I know there are already a lot of stories wondering how S6 will be like, but I'll start mine anyway. This one won't start with Booth and Brennan meeting at the coffee cart, there are already way too many and great ones about it.

As a lot of you already know, English is not my first language so I'm sorry about the typos and grammar mistakes you'll probably find here and there.

Disclaimer: No, Bones in not mine.

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"That's it?" Angela couldn't look more disappointed.

"Yes." Brennan answered, leaning back on her chair and pretending not to care about the awkward encounter she'd had with her former partner the day before.

"You're telling me you've spent one whole freaking year apart and all you do when you meet is drink coffee?" Angela grimaced, pronouncing the last word like it was infected.

"That's correct." Brennan looked up at her friend, unaware of the surprise about how things went. "That's what we had agreed last year before we went away, Ange. Meeting at the reflecting pool to have coffee. I have no idea why you would think things would go differently."

"Are you kidding me, Brennan?" Angela's voice went one octave higher. "I was there at that airport when you were about to leave to that Indonesian jungle. I saw your faces. He wanted to grab you and never let you go and don't even try lying to me saying you didn't want to taste every inch of that damn hot body with your lips."

"Angela!" Brennan blushed.

"Like it wasn't obvious…" Angela smiled mischievously. "You don't need to be ashamed, sweetie, if I didn't have my own curly haired little piece of sin and Mr. FB-Eye candy hadn't been taken by my best friend, I would have been down to his feet long ago…"

"Booth is not taken by me."

"Yeah, right." Angela said sarcastically. "Though, it really surprises me he didn't run and took you in his arms and kissed you till both of you were out of breath. I was so sure about it." The forensic artist frowned. She couldn't believe she lost the bet she'd made with Hodgins.

Brennan creased her forehead and opened and closed her mouth without saying anything.

"Angela, I think you spent way too much time in Paris and watching fantasy romantic motion pictures." She finally said. "Booth and I are back together as partners like we promised we would be when we got back. We were never a couple and we'll never be."

She didn't understand why her stomach felt ill when those words came out of her mouth. Brennan had to admit the first weeks in Indonesia were rather difficult. Since one of her objectives when she accepted the invitation was to take a break away from Booth to think about what their relationship really meant, she decided it would be better if they didn't make any contact over that year apart. Of course it hadn't been easy. They spent almost every day together for the past five years, he was the person she would tell everything and the one she would ask for advices. But the pain in her heart became lighter while time was passing, the hard work and the new findings were keeping her mind busy, which was very helpful, and in the end of the year, that fear and desperation weren't as bad anymore. She couldn't be happier to finally meet her best friend again and start doing what they do best, but what she really realized over that year was that she didn't want to live her life without him. Maybe she couldn't love him the way he deserved to be loved, but she'd been a good friend and a great partner and to her, that was enough. If that meant that was how they were supposed to be, then, that would be what they would be: partners and friends. Jeopardizing the most stable relationship in her life turning it into a probably failed romance was the last thing she wanted.

"Sweetie, there's this clever saying that says 'never say never' which I take as a motto in my life." Angela winked. "So, at least you two are really back as partners?"

"Hmm-um." Brennan nodded. "Though, we have an appointment with Sweets today. Seems like the FBI want to be sure we are ready to get back at the field. I don't really see the reasoning of that. Booth and I were the best they had, they shouldn't doubt our capacities."

"I'm sure they are just following protocol, Brennan." Angela could feel the fear in her friend's voice. The FBI better don't even think about breaking those two apart, because that would start a revolution no one was ready to see.

"I hope so." Brennan said not so sure. "Booth will pick me up in one hour and we'll see Sweets."

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"Dr. Brennan! Agent Booth!" Sweets couldn't hide his happiness to have their favorite patients back. "I'm glad you guys are back."

"Hey, there, Sweets." Booth greeted him gleefully. "I bet you missed us like hell. Did you cry at your sleep and kept a little calendar over your bed so you could count the days till we come back?"

"Very funny, Agent Booth." Sweets laughed sarcarstically. He was glad to see that things didn't change that much in the last year. "But yes, I did miss you."

"I knew it." Booth whispered to Brennan with a smirk and poked her lightly with his elbow. Even though their encounter at the reflection pool had been a little awkward, Brennan was glad to see things were almost normal today. She thought that it probably would be easier for them to act like they were before at the work environment other than at their private lives.

"You look very beautiful, Dr. Brennan." Sweets commented, eyeing her up and down, which made him receive a deadly glare from Booth. "Very tanned, I noticed you lost weight and that haircut is very modern and fresh. I can see the trip did really good to you."

"Since when do you know which kind of haircut is in, Sweets?" Booth teased. "Had you been watching 'What not to Wear' while we were away?"

