This is the first Fanfic I publish here :). It is one of my best (I like to think so anyway... it's the one I've got the best criticizm on) and so I decided for it to be the first I'm publishing. It's a one-shot and I think I've written about 15 sequels (like sequel, sequel of the sequel etc) or something ^^

Disclaimer: No matter how much I'd like to, I do not own the characters of Bones protrayed on this fanfic

Well, here goes nothing ^^ Please review!

Ooh! Italic = Memory ;)_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How could she have been so stupid? How could she not have realized? What was wrong with her? She was all alone at the diner. She and a cup of coffee. She didn't normally drink coffee unless she needed a caffeine boost and that didn't happen often these days but this was one of the few exceptions. There were all those times they'd had coffee at work but she didn't really count that. Those cups were mostly because he had been drinking coffee, not that she necessarily wanted or needed to. Now, too late, she realized that she'd done it for him. He who was not here anymore. At least not here with her.

"Hey Bones" he was walking into her office and sat down in the visitor's chair.

"Hey" she breathed deep

"So… we caught the bad guy" he gave her one of his most loveable smiles.

"Yeah…" she wasn't happy.

"Something wrong?" he was concerned about her. He was always overprotective, like she was a fragile doll or a fairy in a glass jar that could not break or the fairy would die, but it was just recently she'd discovered the concern he had for her. Or maybe it had been there before and she just hadn't noticed it.

"No, it's just so sad when such young people die" she leaned back. Their victim was a 17 year old girl. She was a cheer-leader, one of the popular kids. She hadn't always been though, just last year she'd been a mathlete and one of the geeks. Now, her old friends had killed her when she hadn't said hello to them in the cafeteria but completely ignored them.

"You wanna go and grab something to eat?" his question awakened her from her thoughts.

"What?" she said, sounding a bit disoriented.

"Are you hungry, Bones" Still the same sweet voice she'd gotten used to.

She sat there drinking her coffee, trying to remember all the stuff that was going on in her life. Trying her hardest to sort things out. People came and left. It didn't really matter; she didn't want to talk to anyone. Not that she knew any of the people entering the diner but still. She stirred her coffee. It was about half a cup left.

"Bones! Can I talk to you for a sec?" Seeley Booth caught up with her.

"Not really. I'm kind of in the middle of something here" she kept flipping through some papers when she suddenly made a right-turn and entered Cam's office. Cam was sitting behind her desk.

"I need Zach for this afternoon. It's about the man we found in the ravine" She spoke with a firm voice.

"No problem Dr. Brennan" Cam went back to her own paperwork.

"Hey, Bones. It's important" he was getting a bit upset

"Can't it wait until we have our session with Dr. Sweets this afternoon?"

"Yeah, but…"

"Great. I'll see you at three" she went into her office and sat down in her chair.

Booth gave up and slowly turned around and left the building

Why hadn't she listened? Why? Why did she have to be so stubborn all the time? She was getting mad at herself. If she just for once took the time to listen to her partner. She had listened, but he'd listened so many more times. She owed him that. And now it was too late. Why? The tears began to form in the corner of her eye. She blinked and they were gone. She didn't want to cry. The softer side wanted to come out. It rarely got a chance to.

Temperance was waiting outside Dr. Sweet's office. It was five to three. No Seeley Booth. At three to three, he showed up.

"Sorry I'm late. We need to talk" he said, remaining standing. She got up.

"About what?" she had a lovely necklace that she was twisting around her fingers. It wasn't that pretty but it was definitely her. It was formed as a small flat rounded piece of iron and there was a pattern cut out. It had the shape of a mushroom. It was from China and the necklace was supposed to bring health and happiness to your child. You were supposed to have one for each child, but since Temperance didn't have any children at the time of the purchase (or now for that matter) she only had one.

The necklace caught his attention but he snapped out of it.

"Well, there's this case…" he started but Dr. Sweets interrupted.

"Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth. Welcome in" She held the door open for them while they walked in and sat down in the armchairs. There were pencils and paper on the table

Okay, today I thought we'd start off with some association. I say one word and then you each write down four words that you associate with each other. For example if I start with Apple: Apple - Fruit - Eat - Food – Refrigerator. Okay the first word…"

"I'm sorry, but this is really, really important" Booth interrupted

"Go ahead agent Booth"

"Bones, there's this case in California. The F.B.I is sending me there"

"Great, when do we leave?" She wondered

"Well, 'we' aren't going. I am. Alone" he tried to think of a way he could say this without hurting her.

"Oh" she sounded resentful "When will you be back?"

