Sorry for the wait, everyone, here's chapter 37! :)

She awoke with a gasp and clutched her arms around herself, choking down the sobs that had been about to break loose. She didn't recognize her surroundings and she immediately sat up in alarm only to see the painting on the wall that was clearly done by Ange.

Last night came back to her in a flash of pure relief and she sighed and relaxed the grip she had on her arms. She let her hands fall loosely back onto the blankets. She was in Angela's guest room, and she cautiously slid off of the bed and made her way to the kitchen, where she could hear someone moving around.

Again, she relaxed with relief when she clarified to herself that it was just Ange. She was safe here with her friend. It was a regular Tuesday morning, and the whole apartment smelled like toast and coffee.

She'd been surprised that she'd been able to actually get to sleep in a bed last night, but she supposed it was probably the comfort of knowing Ange was nearby... and the room looked completely different from the one she'd been in with Jake. So did the bed, covered as it was with bright painting and multi-colored blankets.

And the nightmares had been less frequent last night. But only that. Not less terrifying.

"Hey!" Ange greeted her with a friendly smile. She gestured to her coffee maker, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

She nodded, and Ange quickly poured some and handed her the cup. "Thanks," she said, her voice groggy. She cleared her throat and took a sip of the steaming liquid.

"Sit," Angela commanded, and she sighed and climbed obediently onto one of Ange's counter stools. Her friend set a dish of food down in front of her, and practically shoved a fork into her hand. Only then did she sit down opposite her to start eating her own food.

Temperance observed what she had been given. Toast, hash browns, a blueberry muffin, and what appeared to be homemade oatmeal in a bowl that Ange had put in the middle of the plate. She was surprised at how hungry she was, and so she hesitantly began to pick at the muffin. It was much better than she'd been expecting, since she wasn't usually a fan of breakfast pastries. That was more Booth's thing. Along with the pie, of course.

Ange was beaming when she finished eating, having cleaned the whole plate.

"That was very good," she complimented her friend as Ange took the dishes and dumped them in the sink.

"I aim to please," Ange said simply. "Did you want to head to work, or hang out here a while longer and chat?"

"Work, I think," she said with a nod. This morning had been rather refreshing, sure, with Angela, but now she was ready to get to the Jeffersonian. Perhaps the FBI would have found a case for her by now. She was missing working on those; limbo cases could get tedious and she'd already solved two the day before practically single-handedly.

And she thought that field work with Booth would be an incredible distraction. Maybe it could even help her get back into her old life and her old way of doing things. Chasing suspects was something she hadn't done in far too long.

"You are coming back over again tonight?" Ange asked her, although it wasn't so much a question; it was more like a demand.

She felt a faint smile come to her lips, hearing that commanding tone in her best friend's voice. It was like being told to be happy or there would be consequences. One of the many things that made her so grateful that she had Ange...

"If you want me there," she responded.

"Of course I do. Pizza for supper?"

It was almost like they were college roommates, the way Ange was talking, and if she let herself believe that that was what they were, and there was no other reason for her to be spending so much time there when she had her own, very large, apartment, then she could almost imagine herself enjoying it.

"Sure," she agreed. "No meat though."

"There goes my usual sausage, pepperoni, and bacon combo, huh?" Ange joked lightly. "Relax," she added, seeing her friend about to speak, "I love peppers and onions. And don't go suggesting something like a split pizza. I'll eat whatever it is you are."

She sighed. As usual, Ange won. There was never room for argument.

"Booth's already here," she noted when she saw his SUV already parked as they pulled in to a spot opposite it.

Ange nodded. "Not shocking, really. He got here wicked early yesterday too. You'd think he'd have relaxed a bit when I told him I was driving you in today..." she added in a slightly lower murmur that was more to herself. "But then again..." she turned to look at Temperance, tilting her head to the side a little thoughtfully, "He wouldn't be Booth if he didn't worry about you."

Temperance sighed. "Yeah, and he has a reason to because of me. Not that I would do it differently," she murmured quickly to Ange, "I wouldn't change how things turned out... we're both here after all."

