Hannah had known about the Gravedigger. She was a reporter in the Washington area before they had met and she had covered the news of his disappearance. She hadn't put the pieces together until Booth told her the story after Brennan left.

Things were a complete mess. He knew there was no way it was Bones' fault that he couldn't leave Afghanistan when Taffet escaped. It was his post, it was his job and by the time the Army would've gotten a replacement, the case would've been over anyway. There was no point. He knew he was being irrational and she didn't understand why. Booth knew she was trying to do him a favor by telling him herself about Taffet and Perotta instead of finding out through the FBI grapevine.

He was lying in bed late that night, thinking over what she had told him and seeing the hurt in her eyes as she watched Hannah console him. He felt Hannah flip over next to him, moving closer to the warmth of his body. There was something Bones hadn't told him. There was something he was missing.

Booth slowly slid out of bed, careful not to wake Hannah. Despite the fact that she was in a deep sleep, she had gotten used to having Booth next to her and he knew she would wake up soon in his absence. He left her a note so she wouldn't worry and changed into street clothes. Booth quietly padded down the hall and slid on a pair of running shoes as he grabbed his keys and a coat as he ran out the door.


Hannah was awake the moment he was out of bed, the loss of his body heat leaving her wanting more. She was exhausted though and didn't want to move, so she stayed in bed and pulled up the blankets around her. She reached for the nightstand, where he had left the note.

Knucksie-

Couldn't sleep. Went out to clear my head. Don't worry, we'll go for our run in the morning.

-Sarge

Hannah smiled at the nickname Booth's unit had given her after she had debuted her knuckleball back at their camp. It was the same nickname as her favorite major league pitcher and it always made her smile every time they called her that. She had finally found some place she had fit in and she loved it. She loved that Booth wasn't intimidated by her.

She placed the note back on the nightstand and tried drifting back to sleep, not worrying about what demons her boyfriend was dealing with.


He knew he was going to get his ass kicked if she caught him breaking into her apartment, especially if she didn't know it was him.

"Bones?" he called out. He knew she wasn't sleeping. There were too many lights on and her tea kettle was still hot.

"Booth?"

She came strolling out of her bedroom in her robe, a cup of tea in one hand and her laptop tucked under the other arm.

"What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep and I wanted to apologize for yelling at you earlier."

She brushed right by him and sat down on the couch, turning on her computer. "Its fine, Booth. I should've expected that reaction from you. I'm actually surprised it wasn't something worse."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You have a tendency to overreact."

He didn't say anything. He knew she was right. She always was.

"Well, I'm sorry, Bones."

"I accept your apology. Do you want some tea?"

He scrunched his face at the offer and she rolled her eyes at his reaction. She had missed this. She had missed them.

"Well then you can at least sit down. You've been standing in the same spot since you've arrived," she commented. He nodded and sat down close to her on the couch. Booth peeked over her shoulder to see what she was typing up on the computer screen but she leaned away from him to hide.

"Are you writing?" His eyes widened and he instantly became intrigued.

"Yes, I am."

"Can I see?" He knew it was pointless to ask, especially since he already knew the answer.

"You can read it when it's published. Do we have to go through this every time I write another novel?"

"Yes," he teased. She smiled at him. They sat in comfortable silence for a while and Booth made several feeble attempts to sneak a peek at what Brennan was writing.

"So are you ever going to tell me how Mupooku was?" he asked, unable to hide the teasing grin.

She threw him an annoyed glance and said, "Are you sure you want to hear about it? You're going to think it's boring."

He shrugged. "Eh. Just tell me. Maybe it'll make for a nice bedtime story."

She tried to look offended but she just laughed and launched into a dialed down version of her past year so that he would understand, staying away from things like amphiarthrodial joints and obturator foramen of the os coxa.

He knew she was dumbing it down for her but he didn't care. He was genuinely interested how her year away from him had gone. Booth hadn't realized how much he had missed her until she was telling him about all the fun she had in the islands with the new anthropologist friends she had made from around the world.

"And now our historical find is on display in the Jeffersonian. I never did go back though. Addie was kind enough to share credit with me as head of the project after I left. Are you going to tell me about your tour with the Army or is that too difficult to talk about?"

"Nah, it's no biggie. Really, it wasn't as bad as when I was younger. Hell, I sure found out I can't move like I used to. And I hardly left base either," he reassured her. Booth story consisted of telling her that he wasn't in any danger like he had promised and that he had hardly left his camp, with the exceptions for a few scraped missions that went wrong and needed his fixing.

He told her the story of how he met Hannah and Ollie and how she got the nickname Knucksie.

"I don't understand…" she said at first but after a long, roundabout explanation of Hannah's love of pitching a mean knuckle, Bones started to understand. "It's endearing in a way, like the way you call me Bones," she told him. He smiled widely at her. He knew she'd appreciate it eventually.

"I should get going, Bones. I have to head over to the Hoover later today to see if they'll let me have my old job back."

She nodded.

"Hacker will give you your job back. I've been to the Hoover several times since I've been back and all of your things are still right where you left them."

"Thanks, Bones. I'll call you if we get a case," he said with a bit of nostalgia.

She smiled at him as he let himself out of her apartment. After he was gone, she shut her computer and took her tea cup to the kitchen. She made her way to bed with her head full of thoughts.

Thankful that things had recovered smoothly from their argument earlier, she didn't understand why she couldn't tell him about the feelings that had surfaced while in Maluku.

Hannah. That was the reason.

"He's finally happy," she said to no one.


Booth arrived back to his apartment and found Hannah asleep in bed.

"You okay?" she mumbled.

"Did I wake you up?" he asked, ignoring her question.

"No. I've been dozing off and on for a while. Let's skip our run and get some extra sleep. Come on," she beckoned, sleep blanketing her voice. Booth slipped off his jeans and pulled of his t-shirt before sliding under the sheets next to Hannah.

"Where'd you go?"

"To apologize to Bones."

Booth didn't know if that was the right or the wrong thing to say, but it was the truth. And he wasn't about to start lying to Hannah. She didn't push the subject and Booth was glad.

Whatever Bones wasn't telling him, she still hadn't told him. He was going to get it out of her, one way or another.