New letter, new chapter! Word suggested the awesome lysaleelee! Thanks to her and to my beta Shin/Bonesbird for her grammar check and first (very much needed) feedback!

This is set once again present time, after the s5 finale and so there are spoilers until then. And Bones, do I have to say it again? Too bad, still not mine ;) Enjoy!

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Gambler

Wow. Angela thought as she closed her laptop. She was utterly speechless. She had just spent two hours on a video conference with Brennan and she half expected to wake up and discover that it had all been just a dream, just a figment of her Paris-influenced imagination.

She stood up from the chair and stretched her legs, a little stiff for sitting down for so long. She needed to think about all that had happened, all that her best friend had just told her. She walked to the window and stared at the Eiffel Tower, lightened up just in front of her. They sky was already very dark and full of stars, meaning that it was later than she had thought. Well, for sure it was earlier than where Brennan was, it must be almost morning over there. She hoped her friend could finally get some sleep, even if just a few hours.

Angela walked away from the window and headed to her huge bed, laying down on her side, eyes still locked on the beautiful view of the city outside. The wheels in her head were spinning madly as she tried to elaborate what she had learned.

"Wow." she whispered, this time out loud. That seemed to be the only word she could manage to form. They really …- wow… Focus, Ange.

It had all started with a message from Bren on her cell phone, asking her to go online right away. Angela was having dinner with Jack at that moment but when she looked at the clock and noticed that in Indonesia it was about 2am, she had worried that something might have been wrong, left her husband at the hotel restaurant and ran back to their suite. And when she actually saw Brennan on the webcam, her worry only increased.

She looked awful, her face pale and tear-stained, her eyes reddened and puffy from crying. Angela had almost called Hodgins and made him book the first flight to Indonesia. But then she let Brennan talk, that's what she needed. She really looked like she needed a virtual shoulder to cry on. And Angela gave her hers.

She just had another nightmare about the Gravedigger. Angela didn't even know she had them. She knew for a fact that Hodgins did, although they got better since when Taffet was put behind bars for good. But he still did sometimes. Brennan had always acted like she didn't have anything, like she was fine. Of course that whole story touched her deeply, but she never mentioned having nightmares.

Then she started to tell her everything. Everything she hadn't told her in all the years they were friends. Especially about her partnership and relationship with Booth. The Brennan talking to her teary eyed and with a shaky voice, she seemed like a totally different Brennan. Weak, fragile. She wasn't the Bren she knew and her heart squeezed painfully for her friend. Angela wanted more than anything to go there where she was and wrap her in a hug and hold her until she was her usual strong self again.

Brennan said that she hadn't heard from Booth in three months, that after a brief email he sent her telling her that he had arrived safely in Afghanistan, she hadn't heard anything from him again, even if she had tried to contact him many times. And at that exact moment Angela had felt the different urge to go to Afghanistan and kick the G-man's ass herself. What the hell did he think he was doing?

But, then, the cards on the table turned again when Brennan, in another burst of tears, admitted that he was right not to talk to her and that she had made a terrible mistake. After some prodding from the artist to give vent to everything that was eating her away, the anthropologist had finally admitted to her friend what had happened that infamous night with Booth outside of the Hoover Building. And of course Angela's jaw dropped to the floor. For a few months she had suspected that something had happened between the two of them, she had noticed that something had changed, but she was way too busy with her own love life to give much importance to her friend's. She had expected everything, even a sudden and regretted night of passion, but not the heartbreaking story Brennan had told her with plenty of details and quotations.

They had kissed. They. Had. Kissed! Booth and Brennan had kissed! For real, not drunk, not under blackmail, not in a dream. Booth actually kissed Bren out of love, out of desperation. And, as she had admitted, she had kissed him back for a second, before getting scared. Scared of ending up hurting him, scared of screwing up everything like all her previous relationships, scared of one word he had said.

Chance.

Brennan had quoted her what Booth had said and when Angela had heard that particular word she immediately understood what happened in Brennan's head. Chance means try, try means uncertain. Bren sure interpreted it that way. And the tearful words she had said right after the tale were 'I didn't want to lose him.' And when she asked if they could still work together there had been a very, very long pause before he agreed, unsure. And, if Brennan had noticed that he was unsure, he certainly had been.

He was a gambler. She was not. She didn't want to gamble, she didn't want to try, she didn't want a chance. She was a scientist. She wanted things certain. She wanted things sure. Angela knew that she wasn't afraid of the 'thirty, forty, fifty years' part, she was afraid of the 'give it a shot' part. Because she couldn't afford to let herself love him and be happy with him if it was just temporary, it there was a chance that he might change his mind.

Angela's heart broke again and again for two hours, listening to her always rational and closed up best friend breaking down and facing the sudden reality that someone faces when they realize that the made the worst mistake of their lives. And, even if at first it seemed out of character for Bren to break like that, she knew that she needed it. Three months away from her and Booth must not have been easy. They did speak a few times before but it was always brief and practical, just saying that everything was fine and they were safe. This time was definitely different. She had the feeling that they had never talked like that in six years of friendship. And it was probably correct. Brennan never really opened up about herself and her feelings but she guessed sometimes one just had to or they would explode.

A hand rested gently on her shoulder and Angela jumped slightly, surprised. She turned to face her husband that, without her hearing him, had entered their room and was now laying on the bed next to her.

"Are you ok?" he asked worried, noticing a slow tear rolling down on his wife's cheek.

She nodded and hugged him, hiding her face in his neck.

"Everything ok with Brennan?" he tried again.

Angela looked up at him, her eyes locking with his baby blues.

"I'm glad we are together, Jack" she whispered leaning up to kiss him "I'm happy we got our chance."

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What did you think of my new experiment? It's my first time ever writing Angela or Hodgela! Hope you liked it! :) And please, don't forget to review! I keep doing experiments here and I have no other way to find out if I'm still doing good or not if you don't tell me! I always appreciate constructive criticism too if it helps me get better :)

And any suggestion for H words is more than welcome!