A/N: Hmmm. I'm not sure about this chapter, but this is where the muse went. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing Bones related except my imagination.

Booth lay in bed with the sheets twisted loosely around his waist thinking he should have gone ahead and indulged in another glass of scotch (or two) before turning in for the night. He'd been tossing and turning for the last hour and now he was staring at the ceiling as he endeavored to fall asleep. Hannah was coming home tomorrow afternoon. She'd been traveling with the press corps for the last five days, flying out the morning following the Jeffersonian gala, but she should be back by the time he got home from work tomorrow evening. In the past, when she left town on business travel, he missed her and was eager for her to return. But, with this trip, for the first time since they'd starting living together, her departure had predominantly yielded a sense of relief. After the gala, he had felt like his head, his chest, and his heart were all being constricted . . . squeezed tightly by an unseen hand and he couldn't breathe easy or start to think clearly again until she took off and he was left in solitude.

That's not to say he didn't still miss her or wasn't looking forward to her homecoming, but the evening of the gala had left him feeling unexpectedly confused about their relationship and he'd sorely needed a little time and space away from her to think about where they were heading as a couple and what he really wanted.

Was it Hannah specifically that he was missing, or was he just missing having someone to come home to?

His apartment definitely felt lonelier without her there. He'd gotten used to the little sounds of someone else in his living space – the rattle of the shower pipes in the morning, the new-age dance-type music that she liked (and he didn't) which she would play in the background at night, the clacking of the keys on her laptop as she sat at the kitchen table responding to emails or corresponding with friends in the early evenings. Sounds like these were not really much more than white noise, but they brought a sense of comfort because they disrupted the silence that signified a solitary life. When he concentrated his mind on trying to identify what it was he missed about her when she was absent, a number of these types of small things would stream through his brain. While these things were all congruent with having someone in his life, they were not necessarily unique to Hannah.

So, Booth had tried repeatedly over the last week to force his mind to think about the things he was attracted to about Hannah that were uniquely hers.

He tried to think about her intelligence and sharp wit but invariably he'd hear the echo of his partner's voice in his mind relaying some obscure facts of trivia or telling some sort of really lame joke which would still always manage to make him smile.

He tried to think about Hannah's eyes and the sultry way that she would smile at him over a candlelit dinner, but the image in his mind consistently transformed into his partner's countenance and he'd picture the reluctant upward quirk to her lips and the melting warmth in her eyes that always followed his successful attempts to charm her into doing something against her better judgement.

He tried to think of Hannah's passion and dedication to her work but for every instance he could think of where he'd heard a story about how she'd put herself out there to nab a headline or reveal an injustice, he knew of a dozen more about Bones and the lengths she'd gone through over the years in the pursuit of truth and justice, many of which he'd been present to share in and witness first hand.

No matter where Booth tried to focus his mind, no matter which of Hannah's many admirable traits he thought about, it always ended up with him comparing Hannah to Bones and Bones coming out on top.

Booth was certain that he really did love Hannah. She was smart, funny, attractive, and she made him feel good.

But, he finally conceded that in spite of all his denials to the contrary, he still loved Bones too. She was also smart, funny, attractive, and she definitely made him feel. Sometimes it was good, sometimes bad or mad or angry or just plain nuts, but it was always something. The spectrum of emotions he experienced with Bones was just so much more expansive than what he felt when he was with Hannah. It was like comparing a single ray of a color to a rainbow . . . and regardless of where his emotions landed on the rainbow spectrum, he knew Bones accepted him and would stand by him, watching his back, whereas he honestly had no idea what to expect if he strayed from the one color he shared with Hannah, even after several months of dating her.

Which brought him to his next series of question. What now? Should he give his relationship with Hannah more time to grow and expand? Or was it time to end it? Bones had said she loved him. Did that mean she was ready for something more? If not now, would she ever be? If he waited, would he lose his chance for good?

Looking into the future ten years, five years, or even just two years down the road . . . he couldn't picture what a life with Hannah would look like. She'd been quite vocal about not wanting to get married and he didn't think the Capitol Hill press corps would satisfy her career aspirations for very much longer. Most likely, she'd eventually want to make a career move which would require more travel of her and their relationship would morph into a long distance one, at least for large chunks of time, which is not what Booth wanted.

