(The Lady on the List)

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I don't own Bones.

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Working on their invitation list for their upcoming wedding, Booth tapped the end of his pencil on the table while he studied the names he'd written down so far. "Want to invite Sully to our wedding?"

Now normally Sully would have been the last person he wanted around his Bones, but they were engaged to be married and he knew Brennan loved him and only him when it came to alpha males. "We haven't seen him in a long time, but it might be nice to have him there for our big day."

Surprised that Booth would even think about inviting her former lover to their wedding, Brennan turned and looked at him, trying to decide if he was serious or not.

"What?" Booth knew she was confused, but he wanted to show her that he could be comfortable around her former lovers and that he wasn't as jealous as she thought he was. "He's water under the bridge. I don't care if he's at our wedding." Besides it might be nice to rub his nose in my happiness.

"Well, I suppose we could, but I thought we were trying to keep our list as small as possible." Brennan stared at Booth and saw the change in him immediately. "I think it would be better to leave him off the list. The church will hold only so many people and it seems like you've invited almost half of the people that work at the Hoover and Metro."

Surprised at himself, Booth felt a wave of relief move through him and realized that he hadn't really wanted Sully there after all. Who was he kidding? He didn't want any of her former lovers anywhere near them. It wasn't as he felt she would be attracted to them again, he was certain of that. Hell, let's face it. Until that ring is on her finger you're not going to feel safe. She has said in the past that monogamy wasn't natural . . . Damn it! What's the matter with you? She is not going to dump your ass, Booth. Get a grip. "Okay, it's up to you." Booth stood up, leaned over the table and kissed her. "I love you, Bones. I want this wedding to be perfect for you. You deserve it."

"I don't need a perfect wedding Booth." Brennan sighed. He really wants this wedding and I will try to make it as close to perfection that I can.

After he sat back down, Booth read through the list and marked a line through a few names. "You're right. I have too many from Metro in this list. I will add Sheriff Abrams though."

"Sheriff Abrams?" Shocked, Brennan stared at Booth. "Isn't he the Sheriff that arrested Hodgins and Angela two and half years ago?"

Amused, Booth smiled at Brennan. "Yeah, but you gotta admit because of him, those two got married."

Brennan slowly shook her head and chuckled. "You just want to play a joke on Hodgins don't you?"

Booth shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe . . . He deserves a little payback for shooting me with that snot booby trap of his. He ruined a perfectly good suit."

"It wasn't snot, Booth." Brennan shuddered. That thought was rather off putting. "It was gelatin fired by CO2. You shouldn't have stood in front of it."

His eyes mere slits, Booth glared at his fiancé. "Cam had no business opening that door . . . Hodgins needs payback and Sheriff Abrams is invited to our wedding."

"Alright." Brennan decided to humor him. Turning back towards her PC, Brennan saved the file and closed the lid on her lap top. "Booth, when you told me to go with Sully, did you mean it?"

"What?" Surprised, Booth looked up from his list. "Why are you asking me that now?"

Brennan shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know? You mentioned Sully and I thought about how you and Angela wanted me to go with him . . . Did you mean it? Did you want me to go with him?"

His mind racing, Booth averted his gaze and tried to think of how to answer the question. He didn't want to tell her a lie, but he didn't know how she was going to react to the complete truth either. Her silence pressing on him, he knew she expected an answer.

"Yes I did." Booth cleared his throat and turned to look at Brennan. Her face had an odd expression on it and he knew he'd better expand on what he'd said. "You seemed to love Sully and I wanted you to be happy . . . even if it was bad for me."

Not sure what he was trying to say to her, Brennan crossed her arms against her breasts. "I don't know what that means."

Booth nodded his head. "Yeah . . . um, at the time we were friends . . . really good friends, but you and I . . . you and Sully were in love and I would never have stood in your way to be happy. You deserved to be happy and Angela thought you should go and I thought . . . well, I thought maybe I didn't have a right to ask you to stay. What kind of friend would I have been to be so selfish that I would have stood between you and happiness?"

"I don't think I was in love with Sully." Her words were so soft, Booth had to strain to hear them. Brennan sighed. "You know, at the time, I didn't believe in love. I . . . I felt an attachment to Sully, but I felt an attachment to you too. I weighed those feelings and I felt my attachment to you was stronger than my attachment to Sully." Brennan glanced at Booth and placed her hand over his hand. "There was also the fact that he was asking me to give up my life's work, something that I loved for something that he might or might not love. There was no compromise. Give up my work and go with him or he would go without me . . . I thought that if that was love, then I didn't really want any part of it. Love is selfish or at least I thought so at the time."

Her explanation was sad and sincere and Booth felt like punching Sully in the nose as hard as he could. Booth shook his head, turned his hand over and gripped her hand. "I'm sorry Bones. I never thought about it that way. I wasn't really sure why you let him go and I was too afraid to ask . . . I thought you'd stayed because of me, but Gordon Gordon said it wasn't true and . . ."

"It was true." Brennan interrupted him. "I stayed because I chose my attachment to you over my attachment to Sully. If I'm going to be completely truthful . . . I may have stayed because I thought I loved you. I knew you didn't love me at the time, but that didn't matter. You were my family, Booth. You and Angela and Hodgins were my family. Why should I walk away from the only family I had?"

Stunned, Booth felt a tightness in his chest. "That damn line. I am so sorry, Bones. I should have never have drawn that line between us. I was just upset about Cam and I was afraid that someday I was going to get you killed if I got too close to you and . . . it was just a huge mistake. I'm sorry."

Brennan stood up, her hand still holding on to her fiancé's hand. "Booth, that's the past. We can't change the past, so please don't apologize."

Grateful to have someone like Brennan in his life, Booth stood up and placed his arms around her. "I'm the luckiest man around, Bones. I'll try to be the man you need me to be, the husband you need me to be."

"I know you will." Brennan smiled and kissed him. "Let's not invite any former lovers to our wedding."

"Yeah, good idea. Bones." Booth smiled. "When you're right, you're absolutely right."

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