AN: I do not own "Life As We Know It" or the dialogue from "Daredevil in the Mold" or the songs from each chapter or the books quoted or even Bones; sad, but true. This was written before 6x22/6x23 aired. Didn't know that Michael was going to be a boy yet. Enjoy!

Lovers come and lovers go. Once they lived but now they're ghosts.

Walking the streets we used to know like shadows.

"Brennan, I'd like you to meet your goddaughter, Katherine Temperance."

"She's beautiful, Ange," Brennan commented taking the newborn into her arms. Hodgins cleared his throat. "And Hodgins too, of course."

The infant in her arms undoubtedly had Angela's facial structure, but the thin layer of brown hair atop her head already had a slight curl to it, suggesting that she had inherited Hodgins' mess of curls. Holding her drew a sharp pang to Brennan's chest, reminding her of how much she had come to want a baby of her own. Rearing a child would certainly be an adventure; one she was beginning to think that she would never get to take.

"Is he really going to stand out there, the whole time that you're in here?" Angela asked, eyeing Booth from the doorway.

"Yes, he refuses to be in the same room with me," Brennan sighed.

"That's ridiculous. You're Booth and Brennan. You two can't hate each other."

"I don't see what significance our names have to do with our likeability towards each other."

"What she means," Hodgins started, "is that you and Booth have always been really close and for something like this to happen is…really out of character."

She responded with a sigh, merely looking down to admire her goddaughter.

"You realize we made him the godfather, right? You two are going to have to relearn how to be in the same room at some point," Angela pointed out. "Can't you guys just hug and make up?"

"It's not that simple, Ange," Brennan replied thinking back to the awful fight she and Booth had had months ago.

"Sweetie, it's been three months since you two had this fight and you still won't tell me what happened. What the hell did you guys say to each other?"

Brennan handed Katherine over to Hodgins, before slumping down next to Angela on the hospital bed. Then she thought back again to her fight with Booth and began to tell her friends everything that had happened.

He was sitting at the bar surrounded by empty shot glasses and larger ones that she assumed had contained whiskey at some point. She walked over to him and said the first thing that came into her mind, "Are you drunk?"

Booth shook his head, barely looking at her. "Relatively. Relatively I'm drunk, meaning I'm drunker than usual, but no I am not a drunk."

"You sound…something." She wasn't exactly sure what she had meant by that. But then again she wasn't exactly sure how he sounded. Booth looked down at his drink, but said nothing so she just dove right into the subject. "Hannah called me."

He let out a frustrated sigh. "No, just…I really…I don't want to talk about that, okay? I'm just I'm over it, I'm over it. I'm done."

"So, what happens next?"

"What happens next? We…you like evidence, right Bones? Well here's the evidence. The evidence is that there is something wrong here. Now I…I fell in love with a woman and had a kid. She doesn't want to marry me. Well and, and then the next woman well she's…"

"Me," Brennan finished softly, knowing all too well where this was headed.

He still wouldn't look at her. "Yeah and now… I mean what is it with women…they just don't want what I'm offering here."

"Booth –"

"No, just…you know what? Drink. Drink. I'm just going to –" he stopped midsentence, taking a shot. Brennan took one as well, hoping it would calm her nerves. "I'm just mad. I'm just really mad at all of you. I'm just mad. Okay so, you wanna know how this is going to work? Okay so, this is how this is going to work. Me and you are partners. That's what we do. We're partners, all right? And I love that. I think that's great. And uh, we're good people, who catch bad people, all right? And, and, and we argue, we go back and forth, we're partners. And sometimes, after we solve a case, we come here and we celebrate."

He raised his glass to emphasize his point. "That's what we do; we celebrate. So as far as I can see, that is what happens next. Are you okay with that?" He finally turned to look at her, holding her gaze. "Great because you know if you are, I'll tell you what, you stay here and you have a drink with me. All right, ah maybe we have a little small talk, chit-chat, and if you're not well…you can leave. There's the door. And ah, tomorrow I'll find you a new FBI guy." He took another drink.

"Those are my only choices?"

"Yeah. Those are your only choices."

She stared at him for a long moment, waiting to see if he'd go off on another tangent. When he didn't, she sighed. She really wished he had more to add.

