Booth and Brennan are not mine. I do not claim to own them. Please don't sue.

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It had been a hell of a week, he'd almost killed his partner, almost shot her in a drug induced haze. It had been lucky for her that the backup that she had requested had arrived just in time, he now had a hole in his shoulder for that luck. Shame and guilt have been chasing him for the past few days, he discharged himself from the hospital this morning, now he was hiding in the darkness of his apartment, not daring to face her.

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6 days earlier…..

He walks into her office without knocking, a habit that she hates but never voices, and pulls her coat from the rack. She looks at him in annoyance, her head cocked to one side with her phone jammed between it and her shoulder.

"I know…. I need to go, Booth's here…. Yeah, I'll see you soon. Bye."

"We've got a case…. Let's go." He stands behind her and helps her arms into her coat. When standing in front of her again he nods towards the phone casually. "Who was that?"

She looks nervous for a second and avoids his eyes. "No one." With that she pushes past him and leads the way out of her office, he follows curious of her conversation. He knows that he has no right to ask who was on the other end of the line and was asking to make conversation, but her lie has him interested and a little hurt if he is truthful.

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When they get to the scene, the bright sun shining is almost blinding and Brennan stops behind Booth to shrug off her coat in the heat. He carries on forward, she watches him approach the police officer in charge and they exchange hands. Booth looks at her expectantly and she draws up beside them as Booth gestures towards her

"Detective this is Temperance Brennan, Bones… this is Detective Carr." She shakes hands with the detective, noticing the rough calluses on the palm of his hand noting that he probably plays a sport which requires him to hold a bat or racket.

"Nice to meet you Detective." He nods pleasantly at her. "So where are the bones?"

The detective turns to the direction of the body and motions for them to follow. "They're right down here." They follow, neither hesitating. Booth grimaces as he spots the body half sticking out of the river bed, Brennan however is all business, she has already snapped on a pair of latex gloves and is navigating her way down the embankment to the body. Booth lets out a breath and follows her down unsteadily. He crouches next to her and she turns her head slightly to acknowledge him.

"It looks to be a male, probably early twenties…. The skull from what I can see here has been completely pulverised, I'll need to get this back to the lab before I can give you anything else." Booth glances past her to the coat that she has discarded in a pile in the drying mud.

"I'll make the arrangements." He stretches past her and reaches for the coat, his arm brushing past her back which oddly sends a shiver up his spine, looking at her as he grabs the coat however, she is all business and starting to gently remove the dirt from around the bones. As he pushes himself up from his haunches she says something that he can barely hear. "What?"

She turns her face up to him, "I said Sully, it was Sully on the phone earlier."

He nods, hoping that his expression has remained neutral and then spins on his foot thankful for the reprieve. When he looks back at her the bones have her full attention, and he is glad in a way. Kicking a clump of soil out of his way he makes his way back to the SUV.

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As he leans against the hood of the SUV he notices her approaching from the distance, the sun is bright and bounces off of her creating an aura like appearance. This is how he likes to watch her, in the distance, oblivious to his attentions and internal emotional war. Hodgins and Zack have since arrived and are busy collecting samples from the soil surrounding the body, he watches as she pulls her cell from her pocket and hold it against her face, a smile immediately replacing the serious expression that she had been wearing only seconds before. He looks to the ground and decides that he could be elsewhere, technically he doesn't need to be present for the body being unearthed. He trusts Brennan, she's more than capable. Getting into the SUV he starts up the engine and puts the vehicle into reverse, as he concentrates on not hitting anything behind him, he doesn't notice the confused frown that crosses her features as she watches him disappear.

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Okay I know it's short but I got things I need to be getting on with. I'll update as soon as.

You know reviews are my fuel.