AN: Here's the next chapter, fast, I know. I hope this is what you were expecting. Don't know if y'all will need tissues or not, but here's what I have. I didn't get a lot of reviews for the last chapter…don't know if that was the timing on my post, or if it just wasn't that good. Either way, I look forward to seeing what you think. Also, I mention Medjugorje, which is widely known as a location of a Marion sighting…that is where a person or persons had a vision of the Virgin Mary. The town is also known to have strange phenomena attached to it such as a black disk appearing over the sun, weeping statues, pulsating suns, etc.

"October ninth. I am seven miles outside of Medjugorje. The weather is clear, a light breeze coming from the southwest…" Booth stopped reading and looked down into Brennan's eyes. "I don't know if I can do this Bones. I mean this is…this is something I don't want to share."

"I know it's tough Booth, but it obviously is something that weighs heavily on your mind." She absentmindedly traced a figure eight on his chest as he brought up a hand to rub down her arm. Neither said a word for a time and finally Booth spoke again.

"I wanted a miracle." Temperance lifted her head and looked up at Booth.

"Excuse me?"

"When I shot General Radjic, I wanted a miracle so bad. I wanted something that would take away the pain and guilt. I couldn't…I couldn't do it anymore. When I saw that little boy's face… it hurt. I felt my heart seize up, and for a moment, I couldn't breathe." He shook his head and leaned it back on the headboard. He felt her readjust herself to fit more comfortably against his side. "I went to Medjugorje to find some sort of absolution or miracle."

"What did you find there?"

"I found a lot of people that were also looking for a miracle. I thought at the time that no one deserved a miracle more than I did. I had killed a little boy's father, I had taken a life, broken a commandment, and I needed something that would prove I was a good person. I went back to St. James Parish everyday for a week, lit candles and prayed for forgiveness, but all I could think was that I didn't deserve it.

"Other people that were there, they saw the phenomena associated with the place, the pulsing sun, weeping statues, images in the sky, but I didn't. I just saw desperation. All of these people were there for some kind of proof that God existed, and I think I was doing the exact same thing. It shook my faith bad when that miracle didn't present itself." Booth sat up and pulled away from Brennan, rubbing a hand over his face. "Finally something happened that brought me back and made me think that maybe I could find that peace of mind I was looking for."

"What happened?" Brennan sat up next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. Booth smiled gently and put his own hand over hers. He rubbed his thumb across her knuckles mindlessly before he glanced over at her.

"Parker was born. He's been my everything. I knew that if God chose to bless me with a son that I had to be worthy of His love. That's when I decided to make up for the sins I'd committed. I was already in the FBI, but hadn't become a special agent yet, so I applied for the position and went through training at Quantico. I finally knew what I needed to do and had a purpose to my life again."

"I can't imagine you ever leading a purposeless life."

"I felt betrayed by the one thing I believed in. I felt like everything that I knew to be true suddenly wasn't, do you know what I mean?"

"More than you realize I think."

"Yeah?" Brennan nodded before scooting up next to Booth and wrapping her arms around him. He did the same to her and kissed her gently on the forehead.

"Michael was the first person to make me feel anything that wasn't related to anger or sadness. Sure, I was determined to succeed, it's who I am, but from the time my parents left until now…"

"I'm sorry he hurt you Bones." Temperance looked up at him and smiled. This wasn't about her comfort, and yet here Booth was trying to take hurt away.

"It's nothing to be sorry about. I'd been with people in college, but nothing that was ever serious. I didn't want to get close to anyone. People get close and I get scared. I shut down when I think I'm going to get hurt. The years in foster care made me think that I was incapable of being loved." Brennan shifted to her knees and took Booth's hands in her own. "I know what you're thinking about psychology, but it doesn't change what I felt. I was so determined to be my own person and to prove that I didn't need anyone.

"After I'd received my Masters, I became Michael's graduate student. He was very charming, and we clicked. He seemed to be my equal as far as intelligence went, and we ended up involved. I was only twenty three when we began working together. I followed him to sites in South America and Africa and learned so much from him, but something seemed to be missing in the relationship."