"You're kidding, right?" Brennan finally asked.

"What?" he cocked his head at her.

"I'm sitting right here. You know how I feel about you. I know how you feel about me…or at least how you used to."

"Bones –"

"You're clearly miserable. And I… well I haven't been all that happy lately either and –"

"No, we are not doing this right now," Booth said, shaking his head.

"Well, I don't like either of the options you just presented me with."

"You either want to be my partner or you don't. There's no in between."

"I want to be more than your partner."

Saying it out loud, telling him…it was freeing. Ever since her breakdown in his car a month ago, Brennan had refrained from bringing it up. She couldn't stand the pitiful look Booth had given her that night. The look that had said "you're too late, sorry; it's never going to happen now." But Hannah was out of the picture now, and Brennan wasn't about to let him think that she was just another woman who had broken his heart. She wouldn't let him give her that look ever again.

"I can't," Booth said, softly.

"Can't or won't?"

"Bones, you and I…our time has come and gone."

"How can you say that? You woke up from a coma and thought that I was your wife. You know that I hate psychology, but feelings like that… they just don't go away."

"It's been over a year since that happened. A lot can happen in a year."

"Then maybe you should find me a new FBI agent," Brennan said staring into the empty shot glass between her hands.

"Seriously? It's either all or nothing with you?"

"I need to move on. I can't do that if I have to work with you every day."

Booth turned to look at her. She felt his eyes on her, but refused to remove her gaze from the shot glass.

"You can't leave me too," he told her.

"Hannah didn't leave you. You broke up with her. You're to blame for her leaving, just like you are for me leaving now."

Brennan got up from her chair and started to leave, when Booth grabbed her wrist.

"I can't start anything with you right now because I don't want you to be my rebound."

"Hannah was your rebound."

"From what, Bones? It's not like we had an actual relationship."

"She was your attempt at moving on…from me."

"Attempt? I'd say that I moved on."

"Yeah? And how did that work out for you?"

Booth instantly retracted like she had slapped him and Brennan immediately clamped her hand over her mouth.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like –" she said in a rush.

"Yes, you did. Why is it so hard for you to accept that I was happy with her; that I actually loved her? I never took you to be the jealous type, Bones."

"I –"

"And you know what? You told me to move on; said that you weren't right for me."

"I also told you that I regretted doing that."

"That doesn't matter, because at the time –"

"So what do you want me to say, Booth?"

"I don't want you to say anything. Either sit here and have a drink with me, accepting the fact that we are partners and nothing more, or leave and expect a new partner on Monday. Those are your only options."

Brennan inhaled a shaky breath as she felt tears pooling in her eyes. "Fine. It's been a great six years, Agent Booth. I'm sorry it had to end on such…awful terms."

She heard him calling her name as she left The Founding Fathers, but she chose to ignore it, hoping that if she could get away without looking back, the pain wouldn't be quite as overwhelming.

"Oh sweetie," Angela whispered, pulling Brennan into a hug. "Why would he do that to you? I mean, I thought that our new FBI guy, what's his name again, George?"

"Greg," Brennan corrected.

"Right, Greg. I thought that he was just temporary until you and Booth stopped fighting. I didn't realize that he was the result of your break up."

"We were never together, Ange. We didn't 'break up.' We just…stopped being friends."

"Do you want us to make someone else the godfather?" Hodgins asked.

"No, you guys don't have to do that. Booth was right; our time has come and gone. We missed it. It's not like it would have worked out anyway, I mean have you met us? We couldn't be more different."

"And that's what made you two so great!" Angela exclaimed.

"Angie," Hodgins warned.

"Really you guys, it's fine. I'm going to leave now so Booth can come meet Katherine."

"You shouldn't have to do that," Angela told her.

"Please, you guys, don't be too hard on him. What happened was equally my fault if not more so. I'm the one who left him. I've become just another person that he cared about who has walked out of his life."

She stood surveying the new family for a moment before bidding her goodbyes and heading out of the room. Booth was sitting on a bench just outside of the doorway.

"You can go in now," Brennan told him softly.

"Thanks," Booth muttered, making no effort to move off the bench.

"Right. See you around."

"Yeah."

