Thank you for all the support on this one! So, I started it to have a fun story, but it still has a heaviness that most readers seem to be feeling, so I'm sorry for that. Lol, I guess no matter my intentions, angst just has a way of making it into all of my stories! Thanks again – enjoy the next part! – mac

Chapter 9

Dinner had been interesting. Brennan had sat next to Henry, the quirky group mediator, and felt instinctively like he was somehow involved in the disappearances of those people – something that she'd told Booth. But Booth seemed so distracted ever since the group discussion earlier. He hadn't pushed her again about her response to that question she'd been asked and she was grateful for that. That question had been humiliating. She'd answered honestly, which had been even more humiliating – only because Booth was there, witness to the whole, sorry truth. Booth, the man who had two women currently who loved him. His soon-to-be wife and his soon-to-be-ex partner who pathetically admitted her love in a car, in tears, when the timing could not have been worse.

She hated the memory of that awful car ride. Hated that she'd ever admitted anything to him. Because he hadn't wanted to hear it. He'd dismissed her completely. Kept a distance afterward. Gotten engaged soon after. And she had to just keep doing cases with him, showing up, being supportive, and feeling like her heart had let her down. That was why she preferred keeping her walls up and keeping people at bay. Not getting too close. Not letting herself fall in love or care too much. It wasn't worth it. In the end, you could only possibly feel more lonely. Who would ever want to experience that reality? But Booth had opened a door that had been nicely closed – and she had hesitated, taken too long… but eventually she'd crossed the damned threshold and now, she only wished she could go back, close that door, and keep her heart truly safe on the other side.

"You think he's involved?" Booth asked, leaning into her at their table. "I'm putting my money on the couple who have repeated this course four times." He tilted his head and Brennan looked over at the older couple who were cuddled like young lovers at their table. If they were so close, why did they keep coming back to a retreat meant for couples on the rocks? "This place is expensive," Booth added. "And they seem fine. So why are they here?"

Brennan nodded. "Good question." She looked back over at Henry. "I just feel like he's hiding something. When I asked him about what brought him here and why he does this, he gave out clear signs of emotional distress."

"Maybe because people keep going missing under his watch."

"Or maybe because he's into something really bad, and can't look anyone in the eye because of it. Because if he were innocent, I think he could tolerate a few questions with some honest answers."

Booth sighed. "Good point." He looked over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. "It seems like they're going to call it soon, so tomorrow, we can have a game plan for figuring this out. Today was a long day. We need rest and hopefully we can solve this quickly and get back to DC."

Brennan nodded, realizing he really meant getting back to Hannah. To wedding planning. He'd been anxious all afternoon, since the group session. She finally realized that he was missing his new life. This sidestep into their old dynamic was unwelcome. Where he wanted to really be was back there. With her. She'd probably been on his mind the entire day.

"Okay," Henry said, getting everyone's attention. "We're calling it a day. But first, we do our evening ritual, to take the therapies of today to heart, come together to strengthen our bonds and go to bed tonight with that in mind, so we are recharged for tomorrow."

Brennan was confused. What was the evening ritual? She looked at Lee, the woman on the side of her. "What is the ritual?" she asked.

Lee smiled and looked at her husband. "Oh, simple. A kiss goodnight."

"With Henry?" she asked, shocked – her theory suddenly becoming much more concrete that he was a creep up to no good.

But Lee laughed. "No, Roxie! Oh my god. That's hysterical."

Suddenly, the meaning was clear and Brennan felt a pinpricks of ice course through her veins. A kiss goodnight with Booth? She looked at her partner, as realization dawned in his eyes, too. His brown eyes were wide and she could see him trying to smile and be Tony. Be cool. But beneath the disguise, she saw Seeley Booth. And he did not want to be here anymore. He did not want to kiss her. And why would he? He was getting married to someone else. Soon! And he had never cheated on a woman in his life. Even though this was undercover work, he would not rest well keeping their cover in this suddenly inappropriate way.