Angela nodded slowly. "I know, sweetie. You saved my life. You know I can never thank you enough for what you did..."

"You already thanked me Ange. We're even now, though, I suppose. You saved my life before."

Ange raised an eyebrow. "And my phone call to the police compares somehow to you choosing to sacrifice your life for mine?"

Temperance bit her lip and looked away. Ange immediately backtracked.

"Sorry, Bren. Let's... talk about this another time. Later."

She nodded and quickly climbed out of Ange's car. They headed silently in to the lab.

She shoved the conversation they'd just had to the back of her mind and immersed herself immediately into the limbo case they'd started at the end of yesterday, asking Booth as she did so about whether they had any cases yet.

"No, Cullen hasn't given me any assignments," he answered. But the way he said it made her put down the skull and turn to look at him with a frown.

"And is there a reason?" Clearly there must be new cases, so why was Cullen not assigning anything to his best agent and consequently to her? Was it because of her?

He shuffled his feet and then apparently decided that honesty was going to be the best way to approach this. "Cullen wants to have Sweets run an evaluation before we do any more work together," he explained quickly, watching her with a worried look in his eyes.

She should have figured it was something like that.

"And what do you think about that?"

"Well, Bones... I think it's a... good idea... to talk about some things. I don't agree with how we haven't gotten any cases because of it," he defended himself quickly, "But... maybe we should just go to Sweets and get this over with."

She nodded, her eyes blazing. "Yeah, let's do that." She was feeling a bit of a resentment towards the psychologist now, and anger seemed to be a pretty good distracting emotion. After all, he was probably the one who had advised Cullen to not let them work until they'd been evaluated.

Not that Booth needed evaluating. They just wanted to find out about her.

"We could go now," Booth suggested, "And not tell him we're coming. That's sure to annoy him, right?"

She grinned, a real smile, and nodded again. He beamed at her happily. They headed for the door, and he placed his hand on her back to guide her like he always did. But she pulled away with a gasp at the suddenness of the touch and he yanked his hand back.

"Sorry," he said quickly, carefully keeping his distance.

"It's okay," she told him. "Really, Booth. I just... wasn't thinking and I wasn't expecting it..."

They reached his SUV and climbed in.

"I shouldn't have touched you, Bones," he said gently. "It won't happen again."

"No, Booth, you... I don't... I want..." she didn't know what to say.

He watched her silently for a moment as she struggled to come up with something to say coherently.

"I don't want you to go away," she said at long last.

"I told you I won't go anywhere, Bones. I'm not going to leave you."

"I know that... I don't want... Booth, I just don't want to push you away!" she gasped out finally, giving up with thinking of another way to say it.

He winced, "That's not going to happen."

"And if you start walking around like I might shatter any second? Not touching me, following me to make sure I'm okay, worrying about me all the time when you have other important things in your life too?"

"You're the most important thing in my life, Bones. I told you that... I love you."

She closed her eyes as he said the words, furious that she wasn't able to enjoy it nearly as much as she would have liked to. "Parker?" she asked calmly.

"You and Parker. Both of you, Bones."

She looked at him for a long moment, her eyes slowly softening. She looked away as she felt the moisture building up.

She didn't want him to see the tears, but at the same time she wished he'd reach over and turn her head towards him with that soft touch to her chin. He didn't.

She heard him sigh, and whisper, "I'm so sorry, Bones..." before he started the engine and pulled them out of the parking garage. In silence they headed for Sweets' office, with her left wondering if maybe what she'd had before, what she'd thought she'd be able to regain, was lost forever.

She wondered if maybe there would never be anything more between her and Booth. If maybe... they had fallen down the other path. The one that left both with less than nothing... and added only pain and bad nightmares.

Oh... things are not going well... I'm so mean to them.

By the way, this will now most likely be longer than 50 chapters. I'm not really sure anymore. My outline... well it sort of fell apart when I rewrote chapter 35. But that's okay! The story is much better this way, I think. I'm still not sure how I'm going to pull it around to fit the plotline of the two sequels, but I will find a way. I'll update again as soon as I can!!