We came to the point of 6 chapters, exactly the middle of this story :) This chapter is the one I love the moast, an interaction with Bones and Angela, and I loved to write Angela's character!! She's so funny!! Enjoy this one.

Hide and Seek

"You are running away!" Accused a very annoyed dark haired artist as she made way into her friend's office, a finger pointed forcefully in her direction.

"No… I'm pretty much seating on this chair, doing my work…" Responded Temperance, a little annoyed herself with the sudden interruption. She usually didn't mind her friend coming in and making her come to one or another realisation on some aspects of her life or lack of social skills, but today, that was something she gladly wanted to avoid.

"Funny, sweetie. You can say everything you want, throw some anthropological answer into the cauldron, but I know better. You, my dear, are in denial stage one, running away." The artist said without pausing, never averting her eyes.

"I'm not…"

"Ah…" Angela said halting the defending words with a full hand in front of her friend's eyes. "I'm not finished yet, missy!"

Temperance couldn't help but feeling like a 5 year old girl who was being lectured by her older sister. She thought that if she ever had a sister, she would scarily act like the woman in front of her.

The artist breathed deeply, thinking that she was going too fast for her big brainy friend. She took a seat in front of her desk and looked softly into her friend's eyes, searching for something she didn't quite understood so far.

"I know you need to have a great reason for what you're doing now, but I'm failing to see the reason why." She said with concern in her voice, concern for what her best friend was doing, throwing all her emotions and possible happy future into the wind.

Temperance sighed, a deep sound coming from her troubled mind. She needed to talk with someone about that, yet she wasn't the best one to confide her life into another person, and the only person she wanted to talk to right now, was the only one that shouldn't be talked to. "Something… Something happened the day we finally caught Gormagon." She murmured softly, her hands fidgeting with the ends of her shirt, face down as in shame.

"Oh sweetie, what could be so bad…" – 'Or so good' – She thought "that made you act like this?"

"Booth…" She finally exhaled in defeat. He had been the one, always him.

Holding back a huge temptation to smile at said name coming from the lips of the doctor, Angela let herself hold her friends hands in between hers, a sisterly gesture of comfort. "You know you can tell me everything… I just want to know why you're pushing him away, so I could help you."

"We had been drinking that night, celebrating, getting… inebriated. It was all so comfortable, you know..." She said getting a nod from her friend. "He took me outside in the gardens… we watched the sky, it was so beautiful. And I knew, right there and then, I felt happy. Truly happy, since a long time, and he, he was the source of that happiness." She replied with honesty.

Angela nodded, silently encouraging her to go on.

"I felt… alive. That's when I told him… I…" Temperance wasn't sure how to finish this sentence, it all seemed to come so easily to her that night, and now it looked like she had a word filter inside, blocking even the thought of them. She sighed in exasperation.

The dark haired woman waited patiently for her friend to resume her thoughts and come into a conclusion, but that never happened, she was forced to resign her high expectations and humbly offer her point of view.

"I know you're not ready for this, but believe me, you have to face him sooner or later. Please, for both your sakes, tell him how happy you felt with him, and tell him how much you…" Angela paused, knowing the words would be too much to bear at the time. "Just don't shut him out. Don't hide away from him…"

With that she stood up, smiling sadly at her friend who was still quietly seated on the chair, her crystal blue eyes too frightened for her own good. Calmly she turned away to leave, only looking behind to say the last words. "You know you can always come to me to talk, right?"

Although Temperance didn't answer, a slight nod of her head made Angela's feelings a little bit more at ease, and with that she was gone.

The fact that Temperance was still feeling that warm happiness in her chest deeply entwined with the current panic was getting into her nerves and taking the best of her. She wanted to smile because of the way he made her feel that night, so carefree, so not the doctor but the woman herself, and still remembered his soft eyes looking at her in a way that could possibly be interpreted as adoration.

And all the same time, she wanted to cry. Cry for what she was pushing away, for pushing away her best friend in the most rational way. In some way, it was not her fault, these actions, but a product of many years running away from sentimental shelter. Angela was right; she was running away, to the agonizing point of being mentally impossible to work with him.

Oh my! She doesn't want to work with him... what a struggle! Anyhow, thank you so much readers, for the 8000 hits, reviews and story alerts that make this writer here so very happy that people are reading and enjoying this story. Please help my engo and don't stop reviewing!!! Next chapter will be the beginning of the case, how will it work?