A/N: Warning, major spoiler alert!!!!!

To all those expecting another JustUs League story....sorry, that's coming soon. I still hope that you'll give this one a chance though. Bit more drama than the JustUs League series, but I'll add some funny when I can. It's been in my head since the 100th, and I guess that I couldn't help myself.

To those who haven't read any of the JustUs League adventures, thanks for giving this one a shot.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Bones or any of its characters. Anyone who claims that I claimed this is a liar.

The Mess I Made

"Holy Crap," muttered Angela angrily as she raced to her door to yell at whoever was pounding on it. "The building better be on fire or so help me God-"

"Your building is completely intact," replied Brennan cluelessly as soon as Ange opened the door. "I saw no flames, or smoke when I entered the building. And when did you become a religious person?"

"Brennan, you know I love you sweetie, but what the hell are you doing here at one in the morning?" Ange asked as she threw her hands in the air in exasperation while Brennan brushed past her and headed to her kitchen.

"Well, usually when I have something of a personal nature that I need to discuss, I go over to Booth's," Brennan replied cluelessly. "But since we're making an attempt to create boundaries in our personal lives, I thought that perhaps seeking your counsel would be a preferable alternative."

"Okay," murmured Ange, giving her head a little shake as she tried to sort out all of the questions and comments that popped up in her head from Brennan's statement. She spared a glance to see that her bedroom door was closed before she continued. "What happened Bren? I thought that you and Hacker were going to see a play and follow that up with some sex."

"That was the plan," mused Brennan, grabbing a bottle of whiskey from Ange's cabinet before taking two cups from Ange's dish dryer. She poured a generous amount in each and took a great big swig before she went on with the explanation. "I don't understand what happened. The evening went well, Andrew was charming and very amusing. We were enjoying each other's company before, during and after the play when I suggested that we go to my place for a nightcap. That's code for sex, right?"

"Yes Brennan, that is." nodded Angela patiently.

"Well, when we got to my apartment, we began kissing - he is an adequate kisser - and when he began to put his hand underneath my shirt, I pulled away. I attempted to dismiss it as anxiety from not having intercourse in some time, but when we resumed kissing and his hand travelled up my thigh, rather than it feeling pleasurable I felt uncomfortable. I thought perhaps if we abandoned the foreplay and went straight into sex, then I would feel less discomfort. But as he began to take off his clothes, something about it..."

"Felt wrong?" Ange asked, continuing Brennan's thought.

"Disconcerting," corrected Brennan. The use of the word wrong felt accurate, and yet was too vague for Brennan's liking. "Don't misunderstand me, Andrew is a very attractive man, and he is in very good physical form, however I was distracted by my thoughts and I wasn't enjoying the moment as much as I should have been."

"What were you thinking about?" Angela asked, as if she didn't already know that Bren wasn't thinking about something as much as she was thinking about someone.

"I couldn't help but compare his physical stature to that of Booth's," Brennan admitted hesitantly. "But that's to be expected since Booth has excellent bone structure as well as very well defined muscles. I should know, I've seen Booth naked twice-"

"Whoa," Ange exclaimed, holding her hands out as if to pause the conversation. "Hold on a hot minute, you saw Booth naked twice and you didn't think to tell me or give me details? I thought that we were best friends Brennan."

"Well Ange, you were at the lab when I had to take off his clothes to get particulate evidence from them," hedged Brennan. "It was purely for the sake of the case."

"Yeah, and you derived absolutely no pleasure whatsoever from that," Ange smirked knowingly, and almost laughed out loud at the redness in her best friend's cheeks. "Besides, he wasn't naked - he was wearing boxers. He was just nearly naked which wasn't naked enough....

"You know, not that I was looking or anything." Ange quickly added, sparing another quick glance at her bedroom door. "And you said twice, right? What about the other time that you saw Booth naked? You weren't, by any chance, having sex with him were you?"

"No," scoffed Brennan. "It was after he returned from pretending he was dead. I was still quite upset that I wasn't informed and I went to his place to find out why. He was in the bathtub when I got there. We began to argue and he stood up. He was of course, completely naked."

