I got more comments on this one-shot Magpie's than I have on the the last three combined. And frankly, I'm stalled on my other fics. So... I make no promises as to the outcome, except that at the end, everyone at the story will have learned something, and come to a version of happy. I hope you enjoy the journey.

"Angela?"

I looked up, and Bren was standing uncertainly in my doorway. Geez, look at the time, later than I thought, well, at least for me. The rest of these nerds, well, that's another issue. "Hey, hon, what's up?"

"I need to talk to you for a bit," she said, gravely. "Do you mind if I shut the door?"

"Sure," I said, wondering. She looked so serious and worried. Serious was nothing new, but worried? That was. She shut the door, then sat down on the sofa.

"I... I don't really know where to begin..." she said. She seemed nervous, like there was something she needed to tell me, but wasn't quite sure how. And then I knew-- or thought I did.

"Bren, honey... Booth finally admitted he loves for you?!? I'm so excited for you..."

She just looked at me quietly for a moment, then shook her head no. "Hardly. Anything but."

"Bren, sweetie, come on, you know he totally loves you..." I said.

"Ange! Will you just shut up and listen to me for once!" she said loudly and with more than a bit of distress, and I was so surprised I actually did.

"Okay. Sorry. What?"

She looked at me levelly, and I suddenly wondered what she was going to say. It'd been a while since we'd really talked, not much since I crashed at her place right after I broke up with Hodgins-- and then Roxie and I got back together-- I wondered what had her so worried and tense.

"Three weeks ago was the second anniversary of Hodgins and me ... and the Gravedigger," she said quietly.

"Oh, Bren, sweetie," I breathed, as the floor dropped out from under me. "I'm so sorry... I should have been there for you... and oh, God, for Hodgins... I just ... oh, Bren, I forgot!"

She twisted her mouth ruefully. "You're not the only one. Booth, too. Cam as well, except that she came upon us after Hodgins and I started eating our delivery and apologized before she left the lab."

'Hodgins and me,' she said. "You guys hung out that night?"

She nodded, assessing. "Not intentionally ... we just ... neither one of us had anyone at home, so ... we both decided to work late and decided we'd be better off staying together."

Something she said caught me. "Sweetie... why didn't Booth remember?"

She shrugged her shoulders, resigned. "I don't know, Ange. I can't make sense of him. But ... Hodgins and I got through it alright, and it was nice to spend time with him."

I was still stuck on the Booth part. "Honey... I took Hodgie home that first night. What did you do?"

"Booth dropped me off, I tried to sleep, I came to work after Booth and I went to his church first thing in the morning..." she trailed off in memory.

"He didn't stay the night at your place?"

She shook her head again. "No... he was with Cam at the time."

"But ... what about last year?"

She shrugged again. "I don't know what he did. I worked overnight."

Oh, God. My heart clenched. "You worked here, overnight, at the lab, all by yourself? Honey..."

She just looked at me, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Bren, I just assumed... I mean, I would have thought he'd keep you company-- otherwise, you and Hodgie and I would have gotten mind-bendingly drunk."

She smiled more genuinely then, and I was glad at least that I could do that for her since I'd been such a flake otherwise. "I wish you had said something," I tried. "At least to Booth, if not me..."

Her face fell, then. "Ange. I know you think there's some undying passion he harbors for me, and I admit, I have thought about it, but... it's hard to explain. He keeps making all these vague promises, then never does anything. And I'm ... well, anyone else and I would go after them, but he promises then doesn't deliver, and ... he's my friend, anyway, and I don't want to lose that, everything else aside. And sometimes... you don't want to have to ask. You just want someone to remember. This is one of those things. I don't want to talk about it. I just want someone to remember with me."

Oh, God. My heart just broke into a million pieces, and not just because I've been a lousy friend.

"And I didn't remember."

She nodded sadly.

"Booth either."

She nodded again, even more sadly. Talk about catching up with your own reality.

"Honey, I'm sorry. Really. I'm just..."

"You were busy with Roxie. I know how it is, Angela. But... look. That wasn't really the point." She looked worried, confused, and almost scared all over again.

