Disclaimer: I do not own Bones

All Booth could do was stare at the woman in front of him. What was he trying to tell him? "I don't understand," he said quietly.

Temperance closed her eyes and pursed her lips. This was still painful for her. "Booth," she answered, trying desperately not to let her voice falter, "I am cold, heartless. I don't care for anyone but the dead. How could you love someone like me?"

"No!" Booth's voice was a little louder than he intended, "you are not going to tell me that you walked out on me because of what you heard someone say! I would rather you accuse me of cheating! At least that way you actually had an excuse!"

Temperance's eyes widened at the tone of Booth's voice. She had never heard him talk to her this way before; she had never seen him so angry. "Booth, I-"

"No Temperance," he stated, "let me talk. You are the one who ran, you were the one that left me broken hearted for 20 years, and you are the one who kept me away from my own child. I think I should be the one talking right now, because you gave up that right when you walked out on me."

Booth honestly did not know where he was coming from. He had sworn to himself that he would control his temper; for a while at least. But, when she had revealed that she had left him because of what someone had said about her; that was too much. Perhaps he did lose control, but right now, he really did not care.

He continued on his rant, "What were you thinking? Did you honestly think that I believed that crap people said about you?" He looked into her eyes. She was crying softly. She was obviously trying hard to contain the tears, but her body failed her. He wanted nothing more than to reach out and caress her tears off her face and apologize, but he found his anger would not subside.

"I loved you with all my heart, and all of the sudden; boom, you disappear from the face of the earth. Do you know why I never looked for you?" He did not wait for an answer, he was going to tell her, despite what she wanted or not. "I kept telling myself that if you loved me, you would come back to me. But soon, I found that the days turned into years. 20 years Temperance!" The sound of her real name made her wince. He only ever called her that when whatever was going on was very serious. "You made me wait for 20 years!" He shook his head at the memories, "I never gave up on you, I always believed you would return." He stopped there to catch his breath. The fury had taken his breath away from him.

"I did come back," Temperance said quietly.

Booth shook his head, "because of Ryan." He looked at her, "Face it, if Ryan had not gotten the internship, he never would have come to DC and you never would have come back; would you?" Booth sighed as Temperance did not jump in to contradict his last statement. "Even if he did come here, it took a near death experience for both of you for you to face your fears and come running back home!"

The tears in her eyes returned again. She hated herself for acting this weak, but she could not help it. She really did love Booth, but- it was time to say it out loud. "Booth," she quickly continued when Booth tried to stop her, letting him know that she was going to speak whether he liked it or not. "I have never stopped loving you. That made leaving you really hard on me." Anger flashed in Booth's eyes, he could not believe she was doing this to him. She continued, "but it was best for you."

"How the hell did you think that that would be best for me? If you thought that, you obviously did not love me!" Booth yelled.

Up until this point, Temperance had remained calm. She had not lifted her voice, or grow angry at Booth's accusations. However, Booth claiming that she never loved him was the final straw.

"How can you say that?" she yelled back at him. Now it was Booth's turn to be shocked. He was not expecting Brennan to retaliate against him. "I left you so that you could have a good life. A life with me never would have made you truly happy, and you know that."

"What I know," Booth countered, "is that I loved you with all my heart and then you broke it into pieces because you felt that you were not good enough for me. I think you should have let me make that judgment; don't you?"

"You never would have realized how unhappy you were." Temperance exclaimed. "By doing what I did, I gave you the chance to have a happy life. A life full of love and kindness. If you think about it, our relationship was doomed to fail. We are nothing alike, and we have totally different opinions on the world."

Booth shook his head, he could not believe what he had just heard. "You know what Temperance," he said quietly, "If you truly believe that, maybe your heart is colder than I thought!" After he said those words, he immediately regretted it. Her eyes became wide, and they were filled to the brim with tears. He knew it was the wrong decision, but given the circumstances, he could think of nothing else to do: he turned away from her and walked away.

I'm very tired, so I'm not going to say much. Obviously, it's not going to be a walk through a field of flowers for Booth and Brennan. It is going to take a lot for their relationship to mend. However, I am a firm believer in B&B. However, I also like writing sad ending to stories; so I guess I'll decide what I want to happen when I get there. Please review. Let me know if you feel they were OOC at all.