A/N: Seeee, I promised I would be back soon. XD

I read the reviews for the previous chapter with fascination. Booth and Lilly are friends and coworkers first and foremost. I didn't think it would be weird for them to share a dinner while being in the same home; it is something friends do, right? Though I do understand the sentiment two of the reviews expressed and I have to say I hadn't even considered the possible consequences for Booth and Bones of this. I'll say that I think Bones is somewhat patient and careful with how her and Booth's romance is developing, but I agree with Guest that Lilly staying at Booth's for much longer is going to slow B&B down. I guess I overdid it in the previous chapter XD. So, thank you Mphs95, Kareneb and Guest for reviewing. I appreciate the feedback!

Now we have that out of the way: who's ready to hear Booth's recount of how he met Bones?

Booth hummed agreeing. "Yeah, the pasta is almost ready and that is what takes the longest. Though, I am not sure I'll be able to tell you the whole story in one meal or an evening. And before I do, I haven't gotten to the reason why I brought up Bones. The point is, Bones and I have gone through several rough patches through the years, but after the movies, we were able to talk through some things that really needed to get said. Last Sunday, when I left, I went to Bones' apartment and we talked some more and I think she and I might finally be ready to have a relationship."

"Last Sunday? When did you and Dr. Brennan go to the movies then?"

Booth paused. Shit. "A couple of weeks ago, I don't remember exactly."

Doing the math in her head, Lilly's eyes glazed over when suspicion hit. "I told you to go to the movies with a friend on the Monday before the doomed Friday." Coming to a conclusion, Lilly whispered a soft oh my god. "My night ruined your night?" Lilly said softly, guilt washing over her. Lance is going to have a lot of fun working that guilt trip out of my mind.

She worded it like a question but the look in her eyes told Booth that it was a rhetorical one. "Hey, don't worry about it," Booth said. "First of all, I am happy I got to stop him from going any further. Secondly, I was on my way home from my night out."

"Yeah right", Lilly said sarcastically. "You're just saying that."

Booth shrugged. "I'm not lying. She and I went to the movies, walked around the city a little, I dropped her off and then Hodgins called me."

Watching him closely, she found he wasn't trying to just make her feel better. "Okay, that is less bad I suppose. So, what was it like?" Lilly asked, hoping to change the conversation to a safer subject.

"It was great. I wasn't sure what would happen, but I am glad Bones and I got to this point already."

"Look who's blushing now," Lilly said, with an amused and intrigued smile.

Booth chuckled. "You're really annoying sometimes, you know." Booth joked. "But yeah, thinking of Bones will sometimes do that to me. Just like you with the mention of Wendell. So, I am just saying, life will throw curveballs, but you'll duck and after a while move on." Plating up the dish, he handed Lilly one.

Putting it on the table and taking her seat, she looked at it. "It looks super tasty."

Booth nodded. "Yeah, it smells amazing, so I think we made it work. I forgot to buy a wine that would go with this, but I am sure it will taste good without that anyway."

Nodding, Lilly worked to take the first bite, rolling the spaghetti on her fork. "Tomorrow is a work day and we both know alcohol and I don't mix that well."

Booth chuckled. "Yeah. Maybe grape juice would be more your style. That is what I get Parker when I want to drink wine with my dinner."

Lilly snorted, putting her hand in front of her mouth to not lose her bite from laughing. When the flavors made it to her taste buds Lilly let out an approving sound. "I should be insulted that you think your ten-year-old could outdrink me, but I think I might be more insulted that you've never told me that you can cook like this!"

"That good, huh?"

"Hmm, hell yeah," Lilly said as she brought another fork to her mouth.

"I am glad you like it. I wasn't sure since I've never seen you eat pasta and then there are people that get weirded out by the combination of bacon and shrimp."

"I don't get people like that, if it works; it works. And you've never seen me eat pasta, because we always end up eating American cuisine. I do like Italian food, but I never understood why there aren't more potatoes in it."

With a grin, Booth put on a thick accent that could make an Italian mobster at home. "Who needs a bunch of potatoes when you have the finest homemade Italian pasta?"

