Author's note: this story takes place over a period of several weeks. Since it's 'Bones time' however, the time frame of the chapters may be stretched or compressed depending on the chapter. It begins about seven months after Booth proposed to Hannah.

I've made an effort to write this story as realistic fiction, but it is a work of fiction, so I may have taken some liberties with reality to serve the purpose of the story.

Please be reminded that this story is AU, so things may not exactly follow the time line of the show.

Temperance Brennan shivered as she stood in line at the coffee cart in the park, zipping her lightweight jacket closed against the chill in the autumnal air. The brisk, sunny Saturday morning had been perfect for her run, but she was cold now, and she'd decided a hot cup of coffee might the perfect thing to help her warm up again. She wasn't really in a hurry to go home to her empty apartment anyway. She nodded her thanks to the proprietor and stepped away from the line, blowing softly on the coffee to cool it slightly before taking a sip. She wrinkled her nose at the bitter liquid, stirring in a packet of sugar as she walked slowly back to the lot where her car was parked. It was a beautiful day, considering it was the middle of November, with the clear blue sky offering a sharp contrast to the oranges and yellows of the trees, and normally she'd want to linger in the park to enjoy the changing foliage. This morning, however, she had little interest in her brightly colored surroundings. She needed to get back home to work on her book. Lost in thought, she was almost to her car when she heard the familiar voice behind her.

"Bones! Hey, Bones, wait up!" Brennan grimaced slightly in frustration before she stopped and turned toward the voice. Booth waved to get her attention as he came jogging up to her. "How are you? Jesus, I haven't seen you in practically forever!" He grinned broadly, clearly happy to see her. "God, you look great! I'm so glad I ran into you this morning. I've been thinking about you a lot lately, you know? I was gonna call to see how you were doing, but I've been busy...and now here you are. That's an amazing coincidence, isn't it? How are you, anyway?"

"Hello, Booth." Brennan rolled her eyes at her former partner's aggravating tendency toward childish hyperbole as she pushed loose tendrils of hair away from her face and smoothed her ponytail. "I'm fine. However, I'm fairly certain I don't look 'great', since I've just been for a long run, which has caused me to become flushed and to perspire profusely, and of course, it hasn't actually been forever since you've seen me. You know that's impossible. It's only been seven months since you last spoke to me." She paused as she stirred her coffee again, continuing in the precise, no nonsense tone she normally saved for correcting an intern who'd made an extremely silly mistake. "That's not really a long time...it's not even a full year. It's been almost exactly the same amount of time that we spent apart when I went to the Malukus and you went to Afghanistan. Approximately 225 days... " Squaring her shoulders, she glared sternly at him. "Definitely not forever." She took a sip of her coffee as she silently dared him to argue with her.

His self confidence flagging under her withering gaze, Booth hesitated before continuing softly. "Well, it seems like forever to me. I've missed you...a lot...no matter how long it's been." He shrugged sadly, slumping a bit as he tried to avoid looking into her piercing blue eyes. "Just so you know, I hate it when I have to go by the lab for some reason and you're not there. Work just isn't the same now. I don't work with a regular partner anymore, and I miss talking to you about our cases. Seeing your office empty makes me feel like something's just not right in the world. It's like things are off somehow, you know? Like there's something missing from my day." Booth tried to shake off his sadness, smiling at Brennan as he sought to catch up with what was going on in her life. "Are you doing okay? How's the new book coming along? What are you going to call it? I can't wait to read it."

Slightly irritated at Booth's onslaught of questions, Brennan gave him an annoyed glance. "The working title of my new novel is Bag of Bones, but you may have to wait awhile longer to read it. I've had to rework the basic premise of the story, and because I'm introducing a new character, I have to find a way to fit him into the existing framework of characters. As I'm sure you are aware, the now disgraced Andy Lister is being replaced by Kathy Reichs' new partner, Jim Baines. For some reason, however, that's been a difficult transition for me to write into the story. I've had to do several corrections and edits on the manuscript, and the publishing date has been pushed back until after the first of next year." Brennan took another sip of her coffee and watched as some joggers ran by, trying to avoid eye contact with Booth. "I was disappointed in my apparent failure to finish my manuscript on time, but my editor assures me it's all part of the creative process, and I shouldn't worry too much about it as long as I finish it by the end of this year so the book can be published in late January or early February. They're excited by the new character I'm adding to the series. My editor said it will breathe new life into the Kathy Reichs series."

