Thanks for all of the reviews! I'm sorry I'm doing really bad in updating. I've been having some writer's block and way too much school, but I'll try to better about getting the chapters out more frequently. Anyway, here's the next chapter.

-Astrae Splendent


As Booth drove back to the Hoover building, he couldn't help but wonder what his father had been talking about. How could his dad know who Bones liked? She was very open about her sex life, but Booth doubted even she would talk to a father figure about that type of stuff. Why did he have to come back? Everything was fine! I was controlling my feelings for Bones, and everything. And then, out of nowhere, my dad comes strolling back into my life and tries to apologize. I always told myself that there was no way in hell I'd ever forgive him, but then she had to owe him. It couldn't be something she could pay off either, it had to be him pulling her out of the system and taking care of her. Saving her from the people who stuck her in a car trunk. So, now I either lose Bones forever because she resents me for not letting my father back into my life, or I have to be nice the man that abused me for coming home from school and protecting my little brother. This sucks. And it's not like I can blame her, either. She had no idea! And then Dad had to ask me that question. I didn't even try to hide it…But why should I? Everyone else knows I'm in love with Bones, well except for her.

Booth returned to the FBI, and went straight to his office. Everyone he passed saw the dangerous look in his eye. Different rumors immediately began flying, but they all had one thing in common- his partner. So, in the forty-five minutes it took Dr. Temperance Brennan to arrive at the Hoover building, five pools had started on what happen and what was to come from it and anything else people could bet on. The moment, Brennan entered the building people suddenly had things to do- on Booth's floor. By the time Brennan reached Booth's office, half the building was on that floor, and the other half on the phone someone there. Of course, Brennan was completely oblivious to the FBI commotion, and Booth was trying to focus on his work, though his thoughts continuously returned to his father and partner.

Brennan entered his office, and stood there watching him reading a file. After a few minutes of waiting, Brennan spoke up.

"Booth." His eyes shot up immediately. The first thing he noticed was that she didn't exactly look happy. In fact she looked a little mad and hurt.

"Hey, Bones. Everything all right?"

"You lied to me."

"What? I'd never lie to you."

"But you're still upset with Abe." Great, Dad must have been honest with her. The one time he's honest…

"But not for being here," Booth pointed out.

"Booth, we both know that you're still angry at him, so respect both of us, and be honest."

"Bones, it's just not one of those things that can be fixed in fifteen minutes. I'm not super rational like you. I can't compartmentalize. Oh, my dad must have changed because he saved Bones. I completely forgive him for screwing up my childhood."

"I never expected you to! I told you that I wasn't going to force you to forgive your father!"

"No, that would have been easier. Instead, you give me the option of forgiving him or having you resenting me. What was I supposed to choose?"

"I will admit, I hoped you and Abe would reconcile, but I told you earlier, that it would not come between us either way."

"And I told you it would come up anyway! Geez, Bones, don't you get it? We bicker over nothing all the time, so what's going to happen if we actually have something to fight over?"

"It won't be a problem, Booth!"

"Look, we're fighting over this now! We've only had the problem for three hours!"

"Stop being an infant!"

"Baby, its stop being a baby. And I'm not. I just don't want us to get messed up."

"Us?" Brennan knew rationally that he was referring to their partnership, but she couldn't shake the memory of what almost happened that afternoon in the secluded ally.

"Yeah, Bones. You know… our friendship and everything."

"Right…" she trailed off. Abe had been protecting her from Booth's rejection. There was an awkward silence for a moment. Both waiting for the other to speak.

"Bones, you know how what ours is ours?" Brennan nodded. "Well, what goes on between me and my dad is mine and my dad's. It shouldn't concern you."

"I-" she tried to cut in, but Booth stopped her, and continued.

"But this is difference, because you've stuck yourself in the middle of it. If it was anyone else, I would have laughed in their face when they asked me to try to forgive him. But you asked me Bones, so I had to try. And somehow my dad and I actually began to make up, but then he got truth out of me and then wouldn't tell me why he wanted it. That's when I knew he was the same guy he always has been, a man who finds out what he wants and then holds it over you until he gets what he wants. If he doesn't have any dirt on you, then he physically threatens you."

"Booth, he was protecting me!" Brennan practically yelled. She was tired of Booth giving Abe a hard time. He was a good man who had made mistakes, and had been trying to make up for it since he had been thrown out of his children's lives. Brennan's outburst caught Booth off guard.

"Protecting you? Why does he need to protect you from me?" Brennan realized the implications of her outburst.

"He knows that I have been abandoned before and is trying to protect me from being hurt like that again."

"Bones, you know I won't hurt you. I won't ever abandon you; I don't think I could live with myself if I did that. I know what that would do to you."

But that doesn't mean you wouldn't reject me, causing me just as much harm. We've been through this before, the only difference is last time I thought it could end. Brennan thought, but out loud, she said, "Abe is not completely aware of our relationship."

He's more aware of my feelings for you than you are. "Bones, why does he think he had to protect you from me?" Brennan didn't have an answer to his question, besides the truth.

"Because of my answer to his question," she answered shyly- something Booth was not used to seeing.

"What question? What answer?" Booth could only hope it was yes to the same question he had been asked. Brennan realized that she had backed herself into a metaphorical corner. She had to tell Booth; she was not very good at lying anyway.

"He asked me what I would do if I you asked me on a date." Booth's mouth dropped. Sure, he had hoped it, but for her to actually admit it so easily?

"How- how did you answer?" he stuttered. Why did he stutter? Because her answer will make me the happiest man on earth or one of the most miserable.

"I told him that I would consider it." Booth's mouth dropped a bit further, before he gained control of it. Just because she would agree to go on a single date with me doesn't mean a thing. She could say yes to save our partnership. He needed to know why she would say yes.

"Why?" he blurted out. Brennan immediately realized why Abe wouldn't tell her Booth's answer: it was a no. He wasn't showing signs of excitement, only confusion.

"If you were to ask me, I would not want it to harm our partnership by rejecting your offer," she surprised herself with her lying ability, then. The words seem very realistic. She didn't even consider the fact that her eyes showed the true pain his reaction caused her. Booth was more focused on her eyes' story then her mouth's, luckily, and noticed the pain.

"Liar." Her blue eyes grew, before she could control them.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Booth came out from behind his desk, and approached her. He looked down into her eyes and saw fear- another very rare sight to see in Dr. Temperance Brennan's eyes.

"I know you, and I know when you're lying. And you, Temperance, are lying." She then noticed that they were about as close as they had been earlier that day in the alley. She couldn't help but notice his warm breath against her face. It was very distracting when she was trying to figure out what to say.

"Booth…" was all she could say. Her brain was not focusing properly, due to his proximity. All she could think about was pressing her lips against his in a passionate kiss. It took everything she had not to enact her thoughts.

"Bones, what if I told you he asked me the same question?"

"Then I would want to know your answer."

"Yes, without hesitation." The two noticed that there was only a fraction of an inch between their faces, and before either of them could think about the consequences, that fraction of an inch was gone. The two began to kiss passionately, feeding the unsatisfaction that the two had been trying to ignore for years. They only stopped when they heard cheering from outside of Booth's office.