Author's Amazement: All I can say is I can't believe how popular this series is so far! Thank you to everyone who is reading, marking this into favorites, watching, and reviews. Wow.

Author's Note: While I realize part of the allure in this series has been the ... (sexy) romance stories ... I am not a one-trick writer. Sometimes I feel kind of angsty when school gets too crazy and that's when a chapter like this comes along. Two friends (Casket4mytears & Delia84) suggested this catch. There's a lot of angst here, and it's not exactly resolved. However, what is revealed in this one-shot feeds well into the awkwardness of the episode that follows this tag, as well as the wonderful final conversation in Blackout in the Blizzard.

The Premise: Once upon a time, Booth told Brennan that love is eternal, which is why it's worth it to sacrifice one's happiness for a loved one. But it seems he doesn't live up to that ideal. What if Brennan finally reached her limit and called him on it...?

The current chapter is a hard T for a strategically placed f-bomb (or two).

Episode tag to The Daredevil in the Mold

The Catch in the Contradiction

Fourth Catch: Moving On

~Q~

February 2011

"What is it with women who don't want what I'm offering here?"

That's what he'd asked, grinding it out, furious and self-centered and not at all interested in any objective evaluation she might have offered. But he'd been drinking, already several shots and a couple of beers into his binge, and he was hurt so she let it go when he lumped her in with the women who'd earned his rage. She let him give her an ultimatum, drink or get a new partner, and she'd chosen to stay with him because love lasts forever.

A long time ago, she'd given him credit for knowing hearts, the expert on all things emotional. Booth had personified love, loyalty, perseverance, faith and trust. Brennan acknowledged to herself that she'd been childish then, putting all of her faith in his mentorship even when he'd proved himself inconsistent and occasionally inept. Now she'd grown up as all children do, learned that no one is perfect and suffered heartbreak accordingly. She'd since recovered and she knew what it meant to say, love lasts forever.

It meant never giving up, never leaving.

"Come on, Booth, it's time to go."

Two hours had passed since she'd taken the first shot and though she'd kept to careful moderation, he was maintaining a steady level of intoxication. His words slurred, but were still intelligible. They'd chatted about inconsequential things like sports (Booth did the ranting, throwing around statistics and team names as if they were supposed to mean something) and a dig in central Ohio she'd recently declined (Brennan enthused about uncovering more information about the Cahokia culture who had built the serpent mounds, only ceasing when she realized Booth's glazed eyes were not due to alcohol). They both contributed to discussions of previous cases. But all of these topics were frequently punctuated by long and awkward silences that Booth filled with gulps of burning Scotch.

"Don't wanna go," he slurred now at her invitation to exit their post-case haven. "Like it here, with you."

Glancing at her watch, she tried again. "It's late, Sam is signaling that he's going to cut you off and Hannah is probably still up waiting for you. I'll drive you home."

"No," he objected sharply, seeming to regain a surprising level of sobriety merely at the suggestion of returning to his apartment. "I'm not going home. She's prob'ly still there."

Brennan hesitated, surprised by both the vehement refusal and the reason behind his objection. "Of course Hannah's still there. Why wouldn't she be?"

"She's packing."

"What? Why would she be packing?"

Impatiently. "That's what people do when they leave, Bones."

That didn't make sense. Hannah hadn't mentioned leaving during their brief phone call, she'd simply cried and explained the ill-fated proposal (the results of which Brennan did not find surprising because she knew Hannah shared her antipathy towards traditional marriage), then had asked Brennan to go take care of him. "I don't understand. Why would she leave?"

"I want her to."

He wanted her to leave? Oh. A sinking feeling took hold as she realized it: Booth had already 'moved on.' Hannah said no and he moved on that very night. Brennan stood quietly, turning it over in her mind, trying to understand why this information should disturb her so much. Not sure what to say, she signaled Sam and went to pay the tab. Booth sat glumly at the bar, waiting for her to return and went with her willingly to her Prius.