"What is it, sweetie?"

She hesitated. "Will you promise to hear me out first?"

Ah. What I'd been ignoring thinking about. "Okay." I couldn't say much more around the impending lump in my throat.

"Hodgins and I ... well, it was just friendship and company that night, and that's what it still is, but we've had breakfast or lunch or ... seen Zack ... a few times since and ... Ange. This is terrible. I feel horrible saying this to you. But I knew if I didn't say anything either, it would be worse."

"You want to date Jack."

She nodded, biting her lip and tears welling in her eyes. "I want to try, at least."

"And does he feel the same?"

She nodded. "He wants to talk to you, too. Neither one of us will let it go any further if it makes you at all uncomfortable-- we both love you too much to hurt you, Ange, but..." she bit her lip again and a tear ran down her cheek, unheeded.

They both trusted me enough not to overreact if they came to me before anything happened to ask my permission-- or they loved me enough to put put up with any tantrum I threw. I knew that much was true, even as my inner drama queen wanted to start getting riled up. I told her to shut up-- they trusted me enough to tell me the truth, and to control themselves long enough in order to do so. Bren was a terrible liar, and in any event, Jack never lied to me. And now, here they were, letting me know what was happening, giving me a veto when I'd been the one to dump Hodgins despite what I knew now was a reasonable reaction to the fact that I really shouldn't have kissed Grayson, no matter what. At least I'd made that much sense out of it all-- trust. Hah. Trust me to forget something so important to them both.

"But ... what about Booth? He really does love you."

Bren let out a long, ragged exhale. "I'm sure that he does, some way. And ... I care about him ... suppose I love him in some ways, but... it's been four years, Ange, two since he drew that line of his, and I know that there are lots of things I could tell him, but everything else notwithstanding ... I need someone who'll remember things like these without my having to remind them or ask them for help. Maybe I should have said something to him earlier, generally, but that doesn't change the fact that whatever we are to each other, this is something he should remember."

She didn't mean it as a slap to me, and I didn't take it that way, but it was a slap all the same. As much as I wished she would reach out more on a regular basis, that didn't excusing my not remembering, either, especially since at least unlike Booth I'd spent two of the last three years helping one of them deal with the aftereffects of it all. And now ... my best friend and someone I once thought was the love of my life wanted to give it a try, because they could be there for each other. I hardly deserved to be called her best friend, either, assuming as I did that Booth would just keep her company. As I often assumed, but apparently had been wrong about. And Hodgins? Half of me thought I'd dumped him his sake. Another part of me wanted him back. And another part of me didn't know what I wanted-- somehow that part always seemed to win in long-term relationships.

She'd been looking at me as I thought, trying to stay composed but truly concerned. She looked so sad, and yet ... hopeful. And she was right ... everything else aside, it was something he should have remembered. I should have remembered.

"I can't promise I won't be weirded out for a bit, but I promise I will try to be fair, and if I can get my brain wrapped around the fact that I have a problem, I'll let both of you know."

Her face lightened so quickly from worry to hope that my heart clenched again. Bren and Hodgie? Weirder things had happened. They'd been there for each other three years ago, and now they were there again for each other this year.

"Thank you, Angela," she said with real relief. "I... I just want to try, that's all."

"Everyone deserves to try, Bren," I could say with no qualms. I didn't know how I'd feel when it all shook out, but, well, I'd made my bed and now I would have to lie in it. It would hardly be fair to ask Hodgie to wait around while I figured my own life out-- I'd already moved on to someone else and told him he should do the same.

That he should want it to be with Bren? Well, I don't suppose it was that weird, after all. They both cared about me, and I cared about them. How could they not at least care for each other? And... didn't Jack have as much of a right to move on as I did? Hell, Bren had a right to move at all-- I could see, now, she'd been spinning her wheels with the G-Man.

"I ... I hope it works out in the end, and everyone finds their own bit of happiness." I did. I don't know who I hoped it worked for, in what combinations-- but I could learn to be a little less self-centered in the meantime.