A/N: Ya learn a little bit more about Mack in this one… oh and Zack? Three years yada yada he technically shouldn't be there but dammit Bones wouldn't be the same without him!

Disclaimer: I own Freddo the bug!

Chapter 2: Goddess.

"What?" she shook her head, unsure she had heard him correctly.

"I don't think he's dead either Tempe" Mack repeated himself calmly "and I'm not humouring you"

There were a million and one questions buzzing round her head all at once and the only one that she could make head or tail of was "why?"

"Well I know for a fact that Booth wouldn't have gone down that easy-"

"No" Temperance shook her head "why didn't you say something?" shock replaced by anger in rapid succession "why did you let them all think that I was insane for months?"

"Because I thought I was crazy that's why Tempe. I even started seeing a psychiatrist. Quit after the first two sessions like. There's only so many times you can take the 'how was you family life when you were growing up Mack? Do you think it has had a great impact on the way you are today?' before you start to realise that you're not the crazy one." Mack said light heartedly, trying to ease the tension that had permeated the room upon his admission.

Temperance remained silence. Uncertain of how exactly to continue this; neither she nor Mack had thought that Booth was dead and yet it had taken him three years to tell her. Three lonely years where everyone she had ever trusted had disbelieved every word she had said were it not to do with a case they were working on. Where curious stares and judgmental looks had become a constant in her life without her really ever having any control over it.

One date with the man and suddenly she was the grieving partner.

Well she would not grieve not for a man she knew was alive and she would not say goodbye to him either.

"Listen, I've got to speak to Cullen in a few hours and I need to grab breakfast yet so I'll meet you and we'll have lunch okay?"

Temperance nodded and he left.

Mack had long since learnt that asking her to join him for breakfast was a futile attempt and was more than a little shocked to hear her agree to lunch. She was fiery without a doubt and driven. Scary too at times but she was an amazing young woman. Strong, independent, beautiful in a way that she did not flaunt it. He wouldn't touch her because even without the man there her body and her mind and everything about her screamed 'Booth's' not that it was that Booth owned her but that she was not good enough for him, Mack Winters.

She was not his type; Temperance Brennan meant a lot more than Mack was willing to put into a relationship it meant commitment and it honesty.

Honesty may be the best policy but there are some things better left unsaid, he thought as he crossed the street on foot. He remembered a time when he would have never have thought twice about saying everything and anything and as an agent that was the way he was in the work place but personally?

Not even Booth knew he'd watched his wife and daughter burn to death inside the family car back in Colorado. Bridget was only eight months old and had learnt to speak a little late; she'd said her first word that morning and the word 'daddy' would haunt his memory forever.

The officers from the local PD had restrained him as people from the fire department attempted to cut Mattie and Bridget out out. The screams that had fallen from their mouths as they pleaded and begged for their lives, as Mattie had shielded what would have been the only child she would have ever had due to a complication during Bridget's birth from the flames greedy attempts to devour her.

He cleared his throat and blinked the tears back. Temperance reminded him of Mattie that was why he loved the anthropologist as much as he did; loved as friend, nothing more and nothing less. He admired and respected her and that was that.

---------

It was nearly half past twelve by the time Temperance even thought about leaving her office "Hi sweetie" she sing-songed as she ventured in.

"Hello" she replied, distracted, placing the last of the 'unwanted' papers into the trashcan and getting to her feet to put away the last case file. Finally, for the first time in months she'd found her desk.

"Hey" Jack mock saluted her from over the other side of the lab where he and Zack were setting up another beetle racing course.

Temperance waved to him as she crossed to a gurney that held the remains of a seventeenth century sailor found in the foundations of an abandoned warehouse when the demolition crew had started to tear it down.

"You okay Zack?" she asked seeing the puzzled look on the young man's face as he peered under the table.

"Freddo's missing" he reported looking rather concerned.

"He's here" Jack said, rolling his eyes "and what kind of name is Freddo for a beetle? Why'd you even name the thing?"

"Why do you race them" Angela challenged him giving him a pointed look as Zack put Freddo back into his container.

"Ange"

"Yep" she hurried over to Temperance's side.

"These were supposed to be sent off yesterday to the museum" she gestured to the sailor's remains "why are they still here?"

"Goodman called" Jack hollered over "said that they can't be taken until late afternoon tomorrow"

Temperance sighed and seemed to figure something out in her head before heading back to her office.

"What's wrong sweetie?" Angela asked.

Temperance just looked at her.

"Sweetie" she sighed exasperatedly "you can't-"

Fury boiled inside her and she snapped "watch me" before she even thought about it. At the hurt look on the artist's face she amended "he's alive Ange. I know it. Mack knows it and I'll be damned if I'm just gonna forget about him"

"Nobody's forgetting Bren, God, how can we?" she was desperate and she knew it but she could not bring herself to care.

