A/N: Okay, here's my Bones math to figure out what the date is in this fic: May 2010, they left for seven months. So that would make it December 2010 when season 6 started. S6 started three months ago so that would make it March 2011 for the winter hiatus. And when this fic starts it had been a year since DitP, making it March 2012. By then, Archer and Bones had already been dating for three months, and in this chapter, they've been dating for a year, so that would make it January 2013, right? This is so confusing. Let's just go with it.
Seven Sins, Seven Virtues
Patience
He strolled down the street, hands in his pockets and deep in thought. Just over there was where he had shot the ice cream truck. Though frustrated, the look on her face was…adorable. That was if Temperance Brennan could be adorable. And right there was where he had told her there was more than one kind of family. That was one of the first moments he wanted to kiss her until she couldn't breathe. Just across the street was where Avalon Harmonia told him she was in trouble. And again, he saved her life. And in the Diner itself, the counter was where ate breakfast with her as his wife in his dream. Their table was where they had held so many late night conversations, so many discussions, debates and arguments. This intersection alone held so many memories, memories of them.
When he reached the Diner, he peeked in the window and saw Bones and Archer having a lively conversation. Last time, it was about controversial treatments for brain cancer in a five year old. The time before that it was about recent findings of hominids in Africa. No matter what they talked about, Booth usually had a hard time following. He walked in, hoping this lunch would go better than the others. And from the sounds of it, it would.
"Are you kidding?" Archer said, "The Capitals have Alex Ovechkin!"
"The Flyers are definitely the better team. They've got Danny Briere, Claude Giroux, and Chris Pronger! Flyers will be playing for the Stanley Cup again this year, I can guarantee it."
Archer smiled and waved her off. "You pair Ovechkin with Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom, you can't beat them. They're unstoppable!"
Bones looked up and saw Booth watching them. "Booth, you need to settle this…debate. Please."
He joined them. It was always a confusing choice on where to sit. Bones and Archer always sat across from each other and Booth always picked sitting next to Bones, only because he thought it would be awkward knocking knees with Archer.
"Archer, you have a point about Ovechkin and the rest of the Caps. They're good. But no one's gonna beat my Flyers this year. No way, no how."
He and Bones high fived. Archer smiled and shook his head in defeat. "I have to say, Temperance, I'm quite impressed by your hockey knowledge. I learn something new about you every day.
"Well, Booth taught me everything I know. He's the only reason I've even watched hockey."
"I know someone who has a box at the Verizon Center. We should all go the next time the Flyers are in town. And you can bring your boy, Booth."
"Parker would love that," Bones told him.
"Yes, he would," was all Booth could say. He struggled enough seeing Bones and Archer together at the lab, the diner and her apartment. And then there were the late nights when he needed to pick her up for a case and she wasn't even there. He'd call her and she'd be at Archer's. He had to pick her up there a few times and by the look on her face, it was obvious what he had interrupted. In the year Bones and Archer had been dating, he had never heard talks about one moving in with the other, but he had heard their conversations of things left at the other's place. They might as well move in together.
Booth shook it off. He couldn't think about that anymore. The waitress arrived and Booth ordered, but by the time he was done, Archer and Bones had already started talking about something else he didn't understand.
But this time was different. It was about something that had happened on a date of theirs so long ago, something that Booth didn't understand, like an inside joke.
She smiled and took a sip of her coffee. "He is going to haunt you in your sleep one of these days."
"I thought you didn't believe in ghosts?"
"Did you just admit he's dead?"
"Nah," Archer started laughing again, "He's off playing with his friends in the woods."
Booth didn't understand what was going on. "Uh, who are we talking about?"
Archer and Bones shared a look and burst out laughing. He didn't say anything, just waited until they stopped laughing. Bones spoke first.
"Archer and I were driving around Arlington looking at the houses and it was late. We were driving on a back road and we ran over a raccoon. I'm convinced he killed it-"
"But the little guy's still alive. I know it," Archer said.
"He is not! You just don't want to admit I'm right."
He shook his head softly, "Babe, you're usually right. But not this time."
She laughed. And Booth prepared for an argument. Archer had called her babe in public, in front of someone else. But they just kept talking. Wait, looking at houses? What did that mean?
And she didn't mind being called babe? She hated being called Bones at first, so had he just called her babe enough that she got used to it?
Was this what it was like for her to see him with Hannah? Did she feel out of the loop? Had she felt like the third wheel? He had never meant to make her feel like that and he was sure Bones never meant to leave him out, but he couldn't help but feel like she didn't need him anymore. And maybe she didn't. But they were still partners, they still needed each other in a professional capacity. Booth had wanted to talk about their case, but she was already deep into a conversation about scalpel techniques with Archer. So he sat and listened the two doctors compare how they hold the scalpel and a few innuendos about Archer's scalpel that made Booth blush. There was some information he didn't need, like just how much time his partner and her boyfriend spent doing the horizontal tango.
Booth's food arrived and it provided him a welcome distraction. He tuned out their conversation while he ate.
"Booth? So? Can you help?" Bones nudged him.
He swallowed his bite of hamburger before answering. "Help with what?"
"You haven't been listening. I'm moving into Archer's place. Can you help me move my things?"
Despite the current drink of water he was taking, his throat felt dry. "Uh, what are you going to do with your apartment?"
"My father is going to sublease it from me. The place he's living now is not the greatest. But can you help me? We want to have my things in there by the end of the weekend."
"Oh," Booth nodded slowly, "Of course I can help."
She smiled. "Thank you, Booth. I need to get back to the lab. Call me when the locals have the suspect in interrogation. I'll see you at home, Archer."
"Bye, babe." They kissed goodbye and she left. It was a couple of years ago, he would've been excited for her. And while he's happy for and proud of her, Booth couldn't help but think he was moving one step backwards while Bones was running four steps ahead.