He had his hands deep in his pockets and she was walking down the stairs behind him saying, "In his book, Sweets wrote that being abandoned by my parents made me convinced that all meaningful relationships are doomed."

He replied, thinking of the same topic she was, "Yeah, he wrote that I got white knight syndrome because of my physically abusive, alcoholic father." She walked around the corner of the low pavement wall; he was slowing down.

"I hate psychology!" she vented to him, just as he was coming to a stop behind her. She turned around, noticing his pause.

"I'm the gambler," he said, looking up from his feet into her eyes, "I believe in giving this a chance." He took a couple of steps towards her and continued, "Look, I wanna give this a shot."

She replied, clarifying their shared thoughts, "You mean us?" He nodded, and she shook her head, "No, the FBI won't let us work together as a couple."

He took a couple more steps towards her, as she was still speaking, and he said, "Don't do that. That is no reason-." He cut himself off by putting his hands around her waist and pushing his lips against hers. She placed her hands on his upper-arms, returning the kiss and enjoying it. This moment was something she had thought about a lot since their first kiss almost six years ago and then again after their kiss under the mistletoe three Christmases ago. However, though she knew she wanted to continue the kiss, she pulled away.

"Booth," she sighed, "we can't do this."

"What? Why not?" he replied.

"What if this...what if we fight like we always do and this goes wrong? What will that mean for the team, for Cam...what if this ends?" she said, airing her worst nightmares.

"What if it doesn't? Bones, you know this is meant to be. I knew that night in the bar, the night you should have come home with me. And you knew too. You just didn't want admit it to me...or to yourself," Booth paused, "I love you, Temperance, I've loved you from the first moment I saw you, in that lecture theatre. I think it was fate that brought us together and it's what has kept us together all these years."

She looked at him with shock. She knew he had feelings for her, maybe even loved her. She could see it in his eyes every time he met a man she was dating. He thought he could hide it from her but she knew him too well. She hadn't realised he loved her that much and for that long. "I...I don't know what to say, Booth," she said, terrified that if she said the wrong thing she could lose him forever.

"Say you love me too. Say you want to be with me," he pleaded.

A single tear rolled down her cheek as she whispered, almost inaudibly, "I'm scared."

"Of what, Bones? What are you scared of?" Booth questioned.

"I'm scared I'll hurt you," she took a deep breath as she wiped her tears away, "I'm scared of how much I love you."

Booth took a huge gulp of air, "You love me? You do?"

"I've been trying to...stop myself so we can still be partners, you know, keep working together but, I can't help it...I love you," she concluded.

"Bones, we can make this work. With the FBI and the Jeffersonian and everything. As long as we're together, everything will be alright, okay?" he said, pulling her in for another kiss.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and accepted the kiss fully this time, knowing what it meant...today and the rest of their lives.