Here is the next chapter of this story. Give it a read and review if you feel like it was worth it. A million thanks to everyone who reviewed and/or alerted the first chapter! I love feedback. :)

Booth sat on the bar stool, leaning on the counter. He was tracing lines to the condensation of his pint of Guinness and half-listening to the conversation two strangers were having next to him. It was a stupid and trivial conversation, he thought, but he listened anyway. He needed something to distract him from his own thoughts. But after the two middle-aged women had discussed their views on menopause and finished their cosmopolitans, they left. Booth rubbed his hand over his face and started thinking about his partner who had stormed out of Cullen's office after the shocking revelation. He had stayed and tried to explain to Cullen that the decision to end their partnership was very much counterproductive. Unfortunately, this had been all for nothing since his boss had no say in the matter. After realizing that there was nothing he could do, Booth had left the Hoover building and driven straight to the bar where he was now sitting.

Booth knew that he should've gone to find Brennan and calm her down. But truth be told, he hadn't really felt like doing that. He knew that she should be left alone for a while, to give her time to vent her anger and finally calm down. Also, he didn't think that he would be much of a help for her anyway, since he himself wasn't in such a great mood either. But now that he had spent an hour at the dusky bar, he felt willing to go see her. He paid for the beer and calmly made his way to the car.

20 minutes later he was knocking on her door. He waited, hands in his pockets, for her to check the peephole and open the door. At least he hoped she would let him in. Who knew, maybe she was mad at him. But before Booth could think that further, the door opened. She was standing there, in her sweatpants and her face scrubbed clean from makeup.

"Hey," he said tentatively.

"Hey," she responded, gesturing him to come in. He stepped in and closed the door. They stood facing each other, neither knowing what to say or how to react to the situation. Booth was the one to break the silence.

"So," he started, "how has your evening been?"

She recognized the attempt to cheer her up with a stupid joke and smiled slightly. "Not that great." She paused. "How about yours?"

Booth just shook his head. "I can't believe they did that to us."

"Yeah." Brennan sighed and walked to the living room. She sat on the couch and Booth joined her.

"You know I had nothing to do with it, right?" he asked, leaning his forearms on his knees.

Her head snapped towards him. "Of course," she answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The decision was obviously made by someone from a higher position, someone who believes he can just bark orders at people without actually knowing anything about the situation," she ranted. "And someone who is very stupid," she added quietly. Booth chuckled at her use of such a common word.

"So, you're upset about this?"

"Aren't you?"

"I asked you first."

Brennan rose from the couch and started pacing yet again. "Yes, I am upset! I mean, we've been partners for three years and they have never before had any problem with me going to the field with you. Our work has been efficient and successful. Why would they want to break us up? Are they insane?"

"I don't know," Booth responded quietly. Brennan stopped pacing, cheeks flushed from frustration and maybe also desperation.

"Want to get out of here?" he asked. "I don't know about you but I could definitely use some fresh air right now."

Brennan pondered for a while. "Sounds good." She picked up her discarded jacket from the floor and slipped it on. It didn't really go with the sweatpants she was wearing but she didn't have the energy to care right now.

Once they were outside, she inquired him about where they were going. Booth just shrugged and started walking down the sidewalk. Brennan followed closely behind, wondering why he was so quiet. Was he mad at her?

When they had walked a couple of blocks, Brennan couldn't stand the silence anymore.

"Booth?"

"Yeah?"

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

"What should I say?"

"I don't know. You just seem… You don't seem angry."

"You want me to be angry?" he asked, slightly amused.

"I'm just saying that that would be the appropriate response to us being split up." She stopped walking. "But you're being calm. It's almost as if you don't care."

Booth turned to face her. "Don't care?" He snorted. "Bones, just because I'm not raging and pulling my hair out doesn't mean that I don't care!"

"Well what do you expect me to think? You're the one who always encourages me to talk about my feelings, but now you're hiding yours!"

They were receiving both annoyed and amused glances from passers-by for their yelling, but they didn't notice. Instead they just stared each other in the eye challengingly. Booth was the one to break the eye-contact after a few seconds, out of pure exhaustion.

