to see Zack. She decided against bringing up what she and Sweets talked about in the lab earlier. She is not sure if it was for Angela's sake or Zack's. Maybe it was because of herself? This is why she prefers science to psychology, the facts are clear and the results are definite.
Rush hour is over so there is less traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue but the lights are still on in many of the windows in the ugly concrete building. He has lost his tie and there is a smudge of ink on his left cheek. She knocks lightly on the open door. Booth looks up and drops his pen on a stack of papers.
"Hey, I was about to call you. You didn't answer earlier."
"Angela and I went to see Zack. He said you'd stopped by."
"I figured he could use some company, hospital stays can be really boring. I didn't know when you'd go to see him. You had left when I woke up this morning."
"I didn't want to wake you. It was so late when we got back last night." That is part of the truth. The other part is the fact that she did not want to talk about Zack. Carefully she had lifted his arm resting around her. When Booth had turned and mumbled something she did what she often does when he he is tossing and turning in his sleep. She strokes his face letting her palm rest against his cheek. It works most of the time and it did this morning, he went back to sleep.
"Rebecca has to catch flight early tomorrow morning so I'm picking up Parker in a while. You want to have dinner with us? I'm making spaghetti."
"Thanks but I should go home and get some writing done."
"You sure?"
"Yes. Yes, I'm sure," she repeats when Booth walks around his desk to where she is standing.
"I don't think you should be alone right now."
"I'll be fine. I should get going."
"Bones."
"I promise. I'll see you tomorrow."
Walking to her car she looks up at his window. He is a dark shape across the yellow square standing there as if he is watching for her.
oOoOoOo