Shaking her head, she laughed. "Okay Super Mario. I got the message this morning when you told me about your nonna. Hey, if you like to cook this much, you should cook for Dr. Brennan. I am sure she would like this."

"Probably not, since she is a vegetarian."

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that. Maybe you could make it with tofu, or make vegetarian lasagna. I am sure that would kill too."

"That is actually a pretty good idea. I don't think I've ever made Bones anything Italian. She does like my mac and cheese though."

Lilly smiled at the memory of his defensiveness earlier. "I didn't mean to strike a nerve when I trashed mac and cheese this morning. I am sure that it would go well with the grape juice."

"That is how Parker likes his' indeed," Booth said with a smirk, just before slurping in a long strand of spaghetti.

After finishing dinner and cleaning up, they finally made it to the TV. However, Lilly was much more interested in the story of Dr. Brennan and Booth than whatever was on TV tonight. "Can you tell me about Dr. Brennan and your history now?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Well, start at the beginning. Was it love at first sight?"

Booth smiled. "It definitely was something at first sight."

This time around Lilly was loving the storytelling idea a lot better. "Oh really? So how did you meet Dr. Brennan?"

"We met thanks to Cam."

"Sounds logical".

"Not as logical as you'd think. Seven years ago, Cam wasn't yet working at the Jeffersonian, she was the New York coroner. She was at the Hoover for a case she had bumped to me. It was a split jurisdiction and basically a mess. The trail was going dead so the case was going nowhere but the cold case archive if nothing changed. Apparently, Bones had just solved a 3000-year-old murder case with her anthropology superpowers. A tidbit even Cam had managed to hear about during the squint information highways, so Cam figured that Bones would be the perfect person to help and solve my murder case."

"Huh", Lilly said. "That is already quite the plot twist."

Booth chuckled. "Well, fasten your seatbelt because there are going to be many, many, more of those."

"Okay, so when does Dr. B make her entrance?"

"Right about now. After thinking about Cam's suggestion for a while, I went to American U. Bones was lecturing on a stage next to a glass box with all sorts of bugs that were de-fleshing a body."

Lilly wrinkled her nose. Sounds like a lecture Dr. Hodgins should have been giving.

"I waited until the lecture ended to introduce myself and ask for her help on the case. She did decide to help and thanks to her and the squints' efforts we caught the killer." Booth paused as he collected his thoughts. "Pretty much from the start, she made me want to a better person. At that time, I was a gambler, an addicted one who was practicing. I used to gamble every day after work, but when I thought Bones and I were going to be working together more often I just quit cold turkey."

"Wow. When you open up there is no stopping you is there?"

"I promised you the whole story, so that is what you're getting, well a more condensed version but still."

Lilly smiled, signaling him to continue.

"But it turned out to be our only case together. It took a whole year before Bones and I got a case again. But I stayed the course of self-improvement. Instead of gambling my money and hours away, I started working out more consequently and reading. I even considered getting an advanced degree from Quantico, but I hate studying books and I like to think I already got the most important ones."

"Wait." Lilly interrupted. "Why did it take a whole year before another case came up? Did the FBI run out of murders or something?"

Booth could feel the heat, hoping he wasn't blushing already. "No, not exactly. Bones and I had a misunderstanding that ended with a fight where we both said some things, including that we would never work together again. After a year I had another case I couldn't solve with just my investigative skills. It took a while before we really worked past that falling out, but when we did, we quickly managed to become friends."

Taking Booth in critically Lilly took a second to figure out her next question. There obviously was a lot more to the story there than what he was telling her. "Okay, so when did the romantic things start?"

"Damn I thought I had managed to slip that past you."

"Truth and nothing but the truth, remember?"

Booth smiled. "The fight actually revolved around Bones and I having kissed. I know you've heard about Bones slugging a judge once. That happened during that first case. After that happened Caroline made me fire the Jeffersonian. I didn't want to, so Bones and I managed to get hammered before I sacked her and the rest of the squint squad. Thanks to the alcohol we kissed and we almost went home together, but Bones' tolerance for alcohol is even better than mine is, so we didn't."

"Got it", Lilly said.

"You got what?" Booth asked not really following her confident statement.

