I'm back! Yes, I was a little long on this update too, and the next one will probably be a while as well :ducks to avoid the strange sharp, blunt objects: Reality sucks. Anyway, I'll do my best, and I hope you enjoy the reunion fluff! Reviews are love, please leave them. I own nothing except a patented squeal whenever Booth gets close to the screen.

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At first Booth thought it was a dream…the same dream he'd awoken from for the past three months. After sinking in pain and despair, mourning the loss of a woman he never truly had, now he had her an arm's length away, and he didn't know how. Staring at her, he realized suddenly that she didn't look like the Temperance he knew – auburn hair was replaced with blonde, pulled back in a high ponytail, and blue eyes were turned brown and covered with square glasses.

At the moment he didn't care if she had pink hair and horns, all he knew was that she was back with him, and without thinking further than that he closed the distance between them and gathered her into a tight embrace. The world stopped in that moment, and he felt tears he hadn't realized he'd still had in him falling onto her hair. She didn't seem to mind, creating her own puddle on the shoulder of his suit as she fell into his arms more willingly than he'd ever seen her. After what seemed like an eternity she pulled away slightly, looking up into his face with watery eyes.

He reached his hand up to stroke her cheek, keeping his other hand on her waist. Terrified that if he let go completely she might disappear, Booth wiped the tears from her cheek while letting his own fall. "I thought…Bones, you were…I lost you."

Swallowing a sob of her own, she gave him a small smile. "I'm right here, Booth. You found me."

Matching her small smile with one of his own, he answered in barely above a whisper. "You found me, Bones. You were…you were dead."

"Not exactly." Biting her lip with a nervous expression her remembered all too clearly, she pulled away, moving to sit in the chair opposite his desk. Booth shivered at the rush of cold air that followed her departure and the empty feeling it left him with. Now that she was back, by whatever miracle of fate it may have been, he didn't want her anywhere but in his arms.

Moving back to his desk, he sat down, tears still glistening behind his eyes. Her eyes met his in an unsettling familiar gaze, despite the change in eye color he had yet to figure out. They sat there for a moment before he broke the silence. "So, Bones, you going to tell me how you conned the Grim Reaper or I am going to have to fill in the blanks myself?"

Her expression looked puzzled, and before she could stop it a flustered "I don't know what that means" escaped her lips. Grinning for the first time in three months, Booth marveled at how quickly she had brought back his old self, and how normal things seemed despite the circumstances.

Seriousness returned all too quickly, and the smile melted off of Booth's face as he rephrased the question. "Bones…you're alive. I thought you were dead. Why?"

Looking down almost guiltily, Brennan didn't take her eyes off her hands as she started her explanation. "The militia group we were trying to expose…Cullen told me you'd seen the file. You saw then that they had Ambassador Jackson murdered, and the bones I was identifying were supposedly his." Booth nodded. "I did identify them within two days, and they were his…but while we were down there, we got news that another skeleton had been found deeper in the jungle…possibly his wife, who disappeared with their two children a week earlier. From what they told me, it had been ripped apart by some jungle animal, and the militia wasn't going to give it up without a fight."

"We went in search of the remains in groups…the first group was slaughtered within a day, I'm sure you saw. Ours lasted about a week before we were discovered. The firefight that ensued was awful…most of the group was killed. I was injured, but Agent Little, my contact down there, managed to pull me to safety, what little of it we could find. It took us three days to get back to a base camp, where they treated my shoulder and the infection that set in."

Brennan paused for a moment, rubbing her shoulder in what Booth could only guess was a remembrance of the pain. The gears in Booth's mind were already whirring….the date of the firefight was the date she supposedly died, and he didn't hear about it until a day after. Two days identifying Jackson, a week in the jungle, three agonizing days in pain, and one day for him to hear she was dead. She looked up and apparently saw the timeline going together in his head because she continued, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper.

"The day after I got to camp there was talk of sending me home…but they claimed it was more dangerous than staying there. The militia group…they were ruthless, and they knew I'd survived. They would search for me at all costs, and that included coming to D.C. for me. They told me my only option was to die."

"Witness Protection…" Booth breathed. "What sick form…Bones, you were dead." As he continued talking his words became more strangled, and her expression became more guilty.

"It was the only way, Booth." A tear fell down her cheek, and it took all the self control Booth had not to walk around the desk and wipe it away. "They told me I had to be convincingly dead, because otherwise the guerillas would find me wherever I managed to go."

Forgetting his previous decision to let her finish, Booth stood and moved around the desk, seating himself in the chair next to her. She refused to look up at him, instead staring at a paperweight in the middle of his desk. He reached over and with one finger moved her chin to look at him. Tears were still swimming in her eyes. "Bones….why didn't you tell me? I would have…I would have done anything to keep you safe, you know that."

A sob escaped her lips, and she trembled for a moment before maintaining her composure. "Booth, what they did to his family….they were known for things like that. They came after the people you cared about first, and then you…there was reason to believe that Jackson saw his wife and children tortured before he died. They specialized in mental torture, not just the physical. If they knew I was alive, no matter how well you hid me away, they'd come after all of you. Russ, Angela, Hodgins, Zach….you. There would be nothing worse."

