Chapter Three || Reality

Temperance Breenan was woken by her phone ringing and blindly picked it up to an operator on the other line asking for her to accept a collect call from Max Keenan. Accepting the call she sat up in bed ignoring Booth's persistence to hold her.

"Yes, Dad?" She asked watching as her words alerted the man beside her. "No. I don't know. Maybe." Sinking back into the bed she curled up into Booth and rolled her eyes. "We'll see. I got to go. Goodbye, Dad."

"That was Max?" Booth asked and she nodded before kissing him good morning.

"He wants me to come see him, but I'm not sure that's a good idea." There was a number of things she wasn't ready for and seeing her dad in jail was one of them. Booth sat up in the bed, pulling her with him until she was settled in his arms. Their declared 24 hours were over but neither of them felt the need to talk about things just yet. Instead they took the morning in before another phone call disrupted their comfortable silence. This time it was Booth's phone.

"We have a body." He declared once the call had ended and sure enough Cam was calling her moments later. "Yes, I know we'll be there." She stated before wincing as Cam asked how she knew at such an early hour. Booth smirked at her and she silently swatted at him. "Booth sent me a text just as you called, he's picking me up." Temperance lied before hanging up and glaring at him. "What?"

"I didn't say anything, but I have to say I'm shocked that you were the first one to crack. I was for sure it would be me to spill the beans." He teased.

"While I don't understand what you said, I assure you I didn't crack anything or spill the beans, whatever that means." She licked her lips and looked over at him. "Booth, we can't tell people. Not when we don't even know that this is going to last." Moving from the bed she began to find what little belongings she had knowing that going home to change would have to be a quick event that she really didn't have time for. "I really should have went home for clothes." She mumbled not realizing he was standing behind her.

"What do you mean that we don't know if this is going to last?" He asked and she sighed at him not knowing what to say or what to do now.

"Let's just talk about this later, okay? I need to get home so we can get to the crime scene. Will you take me or should I call a cab?" She asked watching as he put a suit on silently as she put on the sweatpants and shirt of his she had worn during the small times they had been dressed the last couple of days. When he ushered her out without another word she knew he was upset. This was the very thing she had been wanting to talk about since the beginning that he wanted to avoid and now that the timing was up she knew that it wasn't going to be easy.

Booth dropped her off at her apartment and made an excuse to go get them coffee, not wanting to intrude as she go ready to go see the remains. Mostly he just didn't want to be alone with her any longer, no when he knew that the second she had a chance she was going to ask for an annulment or he supposed a divorce was the appropriate action. While there was a lot of things he defied his religion by doing, divorce had never been on the list of possibilities and now his mind was going to the inevitable and he was starting to figure out why he had let this happen to begin with. What the hell were they thinking by getting married? What was she thinking when she said that they should do it? The hell did he think was going to happen when he agreed?

Slamming his hand against the steering wheel he parked the suv outside her building waiting for her to climb in. "Coffee." He mumbled as he handed her the to go cup before hitting the gas to drive off.

"Booth." Her hand was on his arm as he drove and he looked over at her nervous expression and he couldn't stop himself from smiling gently at her.

"It's okay, we'll talk about it later. Right now we work and pretend that nothing has changed between us." He knew that they could stay professional, he didn't doubt that but he still couldn't shake the mood he was in from his own thoughts.

The scene involved two teenagers who had been brutally slaughtered, the sight made Booth's stomach turn as he took down the little information Bones had for him before following her instructions on getting the remains back to the lab. The case proved to be a challenge to investigate and was a welcomed distraction by the issue at hand for the two partners. By the time the case was over, Booth had forgotten that they were married. That was until he was laying in his bed alone with Bones at her own place and he realized that wasn't what married couples did. Then again he wasn't quite sure where they fit in the ideal of marriage.

It was after midnight when he knocked at her door, unable to sleep and refusing to do so until the nagging feeling went away. She opened the door looking beautiful as ever in her sleepy disarray. "Booth? What are you doing here." She asked as he pushed passed her his hand running through his hair nervously. All he wanted was an answer and he was hoping she would be willing to give it to him.

"Do you want a divorce?" He finally asked after a long staredown between the two, him out of nervousness and her out of tiredness. "Because I know that you don't believe in marriage and while I knew what we did was a mistake when we did it, it felt like we were in this together and now I don't know -" Booth stopped when he saw her facial expression go from confused and sleepy to distraught and sad. "Bones?"

She blinked at him processing his words, her hyper-rationalism going into overdrive. "You think it was a mistake?" Of course he did. It was told to her time and time again that Booth would do anything for her so it made sense that when she asked to get married that he would say yes despite his own wants and needs.

It was a fair question that he was asking, one that she hadn't quite figured out yet. She never once in her life did anything without weighing the pros and cons yet somewhere for some reason she did this. If she wasn't so against psychology she'd talk to Gordon Gordon. She just hadn't thought he would be the one coming to the conclusion of their marriage being a mistake and it hurt to hear. Perhaps that was the answer she was looking for in her quest for clarity, one of them to come clean about their true feelings.

"I wasn't aware that you saw our life partnership to be a mistake, I welcome you saying so now instead of later." She began not letting him interrupt her when he clearly wanted to she put her hand up to stop him. "While I hadn't decided what I wanted to do regarding our relationship, I hadn't decided on divorce. There has been a lot on my mind regarding the situation and I was finding that while I have never believed in marriage that idea of linking myself to you for the ideal of forever was actually quite nice." Closing her eyes she prevented tears from falling and looked at her partner.

"If you wish to have a divorce, drawing up papers would be quite easy." Temperance stated as she adjusted the robe around her still looking at a now speechless Booth. "Since you now know your answer, I'd like to go back to bed. I take it you can see yourself out and lock up." With that she turned on her heal and headed towards her bedroom leaving a stunned Booth standing in the middle of her living room.

"Wait, what?" He said. "Bones?" Booth yelled at the sound of a door clicking shut trying to decide if he should follow her or not. This was not how he wanted the conversation to go nor was he expecting the response he received. Yet it felt like it spoke volumes that her logic hit him so soundly.

Was it him that wanted an out and not her?