A/N: Okay, so I thought that I was finished with all of the short chapters, but unfortunately, here is another one. I hope to be able to post another (longer) chapter soon, so hopefully that makes up for the brevity of this one. All the usual disclaimers, etc. Less than thirty days until the premiere of season three!!! Yeah!!! But, for now…

Chapter Ten -

Temperance changed the CD in her stereo, choosing a mellow jazz mix that suited her melancholy mood. Nearly six weeks had passed since Booth's last visit at Christmas and he had been gone for almost six months in total. Lately, she seemed to have become a bit of an insomniac and she couldn't for the life of her understand why. Because she didn't know why she couldn't sleep, she couldn't find a resolution to the problem.

She thought briefly of the morning that she had shared with Booth and Parker before he had left. She remembered his smiles and laughter as Parker had regaled him with the many adventures that a six-year-old experiences. She remembered, too, the shadows that had tinged his eyes and his smile. Then, too soon, Booth had begun to pack his bag and she felt the shadows begin to tinge her smile as well.

She would have to be fairly obtuse to not admit that at least a portion of her sleeplessness was caused by Booth's absence. Maybe not his absence so much as her worry for him during his absence. She hadn't received any emails or phone calls from him since he had left that morning after Christmas making this the greatest amount of time that had passed without some form of correspondence from him.

She returned to her desk and stared at the cursor that was flashing on the blank page of her word processing program. She thought that, since she couldn't sleep, she would capitalize on the extra time by working on her latest novel. Unfortunately, she couldn't seem to organize her thoughts enough to even begin to put anything together.

I miss you, Booth.

The words stared at her on the screen. She thought about how simple that phrase was: "I miss you" and how often it was used. How often it was misused, actually, because it was often said when someone was away for a couple of days; the pain of that separation couldn't possibly compare to the pain that she was feeling now. There had to be another word to describe how she was feeling.

She tried to organize her thoughts enough to come up with a different phrase to describe her feelings. Surprisingly, thinking about missing Booth was a welcome distraction from missing him. On a whim, she looked up the word 'miss' with her computer's thesaurus program in an effort to find the right word to describe her pain.

fail to spot (v)

fail to take (v)

pine for (v)

fail to attend (v)

She tried the phrase 'I pine for you' a few times in her mind, but still wasn't satisfied. Pining for someone certain seemed to carry a greater depth of emotion than missing someone, but she still didn't feel it was a match for the ache that had settled into her chest. She highlighted the phrase 'pine for' and had the computer search for more similar phrases.

pine for

long for

yearn for

wish for

grieve for

As she read the last synonym, tears sprang to her eyes and she quickly cancelled her search erasing the words from the screen. She was not grieving for Booth. She could not consider that possibility.

I miss you, Booth.

I pine for you.

I long for you.

I yearn for you.

I wish for you to return.

She stared at her tribute to him - to her feelings for him and found the list incomplete.

I love you, Booth.

Please be safe.

Leaving her laptop open, she moved to her couch. Lying so she could still see the screen even though she couldn't read it, she clutched a pillow close to her chest. Inhaling, she could still faintly detect the scent of his cologne. Closing her eyes, she hoped he would return before it faded completely.

A/N: Reviews, as always, are much appreciated. Please feel free to contribute. Thanks for reading, Scarlet.