"Yeah...maybe.", Booth agreed in an unconvincing tone. "I guess your publisher would know more about stuff like that than me. Personally, I'm gonna miss reading about Kathy and Andy solving crimes together, but I'm sure you'll work it all out in your book, just like you always do. That's why you're a bestselling author, right?"

"I suppose so." Brennan nodded slightly as she fidgeted with the lid of her coffee cup. After a long awkward pause bracketed by meaningless small talk, she cleared her throat, and asked the question she'd been dreading. "How's Hannah?"

"Fine...she's fine.", he stammered softly. "I, um...we've been doing fine, you know? Same old stuff...just like always." It was obvious that Booth was uncomfortable with the question as he shifted from one foot to another, struggling with his emotions as he sought to prolong this chance encounter with his former partner. He reached out to gently touch her arm. "Listen, Bones, can you go with me to get something for breakfast, maybe at the diner? I need to talk to you about something. It's important..."

She shook her head as she pulled her arm away from him and threw her empty coffee cup in a nearby trash can. "No...I can't today, Booth. I need to go home so I can work on my book this afternoon. I have a chapter deadline approaching, and I don't want to disappoint my editor again. I've enjoyed talking to you. Tell Hannah I said hello." Brennan quickly turned away and briskly walked toward her car.

"Bones...just a minute...hey, wait…please...I need to talk to you. Please?" Booth tried to urge Brennan to stay, reaching out to take her hand again, but she ignored his pleas, pulling away from him as if she had been burned by his touch. She quickly got into her car and pulled out of her parking space as he stood and sadly watched her drive away.

Oooooooooo

Staring at her blank computer screen later that day, Brennan sat in her quiet apartment, hoping for even the tiniest spark of inspiration as she tried to start the next chapter of her new book. She realized that every author suffered from writer's block from time to time, but she seemed to have an extreme case at this moment. Sighing, she thought again about the conversation with her editor that had created this annoying problem.

*/*/*/*/*

Brennan pushed her tea cup away as she explained her new plan for the series. "I'd like to change Kathy Reichs' partner in the next story, Karen. I think the character of Andy Lister has run his course. I'm planning to kill him off in my next novel, and then I'm going to introduce a new partner for Kathy."

Karen Howell, Brennan's editor, was aghast. Leaning over the table, she tried to convince her protege' to change her mind. "You can't just kill Andy Lister in the next book for no good reason, Temperance! Your readers will be horrified with that move, and they'll stop buying your books! Do you have any idea how invested your readers are in the possibility of a romantic relationship between Kathy and Andy?"

Shrugging, Brennan gazed out the window of the cafe. "I don't care about that. I write mystery novels, not love stories. The relationship between the partners who are trying to solve the crime should be secondary to the case. Romantic relationships are not why I write the books, Karen." Brennan was ready to pull her hair out in frustration. Why was everybody so convinced that her books were love stories? And why would anyone be so wrapped up in a love story, anyway? Based on her own personal experience, Brennan knew there was no such thing as 'happily ever after'...

Karen tapped the table with her fingernails to get Brennan's attention. "Well, you should care, because it's that 'will they/won't they' romance you've got going on between those two characters that sells your books. Having a good mystery certainly helps, but, whether you like it or not, people read your books for the relationships you've developed between your characters, especially Andy and Kathy. However, I can understand why you might want to change things up a bit to keep from being bored with writing the series. How about something like this instead? Maybe you can have Andy get in trouble with the law somehow? Not by murdering someone, but maybe something where he can no longer be apart of the team? Or maybe he's demoted? Perhaps you can have him take a job on the other side of the world. Just don't do something to permanently end his run in your books. That way if you want to bring him back for some reason you can…"

*/*/*/*/*

Brennan slowly shook her head and sighed. It would've been so much easier if she could just write Andy Lister out of her stories completely She couldn't imagine any reason she might want to bring Andy Lister back into her books after she eliminated the character. However, Karen had helped her with excellent suggestions about her books several times in the past, so Brennan decided that Karen's suggestion this time was an acceptable compromise. Andy Lister would be charged with stealing illegal drugs from the FBI's evidence storeroom in the first chapter of the story, and the rest of the book would focus on Kathy Reichs' new partnership with Jim Baines and their fruitless efforts to prove Andy's innocence.

