The Camper in the Lake

Yet another drive in the black S.U.V. was spent in quiet. Temperance watched the trees
that lined the streets pass by, Booth watched the road, but looked at his partner
every few minutes.

"Bones... I don't know why we keep ending up like this."

Temperance Brennan sat a little straighter and looked at her partner. She sighed.
"I've been meaning to talk to you, Booth. About the other night. I guess I don't know
how to handle all of this quite yet." Her blue eyes traced the lines in Booth's face.

He looked away from the road.

"I know what you mean." He nodded, deep in thought. "I've been meaning to talk to you,
too."

"I know. And I think I know what it's about."

"No, you don't." Booth glanced over at Bones to see the surprise on her face. It
wasn't every day that Temperance Brennan did not know something. "I want you to
know..." Booth breathed in deeply. "I want you to know..." Booth lost his bravery as
he spoke, "I want you to know that whatever you want is ok with me."

"Seriously?" Booth nodded. Brennan looked back out the window. Her eyes followed the
landscape as she spoke. "I want things to go back to the way they were." Her voice was
soft and a little sad.

"Yeah," Booth replied. His voice was dim and humorless. Bones tried not to look at
Booth, she was afraid that his expression would be etched into her memory forever.

Booth's eye wandered to the passenger side of the vehicle. He thought he saw
Temperance's chin tremble.

Temperance Brennan watched Seeley Booth interrogate a young witness on the other side
of the two way glass. The boy, a tall lean young man of 17 obviously knew much more
than he let on. Booth knew how to get information out of him, so he relentlessly
pried.

Temperance reached to the volume control on the right side of the mirror and turned it
all of the way down. She turned to the man who stood in the room with her.

"Hypothetically speaking, what would you say to a woman who..." Brennan was reaching
for words, phrasing what she spoke carefully. "who... abjured..."

"Like, avoided?" Dr. Lance Sweets clarified.

Dr. Brennan threw him a menacing glance. "Who ABJURED stressful situations?"

Dr. Sweets flipped through the Complete Works of Psychological Terms and Definitions
that he stowed deep in his mind. He replied, "Two general coping strategies for stress
management have been defined: problem solving and emotion-focused..."

"So you're saying I'm being emotional?"

Sweets smiled, "Just wait Dr. Brennan. Let me finish. An additional distinction is
often made between active and avoidant coping strategies."

"So this is just a psychological coping strategy?" Brennan turned to face Booth who
was still interrogating the young witness.

"Wait," Dr. Sweets observed, "Why aren't you in the interrogation room with Agent
Booth?"

Brennan's poker face was on as she glanced at Sweets then back at Booth.

"I see... the stressful situation is between you and Agent Booth?" Brennan looked at
Sweets, her eyes a little wider. "I'm getting warm huh?

"Cold." declared Bones.

"You two had were in a romantic situation and YOU can't deal with the stress involved
in the post-kiss era," Sweets pieced the information together in his mind.

Bones finally turned to Sweets. "You know I don't believe in psychology, Dr. Sweets."

"Do you want my help or not?"

"Who said I needed your help?"

"With all due respect, Dr. Brennan, you were the one who brought it up."

"Fine. I can't talk to Angela. She thinks the answer to all of our problems is to hop
in bed. I can't talk to Booth... because..." Dr. Brennan crossed her arms.

"Sometimes we hide our emotions, Dr. Brennan, when we're afraid of the consequences of
sharing them."

"I'm not afraid, Sweets."

"For someone who has never been afraid of warring tribes or the Chinese Army, you sure
act like it."

"I'm not afraid."

"Then tell Agent Booth that." Dr. Sweets' phone rang, he picked it up, spoke a few
seconds while Brennan's eyes watched Booth. Sweets hang up, "I've gotta roll, Dr.
Brennan."

"Your girlfriend?" she asked, smiling.

"My mom." Dr. Sweets grabbed his bag and left, closing the door behind him.

Dr. Temperance Brennan slept at her desk, the sun was rising and a beam of light
glistened on her hair. She had been working all night trying to find the one shred of
evidence that would lead the team to Halle Pearsons' killer.

