Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bones or its characters. All credit goes to their rightful owners.
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Chapter Three
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"I still can't believe they're dead." Olivia Berkeley cried as she spoke. "I just…I assumed they ran off together."

Brennan and Booth exchanged looks. "Why would you assume that?" Booth asked.

Olivia leaned in closer, taking a deep breath as if she were getting ready to unload a burden. "I've known Jensen and Jenny since college. Jenny is my best friend."

"Then why didn't you report her missing?" Brennan cut in. If Angela had gone missing, she'd report it.

"Because I thought they finally ran away together." She paused a moment and sniffed. "Look, Natalie…she's great. She's kind and smart, and Jenson seems to be happy when he's with her. But his love for her is… topical. It's fueled by lust and physical touch. She doesn't seem to know much about him, which tells me they don't have a lot of serious conversations. But Jenny? I'm not sure there isn't anything she doesn't know about him. She knows him. In a real way. And you can just see the love they have for each other. Their love is that deep kind. Where there isn't anything they wouldn't do for one another. The kind you read about in romance novels."

"So you're saying that you think he loved Jenny more the Natalie? Why would he ask Natalie to marry him if that were true?"

Brennan looked at Booth as he spoke. She'd been about to ask a similar question. This wasn't making a lot of sense to her. If Jensen was more in love with Jenny, why was he marrying Natalie?

"Not necessarily more. Jenson…he's a lover. Idealistic. He wants it all. A marriage, kids. A wife who he adores. For a long time, I always thought it would be Jenny. But…sometimes, you can love someone, but it's never the right moment to start a relationship. It's like they've been pushing and pulling and I just assumed that someday, they'd finally collide." She paused, taking in a shaking breath. "Jenson joined Doctors Without Borders and was away for almost a year. Jenny was miserable, she told me that this was it. She knew she couldn't be happy without him. She was going to put her fears aside and tell him that she was ready for them. But he came home with Natalie." She wiped another tear. "I don't think he loved Natalie any more or less than Jenny. Just…differently."

"Yet you still suspected that he ran away with Jenny?"

Olivia looked at Brennan. "They share something special. I don't think Jenson and Natalie could ever just be Jensen and Natalie. He would never cast Jenny aside. He loved her too much. And I know he and Natalie argued about a week before they disappeared. I was in the break room and they were outside the door. She was mad that He's stayed out with Jenny the night before. They'd had a difficult procedure to perform that day. The death rate is a little high. Their patient came through. They always celebrate after a successful surgery. He'd tried telling her and she was just not hearing him. She told him that she just wanted him to pick her over Jenny. He told her he wasn't picking Jenny. That he wasn't even out that late. Natalie told him that Jenny was too important in his life. That she should be the most important person. Jensen walked away after that."


"You okay bones?" Booth asked as his mind wheeled. He couldn't help but see the parallels, couldn't help but feel what Jensen was feeling. He'd be devastated if Hannah had told him he had to choose between her and Bones. It hit him hard that the choice wouldn't be an easy one. Shouldn't it be? Shouldn't chowing Hannah be an automatic thought?

"Yeah." She replied without looking at him.

He glanced at her a moment. Would he choose Hannah? If he had to choose? The idea of having to made him feel a little sick. He couldn't. Wouldn't. Bones was too important, and there was no reason for him to have to choose. He loved Hannah, but that didn't mean he couldn't have bones as his friend, right? "Bones I."

Her phone rang, cutting off what he was about to say. "Brennan." He could hear what sounded like Hodgins on the other line. "Feline? Natalie Brace has a white cat. Thank you, Hodgins." She hung up and looked at him. "The white fibers Hodgins found are feline hair."

"Natalie has a cat? I didn't see a cat? Besides, they live together. It makes sense that he'd have the cat hair on him."

"We found it on her. It's a stretch, but we should look into it."

"Bones."

"I'm fine, Booth." She cut him off.

