Disclaimer: pretty much nothing is mine.

*SK*

It had been a long week. The case was… tedious… to say the least. Booth had barely slept a wink. When he finally made it home he had gone straight to bed. Hannah was out somewhere on assignment, he really had paid no mind to her absence. He was just so tired. So when the sharp ringing of his cell phone made it through his sleep fogged brain he seriously considered ignoring it but the phone was already up to his ear. Muscle memory he supposed.

The voice on the other line was completely unfamiliar, timid but official. "Seeley Booth?"

"Yes?" He said voice still thick with sleep, now shrouded with confusion as well.

"Hello, this is Officer Beckford with the Philadelphia Police Department-"

As Temperance Brennan was pulled from sleep by a vicious knocking on her door she felt a sudden wave of irrational anger. She just wanted to sleep, dammit. She definitely didn't want to be going answering the door in close to nothing at 2:34 in the morning. When she swung the door open she had her mouth open to verbally castrate the person standing on the other side but she knew from the smell the door wafted to her it was Booth. That wasn't what stopped her tirade though. It was the look on his face. Since the Lauren Eames case she had been trying harder to discern people's feelings, thoughts, intentions, from facial minutia, but right now she didn't need fine honed skills to tell that look on his face was pure devastation.

"Booth?" She asked tentatively. She had never seen him like this before, and that scared her a little bit.

"I need you to identify a body." He said bluntly. She was shocked. They had just closed a case not even 8 hours ago. They were both exhausted; she knew he had just as little sleep as she had. She just couldn't understand his request.

"Booth-" She said sounding almost annoyed but he cut her off. He couldn't handle it if she said no.

"There was an explosion in Philadelphia. My mo-"His voice broke off and his eyes misted over. He looked anywhere but at her, his Adam's apple bobbing as he tried to control his emotions. "My mom, she was at her car when it happened. The officer up there said there should be enough for me to identify." He continued. Finally looking at her.

"Booth… " She trailed, she didn't know how to approach this. Honestly, that's always how you done it before, she thought. "I don't understand why you need me to identify… If they're certain enough that it's her to call you and there's enough for visual identification…" She fell off again, this was coming out wrong. She was sounding callous and she definitely not with him standing in her apartment looking like that.

"I just want to be sure." He said his voice breaking again. This time he couldn't keep the tears at bay and a sob broke free from him as the tears spilled over. In all honesty, he knew he just needed his best friend to be with him. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't stand there and watch him cry, but she didn't know what was allowed anymore. But then again this wasn't a normal circumstance and her best friend needed comfort. She needed to give it to him. He stepped closer to her slightly, he was lost, she could see it in the way his eyes darted around as if to figure out where he was. She wrapped her arms around him then pulling him tightly against her. His arms were limp at first then he wrapped his arms so tightly around her she could hardly breathe. A discomfort she'd bear gladly.

"Ok, Booth." She whispered into his ear.

*SK*

A.N: I know it's short. I'll update soon