"Bones." Booth laid his hand on Bones' shoulder and shook gently.

After a moment, she raised her eyes and looked up. "Booth?"

"Have you been here all night?" he wondered.

"Yeah," she said groggily. She brushed little hairs out of her face. "We're missing
something. Everything up until now has been conjecture. We need facts. What are you
doing here?"

Booth just smiled and handed Bones a cup of coffee.

Temperance returned the smiled and thanked him. "Booth, uh..." Booth sat down on the
little sofa in her office. Bones stood and walked over to him, then sat beside him.
"About last night..."

Booth smiled his friendly smile, "Don't worry about it. I won't mention it again. It's
the past. Let's just forget about it."

For a moment, Bones looked hurt, but she quickly smiled widely, a fake smile. "Yeah...
I'm--I'm glad you agree."

"Yeah, it's the past, Bones." He held out his hand. "Partners?" Bones shook his hand
awkwardly.

"Partners." she agreed.

Cam knocked lightly at Dr. Brennan's door. "Dr. Brennan, I'm surprised to see you so
early."

Brennan looked up, "I just stayed here all night. I think we're missing something."

Cam walked into the office and stood beside the little sofa. "And I think I know just
what that something might be." she held up a folder that had been tucked beneath her
arm.

"What's that?" Bones asked.

"It's the something." Cam smiled.

Bones reached up and took the folder from her boss. She opened it and flipped through
papers that were tacked inside. Hodgins and Angela found their way into the room as
she read.

"I think I've got something!" Hodgins announced.

Cam turned to Hodgins, "So have I."

Bones and Booth looked up.

"What did you find?" Hodgins asked.

"What did you?" Cam asked.

"Ladies first."

"I ran the water that was found in Halle Pearsons' lungs through the mass
spectrometer. I found high levels of Sodium Chloride and Sodium Hydroxide." Cam
smiled, expectant of Hodgins answer.

"And I found isocynates... this morning I discovered that the unidentified
particulates that were under Halle Pearsons' finger nails are Diatomaceous earth..."
for a moment, everyone was still as Hodgins rolled the facts around in his brain.
"That's it!"

"What? What's it?" Booth asked Bones.

"Translation: Dr. Hodgins found swimming pool paint--the isocynates-- and filtering
agents--the Diatomaceous earth-- and I found levels of Sodium Chloride and Sodium
Hydroxide only found in swimming pools." answered Cam.

"Halle Pearsons wasn't murdered in the lake at all. She was murdered in a swimming
pool!" Bones lept to her feet and grabbed her jacket. "We've been looking in the wrong
place all along!"

"Where are you going?" Booth asked as he ran after her.

"We've got to get samples from Mr. Pearsons' swimming pool for comparison!"

"Wait for me!"

Cam, Hodgins, and Angela watched as Booth and Bones ran out the door.

"They're back!" Angela said in a sing-song voice.

"Here's how I see it," Booth hypothesized. "Tom Pearsons had two very big weights on
his shoulders: a wild teenager and a dying wife. In the middle of the night, Halle
wandered home, drunk, high, stumbled into the house. They got into a fight..." Booth
stopped mid sentence. "I just don't understand how they got out to the pool..."

"That's it!" Bones pointed to an almost hidden driveway, tucked between large trees
and foliage.

The S.U.V. slowed to a stop behind an old station wagon. Booth and Bones hopped out of
the car. They walked up the steps to the front door. Bones looked at the pool as they
walked. She tugged on Booth's elbow, "Booth."

"What? Bones, wait!" Brennan walked through the brush and up to the side of the pool.
She looked down into the hallow pool filled with murk and painted with green slime and
moss.

"I think we're back to the first block, Booth," Bones said as she squatted and took a
sample of moss. She tucked the plastic baggy into her pocket and looked up at Booth.

"That's square one, Bones... and I think you're right."

Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth sat on an old sofa in the Pearsons residence. Ruth lay
quietly as ever before, her oxygen pump KSHHed away every five seconds.

"What's this all about? Did you find out who killed my little girl?" Mr. Pearsons
asked. His wrinkled eyes were bloodshot and sunken from nights of sleeplessness.

