I'm heartened by the warm response from my last chapter. Thank you all. RobinAngelena, hushedgreylily, Phyllis, MstgSzy (yes she has them to come home to now), 554Laura, JAG'ed Bones in the Casckett, Vmf447 (lol thanks. I get what you mean), GalaxieGurl (spoken like a true FF writer, it's important to capture those moments of inspiration, provided time permits), doge, FaithinBones, jsboneslover, regbride12 (sorry about the tears, and yup would have loved more episodes too), adorkablesalad (lol yes he cares for her and he knows how she gets when she gets engrossed in her work), mendenbar (I gladly take "was very moved". Thank you), LoveShipper, ZinaR (it is).

Cosmic Balance Sheet

Angela sat in the conference room of the Hoover Building, Booth next to her. He leaned in close as she worked on their victim's laptop. There was a time, a long time ago, when having Booth in this close proximity would excite her. Booth was a very attractive man. When they first met during Booth and Brennan's first case together, she had harboured thoughts of getting the man in bed with her. But then she realized, even before Brennan did, that her best friend had a thing for the hot FBI Agent. Her best friend who had been alone most of her life deserved happiness, and since then she had decided that Booth, the knight in shining FBI armour was off limits. That didn't mean she didn't enjoy listening to Brennan recount her sex life with him. And it still didn't hurt for her to admire the handsome specimen of man now and then.

A commotion broke out behind them and both whipped round in their swivel chairs. A suspect was attempting to make an escape. Booth, ever the man of action leapt to his feet, running out of the conference room to help, leaving Angela alone. She returned her attention to the victim's laptop when Booth's cellphone, which he had left on the table, rang.

She stared at the ringing phone for a second and seeing Booth still occupied with the suspect in the bullpen, instinctively answered.

"Agent Booth's phone."

"Can I speak with Seeley Booth please?" The caller, a man asked politely.

"Agent Booth is current busy. Would you like to call back?"

"Could you pass him a message?"

"Uh, sure." Angela suddenly felt like Booth's secretary.

"This is Doug, the delivery guy from Boutique Flowers. Please tell him the bouquet of daisies he wanted delivered to Ms Charlotte Johnson was successfully delivered. He was worried he might have gotten the address wrong."

"Um… okay."

Angela's already overactive imagination was on overdrive. Who was Charlotte Johnson? Was Booth having some sort of fling on the side? Before she could say another word, the caller hung up. She quickly replaced Booth's phone where it had been on the table, just before Booth entered.

Noticing the odd look on Angela's face, Booth asked, "What?"

"Nothing."

"You found anything useful?"

"I'm still looking."

Booth took the seat next to her again. Angela figured she had better pass the message, because Booth would see the call made to his phone in the call log. She could also use his reaction to gauge if her suspicions had been right.

"A delivery guy from Boutique Flowers called. Something about a successful delivery of daisies? I didn't mean to be nosy. Your phone rang and I just picked up."

"Not a problem. Thanks Angela."

Booth seemed unphased by what she had just said. If he was sending flowers to a woman other than Brennan, he didn't seem very secretive about it.

That afternoon, as Angela returned to the lab, she fought an internal battle within herself on whether she should tell Brennan. It didn't take her very long to decide it would be better if she told her best friend. She knocked on the bone room door, where Brennan was currently busy examining the victim's remains.

"Bren, could I have a minute?"

Brennan glanced up from the light table. "You can have multiple minutes."

"Alone." Angela gave a meaningful glare to Finn.

Finn seemed to get the idea and made an excuse to go see Hodgins. Now alone, Angela stood next to Brennan, wondering how to start.

"Sweetie, how's things?"

"Finn made a mold of the marks on the sternum. Hopefully you would be able to find a weapon that would match the shape. I've also given swabs to Hodgins. He might be able to find traces that could tell us what the weapon used to attack the victim was made of."

"I meant how are things at home?"

"Things are good. Routine. Routine is good."

"Routine can get boring."

"I don't think it is. Booth and I find that routine is also good for the children."

"Uh-huh. And how's the sex?"

"It's still very good." Brennan smiled dreamily.

"So no change to the frequency, the intensity, the passion?"

"Hank came down with a mild case of the common cold last week, which he has now unfortunately passed on to Christine. Booth and I have been tired, waking up numerous times each night to attend to the children. As such, we haven't had much sex in the past two weeks. Not at our usual frequency. But it can't be helped. It's not the first time this has happened."

Angela paused. Or it could be because Booth was getting satisfied on the side.

"There's something you need to know Sweetie, and I know you're not going to like this but as your best friend I have to tell you."

