Well, chapter three! I never expected to write this, but here it is anyway. :)
Thanks for the reviews, everyone! I really appreciate it :)
I'm kind of nervous for this chapter... In spite of everything I do like Hannah and I want to portray her correctly; not to bitchy, but not too sweet either. I have no idea how I succeeded...

Now enjoy!

As he drove home, Booth wondered why he felt so strangely relieved. Bones had been alright; she hadn't been trying to kill herself or drowning herself in alcohol, or she hadn't gone out to pick up a random man and 'satisfy her biological urges' – he wouldn't have been surprised if she had, but she hadn't. She'd been home and, although she'd appeared heartbroken, at least she'd been OK.

Physically.

He couldn't help but laugh bitterly at the irony of the situation – them causing each other the exact same kind of pain: the pain of being turned down, of seeing your chance thrown away. He knew exactly how she felt; after all, he'd been through the same. And now she knew how he'd felt, too. He wondered how long they would continue this dance of unintentionally hurting each other.

He'd reached home before he even realized it, and as he walked up the stairs he debated what to tell Hannah. They needed to talk, but how would she react? She was a graceful woman and she genuinely liked Bones, but, as the old poet said, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned… and after what he'd tell her, she may become a very scorned woman.

When he opened the door, he was greeted with the sight of Hannah slumped on the couch, eyes barely open. When she saw him, though, she stood up and hugged him hard. Surprised, he hugged back.

"Seeley. Where've you been? I was worried, you were just gone!"

"I left a note!" he told her, his voice rising slightly in defense. "Here-" he grabbed the note from the table and held it in front of her. She mouthed the words.

"You went to Temperance? Is she OK?"

Her immediate concern for Bones warmed him; on the other hand, knowing that she cared for Bones made this all the harder.

"She's alright," he said warily. "But we need to talk."

She looked at him immediately with worry and again his heart warmed at the sight of this caring woman. She sat down at once, taking him with her, and he appreciated how she simply accepted his statement.

"Is it Temperance? She wasn't herself, I know the case affected her somehow. Did she…"

"It wasn't just about the case," he interrupted. Then he sighed again. "Look, Hannah, you deserve to know the truth."

"What truth?" Hannah asked him immediately. "Seeley, you're really worrying me here."

"Don't worry, I'm not dying or anything," he told her dryly. "It's just… Bones and I... we have a history."

She nodded but said nothing else; in her eyes, he could see she was mentally preparing for what was to come.

"When we first worked together, that was-" he thought for a moment, "-over six years ago, we… sort of… kissed."

He could see the surprise in her eyes, but she didn't seem shocked or angry.

"I figured as much," she told him. "With the way you two act…" There was a hint of sadness in her tone, maybe because her suspicions had become confirmed, and Booth feared how she would react to the rest of the story.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, almost automatically. "I should've told you sooner, I just…" he couldn't explain it, not even to himself, let alone to her.

"It's alright," she told him. "What's a kiss six years ago?"

He swallowed. "No, it's not… there's more. " He took a deep breath.

"Oh God. Did you two sleep together?" For a moment, he was reminded of the time she moved in, and she had sounded exactly the same; shocked and slightly afraid.

"No, no," he answered distractedly. "She… we… no."

Hannah nodded, apparently relieved, and he continued talking.

"I, uh…" Maybe he'd thought talking to Bones earlier was hard, but this was so much harder to say. "Over the years I started, uh, liking her as more than just a friend." He couldn't meet Hannah's eyes; instead, he looked at his toes as he continued. "Last year, we went to Sweets to tell him that the Cleo Eller case wasn't the first one we'd worked and he'd made a mistake, and it all sort of … came up again."

He finally dared to look up and saw Hannah watching him intently. He saw no judgement in her eyes, no disgust or even pity: she simply looked at him with sympathy and maybe a touch of –entirely justified– anger. God, what had he done to deserve such a woman?

"When we went outside, I told her I wanted to try… and she, uh, she turned me down."

He felt a hand on his arm and Hannah gently squeezed it. "So that's why you seemed as if you'd just lost your puppy in Afghanistan." He was eternally grateful for the fact that she didn't seem angry or upset, but that she simply accepted the facts.

"Yeah… But, Hannah, you need to believe that I love you."

"I know you do," she said simply. "I love you too."

That concise statement allowed him to continue his story. "We haven't really talked about it... and I guess I thought she'd just pushed it away, you know, compartmentalized, but tonight…" he took another deep breath. "She was in Woodland, Hannah, in the rain, and she was almost run over before I pushed her off the street."

"She was almost in an accident?" She sounded disbelieving and he could understand that; it was nothing like Bones to risk her life in such a way.

"I don't know what was going on," he said, wanting to hear her opinion despite the hard story he was telling. "She seemed almost apathetic at first, but then she started saying stuff about how Lauren would do something dangerous if she felt emotional, and that the universe turned upside down for three days. I didn't know what the hell she was talking about, but then I gave her a ride back home."

