You want love, but you fear it.

Your attention's been shifted.

You summed up the feeling with a simple dismissing.

What you gonna do?

Deceiving, it ain't you, believe it.

Cause our love, ain't easy it changes with seasons.

He didn't know where to start. She'd given him about a month to prove himself; to prove that they were really meant for each other. And while he'd had confidence in his plan while he was begging her to let him go through with it, Booth had no idea where to start to actually implement it. He needed someone to bounce ideas off of, and frankly he was tired of Cam's failing advice.

"What do you think, Katie? Should I get her daisies again?"

Booth was currently at the grocery store with the child and they had just passed the floral department.

"No," came Katie's response.

"Well I can't get her roses, right?"

"No."

"Well then, what do you suggest?"

Katie reached her hands out of the cart toward a bunch of purple flowers Booth didn't recognize. He picked up the bouquet and handed it to her.

"Yes!" she squealed, scooping the flowers into her tiny embrace.

"Are you just picking these because they're your favorite color?"

"Yes."

"Well if she doesn't like them, I'm blaming you."

Katie just giggled in response.

"All right, what else do we need?" Booth asked, consulting his list.

"Cheerios!"

"Cheerios? Don't we have a full box of those at home?"

Katie just shrugged.

"I'm pretty sure we just bought you a box. And besides, I told you we're here so I can cook dinner for Brennan, er Mommy. I don't think she'd want Cheerios for dinner."

After Katie had called Brennan "mama" last week, they'd decided it would be best to encourage her to call them Mom and Dad. When she was older, they would tell her about Hodgins and Angela, but for now it was just the two of them.

"But they yummy!"

"Yes, but they're for breakfast."

"No, anytime!"

"Maybe you can get away with that, but not the rest of us. So I was thinking about making something along the lines of pasta. That wouldn't be too hard, right?"

"Why ask me?"

"Because there's nobody else here to ask, silly."

"There's lady," Katie said, pointing to a store employee, who was stocking the shelves.

"Hmm… I'd still rather talk to you."

She laughed, running her hands over the flowers in her lap.

"Careful with those, sweetie. There still needs to be petals on them for when I give them to your mom. I can't just give her the stems, now can I?"

"No," Katie laughed.

"That's what I thought."

As Booth began gathering the various supplies for this dinner, he couldn't help but pray that this would work. There's no way he could share Katie with Brennan the way he shared Parker with Rebecca. It was hard enough only seeing his son every other weekend. He couldn't imagine having that same relationship with his daughter, even if she really wasn't his. She was his now and that was all that mattered.

But this was about more than that. This was about Brennan. He couldn't lose her. Not ever again. For years she had been his best friend, his rock, and his partner. And after their year of fighting, he wanted more than anything to get all of that back. He wanted that girl who would rather drink beer than eat ice cream after a tough case. He wanted that girl who would race him to their coffee cart and then try to use logic to explain her losing. But most of all, he wanted that girl who would lay her head on his shoulder when she was upset and just let him hold her. Booth was ready to be that guy again, he just needed his girl.

"You're home late," was the first line out of Brennan's mouth when Booth walked though the front door with Katie and his dinner supplies.

"Sorry, I went to the grocery store with Katie. My phone was on; you could have called me."

Brennan just shrugged, moving to take Katie from him. Booth pulled the purple flowers Katie had picked out from his bag.

"We picked these out for you. Well Katie did, but I decided that she was right."

"Purple!" Katie squealed from Brennan's arms.

"Perhaps she wanted them for herself," Brennan quipped, smiling down at her.

"Maybe… say do you know what type of flowers these are? We couldn't figure it out."

"I don't know. Let me consult my giant encyclopedia of botany."

"Still haven't found a botanist, huh?"

Brennan groaned. "Cam's interviewing one tomorrow. I swear if she doesn't hire him…"

"I'm sure he's plenty qualified."

"Nobody's qualified. That's the problem."

"There has to be someone. Not everybody can be terrible."

"You'd be surprised," Brennan mumbled, heading into the kitchen.