"Oh really," said Angela interestedly. "So you burst into his bathroom to see him naked? I don't blame you one bit. It's actually good to hear that you finally managed to come to your senses. Too bad you gave into denial again when you didn't just jump on him and ride him like a bucking bronco."

"I didn't go in to his bathroom to see him naked Ange-" protested Brennan.

"Please," sighed Ange in frustration. "if there wasn't a part of you that didn't want a look at his anatomy, you would have knocked before you went in."

"I did knock!" Argued Brennan. "He was in the tub listening to music and apparently didn't hear me. We argued and he became so irate that he stood up from the tub."

"Did you ask permission to enter before you went in?" asked Ange with a great big smile on her face. "Did you leave the bathroom so that he would have a chance to get dressed? When he stood up revealing all his masculine glory, did you avert your eyes or did you take a good look at his hot little body?"

"There was nothing little about his body." muttered Brennan, blushing slightly.

"Did you just tell a dirty joke?" gasped Ange in shock. "Temperance Brennan, I can't believe that you made a lascivious comment about Booth. My oh my how you've changed."

"You think I've changed?" Brennan said suddenly, seeming surprised by Angela's comment.

"Course you have," replied Angela, puzzled by Brennan's reaction. "You've changed quite a bit in the last six years sweetie. When I first met you, you were this scary smart super scientist, but you were also socially awkward and a little inappropriate at times. But I could also tell that you had a good heart - and no I'm not speaking in a cardiological sense. You were really sweet, and nice - in your own way. The problem is, you were so closed off and didn't really try to connect with anyone. There was a wall you put up between you and others, and it was difficult getting to know you. And now...okay, you're still a little socially awkward at times, but you try. You're getting better at connecting with others, and your attempts to show empathy and give comfort are improving. You're even trying to tell jokes that people like me can understand, and you're getting better at showing emotions. And if you don't mind some anecdotal proof, if someone told you six years ago that you'd not only be speaking to your brother and father on a regular basis, but that you'd host a Christmas dinner and invite your father and your cousin, would you have believed them?"

"Well, I wouldn't have had the same information and insight as I have now," replied Brennan, but even to her ears her excuse sounded hollow. "The answer to that question would have been given based on limited information."

"Bren, you could lie to yourself all you like, but deep down you know the real reason," said Angela patiently. "Booth's influence has changed you. He is the one who encourages you to connect with people and your own emotions. You said it yourself, when you have something of a personal nature to discuss, you turn to Booth. He's your emotional guru Bren; he helps you to reach your emotional potential."

"Emotional Potential?" asked Brennan disbelievingly. "You say that as though he's helping me to achieve the goal of being in a loving long term relationship."

"If anyone could, it's Booth," Ange replied. "Especially if you were looking to be in a relationship with him. Booth accepts you for who you are, and at the same time he inspires you grow as a person. The man would do anything for you Bren, and you've flourished with him around. God bless that man, he's gotten you to rethink the idea of having kids, and the existence of love. Give him a little time and he'll have you believing in happily ever after."

"He deserves so much better," said Brennan, near to tears. "He deserves someone who will love him twenty, thirty, forty and even fifty years into the future."

"How do you know that you won't?" pressed Ange. "You're the one who said that life is ephemeral and unpredictable. Who knows, you could be right and it could be a complete disaster. Or you could be absolutely and blissfully wrong and you and Booth could love each other for the rest of your lives. You won't know until you take a chance and find out for yourself."

"It's too late," Brennan whispered, a tear tumbling down her cheek. "I said no."

"Said no?" repeated Angela, afraid of what that might mean. "What do you mean you said no? No to what?"

"Booth," Brennan managed to utter before giving in to her pain wracked sobs. "He said he believed in giving us a chance. He said when you ask a couple who've been together for twenty, or thirty, or forty years, he says it's always the guy who knew, and he's that guy, he knew. I told him that he needed to be protected from me; my heart isn't as open as his and that I don't take chances and I can't change."

"Oh God Bren." Ange said, pulling her best friend into her arms as her heart broke for her.

"I hurt him so much Ange," Brennan wept. "I never meant to hurt him, but I did. But at least now, he can get on with his life. He can find someone who will truly love him, someone who can be what he needs her to be. Someone who can be what I can't."