She needed to figure out a way out of this. Because, his feelings aside, Brennan did not want to kiss Booth either. She was sure that if she ever kissed him again, it would ruin her. Completely ruin her.

More than her love for him already had.

B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B

Booth looked at Bones closely. He saw panic in her eyes as she realized what the nightly ritual here actually entailed. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her. God, this assignment wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be normal. They act the part, fish around, and they do their thing – work together, find their footing again, stay close – and then they leave. It wasn't supposed to create one uncomfortable situation after another – being asked about love, sharing a bedroom… kissing?

Something tightened in his stomach at the very thought. He… he'd never had a problem doing undercover work with Bones. But no one had ever expected them to kiss on assignment. It was ridiculous. What were the honest chances that this case, at this time… when he was days away from his wedding… that this would come up. He knew he could do it for the case. He could kiss her. They'd done it before, after all. She was still his best friend – even after everything this year. After…

… just after everything they'd been through. Everything that seemed to want to break them in half.

He could do this. Their last kiss.

Last kiss.

He could do this.

But he looked at her, his breathing hitching for a moment as the couples around the room, one at a time, as directed by this odd man, Henry, kissed their significant others. They were next.

"I can pretend I don't feel, well, Booth," Bones said quietly, leaning close to him. So close, his pulse kicked up another notch. She looked up at him, those gorgeous blue eyes staring into his searchingly. "I know with the wedding, with Hannah… this is… it's not appropriate. It's not ideal. It's not what we expected," she added, her voice a mere whisper. "I will—"

"No, Bones, don't," he said. The room grew quiet as another couple kissed, and he leaned in close, nearly touching her ear with his mouth. "We are close to figuring this out. We can't draw suspicion. Some of these people are just doing little pecks anyway. We can keep this simple."

She just looked at him, her eyes showing such a depth of emotion – feelings he could not understand or see or… or even have access to anymore. "I'm sorry," he added. "This will be a friendly kiss. I promise. Don't worry about me. This is just us keeping our cover. It's not… it's… it's okay. As long as you're okay. Bones… are you?"

She looked down and closed her eyes and he thought she seemed near tears. But after a moment, she nodded. "Sure, Booth. I'm okay. If you're okay."

"Okay – Roxie and Tony," Henry said, breaking their moment.

Booth exhaled slowly, still close to her. "I'm okay, Bones." And he gently squeezed her shoulder as he looked at Henry, knots in his stomach coiling as his breathing picked up. My god, he felt like he'd never kissed a girl before. This was just an assignment. Just like he said. Why was he feeling like this?

"Welcome to your first night here and our little tradition. It is your turn. Think kind thoughts about your partner. Forget, for a moment, the problems that brought you here and instead think about the reasons you fell in love to begin with."

Booth looked at Bones and before he could help it, he saw it all. Not the brief, zany history of Tony and Roxie… but he saw Bones giving a speech to all of their friends at Founding Fathers on his birthday. He saw her look of pure relief when he saved her from Kenton. He heard himself sharing his entire, sometimes painful family history – he saw her crying when she came face to face with her mother's murderer, tearfully making sense of her past. He heard her sharing with him, from a place of hard-earned trust, about how she was in foster care. He saw them hugging. Saw them singing quietly at their table at the Royal Diner…

If you keep comin' back for more
Then I'll keep on tryin'
Keep on tryin'

And I've been drinkin' now
Just a little too much
And I don't know how
I can get in touch with you
Now there's only one thing
For me to do, that's to
To get home to you

He saw himself giving her Jasper, telling her that there's more than one kind of family, heard her raspy voice telling him that she'd bet on him in Vegas, hoping her beginner's luck would help him, heard her so many times letting down her guard to tell him how much he… how much he mattered to her.

When his eyes met hers, he could see that she was thinking about the exact same thing.

He'd promised her a quick peck. Something friendly. So he leaned in, before he lost the nerve (or the case) and gave her exactly that. A peck. Quick. Almost professional.

