If you'd just realize what I just realized, we'd never have to wonder if we missed out on each other.

"Bones?" He asked, still sleepy yet sounding more alert after hearing her voice. He looked over at the alarm clock. It was a little after three in the morning. "Bones, why the hell are you calling me at three in the morning?"

"I just…wanted to see how you're doing…" She lied and it was evident, but Booth humored her.

"Could you ask me again at…I don't know…eight when I pick you up?" He reminded her.

"I lied; I have something I need to talk about, I had a bad dream." She said quietly as she watched the sobering rain patter onto her window.

"Can it wait five hours?" He asked.

"I don't think so. Sorry to wake you up, though" She said, now feeling a little guilty, but she knew that she needed someone to tell. And since this directly included him, she thought him best to consult. She felt silly, too, like a little girl.

"Okay, what was your dream?" He asked, now sitting up in his bed and turning on his bedside lamp.

"It's…complicated. I'm not sure exactly what it was. But you were in it." She slowly said.

"Dreaming about me, Bones?" He laughed and tried to maintain his humor despite his disorientation.

"Yes. You were getting married" She stated. She didn't laugh at his joke. She was so confused and afraid.

"To who?" He asked hopefully. If she had dreamt that they got married, that had to mean something, right? Maybe she loved him, now. Finally. He scolded himself for that thought. He was supposed to be moving on. He made a promise. But he couldn't help loving her.

"Well, at first, I thought it was me."—his breathing halted for a moment—"Then, at the end of the dream after you kissed her, you turned around and it wasn't me. It was—well, I've never seen her face before."

"I don't understand what was so terrible about that" He said, confused. He understood from his perspective. He understood that marrying anyone besides Bones was not only improbable, impossible, but the most terrible thing he could do. He could never love anyone the way he loved Bones.

She looked down at her feet and pulled the discarded blanket toward her. She fumbled with the hem of her shirt and bit her lip.

"Bones?" He asked; unsure if she was still on the line with him.

"Yeah, I didn't think you would…sorry I woke you Booth." She said as she hung up the phone. Calling Booth had been a very bad idea.

He sat dumbfounded still listening to the clicking dial tone.

What had he said wrong? Why was him getting married a bad thing for Bones? She didn't believe in marriage. She wouldn't care, right? Sure, she might ramble some anthropological protest at him, but she wouldn't cry—which she sounded so close to doing. So, why did she consider his wedding a nightmare? Especially if she wasn't the bride…why did she sound so afraid?

He tried to get back to sleep but could not seem to escape the broken sound of her soft, quiet voice.

He drove by her apartment in the morning at the time they had agreed upon with coffee, she wasn't home. Her car was not in its usual space; she was already gone. He groaned and continued to drive to the institute.

"Bones! Where the hell is she?" He called, a little frustrated with her absence and a little anxious to discover why she was so fearful.

"She's in her office" Cam said, barely looking up from the remains that lay on the platform table.

He nodded and walked swiftly toward the door only to see Angela step in front of him.

"She doesn't want to see you. Why do you think she drove herself?" Angela asked seething, terrifyingly defensive. She was usually so jovial and friendly, but this Angela was truly scary. Booth had seen a lot of scary things, being a sniper, but Angela's protective side was definitely high on the list.

"What? Why doesn't she want to see me?" He asked, confused.

"I don't know, you tell me!" She glared and lightly shoved him back.

"Angela—" He warned.

"Maybe something about a late night phone call you blew off?"

"I answered it! It was three o' clock in the freaking morning! Excuse me if I was a little disoriented!" His tone escalated to match hers.

"She called you, scared out of her goddamn mind, about having a nightmare about you! And it's not so terrible?" She clenched her teeth and shoved him harder this time. Booth staggered back and raised an accusing finger and Angela.

"She doesn't believe in marriage. She doesn't love me. I don't understand why she's upset that she had a dream—you know, a dream…completely made up—that I got married and it wasn't her"

"It's a very real possibility to her, Booth. She would pretty much lose you to another woman."

"We're just partners, though" He repeated Bones' words sadly.

"Really, yeah okay, we both know that's crap."

"I'm not getting married anytime soon. I don't even have a girlfriend!" He argued.

"But you could…"

"What?"

"Maybe you should use your oh-so-superior FBI 'gut' to read between the lines. When Brennan—of all people—calls you in the middle of the night, desperate and scared because in her dream you were happily marrying someone other than her—it means something!" She ranted.

"She doesn't love me, Angela, I would—I would know." He found himself reiterating the words he had told Gordon Gordon—aside from the name—and he felt ashamed. If everyone saw it…then maybe it was there.

"Apparently not" She said coldly as she pushed past him and walked towards the lab.

"Angela!" He called after her. He followed her a few brisk steps and caught her arm."

"Get your hands off me, Agent" She said coldly as she slapped his hand.

"Bones, she—she told me she didn't love me. I told her I loved her! I told her and I tried to love her, but she wouldn't let me! What's your answer for that? What the hell does that mean?"

"She was scared." She answered as if it was obvious. She then stepped forward, swiped her card and looked back at him. "Goodbye Booth"

He meandered back to Brennan's closed door. He felt like he'd been there before.