Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, they are appreciated. I just wanted to mention that this story is beginning to veer in a slightly different direction from what happened on the show, but that is because it's dictated by my totally different take on how Booth would have reacted to Bones/Sully. I found Booth's behavior in "Boneless Bride in the River" to be "off" based on the Seeley Booth I had come to know and love. So I guess you can call this AU for that reason. At any rate, here's the second chapter. Enjoy.


Booth sat morosely at his kitchen table with his umpteenth cup of black coffee. He hadn't gone back to sleep after the nightmare had jerked him awake, heart pounding and body drenched with sweat. Lack of sleep made his head and stomach feel like a construction crew was excavating to find the most painful areas. Black coffee and aspirin hadn't helped matters much. He sighed and massaged his aching temples with his fingers. He had thought that his problems with combat nightmares were over for the most part. Wyatt said that the most recent incidence of the recurring dream was a result of stress and his failure to deal with the original cause. Trying to push it out of his conscious mind and ignore it just caused it to be that much worse when his subconscious mind dredged it up again. Wyatt was always telling him stuff he didn't want to hear, but unfortunately he was usually right. Booth figured he'd deal with that later.

Right now, he had more important things on his mind, and seeing Brennan was at the top of the list. Putting it off would just make it that much harder because the longer he delayed, the worse the anticipation would get. As for afterward, he'd just have to deal. His life without Bones was something he didn't really want to think about, but this wasn't about him. The sooner he saw her, the sooner she could get on with her life. That was the important thing. He stood up abruptly and headed for the shower.


Angela Montenegro yawned as she waited for the lab coffee maker to process enough caffeine to fill her "Artists Do It for Art's Sake" cup. She was alone in the lab today because Cam was in budget meetings, Zack was at a robotics conference, and Jack was making one of his rare appearances at a Cantilever Group board meeting. He had invited Angela to keep him company, but she had attended one such meeting and been bored out of her mind. Plus the other attendees had spent most of the time looking at her like some weird species of bug that Jack had brought in for their amusement. She did not feel any need to repeat that experience.

As for Brennan, she had taken a personal day and Angela fervently hoped that it was in preparation for her imminent vacation with Sully. Thinking she might be shopping for sexy lingerie, Angela had offered to "go with," but Brennan had laughed and said she didn't need any help for what she had planned. Angela found it slightly frustrating that her friend wouldn't tell her what was going on, but at the same time she was ecstatic that Brennan's love life was finally showing signs of life. It might not be "true love," but it would do until something better came along. Best of all, Brennan seemed to be really enjoying herself, and was spending more and more time away from work with Sully. Angela was hoping for even more progress after their week away together.

Angela yawned again and out of the corner of her eye caught sight of a familiar tall figure heading toward Brennan's office—Special Agent Seeley Booth. She rushed out to catch him before he made the long walk back to the office area for nothing.

"Booth! Wait!" Booth turned and looked at her impatiently.

"What? Angela I don't have time to chat today. I need to see Bones right away." Booth looked unusually serious and purposeful, and Angela decided to nip this in the bud.

"Look, Booth, don't bother, Bren isn't here. She's out today," she announced triumphantly.

"What? Where? She didn't mention anything the last time I talked to her."

"She doesn't have to discuss everything with you G-Man. Especially now that she has an actual Personal Life outside of work." Angela grinned at his scowl.

She thought it would do Booth good to find out that he had some serious competition for Brennan's attention. Maybe it would even prod him into making a move himself instead of keeping his careful "close but not too close" distance the way he had up to now. She could tell that Brennan found it extremely frustrating. Then again, Brennan wasn't much better. She was very cautious about making any first moves as far as Booth was concerned. If it had been Angela she would have jumped his bones long ago.

Instead, Brennan and Booth circled warily around each other and maintained the "just good friends" fiction, despite the fact that the sexual tension between the two was so intense it made Angela want to lock them in a room and tell them to get on with it. "It" being a combination of mind-blowing sex and their own special brand of unshakable emotional connection, despite the fact that they were opposites in almost every way.

Booth was not in the mood for Angela's teasing.

"Do you know where she is, Angela?" he asked. "She isn't answering her phone, and I really need to talk to her."

Hands on hips, Angela shot back, "No I don't, Booth, and if I did I wouldn't tell you. She works hard and deserves to spend her time off without any interruptions from you. So don't you dare come around here with a new case for the next ten days minimum. I'm sure that whatever it is it's nothing that can't wait. This is the first vacation she's ever planned that didn't involve dead bodies or mass graves, and neither your case, the FBI nor anything else is important enough to take precedence over that."

Booth gave her one of his patented "If looks could kill, you'd be dead" looks, but it didn't phase Angela.

"And don't give me that 'Look' Seeley Booth. It won't do you any good. Like I said, I don't know where she is."

Booth saw that Angela was not in the mood to take him seriously and decided to try another approach.

"Look, Angela, I agree with you 100 percent about Bones' deserving her time off. I promise you it isn't another case, and it will only take a few minutes of her time. I really wouldn't ask if it wasn't pretty important," he said persuasively.

But Angela didn't budge. "Sorry, Booth. Tell you what, I'll leave a message for you if you want," she offered in a fake helpful tone of voice. Instead of the sarcastic retort she expected, Booth's face was suddenly wiped clean of any anger, impatience or other emotion.

"Fine," he said in the flat tone of an automaton. It was the face that Angela had always imagined Booth wore as a sniper—emotionless and single-minded. "Tell her…" Booth stopped in mid-sentence and changed what he was going to say. "Never mind, there's no message," he continued, and turned on his heel and headed for the exit. If Bones didn't want to be bothered, he wasn't going to make a nuisance of himself. That was not how he wanted her to remember him.

"Booth, wait, what's wrong?" Angela was worried now, all thought of teasing Booth forgotten. She didn't think she had ever seen him act this way before. "Listen, maybe I can get in touch with her somehow."

"Forget it, Angela. I get it. She'll call me when she's ready to go back to work and not before," Booth said over his shoulder. Angela watched worriedly as he quickly walked to the lab exit and disappeared. She hurried to leave Brennan an urgent voice mail asking her to call back as soon as possible.


Back in his car, Booth wanted to punch a wall in frustration. He had psyched himself up to talk to Brennan, but for the first time in a long time, what he wanted wasn't on her list of priorities. He was beginning to think it might just be better to talk to Cullen first and just present Brennan with a fait accompli. But the thought that Bones would be hurt if she wasn't the first to know what he planned to do stopped him. "It's not about you," he reminded himself. He would just have to wait until Bones decided she wanted to contact him.