Quietly, she offered, "Since you won't go home, I guess you can stay in my guest room. Or would you prefer a hotel?"

He grumbled, "I can't afford a hotel."

"Fine." They drove silently the rest of the way, he brooding and she slowly coming to a rolling boil.

At her apartment she efficiently pulled out towels and a spare toothbrush, then prepared the coffee pot for morning. Booth stood in the center of the living room, watching her silent activity and grim expression with mounting confusion.

"Bones, why are you so quiet?"

Handing him the towels, she avoided his eyes and shrugged. There was too much tumbling through her head, too many emotions tangling that she needed time to tease apart, and he was still intoxicated; all of which meant it was not an auspicious time to attempt an explanation. So she shook her head. "It's nothing."

"Come on, we're partners."

That clumsy reminder only served to increase the pressure she was operating under. Now they were partners? A couple of hours ago he'd threatened to end their partnership if she didn't accept his limitations on said partnership. They could only be casual friends, nothing more. Never before in her life had Brennan been this acutely aware of how perilously close she was to an explosion. "It's not a good time," she tried again and turned to go.

"You've barely spoken to me for the last hour."

Heaving a sigh, eyes flashing a warning, she turned back and said, "I find I am exceedingly vexed with you, Booth."

Befuddled. "Vexed?"

"Angry. I am angry, and I need time and space."

Stunned, he ignored both requests as he stepped into her space and demanded, "You're angry? What the hell for?"

"Why is Hannah leaving? You told me you loved her. You said she wasn't a consolation prize." And the pain of that conversation was still with her, it still burned and smoldered, and it was a pain she was slowly getting used to because it was what he wanted.

"She said no!"

Bitterly, she challenged, "So you're 'moving on?'" Brennan's glassy gaze pierced his, as if the edges of her broken heart were still sharp enough to cut them both. She watched him carefully, waiting for the old familiar words to register, and they did.

He made her wait for ten heartbeats before speaking. Defensive but unrepentant, he confirmed it. "Yeah."

Her entire body tensed. For one endless second, she stared at him in disbelief and hoped she'd misunderstood. But she hadn't; this was history repeating itself and this time it was she and Hannah both who got trampled and crushed. For the first time in her adult life, the highly-educated scientist with three PhD's, the Edgar-Award winning novelist, found herself completely incapable of intelligent expression.

"Fuck you!"

Rage burned through her like a holocaust, so caustic she knew she had to get away before she actually killed him because in hearing those words repeated, Temperance Brennan had never hated another person with such infernal intensity. Scrambling to get away, she strode for the front door, swiping her keys and purse, swiping furious tears out of her eyes so she could stop fumbling with the doorknob and actually get the God damned door open. She didn't know she was crying until he jerked her around with his own furious shout.

"What the hell is that for?"

"Leave me alone," she screamed, shoving him back. It was just too much, too hard to contain and he wouldn't stop pushing even when she'd asked him to give her time and so this rare eruption of Mount Temperance was inevitable. "I hate you. I hate you, I hate your cruelty, I hate your fucking bullshit! You don't know anything about love!"

He looked stunned, realizing in seven years he'd only seen this side of her temper twice before and neither time had involved profanity or outright screaming. So he was stunned, but it didn't last long because he was angry and he was hurting and she was the one person he'd thought he could count upon for sympathy. "What gives you the right to speak to me like that?"

She advanced on him, suddenly seizing the moment to school him now when her crushed and bleeding heart had taken all it could stand. "Experience and observation gives me the right. How many times did you propose to Rebecca?"

"That has nothing—"

"Shut up! It was a rhetorical question; I already know the answer."

Grinding his teeth together, he looked away and said nothing.

Oh yes, she thought with scalding wrath. The pattern was there. She'd never had enough data to formulate a hypothesis before, but the observations were repeated with consistent outcomes and she knew the explanation now. Everything pointed to this model: Booth was full of romantic bullshit and she knew what bullshit was, a big pile of steaming excrement. Waste. It was all a waste. "Once," she spat. "And how long after she declined did you wait to 'move on?'"

His eyes flew to hers, catching the wind that precedes the firestorm ignited by her fury, and he answered grudgingly. "A month."

Swallowing the knot that was strangling her, she choked out, "You gave me a week, Booth. And Hannah, you only gave her a night!"

His own firestorm ignited.

"You said NO," he yelled, stepping up to her and letting his own temper fly. Holy hell, he was the one who'd been turned down and she had the gall to call him names? "What was I supposed to do, grovel at your high and mighty feet? Beg you? What the fuck did you expect me to do, Bones?"

After the first, violent blast, lava oozes. Ice melts and forms lahars, mudslides and total collapse. Crying openly, she told him what he should have done. "You said love is eternal, that people don't leave. You told me you wanted fifty years with me, and then you left."

"What the hell are you talking about? I didn't leave and it damn near killed me to see you with Hacker."

"Oh, yes, you were suffering so much with Catherine."

His jaw dropped in astonishment. "You dated my boss. And I let you because I was a damn doormat for you."

"I only dated him because you said you were going to move on. The minute I said I couldn't change, you were done. You asked Catherine out a week later."

"What did you expect?" he roared again.

And she hated him, she hated the power he held, the way he could hurt her. She wanted to beat him, hurt him the way he'd hurt her and the way she was suffering now. Flying forward, she shoved him, her fist smashing into his sternum, right over his cold heart and he staggered backwards a step. "I expected you to love me enough to wait for me!"

"I waited five years."

"I didn't know that! How was I supposed to know that?! You never said a word, Booth, except to make romantic speeches and generalities and all those LINES. When you finally said something it was just to offer me a gamble and five minutes to make up my mind, and I couldn't decide that fast so you showed me how strong your love was by 'moving on.'"

"You. Said. NO." Frustrated to be hashing over ancient history, he ran a hand through his hair. Brennan's pain was hitting him hard, he could hear it, hear her broken heart crackling under the running stream of words. He listened, too tired and drunk to stop the flow. Maybe it would be better if she got it all out.

"Once. And you never asked again. Hodgins proposed three times! Three! And when Angela said no three times he said, 'Okay' and he loved her anyway. He stayed. He loved her and he stayed. Even when they broke up, he stayed. And when he thought she was pregnant with Wendell's baby, he stayed. He offered to marry her again. And now they are married because he never gave up."

Brushing tears away, still shaking with anger and grief, she shook her head. "I love you like that, Booth. You've no idea how much pain I've endured watching you with Hannah. I befriended her and supported your relationship, and tonight I thought maybe I'd help you see that you should be patient with her. Like Hodgins was with Angela because…"

A sob shook her as she struggled to control herself so she could get the rest out. "…because you said you love her. And I want you to be happy. I only wanted you to be happy and I stayed even though it hurt me. I would have stayed even if you married her."

Crying too hard to finish, she felt him coming closer. "Bones…"

"I would have stayed forever, but you left."

That halted him again. She kept saying he'd left which not only wasn't fair, it wasn't even accurate. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Afghanistan."

"No." He was still angry, that momentary surge of sympathy for her tears rapidly dissolving under her fresh accusation. "You left for Maluku, and then you didn't even write to me."

"I couldn't."

"Why the hell not? You had Internet access."

"Because I was too hurt."

"You were hurt? You're the one who decided to go," he repeated again.

"No I didn't!" She screamed her rebuttal, far too engaged in the cataclysm to modulate her voice. "You signed that paper without even talking to me! When I told you I'd been offered the position, you'd already committed yourself to the Army, so what was I supposed to do then? There was no reason to stay after that."

"You wanted to go," he said, lamely, as her point struck home. It was true: he'd signed on to a year away without speaking to her first. He'd made an assumption. He'd listened to Daisy and Sweets when they told him about Brennan's offer and he had projected his own fear that she would leave onto Brennan. He'd left first.

