Booth flops down onto the sofa, he lays an arm haphazardly across his face. The events that had just transpired run through his mind for the hundredth time since he left her apartment. She didn't want him, he'd been wrong, she just had been too naïve to see that he was wearing his heart on his sleeve, she'd been too sympathetic to tell him he was wrong. He groans aloud and curses at his own stupidity. He was certain that he could never deserve a woman like Temperance Brennan, and now he could spend every day being reminded of that fact. He'd mistaken the tremor in her hand when he held it in his for desire, the unshed tears in her eyes as relief that they had finally reached this point. Now he realizes that she was simply afraid of turning him down. Placing his arms on his stomach he closes his eyes and prepares for what he fears will be a restless night.

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Brennan looks up from the microscope and smiles gingerly at Zack. Oblivious to her hangover he goes into full on report mode.

"I have checked and double checked the remains. There is no clear cause of death. No broken bones, head trauma or obvious damage. I did however find out that the victim had broken her collar bone at some point. However the broken collar bone was not related to the cause of death, I would say that she was around 15 when it happened. "

Brennan nods and picks up the files lying next to them on the workbench, flicking through them she discards one and points to an x-ray in the other.

"Great work Zack, we've identified our victim…. It is Mandy Thomson. Her X-rays show that she has a fracture on her collar bone, she broke it after falling from a bike…" Zack beams with pride and she hands him the file "Notify Booth that we have made the identification, he will want to inform Ms Thomson." She starts to walk away and Zack looks confused at the file in front of him. He holds it up in the air.

"Dr Brennan, you normally tell Agent Both about these things. Don't you want me to carry on working on restructuring the skull?"

Brennan stops in her tracks but doesn't turn to look back at him, "Please Zack, just do it." He lowers his hand and looks at the file. Brennan carries on walking to her office. As she is approaching Angela appears at her side with a bundle of files. Brennan stops in her tracks and Angela dumps the files in her hands.

"What's this?" Angela crosses her arms and shrugs.

"How am I supposed to know? Booth came into the lobby and I bumped into him, said something about great timing and then loaded my arms up with these, told me that I should give them to you. Something about people that he interviewed yesterday… By the sour look on his face, I'm guessing you didn't get to talk."

Brennan turns and walks into the office, Angela follows behind her "Sweetie?" Dumping the files onto her desk she turns and leans against it folding her arms.

"I spoke to him." Angela gestures for her to continue "I couldn't do it… He was waiting for me when I got home, we argued and then he asked me about David. Wanted to know what happened between us. He tried to kiss me and I couldn't."

Angela walks forward and wraps her arms around her friend "Oh Bren, you froze. This isn't going to be easy, opening up for the first time is hard."

"How would you know, you are the most open person I know. I envy you."

Angela steps back to look her friend in the face 'What happened next? Did you try and talk it over? Did he tell you he loves you?" Brennan shakes her head. "You need to speak to him Bren, sooner rather than later." Brennan nods and Angela wraps her arms around her again. Just then they hear a cough from the doorway, turning to face it they encounter a smiling Jack.

"As much as I hate to be the one to break this kind of encounter up, I was wondering if you have the reports that Booth was gonna drop off, I need to look at the gardening orders that were placed. Try and get a definitive list of suspects."

Brennan points to the files on the desk and Jack gathers them up, he gives them another wide appreciative smile and Angela steps back from Brennan before slapping the back of Jack's head.

"Ow, what was that for?" He saunters out of the office with Angela at his heels.

"You know fine well what it was for." Leaning back into the office Angela smiles at Brennan "Might I suggest that now be a good time to talk to him?"

"I can't" Angela opens her mouth to lecture her friend "No I mean I actually can't, he's informing the victim's family of the positive identification." Brennan shrugs

"Then tonight Bren, either you tell him or I do." Angela glides out of the doorway leaving Brennan with her thoughts. She lets out a sigh and makes her way around her desk to slump into the chair.

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Booth lets himself out of the Thomson residence. He stands on the door step and lets out a deep breath, he hates breaking this news to families, but this was especially hard, this woman had no one to comfort her. He had stayed longer than he usually would, the sun had started to set and he had suggested that Ms Thomson get some rest, he'd promised her that he would find out who had done this to her little girl, a promise he intended to keep.

His cell starts to ring and he pulls it out of his pocket as he is making his way to the SUV, the caller ID tells him that it is Brennan calling him. His pride is still reeling from her rejection the night before, he contemplates answering for a second but then changes his mind and pockets the phone instead. He decides that tonight he should stay unreachable. He didn't want to have a rerun of last night, him pouring his heart out, her looking at him with pity in her eyes. The same pity that he had mistaken for something else. No, tonight was the first night of getting over Bones.

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Brennan puts her phone back into the cradle and walks into her kitchen, she'd tried Booth on numerous occasions but he had been unreachable. She couldn't bear the suspense any longer so she grabs her jacket from the corner of the sofa and her keys from the table.

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Booth turns the corner to his apartment, a carton of takeaway in one hand, his keys in the other. As he approaches he catches sight of a person rising up from sitting position on the floor. It's Brennan, she looks at him nervously. He drops his head and chuckles sardonically.

"I'm fine, go home Bones." She shakes her head as she steps aside for him to open the door to his apartment. "I'm not really in the mood for company tonight…. Like I said, I'm fine."

"What if I'm not fine?" Looking at her, even through his anger he can see the vulnerability in her eyes. He sighs and nods for her to walk in ahead of him. She enters the apartment and hugs her coat around herself. He closes the door and puts the carton of food down on the sideboard, he doesn't go to turn on the light and she is grateful.

"What is this about Bones?"

She turns toward him unexpectedly and connects her lips to his. He is too stunned to respond to her sudden attack. Feeling his lack of participation the fear kicks in again and she makes a move to pull away ashamed, but his hand stops her pulling her closer to him by the lapel of her coat. His lips connect to hers and his free hand finds its way into her hair. Despite the emotion of the moment, the kiss is gentle but thorough, every nerve in her body is thrumming in time with his pulse and the motion of his fingers against her neck is setting her skin on fire. It wasn't until this moment that she realized that she had never been kissed this way, and she planned on taking Angela's advice to kiss the bejesus out of him tonight, for starters anyway.