"Yeah? And what was that?" Booth leaned forward to kiss her, lingering only slightly before pulling back again. Brennan shifted again until she was sitting on his lap, her hands on his chest and her head on his shoulder. Booth reached up to stroke her hair, loving the soft, silky feel of it.

"I thought we would get married. We'd been together for four years, traveled the world to help identify remains as mass graves, and assisted with the recovery work in New York… In all of that time, we lived separately even though we were together almost every night. I brought up our relationship one night and asked him where he felt we were going.

"He scoffed and avoided answering the question. I knew then that the relationship was over. When I told him that, he began a litany of reasons as to why it was a bad decision to leave him. I said that we'd been together for a long time and I wanted a sign that this relationship was much more than physical." Brennan shook her head slightly, her face moving along the smooth planes of his skin. "He scoffed at the idea and said that there was no reason to get married. People didn't need to show a sign of commitment to prove they had one. The only problem was, he made no effort to show that he wanted a larger commitment. I left, and didn't see him again until our case."

"You mean to tell me that your asshole professor is the reason that you don't believe in marriage?"

"What he said made sense Booth. For two people to have a commitment to each other, you don't need proof of it. It's between those two individuals. Besides, marriage has its roots in ownership, with the father even paying the groom to take the daughter."

"No, he said it because he wasn't interested in getting married. He wasn't looking for that extra commitment, so he gave you a bullshit story about marriage being arcane. He hurt you because he never cared to begin with. He saw you as an easy target. You looked up to him as your professor, saw him as a mentor and he took advantage of that."

"That's not it…"

"But it is. You said it yourself. You wanted marriage, he didn't. You ended your relationship with him because of it. He rejected you, so you rejected the idea that was yours in the first place." Brennan picked her head off of Booth's shoulder to look at him.

"I don't want to be hurt again."

"I know." He brought a hand up and wound it through her hair, pulling her to him as he brought his lips to hers. When he pulled away, he looked at her. "I don't plan on hurting you." He snuggled back down into the bed, pulling Temperance down with him. She shifted her position so she lay up next to him, her arm wrapped around his middle and her head resting on his chest. The steady thump of his heartbeat was soothing to her overactive mind.

"Booth?"

"Yeah Bones?" Booth ran one of his hands back and forth across her arm, creating goose-bumps in his wake.

"Why didn't things work out between you and Rebecca? I mean I know she turned you down, but if you loved each other, that shouldn't have ended the relationship."

"You're right, it shouldn't have. I do still care a lot about her, but it wouldn't have worked out between us. I was devastated that she turned me down. I mean here she was, pregnant with my child, and I loved her, but obviously she didn't feel the same. I didn't talk to her for a week. When I finally had licked my wounds enough, it was too late."

"Did she ever tell you why she said no?" Brennan glanced up at Booth's face, then nestled her head onto his chest again. She began to trace shapes on his stomach, not really paying attention to the action.

"No. I've always assumed it was because she thought I wouldn't be a good provider, that she thought I had too many problems."

"She was scared of losing who she was."

"And you would know this because…?"

"I asked her once." Booth flipped Brennan onto her back and laid over her, looking into her eyes.

"Why?"

"I was curious, and I didn't think that you knew."

"You, Temperance Brennan are a strange one, but I love you." With that, he captured her lips with his again, sucking gently on her bottom lip, his tongue tracing along it, tasting. Brennan made a small sound at the back of her throat and closed her eyes. She was surprised at the wave of warmth that washed over her as he continued to manipulate her lips. Of their own volition it seemed to her, her hands traced over his body, smoothing over the muscles on his back.

It never failed to amaze her, the strength that his body held so easily. He had an almost unconscious control over that power. She arched her back to gain more contact with him, loving the way he felt pressed against her this way. Brennan reached around him, grasping his rear and pulled him to her. She could feel his growing interest nestled between their bodies as he gave a thrust of his hips.

"God, it's been so long," he murmured as he let go of her lip and kissed a trail to her neck where he sucked lightly on her skin. Temperance gasped lightly, moving her head to the side to give him some better access.

