Yes this is an update. Wow.

The Fight

Booth unlocked his front door, dropped his keys on the hall table, and made his way into the living room.

"Hi Daddy", Jacqueline greeted getting up and bounding into her fathers waiting arms.

"Hi Jackie," he said kissing the top of his daughters head, before placing her back on the ground. "Where's your mom?"

"Office," she said moving back to the couch to watch tv. "Are you still fighting?"

"What? Who said we're fighting?" he asked trying to look surprised.

Jacqueline rolled her eyes. "I'm 7 dad, not 2. Plus I could hear you two arguing again last night," she through in looking down at the floor.

Booth moved forward and sat next to her on the couch. "I'm sorry if we woke you."

Jacqueline shrugged. "I got up to go the bathroom." She hesitated before continuing. "I hate it when you fight".

"So do I," he told her honestly. "But it will pass, they always do."

"But it's already been over a week and you two have barely spoken to each other. This isn't like your other fights. I don't even know what you're so mad at each other about."

Booth started to respond when Brennan walked into the room, headed to the kitchen. "Jacqueline, please wash up for dinner," she said not acknowledging Booth right away. "Booth, will you be joining us?"

"Umm, yes. Why wouldn't I be?" he asked his wife, irritation evident in his tone.

Brennan ignored his response, and continued into the kitchen.

"Well I won't be!" Jacqueline said getting up.

Brennan stopped and turned around. "Pardon me?"

"I'm not sitting at the table again pretending to be happy while you ignore each other! It's terrible and I don't want to do it. This may be your fight, but it's affecting me!" Tears began to gather in her eyes and fall down her face. She wiped them away angrily with the back of he hand.

"Stop it Jacqueline," Brennan said calmly. "There's no reason to be upset. Please come and sit down."

Jacqueline shook her head and looked to her dad. "Please don't make me".

"Why don't you go call your aunt Angela and see if you can go over and play with Michael."

She nodded and left the room.

When Booth looked back at his wife he could see her eyes were full of anger. She went to open her mouth to speak but he cut her off.

"You can yell at me all you want, but not right now. Let me get Jacqueline out of the house first. She's already upset enough."

Booth returned home from diving his daughter to their friend's house.

"Bones," he called. "Are you ready to sit down and talk?"

"That depends on if you're going to listen to what I have to say."

Booth signed and sat down across from her. "Look Bones, we're both extremely stubborn people. I think we've let this go on long enough. We have to end this. Jacqueline asked me in the car if we're going to get divorced."

Brennan looked up at him. "What did you tell her?"

Booth sighed at her insecurity, even now, after 8 years of being together. Booth got up and moved to sit next to her, and reached for her hand. "No, I told her no. I love you, and this argument isn't going to change that."

Brennan nodded.

"I can't help it though Bones, I don't want you to go. You said you weren't going to travel anymore like this."

Brennan had been asked to participate in an anthropological dig in Koobi Fora, in northern Kenya to study ancient hominids.

"Booth, I haven't gone away in three years! I really want to do this. I don't like leaving you either, but you're not considering anything but yourself and what you want. As soon as I first brought it up you shot the idea down and closed off from me. And I never said I wasn't going to travel again. I said I find it hard, and I don't like too."

Booth sighed. This is about as far as they had gotten in a week and a half.

"What about Jackie Bones. Do you remember what it was like for her last time you went away for a short time? How can you say this is just about me?"

"I want her to come with me."

"What?" he said pulling his hands away from hers.

"I want to bring Jacqueline with me. She'll be off school."

"You want to bring my daughter to Africa where you will be digging up dead bodies? No! Absolutely no!"

"This is exactly why I haven't been speaking to you!" she said standing up. "You refuse to remain calm and discuss this with me, in a calm rational manner."

Booth held his lips together tightly trying to hold in his frustration.

"She is my daughter as well. Why does your vote trump mine?" Brennan asked.

Booth sighed and sat back down. "It doesn't Bones. It doesn't. But I don't think it's a good idea for Jackie to go".

"It will be a fantastic learning experience for her. She can help the kids in the school nearby practice their English. And… I will have her with me, which will make me miss home less."

Booth sighed. "That's exactly why I don't want her to go… I'll miss her too much."

Brennan smiled slightly for the first time. "We agreed on something."

Booth smiled grew a little as well. "I can't be without you and Jackie, Bones. I can't do it. Not for an entire month. I understand that these digs… these trips are who you used to be, and that you gave them up mostly for me. I get it. But I don't want you to go, and I'm asking you not to go."

"What if I decide to go? What then?"

"Then I'll be upset, and try to spend as much time with you as I can before you go. And then, I'll miss you like crazy until you're back in my arms."

Brennan's eyes softened. "A month is a long time."

"Yeah, it is".

"I mean, not overall- but without you and Jacqueline it would be."

"I know what you meant Bones."

"Well what if it was only two weeks?"

Booth looked at her and though about the compromise. "Can you do that? Just go for two weeks?"

"Well, no…"

Booth felt himself deflate again. "Then how…"

"Come to Kenya."

"What?"

"Let me go and get settled, and then you come out with Jackie and stay for two weeks, and we can all go home together," she said starting to get excited.

"You're serious?"

"Of course! You said you want to travel more, and you have vacation to take in the summer. You could see if Parker wants to come too."

"Let's do it," Booth replied smiling. "I like this compromise."

Brennan's smile matched his own.

"Come here," he said pulling her hands so she would slide close to him. He leaned forward and connected his lips with hers, relishing the feeling of her soft lips against his own.

"Mmm," she mumbled pulling away from him. "I missed that".

"Me too," he said rubbing her cheek.

"Should we go get Jackie and tell her the news?"

"Nah. Let's wait a bit."

"Why?"

"So that I can do this…" he said with a predatory glare as he shifted forward quickly, trapping her under him.

"I understand. You would like to make it up to me, with intercourse," she grinned.

Booth let out a small growl as he reached under her shirt and wasted no time in unhooking her bra.

"Maybe you're making it up to me, huh Bones?" he questioned between sucks and nibbles, his hips bucking when she let out a low moan.

"I don't care what you call it as long as you stop talking and take off your pants!"

Booth smiled against her breast, and they proceeded to make it up to each other.

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