Yeah. I blame the hiatus. Seems like I just can't have only one multi-chapter story on going. I have to torture myself writing two of them at the same time. But the idea of this kept haunting me and I just decided to write it and see if anyone is interested in seeing where this is going.

Yep. I know this kind of story has been written a good amount of times and there is probably three thousand fanfics about the scene of Booth and Brennan meeting at the coffee cart, but here I am giving my piece. Yes, again. I am aware I have another post-finale, one-year-later story being written at the moment, but apart from one thing you'll find out after reading this chapter and that I'll just explain later, they are completely different stories.

Although my other stories are mostly fluff and humorous (and this will also have a bit of it), this is the soap-opera lover I was while growing up side of me, so you can expect all those dramas and unreal things to happen at the show, happen here. If you don't enjoy a little bit of drama, a little bit of tears, just don't waste your time here. But keep in mind I'm 100% happy ending kind of girl.

Again, English is not my first language and I don't have a beta reader, so sorry in advance for the mistakes you'll most likely find. You can point them out to me so I can correct, I really don't mind and actually appreciate when people do that.

EDIT: Thanks so much Alexis Dawn for beta-reading this chapter and correcting the mistakes! :)

Disclaimer: Nah-ah, last time I checked, I'm still just a girl who wished she owned Bones.

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She stood in front of the reflecting pool at the mall, a safe distance away from the coffee cart so she would be able to see him once he got there. They didn't schedule a time to meet, but she hoped he wouldn't take much longer to arrive. She'd been there for over one hour already and they had a lot to talk about. So many things were left unsaid, so many things that they would have to discuss. She wasn't sure about how he would take the news, but something inside her told her it wouldn't be in an easy way. At least, not at the beginning. Not that Temperance Brennan was the kind of woman who would let herself get worried about what her 'guts' told her. Guts could not think, but that completely irrational anxious feeling inside her chest - could it be called fear? – wasn't something she would call pleasant.

She took a sip of the hot chocolate she was holding and stared at two kids running around the pool and laughing loudly as a man – probably their father, she could see the resemblance – tried to catch them. She smiled, but the smile faded away as quickly as it got there. She wished things were as easy as they were during childhood, when your biggest worries were if you'd get that toy you wanted so much and if you'd get all the words spelled right at the dictation at school.

Would he come? She wondered. It was starting to get dark and she wasn't sure she would be able to stay there for much longer, she promised Angela she wouldn't come back late. Even though her friend told her to take how much time she needed and not worry about it, she didn't want to stay away for over three hours.

Her heart skipped a beat when her eyes caught the tall handsome man walking towards her. He was still wearing his fatigues and she noticed he looked better than ever. The days out in the desert and under the warm sun in Afghanistan provided a darker tone to his skin. The daily work out he had to do made an apparent difference in his body. Not that Booth needed to work out more than he already did while working with the FBI. She always thought he was a perfect sample of specimen of the humankind, a very attractive male.

Yes, that was one of the main reasons she got herself in so much trouble in the past years.

She was pretty sure if she had an old and crabby partner, none of that would have happened. But again, if she had someone like that as a partner she probably wouldn't be working with the FBI in the first place. She would mostly likely have quit at their first case and just focus her career in ancient remains.

"Hi, Bones." Brennan jumped startled by his greeting. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realize he was already that close to her.

One year. Three-hundred-and-sixty-five days.

He smiled at her as if they just met the day before and chatted about a case they had solved earlier over a Thai food takeout. Like nothing had happened. Like they didn't spent the past year half a world away without exchanging one single word.

"Hi, Booth." She tried to mirror his smile, but she was so nervous and she wasn't exactly sure about what to say, or what to do. Should she hug him?

Booth acted faster and pulled her in one of his guy hugs. It didn't last more than three seconds and when they pulled away, he kept his hands on her upper arms.

"It's been so long." He said, almost not believing they were actually there. So much had happened in the past year. So much had changed. The first months had been so hard he almost thought he wouldn't be able to make the whole year at the base. He missed Parker. He missed her.

