Angela walked into Brennan's office, catching the end of a phone conversation her friend was having

Angela walked into Brennan's office, catching the end of a phone conversation her friend was having.

"I will...I ate lunch around 2...stop it...I'm an adult...ok...bye." Brennan hung up the phone.

"Booth?" Angela asked.

"No, my Dad."

"Same difference. Anyway, here is my sketch, I'm gonna head home unless you need something else."

"No, I don't need anything. What did you mean by 'same difference' when I told you I was talking to my father and not Booth?" Brennan's face was scrunched up in confusion.

"Bren, they are very similar. Please tell me you see that?" Angela sat down across from her friend.

"Angela, they are nothing alike. My father, although acquitted, is a murderer and a thief. How is he anything like Booth?"

"Sweetie, you know how I feel about Booth. I think that Seeley Booth is one of the all time great men and I love him but he can be..." Angela wasn't sure how to finish her sentence.

"What, Ange? What can he be?"

"Booth can be fierce when needed, when he feels that the people he loves are in danger just like Max. Scary fierce."

"Being scary is a lot different than what my father did." Brennan thought she had seen Booth at his scariest, she'd seen him shoot a man. It was obvious that Angela didn't know what she was talking about.

"Bren, there are things you don't know about. Things that Booth has done. Things he would never want you to know about."

"Like what?" She couldn't imagine that there were things Angela knew about her partner that she didn't.

"Ok, I'm going to tell you under a few conditions: you don't ask how I know about them and you never tell Booth that I knew or that I told you, deal?" Angela knew that she may live to regret this conversation but these were things that she'd always thought Bren had the right to know.

Brennan nodded in agreement

"First of all, remember a few years back when you worked on that case dealing with that Guatemalan gang?"

Again, Brennan nodded

"That gang leader, the onr you tussled with in the Hoover building, put a contract out on your life. When Booth found out he hunted the guy down, put a gun in his mouth and threatened to kill him if anything ever happened to you." Angela had always thought that was kinda hot but she knew Brennan wouldn't feel the same way so she kept that thought to herself.

Brennan shook her head back and forth. "No – you must have heard wrong. Booth wouldn't do that. He could have lost his job or been killed."

"It's 100 true - remember he was late to the funeral? That's what he was doing."

"Why would he do that?"

"Danger + You Scary Fierce Booth."

"That was obviously an extreme situation. I'm in danger on a regular basis – he doesn't go around threatening everyone."

"Doesn't he?….You have no idea what he was like when the Gravedigger took you and Hodgins."

"I'm sure he was worried, more so than usual - I've seen him frantic and angry before. I can see why someone on the other side of that wrath would be frightened but…"

"No, it was more than that. If we hadn't found you I think he would have done some serious damage…The way I hear it, he held that kidnapping expert guy down by his neck and threatened his life if you weren't found alive. In his office – in the Hoover building."

"Angela, I don't know that your sources are all that accurate. I can't see Booth ever being so reckless."

"Sweetie do you seriously doubt for one second that he wouldn't hurt someone who hurt you?"

Brennan hated to admit it, but she didn't doubt that at all. "No, but that doesn't make him like my father. Don't forget that when my parents, my father abandoned me they took something away from me that I needed, something that changed me and my future. Booth would never do that. He won't go 12 hours without checking in with me."

"Hasn't Booth taken something away from you?"

"My gun but I went and got a new one." She said with a slight smile, she didn't want to go where she knew Angela was headed so she tried to change the subject.

"No, not that. What about the line he drew?"

"What did that take from me?" Brennan forgot that in a moment of wine-induced honesty she had told Angela about 'the line' that Booth drew.

"The promise of something more." Angela said slowly and quietly.

"I don't understand."

"Your parents left you to protect you, right?"

"That's what I've been told." Brennan said coldly.

"Booth drew that line to protect you. And in doing so, he took away any chance the two of you may have had together."

"We're just partners, Ange. As far as I'm concerned that line doesn't even need to be there, we're friends and partners. That's all."

"And you never feel that tug for something more?"

Brennan sat silent. And with her silence she confirmed what Angela had always known.

"So the facts are: your father and Booth are two fiercely protective alpha-males who have put your safety and well being before their own happiness. Even you would have to look at the evidence and draw the same conclusion as me.

"And what is that?"

"When people say that women always fall for men like their fathers they aren't wrong." Feeling satisfied that she had stated her case in such a way that even the hyper-rational Dr. Brennan couldn't object, Angela stood to leave.

"Angela, wait!" The artist turned to look at Brennan. "I haven't fallen for Booth, so while your conclusion may be right – it doesn't pertain to me."

Angela sighed, "Sweetie, that's a conversation for another day."