Pause

"I won't"

Longer pause

She stood up. He did the same.

"Are you leaving me?" she whispered with tears in her eyes

"I'm sorry but I got a promotion. You'll be assigned to…"

"I DON'T CARE WHO I GET ASSIGNED TO!" she yelled. "I DON'T WANT TO GET ASSIGNED TO ANYONE!"

"Dr. Brennan, maybe you should…"

"SHUSH!" she held a warning finger against Dr. Sweets "You stay out of it" she was filled with fury. She turned towards Booth "How can you do this!? How can you…" she didn't finish. She got her things and left.

Booth just stood there. Then he sat down into the armchair again.

"Well, that was…" Dr. Sweets started. He looked at Booth before continuing "…interesting"

"Mmmm" Booth mumbled.

"Well, there's no use having couple's therapy when one part of the couple is missing so you may go now, agent Booth, if you don't want to talk about anything"

Booth got up and just as he was about to exit the room he turned.

"Thank you" he said in a low voice. Dr. Sweets didn't hear because he was looking through some papers

"I'm sorry?"

"Thank you Dr. Sweets. Thank you" he said and left. He tried to find her but her car wasn't there. He went to the Jeffersonian but shed gone home for the day.

He was packing the last of his stuff. He picked up is phone and tried to decide if he was going to try and talk to her one last time. He couldn't leave things like this. He hit speed-dial. No answer. He left the same message that he'd left about twenty times these last 24 hours: He was leaving at three, if she wanted to come and say goodbye, he missed her, he wanted her to call him if she ever needed anything or if she felt down. There he stood, in his empty apartment with a bag on the floor next to him. He'd made up his mind. He called the cab.

"It's me. Listen, call me. I don't want to leave things like this. Please. My plane leaves at 3pm if you want to come and say goodbye. I'm sorry. PIIIIIIIP" she'd listened to the message about fifteen times, not knowing what to do. It was 9 pm and she was sitting on her bed with a glass of red wine in her hand. That he would do such a thing. She'd gone to bed early that night, not wanting to know the choices she had to make in the morning.

Her cup was empty now. She remembered the conversations as if they were yesterday. When she thought about it, they'd occurred yesterday. Hah! What a cliché. She went back to blaming herself. How could she have been this stupid!? She looked at the clock. It was twelve to three. She wouldn't make it even if she wanted to. She sat there with her empty cup and she felt the sadness leaking out inside of her, like it'd been bottled up in a flask of hope and now, when all the hope was gone, there was no material left to hold the sadness locked up anymore. The feeling was overwhelming. She didn't remember feeling like this before. Maybe when her family left her, but she couldn't remember exactly.

Three people came walking through the door, though she wasn't interested. She did however hear that it was one girl and one guy, and the third one was silent. She didn't recognize the voices. Two of them sat down at a table while one of them went up to the counter and ordered something. She could feel that person watching her. When the person started walking, she could tell it was a man. His steps were much heavier than any woman she'd ever met. He stood right behind her. She wanted to be alone.

"Look, I've already got a boyfriend so you don't have to come over here" she lied without looking at the person

"Really Bones? I didn't know that" Seeley Booth said with a joking, surprised voice. He placed two cups of coffee next to her.

"Booth!" She got up on her feet and hugged him. They were hugging for a long time, until they realized that the coffee was going to get cold if they hugged anymore.

"I'm happy for you. Anyone I know?" Booth said. It was meant as a joke but Brennan didn't get it.

"What? No, I thought you were someone else and I wa…"Booth began to laugh "…nted to be alone. What's so funny?" she wanted to know.

"Nothing. It was a joke, okay" he smiled at her

"Why aren't you on a plane?" she asked

Booth told her the whole story. He'd gone to the boss and told him that he didn't want to leave, that he couldn't leave and if they didn't want him here, they could just fire him. Luckily they were more than happy to have him here, as long as he understood that it would be a while before there were any higher positions available in the city. He'd understood, but he as happy, he got to stay with her.

When he finished the story she was silent.

"Come on Bones. Say something" he listened for her answer

"You… did that for me?" her voice was weak. He nodded. "That was the most generous thing someone has done for me in a long time" she hugged him again and he hugged back.

"Listen, Bones, there is one problem" she waited for the continuance. "The thing is: all my stuff is on their way to California and my apartment is sort of sold so I don't have anywhere to stay at the moment…" she laughed

"I think we can arrange that" She smiled. They walked out the door and Booth placed his arm around her shoulders.

Where they'd been sitting, there were now only two cups of untouched coffee.