The next morning

"No, Pops, I'm sorry, I don't know when he'll be here tomorrow…I could call you when he gets here…it's only a three hour drive from Philly…Okay, I'll let you know when he gets here…tell Jared I say hello…Okay, bye."

Brennan hung up the phone and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She was headed down to the anthropology research building on the Georgetown campus. As she reached the research building, she heard someone calling her name.

"Temperance! Wait up!" She turned and saw her favorite professor running toward her.

"Professor Stires? What are you doing here?"

Michael Stires laughed. "You don't have to call me professor any more, Temperance. Doctor will suffice…or Michael if you really want."

"You never answered my question."

He smiled at her. "I'm here to…take a look at your dissertation."

"Can you even do that? You are credited in my paper as my advising professor. Isn't that like…playing favorites?"

Michael shook his head. "Nope. You'll be given a doctorate from Georgetown, not Northwestern. Apparently, they're allowing me to challenge it. If you're awarded the PhD, you'll surpass me as the national expert on Homo rhodesiensis. So…I'm here to protect my ego."

She rolled her eyes. "So…you're here to destroy my ego?"

"Something like that. I have a question for you, Temperance."

I am not in the mood to put up with your ego, Michael. I have work to do, a class to teach and a fiancé to prepare for, she said to herself.

"What is it, Professor?"

He cringed. "Don't think of me as your teacher any more, Temperance. Think of me as…your peer."

"You still haven't asked me your question yet. I have students waiting for me."

"Let's have dinner tonight."

Brennan stopped in the middle of the stairway leading to her classroom.

Say something, Bren! You have a fiancé. You cannot go on a date with your professor. That's…illegal…or something. Unethical! That's the word.

She did nothing but held up her left hand, displaying her engagement ring perched on her finger.

"Besides, Michael," she started, practically spitting out his name, "You never asked me a question."

"You're marrying the football player? Wow, Temperance…uh…good for you, I guess. Congratulations. It'll never last though. He's not the kind to be tied down. Don't fool yourself," he shouted after her as she stalked off.

I'll show him. I'll be better than him at…well, everything.

She sat, yet once again, alone in their apartment, red pen in hand, grading endless papers and correcting countless errors. She was restless; once she had that doctorate, she could go anywhere she wanted and teach anything she wanted.

There was a knock on the door and Brennan resented that she actually had to stop what she was doing.

"Angela?"

"Hi, sweetie. You sounded really stressed on the phone yesterday. Are you okay?"

Brennan couldn't believe her best friend was standing in front of her.

"I'm…fine. What are you doing here?"

Angela shrugged. "Well, you sounded upset on the phone and I missed you and Jack said he wanted to come visit you and Studly anyway. Well…I guess just you since Booth isn't here."

"Where is Jack, anyway?"

"Downstairs in the car. Come on, we're taking you out for a beer. You need some alcohol right now, I can see it in your eyes."

Angela had a firm grip on Brennan's hand and wasn't about to let go.

"But I have wine in the fridge. Ange, I have papers to grade and I have to get ready for tomorrow. I don't want to have a hangover when Booth shows up."

Angela stopped when she was halfway to the door. "Bren, cancel class tomorrow for your students. They'll love you for it. You don't want to be teaching when Booth shows up. Plus, I'll pick out an outfit for you that'll make him go crazy. Serves him right for leaving for so long. You know why you're all stressed? You haven't had sex."

"No, Angela, I'm stressed because I have to defend my dissertation on Friday and my old professor is here to tear it apart. He asked me out today. And if that wasn't bad enough, he's playing brain games with me."

"Brain…oh, you mean mind games."

"That's what I said. He told me Booth and I wouldn't last." Her voice became smaller the more she talked.

"Oh, sweetie. Have you seen the way Booth looks at you? He'll never leave. Not purposefully, anyway. Come on. You've been here a while; what's the best place around here for a nightcap?"

"Ange, I've been two, well, three places, in D.C.: campus, the grocery store, and the Jeffersonian. So we might have to do some exploring."

Angela laughed. "Don't worry, sweetie. Give me twenty minutes and I'll find us a swanky, sophisticated place to drown your sorrows."

There wasn't much Brennan could do but follow her friend wherever she wanted.

Four hours and three bottles of wine later, Jack and Brennan helped a staggering Angela out of Founding Fathers, a small pub they discovered not too far from Brennan's favorite museum.

"Studly is gonna regret that he has to leave you for so long. I mean, look at you, you're hot. And I mean that in a totally friendly way. Right, Jack? She's hot, right?" Angela's words slurred together and Jack and Bren shared a look of oh-good-lord-what-did-we-get-ourselves-into.

"You can answer that, baby. I won't be mad," Angela mumbled as Jack helped her into the front seat of his car. The ride to her apartment wasn't a long one but was full of the rantings of one drunken artist who claimed to be an expert on the ways of love.

"You can just drop me off at my building, Jack. There's no reason to leave Angela alone in the car. Who knows what kind of trouble she would get into?"

Jack smiled as he pulled up to the apartment building. "Thanks, Bren. We'll call you tomorrow."

Brennan nodded and looked up at her building. She could see her unit from where she was and noticed the lights were on.

I'm pretty sure I turned everything off. We can afford the electricity being too high.

She darted up the stairs knowing the old elevator in the building would take several minutes to deliver her to her floor.

Brennan exited the stairwell on the fourth floor to find her door cracked open.

Shit. I thought I locked it. Well, there's not that much in there to steal anyway. Unless they want those things my students call proper research papers.

Sliding her keys between each finger, Brennan readied herself for an assault. She had to admit, using her keys to punch someone wasn't quite like having Booth with her but she knew she could fend for herself.

"You really ought to put a deadbolt on that door. I picked the lock in less than a minute."

Her heart leapt as soon as she heard his voice.

"By the way, those groceries you left by the door…pretty gross, if you ask me. Even I know soy milk needs to be refrigerated."

Brennan was frozen in the doorway. She looked him over as Booth sat on the kitchen table, wrinkling and crumpling her students' papers. His hair was practically gone and he looked thinner than when he had left.

"Hi, babe. Long time, no see." He swiftly and quickly made his way to her. Looking her over, Booth noticed she was incredibly thin, more than she had been when he left for training after graduation.

"Hi." She could barely talk. Brennan missed him but she didn't know if she could take the tension between them. She had been so used to not seeing or hearing him that both, at the same time, was insane to her.

"Remember what I said the second thing I would do when I saw yo-ˮ

Brennan pulled him toward the bed and began to take off his fatigues.

"Mmm, Bren, I've missed you," he mumbled, his mouth working its way down her neck.

"Shut up. No talking. Not yet."

He chuckled. "Yes, dear. So if we're not talking, what are we doing?"

"Satisfying a few biological urges. Then we talk."

A/N: As I told one wonderful, faithful reviewer, it'll probably get worse before it gets better. So...hang on, don't worry, there's going to be plenty of fluffy B&B coming...after a little angst-fest.