He pulled back, looking down, shaking his head. Not being able to help it.

"Okay," Henry said. "That looked like the kind of kiss one might give a colleague at a holiday party. Let's try that again."

Booth looked at Henry, a murderous look in his eyes. How was this guy someone who brought couples together? Because when couples had problems, making them kiss was hardly going to help things! In fact, it crossed about a thousand boundaries, therapist to patient-wise.

"We can't," Bones said quietly, to Henry, and he thought he heard her voice wobble.

He saw the woman next to him shrug. "I guess no one has ever loved her," she said in a near-whisper to her husband.

Before he could think, he leaned in towards her and captured Bones's lips with his. He saw her surprise, but then she closed her eyes, granting permission – seeming to be feeling a million things right now, just like him. He could barely breathe, but he… he needed to prove that even if was over now, it had been, once upon a time. Roxie and Tony. Bones and Booth.

At one time, they'd been in love.

And he kissed her in a way that put any notion that they weren't to rest for good.

This kiss might kill him. He couldn't figure out why. It was only for work, right? So why would this kiss kill him?

But as he pulled back finally and breathed out, he buried his face in his hands. Because he knew that nothing could ever be the same again.

B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B*B

Why had he done that? As they walked into their room for the night, Brennan turned and looked at Booth.

"Why did you do that?" she asked, trying to will herself not to break down and cry in front of him ever again. "You're getting married and I know how you feel about cheating—"

"It's an undercover case, Bones," he said softly. "It's not cheating. We are undercover as a couple."

"A couple that's mid-break up," she corrected him. She put her hands on her hips. "I was going to say that we couldn't do more than that small first kiss because it was too painful, that we'd only been here for a day, that we couldn't be expected to make out in front of a bunch of strangers when we barely had our relationship figured out. It would've worked. It's not like they could force us to kiss."

Booth nodded. "I'm sorry, Bones. I… I was worried about blowing our cover. I was worried they'd know that we weren't really… and we'd been asking people questions early, poking around. I didn't want to do anything else suspicious that could make them think we didn't belong here."

Brennan took a deep breath, feeling like crumbling. She wanted to be away from him. As far away as possible. This was supposed to be a fun break from being Temperance Brennan. Roxie was bold and fun. She had an accent and savvy. She was a spitfire and she was fun to be. Tony was sexy and charismatic and a little bit of a player – the kind of guy she'd never want anywhere near her. But when Booth was Tony, she wanted to laugh. She had to work hard to not laugh and blow their cover.

She'd been excited to do this. Their last case. It wasn't supposed to be like this. They weren't supposed to have a last kiss. They weren't supposed to talk about their feelings. And they weren't supposed to be here together in a room, where she couldn't hide from him and cry for all the things she'd lost. All the pain that kiss had made her feel.

"Okay," she said. "Let's just… let's go to bed."

"Bones," he said. When she didn't look up, she saw him step closer to her. "Bones." She finally looked up at him and dammit, tears filled her eyes. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. But suddenly she felt sick of lying to him. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "But I will be fine. Don't worry about me, Booth."

He released a long breath. "That's a tall order, Bones."

"I don't know what that means."

"It means that I always worry about you. That… even though a lot has changed…" Now he looked near tears. "That will never change."

After a moment, she grabbed her duffel bag and walked into the bathroom, leaving him behind.

He was wrong. He was so wrong. He'd moved on. He'd found someone else. And while his kiss still made her lips feel like they were tingling and her heart feel like it was on fire, he was getting married in a few days. And little by little….

… he'd stop worrying about her forever.

Right now, she was his responsibility. He still felt that way. Clearly.

But they were almost done.

With this case.

With their partnership.

With their friendship.

She released a long, sad breath. Everything was over.

Everything she'd ever loved was honestly over. And the kiss had felt like a promise. It had felt like love remembered.

But she knew what it was, really.

It was a kiss goodbye.