Ok so I would have had this up early but my internet connection has been on the blink. I'm not entirely happy with the outcome of this fic, its not actually the fic I set out to do when i sat down to write but maybe its just something I needed to get out of my system and I am always intrigued by the idea of how BB would cope should their relationship not work and it isnt an avenue explored very often in fanfiction so maybe thats where this came from. Anyways, here it is and let me know what you think :)

Disclaimer: I dont own Bones and this isnt beta'd so any errors are my own

Part 2

See I thought love was black and white

That it was wrong or it was right

But you aint leaving without a fight

And I thing I am just as torn inside

'Cos I don't know who I am, who I am without you

All I know is that I should

And I don't know if I could stand another hand upon you

All I know is that I should

'Cos she will love you more than I could

She who dares to stand where I stood

'This was their swansong'

He follows her into the apartment bombarded by memories. It's a simple action he's done a hundred times before.

The simple crossing of a threshold. Entering her home. Crossing over into her life.

Its something he's tried to avoid lately. He hasn't been to her home since before the break-up. He glances around and notices that nothing's really changed; the only thing that's changed is them.

She turns to him and he sees a haunted look in her eyes that he's never seen before. It's a look that says goodbye and it terrifies him.

When he started his relationship with Hannah it was forced, a device to help him move on from the sparky brunette he still had to see everyday. To start with it was hard, every event turned into a comparison, every kiss, ever touch he compared to Brennan. Then things shifted and he found that he really did enjoy Hannah's company. She was a nice girl, smart and funny, good family values.

Booth found he could remember how things were before his short lived romance with the forensic anthropologist before him. He could remember what it was like to date, the thrill of a fresh relationship, and he'd naively thought that if he could just keep Hannah and Brennan from ever setting eyes on each other then maybe this whole thing could work out. He could have his best friend and a girlfriend. Then he saw her in the parking lot and the whole plan had fallen apart. He knew then, as she'd slowly nodded and blinked back tears, that she'd run.

To the best of his knowledge she hadn't cried at all when they'd broken up.

He'd be lying if he said part of him hadn't expected this, he just wasn't expecting it now. When they'd split he'd expected her to be on the first plane out of D.C.. It was how she dealt with stuff like this, or so he'd thought. Turns out he'd underestimated her. She'd stuck around, even agreeing to the ridiculous 'just friends' status they'd attempted to revert to.

He wasn't stupid, he knew she was struggling. Temperance Brennan was a woman who craved constancy in her life and he'd gone and shook things up then asked her to act like none of it had ever happened. The break up wasn't his fault, it wasn't either of their faults, but the way she'd struggled in the weeks and months that had followed, that was his fault. He should have been there, should have let her off the deal they'd made, let her avoid him and ask for a new partner. As her friend he should have given her that. As the man in love with her he should have given her that.

She sits now, hands in her lap and a steely expression on her face. He knows what it means. She wants this over quickly. She's made up her mind and wants to put her plan into action as soon as possible. His visit is a formality she wants out of the way. He gets straight to the point.

'You're leaving me.'

It isn't an accusation it's a fact, the wording of it intentional. She answers as though she hasn't noticed the personal reference.

'Who told you? Angela? I asked her not to but I knew she'd tell you.'

'Angela's a good friend; she's just looking out for you. Besides, I already knew what you'd do. I know you remember.'

He means it as an offhand comment but it stirs something within her and she stands, moving away from him to the opposite side of the couch. Her voice is cool and calm but the arms she wraps around herself and the way she refuses to meet his eyes with her own betray her inner turmoil.

'No Booth, you knew me. And to answer you, yes I'm leaving. I'm not leaving you but I am leaving.'

'Aren't they one and the same?'

She meets his eyes.

'No. I can't leave you if I'm not with you.'

He shakes his head slightly and runs a hand across his face, the other settling on his hip. He wants to tell her how things are, how he cares about Hannah but isn't in love with her, how he knows she's wonderful and yet he cant bring himself to do more than kiss her lest her touch remind him of the woman before him now.

'Look, about Hannah…'

She interrupts.

'She's beautiful Booth. I…she looks like she makes you happy.'

He answers with blunt honesty.

'You made me happy.'

She sucks in a deep breath and gives him a sad smile.

'Made. Past tense Booth. Why are we even doing this? Its over, has been for months. We didn't work and now…And now… we just…move on'

'Why? Because I said so? Because I said we should make things how they were before?'

'No, because that's what people do Booth. Relationships end all the time. People cope. People move on.'

'But ours shouldn't have ended and…and we're not coping, I'm not coping, you aren't coping. I miss you and I don't want to…'

She holds up a hand and squeezes her eyes tight shut.

'Stop ok, just…stop.'

He pauses and watches as she opens her eyes, taking a fractional step towards him. He mirrors the step.

'Please don't do this, don't …don't tell me you wish things were different because they aren't and we have to live with that. I have to live with that. And I can be your friend and I can want you to be happy but I won't…I'm not…I can't watch you be with her.'

He swallows and steps forward to say his piece, to absolve her misguided guilt but she isn't finished and continues, even as her voice thickens with unshed tears.

