A/N- Just a little one-shot that wouldn't leave me alone. It's my first venture into the Bones fandom, so leave a review, and tell me what you think!

XXXXXXXXX

"Ange, can we talk for a moment?" Temperance asked, pausing in the doorway of the artist's studio.

"Of course, sweetie, what is it?" Angela sat down on the couch and turned to her best friend.

"I think I lied to Booth today…" she said slowly, clearly unsure.

"Well, that's kinda a 'yes' or 'no' type of thing. What did he say, and what how did you respond to think that you are lying to the man?"

"We were in the car, discussing the Keller case, you know, the one where we first thought the husband beat up his wife?" Temperance paused, allowing Angela to nod before continuing. "Well, turns out his alibi pulled through, and Booth said, 'The man loves his wife, Bones, he wouldn't have done it.' And I explained that love is merely a set of endorphins, chemical stimuli…"

"But it isn't, sweetie, not really," Angela interrupted. "You can use all the science jargon in the world, but love isn't like that. I missed it though, why do you think that you lied to Booth?"

"Then he asked me, 'Haven't you ever loved someone like that, Bones?' …and I told him that I can and have felt euphoric when around certain people. And he sighed and told me that I would be singing a different tune if I had ever really loved somebody. I wasn't even singing, Ange, what does that mean?"

"It just means that you would be saying something different, sweetie," the artist explained quickly. "But he has a point. Love is many things, not just euphoria or something that triggers stimuli. It's happiness, protectiveness, kindness, compromise, and so much more rolled into one little word…"

"I know!" Temperance exclaimed, then softly repeated, "I know. Booth doesn't understand."

"What doesn't he understand?"

"When I was very little, maybe nine or ten, the parents of my best friend were going through a divorce. I didn't really know what one was, so I asked my mother. She told me that a divorce is something mommies and daddies do when they don't love each other anymore, because loving someone is promising them that you will always care about them and never leave them," she explained quietly, her eyes welling up despite the obvious attempts to keep her emotions at bay.

"Oh, sweetie…"

"Don't, Ange. I feel euphoric when I see people I care about, and that's enough. Love is meaningless, anyway. Booth just doesn't understand that, doesn't understand that part of me."

She couldn't have known, couldn't have possibly seen a lurking FBI agent in the shadows outside Angela's office door, intently listening to every word before silently sneaking away.