"What the fight was about." Isn't that obvious? "Dr. B. must have thought you were trying to bed her when you involved the alcohol. I don't think any woman would be happy with that. I've seen a few of your mild misunderstandings and that is after working together for years, so I think my imagination can fill in how that first fight went."

"Yeah, you got that right. It was pretty ugly, but as I said we managed to work it out. So much happened through the years that brought us closer. Of course, we had our share of fights, but never like that first disagreement."

"So, you never felt the need to get away from Dr. Brennan for a year again?"

Booth cringed, shifting in his seat. "Not because of a fight, no, but the circumstances during that second time made it really easy for both of us to leave again. Bones wanted to go on a dig in Indonesia really bad and the army kept propositioning me to train troops overseas. At the time Sweets was also writing a book about our partnership and he found we were in love with each other. I was for sure and I think Temperance was too, but she wasn't ready. I pushed too hard, so hard it broke us up. She turned down giving a romantic relationship with me a go and we both left for 9 months."

"Ah yes, the dig in Maluku and your deployment to the Middle East. You came back with Hannah, right?"

Booth nodded. "Yeah. I really shouldn't have, or at the very least I shouldn't have let her move into here. Maybe I should have ended seeing her while we were still in Afghanistan. A war zone is completely different from normal life. Life and death are so easily felt there. After doing your hours you really want to feel alive. And well, you know..."

Lilly stiffened a chuckle at the discomfort Booth was showing. "Sex is a good way to feel alive." She finished his sentence. "But I thought you really cared about Hannah, that it was more than sex."

"Oh yes, it was. It wasn't at first though. But during my tour, we grew closer and I really started to live the fantasy of she and I being in a relationship, but I somewhere deep down I knew when I flew back to the States that that phase was done with. But then Hannah threw me for a loop by transferring stateside and well, you already know the rest of that part of history."

Lilly nodded. "I am glad to see that you're now able to talk about her without wanting to smash everything around you into tiny pieces."

Smiling Booth nodded. "You and me both."

"You weren't kidding when you said there were going to be plot twists. When did you know you were seriously head over heels for one very genius author/anthropologist?"

"Ah yes. So, through the years Bones and I got closer and our bond got stronger. I always knew I cared for her, felt protective and what not. I knew I would do everything for her. So about 2-3 years ago Bones blurted out during one of Sweets voodoo sessions that she wanted a baby and she wanted me to be the father by donating sperm."

Not for the first time that evening Lilly jaw dropped. "Whoah, she really asked you to do that?"

Booth nodded. "Yes, and with Bones being Bones she had all sorts of rational explanations for why it should be me."

Lilly frowned.

"What?"

"Nothing, I am just going from one surprise to the next. Please continue."

"Okay then... Where was I? Oh yeah. Her asking me to become a dad again happened a little while after the gravedigger had kidnapped me. That was weird for all sorts of reasons but with the knowledge I have now, I was hallucinating while kidnapped. When I went to get tested for donating for Bones, I had another hallucination, that made me not go through with that in end and it made Bones drag me into the hospital. She suspected that I had a brain issue and she was right. I had a brain tumor that needed to be removed immediately."

Lilly's eyes got big. She could imagine how scared Booth, Dr. Brennan and everyone else must have been.

"The operation was successful, but I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and was in a coma for three weeks. During, I dreamed I was married to Bones and when I woke up it was quite the shock to learn that wasn't real. That was when I knew I loved her and I would always love her. Which, I know is still a really late realization... After bringing Parker into the world while not being in a committed relationship with Rebecca I vowed to myself to never ever do that again. The fact that I was willing to throw that principle out the window for her also should have told me I loved her." Booth stopped talking. Their lives could have been so different, better, if they had already been together by now, but it hadn't been in the cards. He just hoped the deck was now stacked to deal both him and Bones the perfect hand. King and Queen both together, that would be perfect.

"You never told Dr. B about that dream?"

A sad smile appeared. "No, I did tell her, but I never told her how it made me feel. I told Sweets how I felt and he told me some nonsense about how my brain chemistry has changed from the operation. He felt that my feelings for Bones were caused by overactivity in some brain part and that it would disappear within several months. According to Sweets, it would be a bad idea to tell Bones because everything would return to normal soon."

