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Chapter 19

He arrived at Bones' later than he anticipated but was still surprised that she had beat him there. They had taken to switching between both of their apartments, neither of them really bringing up the fact that they were technically living together. "Bones?" He called out as he laid his keys on the hall tree by the door.

"In the bedroom, Booth!" He heard and he grinned as he grabbed a beer and made his way down the short hallway.

"When did you get home? I expected you would lock yourself away at the lab until the Bones spoke to you." He teased as he watched her put away laundry, both his and hers. It was a very domestic thing to do and he smiled at the normalcy of it.

"Hodgins is running tests on the speck we found in one of the wounds, it should give us the weapon used which will hopefully show cause of death. It wasn't going to be completed until sometime in the night so we all decided to head home. While I would have stayed, I found myself tired and thought I'd take the opportunity to get some work done here." She explained and he chuckled.

"Only you would be tired and think about more work to do." Sitting his beer down on the dresser he tugged her towards him in a hug. "I would have been home sooner but I got pulled into a meeting last minute." He whispered against her hair.

"I hope everything is okay?" She asked and he nodded and kissed her gently. His stomach turned as he formulated the lie he had already come up with in his head.

"Administrative duties, sometimes I forget that my job is actually a desk job and I just tend to not do any of it." That wasn't completely against the truth, he did have to do some paperwork for a couple agents that weren't doing as they should in their jobs.

In reality he had slipped away and met up with the recruiter from the Army. Tired of their phone calls and letters he wanted them to go away sooner rather than later and he knew that he had to meet with him for that to happen. He just wasn't ready to talk to Bones about the possibility of him leaving to go to war, not when he hadn't wrapped his mind around it himself yet.

"I am certainly glad they didn't hold you too long, I just ordered us some take out. It'll be here soon if you're hungry." She replied and he breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't question anything he was saying. Of course she wouldn't though and knowing that she trusted him made his stomach hurt more that he was holding out on her now.

"I'm starving." Booth murmured as he captured his lips with her and held her closer. Of course his mind wasn't on food but he knew he could take advantage of the few minutes they had before their dinner arrived.

Temperance woke up to the sound of the shower running and sighed knowing that meant he had turned off her alarm again to trick her into sleeping in some. She always had her alarm set before his so that she could get a head start on the day, but more often than not she ended up waking up to his alarm with him hers magically having been turned off in the night. Something he refused to admit to but they both knew there was no other reason for it.

Looking around the room she shook her head at how they always managed to throw their clothes all over in the heat of things and smiled as she slipped his t-shirt on. Moving around she gathered up the rest of their clothes and tossed them into the hamper and picked up his suit jacket and shook it out with the intention of adding it to the dry cleaning pile. "Oh." She whispered to herself as an envelope and it's contents fell out.

Picking up the white paper she saw the words US ARMY written on it addressed to Booth and bit her lip knowing better than to read his personal mail. She didn't understand why the Army was writing to him though and ran her fingertips over the letters of his name before sitting it on the bed next to her.

"Morning." She heard from the bathroom as the door opened and she turned watching as he walked out with a towel around his waist. "Don't you look beautiful in just my shirt." He flirted and she smiled weakly before giving in.

"This fell out of your jacket when I was picking up." The admission felt weak as she picked it up and handed it to him. "Why is the Army contacting you?" She asked immediately, watching his face go stone cold. It was an expression she had quickly learned to read over the years of working with him, one that she knew meant it was not something she wanted to discuss with her.

"Did you read my mail?" He immediately asked and she gasped shocked at the accusation.

"Of course I did not, I just stated it fell out of your jacket when I was picking it up off the floor. I would never invade your privacy like that Booth and you know that." She defended the pristine white envelope tearing right through her as she stared at it in his hand before he gave in and handed it to her.

"I don't want to talk about it right now, we have a case to worry about." He said before she had even read through it all. The Army was requesting Booth's expertise to train soldiers to work with civilians, it was a lot to take in and she resented his dismissal about it before she had a chance to even process it.

"Booth…" She began and he only shook his head. "How long have you known about this?" She asked anyway, ignoring his aggravated sigh. "I deserve at least that answer if I'm not allowed to ask any other questions regarding it."

He bounced from one foot to another ignoring her question as he searched for something to wear for the day. "I take it that it's been longer than a day that you've known." Bones continued to ask questions knowing that his silence was his way of avoiding her without actually leaving the room to do so. "Booth."

"About a month I guess, since we got back from the mountains." He finally said and she nodded slowly. "I wasn't going to tell you but they kept bugging me about it so I met with them yesterday about the offer when I received that notice." He motioned to the letter in her hand that suddenly felt like it was burning her skin. Even if she knew that was not actually the case.

"It says the assignment would be for up to a year." She said after a long awkward silence between them, the subject obviously not being dropped like she knew he was hoping for. "You've known they wanted you to do this for a month and you didn't talk to me about it? You met with them yesterday? That must mean you're considering it." Of course he was, she knew Booth better than she knew anyone. If the Army approached him she knew he would want to do it, it was the honorable man he was.

He continued not to say anything as he got dressed before turning back towards her and reached for the letter in her hands. "Are you going to Afghanistan, Booth?" Temperance finally asked as she stood up to meet his eyes with hers. "Are you leaving for a year?" She questioned.

"I got a lot of information yesterday that I am still processing." He finally said softly and she took a step back from him and once again nodded, though his lack of answer didn't help the way her mind was spinning from the sudden change of events.

Remembering their conversation from when she told him about her career opportunity to Indonesia she stepped forward again. "Do you want me to tell you that I don't want you to go?" The question felt more loaded as she said it out loud than as she was thinking it.

"No, I don't." He answered in a way that immediately gutted her. He had already made up his mind regarding the subject, he was just refusing to admit it.