Blake had excused himself, and took refuge out on the front porch. I walked past him without so much as a look in his direction. "I'm going to check out the car I passed up on the road, then I'm going to go find out what the hell has been going on here for the past five years. Stay here, and don't leave her alone, even if she threatens to shoot you. I'll be back in an hour."

He actually had the audacity to follow me to my car. "I don't know what you heard, but whatever it is, you don't know the whole story. I can explain."

"I doubt it. I called the sheriff, and they are sending out a couple cars. Just stay here, and leave her be. She wants to be alone. I left my gun for her, and she's a pretty good shot, so I would take my advice if I were you. I wasn't kidding about her shooting you."

I left him there in the driveway, thinking to myself that it wasn't very often that my first impression of people is wrong, but I was way off on Blake. Contrary to how much I really wanted to hate him before even meeting him, I couldn't help liking the guy. He seemed sincere, honest, and trustworthy -- a responsible guy that tried to do the right thing in a losing situation. Accepting that I was wrong about him, there was one more thing I had to know. I turned back to him, deciding I needed to hear something face to face.

"Did you know that the two thugs that attacked you and Bones were on your tour manager girlfriend's payroll?"

"Olivia?" He laughed at first, and then looked at me curiously, wondering where the punch line was. He didn't believe me, or he was a very good actor.

"Yes, you know, Olivia, the tour manager you cheated on your fiance with, just a couple weeks before she was attacked?"

He looked me in the eye, and told me I was wrong, that there must be some other explanation. He seemed more hopeful than confident about his declaration.

I told him I was about to find out.

I introduced myself, and Olivia immediately invited me in to her spacious renovated loft condo with tons of windows and an amazing view. The place was showy, glitzy, and pretentious -- everything Blake appeared not to be in the few times I had spoken to him, and from the insight into his character offered by Angela and Bones.

She immediately made the connection. She wrapped her arm around mine, and led me into her living room. "I've heard all about you. I can't say I'm sorry that Bren has set her sights on another guy, especially with all the business Blake has in New York and DC these days." She gave me the once over, not bother being discreet about checking me out. "Bren always did pick all the best ones."

"You never liked her much."

"It's not that I didn't like her. She is brilliant. The whole time she was with Blake, she steered clear of all things involved with his rising popularity. She wanted him to herself when he was home, and she distanced herself from the business when he was gone. She just never belonged here, and she was a distraction to Blake. He worked so hard to get where he is . . ." She batted her eyelids, and accentuated her already thick southern drawl.

"And to get you where you are."

"Blake loved . . . loves what he does. Back then, I couldn't get him to commit to anything. He didn't want to be away too long, or too far, or on her birthday, or their anniversary. . . He had his dream within arms reach, but he was more committed to her than to grabbing his dream."

"It turns out, in the end, he wasn't so committed after all."

She laughed. She didn't seem to harbor any guilt about her blatant ploy to snatch herself a piece of Blake for herself. "That was surprisingly easy. He was always worried about losing her. He knew they were on dramatically different paths. It was just a matter of time before it fell apart for them. He knew it, and I knew it, but I couldn't wait that long for it to happen."

"So you thought you would hurry things along."

"A few drinks. A sympathetic ear. It was much easier than I thought. I admit his heart really wasn't in it, but that's not what I was looking for back then."

"You figured he would feel guilty, confess everything to her, and she would pack up and start a new life, leaving his undivided attention to you and his career."

"Sure, why not? I thought, if she realizes what his life will be like, she won't want it."

"But you overdid it. Were you afraid that his infidelity wouldn't be enough to send her on her way? I don't understand where the two thugs came into play. Didn't you already have what you wanted?"

She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow, obviously trying to decide if he was calling her bluff. I layed her financial records in front of her, along with copies of checks made out to two familiar names.

She finally stopped batting her eyelashes, and I started to detect a tremor in her southern drawl. "I payed them to follow her around when he was gone. I thought maybe I could dig up some dirt on her, something to make Blake lose interest. I didn't realize it was possible for anyone to be that boring. She worked on her paper constantly, went to the university occasionally, met up with a girlfriend of hers a few times. It was nothing I could use. I was desperate at that point. Blake was not interested in my advances. . . drunk or sober."

"So you told them to step up the intimidation a little, and it got out of control."