Brennan got up to fix herself a grilled vegetable sandwich for lunch, thinking about what had happened earlier in the day. Seeing Booth in the park this morning had been most unsettling for her. Even though she'd ended their work partnership seven months ago, she still thought about him every day, wondering what sort of case he was working on, and hoping he was alright as he faced down dangerous criminals. It had been hard to entrust her partner's well being to someone else, but Hannah loved him, right? I imagine Hannah makes sure Booth has a well balanced diet, and she reminds him to take care of his back. I'm sure she probably reminds him to be careful at work, too. It seemed Hannah was a 'wonderful life partner' for Booth. Brennan knew it must be true because everybody had said so. Hannah was beautiful, smart, successful, and assertive, and she also had a bubbly personality that most men would find irresistible. Hannah is everything Booth has ever wanted in a woman. Brennan had to admit to herself that Booth seemed like he'd been very happy and quite successful at work since they were no longer partners. Of course he'd tell her that he missed her. Brennan knew he'd always say something along those lines. It was just his way of being friendly...joking around like that. It was all part of that sort of impersonal courtesy former co-workers used when they saw each other occasionally, and she was certain that he wasn't being literal. No matter what amount of affection she still might feel for Booth, she'd decided that their work relationship and personal relationship would not be resumed if for some reason she chose to return to her position with the Jeffersonian at the end of her sabbatical. It was too painful for her to watch Booth be happy in a romantic relationship with Hannah. It was much easier to avoid contact with him all together. Sighing to herself as she recalled the last few months of working together with Booth, she decided that she'd made the right decision when she'd ended their partnership. She'd always known that she'd live a solitary life, and the situation with him had done nothing to convince her otherwise.

Picking at her sandwich, Brennan decided she wasn't really that hungry after all. As she got up to wrap the sandwich for later, the doorbell rang. Checking the peephole, she grumbled slightly as she opened the front door and, hands on hips, she challenged her visitor angrily. "Booth, what are you doing here? I told you earlier today that I need to work on my book this afternoon. I don't have time for company. You can't come in right now."

Undeterred by Brennan's less than welcoming attitude, Booth brusquely pushed through her front door, ignoring her frustrated groan as he barged into the apartment uninvited. "I'm sorry, but…" He paused and turned to glare at Brennan before launching into an angry tirade, jabbing his finger at her as he scolded her. "Actually, you know what? I'm not really sorry...not one goddamn bit. I need to talk to you right now, Bones, so no more shutting me out, okay? No more running away from me for no good reason. I have to tell you what's going on in my life right now, and I have to do it today. You can spare me a few minutes of your time, and then I'll leave you alone for good, alright? I'll never bother you again, if that's what you want. We were partners for five and a half years, Bones. I think you can give me ten minutes of your precious book writing time."

Throwing her hands up in frustration, she scolded him severely. "I'm very busy, Booth…I really don't have time. Go away and leave me alone. I don't want to talk to you. We have nothing to say to each other." Brennan started to turn away from him so she could sit on her sofa, but he grabbed her hand and held it tightly.

"Bones, please….I need to talk to you today. I need your help with something. Please...just listen for a few minutes. I promise, it won't take long, and then I'll leave you alone."

"I'm busy…" She paused as she heard the desperate tone in his voice, and then she realized something was terribly wrong. "I don't understand, Booth. What's so important that you have to tell me today? What's the emergency? Is Parker okay? Is it something to do with one of your cases? If it's about a case, I don't want to know. I'm on a sabbatical. I'm trying to avoid everything that's work related…" Trying to pull her hand away, she bit her lip and averted her eyes from him. "...even you. I don't want to get involved with any of your criminal cases right now..." She sighed quietly. "I know that we're still friends, and I want to be supportive, but I have things to do. I can't help you solve a murder. I can't afford to take the time away from my book right now…"

