The next morning, Sully was stalking outside the Jeffersonian, waiting for Temperance to show up, when he noticed a guy he hadn't seen before look at him intently, then look at what appeared to be a photograph. He watched the guy check out the picture again, then start to walk toward him. After last night, he was slightly on guard for whoever this psycho would say he was.

"Hey man, what's up?" the guy said to Sully.

"Nothing that's your business." Sully said with obvious scorn.

"Well, if you're Sully, I believe it is my business."

"Great, another psycho who thinks he's related to Tempe?" Sully asked, getting a little fed up with all this crap.

"Not a psycho, just her BROTHER. Now, I'm not going to stop you from talking to her, but I will warn you: If you hurt her, you will pay. And that is a very simple fact. I thought you should be aware of that before you try ANYTHING that may hurt her. Understand?" Russ asked, with a menacing tone to his voice.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Can you leave me alone now? I'm waiting for Tempe," Sully said with an air of dismissal. Russ walked away, knowing that this guy would not believe him. And he couldn't wait for this guy to give him an excuse to kick his ass.

*Not that it would take a lot,* Russ thought. *He's a jerk.*

Sully looked after the guy claiming to be Tempe's brother, and let out a contemptuous snort.

*Like he could ever do anything to hurt me. Ha, yeah right.* Sully waited around until about 9 a.m., but saw no sign of Tempe. He decided he'd go to some of her old haunts, to see if she was hanging at any of them. As he was getting in his car, he saw Booth's SUV drive into the Jeffersonian parking lot. He gritted his teeth as he saw Brennan get out of the vehicle.

*Why the hell are they ALWAYS together? Are they dating now?* Sully was a little worried and disturbed by this, but shook it off.

*No, neither Brennan nor Booth would date someone they work with.* Comforted with that last thought, Sully waited until Booth and Brennan entered the Jeffersonian before following them in.

"Look, Booth, I've made my decision." Booth looked slightly apprehensive at her words as he sat on the couch in her office.

"I can work with Sully while you are on your mission." Booth looked crestfallen, and worried.

"Booth, I need you to know something. Sully and I are over. I'm not going to take him back. Yes, he gave me a decision, and yes, I decided to stay. But he didn't care enough to stay for me. He's not here for the long haul. I'm not going to go back to him, let him in, and maybe get hurt again," Brennan said, looking toward Booth to see his reaction.

He looked relieved, and, to Brennan's surprise, she felt relieved too.

"Well, if that's what you want to do, I'm ok with that," Booth said, trying to keep the ecstatic joy from his face at the thought of Brennan and Sully not getting back together.

"Yeah, I think it's the best choice. You can go on your mission, and I can still get out into the field and help the FBI work on cases," Brennan replied, happy she took Angela's advice.

"So….I should go talk to Cullen. Like I said, I'll be gone at most a month. Most likely, it would be way less than that," Booth stated, now eager to get on with his mission.

"Ok. So, when will I be seeing Sully?" Brennan asked.

"How about now?" Came a voice from the doorway.

"Oh, hi Sully. So, you up to working with me again?" Brennan asked.

"Well yeah Tempe. I was kinda hoping we could talk in private?" Sully asked, hoping Booth would get the hint.

"There's no reason for us to be talking in private. We're working together, and that's IT," Brennan said firmly.

Sully appeared to be undeterred. "I want to talk to you, Tempe. And I think it would be easier away from Booth," Sully said insistently.

Brennan looked at Booth, and they appeared to have a short, silent argument before Booth nodded and left the room.

"What?" Brennan asked irritably.

"Well, I was just hoping that we could come to an understanding concerning what happened."

"What about it? You asked me to come with you, I said no, we broke up. It's actually very simple," Brennan said, rather impatiently.

*Why doesn't this guy get it?* she asked herself in frustration.

"We did NOT break up, Tempe. I took a vacation without you. That's all."

"You LEFT ME for a YEAR. You did not call, you did not write, you made no effort to contact me at all. It's OVER. If you can't accept that, then I'll call Cullen and tell him you are unable to work with me."

Sully looked taken aback at her tone, which was very firm, and decided on a course of action. "Ok, fine. I get it. I can put aside our past and work with you until Booth gets back. Ok?" Brennan was confused. One minute Sully was raving psycho man, the next he seemed hyper-rational.

"Ok. If you think it will be too difficult, TELL CULLEN. I don't want to have to deal with your issues and a case simultaneously," Brennan stated, winning the last word in the argument. Sully turned and walked out of her office, and Brennan sat down heavily at her desk, resting her forehead in her palms in exactly the same way Booth had the previous day.

*This is going to be a hard couple weeks,* Brennan thought exasperatedly.