On the flip side, he couldn't picture a life that didn't include Bones. She also eschewed marriage quite vocally, but it was more because she objected to the stereotypical characterization of wives being subservient to husbands as opposed to equal partners. Even though most modern day marriages were a more equal balance between spouses, the anthropological origin of the marriage institution stems from the premise that a woman could not be self-sufficient and needed a man to survive. To Bones, since that premise is no longer valid, marriage itself became an outdated institution by default. That didn't mean she doesn't believe in commitment or fidelity or the family unit. As a matter of fact, Booth was certain he knew Bones well enough to say that she secretly yearned for commitment and a family of her own. She was simply too afraid to risk her heart to go after it. If he could just convince her to give them a chance, he still believed they could have the next fifty years together. He understood they'd probably never be a traditional family, married with kids, but he could easily picture them growing old together in a house with a dog. And that was a hell of lot more preferable than being with a woman who would likely be gone, traipsing around the world, more than she was home.

These thoughts and questions running through his mind right now were the same ones that had been running through his mind all week and he wasn't sure he was any closer to having answers that would both calm his mind and satisfy his heart. After several days of intense reflection and concentrated introspection, Booth simply came back to a truth that he had already known for some time but had chosen to neglect. For him, Bones was the standard and always would be.

With recognition of that fact, there was really only one reasonable and fair path forward. When Hannah got back from her travels, it was time for the two of them to have a serious talk about their relationship and what they both wanted from it.

Standing in the kitchen the next afternoon with a half-finished bottle of beer, Hannah glanced down at her phone and the text message she had just received from her boyfriend, reading it for the fifth time in just the last few minutes since it appeared.

Need to catch up on some paperwork. Will be a little late getting home tonight. 8? 9? See you then.

She'd gotten home from the airport about an hour ago, taken a quick shower, unpacked her suitcase, put on a little naughty lingerie and even painted her toenails as she waited for Seeley to come walking through the door.

Now this.

Maybe she'd been imagining it, but things had felt a little off-kilter between her and Booth this week. The text messages had seemed a little less frequent and the phone calls a little more reserved . . . And, Hannah really needed to see Seeley because she was feeling a little like she was on shaky ground right now.

She'd taken some time when alone over the last few days as she'd been traveling to seriously think about what she had seen between Temperance and Seeley the night of the Jeffersonian Gala and she realized that something had changed that night. Something big. Not between Seeley and Temperance per se – the closeness and intimacy she observed between the partners had clearly been nothing new based on how comfortable they had both been with one another - but in her. It was as though someone had flicked on a switch, casting her relationship with Seeley under a bright spot light, making the holes and flaws in their liaison glaringly obvious. Even though Seeley and Temperance were not engaging in a physical relationship, she'd been a fool not to notice earlier that they were undoubtedly engaged in an affair of the heart.

. . . and a love affair with three people involved one too many.

To Hannah, it was unacceptable.

With a frustrated sigh that bordered on a huff, she glanced back down at her phone yet again.

Fuck it, she thought, slamming back the rest of her beer. She wasn't in the mindset to sit at home alone for the next few hours waiting on Seeley to confront this issue. If he was too busy to come home and be with her, she'd go find someone else to talk with.

Brennan was in the midst of cleaning up her dinner dishes when she heard the knocking at her door. Since she wasn't expecting anyone, she made sure to look through the peephole in the door like Booth always harassed her about before opening it wide.

With her voice conveying her surprise, Brennan stated "Hannah. I wasn't expecting to see you tonight. Didn't you just get back from being out of town?" She stepped back from the doorway, inviting Hannah into her apartment.

Hannah entered the foyer, wiping her hands on her jean clad thighs in what resembled a nervous gesture before answering. "Yes. I just got back a couple hours ago but Seeley said he was going to be stuck at work for a few more hours and I wanted some company, so I thought I'd drop in on you. Is this a bad time? I know I probably should've called first."

"No. No, this is fine." Brennan shook her head, mentally rearranging her plans for the evening. "Can I offer you something to drink? A beer? Some wine?"

"A beer would be great." Hannah was feeling a little nervous about her reason for coming by and having a beer bottle in her hands to fidget with would be better than a glass of wine.

Brennan grabbed two bottles of beer out of the refrigerator and popped their tops off before directing Hannah to take a seat in her living area.

"How was your trip?" Brennan enquired once they were both seated.

"Oh, it was good. You know."

"No. I don't know. I've never taken a trip with a bunch of reporters and politicians before."

Hannah laughed softly, feeling herself relax a bit under Temperance's blunt honesty. "No, I don't suppose you have." She took a deep breath and decided to plunge in to the reason that brought her to her friend's door tonight. "Actually, to be perfectly honest, it was a bit of a bore. There's nothing really all that exciting about traveling with a couple other dozen reporters who are all salivating for one politician or another to throw them a morsel of news which they can then take back to their studios and try to find a way to spin into some sort of salacious news story. The whole group seems to charge from one story to the next based on whichever topic seems flashiest at the moment, never bothering to fully complete one thread before they're off to the next one."

"Ah, pack mentality. Sounds as though they are all competing for an advantage so they can be viewed as the superior member of their group while having to conform to the social and cultural constraints put on them by society which prohibit them from having the freedom to truly distinguish themselves."