"Yes! I was so afraid nobody would understand." She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "It was not my fault. I just wanted them to scare her . . . break windows, make threatening phone calls, follow her."

I found my anger and frustration at the situation increasing to an unbearable level. The sheer stupidity of the events that led up to the night that could have ended Bones' life. The night that changed her life, and plagued her with horrible memories, nightmares, and fears, all stemmed from the most predictable of motives -- money and sex.

"After that night with Blake, I tried to call them off. I really did try. It just wasn't necessary after that night. I already had what I wanted. I never wanted her, or Blake, to get hurt, but one of them took an interest in her."

"He raped her, because you told him, because you paid him, to terrorize her. You wanted Blake all to yourself, and on the surface it looks like it worked out for you, but you didn't get exactly what you wanted, did you? He's not the same person he was back then. Besides him still being in love with Brennan, you nearly got him killed, and he didn't work for months."

"A year. He took off a year, in which his career, and mine, tanked."

"How does it feel to know that he would drop you in a second if Brennan gave him any indication that she would want him back in her life? You are not very good at this."

"I'm not? Look at my career, and his. He is hotter than ever. Women love their country music with a side of angst. He wrote some of the most beautiful, moving lyrics during that year he took off. His fans ate it up."

"That's great for Blake, and his fans, but you are going to have to start listening to his CD's in prison. Maybe you could take up writing, maybe something poignant and moving about orange clothing and prison food."

"I won't be going to prison, Agent Booth. I had already cut ties with them. I did not have any control over what they did, or didn't do, to Dr. Brennan.

"Why are they back? Is it a coincidence that the photographs started coming so soon after Blake made his visit to DC? Were you feeling insecure again? What was the point of reminding everybody of what happened? You got away with it. Why not let things fade away? Were things not going well with you and Blake?"

"I told him I loved him, and wanted us to move in together. He told me he wasn't ready. I told him to get ready, to figure out what he wants. That's when his 'business partners' decided he needed to expand eastward, first stop Washington DC, and the lovely Dr. Brennan.

Blake didn't bother going back inside. He didn't need to stir up any more problems with Bren. He didn't want to answer any more questions about the mistakes he made with Olivia. He had been asking himself over and over, and he didn't have any answers.

"Hey." She walked down to the lake, and found him sitting in the small rowboat tied to the dock. "I was wondering where you had gone. I figured Booth would put you on watch duty."

"He did. I figured with the gun, and the entire sheriff's department in the front yard, my presence really didn't matter." She didn't say anything, but she walked to the end of the dock, and asked permission to come aboard. He had his legs stretched across the two seats in front of him, but he folded them in front of him, and gave her a hand coming on board. She sat facing him, leaving an empty seat between them.

"You really screwed up."

"That I did . . . worse than I ever could have imagined. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that my bad choices started all this. I am so sorry. I know that doesn't mean anything now."

"I am not going to let it ruin the good memories I have of us. Those are mine to keep. Whatever you and Olivia need to do to justify or rationalize what happened, and what your relationship is based on, is your business. I don't need to hear the excuses or explanations."

"I need to know if you believe me, if you believe that I didn't know what she was up to."

"Surprisingly, what you need, or what you can or can not live with, is of little importance to me." She stood up, ready to climb out of the boat. "I came here to let you know that Booth called. It's finally over. The police picked up both of them, as well as Olivia. They are all being brought in for questioning. None of them were very intelligent, so it shouldn't be hard to put a case together on them."

Blake just shook his head, unable to look at her. She looked towards the house, and saw making his way through the throng of sheriff's deputies and concerned neighbors. She stepped back on the dock, and waved her hand. Booth caught site of the distant motion, changing his course to her direction. She turned her attention back briefly to Blake. "You loved me once. I don't doubt that, even after everything that's happened."

"Once? A part of me has always loved you. I didn't want to lose you back then, and every time I see you, I realize that I still don't. I've accepted that you have moved on, and like I keep saying, I am happy for you. I think I have to keep saying it to remind myself that Booth is who you belong with. If you are happy, and I can see that you are, then I can live with it."

I promised everyone a year ago, when I started writing Thunder, that I would get rid of Blake. Well, he's finally out of the picture. I may have turned him into a jerk, but I still like him. *sniff*

It has become my own personal mission to finish this story. One more chapter left . . . just to wrap things up nicely.