Disclaimer: I do not own Bones, any characters, etc.

A/N: I know that I already have a multi-chapter fic in the works, but with everything that's been happening on the show lately, my level of angst has hit a dangerous high. So I'm sharing the pain with this new story. Let me know what you think, and how much I should torture Booth for his recent behavior. vehemently wags finger at Booth

The Admission in the Letter

Chapter 1

As Special Agent Seeley Booth walked into the forensics lab of the Jeffersonian, he experienced a nagging feeling of guilt. It had been almost a week since he had even talked to anyone at the lab, let alone visited there. Since the closure of their last case, he had been busy: doing paperwork, assisting on another agent's case, and trying to spend as much time with Hannah as possible given their disparate work schedules. They had started talking about the future and getting married, but Booth knew that was no excuse for slighting his friends. The squints had always been welcoming to Hannah, but in the back of his mind Booth had always felt a little uncomfortable with having Bones and Hannah mingling in the same group of friends. Booth wanted to fix things, though so instead of calling Dr. Brennan about their new case, he had decided to drop into the lab to pick her up and take her to the crime scene.

Glancing up at the forensic platform, Booth felt the first tingle of unease. There were two interns, Dr. Clark Edison and Wendell Bray, examining a skeleton, but Dr. Brennan was not with them. Usually there was only one intern in the lab at a time, and any examination important enough to need two of them would need Bones, right? He glanced towards her office and saw it unlit. He began to walk towards Cam's office to ask her where Bones was, since they did have a case, when he was intercepted by Angela.

"Hi Booth," she said, more coolly than usual, even though her demeanor towards him in the past few months had already changed considerably from two years ago when she used to be happy to see him and referred to him as "Agent Studly."

"Hey, Angela," Booth said, trying to be cheerful despite her obvious antipathy towards his appearance. "Where's Bones? We've got a case!" He tried to infect some of his old enthusiasm into his voice, but Booth and Angela both knew that it was somewhat forced.

Angela didn't immediately answer, looking at him for a minute as if she were studying him. Then she sighed, and motioned for him to follow her to Brennan's office.

When they reached the threshold and Angela flipped on the light, Booth couldn't stop the gasp of surprise from exiting his mouth. He had to look around twice to confirm they were in the right location. Brennan's office was completely different—the usual collection of artifacts, skulls, and haphazardly stacked file folders was gone. There were artifacts on some of the shelves, but they were not the ones Booth had seen many times in his numerous visits to his partner's office. The desk had been moved to a different wall, and only a few file folders were visible in neatly ordered piles.

Booth could only stare at Angela as she stated, "Brennan doesn't work here anymore." Angela's face now betrayed emotions of both sadness and some anger, which Booth felt was directed toward him. Angela reached into her pocket and pulled out an envelope.

"Here. She wrote you a letter," Angela said, her anger apparently growing. "She had asked me to give it to you right after she left, but I decided to wait until you realized she was gone." She glared at him accusingly.

"Gone?" Booth repeated, still in shock. "How could she be gone? I last saw her…" His voice trailed off as he remembered how long it had been since he had seen and talked to his partner.

"Yeah," Angela said, apparently agreeing with Booth's assessment that it had probably been too long to have not contacted someone he called a friend. "This is Clark's office now—I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you sat in here and read the letter. He and Wendell are pretty busy right now." She sighed. "The couch has been moved, but it's still the same one." With another glare in his general direction, Angela left Booth in the doorway clutching the letter.

Mechanically, Booth slowly walked into the office and sat on the couch. His name was written on the outside on the envelope in Bones' familiar handwriting. He lightly traced the name with his fingers, as if he could conjure up its writer by sheer willpower. Then, as he realized that this was apparently his best and only source of information about Brennan, he ripped open the envelope as quickly as possible, letting the envelope drift to the floor as he looked at the neatly written letter. She had taken the time to write it by hand, not typing it as he would have expected. Booth felt another stab of guilt that she had gone to this much trouble for him, who hadn't even called her in almost a week.

Then he began to read the letter, and anyone watching him would have been amazed by the level and variety of emotions that played over his face. However, shock, followed quickly by dejection and misery were the dominant expressions clearly visible on his usually handsome features.

A/N: Have I gotten your attention? Lucky for you all I wrote the letter first, so I'm posting that next.