"Yes. Exactly. But that group dynamic . . . that's not the kind of reporting I enjoy," Hannah added, a frown marring her forehead.

"No? What do you prefer?"

Hannah's eyes lit up with excitement. "I enjoy going after the tough stories that no one else is pursuing. Ones where you have to really dig in to the research and find that person that no one else bothered to interview because they were too hard to get to or the effort to dig up the truth seemed like too daunting a task. Ones where you know where all the information came from and can feel good about the facts and the sources because you did all the work yourself."

"Oh. Then if that's the case, why are you traveling with the press corps?"

Hannah sagged back into the cushions of her chair. "Because, it's the job that was available when I got here."

"Ah. I see."

Silence fell across the discussion and both women took a sip of their beers. Hannah looked at Temperance sitting across from her through half-hooded eyes and spoke quietly, barely above a whisper. "Can I tell you a secret though, Temperance?"

"I am very good at keeping secrets," Brennan boasted with a giggle.

"Yes. I've no doubt you are," Hannah mused as she briefly thought about the secrets Temperance no doubt shared with Seeley. But, that's not why she was here. Not directly, so she continued with what she'd wanted to share. "This last week while I was away, one of the news directors for my network contacted me about a job opening as a news correspondent doing exactly the type of stories I love to do."

"Well, congratulations Hannah. That sounds wonderful. You must be very excited."

Hannah nodded her head in agreement but stared down at her beer bottle with much less enthusiasm than Brennan would have expected. "The job is based out of Munich," Hannah admitted quietly.

Brennan blinked. Twice. "Germany?"

"Yes."

"You'd have to move."

Hannah nodded. "Yes."

"Did you accept the job?" Brennan found herself holding her breath in anticipation of Hannah's response.

Hannah let out a big sigh as she closed her eyes and leaned her head on the back of her chair. "I told them I needed to think about it and that I'd give them an answer this week. What do I do Temperance?"

Her softly uttered plea for guidance momentarily stunned Brennan. "Hannah, I'm really not the best person to be talking to about this. Giving advice on these kinds of matters is just . . ." she scrunched up her face like she'd bit into a lemon, " . . . it's not really my strength. I think you should discuss this with Booth or, well, really just about anyone else would probably be better than me."

Hannah opened her eyes and looked at Brennan for a moment before taking another swig of her beer. "But I admire you, Temperance and I need to sort out what I think is best for me logically before I approach Seeley and get bogged down in emotion. I think you and I are very similar in many ways and I value your comments, your insights. What would you do in my position? Would you take the job in Munich, or stay here?"

Brennan stared out her window into the darkness as she thought carefully about her response. She understood intuitively that she may have to live with the repercussions of whatever she said next for the rest of her life and so she chose her words carefully. "As recently as a year ago, I would've told you to take the new job without a second thought, but more recently I've learned that even doing what you enjoy loses something and can feel hollow when you don't have someone to share the experience with. Booth is a good man, Hannah. He loves you. He's told me so on numerous occasions. If you leave him, you will hurt him and I don't want to see him hurt."

"So you would stay? If you were given the choice again now?"

Brennan's voice was full of passion and conviction when she responded leaving no room to doubt her sincerity. "If Booth and I were in a relationship like the one you have? Yes. I would stay. Booth has all the characteristics of an ideal mate. He's intelligent, strong, loyal, and protective. Plus, he's very appealing physically, as I'm sure you know. That's not an easy combination to find and shouldn't be thrown away without careful consideration. If it were me, I'd go back to his apartment and I'd hold on to him with everything I had and never let go. No matter how fulfilling work seems during the day, coming home to an empty apartment every night and knowing that this is all the future holds can make it extremely difficult to embrace the next day with any pleasure or enthusiasm."

The room fell into silence again after Brennan's little speech, each woman lost in her own thoughts. After several minutes passed, Hannah stood up and took her empty beer bottle to the kitchen. When she came back, she leaned down and gave Brennan a quick hug. "Thanks Temperance. Talking to you was actually very helpful and has helped me make my decision. I'm going home now to wait for Seeley to get off work and then make sure he understands just how important he is."

Brennan walked Hannah to the door where she was wrapped in another quick embrace as she told Hannah good night. She locked the door behind Hannah's departing figure and then simply stood there with the palms of her hands and her forehead pressed against the cool, smooth wooden surface as a tear escaped her eye and trickled down her cheek. At that moment, all she could think about was what she would give to trade places and be the one on her way to Booth's apartment knowing that it wouldn't be long until she got to taste his lips on hers and could drown herself in the magic of his touch, skin to skin, heart to heart.

A/N: Comments?