But she didn't want him to come back. She wouldn't come back. She wanted them to take that year apart to make things work between them again. Their partnership was clearly damaged by the weird feelings they were presenting and they needed that time to get back on track again. He was pissed at her at first. Pissed because of how cold she could be at some things. Pissed at her for making him feel so weak and vulnerable.

But time passed and things got easier. Certainly not talking to her during that whole year helped a lot in the process of healing. Although, he would be lying if he said he didn't think of her very often, even during the last days. Especially during the last days. It didn't hurt anymore and for that he was glad.

"One year." She nodded, trying to read what was going on inside his head.

"One whole revolution around the sun." His lips turned up a little. She looked beautiful. Healthy. Her pale skin was a little tanned and she looked like she gained a bit of weight, which surprised him. He was expecting her to skip a lot of meals since he wasn't there to make sure she was eating properly.

They held their gazes for a while and none of them knew exactly what to say. How would you start a conversation with the most important person in your life for five whole years after you spent one year apart without exchanging one single word with each other?

"Want some coffee?" Brennan broke the silence. Booth didn't seem a bit more comfortable than she was.

"Sure." He nodded. "Man, I really missed a good cup of black coffee. Gotta tell you, after one whole year drinking that dirty water those soldiers called coffee, I can even start considering London's tea drinkable."

Brennan chuckled. She was glad those months at the war zone didn't change him that much.

"So… how was Indonesia?" Booth asked as they sat at the familiar bench.

"Good." She said simply. "Life changing experience, definitely." She let out an ironically laugh. He had no idea.

"Awesome. I bet you had a lot of fun exchanging knowledgement with all those squints there." He said smiling genuinely. Of course he didn't want her to go at first, for his own selfish reasons, but he knew the digging in the Maluku Islands was something that really excited her and would make her happy. "Did you find out we are actually an evolution from a very ugly still unnamed creature?"

"We found some really interesting fossils, yes, but the research is far from being done. Although, everything looks very promising." She told him, skipping the part where she went to France a couple of months before her original schedule to stay at the Maluku's was over. "And how was everything in Afghanistan?"

"Nothing really changed since I was there years before. Still sad, still hard to see all those people suffering in a war that shouldn't be happening in the first place." He sighed. "I'm glad to be back and looking forward to return our work and catch the bad guys."

"So am I." She said honestly. She missed so much their field work. "How's Parker?"

"He's great." Booth said proudly of his boy. "He's doing very well at school and was invited to play on the school's soccer team. I didn't have time to see him after I came back yet because I came here right after I left the airport, but I was here to spend Christmas with him and you would not believe how much the kid has grown in those months."

Brennan smiled thinking about the boy. She liked him a lot and missed the little talks they would have time to time. Parker had a genuine interest in science and seemed very interested about everything she had to tell him about the universe and dinosaurs.

Following the awkward silence that surrounded them for the next minute, plus the reminding Parker's mention brought her and the fact that her breasts were getting sore – meaning someone in the other side of town would be screaming the lungs out at Angela's house – Brennan decided it was time to tell Booth.

"Booth…" She started, not sure of how to start that conversation she was trying to postpone for so long. But he had to know. It was not like she could hide it. He would find out sooner or later. "I have something to tell you."

"Okay." He swallowed his coffee, enjoying the pure taste of it. "I have something to tell you too."

"You do?" She raised one eyebrow curiously.

"Yep." He looked at her.

"Is it good?"

"I guess so." He smiled.

"Okay." She nodded and waited for him to tell her, but he looked at her as if expecting her to do the same. "Won't you tell me what it is?"

"I thought you had something to tell me." He reminded her.

"You can go first." She suggested. She was pretty sure her news would lead to a long conversation.

"Okay." He looked away from her and stared at the people leaving the mall as the sun was almost completely gone. He had to tell her, right? It wasn't like he could hide it from her. She would find out sooner or later. "Bones." He looked back at her. "I'm getting married."

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Oh! You don't need to throw those tomatoes at me! It's really kind of mean, you know that, right?

Well, I won't continue this and will just keep writing only my other story if no one cares about what happens next, so, if you want to know how things will turn out and how the hell Booth is getting married, let me know! :)

Oh, and all the questions you probably have will be answered in the next chapters and in flashbacks, don't worry.