Four Years Earlier…

"Cullen, you can't be serious! I've been posted here since I started this job!" Booth practically yelled across his boss' desk. "I've got Parker, Bones…" as an after thought he added, "a-and the squints, what are they going to do?"

Cullen finally spoke, "Booth, another agent will be assigned to them—"

Booth cut him off, "You know as well as I do that Bones won't be okay with just doing the lab work. And you also know that no other agent is gonna put up with her in the field, heck it took me a few months to get used to her!"

"Booth, I know that you care about Dr. Brennan—"

"I don't care about her." He mumbled as Cullen continued.

"As partners, you care about her." He rolled his eyes, an action Booth had never saw his boss do before, "I'll do my best to make sure the agent with them will involve them as much as possible."

Booth looked at him and sighed, "Do you know what agent will be taking my place?"

Cullen pulled his glasses to his eyes and looked down at the papers in front of him reading, "It says here that Agent Sullivan will be the agent –"

"Sully!" Booth shouted.

Cullen moved his glasses down off his nose, "Is there a problem Booth?"

Booth gritted his teeth, taking deep breaths, "No sir."

"Hey Bones." Booth said solemnly as he sat across from her in the chair.

Brennan looked up from her paperwork, "What's wrong Booth?"

He grinned, she may not have learned to read people but she'd learnt to read him, "I have bad news."

"What's wrong?" She asked again.

He stood and walked over to her, "Will you have dinner with me tonight? I'll tell you then what's up, okay?"

She furrowed her brows, "Okay."

When he walked out the door she picked up the phone, "Tim, I'm going to have to cancel our date tonight."

"That's fine we'll have plenty of time to reschedule."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, thinking that it was an odd statement.

Sully smiled, "You mean you haven't heard?"

"Haven't heard what?"

"We're going to be partners!" he said excitedly.

Brennan's brows furrowed together, "What?"

When she had arrived at his apartment she smelt food cooking on the stove and heard the television on, all the while the radio was also playing; after listening for a moment she realized that Foreigner was singing. She grinned, "Booth I'm here!"

"Oh hey, didn't hear you come in."

"I wonder why?" she smiled at him, dreading what he was going to tell her.

His eyes shined, "Have a seat; supper will be done in just a minute."

They ate the delicious dinner on his couch while something on cable was being broadcast through the television. After their plates were clean she insisted upon helping with the dishes. While doing so a water fight ensued, leaving both soaked and laughing. However there seemed to be sadness behind Booth's gaiety.

They once again sit on the couch, him at the corner and her in the middle. She decided to let him tell her, she honestly wished that Tim hadn't so Booth could. "What's this bad news you were going to tell me?"

He smiled sadly at her, "I'm being reassigned."

Even though she already knew hearing it come from his mouth made her heart fall, "When? Why? Wh--?"

He took her hands in his, "Tomorrow's my last day at work, and I'm leaving the day after." He paused, "I don't know why, or how long… just that it's for a long time and not in D.C."

Her heart was beating so loud she could barely hear his words. She'd come to the realization that she was in love with the man in front of her, never mind Sully, she knew the minute she heard Booth and her would no longer be partners that it was true. She looked down at there now intertwined hands and smiled, "Booth?" She swallowed hard and looked directly into his eyes, before taking her lips to his for a mere second, "I think I love you."

The next morning she awoke in his arms and sighed at the contact and because she knew it'd be the only time she'd ever feel this way. He moved a little and kissed her cheek, "We'd better get going. I've got to tell the squints today."

At the lab they had gathered everyone into Brennan's office once Booth had arrived toward the end of the day, "Cullen has informed me that I won't be working with you anymore, in fact I won't be working in D.C. anymore."

After the goodbyes, tears and hugs from Angela and the squints Booth and Brennan were left alone in the lab, in her office. "I'll miss you." She spoke the words but didn't know where they'd come from.

He crossed the space between them and kissed her pulling her to the couch beside them. They seemed to be making up for lost time, but neither cared, they both loved the feel of each other's skin on theirs.

