This is going to be the last chapter, other than the epilogue. I hope that by the time I put this chapter up the rest is going to go up right along with it.

As always, I do not own Bones or any characters. So sad.

Booth's Point of View

Booth had gotten hungry, and she wasn't that surprised. What with all that crap he had drunk the night before, she wasn't surprised at all. But when a Booth boy gets hungry they must be taken care of right away.

That is what led them to the decision of going out to eat to the Diner. He was hungry, and they had what he was craving. It was fine though, because she could always get something to eat there too.

They were in for a big shock though.

When they walked into the diner they were surprised to see their friends sitting in the back. It looked like they had taken three tables and pushed them all together to make one big one.

Angela and Hodgins. Cam and her boyfriend. Sweets and Daisy. Zack and an unknown girl.

They were all there, and none of them looked upset. Rather, they all looked happy…except for Sweets. He just looked smug. Like he knew that this would be the outcome all along. He always said, or didn't say, that they belonged together.

Making their way over to the table, he felt her grab his hand. It wasn't to show anyone that they were together. He knew she did if for support; she was scared, even if she didn't want to admit it, she was scared of what they would say to her.

Angela spotted them first. "Sweetie…how are you doing? I tried calling you yesterday, but figured out that you left your phone in the hotel room. Are you okay? I was so worried about you."

She jumped up when we got to the table and grabbed Bones into a big hug. After finally letting go of her, she turned to me. I was afraid of what I was about to receive, but was greatly surprised at what happened next.

Pulling me into a soft hug, she whispered into my ear "are you okay now?"

"Yes." Pulling out of the hug, Booth grabbed Bones' hand again. "I am fine now. I know that everyone has been worried about me, and I am sorry for that. You all know about the 'rough' patch that I have been going through, but it looks like I have made it through it. Hopefully everything is going to be okay from now on."

"What do you mean 'hopefully?' What do you think is going to happened?" Bones was starting in on him again. "Do you think someone is going to come in and do something? You better not have some woman waiting on the sidelines waiting to come galloping in"

Everyone laughed at her comments. They had all known her long enough to know that she didn't say things like that. She was the 'brain' all the way.

"So" Sweets just had to jump in "does this mean that you, Dr. Brennan, and Agent Booth are now together? Does this mean that I was right all along? You two were supposed to be together from the beginning, but you just had to take some side trips to find one another."

"Sweets. Quiet. It is none of your business if Bones and I are together or not."

Looking towards her though, he could see the blush creeping up the back of her neck. He knew that she didn't want people talking about them, especially so soon after what happened with Brandon. And if they talked about that, then they would talk about what had gone on with Booth too.

Moving to take a seat at the table he pushed Bones down so she could be in between him and Angela. He loved the woman, but there was only so much teasing he could take before he wanted to tell her to hush.

"Angela…what happened yesterday after I left?" Booth saw everyone exchange smirks, but knew that Bones missed the. "Was he rather upset that I left him there?"

"Well, Dr B…lets just put it this way" Hodgins said with laughter in his voice "you won't need to worry about 'Dr Brandon Hayden' coming around anymore."

The entire group busted out laughing, which made the look of worry deepen on her face.

"Explain Squints."

"Well, after finding Bren's room empty Cam and I knew exactly where she went. Now it was up to me to tell Brandon that she had left him for you, Booth. I didn't know how to tell him so I went and found Hodgins and made him go with me." Angela looked at Hodgins, begging him to continue.

"So I went with Ange to tell him that Dr B had left, and was greatly surprised when we found him in his room with one of the wedding coordinators." Bones' eyes about popped out of her head at that revelation. "Well, it took all of my strength to keep Ange from going in there and beating the crap out of him. When we told him that you had left him, Dr B, he started throwing things around the room and yelling at the same time."

Bones looked kind of worried, so Booth took her hand into his again. When he lightly squeezed it she looked up at him and he smiled at her. He needed to show her that no matter what that idiot had done, they were going to get through it.

"Come to find out, Sweetie, he wasn't nearly as 'well off' as you thought. Yes, he paid for everything, but with credit cards. He thought that once you two got hitched that he could pay them off with your money."

That did him in. He got up from the table and started pacing. After a couple laps in front of the table an arm reached out and grabbed his hand. Lacing their fingers together he held on tight, but felt like he couldn't sit down…he had too much anger in him at that moment.

"What the hell? How did no one catch this sooner? She nearly married some guy who was only after her for her money?" Booth looked down and saw the hurt expression cross her face. "Bones, I do not doubt that you cared for him and him for you, but ii bothers me that no one saw this sooner."

Zack, who had been quiet until now, threw in his two cents. "No need to worry about Dr. Hayden any more Agent Booth. Hodgins and I took care of him."

Booth shot a glance his way, cutting off anything else that was going to come out of his mouth. Really, he shouldn't be surprised though. The squints would do anything to protect one of their own, especially for Bones.

He looked to Hodgins to finish what Zack would not; either out of fear of Booth or fear of Bones.

Hodgins looked around the table, exchanging a quick look with just about everyone. That told him that even if no one else participated in their little adventure in payback they all knew about it.

"Zack and I needed to show Dr Hayden, if that was his real name, we needed to show him that you do not mess with Dr B. So, thinking back to a day when he came into the lab we remembered, well Zack remembered, that he had a disdain for anything with four legs or more."

Booth thought he knew where this was going, and started laughing.

"You guessed it. I had Zack go down to my car…yes there were specimens in my car, I get bored sometimes and collect them from wherever I am at the moment. Anyways…we had what we needed, all we had to do was find his car."

"Remind me to never ride in your car again." Angela piped up, all the while shuddering.

Hodgins nodded. "We found his car and unceremoniously dumped the contents of our containers into it."

Brennan's Point of View

Bones couldn't believe that they had done something like this for her. She knew that Booth would stand up for her, but he would punch someone. She never had anyone in her life, before now, that would jump to her defense. Even if it was just pouring bugs into his car, what they had done showed her the true depths of their feelings towards her.

She knew that there were people in this world that enjoyed her books and her lectures. She knew that there were people who sought her out just because she had money. Some wanted her because she was the best at her job.

But what she learned at that moment, sitting in that diner surrounded by her friends astounded her.

She never thought that her coworkers would turn out to be the family she never had. They had jumped to defend her honor, even if it was with a bunch of bugs. They had been there for her like no one else had before.

They were there, not because they expected something out of it or because they expected something from her. They were there, doing what they did, because they cared about her.

Booth must have heard her mind whirling about with all these new revelations, because he quickly changed the subject. She would never be able to understand how he knew so much about her; how he was able to read her so well, but she was glad he did.

"So what does everyone want to eat?"