"Go ahead. I'm listening." Brennan turned, looking Angela in the eye.

"I think… and I know this sounds very very improbable, given that we're talking about Booth here, but… I think Booth's having an affair."

Brennan chuckled, staring back at Angela incredulously. "What makes you think that?"

"Well I was a the FBI this morning and Booth was busy right? His phone rang and I answered. Turns out, he made an order for a bouquet of daisies to be sent to a woman name Charlotte Johnson."

"Oh."

"I know the first thing that comes to mind is that Booth is cheating on you but – "

"Angela stop." Brennan closed her eyes, upset.

"I know it's upsetting and knowing Booth, this is probably some misunderstanding but I really think you should talk to him about this."

"Booth is not having an affair I can assure you."

"It might be hard to accept but – "

"You are making assumptions based on little evidence Angela. And I'm not in denial. Booth is not cheating on me."

"Can you think of some other explanation why he's sending flowers to another woman?"

"Yes, I can, but it's really not my place to tell you."

"So you are aware of what he's doing?"

"I would not discuss this matter with you further Angela. Now do you have anything pertinent to the case you'd like to tell me?"

"Not at the moment no."

"Then I'd like to be left alone to work please."

…

That night as Booth and Brennan climbed into bed, Brennan brought up her conversation with Angela in the bone room.

"So Angela thinks you're cheating on me." Brennan said as she fluffed up the pillows.

"What?! Why would she think that?" Booth asked as he slipped under the covers.

"She found out about your order of flowers to Mrs Johnson."

"No wonder she was lookin' at me all weird. She did tell me she helped answer my phone when it rang. Did you clarify things with her?"

"No."

"So you let her continue thinking I'm cheating on you?"

"You're a very private man Booth. Especially, with regards to your past. I wasn't sure if you would want Angela to know. Besides, isn't information like this classified?"

Booth turned onto his side to face Brennan.

"Ever since Kovac, I've come to realize that what I did in the past as a sniper, doesn't really matter anymore. Not as long as you believe in me. That you know that the lives I took, I didn't take them lightly."

Brennan placed a soothing hand on his chest.

"So you think I should correct Angela's misguided assumption?"

"If you want to. I never told you the details of the mission so it's not like you could tell her anything that's really gonna affect national security." Booth scoffed. "I can't believe she would think that I'd cheat on you."

"She does have a rather active imagination when it comes to things like this."

"But you know better."

"I do. You could never be unfaithful to me Booth."

In the dim light of their bedroom, Brennan watched Booth's face light up in a smile. He moved closer to press a kiss to her lips, smoothing his hand along her side and coming to rest on her hip.

"She's just looking out for you. She's your best friend, I get that."

"Still, I feel as if I need to vindicate your good name."

"Then tell her. I don't mind." Booth said as he proceed to kiss a trail down her neck to the valley of her breasts.

Brennan groaned, enjoying the feel of his lips on her body. She quickly made up her mind to correct Angela, before giving in to her husband's pleasurable ministrations.

…

The next morning the minute Brennan got to the lab, she went in search of Angela. She found her in her office, working on their current case.

"Angela, I'd like a word with you."

"Sure."

"You remember yesterday? What you said to me about Booth."

"You confronted him? Oh Sweetie…"

"It's not what you think. I was hesitant to tell you at first because Booth is a very private man. He does not like his past to be brought up."

"So you knew about the flowers?"

"Yes. Mrs Charlotte Johnson is the mother of a man whom the government sent Booth to assassinate in Pakistan in 2002. Daniel Johnson was a very bad man. Booth is unable to disclose to me the full reasons as to why he was sent to assassinate him. All I know is that Booth's actions saved many lives. Mrs Johnson is getting on in years and suffers from dementia. She has since forgotten about the demise of her son and still thinks he's working in another country. As such, every year, Booth sends a bouquet of flowers to Mrs Johnson on her birthday. He always signs off the card as Daniel Johnson. He says it's his way of making an old lady happy in the remaining years of her life. It's one of his ways of paying back his cosmic balance sheet. For the lives he took while in the service. That and of course the murderers we catch."

"Oh Sweetie, I'm so sorry. I misjudged him."

"Yes you did."

"Booth's a good man. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. I'm sorry."

"That's okay Ange. Booth informed me that as my best friend you were merely looking out for me and for that I appreciate your actions."

"I guess I owe Booth an apology huh?"

"Yes. That and your promise never to disclose to anyone what I just told you. It's classified and Booth doesn't want Mrs Johnson to somehow find out."

"I promise." Angela now looked contrite. "I think I owe Booth an apology."