Booth followed, carrying his bags of groceries and the flowers. He put the flowers in a vase and then began unpacking the plastic sacks.

"What's all of that?" Brennan asked, gesturing over her shoulder at all of the food while she put Katie into her highchair.

"I'm making you dinner," Booth replied with a shrug.

"Booth –"

"No, come on. Let me do it. I want to."

Brennan sighed. "Fine. Is it something you can feed her too, or do I have to make her dinner?"

"It's pasta. She'll eat it."

She nodded, grabbing the vase of flowers and placing them in the center of the dining room table. Then she went to get Katie her coloring notebook and crayons. The child couldn't draw much yet, but she sure did enjoy scribbling various colors. Maybe she had an artist in her after all. With Katie content, Brennan picked up the newspaper and sat down at the table.

"Have you found a cause of death yet?" Booth asked casually, as he started boiling the water for the pasta.

"If I had, I would have told you," Brennan responded annoyed, without looking up from the paper.

"Bones, it's been almost a week. You never take this long."

"Don't you think I know that?"

"Yes, you're yourselves toughest critic. I was just making conversation."

"It sounded like you were judging me."

"I wasn't. I swear."

Brennan sighed. "I'm about ready to rule it an air embolism or drowning or something else that wouldn't leave any trace on the bones. Fischer and I can't find anything. Dr. Wessland found some blow flies, so we have time of death, but I already told you that two days ago. And I suppose the blow flies rule out drowning…"

"Any particulates?"

"Yes, I just can't identify them, which is why we really need a botanist."

Booth, thankfully, let her read the paper in silence after that. Dinner was eventually ready and he served it up to all three of them. They ate in silence for a few minutes, before Booth spoke up again.

"Do you still write?"

"Of course I do."

"Kathy and Andy?"

"…Yes."

Booth nodded, taking a sip of his wine.

"Why?" Brennan asked, when he didn't press any further.

"Well it's just you haven't published anything in a while and I haven't seen you writing anything since we moved in together."

"Forgive me for going through a major life crisis."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"For your information, the final book of the series is with my editor right now."

"Final book? You're ending it?"

"It's kind of hard to write Andy, when you think he's never going to speak to you again. I thought we were over, so I made it over for them," Brennan shrugged.

"You broke them up?"

"Read it and find out."

"But I normally get the first copy!" he complained.

"Editor, Booth, not publisher. It's not readable yet."

"Well now that we're getting back to being okay, will you continue it?"

Brennan shook her head. "Not with the way I ended it, I can't."

"It hasn't been published. You have time to fix it."

"I don't want to fix it. It's a good ending to their story. If you're worried about their story being some sort of symbolic parallel to ours, don't. Just because Kathy and Andy's story ended doesn't mean that ours has to."

This seemed to put Booth at ease and they both went back to eating.

"But what are you going to write now?" he asked a few minutes later.

"More Kathy Reichs books."

"But I thought you just said…you did break them up!"

"No…I just killed him off."

"You killed me off?"

"I was mad at you."

Booth scoffed. "Remind me to never get on your bad side again. You might actually end up killing me. And you could get away with it too with that perfect murder plan of yours."

"This is very true."

He couldn't help but laugh at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing. It's just you're so very…you."

"Thank you…I think."

"Why don't I clean this up, while you give Katie a bath and put her to bed, and then we can see if there's anything decent on TV?"

"Sounds like a plan," Brennan smiled, picking Katie up out of her highchair. "Come on little one, let's get you cleaned up."

Booth watched as she ascended the stairs. For a woman who used to never want children, she made a pretty great mom.

They were sitting on the couch in uncomfortable silence. Brennan kept crossing and uncrossing her legs, simply trying to find a comfortable position. It was clearly bothering Booth, however, because she could feel his eyes on her legs. Eventually she felt the weight of his hand pressing into her knee. She dragged her gaze away from the TV to meet his eyes.

"Sorry," she apologized softly.