Was she? They drove in silence, with him glancing at her every so often. She did look better today than she had yesterday, but she still seemed tired. Not to mention she was short with him. She wasn't using big words or joking around with him. Yeah, something was wrong and he knew what it was. He just didn't know how to make it okay.

"Listen, Bones. I…"

"Booth, I really don't want to talk about it, okay? I'm fine. Really. I'm happy for you. I just need time to adjust."

"So then it does bother you."

"Of course, it bothers me!" She looked away, lowering her voice. "I…care for you, Booth and that's not going to change overnight. So please, just give me time."

Knife, meet heart. She was going to say she loved him. Shit. He wanted to pull her to him. Hold her. Tell her that he still loved her too. Part of him always would. But it would be cruel. He loved Hannah more. They both knew that. Even if seeing Bones hurting made him feel like someone was stabbing him in the heart.

"I'm sorry, Bones. I really am."

"I'm fine." She said again, squaring off her shoulders.

He didn't believe her. But he didn't push the issue. She would come around on her own. At least he hoped she would.


"Why would I kill him? I love him!" Natalie cried, big fat tears falling down her cheeks.

Brennan used her light to look at the kitchen knives. When she spotted the blood, she nearly rolled her eyes. How stupid can someone get?

"Booth. Blood." With a cloth, she held up the knife. "Looks to me like it matches the wounds too."

"That's not…No!" Natalie yelled as she was cuffed. "I didn't do it! I didn't. I didn't kill anyone!"

Booth talked over her, reading Natalie her rights as he walked her to the cop car. He helped her in before looking at Bones who stood by the front door, shaking her head. People baffled her. No matter how long she did the job, their motives alluded her most of the time. Why did he love that about her?


Natalie looked terrible. Her makeup was smeared, puffy eyes from crying. Her hair messed as if she'd been running her hands through it.

"He was mine." She said breaking the silence.

"What happened?"

She shifted in her seat, not looking at them as she spoke. "I knew. From the start, I knew. But I didn't want to know, you know?"

"No, we don't," Brennan replied. She didn't understand why people assumed other people knew their thoughts.

"The only people who didn't know that Jensen was more in love with Jenny, were Jensen and Jenny." Her face screwed up as she spoke like she smelt something vile. "He didn't know it, but the way he looked at her? It was as if she were the most breathtaking thing he'd ever seen.

"Then why did you stay with him? If you knew?"

"Because Jensen was one of the good ones. He was worth the fight." She looked up now. "He would have done the right thing by me. I know that. So I held on."

"So what happened?" Booth asked.

"Jenny was having a hard time with it. Us getting married. She'd told him she was afraid of losing him. That she could live with not being his, but the idea of him leaving her Indefinitely? She didn't want to lose her best friend."

"Seems reasonable." Brennan didn't miss the way Booth looked at her.

"One night about two months ago they stayed out together. I don't have all the details, but Jensen confessed that they slept together. Alcohol had been involved, but he said it wasn't an excuse. Told me that he still wanted to marry me, but he'd understand if I couldn't forgive him. I was heartbroken. But he'd come clean about it. Honesty was good and I love him. So we were working through it. About a week before I…they died, he'd been out drinking with her again. I was furious. He assured me it was just drinks but after last time? I'm just not sure I can trust him. Trying to reconcile, we all went to the factory. It's near the lake and we were going to go swimming. It was our secret place. I arrived after them and heard Jenny telling Jensen that she was pregnant. The look on his face, the way he touched her belly? I just lost it. I picked up a broken piece of wood and just started hitting her. He tried to stop me. So I got him with it too. Then I threw down the board and pulled out the knife from the basket. We fought. I stood between him and Jenny. He begged me to let him get to her. Kept telling me that Jenny could be seriously hurt. I don't know how it happened. He shifted around me, trying to get to Jenny and I stabbed him. The last words he murmured was Jenny's name. So I pulled out the knife and left them both in the factory."

"Wait, you left them in the factory?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure Jenny was dead?"

"Bones what are you getting at?"

