A/N: I know this one's pretty short, but I really wanted to get it up tonight. I was suffering from Bones withdrawal, and I figured everyone else could use a fix. Luckily there's a new eppy on next week. : )

Caution: Angsty chapter ahead. ; )

Chapter Five

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"...I know what happened to your parents..."

"What?" she said, her eyes wide, not believing what she had heard.

"I was talking to someone about the case, and they said it reminded them of an assignment they'd been given in the army. The assignment was to take the targets and make sure it would look like they had just left - not to leave behind any clues." Booth paused, seeing that Brennan's eyes had grown glassy; distant - recalling what it had been like when her parents went missing. Booth pressed on, "I asked him who they were sent after. He told me they only got a last name - Brennan." He looked down, afraid of her reaction.

"Who told you?" Brennan asked, her voice hard.

Booth looked up, and saw that her face was set; angry.

"Booth, who told you?"

"Sidney," Booth said quietly.

Brennan stood up abruptly, walking briskly out the door.

Booth followed her, trying to get her to stop. "Bones! Slow down!" She ignored him and started walking faster. Booth ran after her. "Temperance!" he said, grabbing her arm.

"What?" she said, whirling around.

"What are you doing?"

"What do you think?" she said angrily.

"I think you're going to do something extremely stupid that's going to get you killed," he responded, sounding just as angry now.

"I'll be fine," she said, turning to leave again, but stopped as Booth spoke.

"You don't get it, the order came from someone in the government. Sidney was just following orders, you can't hold him responsible; and if you go off right now and do something - there's nothing to say that whoever ordered this on your parents wouldn't do it again to you."

At this point, Brennan lost whatever measure of control she had had, and began yelling at Booth. "In the government? How do I know I can trust what you tell me then?"

"That's not -"

"Maybe you're just protecting Sidney! After all, you have more in common with him than me - you've both murdered people!" Booth flinched and Brennan began stalking off down the hallway, throwing over her shoulder: "And don't try to talk to me!" Booth looked like he had had the wind knocked out of him. He swallowed and looked down at the floor.

Angela walked by then, and seeing Booth, stopped. "Hey Booth," she said, wondering what was wrong.

Booth looked up. "Angela," he said looking down the hall at Brennan's retreating form, "make sure she goes home?"

"Yeah, sure..." she said, trying to work out what had just happened.

Booth slowly turned and walked out of the lab in the opposite direction.

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Brennan didn't know where she was going. She hadn't left, but had doubled back down another hallway.

She knew she shouldn't have said those things to Booth. She felt horrible; she kept seeing his face - how shocked and hurt he had looked. She knew she had been irrational, and she hated it. She wanted to apologize to Booth, but that irrational part of her was still angry at him for not letting her go after Sidney - not that she knew what she'd do once she found him.

She realized she'd gone in a full circle, stopping in front of her office door. She sighed and pushed it open, walking to her desk and sitting down heavily. Just as she put her head down on the desk, Angela walked in. She didn't say anything until after she sat down in one of the chairs in front of Brennan's desk.

"Sweetie, what happened?" she asked concerned for her friend.

Brennan lifted her head up to look at Angela. She told her everything that had happened up until she had stormed off.

"Oh my god," Angela said, looking at her friend sadly. "That must have been hard, hearing those things about your parents like that after all this time. I understand why you reacted that way- who wouldn't? - but, you have to apologize to him, Bren."

"I know," she groaned, and plopped her head into her hands. "He probably hates me now..." she said, sounding hopeless.

"No - sweetie - he definitely doesn't hate you. In fact, he asked me to make sure you get home later," she said, standing up. "How about it - I'll give you a ride," she said, hopefully. "I'll even stay over with you if you want - we can do all kinds of girly stuff."

"I'm really not in the mood Ange," she said, "I think I'd rather just get some sleep tonight."

Angela nodded. "Okay." She left, leaving Brennan to finish the identification of another soldier.

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Booth walked into his apartment. Sidney was sitting on the couch, his feet up on the coffee table again. He turned off the TV when he saw Booth come in.

"How did you get in here?" Booth asked suspiciously.

"You left the door unlocked this morning when we left."

"Oh." Booth sat down in the chair next to the couch.

"Hey, I was about to go out with some friends," Sidney said, "you wanna come?"

Booth shook his head. "I don't think so." They sat in silence for a few moments, until Sidney stood up, getting ready to leave.

"Oh, yeah," he said, turning back to Booth, "someone came by earlier - I'm assuming she's an ex - said her name was Tessa? She wanted to pick up some of her stuff...and uh, she seemed kinda mad when she asked where you were, and I told her you were at the lab."

Booth's eyes darkened and he glared at the carpet in front of him. Rebeca, Brennan, and now Tessa. This day just keeps getting better and better...

Sidney shrugged and opened the front door.

Booth stood a few seconds later, grabbing his coat again. "You know what, I will go," he said, and followed Sidney out the door.

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Sidney led the way into the same seedy establishment he had brought Booth and the squints to last time. Sidney waved to his friends and headed over to the table and the card game.

Booth stood hesitantly by the bar, fidgeting with the poker chip in his pocket. He looked uncertainly between the table and the door.

"Booth, you coming?" Sidney asked from his seat at the table. Booth hesitated a moment longer -

"Yeah." He walked to the table and sat down, as Sidney began introducing him to all of his gambling buddies.

Questions? Comments? Ideas?