A/N: Hi there, dear readers! Since it is Christmas break now, I have found the peace and time to write and edit this next chapter. First off, we have the very anticipated scene where Angela will be put in her place. Next in this chapter is: Lilly won't open up to Booth, maybe Sweets will be able to get through to her. I'd like to thank Kareneb and Mphs95 for leaving another very appreciated review and also thanks to the readers who put this story on review.

As she walked over to Bren's office, she wondered what she would encounter. Before, she had been really determined to have this talk with her best friend, but now that moment was getting closer and closer Angela was a little worried that Booth hadn't manned up to his task and that it would now be hers to crush her friend's heart. No, he would have told Bren by now, wouldn't he have?

Her self-imposed deadline had turned out to be good for herself as well. The time had given her some perspective and had calmed her anger a little bit. Still, she didn't understand what had happened that had made Booth throw one of his principles away. Lilly definitely wasn't his first one-night stand, but thankfully the other times Angela hadn't needed to know.

Since she had time to cool down her anger, Angela now also had room in her heart to feel bad for Lilly, but she knew it probably was better for the both of them if Angela didn't approach her first. Angela also wasn't sure how much Booth would have told the intern about her outburst, so she would let Lilly seek her out if the intern wanted to chat. A complete wuss move, she all too well realized, but she feared to make the situation worse from where they currently were.

"Hi Sweetie, have you spoken to Booth recently?"

Temperance looked up from her desk, only long enough to respond. "Yes, of course, Angela. Booth and I speak on an almost daily basis."

"That is good", Angela said as she took a seat on the opposite side of the desk. "I... Uhm... Have you heard about Lilly?"

Bones looked at her friend. "Angela, you know I don't like the whole gossiping thing and I have work to do."

The annoyance in Temperance voice told Angela that Booth most likely had acted within the deadline. But that didn't mean Bren should take it out on her, right? After all, she was the one having her best interests at heart. "Okay, I know that Sweetie..." Angela tried to be understanding, "...but me checking up on my friend how she's holding up after learning about something like that can hardly be deserving of the label gossip."

"If there is any friend you should be checking up on about this it would be miss Johnson, Angela. I can only imagine how powerless she felt at that moment. She is probably much more in need of a friend than I am." Temperance dryly responded.

"That is not what I meant, Bren."

Bones looked at Angela, knowing that her friend wasn't going to stop pushing until she heard whatever it was, she was expecting to talk about. "Angela, if this is about Booth and miss Johnson's sexual relations, you know it is very inappropriate for us to be talking about that."

Amazing, Angela thought. Even after learning about something that would have crushed any other person's heart in a similar position, Bones still defended her partner's actions. Still, it was comforting to know Bren was doing okay. "So, you weren't upset at all when Booth told you?"

Bones stayed silent a little too long. "Well, yes, at first, I was upset but I have no right to be angry. Neither do you. You interfered until Booth would decide he needed to come over to tell me, didn't you?" Her tone accusingly and accurately hitting the bullseye. When the anthropologist had thought about Booth's sudden confession during the weekend, it hadn't taken her long to conclude Angela had interfered. It was very unlike Booth to tell her something like this so fast after the fact. He would have told her in his own time, but that would have taken him weeks, if not months. Which was fine, it should have been his decision to tell her if and when he wanted to.

Angela opened her mouth, but no sound was coming out.

"Did you even consider that Booth hates people assing in on his private life?" Bones continued. "Especially his sexual encounters. You had no right to do that just because you learned that he had sex with Miss Johnson. Besides, I have always thought you were better in prioritizing. I'd say Miss Johnson's safety after being cornered should take priority over who Booth and she had consensual relations with."

The words hitting home, Angela turned red a little. "Hey, I was worried about you. I know you object to the notion of love, but you can keep telling that to yourself, I know you are in love with Booth." Angela tried to defend her actions.

Bones tried to suppress an upcoming smile. Yes, she now knew she was in love with Booth, but that wasn't the point at hand. She didn't want to tell her best friend about that new early development. Not when she was in the middle of lecturing said friend about not meddling in the private lives of others. "You know I am very rational, so I don't see why you should have been worried about me learning about Booth's affair. I am perfectly capable of fending for myself. Have you spoken to Booth and miss Johnson since?"

Again, a look of shame made its way to Angela's face. She had seen plenty of interns being told off by Brennan, but this was the first time she was the one getting a similar stern talking to. If she was being honest to herself, pushing Booth to tell Bren wasn't just about him doing the right thing towards his partner. Partly she had just wanted to see the fear pass through his eyes, to see the moment he realized that he had screwed up. Remembering how she had barged in and not much later out of Booth's apartment, her blush got stronger. "No, I haven't. I was too angry to wait and actually see Lilly. So, you aren't even angry that she is living with him?" The disbelief was evident in her voice.

Bones looked at Angela. "No, why would I? Why, are you?"

"Yes, I was," Angela confessed, paused a little and then continued talking. "I might have also told Booth that her staying over would make it a lot easier for them to continue sleeping together." She cringed at the thought of that comment.