"Jenny was found just outside the door. She must have still been alive and tried crawling to get help."

Natalie laughed. It was a deranged kind of sound.
"So she suffered as I have. Kinda poetic, huh? He stabbed me in the heart, so I stabbed his. She made me suffer, so I made her suffer." She laughed once more before that laugh turned to tears.


Sweets sat, still a bit surprised to find Dr. Brennan in his office. She'd stormed in about ten minutes ago, looking as if she had something to say, but the moment she sat, her expression changed to uncertainty and she's said nothing.

"Dr. Brennan?" He finally said, hoping to pull her from her thoughts.

"Did you read the case files?" She finally asked.

Ah. Yes, he had. And yea, he imagined both she and Booth were reeling with the similarities to their situation. "I have."

"Booth asked Hannah to marry him."

She said the words matter of factly, though her eyes told him that this development hurt. "I know. What does this mean to you?" Pain showed on her face and his heart squeezed. Dr. Brennan was one of the strongest people he knew. To see her look so hurt over something was new to him.

She sat, saying nothing as she tried to compose herself. Tears were threatening, and he knew she hated to cry in front of him. It made him all shrinky she would say.

"Jenny probably felt loss. Even though Jensen wasn't going anywhere. No way."

Dr. Brennan looked at him. "You don't think so? He was going to marry Natalie. That changes things. That would change their dynamic. Natalie would become central to Jensen's life."

Good. She would get her answers through their situation. He'd hoped she would. "Jensen might have married Natalie, but that wouldn't change how important Jenny was to him. After everything they'd been through? Being partners for as long as they've been partners? They were more than just friends, Dr. Brennan. They were engraved into each other's lives."

"People drift apart all the time. It's inevitable. Change is the only constant we can count on."

"No. I don't believe that. People who feel the way Jenny and Jensen get don't easily drift apart. Because that means breaking habits and changing lifestyles. It's not that easy. They weren't casual friends. They were a part of each other's everyday lives."

She shook her head. "People break up all the time. They go from having someone in their lives every day, to never speaking to that person again. How can you possibly be so sure that they wouldn't end up strangers? It's irrational."

"Because they loved each other. And not some fickle dalliance. They had a deep, symbiotic connection. Their love was based on friendship and trust gained repeatedly by being there regardless of the situation. Never failing to show up. Never failing to walk through fire with it for each other."

"Would they have been happy? If they weren't murdered?"

Sweets let out a sad sigh. "Yeah. They would have been. Extremely happy. I've never seen two people who belonged together more."

Minutes passed. She said nothing, which was odd. Either she spoke, or she left. This was new territory for him. "Dr. Brennan?"

"I'm just so incredibly sad." She let out silent sobs, putting her face in her hands as if to hide the tears from him.

Yeah. She had to be incredibly sad to find herself here when she hated psychology. He said nothing, just letting her cry it out. He had a feeling she just needed to be allowed to speak her truth with someone she could trust not to say anything to anyone.

He hated to see her like this. Hated that he couldn't even be mad at Booth for breaking her heart. Because Booth deserved to be happy too. He just wished Brennan had realized sooner that she was capable of loving someone. Then this whole mess could have been avoided.

"I don't know how to be okay with it. I don't…I don't want to lose him.

Oh, okay. We are going to talk about this head-on. This was a big move for her.

"But I feel like I'm losing my mind every time I see Booth and it's just not like me. I just want to put the emotions in a box and lock them away forever."

"And who would that help?"

"Me!" The word came out a passionate plea. "I need things to be right again! I need us to be right again. And in order to do that, I have to be right again. So I have to let go of the love I feel for Booth. I have to. Or it will ruin us as I've always been afraid it would."

"Dr. Brennan."

She stood, halting his words. "Thanks, Sweets."

"Wait! Dr…" he sank back down in his chair, his chest tight with worry. Nothing worse than feeling helpless to help the ones you love.


"To another case solved." Booth tapped his glass to Bones' relieved to see a smile on her lips.

