So when he needed to go out and question some suspects, he asked Angela to accompany him, figuring that putting some distance between himself and his partner was a good plan. Besides, Angela actually possessed people skills and therefore would be a greater asset during the questioning.

"Woah," she said as they drove up the long, winding driveway to the, well, the only word that adequately described the structure was mansion. "People really live in places like this?"

"Hard to believe, isn't it?" Booth said, shooting her a sideways glance. "Even harder to believe that they die in them."

Angela's face scrunched up and Booth wondered again what a girl like her was doing in a job like this. "So what are we doing here again?"

"I need to ask the parents some questions about their son," Booth explained. "I'm also hoping that I can ask the siblings some questions. I feel like there's some strange, underlying family dynamic that I'm not quite grasping. Maybe you can pick up on something that I'm missing."

"I can certainly try," Angela said.

Booth pulled into the circular entrance to the house and turned the car off. "Ready to go see how the other half lives?" he asked with a grin.

"Not really," she admitted. "But I don't have a choice."

"You'll be fine, Ang," he assured her, walking around the car and holding her door open. He offered her a hand, which earned him a surprised look. Her skin was so soft and smooth, it caught him off guard for a moment and he felt a flash of embarrassment at how rough his own hands were.

"Let's just get this over with. Places like this make me nervous," Angela said.

Booth gave her hand a squeeze before he rang the bell of the palatial home. Within moments, the door was opened by a uniformed butler. "Good Day," he said, in a stiff, British accent.

"Federal Agent Seeley Booth," he said, flashing his badge. "This is Angela Montenegro. She's with me. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen are expecting us."

"Right this way, Sir. Ma'am."

Booth glanced over his shoulder and flashed a reassuring grin at Angela, who was looking a little overwhelmed by everything.

*

The interview had gone about as well as Booth expected it to. The parents feigned complete innocence. The siblings exhibited proper shock and disbelief about their brother's activities. Booth knew damn well that someone, if not all of them, were lying, but he had no way of proving it.

"What did you think?" he asked Angela as they walked across the grounds. They had at least obtained permission to search the estate. Not that Booth expected to find much of anything; it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"They're hiding something," Angela said. "I think the sister definitely knows something. Her eye was twitching when she was answering your questions."

Booth nodded. "Good catch. I'm going to have to do more digging back at the office, I guess."

"Do you think we'll actually find anything here?" Angela asked. "And that's a pretty big decorative pond."

"I'm not expecting to find anything," he admitted. "But I figured it couldn't hurt to look around. Besides, you're way better company than Bones." He grinned and then stepped onto the footbridge that spanned the decorative pond. "Big enough to warrant it's own footbridge," he said, shaking his head a little.

Angela chuckled as she watched him. "You and Brennan. Is there... you know, anything going on there?"

Booth gave her a startled look. "What? Me and Bones? No way. We're partners, that's it. She drives me crazy. And not in a good way."

"So if I offered to have really hot sex with you on that bench over there, what would you say?"

The next few seconds somehow managed to go in slow motion while at the same time occuring in a total blur. Booth's jaw dropped and he stared at Angela, wondering if she was serious. Somehow, in the process of being startled and staring, he managed to lose his footing. He tried over-correcting and ended up splashing into the pond.

"Ow," he said, standing up. The pond was shallow; the water didn't even come up to his knees, so he had hit the ground pretty hard. His suit was soaked and his hair was dripping in his face.

Angela's hand was covering her mouth and it was obvious that she was trying really hard not to laugh. "Are you okay?" she managed to ask.

He took a moment to stretch out his limbs. "Yeah, I didn't break anything. Just wounded my pride."

"I'm guessing that means you're not interested in the sex?" she asked, her lips curling into a smirk.

"I... I don't think it would be a good idea to do it right here," he said.

"Do you think it would be a good idea to do somewhere else?" she asked.

Booth sighed and squeezed some excess water out of his pants. "I don't know, Angela. I haven't really thought about it," he admitted as he stripped off his jacket and tie, stuffing the tie in his pocket.

"Well, why don't you think about it and then give me a call?" she suggested. "Okay... I will," he promised. "But, now, we should probably get out of here. I need dry clothes and I'm not going to find anything useful here." He unbuttoned his shirt and draped his jacket over his arm.

Angela smiled at him. "Sorry I made you fall in the pond, Booth."

He managed to smile back. "Don't worry about it. Just... next time you're going to catch me off guard with something, wait until I'm on firm ground, please?

"I'll try my best," she promised.

They started walking back toward the driveway so they could get in the car. "Hey, Booth?" Angela said.

"Yeah?"

"Are you on firm ground right now?"

Booth gave her a wary look. "Yes."

She grinned. "You look really hot right now."

"Thanks, Angela," he stammered. He was grateful when his cell phone rang, interrupting the conversation. "Oh, hey, my phone apparently still works," he said, pulling it out of his pants pocket. The display was warped, but he answered it. "Booth. Hey, Bones. Yeah, we're heading back now. What do you have?"

As he listened to Bones ramble about nicks and chips and bone density levels, he saw Angela watching him with an amused expression and wondered if she really was better company than Bones after all.