Since I like to keep my promises… here it is… :)

I hope you'll like it!

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The living room was dark, but not dark enough to hide the silhouette of the woman sitting on the couch. She had his back turned to him, so he took the time to appreciate the view. Booth didn't have many opportunities to watch his partner, especially in a private moment like that. He knew he should feel bad about it – yeah, he felt a bit like a stalker staring at her when she wasn't looking - but he couldn't help it.

From what he could see, she was staring at the window as the rain kept falling outside and had a cup in her hands. Tea. He bet everything it was tea.

"What is my son doing in your bed?" He decided it was a good way to announce his presence.

She jumped startled, almost spilling hot tea over her body and he regretted not being more careful. He'd hate himself if she got hurt because of him. Physically hurt, because something told him he'd been hurting her pretty bad lately.

It took her a moment to recover, taking in the fact they were both in their sleepwear and alone in her living room.

"He said he couldn't sleep because you were snoring like a pig." Her voice was serious, but he could see on her face that it amused her.

"I don't snore." He affirmed, trying not to smile as he approached the couch.

"You slept quite silently in the occasions we shared a bedroom, but it's not unusual to snore every once in a while. The constant change in the weather could make your body immunity decrease and therefore you could get a cold. The increased production of mucus would obstruct the nasal passageway, impeding air movement while breathing during sleeping, resulting in snoring. " She said before she could think and caught her bottom lip between her teeth when she realized what she said.

She didn't want to think about the many occasions she shared a bedroom – and a bed – with him. Not now. Not when they've been treating each other with more professionalism than friendship than ever. She didn't want to think about the night they spent in Vegas while going undercover as Roxy and Tony. Or when he slept at her apartment when she was too sad about Zack being Gormogon's apprentice. Or the tiny tiny bed in the circus trailer. Or the unbearably long nights she spent at his bedside when he was in a coma. And less than anything, the night she slept in his arms during the Gravedigger's case.

He noticed her flushed face and didn't say anything, just sank down on the couch next to her, not waiting for an invitation. She tried not to look at his half-covered body.

"Having trouble falling asleep?" He asked, not looking at her. He noticed she was wearing a nightgown, way too beautiful for her own good. It wasn't exactly the sexy kind of nightgown, it was made of pale pink silk, ended below her knees and had a v-neck, but it shaped her body perfectly.

She didn't answer him right away and took another sip of her tea before looking at him.

"I haven't had a good night of sleep in a long time." She admitted, suddenly missing those times where she could talk about anything with him.

He was surprised by her words.

"Me neither."

Brennan let out a sad laugh.

"Of course. You're a very strong and active man and Hannah is young and healthy, I'm certain you don't spend your nights sleeping."

He didn't expect her to bring that up like that, much less show how much it bothered her. He was shocked by the sadness in her voice and when he saw the lonely tear running down her cheek, he lost it. He knew out of the blue that he couldn't wait anymore. He couldn't pretend anymore. He couldn't lie anymore. Not when she finally showed signs that she cared. That she wasn't really happy with his new relationship.

"Bones…" He reached out to touch her arm, but she dodged away, as if his fingers were made of fire and would burn her skin.

"I'm sorry." She closed her eyes as if she had just realized what she'd said. "I shouldn't have said that. It was very inappropriate, I apologize. I have nothing to do with your sex life."

She was about to stand up from the couch when he grabbed her by the wrist and made her sit again, this time incredibly close to him. She was stunned for a moment, his hand still wrapping her wrist and their eyes locked in surprise. He took his hand away from her wrist and brought it up to her face, stroking her cheeks tenderly with his thumb. She closed her eyes, afraid of breaking down in front of him.

"I'm tired." He said in a sigh, feeling his chest tightening. "I'm so tired, Bones."

She opened her eyes confused, not quite knowing what he meant with that. So, he explained:

"I'm tired of pretending. I'm tired of trying to make myself believe I'm happy when in reality, I couldn't be more far away from it. I'm tired of trying to move on when I know I'll never to able to love someone the way I love you." He felt her quivering, but he wouldn't let her run away now. She'd listen to him. "That's right. I love you." He said looking inside her eyes so she knew he really meant every word of it. "I know I've been being a terrible friend lately, and claiming to love someone else way too many times to convince myself and people around me of it. It's easy to say those three little words when you don't really mean them, you know?" He chuckled sadly. "God knows how many times I tried to tell you how much I loved you. But I was a coward. I was afraid that letting you know how I felt about you would make me lose you forever. I tried once, you know, right after you came back from Guatemala and I woke up from my coma. I tried, but you looked at me so scared that I had to make you believe I meant it only in a professional way." She gulped, and he knew she was trying to think about something to say, something to draw them apart again, but now that he started, he wouldn't let her stop him saying everything that had been inside him for so long. "But the truth is, Bones, I've loved you for so long. Probably since the beginning and I can't stand fighting against it anymore. It's not fair. These past months… they've been some of the worst of my life."

"It doesn't seem like that. You appear to be quite happy with Hannah." She said bitterly.

He laughed, even though he wanted to cry. "You have no idea how it is to be with someone when you love another woman, but knowing you'll never have your chance with her. I won't lie. I was happy at the beginning. Hannah was fun and easy and you weren't around. It wasn't that hard to forget what I'm missing when I couldn't see you. And you didn't try to contact me even once while we were away, so I was angry at you. I was angry and worried and I needed something that would help me forget how much my heart ached. Forget how much I missed you. Forget how much I loved you. Forget that you'd never feel the same way about me."

