What Goes Around

1. Never Say Never

"So, are you coming or not?" Booth asked, with a hint of impatience.

"I don't know," Brennan said, putting a last folder in her bag before zipping it shut. She looked at all of her coworkers gathered in front of her office, getting ready to leave. This is a waste of time. "I still have at least three hours of paperwork to finish up. And you said you would help," she reminded him.

"And I will. Later. Cam invited all of us, and I think you should go too."

"She invited me because she's polite. She doesn't really want me there."

"Since when do you read minds?" Booth laughed out. "And why wouldn't she want you there?"

"She doesn't like me very much in social settings," Brennan stated.

"That's not true. She likes you just fine, settings or not. Now, come on," he said, taking her bag from her hands. "Paperwork can wait. It can always wait."

"You know," she explained, passing in front of him. "According to clinical literature, rebelliousness, hostility and disagreeableness are thought to be major motivations for procrastination."

She felt his hand on her back. The usual illogical feeling of comfort crept inside of her, along with a not-so-new twitching burning sensation in the pit of her stomach. Her mind ignored it, as it always did. But the inaudible breath she drew was sharp and shaky. He touched her a lot these days. Or maybe she just noticed it more.

"She's coming!" Booth announced to everyone. They all clapped and cheered. Brennan's cheeks flushed a little and she couldn't hold back a smile.

"I told you Booth would convince her," she heard Angela tell Hodgins.

***

This apartment looked nothing like what she had expected. It was charming, inviting and warm. She would never have guessed Cam lived here.

"And here is Michelle's room. I know it's a mess. She's away on a school trip for the weekend, and I'm trying really hard not to clean it up. Invasion of privacy is something she takes seriously," Cam explained.

Brennan listened to Angela talking about her bedroom as a kid, and she heard laughs coming from the kitchen. Booth and Hodgins were making dinner. Cam had dared them to, and Booth never could refuse a challenge, although spaghetti hardly qualified as a challenge. While the two women were talking about wallpaper, she discreetly went back to the hallway, towards the cooks.

"This is not one of your little experiments, buddy!" she heard Booth say. "If you blow up Cam's kitchen, she'll kill you and I'll have to clean up the mess by myself."

"Oh, I'm sure Dr. Brennan would help you," Hodgins muttered between smiles.

"You need my help?" Brennan asked, suddenly appearing in the kitchen.

Booth jumped, startled, and dropped the wooden spoon he was holding in the pot, splashing red sauce all over his white shirt.

"Aw, Bones, come on!"

Brennan bit her lips together, torn between the urge to laugh and the need to apologize. Hodgins snorted, clearly amused.

"See what I mean?" he said.

"This was a new shirt!" Booth whined.

Brennan walked up to him to assess the damage.

"A little hydrogen peroxide, and it will be like nothing happened," she said.

"You know, man, if you didn't dress up in such expensive clothing all the time, you wouldn't mind getting dirty," Hodgins said.

"I only get dirty when Bones is around," Booth mumbled.