"Then tell me, do you still remember the sound of his voice? The way he smiles? The fact that he cannot stay still for more than two goddamned minutes and has to constantly be doing something with his hands?" she emphasised the words "goddamn" and was not at all calm about the way she spoke in anyway.

Angela was silent, awe struck at a side of Temperance she had never seen before, at least not that she remembered "we haven't forgotten him Brennan!" she exclaimed, almost stamping her foot to get herself listened to "how could we? He was such a fundamental part of everyone's lives. We come in here and we see pictures on your desk, all of you and of him and of us but in every single one he is looking at you like a man looks at a goddess and you think we can forget him? How in God's name can we forget a man who haunts us every minute of every day?"

Temperance hadn't realised, or had at least failed to notice quite how severely Booth's disappearance and ultimately his 'death' had affected everyone around her. This was angry Angela, angry, upset, desperate, earnest Angela. Not happy-go-lucky, jaunty, light-up-your-day-just-by-smiling Angela.

"Hey Tempe" Mack rapped on the open door of her office cheerily "oh is this a bad time?" he winced in apology "I can come back"

"It's fine" Temperance did not look at him because she was too busy staring in shocked amazement at the crying artist in front of her.

"I've lost one friend already Bren, I can't loose you too" she said as Temperance put on her coat and allowed Mack to steer her from the room, she paused only for a second before continuing.

"What was that about?" Mack queried as they climbed into his own personal car; a deep blue convertible.

"Nothing" Temperance whispered distractedly "It was nothing"

---------

"So I got Cullen to give me the file on Booth's disappearance" Mack tore the bread roll that came with his soup in two and popped a piece in his mouth.

"Bet that was hard work" she commented; she'd been hungry when she'd ordered the sandwich now she just felt nauseous.

He pulled the file out and placed it on the table in between them but when she reached for it he put his hand down on it "first tell me what's wrong" he coaxed.

She sighed "Angela"

"Oh" Mack answered, unsure of what else to say "um…"

"I didn't think it affected her like that I guess"

"Booth's disappearance?" he took a sip of water.

"Yeah. She just… I've never seen her so mad" pushing her plate away she looked up at Mack for the first time since they'd entered the small little café on the boulevard.

Mack gave her a gentle smile "I was on the same undercover ops as Booth was but I went home with broken leg the day before he went missing. I've never hated myself more" he too pushed his meal, although his was half finished, away.

"Why?"

"Couldn't help thinking that maybe… maybe if I'd been there it would have been different ya know?"

"Different how? Maybe you'd have gotten kidnapped instead of him?" she spat, how dare he say something like that? She missed Booth with all her heart but everyone would still go through hell if Mack went. Especially after all he had done for them in the year before...

"There's no one to miss me Tempe" he said hollowly.

"Don't say that!" her voice raised slightly and the couple at the next table gave her a startled look and she muttered an apology to them "don't"

Mack regarded her across their table "do you want to take a walk?" he suggested serenely and was grateful when she accepted.

---------

The park was crawling with small children and their parents. Screaming with laughter or when they fell and scraped their knees against the tarmac before being huddled into mommy's arms with soft cooing and promises of candy and ice cream after dinner.

"I haven't been sleeping well" Temperance explained "for weeks it's like… I don't know just something's there. In the apartment, in my clothes, my hair, my head and it's telling me something… something important but it's so intense I don't know what it is"

Mack nodded, that explained the emotional outbursts, even if short they were out of character even if the 'new' Dr. Brennan, the one that had emerged since, since when? Since they officially declared Booth as dead? No. Since the rumours started? Since she was referred to a counsellor? Before then…since Booth had uttered those deadly words the night before he left; I love you.

"You could stay at my place" off her startled look "just to clear your head. I've got a spare room that Sammy only uses when his mom's out of town"

Sammy was Alexandria's thirteen-year-old son. Alexandria was a busy but gentle, woman, add loving mother to that list. Since her divorce with Robert and him being refused any custodial rights at all: the community regarded him as a drunk and Sammy didn't care if he never saw his father again. She had, had no where to leave her son when she had to go away for over night business trips.

Somewhere to crash where she wasn't alone, where the voices in her head might just quieten enough for her to sleep more than two hours that sounded nice "okay" she agreed, exhaustion clouding any decision she would have normally said the complete opposite too.

"Okay?" he repeated, surprised by her acceptance.

"Okay" she laughed.

---------

Sammy's bed was comfortable to say the least, and for some reason being in a strange place in a strange bed was just easier. She did not know why and she did not care, she was too tired.

As she slipped into slumber the voice of a man she knew too well intruded her thoughts but only a light tickle on her subconscious, she was passed the point where it registered in her waking brain.

"Bones… Bones… Bones…"

Before any of you start asking or even, god forbid, panic. There will be no Tempe/Mack in this fiction. They are just friends that's all, I'm a B/B fan through and through! Mack's just a really nice guy that's helping a friend and more about him and his relationships with different people may or may not come to light later on but for now… review!