"Bones, you know I care." He paused and ran his hand through his hair. "But let's not talk about this here. Let's just walk quietly until we find some place to have coffee." With that he turned around and continued walking.

"Why?"

"Just because." He didn't think for a second that she would accept his answer, but he was pleasantly surprised. She hurried after him to walk alongside him.

As they were walking, Brennan kept stealing glances at her partner. Well, former partner. She couldn't understand why he was acting the way he was, in such a distant manner. She had though he would be livid, using every trick in the book so that they could stay together. Was he actually content with the situation? Was he glad that he didn't have to worry about her going to the field anymore? These unpleasant thoughts started slowly but surely to invade her head.

Booth noticed every time when Brennan glanced at his direction. He didn't know if she was doing it out of concern or to figure out what he was thinking. He knew she was confused, and to be honest, so was he. He was trying to organize the thoughts in his head, knowing that he would have to have an honest conversation with her sooner or later. He preferred sooner. Suddenly he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Brennan pointing at something. He followed the line of her finger and saw the very much familiar diner across the street. Out of silent agreement they made their way over there.

Once they were seated and sipping their coffee, she broke the silence.

"Am I allowed to talk now?"

Booth gave a small laugh. "Yes, Bones."

She mirrored his smile but it soon faded away. She had to ask the question that had been tormenting her.

"Are you happy to get rid of me?"

Booth nearly dropped his coffee cup. "What?"

"Are you glad that I'm not coming with you to the field anymore?"

"You think that I am?"

"You seem to be."

"Wow. You really do suck at reading people," he joked. He knew that he shouldn't be laughing right now, but he couldn't help it. This woman could be so clueless, no matter how smart she was.

Brennan watched the man laughing in front of her and concluded he had finally lost his mind. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't understand what was going on. She had posed a genuine question and now she was being laughed at?

"Why is this funny?" she asked in a slightly whiny voice.

Booth's laughter finally subsided and he took a deep breath. "It's not, really." His eyes still sparkled from the laughing. When he saw the confused look on her face, he straightened up and leaned back on his chair. Brennan could tell from the rigid position that he was finally going to share his thoughts with her. She looked at him intently.

"Bones, this separation thing… It's… It just sucks. We had a good thing going, you know." He started fiddling with his napkin, never taking his eyes off of it. "With your help I could do my job better. You've seen the cases we've had. I could've never solved them without you and the team. Despite being one of the best agents in the Bureau." Brennan rolled her eyes amusedly. He finally looked up from the napkin and leaned forward. "Plus," he continued, "you've made my life much more fun."

Her cheeks were starting to get a pinkish tone. "Hmm. That doesn't sound like me."

"Just believe it, Bones. You're much more fun to hang out with than you give yourself credit for."

Their faces had somehow drawn closer to each other, and this didn't go unnoticed by Booth. He slowly leaned back again. Brennan stayed put.

"And to answer your earlier question… No, I am not the least bit glad that you're not coming to the field with me."

Over an hour later they were back at Brennan's door. Even though they had joked and bantered lightly at the diner, somehow the gravity of the situation caught up to them again. Brennan fished her keys out of her pocket but instead of going in, she stood still.

"So… What do we do now?" she asked, looking up from her shoes. Booth understood the meaning behind the question: she wasn't talking about tonight, she was talking about the future. Suddenly there was this weird sadness looming over them. He cleared his throat.

"I know you don't probably agree with me, but I find it best to spend the weekend ignoring what happened today and catch up to reality again on Monday.

"So you're going to pretend that nothing happened?"

"For two days, yes."

She gave a small laugh. "I like the thought of that."

"Wow. You agree with me?"

"Just this once."

They chuckled together. Booth took his hand out of his pocket and pointed to the elevator.

"I'm going to go now." For a second he considered hugging her, but then settled on just touching her shoulder lightly. Brennan felt the warmth of his hand and blurted out what she was thinking before he could leave.

"Why does this feel like we're saying goodbye?"

"We're not," he said reassuringly. With that, he turned and walked to the elevator. When he was about to step in it, he glanced back at Brennan. "See you tomorrow?"

She smiled and nodded. "See you tomorrow."