Chapter four already! Now, before you start reading, I know it seems a little unrealistic how Hannah reacted and how Booth and Brennan act in this chapter, but just bear with me, alright? I'll (try to) explain at the end of the chapter.

For now, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

They'd both gone to bed separately. He'd taken Parker's room, insisting they needed to spend the night apart and she hadn't really protested. His sleep had been disturbed; he chalked it down to simply not being used to sleeping alone anymore, but he knew it had to do with the revelations of the previous night.

But now Hannah was gone: she hadn't waited on him for breakfast. He couldn't blame her, not really, but she had seemed reasonably complacent last night; it wasn't like her to just disappear this morning.

Scuffling into the kitchen, he quickly made himself some breakfast when his eye was caught by a piece of paper on the kitchen table.

Seeley,

I'm sorry for leaving early this morning, but I need some time to think. I'm going to spend a few days with my friend Alicia. Please don't call me; I'll call you when I'm ready.

Hannah

He scrunched up the note in his hand. He didn't blame her for anything, but he did feel a little hurt. He knew she was in her right to leave, and if he'd been her, he'd probably have stormed out the door rather than calmly waited the night; still, the unusual silence in his apartment unsettled him. He wasn't used to the silence anymore.

He was glad she'd specified where she was, though, and knew she had added that little bit because she knew he'd worry.
Despite her calm reaction when they had talked, he now knew she was upset by what he'd told her. Apparently, she wasn't quite as OK with this as he'd thought.

Of course she isn't, idiot, he admonished himself. You've basically told her she'll always be second best, next to Bones…

Bones. He was going to see her today; he honestly didn't think he had enough patience to ever spend an entire day at the office, even during a day like this. The office, although it could be quite thrilling, was inextricably tied to paperwork and boredom, whereas the lab always offered something new, and, although he'd never admit it, a place to see his friends. And to see Bones.
Besides, they needed to get started on the inevitable paperwork that followed any case; and he really did want to see her. It was a sadistic kind of wish: he wanted to see her, but at the same time he knew it would hurt. If he told her that Hannah and he had suspended their relationship –after all, they hadn't broken up yet– he'd hurt her all over again. Maybe she'd be happy that their relationship was as good as over, maybe she'd be sad for him, but he knew that whatever happened, he couldn't just forget it. Despite everything, he hadn't lied. He did love Hannah. And he would be unhappy if she left, which seemed like a rather realistic possibility at the moment.

He hoped she wouldn't be all rational and detached, the way she sometimes became when things got a little too personal for her; what if she refused to see him? He had no idea what had happened between the time he'd dropped her off and when he'd visited her again, nor about what had happened after he had left for the second time. Maybe she had come to the conclusion that he was an insufferable bastard and that he was no longer worthy of her time. He had to admit to himself it seemed like a ridiculous scenario considering how his check-up the previous night had ended, but with Bones, he could never be sure.

Maybe you should just get it over with, he thought. Rip it off like a band-aid.

When he walked into the Jeffersonian Institute forty minutes later, there was a repressed mood that instantly brought him back down to earth. Or was he just imagining it?

In any case, he walked a bit slower towards his usual first stop for the day: Bones' office.

He walked in just as confidently as any other time, but stopped short when he saw the empty chair in front of the desk.

She wasn't there.

He turned around and narrowly avoided her as she turned the corner to enter her office.

"Heya Bones, watch it there!" He sounded as normal as he could muster, and caught her looking surprised for barely a second before she assumed her normal, neutral expression.

"Hey, Booth," she said. He couldn't detect anything in her voice or expression other than, maybe, a little bit of apprehension.

"So, uh, we need to go over the paperwork," he told her, for once wielding to her wish for straightforwardness. "Feel up to it?"

"Yeah, yeah," she answered distractedly, and despite everything his heart leapt in his chest. "Could we perhaps meet later today? I was just given this rather interesting report on the mating rituals of the Betamaribe in Benin, and I…"

"Yeah… Bones? Those Beta-people will still be there, we need to get this paperwork done!" The situation felt deliciously familiar as he grabbed her arm in order to pull her away from her office. She shook his arm off and moved into her office. He followed her as she told him: "Betamaribe, Booth, or Tammari, an animist people in Benin and some parts of Togo. They're relatively unfamiliar." She sounded so exotic when she pronounced the names, as she always did with those tribes whose names he could not even read, let alone pronounce.

"Let them enjoy their incognito status a bit longer, alright? Come on, we gotta do this."

He couldn't explain to himself why he wanted to get this done. It would probably be slightly awkward, given both the events of the previous night and Brennan's personal connection to the case. Still, he found himself longing for a bit of that normalcy in their relationship, the easy way their friendship had been before. Although in that stage most of the paperwork had been done at one of their homes at night, with a pack of beer (which, admittedly, may not be the wisest of combinations) and the TV or music on in the background, he didn't quite think either of them was ready for any more late-night visits yet.

He sat down on her office couch and invitingly patted the spot next to him, determined not to give rise to the awkwardness that was starting to appear. "C'mon, Bones, let's get cracking!"

"Cracking what?" she asked confused while rummaging around near her desk. "I'm only familiar with the term 'cracking' in a skeletal frame and I am quite sure you are not using the word in that context."

He sighed happily; he'd missed his old Bones.

"No, Bones, I just mean we should get started on this," he explained.

"Oh," she replied. "In that case, I agree."

She sat down next to him with only a little more space between them than usual; given that he hadn't even been sure she'd see him today, he considered it an improvement.

As they filled out the various forms, Booth was quickly distracted by the sight of her jean-clad legs. She wasn't completely focused either, he noticed, for everyone once in a while her pen was suspended in mid-air and she bit her lip thoughtfully. He decided not to disturb the silence by asking her, though; he could pretty much guess what she was thinking about.

