Brennan took a personal day and waited patiently for Booth to leave for work, she had planned on making some progress on her latest book. She had gotten up and cooked him breakfast while he showered.

Booth walked into the kitchen "What are you doing?"

"Cooking pancakes"

"Tha-That's nice of you."

"I can be nice." She smiled at him

"You didn't have to do that ya know. I don't mind cooking breakfast." Booth tipped his head as he looked at her.

"But I can't expect you to do it all the time, especially when I am perfectly capable to making you pancakes."

She dished up some pancakes and handed them to him. He leaned in and kissed her cheek "Thanks Bones"

While she happily cooked away, Booth looked at the small discs in amusement and proceeded to cover them in butter and syrup. "BOOTH!"

"What?" he stopped with his fork poised over the syrupy mess.

"All that butter and sugar isn't good for you. You should put some fresh fruit on it. "

"But that is all part of having pancakes; lathering it up with butter and watching the syrup run down the sides onto the plate.

"I can hear your arteries hardening over here. They will have to insert a small device through your groin and send it up into your artery to inflate a small balloon …" she teased back.

"Way to ruin it Bones." He rolled his eyes at her and pushed his plate away. "I will grab something on the way to work.

"You know…"

"Nooooo I don't want to hear it." He leaned down and kissed her. "I'll see you tonight."

When he got to the door he turned to look back at her "Love you Bones."

"I love you too, Booth."

As soon as he closed the door she listened for his truck to start up and pull out. She listened until she couldn't hear it any longer and then she listened just a few minutes more before she grabbed the porta-crib out of the closet, a small bag of toys and snacks, a blanket, and finally Christine, then she made her way to the attic. She set the crib up and put Christine in it with the toys then made herself comfortable on the floor next to the box.

Opening the box she looked at it for a moment while she remembered the order she put the books in there. She pulled the books out careful to keep them in order. Finally reaching the book she wanted she sat back and rubbed her hand over the cover. She hadn't read these since she wrote them. Opening the page she was both excited and apprehensive about what awaited her.

That arrogant, conceited, egotistical bastard had the audacity to have homeland security detain me at the airport so he could pick me. Zach would not put his calls through to me so he used his status to have me detained..

Then the bastard asked me for help on a case, well he didn't really ask he just put it out there as if I was his own personal forensic anthropologist. I can't believe The Jeffersonian allowed me to be handed out like a piece of property. But I have to admit being able to give families closure, especially families of murder victims. The skeletal remains at Arlington were of a female. I pieced her skull back together last night; hopefully Angela will be able to give her a face today for Booth.

Brennan smiled as she read this, she remember this day well. Booth had picked her up from the airport, against her will, and driven her to Arlington Cemetery where skeletal remains had been found in the pond. She remembered well the exhaustion she felt when she was piecing together Cleo Eller's skull. Her walk home the next day only proved to test her endurance. Time changes along with her lack of sleep caused the short walk to seem much longer. The first time she had seen her bed in months, she sprawled her spent body across it. She only had a small amount of sleep when she was awoken to the noise of someone in her apartment. It turned out to be Peter coming to retrieve his TV or so he pretended, when in fact he had shown up wanting sex.

She shook her head, looking back she never understood why her and Peter spent any time together. This is what Angela would have called shopping around. Trying on different people to see how they fit, sometimes you think they fit alright, but as time goes on they begin to chafe, that is what Peter did, he chafed.

She turned her attention back to the book and turned the page

Booth vouched for me. Cullen said that he had warned Booth not to take squints into the field, but that Booth had taken responsibility for me. He almost lost this case because of me; we had 12 hours before he had to turn over the investigation to another agent. I couldn't let him down, not after what he did for me.

Tears touched her eyes as she remembered the look on Booth's face when he asked if they knew anything about the real world. He had no knowledge that his look was a knife to her heart. The pain sent her fleeing the room so he could not see his affect on her. HE couldn't let it go he came after her at the shooting range and he pushed more, he cornered her, he attempted to bully her and she lashed out and challenged the alpha male in him. She smiled remembering thinking Booth was a cocky bastard telling her squints didn't solve murders, cops did. She threw is cockiness back in his face, she called him a chicken, told him he was afraid of a man because of his status. "Be a Cop" she spat in his face.

She glanced to the next page which was dated several days later.

Booth arrested me because I shot the suspect in the case. He was destroying evidence; I couldn't let him destroy evidence, Booth should not have arrested me. I told him he should tell them he made a mistake, but he didn't. He did however arrange to have me released. Booth said that he should do the shooting from now on.

While I still think he is cocky, he is very good at what he does and he is willing to take me out in the field with him, even after I got him in trouble. I believe a partnership with him could benefit both of us.

This case turned them into partners; they both wanted the same, to honor the victims, give closure to the families and prosecute the guilty. They had both gained a new respect for each other, her respect of his gut; even if she didn't believe the gut had feelings, and his respect of her science. She smiled as she thought of where this partnership led and all she has learned from it.

She glanced at the sleeping form of her daughter and then her watch, she had a while before Christine woke up, she glanced down at the diary in her hand, she wanted to continue with her trek down memory lane, but realized she needed to work on her book while Christine was asleep. She placed the diary back in the box and opened her laptop. She started typing "Chapter 4 The Diary"