This is a sequel to my other story, 'Not All Change is Bad'. I suggest you go read it if you haven't already, it's only three chapters long. But if you're feeling lazy and don't want to read it, I guess you can still understand what's going on. This story will be five chapters long (if there's enough interested readers for it). Please review and tell me what parts you liked and/or didn't like, feedback is important for a writer. :) Or you can just drop a word or two to let me know you enjoyed it. Okay, I'll stop talking now.

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"What are you doing here?"

Booth woke up with a start on the couch in Brennan's office. He jumped up and found his former partner looking at him from the doorway, smirking.

"What do you think I'm doing here? I'm taking you to lunch."

Brennan walked to her desk nonchalantly and grabbed a file.

"Really? Because to me it looked like you were sleeping on my couch."

"Well that's because I waited for you to be finished with whatever you were working on on the platform. And I kinda dozed off. So… lunch?"

Brennan pretended to read the file that she had grabbed and tried to keep from smiling. The truth was, now that she didn't see Booth every day, she often found herself hoping that he would come by the lab or her apartment. The strangest part was that she didn't even try to deny that she missed him.

"Bones? Are you listening to me?" Booth had come closer during her musings and was now waving his hand in front of her face.

"Yes, Booth, I am listening to you. Unfortunately I'm too busy to go to lunch right now." As much as she would've wanted to go with him, she knew that her schedule for the day was full.

"Aw, come on, Bones! It's lunch, it will take an hour off your time."

"Exactly. Do you know what I can do in an hour? Plenty of work."

"Why won't you ever go to lunch with me?"

Brennan's eyes widened. "We go out to eat all the time!"

"Yes, but it's always late at night."

"So you're saying that sharing a meal at daytime is different from sharing a meal at nighttime?"

"Bones," he started almost shyly, putting his hands in his pockets, "it's been three weeks since we got split up. I used to have every lunch with you, so it's been a little lonely lately. Don't you think you could take the time to go eat with me just this once? For old times' sake?"

Brennan felt a pang of guilt in her chest. Had she really been blowing him off like that? She looked him in the eye and thought about her schedule. Surely she could rearrange her tasks for the day and make some time to go with him.

He could see how she was thinking things through in that big brain of hers. He also saw the guilty look in her eyes, which he hadn't meant to put there. But since it seemed that he was getting through to her, he decided to go with it.

Brennan put down the file. "Fine, I'll go with you."

"Really?" he asked excitedly and almost childishly.

"Yes, I think I can rearrange my schedule," she answered laughing at his childlike reaction.

With a whole new spark in his eyes he helped Brennan out of her lab coat and hung it up on the rack. And soon they were on their way to the diner.

--

Brennan was back at her desk, replying to emails on her laptop. It was seven at night and she was one of the few people still working. Just as she was deleting junk mail from her inbox, something that Booth had said at lunch popped into her head. It had been some silly story about pigs, something that could never happen in real life, but she had laughed none the less. Thinking about it made her laugh again, and she checked that no one outside her office could see her laughing to herself. When she had composed herself again, her thoughts drifted to Booth. She wondered how he could make her so cheery even when he wasn't in the room. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Why did she get so distracted by him these days? The three years they had been partners she had always managed to get her work done, but now that they were separated she had more trouble focusing than ever. It didn't make any sense. She had worked a long time before Booth had come along, and she hadn't had any problems then.

And that's what made her realize it. Booth had made a huge impact on her life without her even noticing it. He had come, incorporated himself into her life and turned everything upside down.

She opened her eyes in disbelief. The more she though about it, the more it made sense. She had gotten so used to him being there that now that he wasn't, she was lost. She needed him.

"Dr. Brennan?"

She jumped at the sound and saw Cam standing in the doorway.

"I just wanted to inform you that we have been asked to identify the remains of most likely a Chinese diplomat. The body will arrive tomorrow."

"Oh, okay… Thank you, Cam," Brennan replied distractedly.

Cam took a closer look at the anthropologist. "Uh, not that it's any of my business, but.. are you feeling okay, Dr. Brennan? You look a little pale."

Brennan looked up at her with what she thought was a reassuring smile. "I'm feeling fine, Dr. Saroyan. Thank you for the information, I'll start working on the remains as soon as they arrive tomorrow."

Cam figured that she wasn't really fine but decided to drop it. "Okay. I'm heading home, so good night."

"Good night."

When the sound of Cam's heels clicking against the floor became more distant, Brennan was deep in thought again. Now that she had had her big revelation, she didn't know how to interpret the information. Let alone what she should do with it. Feeling overwhelmed by the situation, she shut off her computer and turned off the lights. On her way out of the Jeffersonian she passed the security guard, who was blissfully unaware of the brainstorm that had just occurred in the anthropologist's office.