This article explores a research partnership between a university-based researcher and a middle school science teacher. Our partnership began with project-based inquiry and continued with unstructured thought-partner spaces: meetings with no agenda where we wrestled with problems of practice. Framed as incubation periods, these meetings allowed us to focus not on solution-oriented talk, but open grappling. Within these spaces, we found markers indicative of developing an inquiry stance, such as increased risk--taking and deepening self-reflection.