"You'd rather us think you were dead." He couldn't stop the accusatory tone in his voice, despite his attempt to control his temper. "We mourned you, Bones. I mourned you. I'm FBI, you didn't think that you could tell me you were alive, if only to let me know I didn't really lose one of the only things in my life really worth something?"

Temperance looked as though she'd been slapped, and she moved as far away in her chair as she could. Her expression was defensive, but her eyes lit up slightly at his last words. "Booth, I couldn't tell you, I couldn't tell anyone. If there was the slightest chance of word getting out…"

"I wouldn't have told anyone."

"Not intentionally, but you would have tried to see me…tried to bring me back, tried to save the day. You're alpha male tendencies would have done something stupid."

"I resent that." Booth grumbled, though in the back of his mind he knew she was right. "I'm not arguing with you though. I can't be mad."

"You have every right to be, honestly." Brennan sighed, leaning back in his direction. "I wanted to tell you, I really did. But it was hard enough hiding me anyway...I'm an author, and people can recognize me pretty easily. That's what this is for." Indicating her hair, she smiled slightly. "Do you think I really wanted to go blonde?"

Booth chuckled at that, and absentmindedly stroked the top of her hand resting on the chair. "Not really. I like your hair better its original way, anyway." She blushed a bit. "Where'd they keep you hidden away at, anyway? You're books are best sellers, and even with the hair-do, someone could have recognized you."

"A small town in south Georgia…approximately 500 people in the entire place. There was only a small library, a restaurant, and a few offices. Trust me, if anyone read my book, they didn't glance at the back cover. I was Janice Henderson, a secretary for Brooks and Perry Insurance, just moved in from New Mexico."

"A secretary? Ouch." Snorting slightly, Booth tried to imagine the world-famous anthropologist sitting at a desk licking envelopes. The image didn't come to mind very easily.

"Yeah, it wasn't a particularly rewarding job." Brennan smirked, and Booth felt a rush of some unidentifiable emotion. She was back.

"Bones…" The word came out as a content breath, and the smirk on her face faded into a small smile as they stared at each other for a long moment.

"I didn't want to do it, Booth." The seriousness in her voice was undercut with pent-up emotion. "I didn't want to leave here, or put you through any sort of pain. I had to become someone else…again…I lost the identity I was only just now coming to terms with."

As her voice broke again, Booth leaned over and gathered her up in an awkward half-hug. They sat there for a moment before he spoke. "But your back….you're still Dr. Temperance Brennan, and I have you here with me again. You have your life back, and I have you back. We're both happy."

"But what about my job, my friends? They're not all going to welcome me back with open arms…I'm dead. Goodman had to find a new employee, and how do you know that Angela and the gang are going to welcome me back with open arms? You were pissed." Booth stroked her hair comfortingly, trying to find some sort of answer that her logical mind could wrap itself around.

"I don't know who took your job, Bones. I haven't been to the Jeffersonian in three months." She pulled away, looking at him with raised eyebrows. He waved her off with a seemingly nonchalant gesture. "I couldn't handle it. But I can almost guarantee that Goodman would be happy to have you back. Whoever is there in your place can't be as good as you."

"Booth, you don't know that. And they can't just fire some poor person on the grounds that an old employee came back from the dead."

"First of all, Bones, I do know you're the best." She looked down with a slightly pleased expression." And I can't tell you the schematics of everything, but I can assure you that he won't throw you out on your ear. You belong there."

"They'll never forgive me for leaving them. I remember how betrayed I felt when my parents disappeared, and that they were alive until much later…I'm coming back from the dead, Booth."

"I'm aware of that, Bones. I'm the one that's spent the last three months in absolute agony." Booth caught her eyes in his dark brown gaze, pleading with her not to look away. She complied, holding his gaze steadily with pain-filled eyes. "I am angry, not at you necessarily, but at the bastards down there that stole your life away again. You don't deserve that, no one does. And in doing so they stole one of the most important things in the world to me.

Brennan started a little at the last sentence, spoken so softly neither was sure if it had come out at all. They stared at each other for a long moment before he continued. "I'm not saying they may not be pissed. It's a natural reaction, after amazement and relief. I am saying that none of your true friends will be mad for long. They lost you, Bones, we all lost you. Now that you're back, I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't take this as a sign from heaven to change things that needed changing…take chances we weren't able to before…"

The two partners were closer than they had been before, now only inches from each other as Booth's voice faded into a whisper. The tension crackled in the air momentarily before Booth gave in, closing the gap between them. When their lips met it was as if everything he had been feeling in the last few minutes was exploding within him – happiness, confusion, desperation, and, ultimately, intense love for the woman he thought he lost.

After a few breathless moments, Temperance pulled away, uncertainty and some other, unreadable emotion shining in her eyes. Booth rested his forehead against hers, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. "I don't know what that means." Her voice was small but strong, laced with thick emotion.

"I do." He whispered, moving to kiss her forehead. "Listen, I'm not pushing you into anything, but I'm not taking it back."

"Good." The word came out as a contented breath, and she leaned into him. "I think I'm ready to face everyone else."

"Then let's go." Helping her up, Booth hugged her one last time for strength (her's or his he did not know) and guided her toward the door.

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And there it is….fluffy angst ahoy! The meeting of the squints is next, whenever it may come. Please leave reviews, I will love you forever.