The response from the second chapter has been fabulous and I thank everyone who has read or read and reviewed this story so far. This chapter deals with Angela's "discussion" with Bones now that she's dealt with Booth and Sweets. This one is a little disturbing as I wanted to have as much anger involved as possible, so the result will be good, but not necessarily the image. I hope that this one works for everyone. Gregg.

Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Angela walked purposefully into the lab area of the Jeffersonian and made a beeline towards Jack. She had a small bone to pick with him before confronting Bren. She smirked a bit as she saw that he was nearly as hung over as Booth was.

"Jack!" she hissed angrily when she got to his side. The groan from the ailing bug and slime guy was music to her ears.

"Can you hold it down some?" he asked. His head felt like it was about to explode.

"That's what you get for drinking like that," she told him at the same volume. "I'm going to say this once, Skippy. If you ever take Booth out and get him drunk like that ever again, I'll cut off Mr. Happy and feed it to you. We'll see if being a Eunuch will give you more sense!"

"Right now I'm so miserable I don't care if Mr. Happy is there or not," he said as his head made contact with the work bench and a low groan of pain escaped his lips.

Angela leaned in close. "And then I'd send my Dad over to have a friendly little chat with you," she added with clear menace.

"I swear to GOD that I will never drink again!" Hodgins declared and then promptly groaned. No way did he want to meet up with Billy again any time soon.

"See that you don't," Angela warned and then turned to head over to Bren's office where she had been told her friend was working on paperwork all morning. Taking a deep breath, she walked into the office and closed the door. She didn't slam it shut like she had Booth's, but the fact that she closed the door wouldn't be lost on Bren.

"Angela?" Bren asked as she looked up from the file that was on her desk.

"I'd just like to know one thing," Angela said with her voice rising. "When did my best friend decide to become a sadistic bitch?"

"I beg your pardon?" Bren asked in an arched tone as she stood up to confront Angela.

"You heard me," Angela said firmly. "And you know damn well what I'm talking about. What kind of sadistic bitch would go out with the supervisor of the man she's in love with?"

A cold rage came over Bren as she processed what had been said. She knew why Angela was upset, but that didn't give her the right to come in here and say what she'd said. "You don't know what is going on, Angela," Bren said evenly, reigning in her own anger, and also the hurt that her friend had said such things to her.

"I don't?" Angela questioned. "I know a hell of a lot more than you, obviously. Or do you happen to know that Booth is horribly hung over this morning and says that he hadn't gotten this drunk since he was in college? Or do you know that right now he's over there wondering if it's worth waiting for you this time? You hurt him in the most cruel way possible, Bren, and frankly it makes me and everyone who knows both of you sick."

Before she could even stop herself Bren slapped Angela, hard across the cheek. "What about me, Angela?!" Bren shouted. "What about when he hurt me? He lied to me and it hurt even more than when he didn't let me know he wasn't dead. It hurt because I was finally ready to hear someone tell me they love me."

"But why date someone he works with?" Angela demanded. "And better yet, what ever possessed you to go on a date with his boss?" She ignored the slap because she had said some things that would get almost anyone a slap across the face, or worse. Besides, she was hoping to get Bren angry. "This is Sully all over again."

"Booth had no problem with Sully," Bren lamely defended.

Angela laughed a morbid laugh. "Oh, God," she groaned. "And what planet are you on? Booth was furious that you were dating Sully! But he wants you to be happy more than anything in the world, and he loves you too much to go and break your heart by disapproving of something that by all outward appearances made you happy. But don't you dare think that it didn't crush him to see you with Sully, or any of the other men you've slept with or dated since then."

Bren's razer sharp mind was in turmoil over that. All along she had assumed that Booth was okay with the long ago relationship with Sully. Why else would he have encouraged her to go with Sully when the man asked her to sail away for a year? Could she have completely misread that and later situations? But she couldn't back down from Angela on this. She had a reason for going out with Booth's supervisor, though now she wished she had accepted a date from someone that Booth didn't know. It would have been a simple thing to make sure that Booth knew about it and push enough buttons to possibly shake the truth loose from him once and for all. She would wait for later, though, to deal with these emotions.

"There's a reason I'm doing this," she retorted. It sounded dreadfully ridiculous even to her own ears, so she didn't expect Angela to simply accept it at that, so when Angela replied, she wasn't surprised. Her anger was still there, but she could at least apologize to Angela when all this was over.

"Explain it to me," Angela demanded.

"I want Booth to tell me he loves me," Bones explained. "Something's holding him back, and after a few weeks of working to make him feel comfortable around me after all that happened the last few months, I decided to accept a date when it was offered so that maybe Booth would react and tell me how he really feels."

