The tension that filled the small table in the corner of the ice cream shop seemed to catch the attention every passerby. After years of a suitcase as her only friend sitting in front of the man that filled her every thought was something her heart was not willing to accept. It had to be some sort of delusional nightmare where she was much more than a failure and a freak.

Being alone was something Temperance Brennan had become just accustomed to. It was not like she had tried but chasing people away had become a specialty of hers, able to be released in an instant and without warning. The once great woman could instantly turn on a dime and send the nearest man running for his life. That is, until she became face to face her own desperation. The man sitting before her had done nothing but prove to her time and time again that he would never forsaken her.

"Mommy…" Joy whined as she spattered her mother with sprinkles, "your ice cream is meeeellllting."

"Oh." Brennan's eyes suddenly feel to the gooey mess sticking her hands to the table. "Sorry."

"Joy, do not talk to your mother like that." Booth's glare was determined yet soft.

"Booth, really it is okay." Brennan tried to reassure her partner but her words suddenly fell short.

How was she to explain in front of her own flesh and blood that she wasn't even worthy of the distinction of motherhood? Sure, she had given birth to the child sitting next to her but being a mother was much more than carrying a child for nine months. And she hadn't even been able to do that right. They had told her over and over that the long work hours were putting added stress on her child but justice was of utmost importance to the naive anthropologist. Booth had even taken to physically removing his partner from her office and locking her in her apartment but all that did was change the venue.

She had worked fourteen hour days before she got pregnant without any side effects. If she could stand the lack of substance and sleep then her child could as well. She was a Brennan after all. All it took was a fateful night to change Brennan's perception forever. No more long hours, not even an eight hour day. Temperance Brennan's schedule was short and void of anything close to thrilling or dangerous. Her life was as boring as they come, anyone could see that the soul had been suddenly drawn from this woman and she was only a shell of woman. There was a part of her that long for the excitement she once lived upon but it was always short-lived. Only with the man sitting before her did she feel any sense of relief for the aching need to be something, someone or even feel alive. He fed her desire to just be.

"Booth…" Brennan humbly whispered as she slowly came out of her solemn haze, "I'm sorry I didn't take precautions when we were partners."

"Joy, you should show your mo-… what?" Booth's frantic eyes searched the woman before him mercilessly yet yielded nothing. To get Temperance Brennan to even admit the smallest flaw took the sharpest of tactics and cunning, not just half melted ice cream and bad fifties music.

"I just thought…" Brennan's eyes suddenly fell in embarrassment, "I thought you deserved an apology. After all you did for me… everyone kept telling me not to… I… I just didn't listen. You were my best friend, my partner and my soul mate. You deserved to be listened to. She was… is… your DNA too. I was being selfish and I-"

"Daddy, what is mommy talking about?" Joy asked in pure child-like innocence.

"Nothing, Joy. Nothing." Booth's voice was weak and strained but his eyes never left the woman before him, "Here… take these and go win mommy something special." Booth's hands fumbled with his wallet, pulling out bills and placing them in front of their daughter.

"Cool! A twenty!" Joy beamed as she ran toward the arcade at the back of the store.

"Bones, what are you saying?" Booth's voice rasped as his hands slowly inched across the table.

"Never mind. It's just stupid and childish. I thought after all these years you deserved a real apology for my actions. I was thinking only of myself and I really owe you so much more. Maybe if I would have listened… maybe if I would have tried…"

"Bones," the former nickname fell slowly from his lips in unabated comfort, "it isn't your fault."

"But she was premature!" Brennan was illogically calm and high pitched, "I had a chance to keep my child from having to deal with countless surgeries and near death experiences and I… I…"

"Oh Bones." Booth placed his hands over her trembling ones, "What was meant to happen did. I would have liked for my daughter to not spend the first six months of her life in and out of hospitals too but you cannot change the past. She is a beautiful, healthy child now. The doctors said she recovered quicker then they ever expected her to and shows no permanent signs her first few months."

Brennan's hands slowly pulled out from under his and she clenched her seat to keep from falling over in shock. If she had stayed then she would have known what had truly happened but the sixth time Joy was rushed to the emergency room, Brennan knew her staying would cause many more problems. As much as it pained her to leave her the only two people she had ever loved she did what needed to be done. Maybe without her in the picture things would go back to way they once were before Temperance Brennan managed to screw up the lives of everyone around her daily.

"She was really sick…" Brennan cried in anguish, "I love her and I couldn't see the life slip from her small body every week. She… she just looked so small and helpless. I was her mother I should have been able to just…" Her voice trailed off to a mere whisper. She wasn't sure what she expected she was able to do back then but she knew as her mother she should have been able to at least do something more than run away.

"It was really hard on all of us, Bones. Together we would have gotten through it." Booth's heart began to tingle with a once familiar feeling, "She's happy and healthy now. It was hard then but everyone made it intact in the end." The second the words fell from his lips Booth knew the anguish the few small words had caused.

Everyone around him had made it through that first year and he knew without his deep support system each would have cracked under the slightest pressure. Yet the woman sitting before him had ran, fled the situation in terror and was left to deal with a long plaguing guilt that had practically eaten her alive. All the markers were there. The way her body seemed to come alive around the little girl he knew deep down she loved. Earlier in the night was the proof of five years of self degradation and loathing could do to a strong, independent woman. She had practically killed herself because that is what she thought she had to do to make things right. In her own convoluted way she was trying to right all the wrongs he had ever committed. And in that second, his heart shattered.

"It wasn't your fault." He once again tried to reassure the frail person before him. "She knows you love her."

Her eyes slowly flicked up, studying the slightly aged features that had haunted her dreams for years. Honesty was written all over his features and without even thinking the three raw words her heart had been pleading for years finally started to flow.

"But do you?"