Brennan seemed to forget about her make up date with Sully for he was at her door knocking at seven that night. When no one answered he called her cell, no answer. He called the lab and Angela answered, "Sully…uhm…" she didn't know what to say, "I think she's spending Booth's last night with him. I believe they mentioned something about eating some take-out and watching," she laughed a little, "X-Files reruns."

Booth's last night may not have been spent exactly the way Angela had described it but Sully had left them alone, which later he would regret terribly. Booth and Brennan had made love all night and morning and when Brennan had gotten to work that afternoon at four, no one questioned her whereabouts; they left her to herself. To her thoughts about how she felt about Booth and Sully.

Brennan had kept her and Booth's affair to herself for a week while she and Sully continued whatever it was they had. Finally though she couldn't stand it any longer, "Booth and I slept together!" she blurted out, giving him no time to respond she continued to speak faster and faster, "I'm sorry, but when I found out that he was leaving, I … well…" she brought her eyes to Sully's, "We love each other… we just realized it a bit too late."

Sully didn't take it too bad, but he didn't take it well either, because he started to leave them out of certain parts of cases, like field work. Everyone knew that something had happened between the agent and anthropologist, but no one guessed what it was.

A month after Booth had left they had talked to each other a few times, but his location was still on a need to know basis, no matter who had what clearance. "I'm fine Booth, I promise." She sighed into the phone, "So you're pretty positive that you'll be wherever you are for years?"

She found herself asking this question every time they spoke and the answer was always the same, "I'm sorry Bones…I don't know and even if I did I wouldn't be able to tell you. I love you, Temperance." She returned the emotion with everything in her.

"I love you too." She paused, "Seeley, we are away from each other and will be so… I'm not expecting you to go cold turkey." She tried to hide her sniff, "Find someone to be with. I hope whoever she is will make you happy." Her tears started to fall, much to her dismay.

She knew that long distance relationships didn't work out just as much as he did, so she wasn't surprised when he'd said, "I wondered what had happened with you and Sully, now I guess I know." She didn't correct him, thinking that if he thought she'd moved on that it would help him to as well.

Brennan put the phone on the dock with tears in her eyes, she didn't know what to do (after that the calls got fewer and fewer, until one day they stopped all together). She wasn't sure what she was going to do, or who she was supposed to tell. And she defiantly didn't know how this had happened … well she knew how it happened … but not how … she was always safe; no matter whom she was with.

Angela found Brennan in her office deep in thought, head in her hands, and tearstains down her cheeks, "What's wrong sweetie?"

"I'm…" Brennan was shell-shocked, as she swallowed hard looking up at Angela, "I'm pregnant…"

Angela's eyes widened excitedly, "What? Who's… I mean, does Sully know? Are you going to tell him?"

Brennan looked at her, "Why do you think it's his?"

"Have you slept with anyone else?"

She remembered then that her, Booth and Sully were the few who knew of their escapade. "Uhm…no…" she lied.

"So then it's his?" Angela reasoned. "Are you going to tell him?"

Brennan wasn't sure who the father was., so she skipped the first question with haste and answered the second in a determined, stern voice, "No, I don't want him to know yet."

"Why not?"

Brennan thought, "I don't know what I'm going to do yet."

"What do you mean? You not seriously thinking of giving it up, not after your experiences in the system?"

"I don't know Angela! I'm not a people person! I've never really wanted kids…" Brennan was in tears again. "I just don't know… I wish..." Angela thought Brennan said Sully, but couldn't be sure because she was crying so much, "…was here."

Angela, trying to be a helpful friend smiled and stood, "I'll go call Sully…"

"No!" Brennan shouted, "No, I'll tell him when I'm ready! I'll tell him when I've decided what to do.'

"But sweetie, the father has a right to be a part of the decision process. And besides you just said you wished he was here."

"No, I said I wish Booth was here." Angela's expression she continued, "Before he left, since he walked into our lives, he always helped me talk through things," pausing she smiled, "that is after I talked them out with you."

Angela smiled. "I know I'm not as sexy as Seeley but I'm here anytime you need to talk."

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