"Do you know how childish that sounds?" Angela asked. "You're playing games, Bren. It was bad enough when you took off for Guatemala before Booth was back to work and well, but to play like this with his emotions? That's low, Bren."

"The Doctors said he would be able to go back to work in a few days," Bren defended herself on that one.

"Do you think for a minute that if the situation was reversed that Booth would have gone to another country before you were back to work and healthy?" Angela demanded in a very angry tone. "Do you think that maybe, just maybe, Booth has a reason for what he did a few weeks ago? You're risking it all by playing this game, Bren, and Booth right now is beginning to question whether its worth waiting for you this time."

That startled Bren right to her core. Booth had always been there for her, and now Angela was suggesting that this incident may destroy that? She couldn't let that happen. Booth was her foundation and her anchor. Regardless of how angry she was over his having qualified his words a few weeks before, she was still in love with him and wanted him. There was only one thing she could do and that was to break it off with this new man. That and sit down and have an honest talk with Booth. It was time to find out what was going on.

Angela saw the immediate change in Bren's demeanor and knew that the other woman was scared to death at the possibility of Booth not being there for her anymore. She would deal with Bren's having slapped her later on when both of them were thinking straight. Maybe an expensive all expenses paid day at a luxury spa. That would make up for it easily. Once she saw that Bren had calmed down and accepted what a colossal move this had all been, she made her pitch.

"If I can convince him, would you be willing to sit down with Booth and talk this out?" she asked. "I mean honestly, Bren. No more talk about partners and lines. Just two people who really do love each other being honest with each other for the first time about it."

"I can have him over for dinner," Bren suggested. She felt so down at the moment over how much her actions had apparently hurt Booth, much more than she was ever trying to do to him as all she had wanted was for him to confront her. It was beginning to dawn on her how much of a mistake she had been making for so many years with Booth by skirting the issue and finding solace with other men in her bed. Her reality had caught up to her, not her catching up to reality. It was that difference that made this so painful to think about.

Angela shook her head. "No, Bren," she told her. "This needs to be done somewhere in public so neither of you can simply close yourself off by telling the other to leave either of your places. It's going to hurt, Bren, to listen to him explain how much the last three years have hurt, just like it's going to be painful for him to listen to you explain how much his line hurt you, and how horrible you felt when he qualified his love. No one should have an advantage in such a conversation."

"What would you suggest," Bren asked, seriously. She was lost at the moment, and having a difficult time focusing as she was more concerned about how this whole thing had gotten so out of hand.

"Pick out your favorite restaurant where you can have a back corner table and some privacy," Angela suggested. "Make the reservations and then let me call Booth and let him know the arrangements."

"What if he doesn't want to speak to me?" Bren asked, saying aloud one of her greatest fears.

"I've already had a short conversation with him this morning," Angela told her. "He'll come and talk. You just have to be honest. That's all."

"Give me an hour to make the arrangements," Bren said firmly, now happy that a definite course of action had been decided upon.

Angela got up and walked over to the door, but stopped before opening it and turned back to look at Bren. "Two things, Bren," she said. "The next time you see Sweets, call him 'Dr. No Nads' and when this is all straightened out we can talk about you making it up to me for slapping me a bit ago."

Bren sighed, but had to admit that slapping Angela, no matter how angry the other woman had made her, was wrong. "A day at a luxury spa?" she asked.

Angela smiled. "Done!"

"Why Dr. No Nads?" Bren asked. She understood the term No Nads, so that was no problem, even if she did think it was a bit crude. But why use it with reference to Sweets?

"Let Booth tell you," Angela told her. "I think you'll agree that it's appropriate. I need to get some work done, Bren. Just make sure you fix this, and no more fucking games. Got it?"

"I got it, Ange," Bones replied as she sat down. When Angela had gone, she looked over at the picture she had of Booth on her desk, separate from the other pictures she had on there. "How do we make such a mess of things?" she asked the image. Maybe it was time for complete honesty, though she could have done without Angela ripping her a new one. She smiled, realizing that she had finally found a use for that phrase that Booth always used. Yeah. Definitely time.

A/N: I had thought about having them leave the room angry at each other, but ultimately decided not to as the logic of the points Angela was making would prevent the ever logical Bones from being angry beyond the conversation. There's one more chapter left to write and that one is the conversation between Booth and Bones. Bones will also find out why Sweets is Dr. No Nads and also possibly deal with the kid herself. Who knows? Hope you all enjoyed this one. Gregg.