A/N: 'Peaks nervously above the bushes. Feeling safe, stands up. Dusts off her pants' Wow! I'm alive! Thanks you guys! I was very happy with the response I got from my last chapter so I decided to post this one really quickly. Hope you like it!

The picture above her television spoke volumes about how they truly felt about each other. She still remembered when that picture had been taken. Booth had dragged her to a semi-formal FBI party a few months earlier. That picture had been taken by Angela, who had gotten herself invited by one of Booth's colleagues. The two of them stood pressed against one another, like they were dancing, and Booth was sweetly kissing her cheek. The two of them were grinning and the happiness they felt being each other was obvious even to the most oblivious person.

She sighed as she remembered that night. They had had a lot of fun and she couldn't even remember the last time she had laughed that much. But now everything was ruined and it was because of her.

She was used to being let down by the people she cared the most about and she had felt her load of pain. But she never thought she would live this with Booth. This pain she knew too well, she never thought her relationship with Booth could cause it. What hurt her more was that she knew she had caused the end of their relationship.

Getting up, she decided that she had done enough sulking for the night. She switched all the lights off in her apartment before heading towards her bedroom.

"Booth, man, you look like crap." Agent Stevenson told him as he came to stand beside him at the coffee machine.

"Yeah." Booth replied. "Didn't sleep well."

"Girl trouble?"

"Sort of."

Stevenson was about to ask another question when the two men were cut off by a voice behind them. They turned around to see Cullen standing not far.

"Yes, Sir?" Stevenson asked, straightening up.

Booth chuckled.

You're not in the army. He mentally told his colleague.

"You can relax, Stevenson. I'm here to talk to Booth."

"Oh." The agent replied before grabbing his coffee mug and walking out of the room.

Cullen motionned to Booth to follow him. The tired and slightly depressed agent followed his boss to his office.

Booth was surprised when Cullen closed the door behind them and pointing to the chair. Booth took it as an invitation to sit down and did so. He watched as Cullen circled his desk before seating himself at his desk. He ruffled a few papers, quick-scanned some of them before pulling one out from under the pile and handing it to Booth.

"The FBI headquarters in Philadelphia need your help. A body has been found in a dumpster just outside a small restaurant and the body was identified as Paul Rawdon. Rawdon is from DC and as an informer for the local PD. The agent working the case in Philadelphia thinks his man could be linked to the latest victim identified by your partner."

The emphasis on the word partner irritated Booth. He kept his mouth shut.

"Martine Dussault, the young woman who disappeared in Vermont and somehow ended up here."

"Exactly."

"But I'm not working this case, Sir. The local PD is."

"It was proven that, even though Dussault was kidnapped in Vermont, her killing most likely occured in the Washington area. The local handed the file over to us. I'm handing it over to you and your lady scientist."

"But I don't see how Dussault and Rawdon could be related."

"That's for you and your squint to find out."

Booth had been able to retort but Cullen cut him off.

"You will be working with Agent Cassandra Burns, the agent who has been handed the Rawdon case. You leave in five hours."

Booth thanked his boss before getting up and walking towards the door. As he stepped into the hallway, Booth silentely thanked his luck. Some time away was exactly what he needed.

"Brenn?" Angela asked tentatively as she poked her head inside her best friend's office.

She heard a big intake of air that told Angela her best friend was forcing herself not to snap at her after being disturbed.

"What?"

Cold voice. Uh oh. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Can I come in?" Angela replied, softly.

She saw her best friend shrug and took that as a yes. She carefully stepped in the office, closing the door behind her. She sat down on the couch and turned to her best friend.

"Booth told me what happened." She started.

Temperance didn't reply, nor did she move. Angela forced herself not to sigh.

"I'm really sorry, Sweetie. I didn't want things to end this way between the two of you."

"Neither had I."

Her cold voice had turned softer and sadder. Angela immediately started to feel bad.

"Do you want to talk about it? Tell me what happened?"

Temperance shook her head. She didn't want to talk about it with anybody. All she wanted was to be left alone to work. She didn't need company, sympathy or anything. She just wanted solitude. She told her best friend so.

"Did you talk to him at all today?" Angela replied, ignoring her friend's request.

"No."

The cold voice was back again. Angela sighed, this time.

"You have to talk to him. It can't end this way between the two of you."

"Does he think it's over?"

Angela thought she could detect a hint of fear in her friend's question. She didn't know what to tell her. Booth hadn't been particularly talkative the previous night and he had been gone when Angela had woken up in the morning. She hadn't gotten much more out of him than what he had said at her door. She clearly remembered him saying that he was pretty sure it was over between them.

Angela looked down, unable to look at her best friend.

"He might have mentionned it."

Temperance nodded, her eyes suddenly tearing up. She looked away.

"But I don't think that's what he wants. He loves you with all of his heart and he just got his feelings hurt last night... badly. Just go talk to him. Tell him that it's not over between the two of you and that maybe, you just need a little break to get over this incident."

"I don't think I can do it, Ange. You should have seen the look on..."

But she was unable to finish her sentence. Her voice cracked and, in an instant, Angela was on her feet and at her side, pulling her friend into a hug.

"Ssshh, it's okay." She said, in a soothing tone. "Everything will be alright. You two are Brennan and Booth. You work things out. You got through so much, you'll get through that just as fine."

She felt her best friend nod and pulled away. Her eyes were already bloodshot and a few tears were trailing down her face. Angela wiped them, unable to see them. She could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times her best friend had cried in front of her. She had just used up her fourth one. She soothingly ran her hand through her friend's soft hair.

"Come on. Pull yourself together. Go wash up and drive to the Bureau. You guys can't leave this just hanging like that."

"I don't think I can face him."

"Just try, Brenn. Just try for your relationship's sake. The longer you wait, the harder it will be for you two to come out of this unaffected."

Temperance nodded before violently wiping the tears from her face. She stood up, smoothed her clothes and made her way to the door.

"Tell Goodman I'm taking my lunch break earlier today." She told her best friend before walking out of the office.

She was heading towards the restrooms when a voice stopped her.

"Dr. Brennan?"

Temperance immediately froze, recognizing instantly the voice that had spoken her name. She turned around slowly to face a slightly surprised Cullen. He frowned at her bizarre appearance and Temperance could only imagine what she looked like.

"What are you still doing here? I thought you were gone to Philadelphia."

Temperance tilted her head, confused. Angela chose that moment to step out of the office. She frowned at the sight of the duo in the hallway.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Cullen turned around at the sound of the voice.

"I was just asking Dr. Brennan what she was still doing here."

"She works... here." Angela replied, unsure of what else to say.

"I know that." Cullen replied and Angela could definetely hear that the man still wasn't too fond of her despite everything she had done for his daughter. "It's just that I handed a case file to Booth this morning, telling him that him and his partner were being sent to Philadelphia to investigate a recent murder."

"What?" Temperance replied, the second every word of Cullen's reply had been assimilated in her brain.

Cullen turned back to the doctor.

"You can understand why I'm surprised to see you here, Dr. Brennan, when I thought you had left for Philadelphia an hour ago."

Cullen paused for a brief second.

"You didn't know he had left?"

But Temperance didn't reply. She brushed quickly past Cullen and Angela and walked in her office. Without thinking, she made her way directly to the phone and dialed Booth's number.

A few seconds later, she was being told that the customer she was trying to reach was unavailable. She hung up violently before letting herself fall into her chair.

Shit.

TBC of course. I'm going away for two days so don't expect an update tomorrow but if you're nice enough to leave me lots of reviews, I might just update Thursday. ;-)