'I'm sorry, I really am and if that makes me a bad person, a bad friend then so be it but I'm just not as good as you at pretending. I can't watch you with her and pretend it doesn't affect me and I don't think that you can do that either so I'm ending it.'

He wants to hold her, to make her happy again, to drive the pain from her voice and keep her there, with him forever.

'I'm taking myself out of the equation and I'm making it stop. One way or another we have to stop hurting each other and this is the only way I can think to…'

She stops then. Not because of the tears running freely and unchecked down her cheeks but because of the lips of her partner. He steps to her side in neat even paces as she speaks and presses his mouth against hers in desperation, drinking from her like a man dying of thirst even as his own tears slip from beneath his eyelids and mingle with hers.

His arms encircle her completely, her own hands trapped between them as she kisses him back with a need and ferocity to match his own.

They've missed this.

'Please don't go…please, stay…I'll do anything just please don't go.'

He kisses her hair, burying his face in the dark locks as they sob together, clinging to each other like a lifeline in a storm.

They have reached their breaking point.

'I have to go.'

Her voice is a choked whisper.

'No, you don't, you don't have to go. I'll…I'll break up with Hannah if that's what you want, even if you don't want us to be together I can…I wont date again, I can do that for you.'

She pushes him away slightly.

'No, don't you see, this has to stop. I can't ask that of you and you shouldn't offer it. I'm not leaving because of Hannah, not really, not directly. I'm leaving because I don't know who I am anymore. I've let myself be defined in terms of you and that's not good, that isn't good for either of us. To have your happiness wholly dependant on another person, that's…'

'It's called love.'

'No. It isn't. Love is being made a better person because you're with someone who completes you, it's the enhancement of positive traits, its trusting someone else to let you flourish. That isn't what we did for each other Booth; it isn't what we're doing. I…I do love you but…we're not good for each other. I don't…I don't know who I am anymore, and this breakup…I need to leave. I need to do this.'

He drops his arms from around her and speaks in a whisper.

'I love you.'

She sniffles to hold back more tears. The time for crying is gone.

'I know…but it isn't enough anymore.'

He shoves his hands in his pockets and stares at the carpet.

'Was it ever enough?'

She sighs again and steps back, this won't help.

'This is for the best Booth, for both of us.'

'How? How is you being a million miles away going to be 'best for me'?'

'I won't be a million miles away. I…I don't know where I'm going yet.'

'That's not the point and you know it. I mean will you be gone forever? Is this 'goodbye' or is it just 'see you later'?'

'I don't know ok, I don't know.'

He moves to her again, cradling her face in his hands.

'Then don't do it. Stay, just for a while. Give us another shot and then…and then if you still want to go I wont stop you, hell I'll even drive you to the airport myself. Just please, don't do this now.'

He kisses her again and she kisses him back, getting lost in the moment. His lips are as soft as she remembers, his arms as safe and solid as they've felt in her recent dreams. She loves him and she probably always will but that doesn't mean they're 'meant to be', it just means they had a chance once.

What was the saying? If you love something set it free, if it's meant to be it'll come back to you.

She needs to find out if she'd come back.

So she lets him kiss her. She lets him hold her and carry her to her bedroom and she lets him love her. They love and cry and love again until all harsh words are lost in beautiful sentiments spoken in a lovers hushed tone. And in the morning, as she watches his calm sleeping face resting against her own pillow, part of her almost stays and she's willing to lose herself in him all over again. But she is a woman of two halves.

She doesn't know whether it's the stronger or weaker half of her that prevails that morning.

What takes more strength: leaving to find yourself or staying to lose yourself?

She doesn't know but whatever the case she slips from the bed, writes him a note and leaves the apartment, leaving her life there behind. Leaving him behind.

He wakes to the sound of a door closing, both real and metaphorical.

He knows in an instant that she's gone and he knows better than to chase her.

Minutes later when he leaves the bed and wanders through the apartment, noting what items she had packed in her hasty exit, he discovers her note. He clutches it gently in shaking hands, not wanting to crease the paper than may be the last he ever has of her.

Booth,

A good friend once told me two very important things.

Firstly 'Everything happens eventually' and secondly 'Not everything changes'.

For both of these things to be true one would have to conclude, against my initial judgements, that the truly important events in our lives are pre-destined and that the words and actions that lead to them are within us all along. So, when things happen, as they inevitably do, it isn't a change so much as a shift towards the inevitable and in that respect not a change at all but instead simply a continuation down a different branch of the path you were always following.

I'm following my path.

Be happy,

Temperance

He exhales and lets a small smile take up residence on his lips. She's gone and he doesn't know where or when she'll be back.

But she will be back.

That much he knows, they are inevitable.

In leaving she thinks she is setting him free. He can do the same.

If you love something you set it free, if it's meant to be it'll come back.

She'll be back.

And he'll be waiting.

And I won't be far from where you are if ever you should call

You meant more to me than anyone I ever loved at all

But you taught me how to trust myself and so I say to you

This is that I have to do

'Cos I don't know who I am, who I am without you

All I know is that I should

And I don't know if I could stand another hand upon you

All I know is that I should

'Cos she will love you more than I could

She who dares to stand where I stood

Oh she who dares to stand where I stood

:) What did you think?