Who: Temperance Brennan and OPEN Where: Buffet When: June 2, daytime What: Brennan's eating alone and thinking too much. Rating: ?
It had been days since she had last seen Booth. Actually, it had been a while since she had talked with anyone. She just hadn't been in the mood to make small talk with people who were practically strangers or discuss their current situation. It always just led to talking in circles and not getting anywhere.
She sat at the table with a barely-touched salad and looked out the window. The only contact she had with Booth since their discussion at her apartment was a brief interaction on the network. She supposed it was to be expected, they both needed time to think, but it still hurt. The whole situation was a mess and it was the type of problem she did not know how to solve. Well, she did. But the solution would surely just lead to more problems. She knew that he had feelings for her, just as much as she knew she shared similar ones, but their relationship had always balanced on the fact that both were able to sublimate the feelings for the greater good of their friendship. And then he had to go and disrupt the unspoken understanding she thought they had achieved. What did he expect her to do? She had decided long ago that what they currently shared was enough. It was what she could handle. If they took the next step she would almost certainly do something to screw it up. It was just too much of a risk. Right?
She sighed and jabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork. Even she was having trouble agreeing with her own logic these days. Maybe it was this place getting to her. If people could move through time then what other fast-held logical beliefs of hers were also misguided? The look on Booth's face when she pushed him away and tried to reason with her flashed through her mind. He had said that they were all they had here, that all her reasons for keeping him at a distance didn't matter in a place like this. But she couldn't believe that nothing mattered here. If she did, then she would be lost entirely.