"We've found evidence that Halle was murdered in a swimming pool," Brennan began. She
stopped shortly, though, once she caught Booth's eye.

"We wanted to know if there were friends who Halle hung out with who happened to have
swimming pools," Booth said.

"It's just me now..." tears streamed down Mr. Pearsons' face and were channeled by
deep wrinkles until they dripped onto his collar. "Ruthie's sick. She's dying. She's
on 80% oxygen now."

"I'm very sorry for your loss, Mr. Pearsons." Bones said sympathetically.

"There's, uh," Mr. Pearsons spoke slowly. "a friend of Halle's who she played with. A
young man by the name of Ben Wright. I think that the Wrights have a pool."

Booth seemed to be thinking deeply, so Bones leaned in and whispered, "What are you
thinking?"

"Can I get you two something to drink?" asked Mr. Pearsons.

"Water," replied Booth. He waited until Mr. Pearsons walked into the kitchen before he
whispered back, "Ben Wright was the kid we interviewed last night."

"Do you think he could do it?" asked Bones.

"You tell me."

"He is about 6 feet tall, 185 pounds. He could do it, Booth."

Booth stood up as Mr. Pearsons reappeared in the room. Bones followed his lead and
stood beside him. "Thanks for everything Mr. Pearsons." Booth and Bones walked to the
door, leaving Mr. Pearsons with two glasses of water in his hands.

Booth and Bones were in the viewing room on the opposite side of the two way glass as
Ben Wright waited to be interrogated once again.

Booth and Bones were alone and the room was quiet. Booth leaned against the wall where
Bones was leaning. His face was close to hers. He gave her his charm smile.

"What?" Temperance asked, with a soft smile on her lips.

"I was thinking," Booth began nervously. "Would you let me take you out to dinner? At
the Diner, I mean. "

Bones smiled back, "Sure." she replied.

"People gotta eat," Booth said. He opened the door for Bones as they entered the
interrogation room.

Booth sat down across from Ben Wright and Bones sat beside Booth. The boy sat up and
smiled at Bones.

"You didn't bring her in last time," he addressed Booth, looking at Bones. "Hey
Beautiful."

Booth glared at him. "This is my PARTNER Dr. Temperance Brennan."

"Oh? A doctor?" the boy leaned over and smiled deviously at Bones.

"Right, a doctor, meaning she's about 300 times smarter than you and she can snap you
like a twig." Booth warned.

Bones leaned in, "We know you did it, Ben."

"Did what?" he shot back.

"You killed her." Booth answered back.

"You have no proof of that." the boy squinted at Booth.

"We have forensic evidence. We can place you at the scene of the crime." Bones
replied, her voice low with intensity.

"I left the lake at midnight. Alone. You can't prove anything."

Booth looked at Bones, raised his eyebrows slightly, giving her permission to do her
thing.

"You, Halle Pearson, Georgia Allen, and Kyle Tracey partied in the woods on the night
of the 22nd and into the morning of the 23rd," she began. Ben rolled his eyes,
unconvinced. "It wasn't long after that when Georgia and Kyle passed. You took Halle
back to your place. Your parents had already gone to bed. You took Halle to the pool
to have sex with her. She didn't want it, so you tried to rape her." Booth looked
sharply at Bones. No semen had been found in Halle's body. He looked worried, but
Ben's smirk disappeared slowly. "She didn't like that."

"You're wrong. You're WAY wrong--" Ben began, his face turned red with fury.

"The thing you didn't count on, though, was that Halle was taking Risperidone to
combat her depression. She knew what you had in mind the moment you tried. She wasn't
as out of it as you expected. She fought back."

"Then you killed her. You wrenched her arms behind her and stood on her back until she
drowned. Then you threw her in the lake to throw off the scent." Booth told the boy.

Ben's face grew somber. His lips quivered, but his eyes remained dry as he spoke, "She
was going to tell. That b**ch was going to tell."

Booth and Bones looked at each other.

They found Halle Pearsons' killer.

Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan sat at the Royal Diner in their usual window
seat.Booth took a bite from a french fry and asked, "Haven't you ever been camping,
Bones?"