"Wow, that's very unlike her," Hannah wondered out loud.

"Then on the way home she said…" He looked at Hannah and chuckled humourlessly. "She always had lousy timing… she said she'd made a mistake and that she didn't want to have any regrets."

Hannah was quiet for a long moment. "She asked you to be in a relationship with her." It was a statement, not a question, but he nodded anyway.

"And, you know, I told her I was with you, but then, God, Hannah, I've never seen her like that. She started crying and she didn't even look at me anymore, and when I dropped her off she just stepped out without even looking at me…"

He wanted, needed her to understand why he went to her apartment in the middle of the night. "I just wanted to check up on her, Hannah, I know how I felt last year and I didn't know what she would do."

Hannah took a deep breath, then nodded. "I understand," she said, the same words Bones had said to him less than an hour earlier.

There was silence for a long time. Hannah started ahead of her, into empty space, and Booth didn't want to interrupt her thoughts. Finally, though, she looked up and laughed mirthlessly. "This is quite the conversation to have at" –she checked the grandfather clock– "four in the morning."

"I was just so worried, Hannah. I didn't just want to call her. I was afraid she'd gone out and hooked up with a random guy or something, or..." He didn't dare finish the sentence.

"What happened at her place, then?" Hannah suddenly asked. "Was she drunk or something?"

He unknowingly gave a sigh of relief. "No, she just looked really sad. We just talked for a little bit. I didn't want to leave it the way I did earlier." He still felt reluctant telling Hannah about tonight, about everything between them, and he decided that the hug they'd shared wasn't so monumental she needed to know.

He bit his lip; now came the hard part.

"Hannah, before I say anything else I need you to believe that you're not just my rebound girlfriend or a consolation prize or anything like that. I seriously didn't expect anything after Bones and you just came along and… you made me so much happier, I mean, I'll always be grateful to you for that."

"Are we breaking up?" she asked him, sadly, and he was surprised by the resigned acceptance in her voice.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "But I think you need to know that…" he paused for a moment, trying to phrase his feelings carefully. "I don't think I'll ever feel 'just friendship' for Bones."

Silence. The grandfather clock in the corner had never ticked so loudly as he waited for Hannah's reply. When none came, he looked at her and saw that tears were in her eyes, and he felt incredibly guilty.

"Hannah, I…" he didn't know what to say. Running a hand through his hair, he tried anyway. "I want to be with you. I love you. But I don't think it's fair to you if you don't know this."

Finally, she nodded. "Thanks for telling me," she said, and her voice was hoarse.

"I'm really sorry," he told her, feeling like the words didn't cover in the slightest what had happened. "I really am. I wished it was different, but… these are the facts." The irony of telling her the same words he'd told Bones earlier didn't escape him.

Hannah sat up straighter and he could see she'd come to some kind of decision.

"So you've been in love with her since the beginning?" she asked and her tone was much lighter, as if she was casually asked about the weather.

"Not in love," he replied. "She just always had… I don't know, something in her just attracted me. Even though everybody said she was a cold fish, I just wanted to prove them wrong, somehow."

"Yeah, it's so annoying when people make assumptions like that," she muttered, more to herself than to Booth. Then she turned to him resolutely.

"Do you still love her?"

He swallowed. This was the question he'd feared; one of the hardest questions he'd have to answer. He thought carefully about what to say, but decided there was no good way to say this.

"I don't think I can not love her," he said. His lips were dry; he licked them in the deafening silence. In the end he could take it no longer; he was a jackass for doing this to Hannah, he needed to explain, to make clear that it was only his fault.

"Hannah, I'm… I feel terrible feeling like this and want to love only you, I really do, but … can you love two people at once?" he asked miserably.

She laughed, softly, an unexpected sound in the silence. "You can," she told him. "You really can."

She didn't sound resentful and he had a hard time figuring out how she felt. In her place, he suspected he'd be angry, upset and definitely not as calm as she was right now.

Hannah seemed to be able to read his mind, because she leaned forward and placed her hand on his again. "I'm OK, Seeley," she said a little sadly. "Can't say I'm happy with this, but I understand."

He breathed a sigh of relief. "You do? God, what did I ever do to deserve you?"

"I don't know, but I've asked that question myself," she said, with a bit of her old playfulness. "Guess you just got lucky."

"That I did," he answered while he looked into her eyes. "I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't been there… Maybe I wouldn't have been here tonight. Really, I know it sounds lame but I can't thank you enough, Hannah. You… you healed parts of me I didn't even know were hurt."

"Well, you're welcome… I guess," Hannah replied, bewildered at the absurdity of the conversation.

He grasped her hand atop his. "So, what now?"

It was a good question.

What now?

So, what'd you think? I hope it was enjoyable for both Hannah-lovers and haters! Please tell me what you thought; reviews are very, very much appreciated. :)