"I wanted you to give me a reason to stay but you left. And when you came back, I thought I'd take the chance you asked for because I missed you so much. You came back with Hannah; you said it was serious. And I accepted it because I know that I didn't write and that is my fault."

It was the first time she'd acknowledged that. He crossed his arms, confessing that she'd truly wounded him with her silence. "It felt like you left me. All those months in hell, I needed my best friend and I never got a single word from you. Do you have any idea how much that hurt me?"

"I'm sorry." This was why she hated crying, it made her eyes red and her nose run and her head throb and her throat wouldn't work. She hated the physical symptoms and the perception of being a weak female who sniveled instead of taking action. But this was regret, the one she'd realized she would always carry even though she didn't want to have regrets. "I understand that my silence was painful for you, and that you felt ... abandoned. And I'm truly sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you like that."

"It's fine," he said roughly. "I mean, it's not like you singled me out to be ignored. You didn't write to anyone."

Bitterly, she continued. "I buried my feelings because everyone expected it. That's what you wanted. You moved on, Hannah moved in, and you told me … you told me it was love and I believed you when you said it was worth it."

"Then why did you make a play for me last December. What was that?"

Wiping more tears away, she shook her head. "That was me finally reaching my breaking point because it hurt. It hurt so much I felt like I was dying. I needed to know the pain I was going through was worth it. I knew you'd choose Hannah because you love her. I let you crush my heart again so I could have the proof that you love Hannah more than me. Then I would know there was nothing to regret."

That was about the last thing he'd ever expected to hear. When she'd said she didn't want to have regrets, he'd been angry with her for such spectacularly bad timing: to wait until he was fully immersed in a relationship and then finally speak her mind? To finally tell him when it was too late, if she'd been anyone other than Brennan he'd have kicked her out of the car and made her walk home. It was just so typically Bones to say the wrong thing at the wrong time and leave him with nothing but his own guilt and regret.

She was still speaking, still making him feel guilty with her words that scooped out his heart and marrow. Revelations that revealed too much, too late. "But now…"

He held still, realizing they'd both reached a breaking point. After all the anger and hurt had erupted, the woman who stood by the door sounded like a hollow container, empty.

"Now, if you won't give Hannah a second chance, know that you destroyed me twice, for no reason. All this pain, everything I gave up for you was for nothing, because you've proven you're incapable of love."

She turned, reaching the door and as she was closing it, he called out, "Where are you going?"

"You can't afford a hotel. But I can." She slammed the door behind her.

~Q~

Using the key to let himself in, Booth cautiously poked his head through the gap and called out. "Hannah?"

"I'm still here," she answered in a flat tone. "I'm sorry, I just ..."

As she broke off, he thought he heard a small, snuffling sob.

"I'm glad you're here," he said quickly, before he could change his mind. Going all the way in, he added, "I don't want you to go."

She came out of the bedroom, eyes red-rimmed and bags trailing. "You don't."

"No."

But he wouldn't meet her eyes, and his shoulders slumped. She could see he'd been drinking, and though he'd said he didn't want her gone, Hannah earned her living as a paid observer of words and body language. She could tell he wasn't being sincere.

"I thought you would stay with Temperance tonight."

"I'm not that shallow," he stated coldly.

"No, not..." she trailed off as understanding kicked in. Hannah narrowed her eyes. "Why are you here?"

Refusing to look her way, he shrugged it off. "We had an argument."

Taking in information, turning it over, Hannah drew an unlikely conclusion and tested it. "She came onto you...?"

"What the hell?! NO! The opposite. She yelled at me for not giving you another chance and left me to stew."

Not sure if it was relief or vindication, Hannah dropped her bags and shook her head. Temperance Brennan was always an enigma, but never more than now. "She yelled at you?"

Sheepishly, he elaborated. "Screamed, actually. Called me names, cursed at me. Cried."

"Cried?"

And this was where Seeley Booth had to humble himself, because it was his reserved and rational partner who taught him about love. Taught by example. "She told me I have to love you enough to wait for you."

Softly, she asked, "Why?" What he'd told her about Temperance last December came back to her then, the way he'd made it seem one-sided and all in the past as far as he was concerned. So what would make Temperance cry, why would she want Seeley to try harder when really, a heartbroken jilted woman should be rubbing her hands with glee at the way this had unfolded? And Hannah felt fresh tears coming when the truth hit her. Oh, God, it was the only conclusion that made sense. "Because you didn't wait for her?"

"No. I didn't."

Astonished, Hannah stood next to her bags and wondered. Just wondered, as in marvel and awe and maybe even a little bit of reverence. "And she wants you to wait for me."

"Yeah."

"Why?" she asked again.

"I don't know."

"Yes you do. Why, Seeley." God, he was a fool. Hannah crossed the room at last to stand right in front of him and force him to face the truth. "Why does Temperance want you to wait for me?"

Reluctantly, he finally explained. "Because if I don't, then all the pain she's gone through was for nothing."

All the pain... Hannah closed her eyes for a moment, replaying all those wistful little glances Temperance had been prone to giving Seeley. All the pain of self-sacrifice. "How much pain?"

"More than I realized." More than anyone realized.

But Hannah had befriended Temperance Brennan and knew her better than Booth realized. The antique phone, "Be sure ... Booth will give himself to you completely," saving her life by checking x-rays, the way she knew Seeley so well and yet Hannah had always trusted them together because Temperance herself had stepped clearly out of the way.

"She kept it quiet, didn't she. All this time she's been watching us with her broken heart, thinking her pain was worth it because you were happy. Now that we're ending, Temperance thinks she sacrificed herself for nothing. That's why she cried, isn't it."

"Yeah."

Drawing a shaky breath, Hannah turned away to face the door and she closed her eyes to keep in the tears. "When you first told me about her, you said you were just partners. You kept all of this history hidden from me."

"We are just partners. I didn't want you to feel jealous or threatened by her."

And she laughed, low and cynical and more than a little astonished at his capacity for self-delusion. "There's nothing 'just' about your partnership with Temperance."

Neither of them spoke for several minutes, until Hannah roused herself and pushed them past the impasse. "The only reason you're here now is because you can't stand to break her heart again, but that's the wrong reason to stay with me. You're only here for her, not for me. God, Seeley, doesn't that tell you something?"

"I thought I was doing the right thing." Again, he'd come back to do the right thing, to prove to Brennan that love lasted, and this was how the universe repaid him. Brennan was angry and hurt; Hannah was hurt and leaving; and Booth found himself alone again, all for doing the honorable thing.

She knew he was finally being honest. "I don't want to be anybody's obligation," Hannah finally said, feeling a hollow sensation in the center of her chest where his love should be. "You've come back for the wrong reason."

"I know."

"Do you? Do you understand why I had to say no? I've always known I was your second choice." Snatching up her bags, Hannah was at the door when he realized she really was still leaving.

His heart squeezed at the undisguised anguish in her voice. "Hannah?"

"I'll call Temperance and explain. She stepped out of the way for me; it's time I returned the favor."

~Q~

Author's Note: This story ends with three suffering, confused people, but getting the whole truth out will help all three of them start to recover. (And yes, I actually do feel sorry for Hannah because if Booth truly loved her, her saying no wouldn't have mattered. There's more I could say, but I think I'll leave that for another Catch*.) Meanwhile, I like leaving it this way because once Booth gets over his anger (and I believe he's angry with himself as the upcoming Catch I've just hinted at will show), he knows Brennan is going to be waiting for him.

* The first prequel to this story is Catch #10, Letting Go.

Author's Preview: Next up, Brennan finally gets caught, and she may get the proof she demanded in Catch #1. Stay tuned for Catch #5... :D