"You think they would have been happy? Jensen and Jenny if Natalie hadn't killed them?"

Booth thought on it a moment. Yeah. He thought they probably would have been. Had they had the chance to. "Yeah. Probably."

"Hey, guys!" Hannah said, leaning in to give Booth a quick kiss. She sat beside him smiling at Brennan. "This was a quick case, huh?"

Booth smiled at her, trying not to focus on the fact the Bones stopped smiling and got that sad look on her eyes again. "Yeah. And you're home early. I'm glad."

She nodded. "Yeah, not much of a story it turns out. Hey, Temperance, you okay?" She asked as Brennan stood.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Tired. I'll see you guys later, okay?" She quickly grabbed her things, then waved before heading out.

He wanted to call after her. Beg her to stay. These last few days have felt so off between them and he hated it. He was worried his marriage would put a wall between them, and he wasn't sure he could live with that. She was his best friend. She knew him better than anyone and the idea of losing her made his chest tight.

"Did you two get Into a fight?" Hannah asked, the crease between her brow telling him she was worried.

"No. She's just been distant lately. She will be okay."

"Do you know why? Maybe I should talk to her?"

He did know why. And she absolutely shouldn't talk to her. "I'm not sure why, but Angela is on it. If she's going to open up to anyone, it will be her."

"Hey, what do you say we plan a weekend getaway? I've got time off coming up and you certainly have enough vacation time saved up. We can go hiking? Maybe bring Parker? Temperance if she'd like to come. Maybe help her destress?"

Booth leaned over, kissing her. "I love you. And that sounds like a great idea." Maybe if he could show bones that nothing was going to change, she'd be okay. They would always be Booth and Bones. Always.


"You have got to get out of the lab." Angela took the tablet out of Brennan's hands, forcing her to listen. "You haven't don't anything but work and sleep for two weeks. Tell me you are going on that hiking trip next weekend?"

"No, I'm not. I'm busy. And I do more than work and sleep. I got drinks with Hannah yesterday. She wanted my opinion on flowers."

"Brennan."

"Angela, I'm fine. Really. The first couple of days were hard, but I like Hannah, and I'm happy for Booth. Really." Okay. So not really, but she was trying. And that's all that mattered. Right? Yeah.

"Sweetie, do you actually expect me to believe that? You haven't even gone out in the field for the last two cases. Booth thinks you're distancing yourself. And so do I."

"Angela, I'm doing the best I can!" The words came out snapped and loud. To make things worse, Booth had showed up and clearly heard them because he'd stopped his approach when she yelled. "I'm sorry." She added in a whisper.

Angela gave her a knowing look before smiling at Booth. "Looking good, Booth. Very James Bond. What's the occasion?"

"The FBI Gala. Hannah was supposed to come but…" He looked at Brennan with pleasing eyes. The eyes she had so much trouble saying no to. "Please come with me? I don't want to go to this thing alone."

"Booth I'm. I'm busy."

"No, she's not." Angela cut in.

"Angela!" Brennan said incredulously.

"Come on, you need a little fun."

She knew that Angela had good intentions, but sometimes she could be pushy. "I don't have time to go home and get dressed."

"Luckily, I have backup clothes here. She will be ready in twenty minutes."

And she was. Angela wasn't kidding about her backup wardrobe. She had all kinds of outfits tucked away for times when she couldn't make it home to change. Angela did a quick but elegant up-due and added smoky eyes and light lipstick. The dress was black, hugging her curves. It dropped down in a dramatic V showing off her breast. The silver shoes matched the silver necklace that was simple and hung between her breast. The earrings were simple teardrops.

Brennan walked felt a little flushed when she walked over to Booth who waiting for her by the platform. Booth blinked at her a couple of times and even had to swallow before he could speak. "You look..wow. You look beautiful, Bones."

She hated the smile his complaint pulled out of her. Hated that she liked his eyes on her. Because she shouldn't. She really shouldn't.

He cleared his throat again, holding out his arm. "Shall we?"

