A/N Usual disclaimers apply (You know, the whole "don't own Bones thing…)

Hodgins walked into his wife's office and stopped. She was sitting on the floor scribbling furiously on a notepad, surrounded by crumpled pieces of paper.

"Um, what are you doing, Ange?"

Angela started a little and looked up. "Oh, hi! I didn't see you come in!"

"I could tell," Hodgins said drily. "Obviously you've been busy. Mind telling me with what?"

Angela looked back down and mumbled something.

"Sorry?"

Angela's head came up and she straightened her shoulders. "I'm trying to write down what I want to say to Booth to apologize. Brennan asked me-well, she thought I should."

Hodgins sat on the floor next to her. "So the only reason you're apologizing to Booth is because Dr. B wants you to? That's a pretty crappy reason, Ange-best friend or no best friend."

"No!' Angela sighed and put down the notepad. "I get that I overreacted. You were right, OK? Booth did have a reason for why he did what he did and I admit I went overboard. All I saw at the time, though, was how much Booth had broken down those walls Brennan has-and how much he hurt her after she was willing to change her mind on marriage. I mean, how do I reconcile those two things?"

"You'll figure it out, babe. You usually are pretty good at the off-the-cuff speeches."

Angela shook her head. "Except it was the same impromptu stuff that got me in trouble with Booth to begin with."

Hodgins shrugged. "Yeah, suggesting the fling and that he didn't find Dr. B attractive anymore was overkill." He raised his hand as Angela opened her mouth. "I get it, OK? I've told you that. Just, one time, try to see it from Booth's perspective. He has a psycho who'd made him break off an engagement he really wanted, he was trying to find said psycho, and he basically got zero support from friends. Hell, even Cam gave him a hard time. And you-you kept giving him grief, even after Brennan made the decision to stick with him. Although, at least you didn't go the Daisy route and suggest someone new for her to date. And thank God for that."

"I wouldn't do that."

"No, you did everything else but that. Look- I love the emotional, artistic you. It's the woman I married. It's just if you speak up at times you shouldn't, you have to accept there will be fallout from that. In this case, Booth's being mad at you." He reached across and took the pad from her. "Sweetheart, just speak from the heart. Don't go by notes-that's not you. I know how sorry you were when you found out what Pelant did. And I have no doubt that you can get that across to Booth. He's a good guy, Angela. I bet he'll get that. So, you have something in mind for when or where?"

Angela nodded. "I asked Booth to meet me at the Founding Fathers tonight after work. I told Brennan, so she knows not to expect Booth home right away. " She paused. "You don't mind getting Michael Vincent from day care do you?"

Hodgins kissed his wife and smiled at her. "I don't mind at all."

Angela stood at the entrance of the bar, fiddling with her purse strap. Looking around, she spotted Booth, took a deep breath, and walked over.

"Hey," she said.

Booth stood up. "Hey, Angela."

Angela sighed inwardly. The expression on his face was-well she couldn't say it was unfriendly. Guarded, she thought. Guarded and wary, like he expects me to take a piece out of him any second. I did this, she thought to herself. I've made it so a simple offer of meeting over drinks as a peace offering feels more to him like a possible ambush.

After they both ordered their drinks, Booth leaned back slightly and asked, "So what did you need to see me about?"

Angela licked her lips and fidgeted with her hands. "I-I don't –I have no clue where to start-"

"Hey." Angela looked up at Booth and saw that his expression had softened slightly. "Start where you need to. Are Hodgins and Michael Vincent OK?"

She smiled. "They're both fine. Spending way too much time in our backyard looking for bugs, but other than that, great."

Booth chuckled. "Now why am I not surprised?"

Angela gave a small laugh. "Because you know my husband?" Her smile faded. She looked down. "And I guess he knew you better than I did."

"What?"

Angela rubbed her forehead. "I wanted to meet here-just the two of us-so I could apologize for the way I treated you after you broke off the engagement." She turned and stared straight at Booth. "I get why you might still be angry and not want to cut me slack, but I'm hoping you can forgive me."

Booth was silent for several seconds. "Why would you accuse me an affair, Angela? I thought we knew each other better than that. I thought after all this time-and you know damn well everything Bones and I have been through, because I'm sure she's told you in gory detail-that you would have appreciated how much I love her."

Angela shrugged. "There's a part of me that knew that. But breaking the engagement was bad enough-then you separated emotionally from her. Hell, physically you stayed away some nights. I got to see the aftermath of all that, probably more than you. All I got to see was how much that was killing her-a little at a time. I can't tell you how happy she looked when she said she asked you to marry her. To go from that to the place she was in after you called it off-I just couldn't stand by and watch it happen. And it's not like you were explaining anything to anybody."

Booth slowly turned his face to Angela. "So I should have explained that Pelant was going to kill random people if I didn't break the engagement or if I told anyone. Who would I tell, exactly? Cam, who gave me a hard time about cold feet? Sweets-Mr. Busybody? You? Yeah, because I could trust you not to tell Bones. No one was particularly supportive, Angela. Except-oh, wait-your husband didn't jump on me for it. Imagine that."

"Booth-"

"No, Angela. I do understand why your reaction was what it was. And believe me, I know I didn't handle it well. I hurt Bones more than she had already been hurt. If you think I don't get that, than clearly you don't know me nearly as well as you think you do. But here's the thing Angela. You have never had someone's death on your conscience. I have. Men I killed as a sniper, men who've died in wars-whether my fault or not-people I've had to kill as a cop. You have no idea what that feels like, and I hope to God you never do. It's something I can't ever completely put behind me. Pelant used that, Angela. He used the fact that I wouldn't want an innocent person to die because of something I did. So I admit I stayed at the office longer a lot of nights than I should have. Do you have any idea what I was doing, Angela? I was looking for Pelant. Because I didn't want the twisted little bastard to take more from me than he already had."

Angela shrugged. "I get that. Now. And I know I overreacted. All I'm saying is that you were lying, staying out at night, coming home late-you're a cop. What would your first instinct have been? And I know Brennan has been known to be clueless about human behavior, but she's not an idiot. Even when you were there, you weren't really there. I got to listen to that from her, got to watch her start to shut herself down a little more every day. I hated that, Booth. She's my best friend, and I had to watch her go through that. I'm not Brennan. I already told her I don't compartmentalize well-not like her. I see and I react."

Booth gave a small smile. "For what it's worth, we have that in common. I didn't react well to your comments either. Let's just say we both said and did things we shouldn't have. You're Bones' best friend and you were calling me out on my behavior. Just-you need to try to keep in mind who you're talking to before you spout off, OK? After all these years, it hurt to know that's what you thought of me. I know you were Bones' friend first, and her best friend at that but I thought we were friends, too. Hell, between Cam, Sweets, Caroline-and Daisy Wick-I felt like I was getting hammered every time I turned around."

"Well, Daisy has that effect on everyone." Angela and Booth looked at each other and laughed. When they were done, Angela laid a hand on Booth's arm. "I really am sorry I and everyone around you made you feel like that. I stayed angry for a long time-it took being slapped in the face with what the situation really was to snap me out of it. And I don't know if I can make it up to you-"

Booth interrupted. "Just-look Bones and I will hit rough patches, even after we're married. I'm sure Bones will talk to you about this stuff. Please, though, could you at least simply listen before flying off the handle? I know it's awkward and painful for Bones to be in the middle of something like this, and I don't want to do that to her again. I can't imagine you do either."

Angela's eyes were beginning to fill with tears. "No, I don't. Damn, Hodgins really was right-I need to listen to him more. And if you tell him that-"

"Hey." Booth raised his hands. "make you a deal. I don't get between you and Hodgins, you don't get between me and Bones."

"I'll drink to that." As they toasted and then set their drinks down, Angela leaned over and gave Booth a small hug. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Booth returned the hug and whispered back, "I'm sorry too."

I hadn't planned to bring Hodgins in, but I figured he deserved some time for being the only person to not give Booth a hard time-at least recognizing that there was more going on than Booth was saying. Plus it gave me a chance to get in more of Angela's thoughts.

I wanted to make this somewhat balanced. I didn't like how Angela treated Booth, but I at least understand where she's coming from. And Booth and Angela do go more off of feelings, and I think that contributed to the hurtful conversations.

I'm debating a third sort of epilogue type chapter with Booth, Brennan and Angela (and possibly Hodgins). Let me know if you'd be interested. If there's enough interest I'll do it.