A/N: Okay, saw the new ep tonight since I had to work and forgot to DVR! Better than expected but Angela is pissing me off. Thank God for Cam and Aldo is all I can say.

Now it's time for Angela to work her magic with Bones. Can she succeed?

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones but would love to rent Booth from time to time.

After getting the text message from Max, Angela tried contacting her friend but got no response. Frustrated and worried, she drove around Washington D.C. hoping to find Brennan. She checked the diner, Founding Fathers, and every place she could think of.

She was now going to her final option, which is where she should have gone in the first place. Looking down on her front seat, she saw the stack of papers she bound together with the handiest thing she had, a friendship bracelet.

When she arrived at the Jeffersonian around 11:00, she saw Brennan's Prius. "Yep, should have come here first. Duh!"

When Angela walked into the lab ten minutes later, she looked in Brennan's office. When the sensor light came on she saw the anthropologist's purse on her desk and her lab coat missing. When she came out, she saw a light on in the Bone Room. Turning off the office light, she headed that way. At her arrival, she looked in and was not disappointed.

Brennan was wearing her lab coat and was examining a femur bone from a skeleton laid out on the table. Angela could tell she had been crying. She waited for her presence to be noticed, but got nothing.

Seeing how focused her friend was, she called out not to scare her. "Sweetie? Why are you here?"

Brennan turned to Angela. "I wanted to examine one of the skeletal remains we received from Antietam. I have to present my findings on the 19th to the American Board of Forensic Anthropologists in Philadelphia."

"No Bren….why are you really here?" Hearing only silence, Angela walked in. "Bren, let's talk in your office. Come on."

"But—"

"No Bren. Soldier Boy will wait for a day or so. Put him away and we're going to your office now. We are going to talk."

Knowing she wouldn't be left alone otherwise, Brennan put the skeleton away. After removing her gloves, she followed Angela into her office. After she took off and hung up her lab coat, both women sat on the couch.

"Bren, what happened? Max got a hold of me when no one could track you down. He said Booth is a complete wreck. What the hell happened after we left tonight?"

Brennan couldn't bear to fall apart again, so she steeled herself and took a breath. When ready, she spoke.

"We talked about this presentation I have to give. I was going to leave June 16th, but he reminded me it was Father's Day before informing me that he never told Parker about breaking the engagement. I confronted him on his procrastination and when he responded, I….threw a glass at him before telling him that I knew the truth."

Angela knew she had to tread carefully. "The truth about what, Bren?"

Brennan turned to her friend with a mask of indifference. "The truth about why he broke the engagement and the fact that he lied to me."

'Oh thank God' Angela thought. "Sweetie, did he tell you why he lied to you?"

"No, but I know he lied because of Pelant. He made me feel worthless and made me feel all those….feelings again. He didn't have to say a damn word, Angela. I told him that I knew and then I walked out the door. I just…..couldn't be around him. I needed to get away from him."

Brennan took another breath as she felt the tears well up again. She needed to stay clear headed and rational after being irrational for the last few hours. Clear headed and rational thoughts were needed to keep her from getting irrational again and for her eventual conversation with Booth.

Angela was stunned by Brennan's indifferent attitude before the annoyance kicked in. "Don't you think you should've let him explain his motivation? I mean I know Pelant is everywhere, but you two couldn't go outside or leave? Max had Christine."

Brennan couldn't help sounding aloof as she was doing war with her emotions versus rationality. She was so sensitive lately and was tired of it. Clenching her fists to control herself, she looked her friend in the eye.

"Of course not. I knew what happened and why. I wasn't going to let him give me excuses. I needed to get away so I could think rationally about the situation."

'How can she be this way?' Angela thought as she looked to her friend, astounded at how cold she seemed. Unable to keep her thoughts to herself, she pushed forward, not caring to keep her irritation in check.

"So you think Booth has just been sitting around all this time trying to find a way to think of the best excuse he could come up with? That's your reasoning?"

Brennan didn't miss the bite in her friend's voice. "He lied to me, Angela. He broke my heart and lied to me for weeks, letting me think that it was my entire fault. I felt like I lost a piece of my life that I would never get back. I did not deserve that. Besides, you have no idea what I am feeling right now."

For Angela, that did it as she stood up, infuriated. "Temperance Joy Brennan, where the hell do you get off telling me I don't know what loss is?! I know what loss is. You want to know how I know?"

The artist grabbed a nearby pad of paper and pencil and tried to sketch a picture, but her limited mobility in her right hand and arm only made scribbles. She then tossed the pad at Brennan.

"Look at that…it's crap! I used to be able to draw a picture of anything from my mind. No matter what life threw at me, whether it was when I broke up with Hodgins or facing the fact my son might be born blind, I always, ALWAYS had my art. It's not just something I do, it's what I am! What bones are to you, art is to me!"

Brennan could only sit in silence as Angela continued her tirade. "My art is not just drawing pictures, Brennan. It's not just playing with programs on a computer. I didn't just draw things I saw. I drew my happiness….my anger….my frustrations….my dreams….my life."

Angela started to cry. "I didn't just lose an ability to draw some lines…I lost a part of me, too. A part of me I may never get back. I hope to God I do, but I have to be prepared to never be able to do what I could do ever again."

"I'm sorry I offended you, Angela, but—"

"You, on the other hand, have your dreams, your frustrations, your happiness, and yes, sometimes your anger….your life with a wonderful man who worships the ground you walk on. He knows your faults and your imperfections, and he still loves you more than his own life. I also know Temperance Brennan that you feel the same way about him. He was someone you only dreamed about and didn't expect to have, but you do. Not everyone finds their soul mate. We're lucky that we both found that person."

Angela sat down on the coffee table, spent. The fact that her friend's steely resolve was starting to crumble kept her going.

"I have a guy who will stand by me no matter what. He proved that tonight when he hugged me and said he loved me no matter what…that he just wanted me to share his life with him. A man that I spewed venom at earlier, calling him a fucker more than once. You can have that too, Brennan, if you would get off your high horse."

Brennan gave her a confused look. "I'm not on a horse."

"It means get over yourself! You have a daughter who needs both of you. You need to do whatever it takes to fix things. Love isn't always easy, Bren. Sometimes it's hard and it's messy, but in the end it's worth it."

She saw Brennan opening up, but not enough to her satisfaction. To get through, she needed to be a bitch. She hated it, but knew it would the final push needed. Grabbing the makeshift book, she tossed it next to her friend on the couch.

"You want to give up on Booth so easily? You want to have your pity party and pout? Do it without me, but read that. It will tell you what you couldn't behoove yourself to stay and listen for."

The anthropologist could only watch stunned as her best friend turned and stormed out of her office and the lab. She realized that she got it with both rifles blazing before another war with the irrational and rational began in her.

Seeing the book Angela left, she realized the rational thing to do was to read it. She just hoped it gave her the peace of mind she needed…and the way to fix the divide between her and Booth.