Hello my wonderful readers! Thank you for staying with me - and thank you so much for your supportive words and comments! School is in full swing, so I am trying to post as regularly as I can. I promise chapter six isn't far away. Please do suggest things: they really help me along. They inspire me to keep on going and give you guys your story.

Here you go:

Xx G

5. Little Discoveries

Hannah played with the keypad of her laptop, picking at the dust and sand grains caught in the crevices between letters, utterly bored. She hadn't had a story in too long, and with the small window frame that she was permitted to study at the moment, her future wasn't looking prosperous.

Her only option was to move on; find another thrilling story place. When she had made the decision to come to DC, she had thought herself in love. Now, the flame was dying down, and she had the sickening feeling that despite her warnings to him, Booth would want to take the relationship further. Marriage.

Or, she thought, shuddering, he might even want children.

The front door of their apartment shut soundly, and the reporter swung her head around quickly to meet the intruder to her solitude.

Booth stood by the door, shrugging out of his blazer.

Hannah jumped to her feet and met him, her hands snaking to pull off the last of his jacket.

"Hey hun," she greeted, allowing her hands to fumble the buttons of his shirt. "I missed you."

Booth tidily collected her hands, and let them down by her sides. "I saw you forty minutes ago, Hannah."

Oh god, Hannah thought exasperatedly, I already have Temperance Brennan giving me the school in literal – I don't need it from him too.

She stood back. "Well do you want to make up for that forty minutes lost?" she asked suggestively, eying him seductively.

Booth folded his jacket over his arm and walked past her. "Not tonight, Hannah."

"Why not?" She pouted disappointedly, desperately trying to hide her flush of rejection.

"Because we don't have to do it every night, okay? It shouldn't just be about the lust." Booth entered his bedroom. "Couldn't you just be happy with me holding you for tonight?"

Hannah followed him in and put her hands on her hips. "You're going down the road of deep and meaningful," she bitterly replied, "so let's stop now before we waste time visiting a road that isn't going to be taken."

"Excuse me?"

Hannah shrugged. "I'm not repeating myself, Seeley."

"Are you really this annoyed with me, just because I won't sleep with you?" Booth folded his arms across his chest. "C'mon Hannah; we had a great night with Parker, and I don't want you ruining a good mood."

"Me? Ruining a mood? You're the one killing my buzz."

Booth covered his face with a hand and sighed into it. "Enough, Hannah. Let's just go to sleep."

"I'm not tired." She set her jaw stubbornly.

"Well then, that's your problem. Got burn off some steam while I get some hours of shut-eye."

She walked over and pressed her lips hungrily against his. "Are you sure you're that tired?" she muttered against his mouth. "I mean I-"

Booth pushed her away.

Hannah gaped. "What in hell?" she demanded, irritated.

"I said no, Hannah," he replied evenly, stepping back, "I wasn't kidding. I'm exhausted."

His girlfriend pasted a smile. "Fine. Sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

She exited the room, and both knew that she wouldn't be returning that night.

-~B&B~-

Although Booth felt drained, sleep didn't come for a very long time.

At first he tried to relax himself with thoughts of his son, but he then recalled the tension that evening that Parker had had with Hannah. Parker knew that there was a rift between Bones and his father, and had seemingly come to the conclusion that Hannah was the cause.

Ruefully, Booth remembered how much Parker idolised and looked up to Bones. She adored him in return.

What the father couldn't understand was why Hannah couldn't be so easily fixated into Parker's 'top ten' list.

Hannah.

His thoughts drifted to his girlfriend. Her neurotic expectations of a relationship.

She didn't want to settle down. She didn't want children. She didn't want to stay in the same place. She wanted excitement. Sex. Sex. Lust.

Moaning, Booth rolled over onto his side, and the phone call that he had shared with Angela earlier that day, flittered across his thoughts.

"...I would say don't worry about her Booth, but lately, you have given her a lot of reason for me to watch over her. The other day she hugged me. Now, I'm not talking cheerful hug here; I am talking 'I'm upset and I need your support' kind of hug. I know that I'm her best friend, but I thought that that was your gig..."

His conversation with Bones a couple of nights ago:

"...You can't choose when I'm your friend and then when I'm not...so either you want me as one the whole time, or you don't." Betrayal. She had looked so heartbreakingly betrayed.

His heart had broken too, on the inside - its walls had cracked hopelessly. Guilt. He had been shunting her aside. He chose when he wanted to talk to her and be friendly. Other times he ran off with Hannah. He was supposed to be the one who stood up for her; when she was hurting, he was supposed to be her friend.

Some friend he had been.

At the supermarket that afternoon, he hadn't said a word to her, and had cowered away.

What was he doing?

He had gone away to war again, and returned as an angry, confused person. A person who, when he looked in the mirror in the mornings, already regretted the day before it had begun.

Why did he feel that way? Why did he feel that, ever since that night in the SUV, turning down Brennan was the biggest mistake he had made in his whole life, besides pushing her that night outside the Hoover? Of course he would never, ever cheat on Hannah, but he could have ended what he had with her, and opened a new door with Brennan.

Instead, he had gone on as he had, and although his heart had been breaking, and his frustration had been sitting on boiling point, the moment that he had made that mistake, he knew that it had never changed.

Telling Brennan that Hannah was not a consolation prize, had been no lie; because at the time, he truly believe that she wasn't.

