Annnnndd heeerrree weeeee gooo!

The silence was thick in the office as Booth finished the telling of his story.

Hodgins leaned back in his chair and looked at the ground, running a hand through his curly hair thoughtfully.

"You're right. It is a conspiracy." Strangly enough, saying those words didn't bring him the pleasure it usually did. Maybe because he knew the pain Booth and Brennan were in because of it.

He sighed and met the gazes of his anxious looking friends, "Look, give me a couple of hours. I'll make some phone calls, see what I can find out."'

Booth nodded and stood, bringing Brennan along with him as both were still attached by their clasped hands.

Hodgins walked them to the door and gave Booth a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder before he followed Brennan out.

"Don't worry man, we'll get to the bottom of this."

Again Booth only nodded, having grown weary at speaking, especially about what he'd been up to for the past two months.

As soon as they were out Hodgins shut his door and got down to business.

Neither Booth nor Brennan said anything as they slowly made their way out of the deserted lab. Even Angela had gone out for lunch, which filled Brennan with a guilty joy.

She loved her friend dearly, but right now Booth needed her and she couldn't be dragged off to be pumped for details on her love life.

Brennan noticed Booth was automatically leading them toward the SUV, but stopped him and pulled him in the opposite direction.

"Lets go to the gardens for a while."

Booth nodded, and Brennan was painfully aware of his sudden silence.

"Seeley. Stop." She calmly placed a hand on his chest and pushed him onto a bench near the fountain.

"Hey! I'm injured you know. I'll sue." He made a lame attempt a humor, hoping it would distract her from what was inevitably her next question.

"Booth, are you alright?" She sat down beside him and put her hand on his knee.

They call it 'inevitable' for a reason.

"I'm fine Bones."

"Because you know you can tell me anything, right?"

Booth looked at her, the uncharacteristic softness in her eyes finally convinced him to ask a question he was sure she wouldn't understand the first time through.

"Temperance…will you ever forgive me?" His nightmare from the night before flashed before his eyes before he gently shook it away.

She looked startled and squinted at him under the midday sun.

"What do you mean? You haven't done anything to me."

"No, not to you, exactly. But, I killed those men, Bones. I murdered them in cold blood." Booth plucked at a piece of grass and crushed it between his fingers.

"No. Not cold blood. Murdering someone in cold blood implies taking a life willingly with a sociopathic lack of remorse or second thought to the consequences. You Booth, are not a sociopath. You were ordered to kill those two men."

"Well, I wasn't really ordered."

"Maybe not in so many words, but they did present you with a convincing argument that appealed to your nature and you could not have resisted. And besides that you cannot say you don't feel remorse because your asking my forgiveness shows you do."

Booth still held his head in his hands, so Brennan moved closer and placed her arms around his.

"Booth, I know there are a lot of things that happened in your life that I am sure you'd rather forget…but I don't want you to." She spoke softly, as if sharing a secret.

"Everything you've done in the past, good or bad, has helped mold you into the person you are today."

She leaned around his slumped shoulders captured his lips easily.

"And I love that person."

Booth cupped her head and deepened the kiss, her words seemed to momentarily lift the weight he felt in his chest and he got caught up in her. The smell of her hair, the taste of her lips…he wished he could stay like that forever.

He especially noted that the only thing that seemed to make his troubles slip his mind was a kiss from his Bones.

The moment was broken however, when Booth accidentally started to yawn, making the kiss instantly awkward.

"Sorry." He apologized, his cheeks turning bright red.

Brennan pulled way laughing.

"Are my kisses that bad Booth?"

"No! No, it's just…"

She put her finger on his lips and stood up beckoning him to join her.

"It's fine Booth. Look, you're obviously tired, you want me to take you home so you can get some rest?"

The glare she received from Booth made the answer obvious and she rolled her eyes.

"Fine. How about we go back inside? I have some paperwork I can do and you can sleep on the couch. That way we'll both be here when Hodgins finds something."

She needn't have continued to explain, for they were already walking back towards the Jeffersonian, still hand in hand, their fingers fitting together like two puzzles that finally found their missing pieces.

At Brennan's office, Booth kissed her once on the cheek before bee-lining for her sofa and making himself comfortable. At first Booth just watched her, finding her usual focus and determination relaxing.

She shuffled papers around on her desk, clicked her mouse and tapped the keys of her keyboard. Then more shuffling and tapping, a squeak of the chair as it rolled across the floor, more shuffling…

Finally the gentle rhythm of Temperance Brennan hard-at-work brought sleep to him.

"Wow, I didn't think you would still be here." Hodgins walked into Brennen's office and after a few seconds she looked up from her computer screen and blinked.

"What are you talking about?" She glanced back at the time code on her computer. "Oh."

It was after six, she'd finished her paperwork ages ago and had gotten so wrapped up in her novel that she didn't even think to check the time.

"Well, Booth didn't want to leave in case you got something." She stood from her chair and stretched, her back cracking slightly in protest.

Hodgins nodded, "Where is Booth anyway?"

Brennan pointed at her couch, where Booth lay stretched out and snoring softly. She'd covered him with a blanket a while back and he seemed to be sleeping quite comfortably. Of course, she wasn't surprised, for the kind of money she'd paid for that couch it better be comfy.

"Oh." Hodgins walked further into her office and shut the door, even though the lab was all but empty.

"You should probably wake him."

"You have something?"

Hodgins nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets as Brennan started to rouse Booth, though she immediately regretted doing it when the calm look on his face was disturbed.

"Hey handsome, time to wake up."

Booth muttered under his breath and started to pull the blanket up over his head, Brennan put a hand out to stop him.

"Hodgins has something."

Booth's eyes popped open and he sat up quickly.

"Let's hear it."

I scream you scream we all scream for FLUFF! haha. Well...go ahead and review, you know you're all awesome at it.