Thank you to all of you who reviewed and who have been patiently waiting for an update. Contrary to what some thought, this isn't a one-shot. I'm thinking that we're looking at about 5 chapters in total, unless maybe I should end it here... ;)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've always known that there was a small part in everyone that wants to love and be loved. This small and tender part wants to connect with another and acknowledge the desire to be more than one person, all alone in the world. I'm afraid that I have too many wounded parts and no matter how hard I try, they just won't heal. These wounded parts hold fear, disappointment, failure, resentment, hate, disgust…. I've left these issues unresolved for too long and now they are denying my heart its possibilities. I know that eventually this will all catch up with me.

I refuse to let you become one of those wounded parts Booth.

Right now, all I know is that you don't want me to be the girl that you'd be married to ten years from now. I'm not really sure that I can explain why that is but please, trust me, you don't want me to be that girl. And I know that sucks for me because I know I could have been, I know what we have right now but I can also see what thirty years down the road looks like and you don't deserve what I know I'll become or how badly I'll end up hurting you and whoever else comes along. No child deserves that.

I don't want you to miss me. I don't want you to wonder what your life would have been like had I been more permanently in it. I don't want you to imagine me as the mother of your children. All I want is for you to smile because I made you happy even for a short while. Even as my best friend, I love you. You are my whole being and you could easily have been my future.

Never once doubt that I love you.

For what it's worth, never have so few words cost me so much. Live your life happy and forget about me.

T

Tears quietly slipped their way down her cheeks as she read over the words she had written one more time. She knew in her heart that this was for the best, that given time, she'd only destroy him. At least this way she had some hope of salvaging what was left of their friendship. Temperance Brennan wasn't a stupid woman and she knew deep down that she should have put an end to the whole thing months before when Booth had given her an out but, her heart had convinced her brain that this was her happy ending and to snap it up before it disappeared. They had been happy, more than happy, for all she knew they still were in spite of that fear she'd told him about that fateful day that wasn't budging.

When Dr. Goodman had called her into his office earlier in the week to tell her that she had been asked for by name to lead a dig in South Africa for a year she had felt an immense relief. What shocked the hell out of her at the time was that her immediate reaction should have been that she couldn't take the job. The truth was that this was an easy out and she was damned well going to take it, she wasn't about to stick around and make Booth miserable while she waited for the other shoe to drop. Her instinct to run had reared it's ugly little head that day and it all lead up to this moment where she turned her back on the one good thing she'd had in all of her adult life.

Gently placing her note on his pillow she quickly left the bedroom. Fighting back more tears, she gathered her things and silently slipped out the door. Knowing full well that she was breaking his heart, she fought with everything she had not to look back.