Two weeks later

"You know this means we'll technically be closer to each other than if we were still in the states."

Booth nodded. They still couldn't agree on a day. Or a church. Or the flowers or the cake or anything else they needed for the wedding. Their days together were full of debates, as Brennan called them, over the wedding and making love until they were on the verge of severe dehydration.

He didn't really care that their routine had been the same day in and day out. He was just glad he could spend time with her before they shipped him off to whatever godforsaken country to kill people. This was exactly what he had signed up for when he joined the Army. The recruiter had made things sound…nice. But then, that is their job, to make death sound…okay.

She had been invited to go on a dig, as part of more research for her next dissertation. The details of this dissertation made Booth's head spin so he wasn't planning on asking for too many details, just what he needed to know, like where she was going and for how long.

"I never told you where I was going. I said Central America yesterday and I shouldn't have. You get too many details, and you could be in danger, you…we could be risking national security. I'm not telling you details for your own good."

She waved off his concern. "I'm not going to tell anyone you're going to Guatemala." Her hands slapped over her mouth, trying to hold the words in. He had been talking in his sleep the last few nights and every night he begged his staff sergeant to send him somewhere 'warmer'. Brennan thought he sounded ridiculous and the dreams were quite funny to her, but she knew she wasn't supposed to know exactly where he was going. She didn't want to get him in trouble with his bosses and she didn't want to put him in danger.

But it secretly thrilled her to know where he'd be, because it meant they'd be closer to each other. Proximity was all that mattered to her. She had been invited to go to Guatemala as part of her dissertation research on the cultures that still put their dead in mass graves. She knew this line of research could be dangerous. She was also going to have to go to Africa and Eastern Europe but she was just excited to be in closer proximity to him. Like his mission, the dig was only for three weeks; the Guatemalan government wasn't going to permit them to be there any longer than that. It was dangerous there and Booth knew that. There was a reason his battalion was being sent there.

"What? What did you just say?" He was furious, more at himself than her for letting the sensitive information leak out.

" Look, Booth, you know I won't say anything. And it's comforting to me, knowing we'll be in a closer proximity there than we would be in the states. I know it might be wrong, but I'm glad you said it."

He sighed. There wasn't much he could do. She already knew and as much as he hated to admit it, what she said about them not being all that far apart did mean something. He could get to her faster, God forbid, if anything happened.

"So when are we getting married, then?" he changed the subject. He didn't want to even think about anything happening to her down there.

She walked away from the kitchen table, where they had pictures of floral arrangements, churches in the area, tall, towering cakes and a calendar laying out, all supplied by Angela, who wanted the biggest role in planning the wedding as possible.

Brennan flopped down on the couch and gestured toward the calendar. "You decide. Please, don't take this the wrong way when I say it, because you're going to put a lot more meaning into it than there really is and I can guarantee you…I don't mean to sound so…indecisive or…brash, but, will you please just pick?"

"I want you to help me decide. Are you saying you don't care anymore?"

"This is exactly what I told you not to do." She stood up and walked over to him. He was still sitting at the kitchen table and was currently staring at the cake options Angela had given them.

Sitting on his lap and taking the pictures out of his hands, she said, "Of course, I care. I just want what you want. Yes, I guess I want it to be perfect. But when I was little, I never played pretend wedding. To me, it doesn't matter what either of us are wearing or what color our invitations are, I was doing this because I thought that's what you wanted. You're more…traditional than I am. I don't really care if we elope to Las Vegas or if we wear the Batik and Kebaya of the Javanese people in Indonesia."

Booth looked even more confused than he had when she started talking.

"What I'm saying is…if you want a wedding like this, then I do too. So if you want to get married in October or November, fine by me."

Booth realized what she was saying and kissed her.

"Well…it's usually cloudy the closet it gets to winter, right?"

She shrugged. "I'm not a meteorologist, Booth. I can't tell you what the weather's going to be like."

He nodded. "Let's wait until Spring. Your eyes look bluer when the sun shines on them."

She blushed and climbed off his lap. He stood up and pulled her into a kiss.

"I have to go soon," he told her.

"I can't believe they're making you leave in the middle of the night."

"They're not. It's…almost five. I need to leave in about two hours. I have to drive straight through to Fort Benning. It's a twelve hour drive. I have to be on base by seven tomorrow morning so we can fly out by nine."

She heard every word he had said but she wasn't focused on his drive time.

"I'm going to miss you, regardless of the fact that we will probably be a few hundred miles apart. Promise me you'll be safe."

"I promise," Booth whispered. He outlined the Saint Anthony medal around her neck and then looked into her eyes. "I promise, but only if you come home safe too. It's dangerous down there, Bren. That government is crazy…insane. Just be safe, okay?"

She nodded. "We'll have guards and we're taking a few reservists with us. Too bad you're not in the reserves…you could've come with me."

He sighed disappointedly. "Don't do that to me. Don't make me feel worse than I already am."

"I didn't mean to. I just don't want you to leave."

"You leave tomorrow, too, genius," he pointed out.

"True, but you're going into battle, I'm going to look at dead people."

"Doesn't it worry you just a little bit that we're both going to the same country but I'm going for war and you aren't. That just doesn't sit right with me."

She shrugged. "Well, you'll be there killing all the bad guys while I look for murders and clues into their culture. My cultural anthropology dissertation is going to be better than my physical anthropology dissertation!"

Booth smiled sadly. "I know. I'm just…scared. I just want you to be safe. I know you'll have guards there but don't do anything…dumb. And that shouldn't be too hard for your, considering you're a genius doctor."

"You have to leave in two hours?"

He nodded. "Can we just hang out and…talk? I'm not going to get to see or talk to you the entire time we're gone."

"We can do anything you want," she told him.

"Let's…dance." He walked over to the stereo and turned on the radio. Booth took her in his arms and swayed them gently to the music.

"Just think…in three weeks, we'll have a whole month to ourselves…to do whatever we want."