Sweets blushed with the comment. That was what he got for trying to be nice.

"Thank you for the compliment, Dr. Sweets." Brennan said before Booth could keep teasing the poor kid. "Yes, the trip to Indonesia was quite productive. Our findings will have incredible value for future researches and my fellow co-workers and I are going to receive a lot of recognition." She smiled, thankfully for the trip actually having a good out come and being worth spending the whole year away. "I had to spend many hours out in the sun and even though I would always wear sunscreen-" She looked at Booth when she said that. He told her a million times before she went on the trip that she should be careful with her skin, she was very pale and the heat in the Maluku Islands was very strong. "-I ended up getting tanned. I have to admit I enjoyed it, but it'll likely start to fade now that I'm back to DC. The shorter haircut was easier to keep on the island."

"And how was your trip, Agent Booth?" Sweets asked as they sat in the familiar seats in the office at the Hoover's building. "I suppose it was also a very life changing experience."

"Nah, it wasn't as cool as Bones' was, I mean, it's not like we changed the world or anything."

"You were helping to keep the country safe, Booth. That's something very important." Brennan said.

"Yeah, but I wasn't really on the field or fighting on the battles, I was just in the base training the soldiers." Both the psychologist and the anthropologist noticed the sadness in his voice. They didn't need to ask to know he had lost some of his pupils. In a war zone, losses weren't something they could completely avoid. They were part of it. "Not that I have complaints about it, the last thing I wanted was go back to the battles." He sighed. "I'm glad to be back."

"Was it very hard?" Brennan couldn't help asking.

"It's never easy, Bones." He turned his head to look at her. "You look at those boys, some barely twenty years old and already having to risk their lives every day for something that really didn't have to exist. I'm not talking just about our boys, but everyone who has to go there and do what they have to do because of their countries or beliefs. Taking someone else's life, being hunger while out on a mission, feeling cold, seeing the poverty and the crap life those people have to live…" Booth sighed. "I didn't have to live all that again, but it doesn't mean I didn't feel it all while looking at each one of those guy's face. So, yes, it was very hard."

"I'm sorry about that." She said sincerely.

"Yeah… but I don't regret going, you know? It made me get a new perspective of everything." He said, Sweets looking at them carefully while the partners talked. "We thought that war would be over long ago and it just passed the Vietnam's as the longest war outside the country we've ever been. I just wished it was over already."

"Some people come back very damaged after spending a lot of time in a war zone, do you think you're ready to come back to work, Agent Booth?" Sweets asked. "I'm certain the FBI wouldn't have-"

"Damaged?" Booth spat. "I'm not damaged, Sweets! Just because I've been a year in Afghanistan it doesn't mean I can't compartmentalize things. I know how horrible what happens there is, but I'm also aware of the fact that I did my best to make things better, so no, I'm not damaged and I'm perfectly ready to start catching bad guys again."

"Calm down, Booth." Brennan whispered to her partner. "Sweets might take your attitude as evidence you're not ready to come back."

"What? He wouldn't do that!" He joined his eyebrows and stared at him. "Would you, Sweets?"

"Not unless you gave me reasons to do that…" The psychologist said. Not that it was easy to keep his calm while the big agent looked at him with those threatening eyes.

"And as far as I know, I did not give you any reason." Booth crocked a smile.

"Yeah… right." Sweets leaned on his chair uncomfortably. "So, about the other… things on your relationship, do you think you'll be able to keep your partnership?"

"What is he talking about?" Brennan asked Booth.

"You both know pretty well your reasons to fly to different countries last year weren't only work related." Sweets stared at the two partners. Brennan bit her lower lip and focused her eyes on the window and the bad weather outside while Booth looked at the younger man thinking about what to say.

"We're fine, Sweets." Booth finally said. "Booth and Bones, the terror of the creepy killers, are back, better and stronger than ever, aren't we, Bones?"

"Yeah, of course." Brennan quickly agreed.

Sweets looked at Booth, then at Brennan and at Booth again.

After thinking for a minute, only one word escaped his lips. "Okay."

"Okay?" Booth raised one eyebrow.

"You can keep your partnership."

"Of course we'll keep our partnership, how on Ear-"

"But you'll have to keep having sessions once a week with me to make sure both of you don't have any issues."

"Why?" Brennan whimpered. "I thought we both assured you we were fine!"

"Protocol, Bones." Booth exhaled slowly. He wasn't very happy about it either, but if they wanted to continue being partners, they would have to do it.

"Fine." Brennan rolled her eyes. "So, when we'll start working?"

Booth felt his phone vibrating in his pocket and showed it to Brennan before answering.

"Is 'right now' good for you?"

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