Temperance replied thoughtfully, "When I was thirteen I attended Chemistry Camp."

Booth laughed at her answer. "No, I mean... out in the woods, the stars above you, the
ground below you... eating hot dogs and s'mores--"

"I know what s'mores are," answered Brennan with a twinkle in her eye. "but I'd never
eat hot dogs."

Booth put down his hamburger and smiled, "Why?"

Bones leaned across the table, "You wouldn't either if you knew that hot dogs are made
up of the processed leftovers of larger cuts of meat... ears, snouts, hooves,
tails..."

"That's a myth."

"Or is it?" Bones smiled furtively.

"Now you're going to ruin hot dogs for me?" Booth laughed. "How about camp fires?"

"That summer, there was a boy who accidentally mixed two explosive chemicals. Does
that count?" Bones and Booth laughed for a while, then they both grew silent. Booth
smiled at Bones and the world was still. The only two people left were Seeley Booth
and Temperance Brennan. Brennan sighed, blinked, then looked down at Booth's plate. "I
don't know how you can eat that," she motioned toward the pie on his plate.

"It's the best pie in the world." Booth smiled. "Take a bite."

Bones shook her head, "You know I don't like my fruit cooked."

"Just one bite?" Bones shook her head. "When was the last time you tried Apple Pie?"
he asked.

Bones thought for a moment, "I think I was a teenager. Seventeen?"

"I thought that scientists had to test and retest their hypotheses," Booth pushed the
little plate closer to Bones. "Are you afraid?" he asked.

Bones took a minute to consider. She remembered her conversation with Dr. Sweets. "I'm
not afraid," she replied. She reached for the fork that lay on the plate.

Booth put his hand over the plate and stopped her. "Wait, you'll probably get mostly
crust. Then the experiment will be a bust. Let me." He took the fork and cut out a
piece with a little bit of apple and a little bit of crust. He lifted the fork to
Temperance's lips. She paused for a moment, then smiled slightly. She leaned forward
and took a bite.

Booth leaned in a little further. "What do you think?" he asked.

Bones covered her mouth to catch crumbs. "It's good..." Looking into Booth's eyes, she
replied, "It's perfect."

Booth laughed, put down the fork, then crossed his arms and rested them on the table.
Leaning forward, he asked, "I thought you said perfection was mathematically
impossible?"

Bones leaned in, too, until they were just inches away from one another. "What if I
told you I lied?"

"Then I'd say I forgive you." Booth replied.

The lights lowered and a waitress walked up to the couple in the window seat, "The
diner closes in ten minutes, love birds." She smiled and walked away.

Bones leaned back, her cheeks pink, "I think I should go home now."

Booth copied her and leaned back. "Yeah." He wiped his lips with a napkin, opened his
wallet, then left a few dollars on the table. Booth and Bones stood up and Booth moved
closer to Temperance until they were very close to one another.

"I can..." Temperance said softly, "just take my car." She looked up sheepishly into
Booth's eyes. "I'll need a ride to the Jeffersonian first, though, so I can--"

"Or I can just take you home." Booth replied, his cheeks blushing and his heart
beating loudly in his ears.

Bones gave Booth her very own charm smile and replied, "Or you can take me home." She
started walking toward the door. Booth grabbed a mint from the table before he left.
He stopped and looked toward the ceiling and mouthed the words "Thank you."

I just have a few notes about my story to share...

* I named "Jin" after my favorite professor: Dr. Jin, the Biology Prof. He was awesome!

* The short story, "Perfection" which started this whole story... before Booth and Bones kissed, Bones said that Perfection was mathematically impossible... that's not true, but she was trying to staunch the moment. Didn't work.

* The whole pie thing was an idea I shared on the board before, that they should have a moment where Booth feeds Bones pie. Sweets always says on the show that Booth tries to woo Bones with pie.

* Booth says earlier, or begins to say, that taking a woman to dinner says I love you. Although the date never actually occurs, he still is able to take Bones to dinner.

hey mama...i think people need to read this because it's AWESOME

I love it

I'm glad you guys liked it. It was one of my first fanfics.

and a good one at that...good job...really miss your writing mama you need to write more LOL

I loved this!!