"it isn't a case." He inhaled sharply as he silently shook his head. "It's nothing like that." He held her hand tightly, shaking with emotion as he tried to maintain his composure. Finally he choked out a teary whisper. "Look, I'm sorry to crash your sabbatical, Bones, but what I need to tell you can't wait. I'm leaving the country in a few days to take care of a project for the Army, and I'm not sure when, or even if, I'm coming back. I couldn't leave without telling you goodbye. We were friends for too long for me to treat you like that...to just disappear without you knowing what had happened to me. There are things I want you to know…"

"Booth…", Brennan groaned sadly, collapsing on the sofa as she realized what he was going to do while he was out of the country. "You said you wouldn't take on this type of assignment any more. You said you were finished with this sort of thing. It's far too dangerous, even with your expertise. You might get yourself killed." Tears filled her eyes as she looked up at him. "Where are you going this time?"

"You know I can't tell you anything about that, Bones. This is a covert mission...black ops...off the record." He sat next to her, focusing on the coffee table in front of him. "The Army has asked me to perform a little chore for them. I've done this sort of thing before, you know? Remember when we were working on that case where the man's body parts was found in the bear? I told you about my job in Guatemala, right?"

Brennan nodded slightly as she chewed her lip nervously. "You said that you'd been sent there to do a job, and that you'd shot a man through the heart from a very long distance away." It was hard for her to reconcile that the man she loved so dearly could be such a deadly sniper. "I don't understand why it has to be you, however. Surely the Army can find someone else to do this job."

"Well, I'm kind of like a reservist, okay? It's different for me than for a regular reservist, though. I don't have to show up every six months for training or anything like that. It's more like I'm assigned to a sort of 'on call' basis, in case the Army needs me to take out a special target. If they need something special done, something that needs my 'unique skill set', they know they can have me do it, although they haven't used me in a long time, which is just fine, as far as I'm concerned. It's not like I miss going to some place halfway across the world to take a shot at someone." He sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "But this time...well, let's just say it's a personal matter for me, so I agreed to take care of it for them. I need to go and do this thing." Booth turned to Brennan and reached over to gently brush a tear from her cheek with his thumb. "The plan is that they send me in, I find the target, take it out, and then I leave." He chuckled mirthlessly. "The leaving is the tricky part...making the rendezvous with the good guys before I get caught by the guys who live there."

"I can't believe Hannah is okay with you taking this assignment, Booth." Brennan shook her head as she thought of how Booth's girlfriend would react to this news. "She must be terrified at the thought that she might lose you."

"Hannah doesn't know." Booth sighed heavily. "We broke up, Bones. She moved back to London two months ago." He clenched his fists as he tried to control his emotions. "She said she didn't want to marry me after all...that she had gotten a better offer."

Eying Booth suspiciously, Brennan's brow furrowed as she tried to understand what he was saying. "Really? This morning you told me she was fine. Why were you lying to me? What happened? Was she offered a better job?" Brennan studied Booth carefully. "Does her leaving have anything to do with you accepting your covert mission? Are you really upset enough to put yourself in danger in order to get over your failed relationship? Are you trying to commit suicide? Doesn't that go against your religious beliefs?"

"Of course I'm not trying to commit suicide! You know me better than that, Bones." Booth exhaled slowly, trying to remain calm as he felt the surge of emotions swirling within him. "I accepted this mission because I really need to take out the target. It has nothing to do with Hannah. I'm not trying to get myself killed because she left me. I'm not some stupid lovesick kid, you know? My country needed me, and at the time I accepted the mission, I was ready for a change of scenery, okay? I thought maybe it'd be better for me to get out of town for awhile so I could forget the shitstorm that is my life. Anyway, I wouldn't have taken on this project if I didn't think I had a very good chance to be successful, especially with Parker to think about. I would never leave him fatherless on purpose...you know that." Booth sighed and shrugged a shoulder. "And anyway, Hannah is fine, as far as I know. She said it was a good career move for her to take the new job in London, but there was probably another guy in the mix, too...one of her producers, I think. She wanted to keep her options open, you know?" Booth sat back on the couch and stared at the ceiling. "Funny thing is, I think deep down I always knew she'd never be able to commit to me like I wanted her to, but I kept trying to hang on to her for some reason. I mean, I know I loved her, but I guess it wasn't the life changing kind of love like I want from a relationship with someone. Maybe I wanted to hang on to her so much because I was afraid of being alone for the rest of my life. But it seemed like our relationship had run its course, and we both knew it. In some ways it really was a relief when she left me, and now I'm moving on with my life. I'm finally okay with how things turned out between us. I guess the whole thing with Hannah was a big fuck up from the very beginning..." Rubbing his eyes, he shook his head and sighed. "I've just about ruined my life, Bones…."

Brennan reached over to pat Booth's hand. "I wish you had called me to let me know that she'd left, Booth.", Brennan began. "It must've been a difficult time for you, with an intense romantic relationship ending like that. Perhaps, as your friend, I could've lent you some moral support."

He rolled his eyes and laughed sarcastically. "Well, I thought about doing that very thing, but I didn't want to interfere with your 'wonderful' sabbatical by telling you about my little problems in the romance department. You made it very clear from the beginning that you wouldn't have time to talk to me about anything going on in my life...that you'd be much too busy with whatever the hell it was that you were going to do during your year off." Booth's voice was thick with anger and bitterness as he pulled his hand away. "You know, it's bad enough that I didn't have my regular work partner available to me for a year, but to just drop our friendship completely because of your year long vacation really hurts, Bones. Even you should know that friends don't treat each other that way."

Stung by his heated tone of voice, Brennan's voice rose in anger. "You have no right to be upset with me, Booth. After all, I was just doing what you asked of me. I decided to let you have the year of peace you wanted, and I made arrangements to stay out of your way so you could concentrate on your relationship with Hannah." Brennan pinched her lips together so she could keep her emotions in check. "Hannah told me you needed some time away from our work partnership to focus on other things in your life, but that you were too embarrassed to tell me yourself because you were afraid you'd hurt my feelings. She said she had no doubt that I'd agree to give you some time off from our partnership and our friendship if I knew that was what you truly wanted, especially since the two of us were such good friends. Since your girlfriend said that was what you wanted from me, it seemed logical to take my sabbatical at the time, although I wish you had told me yourself instead of having Hannah tell me." She blinked back her tears as she continued. "Dr. Moseman had already committed to being at the Jeffersonian on a professorial exchange assignment from the University of Haifa for a year, so he could easily oversee the interns' lab work while I was gone…" Brennan saw the color drain from Booth's face as he gasped in shock. "Booth...what's wrong?"

"Wait a minute…you mean...seriously? Oh, my God..." He closed his eyes as he realized what had happened. "Hannah told me that you had asked Dr. Moseman to come for an exchange year at the Jeffersonian so you could take some time off from working together with me...that it was your idea to take a sabbatical because you needed some time away from the emotional stress of working on murder cases all the time. She said you also needed a break from spending time with me, since our friendship was becoming difficult to handle. She told me that you couldn't figure out how to tell me without hurting my feelings, since you're supposedly no good with people, so she'd volunteered to help you by telling me herself instead." He saw the stricken look on Brennan's face. "Bones…that bitch lied to me, didn't she? It wasn't really your idea to take off a year to avoid me, was it? Goddammit! She screwed with our lives, Bones, and then she left us to suffer from the consequences of her actions. God, for her sake, I hope I never see her again…"

"So it wasn't your idea that I should leave you completely alone, was it, Booth? Hannah concocted the story on her own, without your permission. She manipulated both of us into ending our partnership..." Brennan felt a tear run down her cheek. "She lied to both of us…"

"Yeah, that's exactly what she did." Seeing the doubt still evident on Brennan's face, Booth pleaded with her, begging her to understand what he was saying. "You gotta believe me, Bones. I had nothing to do with this. After all those years of working together, you should know I would never do that to you...that I could never be that cold hearted toward you. You know, Hannah was correct when she said I wouldn't want to hurt you. I care too much about you to do something like that. You believe me, don't you? C'mon...you know I care too much about you to act like that, right?"

"Yes, I believe you, Booth." Brennan sighed heavily, leaning against his shoulder as he put his arm around her. "So the question is...what do we do now?"

More to come soon. If you have a chance to review, I'd appreciate it. Laura.