But now? Sweet's words early on in his relationship, had been surfacing all week. For weeks.

The psychologist's warning regarding the dynamics of his adrenalin-foundered relationship. The sex. The dangers of living where they were; his relationship with Hannah, had been that of summer love, dosed up with shots of ecstasy. Only this summer love wasn't going to last.

Sadly, Booth wondered how much longer he could stay with Hannah.

And what would Brennan do, if things ended with Hannah? Would she turn him away? Accept him? Ignore the prospect entirely? Would she lock herself away, sworn off from the prospect of love, ever again?

Everyone else had always known, and he, the person who knew Brennan best, had never really listened.

"...Because if you reach those defences, and it turns out you don't really love her..."

Sweets.

"...She'll die of loneliness before she'll ever trust anyone ever again."

Cam.

At that moment, in the later hours of the night, he found himself wanting to be with her more than anyone.

Bones.

He drifted into a deep slumber, too exhausted to worry about bridges that he could cross the next day. Or the day after that. Or the weeks that followed.

-~B&B~-

Hannah wasn't sure what time Booth had fallen asleep, but gentle snores escaped from his room occasionally after an hour, and that was enough to settle her nerves.

She knew that she would be taking the couch tonight, and couldn't seem to find a bone in her body to convince her that she didn't deserve it. Although she accepted his firmness with her, she was extremely annoyed; Booth had lost the playful stance of their relationship and had replaced it with the yearning to settle down the waves.

Why did he have to treat her like the child of the relationship? Obviously he had kept a huge secret from her; one, that if she weren't a more tolerant person, probably would have broken them up. Or wedged a massive rift.

At least now, Temperance had retreated. She had run away, just as Hannah had hoped. So long as her boyfriend's partner was out of the way, she had the chance to fix her relationship with him. There was only one thing standing in her way though; the beautiful scientist may have been subtracted from the equation, but there was still one matter unsolved.

Did Booth return the feelings? Did that explain his distance from her since Temperance had revealed her own feelings? There was only one way to find out.

The wooden box that Booth kept under his bed, beneath his head. It would be difficult, but she could get it. She knew that it was important to him. It contained something. Perhaps an insight.

If Temperance was that important to him, there would be evidence of it.

After contemplating a plan, Hannah slipped noiselessly through his bedroom door. Hardly breathing, she tiptoed, grateful for the soft rug beneath her feet that silenced her footsteps.

Booth lay centred in the bed, almost curled into a defensive ball. He stirred momentarily, but didn't wake. Hannah, calming her nerves, tried to ignore the fact that a trained sniper slept just feet away from her. One wrong move was all it would take to rouse him from his sleep.

She had to be ever so careful.

Kneeling, she discovered the mahogany box exactly where she had last seen it. When it was safely in her arms, she backed away warily from her sleeping boyfriend. At last, she was free of the room.

She rushed to the couch and eased the lid open.

Newspaper clippings. Photographs.

Parker, Booth's grandfather...Temperance. One of Rebecca, even. A young soldier, who appeared to be in his early twenties. More newspaper clippings. A couple of military medals. A memory stick, with a small tag attached to it.

It read:

I don't know whether this would make you upset, but I had the bartender film this. Chopped out the end. You know why. X Ange.

Hannah set down the box and pulled her laptop from its charger. Heart thumping nervously in her chest, she stuck the inoffensive chip into the side of her computer.

A little folder appeared, with one film held in its space. She clicked it open and watched.

Familiar faces laughed cheerfully. Booth had Temperance's arm, and appeared to be encouraging her. Suddenly, Temperance went to the stage and began bopping to the rythm of a piano. She stripped her jacket, threw it down, and stared at her audience, a cheeky challenge colouring her blushing cheeks. She began to sing.

Booth gazed at her adoringly, his face alight as she sung through her karaoke. She jumped. Everyone clapped. Booth lit a lighter and waved it above his head. His eyes held hers infinitely.

All at once there was a disruption. Someone called Booth's name. All at once his face became very serious, and he turned defensively, plunging in Brennan's path protectively.

The video came to an end.

Hannah sat, confused utterly for a moment. She watched it again. Watched the adoring gaze that the two shared. She ripped out the USB device without ejecting it properly, and stowed it back in the box.

Next she sort through folded papers. Some were army-related, and she didn't bother. Another surprised her.

It read:

Dedicated to my best friend and partner Special Agent Seeley Booth.

It appeared to be a dedication for a novel. Picking up the stack of photos, Hannah slumped back into the couch.

Parker. Parker. Booth and Parker. Booth and Pops. Booth and Temperance. Booth and Temperance. Booth and Temperance. Booth and Temperance.

She made an irritated throaty sound, clearly unimpressed.

Suddenly, a throat was cleared behind her. She started, and the box of possessions and photos flew from her lap, scattering across the floor.

"What do you think you're doing?" A very cut, husky voice asked from behind her.

She turned to face Booth's dark, hurt eyes.

Chapter 5 - Done and dusted. Hoped that it was okay - added a wee bit of tension, didn't it? Remember: Brennan is on a holiday. Don't miss her though, she'll be back. Next chapter will be posted soon. 'Till next time! x

PS: Hey, how about that new clip released for Season 7? :D If you haven't checked it out, I recommend you do! 3 It's very warm. Cute, even. Booth is worrying about Brennan doing too much while pregant (BTW - She is very pregnant) 'Smiley face!'.