I have to say that we should finish it now

Before we weaken 'cause we already know this is wrong

I could give in, sometimes I think that I will

Despite the temptation, I try to be very strong

- Elvis Costello, I Still Have That Other Girl

Booth wandered into the Jeffersonian at lunchtime a few days later looking for Brennan. When he noticed her office was dark, he walked towards the forensic platform, having seen Hodgins at his microscope when he'd passed the first time.

"Hodgins! Where is everyone?" He slid his card in the reader and ran up the steps to Hodgins' work station.

"You mean Brennan?" Hodgins smirked. "Ang and Cam decided to drag her to lunch. Girl stuff."

Booth nodded sagely. He'd been around enough women to know that they gossiped in packs. "One of them having guy troubles? Not Angela, I hope."

Hodgins gave him a look he didn't recognize, and then smiled. "Nah, I think they just wanted to have a hen party. Of course, I'm only guessing…Angela wouldn't tell me anyway."

"Mmmhmm." Booth looked around, suddenly uncomfortable. The two men stood looking at each other for a long moment, both trying to find something to say.

"So…" Hodgins couldn't stand it anymore.

"What?"

"Charlotte is pretty hot." Hodgins grinned.

Booth smiled. "Yeah. She's beau- gorgeous."

"And she seems really nice. I had a good time chatting with her the other night at the bar."

"She's a good person."

"Yeah, seemed really smart."

"She's very intelligent."

"And stacked."

"Ye-Hodgins!"

"I'm sorry, dude! I can't help it. It's a guy thing." He gave Booth a sideways glance. "We say we love them for their minds, but if that were true we would have 15 names for their brains and only one for their breasts, instead of the other way around."

Booth laughed, shaking his head. "Okay, Bug Man. You got me there. I'll let it slide this time."

"Great. I wasn't looking forward to explaining to Angela why you shot me in the ass."

"Good call."

They both smiled that conspiratorial smile men get when they're talking about women, sports or their favorite muscle car. After another weird moment, they both began to look around, searching for more to say. Hodgins finally decided to bite the bullet and break the stalemate.

"So, this woman…is it serious?"

Booth's first inclination was to blow his friend off and get the hell out of the lab as fast as he could, but something in him suddenly wanted a male perspective on his current situation.

"I don't know…yeah, maybe."

"Maybe? You don't know? Wow, Booth…way to hone in on your feelings there."

Booth scowled. "I'm just…it's…it seems to be getting serious."

"So you're not just…seeing each other naked. There are feelings involved on both sides."

"I guess." Booth thought about it for a moment. "Yeah."

"Have you talked to Brennan about it?" At Booth's incredulous look, he clarified. "I mean, she is your best friend, regardless of…you know, whatever else happens." Hodgins, by way of Angela, was well-versed in the ongoing soap opera that was Booth and Dr. Brennan, so he was aware of how things stood between the partners, and why.

"It's complicated." Booth tried to think of another way to explain it but came up dry.

"Dude, complicated doesn't even begin to cover it." Hodgins couldn't hold back a laugh at Booth's furious nod of agreement.

"Tell me about it."

Jack watched Booth's face as he seemed to be thinking hard about something, suddenly looking a little bit lost. He felt a pang of sympathy for the other man, especially knowing what had happened between him and Brennan all those months ago. "You want to know what I think? I mean, what I really think?"

Booth seemed to consider it, and then nodded.

"I think…you deserve to be happy, man." He sat back down at his station and crossed his arms over his chest. "And maybe it might take you some time to find out what or who it is that will make you happy, and you might run into some problems….God knows I can relate to that, but I believe that in the end you'll figure it out."

"Yeah, I wish I was as confident about that as you are, buddy."

"Booth…did something happen with Charlie? Was it…was it the job offer?"

"Would you ask Angela to change for you?" Booth blurted.

"Well, that was a non sequitur…"

"No, you wouldn't. Because you love her just the way she is. Right?" Hodgins tried to answer, but Booth barreled along. "If you love someone, if you want to be with them, you don't try to change them. You accept their quirks and their differences and their limit-." He cleared his throat, staring off into space for a moment. His thoughts suddenly veered wildly off course from where they started. "You accept their limitations and love them anyway."

"Booth? You okay?" Hodgins was genuinely worried for his friend, and judging by the look of despair on his face, whatever epiphany Booth had just experienced did nothing to ease his obviously troubled mind.

"Hmm?" Booth looked back at Jack, almost as if he'd forgotten he was there. "Oh. Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Thanks for the talk, man." He clapped Hodgins on the back, shook his head and walked off the platform.

Jack watched Booth leave, then turned back to his work with a sigh. Whatever was happening with his little family was going happen whether he liked it or not, he just hoped for all their sakes that there wouldn't be too much of a mess to clean up in the aftermath.

B&B

After Booth left Hodgins at the lab, he spent the rest of the day ignoring the numerous unimportant phone calls he received on any given day and contemplated the decision he had to make in the solitude of his office. When he realized that the decision had already been made for him, years before, he headed back to his apartment. He found Charlotte laying on the living room floor, doing research, papers scattered all around her, and shuffling her hips back and forth in time with the blaring music. For a split second he wished he was the kind of guy who could break up with a woman in an email or with a Post It, it would have been so much less painful.

He felt like a contestant on a game show who had already seen door number one's spectacular prize revealed and still decided to gamble on what was behind door number two. Again, he found himself gambling.

Charlotte turned the music down and pulled herself up onto the couch as he shucked his jacket and anxiously pulled at his tie, "You look white as a sheet – rough day?"

"Kind of…" He sat down next to her and let out a long, hesitant sigh, "I like who you are."

She smiled at him curiously, "And I like who you are…."

"Asking you to change who you are is a lot like putting a Yugo engine in a Corvette – it's a sin."

Charlotte shook her head slowly, "You don't want me to move to DC."

"I-I wouldn't say…If you change for me, no matter how good you doing so would make me feel, you would end up resenting me."

"It's not just for you. It would be good for me, to start acting like an adult."

"You're not doing it for you, though. You didn't even entertain the idea of it until I asked you to and…." The words of Dr. Wyatt rang in his ears, the ones about him being afraid of being responsible for someone else's destiny but Booth knew that this was more than that, at least he hoped it was.

She leaned her head back on the couch and tightly closed her eyes, "But I've been entertaining it since you asked and I realized something-"

Booth cut her off, "I'm not what you want." He knew those words could have easily been 'you're not what I want' and that made him hate himself just a little.

Charlotte dropped her head forward and opened her eyes, looking at him with more hurt than he had anticipated, "But you could be exactly what I want, I just want it two years in the future. But if I wait...you could be gone and I'm not sure I want to risk that."

"You see? You're 'not sure' and I 'could be' exactly what you want and I feel the same way about you. I just…" He turned toward her, "I don't doubt that we would be happy together, we would have a good life but…"

"Good isn't good enough." It was a statement, not a question and the tone in her voice relieved Booth just a touch – she had come to the same conclusion as he had.

They sat in silence for several minutes before Charlotte noticed the time, "I have to…my flight."

Suddenly, she was thankful she had the foresight to pack earlier in the day and as she rose to gather up her papers from the floor he grabbed her wrist and she turned to look at him. With glistening, earnest eyes he said, "I'm sorry."

"I believe you."

After she gathered her things, Booth solemnly walked her down to her rental car and they both paused before she got into the driver's seat. Both feeling the need to say something but knowing that there was nothing to say, he bent down and kissed her for what they both knew would be the last time. And for some strange reason as he watched her drive away Booth had the urge to attend a meeting, the kind that took place in dank church basements, that he hadn't been to in a very long time.