But Booth didn't move his hand. Instead he dragged it up her thigh, his thumb brushing her leg on its way back down to her knee. Brennan could feel the goosebumps forming through the material of her jeans. He did it again, this time dragging his hand up higher. She drew in a sharp breath as she felt the throbbing begin between her legs. On his next drag, he went up all of the way pressing the seam of her jeans into her. At that, her eyes fluttered closed and a small moan escaped her lips, but she forced herself not to let him have her yet. She was still mad at him after all.

"Our relationship has to be based on more than sex, you know," Brennan stated without opening her eyes.

"Look who's talking."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You used to believe that relationships were purely sex; simply carnal and nothing more."

Her eyes flew open and locked back onto his.

"People change."

Booth didn't respond, simply dragging his index finger beneath the waistband of her pants.

Brennan grabbed his wrist. "Stop."

He withdrew his hand with a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest.

"So what, you're going to pout now because I won't let you sleep with me again?"

"I'm trying, Bones. I'm trying to earn your forgiveness here."

"And I'm trying to forgive you, but it's hard."

They fell back into another uncomfortable silence. The TV was busy advertising a new romantic comedy coming to theaters next month.

"Angela used to make me watch those things with her. I always despised them. Real life just doesn't work that way."

"Not a 'Rom Com' fan?"

"A what?"

"Romantic comedy," Booth explained, feeling slightly embarrassed that he called them that and she didn't. Of course this was Bones, he was talking about here. All these years with her, and her pop culture references were still minimal.

"Oh. Nope."

"Come on. There has to be at least one or two that you like. I even enjoy a couple of them."

"Well, I suppose When Harry Met Sally wasn't all bad."

Booth smirked. "Do you agree with its basic premise?"

"What, that a man and a woman can't be 'just friends?' I was 'just friends' with Hodgins."

"Yeah but, Hodgins didn't know your deepest, darkest secrets. I do."

"We're…just friends."

"Bullshit."

"Well we were for six years."

"But it can't be that way anymore. Things have changed between us."

"You're right. I don't trust you anymore."

"It was one mistake! I get why you're mad, I do, but you can't really plan on holding this over me forever."

"I don't intend to. You just have to give me time, Booth."

"So on March 15, we're magically going to be okay again? I thought you needed me to convince you that we are meant to be or something."

"I don't know, okay? I just need time…and space. I know it's been a few years since this whole Hannah thing. I know that I need to just let it go. But I don't trust that easily; I don't fall in love that easily. You know that. I just need time to be okay with it, to accept the fact that you were trying to hurt me, but you're sorry. Forgiveness will come because let's face it, it's us. I may not believe in fate the way you do, but you and I…we were always going to end up together. I've known it for years. I've just been afraid of it."

"So that night outside of Sweet's office when I said that I've known since the beginning, you knew too?"

"I didn't know right from the beginning. I hated you right at the beginning. I told you the other day that I knew I had feelings for you when you were shot. It was within that following year that I started to realize that eventually we would happen."

"So then –"

"Stop. Right there. We've had this argument dozens of times before. I'm not getting into it again."

"Relax. That isn't where I was going."

"Oh," Brennan said, visibly relaxing. "Well then, go on."

"Thank you. So then if you know we're going to end up together, why are you fighting it?"

Brennan looked over at him and then reached for his hand, lacing her fingers in between his.

"What are you doing?" Booth asked.

"I'm trying to stop fighting it," Brennan said, giving him a half-smile.

Booth smiled back as Brennan returned her attention to the television. Maybe, he thought, just maybe, winning her back won't be as hard as I thought it would be.

"Dr. Brennan, I'd like you to meet our new botanist, Dr. Thomas Ross," Cam said proudly, as Brennan entered the Jeffersonian the next morning.

"Dr. Brennan, the pleasure is all mine," Ross said, shaking her hand. "Oh and I've identified the particulates. This man was killed in the north end of West Virginia and later transported to D.C. He was found here, correct?"

"Yes, he was," Brennan nodded, giving him the once over. "I approve."

"I'm honored. I know all about your work here at the Jeffersonian and I intend to live up to the expectations."

"Glad to hear it."

Brennan turned to go to her office. Cam followed right behind her.

"Here to badger me about my relationship with Booth again?" Brennan asked once they were in her office.