Brennan gasped. "Oh no, Angela! You really shouldn't have said that. I think you owe both Booth and miss Johnson an apology. You should feel lucky Booth doesn't hit people when he gets angry." I probably would have. "You had no right to interfere the way you did. And in regards to miss Johnson staying with Booth: I am glad Booth is there to help her deal with this. I wish I could be of assistance to her, but I know I am not the right person to help her. Booth is much better at reading emotions and he knows how to deal with these types of situations. I'd probably just say the wrong thing, making it worse somehow, since this isn't my strength costume. I trust Booth to help her and I'm nearly certain he won't sleep with her again. He definitely won't after miss Johnson just lived through an assault."

Angela nodded. "Yes, I know he won't take advantage. Somewhere deep down I always knew that, but I was just so angry." Feeling hesitant to admit it to herself, but she trusted Booth to take good care of the intern regardless of what had happened between him and Lilly before.

"Ange, I do appreciate that you care about me, but what would you have done if Booth had started dating again? We work with him on a lot of cases, you can't be angry about something like this, that has nothing to do with either of us here at the lab."

"I don't really know," Angela admitted. "I agree with you that I didn't think this through when I confronted him."

"Well, Booth is a very forgiving person, so I am sure you'll be able to make this right when you apologize. I have to get back to work now Angela, I think we covered everything we needed to discuss."

Seeing her friend getting back to work, Angela understood it was time to leave. "Right... Okay."

Sweets knocked on the door of the kitchen of the justice department. "Morning", he said softly, not to startle Lilly.

Lilly whirled around. "Oh hi, Dr. Sweets. Would you like a cup of tea too?"

He smiled. "I actually prefer coffee and you can call me Lance, nobody does even though I ask them to."

Lilly returned his smiled at his mild annoyance. "Yeah, I know what that's like. I am sorry, I guess I just forget, because everyone calls you Dr. Sweets, Lance."

"It's okay. How have you been holding up?"

Lilly shrugged, a shrug he could easily have missed because she was retrieving a mug for his coffee. "I am doing fine, why do you ask?" She handed him his coffee after filling it from the traditional coffee pot.

Ah, classical denial, Booth had been right with his diagnoses and she so fit into the team. Not letting her diversion tack ticks get to him, he was fast to answer. "I think you know why I am asking. It has been a couple of days and so far, you haven't talked about it with anyone."

"Oh, so you asked around huh?" She asked, still trying to ditch his comment.

"That is what happens in a close-knit team like this, yeah."

"There is nothing to talk about, Lance."

"I disagree, Lilly." He shot back. "Last week a man you know cornered you outside of this exact building. He made you think he was about to rape or at the very least molest you. That impacts a person."

Lilly looked at him, surprised he had been so forward in his description, feeling tears well up from somewhere deep down. "Haven't you heard? There is no evidence of any of that." She tried to keep her voice professional and detached.

Lance held in a snort. "That doesn't mean it didn't happen. That doesn't mean he didn't scare you. That doesn't mean you might not be scared now. That maybe you fear he will try again and that this time agent Booth wouldn't be there in time to stop it from going even further. That doesn't mean you don't blame yourself for what happened, even though there is absolutely no reason for blaming yourself."

Lilly cast her eyes down, not willing to let Sweets see how the tears she had felt coming, were now reaching her eyes. Buying herself more time to calm herself she took a sip of her tea. After blinking feverishly, she was ready to meet Sweets eyes again.

If she continued to deny what had happened now, after his words, then she was as good as Dr. Brennan was with compartmentalizing. Which would be bad for her in the long run, very bad.

Lilly looked at Sweets, still carefully swallowing her sip of tea. "You're right and thinking logically, I know that, but I can't bring myself to talk about it yet. I hope you can understand that. Right now, I just want to bury myself in legal research. I fear if I open up about it now that it will consume me. Please just let me pretend it didn't happen for now." She said softly.

Lance nodded. That was a small unexpected breakthrough. "Okay, I will, for now. Just know that when you're ready to talk about it, I will be there for you, if you choose to discuss it with me. Also, I think you should know that Booth won't let you go home until he knows you're doing okay. He has asked me to profile this mister Stein and I can only do that correctly when you tell me what that guy said to you."

"Is Booth still investigating?" Lilly asked. Booth's self-imposed couple of days had passed, so she had figured, well more like hoped really, that he would have started to let the case, die out slowly.

Sweets was surprised that she didn't know, but maybe he shouldn't be surprised by that. Booth could be very protective of the people in his social circle and if he felt it would hurt Lilly more to know that he was still trying to dig up dirt on Stein, he wouldn't tell her. "Yeah, you didn't think he was going to give up that easily, did you?"

Lilly shrugged. It hadn't exactly been on her list to tell Booth to quit searching for evidence. That would be as useless as Booth telling her to talk about it right now.

A/N: I realize my story isn't the most flowing one around, as it is just bits and pieces that tell the story. Thank you for following along! Merry Christmas and unless I manage to squeeze in the next chapter before the end of this month: also a Happy New Year!