He couldn't hold his tears anymore and didn't bother wiping them away when they started to fall.

"Hannah was like a breath of fresh air, and I lived in a fantasy happy little world for about a month, that was, until we came back." He sat back in the couch. "Ever since we came back and Hannah decided to come too, it's been like I'm living in an alternative reality. I can't let myself treat you like I always did because it hurts so much, Bones, and it messes with my fake happy life, it makes it harder to believe. I can't be around the squints, because it kills me to see that Angela and Hodgins were able to make things work between them and we didn't even have the change to try."

"Booth…"

"No, I have to finish." He looked at her again. "I'm not happy, Bones. And this crap we are living right now is not a life and it's not fair. Not to me, not to you, not to Hannah. I know you aren't happy either. Don't you dare to lie to me."

"I'm not happy." She admitted almost in a whisper. Then, she remembered she wasn't the only one to blame about their situation. "I'm not happy with you."

The anger in her eyes as she looked at him made him withdraw his hand.

"You wanted to give us a try, Booth. After five years building a strong partnership and friendship, you wanted to risk it adding romance. You took a gamble, not caring about the consequences it might had in our lives. Not caring about what would happen if it didn't work."

"You didn't even want to try!" He cried. "There was no way of knowing it wouldn't work if we didn't even try."

"Our partnership might not mean as much to you, Booth, but it was the only constancy in my life. No matter what happened, I knew I had you to count on. But you wanted to change it, you wanted to change the only thing in my life that was a certainty. I was scared." She hated that she started to weep. She should be strong. "I was scared I would mess up with everything. I'm terrible at relationships and I couldn't bear the thought of losing you. I was scared I would never be enough for you."

"Bones…" His heart was beating fast and he felt like he needed to say something before he lost her forever. "Bones, you've always been enough for me."

"I told you I couldn't change and you didn't say anything." She bit her lip. "You looked at me so disappointed when I said that."

"Because I couldn't believe in what you were saying." He took her hands. "Bones, I never wanted you to change. I've always thought you were perfect just the way you are. My beautiful, smart, adorable partner, who would embarrass me almost just as much as she'd made me laugh. My best friend, the person who understood me without judging me. The person I could trust with my life, because I knew she'd die before she'd betray me. The woman with a heart bigger than she gave herself credit for."

"But you didn't give me time!" She sobbed. "I said I couldn't change and the next thing I hear is you saying you'd have move on. How am I supposed to believe we could work together as a couple when you give up at the first opportunity?"

"Bones, I-"

She shook her head telling him now it was her turn to speak.

"I needed time to think, Booth. You know better than anyone that I don't do things on impulse. I needed to think. And I couldn't think here. We weren't comfortable with each other and my worst nightmare was coming true." She explained. "So I thought that if we spent a little time apart, we could think and make things work when we'd come back. I thought a lot while in Indonesia. About us." She said it so lowly he almost didn't hear. "I came to realize I wasn't my best alone. I wasn't my best when I didn't have you by my side. When I didn't have you to discuss something. I wanted to talk to you about all that when we came back, but…"

"But I came back with Hannah." The knot on his throat was so big he was having trouble breathing. What had he done?

Brennan nodded.

"She's a great woman, Booth." She said sadly.

"She is." He agreed. "But she's not you, Bones. She's not you and she'll never be. She's the woman who is the closest to perfection a guy could ask for, but she'll never reach my standard. You ruined me for every other woman, Bones. You ruined me because you took my heart away and you never gave it back to me."

"I did no such thing." She furrowed her eyebrows. "You'd be dead if I took your heart away, Booth."

He chuckled. That was his Bones.

"I am. Mostly." He smiled sadly. "Parker was right, Bones. He is nine years old and even he could see you're the one I love."

"How am I supposed to believe you love me when I fear you'll run the first time you notice I'm not what you expected?" She let her tears fall loosely.

"I won't." He cupped her face. "I promise, Bones. I know everything about you. I've seen your best and your worst. I love you and once you let me show how much I love you, I will never let you go. We have to stop running away from our feelings."

"But what about Hannah?" She asked. "She's still your girlfriend, Booth."

"I'll break up with her first thing tomorrow." He confessed. "It won't be that easy, she actually moved here to be with me, but things between us never really got more than physical. My heart was already taken and she was never the one to settle down. I believe our relationship had an expiration date since the beginning."

"I like her." She confessed.

"I know, she'll understand. I think she'd probably already realized everything by now."

"I missed you." She closed her eyes and he lost it. The next thing he knew, he was holding her tightly in his arms. She hugged him back.

"I missed you too, Bones." He kissed the top of her head. "More than you can even imagine. But I promise it's over now. From now on, there will be no more hiding, no more fear, no more unspoken words. We are going to make this work and I'll never let you run away from me again."

"I don't want to run away anymore." She murmured against his chest.

"You have no idea how happy this makes me." He smiled.

Finally, after a very long time, he felt his heart beating again.

And it didn't hurt.

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It could be the end, right?

Fortunately – or not – it isn't.

But don't worry, I don't think this will turn out angst and the next chapter will be pure cuteness. I've already started working on it.

Wanna help my inspiration?

Reviews are the best thing to do that! :)