"Did you ever think that the reason he loves you is because you're already everything he wants and needs?" Ange pointed out. "Brennan, your attempt to protect him from pain hurt him even more. Here's a radical idea - maybe if you and Booth would stop fighting your feelings for each other and just give in to them, then just maybe you two will actually find some happiness."

"Just like Cam and Booth," Brennan reminded Ange. "Or you and Hodgins? Or-"

"Cam and Booth weren't in love," corrected Ange. "According to Cam it was more of a 'friends with benefits' arrangement than anything. And she knew that Booth was in love with you. It stopped her from falling in love with him, knowing that the minute Booth saw any sign from you that you loved him too, it was over for her and Booth. As for me and Jack...."

Ange paused, and took a breath before continuing.

"No matter what happened between us, no matter what we went through I will never regret a single second that I spent with him," confessed Ange. "Jack Hodgins was, is, and will forever more be the love of my life."

"Then why aren't you together?" asked Brennan before being interrupted by a noise from the bedroom. She grabbed a nearby lamp and headed to Ange's door when Ange stopped her by grabbing her makeshift weapon.

"You might as well come out," Ange called out to whoever was in her room. "She's going to find out anyway."

Slowly, the door knob began to turn, and from behind the door emerged a chagrinned Hodgins.

"Sorry," apologized Hodgins sheepishly. "I wasn't eavesdropping. I was just..."

"Listening in?" laughed Angela, grabbing Hodgins hand and pulling him out of her room. "It's alright Jack, Bren and I were talking about us anyway, so she might as well know."

"You two are back together?" Brennan said, her tone making it sound more like a statement than a question.

"Yes," declared Angela, her and Jack wrapping their arms around each other. "Jack and I are back together. This time we're going to make it last."

"Wasn't your break up, and the resulting awkwardness from that as well as the resentment that the two of you held towards each other enough of a deterrent for you to resume your romantic relationship?" asked Brennan, as usual not taking into account how her bluntness may be received.

"You know what Dr. B, all that we went through back then, makes the second time around that much sweeter," replied Jack. "We appreciate each other more, and we finally realize that what we have is so rare. When Ange and I first got together, we just kind of plowed through our problems without talking to each other about it. We had this fantasy of how we imagined our relationship to be, and we just thought that everything would work itself out magically and talking about any problems we had would break the spell. Funny thing is, after our break up, we talked a lot more. We intend to make that a habit. You and Booth talk about everything, but you just don't listen to each other. I wish you knew how many times the two of you hinted that you wanted the same thing and felt the same way, but it's like you're too afraid that you're just hearing what you want to hear that nothing happens. After all the two of you have been through, you guys should have realized that life's too short not to take a chance."

This was all too much to process for Brennan, and without Booth to help her wade through the inner turmoil she was facing, she felt lost. Abruptly, she excused herself, muttering that she was tired and needed to go home, even though she was aware that Angela and Hodgins thought that she was running away. Whenever she faced emotional conflict and it concerned Booth, she tended to escape into her work, preferably on a dig in a country far away so that she could lose herself in the identification of human remains rather than examining the fears that caused her to flee. That was what she needed now, she needed to go far away, far from anything that reminded her of Booth and the feelings she had for him.

She drove home on autopilot, the journey to her condo not even registering until she walked through her front door. She went straight to her laptop, opening her email and scanning the subject line for the kind of request that she usually declined because of her work with Booth. Now she sought it like a life preserver to a drowning victim. She found one, from an old colleague at American University. She didn't even read through the details of the dig, she only knew that the dig was in Chile and it seemed to be exactly what she needed. She immediately replied, saying that she was very interested in the dig and to send over the paperwork as soon as possible. Once her message was sent, she breathed a sigh of relief.

It was when she was about to go to sleep, when her head was comfortably nested on her pillow and she turned to her nightstand that she encountered her first pangs of doubt. There, right by her alarm clock was Booth's lucky poker chip. He once told her that even though he doesn't gamble anymore, he found that flipping it, or even just rolling it over his knuckles helped him concentrate when he had a problem to solve. She reached out towards it, and rolled it over her knuckles just like Booth had been teaching her the night he left it at her place. No matter how many times she rolled it over her knuckles, she kept being haunted by the same conclusion - she had made a huge mistake worse.