Me. Well, me or that Paramaribo tribe.

An hour and several pages later, he caught himself glancing at those endless legs for what seemed the umpteenth time and ordered himself to stop thinking of anything that was related to Bones in a physical manner. After all, he was still in a kind of relationship.

Hannah. His girlfriend –he supposed she still was that– had completely slipped his mind. This morning, Hannah had been put on the backburner and Bones had taken up his mind, his space. It had happened before, but then he had simply regarded it as some kind of aftermath; now, however, it felt completely different. After basically telling Brennan that they would get together in the end, every thought of her seemed to confirm what a bastard he was towards Hannah. He felt guilty, and, at the same time, wondered why he'd never realized that he'd never stopped noticing Bones, not even when he was with another woman.

Shaking his head to rid himself of these thoughts, he glanced over at his partner and saw her staring ahead of her into empty space, her eyes glazed and unfixed. Before he stopped to think, he lightly bumped her shoulder.

"Hey Bones, what ya thinking about there?"

She gave a startled noise as she was shaken from her reverie and looked down, slowly colouring a tinge of red. Booth was intrigued. Bones, blushing?

"You know you can tell me," he said, trying to coax her thoughts out of her.

"It is personal, Booth," she tried to deflect. But he knew what it was, could see it in the way she avoided his eyes, how she subconsciously shuffled away from him, barely an inch but he noticed it nonetheless.

"Temperance…" at the use of her given name her head snapped up. "I know it's a little weird between us right now, but… you're still my friend." And so much more, he added silently, but he thought it best not to say that out loud at the moment.

"I understand why you turned me down, Booth." Her voice was suddenly very factual. "Your reasons were actually more admirable than mine."

"Bones, don't do that," he said softly. "Don't compare last year to last night."

"Why not?" she fired back. "I turned you down then. You turned me down yesterday. There seem to be parallels." The harsh and yet true words hurt, but he continued anyway.

"It's different, Bones, it just is. OK?" he couldn't explain it to her, but it just was not the same thing.

There was a beat of silence, then he broke it. "Hannah's left."

"What?" she said sharply, turning to look at him. "What do you mean?" she continued, her voice softer.

He rubbed his face with one hand. "I told her about us, I just couldn't continue being with her if she doesn't know how – how important you are to me."

He hadn't meant to phrase it that way, but as he said it he realized it was what it essentially came down too: Bones was, and would always be, important to him, and it was only fair that others, like Hannah, knew that.

She was silent for a moment and he knew she was digesting the information. "So she left?" she finally asked.

He nodded. "She wrote she's staying with a friend. That-" he hesitated for just a moment. "She said she needed some time to think." He could hear the implications in his tone. Because he knew what it meant, didn't he? 'Time to think' almost never resulted in going back to the way things were. Besides, he knew what his decision would be if he were in Hannah's place.

"She isn't returning?" Brennan asked, apparently having come to the same conclusion.

"Well, she's got to pick up her stuff at some point… but I think she's gone." As he said it out loud, the reality of the situation finally hit him. Hannah was almost certainly going to be his ex-girlfriend… the only question was when.

He was surprised that he didn't feel as sad as he'd expected. He loved Hannah. He loved her easy-going ways, her charm. He loved how a relationship with her was built on the present, that they didn't have a loaded history. He'd started with a clean slate. She'd been an easy woman to love.

Maybe that meant she was an easy woman to stop loving, too.

He started at the feel of a hand on his. Bones' hand.

"I'm sorry for you," she said. Her voice was soft and melodious and she sounded quite serious. "I know she made you happy."

And that was it, he thought. Hannah had made him happy in a time when there was little to be happy about. But, as crude as it sounded, maybe he no longer needed Hannah. Maybe he'd finally be able to find happiness on his own again.

"Thanks," he said when he realized Bones was still waiting for a reply. "I appreciate it, Bones."

She nodded briefly and again, they were silent for a while. The paperwork lay all but forgotten on the coffee table and she still had her hand on his, though she hardly seemed to realize. He found himself contemplating how strange the last few days had been… the last day, specifically. Just yesterday he'd been feeling angry at his partner for risking her life, guilty and sad at her admission, then relieved when he'd seen she was okay. Guilt had been prevalent once again during his talk with Hannah and now… now he felt at peace. He should be broken up over Hannah, his girlfriend for over six months, the woman he loved… But he didn't. He felt good. He couldn't quite figure out why, but for now it didn't matter.

"Booth?" Bones' tentative voice cut through his thoughts. Once she saw she had his attention, she continued. "What you said last night… that everything happens eventually. Did you mean it?"

I usually don't do cliffhangers, but this chapter was getting a life of its own and I wanted to stop it while I could.

Now, I realize the events in this chapter seem very out of character; Booth has just - well, not broken up, but maybe taken a break? from his girlfriend, and he's already this casual person with Brennan (in this chapter, anyway). To be honest I didn't stop to really analyze, I just wrote. (This is why I am no good at stories with actual storylines: I cannot seem to take the time to think about what I write.) However, can you as a reader believe that Booth is compartmentalizing and really, really willing to go back to the way things were with Brennan? I'm probably making way too big of a deal out of this, but I just want to make clear that I don't believe Booth would actually act the way he did just after Hannah left, I think he does love her and he wouldn't get over her so quickly, just... he's suspended his relationship for a while, sort of. Out of sight, out of heart? Is that an English expression? (It's a Dutch one, at the least.)

Sorry to bore you with things you probably don't even want to know; I just wanted to explain myself for a bit.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter!