Massive thanks to skellingtonlover for helping me write this chapter. Without your inspirational words and suggestions, I never would have completed and posted this story.

Brennan didn’t see Booth for five days after that night at his house. With no FBI case requiring her assistance Booth had no reason to go to the Jeffersonian and their strange encounter made a social call awkward. Temperance didn’t realise it but her friends began to notice a change in her. As usual, Angela was the one to point it out.

“Sweetie, what’s going on?” Angela asked in that ‘tell me even though I’m pretty sure I already know’ tone.

“Nothing Angela.” Brennan responded. She kept her head down, knowing that if she met her friend’s intense stare she would crack.

“You’ve been moping around here for days. Strangely enough, the same number of days that a certain FBI agent has been absent.” Angela walked further into the room and slid down into the chair opposite Brennan. Temperance slowly raised her head and looked at Angela. Her friend’s curious stare caused Brennan to purse her lips to stop the whole story from coming out.

“This has nothing to do with Booth.”

“So you’re admitting there’s a ‘this’. There is something wrong.”

“No, I didn’t mean, Angela there’s…” Brennan trailed off. It was no use. She needed to talk to someone. “Something happened.” She whispered.

“A good something?” Angela smiled and leaned forward.

“I’m not sure.”

“What do you mean you’re not sure?”

“It started good but…”

“Oh tell me he isn’t a disappointment.” Angela gasped, wondering if Brennan was about to admit that she slept with Booth and he wasn’t the lover Angela romanticised.

“We didn’t do that.” Brennan leaned back in her chair and picked up a pen, twirling it in her fingers. “We didn’t even kiss.”

“So what happened exactly?” Angela was curious about what had her friend in such a twist.

“We hugged.”

“Big deal, you guys do that all the time.” Angela shrugged. “Why was this different?” she probed when she saw the look on Brennan’s face, telling her there was more to it.

“We started talking and some things came up.”

“Sweetie, if you don’t tell me what those things were, I’m going to go crazy.”

“I told Booth that I don’t think of him…” she paused, sucking in a deep breath. “…Like a friend.” She expected Angela to say something, to respond in some way but her friend remained silent, her mouth gaping open in surprise.

“Angela?”

“I…I’m sorry sweetie, I just didn’t think you would do that.”

“I didn’t really mean to.” Brennan shrugged. “It just came out. He was holding me and it felt…right. And I told him.”

“What did Booth say?” Angela asked, trying to shake the image of Booth and Brennan in each others arms.

“That he was confused.”

“Oh.”

“I’m confused too.”

“Well you two have a complicated relationship.” Angela began. “You’re not like ordinary people. You can’t just admit your feelings and start dating.”

“Why not?” Brennan leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk.

“Honey, you and Booth are like the couple that never is. You dance around a relationship and get real close. Then inevitably something comes between you, more often than not something you put there yourselves, and you have to start all over again.”

“Are you saying that Booth and I are not meant to be a couple?”

“Does that upset you?” Angela asked, seeing the disappointed look in Brennan’s eyes.

“I just…you’re always telling me that we should be together.”

“I know. But part of me tells you that because I know it will never happen.” Angela admitted.

“What about the other part of you?”

“Because I want you to be together. Sweetie, you and Booth could be this amazing couple. There’s just all this stuff in the way and it isn’t so easy to get around that stuff.”

“Angela, I don’t know what to do.” Brennan fought back tears.

“I can’t tell you what to do Bren.” Angela sighed. “This is something you and Booth need to work out. You need to talk to him.”

“What am I supposed to do, turn up at his house like I did on Friday and wait for him to reject me?”

“This all happened at his house?”

“Yes.” Brennan sinks back down into her chair.

“And you haven’t spoken to him since have you?”

“I haven’t called him and he…he hasn’t called me either.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“Maybe Booth is struggling with this as much as you are. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to be rejected by you either.”

“But I wouldn’t. At least I don’t think I would. I mean I was the one who brought it all up.”

“Maybe. But you run sweetie. When things get difficult you run.” Brennan had no reply for this. She knew Angela was right. She knew she was afraid to speak to Booth because she would somehow back out of what she said to him.

“I think I need to go home.” Brennan pushed herself out of her chair. “I can’t think here.”

“Call me if you need to talk some more.” Angela said as she watched her friend walk out the door. Angela knew this day would come and as Temperance disappears from view, Angela picks up the phone and dials a familiar number.

xxxx

Brennan was home early for the first time in longer than she could remember. Dim lighting, soft music and a large glass of wine had slowly helped her body unwind. Yet her mind was more active than normal. She couldn’t stop thinking about what Angela had told her; that she and Booth were never meant to be together. They were the eternal non-couple. Maybe she was right. Maybe she and Booth were destined to remain friends forever.

xxxx

A sudden knock on her door startled Brennan from her thoughts. As she rose to her feet her stomach began to twist in knots as she realised who her visitor was likely to be. The journey across the apartment to the door took her longer than usual as she fought the urge to run to her room and close the door. She wasn’t ready to face him. She wasn’t ready to talk about this with him. But a further insistent knock propelled her forward and her hand was turning the door handle before she realised she had placed it there.

As the door slowly swung open, Brennan gradually lifted her bright blue eyes until she met his deep brown chocolate ones. His stare was so intense she gasped in a breath.

“Hey.” His voice was low and husky.

“Hi.”

“Can I come in?” Brennan stepped back from the door and allowed him to enter her apartment. She could tell by the hunch in his shoulders and the dark circles under his eyes that he had been thinking about what happened as much as she had.

“We need to talk.” He stated. It was a simple statement but to Brennan, it had the weight of the world on it. She felt awkward and self conscious and she wrapped her arms around herself as she turned her back to him and walked back into her apartment.

“I think that’s a good idea.” She said softly, sensing Booth walking in behind her.

“Friday night I let you go without telling you something.” Booth said. He needed for her to turn around and face him but he didn’t want to force her to, she had to do it on her own. “Bones, please.” At the sound of his desperate plea, Brennan slowly turned around to face him.

“When you told me that you didn’t think about hugging me like a friend should…” he paused. “I felt the same.” He looked into her eyes and saw a glimmer of hope in her sparkling blue orbs. He took a few tentative steps towards her, his shoulders relaxing a little. “I’ve been thinking about this since you left and I realised something.” He took another step towards her so they were standing only a foot apart. “Maybe we aren’t meant to be friends.” When his words registered with Brennan, her eyes widened and filled with tears. She couldn’t believe that Booth was telling her they shouldn’t be friends. Discounting Angela, Booth had been the most solid presence in her life the last few years and the thought of losing that terrified her. She couldn’t prevent her bottom lip from trembling or from gasping in a shocked breath of air.

“Don’t?” she whispered, that one word almost inaudible. Booth looked at her curiously then it occurred to him that she didn’t understand what he meant.

“Don’t what Bones?” he knew he should clarify things but he needed to know she really did feel as strongly as he did about their feelings.

“Don’t come here and tell me you don’t want me in your life.” She said, her voice coming out stronger than she felt. “Don’t tell me we can’t be friends. I can’t lose you. I need…” Booth silenced her with a look, knowing he had to make her understand what he meant. His eyes told her he had more to say and his body moving closer to her filled her with feelings of both hope and dread.

“If we don’t think about each other as friends, maybe we’re not meant to be friends.” Brennan physically shuddered as he uttered those words again. She fought back the urge to cry and beg him to stop saying it. “Bones.” He paused. “Temperance.” Booth changed to using her given name, knowing it would catch her full attention. “Maybe we’re meant to be more than friends.” He raised an eyebrow, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He watched her eyes flash with a thousand emotions as she processed his words. She didn’t seem able to answer him so he continued to talk, to explain himself.

“I’m not confused anymore. I have been for a long time because I felt something for you, something I didn’t think I should be feeling. Then you came to me and told me you felt it too. I’ve spent the last week worrying about what this means for us, for our work, for what we are. And I came to one conclusion.” He looked at her, anticipating a response. But Temperance was frozen to the spot, in a state of shock. She never expected him to say these words to her and now that she is hearing them, her lightening fast mind is having trouble processing it all.

“Bones, I don’t want to dance around this any longer. I don’t want us to get close then have to back off because we put some obstacle in the way. I want to be with you. I want you to want to be with me.” Brennan realised at this point that Angela had spoken to Booth. Part of her wants to be mad at her friend for betraying her trust but she knew that without Angela, Booth might have come and this might never have been resolved.

“You need to say something Bones.” Booth said softly. Her silence was worrying and it didn’t escape him that he had been the one doing all the talking.

“I…I…” she couldn’t seem to form the words she needed to say.

“It doesn’t have to be eloquent Bones. I just need to know what you’re thinking here.” A soft chuckle came from his throat, breaking some of the tension. Still, she couldn’t speak. So she did the only thing she could. She stepped forward and closed the distance between them, unfolding her arms at the same time. She then wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close to her, burying her head in the material of his jacket at his shoulder. After a moment she felt his arms close around her back and he hugged her tightly, pulling their bodies flush against each other so they could each feel the beat of the other’s heart.

They remained in each other’s embrace for several minutes, not a word passing between them, which in itself was unusual. Finally Brennan released her grip and drew back so she could look into his eyes.

“I want that too Booth.” She smiled.

“That’s all I needed to hear.” He smiled and leaned towards her. She matched his movement, giving him permission to place that long awaited kiss on her lips. She had waited so long for it to happen that she wanted to savour every moment and she let her eyes flutter closed so she could take it all in. His lips brushed against hers softly before he pulled back for just a moment. He kissed her again, this time applying more pressure which elicited a soft moan from Brennan. Taking this as a sign to continue, Booth pulled her tightly against him with one hand pressed into her back. The other snaked up and cradled her head, allowing him to control the kiss fully. He only drew back from her when the need for air became desperate. And although their lips were no longer touching, he didn’t let Brennan draw away from him. He held her close and whispered in her ear.

“We’re going to make it Bones.”

“I know.” She replied before allowing Booth to draw her into the embrace that she now craved. Safe in his arms she knew that whatever life threw at them, they would get through it because they had each other. Finally, they had each other.