CHAPTER. Chapter 3. Dares, Glares, and Stares

DISCLAIMER. There are many things I own, but Bones is not one of them. All characters belong to Kathy Reichs, Hart Hanson and FOX.

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.
--Anon.

She sat there motionless and whispered, "Sully, you're...you're back..."

He smiled. "Yep. And now it can be just you and me."

She ignored his statement and swallowed. She bit on her lower lip. She stood up and wrapped her arms around herself.

Faltering, she finally asked, "When...did you come back?" She tried to avoid his gaze.

"Yesterday. I missed you. I was going to come see you earlier, but I fell asleep." He gave her a gentle smile, before coming over to hug her.

Before she could object, Booth came in shouting her nickname. A wave of relief washed over her and she smiled to herself. Her knight in shining armour has come. Sully backed away, not even getting the chance to hug her. By the awkward look on his face, you could tell that he was trying not to look disappointed.

"Sully, you're back!" Booth said, with the most enthusiasm he could possible give to him.

"Yep. I'm back." He gave a slight smile.

During the whole welcome back exchange between the two men, Temperance quickly shot a 'we need to get rid of him' look at Booth behind Sully's back. Booth caught it and gave a slight nod.

"Hey pumpkin," he said, and walked over to Temperance and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Don't call me pumpkin," she said. "Or I'll call you Seeley." She kissed him back on the cheek.

They were completely ignoring the presence of Sully as much as possible, and continued on with their flirting.

"I don't mind you calling me Seeley, honey. You make my name sound nice." He smiled and brushed her lips with his gently. She smiled.

Sully felt blood rising to his cheeks. He cleared his throat, receiving the two lovebirds' attention.

"I see you finally got her, Booth," he said, his voice estranged.

"Yep," he said, and kissed Temperance's temple.

Sully then looked at Temperance. "And you're happy...?"

"Yes I am." She sneaked a glance at Booth, then turned back to Sully. "I'm sorry Sully. But when you left me for the Caribbean, it meant that we broke up. You knew, it was never meant to be. The sex was great, don't get me wrong, but you just--"

"-weren't the one." He sighed, his anger finally subsided.

"I'm sorry Sully. You couldn't have expected me to wait a whole year for you. It wouldn't have worked."

He felt his blood beginning to boil again. "I asked you to come with me!"

"You knew I couldn't have left everything just to come with you. I have a family here that loves me and an amazing job that I love. I couldn't have left that to go with you for a year."

Booth was trying to keep a straight face, but he was smiling inside. 'That's my girl.'

"You were living in a lonely, boring life Temperance, and I was doing that so you can relax and have fun for once!" His outrage was barely concealed.

"How would you know if I have fun or not? You are not, I repeat, not me!"

By this time, Angela and Hodgins were standing outside Brennan's office, wondering what the hell was going on.

"Seriously Tempe, how are you having fun? You spend every moment of your life, staring at bones and corpses! You don't even know what fun is! At least when we were together, you were happy."

"How would you know I was happy? Like I said, you are not me! So you have no right to say that I am never happy because I am!"

"I knew you were never happy because you were cold and self-absorbed!"

Temperance's face turn blank. Her eyes were wide and tears were starting to well up in them.

Booth couldn't take it anymore. "How dare you Sully! You cannot say that about Bones! She is not cold and self-absorbed! You obviously never knew her at all if you say those things about her! She is the complete opposite!" He felt his blood surging through his veins. "You better leave, or I'll kill you and make it look like an accident!"

Sully glared at him, before storming out of Brennan's office and was greeted by two grinning squints. "What are you staring at?"

"Nothing." Angela said with a smirk.

"Yup. Nothing coming out of Dr. B's office." said Hodgins, responding to Angela's remark.

His eyes were blazing with fiery, his face was turning red, and he scrunched up his face in disgust. He glared at them--shooting daggers, before storming out of the Jeffersonian.

Meanwhile, inside the office, Booth was comforting Temperance. His arm was wrapped around her, holding her close, as she sobbed into his shoulder. His hand was rubbing her back, trying to even her breathing.

"Temperance, he was wrong. You are not cold or self-absorbed. You are loving and kind-hearted, I love you for that." He paused. "And I know you are happy because you have your friends that love you for who you are, and not to mention your father and Russ."

"Thank-you Booth," she whispered. "But you forgot one thing." She raised her head up and looked into his chocolate-brown eyes.

"And what is that?" he asked.

"I have you. And you love me as well."

"Yes. I love you as well." He kissed her forehead.

"There is one thing we still have to do."

"Which is?" A puzzled look was on his face.

She bit her bottom lip. "We need to tell Cullen."

My free gift for you for reading this chapter: A plastic fly swatter to slap Sully in the face. (Yay!)
Reviews?: May help make the talk with Cullen go smoother. If I get more than 7, then it will automatically be fine.