A/N: So here it is, the next chapter! It's a little less angsty, but only because it's going to get worse in the coming chapters! I hope you enjoy and if you want to review, that would be great!

Chapter Twelve

His cellphone rang and he reached into his pocket to retrieve it, his one arm still around her.

"Booth." He said.

"Booth, it's Cullen. How is Dr. Brennan?" Cullen asked.

"She's okay." Booth said, in a tone that indicated to Cullen that she was anything but. "I think a break from the interrogation is needed."

"I agree." Cullen replied. "Take her home. You can start again in the morning. As difficult as this is for both of you, unless your squints come up with some evidence we are going to need that confession."

"Yes sir." Booth said. "I will see it gets done."

"Good." Cullen said. "Nine am tomorrow?"

"Yes." He said and snapped his phone shut.

"Cullen probably really doesn't like me now." She said, her words muffled by his chest.

"Yeah he does." He replied. "He doesn't blame you. Nobody would."

"What's going on?" she asked.

"We are going to start again tomorrow morning at nine. Right now I am taking you home, okay?" he said.

She nodded and pulled away, only to find herself staring into his eyes. She saw so much love and concern there. Unconsciously, she parted her lips and moved closer to him. Her breath hitched as her lips almost reached his.

"No, Temperance." He said, pulling away. "Not like this."

She nodded again and leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. After a few minutes of silence, she said "Let's go."

They got up off the bench and walked hand in hand back to the Hoover building, neither of them saying a word. It was a simple gesture, his fingers laced in hers but it made her feel connected, safe. She could barely think straight, she had so many questions swirling around in her head. She always wanted the truth but now she felt like she could sit in that interrogation room forever with her father and not get all of her questions answered. She wanted to know why. Why would her mother become a criminal? What makes a person do that? She couldn't fathom it, she didn't understand. She always prided herself on being smart, on knowing more than most people. She could name every bone in the body and describe the various different ways it could fracture. She could assemble a skull from hundreds of pieces, she could identify the name, sex, race of any remains that crossed her path, but she couldn't understand them. Either of them.

Her father sounded so casual when talking about the places he robbed, was that the way he was going to sound when they talked about the murders tomorrow?

She didn't realize it, but they had already reached the car. He had opened the door for her and was now helping her into her seat and doing up her seatbelt for her. She didn't even have it in her to protest. She felt exhausted and while the logical part of her brain told her to go back to work, she really just wanted to curl up against Booth and fall asleep.

Thinking of the man beside her brought another swirl of questions to her mind. He had been so considerate and kind, letting her cry all over him and fall asleep on him. Things had changed between them, and she didn't even want to begin to think about the ramifications of that. He had agreed with her though, about putting off what ever it is until after this is over. If it is ever over.

When Booth said to her father that he would rather see him die then to keep coming back over and over again, a tiny part of her agreed. She didn't know if she could handle dealing with this for the rest of her life.

He pulled up to the apartment and she slowly got out of the car. Her eyes felt heavy with exhaustion, she could barely pick up her feet. She didn't hear him come behind her until he had swept her up in his arms. She started to protest when he silenced her.

"Just lie back okay?" he said. "I'm just taking you upstairs." She lay her head back against his chest and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

He fumbled with the keys that he had gotten from her pocket but eventually got them both into the apartment. He walked across the floor and opened the door to her bedroom, where he carefully lay her on the bed. He reached down and pulled the shoes off of her feet. Glancing around the room, he smiled. With the stacks of books everywhere and the worldly souvenirs, this was definitely her room.

He saw her shiver slightly in her sleep, so he gently lifted her up and tucked her under the covers, brushing a stray hair away from her face. He stepped away and had almost reached the door when he heard her voice behind him.

"Booth?" she whispered, her eyes still shut. "Can you just stay?"

He didn't say anything, just slipped off his shoes and suit jacket, lifted the covers and got into bed next to her. She immediately turned and lay her head on his chest, flinging one arm around his waist. After a few minutes of squirming, she sat up, quickly removed his tie and then lay back down. She was asleep in minutes, leaving him to ponder all of the new aspects of their relationship.

While he wanted to be there for her, he knew that this was no way to start a relationship. It was too important for him to screw it up. That's why he didn't let her kiss him before despite the fact that he was aching to. He had seen the look of hurt flash across her face. When they kissed for the first time and firmly crossed the line, he wanted it not to be because she needed to forget the hurt she was feeling. He wanted to kiss her on an average day, a day where neither of them got bombed or kidnapped or put through the ringer emotionally.

He had never met anyone before with such strength. She had interrogated her own father, gone in without question, listened as her father told her how her mother died. He had met people in his life who were brave and she was epitome of the word. But he also knew that, despite breaking down earlier, she wouldn't want to talk about it. She would throw herself back into work and try to forget it. He was going to make sure this didn't happen. He wrapped his arms around her waist and drifted off to sleep.

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"What time is it?" she mumbled.

He stretched and looked over at the clock. 'Almost one in the morning." He grumbled.

"Oh god." She said, pushing herself into a sitting position.

He sat up as well. "I don't know about you, but I am starving." He said.

"I could eat." She replied, as her stomach let out a huge growl.

He laughed. "Well it's no wonder, we missed lunch and dinner. We must have needed the sleep."

She nodded and reached up to touch her hair. "I can't even imagine what I look like.' She said, crawling off the bed and standing up.

"Beautiful." He replied simply.

He saw her blush and turn away. "Come on." He said, reaching for her hand. "I will make us some food." She reached for his hand and they headed into the kitchen together.

"You sit." He said, pointing to the chair as he started to rifle through the contents of her fridge. "You need to get some groceries." He said, pulling out chicken from the freezer.

She just shrugged and watched as he put the chicken in the skillet and started to boil water for noodles.

"So…" he trailed off.

"Tell me about Parker." She said, trying to avoid any talk of her father.

His face broke into a smile. "Well he's five, as you know." He said. "Loves to play baseball, watch Spongebob, you know the regular kid stuff. And he likes you."

"I have only met him five times." She said.

"Yeah well what can I say?" he said. "He thinks the 'Bone Lady' is cool."

They fell into a silence as Booth finished cooking the food. He brought two plates of pasta over to the table and they began to eat.

"How are you?" he asked, softly.

"I'm fine." She replied stiffly. "I need to go back to the lab though. So do you. The team might have found some evidence."

"No, I asked them to call me if they came up with anything." He said. "Also, Angela called while…you were in there. I let her know that we probably wouldn't be back at the lab until tomorrow."

"Right." She said. "Well, I should still go in and…"

"Bones." He interrupted. "It's one-thirty in the morning. Whatever it is, I am sure it can wait."

"I'm not tired anymore." She stated.

"Yeah, me either." He replied.

"So, I want to work." She said. "I need to work. I just can't sit here with you for the next seven hours."

"Right." He said, trying not to look hurt.

"I mean, I need to work so I'm not thinking about…everything." She replied.

"You are going to have to think about it eventually." He said.

"I know." She said, her answer surprising them both. "Just not right now."

"Okay." He nodded. "We will go into work."

"We?" she asked.

"Yeah, we can just stop at my office on the way and I will grab some paperwork and we can head to the Jeffersonian." He said.

"Booth you don't have to…" she started.

"It's okay." He replied, reaching across the table and squeezing her hand. "Really Bones, it is."

"Okay." She said. "That would be nice."