Brennan laughed. "We Shall."


"Booth!" Brennan mock yelled when he forked a bit of her chocolate cake. "You if you wanted cake, why did you get pie?"

Booth laughed as he ate his stolen goods. "Because I love pie. And you always get cake."

"Not so you can steal some."

"You want some pie?" He offered, laughing when she wrinkled her nose.

"You know I don't like pie." She shook her head but laughed.

"It's too bad. This is good pie." He took a bit and smiled when she rolled her eyes. As he chewed, their eyes locked, and he couldn't seem to look away.

He was always aware of how beautiful she was. But damn, sometimes she took his breath away. And not just when she was dressed in the sexiest dress he'd ever seen. Or maybe it was sexy because of the woman who was wearing it. No. It wasn't only her looks. It was her. Her voice, her big brain. The look she got when she was trying to figure him out. The way she moved. Her confidence and strength. Everything about her. Even the things he didn't necessarily love about her he wouldn't change because it was her.

"You want to dance?" She asked, clearly trying to shake away whatever was passing between them.

He stood, holding out his hands for hers. "Absolutely."

He missed this. Brennan's laugh. Their easy banter. The ease in which she reached for him, touching him in one small way or another. The night had been like old times. If you add in dancing.

He absorbed it all. The big words she used. The look on her face when someone spoke in metaphor and she didn't get it. He loved that about her. How she could be so incredibly smart but confused by something as simple as a metaphor. He found it endearing.

They came together once more, dancing slowly to the last song of the night. She was still smiling, making him smile.

"What?" She asked, her cheeks turning pink ever so slightly from his gaze.

He wasn't even sure how to answer her question. His heart was doing that thing where he was so filled with awe for her that it threatens to explode. "Nothing. I just missed you." He spun her before pulling her back to him.

She laughed as he did so before her eyes told him she was pulling away again. "I missed you too."

His phone went off, and he pulled it out, and sent a reply before tucking it away again.

"Hannah?" Bones asked, feeling like reality was crashing down over her.

He nodded. "You should come out in the field with me on our next case. It's not the same without you."

"Yeah. Maybe."

She was retreating. He could feel it. "Bones, what can I do? How can I make this easier?" He didn't want to have this conversation. Didn't want this great night to end in tension.

They'd stopped moving now. They just stood still, in each other's arms, staring into each other's eyes.

Brennan let out a shaking breath as her eyes darted to his lips for just a moment. "I think. I need space." She pushed away from him, taking a step back. She fought the tears that threatened.

"I don't want to hurt you, Bones. I don't know what to do." Please. Please know that. Please don't leave me. His mind raced with the possibility that she would. That she would pull away completely, cutting him off.

"I know. I know. I just. I need time. Need to get my feelings under control and I can't do that when I'm near you. Booth, I can't breathe when you look at me. I can't be objective. And that terrifies me. So, I need time. Space."

"Please, don't make me choose."

"I'm not." She stepped closer, taking his hand. It was irrational, but she needed to touch him. "I would never ask you to choose. This is not an ultimatum. You love Hannah and that's okay. Booth, you deserve to be happy. I want this for you. I just need time to be okay." She said the last part slowly.

She let go and took another step back and he felt as if she were taking a part of him with her. He hated the pain and panic in her eyes. Hated that he put that there. "Work." That's all he could say. It wasn't what he wanted to say. Not really. But it was the only thing he could focus enough on to make sense of it.

"I'll still assist on cases. I'll just do it in the lab."

"How long?" No. No. No. No. shit. Oh god. He felt like his heart was going to beat from his chest. This felt like a goodbye. This felt like an end.

"However long it takes me to get over you." Her words broke as she spoke, and before he could say anything else, she turned and left.

He stood there, numb. As if she'd broken up with him. His eyes stung as tears threatened, but he wouldn't let them fall. Not with so many eyes.

He was so confused. How could his life be simultaneously falling into place and falling apart?

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Reviews and comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks :D