AN: The Boy with the Answer. Not much else to say, other than I have at least 2 other stories I should be updating right now. But when inspiration hits…Enjoy!

He was dumbfounded; utterly and completely dumbfounded. And to top it all off, it was like déjà vu all over again. He was left standing outside of The Founding Fathers, confused, as she got in a cab and left him wondering if he would ever see her again. Left him heartbroken as she turned around to look at him for what may be the last time. It was six years ago all over again, minus the rain.

He'd always feared that this day would come. He'd just nearly avoided it last year when they were going to China and she'd remembered why she became an anthropologist in the first place. But now…now she was connecting with the victims. The bones had concrete faces and living families, the complete opposite of her ancient remains. The hard outer shell that had once kept her emotions at bay was starting to crack. She was starting to feel the pain that came with the job; a pain she hadn't signed up for.

A job without Bones was like…a day without air. He knew he was being dramatic, but he couldn't lose her, not now, not ever. Sure he had told her that he was going to move on and find someone he could spend the next 50 years with, but the truth was there was no one but her.

And the Jeffersonian would be nothing without her. She was the glue that held them all together. She was his partner. What would they do without her? Where would this leave the interns? How…just…no. He couldn't let this happen.

But she didn't answer him when he'd asked if he would see her again. Instead she'd left him, like she had made a habit of doing. He knew now that, in her mind, she was protecting him from herself, as she'd phrased it all those weeks ago when she had crushed him. He still didn't understand how her hurting him was protecting him, but then again there were a lot of things about her he still didn't get.

Booth scrubbed his hands over his face before hailing a taxi of his own. He slid into the back, and without thinking, told the driver Brennan's address.

He was suddenly worried about her. She'd been acting like anyone but herself lately and it only seemed to happen around him. All throughout this case, she'd been practically screaming at everyone that she was fine. Yes, she'd been buried alive, but what was done was done. Then he'd gotten her alone in her apartment and she'd confessed to these awful nightmares. Frightening images of Hodgins bleeding and him drowning and her struggling to help them, save them, as her friends died right before her eyes.

It just seemed so unlike her to hear about her waking up in a cold sweat constantly from an event that was almost four years old. She was human after all, but this was Bones he was talking about here. She'd always seemed fearless around him, except for when it came to snakes… He couldn't figure out why, but these nightmares of hers were starting to scare him.

He also couldn't push out of his mind her reaction to Hodgins and Angela's recent secret marriage. Sure she'd toasted them, repeating all of the things she hated about the thought of marriage…but she'd continued to steal glances at him throughout the remainder of the night. And as they left, she kept saying how everything was going to be different now, how everything was changing. He'd told her they'd still be partners, but she'd brushed off the thought, debating a hiatus from their work.

Booth then thought about all of the changes that were taking place. Angela and Hodgins were married, Sweets and Daisy were engaged, and Cam was finally seeing someone and she had a daughter. That left the two of them. Two people he was sure belonged together. Two people…

The cab pulled up in front of Brennan's apartment. He'd almost forgotten that he'd instructed the driver to bring him here. But he did know one thing: this time he wasn't going to let her just walk away from him…

(Insert line break here.)

It was an odd feeling: having to remind herself to breathe. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before; she normally had better self-control than this. Even after she'd told Booth that the only thing they could ever be was partners, she'd been able to control her emotions.

But now, she was practically hyperventilating; something that was entirely new to her. This was why she stayed out of relationships, stayed away from the living. The pain her 15-year-old self had experienced had been enough to last a lifetime. It was a pain she had never wanted to experience again. But as she contemplated the thought of leaving Booth and the Jeffersonian behind, the pain came rushing back accompanied by a wave of guilt for bringing that very same pain to him.

There was a knock on her door. It had to be him. Brennan wiped at the tears trickling down her cheeks as she opened the door.

"You shouldn't be here." She said it with a bitter edge to her voice. She hated that he had followed her back here, but was happy that she wasn't alone anymore at the same time.

"You must be crazy, if you would think that I would just let you drive away from me again like that."

"It's not like you wouldn't have seen me tomorrow." The moment she said it, she knew that it was a lie. She was planning on avoiding him like the Bubonic Plague.

"See, I wasn't sure about that."

"Why would you question that? I've only seen you every single day for the past five years."

"Not true. You have a thing for traveling to foreign countries, and leaving me behind. Have you booked a flight yet?"

"What? No!"

"Well I just thought that with your sudden urge to leave the team and to 'get back to your roots', you'd be halfway to Abugradad by now."

"That's not even a real place…"

"Not the point, Bones, so not the point."

"And I realize that. I'm not making any major decisions right now, Booth. I thought about what you said, and you were right; my emotions were clouded by this case. But the thing is, I've been feeling like this a lot lately. It's just…not as exciting as it used to be."

"Yeah, and that worries me."

"What?" He wasn't making any sense right now. How could he possibly think that what they just went through was fun?

"Look, I came here tonight to make sure that you're okay."

"I'm fine, Booth."

"You keep saying that, but I know you're not. You told me about the nightmares you'd been having and –"

"They're just nightmares, Booth. Everybody has them. And they should stop now that this whole Grave Digger thing is finally over with."

"But what if they don't? You never actually got justice for what she did to you."

"I can handle it."

"Didn't seem that way yesterday."

"Yesterday, I thought we were going to lose," Brennan said, looking up at the ceiling to avoid his gaze.

"You seemed terrified yesterday…of a dream."

"Dammit Booth, don't you get it? It's not the dream that scared me; it was the thought of losing you."

She was just as shocked as he was at her admission. She hadn't meant to admit that, not even to herself. The fact that she needed him made her feel weak and pathetic. She had never needed anyone to complete her life, certainly not someone as cliché as a man. But Booth…

"So that's what you meant when you…" he trailed off, adverting his eyes to the floor.

"How did we get here?" she asked softly, barely recognizing her own voice.

"What do you mean?"

"We used to hate each other. Every time you called me 'Bones,' I wanted to scream. We used to make inappropriate remarks about each other's love lives –"

"Okay that last part was just you."

"But now, I can't even imagine you calling me something that isn't 'Bones'. Now every time I think about you and that marine biologist, I…" She shook her head not wanting to finish that sentence. "How did this happen?"

"The heart wants what the heart wants, Bones."

"That is a total personification. The heart can't 'want' anything. Desire forms in the brain and unless I was lied to in all of my anatomy classes, the heart doesn't have a brain."

"It's just an expression."

"Well it's a worthless one that doesn't answer my question."

"That's because I can't answer that question, Bones. I know how it happened for me, now you have to figure out how it happened for you."

"I don't know what that means."

"It means, Bones, that I can pinpoint the exact moment I fell in love with you. And don't take the last part like it's such a shock to you because I told you last month there was something there…Anyway, you have to figure out for yourself why things are the way they are. Because from where I'm standing, change is good. And we're the only two left who have yet to change."

"Why, because we have no plans for marriage?"

"No. Because you're too afraid that you're not capable of change. And yet here you are, wanting to make the biggest change of all and leave the team."

"I already told you that I wasn't making any decisions just yet."

"I know that there are days when this job sucks. I know that any time a bastard murders a child, I want to personally strangle the creep myself. I know that living with the fear that one day, my partner won't be as lucky as she has been and may not make it out alive is terrifying. But when it all comes down to it, we're bringing justice to the victims and their families. We're stopping serial killers like Epps, Gormagon, and even the Grave Digger from killing again –"

"We technically haven't even caught Gormagon…we caught Zach…"

"My point that I'm basically trying to make here tonight is that you can't leave and that I'm having trouble trying to see myself with someone who isn't you. I'll leave you to think about that and –"

"What happened to finding someone that you could spend 30 or 40 or 50 years with?"

"I found her."

And before she could do anything to stop him, he was walking out her front door.

AN: Please review. I'm really debating if I should continue with this or not and I need your input. Pretty please? With Booth on top? Unless you prefer him on the bottom… Whoops sorry, gutter… ;) Anyway Feedback would be greatly appreciated.