"What if none of your dreams come true?

I can never run from you

There's never been a how d'you do

There's never been an ending

Soon you'll belong to someone else

And I will be your stranger just pretending."

– Elvis Costello, Moods for Moderns

Booth suspected he was in for a hard time when he spotted Cam strutting through the bullpen, determined look on her face and swing in her hips, headed straight for his office. He knew for sure he was in trouble when Cam walked in, turned and shut his door, then remained standing directly in front of his desk.

"Seeley."

"Camille."

"What are you doing, Seeley?"

Not in the mood for games or a lecture he didn't deserve, Booth sat back in his chair and smiled tightly. "Well, right now I am finishing up some paperwork for that case we wrapped last week. Then, I am going to go down to the bathroom at the end of the hall…run a comb through my hair, maybe take a piss. After that, I am heading to the airport to pick up Charlie." He leaned back and deliberately pulled the grin off his face. "Why?"

"Seeley, don't be that guy. I hate it when you pretend to be a jackass. It doesn't look good on you."

"Cam, I am at a loss, then. Want to clue me in on this horrendous thing I'm doing, because I have to tell you…I haven't got a clue."

Cam crossed her arms in front of her and raised her eyebrows in mock disbelief. "You're kidding me, right? I think you and I both know what and who you've been doing. So now, I am going to play the friend card and ask you, once again….what the hell are you doing, Seeley?"

Booth sighed and leaned forward on his desk. "Fine, Cam. You're going to push this? Fine. I am in a relationship with a very nice, very beautiful woman. A woman who wants to spend time with me, who thinks I am worth taking a chance with, who finds me interesting enough to get on a plane as often as she can and come to me. To me, Cam. Not away from me. So if you have a problem with that, I am afraid I am unable to give a good goddamn." Booth turned his chair and stared at the pictures behind his desk, drumming his fingers on the armrests in irritation.

Cam shook her head. "Nice. Glad to see that you're so happy it's making you defensive."

He whipped the chair back around, almost toppling it. "I am not defensive!"

"Uh huh." She moved to stand next to him, hand on his shoulder. "Look, Seeley. I get it. I do. It's nice to be wanted. Hell, we all hope for that. I'm just…" She shook her head again and turned away, heading for the door. When she reached it, she pulled it open again and faced him. "I just don't want you to miss the whole story because you're too busy skipping to the back of the book to see how it ends. I've read the footnotes, and let me assure you…you will miss out on a lot. It's a fascinating narrative."

A ghost of a smile crossed Booth's lips as he considered his friend's words. "I appreciate that, Cam. But I have been given chapters to read you never will, and it changes the whole story. Believe me." Neither of them was pretending they didn't know exactly what they were talking about.

"Oh, I don't doubt that you believe that, Booth. But you're not the only one getting a peek at the manuscript before it's finished. And my chapters are much more interesting than yours." Cam blanched at the irritated look that began to cross his face, and then decided to lay it all out for him. "Listen…you need to know that I am not trying to butt into your life, I'm really not. If you are truly, truly happy and believe that Charlotte is the woman you were meant to spend the rest of your life with, then I will be the first one in the reception line to kiss you both. But if you're not sure, Seeley…if you think or even suspect that you're indulging in a fling to deflect from the pain of something else…you just need to be careful. With your heart and with…hers."

Booth scoffed. "Charlie isn't in love with me."

"I never said I was talking about Charlie."

"Cam…" Booth stood again and leaned against the table behind him, arms crossed defensively. "You obviously know something that I don't. How can I possibly act rationally without all the available facts?"

"Wow." Cam smiled for the first time since she's stormed into his office. "You know who you just sounded like?"

"Who?" Brennan walked into the office, taking in Booth's posture and Cam's position and wondered if she had interrupted an argument.

"Oh, hi Dr. Brennan. I was just giving Booth a hard time. If I don't, he gets out of line." Cam moved closer to the door as she spoke.

"Funny, Cam." Booth nodded mockingly. "What brings you by, Bones?"

"I needed to let you know that we found out where Guildmeyer lives, and that according to the surveillance team he is home right now. You might want to go get him and bring him in." Brennan handed Booth a stack of papers outlining the evidence against their latest suspect.

"Damn." Booth looked at his watch and sighed.

"What's the problem?"

"I…" Booth looked at Cam's self-satisfied smirk and chose to completely ignore her. "I have to go pick Charlie up from the airport in about 45 minutes."

Brennan nodded. "Well, if you'd like, I can go pick her up for you. She knows me."

Cam hid her shocked expression fast enough that only Booth caught it. "Uh…thanks, Bones. That would be great. Really."

"It's no problem. I can't help you with your interrogation, so it makes sense. I can go ahead and bring her to Founding Fathers for our get together tonight, and you can just meet us there when you're finished." Brennan's expression never changed during the entire narrative, something Cam found impressive.

"That would really help me out." Booth scribbled down Charlie's information and handed it to Brennan. "Tell her I'm sorry I couldn't be there."

"I will. See you later then." Brennan turned to leave. "You'll be there as well, Dr. Saroyan?"

Cam nodded. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

B&B

"You never married?" Brennan asked as nonchalantly as possible after taking a sip of her wine. She had hoped that the rest of the team would have been at the bar by the time she arrived with Charlotte but that wasn't the case.

Charlotte shook her head, "No, never really wanted to. I mean...I'm not opposed to the idea, I believe in it. Like you, I come from a long line of love. My parents have been married for over 40 years, I have a proof it works, that it's real."

"What do you mean 'like me'?" Brennan put her glass down on the bar with authority, "You don't know me."

"You're famous, I'm a reporter - do the math. I read about your parents, how they stayed together through the worst of it and even after...All these years later, you're father never remarried – that's a level of love and commitment few people will ever find."

Brennan leaned onto the bar, she had never considered herself as much more than the product of abandonment because that was the glaring memory, the one that was in highlighted in her mind.

Charlotte rested her hand on Brennan's forearm, "I'm sorry if that was too personal...I get a little talkative when I get a few beers in me."

"No, well yes it was personal but I guess the information is out there and it was a generally more flattering comment about my parents then I normally hear." Brennan took another sip of her wine, "So, you believe in love and marriage but what? Never met the right person?"

"Honestly. I've probably met the right guy five different times. I just can't stop moving long enough to find out. I guess I've just always felt like the next big story was out there and if I was tied down, attached, I might miss something. I've never met a man who could hold me but not hold me down so…" When she saw the quizzical look on Brennan's face, she continued, "I'd like to win a Pulitzer before I'm 40. That gives me five years to find a way to tell a story that everyone else is telling but from a new angle and there aren't many angles out there."

Brennan nodded, it was an understanding between two women who had put their careers above all else. "What angle were you approaching the Afghanistan war with?"

"Actually, before I was embedded I didn't have one and then I met Seeley and he was gonna be my story, you know the real American hero type thing, but once I got to know him..." Charlotte trailed off, peeling the label off her beer bottle.

"What? You decided that he that wasn't the case? Because Booth is just that, an American hero."

"No, he is. You are 100% right. 15 years ago he leaves the Rangers as a highly decorated sniper, overcomes the horrors of that war to become an even more highly decorated FBI agent to then to give that all up to go back and lend a hand when his country needed him. That's a hero but..." She paused when she realized how intently the other woman was listening to her, Charlotte smiled faintly before continuing, "F. Scott Fitzgerald once said 'show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy', after getting to know him, I realized that I wasn't interested in writing Seeley Booth's tragedy."