A/N: Are you all waiting with bated breath? Soooo ready to read the continuation of What We Deserve? Well, STOP. Read the A/N first! :) First of all, a big fat THANK YOU DAHLINGKS to my bff, the incredible Miss SSJL for letting me put my spin on her story. I hope you love it and I have tissues if you're bawling uncontrollably, love.

Second, Jamie left the story like a "choose your own adventure." If you don't like the adventure I've chosen, please hold your hate mail. I promise there will be twists and turns.

Last thing to know before I just shut-the-eff-up-Kinsey, is that there will be flashbacks in this first chapter, also in chapters to come. They will always be in italics. Present-day in the story finds us two years after the birth of Booth and Brennan's child.

Well? What are you waiting for? Go read!!

And as always, I tack your reviews up all over my office and bask in their glow. So please. Help me avoid the tanning bed this summer. Hee.

XOXO,
K to the J

Temperance Brennan loved the last day of class before a test. She had always taken great pride in her work, and teaching was no different. She enjoyed her job immensely, and rarely experienced any regret that she'd taken the job teaching an entry-level Biology class at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.

She'd started out teaching graduate students anatomy and physiology, but one semester the chair of the department had come to her and informed her that they'd had an influx of freshmen biology students, and could she please take one little section? Brennan had protested mightily, informing her boss of her distaste for those barely out of adolescence with all their left-over high school drama and raging hormones. Dr. Woods had assured her that the drama would hardly affect her and that the raging hormone problems were pretty much taken care of by high school graduation. Brennan had countered that the younger students would be away from home the first time and incredibly irresponsible and lazy, and she would not be willing to make exceptions for students who felt they deserved it because of what sports they played, who they were, and (most annoyingly) who their parents were. Dr. Woods could not expect her to just turn a blind eye to things that so strongly contradicted everything Brennan believed in.

But in a move Brennan was familiar with from her time at the Jeffersonian Institute, Dr. Woods pretty much told her that she was only asking out of professional courtesy. Come fall semester, Brennan would be teaching three sections of Anatomy and Physiology 540, and one section of Biology 103.

"Good morning, class. My name is Dr. Temperance Brennan. Welcome to Biology 103. For many of you, this may be your first college course. I encourage you to take it seriously," Brennan introduced sternly. "I do not plan to base your grade on attendance; you are all adults and quite capable of showing up; however, my tests are based off of my lectures, so if you are absent, I strongly suggest you get notes from someone that was here. Also, if you have a legitimate reason for being absent, I will make you a copy of my own lecture notes – obviously a better choice, since as I said, that's where your tests come from." Brennan smiled and looked out at the sea of shocked faces. "That being said," she emphasized, "I am not the malicious crone you might be thinking. Show up to my class and try your best. If you do that, I will give you the same courtesy. My door is always open. Now. Who's ready to learn a little about biology?"

Thirty-two students had dropped the class that day.

The students who'd stuck it out with her, however, had flourished, and most were now productive members of the junior class. By the end of that first semester when students were registering for spring classes, Brennan was hearing murmurings of them being advised by her current class to take Bio 103 with "Dr. B." She couldn't help but feel a little surge of pride the first time she was described as the professor who "makes you work your ass off, but it's totally worth it." After that, even though she was no less of a "hard ass," Brennan had developed a more congenial relationship with her students, which she found worked in her favor. She pushed them, but she was also always there for them – just as she'd promised in that first class – and she knew she had their respect for it.

"Okay, gang, test on Monday, so today is review day! Those of you who have me for lab, your lab write-ups are graded and will be available to be picked up from me after three. I'll be in my office if you need anything – if you've got questions while you're studying this weekend," she gave them a teasing glare, knowing full well they'd all try to cram as much knowledge as possible into their heads on Sunday night, "you know I'll be around – drop me an email or call me. So. Before we review, any questions, comments, concerns about life?" she asked with a smile.

"Dr. B?" a young man asked from the back of the lecture hall.

"Yes, Parker?" Brennan replied.

Parker Kennedy shoved a hand through his unruly blonde curls, reminding her so much of a towheaded Parker she'd known once upon a time. "Are we going to need to know the specific names of the bones for this test?"

A groan came from the entire class at Parker's teasing of their professor. "What do you think, Park?" Brennan teased back.

"That you're going to knock points off if I put knee-cap instead of patella."

"Exactly correct!" Brennan smiled gently. "Does anyone have a real question?" Brennan teased her students. "Okay… seeing none," Brennan paused dramatically. "We're going to review with a little game," she tempted. "Anyone ever watch Jeopardy?"

"Dr. B, you watch Jeopardy? Isn't that one of those things you-don't-know-what-that-means?" the rest of the class burst into laughter – by her third week at CSU, Brennan had become famous for her astounding lack of pop culture knowledge.

"Very funny, Maggie," Brennan grinned back at the fiery redhead in the third row. "I'll have you know," she lowered her voice conspiratorially, "I happen to kick ass at Jeopardy."

"What is Machu Pichu?" Brennan asked dryly.

"What is Machu Pichu?" the contestant on TV echoed.

"That is correct," Alex Trebek said.

"I believe that's another thousand for me, which means I'm beating you by… wow. Forty-five hundred dollars, Booth," Brennan teased. Her partner lifted her tee shirt and bent over her very pregnant stomach, addressing the unborn child within. "Katie-slash-Jake, would you please tell your mother that I did not buy her a TV for this month of bed rest so she could kick my ass at Jeopardy?"

Brennan laughed almost gleefully as she re-tallied her money. "Five hundred more and you owe me a back rub."

"How about a deal?"

"What sort of deal?" Brennan asked suspiciously.

"If I get five hundred more," Booth dropped to one knee on the floor at her bedside. "You marry me."

LIKE I SAID. Save the hate mail. Please. Just bear with me.