Booth set his napkin down on the table apologetically. "I have to go," he said, torn between her and his son. "I didn't know how long you'd want to talk, so…"

Brennan waved him off with a smile. "I completely understand, Booth. This was a last minute thing. Say hi to Parker for me."

Booth stood with a thankful smile. He pulled out his wallet and set a few bills on the table, simultaneously leaning forward to kiss Brennan on the cheek. The action sent a thrill through both of them, though it was a relatively platonic gesture.

"I'll call you tomorrow," he promised.

Brennan watched him leave with a smile on her face. She felt at peace, though she had a lot of work to do. And this kind of work she wasn't used to. But he had given her an assignment, and she had always been very good about getting them done in a timely manner. There was no better time to start than now.

Setting a few bills of her own on the table, she stood and slowly left the diner. She was not in a hurry. Had nowhere to be besides in her own head.

XXXXX

Sully was sitting in her living room listening to music when she finally got home. He had been waiting for her. He stood when he heard her enter. "So?" he asked hopefully. "How'd it go?"

Brennan said nothing, instead dropping her things and rushing over to Sully and hugging him before he could get a look at her face to gauge her emotions.

"Oh," he laughed, surprised. He was hesitant to hug her back, but did so anyway. "This is either really good or really bad."

She pulled back and Sully saw the smile. The stupid grin. Aha. Good. "Thank you."

Sully returned the grin and hugged her again. "You're welcome, Tempe." They plopped down on the couch and Brennan was still smiling. "So?" he asked again. "You got any juicy details for me?"

"We just…talked. Really talked."

"Talking is good."

"We fought. A little."

"Sometimes fighting is good too," Sully added, trying to be encouraging. "Really."

"I have a lot to think about," she sighed.

"Booth assigned you a little soul-searching, didn't he?" Sully asked knowingly. He had understood Booth's side of the argument from the beginning, though it wasn't foolproof. Sully knew what he would have done in the situation.

"That makes it sound so…soft," she complained.

"How did Booth say it, then?"

"I have to find the answers to my questions, the solutions to my problems. Which I'm normally good at."

"…when it's not feeling-related," Sully clarified for her.

Brennan deflated a little. "This is going to be hard."

"You'll do fine," he assured her. "You've conquered harder equations, I promise," he teased her, nudging her shoulder. "But…you do have a lot of thinking to do, so…I'm going to go, okay?"

"Are you sure?" she asked, sitting up a little, trying to hide the fact that she did, indeed, want to be alone.

"Don't worry, Tempe," he said, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. This one felt exactly as platonic as it was. "You're not the only person I know and need to catch up with in DC."

She smiled. "I forget that. But I'll see you later?"

"Absolutely." He opened the door to let himself out. He turned around to reassure her once more. "You'll figure it out. You always do."

And then she was alone.

It was odd, how little Sully's absence affected her. Almost in the same way that she had felt it so little when he had sailed away to begin with. She wasn't by any means glad that he was gone, but she wasn't hindered by his absence either. Which is the way it should be, the old Brennan hissed at her.

But the new Brennan (the one who was about to beat the old, protected Brennan to a bloody pulp) found it easy to ignore the insistence.

Take that, bitch.

Being affected—really affected—by another person's presence, absence, actions, thoughts was one of the scariest things she had ever done. But when she let Booth affect her, it changed her. Made her better. Happier.

But the risk for that happiness was great. She knew that better than anyone.

Day 5

Booth didn't call, though he had promised.

Day 6

He didn't drop by the lab. Didn't call her.

Day 7

He didn't answer her worried phone calls.

Nothing could have happened to him. She would have known if something horrible had happened. She would have felt it. She would have known, though she normally wasn't intuitive. But it was Booth. She would have known.

His absence affected her, just like she had wanted it to. It was awful. The old Brennan was standing at the ready, just waiting to put that shell around her again. The instinct to protect herself was overwhelming. But she ignored it, because Booth was worth it. Worth being hurt.

Day 8

Wednesday she had had enough. She took an early day off from the lab and drove to his office, her heart twisting in knots the whole drive there. She tried to tell herself to breathe easy. He was fine. There was a reason he had seemed to disappear. It was fine. He was fine. She was fine.

Seeing him at his desk confused her. If he was there…why hadn't he answered her calls? Why hadn't he called her? She felt a slight sting of rejection, though the new Brennan told her it was ridiculous. It was Booth. He loved her. There must be a reason.

And oh, how there was.

Booth, having held his heavy head in his hands, looked up as she let herself into his office. His expression confused her further.

"Hey," she greeted. "Where have you been? You said you'd call."

But he shook his head slowly, smiling a pained smile, laughing an ironic laugh, like her presence proved something painfully funny to him.

"What?" she asked.

"Get out," he said, a hint of the smile still on his lips, hiding what really resided there.

"What?" she asked again, this time disbelieving. "Why?"

"Get out," he said again, more firmly.

He said it like it was easy for him.

Like she deserved it.