In Which WE HAVE THE CHEEK KISS!

Season 3, Episode 8

The Knight on the Grid

BOOTH: Cam, she goes nowhere alone.
BRENNAN: Cam, don’t listen to him.
BOOTH: Cam, Who are you more afraid of, me or her?
BRENNAN: Booth!
CAM: Whoa! So this is what it’s like to be a kindergarten teacher.

Protective!Booth really never gets old. Neither does Protective!Booth arguing with Bones about said protectiveness.

(Brennan and Booth stand in the doorway, watching Russ, Amy & Hayley)

BRENNAN: Thank you, Booth.
BOOTH: Oh, this never happened. Don’t thank me. As far as the bureau is concerned I
caught him here, fifteen minutes from now.
(Brennan leans up and kisses Booths cheek.)
BRENNAN: Thank you. Booth.
BOOTH: Just don’t tell anyone.

Oh, the check kiss. I love it more than most of their hugs. I love definitely more than the mistletoe kiss (although, it's a different story with the extended mistletoe kiss ;D). I can't even explain it. It's just so perfect. She has this partner, this man in her life, who is just such a good guy. And he'll go against the rules of his job, rules he takes very seriously, to do the right thing.

Well, partly to do the right thing, and partly because it'll make her happy.

And she knows this. And this all hits her at once, and it's... the only phrase to really explain it is a “surge of love”, despite the fact that it sounds really gross. So she kisses his cheek.

And he's certainly not expecting it. He's not ready to deal with it. You can see in his face, hear in his foot stomp. He's not expecting this surge of feeling from her, and it throws him off-guard.

But, it's a good thing.

D'AW. <3

BRENNAN: I'm fine, I'm fine. I’m okay, I’m okay.

(He moves her away from the car and places her on the pavement as he flops down next to her.)
BOOTH: Here. Get over here. The paramedics are on their way.
BRENNAN: Now he knew who we were because I was sitting up front.
BOOTH: No. It was because you were bad acting, that’s what it was.
BRENNAN: What? Back at the vau-? I was good.
BOOTH: No, you were loud! That’s what they call overacting.
BRENNAN: Well, you shouldn’t have shushed me! That’s how he knew-

Here, you have the basic “It seems like I'm angry as hell at you, but really that anger is just disguised fear and worry over the thought of you getting hurt.” And it works marvelously. I mean, it's so obvious – the look on his face when he looks over at her after the crash, his urgency in getting her out. He's flipped out as hell. Because Bones getting hurt... he can't even think about it. It scares him too much, because he cares about her too much.

And, one last thing: the way she says “Bethesda” the second time (Bethesda) cracks me up every single time. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.