She couldn't believe that this was what their conversations had turned into; what their relationship had turned into. If only she hadn't been so scared of commitment that night, none of this would have happened. No one would know who Hannah Burley is and she and Booth would still be partners, if not more. That single moment that night outside of Sweet's office had become her biggest regret. Funny thing is, she knew it would be the moment she pulled away from his kiss.

(Insert line break here.)

It had been over a month since they'd last seen or spoken to each other. And the last time had been the exchanging of minimal words as they took turns visiting their new goddaughter at the hospital. Today they were both set to attend Michelle's graduation party, and Brennan dreaded the moment when they would inevitably be forced to make small talk.

She was standing by the food table, holding Katie for Angela while she cut herself a piece of cake, when she saw him walk in. Instinctively, their eyes found each others from across the room.

"Shit," she mumbled.

"Hey, watch your language around my kid," Angela scolded.

"Booth is coming this way."

"Shit."

"How's my favorite girl doing today?" Booth asked as he approached them.

Brennan shot him a look of confusion which he immediately caught on to. "I was talking to Katie," he clarified with a small laugh.

Brennan blushed as Angela took Katie back into her arms.

"Are you having a good day, Miss Katie?" Angela cooed. The infant just stared back at her mother with her big brown eyes. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Good food?" Booth asked, gesturing to the assortment spread out on the table.

Angela nodded. "Haven't tried the cake yet, but it looks delicious. Now, if you'll excuse me, this little one needs her diaper changed."

Brennan shot her a look, begging her not to leave her alone with Booth.

"Sorry," Angela mouthed in response, leaving the two ex-partners alone in the room.

"So…how've you been?" Booth asked sheepishly.

"Fine. And you?"

"Fine."

They stood there awkwardly avoiding each others gaze like they had never been as close as they were just mere months ago.

Finally, Booth spoke up. "Do uh, do you want to talk about what happened at the Founding Fathers?"

"What is there to talk about? You don't want anything more and I do, so I'm trying to move on. Case closed."

"Bones, that's…that's not fair."

"What I'm saying isn't fair?" Brennan practically laughed. "So it's fair that when you wanted to move on, you could go off and find Hannah, but now that I want to move on, I'm not allowed to?"

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Booth said crossing his arms over his chest.

"Maybe not, but you're basically saying that you're allowed to fight for us, and I can't."

"Right, right, and you fought really hard, Bones. You gave up after what, like 15 minutes?"

"I gave up because you refused to change your outlook on the situation! And it's not like you fought very hard for me either."

"You're wrong! That night outside of Sweet's office –"

"Yes, but after that –"

"I thought that's what you wanted. For me to just drop it."

"I never said that."

"Yes, you did! You told me to move on and find someone who wouldn't hurt me like you would."

Her gaze dropped to the floor. "I was scared."

"Really? You're going to use that excuse on me now? You were scared. Don't you think I was scared too? You know what Brennan, I was terrified! We'd been partners and friends for five years and I really didn't want to screw that up. But like Sweets and I said, I'm the gambler; I take risks. So I took a risk, and look where it's gotten us."

"Your invitation to start a relationship didn't get us here, your denial of one did."

He let out a frustrated sigh. "I think it's about time that you grow up and just accept it don't you think?"

"Accept what, Booth?"

"Your abandonment. Just because no one wanted you as a kid, doesn't mean you can take out your pain on everyone else. You have serious trust issues, Brennan, and I think that it's high time you come to terms with them."

"What the hell? Where did that come from?" Brennan asked, trying to hide the hurt in her voice.

"You clearly don't trust me anymore. You don't trust your family after what they did to you, and now somehow, I ended up in that same category. And I just think that it's time that you move on from it all."

Brennan's hands curled into fists. "You have no idea what you're talking about. You don't have the right to say anything like that!"

"Like hell I don't!"

"You know what you can just go to hell!" she yelled as she slapped him across the face.

"Too late. I'm already there!"

Booth's hand came up to rub his jaw as he watched her storm out of the room in a huff. Had he gone too far? Probably. Had he ruined whatever was left of their relationship? Definitely. Did he care? Not at this point. Booth was just tired of her, of their fighting, of everything. He knew he was going to regret this decision later, but right now he was simply satisfied.

AN: So leave a review maybe?