"Then don't wait any longer," she answered, her hands running up his back and to his hair. Booth pulled back from her briefly, helping her from her pajamas as she pushed his off his hips. With one look in her eyes, he knew he'd be safe with her, that she would stay by his side. In that moment, he wanted to show her what she meant to him, to make her his. When they joined together, he crashed his lips onto hers again, determined not to let her go.

XxXxX

Booth woke in the morning to sunshine streaming through his window. He frowned, not remembering ever opening them the night before. As he sat up, rubbing a tired hand over his face, his cell phone trilling loudly in the quiet of the room. As he picked it up, he frowned, noticing Temperance was not with him.

"Booth," he said into the phone. On the pillow next to him was a note written in Temperance's neat scrawl.

"Agent Booth, it's Talbert. I've got the information you wanted on that license plate."

"Great, let's hear it." Booth glanced at the clock on his bedside table. He was stunned to see it was ten in the morning.

"The license plate turned out to be from a rental car. He traced it back to the rental agency for the name of the last person to drive the car, one Michael Randall." Booth was stunned at the name. No, he thought, it couldn't be…

"Did you say Michael Randall?"

"Yes. The car is registered to a Hertz rent-a-car by the Flint airport. Looks like our man rented the car and returned it in between flights into an out of the state."

"Thanks Talbert, if I need anything else, I'll get back to you." He hung up the phone and dropped back down onto his pillow. Shit, shit, shit, this was so not good. After taking a deep breath, he dialed Cullen's number. When his boss answered the phone, he started in immediately. "Sir, there's a huge problem with the case."

XxXxX

Temperance sat next to Gavin's bedside, one of his hands clutched between her own. When she'd woken up that morning, she knew she needed to see Gavin even though her heart was screaming at her to stay with Booth. This was something that she had to take care of before she could completely commit to her partner. She left a note for him before leaving the house, hoping he'd see it before panicking about her absence at his side.

"How are you feeling," she asked Gavin as he smiled sleepily at her.

"Well, I hurt," he said, glad that he was on pain killers as he tried to get a little more comfortable.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did yesterday. I know there were some misunderstandings between us lately, and I just want you to know that I appreciate that you were looking out for me, it's sweet."

"You're an amazing woman Temperance, and anyone would be a fool to not care about you. I realize I was wrong about Agent Booth, and I apologize for jumping to conclusions."

"I'm not the one you need to apologize for that." She gave a small attempt at a smile as she looked down at him. Gavin saw the expression and shook his head a bit ruefully.

"You're choosing him, even though he's married?"

"It's complicated, but yes, I'm choosing Booth."

"I just hope he understands what he's getting, and if he doesn't then I'll just have to have a talk with him." That made Brennan smile for real.

"That won't be necessary, but thank you." She leaned down over him to give him a kiss on the cheek in thanks, but he turned his head at the last moment and their lips made contact instead. She pulled back in surprise and turned when she heard a throat clear from the doorway. Her heart beat quickly at the stormy look on Booth's face as he stood there. He held her gaze for a moment and motioned for her to join him.

"I have to go back to D.C." Brennan looked at him in surprise once she joined him. His face remained serious as he spoke.

"What? Why?"

"Another FBI agent will remain here to assist with the case, but I have to deal with a leak."

"Booth…"

"Look, I have to leave in a few minutes for my flight. I need to speak with Gavin for a moment."

"Look, what you saw…"

"You don't have to say anything Temperance, I understand." He squeezed her arm and went in the room. She watched him as he approached Gavin's bedside, but couldn't help but think that he didn't really understand.

At Gavin's bedside, Booth sat down and looked at the other man for a long time before speaking.

"I wanted to thank you for saving Temperance's life. I know that sometimes she thinks she doesn't need help, but she needs someone to look out for her."

"You love her, don't you?" Gavin looked at Booth, scrutinizing the FBI agent.

"More than you know. I want to see that she's happy whether that's with me or someone else. Take care, and keep an eye on her, won't you?" Booth stood and left the room, sweeping past Temperance on his way out of the hospital. She watched him walk by, her stomach dropping and knowing that he'd misinterpreted what he saw. She couldn't let him think that she was choosing someone else. With a deep breath, she went after him, hoping to catch him before he left.