Fic: Clean and Detached (#62 in ATLBU)

[only_more_love]

Title: Clean and Detached
[I borrowed the title from a bit of Cam's dialog in The Verdict in the Story. She said to the team, "Clean and detached, people -- just the way Dr. Brennan likes it."]

Rating: K or PG
Characters: Cam, Booth, Brennan
Spoilers: For The Verdict in the Story.
Timeline: Set toward the end of The Verdict in the Story.
Word Count: 200
Acknowledgments: HUGE thanks to all the folks who have ever commented on this series. I know some people are a little (ha ha) suspicious of brevity, but writing these moments is such fun for me.
Disclaimer: Though I wish Booth and Brennan belonged to me, they don't.  FOX owns 'em; I'm just borrowing them for entertainment purposes.  No copyright infringement is intended.

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Click here to read the other ficlets in this series.

“I didn’t ask you your opinion of Dr. Brennan’s character. I asked you: did she have time?”

Cam’s breath stutters as she waits for Booth’s answer.

“Yes. She had time,” Booth finally says, implicating his partner as a potential suspect, and as Cam glimpses his face, she knows she’s seeing something intensely private.

She wonders if he knows he’s laid his heart as bare as the hearts of the people she’s examined on her autopsy table.

Her gaze swoops to her jacket sleeve, but it’s too late. Before, it was just a suspicion. Now, she knows. Cam feels an ache in her stomach – a pang of something that isn’t hunger. A self-deprecating smile twists her mouth when she realizes what it is.

Tonight, at home, she’ll sip her wine and finish the book she started last night, her fingertips skimming over paper. Then, on nights when paper turns to skin, the eyes that meet hers will be warm with lust, not the thing gleaming in Booth’s eyes as he looks across the courtroom at Dr. Brennan as if they’re alone.

With Booth, heat’s mellowed into friendship. But is it too much to ask that someone look at her like that?

---

A/N: If you're wondering why the point of view character in this is Cam, the answer's simple. First, I wanted to try something a little different. Second, I'm working on something a bit longer in response to The Verdict in the Story, and I didn't want to cannibalize it for these ficlets. Still, I did want to write something drabble-y related to Verdict. So then I thought a little Cam POV might be interesting.

Anyone out there write using third person omniscient point of view? I tend to favor third person limited. I'm curious how omniscient feels for you, if you've utilized it.

Comments

[justice79.livejournal.com]

I don't think she will ever actively try to get them together, like Angela or Caroline. I do think she has accepted those two as partners in more than just work. So should the day ever come where those two become more than what they are now, I think Cam will be happy for them, knowing it was inevitable.

Cam's a smart cookie.

[lerdo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree that Cam's smart, and that she'll be happy for Booth and Brennan if/when they officially get together -- that's why while she's jealous of Brennan in this, it's not because Booth loves her. I just don't see her in "the club" precisely because I don't think she's rooting for them to get together. *g*

Don't even get me started on Caroline. As cute as Santa was in some ways, I still think Caroline blackmailing Brennan into kissing Booth is one of the stupidest and not-so-in-character things the show's writers have cooked up yet.

[justice79.livejournal.com]

You are correct in your sane reaction to Caroline in Santa in the Slush, but I chalk it up to Christmas magic, because the scene itself was so much fun. I have faith no one but Booth and Brennan will ultimately get Booth and Brennan together.