"Uh, no. I wanted to tell you about Dr. Ross and his credentials."

"Oh, well go ahead then."

"Okay first of all, he has a minor in entomology, so I was hoping he could help out where Dr. Wessland is lacking."

"That's a good start," Brennan commented. "Where did he study?"

"Stanford. And he earned his doctorate at Oxford."

"Excellent. What was he doing before this?"

"He held an assistant teaching position at Oxford, while helping with ongoing investigations. He said he came back to the States because he missed it too much."

Brennan nodded, taking in this information. "Do you know his case closure rate?"

"Not exactly, but from his stories about some of the cases he was working on, I'd say it's pretty high."

"He sounds promising. Well done, Cam."

"Thank you. Dr. Ross may not be Hodgins, but he's pretty damn close."

"No one will ever be Hodgins, that much is clear. But like I said, he sounds promising."

Cam nodded. "Oh and Fischer found something on one of the bones he wants you to take a look at."

"Is it the cause of death?"

"He's not sure. That's why he wants you to look at it."

"Okay, tell him I'll be there in a minute."

"Will do," Cam agreed, leaving Brennan's office.

Brennan glanced around her office, reminiscing about her old team. Dr. Goodman, Zach, Hodgins, Angela…they were all gone. She had been so sure all of those of years ago that this team would be hers until the day that she retired. And now, every single of one of them had been replaced. She liked Cam and the squinterns, and Sweets had ended up being a nice addition to the team. Dr. Ross seemed like someone she could grow to like, but she doubted that Annah and Dr. Wessland would ever get to that point. At the end of the day, she and Booth were all that were left of that original dynamic team, and no matter how hard she tried, she would never get over that fact.

"Agent Booth, can I talk to you for a second?" Sweets asked, popping his head into Booth's office.

"You're not here to pester me about my relationship with Brennan again, are you?"

"No, no nothing like that."

"Then sure, Sweets, come on in," Booth told him, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. "What's on your mind?"

"It's about my wedding to Daisy. I have a favor to ask you –"

"Wedding stuff? Seriously, Sweets? Do I look like the kind of guy who knows about wedding stuff? I've proposed twice and was turned down both times. So if you're looking for advice on color schemes –"

"Actually, I was hoping that you would be my best man."

"Whoa, whoa, back up. Me? Your best man?"

"Well yeah. I don't have any brothers and I've really lost touch with my friends from school, so you're the obvious choice. I know you may not always see us as friends, but –"

"Hey. We're friends. I may find you annoying sometimes, but we're friends. We've been through a lot together, you and me. And frankly, the team just wouldn't be the same without you."

"So, you'll do it?"

"I'd be honored."

"Awesome! Thanks Agent Booth!"

"Sweets, I uh, I think it's about time you drop the 'agent' and just call me Booth, all right?"

"Right, yeah, I can do that. Hey, do you think that means I can just call Dr. Brennan, 'Brennan' now?"

"Definitely not."

"Why not? I've known her just as long as I've known you."

"Yes, but Bones…she's very particular about names and titles and what not. If she wanted you to drop the 'doctor' she would have told you by now."

"You never got her permission to call her Bones," Sweets protested.

"Well yes, but she and I are different, you know? We've been that way since we met. And yes, she used to hate it when I called her Bones, but now she hates it when I don't. My nickname for her…it's ours. And the only people who called her Bren or Brennan are dead now."

"She lets Cam call her that now."

"I don't know then, Sweets. Try calling her Brennan and see what happens. But don't come crying to your best man when she bites your head off."

"How is that going, by the way?"

"Hey now, you said you weren't here to discuss this."

"Originally, I wasn't. But since you brought her up…"

"Things are still complicated. That's about all you're going to get out of me at this point."

"Fair enough. Hey, thanks again, Booth. You being my best man really means a lot to me."

"I'm glad I could help, Sweets. I really am."

AN: So I was sort of channeling Michelle Tanner from Full House, so Katie is probably talking way more than someone her age would…my bad. Reviews warm my heart. You know what to do. *wink, wink.*