"What?" Lilly asked offended by the idea. "First, he writes a book that there is more than a partnership between you and Brennan and then he thinks your brain is just imbalanced at the moment? That is stupid."

A smile at Lilly's anger appeared around Booth's lips. "I appreciate your outrage on my behalf, but before you mess up Sweets face: the book was later. The book only happened 18 months ago or so. Plus, he wasn't the only one who felt that way... I also confided in Cam. While she did believe my feelings were genuine, she was worried I wasn't ready yet and that I would crush Bones' hearth if I told her before I was ready."

"So, in the end, you kept it to yourself." Lilly surmised, suddenly feeling sad. "It is like the two of you missed so many chances. Maybe you should have asked one of the fans for advice, then you would have told Dr. B what you felt for her back then."

"Maybe, but maybe it would have made us flee the country back then. We probably both weren't ready. We probably missed a lot more chances than I've told you about right now. Love is a difficult subject for Bones, and I have my own skeletons in the closet I needed and need to deal with. But I have high hopes that we're both ready now. So that was just about the highlights of Bones and my history."

"You were right, that is quite the story. I can't believe I missed all the signals, though."

Booth smiled. "Well, even the best of us miss ques every once in a while. I missed all the clues of you and Wendell, so it really happens to the best of us."

Lilly snorted. "Yeah but Wendell and I don't have a 7-year history."

"Touché. Booth conceded. "Though, that doesn't really change much, since you and I have known each other for the same period of time, so we had the same amount of time to pick up those hints. Maybe I should have noticed Wendell's feelings since he and I play hockey together. But I didn't until I heard the gossip about you and him. As for you missing clues. I think Bones and I drifted apart so far, without running to opposite sides of the world, that even the most hardcore fans of Bones and I getting together, lost faith in us pulling through."

"Yeah... I guess you are right." Lilly paused for a second before she continues, a sly grin appearing. "You do know I am going to be watching your and Bones' interactions like a hawk now, to pick up the signals."

Booth laughed. "Yeah, I didn't expect anything other than that. Though, do me a favor and keep this information of Bones and I giving us a try to yourself. Nobody knows yet and I kind of appreciate the silence and not being bothered by the fans."

"Sure", Lilly said as she tried to hide a yawn, worrying about what to do apparently got her really tired in no time.

"So did this history lesson help you make a decision how to deal with your dinner date?"

Lilly smiled. "Well, it sure is inspiring to hear that everything will happen in its time even if there are some struggles along the way. I'll make my final decision in the morning, after hopefully a good night of sleep. I think I'll ask Wendell for a rain check after all. I've sort of build up the idea of how that dinner should go and it doesn't involve me being worried about that piece of human crap."

"Okay, that sounds like a plan. We should call it a night, tomorrow is a gym day."

Lilly grumbled. "We could just skip, sleep a little longer and get to work on time."

"Nice try", Booth said. "If you're capable of staying up late, you're capable of rising and shining early."

Lilly smiled. "You're starting to sound like my PE teacher. Would telling you I have monthly feminine issues get me off the hook?"

Booth chuckled. "It won't. Bones once informed me that exercise is effective against cramps, so if you are on your period, we should actually be going every day instead of every other day."

With another smile, Lilly rolled her eyes. "Damn, there really is no fooling you."

"They didn't make me an SSA for nothing."

"I've got one more question though. What is next for you and Dr. Brennan? Do you have any concrete plans?"

"Yes, we do. We're not going to rush anything. God knows we tried that but it backfired, badly. We're going out the evening of the day after tomorrow."

Rush, really? After six years of tiptoeing around each other, you could hardly call any move they made rushing into things. "Sounds like a sturdy plan, but don't wait another six years to make your move."

Booth smiled as he got up from his chair. "I don't plan to."

Cleaning up their glasses by placing them in the sink they were ready to end the night. Before going into their respective rooms, Lilly spoke up. "Hey Booth. Thanks for tonight. I guess I needed some perspective and your love life struggle experiences seemed to be what I needed to hear. I appreciate you trusting me with all this and filling me in on what I really should not have missed."

"No problem," Booth said. "Goodnight."

"Night."

A/N: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand scene! Thank you for reading!